The 2024 Election: The Tool I’ve Created to Help Me Decide Who Gets My Vote

Ric identifies the 34 critical issues he’s considering...and gives you his worksheet that you can use, too

Ric Edelman:  It's Monday, October 7th.  I have been sharing with you my, dilemma, which you may or may not relate with, regarding this year's presidential election and who I should be voting for, and I guess by extension, the congressional races as well. And, I have asked you to share with me your thoughts, and your, reasons why you favor Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.

I've gotten lots and lots of emails. Thank you so much for all of your input. I continue to welcome them. I read every single one that I get.  I'll share many of them with you, as well. and I promised that I would be devoting the rest of this month from today, October 7th through the end of the month on this issue.

I have identified, partly with your help, 34 different topics associated with the selection of who our president ought to be. I'm going to read this list to you rather quickly. It's in alphabetical order:

1. Abortion, contraception, freedom, and euthanasia. It's the first topic
2. Character, ethics, morals, and values
3. Climate change, environment, drilling and fracking
4. Crime, gang violence, violent crime, guns and incarceration
5. Crypto, CBDCs, central bank digital currencies
6. The death penalty
7. Democracy, voting integrity, electoral college, campaign finance, corruption and gerrymandering
8. Drug addiction, treatment and incarceration
9. The economy, taxes, tariffs, inflation, interest rates and the Fed
10. Education, critical race theory, evolution versus creationism, school vouchers and charter schools
11. Energy, nuclear energy, fossil fuels and green energy
12. Exponential technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language models
13. The federal deficit, federal debt and federal spending
14. Healthcare
15. Higher education
16. Housing and home ownership
17. Immigration and border security
18. The income gap, wealth gap, minimum wage and universal basic income
19. Jobs, unemployment and employment
20. Judicial reform and presidential nominations
21. Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare
22. National security, defense, geopolitics, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, China, Taiwan, North Korea, Iran, nuclear weapons
23. Broadly racism, bigotry, LBGTQ rights
24. Religious freedom
25. Regulation
26. Smoking, vaping
27. Social Security, Pensions, and Lifetime Income
28. Space Defense and Exploration
29. Student Loans
30. Gender, Sexual Orientation, Transgender
31. Transportation and Infrastructure
32. Unions
33. Veterans Affairs
34. and finally the Vice President

That's 34 topics and I've only got 19 podcasts left in this month to cover all of them. So, I'm going to consolidate over the next two and a half, three weeks, some of those 34 topics covering more than one in a given topic, I'll be consolidating some and bulking them together where they will logically fit.

And I invite you to join me for this entire conversation. I have, as I'd mentioned, received an awful lot of comments. I should say a wonderful lot of comments.  Thank you so much. And here's the tabulation, of what I have received of all of the comments that I received, 45% favor Donald Trump, 47% favor Kamala Harris.

8% favor neither one. I have two, reactions to the tabulation of those who wrote to me. On the one hand, these statistics really well represent the polling we're seeing everywhere else, that the race is too close to call, that neither one has a majority, that the undecideds are going to be the ones who determine who the next president's going to be.

The second comment though, and one that surprises me a little bit, I mean, this is a show about money. I'm widely known as the most successful financial advisor in history. It was named the number one independent financial advisor in the country many times by Barron's.  Named one of the most influential people in the financial planning investment management field by pretty much every trade publication in the industry. And I've been doing this podcast for three years, which followed my radio show of 32 years.

And, you know, I'm pretty influential and pretty focused. But as a result of this conversation, the result of talking about money, you would assume that the people who generally are listening to this show are people who have money or people who are focused on money or trying to deal with, financial security, and the variety of complicated issues that are associated with having, wanting, managing money.

And that I would have always assumed, would therefore translate to more of an affluent audience, an older audience, and therefore a more politically conservative audience. That's always been my assumption. And that was, I think, promulgated partly from the fact that my radio show, when I aired on more than a hundred radio stations around the country, aired mostly on conservative talk radio stations, as opposed to liberal talk radio stations.

I'm not even sure if there is any liberal talk radio. There's a lot of liberal talk TV. But I don't know that there's a lot of liberal talk radio. There's a lot of conservative talk radio, and that's where my radio show aired. So, I would assume that my audience is conservative since they're tuning into the conservative station and my show pops up.

