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Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to

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this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon

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to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you

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want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

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my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,

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go to dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the

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subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your

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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for

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your support. One of the things that I have learned

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in this Trump era, and I impart the advice to

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everyone pro Trump, anti Trump, whatever it is, simply this,

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just give it a minute, right, Just give it a minute.

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Just be a little patient and see what happens. Right,

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if you are migrating illegally or legally from one outrage

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to another, okay, if you are just bouncing from you know,

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one Trump truth social posts to another, or one mean

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tweet to another, and one executive order to another. If

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you're just hopscotching around getting outraged or trying to defend

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every single thing in real time, you're gonna miss. You're

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gonna miss sort of the larger picture. So you just

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have to kind of slow down. I know they're going

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very fast. Trust me, Like this is this is an

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issue for everybody in media right now, because they are,

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as Elon Musk said, moving fast and breaking things. But

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he says, as he said today at the cabinet meeting,

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which is still going on, and they've allowed the media

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to come in and ask questions, that things are moving

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very fast. It's difficult for media to keep up. And

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so you're getting just this constant stream of reaction, and

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the reaction is largely based on prior biases. So if

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you hate Donald Trump and you are suffering from Trump

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derangement syndrome, you're just in this constant, perpetual state of outrage.

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And here's a really good example of it. Ukraine, Ukraine Zelenski,

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the president of Ukraine is coming back to America. He's

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going to be visiting soon again. It's coming back. He's

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going to meet with Trump. Why. Well, apparently they have

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struck a deal. So whatever you thought about Donald Trump's

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comments from the last week, and you know, why is

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he going after why is he saying these things, and

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why is he coosing up to Putin and all of this?

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What is the outcome? What has it yielded? According to

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the Associated Press, Ukraine and the United States have reached

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an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal

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that would include access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals. So,

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in other words, the very thing that they were trying

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to negotiate that Zelensky blew up and he did, right,

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he did. That. You always have to keep in mind

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with these types of things also is that you may

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not be the target audience. That there may be somebody

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else that the message is designed to impact. And I

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got to tell you, like when I saw, you know,

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Trump talking about Putin and people were like, oh, I

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got see, he's a Russian asset. No, he loves Putin,

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He's a dictator to an all. All of this my

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read on it is And I'm no master negotiator, but

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I've I've read over the years some tips from people

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who do negotiations, and I've also read some stuff about psychology,

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and it seemed to me at least that maybe this

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is stuff he has to say Trump that he has

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to say. Not somebody's forcing him, but he has to

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say this stuff in order to get Putin to the table.

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And if you go in there as an outspoken ally

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of one side of the negotiating table. Then you don't

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have any credibility with the other side at the negotiating table.

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And so, you know, you fluff Putin a little bit there,

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and you make them you know, you puff them up,

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you make them feel like, oh, this guy might be

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on our side. Oh he's receptive to us. He might

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be a neutral arbiter. And meanwhile, you know he's saying

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what he's saying about Zelensky. Oh he's a dictator, no

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elections and all of this. And so you got this

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war of words going on. But in the background that

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we don't see is that a deal is being hammered out.

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And is it possible that the performance that we see

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is not actually meant for us to see, it's meant

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for Putin to see. And again I'm no expert on this,

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but if I can see this as a potential explanation,

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you know, the Russians see it as that you know,

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Putin would even if they dismiss it as not true

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or they you know, they don't want to believe it

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or whatever, they think that it's not designed for him

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or whatever, but you know that they have obviously thought

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about it. They have to. You got to see as

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many angles as possible. Right, unchallenged ideas are easy to hold, right,

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And if every single thing that Trump says or does

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prompts the same reaction out of you that m Trump bad,

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then you're not a neutral observer any longer. You've abandoned

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any kind of critical thinking ability. So three senior Ukrainian officials,

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they are not named, but they talk to the Associated

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Press reportedly, if you can believe the AP, the officials

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who were familiar with the matter, I don't know what

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that means, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were

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not authorized to speak publicly. And now with that out

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of the way, now we can totally believe them. No,

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you shouldn't totally believe them either, Right, you have to

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keep open the idea that they don't know what they're

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talking about, or that they are planting information in the

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media for another reason. You got to keep that in

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your That's another angle that you have to keep in mind.

