Transcript
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I've got to fix the volume leveling on this. Welcome to Oh Brother News, where the intro music is too quiet.
James: And always changing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and always no it's just been the same for a couple of weeks. But anyways, I'm Gabe.
James: I'm James.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And we're brothers. We've been talking before we started recording, just burning good insights. um So let's just get into it. Here's the laundry list of things.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: we can talk about this week. um
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So the big story is tariffs under tariffs. You have stuff like Trump at this cabinet meeting where he can't even look at the camera because he knows he's so full of shit.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um We have the Scott Galloway and Gary Steven Stevenson um kind of go over some of their insights from the latest Prop G Market Watch.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah The chat GPT, but bad prompts seems to have possibly been a source of the tariff strategy.
James: Yep.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah There's the market manipulation and the tweets. So much scheme.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: We have my personal theory that like is all of this chaos like making the market sick. so that you can sell them the cure just in time for midterms. Congress can be like, oh, we found our conscience. Let's stop Trump. Look how much better everything is. All of a sudden, vote for us now.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um We fixed it. There's the back and forth distillation of the tariffs into a trade war with China. There's the way we're shitting on our allies, in particular Singapore. Related and related to China, there's the way that they're you know talking about legalizing counterfeiting US products and selling them for $5, 5 cents on the dollar and just undercutting iPhones.
James: I thought they already did that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um There's this SCOTUS decision where they're going against Trump saying that the government must facilitate the return of Kilmar to the US.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: We've got to look inside a children's migrant facility. Spoiler alert, it's fucking terrible.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um there's update on the Ukraine war. We're halfway through the list. Just the list, by the way. There's an update on the Ukraine war. Russia signals no interest in a deal, so let's crash the markets instead.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Seems like a great plan. There's the IE EPA, which is the what?
James: and wasn't a plan. I was lucky.
James: I said that wasn't a plan. That was just dumb luck.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I guess. Yeah, but there's the IE EPA and whole bunch of other powers that it gives um trump i'm gonna read through that brief but terrifying list of extra horrible things he can do there is the save act or you know handmaid's tale part one where the short version is i just passed the house and it's gonna disenfranchise i don't know some percentage of 70 million women
James: Hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah so that they're not going be able to vote unless they get a passport, um which can take up to six months when the government isn't being doged. So, you know, we'll see how that goes.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um There are mass firings at HHS. So we're just throwing away CDC and FDA people like you thought the
James: Shocker.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: the flu vaccine not coming was going to be bad maybe like I did and thought well my grandma who on cancer medication and so she's her immune system is perpetually compromised so she relies on things like a flu shot and there isn't going to be one so you know suddenly these small things become scary so let's just like tip the iceberg but we're just we're firing all sorts of people we could I don't even know if we're going to get to that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: There's a new head of of the of the Department of Justice.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah James has a little more information on that one. And we've got Laura Loomer picking national security chiefs. So that's cool.
James: Come to me.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: where You were just telling me about about tariffs. And in particular, um like the one insight want to make sure that you talk about is what you were saying about this piece that's been very underreported because I actually hadn't heard it until you told me about it. So can you get into that again?
James: Oh, are you talking about the insider trading stuff? thought that on the scheme stuff. You know, you're right on there.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: the um the It was the piece about the increase in the interest rate when they started dumping the bonds.
James: Oh, yeah.
James: oh yeah All right. So here's the thing. All right. So Trump.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: i just like take it from the top.
James: Yeah. So Trump, obviously, on again, off again, stupid tariffs, you know, whatever. We've been talking about that for a little bit.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: Everybody's been talking about that. um But they weren't. Well. What enough people weren't talking about is why he called it off less than 24 hours after Caroline Levitt very publicly said it and and the at the White House you know press room.
James: I just spoke to Donald Trump. He has absolutely no intention of calling off these tariffs. No, there's going some pain, blah, blah, blah, but no way. He's going forward with it. We are not doing no pause. They asked him literally less than a day earlier.
James: Is he considering a pause or anything to negotiate? What about these countries that he says, you know, it's kissing his ass, as he's put it, you know? is are we gonna Is there any chance of a pause while we negotiate with these people?
James: Nope. President Trump said, absolutely not. Not going to pause. Right? And the thing is, all right, when people dump stocks, usually they put their money in bonds.
James: Right? Stocks are volatile. Bonds are not. And like they're, can't remember who i was watching earlier. They're saying, it just makes perfect sense. If you've already become a billionaire, you're already rich. You got all your money.
James: You don't need to play the stock market anymore. You're already rich. You can take your money out of the stock market, put it into bonds where you get like 4%, 5%, 4.5% interest, right? you're already a billionaire, there you go. gonna get like $50 million dollars a year on interest and you know payments you know from the government, all right?
James: So when stock markets has a big sell-off, usually what happens is stock markets sell-off, money goes into treasury bonds. When people buy up all these bonds, long-term, you know, then you know the the price of the dollar increases, interest rates drop, right?
James: If the interest rates drop, it becomes like your like your national debt, right? If you want to refinance your debt, right? Same thing with the government. They can do the same thing too. They refinance their debt, right? $36 trillion dollars in debt, people.
James: So when the interest rate is going to go down and you want...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So who owns the, who owns the
James: Oh, Japan owns the most.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: then China owns bunch.
James: but Japan owns almost a third of it. Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then the EU owns a bunch.
James: And China, China owns. Yeah. e you Those are the, yeah. Japan, China, UK are the biggest ones. Right. um Anyway, um there's a lot more.
James: I have one here from billions of dollars. And when you have, $1,079 billion. You're talking, you I mean, that's just like, that's like, that was Japan. That was as of, shoot, when was this one?
James: ah this Actually, it's up to date. I got that from the treasury, tickdata.treasury.gov. So whatever. um Anyway, so yeah, they own a lot of our debt, right?
James: They own that much of our debt. ah They own treasury bonds. So what you don't want to have happen is if if you have the stock market crashing, right, you would expect people to go into your treasury bonds, which makes your interest rates lower.
James: And if the interest rates are lower, then you can come out and say, hey, the stock market's not the economy. Hey, look, our interest rates are going down. This is great. you know We're saving money. Look at that. It's less money on your debt because if you have lower interest rates, then you can refinance that debt and you save money.
James: But when Trump was just going stupid on his king powers, right, Japan called his bluff. And there's another, ah ah think James Carville or somebody else, so they they said, you know, Trump picked a fight with our creditors and our creditors, you know, just won, you know, because he picked a fight with everybody.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
James: And Japan, the rumor is it's Japan. I'm sure within days we'll know exactly which foreign country dumped. a shitload of bonds, right?
James: So much that the bond rates started increasing, our interest rates started increasing because treasury bonds were going down. So the stock market is tanking, crashing, then the bond markets crashing, and tanking.
James: There's a couple other articles that said they're treating, like investors are treating the United States like a developing country. You know what mean? that's This is really weird.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm hmm.
James: This doesn't happen with the United States because we're the current, you know, the reserve currency of the world because we're so stable.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, you know, we're also we're also on God, I can't remember the acronym, but there's like the ah like democracy something like, like, are you a democracy?
James: Yeah. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And we're like, we're like falling on that.
James: You were following on that too. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: We're like, even with Iran on are we a ah democracy?
James: Yeah. So long story short though, and Trump admitted as such, you know, the tarmac up there, but everything he was talking and they're like, why did you do it? Why did you do it Because, well, i was up at midnight. I saw what the bond market was happening. People were getting yippy.
James: People were getting queasy. That's what he said. So in other words, he just said,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Thank you.
James: Oh, yeah, I saw that they were dunk near they were dumping on our there but treasury bonds, making the United States' interest rates start going way up. And when that happened, he blinged. He's like, oh, shit.
James: Okay, the everything's going to crash. There's no way around him being completely blamed and just, you know, looking like a pariah if he's blamed for that, you know.
James: So that's when he decided, okay, we're gonna we're gonna I'm going to call this off. I'm going to, you know, announce a 90-day pause. everything else but of course not before he told all his buddies so of what he's going to do which is why the call options oh my fucking god man one hour yeah right is it they started getting played be minutes before his tweet went out that says this is a great time to buy dash djt right and
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: a
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So, I mean, so that by itself is ah like, you know, you have you have Marjorie Taylor Greene buying, ah you know, like one point one million dollars worth the call options in a day.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You have you have him tweeting five minutes before he makes an announcement that like clearly manipulates the market.
James: product Oh, he he tweeted he tweeted a couple hours before.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: that i thought it was five minutes.
James: No, no, the call options started coming in minutes before.
James: Like the like they like the like one person made call options
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, I can see.
James: expiring same day five minutes like or the hour, the the lead the hour leading up to his tweet, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: ah That was one hour. And the one hour before he posted his buy post on True Social, call options were up 2100% in that one hour. Right before he made that tweet, you know?
James: and And then little bit later, then this very shortly after, he made the announcement after all those, you know, all those the stock market bets were placed.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: God.
James: And then they all got rich. And then he had his people in the in the office there. He's in the oval office with these other like you know business guys whatever. He's all like high-fiving and yucking it up with these guys. He's like, you made $6.5 billion today.
James: You made $500 million today. Oh, man, you how much did you make? And he's like, they're laughing in plain view, open view, laughing about how they did that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You have a link for a video of that?
James: Yeah. Here, let me look up real fast.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: yeah put it put it in the Notion.
James: Okay. Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: i' want I'll include it.
James: okay
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: right, so you can go on the next thing. I'll look that up, then get it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay, cool. um Okay, so let's see. So, yeah, I was listening to to Scott Galloway, and I really need to learn his co-host's name on MarketWatch.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then they also had in Gary Stevenson, and they were talking about the tariffs. And one of the things that they said was that, like they were talking about ChatGPT, chad gp as like the source of the tariff strategy.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And you can go and put in a prompt, you know, that's like, uh, make a tariff strategy based on trade deficits as the administration, something along those lines.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And you can get this strategy. Like you get like the numbers back that are that perfectly match the, uh, the numbers that they did. And then if you go a step further and you say like, you know, like what should we do if the, uh,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah if the economy starts to decline by by this much by like what if the economy goes down by 35 what should we do and it was like um it was like talk about like the pain in the short term but like focus on the long term talk about like you know proposals for things you're going to do to like you know take away some of the pain and like supplement but certain business sectors income and like
James: Thank you.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: exactly all the things that they did basically. So, you know, maybe they didn't go to chat GPT and say, you know, give us the strategy to manipulate the market and then give us the spin to use after it goes poorly, but the prompts match.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And the kicker is like, they're not even good prompts. It's not even taking into account like a whole bunch of other things that you need to go listen to Scott Galloway ah talk about because they, um like I want to share the details, but I don't want to scoop it. So we'll have the the notes for that, but like they go into even more detail um on the chat GPT part.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um And then like I have this this pet theory, um because as you know, guess we talked about with the Congress voting to have the rest of the session, the rest of the year long session count as one single day.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: so that the, um
James: Only as it relates to the emergency act, so they can't overturn the emergency.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: right, so they can't overturn IEEPA. Yeah,
James: For the tariffs.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: yeah so like he's using he's using this, by invoking a national economic emergency under IEEPA, he can ah manipulate these tariffs, um but the Congress can call a vote
James: Emergency powers.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and say, you know, we're not going to, like, no we're going to take away this power. There's not actually an emergency.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And have to vote up or down on that, right?
