Showdown
Showdown Episode 129 8-16-24
[music] Welcome to "Showdown." I'm Mark Hasen, and it's Friday. And that's August the 16th, and so many interesting things we have learned today. For example, and I think this is important for everybody to understand, 100% of all the jobs that were developed during the Joe Biden administration went to migrants. No, I'm sorry, that's a mistake. It's actually more than 100%. And I found that to be an interesting comment from our dear friend Donald, because here's my question, and I'm not sure I understand this, but then again, Donald went to Wharton, and I only went to UCLA. So he probably knows a little bit more than I do, although his professor at Wharton said he was the worst student that he had ever had at Wharton ever, but we'll put that aside for a moment. Donald says, maybe he knows something I don't. It's possible. He says that more than 100% of all the jobs that were developed during the Biden administration went to migrants, more than 100%. Now, I'm not sure, and maybe somebody could help me. And by the way, my dear friends who support Trump are going to be on this afternoon, and maybe they'll be able to help me with this, because I don't like to be without information. I mean, I don't like when other people are informed and I'm not. So let's try to get this straight. 100%, as far as I know, is everything. So if you were talking about the jobs that came in under Joe Biden, 100% good afternoon ban, 100% would be all the jobs, all of them. So more than 100% would be all the jobs plus some more jobs. But wait a second. If 100% is everything, then how can there be anything else? That doesn't seem to work, but maybe that's because I only went to UCLA and Donald went to Wharton. I understand he cheated at Wharton. I get it. He copied and he lied. So it's possible that with all that extra work that he put into everything, that he learned something that they never taught us at UCLA, because like I say, I always thought 100% was everything. And by the way, even if it were 100%, and by the way, there's a good one, Michael. Yes, Michael says too bad they didn't take his job. That's true. But maybe you can help me, Michael. And look, between the two of us, maybe we can figure this out, because Michael went to Washington University, a great school, but it's not Wharton. I went to UCLA, a great school, but not Wharton. There's something I'm missing here, because more than 100% of all the jobs that were generated in the Biden administration went to immigrants more than 100%. In fact, he hesitated for a minute, and then he said, no, definitely more, more than 100%. So I just want to be sure, because we ought to know what we're talking about, and we're going to have to make decisions about this upcoming election. If there's something that we don't understand, we should figure it out. But I will say that if it's only 100%, if just all the jobs went to immigrants, it's an interesting point itself. So every new job last year went to an immigrant. Last I heard, we averaged 285,000 new jobs per month. So 285,000 jobs per month, if there were only 10 months, would be roughly 3 million jobs. If you add another 0.5 million, 3.5 million, it says 3.5 million jobs, and they all went to migrants. I have to tell you, we should get more migrants. Sounds like it to me, because they're getting all the jobs and we need to hire people. We need lots of workers in this country. I think we need more immigrants. But at any rate, certainly Donald was very upset over this because so many of our jobs were going to these immigrants and that's a little concerning. By the way, Donald says that grocery prices are going sky high, that they are destroying our country and that people are being dramatically overcome by the costs of their groceries going up. And in order to try to show us what he was talking about, he brought a couple of boxes of Cheerios and a few other items because he wanted us to understand that he was talking about things that you buy at a grocery store like Cheerios. Okay, well, that was good. That was very helpful. I saw what he was doing and I did figure it out even though I went to UCLA and he went to Wharton, but I figured it out. It was all about those grocery store items. And by the way, the report that day from the government reported that over the last year, grocery prices increased by a total of one percent. Well, grocery prices were up one percent and all the jobs, all of them, all hundred percent of all jobs went to immigrants. I don't know. I think we're going to have to develop an equation and figure out the meaning of all of this because we've got a lot of percentages flying around here and we want to be sure that we understand this thoroughly. I'm sure that Donald does, but you know, a smart guy like him can't be explaining everything to us because he just doesn't have time for it. He's an important man. By the way, that important man, they rang up all of his net worth to figure out where he stood. They got a hold of his, his financials and they found out that the vast majority of all of his money was actually in that crazy company of his, if you can call it a company, a company which number one has 30 employees, number two does nothing. Number three, I don't know what the 30 employees do. I guess they sit around and figure out how to defraud insurance