WEBVTT

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Guests. We don't need no steaking
guests. Ask not what your country can

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do for you, ask what you
can do for your country. Mister Garbatschev,

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tear down this wall, read my
lips. It's the Ricoche podcast with

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Rob Long and Peter Robinson. I'm
James Lilacs today. Our guests are nobody.

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It's just us talking. We all
beling it, so let's have ourselves

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a podcast. But we also understand
governing is not entertainment, not about building

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a brand or virtue signaling. It
is about delivering results. And our results

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in Florida have been second to nine. We can and we must deliver big

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results for America. I agree.
We never get bored. Welcome everybody.

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This is the Ricoche Podcast, number
six hundred and forty three. That's a

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lot of podcast and you may ask
yourself, how did you get to that

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number. We've got a thriving,
wonderful, vivacious community over at ricochet dot

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com. Why don't you go there? Why don't you join? For that

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matter? When you do, you'll
discover the part of the Internet that you've

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been looking for for years, A
saying center right civil conversation, the likes

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of which is nowhere else, and
we're proud of it. I'm joined by

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well who I am, James Lyles. I am joined by Robin Long in

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New York and Peter Robinson in California, and rob the New York aspect comes

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to me to mind today because we
had a rumble at our high school last

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night. Really, what does it
mean? That's a story, it does,

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and it made me think of West
Side. So we had a bet,

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you know, about fifty kids,
fifty sixty kids or so, and

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in a melee, in a fracas, there was a stabbing. There was

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gunfire, wow, serious, there
was There was a glock recovered with a

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fifty bullet magazine, the likes of
which I'm never I'm imagining some some you

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know, pepper pot gun that a
guy had. And it made me think

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of West Side story exactly for the
rumble, just that. But it made

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me also turn into Milton Glazier,
you know, the old man who ran

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the pathetic little drug store, who, at one point, just in absolute

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despairer asks I think Riff or Tony
or one of them, is what is

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the matter with you kids? Why
do you have to do that? You

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know? And if you go back
and look at West Side story. From

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the very start, they had every
single liberal piety nailed in that Officer Krupsky

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song. They really did, probably
proclaiming, Hey, I'm deprived on account

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of I'm depraved, or I'm the
prave, not acond of I'm deprived.

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And fifty sixty years and nothing appears
have changed, because I'm looking at all

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the sudden the local subredits, as
people discussed this today, and it's generally

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society's fault, it's the gun's fault, it's we've failed these children at home

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and all the rest of these I
think you have that you wants to have

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your facts wrong, though, James, because if they recovered it, I

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don't think they possibly could have recover
were to glock because those there would be

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illegal for those children to have you, So wouldn't you write right in Violet?

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And I tend to think that perhaps
the sign the signs that proclaimed the

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school to be a gun free zone
may have been um uh, not in

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a proper type, not big enough. If they've been twenty four points,

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they might have worked, but they
were probably twelve or fourteen. Now,

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so, um, what do you
think that elapsed time is between something like

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that happening. Something's like that happening
in New York a lot. And then

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and then someone else saying, sort
of in the press or sort of like,

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well, actually, you know,
crime is down. Yes, we

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do get that. It's always your
evidence of your eyes and ears of no,

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really, you shouldn't pay attention to
your eyes and ears. Crime is

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down? Which is I mean,
as an aggregate, I guess it's true

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actually in New York City in some
ways, some things, but it's really

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just how you you know, you
you throw in the scoff laws and the

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you know, the meter cheats,
and also of crime. It does seem

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like it's down. But if you
just just just concentrate on people shooting at

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each other and hitting each other with
heavy objects, I think it's not down

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at all. Or pushing each other
in front of trains. Here's something to

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consider. I knew somebody, I
know somebody who was braced by some youths

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last night after the event who were
looking for a confederate of theirs and who

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would would apparently one of the miscreants
involved in who'd escaped the attention of the

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police. And when this person declined
to assist them any further, they moved

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close. One of them moved closer
as if to relieve this person of her

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property or phone, who whatever it
was, and apparently the dog interceded vocificate

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dogs, whereupon the person's hand went
to their waistband. Now, if this

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person had indeed produced a firearm and
then backed off when the dog did something

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and then ran away, the question
is do you report this? Do you

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report it because there's no point in
reporting it because they're not going to find

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the and if they find the person, nothing is going to happen to the

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person. So this isn't reported,
and therefore there's no statistic that says that

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crime is actually going up. How
many people just refuse to participate in this

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because they know there is no point
and you know, it breaks down as

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you can expect on the neighborhood,
the neighborhood group on next door, which

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is Twitter for old people. Everybody's
appalled. But you wait, you look

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at all of them and say,
look, nothing is going to change.

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You know, look around here.
Look at all the sign the multicolored signs

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and everybody's long. Look at the
way that everybody around here votes. Look

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at the last election that we had, Look at the legislature that we have

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and what their concerns are. Nothing
is going to change. You realize that,

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don't you. James. I wanted
to about a two or three question

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interview of you because I don't understand
it's been a long time now, but

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what ten twelve years ago I was
fortunate enough to visit your house. You're

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talking about a neighborhood high school.
I gather you live in a beautiful neighborhood

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of large homes. I'm going to
guess your home. This neighborhood was built

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in the twenties, perhaps nineteen fifteen. Who was one of the outliers,

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fifty built by a candy manufacturer,
built by a man who was part of

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the booming Minneapolis candy industry who made
the walnetto in addition to the in addition

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to the Scotch loaf, which I
don't think is a So so we go

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from my memory of you, of
your just beautiful, leafy Midwestern never been

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invited, So I wouldn't turn to
the last century neighborhood to this image now

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of a melee that was serious enough
that somebody got stabbed. That meant that

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means there were knives present, the
cups retrieve a glock with fifty rounds nearby?

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Is this gang activity? Is this
how did it come about? Is

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this pre planned? We were joe
about West Side story. Did the cops

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have to get called to break what
happened? Happened in that beautiful neighborhood.

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Well, I'll tell you that the
cops showed up all mass There was everybody.

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There was park police, there was
highway patrol, there was sheriffs.

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There was everybody here. They all
came running facts. They got there quickly.

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They got there quickly, And apparently
it was rival factions at a community

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event that have been held at the
high school. It was not necessarily specifically

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high schoolers themselves. Some of them
may have been no, but yes,

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So this leafy, beautiful neighborhood of
mine, which I had absolutely adore and

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feel lucky to live in. I'm
looking at video online. There was not

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related to the stabbing or the shooting, but just simply a couple of people

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pummeling and kicking somebody who was on
the sidewalk. Now, that sidewalk,

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that space is where I watched my
daughter walk into high school for the first

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day and for the last. That
space is where I pass every day over

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that house there, that's the one
in the corner of my street. And

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in addition to the person being pummeled, there's the usual techno savages who are

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milling about their phones to make sure
that every single little incident, moment of

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the kick and the push and the
shove and the stealing, is captured and

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uploaded to social Vietna social media.
So it is one of those things that

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sticks with you and gives you a
sense of burning, burning impotence, because,

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as I said, unless there is
some seismic shift in what people have

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come to expect about the civic order, nothing will be done. Okay,

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two more questions, if I may, well, I mean just trying to

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understand this. And again, obviously
for you it's personal because it happened to

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your high school. But for me, I've been there all right. Are

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the cops neighborhood cops? Is there
going to be the kind of thing where

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the neighbors can talk to the police
and there's some neighborly small scale maybe doesn't

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arise to the level of getting debated
on the floor of the Minneapolis of the

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State House. Over in Saint Paul. You said, should you report gun

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and My answer is, if you
know the cops, if there's a genuine

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sense of neighborliness, you'd report it
and just say, officers, I want

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you to know, you've got guys
out on patrol. We live here.

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There's a kid with a gun in
the neighborhood. Right. Well, if

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if, if, if somebody,
if there had been a police car,

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to whom one would have been able
to speak. Yes, I'm sure,

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I mean there were just there were
cops everywhere and you could approach them and

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you could ask them what was going
on in the light. But we don't

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have officers Krupkey or Clancy walking the
beach, swinging swinging a club and you

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know, checking keying a little box
on a pole and checking in. So

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we don't know. Okay, So
the last question is did what kind of

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reporting took place? Is there a
strip woulden cover a neighborhood event like this?

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I guess is there a local newspaper
or is it? So just tell

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me what was the press? Well, the press was one stabbing shooting at

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this high school and it was it
was Wow, it's right there in the

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front page of our paper today.
So yeah, it was a big thing

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because it's anomalous and um uh,
you know they can. They're not going

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to be able to not cover it. It's a big deal. It doesn't

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happen around here, but it did, and so yes it did get covered.

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Um but again, you know,
part of the problem on social media

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is that the wrong accounts on Twitter
are covering it. There's one that is

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quite quite peppery when it comes to
local crime, and people are accusing them

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of all sorts of built in biases
and the rest of it. So you

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can't trust them. So I hate
to link to these people. I don't

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want to do. We have a
fair source that we can use. It's

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it's it's fraught with so many angles
that it is just difficult for people to

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sometimes confronted anyway. So that I
do not not to be labor everybody with

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the details of of my little corner
of the world. But it's indicative of

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sort of a larger social crackling fracturing
that we see in every single large American

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city. The sense is that it
is getting worse and that there is no

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not that there's no will to do
anything about it, but there's just there's

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there's just well maybe that there is
no will nobody really really talks about what's

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necessary. And if you if you
start talking about stern penalties for juveniles of

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actually putting carjackers the first time into
jail, you will get everybody come in

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another woodwork and saying, well,
you can't do that. That just hardens

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them. It doesn't teach them anything. Um well, it may dissuade them.

