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Unknown A
Introducing the award winning Pod 4 Ultra from Eight Sleep, a high tech mattress cover you can easily add to your existing mattress. The pod changes the temperature of your mattress. You can set it anywhere from 55 to 110 degrees, letting you and your partner set different temperatures on each side. I keep mine at 60 so that I don't get hot. It can also adjust the position of your mattress to reduce snoring and you get 30 days to try and decide. If you love it, go to 8sleep.com pacman and use the code PACMAN to get $350 off your pod for Ultra. The link is in the description. Welcome to the show. If you're hearing this clearly, you survived the weekend and what a weekend it was. We're going to talk about the Oval Office meeting with Trump, J.D. vance and Zelensky. We are going to talk about the new GDP decline prediction from the Atlanta Fed and so much more, including this completely whacked out Tulsi interview where she seems almost like a Kremlin spokeswoman.
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Unknown A
It's really outrageous stuff. I have a very exciting announcement. I have here with me the first hardcover copy and it is, it's stiff as a board. I can't even bend this thing. The first hardcover copy of my book the Echo Machine. We're just three weeks plus a day away. It's all happening. If you would like a signed copy. Davidpakman.com Booksmith I'll be up at Brookline Booksmith in a couple weeks signing books of 550 so far to be signed. Gonna be quite, quite a day. Bringing a bunch of big Trump style sharpies. But the first hardcover book is in my hand. There's a picture of me in it which is really crazy. But this is really exciting. Also want to say thanks. Thanks to so many of you. Last week we went from being ranked around 120th on the top news podcasts to 60th. Okay, from 120th to 60th.
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Unknown A
We are making a big push on the audio podcast. We passed Tim Pool. We passed Benny Johnson. So help us keep it going no matter where you listen, no matter where you watch. You can subscribe to the podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It really helps us. And updates on ratings coming up. Very, very. We've got the strongest marks these days. It's hard to believe. All right, listen, Global shame. This is the only way that I can genuinely and honestly and frankly describe to you the completely abortive press conference in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. J.D. vance and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Now we are seeing in the reaction to this event gone wrong completely different worldviews because there are those who saw what I am about to play for you. Donald Trump and J.D. vance berating and yelling at Zelensky.
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Unknown A
And as a sign of strength, this is how Alphas behaved. It was so great for Trump and JP Mandel to put Zelensky in his place. He should be more thankful. He should be praying at the altar of Trump. This is not the global interpretation and in fact world leaders rallying behind Zelensky after embarrassing and childish treatment of him by Trump and J.D. so let's pick this up. This was a 50 minute event overall. Let's pick this up where it starts to get very dicey.
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Unknown B
Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go. We signed him gas contract. Gas contract, yes. But after that he broke in the ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy J.D. yoski came about? What do you mean?
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Unknown C
I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office try to litigate this in front of American media. Right now you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring it into this.
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Unknown B
You say what problems we have.
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Unknown C
I have been to, I've actually, I've actually watched, watched and seen the stories and I know I've watched TV.
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Unknown A
Mr. President, happens is you bring people.
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Unknown C
You bring them on a propaganda tour. Mr. President, are, do you disagree that you've had problems like bringing people in your military and do you think this respectful belongs to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack. The administration is trying to try to prevent the destruction of your country.
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Unknown B
A lot of questions. Let's start from the beginning.
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Unknown A
Sure.
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Unknown B
First of all, during the war everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless. God bless.
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Unknown D
God bless you. Don't tell us why we're going to feel we're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel.
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Unknown B
I'm not telling you.
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Unknown D
You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel.
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Unknown B
We're going to feel very good.
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Unknown D
We're going to feel very good and very strong. You're right now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a.
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Unknown B
Very bad position from the very beginning of the war.
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Unknown D
You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now with us. You start having right now. You don't. You're gambling with lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three.
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Unknown A
Putin sitting at the Kremlin, just loving this, loving this.
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Unknown D
And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country. That's far more than a lot of people say they should have.
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Unknown C
You said thank you once.
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Unknown A
No, you should be groveling, Mr. President, groveling on the floor.
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Unknown C
You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country.
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Unknown B
Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you.
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Unknown D
He's not speaking loudly. He's not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble. Get out. No, no. You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.
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Unknown A
I know.
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Unknown D
You're not winning. You're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of getting out.
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Unknown A
Okay?
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Unknown B
Because of President, we are staying in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war, we've been alone and we are single. I said thanks.
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Unknown D
We gave you stupid president, $350 billion military equipment, and you met a brave. But they had to use our military. If you didn't have our military equipment, if you didn't have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks. In three days.
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Unknown B
I heard it from Putin. In three days. This is something. In two weeks. Of course, yeah, it's going to be.
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Unknown D
A very hard thing to do. Business like this.
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Unknown C
Say thank you.
