Speaker 1: Welcome back, everyone to a new episode of You're Wrong
with Molly Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalist and
David Harsani, senior writer at The Washington Examiner. Just as
a reminder, if you'd like to email the show, please
do so at radio at the Federalist dot com. We'd
love to hear from you. I hope you had a
great new year. Molly. We haven't spoken in a few weeks.
A lot has happened in that time. I think this
episode will be very foreign policy oriented. I think we
should start with Venezuela and Operation Absolute Resolve. The entire
operation took like ninety minutes. We bombed a bunch of infrastructure,
We extracted the fake Venezuelan president, Nicholas Madaro, and we
brought him to New York where he was indicted on
narco terrorist charges. He and his wife, whose name I forget,
Cecilia something, maybe.
Speaker 2: A lovely lady Flores, a lovely lady who's been involved
in trafficking and crimes herself.
Speaker 1: Right, So there's there's a lot to talk about here.
I think we should start by just at least I'd
like to note how impressive the operation was I mean,
Venezuela is not Granada. I mean it's a it's a country,
has a military, it's not nothing. And we we didn't
lose a single person. I think that a bunch of
Cuban mercenaries around thirty were killed, who were bodyguards, I
guess of of the Venezuelan president.
Speaker 2: So just first off, like you said, this was an
absolutely amazing operation that was executed, according to what we
know currently, seemingly flawlessly. I mean, this was not easy.
This is a guy who understood that he was wanted
in the same way that Saddam Hussein or Osama bin
Laden understood they were wanted. These you know, and Venezuela
has many more capabilities than rogue terrorists or the heads
of a rock. And it was just really impressive and
well done. And that level of excellence is important in
a military operation. When you look at how botched the
withdrawal from Afghanistan was, it's a good comparison to remind
the rest of the world that our military is fierce.
You do not want to come up against it, and
you will lose if you come up against it. Like
all of that is really important stuff. And then as
for the operation itself. You know, it's funny. I was
seeing all these people on Twitter opining and I didn't
say much because I didn't have the strongest feelings. Now
let me say what I think is great about it.
We're good about it. Venezuela has been a problem for
our country, not just you know, I think there's like
the public facing claim that they're exporting a lot of drugs.
It is true that they use drugs. We talked about
this actually a few weeks ago, right, Like, you don't
like the phrase narco terrorist. You think that's like a
unwise phrase, and I think you have some you have
some good points there. So the public facing thing is
that it's all related to quote unquote narco terrorism. But
the reality is that Venezuela is a problem for many
more and much deeper reasons. They are an important part
of countries that are sworn enemies of ours, of their
ability to keep fighting US, whether that's China or Iran
or Russia. And one of the things I loved about
the operation is that Venezuela supposedly had all of these
amazing Chinese and Russian defense systems and they just completely failed,
Which is another great thing for America and then we've
just kind of been operating for decades as this entity
where anybody can do whatever they want, and they can
do whatever they want in their own countries' interests, and
we frequently are subsidizing it as opposed to advocating for
our own And so I don't know, hate this like
I might hate a similar op with less strategic interest
for US. I mean, there's so much about yes, the oil.
Sorry I'm remembering code pinks like no blood for oil,
as if wars haven't been fought over resource allocation and
protection of region and spheres of influence for like a
really long time. But strategically from the oil standpoint and
the ability to thwart China, I think it's pretty good.
My concern would be that our country is having a
lot of problems, and I want to make sure that
the Trump administration is able to keep its eye on
the ball of what needs to be done domestically, Like
our country is not in the best shape. Yes, we're powerful,
Yes we have like reserves of wealth, but we're having
breakdowns inside of us that are really serious and I'm
hoping we'll talk about that too, like the Somali fraud
situation and other things.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: I want Trump, the Trump administration to be understanding that
far more than even this action abroad, we need to
be taking action here to save the country, like or
else we won't be able to do these things in
the long run, like long after you and I are dead.
But it's important to have a strong country going forward too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, I guess. I think there are fewer
problems than other people doing inside the country, not that
I don't think there aren't problems. And I think that
having federal investigators going after Somalis won't be hindered by us.
Speaker 2: There are other things, like you know, there's a mass
deportation project going on right now. Like one of the
things people said is like, oh, well, now we can
deport all these Venezuelans. It's like, well, we could have
done it already. You know, we don't need to wait
over another country to deport people who shouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: But yes, well, okay, well let's talk about a few
other other things. I mean, thanks for mentioning the weapons system.
The Chinese and Russian weaponry has taken a massive beating
over the last twelve months. I mean, obviously they're not
up to par in Ukraine. Frankly, we know where Russia
hasn't done as well as everyone assumed they would do
in Iran now here, you know, they're they're just the
America is way. You know, I've been reading about this situation.
