1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:04,400
The moment at which you are cancelation
doesn't matter at all. Hollywood has first

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:08,119
sworn and the clergy is then then
it'll be safe or who knows that I

3
00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:12,119
can show them my special art.
Yeah yeah, maybe then Christopher Ruffo will

4
00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:16,160
have won everything in the cultural wars
will have been yeah. Right, But

5
00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:20,079
even that, even that would be
too far right. So this is this

6
00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,320
is not going out. So in
case anybody hears this, it's it's it's

7
00:00:23,399 --> 00:00:27,640
not awful or naughty stuff. It's
just today it would be very socially unacceptable.

8
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,960
It's it's American images from a specific
time and place, very much so

9
00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:39,439
collected for reasons we can go into
later. Ask not what your country can

10
00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:45,039
do for you, Ask what you
can do for your country. Mister grbachaw

11
00:00:46,039 --> 00:00:51,280
tear down this wall. It's the
Ricochet Bon guest with Rob Long and Stephen

12
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,520
Aywards sitting for Peter Robinson again.
I'm James Lilas. Today we talked to

13
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,159
Ann Coulter, so let's have ourselves
a podcast. I'm not supposed to be

14
00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:06,319
here tonight, not supposed to be
here, and I'll tell you I stand

15
00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:15,040
before you in this arena only by
the grace of Almighty God. A new

16
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:19,840
ap Pole show. Sixty five percent
of Democrats believe Biden should withdraw from the

17
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,079
race, plus fifty eight percent of
Democrats think Kamala Harris would make a good

18
00:01:23,159 --> 00:01:30,719
president. Welcome everybody, It's the
Ricochet Podcast number seven hundred. I just

19
00:01:30,719 --> 00:01:34,159
figured that out in Roman numerals.
In quested that we got to this point,

20
00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,120
and how do we get to this
point? Why with the usual fine,

21
00:01:38,359 --> 00:01:42,040
sparkling conversation that you find at ricochet
dot com every single day, brought

22
00:01:42,079 --> 00:01:45,239
to you here in podcast form.
I'm James L. Alex in Minneapolis,

23
00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,920
Rob Long in New York, I
presume, and Stephen Hayward sitting in for

24
00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,359
people. Wow, let's oh,
yeah, we don't know what happened to

25
00:01:51,359 --> 00:01:55,239
be here. Peter, he's completely
he's gone. He's not a runner,

26
00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,560
he's gone on a walk. He
may be walking across Australia at this point

27
00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:02,560
towards the Ires Rock or is it
Airs Rockrock? Okay, you wouldn't know,

28
00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:06,120
Stephen, being the world traveler that
you are. Where do you happen

29
00:02:06,159 --> 00:02:09,319
to be today? Not that anybody
cares, but yeah, I have been

30
00:02:09,319 --> 00:02:12,520
to the top of Airs Rock.
By the way, what it's worth it

31
00:02:13,319 --> 00:02:15,800
some years ago. I am currently
where I usually am, which is the

32
00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,680
foggy, cool central coast of California. There we go. We got the

33
00:02:20,719 --> 00:02:23,120
country of Paradise. We have the
country cut well. To bring everybody up

34
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:27,000
to speed in the news. On
the Democratic side, Joe Biden has stepped

35
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,599
down. Joe Biden is staying in
Kamala. Harris is going to be the

36
00:02:30,199 --> 00:02:32,800
presidential nominee. It's going to be
an open convention. On the Republican side,

37
00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,800
Donald Trump spoke too long. I
know which side, frankly, I

38
00:02:37,879 --> 00:02:40,840
would like to be on if I
was concerned about the party's health and how

39
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,439
things are going. But it's almost
difficult at this point to say one thing

40
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,080
or the other, because by the
time this thing hits the hits the podcast

41
00:02:49,159 --> 00:02:54,560
waves, things may have changed.
Convention, though I'm sure all of you

42
00:02:54,719 --> 00:02:59,319
were riveted, I stopped actually paying
attention to them when I stopped going to

43
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:00,360
them. As a matter of fact, when I was going to them,

44
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,960
I wasn't paying particular attention because it's
just an awful lot of theater and it

45
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,240
gets tiresome. Last night, it's
always fun. The balloon drop, the

46
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:12,879
hoopla, great fun. Everybody energized
pours out goes to the bar, et

47
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:17,479
cetera. But have you picked up
anything so far vibe wise from your long

48
00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,960
distance observations of the conventions. I
didn't. I haven't pick up anything vibe

49
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,719
wise. I mean, I think
it was a it was it was a

50
00:03:25,759 --> 00:03:30,400
bad speech. It started great and
then it just went all over the place.

51
00:03:30,439 --> 00:03:34,680
And I I just it's proof once
again that Trump will tease us with

52
00:03:34,759 --> 00:03:39,840
his discipline and then falls totally apart. But the convention itself was kind of

53
00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,719
mean. It was a good convention
in general, and I'm also it's kind

54
00:03:43,759 --> 00:03:46,960
of I mean, I was just
remembering that we didn't have conventions, really,

55
00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:53,520
we didn't have conventional conventions four years
ago, and it was it felt

56
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:59,360
like an old friend, you know. I mean, these conventions are always

57
00:03:59,439 --> 00:04:00,560
kind of fun. I mean for
me anyway, I just kind of like

58
00:04:00,639 --> 00:04:02,560
him. I just like the idea
of that, the goofiness of it,

59
00:04:03,639 --> 00:04:06,560
and I think this one was kind
of on message and had I mean,

60
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,120
I mean, I full disclosure that
there are things that the Republican parties moving

61
00:04:12,159 --> 00:04:15,759
in a direction that's that it's not
including me in that they're becoming a lot

62
00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:23,319
less economically conservative than I am so. But but to to to present a

63
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:30,079
coherent worldview, uh, and a
coherent economic view to the people is how

64
00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:31,040
you judge these things. And I
think they did. They did a really

65
00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,000
good job on that, I really
do. I think that you have to

66
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,279
give them credit for it. The
hardest thing in the world is to be

67
00:04:35,319 --> 00:04:40,160
clear, right and to tell people
in simple terms, what you what you

68
00:04:40,199 --> 00:04:44,680
stand for, what you're going to
do, And and everybody did that except

69
00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:46,519
Trump. But but he even he
did it for the first you know,

70
00:04:46,959 --> 00:04:50,160
the first two hours of his speech. The last three hours he meandered.

71
00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,040
So I mean, in general,
I mean, it's it's it's a I

72
00:04:55,079 --> 00:04:57,600
mean, I listen, if you
woke up this morning and you were in

73
00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,079
the r NC, you'd be pretty
pretty please yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

74
00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,720
I have lots of observations. Two
quick ones. One is everyone knows the

75
00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:10,279
story of the Gettysburg address. Lincoln
speaks for two hundred and seventy two words,

76
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:15,120
and Edward Everett spoke for two hours, and Trump decided to be Edward

77
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:16,920
Everett. When the rest of the
convention was a little closer to the Gettysburg

78
00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,399
ad press right, it was sort
of moving and emotional and very effective.

79
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,480
The other thing is I'd love to
see what the ratings are for this convention.

80
00:05:24,519 --> 00:05:26,720
I don't know if we still do
ratings of the conventional or not,

81
00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,279
Rob you would know. But well, the reason I say that is I

82
00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,279
think there was a lot of a
lot more interest in what was going to

83
00:05:33,319 --> 00:05:39,319
happen at this convention because of the
events of Saturday last Yeah, and in

84
00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:44,319
one parallel between twenty sixteen and now. And also another assassination attempt is you

85
00:05:44,319 --> 00:05:46,319
know, I was in Washington as
a young kid out of college in March

86
00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,800
thirty, nineteen eighty one, and
you know, watching all that very closely.

87
00:05:49,959 --> 00:05:56,319
And one of the many effects of
Reagan surviving so bravely that assassination attempt

88
00:05:56,639 --> 00:06:00,360
is that the wavering Republicans who were
unenthusiastic about his plan fell in line behind

89
00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:03,879
him instantly. Yeah, and he
unified the party. People Now forget that,

90
00:06:03,959 --> 00:06:06,120
you know, Bob Dole, Pete
Damenijie. A lot of the old

91
00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:12,319
modern liberal Republicans did not really like
Reaganomics, but and there was a lot

92
00:06:12,319 --> 00:06:15,000
of doubt that he could carry his
own party all the way to the end,

93
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,040
and that un the fight. Everybody
behind Reagan. Likewise, today,

94
00:06:18,519 --> 00:06:23,279
the people who have doubts about Trump
have been unified behind him, and so

95
00:06:23,439 --> 00:06:27,959
you had a convention that was much
more unified and together an enthusiastic than the

96
00:06:27,959 --> 00:06:31,800
one in twenty sixteen, when large
parts of the party only grudually accepted his

97
00:06:31,879 --> 00:06:34,800
nomination. Right, yeah, yeah. And also I think, I mean,

98
00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,120
the Republican Party is kind of used
to him. I think the audience

99
00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:43,399
in general's used to him. So
the other issue here is that it didn't

100
00:06:43,399 --> 00:06:47,319
seem like amateur hour the way it
has in Trump world since twenty sixteen.

101
00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,560
It didn't seem like, oh my
god, the Dalisters are a charge,

102
00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:54,120
this thing's a mess. It felt
like somebody had really thought about, Okay,

103
00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:56,959
what's the message going to make the
American people with that all had a

104
00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,240
lot of it had to be rethought
after Saturday, and I think a good

105
00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:03,680
job there. I you know,
I'm just I'm going to be the skunk

106
00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:08,439
at the garden party. Unfortunately for
me, it seems a little a little

107
00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,079
too frankly, too left me for
me. I mean, the the economic

108
00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:17,160
message to me is liberal. It's
big government, and I'm not crazy about

109
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,920
that. But I think the mood
of the people. It might reflect the

110
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,839
mood of the people. I'm perfectly
willing to be out of step with the

111
00:07:24,839 --> 00:07:27,600
American people. I often amd and
I think I might be here. Well,

112
00:07:27,639 --> 00:07:30,199
there's one significant exception to that,
Robin the speech last night, and

113
00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,399
it might have been the part you
slept through or rolling your eyes. But

114
00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:38,319
remember Trump made a big point of
saying, we're going to do tax cuts

115
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,480
and because we need to have faster
growth, that's the only way we can

116
00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,360
reduce our deficit and reduce the national
debt. That is old school Reaganomics,

117
00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:51,199
supply side economics, that parts all
the sort of map cons say Reaganomics and

118
00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:55,560
the Reagan era is dead. Well, that was a significant exception to that.

