PBD Podcast - Elon & Vivek H1-B Visa Debate, Trudeau's Ministers Meet Trump, Late Night Ratings Drop | PBD Podcast | Ep. 526

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Patrick Bet-David, Tom Ellsworth, Vincent Oshana, and Adam Sosnick cover the biggest stories in business, politics, and current events! 💳 VT NEW YEARS SALE: https://bit.ly/4iVitKH 🧥THE NEW VT SWEATSHIRTS & HOODIES: https://bit.ly/4f5fnAM 🧢 PURCHASE THE NEW VT HATS: https://bit.ly/3ZFAPrH 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! SUBSCRIBE TO: ‪@VALUETAINMENT‬ ‪@ValuetainmentComedy‬ ‪@theunusualsuspectspodcast‬ ‪@bizdocpodcast‬ ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pbdpodcast/support

Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm so pleased that you taste sweet victory Know this life may have fallen me Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here You are a one of one My son's right in that

I think I've ever said this before So is that the new intro? That's the new intro. I love it. I love it. I love it. By the way, okay, so what episode are we on, Rob? Let's see here. 526.

Gang, it's great to have you. Not a lot has happened last week, just so you know. Nothing. I mean, it's not like there was a massive H-1B visa debate. It's not like there was a, you know, some call it a civil war within the conservative, independent libertarian community. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the passing of one of our presidents,

Jimmy Carter, who made it to 100. I have some thoughts on that, but some things Biden said about him, some things Trump said about him. We'll talk about that. And then we have more things with Canada. It doesn't seem like it's going away. Some of Trudeau's top ministers without him showed up

to Mar-a-Lago to have a visit with Trump. What are they talking about? And then Kevin O'Leary turns around and says, half of Canadians favor Trump's proposal for Canada to join the US. Very interesting. Biden said he is disappointed and regrets ending his election because he thinks the campaign,

if he would have stayed in, he thinks he would have beaten Trump. I mean, you know, that's gotta be a very interesting thing for a guy like him to say. And then aside from that, young and the restless, 37% of Gen Z skipping in the gym going straight to Azembic studies fines. Germany's president dissolves parliament, sets national election for February 23rd.

Germany opened its door to migrants, now it's struggling to cope. Credit cards. This is a story we're not hearing about a lot lately, but Tom's got some commentary on this. US credit card defaults jumped to highest level since 2010. Credit card charge-offs and delinquencies hit 13 year high. Are they peaking? This next data, this is not another data you want to brag about, ended the year in December while the new guy doesn't take over till January 20th. US homelessness is up 18%

and officials are blaming the migrant crisis, devastating natural disasters, and a lack of affordable housing for the reason behind it. Late Night Comedy spent 2020 for bashing Trump as viewership continues to crash. I won't give you the data, I'll read it to you here in a minute, but I want you to guess, all the late night folks, when they talked about politics and their opinions on it,

what percentage of it you think was Trump-bashing? I want you to take a wild guess, post your comment below, we'll get to it here in a minute. LeBron James says they're officially the show in town on Christmas Day, but the numbers doesn't favor his argument. And I think he's getting community noted, hence the joke if you get it. All right, the human brain processes thoughts

five million times slower than the internet, and the reason video games may not be so bad for you after all, there's apparently a study out here, and we got these things with this guy in Fauci that's claiming he's back and he has a warning for you Americans, folks watch this. He's got a warning for you about the H5N1 bird flu that currently causes eye infections.

He's really trying to scare the crap out of you. And Vinny I know you're very friendly with him. And I know you wanna say some things about him. So we't want to say some things about it I love that guy so we'll get into it our gang this is the last chance here for the end of your sale would be teamers calm if you haven't yet ordered we have so many different things with 50% off the flip-flops right now are 22 bucks the blue future looks bright there's so much obviously the sizes is the challenge but if it's got your size this is your chance to get a bunch of discounts for yourself, and for the first 50 orders,

you will get these new Future Look Sprite gold and black keychain that came with Vitaeum logo on it, and on the back it says Future Look Sprite, first 50 orders, you're gonna get these keychains, so go ahead and place your order. Okay Rob, I say the first thing we talk about is H1B1 Visa, okay?

Let's start off with that. What clip do you have, Rob, is H-1B1 visa. Let's start off with that. What clip do you have Rob about the H-1B1 visas for us to start off with? Let me just read one of them here to you. What to know about the H-1B1 visa fueling the divide in the MAGA world? Let me kind of read this story and then we'll get into a few clips. The H-1B visa program, which allows highly skilled workers in specialty occupations to live and work temporarily in the U.S. is at the center of a divide in MAGA world. Proponents like Musk, himself a former H-1B holder, argue it helps the U.S. retain a competitive

edge in the STEM field, while hardliners such as activists like Laura Loomer insist the U.S US should prioritize American workers, H-1B visas cap that 85,000 new approvals annually, require employer sponsorship and are granted for up to six years in 2022-2023, 72% of recipients were from India, followed by China 12% and the Philippines 1% the program does not provide a path to permanent residency as it grants only non immigrant status Tom your your thoughts on what's going on here with the H1B visa debate So there's there's a lot of angles here a lot of angles to go

And so the first angle that I'm going to go with is You know, I like to say if you want to look at a problem, you got to go upstream a little bit, right? I talked about the polluted lake liberals want to build a one billion dollar filter Conservatives want to go upstream and say hey What are the creeks and rivers putting in the lake and then stop it upstream and it's an easy way the problem The first thing I think nobody was talking about over the weekend And I think we should talk about it for a minute is you got to go upstream. What is happening? Why aren't there now some people say there's plenty and I think we should talk about it for a minute, is you gotta go upstream. What is happening? Why aren't there, now some people say there's plenty,

and I saw that argument. Some people say there wasn't enough of American engineering graduates. Now why wouldn't there be enough American engineering graduates? Well, why can't they get into top schools? Huh, interesting. Well, why can't they get into top schools?

Well, let's look back to the Department of Justice, DOJ, that's our government folks, that was under Biden folks, went after Yale University after a massive lawsuit was filed by a group of Asian families who said, we've been discriminated against for admissions in favor of other people of many colors. And they were upset. And the Department of Justice looked at it and said, wait a minute.

And the Asian suit had tons of facts and figures and some discovery, discovery things that they had found. So the US Department of Justice looks into it and goes, huh, and went after Yale. So the US Department of Justice filed a suit against Yale admissions and all the discoveries showed absolutely not opinion here. They were discriminating against whites and Asians that were American citizens in favor of people of many colors, particularly foreigners that maybe didn't have the same scores as some of these whites and Asians

in the United States, because the foreign people most often were paying full boat. What's full boat? Paying full price. What's full price? They weren't getting financial aid because they were wealthy people from around the world. So guess what? If you don't give them financial aid, what gets bigger? Your endowment because you don't have to give financial aid or small scholarships based on merit. So you see how that ecosystem works? So the schools discriminating against, so now what does that mean? Well now there's a shortage of US citizen,

and not just white, white and Asian engineers, because it wasn't just happening in Yale, it's happened in other places. So the supply is down because schools have been discriminating against US citizen, so now the supply is down. That is a fact, absolute fact, including and

discovery brought by US Department of Justice. Now then you go into part two. Okay well that doesn't mean that H-1Bs are innocent. They're not. I looked at it up and H-1Bs they do underpay often. They do lock up a person with their sponsor so it's very hard to change jobs. Let's say you get an H-B, Vinny, and you do a really good job for two years and you're having lunch at a place and a recruiter talks to you and says, hey, why don't you come work over here? And you say, well, I really can't. I got the H1B and it's really complicated to change jobs with a sponsor.

I'm kind of locked in. It's hard to change jobs and I don't want to make any fuss because I don't want my sponsor to decide maybe they don't need me because if they lay me off, riff, rejection and forth, I only have days, otherwise I have to leave the country because I no longer have a visa. So it does get abused and there's this whole lottery with it that some people say wink wink is subject to lobbying and who would be paying big lobbying into the Liberal government? Big tech. So could one of the things they want be, you know, have the lottery point more toward me?

So the H-1Bs do get used, you know, in a way that's kind of abusive. That's my second point. And then my third point is, is that it is truly bad if the companies are using them with ill intent, and they're not taking available American workers. But I think the companies are using them with ill intent and they're not taking available American workers, but I think the schools are guilty. I think some companies are guilty for abuse of the program. I think the schools are guilty for not giving us more Americans with engineering degrees. And I think a lot of people are, third point, are missing the point that there has been

a tremendous amount of people who were immigrants to this country that have built amazing new businesses. And so you can't just say, oh, it's a bunch of cheap labor getting jobs. No, that's not true. People like Elon Musk have built things. So I think there's a lot of reform that's needed. But those are my three points. We'll be on this topic for a while.

Rob, can you pull up Vivek's tweet real quick? Vivek's tweet that I retweeted and I got community notes. I want to show the whole thing for the audience to see what happened the last couple of days. But first go to his tweet. So Vivek posts this tweet. If you go under my account, you'll see. Keep going down, keep going down, keep going down, keep going down, keep going down. Right there.

Go to his tweet first and then you'll come back to mine. Let me read this to you. This upset a lot of people, but let's process it. The reason top tech companies often hire foreign born and first generation engineers over native Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit, a lazy and wrong explanation. A key part of it comes down to the C word, culture.

Tough questions demand tough answers and we're really serious about fixing a problem. We have to confront the truth. American culture has venerated mediocrity demand tough answers and we're really serious about fixing a problem, we have to confront the truth. American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long, at least since the 90s and likely longer. That doesn't start in college, it starts young. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympia champ or the jack over the

valedictorian will not produce the best engineers. That upset a lot of people. But he's not wrong is the question. Is he wrong with that statement? Not wrong. Okay, let's continue. Culture that venerates Corey from Boy Meets World or Zack and Slater over Screech and Saved by the Bell or Stefan over Steve Urkel in Family Matters will not produce the best

engineers. Fact, I know multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity. And their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates. More movies like Whiplash. He continues to go and then most normal American's parents look skeptically at those kinds of parents. More normal American kids view such those kinds of kids with scorn.

If you grew up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. Now close your eyes and visualize which families you knew in the 90s who raised their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest. Normalcy doesn't cut into hyper competitive market. He continues to go, Rob, if you can go right there. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy, excellence, over mediocrity, nerdiness over conformity, hard work over laziness.

That's the word culture we have cut out for us rather than wallowing in a victimhood and just wishing or legislating alternative hiring practices into existence. Look at the amount of views this tweet gets. 115 million views a tweet. Now go to my response which upset a lot of people. If you can go back. So I said the following. I said as an immigrant from Iran, I saw this as an edge. I didn't mind working 80 hours a week. I didn't mind the competition. All I wanted was a shot. This used to be the American way. Time to return to it. Take a minute to

read it. By the way, when I say working 80 hours a week, you know, I worked 80 hours a week. In my 20s and 30s, I worked 80 hours a week and I had no problem doing it. I'm on the road six months out of the year. When you're on the road six months out of the year building a national insurance agency, it's very tough. And by the way, you're building an insurance company regulated in 50 states, high volume recruiting. We go from, you know, 66 agents to 60,000 insurance agents, dealing

with every department of insurance that's led and typically ran by somebody who is a liberal. Think about it, they don't like people like us, is what we have to deal with. But then this prompted people to get upset and say a bunch of different things. If you go back up Rob, up top, I said something about on another tweet, I said something about what's your big summer, go back above that right there, the one right above it, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going Rob, keep going a little bit higher, I think this is the one.

This lady says kindly go a little lower, working 80 hours a week is not a healthy role model, no problem. Quite frankly, you choose your role models for you and your kids, which is your job as a parent, whoever you edify it is what it is. And I said respectfully, both the app and the four you're using were built by founder and executive team that worked 80 hours a week for many years. Also, our founding fathers worked very hard,

and I put 80 hours a week, and a community note says, we don't know if they worked 80 hours a week or not. You just have to realize, they worked a lot more than 80 hours a week. These guys are trying have to realize they worked a lot more than 80 hours a week. These guys are trying to survive, is what they're trying to do. By the way, so then while we're doing this, me and the research team go a little bit deeper into this. And these are some of the numbers that comes up, okay, when you think about what America

goes through. If I was to ask you, and I asked you guys these questions yesterday, so I don't want to ask you guys, but I ask the audience, what percentage of startup billion dollar company founders do you think were immigrants? Let me ask you one more time. What percentage of billion dollar startups do you think the founder was an immigrant? Okay, I'll let you think about it for a second. Five percent 10%, so these are guys that start a company and it becomes a billion dollar company. Do you know the number to this? Were you in the room when we talked about it? I was not.

Okay, the number isn't 10%, not 20%, not 30%. Rob, if you want to pull this up, 55% of America's billion dollar startups have an immigrant founder. Why? Now, here's what some people will say. billion dollar startups have an immigrant founder. Why? Now here's what some people will say. They'll say the H-1B visa takes job away from Americans, but anybody can start a company.

