1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,600 What over this shoulder is my GK. Chesterton show? I can't GK. 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:09,199 Chesterton's shelf? And up there's C. S. Lewis, Damn Thomas s. 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,919 Yeah, I'm saying quick, quick, funny story for you. Where 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:19,559 the where are your where are your diverse? Where's your where's your Oh that's 5 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,839 it's a lot of It's not a frame, it's over. Yeah, they're 6 00:00:22,839 --> 00:00:27,359 there. They're there with the in the science fiction fantasy section. Ask not 7 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,240 what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your 8 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:40,840 country. Mister Gorbachew, tear down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast with 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,000 Stephen Hayward sitting in for Peter Robinson and Rob Long. No, he's not 10 00:00:44,039 --> 00:00:47,079 sitting in for both. Rob's here me too. I'm James Lolacks and today 11 00:00:47,119 --> 00:00:51,640 we talk about just about everything. So let's aversos a podcast. You go. 12 00:00:51,719 --> 00:00:56,039 Twenty seventeen matifest Day said you've reduced that migration to tens of thousands. 13 00:00:56,039 --> 00:01:00,759 You know. Twenty nineteen matifest Day said immigration would massively reduced. Why on 14 00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:07,000 earth should anybody believe the Fifth Manifesto the promises cuts into that migration because of 15 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:14,359 the record of this Prime Minister. So we've had. Welcome everybody. It's 16 00:01:14,359 --> 00:01:18,040 the Ricochet podcast number six hundred and ninety six, or if you flip it 17 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:22,120 upside down at nine hundred and sixty nine. I'm James Linacks in Minneapolis, 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:26,719 Minnesota recently voted the happiest city in the country. I know I'm not doing 19 00:01:26,719 --> 00:01:30,439 my part, so there has to be somebody who's out there strewing flowers Tralla 20 00:01:30,519 --> 00:01:34,519 lying throughout the day. Rob Long is in New York. Stephen Hayward is 21 00:01:34,519 --> 00:01:37,719 somewhere. We'll get to that in just a second here, but I just 22 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,519 want to say that when I came into this conversation a few minutes ago, 23 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:44,599 I heard Rob Loong saying that Joe Biden was conceived when the results of the 24 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,760 war, when the outcome of the war was not yet certain. And I 25 00:01:47,879 --> 00:01:52,480 wonder what there's some sort of mythological thing that you were talking about where a 26 00:01:52,599 --> 00:01:57,319 child was born and the tides of battle changed. Bring people up to speed, 27 00:01:57,319 --> 00:02:00,280 because you were having a fast we were trying to talk about the well 28 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:05,719 Steve and I, by the way, welcome Steve, thank you for sitting 29 00:02:05,719 --> 00:02:10,560 in. We were talking about how the among the many horrible things about this 30 00:02:12,039 --> 00:02:15,120 presidential campaign year. Maybe one of the most horrible will be that both of 31 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:20,280 these sides are going to probably spend somewhere between you know, half a billion 32 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,800 and a billion dollars showing endless footage of the other guy at his most doddering 33 00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:30,039 and incoherent, and it is not It's just not going to be our best 34 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,919 look. And I was thinking, like, so, these guys technically boomers 35 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:38,240 are not well. Trump is technically a boomer. He's forty six, right, 36 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,360 forty five, forty six and then and Biden was forty two. I 37 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,280 think so, I mean they're they're three and a half years apart, whatever 38 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,919 it is, So they are I think boomer or either boomer or the Greatest 39 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:53,759 generation, which is the I the irony, most ironic thing. And I 40 00:02:53,800 --> 00:03:00,000 was just thinking that maybe Joe Biden was conceived since you asked James in between 41 00:03:00,039 --> 00:03:05,120 Pearl Harbor and Midway, the Battle Midway, which is a very uncertain time. 42 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,400 And I'm not an astrologer, but I was an astrologer, I would 43 00:03:07,439 --> 00:03:12,800 say he was already born during world instability. Yeah, now, Rob, 44 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,560 I'm not as down on Trump as you are, although I have lots of 45 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:20,120 criticisms, but My mind keeps running back to the famous Henry Adams quip that 46 00:03:20,719 --> 00:03:24,759 the progression of presidents from George Washington to Ulysses Grant single handedly disproved the theory 47 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:31,280 of what would he say? Now? Why don't he? Trump is being 48 00:03:31,879 --> 00:03:37,199 I don't get doddering vibes from Trump. I mean, may he may gesticulate 49 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:43,199 and say interesting things while on the stump, but he's not right. But 50 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,319 he's not standing there with an absolutely vacant look on his face and the expression 51 00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:52,120 of somebody who's just taken a fifty milligrams gummy about ten minutes ago and is 52 00:03:52,199 --> 00:03:54,479 wandering off to talk to a parachuter that he's imagined in his mind. I 53 00:03:55,039 --> 00:04:00,280 mean, the difference between the two in vitality seems to be stark. That's 54 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,360 absolutely true. Yeah, I just think we're gon have to decide whether we 55 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:10,159 want crazy drunk uncle who doesn't make any sense but is you know he's in 56 00:04:10,199 --> 00:04:17,199 the conversation, or Grandpa, Grandpa, you know, stay away from the 57 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:21,399 light. You know that guy. I don't know. I just look, 58 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,079 you make your peace with what you got, right, you know, it 59 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:30,519 danced with the one that brung you. You go with the old guy that 60 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:34,399 makes you the least nervous, which is kind of an I think, a 61 00:04:34,439 --> 00:04:39,720 new thing for American voters. Does he really though? I mean, it 62 00:04:40,319 --> 00:04:44,399 is what people look at that and they see, all right, four years 63 00:04:44,399 --> 00:04:47,199 have elapsed. We didn't think that he was actually the sharpest attack in the 64 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:53,079 bin in a little who's the you mean Biden four years ago and now? 65 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:56,839 I mean Paul Ryan was talking the other day about the difference between Biden now 66 00:04:56,839 --> 00:04:59,279 and the guy that he debated, and if you just conjured that back in 67 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:01,839 your mind, you remember Biden being sharp and being an absolute jerk and being 68 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,279 quick and all the rest of it. That isn't who he is right now. 69 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,519 And it's interesting that they say, well, you know in private, 70 00:05:08,319 --> 00:05:12,920 In private, he's incredibly engaged in sharp But for some reason, we've just 71 00:05:12,959 --> 00:05:15,839 decided that when he goes out in public, he's going to behave like somebody 72 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:20,160 who's got a brain full of tappyoka who's been piffed. So yeah, yeah, 73 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,399 I mean, dance with the one who bring you. I didn't bring 74 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,680 him. He brought us to this point where we have to choose between him 75 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:31,839 with the possibility of Kamala Harris as the president. And former years of Donald 76 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:36,160 Trump, which people are red conning into something of a golden age. And 77 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:42,600 you know how much red how much red conning is actually involved if you take 78 00:05:42,639 --> 00:05:46,319 out the last year in Jay six, which admittedly is a lot, I 79 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:51,519 don't know, but I mean, I again am stunned at that we're at 80 00:05:51,519 --> 00:05:58,240 this place and fully, fully prepared to admit that everything that I said about 81 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,959 the impossibility of a second Trump term is wrong. Trust nothing I say going 82 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,319 forward? Right, feel the same way? Well? Yeah, Well, 83 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:09,240 you know interesting thing about Trump that I just noticed the other day that he 84 00:06:09,319 --> 00:06:11,560 not only wants to win, we know that, but it looks like he 85 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:15,519 may actually want to govern. And so we know that in twenty twenty two 86 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,079 he endorsed a lot of terrible candidates, you know Oz in Pennsylvania, herschel 87 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:24,439 Walker and Georgia. Well, this cycle, he has first of all, 88 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,680 endorsed a number of more moderate, non MAGA candidates against by the way, 89 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,720 people who had endorsed him previously. So he's on the side of candidates who 90 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,519 can win in Virginia and a few other states. Second, he has endorsed 91 00:06:35,519 --> 00:06:41,319 some people for reelection who were for Ron DeSantis and who criticized him, and 92 00:06:41,399 --> 00:06:45,519 that's showing me that he's learned something. No, maybe not much, but 93 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,560 I mean I think he's learned from his mistakes. And that suggests to me 94 00:06:48,759 --> 00:06:54,000 someone that you might have a little bit more optimism about if he wins, 95 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:57,800 which I think he will. I think he could easily win. I'm not 96 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,879 sure. I don't know where I put my money down. I think whoever 97 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,040 I put my money down, is I'd lose. I kind of get your 98 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,240 I get your point. I just despair of the phrase. I know. 99 00:07:08,319 --> 00:07:13,600 I think he's ready to govern after four years of just complete disarray. I 100 00:07:13,639 --> 00:07:15,519 think he's ready to like to make the tough choices, which I think he's 101 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,120 not. I mean, full disclosure, I was not a big fan to 102 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:23,560 begin with, but I just find his behavior during COVID to be unforgivable and 103 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,639 then after the election to be unforgivable. It depends, I mean, what, 104 00:07:26,839 --> 00:07:29,000 okay, what do we mean by governing exactly? Though? I mean, 105 00:07:29,199 --> 00:07:30,920 well, yeah, I mean that's right. Do we believe in a 106 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:35,519 laser focused, sharp Donald Trump who will engage with the Congress on an atomic 107 00:07:35,639 --> 00:07:39,399 level in order to push through the planks of the things that he's crafted and 108 00:07:39,399 --> 00:07:43,480 written. Yeah, but answer the two ways. The one way is just 109 00:07:43,519 --> 00:07:47,160 the slow. I agree with Steve that he does seem to be making smarter 110 00:07:47,279 --> 00:07:53,279 choices. There's a news out today that he might may actually endorse uh for 111 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:58,040 the senator from Marilyn Larry Hogan, who was the former republic very very popular 112 00:07:58,079 --> 00:08:03,160 Republican governor, has a really good shot at becoming the first Republican Senator from 113 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,000 Maryland in a long long time. But who did say, hey, listen, 114 00:08:07,439 --> 00:08:13,279 we got to whatever. He said something which we consider anodyne and cliche 115 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:20,560 after the New York jury return to conviction and then was roundly attacked by Trump 116 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:26,439 Eunichs and acolytes and the courtiers in his circle, including his own idiotic daughter 117 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:28,839 in law, and said, well, no Republican should ever stand for this 118 00:08:28,959 --> 00:08:31,639 guy. Should be drummed out of the party. And a couple of weeks 119 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,679 later Trump, I think if he does this, he'll be really smart, 120 00:08:35,759 --> 00:08:41,000 says, why do I care if I could pick up an R in Maryland? 