Jesus Weeps | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

追加: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Heat. Heat.

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[00:05:13]Good morning. You're watching the program with Ted R and Jamal Thomas.

[00:05:17]It's Monday, May 18th, 2026. Thanks for joining us and good morning, JT. How are you?

[00:05:23]>> What's going on, man? You doing okay?

[00:05:24]>> I'm doing good. I had a relaxing weekend relatively. So, that's good. How about you?

[00:05:31]>> Not a bad weekend. I mean, I worked most of the weekend, but I can't say it was bad per se. It was to um because you know with Rumble so when I do my show um in the morning 7 am to 9 I do I stream to Rumble now but that's just the live show the individual shows the individual segments don't necessarily go to Rumble so over the weekend I made an explicit effort to move that stuff over to Rumble so >> oh wow >> the individual thing yeah that took a while >> the migration is a lot of like download wait upload wait download Wait, upload.

[00:06:07]>> Yeah.

[00:06:07]>> And it takes forever.

[00:06:09]>> It does take forever.

[00:06:11]>> Yeah.

[00:06:11]>> Yeah.

[00:06:12]>> But otherwise, it was good. No complaints.

[00:06:14]>> Okay, good. Well, um I uh So, even though you're in the Washington DC metro Well, you're not really in the DC metro.

[00:06:21]I'm in Richmond.

[00:06:22]>> You're in Richmond, which is far enough away, like two hours. But um there's uh there was so I don't assume you made it to Trump's uh we evangelical tent worship service.

[00:06:36]>> I didn't go to that. No.

[00:06:37]>> Okay. I would have been I would have been deeply concerned um not for myself but just you know that there might have been an assassination attempt against the president by you know God. Um right and God wouldn't miss unlike unlike some people. Um, so yeah, I didn't want to be there for that. Uh, not to mention I would have never have been. Yeah. So, there's really crazy um, we have to talk about that. Um, also in the Friday I I've often thought it would be fun to have a I think you and I talked about this um, you know, months ago. I thought it'd be fun to have a media dump uh podcast uh just dedicated to the news that they dump on you on Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning because they don't want you to know what hap you know they want to be able to say we dutifully released this but thinking that nobody's really watching. Um, there was a Friday afternoon uh media dump about Trump's plan to create a $ 1.7 billion dollar taxpayerf funed slush fund in order to pay off J6ers and other Trump allies. And last and certainly not least, President Trump himself would collect $230 million uh to compensate him. This would all be for Biden era DOJ prosecutions. Um, also Ian is uh threatening the uh fiber optic cables that go underneath the straight of Ormuz and uh the LIRR that's the Long Island Railroad which is uh serves uh hundreds of thousands of New York commuters every day is currently on strike. So uh that has some ramifications economically and otherwise that we can talk about uh in terms of labor and all that. Um anything you want to talk about first? So, one of my subscribers asked about this story coming out about Thomas Massie because Thomas Massie, that race is fascinating.

[00:08:29]It is the most expensive race in congressional history.

[00:08:32]>> Israel or let's say again I I say Israel because it's kind of like slavery during the Civil War where people are like, "Oh, it wasn't about slavery. It was about states rights." It's like the states rights to do what? Right. To have slaves.

[00:08:47]>> I feel the same way about this, right?

[00:08:48]It's like, "Well, no, no, no. This is not Israel. These are Jewish donors.

[00:08:52]Jewish donors for who? For who? They're effectively trying to take out Thomas Massie and they're putting like $20 million into this race to get rid of Massie. And the way the race is breaking down, it is basically even. It's even split. If you're looking at the polling, the polling is going both ways. There's some for Massie, there's some for um the guy that Massie is running against. But the guy is basically a Israeli first.

[00:09:19]The entire existence, his political existence is at the hand of a foreign entity.

[00:09:25]Um but but but the point I'm making, one of my subs said that there was a scandal where Massie was buying selling cows to pay hush money to women or something.

[00:09:36]Some insane story.

[00:09:38]Kind of hope that story is true. That's fascinating. You're selling cows.

[00:09:42]>> That's awesome.

[00:09:43]>> A heer for your heer. Yeah.

[00:09:46]>> Right. Right. That story is awesome.

[00:09:49]That story is awesome.

[00:09:50]>> I mean, could he just cut the middleman and like if he has any ladies who are like more agrarian like listen I give you I give you this fine cow. You love this cow. Be given lots of milk every morning.

[00:10:04]>> Oh my god. Oh my god.

[00:10:06]>> Yeah. Just give him the cow.

[00:10:09]>> Yeah. No, that No, it is an interesting story. I mean, Thomas Massie is kind of a hero of the uh sort of MAGA purists who kind of feel like Trump lost his way and um and and he's a critic from the right, right? In the same way that you and I are like critics of the Democratic party from the left and he's a critic of Trump and the Republican party for betraying their principles. Um I know here I I should invite Robbie to talk about Thomas Massie. You've always spoken very kindly about Thomas Massie.

[00:10:39]Yeah, Thomas Massie is I mean he's true blue and there's a reason why that they're going after him. is because he is if you go through if you look at Apac tracker there is one member of Congress one who has never in his career taken one dime from Apac and that's Thomas Massie and in the world of Israel of Israel instead instead of America first politics that is a mortal sin and then you have the fact that Thomas Massie d he dares to criticize the god emperor Trump and actually stick to these things called principles. You can't have that in the Republican or the Democratic parties. Like no, Ro Conor, he talks big game, but what does he actually do?

[00:11:23]Nothing. I mean, he's he's not putting any skin in the game. Uh there's that's why they're not going after him the way that that that the establishment is with Thomas Massie. And that's one of the reasons why there's so much support grassroots of people just rallying behind him. just his average donor is donates $90. That's his average. The average for this turkey that he's running against this Israel first who who doesn't even debate is like $150,000. That's not coming from a normal dude. Sorry.