Founding a company doesn't have to be an immigrant to do it. Somebody that's born in America can do it. So why are so many startup founders immigrants? Then we're gonna look at to see what percentage of Fortune 500 companies are ran by immigrants or their child. So meaning, you came here in 60s, you started a company in 70s,

your son ends up building a company that becomes a Fortune 500 company. You know what that percentage was? 45% of Fortune 500 companies are ran by an immigrant or their children. So you look at this data, then we continue going on, I'm like, listen, something's gotta be the issue here because the real problem, Tom, is when the employer

hires an H1B person, which by the way, we've hired a handful in the last 25 years, and it's legal, nobody's doing anything illegal, if you have the ability to hire one, you do. But there are people that hire somebody and you pay them $75,000 a year, hypothetically, versus paying $150. Or you hire them and you pay them $120 versus paying $180. And you save that $60,000, which the job is going to what?

Somebody that's coming in as a H-1B visa. That criticism is true. And then we went a little bit deeper, Tom, and we saw the lawsuit with Infosys. Infosys paid $34 million in H-1B lawsuit. I think Apple paid $25 million. Facebook is going through it, and do you know who sued the Trump administration in 2017 on H-1B visas? Amazon.

Do you know what company hires the most H-1B visas? Do you know who's ahead and by a mile? It's Amazon. It's not even close. Do you know where Tesla was ranked on hiring the most H-1B visa folks? Where was it ranked? 21st or 22nd place. So you're not talking about a top 10.

Brandon Kelly, if you guys can send that ranking to Rob for him to have it, you got to see this because it's interesting as you go deeper and everybody is criticizing everybody and you go through deeper, you're like, you know's not but Amazon majority of people they are hiring of the H1B visas which we have around a half a million give or take number one was not only Amazon most of the come Amazon had like three or four companies that were in the top 20 companies that hire the most people this isn't the one there's another chart that she has she'll send it to you in a minute. So I understand the arguments going against it. I understand the expansion of it. I understand the concerns. There's these consulting firms that they hire H-1B

visas and let's just say they're going to get you a job for making $120,000 a year. They keep a quarter of it. Do you understand what I'm saying? They're like, they play the role of an agent to you. Not the hiring company, these are intermediary companies that sit with one foot in Asia or one foot in the US and they're helping the H-1Bs of people get along and they're ripping them off for a 25% tax. That's insane, by the way, to do that. So they're not ripping away the employer.

They're getting a percentage. The employee. Yeah. Correct. So it's not ripping away the employer, the employee. So it's not the, like typically if I choose to hire your agency, the Oshana Recruiting Firm, and you find me a C-suite executive, I would pay 25% on the salary of your one. Let's say the person's $300,000, you find that person for me, I hire him,

I give you $75,000. But what they're doing is, if they find you a job for $200,000, they're keeping the $50,000 every year on the salary. Which that kind of, right there by the way, if you look at the H-1B visas, Amazon's first place, then it's Cognizant, then Ernst & Young, then you see Microsoft Fifth, then it's Google, then Meta, then Infosys,

HCL, Walmart, Apple, Amazon, again, Intel, IBM, JP Morgan, then Meta, then Infosys, HCL, Walmart, Apple, Amazon, again, Intel, IBM, JP Morgan, Accenture. You got a few other companies. Now look at Tesla, 22nd place, then again Amazon. So Amazon's on there multiple times for their companies on the list of most H1B visas. Tom, you were gonna say something. Yeah, I was just gonna say, this doesn't reflect well

on me admitting my temper here here But I once had a call from a guy that represented himself to be a IT Recruiter and he said he was based in the US and he had a US phone number and IT recruiter He had gotten through to me with some very creative email and stuff This goes back about 10 years and this is in the early time where we were looking for remember the first product people or the first Technologists at PHP we were looking for, remember the first product people or the first technologists at PHP? We were putting together the original three systems. So this is literally 10 years ago, and we were going to build the first app.

Over the course of two phone calls, I suddenly realized he was an intermediary, and all the people he said he was representing, I did an interview with one. And the guy in the interview on the phone call, because this is back in Skype, it was like a Skype interview, he tells me, well I can only come through this guy because you know this is it. And I said wait a minute, I thought he was a US recruiter.

No, no, no, no, no, no, he's representing me, he's here in India. And so I called the guy back and I said are you a US based recruiter or are you based in India and you've got these people under contracts already? He said well I these people under contracts already? He said, well, I got them under contracts. I lost my temper with them because he had lied to me. I called him a pimp. I said, he was, I remember I use that word. I said, you are a worthless PEP. I remember it. I was so upset with him because I had just entered a couple, interviewed a couple of people that were well-meaning people that just wanted

to get a job in IT in the United States on product and I lost it. So I'm confessing here I lost it, but it was one of those people. This is real and they take advantage of those. They do that and the deeper we get in, this is a problem. This chart here that Brandon found shows the most popular college majors and they've changed from 2016 to 2023. Like kids are going to college, parents are telling their kids go get this degree.

Number one is business, two is nursing, three is education, four is biology. You know what five is that's climbed up to three? Psychology is the number three major now. You know engineering used to be sixth place in 2016? You know where it's at now? It's at ninth place. Why would you tell your kids to not become engineers? Right there, look at that. The chart, it's drop, zoom in a little bit Rob

so we can see the majors on the left. You see how psychology, the purple from fifth place goes to third place? Keep going lower, engineering drops, close the chart on the left Rob if you can, the purple from fifth place goes to third place. Keep going lower. Engineering drops. Close the chart on the left, Rob, if you can. The X. Yeah. If you go and look at the left, you'll see engineering was sixth. See the dark purple? Dropped down to ninth place. Criminal justice stays around the same place. Computer science stays around the same place. Accounting, computing stays around the same place. Now if you go and look at STEM, countries against US, Rob if you can pull up this other chart, how we rank against other countries in STEM.

Keep going up, up, up the other way, the other way Rob, the other way. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Right there, zoom in to the top one, to the top one. Look at that. Top countries of STEM, numbers by graduates. China, 3.57 million. India, 2.55. We're third place, 820.

Now go to the one above it that shows percentage-wise. Above it Rob, above it, yeah. Look at this here. Percentage of graduates that are STEM. China, 41%. Of their graduates are in STEM. Russia's 37%, Germany's 36%, Iran's 33%, India's 30% because of their IIT, France 26%, Mexico 26%. Look at us. And we want to compete. I mean, this is, and by the way, a part of this to me is like when

you think about when Dallas Mavericks bring Dirk Nowitzki or Luca or Giannis or all these players that are coming from the European system here and Kobe would always bash the AAU system in the States and he came from the Italian you know he played you know he learned how to play basketball the fundamentals in Europe why do they translate from that leak its results? So my only concern with this argument is, yes, keep the jobs in America. Yes, give the jobs to American graduates. Yes, make it competitive here.

And if some of these guys are coming here that are the smartest people, why not keep them? Why not recognize them? Why not respect the fact that they create jobs? One of the tweets I said, our founding fathers, a guy responds back and says, those are not your founding fathers. Guy posts a picture of the Shah of Iran and says, that's your founding father. But that tells you what, you know, a part of this, there's nationalists and there's white nationalists. White nationalists,

Vinny, don't want people like us here. They just don't. White nationals are a very different model, and they can have that argument, but this got very ugly very quick. Yeah. You're spot on with the white nationalist thing. So what I'm concerned about is you made an amazing tweet because your prediction has basically come true, what they're doing to basically divide

and conquer Trump versus Elon. That's what I'm focused on. Can you turn me up a little bit guys? But it's sort of, you've seen the comments that are being made by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. They're sort of, it's- What do you think about it? So here's what I'm thinking.

Can I read the tweet so the audience knows and then I'll go to you? So here's what Steve Bannon said. Steve Bannon said, let me be clear on H1B. I want zero. The whole thing is about, oh, they're only geniuses, H1B visas. That's not what it's about. It's about making American jobs and bringing over essentially what have become indentured

servants at lower wages, the things a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens, give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries and pay them less simple. That's what he said. And he does have a point right there. There is a point to basically what's happening with these guys with these H1B visas. You said, you know, you can pay them less versus an American. By the way, by the way, I know people who basically outsource jobs and say, well, I

can pay an American worker here 30 bucks an hour. I can pay some guy in the Philippines or in India Four bucks an hour. So it works both ways. But what's happening with with MAGA MAGA versus Musk? It's it's sort of like MAGA 1.0 Versus MAGA 2.0. Who's MAGA 1.0 the guys that have been there ten years Those are the people that have been there basically ten months. So you have the nationalists that you talked about right there So you have the working-class people the America first that want to put America first. They're sort of the nationalists that you talked about right there. So you have the working class people, the America first, that want to put America first. They're sort of the populists. They're the protectionists, you might almost say isolationists.

MAGA 2.0, the people that have basically been there for 10 months versus 10 years. These are honestly former liberals, some of them. They're tech people. A lot of them are billionaires. They're the elites. They're a different form of MAGA. So the interesting thing here is when you do politics, do you want to have a big tent party? A lot of them are billionaires. They're the elites. They're a different form of MAGA. So the interesting thing here is when you do politics, you want to have a big tent party. Hey, we need your votes. We need your votes. We need your votes. Okay, we got your votes.

And now you're like, get the hell out of here. Hold on. I'm sorry. You don't want Elon Musk. You don't want Vivek. Elon Musk gave how much money to Trump? $200 billion. All of a sudden he's the bad guy. So this conversation that's being had needs to happen No doubt by the way, Trump hasn't even assumed office yet. It's crazy because you know They say that you the way that you campaign is different than how you govern when you campaign you made broad Just sort of out there outlandish commentary, but when you govern you actually have to do some nuanced debates But as we always say FTM follow the money outlandish commentary but when you govern you actually have to do some nuanced debates. But as we always say, FTM follow the money.

Speaking of, you read a stat out there, what percentage of the H-1B visas are Indians? 75%. Okay, so it's basically Indians. That's what we're talking about. So follow the money, GDP per capita, what's the GDP per capita? In India, in India, they're number 120 in the world. The average Indian makes 8,400 bucks a year. Okay. That's from 2023. So my stat says even that's what it says 2,400. I see 8,400. I don't fact check that America $76,000 a year GDP per capita. Either way,

if you're working in America You're making so much more than you're gonna make in India and by the way What do you think the people do what when they make this money? You just said so what's your point there? Are you even if you're suppressing their wages, which is not fun? Okay, there it is right there seven thousand even if suppressing their wages. They're making 10x what they'd be making in India So they have a choice is to make they don't have to come here Right, but there's also another thing. Are you saying that because you're saying you know 10x what they'd be making in India. So they have a choice to make. They don't have to come here. But there's also another thing.

Are you saying that because you're saying the opportunity to live in India is not as good as here and that's why they're not even close. So Indians are going to school there but they're wanting to come to America here. The dream for them is to come here. Who doesn't want to come to America? Who doesn't want to come to America? I. Who doesn't want to come to America? I love the analogy that you used, the restaurant analogy. How do you judge a good restaurant?

How long is the wait? The wait to get in America, with the exception of the past couple of years with Joe Biden, open border Kamala Harris czar policies, has been what? What did you just say? We're the number one country for immigration year in and year out. It's not even close. It's not even close. So country for immigration here in and year out

So where the hell so you want to go you want to move to China I don't see anybody trying to get into China. I don't see anybody both dying to get into Russia or North Korea or Iran So America is the place the land of opportunity So this conversation I think that does need to happen because do we not want immigrants here? Do we not want the best and brightest where we do we want them going? Want them going to our enemies? We want them here. But at the same time, I do agree with Vivek, Americans got to compete. I love the thing that you broke down about a year ago about why Indians are so successful. If you look at the most successful minorities, it's number one and number two.

And it's being being being being, Indians and Jews straight up. So why is that? What's going on in their culture? You did a whole breakdown about the family and divorce rates and what Indians do and how they're encouraging. Do you know what their divorce rate is? It's like 1%. Some ridiculous.

It's low. So ridiculous. It's that their divorce rate is on some data shows one. On some data, one on some data It shows six percent African Americans were the highest in us at 31 percent mix Hispanics were at 18 and a half percent Whites read 15.1 percent. Yeah, but Indians are a one to six percent divorce rate. That's what they have Yes, it's some some ridiculous number that they have you know, they say don't hate the player hate the game The Indians are playing the game.

They're doing it. Yeah, but what I'm trying to understand is the following. Here's what I'm trying to understand, Tom. And I want to bring this to you. I want to understand everybody's points. Like for example, I want to understand Elon. Well he said, you know, he came here on an H1 visa to Elon? Well that's what I'm saying.

Where he says, the reason I'm in America along with so many other critical people that built SpaceX and Tesla and hundreds of other companies that America's strong because of H1B, take a big step back and go F yourself. That's from the movie. In the face. Tropic Thunder. Tropic Thunder. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.

Wow. That was a quote from I think Les Grossman. Yeah. Never go full retail. But you know why he's saying that? I mean he came here on one. Yeah. So to him that's personal. That's a success story. Now to somebody who was born here and they're white and they were raised in a certain way where they're white nationalist. Okay you view me as go back to Iran,

deport Ilan back to what he called South Africa, deport Vivek back to India, right? And you make those types of comments. All right, I don't think that's majority of America. I think that's less than 5%. That is the far right. Yeah, that's the far left. Ultranationalists.