121 00:08:41,039 --> 00:08:43,440 We should be picking up an arm Maryland. And he's moronic daughter in 122 00:08:43,519 --> 00:08:46,919 law should have known that as the leader of the party before she opened her 123 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:52,200 stupid Now I mean, I'll just be super blunt for once. But the 124 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,120 second thing is is this is like and I know that when he does that, 125 00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:05,320 the daughter in law now runs through RNC will slavish and in coweringly backtrack 126 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:09,799 everything she has said. And so there is a kind of a Donald Trump 127 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,960 sort of circle of people who are courtiers and eunuchs and kind of like even 128 00:09:13,279 --> 00:09:18,480 JD. Vance who like said incredibly mean things about him, now bows and 129 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:22,159 scrapes for this man. That's not great. It's also not great that, 130 00:09:22,279 --> 00:09:26,360 on the other hand, we have a president who is probably out of it, 131 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:31,639 and we have a country and a commander in chief who is incapacitated mentally, 132 00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:37,759 and so the country is being run by bureaucrats and political appointees, and 133 00:09:37,799 --> 00:09:41,879 that is not how it's supposed to go. And especially for me, those 134 00:09:41,919 --> 00:09:48,639 particular appointees who are all far, far, far more left wing than your 135 00:09:48,759 --> 00:09:52,399 ordinary American or even probably your ordinary Democrat. This point so not good. 136 00:09:54,039 --> 00:09:58,200 Well, if you're saying that we have the choice now between sycophants and prevaricators, 137 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,080 this has this has characterized the American political scene from time to time. 138 00:10:03,159 --> 00:10:09,440 I think Stephen Stephen rob made an interesting point that the people who are handling 139 00:10:09,759 --> 00:10:13,000 Biden and the rest of it are are much more are much more progressive? 140 00:10:13,039 --> 00:10:18,960 Are our squad adjacent, if not squattish themselves. Do you think that that 141 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,919 side is an ascendant or are they sort of tamping it down for the for 142 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:26,840 the sake of seeming moderate during the election, or or what if we saw 143 00:10:26,879 --> 00:10:28,480 another Biden turn? I mean, if you remember when Biden got in, 144 00:10:28,519 --> 00:10:31,600 it was going to be Green New Deal, it was going to be FDR, 145 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,679 you know, three point zero since Obama was two point zero, I 146 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,799 guess, and we know what happened to that the Green New Deal foundered. 147 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:43,480 We got infrastructure spending in the trillion, which has resulted, I think in 148 00:10:43,519 --> 00:10:48,320 one EV charger in Pembera, North Dakota. Uh. You know, do 149 00:10:48,399 --> 00:10:52,879 they still have after four years a lot of steam in the engine, a 150 00:10:52,919 --> 00:10:58,360 lot of gas in the tank to make another run at finally nailing for good 151 00:10:58,879 --> 00:11:01,519 this country, locking it in new into a progressive future. Oh? Look, 152 00:11:01,759 --> 00:11:05,799 I think the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has an iron lock on 153 00:11:05,879 --> 00:11:09,240 it. And they also live in a bubble. I mean, they really 154 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:11,159 do. Look, if you only read the New York Times, your ideas 155 00:11:11,159 --> 00:11:15,840 are never challenged, and they really aren't aware of how deeply unpopular a lot 156 00:11:15,879 --> 00:11:18,120 of their ideas are. Let me just pick out two things from the last 157 00:11:18,159 --> 00:11:22,360 couple of weeks I find significant. One is CBS has a brand new poll 158 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:26,679 out three four days ago and it said, gosh, the race is dead. 159 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:28,679 Even well, there's some real breaking news. You had to get way 160 00:11:28,759 --> 00:11:33,360 down in the poll and the CBS story to find a really stunning finding, 161 00:11:33,799 --> 00:11:39,879 which was that sixty two percent of respondence as registered voters favor a federal program 162 00:11:39,919 --> 00:11:43,279 to deport illegal aliens. And that has that number has doubled in the last 163 00:11:43,279 --> 00:11:46,360 three four years. And that's why immigration is either number one or number two. 164 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,840 It was never that high until the last three years of complete dereliction at 165 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:54,519 the border. Second one is a little thing that I'm amazed hasn't gotten more 166 00:11:54,519 --> 00:11:58,279 attention, and I'm trying to write a little piece about it. About two 167 00:11:58,279 --> 00:12:01,240 weeks back, the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm gave a speech where she 168 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:07,679 said the United States needs to triple its nuclear power capacity over the next twenty 169 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,480 thirty years if we're going to meet our climate targets. And you know that's 170 00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:16,480 heresy to you know, what I call oldsmobile environmentalism from the seventies. But 171 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,559 it's also a recognition of reality, which is you're not going to be able 172 00:12:18,639 --> 00:12:22,720 to power all these AI data centers and all the other things in industrial country 173 00:12:22,759 --> 00:12:28,679 needs with wind and solar power and batteries. But the next question then is, 174 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:31,480 well, all right, fine, are you going to do regulatory reform 175 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:35,159 that's going to make it possible to build Oh she even said maybe we need 176 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:39,120 to reopen some of the nuclear plants we've closed down. Well, well, 177 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:41,720 that could cause riots in New York and the Hudson with the plant, right, 178 00:12:41,799 --> 00:12:45,720 And so I was staggered by that announcement. And as I say, 179 00:12:45,799 --> 00:12:48,519 the question is, are they're going to be serious about it and propose real 180 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,080 regulatory reforms so we can build nuclear plants at a reasonable cost and in a 181 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:58,879 reasonable timeframe. And I'm very doubtful about that. It is almost more likely 182 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:03,000 that these new new plants, and you know, these hypothetical new plants make 183 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:07,519 it through the regulatory you know, hurdles, and it takes longer for that 184 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:13,159 to happen than for us to invent a brand new kind of energy cold fusion 185 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:18,639 or like the solar mass some like or some some of the windmills work. 186 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:20,919 I mean, I mean, I think I've told this before. The story. 187 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:22,879 A friend of mine tells me the story, like he was a kid 188 00:13:22,919 --> 00:13:28,399 growing up in Long Island and his family they make they at that time, 189 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:30,919 they had a little factory. Family fact, they make tiger counters and all 190 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,279 sorts of other kind of nuclear stuff, the nuclear is stat as nuclear scientists. 191 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:39,200 He now is kind of a nuclear physicist, brainiac. And he remembers 192 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,519 as a kid, he's my age, so I guess he was like fifteen 193 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:48,519 sixteen, middle of the night, flashing lights. New York State troopers come 194 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:52,399 to his house, bang on the door, Wake up the dad, you 195 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,919 got to come with us. There's been a nuclear disaster at a place called 196 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:01,440 Three Mile Island and we need all and we need your help. And so 197 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:03,559 dad went and they did all the stuff. His dad to this day, 198 00:14:03,639 --> 00:14:07,080 and I think his dad has now passed on, but he remembers as a 199 00:14:07,159 --> 00:14:11,679 kid just growing up, and the rule in the house was that this was 200 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:16,200 a perfect example of the stupidity of people in general, because nothing happened at 201 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:20,600 Three Mile Island. There was no meltdown. The system actually totally worked there 202 00:14:20,639 --> 00:14:24,519 was no leakage, nobody got anything. Everybody's fine, this is a proof 203 00:14:24,519 --> 00:14:30,279 that it works. That is not the story that we hear. No, 204 00:14:30,399 --> 00:14:33,080 of course, not because Jane Vonda made a movie in which Michael Douglas as 205 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:39,240 a cameraman went yes when somebody said there was a conspiracy to cover up the 206 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,759 deficiencies. And because also at that time we were coming out of a period 207 00:14:41,799 --> 00:14:45,759 where we didn't think that America could build anything or do anything. Our sky 208 00:14:45,879 --> 00:14:48,720 labs fell from the sky arago. It's made sense that our shoddy nuclear powers, 209 00:14:48,759 --> 00:14:52,159 built on the cheap for profit, it would kill us off. And 210 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:58,200 the other thing was Chernobyl. Of course, Chernobyl was a completely different kind 211 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,759 of reactor run by idiot's full state of and collectivists, and naturally you got 212 00:15:01,759 --> 00:15:03,639 what you got. So between the two of those, we couldn't have that. 213 00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:07,559 And then we had in the entire eighties we had the We had an 214 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:11,639 anti nuclear movement in which our best and brightest intellects such as wood Willie Nelson 215 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:16,639 or Bruce Springsteen would get up and play concerts against nuclear energy and weapons. 