D&JS_ep3

The Dan and Justin Show, part two of episode two, focuses on discussing immigration, specifically legal and illegal immigration. They debate the importance of knowing who enters the country, the history of legal immigration, and the process of becoming a citizen. They touch on the Statue of Liberty's famous quote and the need for a clear and fair immigration system. They emphasize the value of immigrants contributing to the economy and the necessity of a controlled immigration process. They express differing opinions on open borders and the challenges of illegal immigration, advocating for a more efficient and transparent system. All right, here we are, the Dan and Justin show, part two of episode two here. We divided it up into a couple of different episodes just because we got to talking so much about artificial intelligence and its potential and its play, and so we wanted to make sure we devoted the proper amount of time to the next two subjects that we want to talk about in the next couple of subjects, because these ones I think are pretty hot topics, pretty current events kind of things to talk about as well too. So Dan, what are we looking at out of the gate here? Well, I think we should cover some immigration stuff. It's a pretty big thing, it's a hotly debated topic right now, and people have a lot of different views and opinions on it, and I think that me and you have some different views on it, and I think that we should kind of debate them out and just get kind of both opinions, you know, two opposite sides, or maybe, you know, just kind of figure out. And again, just for context, you know, we're just a couple of guys, you know, who have decided we share some views, we differ on views, and we just wanted to hash out some of these ideas, because I think a lot of times it gets washed out in some of the bigger media outlets out there about what's actually being thought and what's going on, and I think a lot of times, you know, we differ and we come to the same conclusions on a lot of things, but yeah, I'm stoked to talk about this, especially from where we're at and from the position of where I've lived in my life and different experiences, so yeah, immigration, man. What do you think? I'm almost in the frame of mind, like, let them in, man. I want to see some, I like, I hate the idea of saying open borders, but you know, in my frame of mind, that's how a lot of our ancestors got here, and I think the more the merrier. What do you think, man? I mean, I'm, so I'm fine with immigration. I do not like illegal immigration. Okay, so that's what I think we need to talk about is illegal immigration, because I think that's, I don't think any, I don't think anybody's got a problem with your regular old immigration. I think it becomes what does that immigration entail, so I think that's what we're going to talk about. Right, I don't, I mean, like you said, like, open borders, like, I have, that's, like, that's, I have a problem with that. Right, okay. I mean, I want, you can't just let anybody come in from anywhere, so you can't, I mean, I want, if you're going to come to this country, I think that it's fair that we know who you are, what you're coming for, how long you're planning to stay, and where you're going to be staying while you're staying here. I don't think that that's too much to ask. As far as, like, actually, like, that's, I mean, that's typically how it goes. You have to get a visa, come here, stay a while, apply for citizenship, and then go through that process, which is a lengthy process. Does it need to be the process that it is? Probably not. I think we could maybe make that a little bit easier. You know, I'll respect that you said that. I appreciate that. You know, I, I think that, oh, I just, our whole country is built on bring us your board, your tired, your humble masses, you know, like, this is what makes America, America. And I get what you're saying about legal immigration, but back in the day, legal immigration was show up, put your name in the books, and welcome. Like, do you want your last name to be what now? How about Jones instead? But you still got to come, you know? But time out. You just said that, give us your huddled masses thing. Isn't that what's on, like, the Statue of Liberty? You know what, I don't know that that's, I don't think that's actually on. Well, look that up, because the fucking French wrote that. So it wasn't a goddamn American who was like, give us your fucking, your, your huddled masses. Like, that wasn't an American. There was some French guy who scribed that on there. And then it's like, here, America, yeah. Oh, because you're saying that the French gave us the, the Statue of Liberty. Yeah. I mean, yeah, look that up. Because like, I mean, I think that you can, I mean, I, I'm fine if you want to come to this country, come to this country. But don't you dare hop the fucking fence and break the law and then come here. I'm looking this up still. But don't you, I don't want to miss this opportunity. Don't you agree that there was a time when legal immigration is, quote unquote, legal, it was literally show up? When? It wasn't until the early 1900s, I believe 1910. I have a statistic on this. I'll look it up here. Yeah, but I'm double checking this, this, uh, Hubble math, Hubble math, this thing here. I am a firm believer that we all came here, you know, we all showed up at Plymouth Rock. So when you got off the boat at Ellis Island, there wasn't a bunch of government programs and shit to take over. You got to, you got off the boat, you had to work. There was, there wasn't, this wasn't a handout city. And that's, if you come here now, you, you come here illegally. You can get a bunch of benefits and handouts and things that I, I just said, John, the taxpayer, I mean, how do you, how come you get to jump the fence, come here and then you get to pass, go collect the 200 bucks, but you started out right at the go. Okay. So I have an opinion on that. I did look up this for, it was written. It's on a plaque on the statue of Liberty and it was written by one, Ms. Emma Lazarus, uh, New York born and died in New York. So American citizen, uh, it was actually written a while afterwards. Odd brief history. When we got the statue of Liberty, it wasn't all put together at once. It came up, it came over here in a crate. And at one point it was just kind of sitting in this yard somewhere. And we actually had to create a fundraiser to get the thing built. And one of the things of the fundraiser was this plaque that she, uh, Emma Lazarus came up with, uh, to help raise funds to get the statue of Liberty built out there. Um, and it has that famous quote. So an American wrote that. Right. Yes, correct. No, it wasn't. It wasn't. Okay. So my point being is, is I have always been generally that kind of, uh, thought process on it. I hear what you're saying about coming here legally. I just think that like even you somewhat said earlier, the process is, it doesn't make sense. I think it should be almost as simple as coming here, putting your name in the book and wanting to start a new, uh, a new chapter. And I, you know what, can we run background checks on these people because we can nowadays? Sure. But do I think we should be inhibiting folks in the meantime and putting them in these limbo states? And I, I, we're not, I don't want to get into this episode on how different administrations have treated people that are trying to go through the process legally. But, you know, we talk about going through it, quote, legally, you know, what is that process that changes all the time? And how do you come here from another country and say, Hey, I want to be a part of this great nation. But we continue to, from what I see, pull the rug out all the time and say, Nope, nope. Now you're going to do this or now you're going to do that or not this or that. I think it should be a almost constitutional. This is how you come to this country. This is what you show up at these ports. The same way we only print money in certain areas of this country. You know, this is that important. You want to come here and be an American? Absolutely. But you show up here, it's as simple as presenting yourself and your family. We give you the good old social security number so that you can pay into the tax system, which they already do. In my opinion, they pay sales tax and everything. But we have a system that's so crazy that they feel it's still more beneficial to just off that fence. Worst case scenario, they get bumped back. They'll try it again. Because there's no punishment for it. You get rewarded. Well, what's the punishment? Do we put them in our jails here? And then we, the taxpayers, pay for these immigrants that jump the fence. Now, I have to pay the taxes on you putting them in jail when we could have let them work? No, that's why we ship them back. Okay, so we ship them back and they just keep jumping the fence. Well, you can't. I mean, the first thing you're going to do is come to this country and break the law. I get what you're saying. We are such an awesome fucking country. I still believe it. Whether I agree or disagree with the current administration or what happens in the current system that we have set up here, does that matter? I think that we are still one of the most awesome fucking countries on planet Earth. And