119
00:07:56,399 --> 00:08:01,040
Yeah, I guess I hear you
there. I found that not full

120
00:08:01,079 --> 00:08:05,319
throated enough for me because because it
didn't come it doesn't it doesn't come with

121
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,879
it. And actually, look,
I mean, the man who gave that

122
00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:16,839
speech is uh is at least cheap. He shares responsibility with the president president

123
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:22,120
of wrecking the country's finances, I
mean just single handedly wrecking them. And

124
00:08:22,199 --> 00:08:26,439
then but it wasn't from tax cuts. It wasn't from tax cuts. Well,

125
00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:28,879
no, it never is. It
was from spending. But the left

126
00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:33,240
is always going to say that what
wrecks the American economy is tax cuts because

127
00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:35,080
it means that the billionaires have lots
of money which they go into their golden

128
00:08:35,159 --> 00:08:39,879
rooms and burn and that right,
But he's there there against billionaires too.

129
00:08:39,159 --> 00:08:43,559
That that the populist message from the
Republican Party is and we're going to protect

130
00:08:43,639 --> 00:08:46,039
rich people, and we think that
you are the wealth that you've created,

131
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,679
and the value you've created over time
is yours. It's we're going to get

132
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:54,039
the fat cats too. That's the
message of populism. So it's not exactly

133
00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,799
that. I mean, I'm clinging
to Steve's little golden crumbs of Reaganism because

134
00:08:58,799 --> 00:09:03,399
I'm that I have to, but
I would I would like a more full

135
00:09:03,399 --> 00:09:07,120
throat of Reganism, and you can't. There is no way I agree with

136
00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:11,720
tax cuts as a stimulus. I
think that's true. And in general,

137
00:09:11,759 --> 00:09:15,039
I think starving the beast is a
good idea, although the beast never seems

138
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,080
to be starved. And if you're
if you are chief, one of your

139
00:09:18,159 --> 00:09:20,720
chief platforms is I'm never going to
touch in titlements. We now have two

140
00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,639
presidential candidates, both of whom are
living in cloud cuckoo Land. There is

141
00:09:24,799 --> 00:09:30,639
only one way, especially we're talking
about rebuilding the the the defense. Like

142
00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,879
I'm in favor of strong defense too, I would like the I would like

143
00:09:33,919 --> 00:09:37,120
a presidential candidate, either one to
tell me why we need one, especially

144
00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:45,279
if one party is resolutely turning to
an isolationist position. Why do we need

145
00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:50,279
this big army if we are going
to the isolationist who are we fighting?

146
00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:52,559
Well, you have two points there. One when it comes to the facts.

147
00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:56,960
I don't ever see the Republican Party
going after billionaires for the sake of

148
00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:58,759
billionaires. We hate these guys because
they have an awful lot of money,

149
00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:03,720
and that's unfair, is a Bernie
Sanders line. If they hate the fat

150
00:10:03,759 --> 00:10:07,960
cats and the elites, it's because
of something else other than their money.

151
00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:11,720
It's their influence, it's their control
supposed to control. It's it's it's that,

152
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:16,000
I mean, it's it. They're
not mad at billionaires because billionaires have

153
00:10:16,159 --> 00:10:18,720
not all the money. They're mad
at them because they say that we all

154
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,399
have to put on masks and they
buy up the farmland and you know,

155
00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:24,039
and tell us we have to live
in fifteen minute cities. That that that

156
00:10:24,159 --> 00:10:28,919
stuff. So I mean think I
think that's different. And when it comes

157
00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:31,720
to the military thing, well,
you know, you can say best defense

158
00:10:31,799 --> 00:10:33,919
is a strong offense. And if
we just sit here behind our shores and

159
00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,399
continue, I mean, part of
one of the reasons we need a big

160
00:10:37,399 --> 00:10:41,799
military is to keep the sea lanes
open. That's not an isolationist thing.

161
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:46,519
Being able to serve power anywhere,
to ensure the free flow of oil and

162
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:50,120
goods is not isolationism. I mean, it's just Oh no, that's a

163
00:10:50,159 --> 00:10:52,840
very good point. I would like
to hear that argument. That's a good

164
00:10:52,879 --> 00:10:54,200
argument. I'd like to hear it. Well, Rob, I think we're

165
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:56,639
coming to the you know, you
and I I'm older than you, but

166
00:10:56,679 --> 00:11:01,080
you know we've spent our entire life
wanting to hear specific things being said by

167
00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,279
our leader. No. No,
But here's what I mean is if you're

168
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,200
if you're arguing for a strong defense, and you have a kind of a

169
00:11:07,279 --> 00:11:13,000
robust uh position about projecting American power
and America's role as a global hedgemon,

170
00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,039
and you think America should stay the
strongest country in the world. I mean,

171
00:11:16,159 --> 00:11:18,200
which, by the way, position
I kind of agree with. But

172
00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:20,120
it's an old school. It's an
old school position. It is not the

173
00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:24,960
position of the Republican Party. It
is not the position of the vice presidential

174
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:28,919
nominee for the Republican Party. It
is just simply not. They do not

175
00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,519
want us in they that's they're the
ones who invented the term forever wars.

176
00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:35,440
They don't want us. They don't
they didn't want I mean, I agree

177
00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:37,879
with him about Iraq. We should
have been interacted. It was a gigantic

178
00:11:37,919 --> 00:11:41,840
failure. But the idea that we're
gonna we're on the one side of our

179
00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,679
mouth, We're going to talk about
how we need to like, we need

180
00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,080
to pair back o our commitments to
the world, and we can't be given

181
00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:50,039
the Ukraine money and we can't be
doing all us that's all that. Those

182
00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:56,080
all could coherent world points, but
they don't. They they directly contradictorily.

183
00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:00,480
They don't complement the idea of a
large, robust military. I mean,

184
00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:07,480
if the Chinese invade Taiwan, why
is it in our interests to defend Taiwan?

185
00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:11,080
I mean, all the people saying
we shouldn't be in Ukraine, I

186
00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:18,799
agree, But what's the what's so
great about Taiwan? Yips semiconductors. Okay,

187
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,600
yeah, but the chips we got
to be you have to build them

188
00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:24,200
here, building them here. And
I agree, we're in the middle of

189
00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:26,039
an offshore you know, we're drawing
back from China in many ways, we're

190
00:12:26,039 --> 00:12:30,639
rea shoring, as they say we're
you know, there have been moves in

191
00:12:30,639 --> 00:12:33,960
that direction, but we're not there
yet. And I mean, I get

192
00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:35,799
what you're saying, Rob, but
I want to go. You just said

193
00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:39,039
that you agree with the people who
don't believe that we should be sending money

194
00:12:39,039 --> 00:12:45,360
to sending money in material or to
Ukraine, or you're saying you understand that

195
00:12:45,399 --> 00:12:48,799
position. I understand that. I
understand the isolation's argument. It's a good

196
00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:50,639
it's a good argument. I don't
agree with it, but I understand it.

197
00:12:50,639 --> 00:12:54,320
It's an ancient it's an old American
argument. It's sewn into the American

198
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,720
flag. It's practically it's in our
DNA, and I totally get it.

199
00:12:58,759 --> 00:13:05,679
And we have for the past century
done the opposite. He raised a lot

200
00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:09,679
of questions that unfortunately require extensive discussion, which we have time for. Well,

201
00:13:11,279 --> 00:13:16,840
I'm just mentioned a couple of observations, though one is neither Trump nor

202
00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,480
Vance mentioned the word Ukraine. What
Trump did say last night and his speech

203
00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:24,399
was if we don't if our hostages
are not out of Gaza. I remember

204
00:13:24,399 --> 00:13:26,519
there's what eight or ten or twelve
Americans there. If our hostages are not

205
00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:30,200
out by the time might take office, they're essentially it's gonna be hell to

206
00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:31,960
pay for gods. That's what he
said there. He made a very specific

207
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,840
point. The larger one is,
uh, yeah, we want to.

208
00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:39,639
I think the old school would be. So the point about Ukraine is they're

209
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:45,200
preserving you might say, strategic flexibility. Uh. Trump has been very silent

210
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:50,720
about Ukraine. There's disciple and there's
there's there's defects and pluses to that.

211
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:54,720
Uh. The point about having a
large, powerful military is is no one's

212
00:13:54,759 --> 00:13:58,440
going to mess with you. That's
old school, right, and I think

213
00:13:58,519 --> 00:14:01,240
that's true. You know, part
of Ronald Reagan's strategy was We're going to

214
00:14:01,279 --> 00:14:05,639
bankrupt the Soviet Union by out building
them. It cost a lot, but

215
00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,759
it worked. But the problem with
China is I'm not sure we can outbuild

216
00:14:09,759 --> 00:14:13,120
them. They're outbuilding us, and
so this is a serious problem to figure

217
00:14:13,159 --> 00:14:16,559
out. Uh, yes, I
agree, I think that's true. I

218
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:22,159
guess what I would just say on
on the the what America's position is is

219
00:14:22,159 --> 00:14:24,320
that we're playing where the Republicans seem
to be playing a lot with fire,

220
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,919
and they're making a lot of arguments
for things that are not traditionally conservative,

221
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:35,039
or at least not by any definition
conservative, like tariffs. And once you

222
00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,039
make that argument, it's hard to
It's just it's just it's hard to back

223
00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:41,440
out of it, because they're they're
popular. People like tariffs, even though

224
00:14:41,879 --> 00:14:48,000
they're dumb and they're inflationary and they
hurt the economy, and these are I

225
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:56,960
just I am, I'm I'm slowly
coming to the belated understanding that that the

226
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:03,000
Republicans are no longer the grown ups
in the room, hampered and saddled by

227
00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:07,720
their good sense. A party that
features Kid Rock and Hulk are not a

228
00:15:07,759 --> 00:15:11,360
serious party. Oh I like that
part. I'm like, I'm in favor

229
00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:13,320
of that. I just mean it
used to be that, you know,

230
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:16,799
we had to make not we I'm
not a republic Republicans had to make these

231
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:24,240
tough, unpopular, difficult to make
arguments about taxes and why though taxes are

232
00:15:24,279 --> 00:15:28,679
better? And regulation and what and
and federalism and all sorts of stuff and

233
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:33,320
and why tariffs are like sound good, but they're they're dumb, uh,

234
00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:37,639
and we just don't do that anymore. And maybe that that's a that's a

235
00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:39,000
that's a shift, and that's I
guess a shift in the population. That's

236
00:15:39,039 --> 00:15:43,039
fine too. Shift probably in generational
politics, that's that's fine too. But

237
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,159
I just I yearned for I yron. I just see I yearn. That's

238
00:15:46,159 --> 00:15:48,320
all. Just gonna leave it at
that. I yearn. I yron too.

