1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:08,279 We can make it if we try it. Yes, indeed, ask not 2 00:00:09,519 --> 00:00:14,160 what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your 3 00:00:14,199 --> 00:00:21,600 country. Mister Garbitschaw, tear down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast. 4 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,519 I'm James Lylac. Usually I'd be talking to Rob Long and Peter Robinson, 5 00:00:24,519 --> 00:00:27,239 but they're out about in the world, and so we've got Charles C. 6 00:00:27,519 --> 00:00:32,039 W. Cook. Let's eversos a podcast the dragging about our turning road. 7 00:00:32,079 --> 00:00:36,119 We might have no clue about the power of women, but they found out 8 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,159 when reproductive freedom was on the ballot. We won in twenty twenty two and 9 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:47,600 twenty twenty, and we went again in twenty twenty four. Well, thank 10 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,359 you very much. They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is 11 00:00:52,399 --> 00:00:56,920 a big one. Welcome everybody eats The Ricochet Podcast, number six hundred and 12 00:00:57,119 --> 00:01:00,479 eighty two. If you're making hashmarks in the wall. I'm j Alex in 13 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,239 Minneapolis. Peter Robinson and Rob Long, the founders as we call them when 14 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:08,480 we want to speak of them in hushed august tones, aren't here. But 15 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,239 who is Charlie Cook? And couldn't be happier to see him? Charles, 16 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,599 how are you? I'm good. How are you? Before we began, 17 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:22,159 he was describing the meaning behind his cap, And part of American identity, 18 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:26,319 of course, is to proclaim your interests, your solidarities, your affiliations with 19 00:01:26,439 --> 00:01:33,640 your baseball cap. Yeah, and he's wearing one from a summits one Utah 20 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:38,280 summit. And I asked, jokingly in my way whether or not there was 21 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,799 some deep bifurcation in Utah that they're attempting to weld together by having a one 22 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:45,000 Utah, because you don't sort of think of states as being, you know, 23 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,519 but of course they are. And what may look solid from the outside 24 00:01:48,719 --> 00:01:52,280 in a polity actually has its own internal fractures. So before we get to 25 00:01:52,319 --> 00:01:57,640 the pressing news of the day, Charles tell us about the actual bifurcation of 26 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:05,560 Utah that it's not one monolithic culture but two. Well, or at least 27 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,439 that's what they're trying to avoid, because there's the southern part of the state 28 00:02:09,039 --> 00:02:13,080 that is more rural, and then you've got Salt Lake City, which is 29 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:20,520 increasingly urban and young and cool and sprawly. And I don't think this is 30 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,240 true at all of their current governor, Spencer Cox, but I think historically 31 00:02:23,319 --> 00:02:27,439 there has been a great deal of focus on Salt Lake City, perhaps at 32 00:02:27,479 --> 00:02:30,599 the expense of the rest of the states. So they have the one Utah 33 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:35,439 Summit, which I spoke at last year to address this and remind them and 34 00:02:35,479 --> 00:02:38,919 say hey, we're here, and seems to have been a huge success. 35 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:40,159 It's a great state. I haven't been to Utah. You really should go. 36 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:44,840 It's incredibly beautiful. It is. I'm glad you helped stitch it together. 37 00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:46,080 But it's like that with all states. The big city has its own 38 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:50,800 little culture in the outstate, you know, or Greater Minnesota. In this 39 00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:57,879 case, I see at the imposition of mores and ideas from the godless Cosmopolitans 40 00:02:57,879 --> 00:03:00,039 and the metro centers everywhere. But of course when attacked from the outside, 41 00:03:00,039 --> 00:03:05,199 then then we're all one state. We all bind together. It's like the 42 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:09,039 Dakota's. People from North Dakota will hate people from South Dakota, and vice 43 00:03:09,159 --> 00:03:15,360 versa. But if anybody attacks the Dakota's as an idea, we are brother's 44 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:17,400 soul and blood and the rest of it. Well, so it is with 45 00:03:17,439 --> 00:03:21,800 the nation wanted to act. Of course we are unified when we're not. 46 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,400 We didther with all sorts of meaningless internal contradictions and arguments and the rest of 47 00:03:25,439 --> 00:03:30,000 it, all of which was on magnificent display, I'm sure yesterday in the 48 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,000 State of the Union speech, which I completely forgot to watch, thereby relinquishing 49 00:03:37,039 --> 00:03:42,680 any ability whatsoever to speak about it here, And probably because I hate the 50 00:03:42,719 --> 00:03:46,840 speech entirely in its concept and its execution. I wish it was a letter 51 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:49,560 that was delivered to Congress as it used to be. I can't stand the 52 00:03:49,599 --> 00:03:54,120 imperial presidency trapping of it. I can't stand the mendacious and miniatricious political class 53 00:03:54,159 --> 00:04:00,520 lapping to the bolting their feet and clapping of the sclerotics, sedescent people who 54 00:04:00,719 --> 00:04:04,639 seem to run the government, all of it, the laundry list of things 55 00:04:04,639 --> 00:04:09,319 that are wrong and the equally long laundry list of expensive ways in which they'll 56 00:04:09,319 --> 00:04:13,560 be rectified. Like that, it is meaningless. It is irritating. But 57 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:18,560 from what I understand, Biden's performance is being described as fiery. Everyone's using 58 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:23,079 that word fiery, which makes you think, given the number of speeches we've 59 00:04:23,079 --> 00:04:27,560 seen lately of him, where he is staring into the distance and cannot find 60 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,879 where he is and mumbles and seems like an old man who got off at 61 00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:33,079 the wrong bus stop and is waiting for something to come along. It makes 62 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,519 you wonder whether they went back to the National Archives and figured out what kind 63 00:04:36,519 --> 00:04:40,759 of B twelve cocktail they jabbed in the butt of a Kennedy before his back 64 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:43,920 pain medication made him too goofy when he had to go out and give a 65 00:04:43,959 --> 00:04:47,160 speech, So he would, you know from the clips said, I've seen 66 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,879 all have what he is having. Charlie, what was your impression. Well, 67 00:04:51,879 --> 00:04:55,680 it seems to me that most of the praise of Biden, and other 68 00:04:55,759 --> 00:05:04,199 than that that's been issued by hardcore Democratic partisans is congratulations, mister president, 69 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:10,759 you didn't die up there, right. That's facetious, but that is the 70 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,560 tone of it. Well, people said, people said that he could what 71 00:05:14,879 --> 00:05:17,560 not get through a one and a half hour speech because that was actually a 72 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,800 worry. Eighty six percent of Americans think he's too old. Sixty five percent 73 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:25,160 of Americans think he's going to die in a second term or at least have 74 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,079 to step down. And he managed to give a speech, and he managed 75 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,560 to do so while angry. So congratulations, you've passed that test. I 76 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:35,439 mean, James, I hated it. You and I are going to agree 77 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,399 on this. So it's better when people disagree. But you and I are 78 00:05:38,399 --> 00:05:41,360 going to agree because I think, like me, you don't think the State 79 00:05:41,399 --> 00:05:45,399 of the Union in its current form should exist. No, it's not great 80 00:05:45,439 --> 00:05:47,639 within a republic. I say this when there's a Republican president as well as 81 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,319 a Democratic president. I'll come on to my specific objections with Biden in a 82 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:55,519 moment, but this should not exist in its current form. It is a 83 00:05:56,959 --> 00:06:01,319 telling historical fact that the man who got rid off the State of the Union 84 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,160 as an address as a spectacle was Thomas Jefferson, and the man who brought 85 00:06:05,199 --> 00:06:09,240 it back as an address and as a spectacle was Woodrow Wilson. And I 86 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,879 think that tells you they really need to know. Yep, it shouldn't be 87 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,439 as it is. It smacks of the speech from the Throne. I don't 88 00:06:15,519 --> 00:06:23,839 like the image of the head of Article two going into the lower House of 89 00:06:23,959 --> 00:06:28,040 Article one and lambasting them, demanding things, telling them off, fighting with 90 00:06:28,079 --> 00:06:30,800 them what you were. So I was primed to dislike this, as I 91 00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:35,319 always am from the beginning, but this speech was particularly grotesque in that it 92 00:06:35,399 --> 00:06:41,480 was a campaign event. I don't begrudge campaign events that's great, have as 93 00:06:41,519 --> 00:06:45,199 many as you want. Let's all argue our differences out. I don't like 94 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:53,600 this modern aversion to rough political debate. Let's do it. We all disagree, 95 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:57,560 Let's argue with each other. But maybe not at the State of the 96 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,360 Union. When you're the president of the United States and you've been asked to 97 00:07:00,399 --> 00:07:06,160 deliver and address articulating how a country is now, you can never depoliticize that. 98 00:07:06,639 --> 00:07:11,120 But Biden last night went so far beyond it. It was us for 99 00:07:11,439 --> 00:07:15,120 them, He shouted at Republicans at the beginning, seems to compare Trump to 100 00:07:15,279 --> 00:07:21,079 Hitler. Ugh, this is not becoming of a republic. No, we're 101 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,800 being too I mean, one of the things the theme of this year is 102 00:07:24,839 --> 00:07:28,920 that democracy itself is on the table. This is our last shot. This 103 00:07:29,079 --> 00:07:32,600 is it, and if we don't make the proper decision, every single one 104 00:07:32,639 --> 00:07:38,759 of the institutions and traditions that we have will evaporate in the face of the 105 00:07:38,759 --> 00:07:43,480 withering fire of Donald Trump. Which is nonsense, but there we are. 106 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,720 It seems to be to continue. I mean, we've always we've always heard 107 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,680 this is the most important election of our lives, this is the most consequential 108 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:53,279 election of our types. I'm used to that, but for it to be 109 00:07:53,279 --> 00:07:56,560 an actual existential hinge, it seems to be a bit much. And I 110 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,639 don't know if Biden believes it. I don't think that Biden believes anything. 