I can see why people want to come here. I can see why immigration is a problem for us because we're fucking sweet. And people want to be a part of that. And I have a hard time, especially when you have people like Elon Musk and our president saying, we need to make more people. We need more citizens. We need more babies. Okay, great. You want to make more babies, that's fine. But why not allow people, full grown adults that want to come here and do better? Why are we making it such an issue for these people that come and contribute to our economy to want to be here? I don't blame them for wanting to come to America. They have to come to a legal process. And we do, we issue a certain amount of people that we allow citizenship every year. I don't know the number right off the top of my head, but we allow a certain amount of people that we're like, we're going to take on this many people a year. We're going to grant citizenship. When you let the floodgates wide open, you don't have any control. If you want to go to Canada, you have to prove that you're actually going to benefit Canada by going there. If you want to immigrate to Canada, you can't just go, I can't show up at the border tomorrow and be like, hey, I'd love to be a part of your country. Well, a lot of European nations do that and a lot of... Well, so why are they allowed to do that? But then we're just like, oh, yep, just come on in. I would argue the same. Why are they allowed to have social life medicine? All I want, I just... I'm just saying, I can't show up in any other country and just be like, yep, I live here now and then get all the benefits, all the things. If I show up in France tomorrow illegally, they're going to deport me. But America was built on that. I mean, what country are you going to argue at some point in its history? There's no other country that allows the Second Amendment like we allow. I understand that. Why can't we allow immigration a way that's different than any other country out there? That's what we're built upon. Because how many bad people jumped across the border? How many bad people jumped across the border when we were letting all the Irish in and we let all the Dutch in that created the Pennsylvania Dutch? And how many bad people just came from other nations at one point? When we did have open borders. You're right. They came. But we have the ability to check people now. I mean, if you're talking about, yeah, if you came here in the middle of the 1800s and you said your name was John Doe, they had no choice but to believe you because you didn't have a way of tracking that. I guess it should be a system to come to the border and be like, I want to be an American. And they're like, all right, let's run you through the national or international crime database. They run you through it. They're like, well, you're clean. So you come to the border, you're a mom with two kids, which this is what I think is terrible. You shouldn't act like as a parent. I think that's just terrible that you would drag your kids through such an experience. But they think it's worth it. They think that experience is worth the troubles of getting into America. You came here, you don't speak English, you've never had a driver's license. You don't have any skills to go get a job in our, I mean, what were you doing over there? Well, we had no fucking skills when we showed up as Europeans over here. And the Indians had to come over here and fucking show us how to plant corn. To a certain degree. But the Indians didn't, the Native Americans when we landed, yeah, they might have helped us out a little bit. But they weren't like, oh, here, we'll just give you a part of all of our stuff. And we'll just take care of you and integrate you in our society. And in fact, they knew when that was going on. I mean, there's a lot of instances, and especially when we first started coming here, that the Native Americans were not at all happy to have us landing on our shores. No, and again, let's not get, I don't want to get too deep into that. I understand. But I'm just, I'm going to, I did open that door. If you're, if you need to, if you're going to come here and you want to come here, that's fine. You can't come illegally, though. That's my big problem. You want to come here, I want you to come here. Immigrate with your kids legally. File the paperwork. Do I agree that we need to make that system maybe a little bit more tidy, so that the single mom with two kids that's having a hard time there wants to try to make it here? Great, but do I also want, but you can't just let everybody in. If you don't have the skills or the qualifications to take care of yourself, then the state has to take care of you. And if the state has to take care of you, then you're a burden on the system. You might be contributing and paying taxes. Yes, but you come here, you needed all your shots. You had to go to our health care system and get all that straightened out. You got put in our school system. Meanwhile, here you have to have all those shots. I'm just, I'm just saying, you come, if you came here and you're sick and you needed taken care of, whether it's the shots or whatever it is, maybe you got, maybe something else is wrong with you. I don't know. Maybe you got, maybe you got some injury from a long. If you come here, you, so you have to come here. And then I feel if you're going to come to this country, you have to compete and play by the same rules as the rest of us. You have to be a contributor to society, especially if we're going to take you in from an outside country, because we already have a not, how are they not contributing when they're paying into the same systems? Other than the social security system, which they ain't going to claim on anyways, because they won't have the number to do it. They're still paying into sales tax. They're paying into property taxes. They're paying into all of these other systems that are in place there. Like I get what you're saying, but how is it negative that we have a group of people that want to work? Because the majority of them, that's what they want to do. Do they have, do they help? Well, I mean, there's been a, there's been a big surge in crime over the last few years, especially the big surgeon, white people in crime. And I'm just saying, I'm not saying what, what race of the people do it. I'm just saying, if you're going to let a bunch of hooligans in that are coming in and amongst the people that do really want to live a life here, you're always going to have a certain amount of what, I mean, how many illegal people have come across the border? If there is 1% of them that are up to no good. Oh, it's less than that. I mean, I don't know. 1% of anything's not that big of a number. If it's 1%, you know, I don't, I don't even know how you would. I don't think you can, because there's a certain amount of these people that never even got caught. We don't even know that they're in the country. Right. But they're the same thing is there's just as many people as far, not more than got in here illegally. Quote, unquote, illegally that are just living a life, man. No, I think that most of the people that come here quote illegally are just trying to live that life. They're trying to be that, that American dream that they have been told. And yes, they were, it was worth risking their kids live to get across country and jungle and river to come to the greatest fucking nation on earth, man. Yeah. And I would have done the same thing. And the first thing they did here was broke the law. Technically coming in. No, no, no, no, no, no. We have a law. The letter of the law states you don't come here legally. Then they break into the country fucking illegally. I mean, what are we doing here? I mean, this is not a nation of law where we go. Every time I run or every time I break the speed limit, like that questions my ability to be an American citizen. No, because you were hard. I'm saying that because they broke the law that questions their ability. I'm saying their first act of coming into this country was already a bad deal. That's what I'm saying. It's a bad deal because we wrote a bad deal. So we entice the shit out of these people. I can't go to any other country. And the first thing I do is break their law coming. You want to go pick strawberries in Canada? I don't. I mean, everyone, I'm glad that you said that people don't want to do jobs that are jobs that people will do. Well, we were going to get there. I mean, we're we're. People like there are plenty of Americans that were born in America, live in America, that roof houses, there's plenty of people in this country that did all of the jobs that that clean your hotel room, that do all these things that do all these things that they say the illegal immigrants are going to do. There's plenty of people that are already in this country doing those jobs. So do you and I'm not I don't mean this in any sort of offensive way. Do you honestly believe that there are enough people in America that want to do those jobs in this state who literally took those jobs away from America? I don't I'm not saying that they're necessary. I'm not saying that they're necessarily burning up a bunch of jobs. I think that some of the reason that their labor is being used in this country is because they're coming and selling themselves out