239
00:15:48,399 --> 00:15:52,840
I do, I absolutely do yearn. But the problem was perhaps in

240
00:15:52,879 --> 00:15:56,200
the mind of the voters, and
I'm not contradicting anything you said here,

241
00:15:56,279 --> 00:16:00,519
that those arguments were made tepidly and
came along with a series of things that

242
00:16:00,559 --> 00:16:03,720
seemed to be not so much helping
the American people as it did the Chamber

243
00:16:03,759 --> 00:16:06,159
of Commerce. That's how it was. The argument that's made is that at

244
00:16:06,159 --> 00:16:08,080
the same time that they would talk
about lower regulations and lower taxes and the

245
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,960
rest of it in an abstract sense
that really didn't click with an awful lot

246
00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,799
of people, they would be talking
about immigration and lots of it, so

247
00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,000
we can get the wages down,
so we can get more cheap workers,

248
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:22,639
et cetera. And eventually I mean
what began with Reagan, I think sort

249
00:16:22,679 --> 00:16:29,240
of just became a sclerotic series of
arguments that were made by people that I

250
00:16:29,759 --> 00:16:34,919
never really explained and just seemed designed
to prop up one Romney after the other.

251
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:38,159
And mind you, I think Mitt
Romney would have been ten times better

252
00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:41,519
than Obama. And I think he's
a decent man, even though a lot

253
00:16:41,519 --> 00:16:44,759
of the stuff that he says they
disagree with. But it just seemed to

254
00:16:44,799 --> 00:16:51,000
be an institutional wrote recitation that didn't
really address the dynamics that were going on

255
00:16:51,039 --> 00:16:52,879
in the country. Now, when
you talk about tariffs, yeah, I

256
00:16:52,879 --> 00:16:56,679
hate them to absolutely do. But
on the other hand, I think if

257
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,559
you said to people, look,
we're going to put tariffs on China that

258
00:17:00,639 --> 00:17:07,559
are so significant that those three dollars
cheap plastic shoes from Timu are going to

259
00:17:07,599 --> 00:17:11,440
be four bucks and we're gonna,
you know, and we're gonna make sure

260
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,960
that American shoes can be made for
five and they're going to be better,

261
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,000
it's hard to argue with that.
Ye, I mean, it's not how

262
00:17:18,039 --> 00:17:18,759
it well. I like the first
part of it. If if you want

263
00:17:18,799 --> 00:17:21,720
to have a trade where the first
part of it makes sense, the second

264
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:22,720
part of it, doesn't the idea
that, Okay, we're going to put

265
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:27,599
tariffs on the just cheap ot Chinese
shoes and we're going to help Americans make

266
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,279
cheap, cheap o shoes. Like, why are we helping people do that?

267
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,640
But I understand, I mean,
we've just been joined. I understand

268
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,119
the one part of it. But
I guess I'm just I'm just still a

269
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,759
paleo economic conservative. I still don't
like it when the federal government, which

270
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:47,960
in my lifetime has often been controlled
entirely by liberal progressives, will be in

271
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,400
the White House in an executive branch. Again, I guarantee you. The

272
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,720
idea that we're going to see to
that administrative branch all sorts of dumb things.

273
00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:00,759
To me is I don't know,
makes me a little nervous. I'm

274
00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:07,160
too old. I remember the Obama
administration. So that's my problem. I

275
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,440
agree. I mean, we've been
wandering in the wilderness saying these things for

276
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:14,559
an awful long time, and we
will continue and we will continue to do

277
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:19,240
so because you know, if nothing
else, as a reminder of the basic

278
00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:25,960
bedrock ideas that got us through the
eighties, and I have not been eliminated

279
00:18:26,039 --> 00:18:29,200
or contradicted by time, experience,
or changes. I mean, there are

280
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,960
some things that abide, there are
some things that are true. So yes,

281
00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,559
let's keep saying them. And the
other hand one of those things.

282
00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:38,519
And if the team Moushugars go up
to four bucks, I'm not exactly going

283
00:18:38,559 --> 00:18:44,160
to be crying. Welcome back to
and Culture author, host of the podcast

284
00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:48,880
Unsafe with a culture on some one
particular Rocoschet networker. Yes, latest books

285
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,480
are in Trump We Trust e pluribus
awesome and resistance is futile. How the

286
00:18:52,559 --> 00:18:59,920
Trump hating left last? It's collective
mind And welcome back. Thank you real

287
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,759
enjoyed these four our acceptance speech last
night. How about you, guys,

288
00:19:04,039 --> 00:19:11,119
Well we clocked the two and a
half, but in my ancient Senessen state,

289
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:12,200
I may have dropped out before we
get to the RNC, though,

290
00:19:12,279 --> 00:19:17,279
your thoughts on the aboard of attempt, the assassination attempt which really to change

291
00:19:17,319 --> 00:19:21,960
the complexion of this of this election. Two things. One is I don't

292
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:26,720
think every single speaker at the RNC
needed to describe it to us, and

293
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:33,119
every single one. I'm in a
house of people and I got them all

294
00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,200
groaning when they got to and then
the shot whizz passed his ear and he

295
00:19:37,279 --> 00:19:41,559
pumped his fist. Yes, and
he and accept. It goes on for

296
00:19:41,599 --> 00:19:45,440
twenty minutes this description, and he
said, fight, fight, This is

297
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:51,000
the most watched video probably certainly in
the last fifty years. There is no

298
00:19:51,039 --> 00:19:55,720
one in that audience who didn't see
it. Please please stop describing it.

299
00:19:55,839 --> 00:19:59,599
That's point one point two. Everyone
seemed to think, I've I've a bunch

300
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,880
of bets. Unfortunately, the one
with James Higgins is only for a nickel,

301
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,359
the Culter family biggest bet, but
many nickel bets in one stake bet

302
00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:12,880
that the nominee would not be Biden, which I concluded immediately after reading the

303
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,160
New York Times at editorial in one
of my in one of my Ricochet Boba

304
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,880
gas, I've described, and I
think I'm right about this, that whether

305
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:26,839
Biden stays or goes is basically a
fight between two groups within the Democratic Party,

306
00:20:26,039 --> 00:20:32,079
the Blacks and the Jews. And
I'm putting my money on the Jews.

307
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:36,640
After Trump got took it in the
ear, all my bets started saying,

308
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:38,000
Okay, are you ready to buy
me a mistake dinner yet? And

309
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,119
I said, hang on, and
now we see it looks like, I

310
00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:45,519
mean, who knows, it can
go back and forth. I'm stronger belief

311
00:20:45,599 --> 00:20:49,880
than usual that they're going to make
Biden drop out, so I'm going to

312
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,519
win my bets. Yay. I
think people got a little too enthusiastic in

313
00:20:53,559 --> 00:20:59,519
other words about that shooting. I
mean just saying, Okay, Trump has

314
00:20:59,559 --> 00:21:03,640
won, it's over. His speech
was good, although weird and rambling.

315
00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:08,160
Last night, a lot of the
convention was incredibly weird. But by and

316
00:21:08,279 --> 00:21:11,200
large I can see why a lot
of Republicans are thinking, right now,

317
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:15,279
it's over. He's going to win. A lot of people set out out

318
00:21:15,319 --> 00:21:18,240
of the shooting. A lot of
Democrats, I know, said okay,

319
00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:22,680
that's it. I'm voting for Trump. But four months is a long way

320
00:21:22,839 --> 00:21:26,920
away. So I'm not making any
bets on the general election. And do

321
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,680
we have any bets together? We
we we have had we bet together.

322
00:21:30,799 --> 00:21:33,200
I don't know whether we're on the
same side of a bet as anybody.

323
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:37,880
I can't remember. You know,
this is why you got to write these

324
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,440
things down. No, by and
large, it's usually you and me against

325
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:48,640
the rest of the Hampton's which is
which is, but only in this only

326
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,359
on these only on every four years
because the eight years all Anne does is

327
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,920
like attacked me. Yes, because
I'm a true buchananight, And if I

328
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:03,279
could put in a good word for
Romney, I think he gets a bad

329
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:07,599
rap as being more of an establishment
Republican than he was. The reason I

330
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,440
supported him because he looks like it. He looks like mister wall Street,

331
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,920
and I think that probably didn't play
well with the white working class. He

332
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:21,440
doesn't talk like Trump. But the
reason I supported him and supported him ferociously

333
00:22:21,839 --> 00:22:26,279
in twenty twelve, was he had
the toughest position on immigration of any Republican

334
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:30,759
in my lifetime. Remember he was
mister it'll be self deportation. We simply

335
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,960
we don't have to round him up. They round him up to get him

336
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,720
here. We don't have to round
him up to get him. And we're

337
00:22:34,759 --> 00:22:38,640
just going to enforce the immigration law
to prevent employers from hiring them. And

338
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,240
they'll go back the same way they
came. And you will recall, perhaps

339
00:22:42,279 --> 00:22:48,839
you will not Rupert Murdoch, one
of the immigrants who absolutely does not care

340
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,559
about the welfare of the average American. A few weeks before the nomination,

341
00:22:53,839 --> 00:22:59,519
had a sit down meeting with Mitt
Romney, this is like the centerpiece of

342
00:22:59,559 --> 00:23:02,440
his game. It would be like
telling Trump to drop build the wall,

343
00:23:02,799 --> 00:23:06,240
and he harangues Romney and says,
you got to drop this self deportation,

344
00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:11,000
and Romney just laughed and said,
no, I can't. So he stood

345
00:23:11,039 --> 00:23:15,400
by one being harangued by rupert mock
Murdoch. Whereas you know, Trump capitulates

346
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:21,279
in a second no matter who's talking
to him, including Jared Kushner. So

347
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:27,119
I think Romney looks like establishment weenie
rhino Republican like my friend Rob Long here.