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Unknown B
I said that there are disagreements and.
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Unknown C
Let'S go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out.
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Unknown A
So anyway, you know, if there is anything that we can say with certainty here, it's that this absolutely humiliating event drove Europe to the defense of Ukraine, pushed world leaders to say, hey, you know what? We're actually seeing this for what it is in our countries, no matter what's happening in that Oval Office. And something very strange seems to be where all of a sudden they're on the side of the authoritarian, brutal dictator Putin, who we stand with you. And this included Canada, this included the UK this includes France. This includes our Western democratic allies. Now, there were questions as to whether this was a planned ambush. You know, this event was 50 minutes and it went haywire during minute 45. So my instinct is, no, it wasn't a planned ambush, but this was the boiling over of a Trump administration that's extraordinarily enamored with Putin and just very skeptical of Ukraine, the defender, the aggrieved.
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Unknown A
In this particular situation, we have to also acknowledge that there are people, you look online in the typical enclaves of MAGA ism and you see them absolutely thrilled that someone finally put Zelenskyy in his place. This guy shows up, he doesn't say thank you. He doesn't even wear a suit. And we'll get to the suit part a little bit later. And Trump and JD finally had the testicular fortitude to put this guy in his place. If that's your view, you are not going to be on the side of democracy when it comes to global affairs. You're going to be on the side of authoritarianism and autocracy, dictatorship and invasions and taking things by force. That's not the side that the majority of Americans are on, fortunately. So planned ambush, if you're determined to do this, I don't think you wait until minute 45 out of a 50 minute event, especially since it's sort of related to the dynamics with Zelensky.
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Unknown A
But was there a boiling over that was there based on emotions prior to this meeting? Yes, it does seem that way. So now the question is, it appears as though the US Is going to pull back in terms of support of Ukraine. At least based on how this went, it seems like our allies are mostly going to push forward and expand their support of Ukraine. What happens now with Putin, who is loving that this took place? That's the critical question when it comes to the future of Ukraine. Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend dressed up as a reporter and attacked Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky because he wasn't wearing a suit. And saying more generally, why don't you wear a suit? Do you own a suit? This was a particularly embarrassing video for what supposedly is a free press. This guy really doing a great job of pretending to be a reporter, but we know he's nothing other than a tool of Trumpism.
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Unknown A
Here is the moment during the Oval Office fiasco during which Brian Glenn, the boyfriend of radical and repugnant reactionary Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, said, do you even own a suit? Why don't you wear a suit?
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Unknown D
Why don't you wear A suit.
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Unknown C
You're the highest level in this country's office and you refuse to wear a suit.
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Unknown A
Just want to see if you do own a suit.
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Unknown B
Yeah. Problems.
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Unknown E
A lot of Americans have problems with people.
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Unknown B
I don't have. I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Yes, Maybe. Maybe something like yours. Yes. Maybe some. Something better. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe something cheaper.
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Unknown A
Yeah.
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Unknown B
Thank you.
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Unknown A
There was some Lost in Translation moment here where it appeared as though Zelensky is calling what Ryan Glenn is wearing a costume, like C O S T U M E. Apparently this, this was a, this was a translation issue because there's a Ukrainian word which sounds almost exactly like costume. It's spelled with a K and it means a suit. So that little detail may have been kind of lost in translation moment, but this is part of the we're really big and tough and we tell it like it is. Why don't you wear a suit? Now, I wonder, would Brian Glenn, had he been around earlier in the 20th century, would he have asked the same question of Winston Churchill? When Winston Churchill went to the White House and as we put up the picture here for you as well, did not wear a suit because he was also at war, would the same question have been asked, would Churchill have been called disrespectful by Brian Glenn?
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Unknown A
Well, the difference is that when it came to World War II, the United States was decidedly against dictatorial autocratic authoritarianism, whereas the Trump White House, when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, seems to subtly and lately not so subtly, be on the side of the authoritarian dictatorial autocracy which is led by Vladimir Putin. So Glenn, of course, is a pathetic lapdog for Trumpism. He goes out there and he'll do whatever needs to be done to please his handlers. And by handlers, I don't mean, I don't mean whatever network he's at now, I don't even know where he is. Is he independent? Is he still at right side broadcasting? I mean, the cultural and social milieu of Trumpism in which he's now invited to Mar a Lago with Marjorie Taylor Greene and the whole thing. And so he's willing to go out there and ask the very stupid questions.
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Unknown A
What an embarrassing event for the United States. The world is looking. You should see the emails I've gotten from people all over the world saying, david, we are so sorry to see the United States under Trump taking the side of the anti democratic forces globally. And of course, if you've been following Trump, you know, he's not impressed with our Western liberal allies. He's impressed with dictators and autocrats and authoritarianisms. Authoritarians and Brian Glenn doing his part to show I'm with you guys. I'm with you guys. What an embarrassing moment for the country. Let's talk about a game changer in sleep technology. Our sponsor Eight Sleep and their revolutionary pod 4 Ultra. The pod is a high tech mattress cover and you can easily add it to your existing mattress. You can cool or heat your mattress based on your preferences and even elevate your head if you snore.