for five, ten dollars an hour. That's what I think. Right. So quit doing that and then we could all make more money for one for two. But that. Oh, oh, I just did the ramifications of forcing extra dough. Don't you think that we would just innovate and make better tools and equipment to do the job wherever we're lacking, like AI robots? I mean, not necessarily. But I mean, we're inventing new equipment to do new jobs all of the time. You can't you can't come here and tell me that if this whole I don't think this whole country would slide off the rails if we stopped the illegal immigrants from coming to this country. And I think that if we could stop the illegal immigration, we could open it up to more legal immigration. And then if that's what you really want to do. But I I just I hate when everyone's like, well, who's going to pick your strawberries and and make your mattress up at the at the hotel? Like, so, oh, that's what all the that's what all the people that are coming to this country illegally are already showing labor shortages in those situations where even the administration administration is talking about, you know, hey, we're it's still illegal to come to this country, but we're not targeting you. Like that is a clear message that is saying, hey, yeah, why don't you still keep off of the fucking border? And if we realize that no, Americans are not going to go pick those so why can't you come here honestly and legally, even if it's for a work visa and come and do the job? And come and do the job, make the money and then work and then work on becoming a citizen and just come in illegally and get it get going, get working. So don't. So why come in here and go through the why wait for the process and wait on the border seeking asylum or seeking, you know, the proper documents and staying on that side? What if that's not an option? What if your option is, yeah, I have these two little kids and I have to survive and it is worth that risk because it is. So yeah, what they're arguing is, is we want to make it so stringent that that risk is not worth it. No, I want I want to make it so that there's a better pathway to becoming a legal citizen. I agree. If you want to come here. But I think it needs to be a lot simpler than it is right now. To a certain degree, but I also if you're going to come to America and you want to be an American citizen, you better fly the American flag and celebrate the Fourth of July and be a proud, happy American. OK, you know what? On the Fourth of July, you're right. That's that's what it is. But is it a crime during Oktoberfest to see a German flag flying? No. And I want I want Cinco de Mayo and I want to fly the flag during Cinco de Mayo. Can they fly the. I just want you to be to come here and you can be of whatever you come from. What makes America great is that we are all these things. I want it. I want there to be a little China. And I want there to be a little like you said, Oktoberfest. There should be a little German community. I think that's fine. I think that's what makes us what we is. But there's the American flag on top of the German one right below it there. And that's the way, like, if that's that's why some of it is complicated, because we want you to make sure that you are willing. And I don't think it's so much to ask if you want to be an American citizen, that, you know, a little bit of American history, know a little bit. You know what? I'm not entirely opposed to that. And maybe that you want to shift for whatever for that. That's fine. And maybe you speak English and take the driver's test in English. I think that that should be a requirement. We speak English in this country. All of our stop signs say stop, not whatever any other language is to say stop. You should have to speak English. I hear what you're saying. I, you know, I'm when you're when you when you get when you get in. Like, so, for instance. You come, you get in trouble, but you didn't get in trouble. You're in a car wreck. Sure. You needed the police's assistance. OK, I'm going to show up. You can't speak a lick of English. I think that there should be a certain amount like you should. Is that so much to ask? Like, I wouldn't move to France and then expect France just to accommodate me because I can speak. They should all speak English because I speak English. No, I agree. So I would have to learn French and then speak it fluent enough to go to that country and live a life. I don't think that's too much. So you do acknowledge that a lot of times when immigrants came here, they came with their own language and they tightened the communities. I mean, you have things like that. I'm fine with them. I'm just saying you need the ability to speak it. You don't have to speak English if eventually assimilation would be acknowledged. I hear what you're saying. I want to work towards it. Work towards it. I don't think that there's anything I've never met. I want you to assimilate and become an American citizen. And that's why they have you have the tests and the process that they go through because they want to make sure that you're actually going to assimilate and become an American citizen. That's the deal. You can't just come here, like, if you're going to come from a different country, we want you to integrate and assimilate and become an American. We want you to take on American values. But one of the things that make, like you said, that makes America America is our diversity. Yes. It is. It is our diversity. I love that we're diverse. I love that. I don't have a problem with the diversity aspect of it. I have a problem with you breaking the I. OK, so. It would be a giant risk on my behalf to go out and rob a bank, but robbing the bank would be would be a betterment to my family, right? We'd have more money. So that's the same way I kind of look at this illegal immigration. I can take the risk across the border, but when I don't rob the bank, they don't. It would be more welcome to America. It would be more akin to if I run a speeding or if I run a red light, I could feed my family. I don't think that breaking into a country and running a red light are the same thing. You paid a drug cartel. Amount of money to smuggle you across the border. You got into this country and then once you got here, we needed to we either pick you up or you got away. If you got away, you're not on the system at all. You don't have a number. You don't. You're you are an unknown illegal alien in this country. If the Border Patrol caught you, they process you. They know you're still an illegal alien and then they put you, they ask you where you want to go. They help you get established to a certain degree wherever they're going to put you. You can't so it's not it's not a oopsies. I get what you're saying that they chose to illegally jump the border. I think that the system we have in place to deal with that is it doesn't make sense based on the way we have been as a country in respect towards immigration. Most presidents have always stated that immigration is a good thing. These people want to come here and I get again the legal side of it, but I have I think that the way that it's set up legally to come in to America is ridiculous and it's so ridiculous that they realize it's ridiculous and it's worth taking the chance to just go over here and hop the border. I can be honest. If all hell broke loose and this country went to some sort of crazy civil war and bombs are being dropped and shit like that and I have an opportunity to go to Canada or something like that because it's peaceful in there. Would I not look for my children's best safety and they would say that's illegal as shit and you could end up in prison over here. Would the prison over there still not be better than having a bomb dropped on our heads? I don't know. That's how these people look. They're being chased by cartels and by these different entities to where and the opportunity sucks so hard in the countries they come from. They're just like fuck it. It's worth coming to America like that. So don't you also see this is my other trouble. If your country is just terrible, shouldn't if you are a person who wants a better life, shouldn't you try to stay there and fix the problem? Now you're arguing that I as one person stay in my own country when the whole damn system is corrupt. I wish that more people would like that. I think we'd have a stronger country in our own country if we stopped and thought like that. We took a more personal responsibility in our own actions. But no, these people again have kids, wives, husbands, kids. All they want to do is survive to tomorrow and they see this country that has this opportunity even when it's a danger to get into and to cross these other countries to get to that they're willing to come and try even if it means getting in quote illegally to be a part of this. But then you think that you're going to come to this country and then you cross the border illegally, get picked up by Border Patrol, get separated from your children, put your kids through all of that trauma, and then just to possibly get sent back. Right. For some of them it's worth it. That doesn't make any sense. And I'm sure border crossings have come to an all time standstill since Trump implemented that. And I don't think that people should be crossing. You said that border crossings