348
00:23:27,319 --> 00:23:33,119
But he really was not okay?
Was it weird when they booed Mitch

349
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:41,000
McConnell. I mean, you've been
a pretty outspoken Mitch McConnell defender. I

350
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:45,400
was when he was running and they
were primarying him. I wrote about this

351
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:51,599
in I think It's I think it's
never trust a liberal over three where I

352
00:23:51,599 --> 00:23:53,720
think that's the one where I attacked
the Tea Partiers. I mean, I

353
00:23:53,759 --> 00:23:57,519
loved the original grass roots Tea Partiers, but then you had all these quote

354
00:23:57,799 --> 00:24:03,200
Tea Party candidates and as I counted
it, we had lost like five Senate

355
00:24:03,279 --> 00:24:10,960
seats because of Tea partiers primary Republicans
who may not be my cup of tea.

356
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,640
But they have an R after their
name. And so I was ferociously

357
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,319
defending Mitch McConnell. I think that
was that would have been twenty ten,

358
00:24:19,519 --> 00:24:23,119
that was the Big ten, or
maybe it was twenty twelve and he had

359
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:26,839
that guy forget his name, but
anyway, he had a Tea Party candidate

360
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,400
running against him. And I'm saying, you know, Kentucky isn't a red

361
00:24:30,559 --> 00:24:33,240
state. We could lose the seat. No, it didn't happen, but

362
00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:40,640
you know, Christine o'donnelld Todd Aiken, Richard Murdoch, my roodeek is no,

363
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,759
no, but never primary a Republican, no matter how bad the Republican

364
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,119
is, at least until you have
a massive overwhelming majority in the House of

365
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:55,240
the Senate. That's angel Yeah.
And it's Steve Hayward out in California.

366
00:24:55,279 --> 00:25:00,279
And you know, as James mentioned
among your books, was in trumply Us

367
00:25:00,319 --> 00:25:04,000
from twenty sixteen and then and then
you guys had you and Trump had a

368
00:25:04,039 --> 00:25:08,519
really bad breakup. I mean it
was Ben affleck j Low bad. But

369
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:14,319
I note that benefits back together.
At least that's what the tabloids say.

370
00:25:14,519 --> 00:25:18,640
So my question for you is is
there anything a second Trump term could do

371
00:25:18,279 --> 00:25:23,359
that would revive an old trumpter because
would the wall satisfy you or you need

372
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:30,039
to buy there is I think I've
been very clear on this point. Yes,

373
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:36,799
I want a wall. Okay,
I'll tell you the story. I'll

374
00:25:36,799 --> 00:25:41,599
see a story behind this. Uh. We were twenty twenty. We were

375
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:44,680
at a I think probably at that's
the very same house you're in right now.

376
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,359
We're at a dinner party. A
lot of Republicans there, and they

377
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,640
were like, they're trying to bring
Ann back into the fold and these are

378
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,680
these are establishment Republicans, but they're
big Trumpers. And what I'm saying,

379
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,440
and listen, I talk to the
White House all the time. You know

380
00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,559
one of those guys who's like,
I mean, I know people and what

381
00:26:00,599 --> 00:26:03,160
could I I'd like to tell them, what is it what they could do

382
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:08,680
for you that would bring you back
to the fold. And Anne said build

383
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,039
a wall. I want a wall. And one of the wives said,

384
00:26:12,039 --> 00:26:15,000
oh, Anne, I don't think
the wall was that big a deal.

385
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,119
It's like, are you crazy?
Like so that's that's the backstory to that

386
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:23,319
to build a wall. But it's
true, like if he you know that

387
00:26:23,799 --> 00:26:26,519
twenty twenty would have been a very
different election had he been able to say

388
00:26:26,559 --> 00:26:30,720
I built a wall. By the
way, Trump Trump missed a major opportunity

389
00:26:30,799 --> 00:26:32,960
last night. I think he could
still do it, which is he says,

390
00:26:33,039 --> 00:26:34,759
let's want to get rid of all
this green energy nonsense in these windmills.

391
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,440
You know right now, when those
things were out, we bury all

392
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,920
those blades. How about sticking them
in the ground at the border and using

393
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,160
all those stupid blades and windmills for
war construction. Wow, I think I

394
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,359
think people love that idea, right, A wall that consists entirely of spinning

395
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,680
mincing blades. Yes, we probably
you know. And interesting, we've been

396
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,920
on this podcast for thirty minutes.
You've been with us for however many JD

397
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:03,880
vans hasn't come up. One is
that because we're too enthusiastic and bound up

398
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:08,799
in the Trump mystique, or is
it because it isn't that important? Tell

399
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:15,440
us what you think about the guy. Yep, she froze. Yeah,

400
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:21,759
she's frozen up. So we'll have
to improvise, ladies and gentlemen for a

401
00:27:21,799 --> 00:27:26,559
moment there. You may actually have
thought that Ann Culture did not immediately respond

402
00:27:26,599 --> 00:27:32,880
to the question with a you know, with a delightful series of charming observations

403
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:37,240
and outrageous assertions. But no,
she froze. We lost her, so

404
00:27:37,279 --> 00:27:38,880
we're gonna have to get her back
here in a second and in the meantime,

405
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,920
since it's just us, what do
you think, guys, I am

406
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,079
intrigued by the fact that it's been
a long time since we've had a heep

407
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,599
with a beard. Oh right,
one hundred years, I think, yeah,

408
00:27:51,799 --> 00:27:55,720
yeah, yeah, well by the
way that beard grew, he was

409
00:27:55,720 --> 00:28:00,440
clean shaven at the beginning of Trump's
acceptance speech last night the night. Yeah,

410
00:28:00,519 --> 00:28:03,640
yeah, at the end of the
game the Civil War general. Right,

411
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,440
he's a very interesting character. Oh, we got back. We've got

412
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:12,680
a little land back. We're hearing
her back from the other side of the

413
00:28:12,759 --> 00:28:18,759
multiverse. Yeah, and she's winking
in and out like Kirk in the Thulian

414
00:28:18,839 --> 00:28:23,240
Web. Anyway, anyway, so
go on, rob uh. You know,

415
00:28:23,319 --> 00:28:29,119
I'm uh, Jade Vance has got
to be one of the most interesting

416
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,880
people. Interesting in a personal journey, interesting intellectual journey. I mean,

417
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:37,759
I'm again, I'm I don't want
to be the jerk here, but I

418
00:28:38,119 --> 00:28:42,440
am always the jerk here. I
am disquieted by the fact that he was

419
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:49,759
such a full throated Trump critic and
then now a full throated Trump uh uh

420
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,839
running mate. It's so they were
so extreme that it feels to be like,

421
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,680
this is an unformed person. It's
at Rob accolytes the word you're looking

422
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,359
for us act like yeah, yeah, someone going off to seminary ought to

423
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,279
have that one, right, Yeah, you're right. Well, you know,

424
00:29:06,839 --> 00:29:08,400
all due respect to acolytes. I
just it just to me, it

425
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,640
feels a little I don't, I
don't. It just feels unformed. Like

426
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:18,440
this is a young man and he's
you know, his own personal life story

427
00:29:18,559 --> 00:29:25,000
is interesting and his I mean the
in light of his you know, populism,

428
00:29:25,039 --> 00:29:30,519
economic populism, his his Ivy League
roots and powerful wife. I think

429
00:29:30,559 --> 00:29:37,839
these are all sort of these were
red flags for for a candidate like Jadie

430
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,000
Vance. I mean to say so
that I find him. He's confusing to

431
00:29:41,039 --> 00:29:45,480
me because I feel him his inconsistency
makes me nervous. Well, two observations.

432
00:29:45,519 --> 00:29:51,160
One is he's the youngest vice presidential
running mate since Richard Nixon in nineteen

433
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:55,720
fifty two. And I think the
fact that Trump picked him and as rob

434
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,720
points out, was willing to set
aside all those old harsh remarks. It's

435
00:29:57,759 --> 00:30:00,920
kind of interesting, but I think
he picked him because it's doubling down on

436
00:30:02,759 --> 00:30:06,559
the brand of rejecting the establishment,
right. Yeah, Instead, and it

437
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:10,559
wasn't he didn't pick somebody to pick
a state appeal to a certain group.