111 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,160 Watching this man for thirty years, forty years, and everybody knows that he 112 00:08:03,279 --> 00:08:09,160 is an empty self regarding mendacious to use that word again, politician from Delaware, 113 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:13,720 who is way over his head. Basically when you look at the intellectual 114 00:08:13,759 --> 00:08:18,399 capacity the man, so I know if he gets up there and clutches his 115 00:08:18,399 --> 00:08:22,120 fists and starts warning us about these things. So the speech writers are the 116 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:26,040 ones who ought to be taken to task. And apparently we're being told this 117 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:30,560 is a quote I'm given here. This is that's floating around. The issue 118 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,240 facing our nation isn't how old we are. There's a way to sort of 119 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:39,120 dodge that. It's how old are our ideas? Hate, anger, revenge, 120 00:08:39,159 --> 00:08:43,639 and retribution are the oldest ideas. But you can't lead America with ancient 121 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:52,240 ideas. It's rhetorically incoherent, but actually ancient ideas are part of the American 122 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:58,159 DNA, and I would like to think that we would keep those. But 123 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,799 we're talking about speech writer class that is probably enamored of all the year zero 124 00:09:01,879 --> 00:09:07,200 ideas where we're going to start fresh, because now today us here the inheritors 125 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,440 of everything. I'd no better than anybody else about how to adjust, manage, 126 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:18,320 massage human nature to produce the perfect utopia. So yeah, I mean 127 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,200 that's totally backwards, isn't it. In that now, of course, you 128 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:26,440 don't want hate and revenge to be your guiding stars. But the great insight 129 00:09:26,519 --> 00:09:31,919 of the founders, and what separates them from utopian revolutionaries such as we saw 130 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:37,720 in the French Revolution, or in the Soviet Union or in communist China, 131 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,200 is that they did not believe that you could create new Soviet matt They didn't 132 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,080 think that man was perfectible. They thought man was flawed. Now some of 133 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,240 them, most of them, or they're not all, believed that that was 134 00:09:48,279 --> 00:09:52,159 because man was fallen in a religious sense. The others just thought that people 135 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:56,120 didn't change, that human nature was a constant, That the political questions that 136 00:09:56,200 --> 00:10:01,879 animated the Romans were broadly the same as those that an mated the American colonists, 137 00:10:01,919 --> 00:10:07,240 and the Constitution that they wrote reflects that. So it seeks to harness 138 00:10:07,279 --> 00:10:11,279 all of those ancient vices, ambition being one of them. Not to get 139 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:13,720 rid of it, not to channel it through the right people, but to 140 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:18,360 harness it and set various branches off against others. Anger and revenge will always 141 00:10:18,399 --> 00:10:22,919 be with us. That's why we have a constitution. If we didn't exhibit 142 00:10:24,039 --> 00:10:28,159 those emotions and traits throughout history, we wouldn't need a constitution. Madison says. 143 00:10:28,159 --> 00:10:31,720 It's very clearly if we were angels, we wouldn't need a government. 144 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:37,200 So to say, well, we can't be governed by ancient ideas, it's 145 00:10:39,039 --> 00:10:43,960 comprehensible to me. We are governed by a document that acknowledges the existence and 146 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:52,159 the permanency of ancient ideas, but also that taps into other ancient ideas like 147 00:10:52,039 --> 00:10:58,960 law and love and comity and not as it's used today, but the general 148 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,840 welfare. You know, these are ideas that it's just as old as hey. 149 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,879 That's the whole point again, I respective of your religious belief, there 150 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:13,759 is no human tradition that doesn't revolve around the interplay between bad ancient nineties and 151 00:11:13,759 --> 00:11:20,600 good ones. You mentioned the French Revolution, which you know, when I 152 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:22,120 was growing up, it was sort of taught to us that this was like 153 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,159 an echo of our own. Well, we had a revolution and threw off 154 00:11:26,159 --> 00:11:28,960 the king, and then France did too, and it got a little messy, 155 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:31,159 you know, guillotine and all that stuff, but you know, it 156 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,159 was good that it happened. And it's only later when you go back and 157 00:11:35,399 --> 00:11:39,120 really study the French Revolution you realize what a cluster farg it was. There. 158 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:41,200 There was one pista I was listening to in the radio the other day 159 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:46,399 in a podcast that was about the French revolutionary attempt to decimalize the clock because 160 00:11:46,399 --> 00:11:50,240 they looked at the clock with its sixty seconds and sixty minutes and they think 161 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:52,240 it's not rational enough for the new a right, so they came up with 162 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,840 a clock that had ten hours, and then you know, they just reconfigured 163 00:11:56,879 --> 00:12:01,720 everything and imposed upon people a complet letely different way of telling the time, 164 00:12:01,759 --> 00:12:05,960 which everybody's brains have been wired to understand for their entire lifetimes. It did 165 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,000 not go well, really didn't, and eventually, of course they would come 166 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:15,080 up with dual clocks, and that eventually, of course, they would abandon 167 00:12:15,159 --> 00:12:18,399 the thing altogether. Another podcast was describing how the Soviets had a problem with 168 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:22,960 the weekend because you know, they just wasn't right. It didn't the idea 169 00:12:24,039 --> 00:12:28,039 that you would get off on a Sunday had religious overtones. So they started 170 00:12:28,159 --> 00:12:33,120 randomly appropriating or randomly handing out weekend days based on a lottery system, which 171 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,960 meant that your Saturday, your Sunday, maybe on a Tuesday or Friday or 172 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:41,240 Thursday. And then it all varied. That you would come to work and 173 00:12:41,279 --> 00:12:43,639 you would get a slip, and the slip would be put up against the 174 00:12:43,759 --> 00:12:46,080 chart and there's your weekend day. Well, the problem was that nobody could 175 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:50,600 take time off for the dentists, because your dentist was no longer at work. 176 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:54,559 He was on his work week and at the doc, go or whatever. 177 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,440 So nobody could coordinate any Families couldn't coordinate anything. And it took decades 178 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:03,519 and they brought back the concept of the weekend for a few, and eventually 179 00:13:03,879 --> 00:13:07,279 they brought back the weekend for everybody. You look at the blank slaters, 180 00:13:07,279 --> 00:13:11,080 and in every attempt they try to rewrite human nature, human history and completely 181 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:16,120 go against the grain of what a society has become. And eventually the gods 182 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:22,639 of the copybook return and the lessons are learned, And it's a question whether 183 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:28,679 or not we're going to relearn them in our roule or in a condition that 184 00:13:28,039 --> 00:13:35,000 lets us realize that those ancient ideals have been in place and informed us for 185 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:39,799 a very good reason. And for Joe Biden at his age to be the 186 00:13:39,879 --> 00:13:45,960 advocate of your zero thinking is just shows you the wind spuck that that fellow 187 00:13:46,039 --> 00:13:50,320 is. And like I say, I really like to know who wrote the 188 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:54,519 speech and their perspective on the ancients. Do you think they might have one, 189 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:58,279 Charles, I don't think they would be great fans of the ancients. 