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One of them said that Kiev hopes that signing an

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agreement will ensure the continued flow of US military support

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that Ukraine urgently needs. Now, if you think about this

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in logical terms, right, it makes a bit of sense,

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and that if we have a deal to get all

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of these rare earth minerals that you know, Ukraine will extract,

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they can sell them to us, or give us a

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discount because we did send them hundreds of billions of

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dollars in all, or give it to us for free

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for a little while whatever. But strengthening an economic tie

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like that is going to be good for Ukraine, and

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it's going to be good for us because we get

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the rare earth minerals that we also very much need

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for you know, supercomputing and all of that to build

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the high tech stuff. So it seems like a pretty

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good idea for this deal to get done, especially for

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the Ukrainians, because if they are out or access for

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these rare earth minerals, that's going to make us more

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likely to want to protect that supply chain right. The

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agreement could be signed as early as Friday. Plans are

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being drawn up by or for Ukrainian President Voladomir Zulensky.

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He's got two wis at the end of his name.

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That's why I do that, so to travel to Washington

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to meet President Donald Trump. Another official said the agreement

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would provide an opportunity for Zelensky to Trump and Trump

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to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why

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Kiev is eager to finalize the deal. Right. That's the

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thing about deals, Both sides have to feel like they

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get something. According to one Ukrainian official, some technical details

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are still to be determined. However, the draft does not

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include a contentious Trump administration proposal to give the US

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five hundred billion dollars worth of profits from Ukraine's rare

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earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kiev.

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Right now, how about this is not an unreasonable ask either,

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By the way, we have given them a whole bunch

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of stuff. And I understand that the vast majority of

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the military aid that we have quote given to Ukraine

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is actually the money has gone to fund defense contractors

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in America. Right Those are contracts that American companies have done,

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and then the products have been sent over to Ukraine.

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But there's still Ukraine is still deriving that value. They're

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still getting that stuff, the finished product, They're still getting

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that for free. So you can argue and negotiate over

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the actual the actual figure there, but I think the

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concept is sound right. We're giving you a whole bunch

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of military stuff, so maybe you should give us some

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of your rare earth minerals as compensation, whether that's five

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hundred billion, three hundred billion, two hundred billion, whatever. All right,

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if you're listening to this show, you know I try

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to keep up with all sorts of current events, and

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I know you do too. And you've probably heard me

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say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because

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it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've

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been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and

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it's a website, and it combines news from around the

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world in one place so you can compare coverage and

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verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground,

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dot news slash pete. I put the link in the

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podcast description too. I started using ground News a few

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months ago and more recently chose to work with them

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as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how

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stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature

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shows you which stories get ignored by the left and

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the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news

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slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen

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percent off any subscription I use the vantage plan to

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get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not

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only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground news

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as they make the media landscape more transparent. I have

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a couple of tweets here from Dina or Dinah. I

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don't know they are Pete tweets. The mineral deal with

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Ukraine is fair because Ukraine agreed to pay back most

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of Europe's assistance, but not ours. Even if part of

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it is returned to US in military contracts, the remainder

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may be in mineral rights. It's fair based on Ukraine's

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other payback agreements, And didn't Zelensky admit that he could

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not count account for nearly half the money the US

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had sent. Maybe some of that money went to payback Europe.

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That's possible. I don't know, but I remember seeing the

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quote a couple of days ago, and then I saw

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that there was some you know, cleanup of the quote

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as well. But you know, regardless the what is the

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number like three hundred or three hundred and fifty billion

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dollars that has gone to fund Ukraine, you know a

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lot of that has been actually going to US military

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defense contractors. I want to say more than half. So again,

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whatever the numbers are that you guys want to tweak

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in this negotiations, fine by me. Okay. If they don't

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want to give five hundred billion dollars worth of the

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rare earth mineral profits to us, fine give me another number.

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You know, that's part of the negotiation. Like I said

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at the outset, when it comes to Donald Trump and

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the Trump administration and what they're trying to do, just patience,

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Just give it a minute. Let's see what happens. Right,

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the US and Ukraine would have a joint ownership of

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a fund. According to this AP report, Ukraine would in

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the future contribute fifty percent of future proceeds from state

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owned resource including minerals, oil and gas. One official said

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the deal had better terms of investments, and another one

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said Kiev secured favorable amendments and view the outcome as positive.

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The deal does not at this time include security guarantees.

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One official said that this would be something the two

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presidents would discuss when they meet, right, So that's a

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positive development. I think that's a positive development, and it's

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why I wanted to see how it would shake out

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with whatever it was that Trump was trying to negotiate

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with Zelensky. Here's another one. Let's just give it a minute.

