A number of right wing figures here in the United States enthusiastically greeted the Argentinian presidential election results. Donald Trump says, congratulations to Javier Milei on a great race for president of Argentina. The whole world was watching. I'm very proud of you. You will turn your country around and truly make Argentina great again. [00:00:19] And that means a lot, because he definitely knew who that person was and he could name three facts about Argentina. >> Speaker 3: Yes, he could. >> Speaker 2: And when he says, make it great again, he thought about that for even a second. That's why that's a meaningful statement from the former and perhaps future president, United States. [00:00:35] It's not just an empty thing where he heard the dude's a right winger and doesn't believe in climate change, it's substantive and equally substantive for the rest of them. So Ben Shapiro, who doesn't give a damn if Argentina fell into the ocean- >> Nope. >> Says, awesome news, and if it goes poorly, like, [00:00:53] if this economic philosophy, the destruction of sections of the government, goes poorly for Argentina, then he'll admit it, Ben Shapiro. >> Yes. >> He's intellectually honest and he cares about the Argentinian people. And then, look, we could go on to Swami blah, blah, blah. [00:01:11] And I just wanted to get to Elon Musk replying to end wokeness, saying, prosperity is ahead for Argentina. And to that, I just want to say, to all you people who said a year or two ago, Elon Musk is right wing. [00:01:26] You can't say what his politics are, we don't know. He's an independent, maybe left wing, maybe right wing, it's impossible to say what he viewed. He's just super enthusiastic about a right wing anarcho libertarian taking over Argentina and promising to restrict reproductive rights, end the fight against climate change, flood the streets with guns [00:01:44] while destroying the government's capacity to help anyone other than the 1%. But other than that, we have no idea what his politics are. >> [CROSSTALK] >> Save these tweets, save them. Go there, Elon. My God, and you know what? He's gonna go there and be like, God, it's really expensive. [00:01:59] Why is it so expensive in this country? I just wanted to go to get a cheap steak because they dollarize their effing economy. But this is the thing, these are capitalists who also have taken advantage like vultures of countries like Argentina who have tanked their [00:02:17] economy time after time after time and then these vultures swoop in. They buy the debt for pennies on the dollar. Hello, Paul Singer, who's buddy buddy with our Supreme Court justices. And then they privatize more and more, it leads to no prosperity. And then when everything goes into the toilet, all those vultures, [00:02:36] they lift up and they fly away. And again, the people of Argentina are left to suffer. And lastly, only thing I'm gonna say about climate change, it's very interesting in Argentina, because what happens is that arid lands, flooded lands, means more and more concentration of wealth in terms of farmland. [00:02:52] Argentina is massively rural, there's a lot of incredibly rich farmland. And what happens? People get displaced from that land and they move where? They move to cities and become what? Part of the urban poor, part of shanty towns, right? And so part of real climate change in Argentina and [00:03:08] stopping it is about economic justice as well as it is across the world. So, I just wanna put that out there. >> Speaker 1: That is a great point. And that's why I'm so glad that the office react and the results of this came on a day that you're on, that you can bring not only your, but also your personal experience living there. I'm joking about how little they know prior to this. [00:03:25] I want to be super clear, if it's not already clear. I know effectively nothing about Argentina. A little bit, little sprinkling of historic and economic facts, that's about it. I at least was in graduate school for poli sci, and I did study a number of other countries as part of both non Western politics and international relations. [00:03:44] But that was not, the region isn't my expertise, the country isn't. The difference is that Ben Shapiro will pretend that he either knows anything or cares at all, and all of them will do that. >> Speaker 3: But John, I have to say one thing. I just one, one last thing is that I have to say that all that anyone needs to know [00:04:01] about Argentina economically is that it was the poster child for how the ideology of people like Ben Shapiro of privatizing everything, how that works. And it always works, and it always works. And then in 2003, there was a massive crash, 2001, 2003, I'm forgetting it. [00:04:18] 2001, yeah, massive crash, the economy went to crap. And it was proof, our little poster child, that we thought was so good. When you privatize even the roads, the water, everything, that it'll distribute prosperity for all, that did not bear out. [00:04:33] So Argentina, if anything, is proof that neoliberal economics, that free trade fails the people. That's all you need to know about Argentina. They went through six presidents in a week, right? So, we are not far out from that, but, I guess, hey, [00:04:50] let's try this psycho wolverine, libertarian wolverine on for size. >> Speaker 2: I despise the concept, the idea, the very idea that we should learn from the past, >> [LAUGH] >> It's so stupid of you to ask us to do, [00:05:07] why would we do that? I said sarcastically, while knowing deep in my gut that we never have and never will. Tax cuts for the rich have never worked in America, you know when we're going to get those? Every single time a Republican wins for the presidency, for the rest of time, Trump wins, they're gonna do more. [00:05:23] It doesn't matter that it doesn't work. Like you said, save the tweets, sure, save the tweets, we'll feel good. >> Right. >> Speaker 2: The audience will feel good. It won't matter. Elon Musk tweeted in the beginning of the pandemic that by April, there'd be zero cases. Like, it doesn't matter how verifiably moronic he is, it doesn't matter. [00:05:44] How did Brexit go? Because, you know, before it, people were saying, I don't know, it seems like kind of a bad idea. These promises you're making probably won't come true. They didn't, it was terrible. No one will learn. Literally no one. Learning is not allowed. [00:06:00] And now it's come to Argentina. So see what happens, he's making big promises. Doesn't mean necessarily that he can get all of this done, but we will see. [MUSIC]