216 00:15:18,159 --> 00:15:20,320 You know, anything that really had to do with Adams, you know, 217 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:22,200 the stuff that's spinning around like that. We don't like it, all of 218 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:26,720 which, of course was powered by immense coal or you know, gas fired 219 00:15:26,799 --> 00:15:31,080 stuff, which is now of course it has to be stricken from the planet 220 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:37,279 lest Miami be submerged by a yard high wave imminently. Yeah, all of 221 00:15:37,279 --> 00:15:41,600 that was wrong, and nobody ever took a nobody ever took responsibility for it. 222 00:15:41,639 --> 00:15:45,919 And now we're coming to the fact where when the secret what a democratic 223 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,320 secretary of energy says this, then we must be ten years behind the inevitability 224 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:54,799 and the necessity of it. So it's very interesting in the two things that 225 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,000 you noticed there, Stephen. The first one is what interests me most because 226 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,480 this twins with what's going on in Europe. Europe has been having these elections 227 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,759 where somebody said, amusing, you know, Germany gave the vote to young 228 00:16:06,799 --> 00:16:08,440 people, to you know, to a younger cohort, thinking well, they're 229 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:15,720 young, they'll vote left. No, they voted in a different fashion. 230 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,679 And so now you have the government, you have the left wing in France 231 00:16:18,759 --> 00:16:23,000 scrambling to put together coalitions from the Moderates to the trotsky Ies in order to 232 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:26,320 defeat the rise of the far right. And you have the far right coalicing 233 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:33,000 around some people that they don't like in order to do what. Immigration is 234 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:36,960 suddenly, all of a sudden, something people seem to be able to talk 235 00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:40,960 about in European politics. I mean in some of the Scandinavian countries, you 236 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,080 know, the guardrails were there where it simply wasn't discussed. But as we 237 00:16:45,159 --> 00:16:49,279 know, this doesn't make the issue go away. It breeds a lot of 238 00:16:49,279 --> 00:16:53,360 people who are very keen on talking about it a lot. So guys, 239 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:59,080 give me your thoughts on what you think Europe is doing. Well, Steve, 240 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:00,200 you just came back, Well, okay, I'll go for I was 241 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,519 gonna let you go first, Rob, because you know France better than I 242 00:17:03,559 --> 00:17:07,720 do, because you know we'll get different fan right, Yeah, yeah. 243 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,839 So I was in Hungary for two weeks, right on the eve of the 244 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:17,039 parliamentary elections that took place last Sunday, and I was telling Rob before you 245 00:17:17,079 --> 00:17:18,920 went on that I watched some of the Hungarian TV. I don't know the 246 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,200 language, but you could actually figure out what the political ads were saying, 247 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:26,480 and the ones from Victor Orban's FIDEJ party were all saying, you know, 248 00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:30,200 vote for us, because if you vote for the other guys. You're going 249 00:17:30,279 --> 00:17:33,559 to get the influence of George Sorows, You're going to get more Muslim immigrants 250 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:36,079 crammed down our throat by the European Union, which, by the way, 251 00:17:36,079 --> 00:17:41,039 a European court just said they must do just the last two three days and 252 00:17:41,319 --> 00:17:44,559 oh and then we're gonna have world War three with Russia. That was also 253 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,240 one of the main messages. And yeah, two weeks ago Saturday, I 254 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:53,240 watched about a three hundred thousand people march through Budapest in the Peace March. 255 00:17:55,079 --> 00:17:57,319 You're very worried over there that we don't know what we're doing in Ukraine. 256 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,599 I think there's good reason for them to that, and that they're the ones 257 00:18:00,599 --> 00:18:04,359 at risk if nuclear weapons start going off, or if it escalates or there's 258 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,599 a war with NATO. I'll add this a little bit. I mean, 259 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:12,119 most Americans don't know that Hungary was the biggest loser of the World War One 260 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:17,599 settlement. They lost two thirds of their territory and about half of their population 261 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:21,200 was hived off and given to other countries, and so the country shrank. 262 00:18:21,559 --> 00:18:26,839 So they're not terribly impressed with claims that Ukraine's territorial integrity is of utmost importance 263 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,960 to the world. I guess I kind of get that, but you know, 264 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,519 most Americans aren't aware of that sentiment. They have more broadly though, 265 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,680 Yes, you put your finger on something important, James, that younger voters 266 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:41,079 who used to be probably half the vote for the Green Party in Germany, 267 00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:45,160 they've turned sharply away from the Green Party, and it's the Green Party in 268 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,759 these stupid coalitions they have in parliamentary governments. Their sole demand is get rid 269 00:18:49,799 --> 00:18:53,119 of nuclear power, and Germany has foolishly done that. Last thing I'll say 270 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:57,839 is I did an energy tour of Germany fifteen years ago now as a guest 271 00:18:57,839 --> 00:19:02,559 of the government, and you spent a week to ring all their fancy stuff. 272 00:19:02,599 --> 00:19:07,079 And my conclusion at the end was the two most magical words in the 273 00:19:07,079 --> 00:19:11,960 English language are German engineering. I was actually kind of unimpressed. But the 274 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,839 important thing was, at that time, I think Merkle had just come to 275 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:21,519 power or was about to, and everybody we met said, we can't possibly 276 00:19:21,759 --> 00:19:26,480 meet our emissions targets for twenty twenty or twenty thirty. This is two thousand 277 00:19:26,519 --> 00:19:29,400 and eight. I was there unless we keep our nuclear power, and they 278 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,240 didn't They freaked out after Fukushima, And now I think Germany is going to 279 00:19:33,279 --> 00:19:36,240 have to talk about reopening the plants they've got otherwise. Right now, you 280 00:19:36,279 --> 00:19:38,440 know what they're doing. They're going back to burning lignite coal, which is 281 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,759 the dirtiest kind of coal. So there you go, Rob, Why do 282 00:19:41,799 --> 00:19:45,960 you think it is that the youth of Europe, who have been inculcated from 283 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:52,599 cradle to believe in the glorious transnational future in which all nationalities are washed away 284 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,759 into a glorious European soup broth? Why do you think that they are all 285 00:19:56,799 --> 00:19:57,880 of a sudden saying, wait a minute, hold on, we have a 286 00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:02,079 culture. I want it, I would like it to be in this particular 287 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:07,240 form. Well, they kind of aren't already saying that. They've been saying 288 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,079 that for two thousand years. I mean, these are these are cultures that 289 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:15,240 have been fighting about bizarre to Americans, bizarre differences that we don't even what 290 00:20:15,279 --> 00:20:21,119 are you talking about? Alsace. Lorraine is like, how can you you're 291 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:25,160 all the same? Like I was a kid, I lived in southern Holland, 292 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,359 and like the Dutch would like make these elaborate distinctions between you do you 293 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,039 live in robots now like you're practically Belgium and Belgian. The Belgians are just 294 00:20:34,279 --> 00:20:37,640 our mystery to the Dutch, even though they speak basically the same language, 295 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:41,880 a little bit of French, and they eat French fries like everybody else. 296 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,119 They've actually they perfected French fries. We should call French fries Belgian fries to 297 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,359 be fair. And then and the French find the Belgians to be absolutely baffling. 298 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:52,720 Who are these people that live, you know, one mile there on 299 00:20:52,759 --> 00:20:56,319 the other side of this river. So they've been, you know, better 300 00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:59,759 for worse. They've been expressing their own national identity for a long time, 301 00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:06,519 and even when they were parts of larger empires, they still had this powerful 302 00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:14,880 national identity. Even the Roman Catholic the Pope would refer to the Catholic Church 303 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:21,799 in the English Catholic Church as the Church in England because it was like so 304 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,200 weird and different. So even after the Protestant Reformation, there wasn't that weird 305 00:21:26,279 --> 00:21:30,400 because they were already very English and not very Roman. But I will say 306 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,880 a couple of years ago I was in Budapest, and I will now name 307 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:41,559 drop. I had a small gathering with the once in future and let's hope 308 00:21:41,559 --> 00:21:45,039 not forever President of Hungary, Victor Orbon. It was sort of a charming 309 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,599 guy, kind of a big, garrulous guy. He's like a buncular character, 310 00:21:48,799 --> 00:21:52,319 speaks good English, makes good jokes, kind of dragged us all out 311 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:57,000 to the patio. Was in the in the pest part the castle district, 312 00:21:57,319 --> 00:22:02,000 I think that's the past part, that's the budapart, and like it gave 313 00:22:02,079 --> 00:22:03,839 us a tour of the horizon you're looking at, you know, pointing out 314 00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:10,119 all this stuff. He's like really really charming guy. And most of the 315 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:11,799 people there were very sympathetic. Some of them were not, but most of 316 00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:15,079 them were very sympthetic. And I was struck by two things. One is 317 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:18,319 that his own people, a guy named Orba. I don't know how if 318 00:22:18,319 --> 00:22:22,960 I told you the story ready, the guy named Orbon ballas or Orbon. 