Rufo & Lomez

Can America still become one people? Noah Smith joins Lomez for an honest debate over immigration, assimilation, ethnogenesis, and the future of American identity.

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►Preroll

00:00 — Noah Smith on Politics, Economics & “No Opinion”

01:34 — Noah Smith vs. the DSA Left

05:05 — Is America Fundamentally Good?

07:07 — Abundance Politics: What Does “Abundance for Americans” Mean?

10:44 — Who Could Lead the Democrats in 2028?

14:52 — Israel, Palestine & the Challenge of a Jewish Candidate

18:43 — Immigration and the Politics of Ethnic Conflict

25:39 — Irish and German Immigration: How Assimilation Happened

31:57 — Is Today’s Immigration Wave Historically Unprecedented?

35:38 — “Replenished Ethnicity”: Does Immigration Slow Assimilation?

43:23 — Immigration, Ethnic Majorities & Political Balkanization

47:35 — Can “American” Become a Shared Ethnicity?

55:31 — Would an Immigration Pause Help or Hurt Assimilation?

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America is being robbed blind, over half a trillion dollars a year, and the politicians in charge are either too weak or too complicit to act. We lay out the scale of the fraud, the scams, and the political corruption, and why Washington can't seem to stop it.

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►Preroll

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00:00 — America's $500 Billion Fraud Problem

03:00 — Inside the $40 Million Medicaid Fraud Allegation

07:00 — Gavin Newsom's “Empire of Fraud”

11:00 — Why High-Profile Arrests Aren’t Enough

15:00 — The Politics Behind Medicare and Medicaid

19:00 — Can Washington Stop the Money?

23:00 — Reform, Collapse, or Opt Out?

27:00 — How AI Could Catch Fraud at Scale

31:00 — Blockchain, Transparency, and Fraud Bounties

35:00 — Why There’s No “Fix-It Room” in Washington

40:00 — The Talent Problem in Politics

45:00 — Public Service Without the Payoff

50:00 — Staying in the Fight Without Becoming a Martyr

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Is it about race, class, or something else entirely? We confront America's most uncomfortable immigration debate.

00:00 — The Bo French Tweet Sparks a Firestorm

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Investigative reporter Brian Chau reveals who is bankrolling the “AI will kill everyone” panic and buying influence in Congress.

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00:00 – “AI Will Literally Kill Everyone” – Inside the Doomer Mindset

05:12 – The ‘AI God’ Theory: Recursive Self‑Improvement or Sci‑Fi Fantasy?

11:03 – Paperclip APOCALYPSE: How Doomers Think AI Turns Humans Into Office Supplies

16:44 – Reality Check: Superhuman at Math…But Still TERRIBLE at Writing

21:58 – Will AI Help Some Rando Build a Doomsday Bioweapon?

27:21 – State Bioweapons vs Lone Wolves: Who’s the REAL Threat?

33:09 – Inside Effective Altruism: From ‘Saving Africa’ to Saving Imaginary Future Billions

39:02 – When ‘Doing Good’ Means LYING: The Dark Logic of Effective Altruism

44:35 – Brian’s EA Conference Story: Intelligence, Narcissism, and Straight‑Up Deception

51:10 – The ‘Rogue AI’ HACKS Were STAGED? What Really Happened at OpenAI & Anthropic

57:48 – Hugging Face Incident: Cybersecurity Test or Manufactured AI Scare?

1:03:30 – Why AI Doomers Are Winning: Billions in PR, Media Plants, and DC Influence

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Bari Weiss and her 2018 New York Times article on the Intellectual Dark Web launched Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and the Weinstein brothers into the mainstream. Nearly a decade later, we dissect how that moment imploded into conspiracy rabbit holes, algorithm addiction, and the collapse of a would‑be heterodox revolution.

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0:00 – Bari Weiss, the NYT, & the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’

3:12 – Bari Weiss Predicts the Collapse

8:45 – From Free Speech Heroes to Cranks: The Fall of the IDW

14:20 – “Classical Liberal” Was Always Fake

19:05 – The Myth of Deplatforming Alex Jones & Milo

23:50 – How Peterson & the Weinsteins Went Off-Grid

29:30 – When Heterodoxy Became a Drug

34:10 – Charles Murray vs. the Weinsteins: Who Was Right All Along?

39:42 – Neocons Did It First (and Better)

45:15 – The Algorithm Fried Their Brains

51:00 – Was the IDW Just a Media Grift?

56:20 – NYT vs. IDW: Who Looks Sane Now?

1:01:40 – The IDW’s Kamikaze Mission Explained

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One year after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Right remains without a clear leader. Its coalition unity is shattered, and its leadership vacuum is only deepening.

0:00 – Charlie Kirk Assassination: One Year Later

3:12 – “Hinge Event” After 9/11: How Kirk’s Death Changed Everything

8:45 – Right-Wing Meltdown: Why the Coalition Shattered After Kirk

13:27 – Inside Charlie Kirk’s Power: Charisma, Humility & Raw Influence

18:50 – How Kirk Made Changing Your Mind a Superpower

23:39 – One Man, Massive Power: The Truth About Political Capital

29:05 – Can Anyone Replace Charlie Kirk?

34:42 – JD Vance: The Only Man Who Can Rebuild the MAGA Coalition?

41:03 – Candace Owens, Conspiracies & Cash: Monetizing Charlie’s Death

47:18 – Checked-Out Conservatives: Has Idealism on the Right Died?

