Speaker 1: Welcome back, everyone to a new episode. If you were
wrong with me, David Harsania, senior writer at The Washington Examiner,
my usual co host, Molly Hemingway, editor in chief of
The Federalist, is her voices out, So we've we've found
another Hemingway. Mark Hemingway and Mark, we were just saying that,
you know, Molly has done this podcast sick. She's done
it on like an hour's sleep. You know, she hadn't
lost her voice, she would be here right Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: The only thing stopping this. And yes, I know, I
know I have that sound you hear right now? Is
everybody like shutting off the podcast right now? I realize
that Molly isn't here. I feel like, you know, remember
like George W. Bush had that Supreme Court vacancy and
he went and selected Myers because she was literally the
closest lawyer to the White House.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's what happened here.
Speaker 2: You know, Molly, she walked to my office downstairs and
was like, hey, so you know, hopefully this will this
will walk out.
Speaker 3: Let me just say this.
Speaker 1: You know, I have immense respect for Molly, obviously, but
I've actually followed you for a longer time, and you're writing,
and I think that you're one of the best political
writers in the United States. And I don't hand out
compliments very easily.
Speaker 3: So yikes.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the feeling is this is certainly mutual.
Should probably start in on this love fest before we
get into the meat of the Trump stuff or whatever.
Because Mollie told me like she's like angry, she isn't
here to argue with you about RFK.
Speaker 3: Well, that's fine. I don't know where.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where you stand on it, but I
think it's the worst worst nomination probably and from my view,
and for very specific reasons, which I've.
Speaker 3: Laid out in numerous pieces, you know, the things he
said and done, but also generally because.
Speaker 1: I feel like he is one of the people who
is moving the entire Republican Party to the to the left.
And I, you know, not just because we're forgiving what
he says, but we are immediately taking on the sort
of language he uses about you know, agriculture and pharm
on all these things that I understand.
Speaker 3: Why we're mad about it and all that.
Speaker 1: So we could get into a little more specifics why
I don't like him, or I actually don't know where
you stand on his nomination, so I wonder, I wonder
what that's where you do.
Speaker 2: I have very mixed feelings about it, Like I think
I agree with you on a lot of sort of
principled things, you know, and there's you know, there's all
these statements in the past from him about abortion and
vaccines and other things like that that do cause you know.
Speaker 3: Concern for me.
Speaker 2: However, a lot of these core sort of MAHA issues
I think are like totally legitimate. You know, there's all
these people that are saying, well, you know, RFK isn't
being very scientist because he has these wild ideas about
the food supply and things like that, and I just
I think most Americans have sort of arrived at this place.
Speaker 3: Where he is, where you.
Speaker 2: Have like California granola moms and you know, anti corporate
right wingers now are like sort of you know, as
a horseshoe theory coming together on a lot of these
big issues that he's been addressing that I think are
really really key. So I like that he's out there
on certain issues and making the case, you know, in
other areas where you're trying to consider the totality of
his however, many decades in public life and the things
he's done and said, yeah, it looks very alarming. What
he's done more recently in the last few years, in
terms of him focusing his message and backing away from
certain things is great. Oh and one other thing I
want to say is that he's been very, very outspoken
about the need for transparency at the NAGE and federal
agency in particular, which I think is really really key.
And I like that a lot. But yeah, I'm sure
you're about to run down the you know, reams of
crack pottery.
Speaker 3: I won't. I think we can.
Speaker 1: Let's all both concede that there's a lot of it,
and it's pretty out there, right Almo. And I just
want to preface this by saying, I actually think that
heretics of his you know that or whatever you want
to call it, conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 3: I think they serve.
Speaker 1: They have a useful purpose right in in debate or whatever.
You know, it's good to challenge, you know.
Speaker 3: The status quo, whatever.
Speaker 1: But he is predictable in that he embraces almost every
conspiracy theory that's been out there. And that's fine. But
here's the thing. If you're serious, I think about I
think Fauci destroyed public trust. I am sympathetic to the
people like RFK in that way. I get why it's happening.
But once you want, I mean, there are plenty of
people out there who are serious. Who are you know,
who signed declarations against COVID lockdowns or whatnot, who are
far more who would bring trust back, who could bring
transparency to the HIHS in the same way, who could
who could actually help us and help public health in
a way where I don't. RFK doesn't even have any
kind of I mean it's someone was saying how quainted
is to even mention this, But he literally has no
background in running anything any organization really other than working
with trial lawyers to you know, go after murk or whatever.
Speaker 3: So I think that that's.
Speaker 1: Something that's important. And also, you know, now he says
he's you know, he thinks abortion it's a tragedy. You know,
he went through all the issues, he walked everything back.
I mean, why do we even have this kind of vetting?
You know, why don't we even have congressional vetting? If
everyone can just say whatever Donald Trump wants to hear today,
and and and be, you know, and and go through.
I'm sure I don't want to pick on Josh Holly Holly,
but you know, he would never have let this go
with any other candidate, right, I mean, he would never
let a judge go through whoever said anything that resembled
a pro abortion comment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, No, I mean I think those are all
legitimate criticisms. However, and I mean I hate to even
just like throw this out there because it sounds crazy,
but I mean, I honestly think we've reached a point
where the corruption and insanity of the American government is
such that I mean, I want to like.
Speaker 3: Pretend this is some like accelerationists or.
Speaker 2: Whatever, but like, I honestly have a hard time seeing,
like on a management level, for instance, how RFK Junior
could possibly be worse than like the status quote people
we've had in recent years. And so I'm less concerned
on that level. My My big concern is some of
these things are so crack boughted that you know, he
could you know, take the try and take the entire
federal agency in some you know, crazy wild good ship
goose chase on one thing, I will say those I
mean slightly reassured and the reason and one reason why
I am much more sort of relaxed about r FKS
nomination is that, you know, without going to names and stuff,
I know a lot of people that were you know,
work to you know, NIH in the first Trump ternament
other things like that, and and people who are now
being considered to work correctly for RFK and our meeting
with RFK and stuff like that. And RK seems to
be perfectly fine surrounding himself with a lot of you know,
sort of movement Republicans, and you know, he's certainly moderated
his language on pro life stuff, and you know, so
it seems like he's publicly trying to sort of align
himself in ways where he can, and you know, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know him.
