- 1 hour ago
Real Time with Bill Maher - Season 24 - Episode 04: Jonathan Haidt, Stephanie Ruhle, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:04Start the clock.
00:40Thank you, everybody.
00:43I appreciate it.
00:45How you doing?
00:47All right.
00:50Thank you, people.
00:53I appreciate it.
00:55Thank you for coming out.
00:57Oh, you're going to laugh tonight.
01:00First of all, we're going to get to all the hard news,
01:04but let's talk about what we're really thinking about.
01:08Tomorrow's Valentine's Day.
01:10I said that for all the men watching who just went, oh, shit.
01:15It is.
01:17So are you excited about that, Valentine?
01:24It's a stupid holiday, but you know what?
01:27People get into it.
01:28You know, St. Valentine was a Catholic priest.
01:31That's why, to this day, we exchange candy for sex.
01:34That's why.
01:37And, you know, there's always that Valentine's Day movie they put out.
01:45You know what the one this year is?
01:47Wuthering Heights.
01:48Are you into it?
01:48I'm so into it.
01:51It's all about the forbidden love of Catherine and Heathcliff.
01:56Of course, it's very modernized.
01:58Now, when their forbidden love gets busted, it's because they see them on the jumbotron.
02:09And, oh, it's so romantic.
02:12You've got to feel the romance in the air.
02:14I mean, I know a guy who said his girlfriend wanted to be swept off her feet and carried off
02:19to the tropics.
02:20So he reported her to ICE.
02:30Good news out of Minnesota, people.
02:33We've done it.
02:33We've liberated St. Paul from Somalia.
02:36All right.
02:39ICE is leaving town, so that's why you're feeling extra patriotic.
02:43Of course, it could also be because Monday is President's Day.
02:48Yeah.
02:53No, no.
02:54This is the day we pay tribute to all the past presidents, even those in the Epstein file.
03:00All the presidents.
03:03And, oh, no, no.
03:06Our president now, Donald Trump, he takes very seriously his place in the line of presidents.
03:11He's going to honor it, Monday, by posting pictures of all the presidents, some of them not as apes.
03:19So.
03:23But I tell you, this Epstein story, that is not going away.
03:29The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, she was before the House Judiciary Committee this week.
03:34They were talking to her about how she mishandled this, and she calmly answered all their questions.
03:42I'm kidding, of course.
03:43She broke out Jeff Ross's big book of insults for roasters.
03:50At one point, she said to a congressman, you were a washed-up loser lawyer.
03:56Begs the question, what is the opposite of legally blonde?
04:02Oh, I kid, Pam.
04:06I kid, Pam.
04:07By the way, she's got a great Valentine's Day card for her lover.
04:11It says, kiss me, you fucking asshole.
04:20Now, this is all fun, but we have to get to the story that really matters, which is the EPA.
04:26A little history lesson, Richard Nixon, a Republican.
04:29Okay, he started the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1970.
04:34Trump has always said, it's a hoax, the whole thing, but climate change, he said, scientists, he says, are stupid
04:42people.
04:43He says, the idea that greenhouse gases cause climate change, there's no basis in fact.
04:48He thinks it's just some bullshit that people made up out of nothing to get rich.
04:53You know, like crypto.
04:58And, uh, yes, his, uh, EPA director, Lee Zeldin, said this is the single, this is a quote, single largest
05:07deregulatory action in American history.
05:10Probably true.
05:11Also the biggest dick move in American history.
05:15Uh, guys, this is not made up, you know, this is science.
05:21Uh, Doug Burnham, he's the Interior Secretary, listen to this, the way they all line up behind this nonsense.
05:26He said, CO2, carbon, was never a pollutant.
05:31He said, when we breathe, we emit CO2.
05:34Okay, Doug, you know what, let's try this little experiment.
05:37Um, tonight when you get home, go in the garage, close the door, turn the car on,
05:44and let's see if carbon is a pollutant, okay?
05:50But, but, but you have to be a little sympathetic.
05:57A lot of the conservative America is very butthurt these days.
06:00They're still recovering from the halftime show.
06:03Uh, that big bunny did.
06:08They hated it because it was in Spanish, but now they're pretending they hated it because it was smutty.
06:13Uh, and it was, uh, sexual, very overtly sexual with dirty lyrics.
06:17Well, what do you expect? He's not called good bunny.
06:22Uh, Trump said, nobody could understand a word the guy said.
06:30I never understood a word Mick Jagger said either.
06:33I still enjoy the show.
06:36Uh, no, I looked at, I looked at it like Olympic curling.
06:43I had no idea what the fuck was happening, but I was like, everyone looks like they're having fun.
06:47Fuck it, I'm in.
06:48All right, we've got a great show.
06:50We have former National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, and Stephanie Ruhle.
06:55Uh, but first up, he is a professor and social psychologist,
06:58psychologist who wrote the best-selling book, The Anxious Generation.
07:02He recently co-authored another one on the subject, The Amazing Generation,
07:06Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World.
07:09Jonathan Haidt is over here.
07:12John?
07:15How you doing?
07:16Wanted to see you back here.
07:20Okay, well.
07:24And look, I'm not going to lie to you.
07:25They stand for pretty much anybody who walks out here.
07:29But I'm going to say to you, you really deserve it.
07:32I mean, this book that you wrote, you started with a thesis that, uh, the phone, the smartphone,
07:39and all that's contained in it, and the social media, not benign, and adults need to do something about it.
07:46And you weren't the only one, we've got Tristan Harris on this show, and other people,
07:50but you were the main one out there, and this book did a lot of the heavy lifting.
07:54And now, this is actually happening.
07:56So, A Grateful Nation says thank you to you.
08:02Uh...
08:02And when I say it's actually happening, Australia, right?
08:07Am I right?
08:07The first country now to ban phones for kids under...
08:10Social media.
08:11Ban social media accounts.
08:15And where else, I mean, you just got through the world tour, pretty much.
08:19Where is this happening, and what are they doing?
08:21Yeah.
08:22So, uh, it's now happening, it's going to happen everywhere this year.
08:26So, here's...
08:26Everywhere?
08:27That's my prediction.
08:28So, here's what happened.
08:30Australia, their law went into effect on December 10th.
08:34And there was news coverage all over the world, and a lot of the news coverage was people saying,
08:39or journalists saying, hey, why can't we do that here?
