WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.519 Ask not what your country can do for you, ask 2 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:10.519 what you can do for your country, mister Gorbachev, tear 3 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:15.679 down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast. I'm James Lillnxon. 4 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:17.359 Of course we get Charles C. W. Cook in as 5 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:19.000 far as our guest, Oh, he's not a guest. He's 6 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:22.320 one of us, the founder, Rob Long, So let's have 7 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:25.239 ourselves a podcast. Although I will say this, the last 8 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.600 few days you woke up thinking there might be news, 9 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:33.759 just saying, just saying there will be news sometimes just 10 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:36.679 so you know there will be news. And then I 11 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:39.000 didn't do any for two days and they said there 12 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:42.000 must be something wrong with him. Biden wouldn't do him 13 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.960 for months, You wouldn't see him, and nobody ever said 14 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.200 there was ever anything wrong with him, and we know 15 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:49.920 he was in the greatest of shape. No I heard that, 16 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:53.920 I get reports. Welcome everybody. This is the Ricochet Podcast, 17 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.039 number seven and fifty six. How do we get that far? Well, 18 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:00.799 in the beginning was Rob Long, but we'll get to that. 19 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.079 You can join us at ricochet dot comy be part 20 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:06.480 of the most stimulating conversations and community on the web. 21 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:10.760 We have as usual, luckily, General C. W. Cook Stephen 22 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:13.680 Hayward is out this week. Lord knows where he is, Iceland, 23 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.959 New Guinea. But Rob's back. Rob the founders of Ricochet 24 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:22.519 is back with us. Seminary classes, I believe start today. 25 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:26.159 So he's a little white yesterday stressed yesterday. He can 26 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:29.400 be stressed about seminary studies. I mean, it's a calm 27 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:31.760 feeling of peace, no doubt this sends you as you 28 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.719 look over the landscape of theological disputation and find nothing 29 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:39.040 but harmony. But you are in New York and so 30 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:44.319 you're on the ground where democratic socialism is taking root joyously. Right. 31 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:46.799 Well, I mean technically I'm in Princeton, That's where I 32 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:49.359 live now. You know, I'm a full time graduate student, 33 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:53.599 really really thinking more about weighty matters, James, not quite 34 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:58.760 the worldly things you think about. Yeah, I mean, it 35 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.959 does seem like people are I don't know what the 36 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.400 word is. What is the word when you you know 37 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:07.959 something's coming and it's going to be bad and you 38 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:11.879 just wanted to start now and get get on with it. 39 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.439 People have that weird people's. 40 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.800 Probably there's probably a civil war term for guys who 41 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:21.280 are going into the operating tent. Yeah, yeah, I pick 42 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:23.360 up the pick up the saw, get the saw. 43 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:26.360 That's get it to start. And there's also that kind 44 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:30.080 of this this wishcrafting, wish casting that we are aside 45 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.159 does every now and then, where we have created a 46 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:35.360 weirdly a kind of a Marxian kind of way of 47 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:37.599 looking at the world, which is like, it's good, it's good. 48 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:39.680 We need my I was a dinner party with a 49 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:41.680 bunch of conservatives two weeks ago, and like we need mom, 50 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:44.680 Donnie Bie mayor just to remind people how terrible it is, 51 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:46.919 and then we can set ourselves up for a New 52 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:52.759 Giuliani kind of Bloomberg kind of uh event, as if 53 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.240 these things are sort of natural laws that must happen, 54 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:59.599 like gravity or laws of physics. They forget that things 55 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:01.560 can get really bad and stay really bad for a 56 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:03.439 long time, which has happened in New York City for 57 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:08.599 you know, nearly thirty forty years. So that is the 58 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:12.639 mood I would say in New York is delusional, but 59 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.280 that's kind of always the mood there in that city. 60 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.840 Well, it's interesting. We have two examples. New York. We're 61 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:20.960 going to tax you. We're going to take as much 62 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:23.159 money as we can from you. But we're going to 63 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:25.759 open grocery stores that we'll have a one percent profit margin. 64 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:32.039 If that Florida, hmm, how about we abolish property taxes, Charles, 65 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.439 you would be the beneficiary of this. So you have 66 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:36.960 any thoughts on dessentiss musings. 