And yet, despite that, why as I might've guessed that the emails I'd be receiving were almost all, or certainly majority would be favoring Donald Trump. He only gets 45% of the emails that I received. Now, I don't know how much we can draw into this. Is it that Trump supporters are less likely to send me an email, or the Harris supporters more likely to send me an email?

And this is sheer conjecture on my part. Is it possible that my audience, conservative though they may be, are nevertheless as stumped on who to vote for as the rest of the country? I have no idea, but I find the statistics nevertheless, rather fascinating.

And the one email that I did get that I think was simply the cutest was the email that I received from Beverly in Belmore, New York:

Beverly: Ric, I believe you would be a much better president than either of them. I would volunteer.

Ric Edelman: Beverly, thank you so much. I take that as the highest possible praise. Thank you.

No, I'm not announcing my candidacy for president. I'd be happy to hear if you think that such a thing should be entertained or not. Let me instead revert to the 34 topics at hand each day between now and the end of the month. I'm going to share with you a thematic conversation.

We'll tackle, as I said, one or two of these topics daily. And I'm going to start today because today is October 7th. This is the one-year anniversary of the unprovoked invasion of Israel by Hamas, where terrorists attacked and killed 1,200 innocent people, hundreds of whom were attending a concert.

And I'm going to talk about that today, therefore. I'm also gonna broaden it, not just to talk about Israel Hamas, but to broaden it to national security overall, which will include defense, geopolitics, Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, North Korea, Iran, nuclear weapons, as well as space defense and exploration.

And before I share with you my thoughts, I want to share with you what my listeners have said. Of all the emails I got as you might imagine, a whole bunch of them talked about global affairs. And I think it's not a surprise that 75% of my listeners who wrote to me and commented on foreign policy, 75% of them said they prefer Trump.

I've found that really interesting because overall, as I told you, only 45% of the folks who emailed me said they supported Trump, but of those who talked about foreign policy, 75% of them, almost twice as many, said that they prefer Trump because of his position on foreign policy compared to that of Kamala Harris.

Here's a sampling of what they said, both those supporting Donald Trump and those supporting Kamala Harris. I found their comments insightful and helpful. I think you will too. This email is from Mark:

Mark: Let me tell you why I support Donald Trump for president. The Biden-Harris administration introduced DEI into the military. Now, recruiting is suffering. I think there is a risk that the Biden-Harris policies will get us into a major war, and then they will have to reinstitute the draft because recruiting is so bad.

During her debate with Trump, she said that there are currently no American troops in any combat zone around the world. This is false, since there are troops in Iraq and Navy ships being shot at by the Houthis. I have not heard Harris say anything about strengthening our defense and deterring our enemies.

On foreign policy, the Biden-Harris administration botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, allowing 13 American troops to be killed and leaving behind many American citizens and Afghans who supported our troops there, plus $86 billion in high tech military equipment. The weakness of America that was shown in the Afghanistan withdrawal likely contributed to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded in that war. America has spent at least $60 billion aiding the Ukraine government since that war began. All of this could have been avoided, and I believe there is an ever growing risk that the Biden-Harris strategy is going to get us into a war with Russia. Harris says nothing about a strategy to end the war.

Harris says she is a supporter of Israel, but her aides have talked about adopting a new approach to Israel, which I suspect would be less supportive. She says there must be a two-state solution regarding Israel. But I wonder how can Israel live next to another state if it is controlled by a group such as Hamas that is dedicated to annihilating Israel.

I have not heard Harris talk about human rights around the world, including the plight of the millions of Uyghurs who live in China in reeducation camps.

I can't imagine Harris being our Commander in Chief in wartime. Given that she's afraid to conduct an unscripted press conference and afraid to take questions from the press, I cannot imagine her negotiating with the leaders of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela. Our enemies are led by hard men. And I don't think she's nearly as tough as they are. If she's elected, I think China might take that as an opportunity to invade Taiwan. I think the Biden-Harris administration is seen as weak and scared by foreign leaders around the world. Our enemies feared Trump, and that's why there was peace during his administration.