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Unknown A
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Unknown A
Go to 8sleep.com pacman Use the code PACMAN to get 350 off your pod 4 ultra. The link is in the Description the David Pakman show continues to be funded primarily by our audience through the membership program. I can't thank enough all of the folks who signed up@join pacman.com in February. We are now into March and and I invite you to get instant access to all of the member benefits. This includes the bonus show, the commercial free audio and video streams, the members only soundboard, and all of the other stuff that you can read about@join pacman.com also thank you so much to everybody who has pre ordered my forthcoming book. We are trying to now push to 7,000 pre orders by March 25th. I've got the first hardcover copy here in my hands and you can preorder it signed@david pakman.com Booksmith or not signed or the audiobook version or the Kindle version at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or any local bookstore of your choice.
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Unknown A
Well, it is happening. The GDP now model is predicting a GDP decline in Donald Trump's first quarter in Office. The Atlanta Fed's GDP now model is predicting that gross domestic product in the United States will go down, not up 1.5% for the first quarter of 2025. That's right. TRUMP walks in the door and the first GDP number is now expected to be a decline. Now, I want to be fair and objective here. This forecast is not an official Fed prediction. It's based on early economic data. It could change. But here's what we do know. This very same model was predicting 2.3% growth just weeks ago. Donald Trump then took office. Consumer spending has collapsed. Consumer confidence has declined. Exports are falling off of a cliff. Eggs are at the highest price they've ever been in the history of the United States. And now we are looking at negative growth.
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Unknown A
Now I'm scared and I'm sorry and I'm sad to say this, but this might just be the beginning. When you look at what we know, consumer spending shrank in January. That's when people are often spending holiday bonuses they received or gift money. But this year down 0.2%. And after adjusting for inflation, consumer spending down 0.5%. That is a brutal indicator of economic confidence. Secondly, exports, as I mentioned, exports are dragging down the GDP projections from a slightly negative contribution of -0.4% to a disastrous -3.7%. The effect of exports on GDP. The labor market is starting to soften. Unemployment claims have now hit their highest level since October. The bond market is flashing recession warnings with a inverted yield curve, historically one of the most reliable indicators that something not so good is coming. And while all of this is happening, what is Donald Trump doing?
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Unknown A
Is he putting together a coherent economic strategy? No, of course not. He's screaming about retribution. He's scolding and yelling at President Zelensky. He's threatening journalists. He's working on these mass deportations that will further destabilize the economy. And he is playing a hell of a lot of golf. And just understand, MAGA will not take responsibility for this. If we go into a recession, if unemployment spikes, if businesses start closing, do you know who they're going to blame? It's not going to be Trump. It's not going to be their own disastrous economic policies. It'll be Biden's fault. It'll be the fault of immigrants. It'll be the fault of corporations that went woke or of DEI crt. Maybe they will rehabilitate. Trump inherited an economy with significantly cooled inflation, steady job growth. Right. You don't have to believe everything was perfect on January 20th. As I have told you, we look at the indicators.
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Unknown A
It's not mind blowing, but the Biden numbers were pretty good. Wages rising in excess of inflation. And we're starting to see the cracks, jittery markets, businesses that say, man, the tariffs will determine what I should be doing. Complete and total uncertainty. I guess we'll wait also. And now just dropping this hammer of the expectation of negative 1.5% GDP growth. Remember, we were told that Trump's policies would be so pro growth that it doesn't matter if they cost money. It doesn't matter if the tax cuts for the rich incorporations that are now being pushed are going to be revenue negative because they will stimulate the economy so much that GDP will go up and revenue is going to then increase. That's not the prediction of the Atlanta Fed. Now, let me address one other aspect to this and I think this is, sadly, I may have to do this a number of times.
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Unknown A
I continue to get emails from people saying, david, you seem delighted at the economic misery that may be forthcoming. I am not rooting for this. Much the opposite. Call me self centered and greedy. I don't want to be logging into my mutual fund account, my retirement account, my daughter's 529 and seeing a bloodbath. So this is not political. We are reporting the facts as we get them. I gave you the economic indicators on January 20. We gave it a month, just like I said we would. I gave you the economic indicators a month later. It was, I think March 20th, maybe it was a weekender. In any case, around March 22nd or 23rd, I reported to you. Here's what the economic indicators did in the first month. Some of these are completely flat. Some of these are starting to look not so good. I am not rooting for this.