[00:11:58]>> No. Um, so guys, um, Apac has not had a great run in, uh, sort of special elections recently. Um, my my running total on back of the envelope is that they lost five, get picked up and won two out of the seven most recent races that they got behind. Um, that's unusual. That's a really that that's definitely not like what they're used to. um if they lose this very high-profile race um at a certain point their power is going to start to eb right if this keeps happening um people are going to stop being afraid of them the spell is going to break you would think I mean the I guess from my point of view if you have to dump $20 million into a race or if I think it was what the a couple of terms ago where they spent like hund00 million in races all throughout the United States um for congressional seats Then there's a question about your popularity of why you need to spend that much money in order to get and corral people to your point of view. Right? So no I I I take your point being if you're spending this much money first and foremost it gets across a certain level of one of popularity that you had to spend this much money in the first place.

[00:13:12]>> Correct.

[00:13:12]>> Two if you can't affect the win with that much money especially when 90% of the seats are won by the side with the most cash and you're dumping millions into races to get rid of people. What does it say about your reach and capability and will people stop being scared of you >> um because of that?

[00:13:29]>> At a certain point, right? I mean, if you just keep losing, it's at a certain point, you've been exposed as a paper tiger and and that's it. Uh we'll we'll watch that. Um I don't know. I I don't I'm going to need to do a deeper dive into that. I don't know how popular he is within his district. You know how there's these congressmen who are there's congressmen who are kind of like um you know big national figures like Dennis Gusinich but he didn't really bring home the bacon for Cleveland. Um then there's those who are like Senator Al Damato formerly of Long Island, New York who was famously like Senator Pole and basically like was really good at at taking care of his constituents. Then there's like the AOCC's who managed to do enough of both. Um, yeah.

[00:14:15]>> I wonder, you know, I don't know if Tom I mean, I think the key is to be like AOC. That's that's what if Massie is taking care of his district, he should be relatively untouchable. I mean, he's been in there for over a decade. I mean, I would think he's fairly safe.

[00:14:30]>> That race is close. Take a look at the polling on that race. That race is close. Yeah, >> I think Look, I I I made the bet that he'd win, >> but Yeah, but it's far closer than what it should be.

[00:14:44]>> Yeah, that I Yeah, that that's my that's my my sense of it, too. Um Okay, let's talk about uh the slush fund. Uh I'm kind of This broke on Friday. So the pres the Trump administration is echoing uh some tactics that were used by Obama um in order to sort of extract taxpayer money. They're trying to basically they're saying all the people who were uh Trump allies who were prosecuted uh during the um during the Biden years lawfare if you will if you're on the right should be compensated uh not least the president himself and uh they want to create this taxpayer you and I paying for it $1.7 billion fund and and you know look you and I have been sympathetic to the president and others on the right who were targeted by the Biden administration. Um it was gratuitous. It was wrong.

[00:15:44]>> So I mean there is an argument to be made like these people should be made whole.

[00:15:51]Like why should you if you just happen to follow the crowd in on to the capital on January 6th and you walked around and now you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and your life is is you know you're broke. someone should make you whole. I I kind of think that's a val there's a there is an argument to be made there. But the question is who should make you whole? And I mean maybe the DNC, maybe Joe Biden personally, but I don't think that as a taxpayer I had anything to do with that and I don't think I should have to pay for it. Um, and I really resent the idea that a man who's worth billions of dollars, even though he was wronged and agreved in some of these cases, the president should be dipping his his his his dick into the taxpayer, you know, trough. It just seems it's so unseammly. But on the other hand, I, you know, I don't know.

[00:16:46]I'm on the one hand this, on the other hand that. What do you think?

[00:16:49]>> Um, yeah, I'm not on the other hand of anything. From my point of view, this is outrageous. the president is monetizing the presidency.

[00:16:56]>> And this is true whether you're talking about crypto. This is true whether you're talking about the deals um that just came to light in the New York Times where Trump made like $700 million worth of deals or something like that or stock trades um over the course of the last year. And let's put that in perspective for the moment. The president knows what he's going to do in a foreign policy sense and how that's going to affect the markets. and he's using that knowledge in order to get his maximize his own profit.

[00:17:25]>> Yeah. Over and over and over, particularly with the with the Iran war.

[00:17:30]I mean, the guy is bouncing the energy markets like a like a like a super ball.

[00:17:34]I mean, it's over and over.

[00:17:36]>> And so then to turn around and say, "By the way, I want the US government to just give me money. I want to get rid of pretense. Just give me cash. Just give me money. That's what I want the US government to do."

[00:17:49]>> That's outrageous. Like I mean like like I know we said outrageous a lot, but >> it's appropriate a lot.

[00:17:57]>> Yes. Now if if we want to make the case that Trump was treated unfairly by the US government, yeah, fair enough. I'd make that case. The Democratic party mistreated Trump in this case in the way that they were going after him because those people were Democrats. and whether they were using the Rush Gate stuff, whether they they were using a lawfare because if you're going to do that, then you also need money from the state of New York for going after Trump for lawfare like you know going hush money payment to a porn star that nonsense.

[00:18:25]What they tried to put him in a cage for was for Hillary Clinton who by the way was the same thing. It might not have been hush money to a porn star but what they were getting Trump ultimately for was it's the same thing for Hillary Clinton for you didn't disclose where the money was coming from. you use this term, you know, whatever term you use, that's insufficient. The Clinton slap on the wrist for Trump. We want to put you in a cage. I get it. I get the argument.

[00:18:50]I made the arguments against them going after Trump for this nonsense. Meaning, if you're going to go after for something, go after for something real like the impeachment thing. But no, just no. Just flat out no. Jamar, uh the right be you you were on the air this morning on your own show when the New York Times released its new Sienna poll um Sienna College poll uh it says it basically finds not surprising that uh Trump is at a new low for his second term. He's down to 37%. Other polls have showed him at 33%. He is underwater in a huge way on the cost of living. That's literally his worst. It's the most important issue to voters and it's his worst performance. Um 69% disapprove, 28% approve, he's underwater by 42 there. Uh the war in Iran, which is clo closely tied to the cost of living, he's underwater by 34. Um the economy overall, he's underwater by 31. I mean, this is bad, right? So I guess the thing is what about the optics of this? he's being perceived, he's already being quoted over and over and over like about like, "Oh, I don't pay any attention. I don't care about the economic pain caused to Americans." He's on top of that grifting, you know, living this luxurious lifestyle and grifting now, grifting the taxpayers even though everyone knows he's loaded. So, it's like, isn't he basically he's the orange pig, right? I mean, basically he's being perceived as like he doesn't care about you. He's spending money like crazy, but you're austerity. You're austerity is good for you, but not for me. I mean, that's a classic, you know, that's a classic example of what you're not supposed to do in politics. And here we are, right? So, this to me, the slush fund story plays into this narrative.

