5/13/24: Biden tariff dumps, rabid crowd cheers Trump and leaves

This episode discusses the impact and implications of President Joe Biden's new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, contrasting them with previous tariffs under Donald Trump, and explores the internal dynamics within the Republican Party, particularly focusing on Marjorie Taylor Greene's political maneuvers.

1. Biden's new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are significantly higher, aiming to protect American industries but may disrupt economic stability.
2. The Republican Party is experiencing internal conflicts, with figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene pushing for changes in leadership while navigating Trump's fluctuating endorsements.
3. Pakman critiques both Democratic and Republican strategies, emphasizing the need for factual grounding in political discourse.
4. The episode highlights the broader implications of tariff policies on the global economic landscape and domestic industries.
5. The discussion extends to the potential long-term effects of these economic decisions on American competitiveness and consumer choices.

1: Tariff Analysis

Pakman begins with an analysis of Biden’s new tariff policies, comparing them to Trump’s earlier measures. He explores different economic perspectives on how these tariffs could affect the U.S. market and manufacturing sector.
David Pakman: "Joe Biden is going to be increasing tariffs on certain Chinese products."

2: Republican Dynamics

The episode shifts focus to the internal dynamics within the Republican Party, particularly around Marjorie Taylor Greene's controversial actions and statements concerning party leadership and her discussions with Donald Trump.
David Pakman: "Marjorie Taylor Greene is pointing to Trump privately, saying something different, which wouldn’t be a big shock."

3: Economic Implications

Further analysis of the economic implications of the tariffs, discussing potential benefits and drawbacks for American industries and consumers.
David Pakman: "So you could say that's why the Trump tariffs were bad."

4: Political Commentary

Pakman provides commentary on the state of American politics, discussing misinformation, internal party conflicts, and the impact of political strategies on public perception.
David Pakman: "It is technically true in some limited sense, that Democrats saved Mike Johnson."

1. Understand Economic Policies: Keep informed about government tariff policies and their implications for both the economy and individual industries.
2. Critical Analysis of Political Claims: Scrutinize statements and positions of political figures, seeking out reputable sources and fact-checking information.
3. Engage in Civic Discussions: Participate in discussions and debates to foster a more informed and engaged community.
4. Support Local Industries: Consider the impact of economic policies on local industries and explore ways to support local and national products.
5. Promote Transparent Politics: Advocate for transparency and accountability in political leadership to ensure policies reflect the public interest.

-- On the Show:

-- President Joe Biden will announce new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles

-- Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is interviewed by Fox News' Maria Bartiromo and goes completely off the rails

-- Republican Senator JD Vance is challenged by CNN host Dana Bash over his claim that Donald Trump couldn't possibly be antisemitic

-- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham sets the stage to deny the results of the 2024 Presidential election

-- Failed Arizona Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, now running for US Senate in Arizona, sets the stage to reject the forthcoming election results in November

-- Rabid Donald Trump supporters cheer the most delusional statements from Trump at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, but the crowd quickly starts leaving while Trump is still speaking

-- Donald Trump's speech is slurred and confused during another post-criminal trial rant

-- Russell Brand is now promoting Ivermectin, using Chris Cuomo's recent promotion of the same as fodder to support his beliefs

-- A viewer furiously writes to David and cancels his account because of David's accurate reporting about RFK Jr. having a brain worm

-- On the Bonus Show: Duke University graduates walk out of Jerry Seinfeld's commencement speech, why writing by hand may be better than typing for thinking and learning, mass shootings down 29% from last year, much more...

People

Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, MAGA Mike Johnson, Maria Bartiromo

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

David Pakman
Well, here we are once again. Joe Biden is going to be increasing tariffs on certain chinese products.

As many of you know, I've been critical of Donald Trump's tariffs on chinese goods. Joe Biden is also putting some tariffs on chinese goods. Well, not exactly the same, but should I oppose these tariffs if I thought that Donald Trump's were a bad idea? Well, let's talk about what it is that Joe Biden is doing. President Joe Biden is going to be doubling, tripling, and quadrupling tariffs on some chinese goods this week. One major area is that the total tariff on chinese electric vehicles is going to rise to 102.5% from 27.5%. That is a nearly quadrupling of the tariff on chinese electric vehicles. So our first step in analyzing what Joe Biden is doing is to remind ourselves, what did Donald Trump do? What Donald Trump did is impose tariffs on chinese solar panels, washing machines, steel, aluminum, many of these from many countries, except in some cases, we were disproportionately getting these things from China. Semiconductors, computer components, electronic devices, various types of machinery, including those used by manufacturing companies and agricultural companies.

Products such as clothing, furniture and toys saw tariffs imposed. So the question is, are tariffs on China just plain bad?

Or could there be a reason why Trump's tariffs weren't a good idea and Joe Biden's on chinese electric vehicles are a good idea? Well, let's take a couple of perspectives on this. A libertarian would say, all of these tariffs are bad. They are distorting markets. A libertarian would say, leave the market totally open. It is true when cheaper and seemingly very good electric vehicles. And by the way, some of these new chinese electric vehicles do seem excellent, absolutely excellent. There is no doubt. The libertarian would say, let them come into the United States with no tariff. People will go to them. It will push competition to drive down the cost of american made electric vehicles, and it will force automakers to improve them in order to compete with the cheaper and excellent chinese electric vehicles. That's not a terrible perspective, to be honest. When it comes to electric vehicles, it is likely the perspective that will advance electric vehicle technology and bring prices down as quickly as possible. But it will temporarily hurt the american economy during this period during which Americans say, hey, the chinese EV's are better and they're cheaper. I'll buy that. This hurts the companies that make the components for the american electric vehicles. This hurts the workers that make the american electric vehicles. Okay, here's a reason. Now, so that's the libertarian perspective.