Speaker 2: At some point, we've created this system where people that
are heads of executive agencies or whatever are almost figureheads
rather than sort of policy people. And a lot of
what needs to happen, like my big hope for Hegxeth,
you know again guy with no management experience running the Penticon,
which is you know, a why should say little management
experience to be fair to Pete. Hegseth you know, ran
a small veterans nonprofit, well they medium sized veterans nonprofit,
nothing compared to the Pentagon. My big hope for Pegsath,
for instance, at DoD is that I think he's uniquely
suited to fix the recruiting crisis, which is a huge,
huge problem and that is almost as much a pr
our issue as it is any sort of policy issue
for the d D. And similarly with RFK, I mean,
if you get big numbers of our public health problems,
are you know, a matter of enlisting the American people
into having much more sort of keen awareness of what
they're putting in their bodies and how what their lifestyles
are like and things like that. And I think that
r FK is uniquely suited to sort of drive that
message and doing the way that has brought appeal. You know,
So that's not necessarily even a policy issue, but you
do drill NIH is not inconsiderable a source of policy
in this country, and it controls Medicare for one thing,
which is massive part of the federal budget. So uh yeah,
there would be concerns on that level. I just hope
that the career people in the political employee appointings would
obviously stop him from doing anything crazy.
Speaker 1: But you know, I am, I have some I agree.
I don't think he's going to be able to do
anything crazy. I mean, I think Trump would fire him
if he did things that really bother most conservatives and
so on.
Speaker 3: For me, it's just kind of the.
Speaker 1: Normalization of that kind of person that is bothersome. And also,
you know, I mean, I'm a gen x er, so
I hate the Kennedy is. I really hate the Kennedy
a lot. Like I was a big Dead Kennedy's fan. Also,
you know that drove it. But he that family is
messed up. And listen, I hate to get into the
personal life stuff, but he is not has not been
a good person either, let's you know, and he's been
really bad.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get specific about it, but as.
Speaker 1: I noted on Twitter, you know, he's only driven one
woman to the graves, who's basically average for.
Speaker 3: The for Kennedy you know at this point.
Speaker 1: But all right, I mean, I I don't actually know
where I don't actually know where he's stands, you know,
where the votes stand or anything like that. So we'll
see that's going on as we record.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you mentioned the dead Kennedy is and also
as a confirmed gen xer, I just want to go
back to I just want to say, like it is amazing, Like,
you know, the Dead Kennedy's with this big sort of
anti establishment punk band in the Reagan era. You go
to like as a jail Biafra's you know, Instagram page,
and it is the most embarrassing boomer politics you've ever seen.
Like there's nothing dangerous about it whatsoever, and like it's
it's then they're they're pretending that like this is still
radicalism in the year twenty twenty five. It's it's really
pathetic to see this from like gen x icons, and
I see this in all these other like musical people too,
like like Thurston More's from sonicchis like Instagram pages, like
he might as well be like putting up DNC talking points.
It's just it's hilarious to me that all these anti
establishment figures of my youth are you know, are now
like fully establishment and pretending that they're not. There's this
great line from the Humorous Joe Queen and where he
says that the the baby boomers were not the first
generation to sell out, but they were the first generation
to sell out and then pretend they hadn't. And I
feel that way about a lot of these sort of
like gen x icons, And I guess like Thurst and
More and Jellibieffer are probably technically boomers, but like a
lot of these gen x icons are doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole punk thing, and in the I rock.
Maybe I'm retroactively making myself smarter, but I think it
comported with my ideas of.
Speaker 3: You know, do it yourself. You know, you don't need
the government, you don't need.
Speaker 1: The state, you know, the state, you know, basically libertarian ideas,
I'd say, And now all these guys are always pimping
for like more government, more state, more control, censorship, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't.
Speaker 1: The only punk rocker I can think who is like
a Republican was probably Johnny Ramone, right, I mean, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Johnny Remon was like a Fox News watching Republican,
which was crazy to even contemplate. But also who, sorry,
who else was I think there was some Well, Johnny
Rotten has been running around wearing making America Great Again
stuff or whatever, and I don't think that, you know,
but Johnny Rotten is doing probably just to get a
rise out of people.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually a punk a punk thing to do,
but it's pretty funny. But anyway, sorry, now that I've
gone off down on that tangent, I want to jump
back to what you were saying about the Kennedy's and
like this, you're what you're saying about how the Kennedy
who circled the wagons around Ted Kennedy after he like
murdered a person and then they circled the wagon around him,
you know, William Kennedy Smith after you know, in the
middle of a rape trial, you know, very public, you
know thingu And but this is the straw that breaks
the camel's back. What RFK is doing aligning with Republicans.
It's just really gross and telling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're talking about the family coming out and like
ripping him and call him a predator and all that. Yeah, yeah,
I mean I think it's in bad form to go
after your family in public in any way, honestly, but
it's especially in bad form when you're a Kennedy. Right
like this RFK, I do not like the guy at all.
I think he is one of the of the you know,
he's as an.
Speaker 3: Offender of morality.
Speaker 1: I think he's He's not high on the list as
far as Kennedy's go, So no.
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 2: I remember when we were living on Capitol Hill years ago,
my wife and I and I a forget which Kennedy
was in Congress at times, of Patrick Kennedy or things
like that or something like that. It was amazing, Like
it was like in the neighborhood Lisser would be like
Patrick Kennedy drove across my lawn again last night, you
know on Capitol Hill. I mean, and like in the
Capitol police would just come and you know, get the
Kennedy and take him home or.
Speaker 3: Whatever he drove.
Speaker 1: I think he drove through a barrier once and then
he drive up onto like Congressional steps when his car
was like filled with pills and like the syringer I'm
not sure.
Speaker 2: Story really astonishing, like like literally a Kennedy congressman was
like terrorizing our neighborhood. I think in his defense, he
actually got sober and has been a big advocate for
you know, uh, substance abuse problems and things like that since.
But like, I mean, it really was just amazing. You
just have Kennedy's terrorizing your neighborhood. As a matter of course,
if you lived in Washington, DC, and you know, we've
been dealing with the legacy of this family for you
know how many decades now, you'd think, if for no
other reason than he's the only guy keeping the Kennedy
brand relevant after sixty plus years, that alone, you know,
would at least keep there, you know, gravy trained, you know, running.
But but no, well slightly so. Tulsa is going to
be up this week as well. I believe I do
wonder about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that she will probably I suspect
because of the even though she doesn't have a ton
of power, I suspect because of the foreign policy element
that's going to be a big a bigger or more
contentious maybe ride for her through the Republican side of things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this really comes down to this issue of the
was the seven h two wireless warrants, sorry, warrants to
you know, to survey what will warrants to survey wireless
communications that she's been you know, sort of resolutely against
her entire career.
Speaker 3: And I think that.