Ric Edelman: Here's what I heard from Bob. He's in Los Angeles:

Bob: We cannot vote for Trump because his approach has strained alliances and weakened U. S. diplomacy. He has threatened to pull us out of NATO. That is madness.

Ric Edelman: Here's what I heard from James:

James: Ric, we cannot resolve our international policy conflicts without the solid economic health to do so. Thus, an individual desirous of furthering the means of such conflict resolution would logically choose to support the government that is most knowledgeable in furthering a strong positive economy.

Since governments are run by people, it stands to reason that we would want such people to be as economically knowledgeable as possible. Therefore, after zeroing out all the political and social chaff, it is logical to support the candidate whose knowledge and ability is most likely to enhance our economy, thus enabling a vibrant means of addressing our global conflicts.

Ric Edelman: Here's the email I got from Alice. She's from Illinois:

Alice: Dear Ric, I am an independent voter who shares your ambivalence regarding both presidential candidates. I considered which candidate has the intelligence, judgment, maturity, and temperament to best handle the launch code for nuclear weapons. This is an enormous presidential responsibility, which can have devastating consequences.

A careless or rash decision could result in unbelievable destruction, human suffering, and death. I feel that Kamala Harris is the candidate who I would trust most with this tremendously important duty.

Ric Edelman: Scott wrote to me. He's in Delray Beach, Florida.

Scott: Trump won't support Ukraine, but does support Israel. Harris is the opposite. Contradictory for the two conflicts. We seem to be heading toward a major war. With Trump, we may have a better outcome.

Ric Edelman: This next email is from Jake in Illinois:

Jake: For me, it comes down to who will do the least harm to the American citizens, the global citizens, and the planet. I am a 43-year-old independent white male who has voted red, blue, over the past 25 years. This election is very simple to me. While I don't support many of Harris's policies, I will be voting for her.

Ric Edelman: Here's an email I got from Harry in Connecticut.

Harry: Hey Ric, the choice is clear to me. It has to be Trump. I do not like him personally, and he was not my choice in the primaries. Trump has proven to be a complete idiot on so many things, and you have outlined many of them in your program. I still believe that he would be good for the country, fueling foreign policy with strength.

The best argument for Trump, and the most succinct, is one I heard on a podcast. You have been diagnosed with cancer, and you need immediate surgery. You meet with a doctor who has a wonderful bedside manner, is kind and nice, and says all the things you want to hear. But all his patients die.

The other doctor is inelegant and a brute. He says things you find abhorrent and awful, and no one likes him. But all his patients live. Which doctor do you choose?

Ric Edelman: This next one is from Gerald. He's in Pennsylvania:

Gerald: I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I've had many jobs and different careers, mostly blue collar. I'm 62 years old, white, married. I've got three girls and a boy, all doing well. My son was in the 82nd Airborne in the United States Army. I encourage you to vote for Harris.

Ric Edelman: Also from Pennsylvania, Barge:

Barge: Personality or policy? Take personality out of it. Go policy. Slam dunk. Trump. How is she gonna handle world leaders? Harris can't speak off the cuff. She just regurgitates scripted answers.

Ric Edelman: This next email is from Doug. He's in Texas:

Doug: Hello Ric. Like you, I don't care for either candidate and while I don't agree with the Pope on everything, I think he got it right when he said vote for the least ethically bankrupt candidate. I intend to vote for Trump. He won't pander to China and Russia. He supports our ally Israel and its right to defend itself.

I believe Harris pays it lip service. I don't like Trump as a person, but I like what he accomplished in his first term. I vote on accomplishment, not personality.

Ric Edelman: This email is from Glenn:

Glen: Trump has shown that he can do it, based on his previous tenure. No new global wars during his presidency. He was tough and stood strong with regards to international policy. Defeated ISIS, stood strong against China, North Korea, and Putin. Made NATO stronger by asking NATO countries to spend more of their fair share on defense. Moved the U. S. Embassy to Jerusalem, was a strong ally to Israel.

Ric Edelman: This one is from Mike in Florida:

Mike: Would Harris know how to handle Putin, Kim, or any foreign dignitaries? Would she know how to negotiate the Israel situation? So, hold your nose and vote for Trump.

