Speaker 1: Let's go to Rockman from Minneapolis. Welcome back to the program. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Thank you, David. How's your day going today? It's going well. Yeah. My first
question is, how would you compare Donald Trump to past Republican leaders like Richard Nixon,
Reagan, Bush, and how in how they conducted business in this country and their scandals?
Speaker 1: Well, I think that Trump has done. I mean, listen, compared to most of the people you
listed, all of them, Trump has had way more wrongdoing that he's engaged in than any of
them. I think the difference is Trump has had the benefit of the right wing media machine,
including Fox News and Newsmax and right wing media and and defenders to the death on social
media and on and on and on. But I think that look at the list of all the things that Donald Trump
has done. Look at just look at all the criminal investigations that he's under right now. So I
think that Trump is worse in terms of misdeeds. I think Trump's dumber than most of them. I mean,
Nixon was a horrible person, but he was quite smart. Reagan, you know, was no genius. But he
was he was relatively smart. Bush was kind of like one when it started with the whole kind of dim
thing. But again, Bush seems like a mensa member compared to Trump. So I think that Trump is also
particularly just dumb in a very superficial way. Speaker 2: Yeah, like what I believe is like like
with Nixon. He didn't have the right wing media back then. If he did, I don't think
he would have been impeached. Right. And then with Reagan, I feel like with Donald Trump,
he's essentially taking every he's taking every bad part of each of those presidents. With Reagan,
he had the Iran-Contra scandal. With Nixon was Watergate and with Bush. It was it was about
lying about WMDs and and torturing people. Speaker 1: Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think
you're spot on that. Had Nixon had the benefit of this right wing media machine that was defending
everything he said all the time, constantly. It is quite possible that public opinion among
Republicans would not have shifted. Republicans would not have gone to Nixon and said, Listen,
if you don't resign, we're going to have to impeach you. And that that
it could have actually saved Nixon. And so the really scary thing there is more about.
Trump did enough horrible things that were it not for were it not for the right wing media
apparatus. Trump might have had to resign. Trump in the seventies, might have had to
resign. And that really puts a big spotlight for the horrible, destructive nature of right
wing media. And we should not forget that. Speaker 2: Yeah. Second, second question
before I go, this is very quick with with a lot of people go with a lot of people going
against progressives. I'm like progressives. All they want to do is make people's lives better,
like versus centrist versus wing versus people in the right wing. Left progressives,
all they really want to do is make people's lives better. So why are so many people going
against them, even though the only thing that they care about is making everybody
have the same equal footing in this country? Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I completely agree with
your perspective. And the counterpoint is the right would say, no, no, no, listen.
As the government. What we want the government doing is not making people's lives better. It's
letting people live the life they want to live. And if some people don't want a better life,
then we should allow them to do it. It's a nanny state that forces themselves upon you.
That's the way that the right would approach it. Speaker 2: Yeah, but with we're Republicans talk
about small, small government and staying out of people's lives. Yeah. They're actually lying to
people with progressive. Of course they. They actually they actually want to stay
on people's lives and make people's lives better. That's all they really want to do.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I agree with you completely. But good luck convincing
a Republican of that. Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: All right. Ron Paul from Minneapolis, great to hear from you
again. Very much appreciate it. Let's go to Alex from Baltimore. Alex, welcome back to the program.
Hello. Speaker 2: Hey, David, can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Yes, I can. Speaker 2: All right,
real quick, I wanted to say congrats on the baby. It's been a little while. Thank you. Your
espresso budget increase since then? Speaker 1: You know, it really hasn't
changed dramatically, I have to tell you, because, you know, one of the things this
I hate to admit this, but with my particular espresso machine, I am much better at getting
a double shot just right than a single. So often what I do and I know it's wasteful,
but at the end of the day, it's just water. Even if I only want a single shot, I'm usually
making a double and then just dumping the second shot that I don't want. So all that I've really
been doing sometimes is just having the second shot. So it hasn't really changed the budget.
Speaker 2: Well, lucky you. Yeah. Speaker 1: Now, wait, is that surprising?
Speaker 2: I'll just watch that with our child. It was a lot rough going the first
few months with sleep, so I definitely had lots of red eyes and extra coffee.
Speaker 1: That's listen, it's rough, but it's like, how much coffee am I really
going to have, you know? Speaker 2: That's fair.
I'll just play around. Speaker 1: All right? I mean,
I guess a lot is the answer. Who knows? Speaker 2: Yeah, very real question. Yeah.