319 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:27,079 Very smart guy, very smart guy. And in the meeting it was like 320 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:32,920 chiming in and correcting Victor and kind of disagreeing with him here or there and 321 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:38,319 amending things and basically being you know, surprisingly jerky for the guy who works 322 00:22:38,319 --> 00:22:41,559 for the I mean I was impressed by but guy works for the strong man, 323 00:22:41,799 --> 00:22:45,960 and I thought, oh, well, of course he's Bolage Orbon and 324 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,079 he's just it's just dad, daddy Orbon or uncle Orbon. He's like he's 325 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,240 in the family. And someone said, no, no, no, they 326 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,559 are not related Orban, it's just a common name. So basically, so 327 00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:00,200 Victor Orban has a kind of a large coffee clatch of people looks like who 328 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,319 you hit the ball back really hard for him. And the second thing he 329 00:23:03,319 --> 00:23:07,559 said was we were talking about nationalism and is that a problem, and people 330 00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:11,880 wanted to be a problem here, and he said, look, we're Hungarian 331 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:17,680 culture. We speak Hungarian, we have music and food and language and poetry 332 00:23:17,799 --> 00:23:23,599 and our own epic poem. We have been hungry, the nation of Hungary 333 00:23:25,079 --> 00:23:29,599 free for maybe twelve years, maybe twenty five years all in, from the 334 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:33,319 beginning of time to now. And so we really is the first time we've 335 00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,119 actually had an idea that we're going to be hungry for a long time. 336 00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:41,200 We're not going to be part of an Austro Hungarian empire right part of the 337 00:23:41,279 --> 00:23:44,039 Roman Empire. We're not going to be part of a Soviet empire. We're 338 00:23:44,039 --> 00:23:48,000 not going to be this weird interregnum after some peace process that didn't really work. 339 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,960 This could be it. Can we just enjoy it for a little bit? 340 00:23:52,279 --> 00:23:55,079 No, he said, can we just be Hungarians for I give us 341 00:23:55,079 --> 00:23:57,200 fifty years? No, fifty years from now. I don't know. Let 342 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:02,559 everybody in, it's fine, but can we just enjoy being Hungarian and Hungarians 343 00:24:02,599 --> 00:24:06,960 in the country of Hungaria or Hungary for just a little bit more? And 344 00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:15,000 I found that to be very persuasive and also hard to deny. And his 345 00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:18,160 point is it's one thing for the French and the English and the Dutch and 346 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,160 the Germans to have this decad an idea about letting everybody in and what's going 347 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,079 to be the problem. But it's another thing if you're just started, you're 348 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:30,160 just this new country and the idea that you're just going to well now, 349 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,319 we're not going to be now. We're part of a European bureaucratic empire that 350 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,880 does not care about our gulash and our music and our dancing and our architecture. 351 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,319 I think that's a to me that was very persuasive. But they don't 352 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,759 get to have that, they shouldn't have that. They have that, then 353 00:24:45,759 --> 00:24:48,759 they'll like it and they'll get used to it, they'll be exclusionary and we 354 00:24:48,839 --> 00:24:52,319 can't have that. I mean what you said before about the differences between the 355 00:24:52,319 --> 00:24:56,839 French and the Belgians and this and that. I mean it's almost rob as 356 00:24:56,839 --> 00:25:00,440 if you're saying that seventy years of attempting to get rid of culture and folk 357 00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:07,480 ways in favor of a unified European identity, really it really doesn't work. 358 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,880 That there's actually something there that people cling to, and they will keep quiet 359 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,920 about it as it's a literally a bit, you know, until the point 360 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,920 where it seems as if they are losing national identity. And the curious thing 361 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,920 is this. It is odd, sort of kind of in a way for 362 00:25:22,039 --> 00:25:26,240 me as an American to look at what you're talking about and saying, well, 363 00:25:26,519 --> 00:25:30,559 yeah, I mean I get it because America is different. We are 364 00:25:30,559 --> 00:25:33,920 syncretic people. We have a culture that is born of a civic identity. 365 00:25:34,079 --> 00:25:37,359 Right, anybody can become an American. I like that, and I like 366 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,319 that about us, But I don't think that's the case in Europe. I 367 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,680 don't think that anybody can go to frances and be a Frenchman. I don't 368 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,400 think anybody can go to Denmark. And I can't go to Denmark and be 369 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,480 a Dane in the sense that the people who are there are anybody can come 370 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:53,519 here and be an American. I like that, I love it. But 371 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:59,680 I get why they want a unified culture in the place where they speak and 372 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,319 they have songs and the ghulash and the rest of it. And it seems 373 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:07,799 madness for them to have embarked on a project where this is the composition is 374 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,240 changed, and not even just changed in a way that makes it more sort 375 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,200 of everybody slashing around in Europe, but it's changed by the addition of people 376 00:26:15,319 --> 00:26:21,440 with values that are antithetical to what they supposedly believe in. And that's the 377 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,000 part that it just jars. It's like, well, are we are coming 378 00:26:25,039 --> 00:26:27,440 up with the new European identity which is based on the end of patriarchy, 379 00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:30,480 the end of gender distinctions and the rest of it. Oh and by the 380 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,400 way, here are these people from this culture which believe the absolute opposite of 381 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,359 it. They're going to live here now and you're going to pay for them. 382 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:41,079 So it's the fact that this is happening it doesn't surprise me. But 383 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,279 I think that there's so much sclerotic power still invested in Europe that I don't 384 00:26:45,319 --> 00:26:48,519 think that anything is going to change. The fantasies of deportation and the rest 385 00:26:48,519 --> 00:26:52,960 of it aren't going to play out. Well, what's going to happen now? 386 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,160 I don't think they're going to happen, but I do think that's what 387 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,480 it is an interesting sort of canary to coal mine. When you when you're 388 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,599 leader political movement or part of a political coalition and you are losing the support 389 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,359 of people that you really shouldn't be losing, You've got two choices. One 390 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,640 is you double down and you just you cut those people off and you say, 391 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,839 oh, I don't need any more you know, elderly socialists. So 392 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:22,799 I'm going to run a progressive European coalition of twelve, you know, like 393 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,400 with Democrats in eighty you know, there's some thing called Reagan Democrats. So 394 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,079 the question was, well, why are these Democrats not voting for us? 395 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,279 What's what are we doing wrong? And for better or for worse, they 396 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,240 kind of sort of almost figured it out. They had eight years of Clinton 397 00:27:37,319 --> 00:27:40,480 kind of in the little bit of the middle, and he kind of got 398 00:27:40,519 --> 00:27:45,119 those people back a little bit. To me, it's always astonishing when people 399 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:51,359 are clinging so much to their the most extreme version of their belief right, 400 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,480 and that that is the story of the EU. You made total sense. 401 00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:59,079 You have a common European common market. My god. The Europeans have immense 402 00:27:59,519 --> 00:28:02,880 economic gains after World War Two. A lot of it was because we gave 403 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:03,960 them the money, but a lot of it was because they had a common 404 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:08,440 market. And then the EU was an incredibly smart idea to like unify certain 405 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,759 things that didn't really need to be different. And you just then guess what, 406 00:28:11,839 --> 00:28:17,400 you say, stop, we got it. It's easy to get from 407 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:19,720 one place to another, it's easy to use one piece one currency from another. 