438
00:30:10,839 --> 00:30:12,200
He said, No, I'm going
to double down on my brand and point

439
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,720
the way to the future of the
party. Second thing, one of the

440
00:30:15,799 --> 00:30:19,319
things I thought was interesting in Vance's
speech is twice he said, and I

441
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,119
think people picked up on us.
He said, you know, I know,

442
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,519
you know, there's a lot of
disagreement amongst us about what we should

443
00:30:25,559 --> 00:30:29,480
do about various issues, but that's
what makes us stronger. We'll just argue

444
00:30:29,519 --> 00:30:33,519
these things out. I thought that
was a very interesting technology. He said,

445
00:30:33,519 --> 00:30:34,799
it makes our movement stronger, which
I've always believed by the way his

446
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,119
church LEXU level right. I thought
that was quite significant part of his speech

447
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,200
that a lot of people dis missed. Yeah. I agree. And there's

448
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:45,759
a lot of things with JD Events
that I disagree with. I'm a Ukraine

449
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:51,119
Hawk supporter. He isn't. There's
some changes in his opinions on this and

450
00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:52,039
then the other. I don't agree
with it. But on the other hand,

451
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,640
if we'd got if you've gone with
a Doug Burgham for example, or

452
00:30:56,799 --> 00:31:00,920
somebody who what would Doug Burgham have
been? He would have been another Pence,

453
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,799
He would have been sort of another
hologram decent man was, you know,

454
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,720
integrity and smarts and all that.
But it just brings absolutely nothing vance

455
00:31:08,759 --> 00:31:15,920
bring that that that cohort of the
country that is worried about people mired in

456
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,279
intergenerational poverty and drug use. I
mean, that's that's just that box tick

457
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,640
and and it's it's hard not to
see that. It's a way of saying,

458
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,119
I see these people, I see
this problem, I understand it,

459
00:31:26,119 --> 00:31:30,920
and I'm concerned about it. But
you know when you say that he was

460
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:33,559
a strong critic and then he's changed, well two things. One, all

461
00:31:33,599 --> 00:31:37,160
of us by this point in our
lives should know that politicians are infinitely malleable

462
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,079
depending on the circumstances, and we
shouldn't trust any of them. Uh.

463
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,519
And Two, from what I understand
about Trump, it's not what you said

464
00:31:44,599 --> 00:31:47,440
yesterday is what you're saying today.
If you were just if you if you

465
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,480
were a critic a month ago,
but today you are in full throwner agreement

466
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:56,039
that matters more than what you said
before. And I don't know if that's

467
00:31:56,039 --> 00:32:00,119
a personality defect or if it's just
human nature for him, or well,

468
00:31:59,759 --> 00:32:05,480
he does like it when you bend
the knee. Yeah, the people around

469
00:32:05,599 --> 00:32:09,519
him tend to be I guess I
will use the term acolytes, but there's

470
00:32:09,559 --> 00:32:13,240
not people around him do not tend
to stand up to him, and the

471
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,319
ones that do don't last. What
do we mean by bend the knee though,

472
00:32:15,319 --> 00:32:17,400
because I mean, I mean,
we've used that, We use it.

473
00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:20,359
We use it a lot during the
early, you know, the first

474
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,279
Trump presidential campaign and administration, because
we wanted to say that a little bit

475
00:32:24,319 --> 00:32:27,319
of the Caesar to it. We
wanted to say that a little bit of

476
00:32:27,359 --> 00:32:30,039
the king and the authoritarian and the
rest of it, bend the knee.

477
00:32:30,039 --> 00:32:34,200
We had that. But you know, maybe it's not so much as that,

478
00:32:34,599 --> 00:32:39,039
as not bending the knee, but
just assuaging the the ego of of

479
00:32:39,039 --> 00:32:45,160
of of making sure that he knows
you're on his side. That's not necessarily

480
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:51,799
submitting yourself to the to the magisterial
authority of Donald Trump. It's just it's

481
00:32:51,839 --> 00:32:54,119
it's just saying I'm on. I'm
on the side of the people who don't

482
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,920
laugh at you as Donnie from Queen's
I'm on the side of the people who

483
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:04,400
are not making fun of you as
an RV stay short fingered vulgarian who doesn't

484
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:07,400
really belong in polite society at all. I'm not one of those. And

485
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:14,359
I'm coming around to the idea that's
that's what it is, not the authoritarian

486
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,839
nature, because the whole season of
authoritarian stuff just got very, very tired

487
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:22,240
early on when we saw that that
was not how the administration was going to

488
00:33:22,279 --> 00:33:27,200
go. Yeah, I'm not sure
though that I'm not sure that that that's

489
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,400
true. I mean that I understand
what you're saying, except that I think

490
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:36,759
that the people the bending the knee
means you have to capitulate. And you

491
00:33:36,799 --> 00:33:40,240
know, he has one thing we
can say about him is he has terrible,

492
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:45,799
terrible taste in staff, right.
I mean, by his own admission,

493
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:47,799
he's fired them all and didn't like
them all, and he surrounded himself.

494
00:33:47,839 --> 00:33:53,519
He's a very bad hirer right,
And so loyalty is the most important

495
00:33:53,559 --> 00:34:00,480
thing for him because he's inconsistent.
So bending the knee is it is a

496
00:34:00,519 --> 00:34:05,119
pejorative because it did. It does
seem like there were times and even I'm

497
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:12,519
sure we'll see in the future where
he's surrounded by willing eunuchs, right,

498
00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:15,840
I mean, they think what's happened
to Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or any

499
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,159
of those people who were sort of
statesman in twenty fifteen, and then by

500
00:34:20,159 --> 00:34:29,119
twenty eighteen we'reus sort of I mean
in Harem practically, so I'm not sure.

501
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:31,320
But again we're talking about then,
is right. We're talking about politicians

502
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,800
want access to power and the ability
to use power, and so the clearest

503
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,400
route to that is is going to
be going through the guy who's at the

504
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:43,719
top. Yeah, now, oh
sorry, No, I know nothing.

505
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:47,920
I'm and I don't mean to get
particularly spun up or part of this issue.

506
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,320
If I if I sound as if
I am, it's because I'm really

507
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:54,239
energetic today, and I'm very energetic. Why are you energetic? James?

508
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:59,679
What I am? I am?
One of the reasons is my potasha metabitalism

509
00:35:00,039 --> 00:35:05,280
working. Sorry, I checking that
tabs somehow reset my metabolism. So I

510
00:35:05,559 --> 00:35:07,320
went to Europe for two weeks.
I ate absolutely everything. I came back

511
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,480
at longch the time. I am
serious and people say it's the walking.

512
00:35:10,599 --> 00:35:15,079
People say true, people say it's
the fact that the food isn't process and

513
00:35:15,079 --> 00:35:16,320
full of seed oils. Whatever it
is. I mean, I ate a

514
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,400
lot of fish and chips, and
I had dessert after every meal, and

515
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,440
I came back and I lost a
pound. So the metabolism thing is really

516
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:27,840
important, but it's a mystery sometimes, isn't it. That's where Lumen comes

517
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,320
in. And I love this thing. I absolutely love this thing. I

518
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:32,559
wish I had for you an unboxing
video where I could show you the Lumin.

519
00:35:32,599 --> 00:35:37,400
I wish that I could show you
tell you the wonderful, silky feel

520
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:42,239
of the portable pouch it has.
I wish I could just impress upon you

521
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,719
how this thing feels like an Apple
device. It's so cool, and I'm

522
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,679
glad they sent me one. What
is it? You ask? Sounds great?

523
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,760
I want one? But what is
it? Lumen is the world's first

524
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:59,679
handheld metabolic coach. It's advice that
measures your metabolism through your breath. It's

525
00:35:59,679 --> 00:36:02,400
got an app right. It lets
you know if you're burning fat or carbs,

526
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,280
and it gives you tailored guidance to
improve your nutrition, your workouts,

527
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,639
your sleep, and even your stress
management. All you have to do is

528
00:36:08,679 --> 00:36:12,400
to breathe into your lumin first thing
in the morning, and it's this process.

529
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,039
The app tells you how to do
it. It's very simple. You

530
00:36:15,159 --> 00:36:17,079
watch the app, you breathe,
You wait until the ball starts boncing,

531
00:36:17,079 --> 00:36:21,239
and then it goes, and then
it thinks and it cogitates, and it

532
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:23,039
will tell you what's going on when
you do with metabolism, whether you're burning

533
00:36:23,079 --> 00:36:28,800
mostly fats or carbs. Then Lumen
gives you a personalized nutrition plan for the

534
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,599
day based on your measurements. Your
metabolism is your body's engine. It's how

535
00:36:32,639 --> 00:36:36,440
your body turns the food you eat
into the fuel it keeps you going.

536
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,119
And because your metabolism is the center
of everything your body does, optimal metabolic

537
00:36:39,159 --> 00:36:44,960
health translates into well a bunch of
benefits until they easier weight management, improved

538
00:36:45,039 --> 00:36:47,639
energy levels, fit, better fitness
results, better sleep, and the ability

539
00:36:47,639 --> 00:36:51,360
to go to Europe for two weeks, eat absolutely everything in the continent and

540
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,519
come back just as you were.
Luman gives you recommendations to improve your metabolic

541
00:36:54,559 --> 00:36:58,400
health. And that's what I love
about it. I started using this thing

542
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:02,119
and it knows me right off the
bat. It knows exactly what's going on.

543
00:37:02,519 --> 00:37:06,199
So here's how many carbs you can
have for the day, Here's how

544
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:08,519
much of this, and it's it's
it's it's it's like a gift. I

545
00:37:08,519 --> 00:37:10,920
look at that carb measurement and I
say, I'm going to have that,

546
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,320
and I'm going to have that in
a pancake and I'm going to have that

547
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,239
and you know, in a Mars
bar. It's great, It's absolutely great.

548
00:37:17,519 --> 00:37:22,079
I cannot endorse this thing enough.
I love it. And you know,

549
00:37:22,679 --> 00:37:25,280
the feel of the unit just tells
you that it's it's a solid piece

550
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,159
of tech. I just anyway,
if you want to take the next step

551
00:37:29,159 --> 00:37:31,079
in improving your health and see whether
or not I'm telling you how cool this

552
00:37:31,119 --> 00:37:36,559
thing is, go to Lumen dot
m E slash ricochet to get fifteen percent

553
00:37:36,599 --> 00:37:42,280
off your lumen. This is l
U m E n dot m E slash

554
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:45,199
Ricochet or fifteen percent off your purchase. And we thank Luman for sponsoring this

555
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:51,480
Ricochet podcast. Any chance we have
a back yet or if we just did.