It just seems to me like America is just way
ahead technologically as far as warfare goes. But also let's
talk about taking you know, a lot of people say
we're taking over this country. Regime change I see used
by a lot of people. Well, I think that's a
false I think it's false.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to say in defense of people who
are making that, who are concerned about that, Hey, it's
totally legitimate to be concerned about taking over country and
wasting a lot of time with that because of how
we handled it in the past. I personally think Trump
approaches the military like completely differently than all of his
predecessors left and right. But we have failed so much
with regime change in nation building and stuff like that.
And then Trump kind of you have to listen to
the whole thing, but he kind of was saying, yeah,
we love we love regime change in nation building and
boots on the ground, and then he and then you know,
other people in the administration and Trump himself were like,
I'm just trying to make the point, like we won
this little skirmish and we're controlling things. But like people
weren't crazy to think that that might be happening, because
Trump himself was saying it. Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well again, I think we've had this debate before.
I don't think our regime change efforts have been as
big a failure as other people do. I think if
you think you know most people today, you know around
for Iraq. So that's what everyone's focused on. And I've
written about this before. I think Donald Trump has gotten
us past that. Where he has he hasn't surely he
hasn't embraced the kind of idealistic neo conview. But he
certainly is not the type of isolationists that a lot
of people pretend he is, or we'll speak for him
on the in the podcast first claim he is or
will be in that movement. He is driving international events
in a way that is very aggressive, right, and so
that's one thing. But my regime change point is merely
that we have not taken over this country. There are
no real boots on the ground. Also, This is not
the duly elected leader of that country. So he was
arrested because we have indictments against him. The vice president
still there, that government is still there. It is clear
that the plan here, and I think there was a
Wall Street Journal story about Marc or Ruby. I think
was speaking to some elected officials about how they're going
to go about this, which is to pressure that country
through oil to essentially get rid of China, Russia, Iran,
Cuba and build have real elections there. We'll see what
that happens, and build bridges to the United States. We
have every right to act in our interests. I don't know.
I've been kind of mulling over the legalities as far
as the Constitution goes. Whereas is this a war is
an action? I don't know, for I don't have a
fully formed opinion on what Trump would need to do here.
But the fact is that we've been doing this for
a long time, engaging ourselves in military actions. So this
is in the interest of the United States. Unlike say,
the bombing of Libya, which Barack Obama did without any
congressional approval and had nothing to do with our best interests,
this clearly does. And I don't know if you saw,
but today the United States has boarded not one but
two tankers, one of them a Russian tanker I believe,
I'm not sure about the second one to try to
evade the sanctions on oil. So obviously step two here
is going to be to put a lot of pressure
on Venezuela to act in the way that we decide.
I think that's great, and I think Donald Trump's foreign policy,
as far as military actions have gone, have always been
in the interests of the United States, not the interests
of other nations. He's like people forget not only Iran,
which I think was great, but he's also basically been
the first president, even though others have talked about it,
to pressure NATO into actually taking more of a role
in defending themselves after seventy years.
Speaker 2: So, speaking of what you just said about the last
seventy years, I was seeing a lot of really stupid
commentary out there. Some of the commentary that was stupid
were Democrat leaders who claimed that the fact that Trump
hadn't gone into Venezuela and seized Baduro during his first
term showed that he was a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
There is no greater proof than the fact that he's
done nothing to arrest Maduro. And then the moment he
went in to arrest Maduro, they said, this is a
horrible thing that never should have happened, and this is
a lawless president. And it just was a great like
sometimes the very very same people like Chuck Schumer or
Kamala Harris, We're saying completely opposite things there. But there
was also this idea, I think that a lot of
people had that what was going to save the United
States from invasion or attack was the rules based international
order and we all agree to certain rules and we
won't break those rules. And it was unclear exactly what
those rules were, but there's a rules based order and
that's the key to success. And Trump has this very
old school throwback, you know, he loves reminding people of
the Munroe doctrine. I saw CNN was calling it the
Donro doctrine, This notion that we really have a sphere
of influence in this hemisphere, that other countries such as
China and Russia and Iran should not be meddling using
Venezuela or any other country in this hemisphere to go
after US. And a reminder that. Yeah, I mean it
kind of relates to me to this issue that we
should probably devote another episode two, which is whether our
country is a country that is an idea or a people,
And I tend to think it's got aspects of both.