Ric Edelman: Paul wrote to me as well. Here's what he said:

Paul: Hi, Ric. I share your concern on both candidates, but in my mind, the choice is clear. I'll be voting for Trump. I say this as someone who voted against him twice in 2016 in the primaries and in the general election and in the 2024 primary. He is far from my favorite, but these are the cards we are dealt.

I think Pope Francis accidentally stumbled onto the truth. Vote for the lesser of two evils. However, in a fallen world, one is always voting for the lesser of two evils. No angel has ever run for office.

I share your concern on his association with crackpots like Laura Loomer. She is a clear nutcase, but have you looked at some of the Democratic Congressional members and allies of Kamala Harris lately? Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and AOC among others? They give lessons in anti Semitism.

I am voting for Trump because of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that stranded and killed thousands of our allies and left hundreds of billions of military equipment left for the Taliban, who are now the best equipped military in the region. By the way, after 20 years of progress, Afghan girls are again barred from attending school again, and Afghan women are prohibited from speaking outside their home.

Ric Edelman: I want to thank you all for all of these comments, and now I want to share with you, my thoughts. First, before I do, I want to share with you some ground rules. As you know, if you've been listening to my radio show and podcast for any length of time, you know that I've always been impartial on political issues.

I've not told you what I think politically, but rather what the impact on you would be economically, financially. You know, I've never said whether a law is a good one or a bad one. I've always talked about whether, this is good or bad for you. And that's a little bit of a different spin on things.

And the reason I've taken that attitude, not only because I don't really know that my opinion is any more valid than anybody else's opinion, I'm really not sure I'm the one that should be who you're turning to for influence to help you make decisions on who you ought to be voting for.  I'm not arrogant enough to believe that I have all the answers here.

The reason I've never done it historically, is because when I was running my financial planning practice, I knew that among my client base, half are Democrats and half are Republicans. So, anything I might say politically would only annoy half of my clients. Why as a businessperson, would I find any value or benefit in doing that.

So, I've always been impartial, or unbiased, or at least have tried my best to be that in the public and certainly on my show, but I'm not going to be that any longer. I'm going to share with you exactly how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking and the rationale I'm using in evaluating each of these 34 topics.

So, I just want to lay some ground rules for this conversation. As I have been telling you, I am at this moment, undecided on who I should be voting for. On some of these 34 issues, I clearly favor Donald Trump right now. On other of these 34 issues, I clearly favor Kamala Harris. And on some of these issues, I don't know which one of them I favor, or I have already chosen that I don't like either one's positions, or in some cases, their positions aren't known to me.

They haven't said how they feel about a given subject, hence my dilemma. So, I'm not trying to persuade you. I don't think anyone who has decided who to vote for is going to change their mind because of anything I have to say. You know, it's the old joke about trying to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

So, I'm not going to bother trying to persuade you. I am however, going to try to talk to those who are, like me, undecided. Which means most of you who, over 90% of the country, has made a decision. I'm going to assume you're among them, which means I'm probably going to bore you by my commentary since you've already made up your mind.

So, I'll apologize in advance by this boredom. And if you have decided, a lot of what you're going to hear me say this month is going to annoy you, or frustrate you or anger you. Or worse, it might even disappoint you. You may become surprised or shocked to discover that my view on a given topic is not in line with your view.

And if you thought your views and my views for all of these decades have always been aligned, well, I apologize in advance if any of my comments this month upset you, or if it damages our relationship. I have in the end, only two goals with this exercise.

And the reason I'm devoting all of this time and my podcast to it, my primary goal is, quite honestly, to simply help me reach a decision regarding who I should vote for. Secondarily, I hope this conversation will help other people, who are also undecided reach their own decision. I'm not trying to persuade undecideds to reach the decision I reach. I just want to help you reach a decision.

Because it's important that we all vote. Failing to vote is an abdication of our civic duty. Not showing up at the polls to me is abhorrent. So to help me and you, my fellow undecideds, I'm going to figure out the answer to this question by turning to the training and experience that I have developed and obtained over the decades as a financial planner. I'm going to help myself reach a decision in the very same way that I have for decades helped my clients.