08:43And once everybody saw that, then everything changed in a really interesting way.
08:47I was just in Europe, and wherever I would go, I was knocking on open doors.
08:51People wanted to do this.
08:52What I think happened is, you had Steve Pinker on here last year.
08:55Yeah.
08:56And he has a book out called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.
08:59Yeah.
08:59It's about the emperor's new clothes moment, when suddenly, you know, the kid calls out
09:03the emperor has no clothes, and private knowledge, because everyone already knew that, but private
09:08knowledge becomes public knowledge.
09:09And so, what I think happened was, once everybody saw that everybody was praising Australia, then
09:15everybody knew that everybody wanted to do this, and suddenly, all the politicians realized,
09:21wait, the people are way out ahead of me, I want to get back out ahead.
09:25And so, I met with President Macron in Davos, I met with leaders of labor and conservative
09:31in the UK, I met with people in the EU.
09:33Wherever I went, there are parents, and parents everywhere have seen this, and parents who
09:38are politicians are very aware of public sentiment.
09:42So, this past month has been an extraordinary period of global change.
09:46This is the tipping point, like, this month, especially given what's going on in LA with
09:51the trials.
09:51So, it's a different world now than it was two months ago.
09:57And, uh, that's all true, but your book, The Anxious Generation, I mean, look, I had a
10:04book that hit number one for one week last year.
10:09Yours is on the charts for, how long has this been?
10:1295 weeks.
10:1295 weeks in the title.
10:14Okay, this, I just wanted to say, it's a victory for the issue itself about social media.
10:22It's also a victory for books.
10:25Yeah.
10:25That, that a public intellectual, that term is sort of out of vogue, but you are one,
10:31there are not many left, and the idea of a book changing people's minds still can happen.
10:37I just want to take that victory for a second, because it was very influential.
10:42This book caught people's attention.
10:44You just mentioned the trials.
10:47What are you talking about?
10:48Tell us what you, I know what you mean, the one that's in LA that's starting.
10:51Sure, sure.
10:51So, um, imagine if there was a consumer product that had killed hundreds of kids and that
10:58had harmed or damaged literally millions of kids.
11:01But this consumer product had what seemed to be special protection where nobody could
11:05sue them.
11:06That would be a really bad situation.
11:08And that's where we've been with social media.
11:11Hundreds of kids are dead.
11:12And a lot of those parents came to LA today because for the first time in history, the
11:17companies are being held responsible, or at least they're, they're going to face a jury
11:21for what they did to their kids.
11:25Right.
11:29And what is the young woman who is bringing this case, what is she claiming?
11:33She's claiming that she was on, I mean, they're, they're, they're, the people being sued.
11:38First of all, two of them already settled, right?
11:41Snapchat and TikTok.
11:42Two out of the thousands already settled.
11:43But Snapchat and TikTok are already out.
11:46That's right.
11:46On this one case, this first Bellwether case.
11:49But this is meta.
11:50These are the people who bring you Instagram.
11:53And this is Google, the people who bring you YouTube.
11:56That's right.
11:56Okay.
11:56So they're on trial.
11:58That's right.
11:59What is she saying happened that she was hooked?
12:02They purposely hooked it because it does remind me a lot of the tobacco trials of the 90s.
12:06Because it's the same dynamic where the tobacco companies were up there saying, well, first
12:13of all, we didn't know it was addictive.
12:16Right.
12:16They did know it was addictive.
12:18And they just didn't care.
12:20They were giving you this delivery system.
12:22So it's sort of the same kind of thing.
12:24You have to be responsible for something that's addictive.
12:27That's right.
12:27What is she saying?
12:28She's saying that she got hooked on these things and it made her depressed?
12:32Yeah.
12:33And when you start spending 8, 10, 15 hours a day just on social media, as well, you know,
12:40the average American teen spends five hours a day on social media, about a quarter spending
12:44seven hours just on social media, the ad and all the other stuff, you're going to be losing
12:49out on sleep.
12:49You're going to be losing out on social relationships.
12:51You're going to be losing out on all the things that kids need.
12:54And I don't know the details of that case, what exactly she's alleging about the chain
12:58of damage.
12:59But almost all these, so many of these kids, the case is that they became addicted and then
13:04that affects their mental health.
13:06That pulls them into dark places.
13:08That puts them in touch with sexual predators.
13:10And what a lot of these initial trials are going to hinge on, and we saw Adam Mosseri testify
13:15yesterday, the head of Instagram, he said, oh no, there's no evidence that it's addictive.
13:19He said, heavy users, they have problematic use.
13:2216 hours a day she was on sometimes.
13:24That's just, that's problematic.
13:25That's not addiction.
13:26But these things were designed by people who studied slot machines.
13:31Slot machines are addictive.
13:33These people, a lot of them took a course at Stanford on persuasive design.
13:36They learned how to use intermittent rewards, variable ratio reward schedules.
13:40To hook people.
13:41And they did it.
13:42They talked about it.
13:43We have transcripts.
13:45We have internal reports.
13:46They did 31 studies, my team has found.
13:49If you go to medisinternalresearch.org, we've categorized their own studies showing that
13:54this is addictive.
13:55They talk about it.
13:56They use the word addiction.
13:57And so now for these guys to say, oh, it's not addictive, just like the tobacco industry.
14:03And would they let their kids, I don't think the tobacco industry, I don't think the
14:06tobacco guys let their kids smoke.
14:08A lot of these guys don't let their kids use their products.
14:10But there's a big difference, I think.
14:12And I think comparing it to the tobacco industry is actually unfair to the tobacco industry.
14:16Because the tobacco executives never saw children suffer.
14:20They knew that they were going to give them cancer eventually.
14:23But they didn't have to look at children suffering and dying.
14:25And these guys have to face the reality of these parents coming to them with the photos.
14:31It was so moving this morning.
14:33About 40 parents came to L.A.
14:37There was a memorial showing like tombstones that are like cell phones showing the lock
14:41screens with these beautiful kids on them.
14:43And this is from suicide.
14:44All sorts of things.
14:45So it's a lot of them are fentanyl deaths because, as one young woman said to me, everybody
14:52buys drugs on Snapchat.
14:53And you had a piece on gambling a week or two ago.
14:56Yeah.