companies and banks, which is important work. I mean, you got to work hard at that. So that's what the 30 people do. And then on top of that, he's got some debts he has to pay. Mostly his net worth is his debts. It's what he owes and he owes plenty, but DJT, that's his net worth. Now, unfortunately, for Donald, he can't sell it. But in two weeks, he can sell it. Now, the stock market was up today pretty much did a nice job. S&P was, was up the equivalent of two, three hundred dial points. It's been going up all week long. All the stocks are going up. Everything. Look at the advancing and declining issues. Many more stocks going up than down. Oh, but I'm sorry. Not DJT. It has actually been going down all week. And today, Donald lost not too much, another $50 million, but a guy like him, he could afford it. He's wealthy. And I'll tell you, if he were only an immigrant, he could get a job. But see, he can't get a job because 100% of all those jobs went to immigrants. And apparently he's not one, even though he made a mistake the other day and said something about being one, that he came from Germany. But I guess, I guess maybe that was because he wants a job. So he was trying to maybe convince some people that he could actually get a job because he's an immigrant. Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe they meant ignorant. That's probably what they were talking about, not immigrants, ignorant. I think that would, that would apply. What else did he figure out this week? Oh, here was a good one. When he was on TV, explaining how the markets were plunging and that the economy was crashing because the United States is a stupid country, one where the American dream is dead, while he was explaining that, and he was on TV, you know, they have a little bug in the bottom right hand side of the TV. And it tells you what the market's doing. And while he was proclaiming the end of Western civilization, the market was climbing somewhere in the vicinity of a thousand dial points towards the all-time high. But I guess that fits in not with the immigrant part, but with the ignorant part. So that's all right. Don't be mean. Don't be mean. Now Donald says that no one knows Vice President Harris's last name. That's pretty good. Maybe we should point out to those people who don't know that it's actually the name that Donald's saying, which is Harris. So that's, that's pretty good. Vice President Harris's last name is Harris. That's why he went to Wharton. They don't send people to schools like that for nothing. What a great job Donald. By the way, Trump in Pennsylvania, he won in 2016. He won by a good margin. He says, I didn't think it was by very much at all, but he says it was by a lot. However, he says he won by more in 2020. Interesting, since he actually lost. But that seems to fit in perfectly with all of these other numbers that Donald's been talking about for the last several days. And I think that part of this may have to do with the fact that Donald says that we have been thrown into a communist system. Well, again, I'm confused because I must not understand what a communist system is. And as far as Donald himself is concerned, he has absolutely nothing. Zero. He's got nothing except for two and a half billion dollars worth of a company that he can't sell, which does nothing, has 30 employees who do nothing that we can actually identify. And actually, the company lost 58 million dollars last year, which is an interesting number because I'm not sure how you lose 58 million dollars when you're doing nothing. Look, there are a lot of things I don't get today. And I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I went to UCLA and he went to Wharton. Apparently at Wharton, they teach you a lot of things that you can't learn at other great institutions, possibly while Michael is watching the show this afternoon, my cousin Michael, perhaps since he went to Washington University, maybe he can figure out what it is that I don't understand because I don't know everything. That's for sure. But I do know this much. I can spell AMY. It spells Amy. Hi, how are you? Amy, Louise Carter, I like that. Thank you. Yeah, not not not a relationship to Jimmy. You know, his daughter's name was Amy is Amy. Yeah, not related. Okay. I just I had to ask if I am, I'm not receiving any of the proceeds from the peanut business. Okay. Well, I was just trying to find out. Again, I I didn't go to Wharton. I only went to UCLA. So I wouldn't know, you know, Donald could probably explain it to us, but I can't figure it out. Yeah. Wharton is Wharton. UCLA is, you know, sort of a lower level deal. And I know we've got Jim coming here any minute. Yes, he may be a little late. Oh, well, very important phone call. Well, wait a second. We've been thrown into a communist system. So what could he possibly have to do? Well, I mean, certainly he's not going to sell anything. That would be a that would be a capitalist system. Well, no, I think it's more of a personal issue. Oh, well, okay, personal, we can always understand that. His basement flooded horribly. No, that's no waiting for the contractor to call that could take days. Yeah. Well, he better not be waiting for Donald to help him out. Because if he's waiting for Donald, all he's going to get is a spit in the eye. Hi, Jim. How are you doing, Mark? I'm doing great. Spicy in