2026 Predictions: Expos, Geopolitics & Media — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] This program might contain strong language. If you think you may be offended, we're talking now.

[00:22] Hello everybody, welcome to WatchMojo and the first Inside Podcast of 2026. I am your host, Rob, and with me is WatchMojo's CEO and co-founder, Ashkhan Karbushkushan, or Ashkadamus, as he's going by today, to tell us his predictions for what to expect in this year.

[00:41] How's it going, Ash? Happy New Year. Happy New Year. It's like, what is it, the seventh or eighth of the month, and it's like, I need a drink. It's been draining. You know, starting with Maduro one night, I was down south.

[00:53] I think it was after New Year's, so I'm like, oh, tonight I'll go to bed relatively early. They caught the habit game, probably on an illegal stream, despite being a paying client. And I'm like, oh, I'll go to bed.

[01:05] I wake up in the morning, and I read Majuro taken to U.S. I'm like, you know, it's crazy. Anyway, we're a week in. Iran may be undergoing possibly a revolution.

[01:20] It's crazy. So, I mean, again, we're not even like January. We're just touching here. It's been a long week, hasn't it? It's been a very long week, yeah. Have you made any resolutions for this year? Are you into that type of thing?

[01:33] I used to be. I'm doing dry-ish January. We'll leave it at that. No, but that's every year I try to do that. No, my resolutions are actually continuations,

[01:45] not to get too serious with things that I started last year, like not overthinking, being more in the moment, you know, not worrying about things that realistically the odds of happening are like less than 1%.

[01:59] And yeah, but otherwise, right, the things that I'd already started, like perspective and gratitude a few years ago, I've kind of maintained those. How about you? Any resolutions?

[02:11] Well, it's kind of the same. It's like continuations, reminders more than resolutions. but if I had to identify one, I'd say that my goal for this year is less input and more output.

[02:23] So, you know, produce before I consume, because I just feel like I should be making more stuff, whether it's like music or creative writing or something like that. I just want to produce more this year, so that's my big goal.

[02:38] I mean, the reality is I've touched on this. Human beings were either consumers or producers of content or things, you know. And it changes, right? Like when I was young, I used to just read a lot of articles and just take it in, watch TV.

[02:53] And then obviously when I started in media, I started to write as a prolific columnist, then with WatchModule, been involved directly or indirectly with so much content, documentaries, books. and it's funny because yeah like there was a period where I went to becoming more of a consumer again

[03:09] like catching up on shows and now again I'm shifting back to producers so yep that ebb and flow so let's pick it up where we kind of left off at the end of 2025 the latest

[03:22] big project that you've been working on what's the latest update update on your Montreal Expos from a viable project. Yeah, I mean, I would love, obviously, I think we are going to talk a little bit about Venezuela,

[03:34] Maduro, not just specific deep dives into it. There's people that know more, but how it affects America, Canada, how it affects Iran, what's happening in Iran. Sorry, and then a little observation about private equity

[03:47] as we celebrate our five-year anniversary with our private equity investors. But yeah, so the expos, I mean, you know, I'm extremely, let's start like this. Last night I was at the Habs game, and I was in a section which has like a kind of a restaurant for fans to go and eat before.

[04:04] And next to me, you know, there was this father and dad. And kind of first half intermission, or before the game, we talked about the food and the experience in the area. Second intermission, we talked a little bit about, or the first intermission, we talked about the Habs and the roster and just how amazing and what a great job the organization has done.

[04:21] And then at the end of the second intermission, I go, oh, by the way, if you don't mind my asking, you know, were you ever Expo fans and if you think they'd ever come back and kind of open-ended question and he's like man

[04:33] and he's like honestly if they come back I'd be the first to be buying season tickets, he's like I frankly it's funny you mention it because he's like I thought this file was closed but he's like about a month ago I was driving

[04:46] you know listening to the radio and he's like you know I heard some guy on the radio was talking about bringing them back and I was sitting there with my daughter, and I got a bit, like, vacante. I was a bit emotional. I didn't say anything.

[04:58] I was going to just leave it at that. But he's going on and on, I swear to you. There were witnesses. So, he's like, I mean, because I was switching back between French and English with him, as many Montrealers do,

[05:10] and he's like, and he sounded like you. And then he was like, at the same time, he was like, what? He's realizing. My daughter's like, this guy, this guy. Anyway, so, weird,

[05:22] interesting, but captures I think the excitement, the hope, nostalgia, but really more hope and yearning to, for lack of a better word, make Montreal great again. I think

[05:34] seeing the Blue Jays run not just on the baseball diamond, but the windfalls that the city had with over $100 million of economic activity in the playoffs, I think Montrealers

[05:46] may not have wanted to admit it, but now with my just playing my little part to push this project forward, I do think there is this collective of excitement and growing hope

[06:00] that at least we can put our best foot forward to Major League Baseball. So where are we at? This is Major League Baseball's decision. Next year, they're going to have their labor issues,

[06:14] collective bargaining agreement, possibly work stoppage. you know and that will probably lead to a new deal with a salary cap and a salary floor meaning some owners may be like yeah i don't want to pay that floor um the state lie i want to sell so there's

[06:27] going to be more movement i do think montreal's best shot is through expansion and then the year after the cda obviously the league will look at renegotiating media rights that affects revenue

[06:40] and then after that what i've read is commissioner manfred does want before retiring to kind of bring two teams through the expansion. And I won't lie, I think Montreal was probably, you know, not in the mix.