14:56When you make it frictionless and free, anyone can get any drug this afternoon.
15:02Really?
15:04No, I mean, that's terrible.
15:09I didn't know that.
15:11So a lot of the deaths are fentanyl.
15:12I mean, a kid buys Percocet or Xanax, but it has fentanyl and they're dead.
15:17And that's what a lot of them are.
15:18And the others are suicide after cyberbullying or sextortion.
15:22In one case, one mother I was talking to, her daughter was cyberbullied into suicide.
15:27And this was during COVID.
15:29And the kids broke into the funeral to continue the bullying after the grave.
15:35And what I take from this as a social psychologist isn't, oh, those bastards, oh, those cruel kids.
15:40It's, what kind of sick environment are we raising our kids in that this sort of thing is now normal?
15:45Kids were always bastards, John.
15:47They were.
15:48They were shitty when I was a kid.
15:51You have to teach a kid to be decent.
15:54You ever read Lord of the Flies when you were a kid?
15:56Okay.
15:57Kids are shit.
15:58They are.
15:58They're little Nazis.
15:59They have to be taught to be civilized.
16:02But I take your point.
16:04But an important point you make when you're writing about this lately, I see, is that there should be no
16:09parental exemptions.
16:10Because I think that's what some people want now.
16:13They want some exemptions out of this.
16:15You say you'd rather have no laws than parental exemptions.
16:17Yeah.
16:18So the key thing, you know, we can talk about, oh, we need to make this safer.
16:22Oh, we need more age.
16:23We can talk about all that stuff.
16:24But it never, none of that works.
16:26All over the world, parents are fighting.
16:27They're having the same fight with their kids.
16:29Mom, everyone else has a phone.
16:31I'm starting fifth, you know, sixth grade.
16:33Everyone else has Instagram.
16:35And so parents are in a trap.
16:37Kids are in a trap.
16:38And we all have to give in because everyone else gave in.
16:41So that's called a collective action trap.
16:42And so lots of countries are going to, are in Europe and Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, lots of countries are going
16:49to raise the age to 16.
16:50But in some countries, they're saying, you have to be 16 to open an account.
16:54But if your parents give permission, then you can open an account at 13 or 14.
17:01And my attitude is, what the hell?
17:03Why bother doing it?
17:04That just puts us all back in the trap.
17:05So we need a clean, like a global norm.
17:07Like really, it should be 18.
17:08This is an adult activity.
17:09But I'm saying, let's just, if we all agree to do 16, we can get it.
17:13We can get it fast.
17:13And that takes the pressure off of the kids to spend their, to give up their childhood to scrolling.
17:18And now you have a graphic novel that's a book really for the kids themselves to explain it.
17:23Just plug it one more time before we leave.
17:25What's the title?
17:26Sure.
17:26It's called The Amazing Generation.
17:28Right.
17:28And it's for kids 8 to 13 years old.
17:31Right.
17:32And it's got a graphic novel about what happens to kids when they get a phone.
17:35And our goal, with my co-author, Catherine Price, we weren't going to preach to the kids.
17:39We let older kids talk to them.
17:41They hear from older kids, members of Gen Z, who really regret losing their childhood, spending so much of it
17:46doing this,
17:47rather than, like, talking to their grandfather before he died.
17:50Well, if you're getting life advice from Gen Z, you'd know it's a problem.
17:53Thank you, John, for your service to humanity.
17:58My favorite public intellectual.
17:59Jonathan Haidt.
18:00Okay.
18:01Let's meet our panel.
18:04Okay.
18:07Hello.
18:09Okay.
18:09He is a former national security advisor, host of the Hoover Institute's podcast,
18:14Today's Battlegrounds, and author about war with ourselves, former Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster.
18:20Great to have you here.
18:23And there's Stephanie Rule.
18:24She's host of MS Now's, the 11th hour and co-host of YouTube Lives.
18:28It's happening with Vilschian Rule, airing every Wednesday.
18:30Stephanie Rule.
18:32Back with us.
18:34Okay.
18:36Well, I think I'm going to start tonight by saying elections have consequences,
18:40because I want to talk about this EPA thing that's going on.
18:44I always thought when Trump first ran, the most damage he possibly could do would be the environment,
18:48because he was always talking about what a hoax global warming was.
18:52And look, I mean, have sometimes they exaggerated, have some, I don't think they did themselves
18:58any favors sometimes by predicting like, oh, well, you know, we're going to hit past the
19:02tipping point if we don't do something by 2012.
19:04And then we did, and now, but it's still really happening, guys.
19:08It's not a hoax, okay?
19:11So, here's what's going on.
19:12We had something called the Engagement Rule in 2009.
19:16This said the feds got to regulate fossil fuels because we believe they are a danger to public health.
19:21Well, what happened this, yesterday?
19:23Trump ended government's legal authority to regulate basically what causes pollution.
19:29The Environmental Protection Agency cannot now protect us against pollution.
19:36This is like the Navy can't use ships.
19:40But why are you surprised?
19:44I'm not surprised.
19:46I'm angry.
19:47A year and a half ago, during the campaign, the president invited a bunch of oil and gas
19:52executives to Mar-a-Lago, and he said to them, if you deliver me a billion dollars
19:57in campaign donations, I will pay you back in spades.
20:00And that's exactly what we're getting here, a huge win for oil, gas, and big coal.
20:05Promises Captain could say.
20:06Well, you know, Bill, Stephanie, you don't need washed-up generals to talk about climate science,
20:10you know, but I'm a believer, you know, that the real, global warming is a real thing,
20:14right?
20:14Man-made carbon emissions are a problem.
20:16But, you know, what we were doing wasn't working anyway, really.
20:19I mean, what we do in the United States actually doesn't matter if China is building 40 coal-fired
20:24power plants a year.
20:26So what I think we should do is come together and work together on a market solution that
20:31actually works, just like it happened with the fracking revolution, right?
20:35The largest reduction in man-made carbon emissions in history didn't come from a government regulation.
20:40It came from cheap natural gas displacing coal.
20:43That, I think, plus nuclear fission, that gets us off the path toward global warming and
20:50gets us cheaper, gets us cheaper energy, you know?
20:53But are we working?
20:54Do you actually foresee us, in the current environment, working in concert with other
20:59countries to do that?