Now, how about a reason that we could argue Trump's tariffs on chinese goods were bad, but these tariffs on chinese electric vehicles are good. And the way that would work is something like this. Trump's tariffs, including steel and aluminum and other components that are used by agricultural companies and manufacturing companies, those were source materials or intermediate components that companies in the United States needed and used. So when Trump put a tariff on those things, it created higher prices, it disrupted supply chains, it made construction more expensive, it made farming more expensive, it increased the hot cost of housing, it generated retaliatory measures, and often there was no immediate american alternative to replace them. So what happened was the american companies kept buying the chinese steel and paying the tariff, and it made construction more expensive, and it got passed on to the consumer. So you could say that's why the Trump tariffs were bad. On the other hand, and again, we're exploring perspectives here when it comes to tariffs on chinese electric vehicles. That's a finished product. Okay? Agricultural companies aren't depending on a finished electric vehicle in the way that they are depending on elements that were tariffed by Trump. Construction companies in the United States aren't depending on a finished electric vehicle in the way that they were depending on steel and aluminum. And so by putting a tariff on completed chinese electric vehicles, maybe you are supporting the entire manufacturing chain of domestic electric vehicles.

You don't use chinese electric vehicles as a material to make some other thing so that the downside is limited. So that the downside is significant. You could argue that just tariffing chinese electric vehicles has a very limited downside and that it actually will be a good thing for american electric vehicle companies. That would be the perspective on we like this. My inst. I've given you two different arguments. My instinct on this is that I don't want to use tariffs as a tool unless I have a really extenuating and clear reason with which to apply a tariff. Is there a case to be made that what is actually best long term for the american economy is to let in the chinese electric vehicles without putting a tariff on them? Yes, there is such a case to be made. Is there a case to be made that you are actually in the immediate supporting american workers by putting a tariff on chinese electric vehicles? Yes, there is. And so to answer whether this is a good idea or a bad idea, we need a much more detailed analysis that should be done specifically of the electric vehicle market. Hopefully we will get it certainly can make a very compelling argument that these EV taxes on chinese EV's from Biden are a good idea. And you can make an equally compelling argument based on the data we have, right? We need more data. You can make an equally compelling argument that they are a bad idea. I want to hear from you. Info at David pakman.com. What do you think? Radical and repugnant Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Trader Green.

I'm sorry. Marjorie Taylor Greene has done an interview with Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo that is once again raising major questions about what the hell is going on behind the scenes in the Republican Party with Maga Mike Johnson, with the failed former president Donald Trump. Now, one of the very interesting things that Marjorie said to Maria Bartiromo is that privately Trump has said to her, we may need to get rid of Magamike Johnson as speaker. What is interesting about this is that publicly, when Marjorie's attempt to oust MAGA Mike Johnson failed, Trump said, marjorie's good, but this is not the time to remove Magamike Johnson. Republicans mostly behind Megamike Johnson. If you believe Marjorie Taylor Green, here she is pointing to Trump privately, saying something different, which wouldn't be a big shock.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Speaker one, you know, and I just spoke with President Trump yesterday about this, and while he says now is not the time, I'm going to be listening to him, but he also said, and he said it in his statement publicly, that it may happen, that the time may come. So even though if I wanted to do it again this week, the Democrats have already stepped in and saved Johnson. But again, I'll reiterate this, Maria, and the most important thing everyone needs to know is people want a republican party that will fight.

David Pakman
So it would of course be funny if Trump didn't really say that to her and she's just making it up and Trump called her out. It's now been 24 ish hours since she made the statement. So far, Trump has not come out and said Marjorie Taylor Green isn't telling the truth. To be perfectly frank, it is probably true that behind closed doors Trump is saying, we may have to get rid of MAGA Mike Johnson. And it's not out of any inherent loyalty or hostility to Magamike Johnson. It's what is good for Trump. That is the one and only test that is applied by Trump. Do I want Maga Mike Johnson to be speaker or do I want to remove Maga Mike Johnson from speaker? The answer is, what is good for me. That's the question Trump asks. And so it's completely plausible that Marjorie Taylor Greene, despite lying all the time, is telling the truth and that Trump is simply waiting for the point at which he decides it would be better for me to remove MAGA Mike Johnson. MArJoriE Taylor Greene continuing during this very same interview, saying that it is Democrats that saved MAGA Mike Johnson, not Republicans. Republicans want him out. Of course, it's not true that most Republicans want him out. Only a few dollars. Let's listen to what she said about that.

Maria Bartiromo
Eliminate the special counsel.

David Pakman
Look, people are trying to figure out where is the crime that President Trump committed as he sits in that Manhattan courtroom all day. Why do you think Mike Johnson won't.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Defund Jack SMith well, Mike Johnson's owned by the Democrats, and that proved me to be right again. When I called the motion to vacate, it wasn't Republicans that saved Mike Johnson. It was Democrats that saved Mike Johnson. And when you have Nancy Pelosi, who was speaker of the House when they impeached President Trump twice, and you have Jerry Nadler, who was chairman of the Judiciary committee that led the impeachment against President Trump, voting to save Mike Johnson, that tells the american people everything that they need to know. Mike Johnson is owned by the Democrats and refuses to protect President Trump, even though he runs down to Mar Lago every chance he gets and hugs them as tightly as possible.

