WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.560 Well, the you know what the little detail is. Uh, 2 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:06.160 you've probably heard this is Hunter Biden is claiming millions 3 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:09.439 of dollars and losses from the fire of our work. 4 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:12.599 I mean it's supposed to a few original hunters. 5 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:19.120 Ask not what your country can do for you, ask 6 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:21.120 what you can do for your country. 7 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.640 Mister gorbuschaw tear down this wall. 8 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:30.199 It's the Ricochet Podcast with Charles W. Cook and Steven 9 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:32.960 Hayward doing James Lillas. Today we're going to talk architecture 10 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.640 and then the future of arts in America with Justin Schubau. 11 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:38.479 So let's ever sols a podcast. 12 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:44.439 You know they call it a film business, but money 13 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.280 is the last thing. 14 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:48.280 A person should be thinking about. 15 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:52.880 In my book, my family is here today, my boys, 16 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:56.240 my girls, My kids used to do things aggravate me too. 17 00:00:58.560 --> 00:00:59.880 I'd take them to a game and they'd want to 18 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:01.079 come home with a different player. 19 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:10.319 Welcome everybody. It's the Ricochet Podcast and if you can 20 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:16.079 believe it, it's a podcast once again. And if you 21 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:18.400 know what I'm referring to, you're wondering are they going 22 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:19.840 to get around to that at the end of the show. 23 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:22.920 I certainly hope so. In the meantime, we have sparkling 24 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:27.200 conversation as ever here with Charles C. W. Cook and 25 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:31.719 Stephen Hayward. Gentleman, Welcome morning, James. 26 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:33.359 Thank you for having me. 27 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:42.200 That desultory acceptance of my good wishes. You can at 28 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:43.359 least attempt. 29 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:44.799 To jin up a little enthusiasm for the. 30 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:48.239 Charles, No, I just thank you so much. 31 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:50.200 I mean, it's a remarkable day. 32 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.159 We have a. 33 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:57.239 New constitutional amendment apparently has been ratified. Is this true 34 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.000 that Joe Biden is that the National Archives about to 35 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:06.280 set himself on fire if the National Archivist doesn't adhere 36 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:09.199 to our norms and just a wave of. 37 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:12.120 The ratification of the er into the Constitution? Am I 38 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:12.800 getting this right? 39 00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:16.199 No, you're getting it wrong, because he has declared it. 40 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:17.599 That was the word he is. 41 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.400 He actually put out a graphic and it said I 42 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.080 declare on the graphic. 43 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:26.199 Did he also declare bankruptcy? 44 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:29.840 Because I remember there's an office scene where Michael Scott 45 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:32.800 does the same thing, believing declaring it to be sufficient. 46 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.520 He declares it a we'll touch it on the way out. 47 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:38.560 So good, James, it's so good. 48 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:41.080 Will tell us a little bit about it, Charles, dis 49 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:41.400 I do you. 50 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.360 Think This is my favorite thing that has happened in 51 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.960 a long time. And it's made even better by the 52 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.719 fact that one half hour after he declared it, there 53 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:53.120 was a piece up at Crazy Jennifer Rubin's new website, 54 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:58.199 The Contrarian, written by Lawrence Tribe saying it's true, he's 55 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:00.800 declared it. It's the twenty eighth the memo, that's all 56 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:03.439 he needed to do, and explaining why it's now the 57 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:08.080 twenty eighth Amendment. You can't write this nexus, Joe Biden, 58 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:12.960 Jen Rubin, Lawrence Tribe, the twenty eighth Amendment. If somebody 59 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.719 had proposed writing this as a parody for me, I 60 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:17.560 would have said, this is too absurd. 61 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.800 But it's not so for those who don't know. 62 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:26.280 The background here is that in the nineteen seventies and 63 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:29.240 eighties there was an actual debate over the ratification of 64 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:30.800 the Equal Rights Amendment. I think we may have been 65 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.599 to this on a previous podcast. Anyhow, it expired in 66 00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:39.000 nineteen eighty two and it wasn't ratified. Philish slafefully one. 67 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:40.960 And whether you think that's good or bad, it's a fact. 68 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:44.639 Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it out loud that it wasn't ratified, 69 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:47.919 and the dj has said it for years, and Barack 70 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.159 Obama has said it, and everyone has said it, and 71 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:52.120 the National Archivist has said it, including today. 