have come to a standstill. I mean, not necessarily a standstill, but they are down significantly from underneath the Biden administration there. It's night and day difference. Hold on. You know what? Let me see here. I'm going to do a quick little ditty on that. Yeah, that's fine. You might have something. Well, I know that, you know, surprisingly, when you look at these statistics, Obama was surprisingly hard core. He deported three million people. Yes. Obama is hard core. But you know, that's what I hate about this. There's less people attempting to cross the border now than there was under the Biden administration. It's down. It's down. So you know what? If I take CBS News here, it looks like that you're onto something here. Let me let me. It was something around like maybe under Biden. It was under Trump. You know, I don't know what the exact number is here. It loads up, you know. But yeah, the bottom line. OK, so you're arguing because we've enforced the border. It says amid Trump crackdown, illegal border crossings plunged to levels not seen in decades. Yes. In the last 25 years. Last month, Border Patrol recorded about 8,450,000 or 8,450 apprehensions of migrants who crossed the border unlawfully versus US and Mexico. We're not right. But versus about 100 and some thousand under Biden each month. The month before was 11,000. Yeah, there were some times to look at above 200,000. But there was some even during Trump's first administration that was a little crazy. But I will admit, yeah, I mean, and you know, he has scared the shit out of immigrants of jumping the border illegally because you're right. They are afraid of being separated from their kids. But you they know that that's the risk. Stop doing that to your children. That's just all this trauma. You could just do the paperwork and come legally and sit on the other side of the border and wait to be murdered. So you're touching on like kind of like asylum seeking. So like, yes, if you are afraid that in your country you are going to be murdered. That's what asylum is for. Right. I hear you. Not everyone. Even that's not why. So why are all these why are all these women with kids and and why are all these fighting age males? Because that's like a bulk of what's coming across the border is the 18 to 30 year old. So you think saying they should enlist? I don't. I mean, hey, if you did jump, if you did jump the fence and then said, actually, I would like to serve your military and you put in two years, would you have a lot more? OK, I'd be like, OK, I want to go and that's what I'm saying, though, is that I would like to see something like that as a path to citizenship, something that says you come here, you join our military for two years and you're in. But part of me doesn't because I don't want to. Maybe you don't have allegiance to this country, but then you come here to be military trained. Because if you say it, all we're going to do is I hear what you're saying. But this is Mexico, man. And I don't mean to be this way, but for some of the most violent people known to man, the drug cartels, cartels, those are also there. American. Yes, there are. But they are Mexican citizens. You're like, oh, they're all like they don't have the potential to be evil killers. Well, maybe we stop doing so much goddamn cocaine and we wouldn't have such a problem. Hey, I agree with you a thousand percent. Maybe we take away all the power from the drug cartels. To me, I think we could. I think that America should. We're worried about fighting all these foreign wars all over the place. If you wanted to clean up Mexico, I'd be a lot more willing to get behind that than I would be willing to go and do shit in the Middle East. Because I'd rather have my neighbors have a nice, clean looking place than have it be in some meth lab. I mean, so. But that's just to say there's just as much crime here and just as much dumb shit here from from citizens that are here. Like, I just don't see how it's such a problem that we're getting. I don't think we're getting such an influx of criminals across the border. It outweighs the benefit of the people that are coming over here. I, you know, I don't want to be crude and stereotypical, but I'm going to say it. I don't want to rip my house, man. And if there is a group of individuals that are willing to rip my house, then I'm willing to allow that to happen. Yeah, but there's plenty of American citizens that would be willing to rip your house. Is there? And the other thing is, I don't see. This is what bugs me. Like. You're hitting your house roof. Is that really good that you're having a bunch of people come here? That are illegal. They know they're illegal, so they can't be on the system. So then they're working for less than they than they should, but less than their value. And then they just turn into, I mean. So, but they still take that money. The job isn't getting charged any less, but they still take that money. And then they ship it back to Mexico. No. Do you know, I worked in the shoe stores, man. These schools came in with $100 bills and they bought with cash money. They stroke the economy with cash money in to the register by buying these shoes. Because they don't have bank accounts. They don't have debit cards. They're not getting in trouble like that. These people, if anything, unlike a lot of the citizens that are getting into massive amounts of debt, which is a whole nother subject. These are people that don't have the opportunity. They don't have the bank accounts. So they're coming in. They're making American money. They're paying the sales tax. They're putting that money back into businesses local. And they're spending that money. Yes. Are we going to get the criminal element? Absolutely. Absolutely. But I would argue it's the same thing that, you know, Charlie Kirk says, you know, he's fundamentally or he's very second amendment pro. And he understands that there's going to be gun deaths with a strong pro second amendment. I agree, you know. But if you're going to be strong pro open immigration, you're going to get the unsavory element. That doesn't mean that it outweighs, in my opinion, and from what I've seen, that you're going to outweigh the benefit of the individuals that do just want to come here and start a good life. Yeah, but it's so in 2023. Immigrants in the U.S. spent an estimated eight hundred and twenty two billion dollars in remittance to their home country. OK, so that's eight hundred and twenty two billion dollars they earned in the U.S. and then they shipped out of the U.S. and didn't have as part of our economy. So that's not good. That I mean, that could have bolstered our economy. That could have helped pay for the extra labor that it was going to cost to pick the strawberries. So, I mean, what do we do if they're just not going to spend their money inside the United States? That's like they are spending a lot of that money inside of the United States. But they also yeah, they're spending some of the money. According to. Oh, OK, let me make sure I've got a good. The most conservative amount that I see here is over four hundred and fifty two billion dollars in taxes that immigrants put into our system. I mean, four hundred and fifty two billion damn dollars that they that they paid in taxes, but they spent eight hundred and twenty two billion out. Eight hundred and twenty two billion out. Eight hundred and twenty. So they a third of the whole money that they can put, they paid in the taxes. They they they spent two thirds of it out. It's still half that they're putting into the economy. And nobody here was going to do that. So so so. They spent eight hundred and twenty two billion dollars out away, gone, not in this country's economy anymore. They only paid four hundred billion dollars in some change in taxes, but they took the money that they should have spent in our economy and then paid to businesses and shop owners and all these things to bolster our economy. They didn't say they sent it out in a way, but to look at it like this, if they weren't here, they wouldn't have put any money into our economy, even though they shipped money out. We still would ship money out of our economy as well, too, by buying stuff in bulk outside of this economy. And no, because there it's not that a U.S. company is buying a product from China and it gets imported here. They're taking the money and sending it to their grandma back in Mexico or Honduras or wherever they're from. Sure. And they're not spending it in the U.S. economy. There is an amount that's being shipped out. Yes. But I would say how much money are we shipping out to the Internet? But they're spending out. They're coming here and then shipping out two times the amount the U.S. spend in or internationally. How much do you think? The U.S. government. I'm going to guess like $4 trillion. Maybe like, well, wouldn't it be spending whatever our GDP is? Because that's pretty much what we're, I mean, we're running a deficit every year. So, I mean, we're spending more money than we're even making. That's just foreign aid, $771 billion in foreign aid. Yeah. So, they're spending more money home than we're spending in foreign aid to the whole rest of the world, dude. Well, yeah, because we cut back on that dramatically. Well, if you're going to come to this country, you better be all-in