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The knowledge of six months, you
know, picking up trash on these

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I might might turn a mind or
two against this sort of thing if they

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knew it would be swift and certain. But we can't have that discussion,

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I guess. So that's where I
am. So the other thing, of

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course, and people say Minneapolis is
not that they say Target, because that's

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the big head gruss. I can
almost see it from here and we'll get

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to De Santis and Trump had just
a minute here. But it really is

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fascinating to me to see exactly how
corporations are behaving and reacting to this.

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Now, you guys, I'm just
ask you, what's your take on the

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whole target controversy in the latest and
like it won't go broke thing, I

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can tell you we're talking about personal
things. Target matters to me. I

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never shove a Target, but my
daughters love it. Why is this because

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there's stylish stuff and I'm not just
talking about clothing here, but stylish stuff

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if you've got to. I have
a son who's moving from San Francisco to

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Austin, Texas, and Target is
one of the places you think of for

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curtains and maybe some desk furniture office
furniture, because it's stylish and inexpensive,

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and it's extremely as far as I
can tell, it's extremely well run.

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The people there are trained, you
can they know their inventory. It's a

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well run operation. And then we
hear that Target is well, you'll have

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to explain the immediate controversy. I
mean Target, there's a there's a woke

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transgender element to the story. The
story that has my attention because of where

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I live, is that I think
it's the Target CEO who announced in the

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most recent earnings call that inventory shrinkage, that is to say, theft is

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now costing Target half a billion dollars
a year. And similar related story,

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the enormous Nordstrom in downtown San Francisco
announced that it's closing and they put it

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in an official statement. They didn't
say anything about crime. They didn't use

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that word, but conditions have changed
and they can no longer do business in

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San Francisco when they're customers and employees
no longer feel safe. Oh my,

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these are two major well run retailers. Of of course, Target headquartered in

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Minneapolis. And there's a second strand
to the Target story that I'm not up

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on, but there's some sort of
transgender or woke element as well. Fill

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me in on that one, James. Well, at first as Nordstrom is

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citing changing dynamics, which you just
yes and yes, and they're leaving and

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organized shoplifting rings, you know,
point zero zero one percent of the people

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doing ninety percent of the work is
probably part of it. But I'll ask

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you, Rob, I know you
have Target in Manhattan. I think there

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has to be a few. Yeah, there's one in Manhattan. And there's

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one which is some I would describe
as hell on Earth in Brooklyn, which

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I once was forced to go to
and regretted every minute of it because that's

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it's it's just bedlam. It's just
it's impossible to make your way through it.

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It's not it's not the clean,
beautiful Target that we all remember in

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love. So what is your impression
of the embroider the Bruhaha, they're kurf

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Fluffel that they're currently undergoing. Well, I mean, I don't you know,

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I don't know. I think it's
a mistake for corporations to sort of

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try to go past what they need
to do, which is to sell good

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products and you know, clean space
and that kind of thing. Um.

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I think it's a disconnect between the
people sort of in HQ and the people

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who are running the stores. I
mean, the analogy I would use is

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that they used to be in Burger
King. I know when the Burger King

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camp account was that Jay Walter Thompson. This is million years, billion,

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billion years ago. The Burger King
company, the corporation, the suits would

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always want to come up with some
of the clever, creative, edgy kind

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of ad campaign. But you know
it's the these these these franchise businesses are

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a little like you know, medieval
fiefdoms, right, there's a you could

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be the king or the lord,
but you don't have that much power.

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The barons have a lot of power
too. And the barons in this case

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where the store owners, the franchise
owners would own a string of burglings around

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the country and they would always come
for the big convention and see the fancy

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new creative, very edgy campaign,
and they would just say, no,

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no, no, no, Show
the burger. Show a hot burger,

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juicee burger. That's what people want
to see. People come into our restaurants

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because they're hungry. They want to
eat the food. So show the food.

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The fries are crispin thing and salt, and the burger and the cold

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ice cool. Just do that.
Just do not attempt to grow a brain.

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And that is probably the problem.
You see. I think you saw

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bud Light, I think you see
the Target. Yes, that the woke

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thing is the way it's expressed.
But the tendency of people in media and

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in the corporate HQ to attempt to
make a simple thing more complicated or to

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do additional things in addition to trying
to get you into Target to buy stuff,

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to do something else, to seem
hip and cool with it is almost

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always a disaster. Always a disaster. Yeah, I think it's right.

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I mean Target has been having pride
material for I don't know how many years,

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and it really hasn't been much for
a nation. Nobody cares. I

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think what changed this year is all
of a sudden people got the impression and

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correctly so that all of a sudden
there was this trans element that had been

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amplified in the problem. So and
then that's who's it four? Right?

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I mean the question is just just
shure numbers. Who's it four? I

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mean, if if we all took
a pill tonight and got rid of whatever

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our transphobia or whatever it is,
that with the decome we all got rid

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of tomorrow, how many trans people
were talking about I mean, let's we're

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talking about a very small number of
people. The idea that you want to

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like to devote your part of your
store for this kind of merchandise is like,

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well, that seems kind of eccentric, especially in places where I mean,

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look most of the you know,
eventually the look I understand the pride

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I mean the target in Manhattan or
Brooklyn or big cities that happing in pride

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sections that might make sense. Actually
they were they're smart to do that.

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Um, but this obsession with like
the idea that this this thing, so

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that the numbers just aren't there,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

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I mean, you can say virtue
signaling in the rest of it, wad

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I think what I think this is
my This is my impression that it's a

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result of the ideological loadstar moving that. Whereas before when you had pride was

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LGP, you know T will attack
that on whatever it's statistically insignificant. Now

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you have, as Andrew Sullivan wrote
in a pretty good substack, I think

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last week, you have what used
to be the old gay rights movement being

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supplanted by queer theory. People would
say, well, isn't that the same?

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Don't think you want to be called
queers? Well, it is complicated

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because queer theory is much more cultural. Marxism is much more Michael Folk.

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It's much more deconstructing gender. It's
it's much more blowing up a whole bunch

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of ideas and replacing them. Well, there's infinitely malleable set of thought about

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human beings and sexuality that is different
from the old you know you're a gay

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man, you're a lesbian, you
know, you like both whatever. It's

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much different. So when you say
queer now you can actually mean somebody who

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is probably heterosexual but has adopted some
peculiar little derivation that they found on Tumblr

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to make themselves feel special, so
they are now part of this because it's

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cool to be that. Right.
You don't really have to change what you

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do or you're interested in. But
you've got your own little particular flag and

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your own little gender and your own
little side, and you're own little pronouns,

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so you're queer. So the intellectual
loadstar of the whole gay rights movement

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moved seamlessly without anybody really noticing it
into queer to queer theory, just the

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way that equality moved somehow into equity
without anybody absolutely noticing. And in both

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of these cases it is a structural
shift of language and thought. The guys

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the target aren't that's smart to probably
note this. They just note that while

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we got more queer people now,
so let's go all in on that.

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That means going all more on the
trans bit because that's cool. And you

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know, the governor lieutenant governor of
Minnesota sported this t shirt the other day

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said protect trans kids. It's got
a big knife on it, and I

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think she can stab somebody who who
is opposed to mastectomies for sixteen year olds.

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That's what you're talking about. And
since the whole forces of hate are

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supposedly assembling to keep children from transitioning
medically physically in the rest of it,

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then we must be opposed to those
forces of me. So there's a virtue

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in coming and opposing the people who
are opposing this new good thing. And

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there's also this sort of go along
get along borne by the cultural wind things,

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where people fall into this and say, well, obviously this is this

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is new, and this is important
and trans is important, and all the

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pass just blown up. What they
don't get, I think is that a

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lot of people who are perfectly content
to I don't care. If you are

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an adult and you think this that
whatever, I just I don't care.

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They're not interested in having biological mails
compete in women's sports. They're not interested

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00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:36.799
in biological mails who have not done
any sort of physical transition and whats're mending

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full access to women's spaces and calling
them So they don't buy it. They

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just they don't buy it. And
whereas before that they would be content to

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just ignore it, now they are
being compelled to believe it and having compelled

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speech in which they are required to
say these things that that is a woman.

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You can't say otherwise, are your
folk or you are, as our

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00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.640
political constituents in the newspapers that a
bigot who's knuckles are literally dragging on the

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ground. So that's what I think
it is. It's an ideological capture.

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It it's people not paying attention to
this. And you think, well,

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the other part of it is that
Satanism got attached to this. Isn't that

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fun that one of the artists with
whom Target was partnering is a Satanist and

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has all this Satanist cool pasteli stuff
in his website. Well, it's a

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different kind of Satan than we're thinking
about. It's the sort of there is

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no Satan really, but we're just
being individualistic and you are your own God,

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etc. But still, it's like, you don't have to actually probably

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antagonize your Middle America base by going
with guys who are putting out a little

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Satanist pins about how we need to
put up guillotines for homophobes. I've been

305
00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:48.200
clicking around during this conversation because now
I'll shut up. Now I've dominated those

306
00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:51.680
whole damn thing. I'll shut up. I've been clicking around during this conversation,

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00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:56.720
and here's what I found. Target
hasn't just put for sale a few

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sweatshirts with the Pride rainbow on them. They've got according to what I found,

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they put up Take Pride, a
sort of displays in store after store

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after store with hashtag take Pride,
which leads you to we at Target,

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we have a simple but powerful manifesto. We're not born with pride, We

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00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:23.359
take pride. We're making our message
loud and clear. Targets proudly stands with

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the LGBT COM. That's politics,
that's not retail. Target has waded into

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an ideological battle that nobody invited,
unless, of course, so if you're

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you spoke to the Middle American,
even though I live in California, I

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would view myself as a Middle American. I would find that offensive. I

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00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:47.160
do find a defensive. They didn't
need to wade in, They didn't need

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00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.799
to take sides. They perfectly find
selling this or that piece of retail.