[06:56] I think in the last 45 days, you know, we've gotten a lot of traction. You know, as I educated myself, I learned that, you know, the era of sports club ownership is no longer about the one wealthy guy

[07:12] like a Jerry Jones or a R.J. Moreno who goes and says, I'm worth a billion, I'm going to sign a check for $100 million and buy this shiny toy. It really is institutional capital plus a big anchor investment

[07:25] plus a few strategic one-off months. So, you know, being a conservative fellow, I would never say, oh, financing secured for the P.E., but using the jargon of investments, I think the P.E. tranche will be oversubscribed.

[07:39] But, you know, the league caps ownership of a team to 30%. They don't care about the stadium financing as much. So the PEs will probably fund even up to 100% of the stadium.

[07:52] So my kind of goal right now is to go and find that anchor investor, that high-net-worth individual or family office. Historically, obviously, MLB wants that person to be local. You know, I may be a 5% owner.

[08:05] I make no claims that I would ever have the means to be that big anchor investor. But me being in Montreal, speaking to people that know MLB a bit better, they're like, look, if you're bilingual, you have a track record, you're a sports fan,

[08:20] you have a clean sheet when it comes to governance and all that. They don't want some fraudster joining their fraternity or sorority and fraternity, for lack of a better word. So I'm very confident.

[08:32] And then I didn't really try, I thought it was premature to get like an advisory group together. But, you know, I know my strengths and blind spots. So in the last 30 days or even 15 days while on vacation, you know, it's like I put something on X,

[08:49] which was like the WWE when you're like one man in the ring against five, six people. Then out of nowhere, someone comes rushing into the ring to help you before he hits you with a chair, you know, in the back.

[09:01] But, you know, so it's all really, really well. This is just comparing Montreal, you know, the fundamentals of Montreal vis-à-vis the other cities. I wish all the cities really, really well. But I think on the merits, you know, Montreal's size, 3, 4 million population, French, that the world loves to blame everything on Quebec being French.

[09:22] But French is an advantage, I believe, to any league because it gives them a gateway into Europe, gateway into African countries. That's the French. So, a ton of traction. I don't know if, Yvonne, you want to bring up the Context is King link.

[09:35] But, you know, the other thing is, like, yeah, so I didn't want to name people because, you know, I want to still be somewhat – I don't think anybody will say I'm off the radar, but I'm, like, kind of, you know, Mr. X, the maestro, the conductor, the chef.

[09:50] We've got Colonel Mustard, who's like a titan of government, you know, the former CEO of the major global enterprise. Like, I think he brings a lot more credibility with Canada, Corporate America, Quebec Inc.

[10:02] You know, we got the connector, somebody who is a well-known figure in media, a.k.a. Nick Furry. He is connecting me to a lot of, you know, investors. The financier, that's what I was alluding to.

[10:15] You know, the PE tranche, I think, looks really, really strong. I think that 30% of the sports club, I don't think, will be an issue. even up to 100% of the stadium.

[10:27] The banker, a.k.a. Moneypenny, one of the largest. Again, these are all very purposely blank and formal. I myself don't want to commit too quickly until I really get some more kind of reassurances

[10:42] that nobody's wasting their time and nobody's getting too excited. The engineer, a.k.a. Scotty, is actually my brother-in-law who I've already alluded to. He brings me a lot of confidence in the real estate piece, connecting me to the right builders eventually.

[10:58] The implementer, a.k.a. Sam Wai, somebody that knows, you know, a bit early, but like somebody that would be able to figure out, okay, what does a tech-enabled, tech-powered campus and stadium and all that look like?

[11:10] And then, of course, you know, we've talked about AI, but AI has been a great tool in terms of research, in terms of me just firing off emails, you know, taking a template that I would create and adapting it to, like, hit up 50 family offices.

[11:26] And, again, very premature, but, like, of the 50 or so outreaches that I made to high-network individuals or family offices, you know, I was doing this over the holidays when I was down south, I've already gotten five to ten responses.

[11:43] I got a couple of passes saying, you know, this is really exciting, good for you, but it doesn't fit. But I've gotten five to ten individuals who are not the principals, admittedly, but they work as analysts and they work as, you know, even more like chief investment officers at some of these family offices that are like, this is really interesting, curious to learn more.

[12:04] You know, but it's kind of, as I say, this racket is interest, intent, and action. And my goal is to funnel as much of these people to, you know, get to the action phase. So I'm extremely bullish.

[12:17] Started to look at land as well. You know, yesterday I wrote something about vision. Vision could be big kumbaya idea, big strategy, but lowercase vision is just understanding the path ahead.

[12:31] You know, in Montreal we always talk about, you know, I think there are places like near the old hippodrome, Blue Bonnet, Royal Mount, could work. I don't think that would be really fair to people offshore.

[12:43] I think it creates a bit of friction for people downtown. there was a space in a Costco I actually emailed Costco this morning I connected to the head of real estate and I said look, I go would you be open to building a new

[12:56] Costco, those buildings that you know Costco buildings don't cost that much to build I'm like it doesn't really matter to you if you are where you are on Bridge Street or if you're like across the street if you would be willing to sell that land that your Costco

[13:10] is on, boom, there's the 750,000 square feet up to a million, ideally even 1.5 million square feet of space that would house not just the stadium, but the 4C Creative Cultural Commercial Center that kind of outline which is really what I think most sports leagues want It also what most investors want I don think most investors are that interested in just the sports team I think they look at it more as like it an area that is you know

[13:38] 12 months, there's activity, museums, shops, no shortages of ideas. So really, really bullish, but as I said it, oh my God, it's just a test of patience. Because we're talking about what is realistically going to be

[13:52] a three to four year, you know, timeline. But where am I going? I got nothing better to do. Well, it's good. It's glad to hear the wheels are in motion and that you've been getting responses from people. That's pretty cool.