American and try to grow America and spend your money in America. I don't, I think when you come, when you come here illegally, do your allegiances really lie with, do you really have the American values that I think that you should, I mean, you should come to this country and then want to adopt American values. Just the same as if I was going to go to any other country, shouldn't you adopt their values? To a degree. I mean, their government values, but if I, if I'm an American and I moved to Germany, why can't I still be an American German? You know, like I can still appreciate America for what it is. So, recognize that I would prefer to live in Germany. Yes. Would I have to learn German? Yes. Would I have to agree to their laws, customs and stuff like that? Sure. But does that not mean that I still can't live free as a culturally, as an American per se? I don't see why not. That's the problem I have is that I'm not telling, I'm not saying to abandon your culture. I'm saying to take on our values. That you don't commit crimes, that you don't, you know, I mean. But your argument is cyclical. You're saying that you can't, the first thing you should do is not commit a crime, but the first thing that you'll likely do to become an American is commit a crime. That's what I'm saying you shouldn't do. I don't, I don't want you to do that. Don't come here illegally, file the paperwork. I can't go to a different place. Right. Because if you don't, I mean, I just want you to, to abide by our rule. If you want to come to this country, I think you need to abide by the rules of the country. We have people, I mean, you can't argue that there hasn't been a certain amount of those people coming into this country that are bad apples. Okay. I can't, you can't, I mean, you have to, there's a certain amount, I mean, there, the, the Border Patrol admits that there are a certain amount of, I think it's somewhere around a thousand Iranians come across the southern border. Sure. Undocumented that, cause we're not making, we're, they're flooding the border. I, you don't need to come out of 10,000 a month, 20,000 a month, 100,000 a month, go through the, I mean, I think we should have it that if we caught you not going through one of the ports of entry, boom, you're right out of here, wherever you come from. If you were an Iranian that got caught coming through the Mexican border, boom, we're sending you right back to Tehran. So here's something to think about. Let's say you jumped the border and you come over here and you committed a crime. What happened? Gone. Gone, gone, gone. So you're going back to your country without having to face your criminal, say you murder somebody here, you get. Don't take away our taxpayer dollars. We're not even going to deal with you as a country. Just you're gone. See you later, bye. Back in your own country. Really? So they get away with it. They get to go back to their country as a free person. Oh no. So like if you, well, I mean, this is going to get. Do a whole different topic, but like you come here and murdered someone, right? Now you're dead. Gone. Done. Over with. You took a life in a foreign country you weren't even supposed to be here legally for. You jumped the fence, broke into our country and then killed somebody. You are gone. Like why would they give you a life? Well, that's waste of taxpayer dollars that you didn't contribute one day of your life into the tax system. Gonzo. Why? I mean, that's, but that's the problem. Now you're making like all the, if you let people just hop the fence, no borders whatsoever, you can just freely pass. Then anyone can come in and it doesn't take very much. I mean, if you want to believe nine 11, like 19 people cause nine 11. It's sure. If that, I mean, so it doesn't take that many people in America to coming across the border illegally to do absolutely terrible things that get us into other problems all across the world. Sure. Because I don't think, I don't think we're disagreeing on that. I think what we disagree on is, is the overall numbers in effect and the, how many people are actually coming over here illegally and are doing bad that were criminals. And even if they are criminals, how many of them are not? You know, I, I've joked with my wife about this, about, you know, all in my eyes, it's all the good people coming over here and it's our criminals that have always tried to jump the border to get away from prosecution in the United States. You know, if, if any country has an argument for shitheads that are purposely trying to get into another country, you know, talk about Americans that have tried to flee the border the other direction. Totally. I mean, I think if you're going to face prosecution in your country, you're going to try to leave it. Um, but if you're talking about not having a border, not having, um, I don't think that's talking about not going through a system. I just want the system to be simplified to where it makes sense to allow America's, um, heritage of all of this mixing pot. I prefer the term of a mixed salad preferred to a mixing pot because I think we retain our individual qualities. Like I said, our own culture, uh, word is a mixing pot is, is an amalgamation. But I think that that's what makes America great is people coming from other nations with their best ideas. Um, a, a, a crude quote that I heard one time, uh, at a dinner, uh, was that, uh, were we concerned that China was going to become the new, um, dominant economic force in the world? And this guy said, no, because the American Chinese people are smarter than their Chinese people. And I think that that's the argument is, you know, we have always collected some of the cream of the crop from some of the best nations out there. And yes, are we going to get some bad apples? Absolutely. But I think we're still gaining far than we're far more than we're losing. But again, that's just me. So, so the Chinese are also sending people, their people to this country. They're going and getting educated at Harvard and other prestigious colleges in this country and then going back to China. So we send our people out there and learn stuff from their countries and come back and do the same thing. Do we really? I mean, if you're, if you're coming here, getting the education, taking it back to your country, but the Chinese steal tons of our information and then they, I mean, that's kind of how their system works because they're a communist structure. They don't, their, the way that their society is structured doesn't exactly make innovation something of a priority. Like in this country, if you make something and it's innovative, you'll get well rewarded for it. You do that in China, guess who wins? The state, not you necessarily. I hear what you're saying. So that doesn't breed innovation. That's why like, I think that's a whole nother topic and a whole nother argument is, you know, why should, you know, why do people want to get away from other countries and go to any other country for that matter? And I think it has to do with, you know, different persecution. That's what it's always been. But I think, I think we can agree immigration is good per se. I think we're definitely on different sides of the fence on how it should be approached and people coming in. But you know what? That's, that's the point. I don't think that we're so far. You know, I, again, I'm not opposed to rules. I just wish the rules were more simple. I think you wish that the rules were just being followed. And I think that, you know, at the very least, why not enforce the rules that we have? I don't know that that's happening. I think there's a lot of, I, you know, I, we didn't touch on what's going on right now, like with ICE and stuff like that. And I, and I purposely steered clear of that because I think that is just a, an ultra hot topic that maybe we can touch on at some other point. But it is kind of part of our, I mean, the ICE thing is a little bit part of it. I mean, we can talk about that at different times, but I just, if you're going to come to the country of laws, you know, try to obey our laws. Like, it just, to me, there's a real slap in the face that the first thing you do is come here legally. And then you want us to act like you didn't do anything, that you didn't break the law. And then you get in here. And then the other thing is, is like, are you making it all go all by yourself? Because I feel if you're going to immigrate to this country, you shouldn't be a burden on the tax system. I don't care how much that the whole of them is paying in the taxes. Is that number even covering what their, their burden on the healthcare system, the food system, all of the systems that we have in the United States? Is that causing a burden on that? Then you know what? I think we need to develop a true system of immigration here. How it is written out as simple as it can be, whether you're coming from this country or this country, this is what you do. This is how you do it. This is what's going to get you in. Just like, not to simplify it like this, but buying a firearm. You go in, you fill out the paperwork, you pass this background check. Okay, we approve you. You can now do this. I'm not saying it's that simple to become a citizen, but that should be step one. Then step two is, you know, you find gainful employment and you do this. And