67 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.479 Well, yes, they're contradictory. One is that I would, of 68 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.879 course love to pay no property taxes. And I do 69 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.759 think that there's something psychologically problematic about property taxes in 70 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:53.520 that we all grow out watching Westerns, and the families 71 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:55.759 that moved into the middle of nowhere and built the 72 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:01.360 house had it free and clear, and that seemed such 73 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:05.840 a symbol of liberty and self sufficiency. No one came 74 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:07.639 up to them every year and said, and now the 75 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:14.400 money for living here. But we live in a world 76 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.480 in which governments spend money and you have to get 77 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:22.560 it somehow, And I think Florida's arrangements pretty good. What 78 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:27.600 you have in Florida is no income taxes or taxes 79 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:32.639 on anything that approximates income of any sort. Good, relatively 80 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:34.759 low sales taxes where I live at six and a 81 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:38.839 half percent, and then property taxes that aren't the lowest 82 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:41.040 in the nation, but aren't as high as stay taxes, 83 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:47.720 and I'm Gonnesota, and a lot of our taxes in 84 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:50.000 Florida are paid by people who don't live here and 85 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:52.279 therefore can't get upset about them. People who come in 86 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:57.040 as tourists and either pay the sales and hotel and 87 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:00.560 amusement park taxes or drive up and down the roads 88 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:04.439 where the tolls have been cleverly placed near the airports 89 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:07.759 and pay those. So it's not that I'm against the 90 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:10.160 idea of getting rid of property taxes per se, or 91 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:13.759 that I like property taxes, but I do think that 92 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:20.720 combining medium level property taxes with medium level sales taxes 93 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:22.680 in a state where a lot of taxes are paid 94 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:24.879 by other people and there's no income tax is working 95 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:28.560 really well for Florida. And so that the burkey and conservative 96 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.240 in me just says, don't screw with this, because I 97 00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:35.040 don't know what would come next. And then there's another 98 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:38.040 part of me that thinks that it might be a 99 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:41.480 little bit unfair. And this is something I very very 100 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:44.199 rarely say in connection with taxes, but I think it 101 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:45.839 might be a little bit fair to get rid of 102 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.800 property taxes and say, hike sales taxes on people who 103 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:52.959 are poor. I just you know, that seems to me 104 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:55.319 to be a pretty unfair trait. 105 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:58.759 I agree that would be regressive. But on the other hand, 106 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.560 business come from the fact that Florida has a state 107 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:05.759 budget surplut. Well, it wouldn't have any other kind budget 108 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:10.560 surplus now because of judicious trimming. And the idea is 109 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.839 is that we will continue to trim and be lean 110 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:16.199 and efficient, and therefore we don't have to take the 111 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.680 property taxes, because the property tax is psychologically in the 112 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:21.000 back of your head when you say the old idea 113 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:22.879 of your house free and clear of the old idea, 114 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:24.639 and then then somebody comes around once a year with 115 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:27.360 the bag opens, such as that it's the idea that 116 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:29.319 you can literally pay off your mortgage and to live 117 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:31.279 someplace for thirty five years, but at the end of 118 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:33.959 the year, at the end of the day, it's taken 119 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:35.920 away from you if you do not pay the state 120 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:36.519 and their portion. 121 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.160 And that's of course the counter argument, which is a 122 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:42.879 strong one, which is that property taxes can push people 123 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:45.199 out of their homes, and that's also very unfair. 124 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:47.639 So Florida would boom then from people who were moving 125 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:51.759 into escape New York's orous property taxes for example, and 126 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:53.519 that would lead to more sales tax revenue and the 127 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:56.120 rest of it. We'll see. It's interesting. I just love 128 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:58.639 watching people freak out about this. It's like, you know, 129 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:04.240 demolishing a category of taxes, it strikes some people is 130 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:07.600 completely irresponsible because its very nature is going to start 131 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:09.120 up the state, and we can't have that. 132 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:11.920 Oh I want to do that, yeah, but it doesn't 133 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:13.360 have to start the state. I mean, I guess what 134 