That's the far right. And the far left wants open borders and let everybody come in here, let's legalize everyone. The far right wants, if you're not a white nationalist, get the hell out of here. The problem here is, you as a consumer not knowing the position of the individual before they say it and you think everyone is in that position. They're not, not everyone's in that position. So this is why it's caused a little bit of confusion. I'm reading a book right now by Robert Half

about how recruiting firms were grown in the 80s. And one of the things he said, he said, he's the founder of Robert Half, his name is Robert Half, he wrote this book on HR, I don't know what the book's name is, it's actually really good. He explains how in of Robert Half, his name is Robert Half, he wrote this book on HR, I don't know what the book's name, it's actually really good. He explains how in the 70s, one of the things that happened in the 70s and 80s

is the media, every time you would see somebody become a billionaire, everybody would say he made his billions by hurting someone. So the image was the only way you can get rich is by what? By hurting somebody. Scam artists, con artists, all this other stuff. Some of the words, I mean, a community notes section came up, Rob, if you can pull this up.

I saw one on, they called Vivek a scammer, con artist, they called, there's a bunch, but here's one right here. But put this one up there right there on the tweet that I put up. Look at the bottom there. Patrick Bedevina made his money by founding a predatory multi-level marketing pyramid scheme which he then used to market himself as a business girl on YouTube. He is essentially a scam artist. By the way, the community notes allowed that for a couple hours, then it was taken down.

Okay, that's the whole community notes concept. Wikipedia and community notes are somewhat similar. I know Elon Musk, I actually like community notes to be honest with you. The only thing you have to be careful with community notes is that now when everywhere, hey, this is what it is on the end of the day. You know how hard it is to build a national insurance agency dealing with regulators in every state. Tom was the president of the insurance company.

He's the CSO of it till today. You're dealing with every single agency. We pay taxes in God knows how many states. To grow a company like that, and then for somebody to cut a check for a quarter of a billion dollars after they do quality of earnings, which Tom, can you tell everybody what a quality of earnings is?

What a quality of earnings report. So everyone knows how to sell a house. In the middle of selling a house, you need an inspection. If you're buying a house, your bank requires the inspection to show that the house is in good shape and they're going to give you a mortgage for it, right? Very simple. An inspection times 1,000 is a quality of earnings report that gets done on your business. So they say, hey, we like to do an inspection, and part of that inspection is gonna be quality of earnings. What do they do?

They're looking for fraud, they're looking for offshore bank accounts, they're looking for transactions going back to the owner. They literally go through your bank account and watch every single expense, anything you ever bought, purchase, personal, everything. Wire transfers. It's like a forensics.

But you have to do it, you're about to cut a quarter of a billion dollar check. So think of it as you're selling a company and the inspection, the house inspection to sell that company is called a quality of earnings report and it only gets done by people like PWC and Accenture, big companies.

You sell a company for more than $50 million. It is a big inspector. It takes months to do. It costs at least a quarter of a million dollars, in my experience, that's what it costs. And guess who pays that? You, if you're selling your company, you have to pay that before it closes.

So guess what, if the deal falls through, the economy crashes, they can't get their loans. Guess what, you have to pay it anyway. But here's the point. So if a person's never gone through building a business or selling it, I don't blame you for not knowing. How could you not know what a quality of earns is and how hard it is?

For example, I don't know what it was to, mothers, labor, all this stuff. Then I saw my wife have four kids, back to back to back to back, all without, what do you call it, a pitocin, without epidural. I'm like, oh my God. The level of respect for your wife goes up

when you watch them give birth. You're like, damn, I don't know the pain, but oh my God, salute for what you do. Then you see them nursing while you're sleeping, trying to run a company. They're waking up throughout the night three, four, five times a night. You're like, wow, I thought I worked hard.

I don't, you know, the amount of hours a mother puts in when they're working and raising a child, hey, true role models, mothers don't work 80 hours a week when they have a newborn. They're working 168 hours a week, literally, because you're not sleeping half the time. So you know, we have to keep in mind that this concept that I explained two months ago, that I said you're going to see them pinning Trump against Musk and there's possibility of there being a civil war. FYI, think about what Democrats and the establishment wanted for Christmas.

Imagine what you wrote, my kids all wrote a card on what they want for their Christmas except for my oldest son. He says, I want shares in Manect. That guy is wired in a very different way. Okay, and you know, he goes, Vinny asks son, he says, I want shares in my neck. That guy is wired in a very different way. Okay, and you know, Vinny asks him, he says, hey, what do you want for Christmas? What do you tell him?

I bought all the kids something, and at the end, like for the third time, I'm like, Tico, just tell me, because I'm gonna go get it right now. He goes, just the time with you is the gift, and I was like, this freaking is the gift. He just wants to hang out, and I was like, what a freaking kid.

But think about what you asked for Christmas. What did you want for Christmas? Think about what your kids asked for Christmas. Then think about what the establishment and the left and Democrats after losing to Trump wanted for Christmas. You know what they wanted? This is exactly what they wanted. Now that they lost to Trump,

they wanted to see the dog-eat-dog community come out, and it's happening, and it's nasty, and it's ugly. I've been in business for a long time. When you run a business, you go through a lot of stuff. You have thick skin, you're not worried about it. It's gonna happen. We're in this community. We're gonna talk.

I can't expect people to not say anything while we're talking to ourselves and we're giving our opinions. I have no problem with that. But the part I will tell you is that we have to be very, very careful with is watch everyone's motives and stay skeptical with everybody but at the same

time you know even with people giving their own messages you have to know nobody celebrates more than when there's a divorce and an infighting in the enemy's house you are the enemy to the other side the other side is not happy that the other side. The other side is not happy that America is making progress. The other side is not happy that everybody's flying into Mar-a-Lago to have a meeting with Trump. The other side is not happy. They're not happy about it. By the way, this is just the beginning. You think this is anything? This is going to be elementary to what they're going to be doing in 2025 and 2026. Can I say one thing, Pat? Just for people out there, and I can guarantee the haters, scam, you

just repeat what the hell you hear because you have nothing better to do with your life. Community Notes is technically supposed to fact check. For instance, remember the one time I posted, I was in here, we were on a podcast, and I thought Jimmy Carter died. I mean, God rest his soul, he actually did die. But I posted it, I posted the photo, and we all were like, wait a minute, no he didn't. Somebody went in there and community notes says, he is still alive, they were fact checking my false information. Okay? That's like somebody saying, hey, this player is six foot two, they'll community note, which

is a group of people together, God knows what their biases are, and they fact check you. This, what this person did right there, isn't a fact check. This is someone's opinion on you. This should be something that's put in the comment section. So I have to question community notes because who's fact checking, and Rob said this yesterday, who's fact checking these so-called fact checkers? That's not a fact.

That's somebody's bias opinion that they're getting from Wikipedia. So how is that, you know what I mean? So Guy sends me a message and says, let me tell you, you're on different Telegram groups saying put helpful. Put helpful. See what I'm saying? Put helpful.

Did you get it? Yeah, yeah. So there are these communities that say put helpful. Of course. They're haters. The same way there is the Wikipedia army, there is the community notes army. And by the way, they're not going away. You just have to know. they're not going away.

You know, they have a lot more time on their hands to sit there and do what they're doing. And I'll tell you something about Wikipedia. It's not an offshoot, Pat, here. This is a, I did a case study. We gotta get to the next story after this. I did a case study some years ago, but it talked about that there is, in pharmaceuticals,

they have paid lobbying organizations, PR firms, that do nothing but put stuff onto Wikipedia. And they have sensor alarms. And the sensor alarm is what it was described to me as. As soon as something is posted on a Wikipedia page, maybe for a drug, they see it and look at it. And they go in it, and they attack it. And they have multiple PR firms that attack it and change at it and they go in it and they attack it and they have multiple PR firms that attack it And change it to what they want. This is the whole astroturf side of gaslighting

And so Wikipedia is not a good thing and in my opinion It's not particularly credible because of what has happened and the fact that these things are really going down And so when you reference that, that's not there. But the other side of is to your point, who's fact checking the fact checkers or does it become like Wikipedia for cabals of people can basically, you know, say, Hey, get on telegram, get on the discord group. Hey, something just got said about the Lakers. Go after the Lakers, grab the Lakers, grab the Lakers. There, there's mechanisms in the modern internet that can be used by groups to go

after people they want to go after. I have two quick points. This thing really bothers me. This community know. Why does it bother me? I didn't work for PHP. I worked in the insurance industry. And if there's anybody that would know about being the black sheep of the life insurance industry, it's this guy that works in the life settlement world. How many life settlement companies went out of business? You said you went down to Waco, Texas one time, life partners out of the... I would call people, if people don't know what I do, it's basically the exact opposite

of life insurance. I buy existing life insurance policies for people and I give them cash. Very interesting business model, very lucrative if you can make your way in this world. But when I met PBD in the gym at a Nalba conference, massive, massive insurance conference, he told me his business strategy, blue ocean strategy. I said, wow, good luck with that, man. I don't know anybody who's doing that. So I, what I do know about the life insurance business is that every two years you have to do continuing education to go out there and recruit by law and start a business and start with a blue ocean strategy, recruiting Latina females

in a business that is predominantly MPS, what I call male pale and stale old guys. No offense, Tom, I love you too. And then recruit and build a business. How many license agents as you build 40,000 agents you've recruited 60,000 who's counting though. And then to call to go out and I know a lot of these agents have become good friends with them and you go to these insurance conferences. You think you're having fun. You think you're partying you think that's what you're doing at insurance conferences No, no, no, no, no, no

I go to PHP's big event. Are you freaking kidding me? ludicrous is there Ali shack was there dilly boy sitting on his lap their BFF Nicky Jam is doing his thing. Nelly is getting hot up in here at 9 a.m. What the hell's going on with that? I appreciate that, but let's go to the next one. No, but the point is this.

It's so easy for someone like, he is a scam artist, they have no idea what the kind of effort that you put into this. But let me tell you though, all I'm saying to you is, I don't have a problem with anything anybody is saying. They have to write to say anything they want to say. I think one of the best things a young man can do is get into sales and work your ass off

and be in an opportunity where you can train, speak on stage, be a sales leader, whether it's, you know, there's a lot of companies that are recruiting model companies, New York Life, Keller Williams, you got a lot of these companies that they could, Primerica, they can do very good things for you, for you to go out there and learn.

Do it, but it's not for everyone. The only thing for me with this was the model of community notes. All the other stuff, nothing. Off my, water off my back, we move on. Totally understand, and you don't need me to stand up for you, you can stand up for yourself, you're a big boy. It bothers me because you're saying,

hey, I don't have a problem with this. I do have a problem with this, because it's lazy, it's weak, and you're just talking shit online Twitter it's not going away. Okay know that and moving on this will not be the first or last time I totally understand for many many years, but it's weak and it's right Okay, the last thing with Trump by the way, you know what we say the basically this is gonna come down to Trump What you know what he said about h1b visas you heard his quote because we didn't address Trump and I'll do this real quick

Trump said I've always liked the visas. I've always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them. I've had many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a great believer in H-1B. It's a great program. By the way, we always talk about who's the last person in Trump's year. Who's the last person in Trump's year? Likely, it's Melania. Fun fact, you know, two out of three Trump's wives, foreigners, immigrants, legally, Melania and his first wife, Ivanka. So he respects legal immigration.

He always has been. We're gonna build a wall with a big beautiful door. The part with Trump is when Trump said to Hillary in the debate, when they said, you know, he uses all the tax cuts and all this stuff and he barely pays any taxes. He says, yeah, absolutely. So do all your donors. If you don't like it, do something about it.

How come you haven't all these years? So yeah, there's not the only thing is the argument about H1B that you have to hear it is broken. The current system is broken, the lottery system doesn't make sense, we're not getting the best, we're paying them less than somebody that can do the job here, the offer has to match the same, you have to identify the people that are abusing the middleman that are taking the money out, that model has to change and in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with the good talent coming here.

Don't bash those people that are coming here. They love America. Some of the guys that are coming here from some of these countries and they're bashing America and you owe me this and F you and the illegal immigrants, totally get it, 100%. But a lot of these guys come here, they love your country and they want to make it their own. They want to be able to say they're American and my suggestion is to be open to that idea. That's what made this place the melting pot.

FYI, you know who came out with the H-1B visa program? President Bush. The first Bush. Yeah, the first Bush. Okay, all right, let's go to the next story. It is broken, it does need to be fixed. Trudeau's top minister at Mar-a-Lago to discuss border security, okay?

Trudeau's top minister at Mar-a-Lago to discuss border security. So Dominique LeBlanc and former foreign minister Melanie Jolly met the U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and Interior Department nominee Doug Bergen at Mar-a-Lago to discuss Canada's border plan. The plan includes installing surveillance towers along the border and amidst the Canada's border, uh, what is it amid the what? Amidst, uh, uh, along with arming the Canada border services agency with more helicopters, drones, and workers while also addressing the harm caused by fentanyl and the potential negative impact

of a proposed 25% tariff on Canadian goods. Lutnick and Burgum agree to relay these updates to President Trump so they did not meet with Trump. They met with Trump's leaders. And then Kevin O'Leary comes out and says the following, and then Tom, I'm gonna come to you right after this. Rob, if you got the Kevin O'Leary clip. I'm ready. He makes a right after this. Rob, if you've got the Kevin O'Leary clip.

I'm ready. He makes a comment about how half of Canadians feel about Canada being the 51st state. Go ahead, Rob. There's 41 million Canadians, basically the population of California, sitting on the world's largest amounts of all resources, including the most important, energy and water. Canadians over the holidays the last two days have been talking about this. They want to hear more and so you know there's obviously a lot of issues more details but what this could be is the beginning of an economic union. Think about the power of combining

the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door. So secure that, give a common currency, figure out taxes across the board, get everything trading both ways, create a new almost EU like passport. I like this idea and at least half of Canadians are interested. The problem is the government's collapsing in Canada right now. Nobody wants Trudeau to negotiate this deal. I don't want him doing it for me. So I'm going to go to Mar-a-Lago.

