Chapter 1: What recent developments are happening in the war in Iran?
what's up what's up everybody welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem i am dave smith he is robbie the fire bernstein how are you sir happy memorial day happy memorial day to you i can't believe you picked uh going live during the next game You know, look, I don't ever think in an intelligent way.
And so, honestly, until you said that, and I did, I watched the last Knicks game, which was great. The Knicks, look, I grew up like a hardcore Knicks fan. As an adult, I can only spend so much time watching sports. You know, it's just one of those things. You get to an age, and I guess maybe I'm in a sweet spot. My son is four now.
And so I'm sure over the next few years, I will feel kind of like more of a like, oh, I got to like watch sports with him or, you know, but at least for the last few years, it's been very hard to like, you know, get yourself to be like, sit down and watch some 20 year old millionaires play a game because I got to work on my own shit.
will say though these knicks are something else man this is i've never seen anything in nick's history and i'm a knicks history buff i don't think we've ever ever had a playoff run as impressive as this and i know knicks they won two championships in the was it late 60s early 70s um they went to the finals twice in the 90s but what are we what are the eight game winning streak
back to looking for back-to-back sweeps. Pretty goddamn impressive.
I don't follow any sports whatsoever, but I, I get excited for Nick's not Nick sport, New York sports. And every once in a while I'll be in a bar and it's playoff season. And if you catch me like with enough nights in a row where I'm off from comedy and I can watch the games, I get sucked right in. I'm like, I'm a total playoff world series front runner.
Like if the Yankees are in the world series, I'm on board. Uh, Knicks or Rangers get to the later rounds of the playoffs. I'm suddenly watching every game.
Uh, so, you know, it's a thing that like when I was a kid, that would have been something we looked down on. Like, Oh, you're a front runner. Oh, you just come in at the end. But then as an adult, you're like, yeah, that's when it's good. Yeah. That's when it's fun. I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry. I can't devote my entire life to other. Children making millions of dollars.
I've got stuff of my own.
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Chapter 2: What hints has Thomas Massie given about running for office again?
I got a non-interventionist, America first libertarian message I got to spread. Anyway, I had a fun Memorial Day weekend. Took the family up to the lake and we had a good time. Yeah, it was nice. It was a nice, nice time. And that's why we're recording tonight rather than earlier. So I'm a bit exhausted from a weekend with the family. Dad's out there.
I know that can be very tiring, but I could not... We had to do an episode today because there's just several things that the world needs to hear from me and you. But before we get into that, Rob, we should let people know that we got big shows coming up, some real, real big stuff. Toronto, we are back in Toronto for the first time in many years at the Parkdale Hall, a beautiful theater up there.
One night only, two shows, June 5th. Uh, it's a Friday. There's a 7 PM and a nine 30 tickets are still available. Come on out and see, uh, us there. And then Denver comedy works legendary weekend. We had there last year. We sold out every show last year. So hoping to do the same this year. And, um, it's one of the, one of, if not the best comedy clubs in the country. So very excited for that.
And you got stuff, uh, a bunch of stuff coming up.
Yeah, thank you to everyone that came out in D.C. It was a blast. My FBI presentation was really grooving, so I'm happy about that. I'm excited to be working on it. If you go to portstore.com, you can find all the dates. There's too many to rattle off, but the upcoming dates is one in upstate New York near Ithaca. I forget the name of the town.
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Chapter 3: How did Michael Knowles respond to Dave's analysis of Thomas Massie's race?
And then I'm outside of Detroit, and then I'm doing Pittsburgh, and that's all road tripping to the Toronto gig because I don't have a passport. So, you know, come make my stops worthwhile.
I like that you not only promote a gig, but you give them the reason, the reason why the gig even exists at all. And it's because Rob couldn't be bothered to do 45 minutes of work and that's why he's coming to your town. So, okay. So anyway, let's, let's get into it. So let's start with the latest on the war. It's really something, Rob, because I was thinking, so I was away this weekend.
Had I been home, and if you were home too, I probably would have called like an emergency podcast, you know, and we would have like recorded yesterday or the day before. You know, we typically keep to our schedule, but if there's a huge thing that happens, we might come in and do a show. But I was away with the family and I had made a commitment that I wasn't doing work this weekend, which...