David Pakman
So from our perspective, as people who just want to see the demise of Trump and the demise of the movement that includes Marjorie Taylor Greene and people like Magam Mike Johnson, I want to see them all go. You say to me, well, are you with the Trump faction or the Marjorie Taylor Green faction or the Magamike Johnson faction at this point, they are essentially the same faction. And I want all of them to go. They all have no business in american politics and only degrade the structure and the integrity of american democracy. Is it technically true in some limited sense, that Democrats saved Mike Johnson? Well, sure. I mean, Republicans have a majority. They need everybody in order to get rid of Mike Johnson and some Democrats. Democrats voted not to do it, but many Republicans voted not to do it as well. Lastly, for Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is now starting to worry for herself. And what might all of this strife mean for her own reelection, saying that there are voters who aren't going to even vote for elected officials down ballot. They're going to go and vote president, and they will leave representative.

She is scared of that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
But if we're going to be a republican conference that can actually deliver President Trump's agenda, then we need to get in shape and be prepared to do that. And while the election is only six months away, we aren't ready. And our voters know it, Maria. Our voters know it. They're saying they're going to get representatives names on the ballot. They're going to vote for President Trump, but they're going to skip our names, and that's the most dangerous position to be in.

David Pakman
Okay, so, so as now, I have absolutely no idea whether that's true in large numbers. If you are a MAGA Republican, are you really going to go out and check the box for Donald Trump and say, oh, I see another MAGA person on the ballot, I'm going to skip voting for that person altogether? Sort of hard to believe, but the point here is one that Republicans should still be worried about. You look at the number of Republicans who came out in Pennsylvania, for example, and said, even though Nikki Haley has been out of this thing for months, I'm still going to vote for her in the primary just to show how much I'm displeased with what's going on for Donald Trump. It is certainly theoretically possible that there will be people who are happy with Trump but want to show that same displeasure with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. The funniest part of that entire interview is Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, allowing us to enact Donald Trump's agenda. What agenda? And remember that as far as policy goes, Trump vaguely waxes poetic about executing drug dealers, putting them to death, and, you know, deporting the, I think he calls them mental patients that have emptied out into our, it's imaginary stuff. There is no actual agenda. And that's the funniest part. There is no agenda to enact. And she's worried they won't be able to do it. Let's skip all of this and make sure none of these people have access to power. That would be my preference.

I hope that we make it a reality.

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And we talked about revenue track. We had years during which our revenue was zero. And I'm not saying it was low, I'm saying it was zero. This was an all volunteer thing that almost ended at the point at which it was time for me to find some real job that earned money.

And thanks to the membership program, slowly but surely going from zero to 0.1 to 0.2% of our audience supporting us directly, we built this thing, which has now outlasted who knows how many other attempts at building similar things. And it's thanks to you. So I would love it if you got yourself a membership at join pacman.com. We just invested a bunch of money in a totally new website and a whole new member experience for the member version of the site, the member portal of the site. It's working really well. We have a sound board that you have access to that is a frickin predator right there. You get access to the Alex Jones audio drops and everything else. But most importantly, we do an extra show every single day for our members. And we also provide the, the main show, what you're listening to right now with no commercials in audio or video format, much earlier in the day than it is otherwise made available. So I encourage you, go ahead and grab a subscription at join pacman.com. We do have a coupon code. That code is SaveDemocracy 24. You can use it if you want. The normal membership rates are quite reasonable. If they strike you as unreasonable, take the discount using the coupon code. Save democracy 24. The topic of whether Donald Trump is personally anti semitic continues to come up. And often cited as defenses of Trump are that Trump's grandkids are jewish. Trump's daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism. Trump does business with jewish folks and seems to have no problem.

And he moved the embassy to Jerusalem or whatever. And we're going to look at a clip here of JD Vance saying, Trump is obviously not anti semitic. To which CNN host Dana Bash says, well, he did have dinner with that Nick Fuentes guy, who is an avowed anti semite.

And then let's see what JD Vance had to say, and then we're going to talk about it in more details. Yeah, because he did say that any jewish person who voted for Joe Biden should be ashamed of themselves. I want to move on speaker one.

JD Vance
He's made similar comments about a lot of different groups of people. Dana, I don't think anybody could look at the presidency and the conduct of Donald Trump and say, this is a person who's somehow anti semitic. And I think whether you're jewish or not, you should be looking at the record of Joe Biden.

David Pakman
He had dinner with Nick Fuentes, who is an avowed anti semite.

JD Vance
Dana, you should look at the record of Joe Biden.

David Pakman
Yeah, I don't know what Joe Biden's record has to do with Trump dining with. With white supremacists, but there is a little bit of a deeper conversation to be had here. And I do think we on the left need to be more nuanced, because when we just put out there, Trump's an anti semite, I actually think we're not being really precise enough, and we open ourselves up to criticism. Trump may not be personally anti semitic. He may be, I don't know, but he actually might not be. But he can still be governing in a way that coalesces and invigorates anti Semites and legitimizes anti Semites as part of a political coalition when they should actually be completely ostracized and limited from participation. And in fact, you know, we've talked before.

I don't think Trump is homophobic in the super tangible and specific way that many people are homophobic. Trump probably harbors some sort of stereotypical beliefs about the lgbt community. But I actually doubt Trump is what we would describe as overtly homophobic. I doubt that Trump is what we would describe as overtly anti semitic. He probably harbors some general anti semitic tropes as beliefs, Jews as clever business people to work with. You know, kind of like we've talked about Saudis from the saudi royal family that are increasing, increasingly working with jewish folks, and they say we're not anti semitic. They probably harbor. Harbor a variety of beliefs that are. That are based in anti semitic tropes, but they may not be overtly and personally anti semitic, and that very well may be the case with Donald Trump. It's actually deeper. It's more complicated than that. Trump's rhetoric often emphasizes a nationalism and a populism and this sense of grievance against the perceived elites, even though Trump is the elite. Don't get that wrong. He's the elite guy who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth in Queens and Manhattan. But he will use this language, and oftentimes that is filled in by, oh, he's sort of referring to jews. I at least can fill in the blanks for who he's talking about with the idea of the conniving, conspiratorial jewish trope.