21:01Well, I mean, no, I think what we can do, but we were working in concert with other countries
21:07supposedly, and it didn't work.
21:08So what you need is a market solution that will get adopted in Africa, in India, in China,
21:15because you're providing energy security for people who need to be lifted out of poverty.
21:19Well, China's already moving way ahead of us on this, as well as many other things.
21:23But I pulled this card from years ago because I thought you were here.
21:27It's the Pentagon.
21:28The Pentagon had something called assessment risk that they used to do.
21:31I don't think they'd do it anymore.
21:33This is, I think, from 2014.
21:35This is, you know, I don't think things have changed.
21:37The world's only gotten hotter.
21:39They said climate change poses an immediate threat to national security.
21:43This is the Pentagon.
21:45This is your group, okay?
21:47Because of things like pandemic disease, global poverty, food shortages, humanitarian crisis.
21:53In other words, messes that are going to be created because of climate change that the
21:58army might have to step in and help.
22:00And today, one of the things Trump did, he directed the Pentagon to buy more electricity
22:06from coal.
22:08I mean...
22:09You know what this is?
22:11I think this is like every reaction has an unequal and opposite reaction in the Trump
22:15administration.
22:16Why the hell is the Pentagon involved in climate change?
22:19They shouldn't be.
22:19They've got, I think, a more narrow mission to focus on, which is to deter war, defend the
22:24nation.
22:24Now what you get, though, to the Pentagon embracing sort of climate catastrophism, which they were
22:31doing, I think, in 2014, which, by the way, there's been a reversal in that appraisal
22:37by Stephen Kuhn and others have really said, hey, it's not as catastrophic.
22:41As people had said it was.
22:44And so if you spend, you know, 10 percent of your GDP, these are economists, to reduce
22:50the risk of like a 5 percent risk, you know, a generation ahead, that doesn't make sense.
22:55We need different types of solutions.
22:57OK, this sounds brilliant.
22:58But I don't think there's a single person in the administration reading one word of that.
23:02We're not even employing America first policies.
23:05This is a continuation of Trump first policies.
23:09And if you don't think there's a big cold donor behind this, then I've got a bridge to
23:12sell you in Michigan.
23:15Yeah, I mean, again, it's not all happening right now.
23:22The worry is that what happens in the future, I mean, when the planet gets hotter, it does
23:28melt the permafrost.
23:30When the permafrost melts, it releases crazy amounts of methane and carbon that were trapped.
23:37That just makes the cycle even worse, because then that makes the planet hotter, melts more
23:41ice, more goes up there.
23:43That's the kind of thing we worry about in the future.
23:45Dick Cheney once said about terrorism, if there's even a 1 percent chance, we've got to
23:50act like it's 100 percent.
23:53Wouldn't this be just as much?
23:54I mean, I don't have to put it all on you.
23:56I mean, you don't have to be the...
23:58I would say, listen, I think this is, you know, what your show is about, is that, hey,
24:02that we can be rational human beings.
24:04Yes, I hope.
24:04We can begin, you know, with what we can agree on.
24:07So I think what happens is the people who steal all the oxygen out of, you know, from
24:11this debate are the people, you know, maybe climate catastrophists on the one hand and
24:16then climate deniers on the other.
24:17I think the vast majority of Americans are somewhere in between.
24:19And we can recognize that what we really do need are these market-based solutions, because
24:24really, it doesn't matter what we do if China, India, developing economies, you know, in
24:31Africa, Latin America, don't adopt solutions that provide energy security, but also reduce
24:37carbon emissions.
24:37Yeah, I don't think China's on the page that it's a hoax.
24:40I don't think China's on this page that it's just all made up and we should go more toward
24:46coal.
24:47I mean, they may not be there yet, but that is their goal.
24:51I don't think that...
24:52Well, I mean, they're still building a hell of a lot more coal-fired plants, you know,
24:55and they're doing solar.
24:56They're doing kind of all of the above.
24:58What they really want is energy security.
25:00And if you're worried about the environment, they've destroyed their environment.
25:03So a lot of what we've done is, like, greed-washing ourselves by offshoring stuff to Trump.
25:07Trump is going to...
25:08If the Sierra Club would consider, I don't know, a monument to the president, a few trophies
25:14with his face on it...
25:15I think we're good.
25:16I think we're good.
25:21You're an economist, okay?
25:23I am.
25:24All right, okay.
25:24So Trump is going to say, this is...
25:27The cars are going to be $2,000 less.
25:29And they may be.
25:31You know, that may be...
25:32And that might turn a lot of heads.
25:34Sure, if you want to drive in a 1980s gas guzzler while you're smoking cigarettes with
25:38the windows closed, throwing Burger King out the window.
25:41But this is 2026.
25:42I'm just saying what he's going to say.
25:44Don't yell at me.
25:45This is his argument, okay?
25:47And it may be true.
25:49Okay, but here's the interesting part about this.
25:53China, talking about China, the guy from Ford, the head of Ford, CEO, I think his name is
25:59Jim Farley, went over there last year.
26:01He said, it's the most humbling thing I've ever seen.
26:04Their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West.
26:09Now, Ford just lost $19 billion on EVs.
26:13Trump says that's because they were forcing this on us.
26:16They were forcing the EVs.
26:18That's why we're doing this.
26:19We're changing everything back to what it used to be and driving gas guzzlers because...
26:23Okay, I think the reason why is because not that we were forcing EVs on people, because
26:29we made shittier EVs than China does.
26:32Ford lost $19 billion.
26:35And then this guy goes over there and says, he said, we're in a global competition with
26:39China, and it's not just EVs.
26:41And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford.
26:44Well, you know, this is kind of a situation of our own making.
26:48With so many industries, and you know this much better than I do, what happened is China
26:52draws you in.
26:54They co-opt you with the promise of cheap manufacturing.
26:57So guess where we started to manufacture batteries?
26:59In China.
27:00The highest-end batteries?
27:01In China.
27:02We're manufacturing a lot of our EVs, Tesla and other companies, manufacturing in China.
27:06They promise you access to their market, cheap manufacturing, and then once they steal your
27:12IP, they steal your technology, they pick a Chinese winner, subsidize the hell out of
27:16it, shut you out of their market, manufacture at artificially low prices, and take losses
27:21on that hardware or an EV, and then dump it on the international market and drive you out
27:26of business.