[00:20:50]Um, it just it just makes him look even worse.

[00:20:53]>> It does make him look worse, but he doesn't care.

[00:20:56]>> No, he doesn't seem to care.

[00:20:58]>> But then what's >> Maybe he wants the money so bad he's just he he really just doesn't care. I mean, it's like >> skin is off of Trump's back. He's not running again. He's 80 some years old, meaning he's probably going to die in a couple of years.

[00:21:11]>> True.

[00:21:11]>> What does it matter to him in this case?

[00:21:14]Now, you can say, well, it matters to Republicans. Does he care about Republicans? I mean, you're talking about a a hubristic narcissist that's pathological liar that is a psychopath that doesn't seem to care about babies being murdered um at his hand when he's blowing up a school or for that matter screwing over the American taxpayer where he would straight up tell him, "I don't care about what you're encountering. I don't care about your financial hardships. I don't care that I'm the cause of them."

[00:21:43]>> Right? What's He doesn't seem to care.

[00:21:45]This doesn't seem to be strings on in this way in the way that strings on.

[00:21:50]>> You're right. Okay. So, why doesn't he care? I mean, this is a man who you and I both know uh was obsessed with polling. Um so, is it that he's an incumbent and he doesn't think he's going to run again and therefore he just he's like whatever, I can do whatever the [ __ ] I want. is he just old and scenile and like basically widening out on us and like he's losing it. Uh is it something else?

[00:22:16]>> I think he's old. I think he's not running again. He's probably going to be out of politics after this race even if he wins. Like I don't think he cares. I don't think there's strings on him.

[00:22:29]>> He doesn't care about the Republican party. He doesn't care about, you know, the the possibility that his entire legacy might be largely erased by a Democratic wave.

[00:22:40]>> True, but this sounds like a cash grab more than anything else. Like, I'm asking, >> why does 80-year-old man need a cash grab?

[00:22:50]>> Family wise, >> like meaning Trump may not have any association with the Republican party in any real sense. Meaning, he's not an institutionalist. Like it's not like um he's not Mitch McConnell for example who may actually care about the state of the Republican party when he leaves.

[00:23:06]>> Do you get the sense that Trump is that guy who cares?

[00:23:10]>> I don't. I mean give me your take on this. I mean like I don't get the sense that Trump cares about the Republican party. I don't get the sense he's institutionalist. I get a sense he's transactional. What can I get out of you? But at the point where I believe in politics, I don't believe for a moment Trump Jr. is going to be a valuable political figure, then what what strings are there? I know your point is legacy should matter.

[00:23:38]>> I mean, that's the thing. It's like Yeah. I mean, if you're I mean, he sends a lot of messaging that, you know, like that indic seems to indicate that he cares about legacy, right? He puts his name on everything. He wants the big triumphal arch. he wants to, you know, go over the top on the 250th anniversary of the republic. I mean, these are all indicators to me that he want that he cares about being remembered and being remembered fondly, but but then in order to do I don't maybe he doesn't understand history, but in order to do to do those things, you have to to be remembered fondly, you have to have some crossover appeal, right? like like you know there were Republicans who voted against FDR who nevertheless remembered him fondly for you know not letting their families starve during the depression or uh you know J there were people who didn't wouldn't have voted for JFK but respected his charisma his youth and all that um his ambition um and on the right on the you know vice versa there were a lot of liberals who respected Ronald Reagan and they'd be like okay give that guy his due That's what allows like the Reagan, you know, the airport to be named after Reagan. It's what it lets, you know, the the international uh trade building to be named after Reagan. That that stuff sticks, right? Like stickiness is important. Um he's not going to I I don't think the way things are going he's going to have any stickiness.

[00:25:13]>> He's going to have a legacy as the worst president in the history of the union.

[00:25:17]And probably if I would even go further, the president that where this kind of canary in the coal mine was seen in the most obvious and clear sense of terms in regards to the decline of the US empire, he will be remembered. It's it's kind of like the guy saying um I want to be I want to die famously and so he sets up his house and everything else and then at the last minute he has to use the toilet and he ends up dying on the toilet and he becomes famous for dying on the toilet. is that it's like um you know the king died on the toilet.

[00:25:48]>> He will be remembered >> the way that I think he wants.

[00:25:51]>> Not in a good way. John D. Cockefeller says, "I spent about $150 this last election buying every single Trump campaign pin." John, you got to let me know why because I collect >> really >> I collect campaign pins and I got to know why. I mean like why would you you know? I mean why >> some of my more recent Oh, what is those dolls called? The little dolls that they have. I I >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what are those called? The Pez dispens. Not the PEZ dispensers. The bobbleheads.

[00:26:25]>> The bobble. Yeah. It's like a bobblehead, but they also have like these little I used to have the Star Trek ones behind me. Uh, but I wanted a Sanders one, but there was nowhere to be found because they were so they were sold out. Everybody was his answer. My hope was that he would basically do a Trump term one end to end out with his base still adoring him and I could scam some mouth mouth breather out of a bunch of money for the campaign bid.

[00:26:50]Huh. Well, it's funny because um you know great minds, right? So, Scott Stantis, uh, my, uh, co my colleague and, uh, best friend and also over my co-host of DMZ America, he and I both collect pins a lot. And he, he was theorizing that, uh, Grover Cleveland's stock would go way up after Trump won this re-election because Grover Cleveland's the only other president who successfully re, you know, was out and then returned after a term um, in in the way that Trump did. It's like, oh, people will take an interest in in Grover Cleveland. And I was like, I don't think Americans are historical enough to do that. But I picked up some Grover Cleveland ephemera just just in case. Um, didn't really do anything, but very skeptical that America's going to be like, "Hey, Trump did this, so let me go back and look in history and figure out what a president I don't buy that. I don't buy >> not Americans, though. That's not our That's not how we are. Um, let's do some Let's do some more comments here. Um, >> uh, Matthew, $20 million for $174,000 congressional seat. It's a good point.