here today. I'm acting up a little bit. That's all. Okay. You must have Democratic contractors or something, but something like that. Okay, you all. So help me out today because, you know, I'll ask you some specific questions later, but I'd like you to help me understand what it is that makes you confident that Donald's doing a great job when the whole country says that Kamala is on fire with enthusiasm. What's up? I got to ask you, Mark, what could possibly make you motivated to want her as your president when she hasn't done anything in the three and a half years she's been there. She's making all these promises about what she's going to do day one when she's already at day three hundred and hasn't done anything. Well, I'll give you a good answer to that one and you can ponder it afterwards. Okay. So first of all, vice presidents do nothing. They do absolutely nothing. In fact, one vice president famously said that the office wasn't worth a warm bucket of, I'll say, spit, but that's not what he said. Okay. So the point is, uh, vice presidents are supposed to do nothing. They, they are supposed to watch the, the president and make sure that every, all the breathing is, is going okay. Which we know she did because that's what she was basically only doing until after the primaries when she said, I don't know if he's breathing anymore. Maybe I should take over. Well, and she did. And she did. And, and look at the, at the incredible enthusiasm that has followed that decision. Where was the enthusiasm the first time around? When she got like one person. Well, you're talking about when she ran against Joe Biden. When they said they hated each other. Yeah, that, yeah. Well, you know, I'll be fair. You know, JD and Trump, they, they had their clashes too. I think that's just hard for the course. It's just, yeah, JD said that Donald was Hitler. Who said that? JD Vance. I don't remember that. You know what? I didn't follow JD Vance. So I'm only speaking about what I. Be careful. Now that sounds like Donald. I didn't know. I don't know anything. Yeah. I didn't know. I did not know anything about JD Vance prior. I'm going to be honest. Google it. Not now, but you know, Google it. He said that he said that Donald Trump was the American Hitler. But check it out. To say about anybody. Yeah. That's just what he said. I'm not sure. Okay. So beyond that, what, well, let me also, let me finish this up a little, you know, vice presidents traditionally are considered to do a horrible job. And, and even to this extent, Teddy Roosevelt, at the time that, that he ran for president and vice president, he ran as vice president in 1900, the party, the Republican party put him in his vice president because they were afraid of him. They thought that he was going to try to boss people around. And they thought that by putting him in the administration, that he would behave himself, that he would just sit there and wait because vice presidents do nothing. Now little did they know the president would die and that that Teddy would become the president? Was there worse nightmare? And it turned out that they were right because he wouldn't listen to anybody. He ran the show. But not as a vice president now because vice presidents don't. That's just how it is. So that's the answer. Even when they're supposed to be doing something. No, they're not. They're not. They're not like the border. No, the borders are. No, she she actually was given a job to collect some information and she collected it. Come on. No, that's that was the job. It was strictly to collect information and she did collect it. And by the way, you do know this that the the border crossings, which I don't like this, but the border crossings today are at the lowest of the last four years. They're down below anything under Trump. They're below 2,000 per day. They have they were 8,000 a day. They're down to 2,000 and they keep dropping. That's because they're bringing them over in the airplanes and on the buses. Yeah, no, no, okay. I know you're being funny like me, but I can be suspicious. I get it. That's all right. But here's what I'm saying. I want the border crossings up like Ronald Reagan did. Ronald Reagan said we need more immigrants. We need to continually increase the number of immigrants in America because it will renew the blood of our country and make us a very healthy place to live where people are productive and successful. Now, I played that clip on the air about a week ago. Well, there's a difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. Well, he didn't say that. He didn't say that. Yeah. Well, I mean, people used to do things the right way. I mean, for the most part, the right way is very simple. People cross the border and all you have to say is it's legal. If it's legal, then that's fine. Just let them in. You don't think we should come across their borders? Huh, except. Well, by the way, they commit the least crimes of anybody in the United States of America. The number of crimes committed by migrants are tiny, almost non-existent. And how do you know that, Mark? Well, the government reports it. Of course. Yeah. I can tell you that I live just south of Chicago and I don't go to Chicago anymore because I witness with my own eyes how dangerous it is for people like me and you to walk around. And I can tell you for a fact that those numbers