27:27How many times do we have to go through that cycle?
27:29Okay, you know what would be brilliant?
27:30If the United States got together with a bunch of our allies and created something like, I
27:36don't know, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and these countries work together to battle
27:41China, who employs unfair trade practices, we did put together the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
27:47It was President Obama, and the first thing Donald Trump did was tear it up.
27:52And now here we are, he's launching a trade war that is not bringing an ounce of manufacturing
27:56back, where the tariffs are costing the American people, and it actually caused more.
28:00More to manufacture here.
28:02Yeah.
28:04Yeah, they said, they said the tariffs apparently are going to cost each American family like
28:13$1,000.
28:14Who would have thunk it?
28:16I mean, what a surprise!
28:18I mean, also, they did something, a group called the Democracy Perception Index, they did
28:26a survey of 96 countries.
28:29Three-quarters of them prefer Beijing to Mar-a-Lago.
28:33Like, we're losing the popularity contest to China, which is not a good country.
28:37Well, I mean...
28:38I'm sure the people are very nice.
28:39But the leadership and what China does on a human rights level, on so many levels, is
28:44really quite evil.
28:46Absolutely.
28:47I mean, so, here's where we are missing opportunities, right?
28:52First of all, if you care about Chinese economic aggression, industrial espionage, subsidies,
28:59overcapacity, overproduction, dumping on the international market, getting grip, an artificial
29:04grip on the most critical supply chains to use that grip on those supply chains for course
29:08and purposes, then we need collective action to work on that.
29:11But if you're kicking everybody in the ass, you know, who could help you, maybe you're not
29:14going to get the cooperation.
29:15I mean, one of the things I used to say to the president, you know, as a reason why
29:19I was only there for 13 months, I would say, I would say, hey, I would say, hey, Mr. President,
29:24if we shoot all of our allies to get to China, China wins, you know?
29:29And so, so we should be working more cooperation.
29:31Just explain to me the Canada thing.
29:34Maybe you have some insight into the thing, because you mentioned the bridge.
29:37There's a bridge that Canada is building between, there's one there now, but they're
29:40building a better one, between, I assume it's over the Detroit River.
29:44Detroit and Ontario.
29:46Yeah, of course.
29:47Okay.
29:48Trump, this is Trump this week.
29:49As everyone knows, the country of Canada, also known as Canada, has treated the United
29:58States very unfairly for decades.
30:02How?
30:04Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan.
30:08Prime Minister Carney, well, that's an improvement, he's called him Governor Carney before, wants
30:13to make a deal with China, which will eat Canada alive.
30:18We'll just get the leftovers.
30:19I don't think so.
30:21The first thing China will do is terminate all ice hockey.
30:24What the fuck is he talking about?
30:27What, what, what?
30:31What?
30:32What?
30:34I can usually suss out something in this, I don't know where, what?
30:42Why will China, why will China take over, destroy hockey?
30:50First of all, first of all, Canada is not only responsible for hockey, it's also responsible
31:00for heated rivalry.
31:01So, so there is nothing greater in this country, but, but this bridge, this bridge was paid
31:07for by Canada.
31:08The bridge was built with U.S. steel, but this bridge will take toll money away from another
31:15bridge that connects Michigan and Canada.
31:18And that bridge is owned by a big Trump donor, who on Monday had a meeting with Howard Letnick,
31:25our Commerce Secretary, and immediately following that meeting, Howard Letnick called up the
31:29president and poof, we no longer want this new bridge.
31:32Yeah.
31:32I think this is the kind of thing that is causing him, his popularity to go down.
31:37Well, do you think?
31:38I mean, a number of things, the economic things, but also this, even the common person, I think,
31:44understands that there's always this self-dealing involved with everything that goes on.
31:51And, you know, we're still a democracy, you know, it's only early in the weekend, but,
31:57and the immutable laws of democracy are when you get weaker politically, which he is now,
32:04people do begin to stand up to you. We do see more people standing up. This Canada deal,
32:10Republic, there are some Republicans who joined Democrats who said, we are not going along with
32:14your tariffs on Canada because they want to make a deal with China. Who's going to get rid of hockey?
32:22And what, why is Cardi going to China? He's going to China because of the gratuitous insults.
32:27Like, what good does that do, you know, with the meme that shows, like, that was part of the
32:31United States and then to disparage their contributions? Okay. Hey, they do need to
32:36spend more on defense, but if you want the golden dome, not a bad idea in my view, right? You
32:40need
32:40Canada, you know? So say, Hey guys, how about spending more on defense? You know, I mean,
32:46we have legitimate issues with Canada, but the gratuitous insults and that, you know, I fought
32:50alongside Canadian soldiers. They're, they're incredibly tough, brave. They were in one of the
32:55toughest parts of Afghanistan and they took a hell of a lot of casualties in Kandahar province,
33:00you know, fighting after the 9-11 attacks against our nation.
33:04So, so I just... We love Canada. We love Canada.
33:06You said credit for president. The president did shake the tree. He did shake the tree when
33:13it came to our NATO allies and said, pony up your money. Yes. Good. Right.
33:16And you have to give him credit for that. I do. Absolutely. But listen, it's Valentine's
33:20Day. Let's get to the really...
33:21Wait, are we getting back to...
33:23The important to know, the important news out of the White House is that there is a baby
33:27boom going on there. Usha Vance, pregnant. Carolyn Levitt, pregnant. And Stephen Miller's
33:34wife's, they're all about to have children. You know, they love babies up there at the
33:38conservative side of America. I don't understand it, but they think we need more babies. I
33:42always think we need less. Definitely less around me ever. But, so anyway, since there's
33:48such a baby boom going on at the White House, we thought we would show you what some of the
33:51things that are being bought these days for the baby shower that's upcoming. Would you
33:55like to see the...
33:56This is the MAGA baby shower. These are some very interesting stuff. For example, there's
34:02a onesie that reads, not an anchor baby. That's...
34:08Somebody's also getting a doll that cries liberal tears. That's...
34:16There's a baby mobile with the faces of the cast of Fox and Friends around it. That's...
34:21So great for the child. Baby's first blanket pardon. Exactly. Oh, this is interesting. Stroller
34:34nuts. You know, that's like the truck nuts. Well, they love those truck nuts. Oh, a baby monitor
34:43that alerts you when your child is woke.