I'll start the narrative. The 41 million Canadians, I think most of them would trust me on this deal. So here's what's going on. He brings up some very interesting point. I take you back to November 1st 1993 with Helmut Kohl who was Chancellor of Germany at the time and Francois Mitterrand one of the famous leaders of France got together and put together the Maastricht Treaty, M-A-A-S-T-R-I-C-H-T Maastricht Treaty which established the EU to do exactly what he talked about

because in the EU they had the rich countries, and they had the poor countries. And you had Portugal, and you had Italy, and you had countries that had some struggling economies. And they came together, and that's what created the EU. And there it is, the Maastricht Treaty. It was November 1, 1993, when it was ratified, and it brought them all together.

And they had one currency, except the UK, who said, you know what, we have the strongest currency out here, we're gonna keep the UK pound, because you knuckleheads are probably gonna screw this up, and you're gonna expect the UK pound to carry the currency of Europe. So that's what happened, and guess what? This is what Kevin O'Leary's saying.

The US dollar and the Canadian dollar used to be kinda of close together. You know what it is right now? A Canadian dollar, if you handed it to me in Buffalo, New York, because you came across to see Niagara Falls, you know how much I would give you? 70 cents US.

Oh damn. Yeah, yeah. So. Little loonies. So, and by the way, do you know when finance minister Dominic LeBlanc and foreign minister Melanie Joy, wait a minute, your finance minister and your foreign minister come to Mar-a-Lago to talk to Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick. Finance? Foreign? Wait a minute, maybe they're talking about an EU.

And by the way, you know, an EU would make sense because the US is an energy Exporter right now and it would actually strengthen Canada and what the US doesn't need is a failed Canada But the US doesn't want to be the one that rescues Canada And so what's going on right now is Canadians don't like their taxes They don't like what's going on immigration and by the way, and they hate their leader They don't like what's going on immigration and by the way, and they hate their leader Okay, yeah, and by the by the way, guess what? Guess what the two number number one and number two issues for Canada is as they push against Trudeau The economy is number one. Guess what number two is what?

Immigration. Hey, that's funny We had a similar election and we elected a leader to lead Canada's people and Kevin O'Leary are reacting to the leadership of Donald Trump even as he carries the title of president-elect and he's talking exactly about what happened in Europe when they harmonize things to stabilize those economies. Tom, what's the likelihood of this happening? I think it's probably 20% and rising especially on the energy side Well the way out that guy let me let me but the question I'm asking you is not you type treaty

Yeah, no, what what is between what us and Canada? Yeah, not a state just a EU type So the 51 state state that's not gonna happen No, that'll happen to Puerto Rico sooner than that would ever happen in Canada. Okay, so 50 so an EU like treaty Puerto Rico sooner than that would ever happen in Canada. Okay, so an EU-like treaty that would benefit US in what way? I know it would benefit Canada where US wouldn't put a tariff on them, but how does that benefit us? Well, two things, right? A somewhat stronger Canadian currency helps Canada. It actually helps us right now with the Canadian currency week when we do energy trades, right?

Because they have to pay us a whole lot more Canadian dollars, you know, for the energy. So that helps us. But if we move it together on the northern edge, remember, I believe the number is 81% of Canada lives within 200 miles of the US border because you have Montreal, you have Vancouver, you have Toronto, and I think that's it. I think it's the 80-200. 80% of Canada lives within 200 miles of the US border. And so you already have all of this.

Yep, there it is. 93 miles. 80% of the population lives within 150 kilometers, only 90 miles. So you're basically talking suburbs of Buffalo, Detroit and Seattle. That's what you're talking about. Toronto is right there, Windsor Lock at Detroit, Buffalo and Montreal right down the street. So the winner here is Canada more than it is US. The winner here is a stabilized Canada, and to the US, a stabilized neighbor,

I think is very positive. And you already have a lot of labor that goes back and forth. For a lot of years, Ford has built tons of trucks right over the border in Canada, in Detroit. It looks like Detroit because you say, well where does Detroit stop and Toronto begin? I can't really tell you. The factories are right there. It's similar to Makila Dora's. Makila Dora, my little sister I believe. Adam, yeah. Tom, I know you're Canadian so you have a vested interest in this by the way.

Canadian descent. Anyone we hear that reaches out on Manect by the way, reaches out on Manect to us, every single Canadian is like, dude, how the hell do I get out of Canada? What's going on in Florida? Can you get me to America? I'm like, what do I look like, ice?

How many messages do you get from people in Canada being like, get me out of this place? For me, the number two country by a mile is Australia on Manect. Really? It's not even close. I was at Trader Joe's and a girl from Canada literally stops me and she goes, oh my God, I can't believe you're here.

I'm like, so where are you from? She goes, Canada. And I can hate it. And she's like, everybody's trying to come here. Trudeau is horrible. The taxes suck. The borders. I'm like, jeez.

I have not heard one person go, man, Canada, zero, zero. Did you hear what Ben Shapiro said about Trump and Trudeau? I think it was actually at Turning Point at Amfest. Did you hear what he said? No. The story? He goes, and Ben Shapiro actually did a decent Trump accent, he goes, Trudeau's meeting with Trump, and he goes, hey Justin, if there were one thing

that I could do to wreck the Canadian economy, what would it be? And Trudeau goes, well, you know, you're a really powerful country, but you know, President Trump, if you tariffed and taxed our vehicles, that would probably be the worst thing that would probably wreck our economy. And Trump goes, Justin, let me teach you the first real negotiations. When someone asks you, what would wreck your economy? Don't answer it guy. The crowd goes up in uproar.

And basically just shows that Justin Joe's the dumbest negotiator ever period just really his hand I called him a fag last week. You don't have to be gay to be a fact. Not he's not gay He's a fact. Do we have the clip from Ben Shapiro? Do we have that clip? I mean we don't need to play Anyway, but Justin Trudeau like I said last week is a dead man walking this care this guy Pierre Paulie I've got is a stud he's eaten his lunch every single week and he's the guy that's going to be negotiating with Trump. We're going to see how it goes. By the way, if they stabilize their economy and they lower their tax rate, those consumers

are buying more stuff and we're like their largest trading partner. So they're buying stuff like energy. Yeah, I'm just trying to see how it benefits us when we look at this. Let me go to the next thing here. U.S. homelessness is up 18 percent and officials are blaming the migrant crisis, devastating natural disasters, and a lack of affordable housing. Rob, I think you've got a video on this one here if you do, if you want to prep it. Is this it?

It is. It's a Fox News report on this. Okay, go for it. Go for it. Welcome back. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recording a massive 18 percent increase in homelessness this past year. Shocking numbers. Its latest report says, which came out today, by the way, at least 770,000 people

experienced homelessness. That includes one hundred and fifty thousand children. California, number one in the country with over one hundred and eighty seven thousand homeless. HUD says the lack of affordable housing, worsening natural disasters, and the migrant crisis are all making it harder for people to find places to live in. By the way, the number is 18, U.S. experience 18.1% increase in homelessness in 2024 brings the total up over 770,000.

Rob, can you pull up the homelessness population the last 10 years? According to the Department of Housing, the rise was driven by sky-high housing costs, natural disasters like the Maui wildfire, and a surge of migrants with HUD reporting family homelessness, more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migration, including Denver, Chicago, New York City Renee Wills of the National Low Income Housing Coalition called the increase the tragic yet predictable consequences of under investing in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe affordable housing Nearly 150,000 children were homeless on a single night in 2024

Reflecting a 33% jump from 2023. Oh my God. Did you hear that? Let me say that one more time, folks. A 150,000 children were homeless on a single night in 2024. That's a 33% increase from last year. This is just children, okay? and it's not going away Tom. How how How do you foresee a Trump administration?

Coming in right there. They're Solution oriented. How do you address this issue? Especially when you think about the seven seventy three, right? Can you pull up out of the seven seventy homeless population? What percentage of that is just the state of California? Okay, if you type in? Highest homelessness population by state highest homelessness population by state Let's see what it is. And if it gives us an update that's as of 2023 So we don't have the 24 numbers yet, but it's okay, let me just read that, Rob. It's fine. 181, okay, California. And then 103, New York, 31, Florida, Washington, 28.

Can you pull one more down? Let's see who 50 is. Well, let me just see this here. Go a little bit lower. Rob, I'm gonna send you some stats real quick. Go a little, I don't think that's the one, Rob. Go a little lower, the one that, oh, right there, right there. So Washington, Dennis, Texas.

And then per 100,000, New York is 527, Vermont is 509, Oregon, 476, California, 466, Hawaii, 434, Adam. Did you see the Wall Street Journal breakdown of this? Ooh, wee wah, wah, wee wah, wah. Wall Street Journal just came out with articles reading it last night and it's called the blue state homeless boom. Boom boom goes the room. You know the number one state in terms of increase

percentage-wise because obviously California has the most... Was it New York? No, not New York. You want to guess again? Hawaii? No. And it's not even close. I mean it's not California.. I mean, it's not Okay, Illinois Here's the breakdown increase in homeless population from 2019 to 2024. There you go, Texas only 8% Florida 10% and 50 Illinois a hundred and fifty three percent California 23% not good New York 71% and the US average is 35% as much as I get the 153, look at New York by number.

New York was number one by increase of actual homeless people. Okay, Illinois 2.5x what they had in population, but New York went up 66,000. You were just in New York. I just came back. How was it when you were in New York? Specific to homelessness. I mean, look, the area was, I was hanging out with them with the homeless people. But yeah, look, we all know what's happening with Eric Adams. We all see what's going on with the subway. I actually filmed a video when I was in New York and basically I love New York. I used to go every single summer. It's an amazing city. Obviously you have your relationship with the Yankees. And while I was there, I, I'd filmed a video. I was like, look, I'm

here in New York. I'm getting out of a subway. I love New York. It's the best city in the world. Other than the fact that it's the most expensive city to live in the United States, the cost of living, the homelessness, the crime, the freezing cold rain, the most expensive city to live in the United States the cost of living the homeless is the crime The freezing cold rain the Mets the Jets the homelessness that I mentioned the cost of living the fact that I'm paying $5,000 for a shoebox apartment the fact that homeless rats garbage, but other than that I Love New York. So New York has some massive issues. How much how much tax revenue left New York during kovat? 30 billion dollars something like that New York during COVID? $30 billion, something like

that. New York has some major issues, this homelessness situation that was going on. The guys that were beaten up, cops in New York, Vinnie, you covered this, flipping the bird. New York has some major situations. In my opinion, New York was the best city in America. But now the wokeness, the Columbia University, everything that's going on there, gays for Gaza. How does a Trump administration fix this homelessness problem? Yeah, coming back to your question, what does Trump do? Well, first of all, you're hired, they hire you, they give you the job, what do you do? First of all, you look at what's happening and how do you make it stop and how do you fix it? First of all, immigrants are coming

here with no place to live, with no job to get, so that they can't even, in a short order, make a little bit of money to pay for a small place and it's not the affordable place. So how do you drive the price down in any market? Supply, increase the supply that's out there or reduce the demand for it? So first of all, and people are gonna go all over

the comments on this, he's talking about deporting a lot of people and once you deport people that aren't supposed to be here because they're criminals and they're floating around, you're reducing demand, but you also gotta increase the supply and for the past three years, builders have been building. But it's where they're building, what they're building,

and you gotta put, I believe, you need two things. It's not enough just to say, we need affordable housing in the city of Miami, I agree we do. We need it, it's gonna be more west, okay? But what are those people gonna do? Where are the jobs gonna be? So you need a partnership with the big cities to attract business to put jobs in the big cities, Pat,

that are working class jobs, then you need places for those people to live. So you have to do, Trump's going to have to get HUD and commerce together. And what I do is I get HUD and commerce together and say, look, the homelessness is tougher in these areas. I need supply of affordable housing. I need to reduce the artificial and bad demand. Take the people that are demanding it and get them out of here.

And then we got to work with industry to bring back American jobs and opportunities so those people have something to do. So it's not a light switch. Now the Democrats will think, well, just give them money. Give them money to go wear and pay rent to who? If there's not a supply of housing, right? You know, all you're gonna have is a shortage of,

a shortage of, you know, you're not gonna have shortage. It's gonna be spent on vices, and it's a fact. It's got lottery tickets, alcohol, things like this. If you just hand out money, you can't do that. It's gotta do two things. The supply of housing, work with that, and then work with the big cities to attract companies with jobs there, so some people have something to do

and get paid. I got it, Tom. So what I wanna look at, you know how sometimes, Tom, we would look at 1,000 insurance policies coming in, and you would see some chargebacks, some stay on the books, some get canceled, some they keep. And then we would run a report to see where these chargebacks are coming from.

What state, what office, what vice president, and then you would see. Find the trends. Okay, so what I wanna know is, this homelessness increase of 18%, who are they? Are they illegal immigrants? Are they veterans? What's the background?

If you go a little low, Rob, this article I just sent you, it shows you all the way at the bottom. So let's kind of read this together. At the top, we saw the number 770. Great, keep going lower, keep going lower. You'll see when the numbers actually come up. I'll go up a little bit when you see numbers

to see what it says right there. Since then, all of the crossings at the border have dropped by more than 60%. HUD is in the present. Encounters are at the lowest since July 2020. As a result, my general, okay, yeah, but for three and a half years, you let the doors light up.