Even if Trump isn't saying that Trump uses dog whistles all the time, the coded language, that might not be overtly anything, but it has a very specific meaning to the groups that he's targeting, the subgroups he's targeting. And Trump all the time uses these phrases and tropes that if you don't know what you're listening for, it could be interpreted a number of different ways. But for those who do know what to listen for, who are already inclined to these beliefs, these references to the deep state, the global financial conspiracies to control, that all echoes anti semitic stereotypes about jewish conspiracy to control. And it titillates the people that believe that stuff. And they circle the wagons around Trump.

Domestic policies have sometimes empowered groups that are explicitly or implicitly anti semitic. When Trump has been hesitant to condemn white supremacist groups until he's asked a hundred times and then finally kind of goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I don't really know anything about it, but I condemn it, I guess. And we saw this with David Duke. We saw this after Charlottesville in 2017. We, we've seen a bunch of examples of this. So the conversation about this, the, the, is Trump personally anti semitic? No, he's not. Look, he did this. Well, yes, he is. He dined with that person.

Fine. If that sort of serves as an opening to the conversation we're trying to have, that's fine. The more important question is, who has he activated and welcomed as legitimate voices within the political discussion? And you need only look at the pool parties at Mar a Lago to understand the ways in which Trump's beliefs aside, I'm sure Trump loves his grandkids as much as he loves his kids, which is still an open question how much that is. But you get my point.

Despite all of that, the question is, what are the coalitions that are being built? And that's what's missing from a lot of these conversations about is Trump personally homophobic? Is Trump personally anti semitic? We have example after example after example of Republicans preparing to reject the results of the November election unless they win and unless Donald Trump wins. Last week, I gave you examples of Laura Trump, Lara, Laura Trump, Tim Scott and others saying, well, if they don't count the ballots by this time of night, that would be fraud. It would be rigged. It would be evidence that it was stolen. If Trump doesn't win, it would be evidence it was stolen because it's so obvious that Trump could, should, will be winning. And we have more examples, and this is a particularly pernicious one. You may remember that Lindsey Graham was one of the officials on the phone after the 2020 election, trying to pressure Georgia officials to flip the results from Biden to Trump. He was interviewed yesterday by NBC News, Kristen Welker was asked, will you accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins? And he says, yes, if there's no massive cheating. And he says, listen, I accepted the 2020 results.

That's not the way I remember it. Take a listen to this. Will you accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins?

Yeah, I'll accept it. I think there's no massive cheating. I accepted 2020. Here's what I would say. President Trump is poised to win. He said last night, when it comes to Israel, I will have their back. I will give them what they need. Bernie Sanders is wrong about the polling here. Most Americans, 80% side with Israel. The 20%, unfortunately, are in Congress, in the State Department, that side with Hamas. That's the problem with this war. All right, Senator Sanders, we are out of time. All right. So the question was, will you accept the results no matter who wins? And he says, yes, if there's no cheating. And remember, I accepted the 2020 results. Well, two, two interesting follow ups. Number one, I guess you've now accepted the 2020 results, but you tried to pressure Georgia election officials in 2020 to flip the results. So you must not have accepted the results at that point. Otherwise, why would you be on the phone? And the follow up, the second follow up that I think should be just mandated, not literally mandated, but it should, it should be an obvious follow up when people say, well, I'll accept it if there's no massive cheating. Is there any presidential election in which so called massive cheating has affected the results? Is there even that in a single state? Because they love to say I'm fair.

Of course I will accept the results assuming there's no massive cheating and it might sound reasonable. Well, right. Yeah. I mean, why would you accept the results if there were massive cheating? The counterpoint is there is no evidence that there has ever been cheating massive such that it would have made a difference in even a single state.

And the way they say this alludes to 2020, where they're kind of trying to allude to in 2020, there was massive cheating that affected the results. So as long as we don't have that again, of course I will accept the results, except that that's not actually what happened in 2020. So we do need more follow up with these folks during these interviews. And there's no doubt that Lindsey Graham is kind of trying to placate or kowtow to those absolute worst of the worst folks who still believe 2020 was stolen. He is setting up to again question the results and of course, Carrie Lake is as well. Let's talk about that next.

Also gracing the screens of those watching, Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo this week was failed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake, who also is now running for us Senate. So Maria Bartiromo had, again, these are, these are fair questions to start with, but the follow up is what you really need to be ready for. Maria Bartiromo asks, how confident are you that the election in November will be fair? Now, that could mean with regard to Trump or to her own election, because remember, in Arizona, voters will have the opportunity to vote Biden versus Trump, but they will also have the opportunity to vote Lake versus Gallego in Arizona. And I'll play Carrie Lake's answer, and I don't think it will come as a big surprise to you. How confident are you then that we will have a fair election in November?

Kari Lake
If it were today, I wouldn't be all that confident. But I know we have a lot of people, including myself, fighting to improve the laws and make sure they're following the laws. We've got many lawsuits running, one of them in Arizona, fighting to make sure illegals aren't voting. We have the save act that I.

David Pakman
Know Mike Johnson, remember that there's no evidence so called illegals are voting. They can't even register to vote. And we've talked about how this, this does not exist.

Kari Lake
And President Trump have been pushing, and as american citizens, we need to contact our members of Congress and politely tell them that they must sign on to that and approve that to save and protect our election. Our vote is sacred. It is the way we decide the trajectory of our country, and it must be decided by american citizens. So we're working really hard. A lot of people around the country are working. I have faith that we will break through one of these cases, will break through the dam, and we will have.