34:46Oh, that's right.
34:51Uh, autism-free infantilinol. That's very important.
34:57Oh, the Venezuelan boat bath toys. That was nice.
35:07And, uh, my favorite, a diaper that reads, don't claim Trump, this is Biden's mess.
35:20Okay. Now I have to ask about the story that has just absolutely transfixed this nation, which
35:26is the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie's mother. Uh, it's a sad story. I hope we, it will come
35:31out better than the news we've had so far. We still have our fingers crossed. But we seem
35:37to be in phase two now of the reporting. Phase one was we're obsessed with this. Now I see
35:41all these articles analyzing, why are we obsessed with this? Um, my view is I don't want to become
35:48the kidnapped country. I mean, obviously it's a humanitarian story and we care about people,
35:53but like we've seen things come to this country that we didn't think would ever come, like pandemics
35:58and terrorism on a grand scale. Um, you know, Mexico and some other countries around the
36:06world, you have to always wonder what's going to happen when you leave the house. I don't
36:12want to be this country. And I think people are, I mean, this is what got Trump elected.
36:17We're going to get the gangs out. And then of course he went too far and he lost himself
36:20even on that issue, which was his best issue with the voters. But we don't want to become
36:25the kidnapped country. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. And you know, who knows really who this kidnapper
36:31is at this stage, but if you look south of our border, there's a real problem. You know,
36:35that first of all, an unsecured border is a really bad idea, it turns out. And Trump,
36:39I think does deserve a hell of a lot of credit for reestablishing border security. And what's
36:43happening in Mexico is 30% of the territory in Mexico is under the control of the cartels.
36:49They control the police forces now because of AMLO, uh, Lopez Obrador having, uh, judges
36:55elected, they control the judges and they're moving into different verticals, right? So,
37:00you know, human trafficking has been shut down for them, but then our college trafficking is
37:04still going. And now they're responsible for a large percentage of the fuel sales,
37:08the legitimate fuel sales in Mexico and are profiting from that. They're becoming all powerful.
37:13I mean, we have a lot of issues to work out with Mexico, but I think Mexico has almost an
37:17existential crisis going on now. And it's in our interest and certainly in the interest of
37:21the Mexican government to go after that problem.
37:26Let me bring the economist in on this one because kidnapping was waning because one of
37:32the reasons why it was so hard to pull off, because you had to transfer money and money
37:36was always traceable. I mean, every movie is, you know, drop the money in a bag off the
37:40bridge. And then a guy in a motorcycle gets it, no cops, you know, and they always would
37:45front, not with crypto. This is the part of this story. I think we need to talk about more
37:51that I don't hear very much in the media. Crypto. Crypto, the criminal's best friend.
37:56I never liked this shit. I always thought it was a big scam. It is a big scam. And, you
38:01know, it's, it, the guy who, the bit dance guy that got pardoned by trying, finance, whatever
38:07it was, he, he, you know, it was because, well, he, he facilitated money, money laundering.
38:15It's all money laundering. Crypto is money laundering. You take real money and you buy
38:20this fake money, which is a pool of untraceable funds you can do anything with. That's why
38:25criminals use it for sex trafficking and drug trafficking and kidnapping and other criminal
38:29enterprise. And then you, whatever, they do whatever you want and then you can buy back
38:33the profit with your real money.
38:36Eric Trump said it in broad daylight. The reason the Trump family got involved in crypto was
38:41following January 6th when banks said, we're taking a break from you. So when actually real
38:47regulated financial institutions said, we're taking a break, that's when they turned to
38:51crypto. And when they realized what a super grift and phenomenal hustle it was, they went
38:56all in. And when you bring up Binance, that's the founder CZ, right? This guy was sentenced
39:01to prison, right? He then buys a huge stake in the Trump, Trump family crypto business,
39:06World Liberty Financial. And poof, he's out of jail. He now is still one of the largest
39:12holders of Trump meme coins, as well as the business.
39:15How do you think the Trump family is up for a billion dollars in a year?
39:25What kind of crypto regulation is there at this point? None.
39:29Well, I'd love to hear what you think about this, because there has to be a way to regulate
39:32it so you can get the benefits of crypto, which is kind of democratizing finance, cutting out
39:37the middleman. Whatever you think of decisions to debank people, some of those decisions were
39:41politically motivated. Do we want to be on the receiving end of being debanked for something?
39:44I don't think so. And then when you go to authoritarian regimes and the ability to move
39:49money in and out of those authoritarian regimes, maybe we might want to support some of the people
39:53in Iran who so courageously stood up before that horrible regime gunned down 30,000, you
39:59know, 30,000 of them, you know? So there's some benefits to it. How can you address kind
40:06of the anonymity issue so that you don't have human traffickers and you don't have organized
40:11crime networks moving money and still have the democratizing feature of it?
40:17Smart regulation, right? The answer isn't yes, regulation, no regulation. But what we have
40:22in this current administration, they basically are no longer, there's almost no prosecution
40:27of any white-collar criminals in the crypto space. There's almost no regulation whatsoever.
40:31During this week's testimony, you mentioned Pam Bondi's testimony this week, she was asked
40:36about any sort of prosecution in the crypto space. And what did she do? Punted. That may
40:41have been the moment when she brought up the performance of the stock market, which I'm pretty
40:44sure has no bearing on what our attorney general is testifying about.
40:54So, you just mentioned Iran. I see that they, well, first of all, I thought if he was going
40:59to attack, he would have done it by now. Because he did say a while ago, when they were starting
41:04to kill people in the streets, we're not going to let you get away with this. And then he just
41:09let them hang out to dry. America's not a very reliable ally. I thought he was going to be
41:13different on that. Anyway, now here we are. There's two carriers now. This is just as of
41:18a couple of days ago now, in the region. He also says we have a discombobulator. I don't know what
41:23that is.
41:25I'm glad we have it, though. Aren't you glad?
41:29I'm glad it's on our side.
41:32I don't know. It sounds like something Benny Hill has.
41:37I don't. I guess I am. Yeah, I totally don't want to be a discombobulator gap.
41:47But, okay, so this week they put out this, that we have to talk to our allies first before
41:53anything happens. He said we have to check with international law, and that we need more
41:57time to put things in place. I read that as saying they're going to attack this weekend.