319
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But they took sides. They waded
into an ideological struggle, and they shouldn't

320
00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:00.400
be surprised if there's pushback. We're
going to be people who disagree. I

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00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:07.160
think Target has a little explaining to
do to its shareholders into its customers.

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Honestly, I had thought they just
found themselves in the middle of something.

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Nope, they waded into it.
Rob. Do you think it's an ideological

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00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:22.119
position or is it? Is it
simply? I mean I I you know,

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yes, I feel I'm torn because
part of me feels that, yes,

326
00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:30.119
this, you know, the sort
of wokeism is a problem. But

327
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another part of me finds myself in
um unexpected for me and um vociferous agreement

328
00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:45.920
with Peter Teel, who, in
a recent interview with Barry Weiss identified about

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00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:49.079
ten or fifteen things he was more
worried about for America than wokeism. And

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00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:53.599
I think sometimes people on the right
it's we's when we go to this kind

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of outrage. And I'm not sure. I I'm not sure. I really

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I really feel that I think Target's
going to pay a price in the marketplaces

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00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:07.920
they should. I mean, I
put it this way. Had had Target

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convened a giant zoom meeting of Target
store managers across the country and said,

335
00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:18.400
hey, what do you think of
this? You're the ones that you're the

336
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:22.119
closest to your customer, what do
you think of this? I think those

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00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:29.880
results would be very interesting and probably
very revealing for Target. I'm interested in

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00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.519
Peter Deal's fifteen things that are more
important than I mean. I understand that

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00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:37.640
people get spun up about particular examples
and the rest of it. And yeah,

340
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:42.960
and that, yes, there are
economic, political, demographic things to

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00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:45.799
be concerned about. I think we
can be concerned about all of them.

342
00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:52.000
We can walk and chew gum.
But there is an ideological deconstruction taking place

343
00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.559
in American culture that woke and would
not even a term I like anymore.

344
00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:00.599
I wish we had a better one
is cumulatively injury. And when it when

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00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:06.960
it happens to nearly every single institution
at the same time, it's it's it's

346
00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:11.519
termites that know how big and grand
your house may look, it's being eaten

347
00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.319
away from the inside, which is
the intention, the expressed intention critical race

348
00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:18.720
theory. Yeah, Rob, I
hear you. Hear being really bored with

349
00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:21.079
me talking about this, Yam.
I might be honest with you. I

350
00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.559
understand it's a difficult issue, but
it's just it's to me, it's so

351
00:25:23.720 --> 00:25:26.880
boring. It's what everyone talks about
all the time. And when I watch

352
00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:29.799
you know, when you watch cable
news, they're talking about it. When

353
00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:33.240
you read a conservative press, they're
talking about everyone's talking about all the time.

354
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:37.079
I agree it's crucial, but it's
I'm just so I can't. I'm

355
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:40.759
just being honest. I am so
bored with it. There's nothing new about

356
00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:44.640
it, there's nothing new. It's
just it's just a one more outrage machine,

357
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:47.759
which I get, I understand,
but I just I'm just being honest.

358
00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:52.559
I'm just I just can't gin up
at on Friday at twelve thirty two

359
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:59.119
pm, I just can't gin up
any enthusiasm for once again going through all

360
00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.759
the terrible, woke things that are
happening. I just don't care right now

361
00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:06.960
about them. I mean, I
know I've probably I will the future,

362
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:08.599
but there's nothing for me to be, not only for me to do about

363
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:11.799
it right now. I don't got
to Target anyway except say, oh,

364
00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:17.039
you know Target's gonna pay a price. Well, here's the thing. I

365
00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:19.359
mean, I got to go there
soon to get stuff for my daughter when

366
00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:22.200
she gets a new apartment because she's
got a job, which is great,

367
00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:26.440
and she's she's incredibly we're gonna have
to outfit a new place for her.

368
00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:30.640
And Target's got some great sheets,
but there's no way I'm gonna buy them

369
00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:33.160
at Target. No, certain,
No, I don't think you should buy

370
00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:33.960
your sheets a target. You know
where I think you should buy you Where

371
00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:37.079
would that be? Well, boll
And Branch. They're the best sheets you

372
00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.200
can buy exactly why And the reason
is well, I mean where she is

373
00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:45.279
probably not gonna have air conditioning because
she's still at that stage in her life.

374
00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:48.480
Maybe I'll get her a window United
Target. But whatever the weather,

375
00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:52.119
whether it's cool or cool, or
whether it's summer hot, Bowler Branches are

376
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:56.359
absolutely perfect for whatever climate you happen
to be living in, because you need

377
00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:59.200
a great night's sleep, and you
get a great night's sleep on bull And

378
00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:03.240
Branch. It's they're the betting expert. They make the highest quality sheets with

379
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380
00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:12.240
traceable organic cotton. They get softer
with every wash. The signature hammed sheets

381
00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:15.559
those the ones I am I get
for her as well. They're best seller

382
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:18.480
for reason for Bowling Branch because they
use the highest one hundred percent of organic

383
00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:22.279
cotton threads on the earth, and
each sheet set, as I said,

384
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:26.720
Slow made for superior softness and a
better night's sleep. They feel buttery to

385
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bolster. They're perfect for both cooler and

386
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week out they're incrementally softer than they were

389
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the week before, and they are. But the other thing that I like

390
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into the box in which they come
Yeah, I know that's probably the least

391
00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:48.720
important thing, but there's an unboxing
ritual to a Bowl and Branch sheet that

392
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I can't wait for my daughter to
experience because most of the sheets they come

393
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in, they get these plastic things
and you open them up and you pull

394
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them out put Bowl and Branch to
such a beautiful job of it. They're

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we thank boldon Branch responsing this the
Ricochet Podcast. All right, gentlemen,

403
00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:33.559
Um, Tim Scott, Ronda Santists, they're in Rian. What do you

404
00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:41.440
think? So? Um? I
just loved Tim Scott. I just loved

405
00:28:41.519 --> 00:28:47.319
him. Now I have a kind
of background question that touches everything I'm about

406
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:48.480
to say. I want to go
on and on, but the background question

407
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:53.039
is this, Am I just nostalgic
for something that at least half the population

408
00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:57.839
now doesn't even remember? And that's
the That's Ronald Reagan. That's politicians who

409
00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:03.960
understood optimism and a lightness of touch
and who could connect with their audiences as

410
00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:11.200
ordinary human beings in a neighborly American
way. Tim Scott has all of that.

411
00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:18.240
He has a I found it and
just an immensely moving personal story getting

412
00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.480
into trouble as a kid, being
raised by this saintly single mother who worked

413
00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:26.160
and worked and did her best to
keep him out of trouble, turning himself

414
00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:32.599
around becoming a Christian, understanding the
importance of hard work, the gifts of

415
00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:37.039
being an American. He talks about
his faith. I'm not just tossing that

416
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:42.400
in there. It's all just tremendously
moving details to follow. There's not a

417
00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:45.839
lot of policy that comes out of
all of this, and he barely touches

418
00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:51.559
on foreign policy. So you take
one look and say, this is not

419
00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:57.319
a fully baked campaign yet. But
oh my goodness, in the current climate,

420
00:29:57.960 --> 00:30:03.480
I just found him so refreshing.
And then De Santist is almost exactly

421
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:08.960
the reverse for me, in that
there's a record as governor, there's a

422
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.079
fundraising operation, there are plans to
put people on the ground in Iowa and

423
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:19.519
New Hampshire. Deeply organized, he's
highly intelligent. He's thought his policies through.

424
00:30:21.160 --> 00:30:25.400
You've got everything there that you want
to put in that half dozen thick

425
00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:30.839
binders that go on the on the
bookshelf in every campaign headquarters, so you

426
00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:37.240
can look up where your candidate stands
on any issue. And gee, and

427
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:42.400
I really want de Santists to succeed. That's where I started. But there's

428
00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:48.400
a kind of, I don't know, a kind of flatness to the affect

429
00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:53.599
I just feel as though he's just
even when he's doing that. The campaign

430
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:57.279
video, the announcement video, now
you have to expect that to be pretty

431
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:00.000
good because they've got as much time
in the world as they want to shoot

432
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:03.720
that. That's him in a camera
and they can do take after take after

433
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.559
take. So I'm going to guess
that this is the top of his form

434
00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:12.440
and he's It's not that it's just
not that good. There's no warmth,

435
00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:15.799
there's no connection with it. I'm
just so this is why I'm interested,

436
00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:18.440
especially what Rob has to say,
because of course Rob would be all over

437
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:26.240
the professionalism or likely So you've got
these strange candidates, yin and yang versions

438
00:31:26.279 --> 00:31:30.640
of each other. I personally,
I'll just go ahead and say it right

439
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:33.160
now, not that I think listeners
would be in any doubt about it.

440
00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:38.279
I hope either one of them can
overtake Donald Trump, but each has these

441
00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:44.279
enormous strengths but also glaring weaknesses.
That's what I think. And again I

442
00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:48.440
sort of wonder if I say,
the Wall Street Journal said it and it's

443
00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:52.480
editorial on Rond de Santis said he
could benefit from even a little bit of

444
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.480
Ronald Reagan's self deprecating humor. Tim
Scott understands humor and lightness of touch in

445
00:31:56.559 --> 00:32:00.200
De Santis has none of it.
But I might just am I saying things

446
00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:04.839
that nobody relates to anymore. Does
everybody want anger? No? No,

447
00:32:04.920 --> 00:32:07.799
I think I mean, I think
you're that's the situation think about. I

448
00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:12.799
don't think you have to remember how
Ronald Reagan ran to know that he he

449
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:16.200
ran very successfully. Like it's it's
a people or people don't really change.