James: Yeah. yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And you have to have the vote within 15 days. They didn't want to have the vote, they said it would be one day. um But my theory is, like, this could be, like, a you know, light the house on fire so you can sell someone a bucket of water, where you let him screw around with the tariffs until a few months before the midterms.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then you let Congress sweep in and say, oh, we're voting to stop the tariffs. Like the madness has to stop. We've got this under control. And then, you know, even things out and let everything get better and then let Congress, the Republicans take credit for it to try to help them in the midterms.
James: and yeah i i don't like I don't agree with that theory for a couple of reasons.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay.
James: One reason is because and a party with an unpopular president, here's the thing. like Trump was an unpopular president, right? They stuck with him, right?
James: He was unpopular, they stuck with him, it helped them. Every time a party runs away from its it's it's a leader, its president, its nominee, right?
James: Every time the party runs away from their unpopular president, they do worse. It's tried and true for hundreds of years, right? If a if a president's unpopular, the own party, the the thing, did it's God, it's like so psychological, but people can never get this through their thick skulls, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Hmm.
James: like Like Biden. I swear, i still think Biden had a better shot at winning, right? He did. His party, he was unpopular, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Ah, man.
James: But when did his poll numbers really start dropping? When all the people in his party saw, oh shit, oh shit, they panic and they start dunking on him. When they start dunking and they start turning away from their president, that's when his numbers really turn south.
James: The reason Trump doesn't have to worry about that, because his people, his his party, always sticks by him, right? And why do they always stick by him? Because it doesn't matter, and they've realized this finally, I mean,
James: Not saying finally like it's a good thing, but i mean they realize it doesn't matter what the country thinks of him. As long as their primary voters like him, and the primary voters are the ones who get to pick the nominee, they're not going to cross him.
James: It doesn't matter if he like he has. He's gone down like 40 points, man. For young people, people under 29 is polling. These morning consult polls came out. A couple weeks after the election, he was plus 11 for people like I said 29 to 35 or 18 to 29.
James: the 18 to 29 demographic, he was pop plus 11% on positive you know favorability over unfavorability.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: He's now negative 30. He's lost 41% of that demo, right? Across the board, everybody, way, way down. Doesn't matter at all because he's still got 85% popular in the Republican Party.
James: And among the really fervent people who will vote in primaries, he's even just as high or higher. So they know if they turn on Donald Trump, doesn't matter if the whole country has gone down like 40 points underwater on them.
James: They will get primaried by some right-wing Trump-loving zealot. you know And they don't want to get they don't want to lose their primaries. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, I think the only reason, the only way that they would get like the pushback to that are two things. So first thing is ah on, on Biden and the Democrats turning on Biden.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Part of the reason that they turned on Biden was because they were seeing poll numbers that were indicating that we were going to have a big loss in the house and the Senate.
James: They didn't start having that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like, and we still, we still had a loss, but I,
James: They didn't have that until they kept dunking on him for like a month and a half.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: No, they they started they started dunking on him.
James: That's when his phone number dropped. You can see it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like they Everyone was still saying, he's the nominee, he's the nominee, 100%. It's totally, he's the guy, whatever. And then they saw that their numbers were going down.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And the way that I heard it was that that was the the argument when it was, you know, whoever was in the room saying, hey, you gotta pass the baton, dude. That was the argument, was that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The down-ballot effects of him running again Like, yeah, okay, maybe you're going to win, but like, you're going to, it's going to do you no good because they're going to have this huge majority and they're going to just, you know, run us over.
James: Yes, but they kept doing those polls over and over and over again. They kept talking about it. They kept going, the story, what should he resign? Should he resign? Should he resign? And then people just kept talking about it. Democrats and some Democrats were talking bad about And then other ones weren't. then other people started say, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
James: they, they, if Yeah, I mean, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, man. That's what it was.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So the other the other thing is that there's a difference between, um i don't know, like the sort of like showmanship, you know, the the dramatization of of action by the Congress and like meaningful action.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And, you know, allowing Congress to say, oh we're taking the reins and turning off the tariffs instead of...
James: Oh, like the Senate.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: true
James: You're talking about the Senate then. The Senate vote.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, like like if Trump was ready to to, if Trump is ready, like that could be the plan, you know, like I'm going to make the economy a shithole and then I'm going to let you guys sweep in to save the day so we can still win in the midterms and that, you know.
James: It meant nothing. It meant nothing.
James: even Yeah, The thing is, i man, he's already done so much damage. America is going to be paying for this for the next 20 years, at least.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So that's the other thing is that even after he, excuse me, even after he announced like, oh, we're just going to do 10%
James: Because...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: most of the countries for 90 days while it gives them a chance to do a deal. And then I'm going to like, just like go fucking crazy with China and do like a hundred percent, you know, just nonsense tariffs.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um Like it didn't, it like it bounced up a little bit, but then like it went up like 7%, but then it closed um like down 3.6%.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like the market is is reacting to the volatility more so than like, you know, whatever the current tariff amount is, you know, they're like, Oh, we don't trust you.
James: Yeah, exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And, and an investment requires trust deals.
James: Trust. And that's the number one thing. but Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: are It's like the same thing as like trying to make a deal with Russia.
James: And.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like there's no point making a deal with Russia because they're not going to fucking honor it. So like, what's the point of making, and Oh, he can come out and make the best deals, the art of the deal, yeah all, you know, he can, whatever, but like, no one's going to try to invest in America when they don't,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: think he's going to honor it because he can just flip and change his mind the next day.
James: Yeah. And I actually want to put a link to this video here. I was watching another one podcast, like a guy I really like watching, Jake Bro on here. You know, got almost 600,000 subscribers. He's raised more money for Ukraine.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, I want to watch that one.
James: oh my God. He is. He's been amazing for Ukraine, too. Right. He used to be a he used to be a like a stocks trader guy. You know, that's what he he used to talk about before the Ukrainian war. And man, he's been He's been so clutch for Ukraine too, by the way. you know Millions and millions and millions of dollars are in equipment stuff he's been raising.
James: awesome guy.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That's awesome.
James: awesome guy anyway This last video, say about 21, about the 21 minute mark. He talks about a lot of these people. There's this young 20 something year old girl who started her own business. She has like a little two minute. He shows her video, talk about how she's doing her own clothing line and things like that. She started trying to do the American dream, right?
James: She had, she, she bought $30,000 worth of fabrics and things like that from China, right? She already paid for it. $30,000. She paid for it. Her stuff has been on, you know, in, in transit for a couple of weeks now because it takes weeks to get here, you know?
James: And then he announces those big tariffs, now 145% tariff on China. right she doesn't have She doesn't have another $50,000, $60,000 that she will have to pay to Donald Trump on his tax to actually pick up her shipment that she already paid for because it hasn't arrived at a U.S.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Hang on.
James: port of entry yet. So now she has to just, and she doesn't money. She's like what am i supposed to do? i did everything here. I get this. I've been, you know, $30,000. I have all this fabric and everything coming here. is but so You know, and And she's like, what do I even do?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: File bankruptcy.
James: but i cant And she's like, I can't even return it. She's like, how do we even return it? It would cost thousands and thousands of dollars in shipping to return it. see So she's like freaking out about what is she supposed to do? And there's other people. There's another guy who ah who an announced after the tariffs, right?
James: After he they he talked about all these big tariffs, the guy had a plant in like Vietnam something like that. And he announced he's going to open a plant. And then boom, he's like, all right, cool. They started or they they started making a ah ah factory in America he's talking about these tariffs what going to do.
James: And then he says, okay, no, pausing, not going to do this anymore. he's like, wow, thanks a lot, Donald Trump. That really sucked. I just now inked the deal and put a whole bunch of money into a factory in America. And now you're just telling me I just lost a whole shitload of money because now you're just calling off the tariffs. So mean, he's making people mad on both sides because there's no, there is no plan.
James: When we talked about, you said, like you said, you said you put the pause on it to work out a deal with these countries.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, that's what but that that is the spin.
James: no but exactly but
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You know, that's not.
James: Exactly. But what would the deal be for? What kind of deal would get Madagascar? right Or the people of Cambodia?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: What about Singapore?
James: know or Or anybody? Singapore? okay
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Singapore, which had a zero, which had free trade with the United States and whose economy is too small to like they, they, they export more than like their, their economy is not large enough.
James: um and no um
James: Think about population. Exactly.
James: Exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: for them to buy more from us than the amount they're exporting to us
James: Yeah. And think about the think about Madagascar. okay They got, what is it, 28 million people? right 28 million people. We have 350 million people. okay
James: 90% of their population is in poverty.
James: what could What kind of trade deal could we do with Madagascar that would not result in but that What kind of trade deal we could do, you know, where they would buy an equal amount of stuff from us that we would buy from them.
James: How are those 28 million people? I don't care what object it is. You know, there's only 28 million of them. There's 350 million of us. I mean, this is the kind of things that people have been saying that it's like, he's doing all this on a based on trade imbalances, which mean nothing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah. Yeah.
James: They mean nothing. Trade imbalance doesn't matter. We can't grow bananas in coffee.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The thing is too, is like the idea that like
James: They don't have Texas coffee. They don't have Texas coffee. for Florida.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: the idea that like that Americans are going to do these jobs where they like get into a hazmat suit and like, you know, glue chips together or, or we're going to like, you know, we're going to manually screw in all the screws for an iPhone, or we're going to sew Nikes together.
James: yeah
James: Yeah. or Or work for a dollar an hour.
James: Yeah. You're talking about
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like,
James: were Children of Cambodia, right? Children of Cambodia who work, you know, 15 hours a day for a dollar an hour. Now, granted, hey, if the argument was we are going to tear up the fuck out of you because we are mad at those conditions, Cambodia, you can't do that to your people.
James: There's an argument to be made, right? But just say we're doing it because it's not fair.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Sure.
James: It's not fair that you don't buy our expensive stuff.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You're taking advantage of us.
James: You guys are taking advantage of all you poor people who are slaving away 15 hours a day. and Your children are working 15 hours a day. You're living a hut. yeah You are being very unfair to us by not buying our, what, our Teslas?
James: I mean, what what's that kid, what's the family supposed to buy? You know i mean what mean?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I read a story about the about the iPhone, about like Apple, who was talking about how for them to move.
James: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like they have hundreds of factories making making products all over China. They have some in India. But for them to move 10% of their factories that are doing stuff, like because it's not just like the places that are physically manufacturing it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's also like the place where you're sourcing the materials from. Right. And so like, so then you have to switch to getting them at the whole product chain. Cause like it doesn't do you any good to like, to pay more, you know to import all of the materials for the iPhone and still pay a huge cost on it, a huge tariff, and then pay American workers to build it, which costs more. And then you're having to, you know, move the stuff back and forth a bunch.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like the, like for Apple to move it, like they could move 10% of their supply chain over the course of like four years at a cost of like $34 trillion. dollars It's literally not worth it because then the iPhone was still just going to cost more.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like the the amount they would save by avoiding the tariff and moving here is it, like the amount that it would, like the cost difference, right? It's cheaper to just move it to another different country that isn't China, like India,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: that, you know, somewhere that's going to you wait for the tariff dust to settle. And then you move, you know, your facilities, your supply chain over there to somewhere else. That's also in Asia, but just, it's a country that has a better tariff deal than China has.