42:02Maybe. Maybe. You know, I think the chances are pretty high. The one thing to consider...
42:06Yeah, I do. You know, and I think the reason why they were kind of left out to dry there
42:10after the president's, you know, pledge to support them is we didn't have enough defensive
42:15capabilities in the region. We had plenty of assets there to conduct strikes against what
42:20you might think. The tools of repression of the regime, maybe the besiege or IRGC facilities.
42:25But we didn't have enough to go after what they might do in response. You know, the counter-missile,
42:31the counter-drone defenses, going after the IRGC Navy, which has been harassing our ships
42:37in the Bob El-Mendab area, and then up in the Persian Gulf.
42:40Okay, but if our goal is to stop killing the protesters in the streets, that's the
42:45Revolutionary Guard. These are the thugs who've taken over this country 50 years ago and still
42:49have it. Okay? It's a combination of a theocracy and this mafia. Okay. What is entailed in this
42:58attack that is going to topple the Revolutionary Guard? Who are we firing guns at? Who are we firing
43:05our missiles at? And how will it affect the people in the street? I don't get it.
43:08Well, I mean, you could go after the leadership. And what the Israelis did in that 12-day campaign
43:13is they took out two dozen leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. So if you're a leader
43:20of these organizations, the Basij and the IRGC, you might maybe think twice before now you've gunned
43:26down, you know, 30,000 people again. So I think that there are some capabilities that are relevant
43:32to dissuading them from the kind of mass massacre and brutality that we saw. It's really unprecedented
43:38since World War II. I mean, 30,000 people, these are reliable numbers, killed in a 48-hour period.
43:45What I would like to see are a number of other actions taken internationally. Why the hell is
43:50there any Iranian embassy open anywhere in the world? Kick those guys the hell out.
43:56And a lot more financial pressure. We're doing that. I mean, there's more that can be done
44:00outside of the military instrument as well. And it's a week in the regime.
44:04Okay, so that's diplomacy. And if what we're doing this weekend potentially is bombing Iran,
44:09then bombing is trumping diplomacy. And isn't the big question we have to ask,
44:13let's say you bomb the hell out of them. Let's say it's a brilliant execution, right?
44:17What next? Right? People in Venezuela may be thrilled that Maduro isn't there,
44:21but they're panicked saying, what's next? And we've yet to hear this administration articulate
44:25any of that. And if one were a true cynic, they might say, could the exact timing of this bombing
44:32be
44:32the president who understands politics and media better than maybe any other modern politician?
44:38So on Sunday, when most likely all the Sunday shows will be covering
44:42Pam Bondi's disastrous hearing, Howard Lutnick's disastrous hearing, the reports out
44:46across the board about the Epstein files, we're not going to be talking about that because Iran
44:51will be the only thing in the news. The only people talking about that are the people you and I
44:55know
44:55on the coast who watch those shows. Nobody gives a shit about the Sunday shows.
44:58You don't think America? No. Hold on. You don't think America cares about the Epstein files?
45:04They do. The Epstein files, they do. They don't watch the Sunday shows and make their decisions.
45:08But President Trump does. Oh, yes, he definitely does. And that's what I'm talking about.
45:11The other factor is Ramadan begins next week. So that may be another end of this.
45:15But I mean, I was very supportive of bombing the nuclear facility in Iran. I thought that was great.
45:19I understood the goal there, and I understood how it could just be ended with the bombing itself.
45:26I don't get this one. But I have like half a minute to ask you this last question because you're
45:31the
45:31military guy. The START Treaty. We're familiar with this. This is the treaty we've had for 50 years
45:37between the United States and Russia. Well, if you don't know what the START Treaty is, it stopped.
45:42Yeah. It's now expired. We have nothing that says that Russia and the United States can't now
45:51build any number of nuclear weapons. What is your take on that?
45:57I'm OK with the START Treaty going away. Really?
45:59Because I think it's the first step to now doing something more broadly.
46:02You know, China is increasing its nuclear forces by 400 percent. 400 percent. They're not a party to
46:09the treaty. It's kind of the same as the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty that went away.
46:13It was important that that went away because we were constraining ourselves. Russia was violating
46:18it, and China wasn't even a signatory. So that we were taking off the table for us the development
46:23of land-based long-range strike capabilities. So I'm hopeful that this might be the beginning of
46:29maybe getting back on the path towards some kind of a dialogue about strategic forces.
46:34President Trump, this is a priority for him. I got to tell you. I mean,
46:37he would talk about it often. He hates nuclear weapons. Putin kind of plays that card a lot
46:42with President Trump. Hey, Donald, you know, wouldn't it be great if we could work together
46:45on it? It's all lies. But anyway, he plays that. But the real key is to bring China in
46:50and to do it to reduce the stockpiles, control them more effectively, but then also work on
46:55non-proliferation.
46:56All right. Thank you. I got to go. Time for new rules, everybody.
47:03Thank you. Okay.
47:08You know, someone with a psychology degree has to tell me why the ultimate act of joyous abandon
47:13is dancing on a car.
47:16Big Bunny at the Super Bowl, dancing in a car. La La Land, dancing on a car. Fame, dancing on
47:22a car.
47:22Michael Jackson, dancing on a car. Tony Kattan for Whitesnake, dancing on a car.
47:27Whoever these guys are, dancing on a car.
47:30Choreographers have ruined more cars than ice.
47:40Why? Jeez, there's got to be a fresher way to show you're fun and full of life, like singing
47:45into a hairbrush.
47:51No, someone must tell the Norwegian biathlete who won a bronze medal and then promptly confessed
47:57to cheating on his girlfriend on live TV, sometimes just say, I'm happy I won.
48:09But congratulations on the bronze.
48:12And also for winning the gold for biggest dumbass.
48:21No, well, if India's intent is to intimidate us with a show of military forces, they're going to have
48:26to release a different picture.
48:29This photo doesn't say lethal combat unit.
48:32It says, the guy behind me is marching too close.
48:42No, you can call it skiing.
48:44You can call it snowboarding.
48:45You can call it bobsledding, the skeleton, the luge.
48:48But what we must all admit is that most of the Olympics is just one sport.
48:52Different ways to fall down a hill.
48:57Somebody had to say it.
48:59It had to be said.