450
00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:22.200
They do like optimistic future. You
know, someone their leader facing the future

451
00:32:22.200 --> 00:32:24.200
and talking about the future optimistically,
which is what Ronald Reagan did. He

452
00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:27.839
talk about the future a lot for
an old man, talked about the future.

453
00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:30.880
And I think that is actually what
not only Republican primary voters want,

454
00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:36.200
but what the general voters want somebody
talking about the future. And luckily for

455
00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:40.079
the Republicans, they have like the
world's oldest relic from the past to run

456
00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:45.759
against, so really talking about the
future right and unfortunately, the front runner

457
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:47.519
for the Republicans right now, just
right now, I don't think that's going

458
00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:51.680
to last. But for right now
is somebody who's also obsessed with the past,

459
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:57.160
not the future. I think it's
really right about Ron to Sanders.

460
00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:59.759
I have an old friend who does
a lot of campaigns, and he said

461
00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:10.359
that a campaign error is when you
don't take advantage of an opportunity to be

462
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:16.039
a human being. Because the way
you win the presidency really is to you

463
00:33:16.119 --> 00:33:21.599
have to act more normal for about
ten more seconds than your opponent. You

464
00:33:21.640 --> 00:33:23.680
don't have to be normal. I
mean, Donald Trump's not a normal person.

465
00:33:23.799 --> 00:33:27.680
He's very abnormal in many many ways. He lives in and lived in

466
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:31.400
a giant golden tower and has had
a golden toilet. Right, but he's

467
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:37.960
still, even to this day,
seems more normal than his opponent in twenty

468
00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:44.039
sixteen, Hilary clown who seems so
weird. Right, So so Ron Sanders.

469
00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:45.839
Guess the Twitter thing had a lot
of these glitches and was this and

470
00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:50.039
that and people, oh my god, I mean, this is an opportunity

471
00:33:50.039 --> 00:33:51.799
for him to say, yeah,
boy, a lot of it was a

472
00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:55.200
lot of fun to do. I
find Eon a fascinating guy. I wish

473
00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:59.359
there weren't those glitches. But we've
all been on that zoom call, right,

474
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:02.079
We've all had that problem, right, and most of working Americans will

475
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:05.279
not and say, yeah, you
know, I know. Sometimes the thing

476
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:07.759
just doesn't work, right, Okay, that's fine. Then you're then then

477
00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:12.760
it's a it's not a one day
story where you're trying to mitigate damage.

478
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:17.119
It's a story in which you are
moving your identity and your personality forward.

479
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:22.000
And that is what happens to him. The next week is going to be.

480
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:24.480
I mean, look, I think
he's um. I think he's running

481
00:34:24.599 --> 00:34:31.840
a classic gubernatorial campaign. We talked
to Simscott a minute. You know,

482
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:35.519
this is these are not done people. These are smart people. They looked

483
00:34:35.519 --> 00:34:39.400
at the past. Right The last
Republican city Republican governor to get into the

484
00:34:39.400 --> 00:34:43.840
White House was a quarter of a
century ago, George W. Bush.

485
00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:47.679
He ran against you know, Orn
Hatch, Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes,

486
00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:52.599
Alan Keys. He only really won
contender, and that was John McCain.

487
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:58.679
That's right, that's fairy. This
is not This is not that campaign.

488
00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:02.079
And so I I think what I'm
interested in, I mean, I'm trying

489
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:05.840
to you know, not I don't
necessarily have a favorite right now. But

490
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:10.480
what I'm interested in is just watching
how how how much relish Ronda Santis has

491
00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:15.920
to take a part Donald Trump,
because that's the only way for him to

492
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:20.400
win the nominations, the only way
from getting the White House and where where

493
00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:22.440
he's planning to take apart Donald Trump, And he just said something very shrewd

494
00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:30.800
yesterday which he said he kept it
on COVID. Donald Trump did great stuff

495
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.000
in the first three years, so
totally supported him, which is true.

496
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:37.199
And then he turned over his presidency
to Anthony Fauci, right, And that

497
00:35:37.360 --> 00:35:40.800
is a very stark difference between the
two of them. And it doesn't require

498
00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:44.519
him to say, oh, you
know the January sixth, this not doesn't

499
00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:45.679
require to get in any of those. Letting get any of those just just

500
00:35:46.039 --> 00:35:52.239
clear eye to the Republican primary voter. When it push came to shove,

501
00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:55.360
he blew it. And when push
came the video what I had the same

502
00:35:55.760 --> 00:36:00.360
what the Santis video. Yeah,
there's nothing but Trump saying we shut it

503
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:02.119
down, we shut it down,
and we were right. We shut it

504
00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:05.599
down. Right, it's like a
minute and a half Trum saying shut very

505
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:08.239
very shrewd um. But on the
other hand, he doesn't seem like he

506
00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:12.400
seems kind of like a jerk a
little bit like I meant, I mean

507
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:15.119
DeSantis. People I know who've met
him say he's not. But I know,

508
00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:16.440
it's like, he just seems kind
of jerky. So he's gonna have

509
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:22.480
to I think when you're when you're
your your chief opponent is everybody knows is

510
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:27.079
kind of a lovable jerk. I
mean, in a way if you like

511
00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:30.559
Trump, nobody says he's not a
jerk. He's a jerk. So you're

512
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:32.960
gonna have to come up with a
contrast. So I was what I like

513
00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:38.960
was but Tim Scott is that Tim
Scott seems to be running the way old

514
00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:44.079
timey Republicans run, you know,
and I kind of like that. So

515
00:36:44.360 --> 00:36:47.000
um, but I think we're gonna
see some more people jumped in, and

516
00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:54.280
I think it's I mean, the
only the secret weapon that I think that

517
00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:59.760
Drawn de Santis has is that the
press thinks he's worse than Donald Trump.

518
00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:04.360
Yeah, how can that be?
That really does feel like the tenor of

519
00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:07.360
the coverage. They hate him more
than they hate Trump because he might win.

520
00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:09.840
Because he might win. That's it. Yeah, that's it exactly.

521
00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:14.239
Also because he's like he's he's affective. Right, So if you, if

522
00:37:14.280 --> 00:37:16.519
you, if you, if you, if you're looking for these political fights,

523
00:37:17.559 --> 00:37:21.960
you're this is a governor who's been
effective. He's been effective at like

524
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:23.280
I mean, you know, I
just said I was bored of wokeism,

525
00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:28.519
But you know, Rod De Santis
has been effective at like combating that.

526
00:37:28.639 --> 00:37:32.599
I I you know, I feel
like, you know, I'm the governors

527
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:37.239
like De Santis and Brian Kemp who
were smart about COVID, I think are

528
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:44.039
would be much better in the White
House then the former president who wasn't try

529
00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:45.480
you. I mean, we say
to the press, why do you guys

530
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:50.639
hate De Santas? He's Trump but
without the Trump, And they reply,

531
00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:52.360
that's why we hate him, right, That's why. I mean, all

532
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:54.920
this talking about how he's a Nazi, all that stuff, like the plant,

533
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:58.840
all that stuff that that I think
is gonna play well for him in

534
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:04.000
the Republican primary. He'll wear it
like a badge. Republican primary voters are

535
00:38:04.159 --> 00:38:09.400
hip to the character assassination that happens
in the mainstream press. They already,

536
00:38:09.440 --> 00:38:15.159
they've discounted that already. When Donald
Trump is indicted and loses a lawsuit,

537
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:20.760
his popularity among Republicans goes up.
And it's not because Republicans are somehow degenerate.

538
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:25.440
It's because they understand that this guy
has been treated unfairly, whether you

539
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:28.239
like him or you don't like him. I don't like him, but I

540
00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:31.519
do think he was treated unfairly.
So you know, DeSantis should be wearing

541
00:38:31.559 --> 00:38:36.079
this as a badge all you.
You know, he should be a liberal

542
00:38:36.119 --> 00:38:39.159
media left and right and tell Tumps. You know that it tell Tums comes

543
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:43.239
time to actually run a general,
right, which is what what every Republican

544
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:45.440
candidate does. You win the nominate, you run right and win the nomination,

545
00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:49.480
and then you run to the center
to win the general. So Rob,

546
00:38:49.519 --> 00:38:52.119
could you as a professional in media? And you too, I mean,

547
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:54.760
James, You're I think of you
more as a broadcaster, but that's

548
00:38:54.800 --> 00:38:59.519
probably because your voice is so beautiful. In any event, the question is

549
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:01.559
this. I had one encounter with
Rhonda Sanders in person. It was when

550
00:39:01.559 --> 00:39:06.239
he was a congressman and we were
both at a conference and we both got

551
00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:08.880
bored at the same time. So
we went off to the coffee shop and

552
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:12.960
each of us had a cup of
coffee and a croissants. He was heavier

553
00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:15.920
than than he is now. He
was he was he was just he was

554
00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:22.599
a perfectly lovely guy. We just
chatted, we talked politics, and I

555
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:27.320
see the Rhonda Santis in the campaign
video of the announcement video, and it

556
00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:30.679
looks to me. Tell me if
I'm wrong, is the question at the

557
00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:36.360
end of this. But it looks
to me like a guy who thinks that

558
00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:39.199
the moment the camera is on,
he has to be somebody else. Yeah,

559
00:39:39.360 --> 00:39:44.159
and that is a rookie's mistake.
Yeah, what do you think?

560
00:39:45.239 --> 00:39:46.079
No, I totally agree. Yeah, I do kind of get that feel.

561
00:39:46.199 --> 00:39:51.840
But I'm just thinking of Newsom coming
in and hip hip checking Biden off

562
00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:54.760
the stage, and the country having
the opportunity to literally vote between the California

563
00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:58.199
and the fact that would be great
for the country. That would be great,

564
00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:00.679
That would be a clean debate.
Here's a choice too, totally different

565
00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:05.639
ways of looking at America. But
I think it would come down to I

566
00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:07.360
mean, I think we I mean
maybe this is I'm obsessed with it.