190 00:14:00,279 --> 00:14:05,000 That's my suspicion here. People often ask who's running the White House? And 191 00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:09,679 this often ranges into conspiracy theories. Is Barack Obama still the president? Now 192 00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:13,840 he's not. He's running the White House? The progressive blob, right, 193 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:20,879 the progressive blob is running the White House. All of the cornucopia of interest 194 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:30,519 groups and university presidents and political activists that you see in Washington, DC and 195 00:14:30,559 --> 00:14:35,919 around is running the White House. And that's why the White House has made 196 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,399 some really baffling decisions. It's why the White House decided to open the border 197 00:14:41,279 --> 00:14:45,799 when it knew not only that the public doesn't like that, but that the 198 00:14:45,799 --> 00:14:50,480 most likely opponent Biden would be facing in twenty twenty four would be Donald Trump, 199 00:14:50,559 --> 00:14:58,320 whose thing is the border. It's why the Biden administration decided to engage 200 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:03,639 in what has to be the single moment counterproductive and regressive policy I have seen 201 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,039 in my time in the United States, making people who didn't go to university 202 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:15,120 pay the tuition of those who did. Because he's surrounded by people who care 203 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:16,200 about that. They're the people who went that. They're the ones who have 204 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,720 the jobs that didn't pay them as they thought they would, and who have 205 00:15:18,759 --> 00:15:22,039 a lot of dat people to be fair, to be fair, though, 206 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:28,000 I mean you mentioned cornycopia. Isn't the cornycopia, the the mythical thing which 207 00:15:28,279 --> 00:15:33,720 which produces infinite amount of fruit that it's a you know, it's a it's 208 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,799 an intermediary object of the gods when you have a cornucopia from which pours a 209 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:43,519 bounty in unstinting quantities, which is how they actually regard the federal government. 210 00:15:43,639 --> 00:15:50,200 Because the tax money isn't coming from the they don't think at all the people, 211 00:15:50,279 --> 00:15:54,279 you know, the janitors who work in my building are being taxed to 212 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:58,120 pay for the ridiculously useless degrees of people who went to college. No, 213 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:00,799 the money is just generated mm. It just comes out of the printing press, 214 00:16:00,799 --> 00:16:04,240 and nobody has to be taxed, except of course, when you have 215 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:08,639 to have tax for social policy. Now, one of the reasons that I 216 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:15,360 like the flat rate tax is that it's fair, it's equitable to use their 217 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,480 terms, and that it applies to everybody. And it's not one of those 218 00:16:18,559 --> 00:16:22,000 laws that's rejiggered according to how much money you make, which seems to me 219 00:16:22,159 --> 00:16:25,159 like unequal treatment. But I gather that this has all been hashed out in 220 00:16:25,159 --> 00:16:29,159 the courts and it's a moot point. But if you have a Biden Esque 221 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:32,120 proposal, as we had last night, to tax the wealthy more in the 222 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:37,039 corporations to make them do what pay their fair share, as ever, to 223 00:16:37,159 --> 00:16:40,879 pay their fair share, this is not to generate income in order to pay 224 00:16:40,919 --> 00:16:47,559 for it's simply to achieve a particular social end. So the idea of using 225 00:16:47,639 --> 00:16:52,559 the tax code on individuals and institutions and country companies whatsoever, in order to 226 00:16:52,759 --> 00:16:56,200 achieve a social purpose that makes them feel good ought to make them think that 227 00:16:56,279 --> 00:17:00,440 they are contorting and distorting what the government actually should be. Of course, 228 00:17:00,519 --> 00:17:03,400 were what sixty seventy years past that point. Well, this is a problem 229 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:11,279 with the sixteenth Amendment. If I may explain, he people who passed the 230 00:17:11,319 --> 00:17:18,839 Sixteenth Amendment seem largely not to have anticipated that it served us a crowbar and 231 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:25,640 opened up the federal government in a way that was not supposed to happen. 232 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,720 But that is what's happened. The federal government is a charter of enumerated powers. 233 00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:33,599 That means that the federal government can only do what it is explicitly allowed 234 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:36,319 to do. Now that has been eroded over time, particularly in the New 235 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:38,440 Deal, but that was the idea. James Madison made this very clear. 236 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:45,960 He enforced that rule while he was president, famously in eighteen fourteen, and 237 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,759 he wrote about it in the Federalist Papers. He opposed the Bill of Rights 238 00:17:48,759 --> 00:17:51,279 because of it, because he said, why do we need a Bill of 239 00:17:51,319 --> 00:17:53,640 rights when the government can only do what we've allowed it to do, and 240 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,839 we haven't allowed it to do any of that when you have a long period 241 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:02,279 in American history in which the enumerated power stopped and remains largely in force. 242 00:18:03,079 --> 00:18:06,920 The Sixteenth Amendments then passed, of course, the enumerated powers doctrine is still 243 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:08,319 there, which means the federal government can only do a few things. But 244 00:18:08,759 --> 00:18:15,079 clever people start to notice, well, if we can't directly do this, 245 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:21,039 we can use tax policy to affect the same end. And you start to 246 00:18:21,079 --> 00:18:25,240 see the tax code building and building and building as it now is. And 247 00:18:25,319 --> 00:18:29,039 this is now what we do with our tax code. It's not just that 248 00:18:29,079 --> 00:18:33,680 we don't want if the Democrats, that is, the rich, to have 249 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,160 money. Barack Obama famously said that in two thousand and eight he was asked, 250 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:40,759 if you raise the capital gains rate and it brings in less revenue, 251 00:18:40,839 --> 00:18:42,119 is it a good idea, And he said yes, because the people it 252 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:48,240 will affect have too much money. But it's that we can't tell people what 253 00:18:49,319 --> 00:18:56,319 to do in lots of direct ways federally, so we encourage them financially, 254 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,559 either by sending money to the states and taking it away if they don't do 255 00:18:59,599 --> 00:19:03,200 what we want, or just by giving people tax breaks. And that's how 256 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,920 you get to Obamacare. But in a less controversial although perhaps it should be 257 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,799 way, that's what the mortgage interest deduction is as well. Essentially, they 258 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,759 reward you for buying a house, they reward you for having children. I 259 00:19:14,799 --> 00:19:17,519 mean, we can debate the merits of all of this, but they can't 260 00:19:17,559 --> 00:19:19,559 make you have children, they can't make you by a house. They can't 261 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,920 change your status under the law based on those things. But they can encourage 262 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,599 that behavior by saying, if you want to do this in this we'll let 263 00:19:27,599 --> 00:19:33,279 you keep more of your money. And so much of the resistance to a 264 00:19:33,319 --> 00:19:41,039 flat tax, your preference comes from social architects who have realized, especially with 265 00:19:41,079 --> 00:19:45,400 this Supreme Court, that if we took away that ability to micromanage via the 266 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,960 tax system, the federal government would actually lose an enormous amount of power. 267 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,680 I think that would be great, but to them, this is the worst 268 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:56,480 thing in the world. Right. You cannot reach to all the society according 269 00:19:56,519 --> 00:20:00,599 to to get them the end that you want. Nless, you have a 270 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:04,759 quiver of many arrows, a toolbox with many implements in it. And it's 271 00:20:04,799 --> 00:20:08,000 not just the tax code, of course, it's regulations. The other side 272 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,359 of this is that you can get around the enumerated powers by somehow just regulating 273 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:18,720 things sneakily and something that has the absolute force of law and directly affects the 274 00:20:18,759 --> 00:20:22,160 way people live and spend and the rest of it. But it's a regulation, 275 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:25,240 so it doesn't count. But this is coming up before these coders soon, 276 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:30,640 isn't it. It is. This is really one of the biggest issues 277 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:38,839 facing the United States, this bureaucratic sprawl that has put an enormous amount of 278 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:44,519 power in the hands of people who were never elected and who aren't accountable to 279 00:20:44,559 --> 00:20:48,680 those who were. And it's been made worse by this case from the nineteen 280 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:53,440 eighties that's known simply as Chevron Right Chevron, which which makes you think it's 281 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:57,759 about oil or pollution or something like that. That's an environmental case that so 282 00:20:57,839 --> 00:21:03,640 many of these were, and whichever on held was that if the law is 283 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,240 deemed to be ambiguous by an agency, the courts must defer to the agency's 284 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,960 interpretation unless that interpretation is crazy. And the problem with that, especially in 285 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,359 an era of gridlock, and gridlock's generally a good thing, is that it 286 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:23,160 has allowed agencies to come in and twist the law to do what they definitely 287 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,440 could not get through Congress. And when you say this, people who love 288 00:21:27,519 --> 00:21:33,000 that administra to power say stability, but actually we're seeing the opposite of stability. 