[00:28:03]Maybe uh, Bluth Funk, I never understood Anglos who identify with Israel. Doesn't really make sense, nor to me. Um, Juan Wandi Thomas Nassie voted against a bill that aimed to give data centers special exemptions from environmental regulations. He believed that no industry should receive special treatment under the law. Um, but maybe blue funk. But guys, compared to the real richos, Trump is poor. His net worth is like four billion. And we're talking about people who are in the 30 billion. Elon with 400 billion. Trump is a peeon to them. True.

[00:28:40]Manchild, thanks for the donation. Uh, why is anybody surprised at Trump's behavior? He has grifted everyone for decades. Everything he's put his name on has died. How can anybody be shocked?

[00:28:49]Jesus [ __ ] Christ.

[00:28:52]>> Shocked, I guess, because it's one thing to grift in real estate. It's another thing to grift on a federal stage in front of the entire country and the world and to do it in this kind of shameless over-the-top way. Like meaning this is not even being hidden. This is just on the over the top. And you would think that there would be push back that, you know, people would be like, "Hey, it's kind of problematic that the president is maximizing his profit off the presidency.

[00:29:23]That looks weird." Well, it is. Look, um, I've mentioned this to you before.

[00:29:29]Maybe you we you have an answer for me because I don't have it. Why the [ __ ] did the Democratic party impeach Donald Trump over what they impeached him over but not imalments which is specifically stated in the constitution as grounds for impeachment? Like why on earth in the first se in the first term did the Democrats not impeach him for imalments?

[00:29:52]If I had to guess and if I had to make an educated guess, I would say it's because whatever you hold your opponent to, you are stuck with for yourself going forward.

[00:30:03]>> And if you do something like that with the president, you may very well create a situation where it's your guy for them to go after you. That's what if I had to guess it. I mean, because if you look at Joe Biden, >> that was my best guess. I was like, I'm not quite sure I'm fully satisfied with it, but it's my it was my best guess.

[00:30:19]>> That's the only guess I have. Otherwise, I don't quite get it.

[00:30:24]>> I mean, honestly, it's a shoe in. I mean, even Republicans would have trouble voting against it. I mean, they they'd figure out a way, but you know what I mean? Like, it would be right.

[00:30:32]>> It's dead on. I mean, like, meaning the American public can kind of see it for what it is and say, "Okay, fair game."

[00:30:37]whether they are okay with the president. Maybe it's like kings was like, well, kings are appointed by God and we don't necessarily want to do anything to be king because um we don't want to necessarily create a precedent for later on for other kings and queens because if you can go after a king, then are they really appointed by God if you get them, >> right?

[00:30:55]>> I guess. But I don't buy that particular argument. I buy the argument more so kind of like the impeachment thing for George Bush. Yeah, we don't really want to do this cuz we know when we get in power, we want to also be able to go into countries and attack countries. It could be.

[00:31:09]>> Um, Jack Samuels, we missed this one on Friday. So, Jack, if you're listening, we're sorry about that, but we're making up for it now. Thanks for the two bucks.

[00:31:18]JD Vance suspending $1.3 billion of Medicaid to California. Why?

[00:31:24]>> Because they're sociopaths.

[00:31:28]>> And what do they just There's obviously just because California is a blue state and that's it.

[00:31:32]>> Correct. That's it.

[00:31:33]>> Yeah.

[00:31:33]>> It's political malice.

[00:31:36]>> Yeah. It's just >> at this point, nobody should be shocked by this at this point.

[00:31:40]>> Well, I guess that's the thing, right?

[00:31:41]Like, so people keep saying like, "Well, why are you shocked?" Look, it's a valid point. If someone acts like a [ __ ] over and over and over and over the next time they act like a [ __ ] you shouldn't be like, "Oh my god, he acted like a cock."

[00:31:54]Right. Right.

[00:31:55]>> But I mean, true. But, you know, I guess I'm I'm a rude because there's still things where I'm like, you know, it's kind of like um you know, there's still I'm still I still have the ability to be shocked. It's like, okay, like you did this, but there's a certain line you wouldn't cross. Oh, wait. You just crossed it. And I find that surprising. So, obviously, I must >> You should have >> Yeah, >> you should have that sense. I mean, you should be outraged. This stuff is like this stuff is cancerous from a standpoint of a society. Like the last thing you want is because what it does is it creates a division in the society of people who are this way and people who are somewhere else in a society that those divisions don't supposed to exist.

[00:32:40]It's supposed to be America. Right.

[00:32:42]Right.

[00:32:42]>> Texas. Um, like I don't like Texas, but if Texas had an earthquake or hurricane, I would expect the US government to do everything in its power to save the people of Texas.

[00:32:54]>> And if they didn't, I'd be pissed.

[00:32:57]>> I'd be pissed. Yes. I don't care whether it's a red or blue.

[00:33:00]>> Yeah. Like, yeah. Western North Carolina is red. And I think the way those people were neglected was was horrible.

[00:33:07]>> That's my point, right? Like you would expect within the context of a country that the political leadership of the country looks at the country as one cloth.

[00:33:16]>> We're all together. We're all together.

[00:33:18]Like Puerto Rico after the hurricanes.

[00:33:20]Yeah.

[00:33:21]>> Yeah. But but the fact that he's creating this division by definition creates divisions. It's it's creating a distinction between one versus the other that shouldn't exist in America.

[00:33:31]>> Yeah. Eurabus. Natada. Um >> okay. So, let's talk about what when should we do the LR? Won't take long.

[00:33:41]>> Sure.