In my world means I will sneak away and do a little bit of work at a little, you know, at a time. But anyway, so we get back here today. It's Monday night. And OK, again, I know this can be very confusing for people who don't pay close attention to it. And so obviously you already have in the background that we've been at war for 47 years. And but this isn't a war.
but it's a 47-year war, but Trump is finishing the war. It's not really starting a war per se. Now, granted... No one could tell you that until he launched the war. But as soon as he did launch the war, just know it was always a war. He didn't start it. Now he's finishing it. Also, we've won the war about 50 times.
And the war was declared over two weeks ago and then continued on exactly in the same manner. But something kind of different did happen this weekend, right? So one of the things, as I've been saying from the very beginning, Rob, and I you know, we had Ryan Grimm on last week and I've credited Dropsite quite a bit, particularly Ryan and Jeremy Scahill. And, you know, I've I've been reading.
Since the war started, I try my best. I listen to everything Trump says. I read Axios. I get the regime opinion. And then I also read the drop site stuff and hear what the Iranians are saying. So several different times in this not very long so far war, but several different times in the last two plus months, Donald Trump has claimed that a deal has been worked out.
Every time so far, the Iranian regime has said none of this is true. He's lying and making it up. And what the Iranian regime has said has kind of turned out to be accurate, that there wasn't really a deal. This weekend was the first time that I saw that Donald Trump announced there was a deal. And also the Iranian leadership were saying, yes, we are very close to a deal.
So that's kind of that was kind of different. About this weekend where Donald Trump is saying, hey, look, we've got, you know, and he didn't say we have a deal. He said the outlines of a deal were very close to a deal, but we've largely agreed upon several things. And the Iranians were like, yeah, that is true. That is where we are. So that was different.
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Chapter 4: What implications does Trump's involvement have on the Republican Party?
The deal would have been something, as me and you have been predicting, and that was going to be very...
a bitter pill for the hawks to swallow because we actually don't have uh that much leverage here and so it would have been some type of deal where the the regime stays in place the enriched uranium is at least debatable for until further rounds the strait of harmoose will be open but still controlled by the iranians you know a lot of money will be unfrozen or there will be reparations or sanctions relief so anyway it was going to be a deal that was humiliating to donald trump
The Israel lobby, the Israel firsters let him know that we will not let this go without us raking you over the coals and letting you know to do this. Ultimately, that is what moves Donald Trump. And so he snapped back to this and now he's threatening him again. So we're back to square one. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is CrowdHealth.
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This is how we win. Visit joincrowdhealth.com and use the promo code POTP today. All right, let's get back into the show. That's kind of how I read it. I'm curious what your thought is.
Uh, firstly, I find it amazing how difficult these storylines are to follow, um, and that they keep teasing deals and you wonder, okay, well, what's the actual deal here? Uh, Axios is the only mainstream publication that had any of the details and then drop site news had, uh, more details on that. Uh, from what I understand, you're looking at major concessions from Donald Trump, huge concessions.
And so to give the broad strokes on concessions, the biggest one is it sounds like Iran can just go ahead and sell oil. So now they're just a part of the global economy. They can sell their oil. You're also looking at sanctions relief, money going to Iran, which is their money, but also talk of actually getting paid war reparations, which is huge.
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Chapter 5: How are pro-Israel donors influencing political races?
I mean, look, I'll say this. And I don't know, there have been several times in where Donald Trump, where it is almost appeared as if and this seems too crazy to actually believe that this is what's happening. But I will admit there have been several times where it appeared almost as if Donald Trump was a hostage who was trying to send like an SOS message out. You know what I'm saying?
Like, like almost like he's trying, like, dude, when Donald Trump gets up on stage and he points Miriam Adelson out and he goes, Miriam Adelson gives me all this money and all she cares about is Israel. You know, one time I asked Miriam Adelson, who do you love more, Israel or America? And she hesitated. And I think I took that to mean Israel. Look.
When he says things like that out loud, it does at least make you wonder. I'm not saying anything, but I am just saying that like, She certainly wouldn't like him to say that out loud. It's clearly humiliating her to at least a big percentage of the people who are going to hear this. Now, you could write that off to Donald Trump just can't control himself. And that's Donald Trump.