408 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,880 Our currency is unified. It's fine, But we're still going to be 409 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,119 French and snoody, and we're still gonna be English and like the chocolate our 410 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,599 way, and we're still going to be Italian and like. And that created 411 00:28:30,599 --> 00:28:36,559 an enormous amount of prosperity in Italy that they simply, the bureaucrats simply couldn't 412 00:28:36,599 --> 00:28:40,519 say, well done, everyone, now let's go home. Instead they said, 413 00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:42,279 wait a minute, what else can we do? And how about we 414 00:28:42,319 --> 00:28:47,200 destroy this thing we just created? And I think that's what you're saying in 415 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:52,319 Europe you're just seeing this idea that like no one on the traditional left. 416 00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:55,799 Although you know, we keep saying far right, it's not like these people 417 00:28:55,839 --> 00:29:00,440 are doing for you know, America. You know, these people would find 418 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,119 Mitt Romney to be a fascist, right, yes, but but it's not 419 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:11,000 like it's not like they're it's not like they're they are no longer hearing the 420 00:29:11,279 --> 00:29:17,960 insults the same way that it is the same, the same experience you find 421 00:29:18,079 --> 00:29:26,079 in you know, socially conservative or even slightly uncomfortable Americans with the progressive movement 422 00:29:26,359 --> 00:29:30,319 when people call them racist or homophobic or bigotry or whatever hatred. They just 423 00:29:30,359 --> 00:29:34,119 don't hear those words anymore. Those words are being used so often they no 424 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,559 longer have any value. And I think that's what's happening in Europe. I 425 00:29:37,599 --> 00:29:38,759 mean, I mean, don't you didn't you feel that way state when you're 426 00:29:38,759 --> 00:29:41,839 in Western Europe? I mean, you're not in Hungry. That there is. 427 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:45,119 But hold that thought, Stephen, hold that thought right there, because 428 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,559 for a minute here I have to intercede and ask both of you, since 429 00:29:47,559 --> 00:29:49,920 we're moving away from Hungary now to Western Europe, did either of you have 430 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:55,160 the famous fruit brandy in Hungary? Palinka. I think it's called kidding me. 431 00:29:55,279 --> 00:29:57,279 Yes, yeah, it's like it's like eighty proof or something like that 432 00:29:57,279 --> 00:30:00,839 could be so good. It can put you away, It can really put 433 00:30:00,839 --> 00:30:04,079 you away. And they bring it because they have this gen this host culture, 434 00:30:04,119 --> 00:30:08,480 this generous culture that if you go to they bring like all of them 435 00:30:08,759 --> 00:30:11,680 and then if you oh, that's interesting, well, this one's this one, 436 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,279 this one's that one, this one's summer plum, and then you have 437 00:30:14,319 --> 00:30:18,440 to try them all and so essentially you're blind walking on your knees in about 438 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,400 twenty minutes. Then that can mean a bad next day. Frankly, you 439 00:30:22,559 --> 00:30:26,000 just can't. You can't bounce back like you used to, especially the older 440 00:30:26,039 --> 00:30:27,079 that you get. 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And we thank z Biotics responsoring this the Ricochet podcast and our good 466 00:32:13,279 --> 00:32:17,559 times this summer, Steve, and we were going to let you talk about 467 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:22,079 Western Europe. Well right, Well, as you move over to Western Europe 468 00:32:22,079 --> 00:32:24,200 and the European Union, you can keep going across the Atlantic to compare it 469 00:32:24,279 --> 00:32:28,480 to our country. I think because you see the same thing going on. 470 00:32:28,559 --> 00:32:31,440 I mean, James mentioned, you mentioned a second ago. Who's running the 471 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:35,759 Biden White Houses of the permanent government or the deep state or whatever you want 472 00:32:35,759 --> 00:32:39,599 to say. I think we're now learning, or Europe is learning what I 473 00:32:39,599 --> 00:32:44,920 think conservatives in America figured out decades ago, although we haven't got a good 474 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,920 remedy for it, which is the it's public choice theory. The incentives for 475 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:52,559 our bureaucrats are just the same as the incentives for any profit making country, 476 00:32:52,799 --> 00:32:57,160 except bureaucrats. Look for more budgets or larger budgets, more power, more 477 00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:00,440 votes if you're a politician. And that's why this saying economic analysis can be 478 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:05,599 brought to both Okay, in the European Union, I was reflecting to the 479 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,559 Europeans. I was talking to a peculiar figure of speech they use, which 480 00:33:08,599 --> 00:33:13,119 I'll bet you've noticed too, Rob. The European Commission will come out and 481 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:21,480 say today we're pleased to announce three new competencies companies. Right, what that 482 00:33:21,519 --> 00:33:23,000 really means, that's a US mission for power. We now have three more 483 00:33:23,039 --> 00:33:27,480 things we're going to regulate or dictate terms to all the members of the European 484 00:33:27,559 --> 00:33:30,319 Union. And you know what I said was nobody in America would use that 485 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:36,640 word because the government is so manifestly incompetent these days. Right right, So 486 00:33:37,319 --> 00:33:38,240 I mean mentioned as you know, a week or two ago, I don't 487 00:33:38,279 --> 00:33:45,119 remember now, But so beyond just the flashpoints of immigration, the net zero 488 00:33:45,279 --> 00:33:49,880 green new Deal nonsense that both countries are dealing with, is the larger question 489 00:33:50,079 --> 00:33:53,359 of well why are Somebody had a picture of the G seven summit going on, 490 00:33:53,519 --> 00:33:59,359 and above each of the national leaders was a negative number of how far 491 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:04,279 underwater they are in the polls. You know, Pierre Justin Trudeau is like 492 00:34:04,359 --> 00:34:07,239 minus fifty in the polls. Richie Biden actually pretty good. He was like 493 00:34:07,239 --> 00:34:14,519 the he was the most popular unpopular leader. Actually Maloney was the least unpopular, 494 00:34:14,599 --> 00:34:16,000 but he was second. But you're right, Biden was second. And 495 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,719 uh. And you know, we ought to take a larger lesson here, 496 00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:23,199 which is modern government has simply become well, you know, Reagan's line was 497 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:28,719 too big, doing too much, and the incompetence is more and more obvious 498 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,599 to everybody. And I don't know how you fix that. Well, I 499 00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:34,920 mean I have ideas how you fix it, but I mean it's a practical 500 00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,519 matter. It's hard to persuade people, you know what, big, big 501 00:34:37,599 --> 00:34:42,000 changes that you want to make. Yeah, I mean they tried to graft 502 00:34:42,079 --> 00:34:50,559 the federal a federal system over a chaotic parliamentary over only chaotic parliamentary systems. 503 00:34:51,079 --> 00:34:57,119 And I'm always interested in how often American politicians left in the right decide or 504 00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,519 delude themselves and forget and think that we also live in a parliamentary system, 505 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:02,480 you know. So like, you know, you find the people who are 506 00:35:02,519 --> 00:35:05,760 like, well, Joe Biden's president, he should get what he wants, 507 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,920 like, well, no, that's not how it works. Usually what happens 508 00:35:07,039 --> 00:35:10,440 is the American voter says, well, not so fast, we're going to 509 00:35:10,519 --> 00:35:15,239 put some you know, the opposite party in charge. People like cheering about 510 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,880 Trump, like, oh, Trump's reelected. I mean it's gonna be relcted 511 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:22,039 by very thin margin. He's going to be able to do all this stuff. 512 00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:25,039 It's like, well, no, actually he's not. My my, 513 00:35:25,039 --> 00:35:30,239 my great. You know, the partisans on both sides usually say things like, 514 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:31,599 well, the thing I like about Biden thinking like about Trump's I like 515 00:35:31,679 --> 00:35:37,000 his enemies. He's making the right enemies. I like that. Whereas, 516 00:35:37,639 --> 00:35:42,559 you know, the relative strength and political impact the president has is never based 517 00:35:42,599 --> 00:35:45,719 on his enemies. It's always based on his friends. That we ain't not 518 00:35:45,159 --> 00:35:52,159 like it. But the presidency is a job of compromise and making friends and 519 00:35:52,199 --> 00:35:58,760 twisting arms and wheeling and dealing and kind of sewing your way through the navigation 520 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,559 of the shoals and the valleys. Right and the europe has never had that 521 00:36:02,639 --> 00:36:06,360 problem because if you're the head of the government, the prime minister, you're 522 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,599 by definition you've have cobbled to get this coalition. You can't do anything you 523 00:36:08,599 --> 00:36:14,679 want. That's why they have this crazy volatility all the time. And what 524 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:19,320 they're discovering now is that they have they have lost the thread and lost connection 525 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,440 to their voters. So even if you look at what's happening in France, 526 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,760 which is I mean, I know it's real and I know that these are 527 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:31,760 real people, but it's just also hilarious because it's so French. It's just 528 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:37,960 there was a seventy few hours there where you couldn't figure out what who's who 529 00:36:37,039 --> 00:36:40,320 was on what side because they kept switching. You couldn't even figure out. 530 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:45,639 They locked the head of the you know, the head of the one of 531 00:36:45,679 --> 00:36:51,320 the conservative coalition parties. Uh, they tossed it out, but then he 532 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,239 said you can't toss me out because you didn't do the meeting right, and 533 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:57,920 so then they so he locked everybody out of the office. And then they 534 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,360 had a break like there was on the news. They had a britsbody in 535 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,760 with a key. She had a spare key, the secretary general against the 536 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:08,320 party and she opened like this crazy stuff. Right, But that's because they 537 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:13,679 all want to put together coalition to win by one vote in the Assembly or 538 00:37:13,679 --> 00:37:16,360 two enough and then they want to make radical change in the country, and 539 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:21,679 that's just just not going to ever happen. You can't get too far ahead 540 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:25,360 of the ordinary, normal American sense of normal Americanism. In the same way 541 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,159 you can't get too too far of the ordinary French person. And the ordinary 542 00:37:29,159 --> 00:37:37,599 French person loves France and doesn't