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Unknown A
I'm rooting for the opposite. I would like the country to do well under Trump because what's most important to me is not Trump's legacy, but what is the state of suffering or thriving of the average American. And it gives me no pleasure to report to you that this GDP expectation has now done a complete and total 180. I hope it's wrong. Like I said, this is just a prediction which could be wrong or it may change. And that's what I'm hoping for. But right now it is not looking so good. Elon Musk suffered a total collapse on the Joe Rogan podcast. The topic of the Nazi salute came up. The topic of Social Security came up. The topic of Elon being assassinated came up. And this is about as bad as you could imagine it being. Let's start with Joe Rogan saying, how could it be that you buy Twitter for billions and then people call you a Nazi?
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Unknown A
And Elon explains he is definitely not.
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Unknown E
A Nazi when you're going through all this USAID stuff.
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Unknown A
Yeah.
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Unknown E
Like, here's what's weird. First of all, what is it like to buy a company for $44 billion? And then people call you Nazi on that same thing that you bought?
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Unknown F
I did not see it coming.
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Unknown A
Isn't that funny?
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Unknown F
It's classic.
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Unknown A
So funny. Rogan's just in stitches.
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Unknown F
People will go something down.
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Unknown E
Yeah. Oh, he's never going to stop. What is it like? Like, all of a sudden, the left was in love with you.
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Unknown F
Yeah.
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Unknown E
And now the same idiots are calling you a Nazi. The most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life.
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Unknown A
You know, one of the things they love talking about is people used to think one thing about you and now they've changed what they think. And that's crazy, but sometimes the opinions of people change based on what the person does. Elon used to be this sort of doofusy, awkward, kind of antisocial tech guy who dramatically accelerated electric vehicles by his actions at Tesla and so on and so forth. And so we saw him as a kind of benign guy who was doing some good things. Now all of a sudden, he's wrapped up in political extremism. He's getting involved in all sorts of. You know, he said something about how his son died because of the Woke Mind virus, all this crazy stuff. And so, yes, it is a different Elon Musk. So people's opinion of him have changed. That's not crazy.
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Unknown F
I mean, there's so many examples of.
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Unknown E
People saying, my heart goes out to you. A little enthusiasm. That probably wouldn't be recommended with hindsight.
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Unknown F
Yes, but I was also meant in the most positive spirit possible.
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Unknown A
Yes, obviously.
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Unknown E
But it's so strange where people want to think that you are openly, public, publicly doing secret Nazi se hand motion.
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Unknown A
It's openly, publicly, secretly, openly, publicly, secret them.
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Unknown F
Now, I can never point at things diagonally. I can only point at things there and there. And then that's. You have to divide that.
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Unknown E
Yeah.
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Unknown F
Because that's where the spaceship is over there. That's ridiculous.
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Unknown E
It's ridiculous. When cnn, when I was in all the trouble.
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Unknown F
Absurd.
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Unknown E
Every time CNN used a photo of me, it was one of the photos from the Yossi Wayans where I go like, yans. So every photo is me. Every photo is me with this. It's so crazy.
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Unknown F
It's a little bit of propaganda. So they know it was not. It was obviously notch meant in a negative way that it was that I literally said a hot goes out to you. And it was very positive.
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Unknown A
The entire speech was all right, so it's all cool. But then more substantively, Elon drops this bottle Baum about how Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Listen to what he had to say.
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Unknown F
I mean, the government's one big promise scheme, if you ask me. Well, Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, right?
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Unknown A
Explain that.
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Unknown F
Oh, so well, people pay into Social Security and the money goes out of Social Security immediately. But the obligation for Social Security is your entire retirement career. So you're paying. You're paying. Like if you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds the tax revenue far. Have you looked at the debt?
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Unknown A
Elon is so incoherently explaining this that I'm just going to take over. So he says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme because the money that's paid in by the people still working immediately comes out. Now, a Ponzi scheme would be, there's really no money invested. Okay, so the way a Ponzi scheme works would be investor number one invests a million dollars and you think that it's invested in a mutual fund, for example, and it's not right. Just like the people running this fund are just taking the money. The next person comes in and invests $2 million. And then when the first investor wants to pull their money out, their supposed earnings come out of that $2 million that the second investor put in. But there's never really any underlying investments. Like it eventually collapses when there aren't enough new investors to pay the returns. That's a Ponzi scheme.
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Unknown A
It's a very defined type of scam. Social Security is a pay as you go system. So that's what Elon is kind of getting at here. Current workers pay into it and that funds benefits for current retirees. It's not, it's not a Ponzi scheme. It's not designed to generate profits. It's just a system based on the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The U.S. government has the authority to tax, it has the authority to borrow. It's not a secret that it's pay as you go. Social Security is designed to be self sustaining over time. Now the issue we are coming up against is that as more people retire, if you have more retirees relative to workers, you can have an insolvent or partially insolvent Social Security trust fund. Right. Now, if nothing is done right, this is. This is. If you do nothing, the trust fund would be depleted in the mid-2030s.