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:16.600 I'd say about these taxes is that there's no law 135 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.000 that says if you repeal one form of tax, you 136 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:22.000 can't make up the revenue somewhere else. The problem with 137 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:23.800 property tax at least in California, I don't really know 138 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:25.399 how they were. I didn't have to pay them in 139 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:27.360 New York and I had to pay them in California, 140 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.720 is that there's this kind of strange, murky subsidy. That's 141 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:33.519 what governments always want to do. They want to tax 142 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.759 you in a way that you don't really even notice it, 143 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:39.120 so that if you buy a house in a thirty 144 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:42.240 year mortgage, that your property tax is often part of 145 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:43.680 the loan of your mortgage. 146 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:47.000 To be well, write that check out twice a month. 147 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:49.839 But California often is. And so the idea is you're 148 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:53.000 hiding this giant fee and you're putting it somewhere where 149 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.199 people kind of don't see it, and they just don't 150 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:56.959 feel the pain. And I think when you feel the 151 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:00.720 pain of taxes, that's what no liberals want. You'd actually 152 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:02.920 sit there and write a check because that's like a 153 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.720 that's essentially a direct mail piece from the Republican Party. 154 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:11.680 It's your tax bill and and that's why your your 155 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:14.920 pay stub is so bizarrely configured and confusing so you 156 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:16.480 don't really notice it. I mean that one of the 157 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.040 Corps brothers early on, when when the security at Tax 158 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:24.639 Fight Attacks was imposed payroll tax. He he you could 159 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:27.160 go to his the brewery in Colorado and get your 160 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:29.439 paycheck on a Thursday, and you went to the window. 161 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:30.639 You had to get the full you have the full 162 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:33.879 paycheck in one window, get your gross pay and then 163 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:36.200 you had to go to the second window and you 164 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:41.320 had to pay your FIKA. Because he wanted everyone to 165 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:44.480 know exactly what was coming out of their paycheck. They 166 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.919 had those two or three minutes when they're standing in 167 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:50.399 line when they felt rich and then that incredible sinking 168 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.120 feeling later when they gave all the money the government 169 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.120 and he was then that was considered that. I think 170 00:08:54.919 --> 00:08:57.120 they they made that illegal. You couldn't do it that way. 171 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:58.600 You had to take it out of the paycheck before 172 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:01.559 the worker gets it. And in general, I think anytime 173 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.399 taxes are more transparent and paid on the barrel head 174 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.320 and people see what they're paying for, they can decide 175 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:09.759 if they want to pay more or less, or if 176 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:14.000 they want more or fewer services. And that's the road 177 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:21.360 to not just democracy, but prosperity. 178 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:19.200 You know. 179 00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:21.879 Just to upset I've on even further, who will think 180 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:24.320 I'm a squish here. The other thing that does worry 181 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:27.440 me slightly is it would be good to starve the 182 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.799 beast Florida has doesn't spend that much in the first place. 183 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:33.679 But I am slightly alarmed by the record of the 184 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.000 federal government here. I know states can't borrow in the 185 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.200 way the federal government can, but that theory has been 186 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:42.039 tried for a long, long long time. And we don't 187 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:46.759 cut spending, we just borrow thirty eight trillion dollars, and 188 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.960 so I do. There's at the back of my mind 189 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.200 there's a small don't break it, as I say, Burkie 190 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:58.480 in view that Florida is really great, it's working really well. 191 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:01.279 I don't feel like the government it's profligate. I don't 192 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.240 feel like taxes are too high in general, and I 193 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.360 worry that if we do this then what. 194 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:10.519 True. But on the other hand, you don't lose your 195 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:14.639 house because you don't pay So the other thing that 196 00:10:14.679 --> 00:10:17.960 caught my eye this week was the shakeup at CBS 197 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.159 News where Barry Weiss strikes out on her own, starts 198 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:26.080 up a substack, and then gets a bazillion patrons, makes 199 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.000 a lot of money, and now appears to be headed 200 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:34.639 for running CBS News, which I would actually watch again 201 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.480 under her tutelage because I would expect, not that I 202 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:39.279 would expect that it would conform to everything that I 203 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:44.120 said or thought, but it would be probably heterodox as 204 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:46.799 she is. Do you guys agree or do you think 205 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:51.120 this is just more moving the chairs around on the Lusitania? 