289 00:21:33,039 --> 00:21:36,000 Now that might have been a reasonable argument in I think nineteen eighty four 290 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:37,440 when the case was decided. But that's not what we've seen, is it, 291 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:41,559 James. What we've seen is Republicans win and they say this law means 292 00:21:41,559 --> 00:21:44,039 that, and then the Democrats win and they say no, no, no, 293 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:48,000 no, no, that law means this. And then we get these 294 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:53,920 dueling mandates, the same text underneath them, and they fight it out every 295 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:56,480 four years, and then a new guy comes in and then they reverse it 296 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:02,880 again. And if you are on the end of this ass a business or 297 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:08,640 a charity or any organization or just an individual, you are screwed because the 298 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:18,839 little guy is the one who gets trodden on. And the courts, which 299 00:22:18,839 --> 00:22:22,400 would normally be your recourse when you're trodden on, have sort of preemptively given 300 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,720 the game away and said, wow, that's nothing we can do about it. 301 00:22:25,839 --> 00:22:27,720 So the Supreme Court is going to look at this and I think they're 302 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:33,279 at least going to narrow the doctrine, which will be a really big win 303 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,839 for our stratitutional government a start stop. People will naturally say, well, 304 00:22:37,839 --> 00:22:41,200 what this what you want? That is you want to go back to the 305 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,000 old days with it, where the company polluters could just pollute however they want. 306 00:22:45,039 --> 00:22:48,160 The EPA was absolutely toothless, and you want to look at them in 307 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,279 the face and say, yes, that is exactly what I want. I 308 00:22:51,319 --> 00:22:55,480 want poisoned rivers with fish dead so thick on the top you can walk across. 309 00:22:55,599 --> 00:22:57,599 No, I don't. But what I want is very specific and sensible 310 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,720 things that are spelled out and voted to so people can be held accountable to 311 00:23:00,759 --> 00:23:04,920 them. I've told the parable before of our something, that of the charcoal 312 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:10,640 matt that affects our family business, and I'm going to tell it again. 313 00:23:11,279 --> 00:23:14,960 There is a spot in North Dakota where the trains stop to be refilled with 314 00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:18,319 diesel by our company. They're coming all the way from the west coast with 315 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:22,559 goods clattering their way across the plains. They stop in Fargo and we fill 316 00:23:22,559 --> 00:23:26,240 them up and they continue on or disgorge some goods. The spot where they've 317 00:23:26,279 --> 00:23:30,519 been filled up has been a spot where they've been filled up for decades, 318 00:23:30,559 --> 00:23:33,839 a very long time. So I'm thinking perhaps it's not ground in which you 319 00:23:33,839 --> 00:23:38,279 could plant a tulip and expect it to bloom next year, maybe in ten, 320 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,559 but it's probably got a bit of remnant oil soaked into the surface. 321 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,759 It's not clean. And I'm guessing also probably that you don't want to pour 322 00:23:48,799 --> 00:23:52,599 a whole bunch of toxic chemicals on there, even though it's not on top 323 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:53,680 of an aquifer, because it's just not a good thing to do. We 324 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,480 want to be good stewards at the earth. So when we go to fill 325 00:23:57,599 --> 00:24:02,599 up those those trains, yes, we're careful. You don't want to pull 326 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,799 the hose out and have a dump oil or gas diesel over the place, 327 00:24:07,079 --> 00:24:11,640 because that's wasteful. You're spending money on that. Well, here's what we 328 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,480 have to do though. In order to get the hoses up to the trains, 329 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:19,039 the guy has to carry them up this steep this hill, and in 330 00:24:19,079 --> 00:24:26,119 the wintertime it's miserable, so pulling this heavy hose up, jamming them in, 331 00:24:26,559 --> 00:24:29,279 and before he can start, he's got to put a big charcoal mat 332 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:34,279 under it so that if anything does drip from the spout with a nozzle, 333 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:38,440 the charcoal mat will absorb it. There will not be a jot an atom 334 00:24:38,759 --> 00:24:48,240 of petrochemicals that seeps into this already presumably poisoned soil. If he does not 335 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:52,960 do this and there is a spill, there is satellite interrogation of the site 336 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,599 going on all the time that can tell whether or not you had a spill, 337 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,720 and you have to report it right then, and if you don't, 338 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,799 there's a fine, and you're probably gonna get a fine anyway. So if 339 00:25:03,799 --> 00:25:08,880 it's twenty frickin' below in North Dakota and the guy who you's just hired, 340 00:25:10,039 --> 00:25:12,039 who's good, but he's probably gonna leave because the jobs are, you know, 341 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,319 labor market's insane. He's probably going to go off to the oil fields 342 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,799 or something like that. If he pulls it out a little too quickly and 343 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,359 some stuff gets down and the satellite sees it, you get dinged. I 344 00:25:22,519 --> 00:25:23,759 was with my brother in law who runs the company. We were sitting at 345 00:25:23,759 --> 00:25:27,480 dinner and he gets boom, he gets a text and there'd been a slip 346 00:25:27,559 --> 00:25:30,720 minute. There's been like a couple of gallons spilled, and he's just he's 347 00:25:30,759 --> 00:25:36,720 just beside himself because it means paperwork, endless paperwork for the next day or 348 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:37,839 so and having to go back to the authorities and this, that and the 349 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,160 other thing. Okay, take that example of a little bit of regulatory you 350 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:44,839 know, signing off on it. Well, of course, there should be 351 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,079 a fine if you spill some stuff and then magnify that across absolutely every part 352 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:52,880 of American industry. And you have the sense of these as I keep calling 353 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,279 them, boat anchors that have been draped around the you know, the vital 354 00:25:56,319 --> 00:26:00,039 spirits, the horses that should be pulling our economy. I'm not making an 355 00:26:00,079 --> 00:26:04,519 argument in favor of pollution. I'm just saying it would be nice if it 356 00:26:04,559 --> 00:26:10,480 was spelled out, voted upon, and perhaps a little less invasive and onerous. 357 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,759 Right, And that's the rule you're describing, that's not in the law. 358 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,359 What makes me crazy about this is that when you say I don't think 359 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,160 that the Environmental Protection Agency should be able to do whatever it wants, people 360 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,319 say exactly what you just said, which is also I suppose you want pollution. 361 00:26:26,599 --> 00:26:27,720 But the next thing they say is, no, we have to be 362 00:26:27,759 --> 00:26:30,759 able to enforce the Clean Air Act in the Endangered Species Act and so, 363 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,160 and you say, sorry, could you say the names of those again? 364 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:38,759 The Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act. No one I know, 365 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:44,400 literally no one I know, wants to repeal the Clean Air Act. It's 366 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,920 just that they don't think that it gives the federal government the right to come 367 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:52,799 into my house and regulate my vacuum cleaner. That's the problem. It's not 368 00:26:52,839 --> 00:26:56,759 that we want dirty air or dirty water. We have that legislation. It's 369 00:26:56,839 --> 00:27:00,880 extremely popular. It was passed on a biopartisan basis. There may be some 370 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,599 little parts of it, people will change here or there. The problem is 371 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,799 when ideologues and radicals take these laws twist them into meaning something that they don't, 372 00:27:08,559 --> 00:27:11,960 and then where's your recourse? And again, the problem with Chevron is 373 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,839 that if you and your example go to the court and say, obviously that's 374 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,920 not what it says in the law, which it sounds if it's not, 375 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,799 then the court says, I don't know. The agency says, so, 376 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,720 well, what is the agency? The agency is an executive branch that is 377 00:27:27,799 --> 00:27:32,279 nominally under the control of the president, should be more so, and it's 378 00:27:32,279 --> 00:27:36,480 not allowed to make law. So I think this is not just a start. 379 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:37,799 I think this is big. Although I do agree with you there's a 380 00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:42,880 lot more work to do. You mentioned that you don't want the government coming 381 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:47,920 in into some pretense and regulating your vacuum cleaner, and I'm here to tell 382 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:53,079 you that that's the sort of of of earth hatred of sort of that concerns 383 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,279 me. I mean, I have a dice and vacuum cleaner. It's battery 384 00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:02,880 operated and therefore sustainable. I plug it into this thing and there's it goes 385 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:04,400 into a thing in the wall, and the power comes from somewhere. I'm 386 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,599 not sure it's, but probably some nice little windmill that's going outside of town, 387 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,599 or the sun. God blessed the sun, Hail the Sun's soul evictus. 