[00:33:42]>> Um, so this is the kind of thing we would have talked about probably. You would have invited me on when you had your show on Sputnik and as a as the resident New Yorker. So, look, this is an interesting story. um the Long Island Railroad. So, New York City, a lot of people rely on and its surrounding suburbs rely on mass transit to an extent that is not comprehensible outside of the New York metro area. And so, the subway operates within the five burrows of of New York City, although technically really within four. And um then there's commuter rail that comes in and out. New Jersey Transit. There's Metro North, which serves the northern suburbs and Connecticut. And then there's uh and then there's Amtrak also, but there's also the Long Island Railroad, which serves the 120 miles that go all the way to the eastern tip of Orient Point from Manhattan. Um the Long LiR um motormen and other employees uh are some of the best paid uh municipal workers in the in the area. a lot of not at all uncommon for these guys to make and they're mostly guys make about 120,000 or more a year with overtime you can make two $300,000 a year. Um so >> they're on strike. Now the thing is this is a uh it's in part a sympathy strike on the part of the guys who drive the trains and collect the tickets and then the maintenance workers are the ones who are actually on strike. Uh but but the point is trains are shut down and um the union is saying look yeah you've been giving us four or five percent a year increases but effectively that's not an increase at all because of inflation. We want real wage increases that are in excess of the uh of the of the inflation rate. I think that part is super interesting because I'm wondering if it lays a benchmark for other um labor disputes in in the near future. Um it's also super interesting that this that they chose a time right when gas prices were really really high to to walk off the job, right? Um I filled my tank yesterday. I paid uh $5.15 a gallon. Uh before all this started, I paid $2.85 a gallon. So um and I'm in New York, right? So the the question is I mean how are I guess the question is does this does this I could see as the economy continues to deteriorate um a lot more labor unrest. In the 1970s when I was a kid there was a the economy wasn't great and there were a lot of strikes m coal miners u also uh you know of course the the air traffic controllers under Reagan in 81 um you know are we going to see uh people who've been passed up for raises for years use their leverage especially related in the transportation sector to demand higher wages and by the way I'm highly I have no problem paying uh you know a person who who drives a train a good salary. Uh I don't want idiots driving trains.

[00:36:58]Oh man, that's a tough one. I mean, because that's that's almost like looking at geopolitical events and making a rational assessment that your leverage is increased or decreased depending upon what's taking place in the context of those geopolitical events. in this case specifically, oil and energy just going through the roof.

[00:37:20]>> Do Americans do that? Oh, that's a tough one. I mean, here's the the the reality of it is is regardless of what they want to do, they may not be in a position to ultimately do it. Like say like play it out for a bit. Say for example the war um escalates, which it seems like it is because there's no way for Trump to effectively back down. Um, and >> there's a way to for him to back down, which is to back down, which is what he can walk, >> which is what he should do.

[00:37:52]>> That is what he should do. I don't think that is what he is going to do.

[00:37:56]>> Agreed. um especially as we were talking about hubris in this particular president >> um narcissism and even just the office in and of itself there's a difficulty in a US president accepting that it's been bested by a regional power especially when you have a trillion dollar military and you're asking for $500 billion more for that trillion dollar military like it's hard for a president to do it especially when they are the ones that initiated the war in the first place I'm saying if we play this out and this gets bad where the reprisal strikes by Iran, those strikes hit the oil, infrastructure, and everything else.

[00:38:32]This idea of speculators not incorporating the full cost of the war into the money that we're spending for the fuel is over with. All pretense is gone. It's not you paying $5 in gas.

[00:38:43]It's you paying $8 in gas, $9 in gas, is the gas going to $250 a barrel. It's stuff like that happening. Mhm.

[00:38:50]>> If that's the case, then companies are not going to be able to afford the energy necessary to run those companies and the mechanism by which they make profit. Basically, I'm selling something to you at a particular price where I can get a profit off of that profit mechanism breaks down. If you're paying a huge amount of money for toilet paper and just to make it and you're selling it for $10 or $15, how is that going to function in your pricing model? Okay, people may need toilet paper, but what about stuff they don't need? Those companies are going to go belly up. Those people are going to lose their jobs. There will be protests, but it's not protest in the context of people coming off their jobs to protest.

[00:39:28]It's because they don't have a job or what they're paying for at the pump or because they can't afford basic stuff because things have gone through the roof as a direct result of the war that Trump initiated. I guess I'm trying to say it it may it may be difficult to do that if things get monstrously worse.

[00:39:48]Yeah. No, but >> give me your take on it. Maybe I'm getting this wrong.

[00:39:51]>> No, I mean I think you know it becomes like a doom loop, right? I mean um you the thing is a lot of one thing I that's very perverse about uh capitalism is that during periods of economic expansion um there tends uh you know that's often a time when uh employers leverage their power over um o you know over labor and don't give um you know the raises that are commensurate with the improvements in productivity and increases in profitability that would seem to say hey we're all all rising.

[00:40:26]You know, the the tide is rising. All the boats are going to go up, guys.

[00:40:30]It's, you know, we're doing great. The stock market's doing our stock is doing great. Everybody gets a 25% increase this year. Like, that just doesn't happen. And then at the end of the boom and as you head into a a slowdown and possibly a recession, the resentments have piled up. And then by this point, often uh it's kind of like I call it the ice cave effect. So, in an ice cave, um, it's you you'll go in in the in like June and it's cold and there's still ice in there because it if because of the delay effect from the winter and then vice versa, it's warm in the summer because of that delay. It's and so you'll get people on u you know you'll get you'll get workers going on strike doing slowdowns sabotage and at the very and making demands at the very time when actually there's really not a lot of money extra money to be given by the employers and the employers are feeling like you know they're not feeling flush at all. So that's when you get a big conflict and I mean it's very perverse but we keep seeing that cycle over and over. Um, I feel like that's one of these. I mean, LR workers probably should have shaken down uh the the railroad, you know, five years ago for for this money. Um, they didn't do it and now they're pissed off and they want more money and and so it's always this kind of like, you know, two sides can't talk to each other. Um, by >> the way, a best friend of mine worked for the railroads and I remember he was part of the union associated with the railroads and I remember having a conversation with him one day about like the political orientation and his thing was like look we don't trust Republicans because we have no expectation of getting anything out of them. We don't trust Democrats. By the same token, you don't like that's not something we want to push either because we don't entirely trust them either. Like meaning they're this kind of weird political quagmire where ostensibly they back Democrats, but they back them only because they think Republicans will actively go after them. Whereas >> you're right about that.