53:02 – Real Voters or Just Clicks? The Mirage of Online Right-Wing Clout

59:40 – From Opposition to Power: Why the Right Can’t Figure Out Governing

1:06:11 – Scott Adams & Charlie Kirk: The Lost Architects of Trumpism

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Col. Rob Maness was inside the Pentagon on 9/11. He provides an unfiltered, minute-by-minute account of the attack, the chaos, and the rescue efforts he witnessed firsthand. He connects that day to America's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Ukraine, and he makes the case that America is back to a "September 10" mindset today.

0:00:00 25 Years After 9/11: Are We Back to ‘September 10th’ America?

0:02:45 Inside the Pentagon on 9/11: Colonel Maness's Account

0:06:10 Nuclear War Game on 9/11: Coincidence or Something More?

0:10:35 “We Are Under Attack”: The Moment It Became Clear

0:15:20 Chaos at the Pentagon: Fire, Asbestos, and Triage in the Hallways

0:20:40 Who Really Did 9/11? Inside the Future Operations Group

0:25:05 Afghanistan vs. Iraq: Why One War Was Justified and the Other a ‘Bad Idea’

0:30:30 We Won the War in 2005 — Then We Lost the Strategy

0:36:15 Patriot Act & FISA 702: How 9/11 Still Haunts American Freedom

0:42:00 Iran Since 1979: Ending a 50‑Year War with Blockades and ‘Economic Fury’

0:48:10 Can America Outlast Iran’s Fanatics? Political Will vs. Religious Zeal

0:54:25 Ukraine, NATO, and Russia’s Red Line: Did the West Push Too Far?

1:00:10 Can Trump End Two Wars at Once? Predictions on Iran & Ukraine

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From The Pendragon Cycle to the future of the GOP, Jeremy Boreing lays out a long-term strategy for rebuilding conservative culture.

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0:00 – The Fantasy Epic Owning Amazon Prime

3:15 – How Jeremy Boreing Beat Hollywood at Its Own Game

7:42 – Why Conservative Movies Keep Failing

12:30 – Will & Grace, Game of Thrones, and the Real Power of Story

18:05 – Rebuilding a 100‑Year Hollywood Machine from Scratch

23:40 – 300 Crew Members, 79 Shoot Days, and Everything Went Wrong

29:10 – Real Bulls, Real Blood: The Insane Pendragon Stunt Everyone Thinks Is Fake

34:25 – Why Conservative Money Won’t Build the Next Facebook or HBO

40:55 – Are Conservatives Doomed by a Failure of Imagination?

47:20 – Lady Ballers vs. Pendragon: Politics, Polemics, and Real Art

53:45 – Evangelicals: The GOP’s Most Powerful Bloc… and Its Weakest Link?

1:00:30 – Tucker Carlson, Israel, and the Coming Right‑Wing Realignment

1:08:10 – Can the Right Actually Build Institutions to Replace Hollywood?

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With the RNC convention landing in Dallas next week, the midterm math is starting to look ugly for Republicans. Rufo & Lomez ask the question nobody in the White House wants to answer: why is J.D. Vance the one holding the bag?

►Preroll

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00:00:00 – JD Vance’s case for Republicans in the midterms

00:04:05 – Betting Markets FLIP: Why Democrats Are Favored to Win

00:08:30 – Is the GOP message on fraud and crime falling flat?

00:12:55 – How the Iran conflict is dragging down Republican support

00:17:40 – Is JD Vance Being Set Up to FAIL for 2028?

00:22:00 – SHOCK NUMBERS: 3 Million Fewer Illegal Immigrants

00:26:35 – Deportations, Cheaper Rent, More Jobs: Did Trump Actually Deliver?

00:31:20 – Do Trump’s tariffs actually help American workers?

00:35:55 – From Reagan to Trump: the right’s ideological transformation

00:40:35 – Obergefell, gay marriage, and the collapse of the religious right

00:45:10 – Has Trumpism Turned the Right Into a Nihilist Casino?

00:49:45 – Can the right hold together in the new media ecosystem?

00:54:25 – Final 2026 midterm predictions: House and Senate outlook

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Rutgers scientist Dr. Richard Ebright lays out, in forensic detail, how Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, buried the evidence, and orchestrated a fraudulent cover-up paper and why his 2025 pardon is quietly backdated to the exact year the violations began.

00:00 – Fauci’s Backdated Pardon

04:12 – Gain-of-Function Pause in 2014

08:35 – What Is EcoHealth Alliance?

12:49 – Why the U.S. Funded High-Risk Coronavirus Work in China

17:03 – Dick Cheney, NIAID, and the Shift to Biodefense & Bioweapons Research

21:44 – Evidence SARS‑CoV‑2 Came from a Wuhan Lab, Not a Wet Market

26:58 – DARPA, NIH Grants, and the ‘Blueprint’ for Engineering SARS‑CoV‑2

32:37 – Furin Cleavage Site: Statistical Case for a Lab-Engineered Virus

37:50 – Debunking the Wuhan Wet Market Zoonotic Origin Narrative

42:05 – Alleged Scientific Misconduct: Andersen, Garry, Rambaut, Holmes

47:21 – Fauci's “Big Ask” to Shape COVID Origin Science

53:09 – Indictments, David Morens, Peter Daszak, and Slow Fauci Accountability

58:26 – Dr. Ebright’s Personal Cost & Backlash from the Scientific Community

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