72 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:54.039 It didn't get through, But in the. 73 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.840 Last three weeks or so, there's been this real push 74 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.680 that has built atop this percolating desire pretend that it 75 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:04.680 just passed, because subsequent to the deadline, some states ratified 76 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:05.680 the amendment. 77 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:09.159 I never thought though this would culminate in Joe Biden 78 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.000 publicly say it's in the Constitution. 79 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.199 I mean, Kirstin Gillibrand, fine, we expect that from but 80 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.680 the President of the United States pretending he has this 81 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:20.959 authority is just such a great story. 82 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:23.639 And those are our norms and they have nothing to 83 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:26.199 do with any sort of autocratic bending and shaping and 84 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:29.839 perversion of the laws and statues at all. Stephen, you know, 85 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:31.879 don't have some thoughts about this, as well as other 86 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:35.040 farewell items that Biden has said on his way out. 87 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:37.560 Well, I mean, my view is, why stop here, Why 88 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:40.560 don't we just proceed on a Harrison bergerin style to 89 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.399 the tenth, two hundred, eleventh, and two hundred and twelfth 90 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:47.279 Amendments to the Constitution giving us complete equality right with 91 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:49.759 the handicapper General if you know that great story from 92 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:52.519 nineteen sixty one. Well, I mean, I don't know. I 93 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.120 feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, except the 94 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:59.240 horse won't die. Just give you one example of the 95 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:02.720 plasticity of the law and the Constitution for the left. 96 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:05.759 So you know, my dean at Berkeley Law, who's very 97 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:07.319 nice to me and the nice to John Hugh, but 98 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:11.360 he's way out there. Irwin Chemerinsky. He has argued with 99 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:14.360 a straight face that the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court 100 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:17.480 should declare the electoral college in the United States Senate 101 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:21.600 are unconstitutional. Why because they violate the one man, one 102 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.639 vote principle in the text and the equal protection clause. 103 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.360 So in other words, you know, never mind the theory 104 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:29.240 behind and all the rest of that. They think that 105 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.959 it's perfectly legitimate or whatever note of power can be 106 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.480 controlled by the left to say one principle of the Constitution. 107 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.680 Trump's others that are stated in playing black and white text. 108 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.319 That's how literally really think about the text of the Constitution. 109 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:44.519 So you know, the left wants what it wants, and 110 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:46.720 they want the Equal Rights Amendment. And then my final 111 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:49.680 word is I do like to ask the people worked 112 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:53.319 up about this. Can you name anything any right that 113 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:56.279 women have not achieved through the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection 114 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.959 Clause and other ordinary legislation. Maybe one or two things 115 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.240 you can think of, but it's almost all the things 116 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:04.759 they've wanted in the Equal Rights Amendment have been achieved 117 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:07.160 by other legal means over the decades. 118 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:13.519 Well, yes, plasticity, the Constitution being living and breathing. So 119 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:15.240 it was Kim Kardashian, but I'm. 120 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.360 Not exactly sure. We're talking factory parts here. 121 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:23.000 The other thing, and you might call it hypocrisy. Some 122 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.839 dare that struck me this week was Biden coming out 123 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:29.279 in a series of tweets and talking about the importance 124 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:33.639 of veracity and social media. And everybody knows he didn't 125 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.879 write the tweets. Somebody wrote them for him. He's not 126 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:41.480 sitting down there steepling his fingers and thinking what exact 127 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:44.319 point do I want to make about misinformation and truth 128 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:47.160 on the variety of Internet platforms that we had no 129 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:49.759 somebody just typed it out in his name, saying that 130 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:51.839 we have to be wary of things that are not 131 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:53.720 true on the Internet, and one of those things being 132 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:55.800 not true on the internet is that Joe Biden said this, 133 00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:02.199 So I enjoyed that, joyed the pardon of the non 134 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.120 violent drug offenders. Now what sticks