Podbit · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Pulte has zero national security experience. While running the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he spent his time digging into the mortgage records of political opponents like Adam Schiff and Letitia James. Himes warns he's worse than a random person off the street because he's dedicated to serving Trump's political agenda.
Where this was said
At 34:58 · chapter starts 34:45
Galloway asks Himes, as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, whether fealty has supplanted competence in the intelligence community. Himes starts with Pulte: zero national security experience, a track record of using the FHFA to dig up dirt on Adam Schiff, Letitia James, and Lisa Cook, and a Twitter feed that reads like North Korean state media. [1] — Jim Himes "Pulte has zero national security experience. While running the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he spent his time digging into the mortgage …" 34:58 Himes calls this worse than picking a random person off a Cleveland street, because Pulte is actively dedicated to serving Trump's political agenda. But he adds important nuance: CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who Himes knows personally, sits in a different category — capable if politically constrained. And the vast majority of career intelligence professionals at NSA, DIA, and CIA remain studiously nonpolitical mathematicians, linguists, and analysts who could earn far more in the private sector but stay because of mission. Himes' bottom line: if Pulte ordered the CIA to surveil Adam Schiff, he'd see mass resignations rather than compliance.
Himes called Bill Pulte's appointment as acting Director of National Intelligence probably the worst he has ever seen, citing Pulte's zero national security experience.
Himes rejects the word 'centrist' — it's not about splitting the difference between extremes. It's about understanding that you cannot govern without a majority. Democrats can tolerate pro-life members, socialists, and wide policy disagreements as long as candidates don't say things in Brooklyn basements that lose races in Arizona three milliseconds later.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
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