James: Just go ahead.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And it's the same thing with like, with like Nike, because it's like, even if you want to, to build those things here, the supply chain, you know, it's not just like dudes in the factory and and the stuff, the, the,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: the parts of the iPhone, the materials magically appear, you know, you still have to get the stuff out of the ground and out of the trees and out of the whatever, and then refine it and then put it in the factory.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And like the whole supply chain is over there. So it's not even going to do us any good to like, to build factories when we still have to import all of the raw materials.
James: And even if you did build all the factories and they're not going to have people doing all that jobs, you're going to build a brand new factory to build an iPhone. You're going to have a factory with about four people in it.
James: Somebody making sure the machines are turned on. Somebody making sure machines are running well.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yep.
James: Somebody to make sure the computers are all maintained well. You're not hiring a team of 100 people who are going to work for dollars day.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Do we, do we talk about the, the, the Tesla factory and the GM factory last week?
James: I don't remember. I don't think so. but
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I had this whole, can't remember if talking to my wife or I talked about on the podcast, but basically I saw this video where I think it was like a perfect union video and they were talking about how, and they're showing footage.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: of like a GM car factory in 1970. nineteen seventy s And they're showing the auto workers, they're making $19 an hour, which 2025 money is is equivalent to $77 an hour.
James: 30 bucks an hour,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay. So they're making $19 an hour, 1970, 50 years ago.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Fast forward to, and it's a whole bunch of guys. It's like, it's people in the factory. They're showing a video of them on the on the line.
James: right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Then they switch and they say, like okay, well, we still do some manufacturing in America. This is what it's like today.
James: Something.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So what do people actually make, right? so So the wages are between $12 and $31 hour.
James: but
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and thirty one dollars an hour and the And the average than $77.
James: There you
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: twenty three dollars and sixty cents
James: go.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: which case you're keeping up
James: Yeah. A third of what they used to
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: is a lot is is lot less than seventy seven Like in 50 years, the average wage has gone up by $4.60.
James: do.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's like obscene.
James: Yeah. And inflation's coming through the roof. yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And if you look at like like a Tesla factory, it's all machines.
James: oh
James: What was the gas back
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like it is 100% machines building the car, right?
James: Thank you.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So the idea that like the skilled jobs are going to come back and people are going to work in factories is just nonsense. And the other thing is like Americans don't want to do those jobs because Americans – are exporting things that have a really high margin. We're exporting financial services. We're exporting software.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: We're exporting social media. We're exporting, you know, consultation services. We're exporting iPhones and cars and different technologies.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay. And we're importing fucking bananas, you know,
James: that don't grow here. They don't grow here.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: that That don't grow here. and And avocados that don't grow here. It's just like like we're importing and we're importing like you know paper goods and t-shirts and like stuff that has like really thin margins.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And that it only makes sense to like to make it at all when you can make it really cheaply.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like there's no point in making a, making a t-shirt if it costs you $150 to make a single t-shirt. It's not worth, no one's going to, no one's paying $200 for a target t-shirt.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: They're barely paying, you know, 15 to $30 for a target t-shirt now.
James: By the way, when they were making $20 an hour, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: and and Back in the 70s, just to give an idea, gas was 36 cents a gallon.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Wow. Wow. 36 cents a gallon.
James: Yep. Yep. By the way, the price of gas was actually pretty freaking awesome right up until George W. Bush going back all the way from 1970. 1970 until 1999. 1999, was up to $1.18 gallon. until nineteen ninety nine from you know ninety ninety nine it was up to a dollar eighteen a gallon you know, last year of Clinton.
James: But all the way from, mean, from 89 99. Gas went from $1 a gallon in 89 to $1.18 in 99. Yeah, know. Yeah. Yeah. a dollar eighteen and ninety nine
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: but I think the price of gas going up is actually a good thing to get us away from oil.
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and book Okay, before we get too sidetracked, I want to just go back a little bit to the IEPA because by invoking a national economic emergency under that, Trump can now deploy the military domestically, suspend labor laws, freeze finances, and
James: yeah
James: say yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: expand warrantless searches, control domestic radio, social media, and broadcast networks.
James: Huh?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay. Like it's not just about the tariffs, calling it an um an economic emergency into the IEPA gives him a whole bunch of like expanded powers.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And when you talk about social media, you know, you got to think about um Mark Zuckerberg. And I think, yesterday meow like i forgot to even put this on the list because i haven't really looked into the story like i heard it was going to happen but didn't i haven't looked into it yet but the god she was like the the chief for like global strategy she was an executive at meta um and she put out a book really recently it's like all my stuff to read list um but she was testifying before the house judiciary committee about meta
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um ah basically selling out the u.s to china so like that happened yesterday i haven't i still haven't it's been too much other stuff in the news for me to get to that uh but yeah like you know despite cozying up to trump he's still getting hauled into congress you know they're still going after social media
James: Yeah, and they're going after anybody. like You saw the thing with Christopher Cribbs and ah Miles Taylor, right? He did an executive order.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah
James: An executive order. Two parts of this executive order. One is, you know, directing the Justice Department to open investigations and go after them, right?
James: And he went on to say it's like treason and everything else because, you know, Miles Taylor wrote a book and Christopher Cribbs said that that election was most secure in us history
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Remind me who who are they? What do they what do they do
James: miles taylor was a deputy chief of staff or something hold on second i'll tell you miles taylor trump admin he was anonymous remember anonymous the op-ed anonymous name of the book ah you know talk about we are the resistance you know uh miles taylor yeah uh
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, I didn't know. and did i heard his name and like that Trump was going after him, but i didn't look into that story. So I didn't see the details.
James: Yeah. So he was the chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. So when they had insider people trying to stop the kids in cages stuff and other horrible things they were doing, you know, he was one of the people who was, you know, a whistleblower, you know.
James: Hey, guys, we're trying to stop some of this stuff. You know what I mean? And looking anyway, yeah, so we made a ah couple executive orders. One going after him and one going after Chris Krebs. I mean, this is actually kind of funny, too, because I'll get that in a second.
James: But yeah, he's basically saying he's ordering the Justice Department to go after these people, right? ah To investigate any malign acts he participated in, right? Like this is for Christopher Krebs, who is in charge of the, ah they call it size ah Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency.
James: which by the way is the same agency that he already directed to this stop anything about Russia. Stop doing any defensive actions against Russia.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh yeah, yeah.
James: Stop doing anything like that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Stop planning any counterattacks.
James: pardon Yeah, stop playing counteract, stop playing defense.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And I think they actually just like like disbanded the group, right?
James: Russia's off the table. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Didn't Hex have just like completely
James: Well, ah no, I don't think they disbanded the whole thing, but I don't know. I know they stopped anything about Russia. but But also part of the executive order also says to go into everything that the cybersecurity infrastructure so security agency did within the last six years.
James: Right. Not just when Krebs is there. Right. By the way, Krebs is a Trump appointee, you know, but he's really mad that, you know, he said it was so secure. But he also part of those orders says they need to investigate all of the actions taken by that, you know, by the agency of the last six years.
James: The conspiracy theorist in me. is they want to know what they were doing to stop interference in the elections so they know what to make Russia aware of to help them the next time.
James: That's what I think. That's just conspiracy theory talk. But I think it tracks. But it also tells everybody in the current administration, don't you dare think about, you know, speaking out or being a whistleblower or anything like that. Otherwise, we are going to sick our Justice Department on you.
James: Look, we're making a big public show about it. And you are going to to pony up a shitload of money for your own lawyer to defend yourself. You know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, then on the topic of lawyers, they're also leaning on on lawyers and law firms that help people.
James: Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Nicole.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So they're making it harder for people to have a defense by making it harder for them to get a reputable lawyer.
James: Mm-hmm.
James: Yes.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And this is the free speech president. And this is at the same time that they're also taking away student visas from people for protesting.
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah. And the other thing, here's the other... funny and horrible things about it too um part of the other thing with christopher krebs is he also in in miles daily they revoked all their security clearances right and also the companies they work at and anything affects them christopher krebs now runs uh sentinel one it's a really really huge like internet security company you know um I think it's public information. I don't think it's any kind of a secret, you know.
James: I mean, just to give you an idea of some of their clients, McDonald's, you know. Everybody, there's a McDonald's, you know, and at, and you know, government places, you know what
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: Oh, they can't operate there anymore. no that They can't have the software. with It affects so much stuff downstream because it also removes all these other clients. It comes down. it goes way bigger than one person, right?
James: It's to threaten companies, to threaten the firms. Like you said, the lawyers, the lawyers, the firms that have these people. And you saw how they were going after the big law firm. Jerry talked about that. Like the other ones, remember those, ah some of those wall law firms, Weiss, right?
James: that Law firm Weiss, you know, they were famous because, you know, one of their lawyers was, ah was it Weiserberg?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: Can't remember who it was. One of the lawyers who were, you know, going after Trump, you know, in the Justice Department now works there. And so Trump decided to try to do a shakedown, threaten a stupid, frivolous lawsuit.
James: But this law firm wants to get on the good graces of him. So they don't come after us. Hey, we'll do some pro bono work. wellll Hey, sorry, man. Hey, it's all good. We love you, Trump. Right. And he got them to agree to $40 million dollars in pro bono services from this from this thing the the deal is instead of you know trumping mean to them they'll do free work on his behalf to promote the interests of the trump administration and so now this big huge law firm weiss rifkin wharton and garrison they are now going to be doing their pro bono work is to help the coal industry you know and go against yes yeah it's it's going to help them it's it they're going to help um
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Wow.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That's right. That's right.
James: coal industry you know to go up against EPA rules and try to you know do pro bono work.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: What EPA rules? They got rid of like 2,500 fucking regulations. They were just like, lead in the water, child labor, get out of here, you crazy clowns.
James: Yeah. you
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like, we're gonna let the
James: Exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Put the kids into work. Put the lead in the water. Give it to the kids as they go into the mines.
James: Yeah. Yeah, they want to they want to use them to so try to get leased deals and everything else and...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: God.
James: For a dying near-dead industry that should just be gone, you know? Anyway, that's just one example. But yeah, turn people who would say anything about you or, you know, represent anybody who says anything bad about you and squash dissent, you know?
James: Anyway, we can move on.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So this, this kind of dovetails us into, um, well, we could dovetail into a bunch of things, but let's dovetail into this, uh, SCOTUS decision.
James: But yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So on the tangentially related to taking away people's rights, you know, we took this, uh, guy who lives in Maryland on a protected status and, um, deported him to CSAT in El Salvador.
James: yeah Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Just to recap his thing a little bit more, he was um he has he's married to he's been here for 15 years. He came to the US seeking asylum because in Venezuela, where he was from, the gangs were trying to extort his parents by threatening to kill him.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So he came here to get away from the gang violence. um He's married to a United States citizen and they have a child who has autism and he had a protected status, like a current legal status where he couldn't be deported.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He was going to all of his court dates and like 75% of the Venezuelans that we've sent to CSAT, he has no criminal record. So 75% the supposed MS-13 gang members have no criminal record.
James: criminal record.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: so seventy five percent of the supposed ms thirteen gang members
James: Gabe.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: have no criminal records Not only do they have no criminal record, but like the idea, the whole idea of due process is that, is that, is that if you, if you want to say this guy is an MS 13 gang member, he's here on this status, but you know, he's, he's doing bad stuff to America.