So in Chicago, for example, the migrant shelter census is down more than 60%. And in Denver, it's down 100%, but wait till we see what is up. But according to HUD, found that nearly one third of the 18,800 homeless people in Chicago were children. Chicago saw a 200% increase in homeless population this year.

Asylum-seeking families in Chicago, so that is what? Illegal immigrants. Yep. If you, they use a different word, asylum-seeker, seeking, not asylum families. Asylum-seeking families could be another word as illegal immigrants, including those bust or flown in Chicago from other states like Texas or Florida, whatever may be, accounted for most of Chicago's increase in estimated homelessness. A record number of 371,000 illegal aliens were encountered at the authority border.

December 20, record break-in. May of 2022 was the previous record. Keep going lower, 1.7 million gotaways, okay HUD, report 8% decrease in homelessness amongst veterans, record low, has helped connect 90,000 veteran households to stable rental homes, HUD got it, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has permanently housed 47,925 veteran experiencing homelessness in 2024, which is good, go a little lower to see if there's anything else or that's it, yeah.

So to me, what I wanna know is what's causing it? And then what can we do to help some of them? Like every year for about eight years, seven years, we used to go to Skid Row in downtown LA, okay? We'd get up at 4.30 in the morning, Christmas morning, December 25th, and about 50 of us, eventually at then it was about 100 of us,

we'd go to downtown LA and we would go give the homeless bibles, pillows, blankets, toothpaste, whatever you wanna call it. And I would talk to these guys. And what was weird about some of them that were there, I said, so what did you do for work before? I was an accountant. No, you weren't.

Yeah, I was. How did you end up here? And one story was, man, I said, so what did you do for work before? I was an accountant. No, you weren't. Yeah, I was. How did you end up here? And one story was, man, I just, I couldn't stop drinking. Okay, how about yourself? I got a DUI. How about yourself? I got into a lot of debt and I couldn't find a way. So what are you doing now?

We're living over here. But some of them were people that if you clean them up, they looked proper. They looked good. Some of them were people that if you clean them up, they looked proper. They looked good. Some of them were drugs, some of them were felonies and people that maybe they're not going to get a job. But you have to almost find a way to see which one of them we can get back into the system. Tom said a word the other day, which what was it when you went to jails, prisons used

to be called what? Correctional facilities. Correctional facilities to correct the habits so we can get you to go back into society and become a citizen again, a contributing citizen again. We have to look at which one of them we can help out to get them back to getting a job. There are a lot of companies that hire people that are former felons,

former people with criminal background. I remember one guy at the Church and Shepherd of the Hills, he had a junkyard. I don't know if you remember this guy or not. He used to always go to the men's retreat. And he had 120 employees. Out of the 120 employees, 75% of them had done time before. And they all worked for him.

Former gangsters, they were tatted up, you would see them, they're gay, MS-13, 13th Street, 18th Street, TVR, all these guys, but they got jobs. So it was church and they worked over there. You gotta find a way to make themselves sufficient. What percentage of them, Tom, do you think are not, you can't rehabilitate them, like correct them. Which percentage of them do you think are like,

there's so much into it that good luck doing anything with them? I haven't seen the stats on that, and words talk, numbers scream, and I don't wanna put a number out there that, but my own estimate based on reading a lot of articles like this and finding that there are. Did you say it's a big number or a small number?

No, I would say it's probably about, my guess would be it's probably around 25% based on reading things about the number of kids, the number of people that had an addiction like alcohol or they had things like a DUI, lost the car, couldn't drive anymore and things like this. I would say you probably have, there's probably 20 to 25% of them, just my gut guess, my observation, that are probably gonna be really hard pressed to find a job.

Today, on the way to work today in Fort Lauderdale at Commercial and Federal Highway, there was a guy that was laying in the street, his legs were on the crosswalk and his stomach was right there on the sidewalk. And me and a truck coming up, we both stopped at the same time, or we were both saying the same thing.

We both turned on our blinkers, got out, went to talk to the guy wondering, was he hit, what's going on? He rolls over and starts just yelling incomprehensible stuff, didn't have any weapons, said anything, and I'm just like, this is just a troubled person. So the truck guy called 911 and said,

look, there's a guy here, we wanna get him out of the street, ba ba ba ba ba. I don't see that as the norm. And I would say this person on drugs is probably way out there yeah the other day when they really get yeah I agree with you the other day me Dylan and Tico were right down the street from the office and Jen's with us kids are with us homeless guy is there he says hey you got some money I said what are you gonna do with it? He said, I'm gonna go buy food. I said, then I'm not gonna give you money.

Meet me at Five Guys. So we go to Five Guys and I get him whatever he wants. We sit down and I have lunch with him. I'm talking, how'd you end up here? Go looking, guys. I said, look at your eyes. You got Bradley Cooper eyes. He starts laughing.

I says, well, I messed up. My family will never forgive me. This is the third time they've given a shot. They'll never forgive me again. I said, do you have any kids? No, I said, how do you think your dad your mom your mom and dad around? Yeah, he was in his mid 40s So how do you think they feel about you being in here right now? How much pain you think they're at when they go to sleep every night how much pain you think they got a lot?

How much you think they would like to see you go back to being? Yes, how long have you gone without drinking and he tells me I've gone seven days without drinking I said great then here's 20 bucks and I will follow him just to see what he does. You know where he goes? Straight to the bar. Yep. He went straight to the bar. Yeah.

And to those guys, you know, churches do things, charities do things, a lot of people are doing things to help them out, but the ones that can be helped, the investment must be made in people who want to help them out, but the ones that can be helped, the investment must be made in people who want to help themselves. To try to help 100%, veterans they served, for you and I, they gave us protection, we want to sleep feeling safe,

we have to take care of our veterans. There's no question there. Psychological, PTSD, it's challenging for a lot lot of we got to find a way to make that work for some of them. But I think the investments got to be made in people that are willing to help them. So we got a drug problem in this country. We got a fentanyl problem in this country. We got an alcohol problem in this country. We have a mental health problem in this country. You asked us some stats about New York City, right? The article from the Wall journal what's basically what's wrong with blue cities the blue state blue state homeless boom here's some numbers for you by the way New York City's right to shelter policy also

encourages migrants to take advantage of government supported housing including hotels in Manhattan most migrants who can't find work in housing eventually move on but most of the increase in what HUD calls quote-unquote chronic homelessness is owed to mental health and drug abuse, which is report failed to mention. If you can believe it, it is obvious to anyone who walks past any urban homeless encampment or for what that matter is any street in certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles or New York City, progressives ignore such clear social ills and instead call for more spending on low income housing, but such housing first policies have failed and demonstrated by the rising

number of homelessness in progressive states. Throwing money at it is just not something... How much money did Gavin Newsom accidentally misplace? $26 billion. $24 billion. Right? The Rob's got it. Oh my god. Yeah. Who... $24 billion gone? So clearly, and Oregon, I think they legalized or decriminalized all drugs during COVID, and then this past year they're like, yeah, yeah, we're good. Unlimited needles and bleach kits. We just can't have people, we just can't have drunk alcoholics, drug dealers, people on heroin just walking around the streets and it being legal? By the way, you know that $24 billion they gave to California and California's got 180,000 homeless people?

Do you know if they took that $24 billion and they gave it to each homeless person? They just gave it to them. You know how much money it would be? $133,000 a piece. Where do you think that money went to? You think it ended up going there? Oh, in people's pockets. And it all comes down.

Where did that money go? Nobody knows. You're never gonna know. You're missing not 240,000, not 2.4 million, not 24 million, $24 billion. dollars and by the way Gavin Newsom You know words talk number scream and I'll take a sip of coffee and I'll give you one parting shot Go ahead cuz I want to say something Tell him what's in your cup. So

Let's be Tito's and cranberry, but I guess my guy so What you see right now is I call it the fake statistics of winter. So Chicago, homelessness is dropping in Chicago. Yeah. You want to know why? Has anyone been to Chicago during the winter? It's freezing.

Do you know where they're going? They are moving out. They are looking for refuge in other smaller cities and coming south. That is a fact of what's going on, but we need to move on. But right now the stats, you know, lie a lot about it. But I'd love to see HUD stats on chronic homelessness to find out if my guess about- I just want more data on this.

Yes, exactly, so do I. Is my guess about 20, 25% correct? Hey, Brandon, if we've not done a clip, I think we've done one on homelessness. Maybe put a list that we may do something on this here soon. Well, let's put the blame of why why why this jump of 18% which is absolutely insane it comes down to the Biden administration. Nobody none of us said it. It's them. It's Alejandro Mayorkas. They're talking about what is the border,

drugs, inflation, how much more. Gangs taking over apartment complexes and kicking those people on the street which adds to it. Which wasn't fake on the street which adds to it wasn't fake news It would know it wasn't fake news when they tried it but guys and why why is it that? America has this much of a problem. These are American citizens. We care about everybody else in the world You know why there's no money in in helping the homeless. There's no profit to be made. We have wars on drugs We have war on terror. We have war on everything. You never know, there's no war on homelessness. It's these people that are here, okay? And it drives me insane that there are citizens, like you said, the guys in the street, Tom,

I see that shit all the time, they're all struggling, they all need the help, and then you know what people say? We're going to build houses. Okay, we want to help the homeless, we're going to build them. George Carlin had that great bit where he goes, you know what? Golf courses. We have two million, approximately two million acres across the United States, 16,000 golf courses. They're like, we don't have anywhere to build them.

To help take half of those freaking pointless ass walking around with your funny ass pants and build low freaking housing and put something. Donald Trump is gonna be very upset with you when he hears that. We have to help, there's no, if you could figure out, they'll never do it. A business model. Can I ask you guys a question? Yeah. I got a question for you. So here. We have to help, there's no, if you could figure out, they'll never do it. A business model.

Can I ask you guys a question? Yeah. I got a question for you. So here's a question for you Vinny. So let me ask you. What's the most you ever drank? Me, in a day? No, no, this is, when did you get to a point

where you felt like, man, I'm in too deep, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna get out of that hole the way I drank. Los Angeles, COVID, I'm in too deep, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna get out of that hole the way I drank. Los Angeles, COVID, no comedy clubs open, everything was the most depressing, horrible time. So watch this, is that the most you ever drank? Yes. Okay, so for example, like if I go to,

I used to go to clubs six days a week in LA. Damn, baby. Yeah, the only day I took off was Monday. Every day I was committed. So Tuesdays is the only day I took off. So I used to go to the clubs six days a week in LA. Yeah, the only day I took off was Monday. Every day I was committed. So Tuesdays is the only day I took off. So I used to go to clubs six days a week. I used to go to Vegas every other week. I was in Vegas.

Very loyal, very committed. I, I. You helped build the. Well you know what it was? Nobody likes it. If you look at this, this is my interest. The final product is being homeless. What are the previous seven steps before you got here? And the reason

why this is important is because so many times we try to fix this and what you don't pay attention to is why don't we minimize and eliminate more people falling into this? We have to be just as proactive of preventing people to become homeless as we are of addressing the existing homeless people do you know what I'm saying because sometimes you're like a sales leader talks to a sales team and You got five disgruntled sales guys and in your mind all you're thinking about is what? Those five disgruntled sales guys and your brain your mind is consumed with those five disgruntled sales guys You don't think about the the other 30 that you have here

that are fully committed, that wanna improve. You wanna make sure they stay ethical before they do something dumb. How do we prevent these guys from joining this camp? The more we can go through this process, then you have to find a way to prevent, prevent, prevent, and then you come for solutions at every category. Whether it is, you know, we don't do enough of selling the nightmare.

I think we don't even do enough of a job selling the dream right now. We don't do enough of a job selling the nightmare. What's the nightmare? We don't do enough of a job where I remember how many times if guys were to come out and say how many people I want to pick up from DUI in the middle of the night I don't know what that number is. It's a massive number and I did it so many times That I would sit in the car. We're driving. We're talking

It's three o'clock in the morning four o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the morning And I'm like hey, man, can I talk to you? Yes, when the last time you had a drink Well, I've been in jail for 12 hours. I haven't had one for 12 hours. So you're sober, yeah. Do you realize what you're about to do to your life? And for 30 minutes, I'm selling the nightmare. Your wife, your kids, your parents, heartbreak, the disappointment when your dad hears about this,

the pain in your mom's eyes, nine months your mother carried you, the challenges they went through, the sacrifices they made, the number of soccer practices they drove you when you're going on these travel teams, the amount of baseball things they did for you, the amount of things they bought for you, when they couldn't afford to buy you a video game on Christmas, they bought it on debt and he was working two different jobs You you realize how much pain you're bringing to these guys You realize that you realize you think God put you here to do this right now and

I would go into selling the nightmare of You're about to lose it all if you do this And when you're in it sometimes you're so around other people that are you do this. And when you're in it, sometimes you're so around other people that are also doing this, and then it's done. And I'm like, look, if you go the way you're going right now, your wife's probably gonna leave you, you're probably not gonna see your kids a lot, you're gonna go through challenging times,

and the hardest years of your life are ahead of you. Or you can stop the decision now, let's go to a meeting together tomorrow, let's go see some of these guys here, let's find a partner or buddy for you, they can go too. And then six months from now, three months from now, this could be the beginning of the greatest years of your life, the best memories,

walking your daughter down the aisle, spending time with your mom and dad, reminiscing, laughing, telling jokes about the good times, all this other stuff. This could be a very special second half or two thirds of your life that's coming up. But you have to sell the nightmare. I think on this cycle, you know, like one time I was with Antoine Walker. I don't know if you remember Antoine Walker. Of course, the basketball player, he lost $100 million. He lost $120 million.