[14:04] Let's shift gears, though, to WatchMojo. So we have a couple of items to talk about for 2026, one of them being WatchMojo's music endeavors. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

[14:17] Yes. Which one? Because there's a few. I know we did the album, but which one? Oh, okay. MTV WatchMojo music here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we've talked a little bit about Watch Mojo and music and events and expanding and Watch Mojo 2030, the studio project.

[14:31] So, yeah, I mean, at a high level, I think Watch Mojo is, you know, my mantra to the teenagers and to my board and to my investors, to anybody who will listen, is don't expect extraordinary results when you do the ordinary.

[14:47] But to do the extraordinary, then you've got to do the ordinary things in an extraordinary fashion, right? So what we have to do, to quote Colin Powell, is before you go out there on the offense, you need to, you know, bolster your defense.

[15:02] So I think the last couple of years, we really bolstered the foundation of the company. You know, we really, really improved all the processes, yada, yada, made sure that the right people were in the right positions on the field, so to speak.

[15:14] And now we just don't want to lose momentum because we entered our third growth phase in our 20-year history and officially we'll celebrate our 20-year history January 23rd. And it's crazy because we have two more members, making it about 10 teammates who have been with us for over 10 years.

[15:33] You know, it's crazy. And we probably have six or seven that have been with us for over 15 years. That's pretty grand. Yeah, no, so what I read was more that MTV was shutting down.

[15:46] And it was just a comment about how, you know, you talked about resolutions. So throughout the 2010s, like, we had conversations with Time Inc. to take Fortune, Time, Sports Illustrated,

[16:01] and to kind of videophile them, for lack of a better word. Just reimagine the brand as video-centric, digital-native brands. And when MTV shut down, you know, I was right to the shame because WatchMojo, it's more known for movies, TV, gaming, but the same way we branched out gaming into Mojo Plays, you know, I had emailed Paramount Skydance and I was like, hey, there's the email.

[16:28] I was like, if you guys are going to kill MTV, why don't you license it to us? And then we would basically take all of our music programming. You know, we got thousands of bios and top ten lists on all the top artists.

[16:43] But, again, sometimes, not fake news, but you got to read the fine print. I don't think MTV, at least as of now, has shut down the flagship MTV channel. I think what they shut down was just all of the kind of, you know, for lack of a better word, the derivative secondary channels or, you know, the non-English channels.

[17:02] But it's of course to show that as WatchMojo itself grows, you know, I've talked about how a lot of people come to me sometimes. They're like, oh, WatchMojo, you used to watch that when I was younger. I'm busy now. That'll work. And then we kind of win over new fans.

[17:18] Yeah, I don't know. Like, does MTV mean anything to younger generations? You know, it's like SI. You know, we've talked to SI over the years. It's flattering. It's a good challenge. But I'm like, the kids really, even Bleacher Report, you know, even newer brands, you know, think of Barstool.

[17:34] Even that's a brand that's been around for 20 years. So I don't really know if those legacy brands mean as much. You know, me as a media historian, media, you know, operator, yeah, I mean, it's great if you were to kind of have a brand like MTV.

[17:50] but at the same time, maybe it is easier to always just start with a clean slate, you know? Yeah, it's hard for me to say, maybe I'm off on this, but I kind of feel like the younger generations are not as attached to brands as we once were.

[18:04] It seems to have shifted away from that to some degree. Yeah, I mean, during the golden era of television, nobody was really like a fan of NBC. They were a fan of Science Fun. They were a fan of Friends.

[18:17] They were a fan of SNL. And so, I think what you saw with the YouTube generation is, even when PewDiePie, when he was, like, the king of YouTube, like, before Mr. Beast became the current undisputed king of YouTube, PewDiePie had a deal with me.

[18:36] Yeah, well, if there is an ex-guy, because, you know, the clutter is hard to cut through. That is, you know, just the reality, I feel. But I remember when PewDiePie had a deal with Maker Studios and he wanted to pull people over to Maker.TV, it flopped.

[18:57] So I used to say, ironically, people are so more loyal to YouTube than to creators, even to MrBeast, even to PewDiePie. If those guys leave the platform, I really don't think that people are going to follow them to some website.

[19:09] I think it's like even when Mr. Beast took credit, didn't deal with Amazon, sure, he got some views, but it's not like people stopped watching him on YouTube. So I do think people are more loyal to these individual creators than brands,

[19:24] but I still think people are still today more loyal to YouTube than to any single creator. So that's another paradox of this racket. Yeah, that makes sense. I think with the MTV-specific example, though,

[19:36] there is a lot of nostalgia for that brand in particular. and our viewer Taequann Williams Hey Taequann, what's up? Thanks for joining us says I kind of miss MTV networks like MTV 80s, 90s and 2000s and Nick Music I feel like a lot of people have that kind of little

[19:50] nostalgia bug for brands like MTV that kind of hit their peak and then faded and are kind of on their way out Well I think it's innovator's dilemma It's innovator's dilemma, right? I mean if you're

[20:03] ball cluster, Netflix is like out of the plate You're not interested in that and if you're MTV, people say music and videos shifted to reality TV. I mean, those are all, like, details.