206 00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:53.480 And I use that instead of Titanic because Lusitania went 207 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:54.519 down real fast. 208 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:57.960 Well, I mean, I you know, look, I think it's great. 209 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:00.879 I think it's any any time is to shake up 210 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:02.559 in that business. I mean, I still believe that there's 211 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.759 should there should be these robust businesses telling you the 212 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:08.200 news and that are that are not that are thoughtful 213 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:12.360 and are not you know, nuts nuts her, you know 214 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:14.519 the subst the free press, which I've you know, written 215 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:16.919 for which I'm I know, Barry, I'm a huge fan. 216 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.240 Is it real success? It's not a success to two 217 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:23.960 hundred million dollars. But if you were just bought this 218 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:28.440 giant behemoth of a company, Paramount Paramount Global, I guess 219 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:30.120 they called it at some point, and I that Listen, 220 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.720 I've been attached to Paramount Studios at Paramount for low 221 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:37.960 these thirty five years, so I've seen it through multiple handovers. 222 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.559 You know, you have this CBS thing that doesn't make 223 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:43.799 any sense. I think the broadcast side does, but the 224 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:45.679 news side doesn't really make any sense. It's filled with 225 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:48.399 all sorts of trouble and ossified things. And you know, 226 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.519 Barry's got a kind of very fresh way of looking 227 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:52.879 at the news, and she's managed to assemble a lot 228 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:56.440 of interesting writers around her. Whether she can run a 229 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:00.519 giant news division which is basically a TV network, who ohs. 230 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:05.679 But I admire the I admire the risk. I mean, 231 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:09.480 good for them, good for the Ellison's for riskiness, you know, 232 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:10.360 I wuish them. 233 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:14.159 Well, Charles's last gasp of dying industry or a new 234 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:16.919 sign that it might be able to reinvent and revitalize itself. 235 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:18.799 I think the latter. 236 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.799 So what I love about this is that someone has 237 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:25.519 realized that it's not working. It's not good. 238 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:28.759 Finally, it's the most annoying. 239 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.559 Thing about people in the media is that they are 240 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:32.679 the worst people in the world and they don't know it. 241 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:39.519 They can't accept any failures. They still conceive of themselves 242 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:45.559 as the greatest heroes in American history and their product 243 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.600 generally speaking, and there are some exceptions, of course. 244 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:52.279 Isn't good. It's not. 245 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:58.519 The evil conservatives who did this. It's not the internet. 246 00:12:59.639 --> 00:13:02.039 There are lots of secular reasons that it's become more 247 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:06.120 difficult to run a news station. I understand that, but 248 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:10.039 the people I think are the key to it. And 249 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:11.879 I have the same view I had when we were 250 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:17.759 talking about the late night shows. Maybe make one that 251 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:19.960 isn't annoying and then see if it works, and then 252 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:21.720 if it doesn't, you throw up your hands and you say, 253 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:23.960 all right, well, there's just lots of different external factors 254 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.879 that made it impossible. In a way it wasn't in 255 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:29.519 nineteen seventy eight, but no one's actually tried this. We 256 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.879 CNN pretended that they were going to stop being ridiculous 257 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:39.080 and then they didn't do it. MSNBC occasionally acknowledges that 258 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:42.720 it is a drug trip and then doesn't do anything 259 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.399 about it. And Fox is its own thing because it's 260 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:51.600 really the only one on the right. But the mainstream 261 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:56.679 press just they don't seem to actually ever follow through. 262 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.120 They have these focus group meetings and expensive hotels and 263 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:00.960 say everyone hates this as we're rubbish, and then they 264 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:02.639 say what's the problem, and then they say it's because 265 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:03.200 we're heroes. 266 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.799 So I just think this is good. I want to 267 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:06.919 see if this works. 