556
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,400
Think I'm seeing her, but Steve, you got you had a you

557
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:59,440
wanted a you wanted to chime in
on this is she had a sloped rough

558
00:37:59,519 --> 00:38:04,679
or something. You get up.
She get an update for cloud from crowd

559
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,079
striker. That's That's one of my
jokes is how do you flumox the Secret

560
00:38:08,119 --> 00:38:15,119
Service? You slip them a roofie. Now you are you are just you

561
00:38:15,159 --> 00:38:19,360
know, stand up king today.
I'm having a good time with you guys.

562
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:21,599
I'm like you, James, I'm
kind of I'm kind of amped up.

563
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:23,800
Uh, but I do dissent from
Brother Rob. But Brother Rob,

564
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:28,960
you are my favorite rhino and I
usually thank you. But on this loyalty

565
00:38:29,039 --> 00:38:31,599
question, I have a different perspective. First of all, as an old

566
00:38:31,599 --> 00:38:35,039
guy, my knees don't bend very
well anymore. So this is a tough

567
00:38:35,079 --> 00:38:39,199
subject. But I will concede to
you that Trump gives loyalty a bad name.

568
00:38:42,199 --> 00:38:47,559
But look there, but loyalty to
presidents and administrations is actually very serious

569
00:38:47,599 --> 00:38:52,400
and significant problem and a reasonable demand. I mean, Nixon complained about disloyal

570
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:58,199
appointees. The Reagan administration had a
big problem with that. And by the

571
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:00,400
way, I think you want to
make a distinction between political loyalty, which

572
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:07,280
is are you loyal to the president's
program and ideas or are you personal loyalty

573
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:08,719
to the person, or are you
out to make your own career. You

574
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:13,400
know, it used to be said
that Nancy Reagan had a superpower for being

575
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,480
able to tell when someone was working
in the Reagan White House to help Reagan

576
00:39:16,519 --> 00:39:21,119
look good and help achieve his executives, or someone there to build up their

577
00:39:21,159 --> 00:39:24,280
own resume and maybe sometimes undermine them. The problem with Trump is, and

578
00:39:24,639 --> 00:39:28,800
I'm coming back closer to your position
again, is you don't know what his

579
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:31,119
program is. Necessarily. I think
a lot of people who went to work

580
00:39:31,159 --> 00:39:36,239
for him, like General Kelly and
some of the others, they probably intended

581
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:42,119
to be loyal to him in the
ordinary sense. Hr mcma all those there's

582
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:47,199
very bard. They're all very able
people who would thrive in any other administration

583
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:51,880
with a president who was less shall
we say, mercurial than Trump was.

584
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,800
So one question for a second term, if we have one as expected,

585
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:59,280
is Trump going to be steadier and
more consistent in what he wants done?

586
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:01,760
Or if not, it'll be just
like the first term with lots of chaos.

587
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:06,679
Even if your point really able and
people who intend to be loyal.

588
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:08,599
So it's some more complicated problem,
that's all I mean. The second second

589
00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:13,480
term would not have Russia Gate.
It would not have from the get go

590
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,800
this whole concerted narrative. That absolutely
clud what I mean, Yeah, that's

591
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,559
I mean, that's important. Is
it not? No, it's not,

592
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,079
It really isn't. I mean he
blew it in the first term. As

593
00:40:24,159 --> 00:40:30,000
presidents in their second term have less
power, they accomplish less when they talk,

594
00:40:30,559 --> 00:40:34,280
I'm talking about they need accomplishments.
What they need to do in the

595
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,920
second term is compromise and they think
about their legacy. And that's when they

596
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,920
get nervous because they don't have any
leverage because everybody knows it's not running again.

597
00:40:43,159 --> 00:40:45,039
And the minute you get you take
off. As any second term president,

598
00:40:45,079 --> 00:40:47,440
it's the same thing. The clock
is ticking. That's you know kind

599
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,360
of what they why they call the
second term president lame duck. We don't

600
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:53,400
have the stick you used to have. Well, not going to walk in

601
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,239
with that. That's going to be
this that's the political reality of his second

602
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,119
term. It would be that.
It's the reality anybody's second turm. I'm

603
00:41:00,119 --> 00:41:01,840
sorry, Steve, go ahead,
No, that's another reason for the JD

604
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,840
Vance pick, right, is that
is pointing beyond it. In other words,

605
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,800
he doesn't want to be a typical
second term president. Well, yeah,

606
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:15,199
I mean I think I think that
that would be the three dimensional chess

607
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:21,719
argument for it. But I just
wish I knew what their what their plan

608
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,320
was in a country that is not
He is not going to I mean,

609
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:30,159
we're not going to have suddenly a
lock on the house in the Senate.

610
00:41:30,199 --> 00:41:32,039
Even if he does, it's only
for two years. What his plan is

611
00:41:32,079 --> 00:41:36,679
to do things differently from the way
he did them in the first term,

612
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,360
No, and I don't see that. But when I when I say there

613
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:45,400
won't be Russia Gate, I mean
we will have all We will have a

614
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:50,920
political landscape that is actually about the
issues. You may disregard, you may

615
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,440
disagree with what issues he wants and
the way he wants to do them,

616
00:41:53,679 --> 00:41:58,320
But it seems as if we have
a fighting chance to do that without having

617
00:41:58,679 --> 00:42:05,400
this immense, tornadic activity in the
press and the media and the culture about

618
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,360
Russiagate. Yeah, but remember,
Russia Gate was a problem for him because

619
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:13,000
he made it a problem for him, because he woke up every day and

620
00:42:13,039 --> 00:42:16,280
spent three hours in his bedroom putting
on his makeup and fixing his hair and

621
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:21,360
tweeting and watching the morning shows and
getting furious he chose to do that.

622
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:24,920
I mean, if you look at
when Bill Clinton was being impeached, rightfully,

623
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,679
so in my mind it was about
to be kicked out of office,

624
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,119
which I wish he had had been. He actually managed to get things done.

625
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:37,039
If you cannot compartmentalize as a chief
executive, especially in your second term,

626
00:42:37,559 --> 00:42:40,400
you're sunk, you're sunk. So
the idea that his I mean,

627
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:44,000
I mean, I know I'm a
broken record on this, you should probably,

628
00:42:44,159 --> 00:42:46,320
I'm sure there's a million the Trump
supporters now turning this thing off because

629
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:50,880
nobody wants to hear it. But
no regards he didn't. The stuff he

630
00:42:51,039 --> 00:42:55,119
got in his first term attacks a
bill, which I agreed with, and

631
00:42:55,159 --> 00:43:01,199
then some foreign policy successes which were
great, but he passed steel tariffs which

632
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:06,760
were idiotic and hurt the American economy. This is not an argument. You

633
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:12,519
can't argue this. This is twenty
nineteen economic data, and it was because

634
00:43:12,559 --> 00:43:17,280
of what he did in steel for
steel, our trade gap I mean in

635
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:25,800
terms of importing exporting to Mexico went
south when he renegotiated foolishly NAFTA and didn't

636
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:30,440
change much except to include the big
trade unions on the bargaining table, and

637
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,519
then he went to China. This
is what happened. Right then he went

638
00:43:34,559 --> 00:43:38,119
to China and rattled his sword,
and I was all in favor of it.

639
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:43,159
But the first thing he gave up
was in the intellectual property protections that

640
00:43:43,199 --> 00:43:49,280
American businesses need. So it's like, this guy is inconsistent at best,

641
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,559
and we haven't gotten to the part
where he seated the entire federal government to

642
00:43:52,599 --> 00:43:58,840
the swamp during COVID and he attacked
the Republican governors who stood up. So

643
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,360
I mean, I hope he's going
to be better, But like I think

644
00:44:01,519 --> 00:44:07,280
we if you have the if you
have principles that are conservative, you have

645
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,920
to you can't just give them up. Because you know, he got shot

646
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,960
in the ear and looked heroic and
is in many ways kind of a cool

647
00:44:14,079 --> 00:44:15,679
dude. I think he's a funny
guy and I think he's super charismatic,

648
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:20,079
But I don't know, Like this
is the world's getting more complicated. This

649
00:44:20,119 --> 00:44:22,639
is the funny part is that you
have on the left right now people who

650
00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:27,840
believe that Donald Trump is going to
get into office and institute Project twenty twenty

651
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,639
five and put them all in camps. They actually believe that we're here.

652
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,280
On the other side, you have
Rob Long saying no, I'm more's just

653
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:38,920
going to get back in and and
and put in more steel tariffs. But

654
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:44,159
I literally said he's going to which
I agree with you is a bad idea.

655
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:46,880
But what I'm talking about is that
we had four years, for three

656
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:52,360
years, of a cultural narrative about
this guy that was overblown. It was

657
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:58,280
absolutely, you know, just a
volcano of paranoia that I don't think we're

658
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,159
going to have this time because it's
burned itself out. And the idea that

659
00:45:02,199 --> 00:45:07,079
we're going to replay the four years
of hair on fire that we had previously,

660
00:45:07,119 --> 00:45:10,840
I don't think that's the case.
I think that that has been spent,

661
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,800
is what I'm saying. And so
in the absence, I mean,

662
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,519
one of the reasons possibly we couldn't
have good arguments about any of the things

663
00:45:17,599 --> 00:45:21,880
you were talking about was because we
always were back into a corner about well,

664
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:23,320
he's a tool of Putin, and
that was the only thing that anybody

665
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:28,000
ever really talked about for a very
long time. In the absence of that,

666
00:45:28,039 --> 00:45:30,199
I think there's an opportunity in the
first two years to have a little

667
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:35,239
bit more clarity and a little bit
more you know, discussion of the issues.

668
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:39,840
That's my hope. I may be
a Pollyanna. I'm sure I am.

669
00:45:40,079 --> 00:45:45,239
We've got a few minutes here and
where we send out the part and

670
00:45:45,599 --> 00:45:47,880
I will settle it, Rob.
But it won't go well for you because

671
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,320
I have to say I'm really unused
to Rob Long, the policy wonk.