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Unknown A
That's if you make no changes. But it would still be able to meet 75 to 80% of scheduled benefits. So it would be depleted in terms of accumulated money, but everybody would still be able to get 80% of their promise benefits. It's not a collapse. It's just a shortfall. Now, with some small adjustments, we've talked about a slight raise to the cap. There's a bunch of different ways to do it. You solve the problem. That's not a Ponzi scheme. It's the system as designed, with a growing imbalance of workers to retirees, which needs to be addressed, not the Ponzi scheme that Elon makes it out to be. Now, at another moment, during this interview, they spoke to Grok. Grok is the Twitter agency, AI chat bot, sort of version of Chat GPT. Very funny stuff.
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Unknown G
No, she's just a pain in my ass.
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Unknown E
Yes, yes, yes.
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Unknown A
Isn't that funny? It's just. It's a really, really funny stuff. And finally, Elon Musk says some of the stuff he's up to, some of the stuff he's talking about, it could get him assassinated and what other methods.
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Unknown F
I mean, this is really gonna get me assassinated. It's like, I'm not lengthening my lifespan by explaining this stuff, to say the least. I mean, I was supposed to go back to dc. How am I gonna survive? This book is gonna kill me for sure. So, in fact, I. I do think like this. It's like I actually have to be careful that I don't push too hard on the corruption stuff, because it's gonna get me killed.
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Unknown A
Right. If he really. This is why he won't be able to root out corruption, because he's ready to do it. He's ready to do it, but they'll.
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Unknown F
Kill him, you know? Yeah. You know?
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Unknown A
All right. Anyway, the fact that this guy is arguably the most powerful person in American government right now, if it doesn't terrify you, you must not be paying attention. Don't forget that the best way to support the David Pakman show is by becoming a member, which gives you access to the daily bonus show, the regular show with no commercials. You also get access to our entire archive of every episode dating back a really long time, and plenty of other awesome membership perks. Go to join pacman.com join pacman.com can Donald Trump read. This is the question that people have been asking since Donald Trump was handed a letter from King Charles by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and handed it back, asking Starmer to read it out loud. Now, if this sounds familiar, it's because everything old is new. Again, you might remember back from Donald Trump's first term, my Giga viral video.
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Unknown A
Oh, does Donald Trump know how to read? And in that video, we looked at widespread evidence that Donald Trump, while not literally illiterate, may be functionally illiterate, struggling to read, and partially may simply be too vain to wear the reading glasses that he appears to need. Another reason why he tries to avoid reading off of papers in public. Now, there is a new video that is once again raising concerns about this. In this video, you will see Trump sort of act like he's reading this letter from King Charles, but he doesn't address anything in the letter. He hands it back and asks Starmer, tell us what is in this letter. Once again raising the specter that this guy has very limited reading ability.
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Unknown H
It is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King a letter he sent his best wishes and his regards, of course, but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. So can I present a letter from the King?
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Unknown D
Thank you very much. Am I supposed to read it right now?
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Unknown A
Yeah, please do.
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Unknown D
I will.
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Unknown H
I've got to tell you what your reaction is.
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Unknown A
I need to know.
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Unknown D
He's a great gentleman. Great, great gentleman. Oh, that's. Well. Well, that is really nice. I must make sure his signature is on that, otherwise it's not quite as meaningful. It is. And that's quite a signature, isn't it beautiful? He's a beautiful man, a wonderful man, and we appreciate it. I've known him, gotten to know him very well, actually, first term, and now a second term. Perhaps you'd like to say what that very important character.
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Unknown A
Yes, please tell us what it says.
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Unknown H
This is a letter from especially the King. It's an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented. And I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. So this is a very special letter. I think the last day visit was a tremendous success. His Majesty came out to make this even.
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Unknown A
All right, so you get it. And this just won't go away because it's always weird when Trump is handed stuff to read. Now, you may recall this Pete Davidson story. Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live has gone on record saying that the guy can't read.
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Unknown G
I have one story I'm allowed to tell, and it's hilarious.
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Unknown A
You're not allowed to tell what happened.
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Unknown G
With the Trump story. So he's like, he doesn't really know how to read.
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Unknown A
For real?
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Unknown G
Yeah. And he loves to improv.
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Unknown A
Yeah.
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Unknown G
So during, like, the table read, he, like before, like we were going to read before, he had to read each line. And he's the host, so he's at everything. He would go, I'm not going to say this. I would say the way I want to say. Is it okay?
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Unknown A
Is it okay, Lauren?
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Unknown I
Everything.
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Unknown G
Everybody's like, what? And then this is my favorite part is there was a sketch that we wrote where he's at Disneyland with his daughter. And the line is, all right, let's get out of here, turkey legs. Like, let's, like, go get turkey legs. And he doesn't know how to read, so he went, all right, let's get out of here, turkey legs. He called his daughter turkey legs.