388 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,119 But you know, the battery operator one is holy. Then the corded 389 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,759 one that I have, of course is bad because it goes right into the 390 00:28:18,759 --> 00:28:22,480 wall, and somehow it doesn't have a battery involved, so it doesn't it's 391 00:28:22,519 --> 00:28:26,759 wrong. Batteries, batteries good, plug into it, all bad and if 392 00:28:26,799 --> 00:28:30,640 anybody wants to, you know, is concerned about the fate of the earth. 393 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,160 As Jonathan Schell once gave us the phrase, you would think that the 394 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,920 more sustainable the vacuum cleaner, the better. And since it is better, 395 00:28:38,119 --> 00:28:44,759 it ought to be enforced by regulation. There ought to be first rebates that 396 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,440 nudge you that way, and if there isn't, there ought to be penalties 397 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,920 for not using the proper vacuum cleaner. Because your vacuum cleaner. What they 398 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:55,400 want is for it not to suck so much. And you could see and 399 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,319 you want to say them about you know, could you the same apply to 400 00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:03,920 you? But I'm serious. Everything that they want consists of making our life 401 00:29:03,079 --> 00:29:07,759 worse. That the vacuum cleaner doesn't work as well, that the soap that 402 00:29:07,799 --> 00:29:11,559 you put in your dishwasher doesn't get everything off, that the shower that you 403 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:15,200 have doesn't have the pressure or the heat or the duration that you want, 404 00:29:15,359 --> 00:29:18,119 and that your toilet has to be flushed multiple times in order to get its 405 00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:22,440 job done. Because every one of the constricting regulations and things they have to 406 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,200 make things better for the earth make things worse for the people on it. 407 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,279 And that's kind of a feature, not a bug. I'm convinced that Brexit 408 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:37,759 began when the headlines appeared in the Telegraph and other papers that the EU that 409 00:29:37,799 --> 00:29:42,359 Brussels wanted to regulate kettles tea kettles. They wanted to regulate how hot they 410 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,440 got and how long it took for them to boil up. And I think 411 00:29:45,559 --> 00:29:49,000 that was the moment in which a great number of Bretons put down their papers 412 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,720 and looked stealily into the distance and some of the spirit of their ancestors and 413 00:29:53,839 --> 00:29:59,759 said this is the line and across that that shall not come, because they 414 00:29:59,759 --> 00:30:03,599 really that there was no end to the things that they could do to make 415 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:08,440 your life less convenient if it was draped with the mantle of the new morality 416 00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:17,799 of eco wonderfulness and sustainability. I'd like to think that Americans are more resistant 417 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:19,400 to that here. But you know, when you look at what we did 418 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:23,319 with light bulbs and the rest of it, we seem to have gone along 419 00:30:23,759 --> 00:30:29,960 just like everybody else. Yes, although you haven't had any choice, right 420 00:30:30,039 --> 00:30:30,920 well, I mean we had a choice for a while. We could be 421 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:37,000 weaned off the incandescence and then pushed into the awful little curly pigtail things before 422 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,079 they finally figured it out with LEDs that let us go between the two of 423 00:30:40,119 --> 00:30:42,720 them. Would it have been adapted as quickly if we'd not had the mandates. 424 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,960 No, Eventually, the superior technology would have worked, Eventually, would 425 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:49,880 have gotten cheaper. We would have gone there. But what we had was 426 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,240 I believe it was under the Bush administration. Thou shalt not have this kind 427 00:30:53,279 --> 00:30:57,720 of bulb that you like anymore. You just can't you know for reasons, 428 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,359 Well, this is why I'm such a federalist, because it's very difficult for 429 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,480 these questions to be meaningfully answered by the public when they get rolled into everything 430 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:12,240 else. We have these national elections, we focus too much on the presidency, 431 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:18,440 and people do not realize or do not care that as part of that 432 00:31:18,519 --> 00:31:22,839 they are voting, for example, to set tree logging policies in Oregon. 433 00:31:25,519 --> 00:31:29,279 But they are. It's just that they care a lot more about whatever three 434 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,240 or four major issues are being debated, and they should care a lot more 435 00:31:33,279 --> 00:31:36,960 about that. That's not irrational. That's a totally rational response to the political 436 00:31:37,039 --> 00:31:41,759 choices that they are given, and like Bob's is one of them. It's 437 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:48,079 really hard to get people to rebel against that sort of rule when that rule 438 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:53,799 is coming out of a permanent bureaucracy via a process they have not heard about 439 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:59,680 and being headed up by a president who is now in charge of seven hundred 440 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:04,400 and six million things. This is why I want to devolve more power back 441 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,160 to the states. I think there are a few national roles for government, 442 00:32:07,799 --> 00:32:17,440 the border, foreign policy, some trade, civil rights. But it's crazy 443 00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:23,880 that story you was told about North Dakota and the company and the EPA. 444 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,839 I mean, how are you going to get that resolved? James? It's 445 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:35,440 very difficult. There is in California a disastrous policy set by the federal government 446 00:32:35,599 --> 00:32:38,720 that regulates water. It's a very complicated issue. I've written a lot about 447 00:32:38,759 --> 00:32:43,279 it. I won't relate the whole thing here, But when I last went 448 00:32:43,319 --> 00:32:45,960 out there to write an update, I had dinner with a bunch of the 449 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:50,119 people who are to be fair on left hand right, who are trying to 450 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,759 get these EPA rules changed so that there's more water in the Central Valley for 451 00:32:52,839 --> 00:33:00,319 farming, and the biggest allies that they had and fixed this problem, which 452 00:33:00,359 --> 00:33:06,880 is a federal power that is being used to make life more difficult in California. 453 00:33:07,119 --> 00:33:12,039 The biggest allies they had were senators from other states. Because if you 454 00:33:12,079 --> 00:33:15,880 go into Louisiana or probably North Dakota and you say, hey, this is 455 00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:20,119 crazy, right, then the senator from those states says, yeah, that's 456 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:24,799 crazy. I'm sure I'll help you. But they couldn't get their two senators 457 00:33:24,799 --> 00:33:30,319 in California at the time, I believe it was Feinstein and Boxer. Maybe 458 00:33:30,599 --> 00:33:37,160 they couldn't get those senators to get on board because they had other concerns, 459 00:33:37,559 --> 00:33:43,440 namely environmentalism. Right, but you have a federal policy that is mostly affecting 460 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,119 California and the people who want to fix it live in other states and it 461 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:51,599 doesn't matter to them. This is ridiculous. And of course if that problem 462 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:57,079 were relegated to the state level, then people might actually be able to get 463 00:33:57,079 --> 00:34:00,240 a cross about it and get some meaningful change in their own state. Until 464 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:04,960 it is then those sentences, I mean, doan Finestein's passed on now. 465 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,519 But Diane Fins you can say, well, I'm sorry about this, but 466 00:34:07,599 --> 00:34:14,880 that's not an issue for California. That's an issue for the president. Well, 467 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,400 of course, if you support agriculture, then you're supporting monocultures, and 468 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:22,280 then you're supporting you know, the use of fossil fuels to fertilize, and 469 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:24,559 we can't have that. I always love that, you know, John Kerry 470 00:34:24,559 --> 00:34:28,360 will come out and tell us that the greatest threat now to the planet, 471 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,719 I guess is the fossil fuel consumption used in agriculture, and we have to 472 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:34,400 do something about this. And you said, raise your hand and say that's 473 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,760 true. But I am hungry some what I'm feeling a bit packish. I 474 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,400 would like the fact that there's lunch coming in, that there will be lunch 475 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:43,079 coming in a year from now. Europe is going through the same thing. 476 00:34:43,599 --> 00:34:45,920 And then, of course when you say, well, you don't want us 477 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:47,280 to have good, healthy food and you don't want us to eat meat, 478 00:34:47,679 --> 00:34:51,000 so you just want us to eat the bugs, right, And then of 479 00:34:51,039 --> 00:34:53,119 course they look at you, No, that's paranoid nonsense. We don't want 480 00:34:53,159 --> 00:34:57,960 you to eat the bugs, but they are a good source of protein. 481 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000 You know what cracks me up up though about this all is that California. 