672
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:59,760
But well, I mean, I
can do a different balance sheet on various

673
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:01,559
policy season, but I won't.
Instead, I want to look at something

674
00:46:01,599 --> 00:46:06,239
that normally I would expect from you
to observe it. And just one example,

675
00:46:06,639 --> 00:46:09,519
when George W. Bush pulled us
out of the Kyoto Protocol back in

676
00:46:09,559 --> 00:46:13,079
two thousand and two, he just
did it with a letter, an executive

677
00:46:13,079 --> 00:46:15,760
boarder or whatever. Yeah, when
Trump pulled us out of the Paris Climate

678
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:20,920
Accord, he did a big White
House ceremony, He had a brass band,

679
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,280
he invited me down. He talked
about how we love our coal miners.

680
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,360
By the way, coal mining went
down more under Trump than it did

681
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,920
under Obama. Okay, but the
point was is that why is that important?

682
00:46:31,039 --> 00:46:35,599
That's important because like I said,
I have a more favorable view on

683
00:46:35,599 --> 00:46:38,400
the balance sheet of policies than you
do. But the broader point is he

684
00:46:38,559 --> 00:46:43,239
is he is, he is working
a well. First of all, it's

685
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,119
a frontal challenge to the premises and
the dialogue of our establishment. You know,

686
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:51,199
no other Republican would have had a
brass band to say, I'm going

687
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:53,280
to give the middle finger to the
Paris Climate Accord, which is a nothing

688
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:55,639
burger agreement. By the way.
He didn't need to do that, by

689
00:46:55,679 --> 00:46:59,519
the way. Everybody around him was
against it. His Secretary of State was

690
00:46:59,519 --> 00:47:02,159
against him doing that, if Jared
and Ivanka were against it, and he

691
00:47:02,199 --> 00:47:06,079
went and did it. And that's
what I like about the guy. And

692
00:47:06,119 --> 00:47:09,159
I think we're getting more of that. Please, And I'll just plant this

693
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:13,679
now and you guys will talk about
it later some other episode. But the

694
00:47:13,679 --> 00:47:16,599
civil service reform idea, it sounds
wonky, and it's actually, I think

695
00:47:16,679 --> 00:47:21,480
quite significant, And if he get
makes some progress on that, that's going

696
00:47:21,559 --> 00:47:24,880
to be very significant. I think
I won agree. Okay, I do

697
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:27,960
too. And here's something else that
I'd like to see back. I'd like

698
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,760
to see back the push toward traditional
architecture and government building. Yes, and

699
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:34,199
I know that a lot of people
believe that this is just a precursor to

700
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:37,800
fascism, because you know what did
Musolini do well, Actually he went with

701
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,679
sort of a stripped down fascist modern
thing. But that's irrelevant. The idea

702
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:45,679
that somehow we are going to be
repudiating all of the progressive elements of the

703
00:47:45,679 --> 00:47:50,679
twentieth century if we go back to
a more eye pleasing symmetrical form of architecture

704
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,920
is ridiculous. Of course it would
be. It would be they'd have a

705
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:59,880
better job making the argument on the
other side if they weren't defending hideous monstras

706
00:48:00,079 --> 00:48:04,199
these that that that soil the landscape
at nearly almost every American city where they're

707
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,639
planted. I just love the idea. Biden, I think got rid of

708
00:48:07,639 --> 00:48:10,440
that that the edict on day one, on day one, and I think,

709
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,760
you know, Trump will probably do
it back. There's probably some building

710
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:17,480
out there, and given the pace
at which these things are constructed and planned,

711
00:48:17,519 --> 00:48:21,679
that's been in you know, that's
been moving along for six years now,

712
00:48:22,199 --> 00:48:23,960
and now the guys who stripped off
the columns for the version that they're

713
00:48:24,079 --> 00:48:27,599
planning to build are been wondering if
we're going to have to put the columns

714
00:48:27,639 --> 00:48:30,000
back on that good thing. With
computer aid design, it can be,

715
00:48:30,119 --> 00:48:32,800
it can be. Okay, when
Trump was Trump did this thing and we

716
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:35,960
had you know, it was symmetrical, it had a portico, it had

717
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:39,280
the columns. And then Biden came
in. We made it asymmetrical. We

718
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:44,840
added a whole bunch of reflective glass
and brutalless concrete on this side. But

719
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,039
not Trump's coming in. I wonder
if we can eat anybody got that drawing

720
00:48:47,039 --> 00:48:51,280
beg that we had. You know, one of my my professor of architectural

721
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:57,840
history in college, gave a big, like a like a five day five

722
00:48:58,519 --> 00:49:08,000
not five days, like three day
lecture on the the horrible turn in public

723
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:14,599
architecture from sort of you know,
you know modernism, if you like it,

724
00:49:14,639 --> 00:49:16,400
you know, the steel glass thing, it's that's that's kind of everywhere,

725
00:49:16,639 --> 00:49:22,400
but to the brutalist kind of concrete
stuff that they were doing. Every

726
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:25,239
federal building looks like that pretty much. And he said, and he used

727
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:29,239
the perfect example of it was the
Boston City Hall, right, which is

728
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:31,239
on this Skully Square, which these
old squares there's kind of beautiful and it's

729
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:35,239
like we used to be kind of
a rabbit's warren of roads and was just

730
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:42,119
this big flat plaza with this concrete
beehive on top of it that was asymmetrical

731
00:49:42,159 --> 00:49:45,199
and kind of top heavy. And
he said, and I remember, this

732
00:49:45,679 --> 00:49:52,519
goes this building, and this plaza
is fit only for angry and violent demonstrations.

733
00:49:53,039 --> 00:49:57,199
And you look at you like,
yeah, like it's a it's a

734
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:01,679
it's a government screaming at the people
and providing them flat ground in the you

735
00:50:01,679 --> 00:50:06,599
know, with no trees to screen
back. And and it was exactly right.

736
00:50:06,639 --> 00:50:08,039
I can never look at those buildings
again. So yeah, okay,

737
00:50:08,519 --> 00:50:14,800
I'm I'm in favorite brass bands when
we pull out of stupid climate change nonsense.

738
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:22,079
I'm in favor of putting a doric
columns back. But he's about to

739
00:50:22,119 --> 00:50:23,639
say no, no, no,
no, I must not be right there,

740
00:50:23,679 --> 00:50:27,360
because you're right. He was right
about the brutalism building. And as

741
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,960
I've said before, it's interesting whenever
they make a movie about a dystopian future,

742
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,960
all they have to do is go
and find a college campus somewhere that

743
00:50:34,079 --> 00:50:37,119
was built between sixty five and seventy
five, and they have all of the

744
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:42,599
humorless oppressive nature of an authority and
state, authoritarian state right there. It's

745
00:50:42,639 --> 00:50:45,599
an awful form of architecture. And
I thought it was dead. I thought

746
00:50:45,599 --> 00:50:47,280
we were past it. Yeah,
it was in Edinburgh last week, a

747
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,599
couple of weeks ago. I got
to see the new Scottish Parliament. Oh

748
00:50:51,679 --> 00:50:54,920
it's that awful I've seen now,
absolute excressence of it. It's one of

749
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:59,639
the worst buildings I've ever seen in
my life. And if you look at

750
00:50:59,679 --> 00:51:01,320
the design, and you will say, well, you can see that it's

751
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:06,239
intended to be a tree that grows
out, and that these are the leafs.

752
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:12,280
Yes, if you are about a
thousand feet in the air looking down,

753
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:15,199
if you are standing around it,
it is a boldus formless, shapeless

754
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:21,559
thing that is spattered for no apparent
reason with these strange shapes that look like

755
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:24,320
sevens or inverted elves or something like
that. And I couldn't figure out what

756
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:29,000
they were. They're all over the
place. They're like a strange barnacle that

757
00:51:29,119 --> 00:51:34,280
fastened to the building. So we
go inside and it's brutalist. It's it's

758
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,440
a brutalist bill. It literally is
raw concrete. You can see it everywhere,

759
00:51:37,519 --> 00:51:40,400
unadorned. It's the sort of thing
that you can just I mean,

760
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:45,320
it looks like what the who are
relieving their bladders on and the Who's next

761
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,559
cover album. It's awful. You
go to this door that takes you up

762
00:51:47,559 --> 00:51:52,159
this this meandering staircase, so you
go and see your parliamentary people at work.

763
00:51:52,559 --> 00:51:55,760
And instead of I mean, I'd
just been to Holyroot, I'd just

764
00:51:55,840 --> 00:52:01,800
been to you know, other beautiful
buildings, and I'd seen that even the

765
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:08,719
humblest of spaces elevated the soul,
embigned your sense of glory, that the

766
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:15,639
smallest, most reasonable buildings, commercial
or otherwise had an element of uplift to

767
00:52:15,679 --> 00:52:17,719
it. They said that we're going
to gather together the spirit of humanity in

768
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:22,360
this doorframe. What you get in
the Scottish Parliament is an unadorned, concrete,

769
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:27,320
dank little thing through which you have
to pass, and it makes you

770
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:30,800
feel as though you are just nothing
but a gnat, that the great stony

771
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:32,840
finger of the state is going to
come down to crush. But at least

772
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:37,119
they explain what the things on the
outside of the building are. They have

773
00:52:37,159 --> 00:52:40,199
a keith. Here's this shape,
it means this. Here's this shape,

774
00:52:40,199 --> 00:52:44,840
it means this. And I found
a strange seven inverted l whatever the hell

775
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:52,599
this thing was, and it is
a abstract representation of a skating minister meant

776
00:52:52,719 --> 00:53:01,639
to meant to connote motion, joy
forward movement. Well, well, no,

777
00:53:01,639 --> 00:53:06,000
no, no, no, I
know what painting they're talking about.

778
00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:10,440
I had seen it the day before
in the museum. I'd literally been staring

779
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:13,840
because I know the painting before I
saw it, and I'm looking at it

780
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:15,079
as I'm happy to meet an old
friend in person. How are you.