are skewed because we have no way of calculating how many illegal immigrants are in our country. And there's no way to do the facial recognition to see who's committing the crimes and in some instances because we don't know who they are. And we're looking at a major invasion of illegal immigrants. And I personally see it every day. I'm not sure exactly. I know you're in the St. Louis area, Mark, but I'm not sure. And I know there's some issues there too. And I was born and raised in that area and I have seen a lot of changes because I come back to town every couple of months. And which I'm hoping sometimes soon I might be able to come in and visit you in the. Oh, that'd be great. I really love that. Love to have you in the studio for sure. I think I'm coming home next week so I can do something. But anyway, as far as illegal immigration goes, let me put it to you this way. And I'm trying not to take over here, but I have it. I have a friend named Anna and that's all I'm going to say. Now she's from El Salvador. She worked her beautiful little booty off. Her beautiful Spanish speaking booty off to get in this country. She did all the right things. She took her tests. She waited in line. She came here and now she's an immigrant from El Salvador. And she is against illegal immigration. Every immigrant that I know personally says the same thing. We worked. And you know, I don't think it's fair because there's people from other countries that do not share the borders with us that are waiting years to become legal immigrants that want to be productive members and society that can't get here because they have to wait. They don't have a border. They can just step over and say, I'm here. Take care of me. And I mean, as far as I'm concerned with the illegal immigration issue, I mean, that's probably our number, maybe our number one, number two issue as far as the absorbent amount of funding that the federal government is spending. Part of the reason why inflation is up is because we are giving money to Ukraine and paying for all these illegal immigrants to live in this country when our own people are starving and can't afford their own homes and meals for their children. So there's a lot to be done there. There's a lot of work that needs to be done there. I don't think anyone is against immigration. They're against illegal immigration. I want to know who's in my country. And I want to know that if something happens, someone breaks into my house and leaves a fingerprint, we can find that person. Okay, so I've always said this, Amy, and see, you may agree with me. It sounds like you're getting close. So if we send one million high school graduates down to the border and let everybody come across, and while they come across these high school graduates, they get each person that comes across, they get assigned to somebody, sort of like the Peace Corps. And they get assigned to these people who come across the border. First of all, they make sure that they fill out all the forms. Secondly, they help them to figure out how to get a job once they're in the United States. They help them learn English. They help them to figure out how to fit their kids in to some kind of schooling situation. And all of these people that are coming across are carefully monitored by number one, our border officials, people that we send down there to do the monitoring, who actually monitor the high school workers, who help all of these immigrants who come across, and wouldn't that accomplish what I want and what you want? I see where you're going with that. It sounds like a wonderful idea. The problem is you're going to send minors to deal with people, strangers, you don't know, not minors, to do jobs, not, not minors, that should take months, if not years, to really make sure we are getting the information about these people. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't, the prisons open and saying, Hey, go to America, 18, 19 and 20 year olds who right now, we send to Africa, we send to Asia, we send to all kinds of places all over the world that are far more dangerous than the border. We already have a government, we already have people that do that. That's what it's all about. No, we don't have enough. Wait, you have to wait your turn. No, we don't have enough. You're right. We don't. So let's take some of the extra IRS people and maybe educate them and send them to the border and let them start doing the the vetting and the and the and the all of the different jobs that would be required of them to allow these people in this country, because it's not just that easy. You can't set up a desk on the border and say, all right, everybody get in line, but you almost like my, you almost liked my, my high school kids doing this. I mean, they'd be great, but they're 18, 19, 20 years old. And, and they're, they're perfectly capable of doing everything else. They go to the army for maybe the, okay, so maybe you set something up within the army or maybe with college students that are in a political program where there can be jobs like that. And it doesn't have to be at the border. I understand that. But these people, you can't let them in and then say, we're going to do a background check on you and we're going to follow up with you. That doesn't work. We know that doesn't work. Look at all the children that are missing