Speaker 2: The entire Republican base has shifted hugely on this, you know,
especially post Russia. Gate and things like that's what they've seen,
what the deep state has done to to go after
people using these you know awesome you know powers that
they have and probably shouldn't for political reason. She's moderated
her kind of language on that, and I don't know
whether that's enough to get some Republicans on board, but
I think nobody's fooled. I mean, everybody knows she's against that,
and I think that that aligns more with where the
Republican base is right now. And also, unlike say RFK
or whatever, Tulsi has gone through the process of like
she's formally announced she's a Republican now, you know, she's
shifted parties, and I think it actually is believable that
she would, you know what, he might speak to the
drift of the Republican Party left in a way you
might not like, but it's very plausible that she can
call herself a Republican now given her box.
Speaker 1: Yes, she was always I'm sorry, no, sorry, I was
just gonna say.
Speaker 3: She was always a socially conservative Democrat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel like there's been an organic shift
towards Tulsi within the Republican Party, whereas with RFK, I
feel like Trump was like I like this guy now,
and everyone's like, we like him too, you know what
I mean, that's it feels. And also she is a patriot,
you know, and I disagree, and I don't like a
lot of the some of the things she's done in
the past, but I think that there's a sincerity there
and a consistency that you don't you know, you don't
see with RFK. So that because people ask me, why
are you not going nuts over Tulsey? Well, I might
not like her, but I think people should get the
cabinet they like if those people are you know, not
authoritarian nuts or whatever.
Speaker 2: Well, she has made some statements about Syria and Russian
and other things like that where I see where you know,
people don't like what she has said. I do think
that they have made far too much out of this.
And I also think that, uh, you know, remember Tulsi
was on that freaking no fly list. I mean, like
it was really crazy. Like whatever you think of Tulsi,
you know, in her opinions, she is at her core patriot.
You may think she goes about it the wrong way,
but it's just astonishing me the effort that's been put
into trying to destroy her reputation simply because the you know,
the foreign policy blob in DC thinks that she is
a threat to their gravy train or whatever. And and
I've you know, I will say I've met her on
a couple of occasions, and I I genuinely like her
as a person and think she has the right, you know, motivations,
whether you may agree with her or not. And you know,
on top of that, I you know, she's you know,
let' let's be honest, she's good looking and charismatic, and
you know.
Speaker 3: That will help a lot, uh with with things.
Speaker 2: And and I think it's one of these things where
she is popular among the base, and so that will
make it a little harder for Republicans to to uh,
you know, oppose her, unlike RFK, where I think people
can just point to a lot of principal reasons to
do so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's right. And she has, as you say,
she's always been socially conservative. Obviously that has nothing to
do with what her role really are very local, but
it matters, I think, for for folks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it matters for trust among the Republicans are going
to be voting for her. I think and I think
that that is a big deal. But it's also true
that like you know, again, we have got to break
the stranglehold that the National security apparatus and this kind
has on Republican politicians. They do this thing constantly where
they're like they and we've seen this, these things exposed
as lies, you know, where they pull these Republican politicians
into a skiff for whatever, it's called a secure facility
and they show them all less terrifying information allegedly, you know,
and say, if we don't you know, continue our warrant
wireless warrant programs, or we don't do this you know
this XYZ policy, or our agency doesn't get more money,
all this terrible thing is going to happen. And we've
seen that these threats that they've told politicians about exposed
is lies repeatedly, but somehow they're still very effective at
manipulating lawmakers that way.
Speaker 1: Well, and I'm sure there are legitimate threats out there,
just me personally, I mean seven oh two, and all
different programs have been abused. That's clear. They've been abused
and aimed at political opponents. They've been you know, they've
been abused in a sense that they've been used as
propaganda to undermine, you know, the opposing party and all that.
Speaker 3: So I think we need to reform it at least.
Speaker 1: But we've never even really had an open, transparent debate
about how it works and what it does in Congress because,
as you say, they just scare the crab out of
people showing them, you know, supposed threats that have that
have been stopped.
Speaker 2: I guess, well, it's it's worse than that because the
National Security Apparatus, you know, they developed this whole program
to interfere in foreign elections, and then what we've seen
in the last decade is them just turning around and
using that same toolkit domestically on us as US citizens,
to manipulate us with propaganda, to use these wireless warrants
and things like that to go after you know, elected presidents.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's bonkers that were allowing us to persist.
I'm sorry, you may not like Tulsi or whatever, but
like I am voting for the wrecking ball at this
point in time, with that National Security Apparatus has got
to have major reform.
Speaker 1: I mean, basically every FISA warrant they used on the
Trump campaign back in whenever it was twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
were fraudulent right now and no one there was no one,
There was no culpability for that. No one really paid
a price for it. We don't really even know how
it could happen, but we don't need to go down
that rabbit hole again.
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Speaker 3: Let's talk about this, uh again.
Speaker 1: I'll preface this by saying I don't think it's good
that the country is basically run on executive orders. Don't
blame Trump for it. I just think that there's an
you know, it destabilizes the country. Every time some new
person comes in, they change everything. It's not Trump's fault
because most of his executive orders have just basically you know,
run back, you know, pull push back some you know
Obama or Biden executive.
Speaker 3: Order and Son Johnson executive orders.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lyndon Johnson on firm inaction, he is completely that's
completely under his purview.
Speaker 3: I'm happy he does that stuff. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think it's bad for America. We need more legislation.
That's all Congress's fault. They've adoicated the responsibilities that literally
handed it to the president on trade and emergency powers
and stuff like that. But overall, you know, I've liked
a lot of what he's done, and I think we
want to talk about this especially. I liked his even
though I wanted to ask you if you know more
about what kind of power this has over states his
executive order banning the mutilation of children, which is euphemistically
called gender affirming care by the leftist media. What do
you know if that has an impact on states? Can
can can you ban it unilaterally?
Speaker 3: That way?
Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question. I mean, certainly a lot
of what the state and medical systems do is they
look for federal directives on stuff because they get so
much federal money and they're so dependent on medic Are things,
the Medicaid reimbursements and things like that, where the Feds
do have a lot of sway, I haven't looked into, like,
you know, a lot of the specific mechanics of this,
but like, you know, for instance, the executive you know,
the Biden administration cited you know, was it w A
path or whatever it is the that you know, sort
of professional medical agency that set the quote unquote transgender
standards that turned out after you know, considerable investigation to
find that they were like extremely politicized and not based
on science when it came to you know, deciding what
was appropriate for transitioning you know, you know, young kids,
and so the historically the federal government's been very sort
of deferential to professional organizations like that in terms of
like and even cited them, whereas this order like explicitly
says you know, this you know organization is not to
be relied on for you know, standards and things like that.
And I think it's just the issue like and when
they get so much money slashing around, you know, from
from the Feds. Mean, frankly, it shouldn't be this way.