482 00:35:02,079 --> 00:35:07,480 Yes, federalism great root raw, but when California does something and passes a 483 00:35:07,519 --> 00:35:09,119 lot, it ripples throughout the rest of the country. Because it's such a 484 00:35:09,199 --> 00:35:13,199 large market. They say, we're not going to accept any chicken. We 485 00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,320 want all of our chickens to have a six foot by six foot living environment. 486 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,679 And so if you want to sell chicken here, then your chickens have 487 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,360 got to basically live in studio apartments somewhere. They did the same thing with 488 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:29,239 pork, and it all of a sudden shuts off the market. People in 489 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:34,079 far away places have to adapt to a California regulation California or Texas makes a 490 00:35:34,159 --> 00:35:39,280 change in their textbooks, and that too, ripples out. It's insane for 491 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:45,199 them to have as much clout as they do. But by the same token, 492 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:46,960 I would rather, you know, then people say, well, who 493 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:50,239 do you want actually then to set the national standard? Do you want it 494 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,519 to be business? Because in a sense, in American history the twentieth century, 495 00:35:53,679 --> 00:35:58,360 the American chain stores came into every single little town and changed the way 496 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,519 everybody did business. It's funny now that when we look back at the old 497 00:36:00,519 --> 00:36:04,800 postcards, we smile and say, look at that so Woolworths. There's a 498 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:08,119 Creskey, there's a cress Gosh, I remember those old variety stores. But 499 00:36:08,199 --> 00:36:12,559 at the time they were bitterly opposed by the retail merchants who correctly saw that 500 00:36:12,599 --> 00:36:15,000 they're they put out of business by these people. But still, eventually, 501 00:36:15,079 --> 00:36:19,159 you know, things changed, and these chains were able to set a national 502 00:36:19,199 --> 00:36:22,519 standard and a national attitude. But it was to the benefit of the consumer. 503 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,480 It didn't destroy the small towns like Walmart did, and it brought goods 504 00:36:27,519 --> 00:36:30,079 from all over the place to these small places. Now. Granted, yes, 505 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,360 there was the cheerful sound of the cash registers and we don't have that 506 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,039 on main Street anymore, but you do have the occasional beep beep here and 507 00:36:37,039 --> 00:36:42,719 there as people are using new tools like Shopify can bring you the new tools 508 00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,840 for commerce that can revolutionize the way you do your business. Shopify by Friendly 509 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:52,519 because Shopify is the commerce platform that is revolutionizing business worldwide. They've already taken 510 00:36:52,519 --> 00:36:54,360 the cash register that I used to speak of, that happy little thing where 511 00:36:54,599 --> 00:36:57,440 you know, the numbers would come up and the rest of it, and 512 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:01,320 I remember those sounds. But they've taken the cash register online helping millions sell 513 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,639 billions all around the world. But did you know that shopif I can do 514 00:37:05,639 --> 00:37:07,440 the same thing at your retail store, your brick and mortar place. Give 515 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:14,039 your point of sale system a serious upgrade today with Shopify Now. Shopify pos 516 00:37:14,079 --> 00:37:16,840 point of sales system is your command center for your retail store, from accepting 517 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:22,400 payments to managing your inventory. 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Got a shopify dot com slash 530 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:21,840 ricochet to take your retail business to the next level today shopify dot com slash 531 00:38:22,119 --> 00:38:28,800 ricochet lowercase, and we thank Shopify for sponsoring this the Ricochet podcast, Charlie 532 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:36,559 I mentioned there is something called the TikTok's unpopular with people in positions of power 533 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:40,159 who want to do something about it. I'm a free speech, free platform 534 00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:45,400 kind of guy. I also hate TikTok with every fiber of my being, 535 00:38:45,519 --> 00:38:49,480 right down to the pith of my marrow. What say you on the attempts 536 00:38:49,519 --> 00:38:54,360 to divest or change or do something about the TikTok peril? Well, I 537 00:38:54,440 --> 00:39:00,639 hate TikTok two. There are two reasons for that. One is that it 538 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:12,039 is a hive of stupidity and civilization destroying nonsense. The other is it's Chinese 539 00:39:12,039 --> 00:39:17,760 spyware. And I think that the federal government has a role in addressing the 540 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:24,199 second issue and not the first. That vote yesterday in Congress in the House 541 00:39:24,519 --> 00:39:30,760 was fifty to nothing, I know, and there's a reason for that, 542 00:39:30,119 --> 00:39:37,320 and that is that there is no doubt whatsoever that TikTok, which is owned 543 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:44,480 by a company called byte Dance, is really owned or at least extremely close 544 00:39:44,559 --> 00:39:52,239 to the Chinese Communist Party, and that is a problem. The people I 545 00:39:52,320 --> 00:40:00,679 have seen who have reverse engineered TikTok's apps have left me in no doubt whatsoever 546 00:40:00,639 --> 00:40:07,519 that it collects an extraordinary amount of information that is accessible by one of our 547 00:40:07,559 --> 00:40:15,199 geopolitical adversaries. That to me is a question for Congress. I was just 548 00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:20,440 talking about federalism. I very rarely think things are a question for the federal 549 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,639 government, but that is one of them. And so the federal government is 550 00:40:25,119 --> 00:40:37,400 asking nicely TikTok either to completely move from the grips of the Chinese Communist Party 551 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:40,840 into American ownership. In a sense, Bite Dances would have to divest or 552 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:46,280 be banned. I have no problem with that whatsoever. If the federal government 553 00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:50,960 had said we think that this is a grotesque app for grotesque people and it's 554 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:52,519 corrupting our youth, I would agree with that, But I would have a 555 00:40:52,519 --> 00:40:58,599 problem with them trying to get rid of it and sow with the First Amendment. 556 00:40:58,599 --> 00:41:01,079 But that isn't the case that being made. The other part of this, 557 00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:07,719 which is not currently being debated, but has in many places already been 558 00:41:07,039 --> 00:41:16,960 debated, is whether government agencies should permit TikTok to appear on employees phones and 559 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:22,760 computers and networks and so on. And the obvious answer to that is no. 560 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:28,079 Wait a minute, hold of say this calm stockism I'm hearing from you. 561 00:41:28,679 --> 00:41:31,480 If you say that the employees of the Federal the young staffers who come 562 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:35,360 to DC full of idealism, are not going to be allowed to have this 563 00:41:35,599 --> 00:41:37,800 entertaining, necessary social app in the telele, the next thing you're going to 564 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,400 be telling me is that they shouldn't be allowed to have sex on the table 565 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:44,960 in a Senate hearing room. Yeah, that's another my radical opinions. Actually, 566 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:49,440 but they shouldn't be having sex hearing room. It's like the plot of 567 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,519 a nineteen eighties or nineteen nineties movie. Somehow they managed to get a device 568 00:41:52,599 --> 00:41:57,440 onto the staffer that a lot who walks around the White House's enabled them to 569 00:41:57,559 --> 00:42:01,239 remotely map the exact dimensions of the play. Well, you know what I 570 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,119 keep saying about everything that had to do with nineteen eighty four, It turns 571 00:42:05,119 --> 00:42:08,480 out that we all volunteered for it. It wasn't imposed upon us everything that 572 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:12,559 or Will predicted. We signed up for, waved our hands, said can 573 00:42:12,599 --> 00:42:15,239 I have that toy? Please? Can you? Can you bring the telescreen 574 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,039 into my house? Now? Fucking do it? I mean, you know 575 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,639 what I thought about this, though, James, and I'm not extending this 576 00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:30,480 criticism to Democrats in Congress, because clearly there is a admirable bipartisan impression here 577 00:42:30,639 --> 00:42:35,440 that was yesterday manifested fifty to nothing. But there are parts of the Progressive 578 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,000 Coalition that are crying about this and suggesting that it's in Sibian fascism and They're 579 00:42:39,039 --> 00:42:45,840 the same people who thought that because the Trump campaign had bought a few thousand 580 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:50,719 dollars of Facebook ads, the election had been stolen. They're the same people 581 00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:57,760 who constantly go on about data mining, quite rightly by Facebook and Twitter and 582 00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,679 ISPs and so on. But for some reason, tech totok is exactly when 583 00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:04,880 TikTok is the problem. And I will finish by saying this forget for a 584 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:10,199 moment government power and this bill. If you are listening to this and you 585 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:15,039 have any sort of control over your home network whatsoever, do not allow TikTok 586 00:43:15,079 --> 00:43:19,519 on it. I don't allow it on my home network. It is blocked. 