James: It's an inconvenience. It is an inconvenience.
James: He gets defend himself.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So we need to get him out of here. You take him to court and you prove that to a judge or a jury or both, right? Like, That is the purpose of due process. That's the thing that's in the Constitution, not once but twice.
James: It's an inconvenience.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So anyways, lower court gave the government and seven days to return him.
James: It's inconvenience.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The case went to the Supreme Court. And um well, notably in between that, Pam Bondi said, look, he's a criminal, he'll be in jail there or he'll be in jail when he he'll be in and a detention center in the US.
James: you. ah yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So it doesn't really matter where he goes, but we're not bringing him back. And then it went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court a few days ago issued a temporary stay that said, well, the lower court judge doesn't have jurisdiction over El Salvador.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So he can't reasonably compel the government
James: That's not what they said. That's not what did they said. That's not what they said. They said...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: that so that that's the that's That was the argument that the Trump people were saying.
James: oh That was the argument that Trump people were making. Supreme Court, it sounded really shitty at first, and Fox News was spitting as a win. what ah What they said is they gave a they gave a stay against having to bring the guy back within the week, you know without having to bring him back immediately.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: They said that the judge... right ah they said that They said what they said is it was it shouldn't have been filed under an administrative, federal administrative procedure a case.
James: It should have been brought under a habeas corpus petition, right, for due process.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: That's what they said. And they said, hey, it's under it's ah it should have been a habeas petition, right? And that's what they went five four Now, five people said it for the stay, four people said, no, they shouldn't even have stay, they should it back.
James: But like they said, and this is the good news about this, the thing, a they said they immediately made it. So like they knew the case would come right back to them again within a couple of days. Right.
James: The other thing is all nine justices said, you have to give somebody due process. You have to, you know, there is no just whisking them away and taking people to another country.
James: All nine agreed on that. They said, They had to have due process rights. They had to have a hearing. They had to have a judge and everything before you could send them over there. So that's the good part. The other good part about it is, well, there's good and bad, but the other good part is, they said, for these people who are already, they said one thing is this. They said, if you make a habeas petition, you have to do it.
James: You have to file your your petition in the state where you were detained, which is kind of murky because they took people from different places And then they detained them in Texas, right? Because Texas is known for their left-w wing left-wing activist judges, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: this is
James: Right. So kind of like a shitty thing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Right.
James: They would have to make a petition in Texas, right? A lot of them would.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: um But for all the people who are currently in SECOT who didn't get their due process, there is no... They're being detained in El Salvador, which is not under the jurisdiction of the U.S., right? Right.
James: So where do they make that petition?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: They have to make the petition in in D.C. court, D.C. federal court. That's where it all goes. If something happens and you're not in a place, it at you know, that's where they have to do it, which means when those people make their new cases, it'll be right back for Judge Boesberg, who is the one who originally ordered them to return him immediately.
James: So they're going to end up having a second round at the same judge who already said they had to come back to the first time. You'll definitely tell them they have to come back the second time on some habeas petitions. So there is some good news.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: but But I also, I thought that they today said, ruled today
James: Today on the one guy.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and said
James: Today on the one guy.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, on the one hand, they said that they have that they have to return him.
James: Yes.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So the state was a few days ago, but today they they came back to it and said that the that the government must facilitate the return.
James: a Yes.
James: Yes. And there's a lot of petitions being made in D.C. court now for everybody else. For a lot of the other people. Not everybody because a lot of people don't even know their loved ones were scooped up and just disappeared.
James: Which really, really is should be more terrifying. I cannot believe. i get why it's not a bigger story. Because there's so many little nuclear bombs going off everywhere. you know But this really needs to be the bigger case.
James: I'm so mad that this isn't bigger.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, I've seen so many stories like related to this like deportation stuff about like kids, like third graders being put in handcuffs and detained with adults.
James: Mm-hmm.
James: Mm-hmm.
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Not their parents, but just like other adults who they're also detaining.
James: one
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Or like ICE trying to like break into someone's house. like They're just going door to door, just like trying to break into houses to
James: or school
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: see if there's anybody in there who they can scoop up.
James: And what's even worse about these ICE raids, what they're doing, a they're plain clothes, right? They're not wearing, not always, but lots of times, so these people are in plain clothes with masks.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Not always. Not always. Lots of times. with her With masks. Like hiding their face.
James: They're not...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: They're not identifying themselves or showing any kind of ID. And there's another thing, too. If they do this on a standard ground case, people have already won these cases when the police have come in there and and they like blown away federal agents for not identifying themselves like the door trying break in the door.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: That's justified. They are allowed to shoot them and kill them. It's a stand-your-ground place. They did not identify themselves. How are you supposed to know if it's a federal agent or somebody burlar you know trying to ah break into your house?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: yeah
James: There's no way for you to know. And therefore, it is legal in a lot of states to blow these motherfuckers away. so if they're going to act like you know Russian secret search like you know ah secret police rounding people up just wearing masks and throwing you in a van, people have the right in some states to kill them.
James: I'm not advocating it, just saying it's fact.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: fuck around and find out.
James: Yeah. Yeah. ah but yeah But yeah, no, you're going write plan second amendment, man.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Know your, know your, know your gun rights in your state.
James: um but I was never a second amendment guy until this administration, but you know.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, that's when that's when it that's when it matters.
James: good
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That's what it's there for.
James: Oh, man. Can you just imagine that? I mean, everybody who needs a really sit here and just really think, just close your eyes and think about that. You're coming out of church or you're about to go into court.
James: Or you're you're going you're taking your kid to school, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: going to the DMV.
James: or v And a van pulls up and some fucking people out there with jeans and some fucking shirt and a mask on their face try and grab you and zip tie your hands and throw you in a van. What do you think is happening?
James: You know? They don't say anything.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: They don't tell you where you're going. They don't answer any questions. They don't show any ID. And that's legal? No. That's what they're doing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yep.
James: You know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yep.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then like, uh,
James: And people get mad when we compare them to Nazis. I mean.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then like, it's not just that they're doing that, but then like the next day, like you're in a, you're in holding cell, but the next day you're on a plane to fucking Texas, you know?
James: The Nazis were obvious about it.
James: And then the day after that. You're fucking going to. Like a torture gulag. A gulag. You're going to a fucking gulag in another country. And then the government says. yeah Well. Can't do anything about it.
James: They're not here anymore. They're in another country.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then, and then, so like on the, on the topic of like people coming here legally. So there's this, CBP app that hold on.
James: Which, by the way, so we don't have dead air, too. Oh, my God. People need remember, think it just needs to be said, seeking asylum is not a crime. It is not illegal.
James: Somebody coming to our country to request asylum is allowed. They've just made it illegal. They just said, no. You come here to request asylum?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Nope, we're rounding you up. We're putting you in zip ties, and who the fuck knows where you're going to end up.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But like the, so the, the CBP app was like ah a Biden era, uh, program put in that allowed, I think 900,000 people to come in, um since January of 2023.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And like from a, from a whole bunch of different countries, um, South American countries, like people from Ukraine, whole bunch places. Um,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And the idea was that like this app was going to facilitate this program where you would like set up your meetings for things. You would have a ah work status. and It was all going to be like your community. You would be facilitated through the government via this app, this program.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And they revoked all of those people. Like they sent out emails saying like, yeah, OK, time's up. You got to go like you should self-deport.
James: Yeah. Anyway.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah. So I'll attach this, but there's just a nice video also of like what it's like inside of a children's, you know, jail, migrant detention facility.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But it's just, it's a bunch of kids. It's like a massive room full of kids all wearing
James: Yeah, with a little Mylar. It's kids in cages. It's kids in cages again.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, just, I mean, it's it's it's horrible.
James: It's actually, it's actually, is actually way worse than the conditions of the people, the players on Squid Game. It is ten times worse than than what they had. They
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And they actually had they had beds.
James: actually had beds. These kids do not. These kids have a floor.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: They had a place to sit and rest. You know, these kids have the floor.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I have a floor.
James: They have a floor and they have a plexiglass walls that serve.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then they have these, like... those
James: So like, it's kind of like they're like like a kid, like a pet at a pet shop. Only they're cramming in there.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And like super bright lights.
James: Yeah. All the time. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah. And a lot of them are in there, you know, maybe their English isn't so good. Maybe they're young. Maybe they have, you know, mental health issues or disabilities.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's just, it's, it's horrendous.
James: Yeah. And, um, yeah, i mean, and, uh, yeah. And just think about, and if you want to think about anything else too, remember this also was rampant the first time around, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: Back in like 2019, 2018, you know, just remember how many of those kids were sexually abused by those people, you know what mean? Where they were being detained happened thousands of them, thousands and thousands of children,
James: abused because, you know, when you give somebody the authority to act like a, you know, these people have no rights. You treat them like animals. You do whatever they want.
James: People can do whatever they want. They abuse them. They do whatever, you know, what they act that. And you're inviting people who like that kind of behavior to be able to have that power over somebody else, you know, and they're bringing these kids in there and these kids, they're kids, man.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: What are they going to
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: this At the same time in the video that I'm going to, I'm going link, there's a, there's an agent who's like, he's like, dude, this is horrible.
James: You know,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I'm a dad. Like, he's the guy who works there. He's like, I'm a dad.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I have kids. Like, I don't want to see all these kids in here. This is, this is awful. Like, he's like, talk like, like the guard is like, this is fucked up, you know?
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then, um, so this actually dovetails perfectly. so
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's not enough to like make seeking asylum or coming here through a previously legal means.
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But like now we took that away. So like now you're illegal if you stay or like, you know, you have to or we're going to try to deport you. It's not enough to do that. Because Trump also wants to send U.S. citizens to foreign prisons.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He wants to deport people who are American, who are just only from america like Americans from America
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: with so not visas or green cards, but just like full, I was born here.
James: Yeah. first and It starts as all us.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I'm a citizen. He wants to deport them, which is super unconstitutional because where the fuck do you deport them to?
James: and starts the same way it starts the same with politics Exactly. And he starts with it the same way he started everything else. Like you talk about like, Oh, maybe it'd be great if I could have a third term. Hey, maybe I should have a third term. Yuck, yuck.
James: Really pretty funny. Hey, I was cheated the last time. I should have another term. They should give me another term. If it's, I know it's not really possible. I know it's not really custom. A lot of people want me to do it. And then the, the little comment becomes a little joke, become something else they come back to becomes people's trying to actually propose a stupid law or something.
James: And you know, he's going do
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But honestly, like I hate to fucking dance because like we all know that like as soon as he says some some dumb little ha-ha thing, that's what he's trying to do.
James: Yes. what he's going to do.
James: Later on, it's going to be what going to do. Exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: He tests the waters, sees what people say, see if people are really outraged by it or just kind of laugh it off. If he doesn't get shut down on something immediately, going to go a little further. go a little further.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, you know, this is the this is the the...
James: This is the playbook. The authoritarian playbook.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, I heard this is like the a Trump thing. so like I heard this a while ago.
James: It's the authoritarian playbook.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: i can't i can't attribute the credit for this.