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Unknown A
That was his improv.
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Unknown F
Oh, no.
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Unknown A
It was. And then he looked. He doesn't get it.
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Unknown G
Like, he thinks everybody's laughing with him, but we're all laughing at him.
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Unknown A
And it was like. So anyway, I don't know what's going on with Trump's reading. It's not a new story. It just won't go away. And every opportunity, it seems like he's struggling. Now, I'm going to be totally frank with you. He may just need reading glasses and he doesn't like the way he looks with them. So he's looking at blurry words on the page. It could be that simple. But with Trump, you just never know. And once again, can the guy read? I don't know. Tulsi Gabbard, the new Director of National Intelligence. Gag went full Kremlin spokeswoman during a Fox News interview yesterday. How truly humiliating for the United States. Sounding very much like Dmitry Peskov, Putin propagandist Tulsi accuses Zelensky of escalating. He should have not escalated and just let Putin take what he wants, help himself to whatever.
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Unknown I
What happened in the White House after close to an hour of conversation when President Zelensky directly challenged President Trump and Vice President Vance in front of the media and the American people. He really showed his lack of interest in any real good faith negotiations.
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Unknown A
This is the pro Putin reaction to what happened in the Oval Office. Zelenskyy was rude. Zelensky caused an escalation. Rather, he's part of the problem. And meanwhile, very calm, very demure. Vladimir Putin just says let's get together and chat. Putin's being the adult and Zelensky's being like this escalating little kid throwing tantrums.
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Unknown I
Tell you, there were a lot of conversations that were happening through different emissaries, both for Zelensky and for President Trump leading up to his visit there to the Oval Office. And President Zelensky's immediate escalation there was, was frankly quite a surprise. This has created a huge rift in the relationship. President Zelensky, as you pointed out in the clips that you played, doesn't believe that he did anything wrong and that there was no issue with what he brought up in the Oval Office. With President Trump, there's going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good faith negotiations.
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Unknown A
The idea that Putin and Trump will be doing the good faith negotiations with no problem, but Zelensky is going to have to be a good boy and he's going to have to help rebuild before any good. It is just a laughable perspective. Now, there was another moment during this interview where there was a very simple opportunity to criticize Putin for his aggression and for his invasion. And Tulsi just pivots to instead attacking President Zelensky.
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Unknown J
Also in more alignment. They should be with the US when it comes to those freedoms and things you talk about. Certainly those are not things that you would say that Russia or Putin celebrates or bestows on his own people.
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Unknown I
That's correct. I would not make that claim and it's clear that that's not the case, nor does President Trump. But that's not really what we're talking about here. We're talking about many of these European countries and Zelensky himself, who claimed to be standing and fighting for the cause of freedom and democracy. When we actually look at what's happening in reality in these countries as well as with Zelensky's government in Ukraine is the exact opposite. You have the canceling of elections in Ukraine. You have political parties being silenced or even criminalized or thrown in prison. You have the freedom of religion, churches being shut down. You have political opposition being silenced. You have total government control of the media.
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Unknown A
Now, just about everything she points to there is happening in Russia far more heavy handedly. And thanks to Putin now some of what she says is taking place in Ukraine. For example, elections are suspended in Ukraine during times of war. I don't like that. I think that it would be good to have elections anyway. We did it in the United States during the Iraq war. Ok. I don't like it. But Zelensky didn't come up with that. That is part of Ukrainian law, this subjugation of media control. That's what's happening in Russia. And there seems to be just an unwillingness to hold both countries to the same standard, even when it is clear that one country, Russia, is the aggressor here. Now, finally in this interview, moments after being shown polling that shows most of the American people don't really like Trump's cozying up to Putin, Tulsi goes, oh, no, no, no.
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Unknown A
Americans are celebrating what Trump is doing.
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Unknown J
Dimitri Pescoff saying, what the US Is doing is changing the game. And it largely coincides with our vision. What do you make of Russia Celebrating and saying what the US Is doing lines up with their vision.
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Unknown I
They're going to say what their position is. What we should pay attention to here in the United States of America is the American people. So many people across the country celebrating the strong leadership that President Trump and Vice President demonstrated in the Oval Office, something we have not seen over the last few years of the Biden administration. We finally have a president who's going to stand up strongly and fiercely and unwaveringly for the cause of peace and freedom for the American people.
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Unknown A
How heroic. How heroic. Despite the fact that the American people don't like Trump's cozying up to Putin, taking, giving him the benefit of the doubt and attacking President Zelensky despite that. It was so strong what JD And Donald did in that Oval Office and she absolutely loves it. My, how far Tulsi Gabbard has fallen. And you know, like her or hater Hillary Clinton was right about Tulsi and a lot of people didn't want to hear it years ago. But at the end of the day, she was completely correct. If you value what we do at the David Pakman show, remember to support us on patreon, go to patreon.com davidpakmanshow where you can get access to behind the scenes videos, the daily bonus show, the commercial free daily show. You can support the show for as little as $2 a month. Check it out at patreon.com David PakmanShow My friends, much like Plato, I am finding myself questioning democracy.