right now. So you have to consider that. But we don't have anybody down there that's assigned to this. So I mean, I'm saying I'm saying send a million high school graduates who remember this. They're, they're learning service. They're there, they're, they're, they're being, they're being representatives of our country. They, they are helping people who come across the border. And by the way, they're supporting the language on the Statue of Liberty. So as much as I wish, that would be such an easy answer, right? There's so much more to it, because background checks take more than 24 hours. They, they can take months, if not years. We know how red tape works in this country. As Americans, we can't even get a passport for six months. Well, that's not true. I got a passport in one month. The last couple of years, there have been a lot of people that have had to wait several months to get their passports. Now I live here in Chicago. I can go and get one probably pretty quick, but I'm also an American citizen with an ID that says, and I've got a lot of background checks done over the last 50 years. So there's a lot of proof that I am who I am. These people are coming over millions at a time. We just don't have the resources. And then you got to pay for those resources. We're already in so much trouble when it comes to the national debt. Like maybe we just need to stop, put a plug in it for a while, get it perfected, and come back and visit it in about five, 10, 20,000 years. Okay, I'm going to do a little capitalism business here right now. But while I'm doing it, I want you to think about, because you were talking about the national debt being a problem. And so I'd like you to think about the fact that we owe about 125, 130% of GDP, which is a little bit less than we owed at the end of World War II. So that's one thing. And China owes about 250% of GDP. So we're way ahead of them. And actually, after World War II, when we owed like 135 to 140%, our country was on the verge of one of the greatest economic booms in history. So I want you to think about it, think about whether I'm making a point or whether I'm completely wrong. But right now, I want to send some people to wenties for dinner. And I can tell you right now that wenties dinners are terrific. Now, it starts off with wings. People love wings. And wenties has the best wings. I don't know that for a fact. That's not my knowledge. That's what people tell me, people who go there say it. I don't eat wings personally. Now, everybody knows what I eat, but we'll get to that in a minute. So there are wings and they're supposed to be phenomenal. And then, of course, there's smoked meat and there are hamburgers and cheeseburgers and patty melts. All this is great food. And then they have pizza, which is fabulous pizza. And they've got salads and the drinks are amazing. I drink iced tea there. And every time I do, I'm just blown away by the fact that it's the best iced tea I've ever had. Now, for me, because everybody's different, for me, it's not the wings. It's the baby back ribs. I love them. They're the best. So baby back ribs and add to that onion rings. And wow, you've got a dinner. Now, if you like the wings better, you can do that or you can eat it all. That's all right. But eventually, you're going to get a little filled or else you're just going to get a little embarrassed because everybody's going to look at you and realize that you've been eating all night. And so what you're probably going to do at that point is pretend that you're done. Put it all down, pay the bill, maybe bring some with you. And then you're going to go straight to defiance where nobody knows that you've been eating all night and you're going to go to the other wenties, the wenties roadhouse and the same great food, you're going to eat it all out there in defiance. And they're going to think, gee, you're just hungry, but they're not going to realize that you've just been pigging out at wenties all night long. And it's a good thing to do because wenties is great. The atmosphere is terrific. Ben and his wife have built a tremendous business. So go to wenties and enjoy great food. Now, if you're looking for jewelry, you go to 4506 Hampton and that is Jules on Hampton. And I mean, they've got jewelry everywhere, cases and cases filled with jewelry, everything you can imagine, all different designs. And if you want to change, Al's an expert. He can redesign anything you want. He can do it the way you want it. He can do it the way he wants to. If you want to take a shot at his creativity, but the bottom line is it's just the best place for jewelry. And then on top of that, they buy and sell jewelry and coins that's at Jules on Hampton. And then finally, with all the time you're going to spend there, you're probably going to look at your watch on the way out to see what time it is. And if you find out your watch doesn't work, don't worry. They fix watches. They're experts. So that is Jules on Hampton, 4506 Hampton. Now, when it comes to great men's clothes, you just flip on back down the highway to the St. Louis suit company. They're on the corner of Central and Forsyth. And they've been there for 30 years. It's no joke. It's a terrific men's clothing store. They've got suits. They've got shirts, ties, OMG, those ties are incredible. They look like they're $50. They cost