out for you guys 135 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:07.600 about that When you think about partnering of non violent 136 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:11.120 drug offenders, what do you think? What? What series of 137 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:12.319 thoughts go through your mind? 138 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:17.000 Well, my first thought is I'll bet the overwhelming majority 139 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.720 of them are not nonviolent or are not in fact 140 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:23.480 substantial dealers. And we know how this game is played, uh, 141 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:26.399 to avoid going to trial, which is long and costly 142 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:29.120 and uses a lot of resources. You get, please, you 143 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.120 plead down people into possession or other lesser charges and 144 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:35.279 then give them the maximum sentence for what the statute says. 145 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.199 So we're not we're not letting out of prison, oh 146 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:42.000 somebody who's just caught with, you know, half a pound 147 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:44.120 of marijuana for personal use or something like that. 148 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:44.759 Uh. 149 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:48.279 And so that's why you know, we're again being sold 150 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:51.759 a false narrative of who it is who's in prison 151 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:54.079 for drug offenses. And so I you know, my guess 152 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:55.279 is we're going to see a lot of these people 153 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.839 return to the drug trade and end up getting arrested 154 00:07:57.879 --> 00:07:58.560 down the road. Here. 155 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:01.680 Well, Trump did the same thing if I recall, do 156 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.399 you unit, and it is if there's one federal prison, 157 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:07.680 you know, Barabbas Prison, which is stocked with people that 158 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:09.759 they can conveniently pardon at the end and maybe in 159 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:14.279 order to make themselves look magnanimous and generous. Charles, I 160 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.480 know you're eager for a war on drugs conversation. 161 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.240 No, I just you know, and irritates me about this 162 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:19.639 so much? 163 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:25.519 Is Joe Biden spent the vast majority of his career. 164 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:28.240 In fact, his main contributions to American law while he 165 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.439 was in the Senate were in the realm of. 166 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:34.360 Drugs and firearms. 167 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:37.279 These were the two things he wanted to regulate, and 168 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.960 he was particularly interested in regulating the intersection of drugs 169 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.879 and firearms, people who had firearms, who used drugs, people 170 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:48.559 who sold drugs and used firearms. There are quotes going 171 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:52.080 back to the late nineteen seventies from Joe Biden, throughout 172 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:54.600 the nineteen eighties, in the early nineteen nineties when he. 173 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:55.559 Told George H. W. 174 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:58.080 Bush that he was a squash soft on the issue, 175 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:00.639 and then especially in the early nineteen nineties when he 176 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:03.279 helped write the crime Bell, in which Joe Biden says 177 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:06.120 all manner of things, including that he doesn't care why 178 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:09.159 anyone commits a crime like this, that he doesn't care 179 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:12.320 what problems people have, that he doesn't care if it's 180 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:16.279 an addiction or not. The role of the federal government 181 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.919 must be to put these people in prison. And in 182 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.360 the last couple of years he has pardoned his son 183 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:27.159 for committing a crime at the intersection of drugs and guns, 184 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:31.080 and is now issuing these pardons and talking as if 185 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:36.000 for his entire life he has been a critic of 186 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.759 incarceration per se. And I just find it irritating, not 187 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:40.960 because people can't change their mind, they can, but because 188 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:44.679 he's never accounted for a single single shift. 189 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:47.039 It was the popular thing back then, and he also 190 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.039 had He also had less hair before the plugs, right, 191 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:53.879 So I think that actually the sweat accumulating on his 192 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:56.360 scalp from the mirror from the lights of the television 193 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:00.679 cameras made him very, very able to feel where the 194 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.080 wind was blowing. Some people use a wetted finger. Joe 195 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.600 Biden used a wetted scalp. But then as he got 196 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:09.720 more hair, inexplicably he perhaps became politically deaf to the 197 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:11.639 ships in public. 