567
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.280
Maybe maybe I'm obsessed with this and
I shouldn't be. I should be obsessed

568
00:40:10.280 --> 00:40:14.280
with wokism. Who knows, But
I am obsessed with the test of COVID.

569
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:22.440
And if you're gonna put Florida against
California, Florida wins. Um And

570
00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:28.400
we know that Florida wins because you
can look on the www. Whitehouse dot

571
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:34.679
gov website to see the states in
action in their excess deaths, and there

572
00:40:34.679 --> 00:40:38.920
are more excess deaths in California than
there are in Florida. Um, but

573
00:40:39.079 --> 00:40:43.679
you cannot you cannot separate wokeism.
Again, we got to come up with

574
00:40:43.679 --> 00:40:50.079
a better word from the COVID response
because both are theition on the imposition of

575
00:40:50.159 --> 00:40:54.119
restriction on human activity and thought by
the state. Okay, so I accept

576
00:40:54.119 --> 00:40:58.400
that. I guess what I mean
is that the left and the media want

577
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:02.639
to say that row On de Santis, and again I have no dog in

578
00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:06.760
this fight, but just because they're
talking about Rhn de Santis, that Ronda

579
00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:15.400
Santis is his entire governorship and leadership
and ninety nine point nine percent, you

580
00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:21.639
know, smashing victory when you ran
for real ectum was because he's a reactionary

581
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.000
and he is like to put it
in a six week abortion ban, which

582
00:41:24.039 --> 00:41:30.239
is probably a mistake. But whatever
anti trans policies, his like quixotic fight

583
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:36.599
against Disney, all that stuff,
right when I really think it's because he

584
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:45.719
was right about lockdowns and school closures. Gavin Newsom, Donald Trump, Anthony

585
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:52.119
Fauci were wrong, and the New
York Times also wrong about them. So

586
00:41:52.199 --> 00:42:00.559
they are trying to memory hole this
incredibly incredibly, incredibly tragic, long lasting,

587
00:42:01.320 --> 00:42:10.719
decades long ill effect mistake they all
made and celebrated and squashed all squashed

588
00:42:10.760 --> 00:42:15.280
all the dissent for and they try
to pretend that didn't happen. So there

589
00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:17.960
now they're they're they're they're looking for
trivial things to jump on. But I

590
00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:23.480
think that the more the more Descantis
says, at the most, the most

591
00:42:23.679 --> 00:42:29.280
monumental event of the past worldwide event
of the past decade, maybe the past

592
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:32.239
two decades. The only time the
world has been talking about the same thing

593
00:42:32.840 --> 00:42:37.800
before the COVID was World War Two. Right wherever you went in the world.

594
00:42:37.880 --> 00:42:39.079
In World War Two, they were
talking about World War Two. Wherever

595
00:42:39.119 --> 00:42:43.480
you went in the world during COVID, they were talking about In that moment,

596
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:49.480
we had a frivolous president who could
not concentrate or learn, and we

597
00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:53.239
had a very very strong, powerful
governor in Florida, and we had a

598
00:42:53.239 --> 00:42:59.159
frivolous president and frivolous governor in California, and we had a couple really strong

599
00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:01.400
Republican governor as you made the right
call, that to me is like he

600
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:05.519
should be saying that over and over
and over again. Could you touched on

601
00:43:05.559 --> 00:43:09.079
this notion that they're trying to memory
hole at all? Yeah? I okay,

602
00:43:09.079 --> 00:43:12.480
So this has been puzzling me,
and I've come up with this kind

603
00:43:12.480 --> 00:43:16.960
of cockamami analogy in my mind,
and you'll agree that it's cockamamie. I

604
00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:20.320
don't know whether you'll agree with the
analogy, but let me try it out

605
00:43:20.320 --> 00:43:22.800
and see what you both do with
it. It's like, it's this and

606
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:30.800
I have just been this weird thing
that for two years the country was shut

607
00:43:30.920 --> 00:43:37.840
down, the state assumed dictatorial powers, unlike this cockamami. Public health official

608
00:43:37.880 --> 00:43:40.079
in the county where I live in
California, who twenty four hours before with

609
00:43:40.119 --> 00:43:45.440
the lockdown nobody had ever heard of, suddenly told us we had to stay

610
00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:49.199
in our homes, shut down our
businesses, wear masks if we want to.

611
00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:52.800
It was unbelieved, and now it's
as if it never happened. We

612
00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:57.960
don't talk about it now. Part
of that is understandable, in that we

613
00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:01.280
don't want to talk about it.
But I have this. Here's my analogy,

614
00:44:01.320 --> 00:44:07.360
or my cockamami theory, is that
this is all like a childhood trauma.

615
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:14.800
We're pressing something but it still explains. We won't talk about it,

616
00:44:14.840 --> 00:44:19.440
therefore we won't understand the way this
is true. But in some weird way,

617
00:44:19.559 --> 00:44:24.840
what we all just went through and
our pretending never happened, still explains

618
00:44:25.039 --> 00:44:30.800
eighty percent of what's happening in the
country, including the rumble at your high

619
00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:34.519
school. In some way those are
connected, I think, Well, maybe

620
00:44:34.519 --> 00:44:37.039
so in that the kids were deprived
of a year or two of actual school

621
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:42.079
exactly, they forgot how to socialize. They've got out of right. It's

622
00:44:42.599 --> 00:44:46.679
entirely possible. But you know,
we don't talk about it because why Well,

623
00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:50.519
because a lot of the people who
went along with the lockdowns were people

624
00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:55.159
in the media who were neurotic and
who were we're part of the modern thought

625
00:44:55.199 --> 00:45:00.360
that replaced that that elevated health to
above all else, not your spiritual well

626
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:06.440
being or your emotional or your intellectual
apparatum. No, it was just you

627
00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:08.679
know, the church, the cult
of health. If you eat the right

628
00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:13.320
things, you'll you'll be a turnal. And so to them this was very

629
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:15.480
important, and they were very good
at playing all the rules, and they

630
00:45:15.480 --> 00:45:19.039
were very good at enforcing the rules, and they had the total societal endorsement

631
00:45:19.119 --> 00:45:22.400
behind them. Of being the good
little people who followed the good little rules,

632
00:45:22.760 --> 00:45:25.280
so they participated in this and the
fact that it may have been overblown

633
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:28.360
or that it lasted too, they're
not going to give that up. They

634
00:45:28.360 --> 00:45:30.599
would rather just move along rather than
have a full accounting of it, because

635
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:37.480
in their hearts they really think that
they were always right and the mat was

636
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:39.239
the yahoo's in the Red States who
were doing what they were supposed to do,

637
00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:43.039
and that's the reason that everybody died. I mean, if you go

638
00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:47.920
to the coronavirus sub credit, you
will find to the the dead enders who

639
00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:52.400
every day gathered by the thousands and
talk about how the rest of us are

640
00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:55.159
fools for not wearing masks on on
airplanes for example, to still there and

641
00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:59.880
they're all and they're all, they're
all they're sifting through the guts of every

642
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:02.320
single little story about long COVID because
they're all convinced that they have it and

643
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:07.599
explains everything else for them. So
yeah, we're not going to get the

644
00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:12.440
accounting because the people who would be
doing that don't want to admit anything they're

645
00:46:12.480 --> 00:46:16.000
wrong because they don't think that they
were. And go back to the last

646
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.559
time we had something like this,
Peter, and I think it would probably

647
00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:23.079
be in the last few years of
the teens underwood Row Wilson, when we

648
00:46:23.159 --> 00:46:28.480
had things happened that today we completely
forget. The amount of government censorship,

649
00:46:28.840 --> 00:46:34.519
the mandatory Rara Palmer raids, the
Palmer, the nationalization of the rails.

650
00:46:34.719 --> 00:46:37.599
Right, there's all kinds of things
that happened that change the culture in a

651
00:46:37.599 --> 00:46:40.280
lot of ways. And if you
look through the newspapers, it's fascinating to

652
00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:45.400
see everybody flip and switch on a
dime and march right along with what the

653
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:50.000
government was now telling them. And
that was forgotten in the Devil May Care

654
00:46:50.519 --> 00:46:53.840
twenties that followed. You know,
just it just people just moved along.

655
00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:59.280
We're not moving along right now because
there are all kinds of injuries that were

656
00:46:59.280 --> 00:47:04.559
made that were deep than we thought. And the you know, does Randy

657
00:47:04.599 --> 00:47:08.840
Weingarten want to apologize, No,
she's double she's red conning and rewriting history

658
00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:13.639
to make herself to the person who
was to her. She's you know,

659
00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:17.599
if he was the one who was
trying to rip the chains from the schoolhouse

660
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:22.400
door to let the kids pour in. Do any of the people who believe

661
00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:25.840
that it was probably not a good
idea to send everybody home for work permanently,

662
00:47:25.880 --> 00:47:30.320
that it destroyed the office basis tax. No, they won't because all

663
00:47:30.360 --> 00:47:34.559
of a sudden the work at home, you know, people don't want to

664
00:47:34.599 --> 00:47:37.800
mingle too much or so no,
we're not going to have that. Say

665
00:47:37.800 --> 00:47:39.599
two things about the three things about
politics, right. The first thing is

666
00:47:39.639 --> 00:47:44.000
that I feel like that Peter,
You're absolutely right, and I don't think

667
00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:47.920
we're sure yet how long these ripple
effects will go or how they'll work themselves

668
00:47:47.960 --> 00:47:52.119
out. I mean, I think
that what happened in twenty sixteen and sort

669
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:58.639
of the Trump administer Trump campaign and
certainly his administration kind of collected this frustration

670
00:47:58.760 --> 00:48:04.639
that people had from the two thousand
and eight financial collapse, where it seemed

671
00:48:04.679 --> 00:48:09.679
to people and I don't think they
were wrong that the very powerful financiers who

672
00:48:09.719 --> 00:48:16.719
made huge mistakes um didn't really pay
a price and bailed out bailed out.