[00:42:43]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:44]>> Yeah.

[00:42:45]>> No, I mean, labor is in a in a peculiar spot. And then I mean look, um I'm always on team labor in all these disputes. So, uh they're not these are not the most sympathetic people because there's been all these stories in the New York area over the years of LIR guys, you know, claiming to be on disability and then photo photographed at the golf course while they're on disability. And it's like, oh, I thought you uh weren't allowed to you couldn't stand uh but there you are on the 17th hole. Um, so you know that happens a lot, but you know, whatever. Um, let's see. We should do some more comments here. Uh, okay. Uh, Fasmatz. Um, hey, do you want to ask, um, Jamal and Ted if they heard of Chud the Builder? The weirdest part is like other jerks, he has a checkered past. A provocator.

[00:43:39]I do not know Chud the Builder. I do know about Chud as an insult, but but >> yeah, I don't know who Chud the Builder is.

[00:43:47]>> Don't know. Sorry.

[00:43:48]>> I don't know anybody who.

[00:43:49]>> And by the way, please like, follow, and share. And don't forget the super chats and the rubble rants. We do. They really seriously are the way this show is going to be u economically viable for us. Um, California is very corrupt. Says, "Keep it real. The money doesn't go to infrastructure and the homeless issue.

[00:44:08]Drug issue is bad, but not real solutions. can't arrest the homeless for being homeless. Um, >> they try.

[00:44:15]>> Yeah, they do try.

[00:44:16]>> They They have tried.

[00:44:19]>> Okay. Raising Mr. A. Lee. I'm I'm glad that um he put this in. Raising wages is not going to make things better. What needs to be done is to open the market to competition and flood the market.

[00:44:30]Okay. I hate to say this, but you can't really have competing railroads. Um, it would cost trillions of I guess in the early days of the New York City subway, they did have private competing railroads. U, but like, you know, seriously, you're not going to have a competition to the to the Long Island Railroad. It is what it is and it's a monopoly and for what it is.

[00:44:55]>> So, I mean, I love that when it's like, well, you know, it's like a a doom loop, right? Like in inflation is eating away people's wages, so they want higher wages. Higher wages cause higher costs.

[00:45:05]Higher costs mean more inflation. That's all true, but what do you but like you know what do you why should workers who are the people who are the most squeezed why should they be the ones who say okay we're the ones who will make the sacrifice for the greater good of reducing inflation? I mean it's like >> well it's worse than that. Why should they take a hit for something that the government did >> right? like like you may it's one thing if it's just kind of environmental where maybe it's the season maybe it's um I don't know people using more oil for a particular thing this is a war that the government launched on its own valition um and aggression just for geopolitical interest meaning this is us looking for foreign wars abroad that is having feedback consequences I felt by the way this is the same argument I was making with Joe Biden when Joe Biden was making this idea of a prudent Putin price hike And Jitsaki was arguing um what did she said values are not without costs that the entire point of having values on some level is the cost that you're willing to pay to defend those particular values. Okay, for one it's not our values it's yours and it's the government itself that make the choice of going after the like this is kind of like the slavery argument of reparations where people would be like well I wasn't around during that time so I shouldn't have to pay for it. It's like dude it's the government that was around that instituted the policy. It's the government that is responsible for this.

[00:46:30]And whoever was leading the government at that time, it's the same thing. We are paying higher gas prices, higher food costs as a direct result of what the Trump administration decided to do.

[00:46:41]Why should me, meaning I or any other worker have to eat that cost?

[00:46:48]>> Well, so Mr. A was to be clear was referring actually to the auto industry.

[00:46:53]If the US let Chinese EVs into the US, car companies would have to lower their prices, Apple lowers its price in China.

[00:47:02]>> Yeah, but do we I mean I kind of want to protect our car industries if I'm honest.

[00:47:07]>> Yeah. I mean people are not understanding here is that we don't have obviously we don't have a global unified economic labor and management system.

[00:47:15]Right. So um the best way to understand free trade and internationalization is that capital is highly fluid. So um if you want to build uh you know a manufacturing plant for say EV batteries you can do that anywhere in the world that you can find cheap labor but people who are smart enough and skilled enough to do what you want. But if you're a a worker you can't move to wherever happens to have the highest wages in the world. I mean I remember in the when I got out of college um I looked up at the timeQ cutter had the highest wages in the world but you know I couldn't move toQatar um I'm not allowed to move to cutter so management um is fluid labor is static and labor is static even just by inertia right like you know labor is is stuck because of of family ties cultural ties linguistic ties to their community it's moving is hard um you know it's expensive And that's not even getting into the legal issues. So, um, you know, the problem with Mr. A's, um, suggestion here is, okay, so Tesla making cars in the United States, they have to pay American wages and American um, you know, um, benefits, but you know, Chinese EVs, obviously those manufacturers don't have to pay those.

[00:48:37]Um and so like what that would effectively be doing is it would put downward pressure on American wages to the point where theoretically would everything evened itself out. Um you know we would American workers I guess would be making about as much as Chinese workers but our costs are so much higher. It's a different economy. We operate at different scale. So it doesn't work. I mean all your two all your you know unless you go to one global socialist or capitalist but one unified global one nation you know economy but that's not happening there's 211 countries I mean it's just >> we don't have it here if you think about it I mean like when Jeff Bezos goes to New York you remember this and it's like hey what are you going to give me to put my building here hey if you don't give me all of this money you don't give me all the benefits saying, "If you don't give me the taxes from your um your public, I might go to Montana. Montana may do it." They do it, too, right? It's nonsense. It's it there's a reason. Put it this way.