So I heard something about. Eliminating the filibuster. So I'm not against it in principle
or anything. But I but I do wonder, like if we just got rid of it, period. Like, for example,
Trump's first two years in office, wouldn't they have just been able to just pass all sorts of
crazy, horrible stuff? And how would we stop that without the filibuster? And or is that just a risk
we have to take to get stuff done now? Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately. Listen,
the retrospective stuff I think is fine. It's like, well, listen, if we only needed 51 instead
of 60 on this, then it might have passed or whatever. The problem is that usually when
people talk about that, you're going backwards only a very narrow amount of time. And also so
what you have to think about is imagine that the filibuster had been previously done away with and
then think about all of the things Republican would have been able to pass when they had the
opportunity and also if Democrats did away with the filibuster. Now, think about what that would
mean for Republicans and what they're willing to do at some future point. So I think that's
all fine. I really do think the right way to think about the filibuster is less about what
could we have done during this narrow window, but what might they do? It should just be. Listen.
At its core. Are there certain things where there should be 60 votes in favor or should everything
just be 51? I actually think we need to just be honest about how it needs to be organized.
Are there things where we should have even more support than that because they are so significant
and impactful to American life? I don't pretend to know the answer, but I think the best way to
think about this is less about we could have done this if we had gotten rid of the filibuster in
January of 2020. I don't I don't know. I mean, yes, we can play that game. But it really is
about does it make sense that in this country you need a simple majority or are there certain things
where you actually should have a 60% majority or even greater? And to start with that, rather than
just the politics of it, if that makes sense. Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I get that. I would just
personally, I would say split the difference and make it 55. That's just my personal
take. Take it or leave it. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen,
it's. It's a matter. There's no right answer. It's like you could have someone who says, you know,
I think anything that has to do with taxes should have 57 votes and anything with health care should
have 55. And anything with budget should be you, you. Everybody will have a different opinion. And
I don't know that there's any right or wrong necessarily. But fundamentally, that's the
philosophical question that this is all about. Speaker 2: Right. I just want to hear your
take. I appreciate it. Speaker 1: All right,
Alex from Baltimore, thank you very much. Let's go next to Joe, Joe from
California. Joe, Joe, welcome to the show. What's on your mind?
Jojo from California. What's on your mind?
Jojo from California, your turn to speak. Your unmuted. You're on. You can speak now.
All right. Jojo from California clearly having apparently some kind of technical issues of
various kinds. Joe, Joe, I I'm sorry that we are not going to be able to speak, but there
is some kind of technical problem. Have Joe. Joe, you're muted yourself. Joe, Joe, are you back now?
No. All right. Well, Joe, Joe's gone. Let's go to Chris. Chris,
welcome to the program. What's on your mind? Speaker 2: Thank you, Mrs. Miller.
Speaker 1: Chris, you're on the program. What's going on? So you're live right now.
Speaker 2: Examiner. Speaker 1: Chris, your life.
Speaker 2: Is David. Speaker 1: Pakman. Welcome.
Speaker 2: I had to go. Speaker 1: Chris, you're on the air right now,
and we can hear you going, my friend. Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sitting
here. Listen, I'm at work right now. My guy. Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm talking to you, Chris.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm saying I'm at work right now. I can't talk.
I just listen and then go. Speaker 1: All right? Okay.
Works going okay for you? Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah,
I apologize. No, no, no. I apologize. Speaker 1: Again. What kind of work do you do?
Speaker 2: I'm a manager and a distributor. Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: What's going
on with the beer world these days? Speaker 2: In fact, it was a lot
of ideas coming out. Speaker 1: Is it is
it just an IPA fiasco these days? Speaker 2: Yeah. Like, right now,
I've got a case in here that's worth $120. The 24 beers.
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness. What countries that from?
Speaker 2: No. There's a local government off right outside of
Philadelphia. Oh, my God. You. Billy, don't. Speaker 1:
Sorry. What was that, Billy? Speaker 2: I said how my boy
Jimmy from Philly doing? Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He hadn't been playing and he was working.
Speaker 1: We haven't been getting any. Speaker 2: Wow. Concern. Well,
listen, take care. It is a. Speaker 1: Pleasure having
you on. All right, my friend. Speaker 2: Thank you, my guy.
Speaker 1: All right. There is Chris from Pennsylvania. And I think we got to call it
quits when we're ahead, folks. So we are going to do it for calls for the
week. We will speak to more people next week. We'll take a quick break
and then get to your emails and many more things. Quick break and back after this.