673
00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:21.000
But but I hear I actually would
different view that it's not that they didn't

674
00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:22.199
went to jail, because the truth
is they didn't. Most of them didn't

675
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:27.679
do anything illegal, anything wrong.
They just should have gone broke, because

676
00:48:27.719 --> 00:48:31.639
that's what happens in capitalism and I
remember talking to a friend of mine who

677
00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:35.000
is a very big financier, and
I was saying, you know, we're

678
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:37.519
good, what we had to protect
the financial system. What do you want

679
00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:38.880
people selling apples on the street.
And I was like, well, I

680
00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:45.440
kind of I kind of want the
chairman of AIG selling apples on the street.

681
00:48:45.079 --> 00:48:49.360
I kind of want those people to
lose their net worth. I really

682
00:48:49.400 --> 00:48:52.239
do um at least as a down
payment on the bailout. I'm not saying

683
00:48:52.239 --> 00:48:57.079
that we shouldn't bail them out,
but I think that the first payment should

684
00:48:57.079 --> 00:49:01.360
have been checks from the liquidated network
of the people running banks that failed,

685
00:49:02.760 --> 00:49:07.039
and there seemed to be and then
within a year everybody who's back to making

686
00:49:07.440 --> 00:49:12.440
bank again. And I just didn't
feel right. I don't think it feels

687
00:49:12.519 --> 00:49:16.920
right to people that that now in
America where it used to be that if

688
00:49:16.920 --> 00:49:20.239
you were going to get seriously rich, I mean, you're gonna get a

689
00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:23.400
family office rich. You were going
to get like your grandchildren weren't going to

690
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:25.679
have to work and be they're gonna
be screwed up rich. That kind of

691
00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:30.800
rich. You're gonna build a museum
rich that you had to build something you

692
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:36.199
had to make something, you had
to invent something, and now you can

693
00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:38.199
get you can be you can have
almost a billion dollars, you can have

694
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:45.159
seven hundred million dollars getting stock options
for being the CEO of a publicly health

695
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:47.840
company. I mean, you can
make all you can get. You can

696
00:49:47.880 --> 00:49:53.440
have generational wealth from being an executive
in a company. And that I think

697
00:49:54.840 --> 00:49:59.400
also disquiets people. And I think
that is part of kind of where we

698
00:49:59.440 --> 00:50:04.079
see the tuitional kind of things breaking
down because Republicans have traditionally been allied with

699
00:50:04.119 --> 00:50:07.360
that kind of stuff. Um,
and I suspect that there are a lot

700
00:50:07.400 --> 00:50:13.800
of Republicans who think that's something that
needs to be addressed. Rob, just

701
00:50:13.840 --> 00:50:15.440
one more thing about politics, because
you had by politics, is that the

702
00:50:16.159 --> 00:50:22.519
strength that um, the strength that
that that that people like n governors like

703
00:50:22.599 --> 00:50:24.400
Ronda Santists. But I would I
know he's not running, but Brian Camp

704
00:50:24.400 --> 00:50:28.079
I'd just say because it isn't like
Ronda Santis is a standing on top of

705
00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:32.320
a pyramid all by himself. That
they're not just giving you bad news.

706
00:50:32.360 --> 00:50:37.760
That's what makes the campaign, that
makes this campaign strut so important. They're

707
00:50:37.800 --> 00:50:45.280
telling you I made the right decision. I brought good news to my state.

708
00:50:45.519 --> 00:50:49.159
It's not just I wouldn't make a
mistake like those guys are jerks and

709
00:50:49.159 --> 00:50:52.079
and they're terrible. It's I was
right. I made the right decision.

710
00:50:52.360 --> 00:50:55.199
If you vote for me, you're
not You don't have to just vote a

711
00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:59.920
negative. You could vote a positive. And I think that's a very power

712
00:51:00.039 --> 00:51:04.880
full psychological state for a voter,
whether you're a Republican, a primary voter,

713
00:51:04.960 --> 00:51:07.559
or you're a general in the general
elect I think to have somebody who

714
00:51:07.559 --> 00:51:14.119
you're like, oh, this guy
made the right decision, I think is

715
00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:15.760
it powerful? You know, whether
he can capitalize one or not. A

716
00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:21.960
certain rains to be seen, but
it's a powerful campaign strut for sure.

717
00:51:22.280 --> 00:51:27.280
Get him through the primaries. Rob. I happen to know that you're working

718
00:51:27.280 --> 00:51:30.960
on a big project, and this
is one reason that you are able to

719
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:34.360
speak with particular insight and passion about
COVID. And I just want to start

720
00:51:34.360 --> 00:51:37.440
teasing this project because it's fascinating to
hear you talk about it. You and

721
00:51:37.480 --> 00:51:42.840
I talk. I hear this,
So let me ask you this question.

722
00:51:43.880 --> 00:51:47.519
What's the project? And why is
Jay Bodicharia? Really briefly, and why

723
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:52.800
is Jay Bodicharia to pick up on
where you just on the statement you just

724
00:51:52.840 --> 00:51:58.079
made. Why is Jay Bodicharia in
a position to give a testimony as he

725
00:51:58.119 --> 00:52:00.719
did the other day for a few
minutes he died in He was part of

726
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:05.079
Ron de Sanders's announcement on Twitter.
Why is your friends? So, what's

727
00:52:05.079 --> 00:52:07.880
the project? And why? What
the heck does Jay have to do with?

728
00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:10.800
Confirming that? To sand explain that, Well, we know, we

729
00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:15.480
know Jaj's a friend of the podcast. Jay's a friend of the Ricochet,

730
00:52:15.559 --> 00:52:17.480
He's a friend of ours. He's
you know, and he's a we've ever

731
00:52:17.519 --> 00:52:22.719
met him. He is the most
He's the sort of the kindest, gentlest

732
00:52:22.760 --> 00:52:24.079
person. Like you kind of meet
him, you think, like man,

733
00:52:24.360 --> 00:52:29.239
you know, Actually, I think
Jay would do better if ten percent of

734
00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:30.960
the nasty things people said about him
are true. Actually, I think he'd

735
00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:37.599
probably be a little bit like happier
in his life. Um uh So the

736
00:52:37.639 --> 00:52:40.519
story we're telling a long form stories
now in the Ricoche network. We're sort

737
00:52:40.519 --> 00:52:44.679
of preparing them. We got a
bunch more we're doing, um and we've

738
00:52:44.960 --> 00:52:46.360
raised some money to do that.
And what are the ones we're doing is

739
00:52:46.360 --> 00:52:51.519
a story really kind of a to
ten episode serialized thing. It's part of

740
00:52:51.519 --> 00:52:57.239
our large master plan for ricochet um
of the story of COVID. But I'm

741
00:52:57.320 --> 00:53:00.000
i'm you know, you can't tell
the whole STIs as too many things.

742
00:53:00.039 --> 00:53:02.840
But essentially I'm telling a story in
three parts. The first part is everything

743
00:53:02.840 --> 00:53:07.880
we knew about viruses and everything we
knew about COVID resist up to like March

744
00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:10.599
of twenty twenty. The second part
is all the mistakes that we made.

745
00:53:12.039 --> 00:53:15.280
And then the third part is what
we did to the person and the people,

746
00:53:15.519 --> 00:53:17.719
not just Jay, but people who
were right. And we're giving us

747
00:53:19.199 --> 00:53:22.760
the right science and the right research
and the right conclusions. And so my

748
00:53:22.880 --> 00:53:28.440
general theory is that Americans decided,
not Americans. This is the big distinction,

749
00:53:28.480 --> 00:53:34.280
Not Americans, but American and public
health officials and politicians a panic attack,

750
00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:37.719
and the media too, the media
panic attack, and they behave like

751
00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:43.960
people who have panic attacks. They
shut down all external information. They decided

752
00:53:44.039 --> 00:53:46.400
very early on on the course they
were going to take in February of March,

753
00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:51.360
shut down everything, shut down schools, nobody leader have spray your lettuce

754
00:53:52.599 --> 00:53:59.320
and were I'm asked it to bed
And they never ever change course, ever,

755
00:54:00.159 --> 00:54:04.559
even though, people like Jay Jay
Brandon's study in at Santa Clara County

756
00:54:04.599 --> 00:54:08.079
in April twenty twenty, where he
revealed some pretty good news we should have

757
00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:12.920
been celebrating, which is that,
hey, tons of people have much so

758
00:54:12.960 --> 00:54:15.920
many more people have COVID than we
thought they are. They they've had COVID.

759
00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:20.599
They either tested positive for this,
they're Sarah positive for COVID. Right,

760
00:54:20.599 --> 00:54:23.079
because this is I'm going to get
the weeds here April twenty twenty.

761
00:54:23.079 --> 00:54:25.119
They didn't have the nasal swab.
They just had to take your food.