And then we know that's one of the reasons why
our healthcare system sucks is that everybody pretends that this
free market healthcare system is failing when it's been the
fact of socialized for sixty years. And they probably like
really reticent, you know, if you're a hospital system or
things like that, you know, you're probably really reticent to
sort of you know, have the gaze of the Justice
Department or whoever the enforcement mechanism would be, you know,
come down upon your NIH your NH grants or your
Medicare reimbursements or whatever it is. And so just the
sheer intimidation factor has got to count for something. And finally,
just as a matter of of you know, politics, saying
this stuff out loud, transitioning children that we don't allow
to get tattoos or drink beer because there are laws
that have age consent to, like surgeon can mutilate their bodies,
you know, is not right. Just the actual fact of
our government saying that out loud and confirming what you know,
the vast, vast majority of Americans believe on this stuff,
whereas it was the exact opposite. We had the power
of the federal government going in and defending the priorities
of this like you know, Springe minority that was you know,
running the Democratic Party. That alone gives it weight, you know,
in terms of what you're saying about your concern about
executive doing a ruling by executive order, which you know
I share, but you know, the trans thing is a
really good example of how, you know, it's the president's
job to sort of, you know, execute the law, make
sure that the laws are executed faithfully right, and so
much of this stuff was done, you know, through executive
agencies that you know, have some sort of you know,
five times removed authority from Congress for how money is spent.
And so I think it's important that you know, we
have an executive because things are so skewed, go in
and look at what's going on and insanity like trans
medicine or you know, the pause and grant funding and
things that then say, is this the actual legislative intent
of the spending that was originally authorized?
Speaker 1: Chevron Doctrine was overturned and you wouldn't even know it right, right,
You wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Even know it.
Speaker 1: I just quickly I want to say, I just agree
with you, and you know about the the the EO
sort of represent a cultural shift, right, or a vibe
shift or whatever people are calling it, And I think
that reflects Trump's win, which I don't, you know, I
consider myself I wouldn't even say conservative, but whatever, I'm
you know, I'm considered a conservative. But I don't think
this was a conservative election win. It was a normy
win people who didn't like social science, quackery invading your schools.
Speaker 3: And so on.
Speaker 1: So all these eos I think represent that shift in culture.
I don't think people really understood what was going on
with children, the mutilation of children. I don't think they
understood the number of children who were involved in this.
You know, I just don't not be I don't. It's
not that they don't care. It's just that, first of all,
the media misleads them. But it's just not something you
really think that deeply about all the time if you're
a normal person walking around. But now that they do,
I don't know anyone, including people who I consider liberals,
who I'm friends with, who think mutilating children, Confused children
with genda, disworry or whatever. Just confused children is okay,
So that's what.
Speaker 2: But yeah, well I was just gonna say, well, while
we're talking about this, so we should also mention that
one of the things that Trump did was he pardoned
that doctor in Texas, doctor Ham, who had exposed his
you know, hospital for doing this stuff. And the Biden
Justice Department is going full steam ahead and I'm a
complete quackery. Like they were claiming that he had violated
hip laws because he had released documents when names redacted.
I mean, it was like it was a ridiculous case.
But I mean it was, you know, just really spoke
to you know, Trump, Uh, the Trump dej dropped the prosecution,
and it was just, you know, it was really insane
how politicized this stuff is. And and and and that
guy Frankly deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom for what
he went through to expose that.
Speaker 3: It's a true whistle true whistle blower there.
Speaker 1: And you know what is amazing about all the executive
orders and every not just executive orders, executive actions that
I've never I don't think i've ever honestly, And it's
weird to say this about Donald Trump. I think it's
the opposite of twenty seventeen when he first came in.
I've never seen an administration as prepared to deal with
as many issues as quickly.
Speaker 3: As he has.
Speaker 1: I can't even keep track or keep up with what's
going on. There's so much happening right off the bat.
Speaker 2: So I saw this Twitter thread, I think it was
from some liberal person whatever, and they were talking about
somehow they had figured this out that the Heritage Foundation
had done fourteen hundred FOIA requests on people in the
federal government because they were planning for exactly this, trying
to figure out exactly who is doing what in the
federal agencies to like root people out and replace them,
and you know, do these big, you know, executive orders
targeting certain aspects of agencies or whatever. And they were
like horrified to realize that like this had happened right
into their nose. And you're right, like the preparation going
into this this time is just amazing. Like I mean,
I bet democratscerely wish that they had let Trump win
in twenty twenty at this point in time, like now
he's you know, three times, it's prepared him twice is
pissed off, and you know they were certainly seeing the
fruits of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is an amazing transformation from twenty sixteen, where
you know, he had all these basically had taken the
old time y Republicans and neophytes and all these folks
into his administrations, was firing everyone left and right, and
everything was kind of a mess also because of the
Rush collusion stuff. But this has been this has been
pretty incredible. I'd say that, you know, I am staunchly
an anti tariff guy. You know, I'm up and gree trade.
But I will say that the little thing that happened
with Columbia the other day where they would take their
own citizens back, Trump threatened them with whatever it was,
twenty five percent terras and other some other stuff like
you know, visas and things like that, and they I
think it was like a half an hour that I
read the next story that the President of Columbia was
sending plans, right, I think it was like.
Speaker 3: Forty seven minutes or something before they back down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also incredible, incredible to me if what I'm
seeing is true, that the level of illegals coming into
the country right now, with the border has just plummeted.
After all, we heard about how it was impossible, it
was obviously it was a lack of will, if not
done on purpose. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but yeah,
sometimes I feel like you can't be that incompetent. You
just can't be that incompetent. And it's just it's dropped
and they've just basically sealed the boarder, not sealed the border.
But it's just incredible, and I think I think this
is a driving reason why Americans like Trump. It's it's
the it's the legal illegal issue.
Speaker 2: One of the things that was like, you know, making
me lose my mind over the last several years was
the media constantly referring to the great Replacement theory as
some sort of like you know, well not some sort
of like the flat out conspiracy theory, which you know, look,
I don't know what you what you can prove is
going on behind closed doors or anything, but like if
you were looking for a rational reason to explain why
what they were doing what they were doing at the border,
like that was a perfectly rational reason. You know, clearly
if you look at what you know, the illegal population
has done for congressional reapportionment at a time when you know,
because you know, illegal legal immigrants are counted as you know,
citizens for the purposes of deciding, you know, how congression
districts are apportioned even though they can't vote, at a
time when people are flooding out of blue states. I mean,
like even that alone was like propping up the Democratic
Party to some extent. Never mind, they're hope to have
some sort of mass embassy down the road that would
you know, possibly you know, help them in the future.