love having a little Anchora in France or Damascus 543 00:37:37,639 --> 00:37:43,679 in France. They don't like that. Well, well, well, did 544 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,360 you see rob Or James the map of there's almost color coded maps, just 545 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,639 like the red and blue in America, and it's it's all brown. Of 546 00:37:51,639 --> 00:37:53,920 course, how funny they pick that color for the far right right. But 547 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:58,719 it's all brown except this little island of Paris and maybe slightly pale, and 548 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:00,840 Marseille and one or two other plays. And so it's the country versus the 549 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:05,480 city. It's quite astounding, although not really when you think about it for 550 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,000 a moment. Look, the French already like they make a deal with themselves, 551 00:38:09,039 --> 00:38:12,079 and they make a deal with the culture, and that it's a deal. 552 00:38:12,119 --> 00:38:15,960 I think you find a lot of what we call now sort of more 553 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:19,639 nationalist conservatives are making in this country, which is, look, we have 554 00:38:19,639 --> 00:38:23,360 a way of life we like. Don't tell me that it's inefficient for us 555 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:30,480 to have nine thousand different farmers growing nine thousand different kinds of lettuce. That's 556 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,480 how we do it. We want to have a country that has farms and 557 00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:36,760 rural and we're going to do that, and it's going to cost money, 558 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:43,920 and so what don't tell me that where our education system isn't inclusive enough because 559 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,880 it is not our equity equitable enough, because it is not. But it 560 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:52,800 is rigorous and we're just going to keep that going. And there's a lot 561 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,880 of people in this country, I think it's not really an American idea, 562 00:38:55,039 --> 00:39:02,559 but are nervous about the kind of rapid change they're watching in their culture and 563 00:39:02,599 --> 00:39:07,199 they don't like it. No, they don't, and they will. I 564 00:39:07,199 --> 00:39:09,559 heard a little verbal there from Steven un though you wanted to leap in, 565 00:39:09,679 --> 00:39:14,760 go go well, I was just Rob mentioning the farmers in France, and 566 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,039 it's true of some of the other countries. Does to recur to a previous 567 00:39:17,039 --> 00:39:21,800 subject. I asked the Frenchman, I know some years ago, how is 568 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:24,880 it that you managed to build eighty nuclear reactors when we stop building at all? 569 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,440 And his answer, you may have heard his story. His answer was 570 00:39:28,519 --> 00:39:31,119 odd is simple. You see, says in France we have three hundred kinds 571 00:39:31,119 --> 00:39:35,519 of cheese and one kind of nuclear reactor, where in America it's just the 572 00:39:35,519 --> 00:39:38,480 opposite, one kind of cheese. Yeah, and there's a large amount of 573 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,559 truth to that. There's a lot of truth to that, I mean. 574 00:39:42,519 --> 00:39:46,840 And also I think they the French, pride themselves culturally. If we're going 575 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:52,320 to you know, you know, emulate them in any way. They pride 576 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:58,639 themselves on their logic. They are all the French farmer of French, you 577 00:39:58,679 --> 00:40:04,119 know, it doesn't matter the bike messenger, the guy running OXA, the 578 00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:07,840 giant insurance company. They all consider themselves Cartesian. You know, we're very 579 00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:13,679 like Druk were Renny Descartes disciples. And so if you want to get into 580 00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:16,559 a fist fight with a Frenchman during a debate about anything, just say, 581 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:22,559 and you know, say it's not logical what you're saying, and it's like 582 00:40:22,599 --> 00:40:28,679 them's fighting words. Also pride themselves in their technology. I mean, they 583 00:40:28,079 --> 00:40:30,840 used they used to be they used to be us. I mean at the 584 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,159 turn of the century, the previous one, uh, the you know, 585 00:40:34,199 --> 00:40:37,440 the French military prowess and the French technological innovation was regarded as you know, 586 00:40:37,519 --> 00:40:42,480 fantastic, and they lost that. I mean could be said that they got 587 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,800 there too early. They had an Internet before we did. Uh, and 588 00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,519 they have their own homegrown computer industries. But it's all fall and they haven't 589 00:40:49,599 --> 00:40:52,800 really been innovating in the sense that you know, we have for an offul 590 00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:55,800 long time. But still, yes, great pride. But here's the thing 591 00:40:57,519 --> 00:41:00,000 Rob mentioned, changing the culture. People don't like when there's a lot of 592 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:05,400 when there's too much cultural change, too fast, and they're they're demonized for 593 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,719 pushing back against it or even questioning it in any way. This shifts the 594 00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:12,920 subject somewhat, but it still does include Europe and the cultural cultural wars. 595 00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:17,760 This is Pride Month, and it seems to me, from a cursory examination 596 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,840 of the changing of the icons of the corporate nature on my Twitter feed, 597 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,280 that there is not the same sort of full throat at here we go month 598 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:30,360 long celebration that there was last year. Target base here in Minneapolis. It 599 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:36,360 has been receiving criticism from an unexpected direction because the people who wanted more pride 600 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,159 merch are not getting it, and they feel as if they're being vetted a 601 00:41:39,199 --> 00:41:43,480 little bit harder, and they're seeing this is all part of a backlash against 602 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:49,079 against a LGBTQ bright et cetera. Well, it's not. It is very 603 00:41:49,119 --> 00:41:55,239 specifically a disinclination and a turning away from a happy, smiley, classy face 604 00:41:55,760 --> 00:42:01,400 attitude toward the tea part of that equation. I think, if you're honest, 605 00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:08,639 the LGP portion got what they wanted, which was indifference. In the 606 00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:12,480 end, that's what you want. You want nobody to really particularly care, 607 00:42:12,519 --> 00:42:15,320 because it's like caring whether not somebody is left handed or blue white. It 608 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:20,280 doesn't matter. And that's kind of where we were. And as with every 609 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,480 organization, it will be occupied and inhabited by people who want to push the 610 00:42:22,519 --> 00:42:25,760 agenda further. And that's where the Q and the Q theory came into it. 611 00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:30,719 And the next thing you know, we're being asked to believe a series 612 00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:37,719 of things about gender that to most people are manifestly patently absurd and target for 613 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:43,239 whatever reason, last year went really all in on this. There was a 614 00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:46,760 lot of transprite stuff in the stores, there were merchandise online. They didn't 615 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:52,199 really vet the guys well enough. I think who were doing this because they'd 616 00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:54,039 buy a mug from this guy, and if you went to his actual shop, 617 00:42:54,119 --> 00:43:00,239 there would be little pins that would have a guillotine for the turf that 618 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:04,639 would there would be little pins that said, Satan respects your pronouns. People 619 00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:07,159 just sort of reared away from this, thinking, no, if we are 620 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:12,880 actually talking about preventing the puberty of children, about performing surgery upon them, 621 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:17,599 about believing this kaleidoscopic notion of Jenuary, and then this, no, I'm 622 00:43:17,639 --> 00:43:22,760 not going to believe this. I people may again ultimately be indifferent as to 623 00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,239 what somebody calls themselves as long as you don't have to participate in what they 624 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,639 are going on in their head. But the idea that this is to be 625 00:43:30,679 --> 00:43:35,000 imposed by HR divisions on down by television, by media, by the rest 626 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,159 of it has left a lot of people with just with no. They don't 627 00:43:38,199 --> 00:43:45,760 want they don't want it, and they're really not comfortable with the party that 628 00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,719 insists that you have to believe this, that you have to believe this. 629 00:43:50,599 --> 00:43:52,960 Yeah, I mean, I think that's very true. I think it's I 630 00:43:52,960 --> 00:44:00,519 mean that feels to me like a not just a specific cultural conflict or cultural 631 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:08,159 whatever friction, but it is. It is a general example. It exemplifies 632 00:44:08,199 --> 00:44:14,199 the problem, which is that it isn't just that oh, you know, 633 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:17,400 we'll we'll get there. We'll get there. As a culture, that's usually 634 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:22,079 what people say, right, we'll get there. This is a deep, 635 00:44:22,639 --> 00:44:29,400 deep rift between two different ways to look at the world and two different ways 636 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,280 to look at human biology that I probably you're never going to get reconciled. 