David Pakman
Yeah, one of my many bogus lawsuits might make it past the first pre trial hearing, uh, once we've come up with a shred of evidence. So, translation, the polls aren't looking great for Carrie Lake. It probably will end up being close. She very way well may lose. And she's setting herself up to say, hey, it was stolen again. They've stolen a presidential race from Trump. They stole the gubernatorial race for me, and now they stole the Senate race also for me. And many Republicans are setting up this very thing now on this entire. This is their new shiny object maga. Mike Johnson says we're going to bring forward a bill to ban illegals from voting. Oh, that must be a real problem.

Undocumented immigrants are allowed to vote now. No. Oh, is it against the law for an undocumented immigrant to try to vote now? Yes, it is. Oh, and do we have evidence that undocumented immigrants are showing up, giving the name of a citizen who hasn't yet voted and casting a ballot? No, we don't have any of that evidence. But we need a law. We need a law in order to stop this thing that is already against the law and that also isn't happening. And this is later this week. I'm going to do my. We've been building up this segment about every so called conservative principle that the modern republican party has abandoned. One of those principles is you want the smallest government only involved in what's necessary in order for government to do anything, like pass a law, create a bill, whatever. You need to have overwhelming evidence that this is what they must do. Listen, there's no other way to have a military that makes sense. We're not going to have private militaries. The federal government must create and run a military. Okay. Government involvement. Right extent. We need that. Nobody else can do that.

Passing a bill to ban undocumented immigrants from voting, which is already illegal and also isn't happening, doesn't strike me as this incredibly urgent moral imperative that they use as their standard for when government should get involved. So we'll deal with that later this week in our abandoned principles segment. But needless to say, we know what Carrie Lake is setting herself up to do. We know what Lindsey Graham is setting himself up to do.

They're going to do it. They're going to claim fraud if they lose. We just have to be prepared to rebut it if they present no evidence and to prevent them from taking another good shot at stealing an election that they lose. That's what we need to do. And to vote.

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After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them I sent you. That's 15% off for new customers. When you go to the perfect gene. Dot NYC and use code Pacman 15. The info is in the podcast. Notes an absolutely rabid crowd of Trump supporters was cheering Trump's brain crumbling statements in Wildwood, New Jersey over the weekend. But then half the crowd just left while Trump was still speaking, apparently sick of the stuff that was just dribbling out of his mouth embarrassingly. We're going to look at a bunch of it, and it is getting really, really, really bad. Now, I do want to make some sort of a disclaimer here.

When we look at a couple clips, you really have to hear the full rally speech to understand the scope of what we're dealing with, the danger of it, the authoritarian terror that this guy wants to inflict upon the country, but who wants to subject themselves to these Castro like endless speeches that Donald Trump does, repeating the same stories over and over again. But let's do our best to give you a sense of the flavor, the glitches, the malfunctions, and the dangerous authoritarian ideas. Donald Trump starting with an incredible declaration about vaccine mandates.

Donald Trump
Speaker one I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.

David Pakman
The rabid anti vax, crowd cheering Bloodthirsty, they're out for blood. We're going to give you measles. We're going to give you hep. We're good. Just about every public school has vaccine mandates in all states in the United States, children in public schools require a series of vaccinations if you want to attend public elementary school. This includes, in most states, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox. The specifics do vary by state. And of course, there are different degrees of exemptions. There are states that allow medical exemptions if, for example, a child has a condition that makes getting vaccinated unsafe, okay. In addition to the medical exemptions, there are states that will say you can take a religious exemption. You can take a philosophical exemption. Those are being limited because of the overriding importance of public health policies, especially when they lead to measles outbreaks that we have seen. But just about every public school has such mandates. So I guess there goes funding for public schools under Trump, because if there are any vaccine mandates, which every state has, Trump won't give you a penny. Trump again with another one of these scary brain glitches where he said, I think what he says is carrie dite bite rate, citing Carrie died by rate Sidon. But I may be misinterpret.

I may be misinterpreting what he says here.

Donald Trump
All done by Biden, carried. I rate straight.

David Pakman
All carried out by Ray Citan. I think I actually got it wrong. I thought it was Carrie Dyke by Ray Citon, but it was carried out by, say, right in, which is a completely different sort of brainworm concern. I guess we would say Donald Trump then at some points, rather than making upwards, kind of creating new grammatical syntax, you know, Chomsky really should get back to the core of his linguistic expertise and write a book about what's going on. Trump really pushing the vanguard of american English grammar and syntax. See if you can figure out what Trump means here.

Donald Trump
You can do whatever you can for the Republican Party, because what they do is they raise so much money through different groups that are not groups that are on our side.

David Pakman
Right? The money is coming in from groups that are not groups that are on our side or that aren't groups on our side, or they're not groups at all. Some commas or dashes maybe would. Would clarify what Trump met there at another point during the speech. And at this point, the crowd started to get visibly confused. Trump did a really weird rant about the movie Silence of the Lambs. Of course, a tremendous film featuring the great Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Excellent film. Trump refers to it as silence of the lamb. And also he's waxing poetic about Hannibal Lecter.

I don't even know what this is about. This is. I don't think this was on the teleprompter. Let's at least pray it wasn't.

Donald Trump
Silence of the lamb. Has anyone ever seen the silence of the lamb?

The late, great Hannibal Lecter.

David Pakman
Yep.

Donald Trump
He's a wonderful man.

David Pakman
Treated so unfairly. Never gets credit because the fake news media wouldn't tell you what, Hannibal Lecter was a great guy. Great guy. Would have supported me if I ran back then.

Donald Trump
Oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.