[20:15] I think it was more ultimately that the Internet was on demand so people can watch whatever the hell they want, and television just could not really compete with that. So, yeah, I mean, look, if tomorrow Paramount got back to us and was like,

[20:31] yeah, you know what, that's not a bad idea because we're going to cut MTV in a year, you guys want to run with it, let's figure out the business terms I think that's compelling to be honest, I don't want to be a hypocrite but I think it's more of a corporate

[20:44] profile thing, that would be good for us I don't necessarily think that audiences are going to care audiences are going to care about the content they're going to care about what is it that we're programming to inform and entertain probability

[20:59] very low let's put it that way fair enough Part of what we wanted to do with this episode was kind of examine what the first week of the new year can foreshadow about the rest of the year.

[21:12] And a lot's happened. So we have some United States news, some international news to talk about. So what do you want to start with? Well, I mean, we could start with the world.

[21:24] Sorry, we could start with the U.S. Because I think, you know, as Canadians, we always used to hear that what America sees is we catch a cold. And I do think it's naive to think that, like, Europe is leading anything.

[21:36] I think Europe, after World War II, passed the baton to America, and Europe has effectively more and more made itself irrelevant. I mean, I love Europe, I love Europeans, but I don't think anybody looks to Europe as they set the agenda.

[21:50] So, and what's interesting is we do think that China is the leading, you know, the economic superpower of the 21st century, and, you know, you see the military build up

[22:02] and obviously they become what America was in terms of going around the world and helping with infrastructure. But it's crazy that when you think of Trump's second term, you know, despite all his hardcore fans

[22:14] hoping for a third term, technically the Constitution prevents that, forbids that, but not can it happen. He really does not care anymore about some of the things that he had to concern himself with in his first term.

[22:28] I think in the first term, what happened is the first six months, first year, he still had a lot of, like, career politicians, people who may not have been loyal to him, but who represented, like, guardrails and safeguards for him to kind of conduct himself a certain way.

[22:45] And you could argue that he still did whatever the hell he wanted. But in the second term now, I think you're seeing someone that kind of has mastered the D.C. politics game and still refuses to play by it. That's the more interesting thing as a case study.

[23:05] but you know if you look at what happened on the day when Chinese diplomats were in Venezuela you know and Venezuela kind of like Cuba is under the obviously as a communist country they're under

[23:20] like the China and Russian sphere of influence so if you think about it on the very same day that Chinese diplomats were in Venezuela obviously to talk about oil to talk about weapons talk about whatever, the U.S. sends in, you know, their army,

[23:37] and basically Maduro says, kidnap, America says, arrest, we'll leave that to the courts. Sure. And they took him and his wife, and Maduro was actually sitting there a few days before,

[23:53] bragging about how the defense systems that the Islamic Republic of Iran, gave Venezuela were going to prevent such a scenario. So you can't really script this.

[24:08] And yeah, and I mean, I am somebody who was born in Iran, who lives in the West, and sometimes sees, you know, these folks who live in the West, they love the liberties, they love the freedoms that are bestowed upon them here, and they basically are

[24:24] fanboys because of, like, their criticism of American foreign policy, which I think that's fair if you want to criticize foreign policy. But then, while you would never get up and go live in the Islamic Republic of Iran

[24:37] under the mullahs, you fanboy for them. And that, to me, is shocking. It's, to me, it's unacceptable. People can do what they want. And so when you saw these, to quote, you know,

[24:50] these leftist, liberal, lunatic losers, as Trump would call them, who are hitting the streets and saying, you know, this is horrible, what has America done, Maduro's this, Maduro's that, I'm like, well, look at the Venezuelans who are singing and chanting,

[25:06] and they're happy. And I do think, according to the census, I am a white person, so if you and I are two gringos sitting here talking about this, I know Ivan, our producer, Ivan, you should probably join us.

[25:18] Yeah, let's get in the show. Don't be fooled by the Captain America shield in the palace church. I am very much Colombian living in Mexico. What are your thoughts on Maduro?

[25:31] I think the conversation that I've had ever since this happened is that Maduro wasn't the issue. He needed to go out at one point or another because he was a terrible person, a terrible dictator,

[25:44] and the country is hopefully going to be better off without him. However, what angers, I think, a lot of people and what the conversation kind of shuts down, the moment the conversation kind of shuts down is when you start saying, yeah, but the U.S. has no plan.

[26:01] So this was all about the oil. And I've seen a lot of posts from the right and saying, yeah, oh, you only focus on the oil. You don't care about Venezuelans and stuff like that. Of course you do. Of course, you know, of course you can say that I can care about both issues.

[26:17] And, to be honest, the track record of the U.S. and Latin America is not great. You know, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, everywhere, right? In the Middle East. In the Middle East. They went into Iraq saying we're going to be liberators and greeted with roses.

[26:33] Nothing happened. Exactly. And the fact that right now it's so blatantly obvious that they have absolutely no plans for Venezuela, and even the oil companies are like, no, we're hands off. We're not even, you know, we don't even want to play in that playground.

[26:47] I think that's what angers a lot of the people. So yeah I think that the conversation because I saw your tweet about you know people dancing in the streets and stuff like that But you look at the footage from Venezuela and they shooting in the streets and they hunting people down from one place or the other from one thought or the other

[27:05] So if you were against Maduro, they're going to hunt you down. The opposition party is nowhere to be found. Corina Machado, who was the Nobel Prize winner, went on television and said, like Trump, I'll give you the Nobel Prize.