That's how much he got paid. Can you put Antoine Walker total contract, total paying like career earnings right there. Yeah, $108 million. Okay, by the way, it's all gone. It is all gone. Where is he at? How this NBA All-Star made and lost

a hundred million dollars of fortune. So we're sitting at a cigar lounge in Chicago and we're sitting there talking. Morgan Stanley, can you type in Antoine Walker, Morgan Stanley? I just typed in Antoine Walker, Morgan Stanley. I believe it's Morgan, this was seven years ago. I may be wrong.

No, you're right. Okay, Antoine Walker, former NBA All-Star, decides, okay, this was nine years ago. Has worked with Morgan Stanley, Global Sports and Entertainment Division since 2015 to educate young athletes about financials. He's telling me how he sits with professional players to tell them how they lost all the money.

Remember Mark Rippon from Washington, Redskins, the Super Bowl champion that beat the Bills? Yeah, he went to Washington State University, came out, Rippon, RY. Career earnings of him, I think was $41 million. If you can type in, he was those career earnings, 37 or $41 million, someIPIEN, RY. Career earnings of him, I think was $41 million. If you can type in, he was those career earnings, 37 or $41 million, some number like that, I remember. What was it?

Anyways, he also made a lot of money. Did he end up selling a Super Bowl ring or something? He won a Super Bowl, but the point is, man, like, Antoine Walker went and sat down with kids that are about to go into the NBA, NFL, and say, don't waste your money. He sold the nightmare that everybody's gonna come knocking and wanting to do stuff. It breaks my heart when I see

people going through it's very painful when you see them going through telling the story but we got to prevent the next 10 million of getting into the system. That picture that you wrote with the homeless thing, where's that thing by the way? I don't know where it is. I wrote it. But by the way I actually I see this all the time I say for the average person average person, yeah, you have parents, you have friends, you have classmates, you have family. How do you get to being homeless? Imagine the bad decisions that you make. Like most people. Hey, man, I'm

really struggling right now. Hey, bro, you can crash with me. Hey, hey, mom, dad dad. Imagine how many bridges you have to burn and how many poor decisions you have to make for somebody to be like, dude, I can't help you anymore. Good luck out there. You know, everyone wants to say, well, how are we going to help the homelessness? How are we going to help these people? Look at Antoniwok. You kind of got to help yourself. This is why they call it personal responsibility and self-development and personal finance and personal agency and self-rement and personal finance and personal agency and self-reliance and self-esteem because it's on you.

At the end of the day, if you're the one drinking and getting effed up and doing the DUIs and not listening, you're going to be the... It is, but at the same time, at the same time, in life, when you read the Kennedy and the Bush's family structure, what they had, they both said, first go make your money, protect your family, then find a way to go into public service, whether it's church, politics, or charity.

We can help a lot of these guys not get there. Some of us have to play the example of playing the role before, you see somebody before they're about to screw up. We need to have that conversation with them. Listen, it's so funny, today's what? December 31st, guess what's gonna happen tonight? Rob, can you pull up the number one day in America

for DUIs, look at this, the number one day in America in DUIs, number one day in America for DUIs. What is it? New Year's Day, you know why it's New Year's Day? It's really New Year's Eve. So you know what I, by the way, you know what I used to do with the sales organization? For 15 years, you know what I did? People are gonna think this is crazy. I had a young sales team. So every January 1st, I had a sales meeting at 8 a.m. You know what would happen? You know how many deals we would prevent?

They would show up drunk. They would show up so pissed off because who the hell puts it like look not mandatory but I'm doing it I'm gonna be there come there if you're committed for new year 2025 so if some of you guys are watching it tonight you're planning on going doing something and you're like well I'm gonna go out pad what am I gonna don't take your car don't take to go uber and if you can limit your amount of drinks and if you can't even go without drinking tonight to even for you to make a decision for yourself in 2025. Vinny you've gone how long almost at this point? 19 months? As of right now I think you're right 18 and a half months. I am at one year six months and 30 days. Amazing. I'm never gonna go back. 19 months. But if you can go tonight

without it, test yourself and do it. I mean, kudos to Vinny, because he just said four years ago, he was drinking more than any time in his life. Yeah. And now he's, but at the end of the day,

it comes down to the choices you make. We all are the product of the decisions that we make. I agree. So if you're gonna make poor decisions and do DUIs, sorry, brother. Yeah. That's on you. Let's go to the next one. So this is a community that maybe has been having one too many drinks. The late night comedy shows 2024 bashing Trump as viewership continues to crash.

Vinny, I'm coming to you on this one here, so get your data ready. Rob, I think you got a video on this. Late night comedy hosts like Stephen Colbertbert Jimmy Campbell focused heavily on Trump in 2024 with ready 98 percent of the 1463 election related jokes targeting who Donald Trump according to Media Research Center MRC Colbert CBS show averages 2.6 million views in 2023 2024 season a drop you ready from what? CBS show averages 2.6 million views in 2023-2024 season.

A drop, you ready from what? 3.8 million. Colbert went from 2.6 million to 3.8 million to 2.6. That's 1.2 million viewers he lost from five years ago. And Kemmel, ABC, is at 1.3 million viewers in the third quarter. Unbelievable, 1.3 million. That's the Leno versus Letterman, and that's at 1.3 million viewers in the third quarter. Unbelievable. 1.3 million. That's the Leno

versus Letterman and that's at 1.3 million. I can think of 40 podcasts that do better numbers than that. 1.37 million. Both Colbert and Kemmel had emotional reactions to Trump's decisive victory with Kemmel reportedly holding back tears on his first broadcast after the election. Meanwhile, polls indicate dwindling public interest and celebrity political opinions with 75% of voters saying endorsements made no difference or not much of a difference on their votes. According to Rasmussen, only 12% of independent supporting celebrities sharing political views print AP-NORC poll.

Rob, is this a clip? I just have a clip of Jimmy Kimmel as well as a clip of Stephen Colbert just a good example of their jokes about Trump go for it be honest it was a terrible night last night it was a terrible night for women for children for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go for health care for healthcare, for our climate. He's really clinging. He's a horrible actor. Go to Colbert. Go to Colbert.

Trump is apparently a true fear of Stan. Kelly had previously spoken to the Atlantic, and they confirmed that multiple witnesses heard Trump complain that I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. That is so disturbing that he doesn't know why that's horrible. His glasses are too tight. It reminds me of that famous saying,

those who do not learn from history are doomed to say, I need the kind of generals Hitler had and still somehow be statistically tied in all the battleground states. Oh, oh, oh. And it wasn't just, it wasn't just his. We can pause for a minute. Vinny. Like, when's the last time any of you watched Late Night?

Be honest. Have you sat there and watched one of these? I will tell you, I will tell you. I watched, I used to like when Fallon used to do stuff with Justin Timberlake, but that was like 10 years ago, whatever it was. I actually like what Fallon would do. earlier Kimmel I watched a couple of his stuff well man there was a time I never miss Leno. When I tell you I never miss Leno

because it's Letterman versus Leno I was all Leno. I love Leno so much that I actually went to his show. And that's when late night was what it was supposed to be. We come home you want to unwind, you wanna laugh. These two, those two specifically are a disgrace to what late night. That is insane. Look at that poll, Vinny, I don't mean to interrupt you. No, no, do your thing. What late night show do you watch?

1800 voters. Good for you guys. 96% said none, 2% Fallon, 1% Kimmel, 1% Colbert. Oh my God. I'm so proud of every single one of you. Good for you. Don't give them any energy because it's not comedy. It's propaganda.

They're all getting paid to do what they're doing. They're not about making people laugh anymore. It's just an agenda. I'm sick and tired of it. Let's just talk about these people. Jimmy Kimmel, who is one of the most unfunniest people on the planet. He's labeled as a stand-up comedian.

Who's ever watched Jimmy Kimmel? Have any of you guys seen his special? Anybody? Anybody? He's not. And he wants to cry about Trump and women. He was on the Man Show, and Rob, I've posted clips of him being disgusting and perverted with women,

and he wants to sit here and judge. He did Blackface, Call Him Alone. He did Blackface. Hey, y'all, call him alone. Look at this. That race, look at that. Look at that. Who does that?

He did videos basically harassing women, pretending to lick them. Yeah, or humping them from eye. You know why their numbers are down? Because Americans are sick and tired of being lectured by out-of-touch elites. And they push the narrative. Late night used to mean something okay it was about entertaining everybody no matter their political their politics or what they saw Johnny

Carson god rest his soul I still watch clips of him with um who's a Don Rickles all the time they never divided the country guys they brought people together they the but these guys they just have a soapbox They talk about what about Stephen Colbert Colbert? Remember that I hate using this word cringe. He was doing a dance the vaccine jab go jab yourself with the dancing syringes Believe a question for you. Yeah, but I got it. It's all failed. It's failed I'm happy but I got a question for you Tom. And to me, here's how this goes. For example, we fund a business and we sit there

and we look at the different business units and we'll say, okay, Tom, we put $5 million into this business last year. What's the return on it? This. We put 10 million into this business last year, the return is 40 million bucks. This other one, we put $3 million into this business last year the return is 40 million bucks. Okay This other one we put three million dollars into this we did this

How long can you go entertaining something that's not getting money back or return back or any of that back? Tom what what are what is a how long is ABC gonna go with this? Before they fire and replace a camel Let me give you guys a idea on what I think with this. And I'll just go to you first and I'll give you my thoughts here. How long do you think it'll last for camel to go the way he's going

before a bobeiger, because ABC, this is Disney, before a bobeiger says, hey, we gotta figure something out here, or a phalanx continue the way he's going before they replace? Rob, how long have either one of them been going? How long has camel been going? What is his tenure? How long has camel been going and how long has? Late night is it is it? Oh, oh my god camels been going for 21 years

By the way, so here's what I want to know how long has Fallon been going if you can just ask the same question So here's what I want to know. How long has Fallon been going? If you can just ask the same question and just say Fallon instead of Kemmel. Maybe ten. Fifteen. My guess. So Kemmel is twenty one. Yeah.

Fallon is ten years. Okay. Can you do me a favor and go look at how long Letterman went and how long Leno went. How long did Leno go? Thirty years? No, not that. I don't think so. I'm guessing almost 20.

Look at that. 22 years. So Letterman went 22 years and how long did Leno go? I think just as long, if not longer. Leno and Letterman, what's the number? Leno went how long? I'm taking the over on Leno. You're going to say he did longer?

Rob, do you see it? 92 to 2009. 17 years. And then he came back and re-hosted again from 2009 to 2014. So let's say 21 years. So guess what? It's time. It's time for Kemmel to move on.

If Letterman did 22 years, if Leno did 21 years, I actually like Conan O'Brien to be honest with you. I loved him. He was awesome. He was awesome. He was great. I think there seems to be a pattern. The pattern becomes you start thinking you're a bigger deal than you really are and you

get a sense of bitterness. Kimmel sounds bitter and you can't have that on late night. The entertainment I want on late night is I don't even want to think about politics. I just want to, when I used to watch it, I just want to relax. Maybe it's time for them to say, Kimmel, great job giving 21 years. You got the same amount of years as Leno. You got one year less than Letterman. It's time to move on and get somebody else.

Tom, your thoughts. Well, words talk, numbers scream. Let's talk about the demo. What is the demo that they want for late night? Buying products. Late night, I wanna say 35 to 55 men. 18 to 30 is the critical demo. That young group is watching late night, I want to say 35 to 55 men. 18 to 30 is the critical demo. That young group is watching late night?

Oh yeah. I thought older people were watching. They're watching on streaming the next morning and stuff. But I'm gonna take you to something. Letterman was 66 when he was forced to retire and the last seven years were not good ratings. So from 60 to 66, his ratings weren't good. How old is Stephen Colbert?

50 something? 60. How old is Conan? It looks good for 60, to be honest with you. Yes, yeah. Conan is 61. How old is Kimmel? He's about to turn 58.

How old is Fallon? Fallon's younger. Fallon's younger than those guys. He's about to turn 51. These guys, not only to Pat's point is exactly correct. Not only have they had their 20 year rung, like a TV show tends to have and a host tends to have, they are aging out of the age that in 18 hell, let's skip forward and do 24 to 40. They're aging out of an 18 to 30 demo or a 24 to 40 demo.

Those 18 to 30, that's 12 years. 24 to 40, that's 16 years. They're aging out. They're not identifying with those groups. And guess what happens? What word was associated with Letterman during his last four years? I saw it over and over and over.