762
00:54:27.400 --> 00:54:30.039
He said, isn't that great?
Look how big the denominator is. Like

763
00:54:30.119 --> 00:54:34.840
everyone's got COVID, but only the
same number of people are saying this is

764
00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:37.880
good news what you wants? Right? And instead of saying, oh,

765
00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:40.559
well then now that we know this, we can do X y Z,

766
00:54:42.119 --> 00:54:45.719
people said, shut up, you're
a liar. The test was corrupt every

767
00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:50.920
step of the way. He and
Jay will admit this. He was not

768
00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:55.559
He was not exactly right about everything, but he was directionally correct about everything

769
00:54:57.440 --> 00:55:00.920
right. And and then a couple
of governors called him for advice. Right,

770
00:55:00.760 --> 00:55:05.480
one of them was drawn to Santas
and Jay said this, said this

771
00:55:05.559 --> 00:55:08.679
to us years. I mean such
as wasn't same day as he talked to

772
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:13.320
him, Yeah, and said,
wow, that guy did the reading.

773
00:55:14.760 --> 00:55:19.079
That guy did extra remember them.
Yeah, and uh, you know when

774
00:55:19.119 --> 00:55:21.039
you you know, I talked to
Jay now all the time to do this

775
00:55:21.119 --> 00:55:23.679
project, and like, you know, you will not be shocked to know

776
00:55:24.360 --> 00:55:28.440
that I don't always do the reading. Like I'm kind of like I'm sad.

777
00:55:28.480 --> 00:55:30.920
It's really hard, Like it's I
don't under I don't I'm not I

778
00:55:30.920 --> 00:55:34.400
don't have that brain, right.
Um. And he's very very Jay is

779
00:55:34.480 --> 00:55:37.559
very gentle with me. When I
say something stupid, He'll say like,

780
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:39.280
well, you know, yeah,
in a way, you're you correct.

781
00:55:39.320 --> 00:55:44.639
You know, he's very right.
But that's what he said about Um,

782
00:55:44.679 --> 00:55:46.239
he said that rond to Santa's now. The only other person I've heard talking

783
00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:51.039
about a candidate who's not a Candonnymore
is Mike Pompeo's a friend of mine said

784
00:55:51.199 --> 00:55:55.480
was one of the smartest people she'd
ever met. Um. But oh that

785
00:55:55.599 --> 00:56:00.320
so so that that that's that's framing
my argument. But I but and though

786
00:56:00.360 --> 00:56:04.639
I'm sort of the deep head deep
underwater with COVID, I actually do think

787
00:56:04.760 --> 00:56:10.000
it's you're looking for those crucible moments
where you can say we all knew,

788
00:56:10.159 --> 00:56:15.920
we all had the same set of
information. I just chose to read past

789
00:56:15.960 --> 00:56:20.880
the first page. I didn't take
Anthony Fauci's advice, and I was right,

790
00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:24.079
and Anthony Faucci detacted him attack Jay, you know, personally after Great

791
00:56:24.119 --> 00:56:30.440
Barrington in November Great and I still
say that they should have held that conference

792
00:56:30.440 --> 00:56:32.199
and made the declaration from someplace else, because it makes it sound as if,

793
00:56:32.440 --> 00:56:36.199
well, there's you know, we
could give you a Barrington declaration,

794
00:56:36.280 --> 00:56:42.920
but we're going to the And when
you talk about being attacked by Faucci,

795
00:56:43.400 --> 00:56:45.960
well that's a badge of honor for
some, but for others who told them

796
00:56:45.960 --> 00:56:51.639
exactly what to think. I still
remember going to the local boutique shop where

797
00:56:51.639 --> 00:56:54.280
you get the nice little gift for
the wine mom because it's her birthday,

798
00:56:54.559 --> 00:56:58.760
and they had candles and mug they
had, you know, voted candle with

799
00:56:58.800 --> 00:57:02.159
folchi ug I mean, like St. Anthony Faucci, that sort of thing,

800
00:57:02.280 --> 00:57:07.719
right, unbelievable, and a and
a mug that said wwf D what

801
00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:13.760
would Fauci do? So he had
replaced Jesus in the popular consciousness, one

802
00:57:13.800 --> 00:57:15.239
of the things you're gonna have to
talk about, Rob And I am not

803
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:21.800
kidding here. I think this matters
is that when everybody went home and sat

804
00:57:21.800 --> 00:57:23.400
in front of Netflix, there were
two options that they had. One was

805
00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:27.199
Tiger King, which told them all
they need to know about the South,

806
00:57:27.239 --> 00:57:30.800
of course, and the other was
a movie called Outbreak, which had come

807
00:57:30.800 --> 00:57:35.159
out a few years before and was
banging around one on streaming and people could

808
00:57:35.159 --> 00:57:37.880
watch it and it presented for them
a blueprint of what they believed was to

809
00:57:37.880 --> 00:57:42.760
come. And at Kate Winslet,
being very very concerned about these things.

810
00:57:42.760 --> 00:57:45.760
As a matter of fact, going
to Minnesota. It took place in Minnesota

811
00:57:46.199 --> 00:57:50.840
because it was written by a guy
named Scott Burns who was from Minnesota,

812
00:57:50.960 --> 00:57:54.519
who actually worked for the Minnesota Daily. I remember him. I remember beating

813
00:57:54.599 --> 00:57:59.480
him out for attacking the attentions of
some reporter gal. But that's another story.

814
00:58:00.199 --> 00:58:04.400
And so his construction of that,
and it's it's a good construction of

815
00:58:04.440 --> 00:58:07.840
the story, was this template that
people were just imposing on their current events.

816
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:13.400
And when we saw that strange video
from China, people dropping in the

817
00:58:13.440 --> 00:58:19.199
streets, and right, we didn't
right, we didn't know, And that

818
00:58:20.199 --> 00:58:24.360
was was a hammer blow that resonated
for weeks, but it stopped ringing in

819
00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:30.559
most of our in my ears after
very shortly, but it didn't for others.

820
00:58:30.199 --> 00:58:32.960
I remember when I was the only
guy coming to the office in April

821
00:58:34.400 --> 00:58:37.800
or in March or so. There
was an addition to the to the washroom.

822
00:58:38.360 --> 00:58:40.760
In the washroom, you leave one
door, and then there's a short

823
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:44.480
little tunnel because the construction of the
office, and then you get to another

824
00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:50.360
door. They had placed a waste
paper basket in that tunnel because you were

825
00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:53.280
supposed to use a towel to open
the door and then to scard it on

826
00:58:53.320 --> 00:58:58.000
your way out, and then you
and then you would use another towel,

827
00:58:58.039 --> 00:59:00.119
and then there was a waste paper
basket that had been outside. Because this

828
00:59:00.199 --> 00:59:05.760
was the new contain this is the
new idea that everything was teaming with foam

829
00:59:05.840 --> 00:59:08.480
artes, that the whole world itself
needed to be strayed down with lysol and

830
00:59:08.679 --> 00:59:12.320
napalm and all the rest of it
at all times. Well, we got

831
00:59:12.320 --> 00:59:15.320
away from that pretty quickly, but
that but but it didn't for most.

832
00:59:15.440 --> 00:59:19.840
For for a lot of the people, it seems, who still regarded the

833
00:59:19.840 --> 00:59:24.440
world as just contaminated in a way
that. Well, let me ask you

834
00:59:24.480 --> 00:59:29.239
this. Do you think it's sort
of affirmed what they'd always really wanted to

835
00:59:29.239 --> 00:59:31.760
think about the world, or it
just made neurotics out of people who had

836
00:59:31.760 --> 00:59:35.519
never thought about these things before,
big broad ended question. We're getting to

837
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:37.480
the end here together. I think
all those things you're true. I think

838
00:59:37.519 --> 00:59:38.559
I think that yes, I would
say yes to all of it. I

839
00:59:38.559 --> 00:59:43.000
mean, it was, you know, these things aren't aren't separate. And

840
00:59:43.039 --> 00:59:46.960
I think that you can see now
that sort of collected you know, the

841
00:59:47.119 --> 00:59:52.159
collected response to this has been that, you know, like you know,

842
00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:54.800
I had germaphobe friends who are like, see, I was right all along,

843
00:59:55.079 --> 00:59:58.880
you know, for carrying around purel
everywhere. You know. Okay,

844
00:59:58.920 --> 01:00:00.280
maybe you're right, right. I
have a friend who I have ranged like,

845
01:00:00.639 --> 01:00:06.360
you come into her house, you
do not sit on something. She

846
01:00:06.440 --> 01:00:07.800
puts something down. If you come
in you were on the subway. You

847
01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:10.480
got to sit on like a sheet
or something, and she's nuts, right,

848
01:00:10.519 --> 01:00:15.119
But okay, well, let you
vindicated. They're people who believe that

849
01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:20.639
vaccines give you autism, which of
course has been disproved. But like,

850
01:00:20.679 --> 01:00:22.679
I don't know, like this they've
they've sold this vaccine and they said it

851
01:00:22.719 --> 01:00:25.000
was gonna do a lot of things, and it's kind of like it's not

852
01:00:25.639 --> 01:00:31.800
better by any by it's worse by
a factor than actually getting COVID and having

853
01:00:31.880 --> 01:00:37.639
natural immunity or having acquired immunity.
So I don't know, I mean all

854
01:00:37.679 --> 01:00:39.480
those this is a big basket of
things. I think Peter's right, that's

855
01:00:39.559 --> 01:00:44.559
it's they're going to work themselves out
and um. But I think what we

856
01:00:44.599 --> 01:00:52.679
need to remember is that the the
research and science mistakes, like I would

857
01:00:52.679 --> 01:00:59.599
say, akin to the technical glitches
in the Rhonda Santists launch, are not

858
01:01:00.920 --> 01:01:04.800
the great crimes. Like it's it's
okay, like they made a mistake,

859
01:01:04.840 --> 01:01:08.920
that's fine. Like I don't think
that. I don't think the American people

860
01:01:08.960 --> 01:01:12.039
have this idea. If they do, they should be disabused of it.