781
00:53:15,159 --> 00:53:19,480
I'm looking at this painting. It's
having a wry sense of amusement at its

782
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:22,199
composition, and it's and then I'm
thinking, I just saw this thing,

783
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:27,960
and it never occurred to me looking
at your building, that these shapes movement

784
00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:31,880
to be an example of that.
If you failed with me, you failed

785
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:36,880
with absolutely everybody. And if we
have, thanks to Donald Trump, a

786
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:40,199
new architectural standard that once again speaks
to the deep roots of the culture and

787
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:45,599
the country in all of the antecedents. You know what, I don't give

788
00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:52,400
a rats pitute about steel tabs,
But I remember Churchill's famous line about architecture.

789
00:53:52,559 --> 00:53:57,760
First we shape our buildings, and
then our buildings shape us. And

790
00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:00,360
by the way, it's worth reading
the whole speech where he lays out why

791
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:04,199
Parliament has to be rebuilt exactly the
way it was after the Germans bombed in

792
00:54:04,239 --> 00:54:07,480
the war. And so yeah,
if you get brutalist architecture for your a

793
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:10,480
parliament building, I think there probably
is a connection with our brutalist politics that

794
00:54:10,559 --> 00:54:15,599
have come along at the same time. Wrapping it up there, Steve,

795
00:54:15,639 --> 00:54:16,679
good for you. Well, before
we go, a couple of things.

796
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:20,239
One I'm going to Rob. You
want to tell him about the meet up,

797
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:22,440
So we just should tell him to
go to ricochet dot com and see

798
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:23,280
if I go to riche do com. We got a couple of meetups one

799
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:27,559
last week of July. We have
one scheduled in Saint Louis early October.

800
00:54:27,599 --> 00:54:30,119
There are plenty slots left. He's
joined Ricochet, or come to a meetup,

801
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:34,480
or just join Ricochet and tell people
you want to meet up at a

802
00:54:34,519 --> 00:54:37,239
certain time and place and people will
show up. I would be remiss if

803
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:42,440
I did not give Rob the opportunity
to tell some delightful little Hollywood anecdote about

804
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:47,719
Bob NewART, who's passing. We
deeply lament since he was an incredibly you

805
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:52,199
don't want to say influential. I
don't want to replay his krusty eulogy,

806
00:54:52,679 --> 00:54:57,880
but it was hard to know if
he influenced anybody. It was in very

807
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:04,559
subtle ways because his his ability to
style was so unique and so wonderful.

808
00:55:04,639 --> 00:55:09,000
Yeah yeah, I mean I think
unfortunately he didn't influence enough people because he

809
00:55:09,039 --> 00:55:12,920
was a really he was a genius
and he and he was just a pure

810
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:17,800
economy this guy. Uh never no
movement, no no line, no eyebrow

811
00:55:19,039 --> 00:55:22,800
move nothing was out of it.
All was just the perfect timing. He

812
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:27,159
sort of invented it in a lot
of ways. And he has the people

813
00:55:27,199 --> 00:55:30,119
who don't know, I'm like younger
people like he did this trademark stammer,

814
00:55:30,159 --> 00:55:35,880
he did the button down Mine of
Bob Newhart was the biggest selling album and

815
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:40,280
biggest selling comedy album and it remained
that way I think until the the eighties

816
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:45,559
or something. I mean, he
just was the number one and and it

817
00:55:45,599 --> 00:55:51,079
was just him having a one way
phone call. Uh and with the variety

818
00:55:51,079 --> 00:55:54,840
of things are one way conversation,
and it's unbelievably brilliant. It's sort of

819
00:55:54,840 --> 00:56:00,920
Will Rogers Mark Twain kind of level
of genius. And he and he had

820
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:05,000
a way of talking that was really
his way. Although it had had you

821
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,199
know, become more of a signature, and I just will tell he he

822
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:10,000
I don't think he told me the
story because we worked, we did a

823
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:14,400
show together. But I think his
son told me the story. I know

824
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:17,480
he made he told his story that
he's at. You know, he said,

825
00:56:17,639 --> 00:56:20,480
my kids, you know, they
don't even listen to this. Only

826
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:22,599
the oldest one served my albums.
The youngest is youngest daughter, Courtney.

827
00:56:22,639 --> 00:56:28,880
He's this wonderful, wonderful person.
Uh she you know, she's she's too

828
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,079
young. She didn't really know what
he did. And they're at Thanksgiving dinner

829
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:37,079
in his house, his beautiful house
and Bellair having Thanksgiving, and he's telling

830
00:56:37,079 --> 00:56:38,159
the story to the kids. He's
saying, and you know, he's trying

831
00:56:38,159 --> 00:56:40,920
to tell a story about when he
was growing up. And his his daughter,

832
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:45,000
youngest daughter, Courtney, says,
Dad, can you talk faster?

833
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:55,880
And he said, no, Courtney
did this is the way I talk.

834
00:56:55,960 --> 00:57:01,239
I talked, and and then he
gestured the house into the and that is

835
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:07,679
why we we have these things.
It's because this is how I talk.

836
00:57:07,559 --> 00:57:14,400
And just like he nailed it,
like and and it was you could you

837
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:19,119
could imitate it, but you couldn't
catch whatever that little spark was inside him

838
00:57:19,119 --> 00:57:22,800
that made it funny, so you
could you could repeat word for word with

839
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,440
the same number of pauses everything he
said, and for some reason was missing

840
00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:30,400
the soul and and uh, he
was just the He was the greatest.

841
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:35,039
He was the greatest, and an
incredibly nice guy to work with and very

842
00:57:35,119 --> 00:57:37,000
very thoughtful with the writers. But
every now and then he would come up

843
00:57:37,039 --> 00:57:45,880
to you and say things like,
can can we just give somebody else this

844
00:57:45,079 --> 00:57:52,800
line? Or or can I just
not say anything in the scene. The

845
00:57:52,840 --> 00:57:55,360
star of the show rarely makes that
request, but he's like, I don't

846
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:58,239
really, I don't know. I
feel like you gave me a line for

847
00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:00,360
no reason. I could just stand
there. This isn't mind stay there.

848
00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:01,079
He was like, yeah, I'll
just stand there behind the desk, or

849
00:58:01,079 --> 00:58:04,360
stand there at the table, or's
all just stand there like that's what I

850
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:07,960
do. I'm fine and like to
have a star of that level that magnitude

851
00:58:08,280 --> 00:58:16,039
actively lobbying for less was kind of
a gift. Was he responsible for the

852
00:58:16,079 --> 00:58:23,800
greatest ending of any sitcom series well
conceived? I can tell you what I

853
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:34,840
think he remembers it that he had
come up with it, and he might

854
00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:38,360
have. However, I worked with
a very, very very talented writer who

855
00:58:38,400 --> 00:58:42,920
had been a young writer on New
Heart before he became a young writer on

856
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:46,199
Cheers and was there when I was
there, and years before the end of

857
00:58:46,239 --> 00:58:51,840
New Heart, he said that he
had pitched this idea once in the room

858
00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:55,159
and they all kind of laughed.
So somehow the idea was out there.

859
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:58,559
And I won't give it away because
some people don't know it. But it's

860
00:58:58,559 --> 00:59:00,880
a great ending to it. But
but I remember Bob was telling me like

861
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:04,639
it was a great ending. Everybody
loved it. The only problem was it

862
00:59:04,679 --> 00:59:09,639
was extremely painful and emotionally damaging to
the woman playing his wife in the second

863
00:59:09,639 --> 00:59:15,360
series, who felt like because she
knew she never she had never measured up

864
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:17,679
to zample set Well. I was
just going to say, yeah, the

865
00:59:17,800 --> 00:59:21,639
entire thing may just be if you
have that much power in Hollywood, the

866
00:59:21,639 --> 00:59:25,400
ability to get back in bed wizards. But there we end for the week

867
00:59:25,519 --> 00:59:30,400
and Stephen, it's you anything.
Yeah, I've just said we're ending,

868
00:59:30,639 --> 00:59:32,039
all right, Stevens still here?
You got anything you want to say?

869
00:59:32,199 --> 00:59:37,760
No? All right? Been a
pleasure. As ever, this was episode

870
00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:42,519
number seven hundred. How did we
get him? Only because Ricochet is fun

871
00:59:42,719 --> 00:59:45,280
and once you go there, if
you have not gone there yet, uh

872
00:59:45,800 --> 00:59:50,519
just discovering this podcast, I entirely
possible, go there and you will find

873
00:59:50,519 --> 00:59:52,960
the place you've been looking for all
your life. On the Internet. Seriously,

874
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:55,639
not Facebook, not Twitter, not
x not Instagram, not The Talks,

875
00:59:57,039 --> 01:00:02,239
no Sane Center, civil conversations and
crazy. Sometimes elbows are throwing,

876
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:07,199
pans are hurled at heads, but
it's all part of a community that we

877
01:00:07,239 --> 01:00:08,280
love. The member feed, that's
where it's at. And yeah, you

878
01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:10,480
got to cop up a couple of
shekels to get there, but it's worth

879
01:00:10,519 --> 01:00:14,760
every single one of them. Go
to iTunes if you wouldn't like is there

880
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:17,960
still an iTunes no music podcast whatever
Apple's calling it? Give us five stars?

881
01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:21,400
Would it kill you? Wouldn't kill
you? And join us next week

882
01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:24,639
when who knows, maybe Ann will
be back. I have this horrible feeling

883
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:29,760
that actually she doesn't know that she
was disconnected and that she was answering our

884
01:00:30,119 --> 01:00:32,880
She's been answering our question for the
last forty seven minutes, so much knowing

885
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:37,760
her would be possible, and it
would be hilariously funny anyway to listen to.

886
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,599
So if there's a lost recording of
Ann's reply in forty seven minutes.

887
01:00:40,639 --> 01:00:45,519
We'll be putting it out as an
extra bonus adjunk podcast. Gentlemen. That's

888
01:00:45,519 --> 01:00:50,800
it for me, I except to
note that Bob Newhart's second album was recorded

889
01:00:50,800 --> 01:00:54,480
here partially in Minneapolis. Thank you
very much. Mat. That's it.

890
01:00:54,639 --> 01:00:58,159
We'll see you later, and we'll
see you in the comments, said Ricochet

891
01:00:58,239 --> 01:01:07,000
four point zero. Next week,
Fellos Ricochet join the conversation