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The House Republicans passed their own BBB, not the Build

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Back Better but the Big Beautiful Bill actually could be

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the BBBB, the Big Beautiful Budget Bill, Okay. With a

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push from President Donald Trump, House Republicans sent a GOP

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budget blueprint, a blueprint to passage yesterday, a step towards

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delivering his Big Beautiful Bill quote unquote, with four point

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five trillion dollars in tax breaks and two trillion sorry

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four point five Did I say that? Four point five

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trillion in tax breaks and two trillion in spending cuts.

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And that is over a decade, okay, so that's not

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one year. That's this is the way they do this

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stuff in the DC budgeting process. They make all these

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projections and it's like, oh, these are things that are

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gonna materialize down the road, so like, yes, we're adding

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to the deficit next year, but in like nine years,

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it'll be fine. And then, of course everybody forgets that

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with the next cycle or the next continuing resolution, and

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you never see the savings that they say are going

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to come. So that's always something to keep in mind

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here too. They passed this despite a wall of opposition

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from Democrats and discom among Republicans. It's just a blueprint.

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Right now. The Senate has its own version. The Senate

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is doing something also. The House has passed one thing

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and the Senate has passed another thing, and now they're

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going to hammer out some differences. The vote yesterday was

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two seventeen to two fifteen. All Democrats opposed it and

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one Republican opposed it. I believe that was Thomas Massey

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from Kentucky. Passage of the package is crucial to kickstarting

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this process. See so it's the beginning of the process.

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So let's give it a minute. Here's a great idea.

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How about making an escape to a really special and

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secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive

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up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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that'll last a lifetime. All Right, So the House GOP

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pushes through their budget blueprint last night, to two fifteen

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was the final vote. The Associated Press reporting quote. Passage

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of the package is crucial to kickstarting the process. Trump

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wants the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive

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bill that would number one, extend the tax breaks that

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he had secured during his first term but which are

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expiring later this year. Think about the timing of this right.

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Had Trump done two terms back to back, he would

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not be here to extend the tax breaks that were

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put in place during his first term. I mean, I

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guess maybe they could have tried to extend them with

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special legislation, but they are expiring. And that is an

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average of like fifteen hundred dollars or like more than

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one hundred dollars per month for the average American that

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you are keeping of your own dollars. The Senate where

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Republicans pass their own version and will now take up

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that bill along with theirs. Right, More big votes are ahead,

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including an unrelated deal to prevent a government shutdown when

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federal funding expires on March fourteenth, and those talks are

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also underway. It's all unfolding amid emerging backlash to what's

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happening elsewhere. Is billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk is tearing

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through federal agencies with his Department of Government Efficiency, firing

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thousands of workers nationwide. Again, he is not empowered to

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fire anybody. These are things that the department and agency

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heads are doing. And then the AP throws in that

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angry voters are starting to confront lawmakers at town hall

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meetings back home. Okay, those are Democrat angry voters. Those

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are Democrats that are showing up at the town halls.

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This has been a common tactic the left has employed.

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They actually stole them tactic from the Tea partiers, which

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I think yesterday was like the anniversary of the first

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Tea Party protest which occurred under Barack Obama. And you'll

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remember it was about spending lo those many years ago,

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Rick Santelli on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange

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saying stop spending, stop spending, stop spending, because that was

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their response to the mortgage collapse, right, which was a

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byproduct of government policies. So the Tea partiers were showing

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up at these town hall meetings and just grilling lawmakers,

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and this was seen as an effective tactic because Tea

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Party candidates won a bunch of races, and so Democrats

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started doing it as well, because like, that's right in

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their wheelhouse, like showing up and throwing tantrums. You know,

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the performance they really have it perfected. You know they

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really do. And so now you've got these these performances

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occurring at town hall meetings back in Republican districts where

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a bunch of Democrats got there like, oh, you know

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I'm a moderate or you know I'm a centrist, Like

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you're not. How dare you cut the spending? Hakim Jeffries

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never won to exaggerate things, said, quote our very way

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of life as a country is under assault, which might

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seem a bit like hyperbole. Even as they press ahead,

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the AP reports Republicans are running into a familiar problem.

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Slashing federal spending is typically easier said than done, with

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cuts to the Pentagon and other programs largely off limits.