James: He's learned it. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But it's like the grab-them-by-the-pussy leadership style, you know? Where it's like, you know, in the in the tape, he's like, oh, I moved on her like a bitch, blah, blah, blah. Took her furniture shopping.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um this is the It's the same theory of governance, you know? Like, you see it everywhere in everything that he does. It's like the, ah I will...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I'll talk about like, oh, sure. would be funny if I slept with my daughter.
James: Greenland.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, wouldn't it be nice if we own Greenland? Ha ha.
James: And then Greenland and Greenland, then J.D.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You know, it's.
James: Vance there, and then it's like, you know, you're going move on Greenland like a bitch.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Exactly. Now he's going to move on Greenland like a bitch.
James: What?
James: So.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and Denmark is going to be like NATO. What the fuck?
James: Yeah. and move on American citizens like a bitch.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: hello you're you're Miles Taylor, you wrote a book that was bad, and that was mean to me, I'm going to order my Justice Department to go go after you.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: just
James: Oh, you were starting you and like like like protesters. All the people there know that the DHS is rounding up or trying to deport or not allowing it to the country. Well, he was part of an illegal protest.
James: It was a protest. It was illegal. He was supporting Hamas. He was a pro-Palestinian person. They they didn't do anything. It was an illegal protest.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: We need to put them in a camp. you know We need to do the same thing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: It's and always a little... just keeps escalating, keep doesn't see what you can get away with. Oh, you can get away with this. That's why they took it as a big win. The first day when the Supreme court said, Hey, it should have been a habeas petition.
James: You know, like, Oh, Supreme court said they don't, we don't have to return them. mean, three days later they did, but whatever. Initially they're like, yep.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean,
James: See, we, they totally exonerated. They know that Trump has the, you know, the authority to do this. And then they started rounding up more people to try to and send more people out of the country in the little window of time. They had to do it.
James: You know,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, today it's a camp, tomorrow it's an oven.
James: um Yeah. Yeah, the Nazis, by the way, the Nazis did not start.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah. That's how it started
James: They started by just rounding people and putting them camps, and they weren't.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: they started.
James: and sunwriing and somebody Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: by deporting They started by deporting immigrants. They were deportation centers.
James: yeah Yeah, exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yep.
James: Same thing. Started the exact same way.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and then And then they went after
James: First you dehumanize them, call them names.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah then they then they went after the homeless and the mentally handicapped.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then they went after political opponents and dissidents and then they went after the Jews and then they started killing people but the I think you brought this up like we talked about this a while ago but like they they kept the they kept the political opposition alive until they like lost the war and then they killed them but they kept them alive in and the concentration camps for like years and they killed them right before they would have been free just
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
James: um
James: know
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: yeah
James: Either way, man, I don't get why everybody isn't acting. Millions, millions of people.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: so But on the topic of like people acting, we did see the hands-off protests, over 1,200 protests across all 50 states or even some internationally.
James: Yeah.
James: yeah
James: millions millions of people
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Millions of people. It's like we've been saying.
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like I do love to see the pieces of the playbook. like a few episodes ago, and we had like what the Democrats need to do.
James: The first or second one, yeah. The first or second. the second episode, I think. I said it. was like, hey, dudevisible Indivisible. Remember Indivisible? Y'all forgot about Indivisible? They were huge back in 2018, 2019. That's who organized most of this.
James: Indivisible groups.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: yeah and then the other thing is like Democrats are focusing on social media they're doing in-person events in like Republican areas yeah I just wish I liked Cory Booker more like I like what he's doing but like
James: Mm-hmm.
James: Cory Booker finally broke Strom Thurmond's record for the longest filibuster. Longest, I'm talking.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: him, the politician, I don't and't really like.
James: Why not? I don't
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: um
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You know, the only thing that I have against him is that he...
James: know. I still...
James: Sounds too prepared sometimes, like too, like he's trying to force it sometimes to make a, I really want to sound inspirational.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: oh No, no, no, not that at all.
James: No?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Actually, i think he's and think he's a really good speaker. like i and i like I like the tone he hits, but it's just like, it's the way he supports Big Bunny and Netanyahu.
James: Okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He's very corporatist.
James: no
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He's got lots ah lots of corporate corporate money.
James: Well.
James: Well.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Alright. Well.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He's too Hillary for me.
James: Okay. yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Alright, I but wasn't expecting that, but okay.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Alright, well, either way. Yeah, he know he but he now long is the longest filibuster, the longest talking standing talking filibuster, so it's good. At least his final no longer Strom Thurmond.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, no, that was...
James: It's fucking horrible.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That was great, because they were he was like...
James: 25 hours.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: he was like, you know, people are saying... you got to and We want you to see you do more. And it's like, well, politically, our hands are tied, but like this is a thing that we can do.
James: Mm-hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And I think that's the sort of thing they need to do. like You need to be... Every opportunity to impede...
James: immediate. Yeah. yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: you know ah every Every way that you can be a thorn in the and their side, ah gear in the ointment, you know, whatever... Every way that you can be in the way, even if it's like temporary and ineffective, it adds up.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then the other thing is that he, because he had to talk for so long, he was, he solicited stories from, from people in his district and he was sharing a lot of the stories of constituents.
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So that is his state, but like, yeah, so.
James: Now, you know what I would have liked to have seen? Because, I mean, technically, they say technically it wasn't filibuster because he wasn't trying to stop a vote.
James: You know I mean He was trying to jam up the the whole, just jam him up for a day or two. what mean? But they weren't, like, scheduling a vote or something like that, right? But it did keep them from being able to vote on some stuff.
James: but Why don't they just fucking take turns, man? You got 40 something Democrats in there.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, I don't understand that either.
James: What? Every one of them just keep doing it. Just keep. Okay. Can I actually point in order?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Everybody just take a shift.
James: Can I, can I ask a question? And then boom. And the next one takes a shift every day. Once every 40 something days, a different person just speaks for the day and you could jam them up for the whole fucking term, man.
James: ah Why not, man? You would need a cloture vote, make it a real filibuster and completely just shut down the Senate, period.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, well, you could use all... Mm-hmm.
James: For the remainder of Trump's term, they couldn't do anything. They would not get any judges in there because you can't do recess appointments to the federal judges. Right. Now you you can't do a recess appointment and get people cabinet position things. You can't do recess appointments on there because they're not in recess.
James: They're talking right now. you know what You could really jam them up. I don't see why they don't do a talking filibuster and just fucking keep it going for two years. You know, do it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I don't know either. I don't know either, but I mean, yeah, 50 people, you know, six hour shifts.
James: I think great.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That's only four people a day.
James: Exactly. mean, can you imagine it and know what they, all they have to do? They can just be talking about how what Donald Trump is doing by executive order. not even You're not even doing anything. What are the Democrats doing? They're just spending the whole time talking about what Trump is doing by executive order, something they have no control over anyway.
James: Right? So there you go. You're not blocking being in opposition, just stopping his agenda. You're just going to spend the whole time talking about what Trump is doing. You know? you know Maybe in the process you do stop the SAVE Act, or you can stop other things from happening. You know what mean?
James: maybe
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, i don't I don't know why they don't, honestly.
James: oh
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I think they should.
James: By the way.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And even like even if you got like you know like five or six people, you could you could still like go on for like for a long time just splitting ships between five or six people.
James: yeah
James: can go wrong. Yeah.
James: Yep. oh oh I know we didn't talk about this, but I wish they would have ah talked about the other stupid, the big, beautiful bill. Right. Right.
James: that the House passed another budget bill, right? That and that includes $5 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the rich, right?
James: It adds another... Well, no, no. Well, about $5 trillion, it would add $5.7 trillion dollars to the U.S.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, that's what i'm hearing.
James: debt, you know, which is right now, like I said, over $36 trillion, you know what mean?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm. thats your remember
James: um But there was more to it. um
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, there were some holdouts in the House who said, like, you're going to have to cut more. So there were actually eight people who initially voted against it. And then Johnson said, oh, we're going to come back tomorrow. ah We're going to stop the vote We're going to come back tomorrow. um
James: and
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then it was only, was it like two or three people voted against it? So they ended up passing it by two.
James: Yeah, yeah, 216 to 214.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like there were, I think it was two people.
James: Yeah, 216 to 214. Yeah. But the funny thing is,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, i think there was two people still voted against it. So it was like Indiana and somewhere else, somebody voted against it.
James: yeah
James: but the funny thing is The funny thing is, it's kind of like have how they did the the the remainder of the Congress is one calendar day as it pertains to the IEEA, whatever you know, right? so The same way, what they did as they said that $5 trillion dollars in tax cuts, it's it's almost like it's like Bush math on the Iraq war.
James: They just aren't going to count it. It doesn't count. It just doesn't count. So they're not going to put it on the ledger of our books that they did that.
James: They just said, no, that's already there. They just spent, yeah, they're just spending $5 trillion dollars and saying, we didn't spend $5 trillion.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: What?
James: are you talking about? What are
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And this is it like many more trillions of dollars, ah but it's like over 30 years or something like that, or it's over 10 years.
James: What
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's like 30 trillion, it's like 30 trillion over 10 years or.
James: are you about?
James: Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly how much that was. But me yeah, I mean, it's it's five trillion, you know, a year in tax cuts. I mean, if you went 10 years, I think it'd be 50 trillion. Now they said they're going to reduce the spending by 200 billion dollars a year. So I guess over 10 years, that would be two trillion dollars. So it comes down a little bit, I guess.
James: They didn't say it's a minimum, a minimum of 200 billion, a minimum. That's just a starting point or two billion. Was it two billion, 200 billion? What is it? Let me read. It's 4 billion.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But then like the the thing is like they were saying like, oh, you're not, you're not 4
James: Sorry, I was wrong. It's 4 billion. 4 billion a year in spending cuts.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: billion a year in spending cuts.
James: But a 5 trillion tax cut. But they don't count that because that's, you know, we we got used to it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, that's why you had a few Republicans, eight of them who were like, yeah, you're not cutting enough. You want to give away 5 trillion fine, but you're going to have to cut more shit. And they were like, and they were like, don't worry, we'll cut more stuff in the Senate.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But then the Senate is like, dude, we're not cutting, we're not cutting Medicaid and Medicare and social security because we're not trying to get crucified. But there's like, there's nothing else to cut guys. Like,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like the easiest salute, like you're like trying to squeeze water from a stone when like, you have like a giant water bottle right there that like of rich people, you could just like pour yourself a glass.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like it's so ridiculous. Like, why don't we just tax the corporations and tax wealth?
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like you can pay down the debt and fund all the social services.
James: I'll just remember
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And like, yeah, you should be, you should make sure that things are more efficient and we can do things better and blah, blah, blah. Absolutely. But like, if that's your thing, if you're like, let's like be more efficient and spend less money on the government, then why is it that they're rolling back the um ability for Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Why is it that they're rolling back the caps on the price of insulin? If they're trying to be more efficient, why are you making it so the government has to spend more money on drugs when we already made it so we could spend less?
James: and yeah And also about efficiency. right i This was not on the agenda, but you know they are moving forward with it. Trump really, really wants it for his birthday.
James: His birthday is coming up soon. Let find out what's going be Trump's birthday.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: his birthday?
James: is His first 79th birthday, June 14th. 10 weeks away. okay Somebody needs to tell Elon Musk about his plans.
James: now I was reading about it in The Hill, right? um But unfortunately, Doge was not notified of this, I'm sure, because of waste, fraud, and abuse.