I'm a big fan of early American history, as many of you know, I just finished reading John Quincy Adams’ biography and Ben Franklin, very famous for a great many things. He was also very well-known for having developed a unique way to solve riddles, to solve complex problems, to solve conundrums when faced with a complicated issue and Ben, who is a delegate to the second continental Congress, was faced with a very great many complex and vexing political issues as ambassador to France, trying to, convince France to provide money and military aid to the colonists in our fight against England and our war of independence.  Franklin was confronted with a great many, political issues. How do you resolve complicated problems? He invented a rather elegant solution.

So, here’s Ben Franklin's solution that I have used for decades in our financial planning practice, and we have advocated this for our clients for many, many years. I taught this to all of the financial planners in my firm. I talked about it in a couple of my books. I'm going to share it with you right here, right now.

What Ben said to do when faced with a complicated issue is to simply take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left side of the page, write down all the reasons yes, why you should do something.

And on the right-hand side of the page, write down all of the reasons no, why you shouldn't do something. Or in the case of Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris, put the two of them on opposite sides of the page, write down all the reasons why you like Donald Trump, and then write down all of the reasons why you like Kamala Harris.

Ben's attitude was When you went through this exercise and you came up with a list of yes on one side, no on the other -- when you came up with the pros on one side, the cons on the other -- when you came up with a list of that sort, he simply said, life is complicated, nothing is ever purely perfect. So you come up with these lists of yes and no, pro and con, and whichever list is longer, is the way you should go.

Life is imperfect. You simply have to choose the greater of the good or the lesser of the evils. And that fundamental principle guided Ben Franklin throughout his career. And I have found it very, very effective in the financial planning world. And even for a great many other decisions in life. Do we want to go to the movies or do we want to go bowling? Simply coming up with all the pros and cons of each allows you to realize which one is the better choice, or in some cases, least undesirable choice?

But what I've also found, not to suggest that I'm smarter than Ben Franklin, but I've found that Ben Franklin's methodology is a bit simplistic. I mean, yeah, you might have ten reasons “yes” and only two reasons “no”, which would suggest you ought to say “yes”, but what if the ten reasons “yes” are all superficial and trivial, whereas the one or two reasons “no” are massive?

You notice, for example, here are all the reasons we should go to this restaurant. It's close. It's inexpensive. We've been there before. We like the menu. We know the chef. All these reasons we should go to the restaurant. But on the other hand, I only have one reason to say “no”. If I go, I'm going to die.

Well, I think that that's a pretty important “no”, right? And that “no”, even though it's only one item compared to 10 “yes”, that's a pretty powerful “no” that, frankly, outweighs all of the yeses. And Ben didn't do that. Ben didn't put a weighting to each of the yeses and noes, to the pros and cons. He weighted them all equally.

So he simply said, if they are all of equal value, 10 yeses is more than 2 noes, choose yes. I believe we ought to have a waiting system to it. So I've created a spreadsheet and in my spreadsheet, I list all 34 of the topics that I cited for you earlier in the podcast today. And next to all 34 of those items, I have a column that says, how important are these topics to me?

I mean that's a pretty simple and easy, straightforward question. Simple, easy to answer. How important is this topic to me? On a scale of one to ten, one is low, ten is high. Then I ask myself, which candidate do I prefer on this individual topic? Do I prefer Donald Trump? Do I prefer Kamala Harris?

Or do I prefer neither of them? And then finally, how strongly do I agree with the candidate that I selected? I mean, I might say on a given topic I prefer Kamala. How important, though, is that topic to me, and how strongly do I agree with her on the topic? I do that 34 times. For each of the 34, I end up with a score.

How important is the topic? Multiplied by how strongly I agree with the candidate about it…that produces a score. And if I prefer Trump on it, Trump gets the score. Or if I prefer Harris, Harris gets the score. You simply add up the scores for all 34, And there you have it, an ending result on who I favor.

This simple arithmetic, I credit to Ben Franklin, and it's how I'm going to reach my decision on who I'm ultimately going to vote for president. The best way to start is by examining my own values. Don't look first at what Trump says or Kamala says. Look first at what I say. And then, I'll see which of the two candidates most closely aligns with my values.

I'm sure that we're going to discover over the next month that in some cases, I'm not even going to have any viewpoint. Because the issue we're discussing either isn't very important to me or because I really don't know anything about it. certainly not enough to offer a valid or thoughtful opinion.