He just says things that are in his brain. And that that probably has more explanatory power than anything else. But it does. Sometimes there are moments like this where it does kind of make you wonder. But then again, you also wonder if that's the goal, then why can't you just say it? Why can't you just do it instead of like hinting through all these other things? You know.
it's worth taking a moment to just kind of explain some things about the Abraham Accords. And if you understand what the ask is here, is that the Abraham Accords essentially ask that you normalize and recognize Israel.
And a lot of the pro-Israel people will take this and they'll kind of run with it like, I've seen some people on Twitter going, you know, because Saudi Arabia came out and said, look, we're not ready to do that yet. And people will go, well, what's the problem with like recognizing Israel? I mean, it's there, right? Right.
Like as if Saudi Arabia is is saying, no, there's no such entity as Israel, but which obviously isn't what they're actually saying. And essentially what what's happening here is that for the most part, the Sunni Gulf states are sock puppets over there. Look, they want to be in business with us. They would love to sign on to the Abraham Accords. They are happy to recognize Israel.
They got a little bit of a problem. And the problem is that 100% of their population hates Israel's fucking guts. That's the problem. 100%. I mean, maybe it's 99, Rob, but it's between 99 and 100% of the population of the UAE and Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. They are completely on the Palestinian side. They think what Israel is doing is awful.
And so essentially what they've always had to maintain is just to keep legitimacy amongst their own people, is that we will normalize relationships with Israel when they allow for a Palestinian state. When they give up on the brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, then we're more than happy to sign on to this. But we're asking them to sign on with no thought of that.
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Chapter 6: What are the arguments surrounding the recent election outcomes?
What are the two big catastrophes? They're those two things. You know, let's end this war. Let's open the strait. Now, it's a... It sucks if you're a Trump supporter or if you're in the Trump administration to admit that, because to admit that is already to admit where the state of everything is right now.
The biggest two most important issues are just to get back to where we were before you did this dumb ass fucking thing that you did. Right. Like the biggest things are just to end the war and open the strait. essentially return to the status quo before Donald Trump elected to launch this war of choice. Okay. And then they say after that, we'll get to the more difficult parts, nuclear enrichment,
existing stockpiles of enriched uranium proxy groups sanctions you know all this stuff is that we let's get to the most important stuff and then we'll get there okay That's already hard enough. But to then throw in that everyone must sign on to the Abraham Accords is like, well, you're not even trying to solve this. That seems like you're trying to blow this whole thing up.
And so now it seems like Trump's back to trying to blow the whole thing up and trying to threaten Iran again, because this time the threats will work, Rob.
Well, just to give the two sides of that. And once again, I agree. I think it's a monkey wrench. The Abraham Accords specifically for the other countries that didn't sign on before. It's a much harder ask after what's taking place in Gaza. And that completely lets Israel off the hook for everything that it's done and kind of further legitimizes them. However, if that came with.
Trump actually saying America will restrain Israel moving forward and we are going to have peace in the region and Israel is not going to pretend like everyone's their enemy and being engaged in aggressive action. That does give you like a holistic picture of how to actually be done with this thing. Now, I think it's more of a monkey wrench and I don't actually think you're going to get there.
well what do you oh you're saying like uh uh it would be more holistic if everyone agreed to the abraham the trade-off is everyone recognizes israel and now israel you can no longer pretend like everyone wants to annihilate you so you can no longer behave aggressively towards these other people okay i get what you're saying yeah but
yeah okay i get i get your point but at the same time when we all know that that just these nations are not nearly ready to do that i mean look when saudi arabia our closest out of all the sunni gulf states our closest trading partner our closest you know friend comes out immediately and goes no we can't do this it just seems more like that's uh um that was just a crazy ask
Like, that was obviously not on the table.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential consequences of Trump's foreign policy decisions?
Even here you have this girl asking the question going, I don't want to ask this. But it is just wild that at the end of all of this, when it looked like I mean, look, Rob, it clear. It seems to me clearly that Donald Trump is desperate to just try to get out of this. He's recognized this did not go the way I thought it was going to go. We are in real trouble here, dude.
Like we are the global economy is under severe threat. We don't know. You know what I mean? Like. We don't know. What is one hundred and fifty dollar gallon oil look like? We don't really know. And none of us want to find out. But we might if we can't figure out this straight a Hormuz situation. So we got to get this figured out.