James: I don't know how this is going to go through, but
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, the $90 million dollars parade.
James: Yeah, $100 million dollar military parade, man. He has to have his tanks and his military you know officers everything on U.S. soil marching with his tanks and his Bradleys and his missiles and everything else going down the street just like the Soviets had and North Korea does. you know he He's always said he wanted it, and he tried to get it the first time, and they wouldn't do But his birthday.
James: but you know it's just birth and The dear leader needs to have his Soviet-style military parade. And that's going to $100 million, dollars which is actually nothing.
James: That's also nothing compared to the grift, the unprecedented amount of money he has been jacking up over his first term to what he is charging us taxpayers for him to golf.
James: God. God.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh my God. Yes. Golf. Jesus. Let's pull up. Let's pull it up. Trump golf track. Let's see where are we at? Trump golf track.com days in office 80 days spent golfing 21 times spent golfing the time.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: recently april the sixth
James: Yeah, he did.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: youtube video but
James: He did 547 times in first term. Right. But, uh, right but Yeah, he's, uh, but he's charging way more, right?
James: Way more. Um, he's already charged $26 million dollars to us taxpayers so far in just, you know, two and a half months, two and a half months, already 26 million.
James: So let's just do our math here. Right.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I'm pay me using your money so I can golf at my golf course.
James: Yeah. So you got, uh,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: course.
James: 52 weeks in a year times four years. That's 208 months. He's cost us 26 million in three months, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh huh.
James: So if you go another calculator here, 26 million divided by three months, that's almost 9 million a year. So times nine. Let's see, 1,872...
James: million dollars.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's going to charge us a billion dollars to go.
James: That'd billion. It's going to cost us taxpayers $1.8 billion. dollars He's on track to spend $1.8 billion dollars of taxpayer money at his golf course.
James: But hey, He's not taking a salary, he says. The first term, he said he wasn't taking a salary, and they found out that was bullshit. He was taking a salary. But you can take solace if he is, in fact, changing his ways and living up to you know promises kept, promises made, and all that. you know Maybe he won't take his salary you know as president to make up to the almost $2 billion doesn't take for us.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh my God. On the topic of Trump griffs, like, well, okay, wait, I got, I got two good ones actually. So like one is about golf.
James: ah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like, as the world was burning from the tariffs, he was golfing with the Saudis at a golf tournament at his, that he was hosting in his own golf course.
James: Oh, yeah.
James: Do you know what also happened that day? you remember what?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And wait wait, hold on. hold and
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: he's such a good golfer. And definitely didn't just like grift this also that he like won every round that he played in in advance to the finals.
James: Yep.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like it's not enough for him to like steal 1.8 billion dollars so he can pay himself to golf.
James: ye
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He also has to like bump up his scores so he wins.
James: yep And don't forget, he loves our troops so much that he skipped what they call the dignified transfer of the four American soldiers who died in Lithuania.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: right
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: And by the way, if anybody hasn't seen it, Lithuania, man, oh my God, they they really did try and go all out for these American They all had American flags, blocks and blocks everywhere up there, and people were all waving American flags, and you know people are some people were crying, and they're like, oh, you know, and Trump
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, they had like a whole, they had all the dignitaries and like people lining the streets and
James: went to go golf.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like yeah like like Lithuania cared more about their sacrifice and their service than Trump did.
James: Yep. Everybody got mad. And remember, remember Donald Trump, by the way, he was the one who was blasting Biden because Biden made it a point to always.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: checked his watch
James: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Biden always went there when they were doing those dignified transfers. Biden always wanted to make sure he goes there, you know, as kid in the military anything else. And he always thought it was his duty. You know, to be there.
James: Every time somebody's going to die, if they're going to die and, you know, they're in the military and he's commander in chief, he always said it's his duty. You know mean? To be there and get a dignified transfer and everything else, you know? And one time, while he was there, glanced at his watch one time to see what time it is.
James: That is worse than skipping it to go golfing on the taxpayer's dime, that you're ripping off the country to the tune of almost $2 billion on pay sale.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: With the Saudis while you're cheating.
James: With the Saudis, yes.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then, okay so on the topic, ah on while we're on the topic of Trump griffs, this was actually the first thing I put on the notion and then something happened and it like got eaten and I forgot to go find the link and put it back.
James: Yes. Oh, there we
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But they're also, they' they're making it so that they're not going to prosecute people for cryptocurrency crimes.
James: go.
James: Oh, yeah, of course. They probably don't do it.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then they're also making it so that so that like so like Trump is like disallowed from being able to sell his currency, his his Trump coin.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But they're making it so that he can.
James: Yeah. yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So...
James: Well, that wasn't, that i remember about that one. I remember that I didn't think it was ever a problem with him selling his Trump coin. i remember it was a thing with his truth social or truth media or whatever they call it. the ah You know, the truth social.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, thought there was something with the Trump coin. Okay, maybe I'm wrong about the...
James: The Trump coin, no, the Trump coin is just a straight up total grift. I mean, it's just in the Melania coin that, you know, Melania did.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Yeah. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You just want to give him a couple... You just want to give him $100 million. It's super easy and no one will ever know that it was you.
James: Yeah, i mean exactly. and That's why they were getting rid of all the laws around crypto and, you know, remember he gave the the the pardon to the one guy.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The Silk Road guy?
James: i'm not even talking about I'm not even talking about Pam Bondi's brother who he gave a pardon to. He sold a pardon to. I'm not talking about him. um The other guy, the guy from, oh God, was it Silk Road?
James: Silk Road Pardon? called silk road web
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: No, yeah, the Silk...
James: The Silk Road Pardon, yeah, Ross Ulbrich.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's not... Was it the Silk Road guy?
James: Yeah, he got
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: There was another guy. There was like another crypto guy, though, who had like a big...
James: Yeah, Russell Brick. Yeah, Russell Brick, the the Silk Road founder. Yeah, the guy who had life in prison. We talked about that one before.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That was actually... That was in the same round as the... The whatchamacallit people. The January 6th people.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But there was... what you're talking about. There was another guy. There was a specifically a crypto guy who was being... investigated for like some huge amount of fraud and he like grifted him $10 million dollars or something.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then they were like, Oh, we're no longer prosecuting you. We're dropping all the charges.
James: Yeah. yeah They're dropping every...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: little on order, man. They're dropping every... yeah ah every Everything that...
James: Any way that they can think...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Protesting is supporting terrorism, but like actually assaulting the U.S.
James: Anything that can support terrorism and money laundering...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: government is totally fine.
James: yeah if you if If there's a way to do money laundering and illegal stuff... you know They already told the Justice Department not to go after any white-collar crime. There's no more white-collar crime division at the Justice Department anymore.
James: They already said that. Crypto stuff. Got rid of that. We're not going after anything crypto-related. Do all the money laundering. The cybersecurity people. but Don't go after anything crypto. Don't go after anything in Russia. Hey, money laundering. Hey, we're not doing that. America first, baby.
James: We don't care about any of this stuff.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: it the It's a great time to crime.
James: Exactly.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: So, I mean, yeah. Is it any wonder with the Trump coin, the Melania coin, everything else? I mean, if you're going to sell somebody Bibles and golden shoes and shit, you know, and to have your own crypto coin and you're just looking to make a buck, you know, you're going to do anything you can to make a buck and, you know.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, my God.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: leather embossed Bible with the Constitution in it. signed by Donald J. Chavez. It's a collector's item.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then you, you know, you got to sell like the the AI picture of you holding the Bible and with muscles.
James: Yeah, they disbanded yeah the U.S. Justice Department.
James: Yeah, this was just two days ago. Yeah, the U.S. Justice Department disbands crypto enforcement team citing a Trump executive order. It's disbanding its national cryptocurrency enforcement team and ordering prosecutors to narrow cryppo and crypto investigations to focus on only drug cartels or terrorist groups, it says.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: Yeah, that's what they said. It was launched in 2022. Yeah.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: great day to get away with some shit okay so we have we have on our list i'm sure we could find other things that we have on our list four four more things which one you want to do we got the save act the hhs firings the new head of the doj which actually i don't know anything about i just i saw you posted it so like i mean that one's going to be news to me and then
James: Yeah. Um,
James: ah I'm not worried about the save act, actually, just because it's the Democrats can can filibuster that they're going to filibuster that and they can't get around that unless they break the filibuster. And don't know if they're going to do that, but I don't think they say that. And we can talk about it briefly, but it's not going to go anywhere.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The save act is basically going to require, pass the house and the save act requires additional forms of identification. So if your birth certificate doesn't match your driver's license because you're a woman and you got married, you took your husband's last name.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Now you have to get your passport. And id see the 50 or 70% of Americans don't have their passport.
James: thought more than that don't have a passport.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So to get your passport, you have to,
James: Pay hundreds of dollars.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: ah
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You have to pay $160 and you have to wait six months.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And the six months is like standard for when the government is pre-Gouge.
James: It's not.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Okay.
James: Well, pre-Doge, it's not even that. Pre-Doge, I got my passport, man. I got it and like two weeks or less. You know what mean? but But this administration... If you have to get it to vote.
James: Yeah, I don't. I imagine they tried to slow down the mail, man. They're they're definitely going to slow this down. ah I mean, shit.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, of course. Of course. So basically what it means is like up to 70 million women are going to be disenfranchised.
James: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That's that sounds like a part of his. We got a plan to fix it. You're never going to have to vote ever again.
James: Yeah. But yeah, that's Democrats aren't going to let that one go through. Yeah, they said the the the fate is uncertain because Republicans don't have a large enough majority to avoid the filibuster.
James: And the Democrats already said they're going filibuster it. So that's kind of DOA.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I see.
James: um What were the other things you to talk about?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The HHS firings. Actually, i want you to talk about the new head of the DOJ because I don't know anything about this one.
James: that it has a DOJ. i mean, that's Pam Bondi. the the head of the Department of Justice, the the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, all right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Ah, okay.
James: It's the Civil Rights Division, you know? um ah You know, the people, you know, the Justice Department, lots of times, like... a the Justice Department Civil Rights Division helped go after places where police brutality, where they're killing people like because they were black or whatever, right?
James: And the Department of Justice would hey, let's let's go in here. look We're going to launch an investigation against ah your your city, right, your police force. And they would do those you know agreements. like They'd have to, what's it called? God, trying to remember the name of the ah of the agreement. Like in St. Louis, they had it too, you know?
James: Yeah. Or for like 10 years, they have to okay everything through the DOJ to make sure they're not infringing on people's civil rights, right? They're not targeting people. They're not doing anything like that.
James: Anyway, DOJ, their civil rights vision, you know, that's what they do, man.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: They go after to make sure that places are protecting people's civil rights, right? And so the this woman, her name is Harmeet Dillon, right?
James: And um she's famous for, well, she's not famous, but she's very popular in the Republicans' yeah eyes because she's one of those people who, she co-chaired a group, Lawyers for Trump, right?
James: And her group is, you know...
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Wow.
James: been really at the forefront about trying to stop Americans voting rights and saying that Trump was cheated in 2020. And ah she was one of the people who tried to take out Ronna McDaniel.