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See again, for now we don't know. This is what

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DOGE is doing. These agencies and the Congress as they

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are looking at their funding levels, they are going to

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be relying on the data that is collected by DOGE,

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and so they're going to be able to say we're

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going to make a certain amount of cuts. They all

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understand the mission. The mission is to keep us out

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of bankruptcy. Right talking about our way of life is

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under assault. Our way of life is unsustainable. It has

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to change. And if you don't address it, it certainly

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will change. This is inevitable, Okay. History is full of examples,

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from Argentina to Venezuela to Rome. Right, when you devalue

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your currency, by the way, do you know why if

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you look at a quarter, for example, and the dime,

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do you know why the edges are ridged? Right, Because

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like the penny, it's a smooth edge, like the not

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the big flat circle part with Lincoln's face on it,

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you know, but the edge, the real thin edge around

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the sides. It's because throughout history, when you make coins,

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people shave off the coin, and if it's a smooth edge,

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it's harder to detect. But if you make ridges around

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the edge and somebody starts trying to shave the precious

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metal off of the edge to cheat you when they

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buy something from your store, for example, right, they're going

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to short you a little bit because the coin isn't

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worth the full value because they've shaved a bunch of

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it off. And you collect enough of the shavings and

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then you can turn that into something else of value,

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but you're shorting somebody else. That's why they put the

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ridges there so you will know if somebody is shaving

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the edges off of the coins. You cannot beat the

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free market. Okay, these rules, these principles of economics, they

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don't change when you print more money, when you devalue

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your currency. You end up in the same place every

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single time. And you can deny it all you want,

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but that doesn't make it so. You are going to fail.

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Failure is simply your stupid projection running into reality, and

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that's why you failed. Several Republican lawmakers worry that the

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scope of the cuts being eyed, particularly some eight hundred

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and eighty billion dollars over the decade to the committee

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that handles healthcare spending, including Medicaid, for example, or two

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hundred and thirty billion to the Agriculture committee that funds

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food stamps, will be too harmful to their constituents back home.

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So they're afraid of the messaging here because everybody is

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now talking about they're cutting medicaid, they're cutting medicaid, and

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they haven't cut medicaid, and in fact, the exact opposite

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has been promised. You can agree with that or disagree

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with that, like whether or not you believe the promise

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from Donald Trump, but that's what they have said They're like,

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we're not cutting medicaid, but that's going to be the narrative.

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And that's what Republicans are most worried about, is the

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narrative that, excuse me, the narrative that the Democrats and media,

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but I repeat myself, are going to promulgate ahead of

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the midterm election and that's going to cause their defeat.

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But even if it does cause your defeat, that's worth it.

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It's worth it because again, we are racing towards bankruptcy

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and the complete collapse of our economic system. And when

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we lose the dollar as the world world reserve currency,

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our standard of living will be cut. I've seen various estimates,

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but somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty twenty five percent.

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Immediately overnight that happens. We are the world reserve currency

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and there are direct benefits in all of our lives

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for that. We are the solid currency, and when we

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cease to be, our standard of living will immediately decline.

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That is something that I think is worth protecting. Now

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you may not agree, that's fine, But if you do agree,

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then whatever political price is to be paid in order

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to protect our status as world reserve currency and to

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protect us from going into economic bankruptcy. It should be

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worth it to you. That's what being a leader means.

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You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense

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came before you, and they will tell others to come

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00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:50,279
who you are. Visit Creative Video dot com Gary. It's

402
00:26:50,319 --> 00:26:53,440
a pet tweet. Gary says, the left and some in

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00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,960
the GOP have pushed the idea of MMT, which is

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00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:02,640
modern monetary theory, I believe, or just endlessly spending and

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00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:07,079
printing money and that doesn't matter. Deficits don't matter. That's

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00:27:07,599 --> 00:27:11,119
quote MMT. Like they dress it up with this fancy

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00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,200
name modern monetary theory. But all it means is just

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00:27:15,319 --> 00:27:17,559
keep printing more money and it doesn't matter. It'll all

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00:27:17,559 --> 00:27:22,480
be fine. But the Democrats, through Biden especially, was but

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00:27:22,599 --> 00:27:28,440
the Dems, through Biden especially, was faking a good economy

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00:27:28,759 --> 00:27:31,880
through government jobs and spending. Yeah, they keep coming out

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00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:36,920
with these revisions to the economic forecasts and number not forecasts,

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00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,480
but the reports, the numbers, like you saw it with

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00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,880
the unemployment numbers. They had to revise them, like, oh,