But yeah, it really is absolutely insane. I just saw
a thing where it was like just a few years ago,
Democrats had like an eleven point advantage of our Republicans
on immigration, and now, like for one of Trump from
Republicans have a twenty two point advantage over Democrats on
who people trust to handle immigration.
Speaker 1: More even now, I mean, the entire left pretends that
rounding up people are illegally is isn't the norm, shouldn't
be the norm, but also that it's somehow an American
to say, follow the law when you come here. I mean,
I mentioned this before, and I don't like to personalize things,
but I'm just telling you my parents are immigrants. No
one is angrier about illegal immigration than people who followed
the rules and came here, and it takes a long
time and a lot of efforts to do. Now, Selena
Gomez is crying, you know about it, and all that
was mockinger, and I get that, but I actually feel
sympathy for people want to be here. I would want
to do it too, but we have to have you know,
we're a sovereign nation and we have to have a
rule of law.
Speaker 2: And no, no country on earth would tolerate what America
and people have been subjected to in the last four years,
with you know, ten million plus people you know, coming
to this country illegally. And I am even following this
stuff online where all these liberals from Sunny Houston to
people at the Cato Institute go being like, actually being
in the country illegally is only a civil crime, you know,
it's only a civil offense.
Speaker 3: It's not actually criminal. Which so what's.
Speaker 2: Interesting is is what the other thing people aren't accounting
for is how the nature of illegal immigration has changed.
It's my understanding that post nine to eleven, for most
of those years, the vast majority of quote nquote I
legal immigants are people that were overstaying visas. Whereas during
the Biden years, all of a sudden there's millions of
people just literally walking across the border. And if you're
not going through America at a port of entry, you're
committing a you know, federal crime. There's no question about it.
And all of a sudden, all these liberals are trying
to split hairs and insist that what these the behavior
of this people isn't criminal, never mind whether even if
it's classified as a civil offense. Most Americans are hopping
mad about, you know, people that are here, you know,
without you know, following the rules and respecting our laws.
Speaker 1: It's also just because you found a shortcut and you
can declare yourself a fugi or whatnot, doesn't mean that
we have to now accept that every person who just
you know, hits a port of entry can now do this.
We have to you know, I think we need a
big reform or immigration. I'm pro immigration, but I really
think that in a lot of ways, this lawlessness, it's
it's you know, I blame Democrats, but it also it
also plays into the hands of natives who don't really
want any immigration. Do you know, what I mean, You've
soured the American people on immigration because they make no
distinction between illegal and regular immigration, So then people will
hate all immigration make no distinction either, you know. And
I just you know that bothers me as well, so Mark.
You know, Donald Trump has this ability sometimes to say
something that that that initially just seems bonkers or you know, outlandish,
but in I think because he's he's unfettered in the
way that he thinks by like the norms of policy
debate or whatever. And and these things sometimes turn out
to be completely true one or useful, i'd say, And
one of them the on Sunday last Sunday, Donald Trump
said that maybe it would be a good idea to
clean Gaza out, you know, of many of its inhabitants,
and rebuild it and get rid of hamas, and then
people can either come back or not in the future
to a place that is, you know, like Hong Kong
or whatever. But I don't think it's ever going to
be like Hong Kong unless they find an ocean of
oil underneath it. But he makes a great point, and
of course everyone attacked him, as you know, for ethnic
cleansing and this and that but I just wanted to
make this quick point that I think people might have missed,
is that most of the people live in gods, that
they're only around fifty thousand people in Godz At nineteen
forty eight, when the Israelis won their war of independence,
there are I think over two million people there now,
most of them consider themselves refugees. The UN has an
entire organization for seventy plus years for the refugees of Palestine.
Speaker 3: A place that's never existed. If you're already a refugee Gaza,
why can't you live as a refugee in Qatar? Why
can't you live as a refugee in.
Speaker 1: Egypt or Jordan, which incidentally is seventy percent of its
population is Palestinian because it is on land that was
put aside in the partition plant to be Palestine. What
he's saying makes complete sense. They create these refugee camps
for seventy years, which are really just bustling cities. At
this point, they're constantly starting wars. Wouldn't it make sense
for the people that they shouldn't have to live under
Hamas and sort of the tyranny of hanas Hamas, but
also the martyrdom and the wars that are started by Hamas.
I don't know, I made a little speek thank you
for coming my ted talk Mark.
Speaker 2: Well, this comes up a fair bit, right. You know,
if what's going on in with Palestinians in Israel is
such an issue, why don't they just be absorbed by
all these surrounding countries that shared their religion and culture.
And you know, it seems obvious, right, I mean, it's
you know, Egypt's a pretty darn big place. You know,
Syria and Jordan are not small places either, and certainly
they could accommodate a lot of Palestinians who wish to
live go there and live freely, and they would be
a better fit than what's going on in Israel. But again,
these countries don't want these people either, no, I mean,
and somehow Israel is terrible for you know, doing their
best to accommodate them.
Speaker 1: Well, Israel has Israel has over two million Arab citizens
within its borders who are afforded the rights that everyone
else is. And you know there's a history. I mean,
Jordan had a civil war in the early seventies with
the Palestinians and kicked them out then they went to Lebanon.
They ruined that country and started a civil war there.
They have never recovered. Lebanon was once the jewel of
the Middle East. It was a great country. And Egypt
obviously is always worried about Muslim Brotherhood, and Ahamas is
an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. They don't want Palestinians
there either, so I understand why people don't want them.
But that's why I think. And by the way, I
don't want to compel people to leave Gaza. I want
to ask them if they want to and give them
a chance. I want to maybe incentivize them financially to
leave that place. There's nothing wrong with that, giving people
that kind of choice. But anyway, it just hit me
that this is one of the things that Trump will
say that will be immediately be dismissed by the Brookings
Institution people or whoever.
Speaker 3: But actually makes quite a bit of sense right well.
Speaker 2: But by pointing out there are very specific reasons about
why say that people in Gaza, you know, can't be
absorbed by other countries too, also speaks to the fact
that you know, maybe what Israel is doing them isn't
you know, entirely legitimate if they're starting wars or whatever
wherever they go to. So it's just one of these
things where nobody wants to acknowledge it, right, nobody wants
to acknowledge that Palestinians, you know, you know who, let's
be honest, you know, voted for Hamas are responsible partly
for their own predicament. And as far as the quote
unquote refugee thing goes, you know, to some extent after
however many years, it's also a situation where, you know,
as bad as it is to be you know, compacted
in the gaza or whatever, you know, the it's not
just tamas. I mean, I think people have made this
status of themselves as the oppressed people like so much
a part of their identity. It's counterproductive, you know, after
you're in a quote unquote prison for so long and
you start to get fall into.