He had become a bitter, angry guy. And he used to talk, he did an interview with Obama that was okay, then he was very critical and very cynical and he got really bitter and angry. And so guess what? Guess what? It's normal. We're seeing history repeat itself in the natural

Lifecycle of these celebrities who are all aging out of the demo. It's time to go. Well look We've talked about this before as far as what the number one late night TV show is late night comedy And it's Greg Gutfold and no disrespect not a comedian not funny no jokes uses a clipboard no celebrities no car karaoke no band no nothing super likable super trusting super likable super trusting sure you can say what you want with him. What the market is telling you is they'll take likable and trusting over arrogant pompous entitled arrogant pricks. I agree with you. I just see it a different way. Even if that person is more talented. on ABC, NBC, CBS that are just cannibalizing 50% of America. When Greg Gutfeld says, okay, I'll take the other 50%. So they're all just divvying up 1.2 million,

1.4 million, 2.5 million. This guy's got 5 million. Great, boom. He just says Cyrus to Tyrus. He's got cat timp. These aren't, he doesn't have Justin Bieber. He doesn't have Kim Kardashian. He's just the one guy on the right

where you have three guys that are doing in the left, but there's more to it because we're talking about late night. What's the third word? Comedy. Yeah. Late night comedy. I was just in New York and I went to the stand, right? That's where our friend Marcelo used to perform. I don't know where, Hey, please welcome to perform out of nowhere. Hey, please welcome to stage Louis CK. The audience is like, what? Yeah. Louis CK is there. Amazing. The headliner was a guy called Aaron Berg. Incredible. What's the key to comedy though Vinnie? You know, not being obvious. Didn't see it coming. Why is Andrew Schultz so good? He does that whole joke about,

you know, let ladies free the nipple. I want to, I want to work too. He's like, are you guys feminists or F boys? Right. And it's just an amazing joke. But when you, when you have misdirection and you take risks and people don't see it coming and you just do callbacks, that's where growth come. Oh my God. And see it coming. These guys, everything is obvious. Everything is canned. PBD, what was the number you said that they said about Trump? 98. 98?

You see it coming. It's a one sided obvious agenda. So nobody's going to find it funny. So they're just cannibalizing each other's audience. By the way, don't look now. I'd like to see what the numbers look like for the Daily Show now that Jon Stewart is back. Chris Trevor Noah, who hosted for basically, what, eight years, was atrocious.

Oh, he's very unfunny. It was the epitome of a comedy DEI hire, straight up. A guy from South Africa that's never lived in America before called me anything on American politics, just reading scripts, sorry, brah. Didn't work. Not funny. Jon Stewart at Not funny. John Stewart at least funny.

I also don't think John Stewart's the guy. If I'm running ABC, if I'm running NBC, and I have the kind of money that they have, I'm going a very different direction. I just am. I'm going a different direction. I'm not going to any of these guys right now, okay? I'm going to a very different place, strategy.

I gotta take a bit of a risk, but you have to also realize that, you know, to have something like this go on the way it is, you have to catch yourself, because what you don't realize happens to everybody when you're creating content or when you have success or fame or money or flattery. You know what ends up happening?

The most dangerous thing that happens, and by the way, nobody is free from this. The most noble man on earth isn't free from this. The more people tell you how amazing you are, the longer it goes, the more you start believing, you know, your shit don't stink, and then you talk to the audience where you're talking at them.

Instead, you were speaking with them. You were having a cup of coffee with them. Now you're preaching. Now you're annoying. Now you're bitter. Everybody is tempted to fall for this. Everybody. It's like Obama lecturing the black people. Nobody is free from this. There's not a single person that's free of this. Look at Trump 2016. Look at Trump 2020. And then look at Trump 2024. Credit to Trump goes to what? Individually, him by himself.

Hey, 2024, I sounded bitter and angry. Yes, they did. 2020. Watch why he's like, are you kidding me? Jimmy Carter passes away, right? May he rest in peace. Nice guy, terrible president. And Vinny, this one is actually true, right?

This is not like he's gonna get community notice. He's actually no longer with us. He made it to a hundred years old, right? Jimmy Carter. And for me, I'm here because of him. This is a post by Eli David Robb. If you can click on that and post it, it's got zoom in. That's Iran before Carter. that's Iran after Carter.

He comes in December 31st, 1977, has a toast with the Shah, saying Iran is a legacy, an island of stability, the word he uses. Leaves, literally when he leaves, the revolution starts. And what has happened to Iran since 79? You tell me. How are they chaos? What's the quote that the Shah said?

Here's Shah's quote during that time on what he said is gonna happen to Iran. Rob, I don't know if you have it or not, there's a quote by the Shah, he said, if I leave, Iran will go down, if Iran goes down, Middle East will go down, if Middle East goes down the world will suffer He said this in 78

Okay, he was right. He said this in 78 that magazine I have by the way can you zoom in a little bit on the dates of that magazine Rob is that 78 or 76? September 19 1978 that's exactly four weeks before I was born Wow Okay, four weeks before I was born. Wow. Okay, four weeks before I was born and I'm boom He got he leaves January of 20. I'm sorry 1979 and what's happening runs since then? shambles So part of this policies of what he did wrecked a lot of what's going on in Middle East people can take it back to him and Kissinger

They can go back to that and put some of the blame, maybe a lot of the blame on him, okay? Having said that, if there was anybody that could say what he wanted to say about Carter, what does Trump say? Can you pull up Trump's tweet about Carter? And this is what you gotta see on, you tell me if you sense any bitterness from this tweet.

I just heard of the news about the passing of Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as presidents understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history. Beautiful. The challenges Jimmy faced as president

came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers. Are you kidding me?

Phenomenal. Oh, sweet. You know, phenomenal. What is the likelihood that the mainstream media was actually gonna post that tweet? But the point I'm trying to make to you is this is the part that if Trump can adjust at 78 years old and these other young guys compared to Trump they're in their 50s and 60, 61 years old, they're bitter every night, you're not attractive. The market is not interested.

You won't get the votes, people will leave you. And I think it's time for Kimmel to step aside and give that show to somebody else that can come and go on their own 10, 15, 20 run. Cause that time is here. Anyways, let's go to the next story here. Tom, I'm going to the stories about US credit card defaults jumped to the highest level since 2010.

That's 14 years ago, folks. Credit cards, a lot of people are dealing with this right now and it's a very challenging place to be. I remember when I was $49,000 in credit card debt, it feels like you're suffocating when you're in it. Credit card defaults in US, highest level since 2010, with $46 billion in seriously delinquent loan balance written off in the first nine months of 2024

with a 50% increase from the previous year according to bank rec data. Mark Zandia of Moody's Analytics highlighted the financial strain on lower income consumers, stating high income households are fine, but the bottom third of U.S. consumers are tapped out, their savings rate right now is zero, rising credit card balances and interest costs have worsened financial stress, with Americans paying 170 billion dollars in interest over the last 12 months.

One hundred and seventy billion dollars just in interest last 12 months. Credit card balances exceeding one1 trillion for the first time in mid 2023, fueled by post-pandemic spending and inflationary pressures. Consumer spending power has been diminished, says Odessa Pompey Dimitro of Wallet Hop as delinquency rates remain nearly a percentage point higher than pre-pandemic levels, pointing to more pain ahead, credit card charge-offs and delinquencies at a 13-year high, another story right behind it.

Tom, your thoughts on this year. Well, we've been talking about this, remember, a year ago, we said that the one, that the credit cards had gone way down with stimulus checks and a lack of spending because you couldn't go outside, you weren't going outside, you weren't traveling, you weren't going to restaurants, so discretionary spending on those sorts of things, travel, amusement parks, movies, outdoor leisure,

and going out to eat were off. So people weren't spending on that. And they got stimulus checks. Remember the credit card balance went down to like 500 billion I think it was but then all the sudden all the sudden it was time to go back out and play and What did we do? We ran those credit cards up and it was earlier this year that we covered on this podcast When the mainstream media wouldn't talk about it because they didn't wanna say anything embarrassing to the Biden administration,

where credit cards went to a trillion dollars and we called it and we said, in election year, if this inflation doesn't get under control, if it doesn't get down to 2%, like Jerome Powell, by the way, 2% inflation is still inflation, it's not zero. It just means it gets back down to a more, a much lower rate per year.

So what's been happening? People have been feeling kind of good. They've been going out, they've been doing things, but the cost of stuff is still up and we're still seeing about restaurants closing. Why? And we're seeing about McDonald's struggling and did the TGI Fridays is closed. So guess what? TJ Fridays lives in the middle. Fast casual they call it, like Applebee's, TGI Fridays, Chili's, things like that where you're going and you sit down and bankrupt. So what we've got right now, however, the bank stocks seem to be okay.

Really? Why would the bank stocks be okay? Do you know how much interest Americans paid over the last 12 months? How much? On credit cards. $170 billion in interest at an excess of 25%. That's the interest rate on credit cards they paid in the last 12 months and it's going down. Which means this is the opportunity for Trump and one of the big areas you got to get the cost down for people is on energy. You bring cost of gas down, you can actually anti-inflate gasoline and energy and heating oil and also those costs come out of getting all those goods shipped to your grocery store. Maybe we'll see a little bit of ebbing and price at the grocery store.

But right now the US consumer, the bottom third of the US consumers are in a tougher place than they were at the beginning of COVID. They actually got savings relief during COVID. So let me ask you this question, Tom. If you look at this chart, Rob, you had the other one as well, but let's stay on this one real quick. US credit card write-offs jump. 2010, that's after 08, market crash, Obama 2010, spikes.

2024, spikes. Crash of 08, people spent, then they defaulted. So what I'm trying to ask you is, if I look at this chart, is 2024 2010 or is 2025 going to be 2010? I think 2024 is 2008-09 and 2025 is going to be 2010 because... So let me get this straight, what you just said right there Rob, go to the other one, it's very important I think what you just said. So if you go here, I'm asking you if 2024 is 2010, meaning... No. Are we at the peak or is next year numbers on loan write-offs gonna go skyrocketing even higher than 2024?

No, we're the year before 2010. Okay, I got you. I'm calling peak next year. Because remember, Trump does- I'm kinda with you, because if you think about the timeline of COVID and what happened with Biden and the economy last 48 months,

ah. Yep. So, and by the way, let's look at the impact. The world is starving, I gotta grow corn. How long does it take to grow corn? That's what you would look into, right? How long does it take to grow wheat so you can ship bulk? Well, guess what? Trump's not, Trump will be inaugurated on January 20th.

Then they won't clear all those cabinet picks for another four or five weeks. Now the cabinet picks, especially Treasury and Commerce, are in place. Then they put their programs out. Congress has got to debate it. You're probably talking the middle of Q2, getting into May, June before, you know what I mean, Pat? Before the corn grows, meaning all of the programs from the new cabinet can start having a dramatic impact on the U.S. worker. So what we're seeing here, this is a leading indicator of more pain to come on credit card delinquencies. And we are about to find out how much did they spend. If you hear that there's a lot of spending in Q4, then it's there. And by the way, guess what we've left out here.

We were screaming about it and talking about it because it gets left out of the stats. What is it? Four letters begins with a B. Remember? I know. Bingo. BNPL is hitting, sitting below the water like a bigger iceberg with consumers having a lot of BNPL on top of the credit card stuff I think 25 is gonna be our spike

But I think Trump's gonna put a lot of things in place with this cabinet to get after it You ever read the the book tale of two cities? It was the best of times. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times a season of discontent That's what's going on in America today. So what's happening is just as people are struggling, inflation, interest rates, we see what's going on in the economy. It's the economy, stupid credit card debt delinquencies hit 13 year high juxtaposed that with Rob, what I sent you, if you're an investor, if you're playing the Wall Street game versus the Main Street game, the stock market is on pace to have the best two-year run in the last 25 years.

Rob, if you want to use the title of that article. Stocks on pace for the best two years. So if you're holding assets, if you own real estate, if you own stocks, your 401k, your index fund, your crypto account, your Bitcoin, you just hit 100,000. We know what's going on with that. So people are getting richer and the poor getting poor. Pat, we learned a term during COVID called the K shaped economy. You did a whole thing about money flows to where? The top. So people get richer during COVID because people got stimulus checks. Where did they all because people got stimulus checks.

Where did they all do with their stimulus checks? Who quickly became the richest man in the world during COVID? Do you remember his name? It wasn't Elon Musk. Or no, it wasn't Jeff Bezos. Exactly. It was Bernard. I know who's Bernard.

I know he owns a company called LVMH Louis Vuitton, Moen Hennessy. Everyone got them STEMI checks and ball till they fall at the mall. And now two years later, they're drowning in credit card debt. The average American, two thirds of Americans live in paycheck to paycheck. The average credit card debt is $7,000 per consumer. The average interest rate is 24%. People are struggling. But only half the people are struggling. It's the haves versus the have nots. Half the people are struggling, but only half the people are struggling. It's the haves versus the have nots.

Half the people are getting richer and half the people are getting poor and just flip a coin depending on where you're at. So it's not easy out there. Well, listen, it's, it's the last day of the year. Next podcast. I'm going to give you what I'm calling 20, 25, the year of I'm going to give you that on the Thursdays, PBD podcasts that we'll have here. But it's the last year, day of the year. This is my business plan, okay?

I just wanna show you. This is mine, okay? It always starts with a statement. Then after the statement, it goes to what predictions was made for 2024, what became a reality, biggest decisions made, biggest victories, setbacks, affirmations, areas of improvement. Then it goes to big projects working on in

2025. Then it's trust God who created you into who you are. It's the affirmations on... Then it goes family. Big part of it is my wife and I. Then it's my oldest son. I plans on how I want to work with him this year, areas I want to help him out. Then my second son, the other day he posted a video. Finally, he performed. Such a proud moment as a father watching this guy. Because my dad and Vinny know this guy can sing,

and they're trying to encourage him. He finally got comfortable. Rob, I don't know if you can go on Instagram. Yeah, go on Dylan. It was like the voice of an angel. It was so cool. What was he dressed up as? It's a Christmas thing that he was doing. Rob, I don't know if that's the one or not. It's David Dillon, but I wrote it down for Dillon. Then my daughter, Brooklyn,

my family, dad, mom, then high identity relationships that I wanted to grow in 2024. It's amazing how many names became a reality, what I wanna do into 2025, friends, relationship mentors, vision, everything, business, dreams, grand slams, enemies, code, all of the stuff that's here. For some of you, is this it? Robert, can you play this? Go ahead, Rob.