49:01I know all the 21-year-old woman who went backpacking through Australia thought she got a stomach
49:06bug and ended up delivering a baby.
49:09Must admit that she wishes she had just gotten a stomach bug.
49:19Because at least with that, all of the shitting, pissing, and crying only lasts a few days.
49:25And finally, new rule.
49:27This Valentine's Day, men have to give women what they really want.
49:31To grow up and start being men again.
49:40I learned a new word recently.
49:43Hub son.
49:44Hub son.
49:45Like husband, but it's the son.
49:47It's grown men who freed themselves from the shackles of wage slavery to live at home, rent-free, with the
49:54parents, or just mom.
49:55They're also called kept sons.
49:57They live with mom and do all the jobs dad used to do.
50:00You know, fix stuff around the house, take out the trash, make sure when it's mom's turn to host book
50:06club, the girls have enough Pinot Noir.
50:11You know, I wondered why Pornhub had so many stepson videos.
50:17It's because sons are dating their moms now.
50:20That's why.
50:21That's why.
50:28And it just works, okay?
50:31There's no awkward getting-to-know-you phase.
50:35And if someone asks, hey, how did you two meet?
50:38You can say, funny story, she pushed me out of her vagina.
50:49Is it any wonder so many women these days are asking, where have all the real men gone?
50:53I mean, look at their dating profiles.
50:57Living with mom is not one of the turn-ons.
51:01Guys in jail do better with chicks.
51:11Men are so consistently disappointing these days that there's a new trend where women are in lieu of dating, going
51:18to the shelter and walking a dog instead.
51:22At least that way, there's some chance of ending up with a nose in your crotch.
51:34Sociologists say we're going through a sex recession, which is like a regular recession, except in a regular recession you
51:39get laid off, and here you don't get laid at all.
51:4824% of men, 22 to 34, say they've had zero sexual activity in the past year, what we used
51:57to call being married.
52:0344% of Gen Z men report having no relationship experience at all during their teen years, except with Adderall.
52:14This is not healthy, although it does explain the steep drop in cooties.
52:21Scariest of all, 45% of men aged 18 to 25 have never approached a woman in person.
52:29The only women Gen Z men talk to these days are Siri and Alexa, and a fat guy in the
52:34Philippines is pretending to be the guy they think they're sexting with on OnlyFans.
52:44Women are feeling so sexually unfulfilled lately that there's a new type of literature that's propping up the entire book
52:54-buying market.
52:55It's called romanticy.
52:57Kind of like the old romance novel epitomized by Fabio on the cover.
53:03Except women are so horny now, even he's not enough.
53:07They want to fuck an actual animal.
53:09I'm not kidding.
53:11In the drawer with the vibrator in it now are books with titles like My Minotaur Husband, Sleeping with Monsters,
53:19The Dragon's Bride, Stalked by the Kraken, and Radley's Home for Horny Monsters.
53:32Tales of romance, but with minotaurs and centaurs, werewolves, vampires, anything but a human man.
53:41Seven-foot-tall, winged shadow demon, absolutely.
53:46Viking warrior who carries you off over his shoulder, no problem.
53:50That's the message of these books.
53:52If I can't find a man to get me off, I'll get Dracula to do it.
54:03Morning Glory Milking Farm
54:09is the story of a millennial girl who takes a job at a minotaur milking farm.
54:15You know, a minotaur milking farm.
54:20And well, one thing leads to another, and she winds up fucking a guy who's half bull.
54:26Which brings me to Taylor Swift.
54:31Hear me out.
54:34Hear me out.
54:36I think Taylor Swift epitomizes the journey that a lot of women have been going through.
54:41Yes, women wanted men to be more sensitive.
54:44Sensitive, but not some noodle-bodied human turtleneck who wears the same clothes they do.
54:51Timothee Chalamet is very talented, and I'm sure very sexy to women, but on the hunk scale,
54:57he feels like the leftover pieces from after they made Burt Reynolds.
55:11Taylor Swift went from writing songs about what a dick this guy was to her,
55:16and what a dick this guy was to her, to what a dick this guy has.
55:26She dated a procession of skinny, fey, gay-adjacent, meek, porcelain doll, shy guy,
55:34twink-like, tortured poet, metrosexuals in America and Europe.
55:38But the second she got some old-school wood from the heartland, it was game over.
55:46So welcome home, Taylor, and happy Valentine's Day.
55:52I mean, Taylor is hardly the only one.
55:55You can hear it in the lyrics from all of today's female pop stars.
55:58They're practically screaming that they can't get no satisfaction.
56:03Doja Cat raps,
56:04I don't really got no type, I just want to fuck all night.
56:09Charlie XCX and Billie Eilish have a song that goes,
56:11Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it, pull it in the side, get up all in it.
56:16Jeez, when they're not saying fuck ice, they're saying fuck me.
56:27Problem is, they're living in a world full of guys who are afraid to even make eye contact without an
56:32NDA.
56:34Because in America, the pendulum never stops in the middle.
56:37The younger generation of men caught the backlash from, like, you know, five million years of human history.
56:43And I feel for you guys.
56:44You were born in a society that said just being male was toxic.
56:49And in a world where everything you said was mansplaining and everything you did was an eye roll
56:54and merely approaching a woman could get you canceled,
56:57it got very easy for men to just give up.
56:59And when they did, Pornhub and Tinder and OnlyFans were right there to take up the slack.
57:06Thing is, the technology changed.
57:09Women didn't.
57:11They still want eye contact and face-to-face conversation.
57:15And also a pair of balls would be nice.
57:24Because in real life, I'm sorry, I mean IRL,
57:29when a girl blows you off when you ask her to dance,
57:32you can't just type fuck you and log off.
57:35You have to take that long walk of shame back to your table to tell your friends,
57:39uh, no, she's a lesbian.
57:42All right, that's our show.
57:43I want to thank my guests, former National Security Advisor,
57:46H.R. McMaster, Stephanie Ruhl and Jonathan Haidt.
57:50The Random Drops every Monday on YouTube for a listener who gets your podcast.
57:53Now go watch Overtime on YouTube.
57:55Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Happy Valentine.
57:58Thank you, everybody.
58:03I'mran.
58:03I'mran.
58:06I'mran.
58:16I'mran.
58:18I'mran.
58:19I'mran.
58:25I'mran.
Comments