five, $5 for a silk tie. And I'll tell you something, Amy is about to fall over. She can't, she can't believe it. A beautiful silk tie for five dollars. That's ridiculous. Everybody wants to go there. So anyway, that's the St. Louis suit company in Clayton. And by the way, if you're thinking about getting married, that's the other thing. They are experts at providing wedding attire at the St. Louis suit company in Clayton. Like I said, 30 years, that's no accident. They are a terrific business. You'll love Jay and Nick, father and son, and the rest of their family, they're all there. They do a great job. They will take great care of you and they'll get you a wedding attire if you need that too. That is the St. Louis suit company. Okay, so let's go back and check out the national debt. What do you think here, Amy? The national debt. I think that maybe it shouldn't be as high as it is. Listen, I like to spell things out 101 smile. Okay, so I like to, I'm not trying to one things down, but not everybody understands everything that we talk about. So what I would say about that is is way too high, first of all, and I know some ways that we can get it down. Wait, maybe you don't want to get it down. Maybe that's not even a necessity. Maybe 130% of GDP, which is where we were before the incredible explosion upward after World War II. Maybe that's a good number. Maybe that helps to encourage growth. Is that possible? Not everybody understands how inflation works. Okay. Not everybody understands how we get the debt, how we work with this debt, and how it can work for and against what I can say is that right now, I'm not so much concerned with that number as much as I'm concerned with today's inflation rate. And how high is that? I think it's what, 2.9? Yeah. So two point nine is actually pretty close to what the Fed wants. And by the way, grocery prices last year were up a total of one percent. So we know that inflation doesn't really affect groceries too much. Okay. So groceries, we know that that industry, they work at about a 2% profit rate. So even though inflation is up, we've heard Kamala talk a lot, and I do not mean to mispronounce her name a lot. Kamala. Kamala. There you go. I'm trying. Okay. We know that she's talked about how there's been price gouging in the grocery stores. That's not accurate. The federal does not have anything to do with that. If they did, we'd be in a world of hurt because they should have no regulations on certain types of spending in the country. We know that in grocery stores, they have anywhere from 2% to less profit margin, which is where they're at today. The problem is we all know groceries are way up, way up. Why is that? Well, the distributors had to raise their prices. Everybody's had to raise their prices because inflation has gone up. We started at 1.4% when Biden took office. We were above three as of two days ago. But as far as groceries go, now if we want to talk kitchen table policy, which is what I prefer to talk about, the everyday person and what their issues are, groceries, it's not determined by inflation. That's not something that is an issue with inflation. So groceries, prices go up because the cost from the distributors go up because brick and mortar cost goes up. Employee wages, instead of paying the minimum wage, they're screaming that they want $15, $20 minimum wage. Well, when you do that, then you got to raise your prices of groceries. They're still maintaining less than profit margin. So the grocery stores are not price. That's not an issue. It's cost of living for everyone. Well, you know that overall commodity prices are dramatically down. And that's all commodity prices. And I showed the chart on the air the other day. And as an example, lumber is right now near it's all time low. In fact, it was recently at it's all time low. So, you know, I understand that, you know, something is up in price a little bit, not that much. Rent is 30% up. Rent is 30% up. Rent is 30% up. You know, mortgage. Rent is sky. You're right. Wait, you're right, guys. Absolutely. Rent and mortgage costs because of interest rates, they are up. Right. And understand how that works. Great. I mean, insurance rates, sky high, you can't buy a car. You can't buy. I mean, insurance rates are way down. I just paid $3.89 a gallon of gas this morning. I mean, well, that's that's low compared to what? See, people do that. People do that. And I hear that a lot on the Democratic side. Oh, it's it's it's it's an all-time low since when last week, because it's no, no, oil is not at all time low. I didn't say that. But I'm being I'm being a little, but the prices are the prices are relatively calm in the oil market right now. Relatively calm. They are. What is the cost of the barrel of oil? 70. Is it? Yeah, I haven't, I haven't seen the 70s. I'm just, I really don't need a moment. Yeah, it's not that high. I mean, it's been 150. It's it's 70s. That's not I said, it's relatively tame. And by the way, throughout all of this, the United States is the number one oil producer in the entire world. Number one. And it has been for seven years. Listen, and our oil has gone, our oil production has gone up every year, except for two years during Trump, which. Thank you. Unfortunately, I mean, I I can't blame him. It was COVID. But but the point is, since Joe Biden's been there every year, the