[27:18] Dude, come on. I mean, we need you to do what you say you're going to do. It's not going to happen. it's not going to happen and these things are going to keep happening so and you do get worried because he mentioned the two countries i care for the most colombia and mexico so i i'm kind of

[27:34] between a rock and a hard place here with that before the army does a 180 and gets to columbia or mexico he's like lining up to probably attack the rap so there is a parallel that's why i wanted

[27:47] to talk about these things very similar you know like i went i honeymooned in cuba you know i love Cuban people, like, you know, I love all Latin, there's such warm people, I'm not saying this because Yvonne is here,

[28:00] but, I mean, nobody is leaving Miami on a raft and trying to get to Havana. You know, it's like when the Berlin Wall fell, the people from the east ran to the west, not the other way around.

[28:13] So I actually like people who are intellectually honest, I could say, yeah, you know what, not a fan of Maduro, but obviously it may be the way the U.S. one about it. Now, the problem is, really sad to see that 30 Cuban soldiers effectively

[28:28] docked in that operation, but to quote one of the Venezuelans who was interviewed, he's like, why were there Cubans then? You know, if you care so much, it's a foreign force that is on

[28:44] Venezuelan soil. And then Cubans, at least you could argue, are close to us, you know, There's a big body of water separating them, but it's kind of like fellow Latinos, you could argue. You think Russia and China were in Venezuela for the Arafat's recipe, as the Venezuelans said?

[29:01] And I actually think we always oversimplify it, whereas Iraq was 100% oil. No, let's actually break it down. Iraq was 90% oil, 80% oil, but it was also a vendetta because George Bush, W's father,

[29:19] was apparently on the hit list of Saddam Hussein. So W wants to make his dad Papa happy and finish what Papa Bush didn't complete. So there's always these things.

[29:31] So for me, Venezuela is, again, 80% oil. Venezuela has more oil than any other country, but they don't develop it because of incompetence and corruption. so I'm at a point where I'm like yes yes yes the proceeds should go to the

[29:43] Venezuelan people full stop but if the Venezuelan regime and Maduro did not win the last election right like he lost and he kind of used force to stay in power so I'm like at some point

[29:55] if that government is using force and they're corrupt and they're incompetent yeah I don't think we should have this sense of indignation if American and American ingenuity and American corporations with their expertise vote

[30:07] I'm not condoning the following, but it's fascinating how when Donald Trump tells Chevron, and Chevron is apparently the only company that stayed in Venezuela because of a sanctions waiver.

[30:19] but he basically is using state capitalism by telling Chevron, Exxon, all these companies they're like, if you want to get back the assets that Chavez

[30:32] and Maduro basically confiscated from you, like assets that legally were yours but they just nationalized them, he's like, you have to go and invest the billions to get the Venezuelan oil infrastructure

[30:44] back, which again, I'm like, you know what it's actually not a bad approach like that's at least an economic plan you could disagree with it but yes, Trump likes theatrics, you know

[30:56] he's more of a Hollywood guy they don't really have a plan and I'm similarly worried I'm secular, I'm not religious at all but even in Iran when I hear those opposed to the regime when I hear the only good mollah

[31:09] like religious person is a dead one again, I'm not religious, personally I don't care about religion but I'm like, I don't like when I hear, you know, one killing fellow compatriots just because they disagree.

[31:22] So I'm also hoping that whatever happens in Iran does not spill over into retribution and retaliation, because then, you know, an eye for an eye and everybody's blind. So, fascinating.

[31:35] I think the commercial discourse is what's most worrying. Like, the commercial and corporate discourse and the way it's being talked about, I think that's one of the biggest worries because there's no, and I'm going to sound really, really, really far left, but there's no humane way of talking about these things, you know.

[31:55] There's no, oh, yeah, no, the infrastructure for Venezuela and we're going to, you know, get back the roads and get back the, you know, all this part. It's not that. It's we're going to give you the oil.

[32:08] You're going to do whatever you want with it. And there's absolutely no mention of anything else. And that's something that corporations have done in Latin America for a while. Nestle in Brazil, in Mexico, you know, all these corporations, even Canadian mining companies here in Mexico,

[32:24] it was a big debate here because they're strip mining the hell out of the landscape in Mexico. And, you know, it's business, you know, it's innovation and stuff like that, but it's not, you know, it's not sustainable and it's not there.

[32:37] So I think it's that and the fact that it can be replicated and the ideas that he used to kind of excuse the actions can be replicated somewhere else like Greenland or Mexico or Colombia.

[32:51] I think it, you know, it should worry a lot of people. And one thing I did tell my friends, I have a couple of friends that live in the States. You guys should be super pissed that you guys can't afford health care.

[33:05] And here's this guy running Venezuela. you know? So I think that's kind of like where it should go. You should be super angry that this is happening because he doesn't care. He literally doesn't care, like you said. But yeah, I think

[33:17] that's the general discourse about that and kind of look at it from both sides that Maduro did have to go out. But can I say devil's advocate? Can I say devil's advocate? Go for it, yeah.

[33:29] So, why is it then, first of all, I actually, this is contrarian, not devil's advocate, this is actually I'd rather if politicians were candid. Like, I'd rather Trump come out and say it's all about the oil, it's our oil, you know,

[33:42] Americans have rights and we're going to get them back, which to me, I'm like, well, it was originally not your oil, but okay, let's set that aside. I'd rather that than, like, bullshitting people both in the U.S. and, like, at the time in

[33:55] Iraq and elsewhere to talk about freedoms and all that when it is more an economic incentive, you know. So I personally don't mind it if politicians at least are candid with their, no matter how, you know, distasteful, I think it's better because then the electorate can make decisions when they vote and not think it's about...