One. First time live in front of everybody. ["Singin' in the Night"] It's Christmas lights, it's Christmas lights, shine for you and you alone. That's our Billy Boy. Oh my. So this weekend he dominated his soccer tournament, practice. He went to practice. It was a practice, but he said, and then he did the singing thing.

So the kids are trifecta. Well, listen, let me just say this part. Let me just say this. Let me finish that. kids a trifecta. Well listen let me just say this part. The only point I'm trying to make to you folks, 2002 December 31st I'm in Universal Studios City Walk. My friend and I go get an in-and-out burger. We got water with lemon and sweet and low. That's how you make cheap lemonade. We're in the car, we're both 200 pounds so we can both eat. We're both 220 plus.

Cut it in half, I take a bite, he takes a bite. Ryan Seacrest is doing the countdown. While he's doing the countdown, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, there is no excitement at all. It's 12, 01, cars parked like this. Do we go to Saddle Ranch or do we not go to Saddle Ranch? That's what we're debating. Which is the bar in LA.

Which is the bar to go and do all that stuff. So we're there. there and I'm thinking to myself there is nothing to look forward to about 2003 nothing I have nothing to look forward to we go walk around get back in the car I said I'm going home go back home go to the office first thing in the morning dropped so many habits told my friends I'm not going to the clubs anymore, I'm not going party anymore, I was done. And the obsession became about creating new habits. I was in so much debt, I was in a relationship I couldn't afford to take the girl out to freaking McDonald's. That's how broke I was. I had no money. So

we'd go to Blockbuster to come and home watch movies because I don't have money to go to the movies. Cost Cost 40 bucks every time we go out This is your moment for you Tonight yesterday. I went to late at night to Barnes & Noble where the last guys at Barnes & Noble. We bought 50 magazines I bought the Michael stuff and all the to who the what do you call it? The frame all the stuff? Yeah, I'm invited to a nice party tonight New Year's Eve It's a party That's a hundred thousand dollar ticket party by a guy that you this stuff. I'm invited to a nice party tonight, New Year's Eve. It's a party that's a $100,000 ticket party by a guy that you guys know that I'm invited to the party.

Tom knows what party it is, we talked about it. Not going to the party. I told the guys, I said, listen, thank you for the invitation, I appreciate you. We do our annual vision board with the kids. Trust me, I'd like to go there because I wanna be around some of those guys. But there's nobody I wanna be more around

than my four little ones and my family tonight to write out the vision board for 2025. There's something very exciting when you sit there and change habits and you work on yourself and the people around you. You improve. Everybody is the beneficiary of you making better choices for yourself. And all these conversations we're having, homelessness, debt, politics, division, divisiveness, who we see as villains, who we demonize, spirit of envy can destroy you because if you can't celebrate other people's successes, deep down inside you're envious of it, it can't happen for you. Envy just shuts it can't happen for you. Envy just shuts down the dream machine for you.

If you're upset about somebody else winning, like when any of the guys we compete with, they get a big contract, I'm so happy for them. I'm like freaking awesome. It's exciting. You got to celebrate it. But these are things that we got to change the way we're wired if we want life to change. And I hope you make that decision tonight. And I hope you make that decision with what you do tonight.

Maybe instead of going out there acting a fool tonight like many of us used to 20 some years ago, maybe tonight some of you guys are going to have your universal city walk moment. And for some of you, money's not the issue. You just got to work on being a better father, better husband, better man. Maybe for you it's just about you don't have a wife, you don't have a husband, you want to build a family. Where are you looking for them? Where are you at? Who are you talking to? What things are you doing? The best service we used to go to every year was

Christmas Eve. No service like it. So maybe some of these stories we're discussing could be your form of inspiration to say, I'm so sick and tired of being in credit card debt. Why are you? Let's go through it. How can I improve myself? Make that decision. Because one thing's for sure with my life, you're one decision away from changing.

Literally you are one decision away from changing. It's a decision away. You're one decision away from changing, literally you are one decision away from changing, it's a decision away. You're one decision away from changing your life. And for those of you that are crazy enough to watch us on New Year's Day, like not New Year's Day, what is this? New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, it's not Eve, but December 31st, you have some issues,

but you have good issues. The good issue, yes. You have the good types of issues. But anyways, that would be my feedback to you. What story have we not covered before we wrap up? You have the good types of issues. But anyways, that would be my feedback to you. What story have we not covered before we wrap up? Give me one last story to do before we wrap up. Do we want to go to LeBron James?

Do we want to go to Human Brain? Do we want to go to video games? The reason for video games, the games? Do we want to go to that? Let's go to LeBron James. Well, LeBron, happy birthday to you. You're 40 today. LeBron James trolled for saying Christmas belongs to the NBA and

NFL viewership is revealed Rob. Is this him saying that go ahead and play the clip Rob Really yeah, by the way, he really does love the NFL. This guy was a great wide receiver in high school. You look at his highlight reel, the guy was freaking insane. He could have probably played. I think at one point Jerry Jones was joking with him about coming and playing for the Cowboys and there's a bunch of images of him wearing the Cowboys jersey. However, you can say Christmas is your day, but let's see what data says Lebron. He declared the Laker-Warrior game on Christmas night

between Curry and him drew 7.7 million viewers and peaked at 8.3 million. The NBA had its best holiday ratings in five years average in 5.2 million viewers with the other games going on as well. Despite LeBron's claim, do you want to know how many people watch the NFL? Let me give you the number here. The average NBA game got 5.2 million views. The average NFL game got 24.2 million views on Netflix. Even as both were blowouts, not good games, they were terrible games, the NFL's aggressive holiday schedule includes game on five separate days during week 17,

a stark contrast to league's previous avoidance on Christmas. And that's the NFL product for you, okay? Tom, when you see numbers like this, you see the direction Netflix is going. You see the direction Amazon is going. You see the direction NBA is going, MLB is going. What do you see happening right now with the product of NBA, NFL, and MLB? Well, first thing I'd like to speak to LeB is going. What do you see happening right now with the product of NBA NFL and

MLB? Well, first thing I like to speak to LeBron James LeBron James, you said there's a lot of trays being shot, right? There's a lot of threes being shot. Well, you had 7.7 million views on Christmas. The NFL averaged 24.2 million. That's 3.1. the NFL shot a three on you dude on Christmas Day Open the package and weep, but I'll tell you what's going on The NFL is a better product and if you put a better product on and there's more demand for the product Who's demanding it Netflix they bid for a couple games on Christmas Amazon bid for games, you know on Christmas, Amazon bid for games. You know, YouTube TV, which is not doing particularly well, but they paid for the NFL Sunday ticket. So the NFL is doing a very good job of putting their product, it's on Monday, remember it was just

Monday night football, then it became Sunday night football, then it became Thursday night football, now we even have some games dropping in on Saturdays as college football has kind of gone into its bowl season and are not all day every moment college football games the NFL is a better product the networks are bidding for it and Thanks to a lot of issues that I won't get into because we've covered it on this podcast The NBA just had a very good Christmas compared to past Christmases, but they are a triple behind the NFL. Adam, I don't know what you're going to say after Tom's rant. Tom just shot a step back three in LeBron's face.

He went there. Look, we've had our issues with LeBron, especially politically on this podcast. We know where he stands, but I'm not going to use this to pile on LeBron. When all is said and done, when he retires and however many years, he's going to go down as the second greatest basketball player of all time. He's 40 years old and he's still playing strong. He won a championship, what, a couple years ago against Miami Heat. He won the end season championship last year. He's going to be the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. He is. Thanks to Rhonda SantSantis by the way. That's true.

Yep. And the bubble you're talking about. They played in the great state of Florida. That's true. They couldn't play in California. Correct. They couldn't play in New York. Yeah.

They couldn't play in Illinois. But the great governor Ron DeSantis created a community and a platform where the NBA, who was super left BLM everywhere, said you can come and host your playoffs in Florida. Gotta love that. Isn't that great? What a great governor. Isn't that great?

Good for you. You have 50 choices for states, and you chose the state that got the most criticism during COVID, because that was the only state you could have your NBA playoffs the most criticism during COVID because that was the only state you could have your NBA players. I don't know if that's a full on championship. I think that has an asterisk. One sentence after that, one sentence after that.

And because you did the NFL, the NBA players association agreed with the league that you would get contracts paid during COVID. So Ron DeSantis got you paid during COVID. That's right. Respectfully. I don't care about that. I do understand that was one season. I get it.

But the guy's been playing for 20 plus seasons. He came in when he was 18 years old. I get it again. I'm going to use this opportunity to congratulate the guy. Did he party? No, no, no. It's a new party. New York.

It's okay. Listen, we'll support you. No party like an Adam party. You guys, you guys as parents, family men, I'm sure at least you've, you respect the fact that he's married man, kids, first player in NBA history where his son is on the team with him. You gotta give him a little props for that, bro. For his 40th birthday, they had players all around the league

wish him happy 40th. I mean are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Imagine you and Dylan on the soccer field together. Or you and Dylan singing a duet. I'm not that tasked about it. No, or even you and Dylan doing a podcast. But he's singing, I'm just loud.

I'm just saying, there's something special about that. You saw when Tiger Woods saw him. We get it, we get what you're doing here and telling us the resume, bro. I love his resume. You know what, LeBron? You're a piece of shit, you're a bad dude. You're not that good and you ain't nothing, boy.

That's not what I'm saying. What do you want me to say here? That's not what I'm saying. I'm giving the dude his props. That's not what I'm saying either, I just said he was wrong when he said it. I'm giving the dude his props. By the way, I agree with you.

On my list, he's also second. Now you know what a lot of people debate and they get upset when we say that? They say, you put him ahead of Kobe. Kobe's got five. I do put him ahead of Kobe. He's better than Kobe, respectfully. Well, the biggest dispute there is the field goal percentage because Lebron's field goal percentage and three point, he improved this game and evolved multiple times.

But you know the amount of eyeballs the NBA lost the last 12 years, 48%, goes to the face of the league and the face of the league is LeBron James. Period. And thank you, and great, great, like ready for the analogy Tom? Just like how Kimmel and Colbert are spewing that BS and their numbers don't freaking lie, the same with LeBron, the same during Trump and BLM and all the Rights his divisive shitty attitude. I have to say it was hurting freaking America while talking about You know people should look posting pictures of a cop that killed um that killed what's her name during the house raid

Whatever the hell it was called that attitude and you nailed it to the face of the NBA is One of the main factors that the numbers are down because people don't want to tune in to watch somebody that's separating the country. Period. That's it. I stopped. I stopped and it was right before. I used to watch basketball. Zero. I haven't watched one second of one game. Period. And he's a big part of it. Perfect. We're watching a game tonight. Me and you at all. Okay. I have no interest. I have no interest anyways gang Adam Incredible breakdown of Ron

I'm sorry that I tried to give Told that he's an absolute horrible person no no your position is your position But you know what Stephen a said a year and a half ago two years ago Yeah, leaves firmly the MJ is the greatest but you know what he said and I believe and a half ago, two years ago? Stephen A Smith believes firmly that MJ is the greatest player of all time. No, but you know what he said? And I believe that. He says, I am so sick and tired of every time I want to give a little bit of feedback about Lebron that I have to start by giving two minutes of his resume.

Yes, he's a great father. Yes, he's a great man. Yes, he's a great this. Yes, but and then he goes into his point, right? And I feel like that's a continuous thing but anyways hey gang 2024 was our best year ever by a mile in every possible way and a big part of that was because of you and this is the last chance from all of us to tell you thank you all of us here wherever we go we were in Orlando and we went to Disney so many people stop on my, taking pictures, conversations, giving us advice

like, hey, why don't you be a little bit nicer to this? Hey, you know, do this. And then sometimes, listen, I'm all about Tom, I'm all about Vinny. To me, listen, Adam, I think Adam is great. Adam's this. And we get all this feedback and conversations that we have to the crew back there that does a great job cutting clips, to Rob that does a phenomenal job here with us. Rob, you've done a great job in 2024.

I'm proud of you, buddy. You're great. You're a big part of it. We appreciate you, the hard work you put into this. Guys in the back, you know who you are. Can you guys make some noise so they can hear you at least? Make some noise back there. Yeah!

They just woke up. Everybody just woke up. make some noise so they can hear you at least. Make some noise back there. Yeah. Yeah. Look at them go. They just woke up. Everybody just woke up. I think they're watching the Lakers game. They're waiting for Lebron out there. Rob, pants in 2025. To everybody that makes this happen for us,

this was a very, very special year for us. We're very grateful for you. We're thankful for you. We cannot wait for 2025. We got some big plans coming up for 2025. Have fun tonight. Make a couple decisions tonight. Maybe a couple big decisions tonight that's going to be tough for you to make so 2025 becomes the beginning of the greatest years of your life. Since we're not going to be with you tonight,

Happy New Year. We will see you next year in 2025. God bless everybody. Take care. Bye bye.