the amount of oil produced in the United States goes up to record highs. It was under Trump, but it actually started when we started being the number one producer. No, that was actually under Barack Obama. It was seven years ago. Obama was a president seven years ago. Barack Obama is when the price of oils, the I'm sorry, the amount of oil produced began to explode upward. And then it continued during Trump and the except for during COVID. And then during Joe Biden, the production of oil rose every single year, this year, all time highs. Okay, if that's the case, then why is gas so high? Well, it's not that high. It's it's the same. It's higher in a dollar 50. That's because there's demand. The price the price for oil, the price of oil went down at the time that you're talking about Jim, because nobody was driving. Everything was shut down because of COVID and the price collapsed. It wasn't COVID for four straight years. No, it wasn't down for four straight years. While Trump's presidency for four years was 220 a gallon. Yeah, well, that was average over four years. That's averaging in the climate numbers. The only the last year, I'm saying you're averaging in the COVID numbers. The last six months of of 2020 is when we started to see changes. And again, you know, with COVID, that did change some things. You're right, the demand, the supply and demand is off. But, but at the same time. But that at the same time, I'm seeing all these people as the Democrats saying, suggesting that, you know, Biden has created all these job opportunities. And there's such a demand now to the true. We've got what's called COVID rebound. Those people shouldn't have lost their jobs in the first place. I don't mean why there aren't more lawsuits. I can tell you for a fact that in in Chicago, a lot of the police officers that were fired because they were anti-vax sued Chicago in one. So those jobs should have never been gone in the first place. And for me, I see a little bit of a conspiracy there. I see a lot of that's just not true. I'm not going to be nasty and call them lies or liars, but I'm going to tell you that you can't say COVID rebound was a plus for Joe Biden in his presidency. Well, let me ask you this. What do you think the chances of this being true are? Because Donald has been saying this for the last couple of days and he said it pretty emphatically. And that is, he claims that 100% of all jobs created in the United States over the last four years went to migrant workers. And by the way, after he said it, he thought about it. And then he said, nah, it's not 100%. It's more than 100%. Now, since 100% is all of the jobs, I'm not sure how it could be more than 100%. But all I'm asking you is this. Do you think there's a chance that every job in the United States in the last four years went to only migrants? Is that possible? I don't know to what he's referencing. Is there a specific job he's talking about? He says all jobs. I don't know. I didn't hear him say that. I'm not sure. Okay. What was said, if he said that, and it was in reference to all jobs across the board, we know that's not true. Correct. But I don't know. I don't know the context to that that remark. Okay. Well, check it out over the week. And maybe next time you might come back and we'll discuss it again and see if we can make any sense of it. Let me ask you this. Do you think that the United States is a communist system? Not yet. You think we're headed there, huh? Socialist with a little sprinkling of communism. Yeah. So explain to me. I mean, Donald is saying this right now. He says that the commerce is throwing us into a communist system. And I don't understand what he's talking about. I know a lot about communism, but it sure doesn't look like this. But tell me, maybe there's something I can learn. So I think I know where he's coming from with this. You know, we know that his, that countless parents were both very much involved in Marxism, communism. They did a lot of civil rights movement things. I don't know a whole lot about that. But I know that she was raised on some Marxism and communism. Is the civil rights movement communist? No, but I think that they were maybe, I mean, you were back that you know what happened back then. You know that there were a lot of people that I'm going to get back to the point. The point is, I do believe that that Kamala does have a background in her path with communist ideals, Marxist ideals. I do see our country going in a negative direction. We've witnessed freedom of speech being questioned. We've witnessed our right to bear arms being being questioned. We've seen in Minneapolis. Let's just talk about the police walking down the street shooting paintballs at people to stay in their house during COVID. That's something you'd see in North Korea. I'm seeing a lot of sprinkling of communism everywhere I look. And it is scaring the tar out of me. I do, I do worry about that at night. You talk to me about it, Jim. Are you, are you afraid of it too? Oh, absolutely. I think, I mean, they absolutely lead towards communism. The Democrats, if they had it their way, that's exactly how it would be. Is George Soros a communist? Yep. He is. George Soros is the devil. Okay. So here's the thing. You know, George Soros is one of the most accomplished commodity traders in the entire world. He sold short the