Remember the last saying, excuse me, I'm about to have a friend for dinner. Is this boy doctor walk by? I'm about to have a friend for dinner. Yeah, but Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people that are being released into our country that we don't want in our country.

David Pakman
Yeah.

Okay. More substantively, in a sense, Trump pushes, like, at least connected to some real political issue. Trump pushes again the disgusting lie that mothers in blue states murder their born babies and that democratic political officials approve of the murder.

Donald Trump
The radical democratic extremists get their way. They will have a federal law on abortion in the 8th and 9th month and even executing the baby after birth. It's okay.

They want to execute the baby. They have laws. You look at the governor, the former governor of Virginia, execute the baby after birth. We will decide. You remember?

David Pakman
We don't remember because it's not happening. It was a lie from the beginning and the crowd just shocked into submission. Wow. If that's what they're doing in Virginia, then we definitely need to vote Trump. Trump delusionally claiming that the state of New Jersey is one that he might.

Donald Trump
Win because we are going to officially play in the state of New Jersey. We're going to win the state of New Jersey.

David Pakman
Trump is not going to going to win the state of New Jersey. Trump has said that he's going to win New York. Now he says he's going to win New Jersey. He will not. And then finally, here is video. Trump is still speaking. And this entire area that was full at the beginning of the speech is empty. I'll play a little bit of the, of the audio for you.

Maria Bartiromo
And this is where generations of New.

Donald Trump
Jersey patriots help build this country.

David Pakman
So anyway, it's almost completely cleared out. Trump was still speaking. Reports are it started to get a little bit chilly.

But it was, I mean, listen, it was, it was a little cool that, that night in New Jersey. I agree with that. But the crowd starting to clear out and really, a lot of them heading for the proverbial hills during this speech. So a really, really destructive speech in terms of the authoritarian delusions and wet dreams that it contained. And also a reminder that this guy is not. Well, if you thought that was bad, I want to show you another video that a number of people in the audience sent me over the weekend. All right, I want you to listen really closely to this video. This is a video of Donald Trump speaking outside the courtroom on Friday. On his way out, he comes out, as usual, holding stacks of paper.

And I don't know what's going on here, but there is a type of slurring where it seems like Trump's lips and tongue get in the way of his lips and tongue and the ability to turn noises into words and coherent speech.

This is very, very weird. So it starts about 10 seconds into this clip. I'm going to play 10 seconds just to set it up and then you'll see. And then we actually have it transcribed to see if we can figure out what's going on. If you're concerned about Biden's speech, you have to be very worried about what I'm about to play for you. Take a look. Take a listen.

Maria Bartiromo
That's a tax on the american people due to gross incompetence. And it was all started because of his energy policies, his stupid Green New Deal energy policies.

And you wait and see if we don't win this nation, this nation is finished. You wait till you see what would happen because all of that stuff will be closed up. He let a lot of my energy policies go through because energy was starting under his, what they were doing, starting to go up so high. So he let a lot of them continue, including the drilling.

David Pakman
Ok, that's an insane sentence. Let's put it up on the screen for a moment. This is what Trump said. And you wait. We'll see if we don't win this nation, this nation is finished. You wait till you see what happened because all of that stuff will be closed up. He let a lot of my energy policies go through because NRC was starting under his, what they were doing, starting to go up so high. So he, a lot of, he let a lot of them continue, including the drilling. Wait, so he allowed the drilling to continue? I thought the problem was that Biden did not allow the drilling to continue.

JD Vance
What?

David Pakman
What? What are you talking about? And what do you mean NRC was starting under his, his what? What was the NRC starting under?

This is extraordinarily weird.

Let's just look at it once more.

I don't know what's going on with.

Maria Bartiromo
This guy, the american people, due to gross incompetence. And it was all started because of his energy policies, his stupid Green New Deal energy policies.

And you wait and see if we don't win this nation, this nation is finished. You wait till you see what would happen because all of that stuff will be closed up. He let a lot of my energy policies go through because energy was starting under his, what they were doing, starting to go up so high. So he, he let a lot of them continue, including the drilling.

David Pakman
Speaker one, I don't know what he's talking about.

And for everybody who wants to say Biden is slowed down in the last 1015 years, I'm with you. I'm with you, but I don't even know what Trump's talking about and his tongue seems to have big become his greatest enemy all of a sudden in trying to figure out what it is that he's talking about. And he has a New York Post headline here that seems to say Biden claims inflation was 9% when he came into office. When it was one point it was actually 14% or 1.4%.

I don't know what is happening here, but this is very, very concerning. And doctor Harry Siegel and doctor John Gartner and Doctor Liz, who we've talked about all predicting it's going to get worse, it very much seems to be getting worse. That's true. Let's take a quick break, see if we can figure out what's going on and then I'll be back.

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Half the country at least, doesn't really pay attention to what's going on. Even many of the people that do vote every four years don't have a damn clue what the hell is going on. So it would be great if Russell Brand could be a voice for empiricism and positivity. He's now promoting ivermectin.

That's where we are. You may recall that ivermectin is an anti parasitic drug much touted by some COVID skeptics as the real way to prevent or treat or both. COVID-19 Russell Brand is now pointing to former CNN host Chris Cuomo, who. This is wild. Chris Cuomo now says that he's prophylactically taking ivermectin. We're going to get to the science of it because it's, I would actually argue it's even crazier to be talking about ivermectin now because now we know it doesn't work. Before it was just asserted that it worked and we didn't have evidence one way or the other. Now we know it doesn't work for COVID. But here is Russell brand talking. How great it is that people are realizing. And he cites Chris Cuomo and plays a clip of Chris Cuomo. Take a listen to this.