James: Remember Ronna McDaniel Romney who dropped her last name because Trump didn't like it. Yeah. Ronna McDaniel Romney.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: wow
James: as the chair of the RNC when she, when, when Ronald McDaniel was there, uh, she didn't beat Ronald McDaniel cause Ronald McDaniel still had a lot of friends at the time. Right.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: Uh, it was supported by Charlie Kirk and a bunch of other people. um She's always railed against the Civil Rights Act. She says the Civil Rights Act, remember, she's the one in charge of the Civil Rights Division, right?
James: She said the Civil Rights Act is a travesty. All it does is, ah you know, it's it's reverse discrimination. ah ah it's ah it's just a woke, it's all a bunch of woke propaganda, you know, right?
James: come She's an enemy, like I said, she is an enemy of civil rights.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Jesus.
James: She does not believe civil rights are or should be a thing. She thinks it's just a perversion of justice, you know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So this is just another we're going to put the fox in charge of the hen house.
James: yeah. Yep. But worry.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: God it's just like the oil lot there's like his new oil lobbyist in the EPA.
James: Don't worry. But don't worry. Hey, at least the Department of Justice, at least Civil Rights Division is not responsible for making sure that you can protect Americans' ah right to vote.
James: Oh, wait. that is' That is part of her job, to make sure that Americans' right to vote is protected. That's also her job.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: you know the topic of civil rights and like the stuff that happens with police, I saw this, I saw this horrible video. So what happened is the, there's a family, it's like five members of the family.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's like, I think it's like grandparents, parents, and like a, like a brother sister or sister something like that are outside in their yard. And they're talking to this young man who's, you know,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: depend on which member of the family you are. He's like the son, the grandson, the brother. And he has autism and he's having a confrontation with his family and he's holding a knife.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He's not going after anyone. He's like in the yard away from everyone and they're trying to talk him down. And i guess there was like some yelling. So the neighbor across the street called the police.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And the neighbor across the street is filming when the police arrive.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The police get there. And within 14 seconds, they're there. there You watch the guy like the car pulls up.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: The cop gets out of the car. He starts running over towards like there's a fence around the yard, like a metal, um like a like a chicken wire fence. OK, like a four foot high ah chicken wire fence.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And they they run over there. He's immediately unholstering his gun. Okay. This kid is on the other side of the fence holding a knife and he gets up and he like takes a step towards them.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And it's 14 seconds from the time they arrive to the time they start shooting. And they unload nine bullets into this kid. Shoot him nine times. that Each of them unloads all their clips.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: They shoot him nine times. He doesn't die. he still He was still alive, at least at the time the video. But it's just, you know, it's horrific.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Just existing as a brown person and having the cops called against you.
James: Well, Harmeet Dillon's on the case. i'm sure I'm sure she will care.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh man. Like it's so bad.
James: Hmm. Yeah. That happens. I mean, yeah, that happens all the time. It's sad. It'd be nice if we had a Department of Justice that would, you know, what do they call those agreements?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Hold these officers to account. Like he's on the other side of the fence with a knife. know I mean? Like, like he's not, he's not throwing the knife at them. He's not jumping over the fence.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: He doesn't have a gun. You know, and like, he's probably standing up and brandishing the knife to get them to back away because they're running at him with guns and screaming at him.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's just like, it's just heartbreaking.
James: Consumpting Creator.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Like, ah I remember, i remember i it was like sometime in this past week where I spent like a couple hours just like scrolling through the news, just like waiting until I had like you know, like I'm like, at some point I've gone through and seen everything.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I'll see, I've seen all the new stuff and and for two hours, you know, it was just new horrible thing after a new horrible thing. And it's like, it's so emotionally heavy to like, to have that experience where like everything is something that endangers a loved one, you know,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: might mean that like my wife's immigration status is going to be, you know, switch a flip is a switch is flipped and, you know, she's gonna have to leave the country.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Maybe I'm gonna have to leave the country. You know, it's just so many, it's just so many like heartbreaking and terrifying things to take in.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And it's this difficult situation because the more you look, the more you will find because it's a this like flood. you know, like I was gonna say, it's a shotgun blast, but it's not even, it's like it is a flood.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's just a torrential downpour of of just awful news there every day.
James: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and if you have any empathy at all, it's really hard to like, to take that in and not have it boil over into rage or make you sad or or become this like feast of apathy.
James: i
James: I don't, I'm not apathetic about it. i don't, um don't see how people can be apathetic about it. I don't, I don't, I can't get that. I just get mad and I get sad and you get worried and you get angry.
James: you i mean, but, uh,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: i mean, he you start to feel powerless. You to feel like, you know, if it was one thing, you know, if it was, if it's George Floyd, okay, we can march.
James: yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I can talk about George Floyd. We can, we can try to, to talk about police reform. We have this one problem. We can get everyone behind this issue. You know, we can talk about the reforms that we need.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: we and we We can see the problem clearly and we can talk about what we want to do to it. With this, it's so many things that affect so many different people in so many different ways. And it's like, like I was thinking about it and I was like,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: okay, let's just say that I wanted to fact check these things. It took me, like, I literally just went through for two hours and was like, oh, this is newsworthy. This is worth talking about. This is worth being upset about. This is worth caring about.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: If i went back and like tried to fact check all those things, like there's not enough time in the day, even to just, you know, parse reality without trusting certain sources and trusting the algorithms.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: let alone, you know, trying to pick which one of these things is important enough to try to rally behind and organize behind and like drill down into a concise message with actionable steps and like plan and then try to get people behind that, you know, like it's
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: this overwhelming task, which which I know is the point, you know.
James: Yeah. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: But that's where the apathy comes in where it's just like, there are, like, you look at it and you're like, even if I put all my time into this, there's not enough hours in the day to do what I think would need to happen to make a dent.
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, of course you do what you can, you know, you protest where you can, you donate where you can, you you know, have the conversations with your family that you can have. You share things with your, you know, your friends and your coworkers and, you know, that person who you haven't talked to in a while because they were getting a little Trumpy on social media.
James: Thank you.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You know, you do the things that you can because, you know, it's the same thing is true in reverse, you know, where if it's a of ah flood of of things that are bad, you can respond with like, you know, your own trickle of things that are good.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And if enough people are doing the same thing, then it it becomes a flood in the other direction. There are, there are more, what's the, what's the Hakeem Jeffries quote where it's like the power of the people is more, is greater than the power of the people in power something like that.
James: i I don't know that one, but sounds right. Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: it was It was in one of his, it was in him talking about having done the filibuster. I saw him say this. I think i think if it's like part of like a ah set of lines because I think I saw a couple different speeches from him on social media, different different places. but
James: yeah
James: Hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Anyway.
James: That's all you can do, though, man. And actually actually, this is actually, there's a Sarah Longwell, as ah the Bulwark. They were talking about this. And she was actually making a good point today. She was talking about how, because Republicans, they were talking about protests and like, these guys in the Bulwark, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Thank you.
James: They were were all Republicans, right? And they were all talking about the but Republicans' DNA, man, they're like they're not wired to do protests like lefties are. They generally generally aren't. Usually they were brought up they didn't do protests and things like that, right? like Yeah, like old school conservatives, i man, they never really protested.
James: you know they'd be They'd grumble or whatever, but they didn't go out and protest stuff, you know? And that was something like you know the lefties did. Right. And she's talking about how people being snatched up and how, you know, and they were they keep making the jokes like, hey, unless you're a foreigner or a foreign born person or a a lawyer for a foreign born person, you know, so far doesn't seem that they're rounding up podcasters yet. You know, i mean, they were making jokes about that, you know, but it's not really funny.
James: But it is funny. And she was saying, she's like you know what, though? Honestly, the average Joe, the average just middle of the, you know, just random person on the street, the average person, right, has more power than one of these CEO people, right?
James: More power than these immigrants, for sure, right? Because like, like, they talk but like, some rich CEO person, right? Some really big millionaire, billionaire, something happens to him, right? The government goes after him.
James: Nobody really cares. Fucking CEO prick. You know what I mean?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: This is the.
James: Right? people don't get all People aren't going to get all up in an uproar to save you know the president of Goldman Sachs or something. Right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and so
James: Right. But if it's just an average, normal, run-of-the-mill you know person who's just working as a family, right, and something happens, like an American citizen, just a normal, I'm working nine-to-five job, whatever, and I'm just doing this, and and the government starts doing something depriving them of their rights or something like i have liberty, you know, right? and just there head protein And something happens, that becomes a bigger story.
James: You know I mean?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: And more people will care about an average Joe person, you know, and just an average nobody who is, you know, getting strong-armed by the government than if it was to happen to some foreigner, an other person, right? Right.
James: Somebody you can't say, oh they're an illegal immigrant or whatever, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: Or some really rich person or a celebrity. There's all that schadenfreude. People like when something bad happens to those people. I mean, just think about Luigi, right? off that Nobody gives a shit about the guy who ran but you know ah a health insurance company, right?
James: No one cared about him. More people or care about Luigi. And he's a guy who killed a guy, you know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: So she's like, you have way more power as just an average person. Go out and demonstrate. And honestly, and you're about like the first time, like they want to try to silence people. These law firms are going to try to get everybody to quash dissent as much as possible to get people to not speak out.
James: Because if people are doing things and speaking out, that makes them look bad. That gets news. yeah And you can't just send in police and round up a bunch of citizen, normal people.
James: Right? It looks bad, everything else.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: So he's like, you have more power as and as an average person than if you were like a rich CEO. I'm like, that's a good take.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, like that.
James: we oh
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: All right, let's bring it home. What could go right and or ah what do you predict will happen next?
James: What could go right? Well... hu
James: I actually, and and I think where I put it in the comments there, that Jake Bro podcast I was watching.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: And so credit to him. And this is like a an idea he's floating that could happen. And I was like, holy shit, that's actually a really good, what good could happen.
James: Because Trump with all these tariffs everything else and crashing the world economy, right? And all the bonds, right? Remember... you know Japan and South korea looking into doing deals with China, Canada and the EU looking to go around and cut out the US. A lot of countries are looking to...
James: you know, S out the U S right. and And a lot of people are looking towards China.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: Now everybody in the world pretty much agrees that China is a fucking bad actor when it comes to trade, right? They really do manipulate the currency. They undervalue it. They do all kinds of little things. They really do steal companies is intellectual property.
James: you know, they really are awful. You know what mean? They are terrible at this. They, They really do steal everybody else's shit and then just try to make their fucking Uyghur slaves, you know, make it for free, you know, and make a lot of money on it You know what mean?
James: They do this shit, right? So one of the one of the things about the ah the tariffs, and now it's up to 145%, that's essentially like a fucking trade embargo, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: Now...
James: With that happening, right, and when you look at what's in Ukraine, right, they had more Chinese nationals, right, were getting caught by Ukraine, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Uh-huh.
James: um yeah
James: China's not in the best position for things, right? I mean, they're kind of, they want to deal a deal with Europe, right? China wants to get out of the U.S. U.S., mean, you can't do trade with the U.S. right now with 145% tariffs back forth, you know what I mean?
James: So they want to do a deal with the right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Mm-hmm.
James: EU wants to stop Russia, right? China pretended to want to try to be a neutral party in ukraine the war, right? Russia's economy is fucking cratering because one of the unintended consequences is the oil prices crashing and Russia's losing a lot of money.
James: The only thing keeping Russia going is all of these drones and from from China, all of the ah all the military hardware they're getting from China, right? I'm talking about like Kevlar and guns. That's all China stuff, right?