[34:14] Exactly. I mean, I think that's... Go for it. Yeah, you go, go, go. No, but the double-advocate part is, like, if you are concerned about Americans not having, like, health or infrastructure crumbling,

[34:29] but you go and say, well, what's happening in Minnesota with the Somali fraudsters and the daycares, you are branded a racist. When I'm like, yeah, I don't care if they're from Somalia or from Sweden, it's just wrong, right?

[34:41] Like, if at face value, prima facie, that is happening, where they're saying we have a thousand students to get credit for child, but really there's no kids, let's just, like, simplify it, that should outrage Americans.

[34:57] But if you raise your hand, you're branded racisto. Whereas I'm like, yeah, bullshit, it's not racist. These people are criminals, regardless of where they're from. And so that seems to be problematic. But when I see, yes, the leftist, you know, I grew up as a Democrat, but I don't see how the Democrats should be anywhere near the White House ever again for the foreseeable future.

[35:19] When I see the Democrats out there, you know, in these protests that clearly are organized by some foreign forces, because each one of those posters costs hundreds of dollars.

[35:34] I don't see the poor struggling students having the money to go print 300 of those posters that aren't perfect. That a year ago said, free Gaza. You know, six months ago said some other slogan.

[35:47] Today it's saying, lay your hands on Venezuela, Maduro is a saint or whatever. So I'm like, why is it racist or why is it like bad to criticize all of that behavior which harms America?

[36:02] Because to me it's like a cliche. at the end of the day, Venezuelans will probably be better off with what Trump did. Not condoning how they did this, but there's no, like, pretty cute way.

[36:17] The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, the Shia martyrdom complex is massive. I, myself, a couple of nights ago retweeted saying, hey, if it is true that he's going to flee to Russia,

[36:31] that is going to be huge, and people are like, Ash, your tapes are usually good, but you know this guy's not going to leave. I'm like, it's not impossible. It's unlikely. But I don't support any foreign forces

[36:44] hitting Iranian soil, but at some point, if this thing keeps killing Iranians, yeah, I don't care. I'll look the other way if somehow someone is just

[36:56] sent to martyrdom on a one-way ticket fast track if it means less or longer lives are killed, right? So I kind of look at it as where 2026 is, is you do have this very vocal minority of people that are like,

[37:11] Trump is bad, Maduro, this was illegal. They don't know the history. They don't really know the details. I do feel like the left is really making themselves, like, unvotable now.

[37:23] You know, I do think there's this silent majority that is probably happy that Maduro's gone, that is happy that Donald Trump, yeah, he doesn't have a plan, he likes theatrics,

[37:35] but no Americans were killed, right? Like, it's just, it was like relatively... I think there were a couple of injuries in his helicopter that got, yeah. Okay, but no casualty. I don't think so, no.

[37:47] But 80s, 80s civilians, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, which I condone, but that shouldn't have happened. But when I read the Cuban, which I hate to see anybody die, but I'm like, well, why were there Cubans in Venezuela? Why does that make it all right?

[37:59] The Venezuelans probably want the freaking Cubans to leave so they can have their own agency. So I just feel it's this, like, intellectual dishonesty that, you know, it's okay to criticize one stuff, but even though there are clear benefits to stakeholders who benefit if Maduro is won, like, we're going to ignore that.

[38:15] You know, so I personally feel like the left is increasingly untouchable. you're increasingly at odds with American society. But guess what? I could say these things. You know, it's not even...

[38:28] I'm like, I respect individual, I respect human life. But a lot of people can't say it because they're afraid they're going to get labeled a racist and they get cancelled. So that's really... For 2026, I think what's going to happen is...

[38:41] Because there's a lot of noise on both sides. You say the left is becoming increasingly unvotable, But I think also the far right is kind of like stepping into the same pile of shit that the leftists are stepping into.

[38:55] Because you have someone like Stephen Miller go on CNN saying, our hemisphere and we are a superpower and we're like, this dude is like straight out of a movie.

[39:07] And again, people on the right are seeing that are going like, I don't know. I think for 20, just to close out the idea, I think for 2026, my hope at least, is that people start seeing through both sides of the bullshit

[39:23] and start figuring out for themselves what they need and what can they vote for and what actual power they have for one side or the other, you know? So hopefully, I don't know. I alienate everybody because I always point out weaknesses and, like, where each side is wrong.

[39:40] I say this, I both understand the frustration that, say, American politicians would have if the Islamic Republic tried to build an outpost for Hezbollah, for the IRGC in Venezuela, which is in the Western Hemisphere, it's in the Southern Hemisphere.

[39:58] But I can imagine America's like, we don't want a repeat of Cuba. Now, I also go, well, why does America have all these military bases in the Middle East? You know, so I like, this is why for 20 years I was criticized. I was like, okay, America wants to export democracy, even though the foreign policy

[40:14] goal was always to secure natural resources around the world. So, as you said, I agree with you, Yvonne, it's the hypocrisy on both sides. But I don think that changes the endgame which is right now if I was a betting man and I not I think Marco Rubio has lapped J Vance as the likely 2028 Republican

[40:34] Candidate? Like, hands down, you know, Vance actually is more like, you know, the Bay Area kind of, you know, Peter Thiel puppet initially. That was, like, what people accused him of.