then you're, but the only way that will ever work, that will ever work is if you create a punishment that is so severe that to not do it that way would be almost life threatening. And that's what I'm nervous about is what is the absolute, like, okay, we're going to make this system so simple that if you do it wrong and we catch you jumping the border, we get to snipe you. Like, that seems crazy to me. That's not our style at all. Well, but I mean, you wouldn't be crossing that border, none. No. You would wait in line. You would wait. All I'm asking you to do is wait in line. Wait in line and fill out the paperwork. But no other country does that. You have to acknowledge that no other country has snipers on their border waiting to snipe people that just run across their border. I... There's no Canadian Nazi out there that's like, oh, I'm going to shoot you, gal. I, I guess that I've never tried to, like, break into a different country, but I'm, I'm really guessing... Yeah, let's do it. Let's try to break into Canada. I'm just saying, if I go try to go to a different country and it doesn't, I mean, can you just, can you just go to a different country for any reason without the past? I mean, some, some countries actually, if you look it up, it's not as crazy as you would think to become citizens there. I think that if I was, I guess for that to be a problem, that's how countries would have to protect their borders. But other countries, I mean, Europe does have some of this going on. They do have mass migration happening. Um, but I mean... And I would argue it's not all bad. But other, I mean, I don't know. There's large populations of Europe that are being, um, I would say that as far as, like, European immigration, I mean, there's, there's towns in England that are now, like, 30, 40, 50% Muslim. That weren't... I would probably agree with you. I, I have not looked into it. I, I'm not gonna... But that, but that weren't 30 years ago. But they weren't 30 years ago. And then they tried to institute Sharia law and change the rules and how things work. And that's when, so now is that, to me, those people didn't want to really be British citizens. Because now they want to apply by a different set of rules. They want to run the country the way that their country was run. And they didn't truly want to adapt to English society. I fear that that might happen in America if you just wide open let the fire hose spray wherever it wants to. I think if you control it and let a trickle come into the country that we can watch and monitor and help you integrate and, and make sure that you're doing good. But when you are coming across the border and there's millions of people coming across the border every year, how are we as a country supposed to take that many people on, give you aid, give you... I'm not saying we have to give you aid. Well, but yes, you do because... So what about all these kids that are coming here from a foreign country that are gonna need educated? So we have to build more schools. We have to build more... No, that's not correct. Okay. I, I hear your argument, but what's the crime in more schools? There's not. It's the forcing of us having to do it because millions of people are just coming into this country every year. And we get to educate them as Americans. That we don't have the ability to build that much infrastructure that quickly. And then... All the jobs it could create. And so there's a homeless problem. There's... We, we hire some of these folks to start building schools. Okay. I mean, so are you going to then educate all those people on... It's just as likely as we're gonna get these people to go pick strawberries. If these people wanted to pick strawberries and grow houses, they already would. If you want to come here legally, come here legally. If you want to come here legally, get ready to get shit right back to where you come from. And if you commit a crime in this country, like, oh my goodness. Especially, like, I mean, I just don't understand. If you're here illegally and then commit a murder, you'll be dead. No questions asked. Like, you are, I, you're not a citizen. So why would you, why would you, and you come here illegally and then you're not a citizen. And then you get to have the same rights as everybody else and go through our judicial system and then get locked away in the prison and sit life in prison where our taxpayers pay the money to keep you alive when you weren't even supposed to be here in the first place. Like, I have problems with that. Come here legally. Make sure we can vet you. Go through, I mean, if we're vetting you and we're like, hey, you've been in jail for half your life. We're not going to let you in. Dan, that's tough, dude. You don't get in. And I don't, I mean, if you can't come here, like, I don't think you should be able to come here and be a dependent instantly. Like, the single mom who's coming with three kids, man, if you need state help, like, I don't think we should let you in. That doesn't seem fair. You weren't here before and grew up in the thing and paid taxes and put in, so now you just get to come here, get on the system, and then what about an already American citizen who's now receiving less because you're taking some of the pie that you didn't contribute You know what I want to talk about at some point? What? Birthright citizenship. Well, I mean, that's... I don't want to talk about it right now, though. Well, I mean... You know why? Well, I mean, if you're born in this country, you're a citizen. I agree. Yeah, but if you're not born in this country... But what if you jump the border and you're born in this country? You mean, like, the woman was pregnant and then hopped the fence and... No, she was illegal. And then she hit the ground? She was illegal. She hopped the fence. She bound an American citizen and had a baby with an American. Okay. So, if it was personally me... Yeah. I'd be like, okay, you found a sponsor. Okay. So, now... All right. Well... So, but now... I didn't want to get into it. Well, but here's the deal. Now, I mean, if that's really what... If that's what happened, which I don't... I think that that would be a... That happens a lot. That's what's called an anchor baby. I understand that. But then here's the deal. There is no, like... You are taking responsibility for that person the rest of your life, though. Right. I don't get... You... There is no divorce here. You are going to take care of that person. That's a whole other thing. You're taking care of that person. That you wanted to do this, like, they couldn't have just been a... Because you're... I think you've got to make the person own it. Because otherwise, people just do, like... There'd be some dude out there being like, yeah, come here. I'll get you pregnant. And then you'll get automatically into the country. No, you can't do that. Otherwise, like, nope. If you get that woman pregnant and, like, you guys... That's your whole scam behind the thing. Then you're responsible. You're that person's sponsor the rest of your life. Dan. That's the way it's got to be. I want to talk about something else. Okay. Okay. I just... I think we are so... I think... Again, this is a great topic. We can get into it a little bit more. But I want to finish off this one with something that I think we might be a little more on the same page about. Okay. And I want to talk about U.S. involvement in foreign conflict. I think that we spend an awful damn lot of money. We talk about... We have this agency or this concept called Doge. And we have the Doge bill. And we have whatever they want to streamline stuff. Whatever. You call it whatever you want. If you want to streamline government spending, I'm all for that in general. But when you look at things like foreign wars, and I see a lot of arguments of why America has interest in foreign conflict. A question though, you want to talk about nationalism and you want to talk about maintaining the home front and a quality of life here. And yet, we spend billions, and I mean billions of dollars, on foreign conflict. Not AIDS. I'm not talking about doctors without borders and helping people feel better and stuff. That's a whole nother argument. We can get into that. What I'm talking about is just balls out. Here's a bunch of money for war, conflict, that is not ours. I think that we need to be far less involved with every little thing that happens everywhere in the whole world. I mean, it just happened. Israel attacked Iran, and then we stood over the shoulder of Israel and were like, we'll help you, buddy. And then went and dropped some bombs on them. I feel that. I'm not trying to be Israel or Palestine. Please, please don't. I don't have a dog in that fight. I just don't. My position in the world here, out here in the world where I live, I do not have a dog in the fight of Palestine versus Israel. What I have a dog in the fight, what I have a concern is, is when America is getting involved on either side in a foreign conflict that is taking money away from us to go send bombs. And I'm not trying to make the Vietnam War. We're bombing children over. Yeah, probably. Bombing, period. We are, we're doing it with Ukraine and Russia, too. I mean, we're involved in that. I think that, now, I don't have a problem, like, say, Ukraine. When that shit first happened, I thought, you