198 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:12.960 Because the hair came down over his ears. 199 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:17.639 Yeah, Nolo, possibly it. Well, he'll be gone soon. But 200 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:20.440 he has warned us, however, about an oligarchy that is 201 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:23.799 taking shape in America within a tech industrial complex, hoping 202 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:25.840 perhaps that he will go out, or maybe the person 203 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:29.799 who's writing his speeches, hoping that he'll go out like Eisenhower, 204 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.480 somebody who whose warnings will be echoed and referred to 205 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:38.320 decades later as being remarkably prescient. I was more worried 206 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:41.720 about the tech industrial complex and it's it's intertwining with 207 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:45.320 government when there was an actual concerted effort to suppress information, 208 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:50.960 to suppress information, true information in the name of public safety. 209 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:55.200 Truth than the other thing. Of all people to talk 210 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:58.320 about the worries that we should have with technology in 211 00:10:58.679 --> 00:11:03.000 the industry, coming from Biden, it's rather rich. But then again, 212 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:04.840 who knows if he was responsible for any of that 213 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:05.720 stuff at all. 214 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:06.759 I tend to think not. 215 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.320 I tend to think that we're promulgating all the COVID regulations. 216 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:13.320 He was back with a dish of soft served somewhere 217 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:19.960 watching clues confirmation hearings. Rubio impressed. Now you may say, well, 218 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.720 here's the guy who who was sort of all on 219 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:24.639 board with all the neo Kon stuff before and now 220 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:27.759 he's changed to And I don't really know that much. 221 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:30.240 All I know is that you can tell what is 222 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:33.720 being said, what people are being allowed to be said 223 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:37.840 right now. And if we're tossing off this fiction of 224 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:43.000 a transnational identity, this sort of post post national star 225 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:46.159 Trek federation world in which all are subsumed in one 226 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:49.360 glorious conglomerateive individuals, if we're getting rid of that in 227 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:55.360 favor of pure bald naked self interest again, yay, I say. 228 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:57.200 I mean, I want everybody to get along, don't get 229 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.480 me wrong, But the idea that the United States should 230 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:03.600 bend an e been a knee because the EU decides 231 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.799 that this is the way the world should be ordered. Nah. 232 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:10.799 Yeah, So well, I don't know which part of that 233 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:12.559 you want us to grab hold of and run with. 234 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:13.399 I don't care. 235 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:14.200 Yeah. 236 00:12:14.279 --> 00:12:16.679 I mean, I watched some of the confirmation hearings this week, 237 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:21.080 and it's been some great theater, mostly about how completely 238 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.759 lunatic the Democrats are still about the matter. I mean, 239 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.799 there is this old custom going back decades now that 240 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.879 a new president usually gets one cabinet member rejected. It 241 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.159 doesn't matter if that your own party has the Senate. 242 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:37.279 It happened under Reagan, happened under the first President Bush, 243 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.919 the second President Bush, happened for Bill Clinton. And they 244 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.600 see to be having trouble picking your target this time. 245 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:45.679 It looked like it was going to be HEG. Sath, 246 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:47.919 but it looks like he's going to go through. There's 247 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:50.360 It looks to me now like the two people who 248 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:53.200 might be in jeopardy of being rejected are R. F. 249 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:58.000 Kennedy Junior. RFK Junior and maybe Tulsey Gabbard. And I 250 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:00.000 don't know if it's on the substance of Gabbard or 251 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:03.039 or if there's on the one hand, anger the Democrats 252 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:05.960 that she switched teams after having knifed Kamala Harris five 253 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:09.159 years ago in the primaries, or if they really have 254 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:12.000 doubts about her views because which you have changed over 255 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:15.000 the years. And then RFK, I mean, he's just a 256 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.240 wild card, and I don't think anyone knows quite what 257 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.399 to do about that. I have to say it is 258 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:22.879 genius of Trump to get Democrats to hate to Kennedy. 259 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.279 I mean, Republicans have been trying for sixty years with 260 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.480 no success, and now Trump's done by nominating him to 261 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:31.360 the cabinet. And then finally, maybe we have RFK all 262 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:34.480 wrong all these years when I heard him attacking big oil, 263 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:37.039 it turned out he was attacking big seed oil. 264 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:39.399 And so here we are, well, we already have Red 265 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:42.919 number three band or Red number two. So obviously the 266 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:47.320 RFK influence is there. Charles, you are closer to Rubio 267 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.399 than the rest of us. Are you impressed with his performance? 