587 00:43:19,559 --> 00:43:22,840 It is blocked at the DNS level. Anyone in this house tries to 588 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:28,360 go to TikTok, it just doesn't work. It won't even look up the 589 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:30,679 information. And that goes for all of their CDNs and backup servers and so 590 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:36,000 on as well. This is extremely pernicious, and especially if you have children, 591 00:43:36,559 --> 00:43:42,000 get them off TikTok, put them on something else, you like social 592 00:43:42,039 --> 00:43:45,000 media, use whatever you want. But the US government is absolutely correct about 593 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,400 this, and I hope this goes through and I hope what it does it 594 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:53,639 annoys the Chinese Communist Party immensely, and we can all move into broad sunlit 595 00:43:53,760 --> 00:44:00,440 uplands afterwards. So I hope you want to offer the assurance to young white 596 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,920 women that they will be able to sit in the front seat of their car 597 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,760 and cry about something on another platform. There's reels, right. We used 598 00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:13,119 to have this wonderful thing called Vine, which essentially was TikTok, but was 599 00:44:13,199 --> 00:44:16,519 just didn't feel as creepy and ooky in an awful and the rest of it. 600 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:22,239 There will be something that will come along and you'll all be fine, 601 00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:24,440 but for now we'll just look at this back. I mean, yes, 602 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:28,519 you're absolutely right to block TikTok at the DNS level, because I feared that 603 00:44:28,519 --> 00:44:30,400 if I lit it in my house, it would instantly leap into the network, 604 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:36,639 talk to my smart oven somehow, and then handshake with an unused fire 605 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:40,000 stick that's plugged into an inert television downstairs. But you know, within a 606 00:44:40,039 --> 00:44:44,639 couple of days it would have gained root access and I'd be locked out of 607 00:44:44,639 --> 00:44:47,440 all my accounts. Of screw it to help with TikTok be gone before we 608 00:44:47,519 --> 00:44:52,360 go, Let's take one other cultural little leap over here, because we've pretty 609 00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:58,039 much covered the waterfront for the politics to the culture. But of course the 610 00:44:58,079 --> 00:45:00,119 oscars are coming up, and I put the off beers in the same category 611 00:45:00,119 --> 00:45:04,639 as the State of the Union speech. I don't. I don't watch it. 612 00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:07,159 My wife will, as women will, because they like to see what 613 00:45:07,199 --> 00:45:09,559 they're wearing on the red carpet, and they like to see how the entry 614 00:45:09,599 --> 00:45:14,000 actorses get dulled up in the rest of it, and they like to see 615 00:45:14,039 --> 00:45:17,320 you want and and all that stuff. But I care not about it. 616 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:22,400 I think, did you see Oppenheimer? For example? I did. I 617 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:24,559 went to the movies to say it, which is right, so did I 618 00:45:24,639 --> 00:45:29,440 so did. I went are the actual movies and was impressed very much. 619 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:34,679 So I was Guys, who when you hear the names when he meets, 620 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,960 you know, the various people in the names sort of open up a little 621 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:42,719 box in your head where you've stored the names of famous historical nuclear physicists and 622 00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:45,079 the rest of it, and you feel all proud of yourself for recognizing the 623 00:45:45,159 --> 00:45:49,800 name. But I, you know, I'm the only guy in the theater. 624 00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,719 Who's who's who's cheering? Who's the character's name? Oh my god, 625 00:45:53,760 --> 00:46:00,360 we're gonna have to I'm straw. No I'm thinking of is it it was 626 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:06,400 a teller who wanted to bomb everything? Yeah? Right, right right, 627 00:46:06,519 --> 00:46:08,840 Edward tell her so? And there he's a little fleshy, a little sweaty, 628 00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:10,519 and the rest of it. But I'm saying, there's my guy, 629 00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:16,679 there's there's mister coach team teller. And the fact that the movie lavished about 630 00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:22,920 an hour it seems to be on his inability or difficulty in getting security clearances. 631 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:27,639 But I was carried right along with it a marvelous performance. And I'd 632 00:46:27,679 --> 00:46:30,880 be perfectly happy if the soul movie you know, gets gets all of the 633 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,960 awards, because then I can preen that I made the right move. But 634 00:46:35,039 --> 00:46:37,519 I also think that Barbie is probably yet for something, And Charles, I 635 00:46:37,519 --> 00:46:42,199 know that Barbie probably wasn't your first choice to see. Did you get dragged 636 00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:45,559 to Barbie or did you go willingly looking to see what this is all about? 637 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:49,239 I didn't see it. You should, I still haven't. You should? 638 00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:53,960 You I should? You absolutely should, because it's not what either the 639 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,800 people who who are running around the room with it on their shoulders as a 640 00:47:00,119 --> 00:47:06,920 proof that their side is right, I think get it wrong. It's both 641 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:10,960 sides are right. And both sides are wrong. It's not an ideological, 642 00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:17,480 ideologically settled thing. And it starts, I think, with a brilliant series 643 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:24,000 of images that the director Gerwig, she's too smart not to know what she's 644 00:47:24,039 --> 00:47:29,559 setting forth here. How she literally is saying that the era of sexual liberation 645 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:37,079 destroyed the nurturing motherhood instinct in a generation of young women. And you can 646 00:47:37,119 --> 00:47:39,679 either say that she's celebrating it, but I don't think that she is the 647 00:47:42,119 --> 00:47:45,760 whole replacement. Well, the movie starts with the two thousand and one sequence 648 00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:49,559 that Stanley Kubrick took half an hour to do, but that Gerwig doesn't about 649 00:47:49,559 --> 00:47:52,239 five minutes where instant you know, they're all these little girls, the monkeys 650 00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:57,320 of the savannah and the African plans are pushing around carts and having tea parties 651 00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,559 and the rest of it with their dolls until the model of the Peers. 652 00:47:59,559 --> 00:48:04,199 But the model is Barbie and it brings about enlightenment, as the modelists did, 653 00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,519 and they start smashing their dolls. Well, we all know where that 654 00:48:07,599 --> 00:48:10,280 led, and it did not necessarily lead to a generation of fulfillment and happiness. 655 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:15,079 And there's a lot of that that informs the rest of the movie right 656 00:48:15,159 --> 00:48:19,880 up until the last line, which itself. People can take either way that 657 00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:23,960 it's either an expression of the desire of innate femininity to nurture and give birth, 658 00:48:24,199 --> 00:48:30,039 or it is a doorway to meaningless sexual pleasures. It's not a stupid 659 00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:35,800 movie, and so it's one of those things that I think that people ought 660 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,320 to watch. I'll take it over half of the Netflix stuff that comes gushing 661 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:42,920 through my television every single day. So I'll leave you with this. What 662 00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:45,480 are you watching that you think people should watch? And why? Okay, 663 00:48:45,559 --> 00:48:53,440 I just have to quickly admit confess, uh huh that I am a notorious 664 00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:58,679 movie idiot. I like talking with those because I'm generally proven to be. 665 00:48:59,199 --> 00:49:02,039 I sound smart than I am. But I'm blown away with everything that you 666 00:49:02,199 --> 00:49:05,719 just said because I don't do that. I can do that with music. 667 00:49:06,639 --> 00:49:07,800 I can do it well. I can do it with music, doo. 668 00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:13,760 I know you're just better than I am, But I can't do it with 669 00:49:14,519 --> 00:49:17,800 movies. I like movies, but I like most movies. That's my problem. 670 00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:22,360 I'm not a good critic. There are a few movies that I don't 671 00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:25,719 like. For example, I saw Independence Day two on a plane and turned 672 00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:29,360 it off. It's very rare for me, very rare for me. But 673 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,719 yeah, I always finished things. I'm a completionist. If I start something, 674 00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:36,639 I have to finish it or I get gitry. But that I actually 675 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:39,079 did not finish and don't regret. But the problem is, James, I 676 00:49:39,119 --> 00:49:44,000 don't have the deep and intelligent thoughts that you just had. And I've written 677 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:45,639 about this for National Review. There was this movie called The Boys in the 678 00:49:45,639 --> 00:49:50,280 Boat. Did you see that? Yes? I did. It spawned a 679 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:58,800 whole bunch of reviews at National Review, and I didn't read any of them 680 00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:00,679 because I wanted to see it. So I I saw it, and then 681 00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:07,360 I read what people had written about it, and then the movie was ruined 682 00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:08,880 for me because all of the criticisms that they made were obviously true, but 683 00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:14,159 they hadn't occurred to me when I was watching it. And I just think 684 00:50:14,199 --> 00:50:20,119 this is a sign of an imbecile, the imbecile being me. Well, 685 00:50:21,039 --> 00:50:23,920 we're all we all have different things on which we want to lavish our attention. 