Speaker 3: The walls, I guess.
Speaker 2: And their entire reason for being is to fight this
Israeli state instead of look for more practical ways to
you know, have a constructive you know, you know community,
you know, civilization, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Arabs and the Soviet Union and others
of that nature created the Palestinian refugee situation. Most companies,
most countries, they bring people in and acclimate them there
and make them part of their community.
Speaker 3: You know, you had other large.
Speaker 1: Population movements like India and Pakistan and so forth. I'm
not saying it was wasn't bloody. It was, but it
you know, in the end, it sort of worked. But
they created this as a cudgel again Israel, and then
they created a monster that's actually turned on them, meaning Jordan,
meaning Lebanon, meaning Egypt. And now you keep telling these
people that one day, you know, they believe they're going
to return to Tel Avivan or whatever, Jaffa one day,
you know, they believe that, and until they don't, that's
never going to happen. So until someone explains to them
that that's never gonna happen, I mean, I think you're
going to be in a constant state of war, and
they're going to they're going to be in a constant
state of poverty.
Speaker 3: So anyway you want to talk.
Speaker 1: About culture, sure, I have to say I I've been
trying to find a new show to watch and every
and it's I don't know if it's that I'm getting
older and I just don't have patience, but none of
them have stuck. Like I tried to watch Man in Full,
which is based on a Jeff Daniel show on Netflix
based on Tom tom Wolf novel which who I love,
and I just couldn't even make it through a single episode.
Speaker 3: I heard. It wasn't very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a shame because you think Tom
Wolf would be you know, for you know, all these
prestige television shows. And we talked about the source material
or whatever, you know, really you know, but for whatever reason,
that one just didn't work out.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just think Netflix original shows tend to be terrible
across the board. Have a very sort of specific formula
for how they do things on Netflix, and it's like
very algorithm driven and very dumb down, and I just
it doesn't work for me most of the time, but
it works for a lot of their audience.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the great, uh, one of my favorite novels
of all time is Bonfire the Vanities. It's just think
it's really captures New York in the uh, you know,
in the eighties and so on, and the.
Speaker 3: Movie was terrible, terrible. Yeah, I got a whole character
changed the ending.
Speaker 1: That's that's a novel that needs a TV series, you know,
like a prestige series with some serious people involved, because
it's such a great novel and such. You know, it's
just politically and there's you know, it's just amazing. And anyway,
I don't I honestly, I don't remember. I think I
read A Man in a long time ago, but I
don't really remember loving it or anything like that. So
anyway about you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So as far as TV shows go, I've had
this sort of the same problem where, you know, Mollie
and I it's very hard for us to find shows
that we, you know, really like.
Speaker 3: Mollie.
Speaker 2: I tried watching this new show. It's on new show.
It's been around for a couple of years. But I
think the second season's either out are coming out soon
called Severance.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I saw the first season, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Which is this like really high concept you know, thing
will be involving like people in this like corporate drone
environment but don't quite understand like why they're there, why
they're trapped in this building or whatever, and their memory
gets erased every time they leave office building for the day.
It's like it's like some weird dystopian sci Fi version
of the Office essentially or whatever.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's because you know, my wife and I have
steadfastly avoided, you know, corporate employment, you know, our entire lives.
That just doesn't like resonate as much with me. But
like I just and I and it's gotten great reviews,
and I think it's really well done. I just for
whatever reason, it just we just did. I don't think
it really you know, landed with either of us. Maybe
we'll watch some more, maybe we won't.
Speaker 1: I watched the first season of that, and I thought
I liked it, But then when the second season came,
I'm like, I don't remember anything about the story. So
that tells me that it's really pretty vacuous.
Speaker 3: Or or you know, was boring in some way. Yeah,
so we tried that.
Speaker 2: I haven't wasn't watching this in Molly, But I just
started watching this new hospital show, The Pit on HBO,
and it's done by David Wells, the guy that did Er.
It's basically like a more gritty, updated version of R.
I mean, it's it's such a formula at this point
in time. But it even starts no a while from
you know, the original Er and it's really well done
if you like that sort of thing. I mean, it
is not at all reinventing the wheel in terms of,
you know, what you would expect from a medical drama.
The one thing about it that like just sort of
drives me crazy is there these like little touches of
woke thrown throughout these things to see if these like
hard bitten, cynical doctors who are constantly seeing all these
terrible things, who you know, without it with without you know,
a moment's pause, refer to people as unhoused, you know,
like it's it's so insane, like you just know that
this would never happen in real life. It only happens
in the television writer's room.
Speaker 3: And uh, there's a subplot I.
Speaker 2: Haven't gotten too far and been listening to a couple
of episodes about some teenager coming in to get myth
of Bristowe, and they haven't even explained so far in
the first episode what that actually is. You know, it's
it's the abortion drug, which, by the way, there are
horrific medical complications involving taking abortion drugs and bleeding through
your huhad home for hours at a time with towels
wrapped around your legs, you know, to have women.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Amber Thurman I think was her name, the woman
they tried to blame Georgia's death on the Georgia abortion will,
actually died using that kind of.
Speaker 3: Abortion drug, I believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some unholy percentage of people given myths for pristone
and sent home end up back in immediate care centers
or ers because of the you know, insane complications involving
bleeding and things like that. Never mind that they're just
diagnosing this stuff via telehealth now, and if you don't
do a thorough physical inspection, you have an a topic
pregnancy in some other things. And when we can you know,
hemorrhage to death in a matter of minutes as a
result of these drugs. I mean, it's just astonishing, you know,
the way that this stuff is handled. And you know,
I'm sure that this show is going to make this
a big cudgel, so I don't know, we'll see how
it goes. But having said that, if you liked Er,
you'll probably like this. The only thing is is the
difference between broadcast you know, television in the nineties versus
basic versus streaming services in twenty twenty in streaming services
in twenty twenty five is they show an unbelievable amount
of gore, and like, I don't know what the think
on this is. It's one thing if you know you're
going to be more profane or whatever as a result
of verisimilitude and you want the audience to buy in
when you get to a This reminds me. Also watch
this show The Nick, which is Steven Soderberg's show about
New York hospitals around the tournament century. That's it's an
okay but not amazing show. But it's the same thing
on both shows where they show so much gore, like
it's like horror movie levels of gore, just as the
ordinary course of this medical drama, Like I'm an incredibly
you know, on what's the word resilient guy When it
comes to that sort of thing, I'm not bothered, but
you know, by hardly anything. And in terms of this
sort of thing, I don't have visceral reactions and things
at all. And even I'm like wincing a little bit
having to watch this stuff, Like if my wife tried
to watch this like medical drama where like someone had
their leg be gloved on a train track like, I
don't know what they're thinking. They're just gonna be causing
all kinds of people to be turning out from the screen.