637 00:44:32,679 --> 00:44:37,039 That's one thing that the brilliant when he was brilliant, Newt Gingrich said in 638 00:44:37,159 --> 00:44:40,159 ninety four, even before ninety four and afterwards, So well, here's how 639 00:44:40,199 --> 00:44:47,519 you here's how the center right can win. Just to remind people how weird 640 00:44:49,079 --> 00:44:51,559 the other side. There's so weird. He said. That should be our 641 00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:53,920 watch word, not not wrong, not this, not just weird, that 642 00:44:54,079 --> 00:44:57,920 like what these are weird people who believe he was talking about people in the 643 00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:01,960 nineties he was talking about just talking which now is is the Beaver Cleaver era. 644 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,960 Oh my god, yeah, I know. But the idea that that 645 00:45:06,079 --> 00:45:08,400 that this is going to be a moment where where eventually, you know, 646 00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:12,519 in ten twenty years, people are going to have a different idea about I 647 00:45:12,559 --> 00:45:15,840 don't know what gender is. It just doesn't seem real to me, Like 648 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:21,840 things don't inextorbally keep going. They do, they do reach a point where 649 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:23,719 it's like people are like, I don't think we're now at the elemental, 650 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:29,920 elemental cellular division of the human organism, and I just don't think you can 651 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:34,440 get much more. You can't progress out of that. Well. I think 652 00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:37,440 there's a backlash underway right now, or the pendulum is swinging. And I 653 00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,800 actually predicted at the end of last month that you would see much less of 654 00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:45,320 the Pride celebration from corporate America than you saw in last year's as James points 655 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:49,039 out, but you're seeing that across the board, less enthusiasm for Black Lives 656 00:45:49,079 --> 00:45:53,039 Matter, a big move on Wall Street away from the ESG, Environmental Safety, 657 00:45:53,039 --> 00:45:58,960 and government's rubber stamp investing. The big one problem here is quite aside 658 00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:00,599 from the substance of it, and I'm in heated agreement with both of you 659 00:46:00,639 --> 00:46:07,920 about how ridiculous this is is the demand for absolute conformity on a nationwide basis, 660 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:12,880 And so people have kind of forgotten this or maybe never focused on it. 661 00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:17,119 But I think it was within six weeks of the Obergefeld decision legalizing same 662 00:46:17,159 --> 00:46:23,360 sex marriage that you suddenly had the transgenderism movement erupt and it started on the 663 00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:28,760 local level in North Carolina. You may remember this as the school district in 664 00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,519 Charlotte. I think it was said, well, transgender people can use whichever 665 00:46:31,559 --> 00:46:37,440 bathroom they want to, and the state legislature erupted and passed the bill saying 666 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:39,400 no, you can't. This is crazy. A number of Democrats, Black 667 00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:44,679 Democrats by the way, voted for it, and then a compromise was struck, 668 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:46,159 like, all right, we're not going to make a state wide law. 669 00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:50,679 If you want to have it locally, go ahead, but were However, 670 00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:54,360 what happened at that point was the Obama education departments, at the behest 671 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:58,960 of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, said no, this needs to be a 672 00:46:59,119 --> 00:47:04,679 national policy, and they put out a guidance letter. This is the the 673 00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:10,000 coursive way the Obama administration operated, not a formal regulation, and they said 674 00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:15,559 any school district, any school district anywhere in the country that does not allow 675 00:47:15,679 --> 00:47:20,559 transgender people to pick their bathroom will be denied their federal funds. And Texas 676 00:47:20,599 --> 00:47:22,360 was the first state to say, go ahead and make our day. How 677 00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:27,119 many Democrats want to get re elected to Congress right, and so it's sort 678 00:47:27,119 --> 00:47:30,719 of just. But the point is I've always been for years now, as 679 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:34,440 early as the nineties, what might I used to call it, a moral 680 00:47:34,519 --> 00:47:37,719 federalist. Let Salt Lake City be Salt Lake City, and let San Francisco 681 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:42,639 be San Francisco, and don't try and make this uniform across the country, 682 00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,760 and we'll sort ourselves out. But no, that is not acceptable to the 683 00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,599 cultural left. We all must believe the same thing, and there must be 684 00:47:49,679 --> 00:47:53,679 punishment anywhere for anybody who dissents. That's I think that's really true. And 685 00:47:53,719 --> 00:48:00,960 I think the maybe I'm just a god the most rock ribbed conservative, because 686 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:07,559 like that is the point of the United States Constitution, and the Constitution is 687 00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:13,239 is we think of it as like it enumerates our rights, but it really 688 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,480 does. It enumerates our restrictions. Here's what I can't make you do. 689 00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:22,880 Here's what the government can't make you do. It holds you back. It 690 00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,599 maybe ties one arm behind your back, and that's okay. And the idea 691 00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:29,000 was this is going to be sloppy and messy, and it was sloppy and 692 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:30,840 messy to get it ratified, and even people ratifying you, this is not 693 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:37,039 going to go. This is not going to be easy. Their worst nightmare 694 00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:42,840 was confirmed I don't know sixty seventy years later, when the country erupted in 695 00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:45,320 a civil war. That was the blood is for in human history up till 696 00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:52,519 that point. But it's still better than trying to fix everything all at once. 697 00:48:52,639 --> 00:48:58,519 There's a there's a soft to Peter wants. And he looked at me 698 00:48:58,559 --> 00:49:01,039 like I was speaking Sanskrit, even though he and I tried. When we 699 00:49:01,039 --> 00:49:05,480 were building Ricochet years and years ago, we talked about this. Two of 700 00:49:05,519 --> 00:49:08,440 there are two big ways of looking at software development right. One is I'm 701 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:12,079 sure they're more better now, but like this I'm talking about fifteen years ago. 702 00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:15,360 One is called agile, and one was called waterfall. And the waterfall 703 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:17,760 version you fix the chunk and you move to the next chunk. Can you 704 00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:24,840 fix that? You move, you keep moving forward as you add complete units 705 00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:29,079 of code. And then there's the waterfall where you kind of just kind of 706 00:49:29,079 --> 00:49:30,760 get going and you kind of add stuff and you go back and you fix 707 00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:36,920 you got can fix a waterfall. The agile always looks chaotic and like a 708 00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:40,840 mistake, but it's almost always stronger because you just start and that the United 709 00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:46,400 States Constitution. This country is agile, meaning kind of we kind of got 710 00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:50,360 started before we had figured out one big thing, and we had to pay 711 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:52,840 the price for that. We're still kind of paying the price for that. 712 00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,599 But it's much better than thinking that we know everything and we can just kind 713 00:49:55,599 --> 00:49:59,960 of like the European Union, like the European Federation. We're going to sit 714 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:00,719 in a room, we're going to comfort all the laws, we're going to 715 00:50:00,760 --> 00:50:04,000 pass all the laws, and then we're done. It's like, that's not 716 00:50:05,159 --> 00:50:08,960 going to work. Let me wrap this all up into one thing. No, 717 00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,840 I mean it's possible to do so. One of the reasons that you 718 00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:17,360 have the ormies as they're called with such derision but recoiling a bit perhaps from 719 00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:21,360 the excesses of the left, is that everything sort of gets wrapped up in 720 00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:25,239 these protests that we're seeing on campuses and elsewhere, when we're seeing people who 721 00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:31,079 are loudly advocating for the success of a terrorist organization. I mean, it 722 00:50:31,159 --> 00:50:35,079 started that out word was all about free Gaza, but you know, kind 723 00:50:35,079 --> 00:50:38,840 of morph without even gee gosh, how did that happen into prohamas flags waving 724 00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:44,159 around with the people who will be standing there with ridiculous signs like Queers for 725 00:50:44,199 --> 00:50:49,360 Palestine, which is you just again just absolutely takes an egg beater to your 726 00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,239 brain. And you see them occupying the halls as they used to and trashing 727 00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:59,000 things, and at La Fayette Square, for example, showing up and spray 728 00:50:59,039 --> 00:51:01,440 painting Death to America, et cetera, et cetera, and the statuary there 729 00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:07,320 and suffering absolutely no consequences for whatsoever, which is remarkable you think about it 730 00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:10,800 that. I mean, the protests sort of wrap it all up. It 731 00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:20,280 wraps up the anti Western element, It wraps up the curious monocultural religious, 732 00:51:20,519 --> 00:51:23,519 ethnic portion, which is apparently it's okay if they're doing it. It wraps 733 00:51:23,599 --> 00:51:30,400 up all of the strange, meaningless alphabet ideologies that find a home in this 734 00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:32,920 simply because it's anti Western. I mean, this is like, I hate 735 00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:37,840 to make parallels, but we're coming up to another sixty eight, another convention 736 00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:42,119 in Chicago like we did in sixty eight, in the cultural mood of the 737 00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,599 of the normies, of the silent America, of the archie Bunkers hitting in 738 00:51:45,639 --> 00:51:49,599 his lazy boy in Queen's is looking at these people with the same amount of 739 00:51:49,599 --> 00:51:52,360 contempt. So are we where we were in sixty eight, where the silent 740 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:57,880 majority speaks and their riots in Chicago, et cetera. You guys tell me 741 00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:01,320 before we go, because we have four minute it's just settled it all all 742 00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:07,079 right, Steve? You first, Well, it's everything. Yeah, No, 743 00:52:07,199 --> 00:52:09,079 I'm kind of gloomy. I think no matter who wins, rent for 744 00:52:09,199 --> 00:52:12,159 some very bad times down the road. By the way, I think if 745 00:52:12,159 --> 00:52:15,000 Trump wins, you're going to see riots. I think you're going to see 746 00:52:15,559 --> 00:52:19,480 the left is going to erupt much worse than January sixth, although it'll be 747 00:52:19,519 --> 00:52:22,760 more diffuse across the country. So I hate to be so cheery about things. 