British pound, which he didn't know for sure. He just, it was his idea that the British pound was going to drop. And he sold short the British pound with his partner, James Rogers, who by the way is an incredibly conservative person, giant conservative person. That's his partner. His partner in business is extremely conservative. The two of them are some of the best, the two of the best commodity traders in the world. Does that sound like a communist job? Do you know how he made most of his money? Yeah. Selling short the, the British pound. Going in and, you know, basically destroying countries. How's that? He used to go in and, he used to go in and buy up to a ton. Do you ever actually, I mean, how much do you know about George Soros? I know he's going to be. I know everything about him. I know him. I know very well what George Soros has done. And, and I can tell you right now, that all he did is one simple thing. Of course, I say simple. It's not that simple. It's, it's a high here. DRC on the board says, yeah, game of risk, a high risk game, which is he sold short a, a, a, a worldwide currency from Britain. And he made the judgment that the British pound would collapse. And he was right. And he made a fortune because that's capitalism. What do you think? I think some people in this country have the ability to make those sort of things happen and take advantage of them. Well, how would that be? The currency markets are the largest markets in the world that they're almost impossible to, to, to dominate in any way. Federal Reserve can't dominate currency markets. Banks, central banks and other countries try to change the direction of their currencies for the benefit of their countries and they can't do it. But George Soros can. Sure. And show us also is he was the biggest funder for Antifa BLM. I mean, he was behind a bunch of this stuff that went on when they were burning down cities. A lot of the money came from him. I mean, that's a, it's not like it's a secret. I think everybody knew that he was behind most of that. I want to ask you one question. Sure. But we run out of time. We had this little crash, a little crash. I say that kind of being funny, but in the stock market here a week or two ago, and a lot of the experts, a lot of the experts are saying that we are definitely heading for a recession. We're in one. Okay. And yeah, we've, you know, we've, I believe we've been in one for quite a while. But I mean, it could get much, much worse. And, you know, we'd spent under a democratic leadership for the last three and a half years. What's your thoughts on that, Mark? I mean, yeah, it's certainly my business. And, and I understand it very well. The market declined 3% in one day. That's not a crash. But it's a, but it's a big drop. The Japanese market that day dropped 12.9%. That is a crash. That was Japan. And it had an influence on us. And our market dropped. And since then, our market has, has climbed right back up toward almost right up to the all-time high. It's very close to it. And, and let me say this, I have claimed on the show in recent days that there is a vulnerability in the market and in the economy. I, I think there is. Doesn't have a thing to do with Joe Biden. Doesn't have a thing to do with Kamala Harris. It has to do with 500 days of an inverted yield curve, which puts incredible pressure on the money markets. And, and it's an unusual thing for it to last that long. And it is a pressure situation. It doesn't mean that we're going to crash. It doesn't mean that it's the end of the world. But we have had a narrow advance all the way through the last five years up in the stock markets gains. And, and when you have a narrowing advance, you need to be cautious. And that's capitalism. And it's nobody's fault. It's just the way the market cycles. So I agree that there's some dangers out there. But I don't think it has anything to do with any of our politicians to tell you the truth. You know, there's a lot of people that, that argue how much the president really has to do when it comes to the organization and things like that. And we know that, that we know that government funding or federal funding does have an effect on inflation when it's at levels that it has been lately. And so, has that the only thing? No, we know interest rates cause an effect. We understand, well, most of us understand the push and pull, we get that. But you have to admit, if we weren't giving so much to Ukraine, if we weren't giving so much to the illegal immigration issue, the crisis that's going on in this country, if we were fracking, if we were getting our own oil, I mean, instead of importing from other countries, there's ways that we could make this work. Yeah, I can't, I can't prove it in 50 seconds, because that's what we got left. But, but I can tell you that we disagree. Okay. And, and I think that we have the ability to spend a whole lot more money than what we've already spent. And, and there are a whole lot of things that we could do to bring down the cost of our borrowing, but again, now we're down to 20 seconds. So we're going to have to get out of here. But I thank you both very much. I can't wait till you come back again. I want to mention, obviously wenties, the St. Louis suit company, and Jules on Hampton. And this is showdown on Mark Kason with Jim and Amy. Good night. Hi, thank you.