686 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:28,679 There's short spanter or mortal allotment here. And if somebody doesn't want to 687 00:50:28,679 --> 00:50:34,280 delve deep into the mechanics and bones and the language of cinema, but simply 688 00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,440 wants them to wash over them to be enjoy it as there's nothing wrong with 689 00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:39,960 that. No, but it can't not work. I'm stupid, It's what 690 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:43,440 I'm saying. So I'm just letting you know before I answer your question that 691 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:47,760 there is no insight or valuable criticism that you will hear from me because I'm 692 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:52,079 just dumb. Well, in that case, then you are a shunning example 693 00:50:52,519 --> 00:50:57,239 to people who feel the same way, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. 694 00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,760 I mean, in The Boys in the Boat, I within about five 695 00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:02,239 mins I thought, Wow, he's going to do it. He's gonna tick 696 00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:07,320 every box. He's going to give us every single cliche with that Barton Fink 697 00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:09,960 feeling of the of the sports movies at the time, right down to the 698 00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:15,119 you know, the the salty coach, right down, I mean, right 699 00:51:15,159 --> 00:51:17,519 down to the good gal love interest, right down to the funny friend, 700 00:51:19,039 --> 00:51:27,280 and even gives you Hitler, you know, my pounding his fist in fury 701 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:32,440 over these Americans, every cliche in the book, but done so not in 702 00:51:32,559 --> 00:51:37,840 parody, not with irony, but simply as ARCHETYCS rolled out to say, 703 00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,320 I wonder if this still works? Yeah, it still works. It all 704 00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:45,440 works, the montage works, the relationships, all all of these things that 705 00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:49,719 Hollywood used to turn out by the dozens. Fun things I like to do 706 00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:51,679 is go back and look at old You know, I spend a lot of 707 00:51:51,679 --> 00:51:53,239 time in old newspapers. And if you go back to the movie sections of 708 00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:58,119 the big towns Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and you will find 709 00:51:58,119 --> 00:52:02,880 in the thirties and forties page just stuffed with movie ads, ninety eight percent 710 00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:07,599 of them you've never heard of. And of those that you have, you 711 00:52:07,639 --> 00:52:12,920 will find movies that you never heard of with big stars, because these guys 712 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:15,679 made a lot of movies. They were in the system. They went one 713 00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:22,880 right after the other. And the corpus of American cinema is extraordinary, and 714 00:52:22,039 --> 00:52:27,480 we only really get the ones that you know, the top ones, the 715 00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:31,159 one that's stuck around. But the rest are still there somewhere. Every day 716 00:52:31,199 --> 00:52:35,920 on YouTube, every week I will find some example of American noir cinema from 717 00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:43,199 the forties fifties. Never heard about it, great crisp lean mean, brilliantly 718 00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,880 shot, great jazzy theme. Never heard of it. But you know, 719 00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:49,320 they made forty of them that year. By all the studios, and so 720 00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:52,079 I'm working my way through that. So what you're telling me, James, 721 00:52:52,199 --> 00:52:57,119 is out there somewhere. There is an enormous library of American movies about which 722 00:52:57,159 --> 00:53:00,159 I would have nothing of value to say, pretty much, but that might 723 00:53:00,519 --> 00:53:05,400 but might teach you. He's Here's one of the things, even the most 724 00:53:05,679 --> 00:53:08,719 boring and banal of these movies, I find myself pausing and looking at the 725 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:14,679 street, just looking at the inadvertent documentary that was presented when these guys, 726 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:16,079 When these guys went out and took a look. And even even if it's 727 00:53:16,079 --> 00:53:21,960 a set and they rebuild it, they're telling you what people would recognize as 728 00:53:22,079 --> 00:53:27,440 real. And it's fascinating and you realize how much of the vitality, the 729 00:53:27,519 --> 00:53:30,599 visual language of our streets we have lost. And a lot of that was 730 00:53:30,599 --> 00:53:35,840 through regulation. Lady bir Johnson and the rest of the Beautify America people they 731 00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,519 hated neon signs, They hated the garishness of it, They hated the American 732 00:53:38,599 --> 00:53:45,000 vernacular of the roadside. So they would pass laws that restricted the signage because 733 00:53:45,039 --> 00:53:47,840 a lot of the signs that people put in were perpendicular to the building, 734 00:53:49,079 --> 00:53:52,599 and some of the bolts might get loose and they might fall. They passed 735 00:53:52,639 --> 00:53:55,599 laws against those. So you used to be able to look down on American 736 00:53:55,639 --> 00:54:00,119 Street and see this forest of signages that would go in different and typefaces and 737 00:54:00,159 --> 00:54:05,360 styles and all the rest of it blowing in the golden hour and then illuminating 738 00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,880 the street at night. And it's gone. And it's gone partially by regulation, 739 00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:14,039 partially by the desire to beautify, partially because these places have emptied out 740 00:54:14,039 --> 00:54:15,880 and there's nobody there to begin with. But when you go to the old 741 00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:22,239 movies, you get a sense of the tremendous vitality the smallest American urban downtown 742 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:27,679 place. And it's good and it's sad, and it makes you think we 743 00:54:28,199 --> 00:54:30,079 is something we have to get back. You came to this country, you 744 00:54:30,119 --> 00:54:34,000 came here from another country. A lot of the people come to the big 745 00:54:34,039 --> 00:54:37,000 cities used to come. The idea has always been that the small town is 746 00:54:37,039 --> 00:54:39,679 the feeder to the big cities. The small town bring the values and virtues 747 00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:45,760 of the small towns into these cosmopolitan places, and there naivete somehow blends with 748 00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:50,760 the cynicism of the coastal cities or the Burshue whatever, And from this comes 749 00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:54,840 an American amalgam that is still idealistic but also realistic in a way that sort 750 00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:59,079 of crucible that mortar and pestle stuff. I don't know if that dynamic still 751 00:54:59,079 --> 00:55:01,960 exists, and it's not when it exists when borders are open and the cultures 752 00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:06,880 are changed by people who come from places with completely different values. That is 753 00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:10,679 the most rambling thing I've said all week. And I'm a guy who did 754 00:55:10,679 --> 00:55:15,920 a forty minute podcast. I remember a national serial day yesterday. Anything before, 755 00:55:15,159 --> 00:55:17,639 anything, before we go out, Anything you want to say as a 756 00:55:17,679 --> 00:55:23,480 parting shot to the Ricochet audience. Oh, well, if you have been 757 00:55:23,519 --> 00:55:29,599 on the site recently, you have seen that we've partially integrated then new search 758 00:55:29,719 --> 00:55:36,039 function into Ricochet to train it on real posts written by real people, clicked 759 00:55:36,039 --> 00:55:37,920 on by real people, commented on by real people, and so on. 760 00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:43,039 So, although that isn't version five, and although it is not the search 761 00:55:43,079 --> 00:55:45,000 function that you'll get in version five before, we be much more spiffy. 762 00:55:45,639 --> 00:55:52,840 It is at least much better than what came before. Hopefully and hopefully you 763 00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:57,440 enjoy it. Right, They've been training the new search function on large language 764 00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:00,719 models, which means when you search for my posts. Instead of coming back 765 00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:02,559 with a ready kill a lot icon, you will get an Asian Viking. 766 00:56:04,199 --> 00:56:07,000 But you know, bugs, bugs to work out. We could probably spend 767 00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:10,719 an hour talking about Google Gemini and maybe next week. We will hope to 768 00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:14,760 talk to you soon. Charles, it's been great fun, Charles CW. 769 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,440 Cook, National Review and Ricochet and other places and the rest of it. 770 00:56:17,559 --> 00:56:22,360 Where can people find the next thing You're going to write at National Review? 771 00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:25,840 Probably on Monday? Monday? Sign up, subscribe the rest of it. 772 00:56:25,880 --> 00:56:29,519 And you also, if you haven't done so, should go to ricochet dot 773 00:56:29,519 --> 00:56:32,000 com explore the member feed. Oh sorry, you can't because you're not a 774 00:56:32,039 --> 00:56:37,440 member, but you know, just pennies a day and you will find access 775 00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:40,679 to a sane civil rights community that you've been looking for your entire life on 776 00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:44,760 the Internet. I'm to the point where I just want a new Internet. 777 00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:47,400 I want to start from scratch. I'll pay somebody twenty five bucks a month 778 00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:51,199 so I can have access to it without the chum ads, without the junk 779 00:56:51,239 --> 00:56:54,039 sites, without the AI, without the control of YouTube and Google and all 780 00:56:54,039 --> 00:56:57,519 the rest of it. I want a new Internet. But until we get 781 00:56:57,519 --> 00:57:00,400 to that point, there's Ricochet dot com see you there, Charles, thank 782 00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:07,119 you, and we'll see everybody here at this podcast. Next week, Ricochet 783 00:57:07,639 --> 00:57:10,800 Pea join the conversation.