[00:49:41]There's a reason why Trump when he was saying, "We're going to bring the jobs back was full of [ __ ] >> He was never going to bring it back in that case." No, >> I don't even know how you could because as you pointed out Ted, the issue is if I can go to China or India and I can have this exact same product made but make it for 10 cents on the dollar, 20 cents on a dollar. Hell, I may pay them $2 and it might be a dollar more than they were getting before. And then I would say, hey, I helped this population in regards to the money that we were giving them. Yeah, but you gutted the American jobs in order for you to make that particular profit. And the wild part is for all of this talk that Trump does about China, many of those companies are American companies.

[00:50:23]Many of them are. And so Trump is making all of this noise about American companies and about the Trump China taking advantage of us as those billionaires went to China to make God's amounts of profit um and not invest.

[00:50:40]No, you're right. It's that it's that if there's a structural momentum to this stuff that makes it almost impossible for a president to do something about it that won't necessarily let's say turn over the apple cart. I mean maybe he should but he's not going to do that.

[00:50:57]>> No, I I can answer your question JT about how Trump could have brought jobs back.

[00:51:02]>> Go for it. So what he should have done and what people like me were hoping that he would have done was after he got elected because let's take China first and foremost. China is the economic superpower because we built it. We export our industrial base. We exported it to China with the assumption that if we made it a rich country, it would become a democratic a democratic country and then we'd be able to use it. Then be instead of being a potential rival, it would be an ally. How welcome the Republic of of China was supposed to have been.

[00:51:32]>> We don't have allies. We wanted slavish devotion to America.

[00:51:37]>> Well, >> yeah.

[00:51:38]>> Well, back in the 90s, maybe things under Clinton were a little bit different. The point is that we outsourced our industrial base to China.

[00:51:44]That's a statement of fact.

[00:51:45]>> Yes.

[00:51:46]>> Now, if you want to reverse the damage that that Clinton did, >> the way that he should have done it, and what I would have done was I would have went to Congress. I would have taken the case to the American people saying we're going to pass a law saying if you are if you're an American company, if you're outsourcing these jobs, these industries to China, you are going to pay tariffs to the point where your wage where your costs are going to be equal to what to what you be paying an American worker.

[00:52:13]And I would make that case directly to the American people. And every congressman, every senator at that point have to cast a a yes or a no vote. Is it anti- capitalist? Yes. But by definition, capitalism in this case is the problem. It screwed the American worker. So if you want to bring those jobs back, you have to have some kind of some kind of a of a equalizer between someone will work for $2 a day versus someone who requires $20 an hour to make a living. Tariffs do that. Trump that case >> that what that means is that is what Trump ran into is that prices across the board skyrocket.

[00:52:55]>> Yeah, of course. But that's what he but that's what he would have needed to have done. And then the way they should offset this because these jobs coming back would then increase the amount of tax dollars being being generated by the into the treasury because these jobs are coming back. That would solve the problem. If it's screw China, I don't care about China. I care about America.

[00:53:17]>> That's what he should have done.

[00:53:18]>> That are paying more.

[00:53:20]>> So what?

[00:53:20]>> Like I'm not disagreeing with you, right? I'm just pointing out the the contradiction in it and why that doesn't happen.

[00:53:28]>> Well, it doesn't happen because a lobbyist.

[00:53:30]>> Well, it's not just lobbyists. I mean, even if you take lobbyist out of it, there is a momentum to it. Meaning, if I'm a capitalist and I can make um a ton of money by moving and shipping job to Thailand, >> sure. that every incentive in the world is there for me to do that. Every incentive. And you can say, well, yeah, you're firing American workers. My job as a capitalist is not to hire people.

[00:53:52]In fact, if I could get away without hiring people, I would because I can make more profit doing so. Which is why Burger Robot is going to be in place that is going to be dropping French fries and doing hamburgers, stuff like that. And by the way, even if you could come up with legislation to prevent that from happening, the AI stuff, the robotic stuff is going to do something very similar, even if it's internal to the country itself. Like if I need to build a t-shirt and China can spit out, I don't know, 100 t-shirts in a minute.

[00:54:22]>> Sure.

[00:54:23]>> Okay. Well, I can't compete with that.

[00:54:25]Like, as a capitalist coming back to the States, I don't want to pay $50 for a t-shirt if I'm if that makes sense.

[00:54:31]>> No, it does. Listen, I I me and you're on the same page here. The point that I'm trying to say is that the government caused this problem. The government had the had the ability to solve this problem by leveling the playing field.

[00:54:42]But the reason why the reason why Nikes are made in Vietnam is because the cost of because the cost of living there is so much cheaper. Well, then if you if your concern as an American politician is the welfare of the American worker, you want those jobs to come back instead of that instead of that that factory being in in Saigon, I guess Ho Chi Min City now you want to be in Jackson, Mississippi instead you you tell Nike that this is an American company. So everything you import will be will be tariffed to the point where there is no advantage to you, Mr. Capitalist, to do this.

[00:55:18]I will completely [ __ ] you. And I for one, as a right-winger, I'm all about that life.

[00:55:24]>> I'm all about that, too. But also, there's another additional component that's encouraging that outsourcing, right? Like the shipping should be very expensive to send sneakers from the other side of the planet to the United States, even with the disparity in um salaries. Um and the thing is unfortunately for American workers um those uh those shipping expenses are basically subsidized under extremely generate generous tax codes for companies like Nike so that they can pretty much write it off completely.

[00:55:57]It's like a direct subsidy to MK and all these other big shipping companies um that you know you see their names on the side of shipping containers on the highways on the back of semi-truckss. Um those companies are basically getting your if we if they were paying for shipping the way that like you and I would have to pay um you know a lot of these a lot of these foreign manufacturing things wouldn't work.

[00:56:21]>> Yeah. No, >> of course. I mean it the entire thing is stacked and it really what this just goes to show is that the American government our government hates the American worker. They hate us. It's not that they this I mean they don't look at us as as a nuisance or or being a bunch of just ingrates.

[00:56:41]This is a case of of a of a system that actively hates the domestic population that they're supposed to rule over and that's why that's why all these problems you have downward problems have de pressures because of outsourcing of jobs. Then you have open borders. This bring in just millions of people which JT you just admitted with im with automation.

[00:57:01]>> We don't need unskilled workers. You got plenty of our own. Why are we still on board anymore?