Russell Brand
Well, now we know that ivermectin isn't bad for you. And CNN anchors like Chris Como, who you've probably heard of, are using ivermectin themselves. Let's track where Chris Como was and where Chris Como is. And again, like, to his credit, he's publicly admitted this transition.

JD Vance
Ivermectin, a dewormer, really? They are shaming themselves. No one has to shame them.

David Pakman
They're shaming themselves. No, they need to be shamed.

JD Vance
They need to be called out and shamed, brother.

Russell Brand
Well, let's have a look at what Chris Como's saying.

JD Vance
In 2024, I am taking a regular dose of ivermectin.

Ivermectin was a boogeyman early on in COVID.

David Pakman
You couldn't talk about it.

JD Vance
That was wrong. We were given bad information about ivermectin. The real question is why? Everyone's gonna say Joe Rogan was right. No, Joe Rogan was saying, yeah, he was right.

Russell Brand
No, Joe Rogan.

No, wait. Actually, no, he, you know that that is true.

JD Vance
So they were wrong to play scared on that. Didn't know that at the time. Know it now, admit it now. Reporting on it now.

Russell Brand
We knew it at the time. We were reporting on it then. We said it then and we were censored then. Stay free. See it?

David Pakman
There you go.

So it's a, it's, it's a victory tour. After losing they, this would be like if the losers then go around and say, we're going to do a victory parade. Wait, but hold on. You lost.

First of all, I guess part of what's going on is Cuomo is taking, if I understand correctly, and it's so hard to ever get straight answers out of these folks. I guess Chris Cuomo is taking Ivermectin because he's suffering from long COVID.

There's no evidence ivermectin does anything for long COVID.

Not getting COVID is the best way to prevent long COVID. And being vaccinated, if you get COVID, is the next best way to prevent long COVID. It's a little late, though, to be getting on the ivermectin bandwagon right now as far as COVID is concerned. There was a point, you know, when, when Russell Brand says, we were censored, were you or did we just ask for information? There was a point when people like Russell Brand were pushing ivermectin where we didn't have multiple large trials that showed whether or not ivermectin was affected for COVID or long COVID. Now we do. We have multiple large trials that show ivermectin is not effective for COVID, and it's not effective for long COVID, and it's not effective prophylactically to prevent COVID.

It is true that ivermectin is not the most dangerous drug in the world, but it can have serious side effects. And I don't know about you, my approach. My approach is to limit what I take unless there is a very clear benefit. And I understand the risk profile, and I've decided it makes sense to do it. I'll give you an example.

Right now, I and many of my friends, based on our agency, we are in the. What's going on with cholesterol? What about a statin? What tests should be done? And by the way, this is a minefield. You jump on social media. There's the anti statin world. There's the carnivore diet. People, the saturated fat doesn't matter. People. You can find out everything you want. And so I'm being very deliberate, and I'm saying, okay, what, whatever. What do we actually have here in terms of data about what someone with my level of cholesterol should or could do, and what are the outcomes and what, and what are the side effects? And we look at these things in an empirical and sequential way. It is true that ivermectin in general is not the most dangerous drug, but there are potentially serious side effects. It can exacerbate the risk of cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial dysfunction, increased cardiac hypertrophy. Hypertrophy, I believe it's pronounced, um, can be detrimental in a number of different ways. And so when you look at the risks, they exist and the rewards, nothing.

It would be very silly to take ivermectin unless you had an approved reason. If you have roundworm parasites. Oh, all right. Well, that. It's. That's what it's for if you have head lice. I saw something. I don't know about this, but rosacea, maybe. Ivermectin is sometimes used. I'm not totally sure about that, but look at everything we know now about ivermectin and COVID. So the idea that back then we couldn't talk about it, but now we finally can and we're vindicated, and now we know why. Ivermectin is a great thing for COVID. No, now we know that it does nothing and it potentially has side effects that I would want to avoid. So there was a point in time at which we could say, well, it's kind of unethical, it's immoral to push ivermectin because we don't really know whether it works. We have no evidence it does. We don't know for sure.

It's more than that now. We now know it doesn't work, and we know of alternative treatments for COVID that are efficacious. So I don't know that I'm ready to say it should be illegal to push ivermectin. Like what? I don't know. It's speech. What does it mean, it should be illegal to push it? I'm not saying that. But it is far worse to be pushing ivermectin now than it was before. And it was pretty bad before. So that's where Russell Brand is. And it's a sad state of affairs.

This really bums me out. I wasn't even going to do this story because it's hard to even explain it. I was telling some friends about it over the weekend. It really bums me out.

I've said before, you know, if you don't like my points of view, don't support the show, don't watch the show. If you don't like my necktie.

I I don't have a necktie. But that's a line from the classic film boiler room. Tell me whatever, right? You don't like my hair, you don't like the shirts I wear. You think I'm too conservative, I'm too liberal. I'm not liberal enough.

Okay, if if it's our politics don't align, or you, whatever, then don't support the show, cancel your membership, whatever.

But I got an email over the weekend from a guy who canceled his membership because he's assuming that the Robert F. Kennedy Junior brain worm story we covered that I just made it up, that it's obviously not possible that RFK junior had a brain worm that ate a piece of his brain and then died in his brain, which RFK has admitted, it's been widely reported. There's no question as to the truth of the story.

This guy is furious and he canceled his membership support. And I'm doing nothing other than covering stories that are real. Robert wrote to me. Here's his email at the end of last week. Good evening, Mister Pakman. It's headlines like a worm, RFK junior. S brain that has me unsubscribing and ending my financial support for your show. Apparently, Mister Pakman has been co opted by the DNC and legacy media into believing all the conspiracy allegations against Mister Kennedy. Someone whom I have been following and supporting since 2000 when he was lead counsel for the NRDC. I have lost all respect for you, sir. You're nothing but a shilling for the Democratic Party, Robert. Now, of course the story is true.