In other cases, neither of the candidates will have displayed views anywhere near mine or their views will be unknown to me. And that's why in my Excel spreadsheet, there's a choice of neither instead of choosing Trump or Harris. and I want to make this available to you too.

I've posted my Excel spreadsheet onto our website. The link to it is in your show notes. You can use this spreadsheet yourself to help you determine who it is you should be voting for. I hope you find it helpful. Let me know what you think about it. Feel free to share it with friends and family. So now with all that said, today we're beginning this exercise with the topic of national security, because today is the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack against Israel.

Let me offer my take on this topic. In my view, the United States is the world's beacon for democracy and all that is good and aspirational in the world. And we are not merely the world's strongest military. We are the world's leader, period.

Not just governments, but billions of people around the world look to the United States and all Americans for leadership, for guidance regarding how one is to properly behave in society. All that corny stuff we learned from the Frank Capra movies, and Andy Griffith, and Norman Rockwell paintings, and Aesop's fables.

That when it comes to actions, just because you  ave a right to do it, doesn't mean it's right to do it. The golden rule, you know, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Of walking in another's moccasins before you cast judgment. Of not throwing stones if you live in a glass house.

And a thousand other clichés and morals and fables, all of which are excellent guidelines. Perhaps the most impactful of them all for me are Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, John F. Kennedy's Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

And one of my favorites, Paul Revere. His notion of public rights and personal responsibility contrasted with today's more common behavior of personal rights and public responsibility. We seem to have done a complete reversal of how our founders believed and behaved more than 250 years ago. So, when I watch and I hear and I read what everyone who supports Kamala Harris on foreign affairs says, when they say they support Kamala Harris on her foreign affairs policy positions, I see, that the folks who support Harris on this topic offer their endorsement without any conviction or facts. It's almost as though they're rationalizing to justify their view.

Trump supporters, on the other hand, make a very strong case, and I have to agree, on foreign affairs. Donald Trump would be a commander in chief who would command, not vacillate. Bret Stephens is a columnist for the New York Times. He just wrote a profound piece that I think recapped extremely well the war against Israel.

Not just the war that Israel finds itself defending its nation, but the war here in the U. S. that is highly related. The war of anti-Semitism that has erupted since Hamas attacked and killed 1,200 innocent people, including hundreds at a concert one year ago, taking 250 hostages including four Americans still there today.

I'm not going to blatantly plagiarize Brett's column, but I invite you to read it. The link to it is in the show notes. In Brooklyn. Jews are being shoved and sucker- punched by bullies. White supremacists in Virginia gathered a chant: “Jews will not replace us.” Extremists have stormed synagogues from Pittsburgh to California.

The FBI says that since 2021, half of all religiously motivated hate crimes have been against American Jews, even though American Jews are only 2% of the population. The director of an art museum who's Jewish had her home vandalized with red spray paint, with a sign calling her a white supremacist Zionist.

When a magazine published an article written by an Israeli, a big number of the magazine's staff resigned. A member of Congress was asked on TV about Hamas's rapes of Israeli women, and her response was that that's an unfortunate fact of war. In response to all of this new anti-Semitism, an 89 year-old Holocaust survivor asked the city council in Berkeley, California, to pass a Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation. And the guy got heckled by demonstrators. At Columbia University, a student posted on Instagram, quote, be grateful that I'm not just going out and murdering Zionists. Tucker Carlson interviewed a Hitler apologist on his show. A publishing executive who wanted to promote a novel that was set during the Holocaust faced internal resistance from staff members who saw it as Zionist propaganda.

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 750 anti-Semitic incidents in the entire United States. 750 in the whole year of 2013. Last year, there were nearly 9,000 including more than a thousand bomb threats to Jewish institutions, thousands of acts of vandalism and harassment, the desecration of graves, and more than 150 physical assaults.

And then October 7th, a year ago, Hamas and several other Palestinian terrorist groups invaded Israel for the first time since the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. The attack occurred on a Jewish holiday, by the way, Simchat Torah. The attack began with a launch of 4, 300 rockets into Israel.