Speaker 1: Watched some of the first episode, and when they had
that gruesome leg injury that they were fixing, I'm like, I,
you know.
Speaker 3: I am not resilient.
Speaker 1: I like any kind of cartoonish violence I'm fine with.
But do I really need to see that, you know?
I maybe I will continue watching it because it seemed
like it might be an interesting show.
Speaker 3: But I just was in the mood.
Speaker 1: It was really one of the most gruesome things I
think I've ever seen on television, right, I mean, you
know it probably Yeah, it's a very slick formula show.
Speaker 2: That's That's what I'll say about it. It's not gonna
see anything new, but but like you know, if you
like that sort of thing, you're really gonna like it,
you know. And if you like those kinds of medical dramas,
it's it's far better than most.
Speaker 1: So I because I couldn't know show would click with me,
I decided to watch something I knew would be amazing
and make me feel great, and I watched rewatched My
I did my yearly rewatch of Michael Mann's Heat with
Robert de Niro and al Pacino and what I love.
I actually don't think it's as great a movie as
everyone else does, you know. I mean, the plot's kind
of thin and all that. But if you like enjoy
watching al Pacino indiscriminately yelling and just you know, you know,
and being al Pacino.
Speaker 3: I think that's the movie for you, you know. And
it was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: There's something about the Michael Man esthetic, yeah, that I
just love to pieces, like, even when his stuff is
like less than perfect, you know, like the Miami Vice
movie for instance, It's just something about it that is
so like literally slick and enjoyable to see.
Speaker 1: Everything feels like there's that water has been poured on it,
or it's been waxed or something in It's kind of
monochromatic in a way too.
Speaker 2: I was listening to I think it was the Tarantino
podcast or whatever, or it might have been Joe Dante's podcast,
the film director, I forget what the name of that is,
but they were talking about Michael Mann and how like
when Thief came out, like and he really invented that
driving it l a at night esthetic. Like how like
every director for the next you know, five years was
ordering water trucks on sets they could slick down the
streets at night, you know, to reflect all the lights
and stuff.
Speaker 1: I love if the Tangerine Dream, I think did the soundtrack.
It has a real kind of you know, electronic feel
or like like in the eighties. That's like it was
almost futuristic to watch a Michael Mann movie.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Beef is phenomenal. You know, I even think The Keep
is a little underrated. People really dumble on that film,
and the Manhunter is just phenomenal if you haven't seen it.
Manhunter was based on a Red Dragon, which was the
the the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, and it
was the first movie with Hannibal Elector in it, although
it didn't start anything in the Hopkins had started. What's
that great Scottish actor is Hannibal Elector? I forget his name?
Was it Brian Cox? It was Brian Cox, That's right.
It was phenomenal. And you know, the one sort of
on Michael Man aesthetic movie he's done, although it's a
little bit of that is the last the Mohicans, which
I think people have forgotten how great That movie is
I watched with my kids of a month or two ago,
and it was just it's so good my kids. My
kids were just like literally holding their breath that entire movie.
I mean, it's so well out of that movie.
Speaker 1: Daniel day Lewis does a little he's a little fabio
in that movie, So that's a loft putting. But in general,
just I love those big, historic epic movies that you
don't get a ton of. I mean, there was a
Gladiator two recent that was just terrible, But in general,
I don't think you really get enough of those anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, if I think you're you're absolutely right
about that. But but yeah, So speaking of watching movies
with my kids, so to my big thing is I
have two teenagers, right and I and my big struggle
is finding movies that aren't like horrifically violent or sexual,
but at the same time, like aren't made for like
literal children that we can watch. You know, it seems
like in the eighties and nineties they used to kind
of make those films things that hadn't you know, were
sort of toned down enough that you know, a whole
family could watch them. And now it seems like everything
is a cartoon or it is like R rated, and
then some and there's like no in between. Some constantly
a struggle for those sort of in between movies that
I can watch in my kids. And I stumbled across
a sort of like the perfect film in that category.
Have you seen The Majestic with Jim Carrey. It's it's
it's a Frank Derebont movie, the guy that directed Shawshank
Redemption in the Green Mile, And it was you know,
he'd done he'd done a Shashank Redemption in a Green
Mile right after a few years after that and he
hadn't done a film in like three or four years,
but he was still like one of the hottest properties
in Hollywood because you know, as even today, the Shoshank
Redemption is the highest rated film on the Internet movie
to have data a base above The Godfather. Like people
just loved that movie. And Frank Derebond, you know, speaking
something as kind of a an aesthetic that people really like. Anyway,
he made this film and it came out two months
after nine to eleven, and it just kind of flopped
at the time, and it started Jim Carre at the
Apex of his career.
Speaker 3: The story is about this guy who's a Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Screenwriter who's sort of like a you know, he's at
the top of his game in Hollywood, and he's you know,
dating and an actress and like, you know, he's sort
of cavalier about his life and all of the you know,
sort of sort of self obsessed things he's doing in Hollywood.
And he finds out he's you know, being implicated in
the Blacklist, and he leaves town depressed that his career
is over, and he ends up getting in a car
accident and he ends up with them, washes up on
a beach in California and amnesia in this small town
and he doesn't have any memory of what happened. So
the townspeople come in and try and take care of him,
and he's immediately mistaken for this war hero that they
thought had died in uh In uh that that was
a boy from the town, and this town sort of
takes him in and the entire film is Frank Darabout's
sort of you know, love letter to Frank Capra and uh,
I don't remember. Like it'd be interesting to go back
and see why so many people kind of didn't like it.
Speaker 3: Like it's it's it's I.
Speaker 2: Think partly because it is like so unabashedly pro America,
like this small town and the way it's portrayed, and
how like kind and supportive everyone in this town is.
And you know, this sort of idealized version of like
post World War two Americana, you know, in the late
forties and fifties really was kind of a cliche twenty
five years ago when it came or twenty four years
ago when it came out, and I think a lot
of people just sort of reacted against that. But now
what's funny is two things coming on the other side
of the anti woke thing. Like it's such a like
a there's got to be like a German word for
like nostalgia for a time you never experienced or whatever.
Like this idea of rebuilding America's conception of itself, Like
it just lands so differently now.
Speaker 3: Even the Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Blacklist stuff, which always kind of annoyed me because there
was a lot more merit to the Blacklist than people
are willing to give credit for him.