It's been confirmed by RFK. He tweeted about it. He jokingly said, I'll eat more brain worms if it'll get Trump and Biden to debate me. Everyone has admitted it. RFK has admitted it. It's not a conspiracy. And I wrote back, desperation at 10:00 p.m.? Right? I mean, this this, this so triggered me. I wrote back at 10:00 p.m. RFK admitted it. It's a literally true headline.

And Robert wrote back, give me an effing break.

And I double checked.

And indeed, Robert did cancel his paid membership to the show because he believes that a real story that I reported is a fake story.

Listen, I mean, what, what can I say? You know, I've said before there are so many valid reasons not to support the show or to cancel your your membership or whatever, but this one is, you know, we're. We're doing the best we can to report real stories. That was a perfectly sourced story confirmed by the person it's about, and Robert just doesn't believe it. And by the way, it also is a reminder, even when you present people with evidence. I mean, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the Atlantic, the Daily Beast.

Everybody reported the story.

Everybody reported the story. It is a real story. And this individual says, I don't like it. So it's not real and I'm pulling my financial support. Let's hope these folks are few and far between, although I know from doing this for a while that they are not. If you'd like to replace Robert's membership, okay, consider signing up@joinpakman.com. I would love to have you. We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192. David P. You know, every once in a while we get a clever voicemail from someone who thinks they've really got me. They've really got me. Here is one such voicemail. Let's take a listen and then I'm going to address the substance. Here we go. Speaker one.

Caller
Hey, David, I'm guessing you won't air this question because you're afraid to answer it.

David Pakman
Speaker one. I am not afraid to answer it. I am airing it right now. Please proceed.

Caller
But my question is, should we allow gay conversion therapy if we allow trans affirming care?

After all, gay conversion therapy doesn't require anybody to remove any body parts and there's no chemical injection of hormones.

And from what I understand, it's voluntary.

So I think it's hypocritical for liberals to say that they want trans affirming care but not gay conversion therapy. They say gay conversion therapy is dangerous.

So I'm curious what your thoughts would be on that or if you're actually. My guess is you're. You probably won't answer the question.

David Pakman
All right. This guy thinks he's got me so dead to rights that I just am not going to tackle this question because obviously there's no sensible way to answer it. So here's a super simple answer. Question is, how can someone be for gender affirming care and against gay conversion therapy? The gender affirming care sometimes involves medication. It sometimes involves surgery, whereas the gay conversion therapy or reparative therapy, as they sometimes call it, insane name, doesn't involve any of that. So what's the difference? Well, let's start with the obvious difference. Gender and sexual orientation are two different things. So at the top we're talking about two totally different things and we have to treat them individually.

Gender affirming care is supported by major medical organizations including the American Medical association, the American Psychiatric association, the World Health Organization.

Gender affirming care is recognized as effective and necessary medical response to gender dysphoria gay conversion therapy, also known as conversion therapy or reparative therapy, lacks any scientific validation, is broadly condemned by the very same medical and psychological institutions that say gender affirming care seems evidence based, and studies regularly show attempting to change someone's sexual orientation is not only ineffective, but it can be extremely harmful. Gender affirming care is provided with the consent of the patient, guardians or parents. In the case of a minor, the idea is, let's reduce psychological distress.

Let's improve quality of life. Conversion therapy often is targeting vulnerable LGBTQ youth. It sometimes is pressured or forced by guardians or cultural expectations or religious bodies. It inflicts harm. It doesn't alleviate harm harm. The goal of gender affirming care is let's support and affirm an individual self identified gender identity. Let's be positive. Let's let. It's a self affirming action the conversion therapy seeks to deny, suppress, and quite frankly, denounce in a way, an individual sexual orientation or gender identity. It's sometimes used to try to talk people out of that as well. Now, could it be that someone is confused about being trans? Sure.

Is it rare? It seems to be pretty rare, but it does happen. Sure. That doesn't really prove anything, and it doesn't really bridge the laughable gap between the validity of gender affirming care and the absurdity of gay conversion therapy. So there's no gotcha here. There's no reason I'd be scared to talk about this on the show. Now.

I am very open to the idea that there is an element here of individuals who are struggling with something in their lives and their belief about what the solution is gets drawn to something that is in the media.

I don't want to make any offensive comparisons, but what I will tell you is I've known people who, in times of difficulty, started to believe that their diet was the problem, and they started fixating on extreme diets. They went full carnivore, then they went fruits and nuts only then they went raw. Only the diet was never the problem. These were unresolved issues that they had that were more suitable for therapy than for anything else. Is it possible that some folks who come to believe that the issue is that they are trans is the solution and it really is not? It does sometimes happen, and this is part of why the standard of care, when it comes to gender affirming care, goes through psychotherapy. And that's one of the great things about it. So the comparisons, the analogies, they don't make any sense. It's not a gotcha. It's quite frankly, a question that's been answered many times before. All right, we've got a great bonus show for you today. Duke University graduates, some of them walked out ahead of Jerry Seinfeld's commencement address. Why?

You can probably guess. You can probably guess.

There is a new study about the benefits of writing by hand as better for thinking and learning than typing. Why? What is the deal with it? We will discuss on the bonus show. And mass shootings are also down 29% from last year, year over year. What's the cause? What's going on with that? We will discuss all of those stories and more on today's bonus show.

JD Vance
Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money.

David Pakman
Yeah.

JD Vance
Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves as bad.

David Pakman
Sure. All of those stories and more on the bonus show. Get instant access by signing up@joinpacman.com. Dot I'll see you then. We'll be back tomorrow as well.