861
01:01:12.079 --> 01:01:14.760
That these people are always going to
be right. That's the reasearch is always

862
01:01:14.800 --> 01:01:16.039
going to point to the right thing. You're gonna make mistakes, You're gonna

863
01:01:16.039 --> 01:01:20.440
the zoom calls not gonna work,
The Twitter spaces thing is gonna break down,

864
01:01:20.519 --> 01:01:22.400
right right. It's not the word
not the end of the world.

865
01:01:22.480 --> 01:01:28.119
The end of the world is when
you triple quadruple Quinn, tuple down on

866
01:01:28.239 --> 01:01:30.599
your mistakes. You refuse to admit
them, you refuse to change course.

867
01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:35.559
It's like teacher once said to me, like, look, the point is

868
01:01:36.039 --> 01:01:38.440
everyone makes mistakes. You're allowed to
make mistakes, just don't keep making the

869
01:01:38.639 --> 01:01:43.760
same mistake. Right, And every
day, every week, every month that

870
01:01:43.920 --> 01:01:49.519
COVID unfolded, they kept making the
same mistake. And then as as as

871
01:01:49.559 --> 01:01:52.840
the panic attack got more and more
paranoid, right, because that's what happens

872
01:01:52.840 --> 01:01:55.280
when people have a panic attack.
Really it's a cortisol event, like it's

873
01:01:55.519 --> 01:02:00.360
it actually has a hormonal effect on
your brain. They get more and more

874
01:02:00.360 --> 01:02:02.800
aggressive, so they get more and
more angry at people like Jay Badachario,

875
01:02:02.920 --> 01:02:06.599
Like maybe he shouldn't be at stands
ord, maybe he should be fired.

876
01:02:07.119 --> 01:02:10.599
Maybe these people should be silence.
Maybe Twitter should like just not post their

877
01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:15.119
posts. Maybe we should block people
or shadow band people on all these things.

878
01:02:15.119 --> 01:02:20.000
Maybe we shouldn't have them on CNN
to say they're to say that masks

879
01:02:20.039 --> 01:02:23.280
aren't effective and that herd immunity is
the best way to go, and that

880
01:02:23.840 --> 01:02:28.960
a lot of closing schools is going
to have more do more damage, cost

881
01:02:29.079 --> 01:02:31.760
more lives than it saves. And
then at that point that's when we that's

882
01:02:32.800 --> 01:02:37.239
that those are those are things we
need to remember, not that people make

883
01:02:37.280 --> 01:02:44.320
mistakes, but that some people,
when they make mistakes, higher have the

884
01:02:44.440 --> 01:02:49.000
armed forces and the entire bureaucracy that
are correct behind them, and that we

885
01:02:49.039 --> 01:02:54.079
can't have the only way to repair, to rebuild trust in our institutions is

886
01:02:54.119 --> 01:03:00.480
for our institutions to admit that they
did not deserve it. Yeah, you

887
01:03:00.519 --> 01:03:04.639
know, every everyone that we looked
at failed under pressure, and the refusal

888
01:03:04.679 --> 01:03:07.480
of them to admit that is the
thing that keeps us from trusting them again.

889
01:03:07.519 --> 01:03:10.880
And that's the FBI and Carress secrecy. That's all. The great thing

890
01:03:10.920 --> 01:03:14.559
now is that we do get together
in person from time to time because we're

891
01:03:14.559 --> 01:03:17.199
not afraid. We live life three
facers and Rob, I think you could

892
01:03:17.199 --> 01:03:21.800
tell people that we have some upcoming
meetups that we do. I'm so exhausted

893
01:03:21.840 --> 01:03:23.360
now from this this. We didn't
have any guests either, Like, this

894
01:03:23.440 --> 01:03:28.400
is crazy. So if you if
you if you we're happy not having a

895
01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:31.199
guest, um, well then you
kind of recreated a ricochet meet up,

896
01:03:31.239 --> 01:03:35.599
which is the guests are you?
So we like talking on the on the

897
01:03:35.840 --> 01:03:37.840
on the podcast We also like being
on the site. We like talking to

898
01:03:37.880 --> 01:03:40.840
our members, but we also like
needing them in person and meet. Ricochet

899
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:45.800
meetups are the most fun and joyful
way to be part of the Rickeche community.

900
01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:51.079
Um so uh. And also look
if you if you want to talk

901
01:03:51.079 --> 01:03:52.840
about woke is them and make jokes
about it, which I do, actually

902
01:03:52.880 --> 01:03:55.320
making jokes about it, I do. This is the place to go.

903
01:03:55.440 --> 01:03:59.360
By the way, you'll be surrounded
by people who will give you the latest

904
01:03:59.599 --> 01:04:02.519
I to have. I got one
from somebody who's at the New Orleans meetup.

905
01:04:02.559 --> 01:04:05.079
That's fantastic and I will not post
it, but it's really funny.

906
01:04:05.599 --> 01:04:09.760
Um well, maybe able to do
in the member feed, but it's just

907
01:04:09.800 --> 01:04:15.880
a funny little little cartoons. So
face to face IRL meetings the way to

908
01:04:15.920 --> 01:04:18.519
go. We have some solicitations,
so we have some people who are trying

909
01:04:18.559 --> 01:04:21.440
to put one together. We have
I'll do the first we have. The

910
01:04:21.440 --> 01:04:27.119
schedule. Meetups are Winston Salem in
mid July, Matt Ballser's annual German Fest

911
01:04:27.159 --> 01:04:30.920
meet up in Milwaukee that's happening the
last weekend in July. Stuff's happening July.

912
01:04:30.239 --> 01:04:33.239
And Randy um just posted info about
a Labor Day. We can meet

913
01:04:33.320 --> 01:04:36.000
up in Cookeville, Tennessee, which
actually sounds like a lot of fun.

914
01:04:36.360 --> 01:04:41.960
Um. But we have some members
who put up solicitations for Columbus, Ohio

915
01:04:42.159 --> 01:04:45.519
late late June, so late next
month, Portland, the Portland, Oregon

916
01:04:45.559 --> 01:04:51.039
area. Whe that'll be fun.
That's in mid July. I want pictures

917
01:04:51.039 --> 01:04:54.719
of that, and then Mammoth.
I want to go to that so I

918
01:04:54.760 --> 01:04:58.599
can say I'm for Minneapolis, which
is sixteen percent better than you guys right

919
01:04:58.679 --> 01:05:02.960
now. If you if it's still
sixteen by then m Mammoth Cave National Park

920
01:05:03.000 --> 01:05:08.239
in Kentucky in August. So there's
lots going on. If you one of

921
01:05:08.280 --> 01:05:11.239
those sounds interesting to you, join
Ricochet and show up. If one of

922
01:05:11.239 --> 01:05:14.199
those sounds interesting but you can't make
it for whatever reason, join Ricochet and

923
01:05:14.320 --> 01:05:20.639
post your own meet up suggestion and
Ricochet members will show up because that is

924
01:05:20.679 --> 01:05:27.719
what we do. That and talk
and our down talk and write. And

925
01:05:27.800 --> 01:05:30.159
the thing about writing. If you
go to ricochet dot com, you will

926
01:05:30.199 --> 01:05:33.000
see some of the best writers you
may never have heard of. Some people

927
01:05:33.000 --> 01:05:38.920
that I absolutely love to read write
a lot true, and sometimes you can

928
01:05:38.960 --> 01:05:41.719
only find them on the member feed
because that's where we talk amongst ourselves.

929
01:05:41.800 --> 01:05:44.920
And so you got to join Ricochet, and you have to pay actual money.

930
01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:46.280
I mean, it's just a little
bit, but it gets you access

931
01:05:46.320 --> 01:05:49.079
to a community that really, you
know, the folks that I've met in

932
01:05:49.119 --> 01:05:53.159
real life, the people that I've
met online. Now a day goes by

933
01:05:53.199 --> 01:05:56.400
that I don't hit it four or
five six times and comment as much as

934
01:05:56.440 --> 01:06:00.719
I feel like I should. And
it's just a great home on the Internet.

935
01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:03.960
And you guys are the ones who
founded in for which I am eternally

936
01:06:03.960 --> 01:06:08.119
grateful, and brought me into it, for which I'm also eternally grateful.

937
01:06:08.320 --> 01:06:10.559
So yeah, we don't even know
guests. We can sit here and argue.

938
01:06:10.599 --> 01:06:14.039
I can ramble on about things that
Peter Roger is tired about and Rob's

939
01:06:14.039 --> 01:06:18.480
tired about. But I guarantee you
between talking about queer theory and wokeism and

940
01:06:19.159 --> 01:06:25.119
youth violence and the COVID era and
the rest of it, we may get

941
01:06:25.159 --> 01:06:30.840
a few comments that go here hither
and yawn. Let's just say this,

942
01:06:30.039 --> 01:06:33.320
It's Memorial Day and we haven't spoken
word about that, and I feel remiss

943
01:06:33.320 --> 01:06:39.360
in doing so. But there would
be many tributes to the veterans to the

944
01:06:39.360 --> 01:06:44.960
people who sacrificed to the American wars
of the past. There will be a

945
01:06:45.039 --> 01:06:50.119
remarkable, diverse, respectful, fascinating, deep historical dive into the holiday all

946
01:06:50.159 --> 01:06:54.679
over Ricochet, written by people who
are doing it for the love of the

947
01:06:54.760 --> 01:06:58.000
correct and exchanging ideas. And so
that's why I had to go there.

948
01:06:58.079 --> 01:07:00.199
I know I've pitched it a lot, but I don't enough. Sometimes I

949
01:07:00.239 --> 01:07:03.000
will say that this has been fun. Rob, Peter, have a great

950
01:07:03.039 --> 01:07:08.800
weekend, and we'll see everybody in
the comments at Ricochet four point zero Next

951
01:07:08.800 --> 01:07:16.559
week, Boys, next week.
Follas Ricochet joined the conversation