[00:57:06]>> This is insane.

[00:57:07]>> It's self-destructive.

[00:57:08]>> I don't dis I don't entirely disagree with you. It I Yes, with automation the amount of labor and everything else will decrease. And I also agree with you.

[00:57:20]They do hate the American worker. But you must understand why though. It's a capitalist country. Like I know they call it it's the democracy, it's a representative government and everything else, but every ounce of that is infused with the idea that it's a capitalist country.

[00:57:35]>> We're not a country. We're a corporation.

[00:57:37]>> Right. I guess my point is that's not insignificant. That's not a um intangible thing. There's consequences for it.

[00:57:43]>> Sure, you maximize profit. Even in the political space, these guys are trying to get rich even as they are doing quote unquote politics. And so everything revolves around this notion of how do we make people rich? How do we get a huge amount of money? Not necessarily for the American workers. If somebody happened to piss a nickel, okay, fair enough. But the reality of it is the people with capital um the people with means are the ones who are effectively making the decisions and making determinations to ensure that they keep their means and that they keep their capital and they increase their capital. And people of their class, they're very class conscious. We tend to be less so. We don't even like talking about money, per se. So, I don't entirely disagree with you, Robbie. Yeah, I get it. It's a US problem. It's a It's a >> We incentivize um companies doing that.

[00:58:35]>> Sorry. Um Okay, so we got a couple more comments that we got to get to. Um Frankle, free market is a thanks for the $5. Uh the free market is a myth. Nancy Pelosi proves that with her insider trading and try to build a more efficient car engine. See what happens to you.

[00:58:50]looking at yeser >> um and uh maybe blue funk uh the guys in this new economy creating a competitive worker takes 20 years of investment in computer science. They're not going to bring back manufacturing jobs. They're not going to be any left.

[00:59:07]>> Yeah.

[00:59:09]Yeah. I personally I think that should be soiled but >> yeah I think that's probably um the time to take care of this was many years ago.

[00:59:18]Um we should Robbie, I'm going to keep you on here um as the re resident evangelical. Um yesterday there was this uh evangelical style like tent service on the Washington Mall subsidized by millions of taxpayer dollars. Um eight for eight hours the argument was made that the United States is an explicitly uh Christian country and always has been. um the president of the United States um did something that must have really made him burn. He he read from scripture. Uh I don't know that he'd ever picked up a Bible before except maybe to take the oath of office. Um he doesn't go to church. He he I mean normally when he worships on Sunday he worships at the 18th hole at his golf course. Um you know I mean >> what do you think of all this? I mean, it just seems to me like uh I know you don't believe in the separation of church and state the way I do, but >> it was really unhinged. I mean, as we head into the 250th anniversary of the country, to basically tell everyone, not only is this a Christian country, but you're basically not a true American unless you're a specific type of Christian, and you certainly can't be a different religion or not religious at all.

[01:00:38]>> Yeah. Uh, if being a Christian means being like Trump, that's a hard pass for me because he's not a Christian. And the people he's surrounding himself with, those are not Christians. Th those are rifters. Those are hirelings. Those are wolves and sheep clothing. They're hypocrites. And they're going to split hell wide open when they get there.

[01:00:55]And to say that America has always been a Christian, it's not Christian country now. A Christian country doesn't murder its unborn children. a Christian country as a wage uh unrestricted undeclared war around the world killing millions of people uh because our values uh Christian values means that you're against collective punishment that means that you protect the the weak that you you take care of the widow you don't make widows I mean what what he is saying is is blasphemous it's disrespectful and all he's doing is heaping upon himself a greater damnation >> I mean what about like I mean I feel like uh one one aspect of separation of church and state that's underappreciated is how much it actually protects Christianity and other religions from being co-mingled with the state. Uh and therefore there you know when there's a backlash against the state for example a revolution or some other uprising that separation kind of ensures that when the [ __ ] hits the fan religion isn't going to go with it.

[01:01:58]Well, I mean, I don't live in a theocracy, but I mean that that being said, just one second. I'm replying to a comment. U you've got to have if you're going to have self-governance, if you're going to have a self-governing uh society, then you've got to have a a a population that at least understands the basic concepts of morality. And what is that? I mean, if you boil it all down, you love your neighbor as yourself. We don't have that. And so that's one of the reasons why why the crime rate is so is so out of control. That's one of the reasons why our government is is running Robshot doing everything that it is. It's because we we live in a in a in my opinion we we don't live in an apostate nation. We live in a reprobate nation.

[01:02:44]That's to that that goes as far as is that we have evangelical leaders joining up with rab with with rabbis to bless a golden idol of President Trump.

[01:02:56]And then this buffoon goes to the White House and has this fake prayer meeting with a bunch of fake pastors who want to have a seat at the king's table when they should be rebuking him, calling him an antichrist and telling him just how much he sucks. And what he's going to do is that he's going to go straight to a devil's hell when he kicks this bucket if he doesn't shape up his ship out. We don't have that.

[01:03:20]>> I don't think you can have a Christian nation in the capitalist country if I'm being honest.

[01:03:24]>> And what I mean by that is, >> for example, you brought up crime.

[01:03:28]>> I don't think crime is the issue of people losing faith or not having faith in God. I mean, some of those criminals will tell you that they're Christians whether you believe them or not. Like meaning they may believe in God but crime is an environmental issue. Like meaning is it rational to commit crimes in the case of lack and depravity especially when a country tells you that having things is the epitome of success.

[01:03:53]Yeah. Crime becomes a rational act in the case where people are in let's say dire straits and they need to get items and things.

[01:04:00]>> It's hard. We are out of time. So, but if uh you can't get enough of us, we're back in two hours for the Q&A show because it's Monday. So, uh do stay t stay tuned. TMI show coming up with uh me and Robbie. Robbie's filling in from Manila. Uh 12:00 noon Q&A show with the three of us answering any and all of your questions. Please like, follow, and share the show. We're here Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.

[01:04:28]Thanks everyone. Appreciate you.

[01:04:31]And >> have a good one, guys.

[01:04:33]>> Yep. Sh the top.