268 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:09.679 Yeah, I mean, and I think also, look, it's a 269 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:11.519 it's a it's a I don't know the internals of 270 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.919 the deal, but mostly at two hundred million dollars, which 271 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:17.519 is actually not that much when you have eighty million 272 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:20.639 billion dollars that Ellson's have, and when you've just invested 273 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:22.840 a couple of billion a bunch of billion into the 274 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:25.919 giant company, so like, yeah, you're got to hive off 275 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:27.879 a little bit, and you're going to say roughly, this 276 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:31.360 is what we want our news organ our news operation 277 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:36.600 to cost. I think it's it could be really really interesting, 278 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.000 it could be really something great. And the thing about 279 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.840 Barry is that Barry will be infuriating and surprising to 280 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:43.519 people on the left and the right. She's going to 281 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:47.240 be exactly, in many ways exactly who the people on 282 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.960 the left in the media think they are, right, this 283 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.320 kind of we're you know, we I think freely. I 284 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:55.399 make these I call balls and strikes all that stuff. 285 00:14:55.559 --> 00:14:58.240 She actually is that thing, yes, and that's why the 286 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.559 organism of the New York Times had to had to 287 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:04.840 reject it. But the truth is she is a she 288 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.759 is She is the app the real life, accurate projection 289 00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:13.480 of what every you know, media grandee thinks he or 290 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.879 she is. And they're gonna they're gonna find out that 291 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:18.919 it can you know. Look, the worst thing that can 292 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:20.440 happen to them is that she succeeds. 293 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:25.559 When Charles spoke before about evening the late night talk 294 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.399 shows and saying, you know, try one that isn't annoying 295 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:31.440 and see if that works, the Evening News sort of 296 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.480 brackets that as a tradition, and it's from another time, 297 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:37.960 another culture. When dad was home, you had your dinner, 298 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.080 and then maybe while you're waiting for mom to put 299 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:41.679 it on the table, you sat down and you watched 300 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:42.320 the Evening News. 301 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:44.799 It's very gendered language, James, it is. 302 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:48.919 It very much is. And you had a preference based 303 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.279 on who you liked, who you trusted, maybe even what 304 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:54.840 the theme music was. I have no idea, or perhaps 305 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:56.600 just you didn't care, and you flipped around and you 306 00:15:56.639 --> 00:15:58.840 sat down and listened to Walter or Chat or whatever. 307 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.720 And then the evening, your evening was bracketed by sitting 308 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:05.799 down and watching Journey, Oh Joy Bishop. And these are 309 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:10.039 gone because, of course now the competition is myriad, multifaceted. 310 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:12.720 No one is waiting for Carson to come on because 311 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:14.759 they're streaming a whole bunch of things on their second screen, 312 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:17.960 and nobody sits down necessarily to watch the evening News 313 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.559 as sort of putting a pin in the part of 314 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:23.480 the day, the work that is done. So the question 315 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.600 is whether or not she wants to revive that at 316 00:16:25.639 --> 00:16:29.200 all or just dump it. And I'm thinking I haven't 317 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:31.519 watched the Evening News for so long, and I did 318 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:35.000 last week when we had the tragedy the massacre, the 319 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.720 shooting in my neighborhood, and they were asking everybody. They'd 320 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:41.120 interviewed my niece for himn's sakes, And so I turned 321 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:43.279 it on and it reminded me that I used to 322 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.120 every night watch the Evening News, and I think I've 323 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.240 listened to NBC because they had the best theme, because 324 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:51.519 John Williams had written this suite of music called and 325 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:56.320 Get This the message that that was quite inspirational, and 326 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:58.799 I fell away from that at some point. Willingly didn't 327 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:01.440 miss it at all, and so launching the whole progress 328 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:03.360 of the tropes and the cliches of what the Evening 329 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.640 News was that, you know, the concern, the pained faces 330 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:08.559 that people standing outside the White House and the rest 331 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:11.359 of it just seemed like what I've been teleported back 332 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:13.960 in nineteen sixty two. So I don't know if there's 333 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:16.359 much to be had in trying to revive it, or 334 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.240 if she should just be more nimble and attempt to 335 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.599 rewrite the whole news idea on television right before her eyes. 336 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.559 It's got to be done, because Charles absolutely