know what? Russia's going to run right over these guys. I thought they were going to steamroll them, and it was going to be a situation where it's like, I'm sorry, unfortunately, Ukraine. And I thought that we were sending them, like, helmets and rifles and bullets and, like, first aid stuff. Now that the thing's been going on for, like, three years, I mean, there's not one thing that the Ukrainians started that thing with that they're still using. They're using all of the foreign aid to fight the Russians. So, essentially, we're fighting the Russians using the Ukrainians. It's a modern-day Vietnam or something. Well, it's a meat grinder. It's a meat grinder. And I hate to be like that, because, you know what? We have not committed troops to the level of Korea or Vietnam, so please don't think I'm trying to take away from that particular area, from that angle. What I'm saying is that, from a political point of view, where we are using another country to test our systems against each other, and it's playing out in Ukraine, and I just, I understand that these guys want to play war sometimes, and you've got to test the stuff to make sure it works, but good Lord, the money we spend on that. Yeah, we're spending way too much money on it, but we're, like, we're getting involved, and it's giving, it's just putting off at a big liability. Now, I'm nervous that, like, Iran, for instance, isn't going to do something to try to get back at us for helping Israel with their plan to drop bombs on the nuclear facilities. Like, I'm worried they're going to do some terrorist attacks. I guess, just as a guy out here in the middle of the world, I don't understand, and maybe somebody, you know, in the comments or something can help me better understand, what ultimate interest could we have that would cost the amount of money that we have put forth to continuing the operations that we continue in those areas? Like, it just seems so expensive to continue, when this first popped up, I was like, man, no, we need to sit, this is not our fight. Ukraine, I'm sorry, Russia is going to come out. So, when you said, when this first popped up, you're talking about Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine, you're right, yeah, yeah. Just so we're on the same page. So, we're on the same page. When Russia and Ukraine first popped up, I was like, they're, okay, this is not a war, I don't think we should be involved in this, per se. Russia is likely going to just roll on in there. I was incredibly surprised, out of the gate, how ineffective Russia was. I was like, wow, that is embarrassing as shit. But at the same time, I recognized, wow, okay, well, Ukraine is fighting back. And I appreciate the security risks that allowing Russia to just steamroll another country over there is. But again, that seems European. Why are we spending our money? Voluntarily, Europe has had to increase the money they've spent because the United States refuses to assist. There's a part of me, as much as I, again, I don't appreciate all the decisions that everybody makes. Well, the fire is in their backyard. They should be the ones putting it out. I don't, we need to quit. I mean, I want to stop giving a lot of countries aid for anything. I mean, when we have a hurricane here, does anybody else send us money to help fix that You brought that up the other day, and I thought about that. I really thought about that. Like, I wondered, and I looked into it. And there are micro-organizations out there, but you're right. When another country goes through a devastating, say, natural disaster, a hurricane, a tsunami, or whatever, the outpouring from America, not just from citizens, but government spending, is far more than what we've ever received in reverse. But the citizens, I have no problem if some celebrity wants to donate to some cause, or have a fundraiser, or a telethon where you call in and donate money, or text, or whatever you would do for a telethon anymore. But then I'm willingly donating. If I want to call in, I'm giving my 50 bucks to a cause. No, I get what you're saying. When the government decides that they're going to spend my money on something that I'm not a supporter of, or didn't vote for, or wouldn't have voted if that was the case, that you were just going to spend my money in other places. Because, again, we have a lot of problems in this country. If our streets were squeaky clean, and L.A. wasn't clear full of shit, and we weren't having any of the other problems in this country that we're having, I would be okay with spending money other places. But our country is a mess. And then we keep on acting like we don't have a mess going on, and we're trillions of dollars in debt that we're giving. I don't know that we don't act like we don't know we have a mess going on. I think we just try to take on too much. We say, we have this mess, but also let's take on otherworldly conflicts. Why? I mean, what were we getting? Again, maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've looked at, what were we getting out of Ukraine that was worth such the involvement that we have besides the fight for freedom? And I get the argument that the fight for freedom is strong, but it starts smacking very strong of the same shit we said in Vietnam, like we can't let them become communists. That's not our field over there, man. That's not our fucking problem. No. Well, there's something, I mean, I've thought this for a while. I'm pretty sure it was World War I. We made it so that a country can't take over another country. Like, if France and Germany go to war after the war, they have to go. It can't be like Germany gained all this ground. Well, yeah. We made different treaties depending on, we made what was called rules of war on how things would play out afterwards. Sure. Right. So that's why I think that we have some of the trouble we're having today. Well, I mean, you said that, but then carved out Israel and the Gaza Strip. This is my thing. Who are we, I mean, unpopular opinion here, but like, who are we to tell Russia, like if Ukraine can't defend itself and Russia wants to go in military and take it, like who the hell are we to say that they can't do? No, that's the problem. I mean, again, unpopular opinion. I agree. I think that. Because I mean, we just bombed another country the other day with a B-2 bomber. That's how I feel about Israel and the Gaza Strip. It's not my, it's not my. If some other country would have did that, would that have been, like, would we have been like, oh, we'll stay out of this. You know, if some South American country flew over with its bombers and bombed another South American country, will we just sit that one out? Or maybe somebody in the comments can, I mean, I just don't understand. I think I agree. I agree with you. I do not understand why we are so, I have heard numerous arguments like what my, I was told one time that my grandfather said, well, the reason we go over there and fight is so we don't have to fight here. And I hear what you're saying, that we go and purposely fight wars in other areas to ensure they never end up over here. But we spend so much money, time and effort just going off and fighting in all these other conflicts. How can that possibly be business beneficial? So why would we have to go fight them over there to begin with? I can't, I mean, can't, I'm not a big fan of it. I mean, I don't think communism is exactly the way that I wouldn't like to live in a communist place. But like, if that's what you want and that's what you're there for, like, that's not my decision. Yeah. That's, that's your deal to like, my thing is, is China doesn't want to be communist anymore than China. And if you don't want to come to the table, like, and that's the thing, yeah, I think that's about, well, they have this resource that we want, or they have that resource that they want. That's their fucking resource, you know? And if they don't want to come to the international table with it, then maybe we find a different way of dealing with not having to have that resource. Like, you know, if Russia's like, we're going to charge you a million dollars a barrel. Well, you know what, Russia, I don't think we need Russian oil. And if it comes down to it, well, if we have to start figuring out how to make corn power our cars, then we'll figure it out because we're not going to pay a million dollars a barrel, you bastard. Yeah, I just, I think that that's just, I think that the whole, like, that whole thing that you just said about, like, we go fight them over there so we don't go to fight them over here. I think that's just a bunch of government propaganda to get us all behind going and fighting in other places. I agree. Because I just, I don't see what, like, us bombing Iran really did for us. Like, I think it makes true sense. But I think we just get over-involved in other conflicts. I'm not saying that, like, when there's a world conflict in order that we shouldn't get involved more offensively than defensively. But these aren't world conflicts. These are localized skirmishes in other countries where we're like, yeah, we have a dog in that fight. We have a reason to want to be there. Like, why? Does Ukraine really export so much grain at such a cheap price that it is worth us sending bullets over there and risking, you know, nuclear annihilation from a power country? And it hasn't worked. Every time that we've gotten involved, it hasn't worked out. I mean, Korea. We only ended up with half of it by the time it was all said and done. Same deal. I mean, every time we've gotten involved in Afghanistan, we were there for 20 years, packed up and left, and literally the Taliban walked in right behind us and kicked us out of the door in a way. I mean, same thing with Russia. Russia put in time there, and they left, and they were like, well, now we're here, and we've learned all these tactics, and we taught them. And then we went in because of whatever motives we had. You know, that's a whole other thing. But yes, I think that it's crazy how much we spend on foreign interference, not aid. Again, I want to emphasize that. I think there is a place for America being involved in foreign aid, true aid to countries that are being suppressed by shitty regimes, but foreign interest in overt conflict that, again, how important is it that we're over in Ukraine, ensuring that the grain flows? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. And again, maybe somebody can educate me on that, but it just doesn't make sense to me. But I don't, I mean, I want to scale back even on the aid, because USAID, USAID, was one of the things that DOJ found to be the most corrupt thing in our whole government. It was pretty much just an arm of the CIA to cause havoc in all these other countries. That's why we were giving gender studies to places like Pakistan and Afghanistan. I mean, we're giving the Taliban, I think Trump might have stopped it now, but it's something like $40 million a month. We're giving the Taliban, well, I mean, you can look it up. I'm just telling you, we were giving them, I think Trump stopped it now, but we were giving them some like $40 million a month. Maybe it was a billion even. It was a very significant amount of money that we were giving the Taliban to help keep Afghanistan functioning. Well, yeah, because we went in there and... We shouldn't have never left, bro. If we couldn't... Correct. If we couldn't leave, but then... No, I agree. I think at that point, you don't have the Afghanistan anymore. It's United States of America, 2.0. Texas too. Yeah, because obviously this place can't be run by itself. I mean... You know what? I think that's... We think it into that, how much of American imperialism should be allowed. If we did that... We're going to do it like that. Should we be allowed? If we would have did that, I don't think the Taliban would have took it over. I agree. They knew that we were going to leave. They just waited us out. I don't want to, again, get canceled in our third episode here and say that we... I think that the Taliban should have just stayed in if that's how it was going to be from the get-go. I think that we... I don't think that that's cancelable. I don't think that we... I think the way we handle conflict and then especially after the conflict is not great. And that's something that we can definitely talk about at some point. But I think overall, that's a reason that we should not be as involved in foreign conflicts. In my opinion, I think you and I are pretty much on the same page on this. The United States of America has 750 bases, not inside the United States, in 80 different countries. I don't understand why... Well, some people would argue that that's power. Like, look at the money in all these other countries. I'm not saying... I think I agree with you that I think there is a lot of wasteful spending in that. Why do we have to be in all these places? Why do we have an outpost in Greenland so far? I could see if that number was like 100, but 750. And the whole reason Biden said that we left Afghanistan, but we'd still be able to... We have over the horizon capability. That's what he said. We were going to keep an eye on the Taliban with over the horizon capabilities. So if we can keep track of the whole country that way, like why are we not doing that all over the place? Well, I'm not saying that we aren't. I mean, perhaps we are. But again, I think that us having bases in foreign countries all over the place just leaves us open to small... We've been getting attacked. Just all these little bases we have, they sometimes do get attacked in these different countries. Yeah, but that's military risk that we involve ourselves in. But if they weren't there to begin with, because what are they even doing there? Wow. Most people would argue keeping the peace, but I think that's something we should look into. So we have US troops in a foreign country acting as a police force. Why are we doing that? If it's going to be a wild and crazy place, like there's places I just would be like, you know what? I don't know if I really want to go there. It's just a little too wild for my... You know what I mean? Right now, personally, there's no reason in my mind that I would ever go visit Israel. They get rocketed. I'm not going to a country where there's a chance that I could just die because of a rocket. I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't go there. I hear what you're saying. What are the Americans... If that's the risk you want to take and go there... They're going to make arguments that we have foreign interests, we have oil interests, we have commerce interests, we have export interests, whatever it is. I just... When I look at a number of these places like Iran, Iraq, and I'm like, really, is the oil so important that we've got to put this effort into it? And then I look at Ukraine. When we got involved there, I was like, what in the world could Ukraine possibly have besides potential strategic importance that we would want to go to that kind of level of war? Well, it's right next to Russia. I get having a military base, bases, like I said, maybe 100, scattered throughout the world to keep, like you said, our interests. There's our oil companies, there's apples in China and other countries in the world, and we might need to be there to protect those interests. I'm not saying that, but what do we need the amount of it for? And then I think that those little things, just these little bases that are out in the middle of the desert in Iran that are getting rocketed attacks every once in a while. What does that even need to be there for? So I think that if we just, I think if we worried more about America and not about what's going on in the whole rest of the world. In this particular situation, absolutely. Like every time a country does something stupid and goes and gets itself in a war with a different country, I don't think that we need to pick a side. Couldn't we just stay out of it? There's stuff going on there that we, I mean, we don't live there. I don't know where the next thing's going to break. But like, I didn't live in Ukraine. I could not, I couldn't tell you if those people wanted to be Russian or wanted to be more Ukrainian. I have no idea. No, that's my whole point too. It's so far from where we're at. And if it is, I guess if it is such an international importance, why don't they do a much better job of educating us as to why it would be so important to side? It's a humanitarian effort. And I just, I get that to a degree, but that's all I'm going to go so far. And I agree, man. I think that we really should focus in that particular situation on more domestic affairs and taking care of home and maybe not spending so much money on foreign affairs. And I, people are freaking out that, you know, well, Europe's starting to amp up their military spending. Good, good. Let them amp it up and let them take care of some of that over there. So, well, right. I mean, I'm just a big component of like, speak softly, but carry a big stick. Right. I think that America's been the big stick for the whole rest of the world. Since World War II. Don't mess with us. We got America on our side and we've been the stick. Since World War II, in my opinion. I don't want to be like, I don't think that that's fair. We shouldn't have to be flexing our American might across the world to make sure that everyone else stays in line. Like, I mean, somebody else pick up the torch and carry it for a while. I mean, it just, it needs to happen. We're billions or trillions of dollars in debt. Right. And we're, we don't have a way to pay it back. Like, it's just, it's not getting paid back. So, we're going to have to start making some cuts. And I think that helping everybody else out needs to be the first cut. You know. I agree. And I think, you know, that'll be an interesting topic, too, on what we can really do to help dive in and make some of those significant cuts and differences. But again, everybody, thanks again for listening. Part two of us getting into some AI and some foreign affairs and immigration. That was, that was a good one. We spent some time on that there. But I think, you know, we definitely agreed towards the end there on foreign affairs and foreign aid. And maybe taking a little bit more home here before we go out and try to get involved so much in the rest of the world out there. But, right. Like America first, baby. Maybe you. No, I agree. Like I said, I still think we're the greatest country, the greatest nation out there. So, again, thanks for listening. Like, subscribe, do all that. We appreciate you guys. The Dan and Justin show. Thanks for listening.