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00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,119
I know, we said we created you know, a billion

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00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,119
new jobs, but it actually upon further review, it turns

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00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,240
out we lost one hundred thousand. Right. They've come back

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00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:57,200
and they've been you know, adjusting all of their earlier

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00:27:57,319 --> 00:28:00,440
reports now that we have the actual data. I know,

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00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:02,559
he said this one thing that made Biden look good

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00:28:02,599 --> 00:28:04,759
before the election, But now it turns out that the

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00:28:04,839 --> 00:28:13,039
numbers weren't so good. I was watching Piers Morgan uncensored

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00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:21,440
his YouTube program and he's got this leftist quote influencer

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00:28:22,079 --> 00:28:27,720
Jojo from Jers, Jojo from Jersey and Ben ferguson talk

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00:28:27,799 --> 00:28:30,880
shows they were debating, and Taylor Lorenz was in there,

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00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,160
as was Kevin O'Leary. Like the four guests, which is

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00:28:34,519 --> 00:28:36,519
I think he should just stick with like fewer guests.

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00:28:36,559 --> 00:28:38,240
He brings in like four people at a time and

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00:28:38,279 --> 00:28:39,839
then they all yell over each other and you can't

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00:28:39,839 --> 00:28:44,759
really hear anything, but they're attacking Trump for the price

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00:28:44,799 --> 00:28:49,240
of eggs. Have you like this is every Democrat now

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00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,240
is talking about the price of eggs because that's what

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00:28:53,359 --> 00:28:57,640
was being cited during the campaign, which was let's see

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uh Jenuary December, and it's four months ago, four to

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00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,759
five months ago. During the campaign, the price of eggs

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00:29:09,079 --> 00:29:13,039
was used as an indication of the health of the

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00:29:13,079 --> 00:29:17,960
economy and the cost of inflation, right, the upward pressure

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00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,519
on prices for essential foods and stuff. So now you're

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00:29:22,519 --> 00:29:23,960
seeing and I saw it the other day. We went

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00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,279
out to eat and there was a place that was like,

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00:29:26,319 --> 00:29:29,960
we're charging temporarily a fifty cent surcharge on every egg.

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00:29:31,039 --> 00:29:33,119
So if you get a three egg omelet, it's an

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extra buck fifty because why because Donald Trump? Because Donald

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Trump in four weeks has created a spike in the

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price of eggs. This is the same crap they pull

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00:29:45,799 --> 00:29:51,359
with al any Republican president and gas prices. Right, they

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00:29:51,359 --> 00:29:54,119
have all the explanations in the world as to why

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00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,720
the gas prices shouldn't be held against a Democrat in

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the White House, but as soon as a Republican comes

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and now it's a big deal. And you know, George W.

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Bush is in there at his keyboard like entering in

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00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,000
the price for a barrel of crude or something. It's

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just it's dishonest. It's gaslighting. And the same thing we

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are seeing with eggs. Do you know why eggs are expensive?

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00:30:21,799 --> 00:30:24,079
There's a thing called the avian flu, the bird flu.

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Now I'm no farmer, I don't raise chickens, but I

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00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,039
think there may be a bit of a logical breakdown

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00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:36,440
in our response to avian flu in that if they

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detect av and flu in your herd, your flock, they

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00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,200
murder every single one of your chickens. Like that's the protocol. Apparently,

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00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:47,400
did you know this. I just found this out. Some

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00:30:47,519 --> 00:30:50,119
farmer did a YouTube video and he's like, why don't

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00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,680
you just kill the ones that have the flu? And

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00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:54,799
then the ones that don't have the flu they may

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00:30:54,839 --> 00:31:00,960
have some level of immunity, and then they would survive,

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they would breed, and then you would have a herd

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00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,319
or a flock that now is better able to survive

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00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,400
another round. But when you keep murdering every chicken, you're

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00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,240
not building up herd immunity. How is it that we

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00:31:16,279 --> 00:31:21,480
are this stupid? It continues to boggle the mind. Did

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00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,680
we learn nothing from COVID? No? We actually we did it. Now,

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00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:26,720
we did it because we don't want to learn anything

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00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,640
from COVID. All right, that'll do it for this episode.

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00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:32,759
Thank you so much for listening. I could not do

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00:31:32,799 --> 00:31:34,960
the show without your support and the support of the

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00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,039
businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like,

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00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,279
please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

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00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,920
You can also become a patron at my Patreon page

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or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so

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much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.