[40:47] He proved, like, at that, that politics, you could see, okay, give him four years as VP, you know, it was like his salute. But I think because of the Venezuela operation and obviously the Cuban link

[41:01] and his passion for that project, I do think Rubio's going to get more and more, you know, kind of the spotlight. And I think if they don't kill one another,

[41:13] Vance and Rubio, and in the run-up to 28, I think that's going to be probably the ticket, if they could coexist. and whereas I thought initially it would be Vance and Rubio, I now think it's going to be Rubio and Vance, if Vance is okay with that ego-wise.

[41:28] But yeah, no, I mean, I don't like a lot, I mean, Trump has many flaws as they all do, but for someone who is tired of hearing politicians talk, I do like his fix-this-problem-or-I-will-fix-it-for-you

[41:44] kind of approach to things. I personally am very fine with the way they did the Maduro thing, because I listened to the Venezuelans. And as an Iranian, I know people are like,

[41:56] I can't believe you would be okay. Yeah, I don't like Israel hitting Iran, nor do I like Iran hitting Israel. I'm an anti-violence guy. But considering America, even though ultimately it's the Iranians' fault that they ended up with the final republic,

[42:08] considering the West enabled all of that, the Guadeloupe Conference, Iran-Contra, coming to Iran on air-freaking-france, I do think America has a bit of a responsibility to rectify this scourge that has basically sent Iran

[42:23] back to the 7th century, right? So I kind of am like, the end does justify the means, in my humble opinion. Not politically correct, but it absolutely does.

[42:35] You know, if Khamenei falls, the regime also has to go. It's not really just one person. the celebrations in Tehran, the celebrations in Mashhad, in Tadjiz, in Teman Shah,

[42:47] are going to dwarf what you saw in Venezuela. It's a country of 90 million people that have been under the boot of these clerics who have an ideology. And I have no problem with Islam, the religion,

[42:59] but Islam is a political movement, quote, as a... You know, I could say it on Muslim. Who am I offending? But the problem is, like, why is the BBC not covering Iran? because the BBC is either afraid or they're sad,

[43:13] which I don't think they're sad, but they probably just don't want to offend all the Muslims that are in the UK because this is Iran rejecting religion, the religion of Islam. So it's crazy. I honestly did not think any of this would happen.

[43:25] I thought Trump would be like, we don't care about Iran. But seeing him take out Maduro, I'm now quite convinced that all this military buildup is to set a strike against, not Khamenei, I don't think they'll march for him,

[43:38] but I think it is going to go after some of the regime security apparatus that is killing Iranians still, each day. And I can't believe I'm being pushed to say this

[43:51] but that was always my red line. I didn't care about Iran's foreign policy. If you like somebody or not, I don't like the foreign policy of any country but stop the killing of Iranians. It's crazy. And the world isn't even covering it.

[44:03] Where's Greta Thunberg? Where is she? You know what I mean? Like, why is she there? So you're seeing that hypocrisy. You know, I'm all for the people of Venezuela. I'm all for the people of Iran. And if, you know, it takes America to come do something, so be it.

[44:17] I'll look the other way. I think the final question is if that is the goal. I mean, if ultimately that is the goal, yeah, you could actually make it. You can make a really solid case on all those actions.

[44:29] But that is where the doubt lies or the general doubt. like is like is that the actual goal or is it just destabilization and control you know so the european countries i think are don't care despite all their nonsensical like you know values

[44:47] of centuries ago and the enlightenments and all that i think the eu is like well we don't have the power to do anything and if the status quo iran does whatever it does you know let them be We can't change anything.

[45:00] I think the difference is, frankly, Trump, he's like, okay, if I'm not going to get a peace prize, then I want my legacy to be that who, you know, Biden upped the bounty on Maduro, I think, from $10 million to $25 million.

[45:16] So the Democrats were fine with taking on Maduro. I mean, if you put a $25 million bounty on somebody's head, you're basically saying you want him dead or alive, but you're kind of, you know, it's pretty obvious what you're saying.

[45:30] Why is it that these Democrats that I supported all my life all of a sudden have this sense of indignation? And it's funny because I joked that I said, I wonder if the gals on The View are going to have canceled their programming

[45:42] to have a week-long vigil for Maduro. But thankfully, Ana Navarro, who's a Latina, she's a Hispanic gal, she was like, no, I'm glad you left, and you should have these seemingly mutually exclusive positions,

[45:54] that I'm half the U.S., but yeah, maybe the way the U.S. went about it. But in the end, it's moot. There was no other way to do this without the U.S. doing what they did. So I can't believe it.

[46:06] I like to be objective. Trump, for his objective, gets really high grades. He's doing the things that all these other politicians have talked about, but he's doing it. It's a bit like when people criticize Bibi Netanyahu,

[46:19] who's a bit of a sociopath, like all politicians, and 80% of CEOs are sociopaths as well. you know, like all pigeons are narcissistic sociopaths, but I always say, I go, Bibi is not the leader of the Arabs, he's not the leader of

[46:31] Canada, he's the leader of Israel, so all that matters is how Israel, and Jewish people, feel about him. That's who he's accountable for. So Trump, yeah, he doesn't

[46:44] care about the left, the lefties, he doesn't care about what Europe thinks of him, he will go down as a I mean, I love Obama, I really like Obama, but in hindsight, Obama just continued the disastrous policies of W. Bush,

[47:00] and Obama and Biden are the ones that sent billions to the Mullahs so they could keep telling Iranians, just so that came to pass through, whereas the most popular name in Iran is going to be Donald.