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Unknown A
Did you see video of the Oval Office, Donald Trump and J.D. vance berating and yelling at Ukrainian President Zelenskyy? And maybe you said to yourself, you know, maybe Plato was onto something. Maybe letting ignorant clowns decide how we run our country is a bad idea. Now, before the MAGA people start flipping out, I'm not actually calling for the suspension of democracy the way did multiple times. I am pro democracy, but this is sort of a thought experiment. And I do find myself feeling like Plato did. Now, I'm not saying let's put in some dictator or philosopher king. I am saying Plato's biggest fear about democracy is playing out in real time right now in the United States. What Plato said was that unchecked democracy will eventually fail under its own stupidity, or the stupidity of the average voter. If you let everyone vote as we do in democracies, at least supposedly, if you're uninformed, if you're detached from reality, you're still allowed to vote.
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Unknown A
And when that's the case, eventually the loudest and the most shameless liars will win. The ignorant will end up in charge. And what are we seeing today? We're seeing a con man, reality TV show host with dozens of felony charges as President of the United States. We're seeing the guy who bragged about I'm going to be a dictator on day one is the President. We're seeing the guy who gives unqualified friends and family jobs be the president. The guy who yells at the Ukrainian president while kowtowing to the Russian dictator is the president. And this is really not about left and right. This is simply about whether facts, logic, and basic reality can survive when millions of people prefer entertaining nonsense over the truth. And MAGA is the sort of final boss of entertaining nonsense. It's really Plato's nightmare. Now, democracy assumes an informed electorate.
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Unknown A
It assumes that people will act in their own best interests. But what happens when a significant chunk of voters are so propagandized to, so ignorant and so detached from reality that they can't even recognize a scam or what's truly in their best interests? What happens when they actively vote for their own destruction? MAGA voters cheer when Trump says he wants to gut Social Security because of fraud. They applaud when Trump brags about giving tax cuts to billionaires while they're struggling to afford groceries because it's going to be pro growth and great for everybody. They chant his name when he calls for shutting down the government programs that they depend on. They pray at the altar of Trump when he proposes tariffs that they are going to end up paying for. So maybe Plato had a point, because Plato warned that democracy, left to its own devices, eventually will elect the worst among us, and that if enough voters reject expertise and reject reason and choose leaders based on who yells the loudest, democracy is going to eat itself.
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Unknown A
And here we are. So what do we do? What we don't do is we don't sit back and kind of wait for a magic genie to fix it all. We need to stop treating ignorant, propagandized voters like an unfortunate side effect of democracy and say, this is an existential crisis. This is not the way democracy was supposed to work. Because if Plato was correct, and democracy is doomed to collapse under the weight of its own stupidity, the only real way forward is to fight like hell for an informed democracy. If we still believe that for all of its failings, democracy is the best system we've come up with, I tend to still believe that it is. And so I want to be clear that I'm not actually calling for the suspension of democracy. What I am pointing out is that when the population, when the electorate gets as painfully ignorant and uninformed and it's so easy to bamboozle, and as we are seeing here in the United States, we end up with really unqualified, dangerous people in power.
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Unknown A
And once you open that door, once the genie is out of the bottle to stick with that, it's extraordinarily difficult to get it back in. And that's what we're seeing. I mean, as we started the show today and I said, you know, most of the world sees the Oval Office fiasco with Trump, JD And Zelensky as embarrassing for the United States. Most of the world has said, oh, wow, the US Is really going full dictator and saying the dictator who invaded is the guy we should defer to. And the democratically elected president who's defending his country needs to be berated and yelled at in the Oval Office. Most of the world said we should come to the defense of Zelensky here in the United States. A lot of magas saw that and said, good for Trump and J.D. for being tough. Now, I didn't mention this earlier, and it does bear mentioning.
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Unknown A
I don't know how many of you notice Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting next to JD during that. You can't always know what people are thinking from how they look. But by all accounts, Marco Rubio looked disgusted with what was going on. He seemed disgusted with the way that Trump and JP Mandel were treating Vladimir Zelensky. And so my suspicion is, and I'm going to talk to some Republicans kind of off the record this week, my suspicion is that a large share of the Republican Party right now did not like that and were not impressed and are not impressed with the way in which Tulsi and Trump and JD and others are more and more kind of favoring Putin. We will see. It is starting. The Trump Department of Defense has blocked the David Pakman show on all of their computers. But other right wing commentary websites are allowed.