But here's a great example to me of a country
isn't just an idea, and it isn't just controlled by ideas,
but it also has just interests and it needs to
take action to ensure those interests. And a rules based
order isn't going to protect us from Venezuela, particularly when
they're working with China and Russia in Iran. And we
do have a lot of power in our country because
we are the reserve currency of the world, and that's
based entirely on all sorts of things that can change,
not quickly necessarily, but like the sale of oil in
US dollars, and Venezuela was really trying to make a
play for attacking us in that area, as have been
other countries, and we're letting it be known that that's
not going to happen. I mean, there's a point to
being a strong country that represents its interests, and you know,
a rules based order isn't going to explain all of this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't believe in international law at all.
First of all, international law is never followed by these
rogue regimes. Ever, so what happens is it's the same
thing with like gun policy in the United States. You
the law abiding citizens follow the law for gone ownership,
and then you can't defend yourself while the criminal doesn't
care and does whatever he wants. But also, international law
can't exist because we haven't don't we haven't voted for it.
We can enter into agreements and if the other side
uppolds them, we can, and Venezuela doesn't uphold any of
its agreements, why should we? Generally, we're a moral country
and our intentions aren't to hurt other countries. I know
that's out of style to say, but I think it's true. Generally.
I think we're a generous country, and we're not doing
this to punish the people of Venezuela. We're doing it
to help them, frankly and ourselves. So I agree with
all that, and I hope it works. I don't know,
you know, it seemed like there was a lack of
a plan, and that has a lot to do with
Donald Trump and the things he says. But you know,
I have to say this again. My view of Marco
Rubio has been a rollercoaster over like the last whatever
amount of years he's been around. But I'm incredibly impressed
by the job he's done. By the way, we don't
have to let communists. Anytime there's a commie dragged in
front of a cord and handcuffs, I think that's a
good day we have. No, we don't have to allow
communist regimes to exist in the Western hemisphere. And more
than that, we've been involved in this stuff forever we
have gone. The United States government going all the way back,
has been involved in the politics of Latin America. I
don't think we need to change now. I think those
they don't always work out the way they should, but
I think we do it in our interests and I
think we should continue. And Donald Trump's continued in that
tradition to some extent, So I don't know. I'm happy
with it. I again, at the legality, I don't know,
but otherwise I think it's good for America so far,
and I'm impressed. It's like someone used the metaphor the
Gordian not thing. I'm sorry I just want one last
thing where where you know that the myth with Alexander
he sees this intricate nod and he can't open it,
and it just takes a sword and cuts right through it.
I think that's what Donald Trump is about someone I'm
taking credit for someone else's thought there.
Speaker 2: But most of what I do, my friends will always
send me great images or texts and then I just
like steal them and post them and people are like,
you're so smart on Twitter. Well, I did steal that
from my friends. But so there's a lot that I
wanted to get into there. But one of the things
I was thinking of related back to the domestic policy, is,
you know, communism really is a threat to our country,
and we have long understood that and we've taken it
very seriously. But we have a growing threat of what
they call it gay race communism, you know, this communism
that's happening right now in our country on the left,
and it's gaining power in American cities, and I think
we need to take it. We need to call it
out for what it is, which is not whatever fancy
term they've used to avoid the legal implications of being commis.
But we need to. We need to take it very
seriously and take it out. So, I mean, this is
a little bit of a morose or a wrong joke
to make, but I was thinking, like I would like
to take out a mom Donnie as much as a Maduro.
I mean, he's damaging the country. He is a communist.
It's actually not something you're supposed to be. If you're
an immigrant, you're you know, being a communist is one
of the reasons why you should not be allow in
this an immigrant, if you're lying about being a communist,
that's a problem. And just because they call themselves something
else doesn't change the fact that they are that it's
an insidious, evil, violently dangerous ideology that can destroy lives.
And we should not just be like, oh, isn't that
cute that the Democrats are now just embracing full blown communism.
Speaker 1: Hugo Chavez was a democratic socialist himself. He ran for
an elections. It's the when you get into power, when
communists get into power, when they strip people of their rights,
not before usually so anyway, sorry, Okay.
Speaker 2: The other thing I wanted to point out is that
for people who are concerned about the legality of what
went on and again, I don't get mad when people
are concerned about these things. I think it's legitimate. And
for what it's worth, we went through this before when
we seized Noriega. Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Actually was on.
Speaker 1: I think we did this on the anniversary of that.
Maybe we're very close, you.
Speaker 2: Know, And that was litigated through the courts and it
was found to have been a lawful action to go
in and arrest him. So the final thing, Oh, sorry,
now I just saying there's gonna be a trial, right yeah,
And he's got really good attorneys. It sounds like so,
and that's how you know that's fine. And then the
other thing I just wanted to say, related to your
Gordian not thing, is that I saw someone saying on
social media like, I don't like Donald Trump. I don't
like the way he talks, Like, for instance, I hated
the way he went after Rob Reiner after Rob Reiner died.