268 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:51.960 You think he'll be a good Secretary of State? 269 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:57.399 Yes, and yes, I would know that the shift that 270 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:02.399 you observed is pretty typical for Rubio. Now our prefaces 271 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:05.279 by saying I like Rubio. He's been a really good 272 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.519 senator from Florida. He has his flaws. He is, for example, 273 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:11.000 in the pocket of big sugar. It's one great thing 274 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.120 about Rohn de Santis is he's not He told them 275 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.080 on day one to pound sugar. 276 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.960 I guess. But Rubio is granular. 277 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.080 Other than that, though, he's done really well as a 278 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:23.440 senator from Florida because he does what Florida wants him 279 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:29.679 to do. But he is and always has been somewhat prottean. 280 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.559 If you look back to the Rubio of nineteen ninety 281 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:36.080 eight when he was Speaker of the House in Florida, 282 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:38.799 and the Rubyo of two thousand and six, and the 283 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.360 Ruby of twenty ten, and the Ruby of twenty eighteen 284 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:44.159 and the Ruby of now they're all different. Rubio became 285 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:48.200 a tea partier. That wasn't who he was. He wasn't 286 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:51.960 a Thomas Massey type who has believed the same thing 287 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:55.360 for thirty years, for good or ill. Rubio became a 288 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.879 tea partier, and then when he saw the politics of 289 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.320 the party in the country who were moving, he shifted 290 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:06.039 away from it. So he's moved to fit with the moment. 291 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:10.559 That is in part of criticism, But at another level, 292 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:14.639 he is going to be serving as a Secretary of State, 293 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:18.759 which is a role that is subordinate to the president. 294 00:15:19.399 --> 00:15:23.120 And if he had all these ideas that didn't comport 295 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:25.399 with those of Donald Trump, who's the guy who won 296 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.799 the election, that they wouldn't work very well. So when 297 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.799 I see people say, well, this person or that person 298 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:34.279 is clearly trying to please the president. If their job 299 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:36.600 is to work for the president, that doesn't bother me 300 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:41.159 in the slightest. Pam Bondi, who's up for Attorney General 301 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:43.679 has said some things about guns that I don't like 302 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:46.320 as a Second Amendment advocate. But the villain there was 303 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:49.240 Rick Scott, because she worked for Rick Scott, and Rick 304 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.399 Scott was the one who was pushing certain laws and 305 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:53.399 it was her job to defend them and enforce them. 306 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:55.279 So I think we'll be able to do a good 307 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:59.039 job because I think he is interested in the area. 308 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.519 I think that he has good diplomatic skills. And the 309 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:05.799 last thing I say about Rubia is this is really important. 310 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:09.200 Although his politics has changed somewhat over time, he has 311 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.720 always loved America and seen its role in the world 312 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:15.120 as being indispensable. And you need that in a secretary 313 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.440 of state. Unfortunately, especially given some of our recent secretaries 314 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.159 of state, they don't always have that as a virtue. 315 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:24.200 Other words, when we talk about whether Van's like Rubio 316 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:27.879 and Joe Biden, we might say, hmm, there's a word 317 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:31.000 for that, and the word is politician. But people, Hugseeth 318 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:34.120 doesn't strike anybody as a politician. I mean, he may 319 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.840 be dabbling in it, but he doesn't strike you as that. 320 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.600 He strikes you as sort of the Ramrod straight type 321 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.720 who can keep a straight face while he's being hectored 322 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:47.679 by some handwaving herodance. That did not make for the 323 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:50.320 best political theater I thought for the Democrats. 324 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:53.320 Yeah, I mean, you know, I have three or four 325 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.720 favorite smackdowns from the nominees this week, and maybe the 326 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.919 top was when Elizabeth Warren said, in a typically imper 327 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:02.879 his way, well you have said generals shouldn't be allowed 328 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:05.240 to be on corporate boards, and are you? But you 329 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:07.400 won't apply that to yourself? And he just says, I'm 330 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:11.759 not a general senator, right. And then I have to 331 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:15.680 say the Treasury nominee, Scott Descent, I knew nothing about him, 332 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:17.960 but what I watched I was quite impressed with. 333 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:18.960 The guy, I would say. 334 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:21.079 And you know, one of my favorite smack down there 335 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:24.759 was Ron Wyden of Oregon has been around forever, and 336 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:27.519 he says, you know, we're in this clean energy race 337 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:31.319 with China, and Descent said, no or not. China's building 338 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:34.039 one hundred coal plants this year, ten nuclear plants. We're 339 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:37.079 in an energy race, not a clean energy race with China. 