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Unknown A
This is yet another reason to believe that just as I was recently warned by some lawyers, expect this administration to come after independent progressive media. Now I got an email from a viewer and this viewer is an active duty service member. And by the way, thank you for your service. This viewer wrote to me and explained what is going on and said, quote, hey there David Pakman. Sir, I am an active duty service member and very proud subscriber to your program and I tried accessing your website from work today. I was very surprised to see that your website is blocked on our Department of Defense network. Take a look at the attached screenshot. Interestingly, conservative websites like American Conservative and Hot Air are not blocked, even though they should also fall under streaming media, philosophy and political advocacy. Thankfully, we can still access your YouTube channel.
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Unknown A
Thanks for everything you do. That's right, my website, the David Pakman show is apparently too dangerous for the brave men and women defending our country. Here he is trying to access it, but as you can see, blocked. You know what isn't blocked? Right wing sites like the American conservative, right wing sites like Hot Air. So let's step back here for a second and talk about what's going on. The Defense Department claims that this is about restricting access to streaming media, philosophy and political advocacy. Okay, so does right wing propaganda not count as political advocacy? Now I'll be upfront. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice by the Trump era holdovers or people at DoD. Is it an algorithmic decision? Is it a bored IT guy playing favorites? I don't know. But what I do know is that the conservative content pipeline is alive and well in our military.
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Unknown A
Military. Because we've been hearing for years about how right wing content, whether it's Fox News blaring in the mass halls or extremist YouTube channels filling recommendations feeds, it is dominating, dominating military culture. And before some MAGA keyboard warrior says, well, just watch David on YouTube if that's what you want. Yeah, luckily YouTube is still accessible. But that's not the point. The point is that if this were happening in reverse, if Breitbart were blocked, but you could access davidpakman.com from DoD computers, Republicans would be melting down on Fox News right now about woke censorship and left wing propaganda. So what do we need to do? First of all, this needs to get attention. I want to hear from other members of the military. Have you seen similar issues? What other websites are blocked? What other websites aren't blocked? I would love to get more information. Secondly, we must support the independent shows that it is now clear the Trump administration is going to target however they can.
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Unknown A
It costs nothing to subscribe to our YouTube channel. It costs nothing to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and to leave a review. Now, of course, shows like ours do have memberships. Doesn't have to be this one. Support whatever show you want to. Financially, it's an option to support us, but at the end of the day, this is about information access. And if a sitting president can push disinformation and the next president can demand military tribunals for his enemies and a former general can suggest coups, then maybe we do need to be more worried about this than just what my website being blocked signals. And realize that there is a building. Whoa. There is a sort of building consensus here for this sort of bias and lack of objectivity. And we need to keep a very close eye on it. So it doesn't have to be this show that you support, but understand that independent progressive media right now really needs your support.
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Unknown A
If it's helping us get to 3 million YouTube subscribers, great. If it's helping some smaller show get to 100,000 YouTube subscribers or get their first hundred reviews on Apple podcasts. The bigger the ecosystem is, the better positioned we will all be to come to our shared defense. Sort of like NATO. If and when the you know what starts to hit the fan, which quite frankly seems to already be happening. Now, on today's bonus show, we are going to talk about a high school graduate who doesn't know how to read or write and she's suing, saying she is the victim. Secondly, Skype is going away. Microsoft says Skype will close down. And finally, the Fyre Festival seems to be back. Fyre Festival 2. It's not clear it really exists. It's a wacky situation. Get instant access to the bonus show by signing up@join pacman.com Remember, you can pre order my book out in just three weeks.
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Unknown A
The Echo Machine anywhere you want. On the back, beautiful blurbs from Brian Tyler Cohen, from Barbara McQuaid, from our friend Ben Meiselis from the Midas Touch Network. There is a picture. It is not strictly speaking a picture book, but it's mostly words. But if people you know only do picture books, there is one picture in the book and a couple charts. If you want a signed copy, you go to davidpakman.com booksmith or go to davidpakman.com echo or you can get the Kindle version, you can get the audiobook, the whole thing. I will see you on the bonus show. We've got a whole week of shows and I will be live for the State of the Union address tomorrow evening. I hope you will join me starting at 8pm Eastern 5pm Pacific YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live for the State of the Union interviews, all sorts of stuff.
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Unknown A
See you then. Thanks a lot for watching today's show. I just want to take a second to tell you about today's sponsors. Introducing the award winning Pod 4 Ultra from Eight Sleep, a high tech mattress cover you can easily add to your existing mattress. The pod changes the temperature of your mattress. You can set it anywhere from 55 to 110 degrees, letting you and your partner set different temperatures on each side. I keep mine at 60 so that I don't get hot. It can also adjust the position of your mattress to reduce snoring and you get 30 days to try and decide. If you love it, go to 8sleep.com pacman and use the code PACMAN to get $350 off your Pod 4 Ultra. The link is in the description.