And then Donald Trump comes out and essentially goes, you know, look, dude, we're going to take a deal here. Whatever. I'll spin this. Let's just take a deal and get the straight opened and then we'll figure out the rest later. And then a couple days later, it's like, actually, you all have to agree to accept and love Israel.
Not only do we have to get through the first step to maybe the second step to, oh, shit, that third step is going to be hard. Actually, you got to jump right to the 99th step. All you guys got to kiss the wall and then we can end the war. I don't know. It does just seem like even a lot of useful idiots are going to wake up over that.
Yep, it seems like, like I said, the more likely of the two is an unnecessary monkey wrench at the last minute. And also, it's like we weren't beefing with Saudi Arabia. Why are you trying to start beef with Saudi Arabia now? We have to have an argument over this. Like, there's enough other more pressing issues to address. I don't know why you're stirring up the other fights.
Yeah, absolutely. And look, as I said, the other point that I made earlier that the the Israel lobby is going to turn over on Donald Trump if he tries to get out of this. And this is his own doing that now you're you started a war at the behest of the Israel lobby. And if you didn't know this, you're insane to not know it. But the whole goal here was to take out the regime.
obviously and so now if you if you stop short of that they're gonna turn on you because they never cared about you they were the never trumpers to begin with they were the ones who smeared you as being adolf hitler incarnate so you know you you decided to go all in with them and they're gonna turn on you now and jesus fucking christ if he doesn't deserve that but also
It's a, it's a real problem because that's the only base he has left. And so his incentive is to not lose that base. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is troll co troll co was built by two guys from the oil patch who were sick of clothing companies, pretending blue collar workers don't exist while most brands chase trends and influencers.
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Chapter 8: How does Dave Smith propose addressing the issues raised in the episode?
He did a segment about me. So I wanted to respond to this. But it's about Thomas Massey. And I guess before we get into this, maybe we should mention that Thomas Massey... He he announced that whatever it is, he filed with the FEC and I, you know, I don't exactly understand it, but he basically filed so that he is he can run in 28 for whatever federal office he wants.
And he can continue raising money until then. And then he posted the receipt of it. And he goes, this means I can keep raising money. And then when 2028 comes, I can run for any federal position that I want to. And so... He's not saying he's going to run for president, but he is clearly flirting with it openly. He did this at his concession speech. And so that is kind of interesting.
Thomas Massey is openly talking about running. Now, at the same time today, and again, take this with a grain of salt, there was a Daily Mail piece about how J.D. Vance is bailing on the idea of running. Now, I don't know if that's true. You know, that's why I say take it with a grain of salt. Who knows? But... Maybe. Maybe it is. And also, I could kind of understand why that might happen.
It seems more and more that it's becoming clear that there really is no lane for J.D. Vance to run for president in. You know, like... It seems like most of the people who still support this administration are way more Marco Rubio fans than they are J.D. Vance fans. All of the most powerful donors to Donald Trump like Marco Rubio way more than J.D. Vance. And how can J.D.
Vance really run on a J.D. Vance lane when the administration is the war party? Seems tough to me. Anyway. I don't know. What do you think, Rob? You know, I said I was on Provoked, the great podcast with Scott Horton and Daryl Cooper. And I talked a little bit about what I think it would be if Thomas Massey ran for president in 2028. And I got to say, I think it would be huge.
I mean, I think if Thomas Massey runs for president in twenty twenty eight, it will it's a guarantee that it won't be the Ron Paul campaigns or the Pat Buchanan campaigns. It'll be closer to the Bernie Sanders campaign. And I don't say that I have nothing but admiration for Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan. It's just a question of the time and what the country was like.
But I really think, man, Thomas Massey running in the Republican. Imagine, Rob, imagine a scenario here where Marco Rubio is the nominee and he's got to run in a primary against Thomas Massey. I mean, wow. Wow. Do I really love the idea of that?
I like you. It's very exciting. And I see a very big wide open lane with a lot of winning storylines for Thomas Massey to run on and a lot of grassroots and organic support. And it seems like he's got all the winning hands. So listen, I hope he gives them hell. I hope he runs. I really think he can win and I'm excited for it. The, the factor that I have a blind spot to is
to what extent I'm excited for the things that he cares about. Cause I care about them and just how dumb the rest of the country is and how easily fooled they are by propaganda and whether or not what appears to be, it's amazing that someone could be right on everything.
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