Speaker 1: A lot of those guys, I mean, if you only
watched movies, you think that that was the worst moment
in American, the world history the Blacklist.
Speaker 2: There was a lot many movies there was a lot
more merit to the Blacklist, and people give it credit for.
But the other thing is that the way but the
Blacklist stuff, I think, you know, post the woke sort
of Montenard and cancelation everything. It is the way that
they portray people as being the victim of the Blacklist
is such an indictment of wokeism now coming from the
same you know people. And so the entire movie, I think,
lands so differently than they did twenty four years ago.
But more than it's just beautifully shot. It's like just
wonderfully pro American and all the performances are great. And
the other thing is that blew me away is the town.
I started realizing it's the most beautiful town you've ever seen.
This thing is filmed in and I realized at some
point this isn't a set, and I looked it up.
There's a town called Ferndale, calif that's like on the
coast in northern California, not too far from the Oregon border,
and like maybe an hour or so from the Oregon border,
and it's has this most amazing American main Street you've
ever seen with these beautiful Victorian you know, townhouses with shops,
And it's just an incredible movie. And the script is great,
the acting's great. You can, like, I think the most
outlandish thing in the movie is Jim Carrey utters the
word Horney at one point in time. I mean, it
is just such a wonderful movie in terms of you know,
being a you know, Frank Capra fever dream.
Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I think I passed on it because the reviews are
so bad and it just didn't look like something i'd
like at the time. But you make such a great
point about tea. You know, when you have teens, and
my kids are older now, you know, they want something
more complex, They want something more, you know, and any
movie that is a little more serious usually has something
in it you don't want your kids seeing. That's why
I think we watched Lord of the Rings trilogy like
hundred times.
Speaker 2: But well, I think but also it really gets to
this sort of like pro American conception of itself. Like
and what's interesting is because the way the black List
is portrayed and stuff, you know, this is very much
coming from a liberal Hollywood perspective, and yet it's still
like resolutely pro American at the end of the day.
And I think that's where Hollywood has gone like completely wrong.
You know, you see this this thing where like the
guy that the new guy that playing Captain America just
the other day, I said something about like, you know,
Captain America, you know, isn't I don't remember what he said,
but it was like, you know, Captain America isn't necessarily
pro American or something. You know, it was some ridiculous thing.
And it's like Hollywood has gotten so far afield from
this notion that yeah, we're liberals and we don't like
a lot of things that happen in this country, but
ultimately we think that this is a good place and
worth saving to like wanting to just tear the place down.
I remember think about this in terms of David Lynch
when he died. You know, there was a great oh
bit written for him at the Federalist and I'm so
blanking on the girl whose name who wrote it. She's
a mina something. Anyway, she made this great point, which
was that you know, David Lynch wrote all this like weird,
you know, very strange things, but the iconography of what
David Lynch was doing with you know, all the diners
and like the murders of the prom Queen and Twin
Peaks or whatever and stuff like. David Lynch was a
resolutely like pro American guy, even if he was dealing
with a lot of like lurid subject matter in small
towns and things like that. The problem with the luridness
of Twin Peaks was that it transgressed against these wonderful
American norms of communities coming together and the diners and
the prom Queen getting killed or whatever. And I think
that's what's really missing. And that's why the fact that
you would see something like The Majestic made just twenty
four years ago and see how far Hollywood has come
on that it just hits you like a ton of bricks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, most sort this happened. This happens also
with Christian based movies. I find that, even though it's
changing a bit lately, as most of them are poorly
made or poorly written or like bashing you over the head,
where if you have a subtle movie that's pro America,
it's much more effective. But Hollywood obviously doesn't like to
make those kind of movies, and to David Lynch point
is also incredibly I think.
Speaker 3: I think it's on point.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about Wild at Heart, you know, and
it's just like such an American movie. It's just about America.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 2: I like David Lynch a lot. Actually, yeah, no, I'm
speaking of gen x icons. I mean yeah, I mean
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and so you know,
twin Peaks and the blue Velvet and all of that,
and then just hit really really hard. And you know,
David Lynchin, I guess you lived in Idaho and some
other places grown up, so he knew that place well.
Speaker 3: And it's just June was pretty good man. I mean,
the original Dune isn't terrible. I like the original Dune. Yeah,
I'm with you on that too.
Speaker 2: But speaking of family of like good adult movies, you
can watch the Whole Family. David Lynch is a straight story.
I've been meaning to show it with my show to
my kids. It's this wonderful film. I can't recommend enough.
It's David Lynch, but it is. I'm not making this
up rated. G The story is when the radio agency
called David Lynch to tell him that it had been
rated g He said, I'm sorry, can you repeat that again?
Speaker 3: And they were like why.
Speaker 2: Because I'm never going to hear that sentence again in
my life. And it's about this guy his brother gets sick,
but he's too old and confirmed to like go to him,
so he gets on a tractor and drives, like, you know,
hundreds of miles on the side of the road. And
it's based, I think, on a true story and it's
just a really artwarming, affecting, perfectly you know done film.
And I believe the story is that the main star
whose name I'm forgetting. It's a well known character actor
had cancer during the film making of the film and
it didn't tell anyone and died shortly after it was made.
Richard Barnsworth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's the guy who had been Yeah,
I'd been in a ton of movies and a good
character actor.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, Mark, I appreciate that you came on.
Actually I like, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I'd liked everyone to know they can email us at
radio at the Federals dot com.
Speaker 3: We love to hear from everyone. I'm sorry, you're gonna
say something more.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, I feel like I failed
failed my wife. My office is directly underneath hers in
the house from the basement, and I always know when
you two are doing a podcast because it's not quite yelling,
but I can hear her being very animated up there.
And we didn't disagree nearly enough.
Speaker 1: She we you know, I don't know that we argue
enough either anymore. But I think now that Trump is present,
we're going to have more chances to to go at it,
because I mean, when the choice was Trump or Calmal,
I think, you know, I had no real place to go,
but now no I have. Now I'm in the uh,
in the minority, I think. But America's not headed in
a direction that I'm happy with. I just want to say,
even though I like a lot of what Trump's doings,
is generally speaking, I'm an anti populist.
Speaker 2: I'd say, I'm, you know, pretty happy myself. So we'll see,
we'll see this, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love when people that they they'll tweet
me you mad, bro or cry more listen, I go
to sleep. I don't think about this at all, Like
you know, I don't worry. I'm fine everyone, It's gonna
be great. This is a job anyway. We'll be back
next week, hopefully Molly will regain her voice. It was
great having Mark here. Until then, be lovers of freedom
and anxious feel Fred