correct, they 337 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:28.599 don't know how bad they are. The other day, when 338 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.200 I was putting my groceries away, I saw headline on 339 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.039 the local paper, not the one that I know want 340 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.440 to work for, and it said shooters mystery may never 341 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:41.559 shooter's motive may never be known, and yeah, okay, and 342 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:44.559 that is why circulation continues to plummet at the rate 343 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:47.119 that it does. So. While we're on the subject of 344 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:49.160 the shooter, though, there are two interesting developments when it 345 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:51.559 comes to gender studies in America and theory. And the 346 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:54.079 first is something that I predicted the minute that people 347 00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:57.000 started talking about red flag loss, the minute that they 348 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:59.119 were saying, well, we made to make we need to 349 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:01.920 make sure mentally ill people don't get guns. And I 350 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.359 think we all agree that that's a good idea. There's 351 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:07.119 a usual worry about red flag laws being used against 352 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.960 political opponents, against people who aren't really crazy, etc. Et cetera. 353 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:12.000 But I thought, this is what they're going to do. 354 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:14.759 Is they're going to say, if you believe you are 355 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.000 a boy when you're actually a girl, or vice versa, 356 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:22.039 that is prima facia evidence that you have a mental disability. 357 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:24.960 And sure enough, according to the Daily Caller, that is 358 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.799 exactly what they are proposing to do. Charles, you being 359 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:31.880 the Second Amendment absolutist. Uh, give us your take on this. 360 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.720 Well, spectacularly unconstitutional and won't last one minute in the courts. 361 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.839 Okay, but tell us why. I mean the predicate the predicate. 362 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:46.079 The predicate is in what they're trying to do here 363 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.759 is to say that transgenderism is, like I said, prima facia, 364 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:55.000 a mental disorder. Ergo can maybe guns, And it's making 365 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:57.680 the people on the left scream for gun rights, which 366 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:00.480 I think is quite funny. So what makes it unconcer stitutional? 367 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:02.319 Just for those ofment taking. 368 00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:10.839 Notes, Well, the Second amendments an individual right, as confirmed 369 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:15.759 by the Hella decision of two thousand and eight. The 370 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:21.200 Bruined decision of twenty twenty two updated that to hold 371 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:27.079 that any gun law that is to be presumed constitutional 372 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:32.359 must have a historical analog until that is whittled away 373 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:35.599 or reversed. That is how the lower courts, and indeed 374 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:39.480 the Supreme Court is obliged to look at it. So 375 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:42.960 the question then is, throughout American history, either in the 376 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:47.880 post colonial period or post reconstruction, are there any laws 377 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:53.640 that permit the government to determine that a class of 378 00:19:53.720 --> 00:20:00.880 people is exempt from the Second Amendment. We're currently having 379 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:06.599 this debate over the laws that render it illegal to 380 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:13.119 buy or possess a gun if addicted to drugs, because 381 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:17.279 historically the laws didn't do that. 382 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:18.079 There were. 383 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:25.440 Prohibitions on carrying firearms while drunk, for example, but you 384 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:27.000 got your gun back the next day when you save 385 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:32.200 it up, right. So there is a case against the 386 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:37.079 law that got Hunter Biden into trouble on the grounds 387 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:45.000 adam rated in Bruin. Now there have historically been exceptions 388 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:50.480 for people who were violent felons, not non violent felons. 389 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:53.319 Those laws may go by the wayside. That's going to 390 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:57.920 be the next big case, and people who were mentally ill. 391 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:04.759 But both violent felons and mental illness had to be 392 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:08.640 adjudicated in some sense. It didn't necessarily have to be 393 00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:15.200 adjudicated with a sentence from a court, as we found 394 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.720 out in the Rahemi case recently. Merely being the subject 395 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.960 of a restraining order is sufficient, at least under current president. 396 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:26.799 But there had to be some due process involved. You 397 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:31.599 could not just say everyone who supports the Minnesota vikings 398 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:36.839 is mentally ill, therefore they are not allowed to take 399 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:41.160 advantage of the Bill of Rights. And that's what Although 400 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:46.400 it's embryonic has been suggested by the Trump administration, as 401 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:49.160