748 00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:25,760 I'll give you one thing to cheer you up on this last point. 749 00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:30,119 I just found this new story this morning that some playwrights in England have put 750 00:52:30,159 --> 00:52:36,840 together a play attacking JK. Rowling because of her bleak. It's called turf 751 00:52:37,119 --> 00:52:39,119 Bleeding. Yeah you saw that story. And they can't get any actresses and 752 00:52:39,199 --> 00:52:42,559 want to play the roles because they're all saying, no, we don't want 753 00:52:42,559 --> 00:52:45,039 to do that, which I think is a sign of again the pendulum swinging 754 00:52:45,119 --> 00:52:51,880 back row. I mean, I took I'm a gum generally an optimist. 755 00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:58,159 You know, I feel like it's I go back to Ronald Reagan, right, 756 00:52:58,199 --> 00:53:01,519 Megan used to say this, there's not one problem that we face as 757 00:53:01,559 --> 00:53:10,239 a country that is not being solved somewhere by somebody right now. And a 758 00:53:10,239 --> 00:53:14,800 lot of what we have to do is just to remember what we already know 759 00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:17,760 and pay attention to what other people are doing and see if they're doing a 760 00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:22,039 good job and the one they are and some people are, and get out 761 00:53:22,039 --> 00:53:25,480 of the way. I mean, obviously that's a complete cliche, but sometimes 762 00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:29,079 it's basic cliches are true. So I actually do have faith in that. 763 00:53:29,199 --> 00:53:34,880 I do believe that is true. And I in the sense that I even 764 00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:39,559 look at the not my own sort of natural patriotic, you know, condescension. 765 00:53:39,559 --> 00:53:43,719 If I can look at Europe and think, you know, you guys 766 00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:49,400 would be much better off if you are a little bit more American. That's 767 00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:53,320 if you wanna. If you wanna, if you're desperate to import immigrants, 768 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:55,800 why don't you let some of us comfort, you know, five six months, 769 00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:59,719 walk around your cities, eat your food, drink your wine, and 770 00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:05,280 then we'll head home. But is a Europe is a better, safer, 771 00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:10,679 smarter place now? Because Americans were there for twenty five still there that it 772 00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:15,840 was for the two thousand years before. Yeah, well they haven't had one 773 00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,840 hundred years war for some time now, Thank you very much. Basically, 774 00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:23,559 you're welcome. Ramsteam I held that you're absolutely right. I too am an 775 00:54:23,599 --> 00:54:27,320 optimist, but like Stephen, I am to a little bit of a pest 776 00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:30,039 miss down the road. I think that there are sclerotic, to use that 777 00:54:30,079 --> 00:54:36,119 word again for the twice in one podcast, forces at work that keep education 778 00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:40,159 from being reformed, that don't address the cultural problems, that create busted families, 779 00:54:40,159 --> 00:54:45,800 that create kids who have no concept of history or behavior. Social media 780 00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:51,119 that in pumps and in flames and the rest of it. We have problems, 781 00:54:51,199 --> 00:54:53,159 and while we know what to do about them, there just seems to 782 00:54:53,199 --> 00:54:57,000 be a timorous lack of will to do anything about him. Here in the 783 00:54:57,039 --> 00:55:00,159 Twin Cities, they've started to address the disor or on the light rail system 784 00:55:00,199 --> 00:55:06,159 by actually sending in get this people to do something about it, people with 785 00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:09,159 uniforms who will actually do something, and it's having a little bit of an 786 00:55:09,199 --> 00:55:14,000 effect somewhat. It's not perfect yet, but people scratch their heads. It's 787 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:16,119 the old fox butterworth thing. I don't understand it. The prisons are full 788 00:55:16,239 --> 00:55:22,760 yet crime is down. Yeah. Anyway, before we leave, robb usually 789 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,400 tells you what's going on when it comes to and I got to say also 790 00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:30,039 that we are in ever debt to our great producer Perry, who just you 791 00:55:30,079 --> 00:55:35,079 know, wrote a wonderful rundown of things that we could discuss here, and 792 00:55:35,159 --> 00:55:38,440 we completely ignored everything that he did. But I did not want it to 793 00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:46,079 go unnoted that had we showed up as as stumble tongued guys, we would 794 00:55:46,119 --> 00:55:49,400 have had the whole roadmap in front of us. Anyway, Robbi, you 795 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:52,760 want to tell them about those meetups before we leave. Yes, in addition 796 00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:54,960 to this wonderful podcast, which you get for free by the way, like 797 00:55:55,000 --> 00:56:00,400 a European socialist, you could be in a real America. Can enjoin Ricochet 798 00:56:00,639 --> 00:56:04,960 and at ricochet dot com become a member, and it's not just about the 799 00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,800 podcast. It's not even just about the conversation. So we have on there 800 00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:10,960 that are cover everything and anything in the world and not just politics. But 801 00:56:13,559 --> 00:56:15,519 in fact the ones that are not about politics, I find it the most 802 00:56:15,519 --> 00:56:20,679 interesting. But we also have real meetups and you can meet real people who 803 00:56:20,679 --> 00:56:22,800 are nice people and you can meet them. Coming up, I'll tell you 804 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:25,920 what happened. Coming up, fourth of July weekend, Fargo, North Dakota. 805 00:56:27,039 --> 00:56:30,000 It's going to be a German Fest meetup in Milwaukee during the last week 806 00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:34,400 in July. It's going to be one in Saint Louis in early October two 807 00:56:34,440 --> 00:56:36,360 and there's can be more. You just have to go. You have to 808 00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,400 go to ricks dot com, go to the member site and the meetups are 809 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:42,760 all there. And if you want to go to one and none of those 810 00:56:42,840 --> 00:56:46,400 dates work for you, guess what. Just say you're going to You want 811 00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:50,280 to have a meetup wherever it's close to you, on whatever date works for 812 00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,440 you, and you will find Ricochet members will show up because that's what they 813 00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:57,400 do. They show up. And if you've made it through six hundred and 814 00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:00,719 ninety six episodes of the podcast checking out Ricochet, first of all, I 815 00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:02,199 don't know what the matter. I don't know what I can do, but 816 00:57:02,199 --> 00:57:06,039 you're to drop by this time because we there's such I mean, Rob's right, 817 00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:08,559 politic stuff is fun. It's great to go in there and discuss. 818 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:12,679 But we got two posts this week, one by Gary McVeigh talking about the 819 00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:15,360 horrible design of the fifties, and there's Gary's always a pleasure to read. 820 00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:20,119 Gary's fantastic, just just knows scary on scold be guests they should be. 821 00:57:20,239 --> 00:57:24,400 And then doctor Bostian, who oh yeah, who had a piece about well, 822 00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:29,239 it's about doing well and the decision to do well. And it starts 823 00:57:29,239 --> 00:57:34,360 out with a patient who about to shuffle off the mortal coil. And none 824 00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:36,239 of the kids are going to drop by and say, good, why why 825 00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:38,960 is that? And it's great piece. And I read that and I thought, 826 00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,519 you know, this magazine that I have in front of me, here, 827 00:57:42,559 --> 00:57:44,840 this newspaper that I have here, this this other website, none of 828 00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:47,119 these have anything like this, and they still want to charge me money for 829 00:57:47,159 --> 00:57:50,880 it. And Ricochet is just giving it to us. But you know, 830 00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:52,400 if you go to the member side where this stuff comes up in advance, 831 00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:55,559 that's where you will find friends in community. And I highly advise you to 832 00:57:55,559 --> 00:57:59,960 go there. Maybe you'll do it after the seven hundred podcasts and figure, 833 00:58:00,119 --> 00:58:01,280 you know what, I think these guys are going to be around for a 834 00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:05,320 while. Anyway, It's been a great pleasure. Thanks as ever, Thank 835 00:58:05,360 --> 00:58:08,039 you Stephen for sitting in for Peter. Thank you Rob. As ever, 836 00:58:08,599 --> 00:58:13,480 I will be out for a little while unless we can do next week and 837 00:58:13,679 --> 00:58:16,199 on Thursday we can do that, I'll be here. Otherwise I will be 838 00:58:16,519 --> 00:58:22,599 gallivanting and you'll be, uh well, it'll be one of those situations where 839 00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:25,920 I go and nobody replaces me and it's just the two of you, which 840 00:58:25,960 --> 00:58:30,079 is fine. Will you tell us where youre going that? Are you going 841 00:58:30,159 --> 00:58:35,400 to tease us? Tease you big surprise, lots of fun, but yeah, 842 00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:37,840 big surprise, and don't even think about it because our house is heavily 843 00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:44,440 armed, wired, alarmed and will be occupied, so you know there because 844 00:58:44,480 --> 00:58:47,920 I can't take the dog anyway. That's it. It's been fun. We 845 00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:52,679 thank ze Biotics for sponsoring us. Give it a try, believe me, 846 00:58:52,719 --> 00:58:55,239 with you know, the fourth of July and a few sessions of coaffing coming 847 00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:59,079 up, you might want zebiotics on your side. And of course go to 848 00:58:59,079 --> 00:59:04,360 Apple Music, iTunes, iPod give us five iPod, I said, iPod 849 00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:07,960 like it's two thousand and I give us those five stars and that'll be great. 850 00:59:08,119 --> 00:59:12,639 And otherwise, thanks for listening and we'll see everybody in the comments at 851 00:59:12,679 --> 00:59:23,960 Ricochet four point zero next week. Next week, films Ricochet join the conversation.