More than 6,000 Hamas terrorists breached the Gaza-Israeli border. They massacred civilians in 21 communities, all told killing 1,139 people. Almost 700 civilians, including 38 children. At a music festival, 400 were killed, hundreds more wounded. 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken hostage, including 30 children.

Dozens of women were raped and sexually assaulted. 44 countries denounced the attack as terrorism, and Hamas continues to say that its sole goal is the annihilation of Israel. Israel has been defending itself ever since, and yet the mainstream media, from the New York Times to the Washington Post to CNN, they insist on calling this Israel's war against Hamas.

That's nonsense. Israel is defending itself from an existential threat. Billions of people around the world are intent on wiping out Israel and wiping Jews off the face of the earth. Kamala Harris says that Israel has the right to defend itself, but in her next breath, she says she doesn't like the loss of life.

In World War II, in our effort to defeat Adolf Hitler, we dropped so many bombs on Dresden that 25,000 civilians were killed. When we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, 140,000 were killed. Would Kamala have been wringing her hands over those civilian losses back then? I can't help but notice that every time she talks about Israel, she says, and I quote, I've said it many times, but it bears repeating, Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters.

No, Kamala, it doesn't matter. Israel is trying to defend itself against annihilation from enemies that want to wipe it out. Just like Hitler and the Nazis tried to do. And back then, we did not quantify how we would defeat Hitler. We did anything and everything we could. Telling Israel that how they survive this war matters?

That's code. Code that you do not truly support Israel. And worse, to me it means that when our generals go into battle against our enemies in the future, you might hamstring them by saying how you win matters. If it's us or them, I choose us.

And I'm not sure that when the time comes and you have to make that hard decision. I'm not sure that Kamala Harris will have the strength or the guts to do so as Commander in Chief. On the single subject of national security, I choose Trump.

On tomorrow's show, I choose Trump. We're going to talk about the economy, taxes, tariffs, inflation, interest rates, the Federal Deficit, the Federal Debt, Federal Spending, Crypto, CBDCs, Exponential Technologies, AI, Machine Learning, and Large Language Models.

The Big Umbrella of ‘the Economy, Stupid”. We’ll have 34 Topics in 19 Podcasts. That's it. Tomorrow, the economy.

And this Wednesday at 1pm, since we're going to be talking about the economy on Tuesday, we're doing a webinar on crypto for RIAs. We're going to talk about yield staking, lending and custody…what's beyond the spot bitcoin and the Ethereum ETFs. Joining me is going to be Bill Barhydt. He's the founder of Abra. Famous for his 2012 Ted talk on bitcoin, the very first ever. And you're going to learn about all of these opportunities for investment strategy. You get one CE credit. You can register for free. The link is in the show notes. See you there on Wednesday. See you here tomorrow as we talk about the economy.

If you like what you're hearing, be sure to follow and subscribe to the show, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and remember leave a review on Apple podcasts. I read them all. Never miss an episode of The Truth About Your Future. Follow and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

Links from today’s show: 

Click here for Ric's worksheet to help you evaluate the candidates

Kamala Harris Official Campaign Website Policy Page:  https://www.kamalaharris.com/issues/

Donald Trump Official Campaign Website Policy Page:  https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform

Bret Stephens' New York Times article "The Year American Jews Woke Up": https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/opinion/israel-jews-antisemitism.html

10/9 Webinar - Crypto for RIAs: Yield, Staking, Lending and Custody. What’s beyond the ETFs?  https://dacfp.com/events/crypto-for-rias-yield-staking-lending-and-custody-whats-beyond-the-etfs/

10/23 Webinar - How to Factor Longevity into Your Financial Planning: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/october-2024-webinar-how-to-factor-longevity-into-your-financial-planning

9/25 Webinar Replay - Unlocking Alpha in Crypto-Equities and Beyond: https://dacfp.com/events/unlocking-alpha-in-crypto-equities-and-beyond

9/20 Webinar Replay - Q4 Crypto Outlook: What You Need to Know Now: https://dacfp.com/events/q4-crypto-outlook-what-you-need-to-know-now

9/11 Webinar Replay – Rates are Poised to Drop, Now What?: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/rates-poised-to-drop-now-what

Become Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets: https://dacfp.com/certification/

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