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: get
James: All of the little motorcycles and fucking golf carts and everything that's not a mule that they're driving down, coming from China, right? And China needs to get around trade with the U.S. They need a big trading partner.
James: And Europe is really pissed at the U.S. And everybody wants to have another way out. So what could go right? EU could go in say, hey, fuck the US. China, you agree, eat fuck the US, right? All right. Hey, you want another big, huge trading partner who's just as big as the US? s We want cheaper shit.
James: We want Russia out of Ukraine. Cut them off, right? It could lead to a really, it could actually lead to a good peace deal between, not ah I mean, Russia is still your neighbor, but it could actually lead to an end of the war that might be a lasting one.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Oh, man.
James: If EU is really stepping up and supporting them, they make deals with China, China stops supporting Russia, could be an end to the war. inadvertently Trump could end the Ukrainian Russian war by being a fucking idiot and just crashing the price of oil.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: man
James: Now in the process, it's not great for the United States, but it could be good for Ukraine. And that's still a win, you know, that's something good that could happen.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, I know. i love that. That's great.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: that's the best book could go right i think we've heard yet.
James: that's
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I like that a lot.
James: Yeah.
James: So that's what I think. And it's actually very plausible, you know, it's It's plausible. and China needs to do deals with people. So. ah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: okay i'm gonna I was had ah had one of each and as I was listening to you, I'm tired and they left my mind. So I'm going to do a prediction because I remember that part of it.
James: right.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And my prediction is really simple. And it is just that the US is going to go into a recession.
James: Oh, yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, as I've heard that like like the impact like the impact of
James: Big time.
James: Hell yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: of this trade chaos and especially the stuff with China is like there are people as read an article who were talking about how as like a ah Chinese importer or like someone who imports from China they were dumping whole shipments like they're just they're just like giving it away so they don't have to pay the the tariff to the shipping company like I'll just send it anywhere else sell it to India we don't care like just don't don't bring it here And the number of shipping containers that like this one company was doing, like they were doing, um, it was, it was like 40 to 50 day or 40 to 50 a week that they were handling this one particular company and their orders are down to two or three or from 40 or 50 over, you know, whether it was day or week to two or three over the same time span.
James: Thank you.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like, the imports have dropped off a cliff and they were like, look, the impact of this is to like, everyone's trying to like find somewhere else to like send their goods. And people are just like, not trying to do this at all because you don't know what the tariffs are going to be.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And then the importers are kind of in this fucked either way situation where like, well, if you import it now, there's a hundred percent tariffs, but it could be that like, you know,
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: in a week there's a 400% tariff. So you should import it today. because it's going to be way cheaper than doing it a month from now, you know, but like, it could also like, they could make a deal and then it could be, it could be 50%, you know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So like, there's no, there's no good solution. So the best solution is just be like, well, just stop trading here and just give it to anyone else who will buy it, you know?
James: yeah
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And like the effects of, of that, you know, and like the, like the knock on the rest of this stuff, is going to take more than a year to recover.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: You know, like we're just like the stock market is like the first sign that's kind of like the, uh, canary in the coal mine, you know, like the stock market isn't a good picture of the economy, but it's a good picture of where the economy is going.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: like, like when this volatility hits us, you know, when, when couches start to cost more, when Nike's cost $400 instead of 150, you know, when couches cost $2,000 instead of 1200, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
James: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: When, when every paper good you buy, like somebody did like, uh, like, uh, items of Costco, ah you know, how the tariffs are impacting those particular items.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And it was like toilet paper costs, you know, for like a big, the big pack, the Kirkland brand costs you know, $26 with tariffs, it's going to be $38 and just like on and on item by item, you know, um when everybody starts getting squeezed and no one's, no one's all these pieces of business are shutting off and shutting down. And like when all of this hits at the same time, we're definitely going to go into a recession and it's going to take, it's not going to be an easy bounce out because
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: we're biting all of the hands that feed us simultaneously.
James: And just by the way, we're recording this on the 10th at 11 o'clock night. It's now 11 o'clock at night.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: hmm.
James: And so just because it's going week away, you know, and we're not going to talk about this in a week, or you might still be talking about it, but apparently like today, ah stocks, bonds, everything else, it tumbled again today.
James: And we talked about the recession, to your point, about the chance recession. Everybody's up in the odds. Goldman Sachs says 65% chance of recession. JPMorgan Chase said 60% chance of recession.
James: you know, the the u U.S. Treasuries bonds that we talked about earlier, you know, dropped like a rock again today. The Swiss franc is at a 10-year high against the U.S. dollar. They're pulling money out of the U.S. s and putting it into the Switzerland.
James: And, yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: oh my god we didn't even get to the point in the beginning so like because of the we got sidetracked
James: who
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: but as you were saying before we started recording the the effect the effect of the of the bonds being being dropped was that ah that the price went up so our yes our interest rate went up and when the interest rate on 36 trillion dollars of loans goes up by half a percent that costs you couple hundred billion somewhere somewhere in the like two to three hundred billion dollar uh range
James: Oh yeah. The, yeah, the effect of the bonds, it raises your interest rates. Yeah.
James: Yeah. Interest.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, and additional an additional interest.
James: Outer debt. We're all correct.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Not total, but additional interest.
James: yeah We're already paying, ah was it 500 billion? Is it 500 billion I think we pay?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Yeah, we already pay like $500 billion dollars a year on interest on our debt. Just interest.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: So his...
James: We're not paying down to that.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: so
James: We keep increasing the debt. Remember, the first time around, Trump increased the debt by $9 trillion. dollars Right now, they're already set to increase the debt by $6 trillion dollars a year. You know? 5.7 whatever is.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and
James: 5.7. Mm-hmm.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: and just from the one day of his fuckery now $200 billion dollars a year more in interest.
James: five
James: That was $200 billion dollars a year more in interest.
James: That's $700 billion dollars a year that we are paying the minimum on our credit card. Not even the minimum. It's just paying the interest.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That is, that's, that's,
James: Not even a minimum. When you make a minimum payment on your credit card, you are paying down interest and a portion of the principal. We are not even getting the principal. We are just paying $700 billion dollars on only interest, and we are not touching the principal.
James: We just keep adding to the debt, the principal. $900 billion.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And what do we spend on billion.
James: $900 billion. or nine hundred nine hundred billion dollars
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: dollars So we're we're almost getting US military's worth of interest.
James: just to give you an idea what is the economy of Russia?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Brutal.
James: What is their entire GDP of Russia? Let's 2.1 trillion. so So other words, we are paying the interest on our debt is me less than half, more than a third of the entire GDP of Russia.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Wow.
James: Just interest.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: wow
James: So 5.7, near $5 trillion dollar tax cut to the rich. You know, we could just pay down our debt. We could just not do that. And we could be debt free in like, you know, seven years.
James: And then we have another $700 billion dollars a year that what we could, we could raise another army the size of our own army. You know, we could conquer Greenland and everybody else at the same time. But that second $700 billion dollars we're spending, you know, whatever.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: while that we could just pay our debt off at seven years, but we're just like,
James: Yeah, I mean, yeah, we would. We could easily could. We easily could.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: man.
James: I mean, maybe that's seven, maybe. Well, there yeah, it would be seven. Five trillion a year times seven years. That's 35 trillion. Okay. Be a little bit more year or so more. You know, mean, ah yeah Seven, eight years, we can be debt-free just by not giving that $5 trillion dollars a year tax cut to the rich.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: I mean, that is under the assumption that there's no World War III or COVID 2.0 or cetera.
James: Yeah, I know.
James: Yeah, but here's the thing.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: or
James: we
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: etc
James: but That's why this whole Doze shit is also such a crock of shit. There's so much... Our economy... so It was why I told you that and like a couple of weeks ago, like, really, the debt doesn't really matter. It's just...
James: Your ability to pay off the debt, our ability to pay off the debt, our economy is so massive. If we actually made the decision that, yeah, we're going to pay the shit off, you're just not going to give a $5 trillion tax cut. We're just going to make a $5 trillion dollar a year payment on our debts.
James: We could be out of debt, no problem.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: uh-huh
James: You know what mean? It's just, you have to have the will to do it, you know?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: if
James: But that's a lot of money that we blow. And why would you even need Doge to, or and we all know it's a full ship, but Americans talk about waste, fraud, abuse, waste, and wasting money. What's more wasteful than spending $700 billion dollars a year to get absolutely nothing at all?
James: We're not even talking about a really overpaid state employee because he's the head coach of the best basketball team ever. Okay. At least you're getting something out of it. You're getting a good basketball team, right? I mean, you are getting literally nothing out of just paying interest on a debt that you could be clear of in a few years.
James: Yeah. Whatever.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, that's wild.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: That is wild.
James: yeah
James: But that's it. You know, uh, know, Any other last things, anything we wanted to wrap up with? You were getting tired. Oh, Laura Loomer. Yeah, this crazy Laura Loomer. It doesn't really matter. It's just another psycho. i mean, shit, he listened to crazy people before.
James: Laura Loomer is kind of crazy, and she's probably banging him for whatever, you know. And she she just thought... She said the people in the National Security Council, right? she She made sure to make a point to go tell Trump, you know, her findings.
James: Her findings were that those these people in the National Security Council are not sufficiently loyal to Donald Trump. They may not break the law for you. Got get rid of them.
James: So he did.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: says says the blogger.
James: Yep. and just in case anybody doesn't remember, just because I say the name, like everybody knows who the name, Laura Loomer is the, she's the proud Islamophobe 2017. twenty seventeen She said she's pro white nationalism, right?
James: She says nine 11 was an inside job, right?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: course, of course.
James: She's so racist that Marjorie Taylor green said that she's fucking racist.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's pretty.
James: Yeah.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: It's pretty damning.
James: And, uh, all through the campaign anything else. and And she's been just glued to Trump's hip. I'll say, what I mean? ah Yeah, when they went to the 9-11 memorial service.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Well, I mean, you know, you know, Melania is not fucking him.
James: he's She's the one he took to the 9-11 memorial service, right? On That made them just lose their fucking minds because she's when it said 9-11 was all fake, it was inside job, you know, all that shit about it. So when he took her there and she was like ah attached to him, like if she wasn't fucking him, then she's at least blowing him.
James: You know what mean? He was like grabbing on him and sticking her tits up on him and, you know, for pictures and like, I mean yeah. Wow.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Wow.
James: So, but that's too the that's who's now calling the shots and saying who's, who's a you know, loyal or not loyal and who he needs to get rid of.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: wonder if she's another one of these bloggers who's getting paid by Russia.
James: ah probably but mean she's been around for a long time but she's a psycho though anyway anything you want to talk about no
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: No. um I'm tired. feel like we actually hit the full list. don't even remember the last time we hit the full list. It's been a while.
James: alright well good show maybe I don't know that's her uh 19 subscribers now? Something like that? twenty 20?
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah, we're up to... i think we can safely say we have fans now.
James: Double digits. Pretty soon we'll be able to say we have dozens of fans.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Yeah.
James: Dozens.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Soon.
James: Soon.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: Very soon.
James: Soon we'll be able say that. Alright.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: very soon.
James: Alright. Well, goodnight everybody. Goodnight everybody listening.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: And good luck.
James: Good luck. And see you next week. Talk to you later.
GABRIEL ZIEGLER: See you next week.