340 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:39.200 And about you know what's Biden gonna do. I mean 341 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:42.279 that's a pretty definitive SmackDown, and the boy talk about 342 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:45.680 leading with your chin. Oh find Mazy Hurano asked every 343 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:50.680 single nominee, have you ever, you know, been a sexual harasser? 344 00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:53.799 Have you ever demanded sexual faith? I don't, I don't know, 345 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:55.319 you know, are you now or have you ever been 346 00:17:55.319 --> 00:17:57.680 a male? I mean, it's just astounding the way she 347 00:17:57.720 --> 00:17:58.480 conducts herself. 348 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:01.759 Indeed, indeed, when you bring up China, you bring up 349 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.519 the imminent rejiggering, reconfiguration, reselling, whatever is going to happen 350 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:09.039 to TikTok, And we should probably get to that at 351 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:10.920 the bottom of the hour after we meet with our guests, 352 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:13.799 because that is fascinating, especially when you have all these 353 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:15.599 TikTokers in America fleeing. 354 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.519 To Little Red Book or Red Book, which. 355 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:21.640 Is the Chinese equivalent, which apparently I was providing them 356 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:23.559 with this incredible look at China, and the scales are 357 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:25.359 falling through their eyes and they're realizing they've been told 358 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:30.160 lies about communism. China's great, we'll get to that. Hey, 359 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:31.039 want to tell you one thing. 360 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:32.359 My wife has gone. 361 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:33.400 It's been gone for some time. 362 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:36.000 She left me. She left me for Arizona to be 363 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:37.519 with her mom. Don't worry, she's coming back. 364 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:41.240 What this means However, in the afternoon sometimes I want 365 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:43.240 to take a nap, and since she's none in the house, 366 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:44.920 I have the heat down. I have the heat turned 367 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:46.680 off in all kinds of rooms because it's just me 368 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:48.880 living in the big house now. And that means I 369 00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:50.720 go to the I go to the guest room because 370 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:52.680 it's got a little electric blower heater, and I turned 371 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:54.559 that on and I have a nice little nap. Well, 372 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:57.119 I did the other day, and I realized, while yes, 373 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:58.119 it's warm in here, b. 374 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:00.599 These are bad sheets. 375 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:02.640 I got bad sheets in this room. 376 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:04.160 Whatever am I going to do? 377 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:05.880 Well? The answer is simple. If I want better sleep, 378 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:11.240 I can just wrap myself in Cozy Earth. Cozy Earth 379 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:13.519 their goal is to help you turn your home into 380 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:16.200 a sanctuary, a place where you can escape the outside 381 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.640 world's demands and truly unwind. Life gets hectic and finding 382 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:22.160 comfort and calm is so important. Your time outside the 383 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:24.920 nine to five, or however you configure your days and 384 00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:28.400 work from Homeworld, it should be about relaxation, about recharging 385 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.200 and soaking in a sense of peace. With Cozy Earth, 386 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.400 you can create a space that feels like a cozy retreat, 387 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.559 a personal retreat where comfort and serenity come together naturally. 388 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.079 Feel the difference with Cozy Earth's best selling bamboo sheet set, 389 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.440 made from one hundred percent premium discuss from bamboo. I'd 390 00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:47.240 never heard of it either, but their breatheable sheets are 391 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:49.640 uniquely soft, and they only get softer with every wash. 392 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:52.440 And we're here to tell you that Charles C. Cook 393 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:56.880 has been has been wrapping themselves and Cold Earth for 394 00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:57.240 some time. 395 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:58.200 And how's it going? 396 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.880 Pretty well? I do enjoy them. My wife chose them. 397 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.599 I think I say this every time, but it is true. 398 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:07.279 My wife chose these sheets because when I was in 399 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:09.160 the process of buying them, I thought, is this the 400 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:11.400 sort of decision I, as a man, will be allowed 401 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:14.119