[47:12] They're going to be like, Donald actually stepped up and did everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, one thing that is coming out of this whole Trump thing is he is very much exposing all the loopholes

[47:25] and all the safeguards that they thought they had in place for these kind of situations. So, I don't know. Hopefully, there's a little bit of change in that as well. Well, I find a crash course in all this from you guys.

[47:39] Do you remember when I said that my news resolution was to consume less? Well, that applies to the news, too. Most of my knowledge has come from this conversation. All right. I'm going to go back to producing, guys. Keep it going.

[47:51] All right. Thank you for that. All right. Bye. Thanks, Ivan. It was really fascinating. And obviously, pray for the people of Venezuela that that doesn't get off the rails. Pray for the people of Iran. Just pray for people.

[48:03] I always go, criticize organizations, criticize parties. But you always want to be on the side of people. And it's very disappointing that a lot of these lunatics on the left who were bashing many things and protesting many things,

[48:17] they've been awfully silent about, you know, the right side of history. And that's, you know, history will remember that. And, you know, it is what it is. What this makes me think of, and I mean, like, I understand it's not a fair comparison,

[48:31] but, like, there's a lot of bad world leaders out there. Are we going to see a future one day where some country goes into North Korea and takes away Kim Jong-un or whoever his predecessor or successor is and liberates the North Koreans and stuff like that?

[48:48] You know, I feel like there's a lot. Here's the thing. One of the reasons why Russia and China and Iran and all these countries under the act is they probably looked at that operation that the U.S. pulled off impressed, envious,

[49:07] and fearful, right? Like, if Russia could do that to Zelensky, yeah, maybe they would do it. If Samsung could send a SEAL team to North Korea, they would consider it.

[49:19] It's that they can't. So, a lot of these people who are whining, it's because they can't. Which, in a way, is actually, not to go back to the expos,

[49:31] I understand a lot of people, not a lot, I understand why some people may not like that I threw myself into the ring, you know, citizen, the man in the arena, by Will's, that speech.

[49:48] You know, like, people can talk, people could say, but in the end you've got to throw yourself in the mix but people may not like what Trump did not that I'm comparing myself to Trump

[50:02] some people may not like the way I'm going about bringing the Expos back but they're not important in that sense they're not doing it they're not doing it right and as an entrepreneur I'm very coachable, I'm very respectful

[50:16] but entrepreneurs you don't ask for permission so Donald Trump doesn't actually okay, you could argue he needs congressional authority for certain things but history will judge him as somebody who did what

[50:28] everybody else talked about doing. Absolutely. Let's end this on a lighter note. I enjoyed this tweet that you shared about how you know this guy

[50:40] this sandwich the Philly cheesesteak can you set that up for us? How private investment doesn't always make things better. Well, I thought it was private equity. Okay, so this is, yeah, I go, how can we be helpful?

[50:53] Don't be stupid. So this guy's talking about Jersey Mike. So Jersey Mike sold to Blackstone, a private equity fund, smart guys. I really am not picking on Blackstone.

[51:05] I'm not even picking on private equity. This is a general thing. When somebody buys an asset, I don't understand for the life of me. Like, yeah, they pay a lot. They pay a premium. So they got an increased revenue.

[51:18] They got a cut cost. That I get. I get that. I'm a business guy. But I don't understand how you think it's not going to shoot you in the foot. Like, do you think subs are that unique and demand for jersey mics is that elastic?

[51:35] That if you clearly don't put enough meat in it, or if you charge too much, or if it goes from a 12-inch to an 11-inch kind of stuff, kind of dynamic, it, do you really think your clients are going to tolerate that and maybe once or twice,

[51:48] but not go eat someone else? Like, I'm very lucky. We're very lucky. We have a private equity fund. Sure, they want us to grow revenue. They want us to be, you know, on the lookout for cost control and all that.

[52:00] But if they were to come tomorrow and be like, you know what, flip the switch, only go AI, get rid of all your costs of, you know, labor. First of all, I would push back, but to their credit, they've never said that. but it's just like baffling to me how these smart people think that this pays off you know so it's

[52:17] just when I saw this you know and investors are always like how could we be helpful I'm like how could you be helpful don't be stupid don't shoot yourself in the foot um but yeah so you know

[52:30] sometimes you got to be long-term greedy especially if you're if you're buying assets I almost joke imagine if like you know like when I started watch rojo investors would be like okay give us a five-year revenue plan, give us a three-year historical performance.

[52:44] And I was like, we're in year one. We have no historical performance. And in five years, I'm like, I could build a model. But it's the same thing. I almost want to be like, investors should only be able to say,

[52:56] how could we be helpful if you submit five times you've actually been helpful? Who? You know, give me the references. Yeah, track record. Yeah, what's your track record on this? So it's almost like if you buy an asset, I mean, obviously this doesn't make sense,

[53:11] but I'm like the brand goes into an escrow. It goes into a trust. If you, after two years, don't ruin the experience for the most important stakeholder, which is your client, then in two years you get the brand.

[53:23] But if not, the consumer can take the brand and go start their own Jersey Mike's Club, and you just look it in the corner because you ruined it for yourself. Unlikely to happen, but not a crazy idea. let that be a lesson to all of us in 2026

[53:37] alright Ash well it's been good we'll pick it back up next week as we continue working through this new year thanks for the time today and thanks for everybody who watched

[53:49] and we'll see you all next week peace