He's like, but I think it's time for everyone to
just kind of be honest that we are living in
the midst of a great presidency and a great president
and he's really effective at what he's doing, and he's
doing it under difficult circumstances and like, could we all
just acknowledge that? And I think there's an aspect to
that that the hysteria of the media and other Democrats
have held us back from just a knowledging, which is,
this is a remarkable presidency we're living through. It has
had tremendous success, and I get that you and I
both might say there are things about it that we
really don't like, but that's sort of a different issue
than the greatness of this presidency.
Speaker 1: I don't know, there are a lot of things I
like very much, and there are things I don't like
very much. It's very It's weird because typically when you
have a president, you generally agree with most of the
things they're doing or not, you know, so for me,
but as a foreign policy president, I just I've been
it's incredibly impressive, especially the second term more than the
first term. And I it's just the way.
Speaker 2: But you just said just struck me. You said, you know,
usually you agree or disagree more with some Yeah. I
think that's one of the issues that has made me
feel so out of place in DC the last decade
is that I have never felt large agreement with any
president prior to Trump. Now, I you know, just this week,
President Trump said We've got to be flexible on whether
we pay for the killing of unborn children in the
womb with taxpayer money. I hate that. So there's plenty
to hate, and I that's fine, But I've never actually
agreed with someone as much as I agree with him,
particularly on large issues and the need to go after them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that I'm thinking about it. I mean, I
just just generally disagree with all presidents. I liked George W.
Bush before he was president a lot more than I
liked him as president. I think he was a failure
as a president, frankly, not just because of you Rock,
but the growth of government. So yeah, I don't know,
but my point, yeah.
Speaker 2: This yesterday, Sean Davis was saying how he thought that,
you know, George W. Bush was not a good president,
but he was a really nice guy. And it was
reminding me that I was at like a you know,
they talk about Georgetown cocktail parties. Yeah, I don't go
to Georgetown cocktail parties. But I do have occasional social
interactions with people, and I always feel like I'm putting
my foot in my mouth, like with these people because
I forget just how different I am than the Washington
DC consensus. And at a recent such event, I was
going off on how bad George W. Bush was to
someone who had just like written at length about him
being one of our best presidents. And I was like,
or like the time I and I totally repented at this,
but the time I tried to take on Bill Bennett
about drug legalization, and Mark was like, you got to
pick better antagonists, like, don't go after Bill, like you know.
It was in one of those like green rooms at Fox,
like me just being trying to tell Bill Bennett something
about drug legalization.
Speaker 1: I saw that Bill Bennett now works for is an
agent of Qatar or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's right, I mean. I And on that note,
in Georgetown cocktail parties, I was talking with some friends
about it who are friend who are more friends with him,
and they were very disappointed that he was doing that.
And I do think, you know, I don't know, I
don't know if I have a hard and fast rule
about working for foreign governments for other people, but Mark
and I just kind of decided early on that we
would not take money to do work for foreign governments.
And it's kind of sad how much that affects your income.
You know. I joke like we have that we have
the house size to prove that we've never taken money
from a foreign government. But a lot of people do.
They lobby for them or they write for them, and
I just kind of decided that's not gonna.
Speaker 1: Not only when I take money from a foreign government,
I want to take money from this government. I want
to take money from the Yeah, I just I feel
like it. It puts you in a position where you
can't you can never really honestly right moving forward. I
don't know whatever. I hate what that. I make myself
sound like I'm some saying. I just think it's a
normal thing for a journal it's not to take money
from governments, uh even their own, but especially foreign governments.
I don't care if you love that. I'm sure you
hate it, Like it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3: This is Molly Hemingway encouraging you to listen to my
favorite podcast, Issues, et cetera. Every day you get in
depth interviews with host Todd Wilkin, asking expert guests substantive,
thought provoking questions on all of the important news and issues.
Speaker 2: Of our day.
Speaker 3: The expert guests are in culture, law, ethics, philosophy, theology,
and apologetics. Expert guests expansive topics, always extolling Christ issues,
et cetera.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about another potential invasion that might be on
the horizon, and that is green Land. Donald Trump talks
about Greenland all the time, right, he wants to buy it,
he's threatening to invade it. Basically, I'm all for Listen.
I saw what's the There's a senator in Arizona, not
not Kelly. The other guy is Gayego or something geos.
He's trying to push through this law that that or
bill that will stop Donald Trump from evading Greenland. Which
is fine whatever, But in this tweet he said he
doesn't want us to be involved in another forever war.
There are like fifty thousand people, I think in Greenland.
I don't think they have any kind of military We
have a military base there already, we have an agreement
from the fifties where we basically can do what we
want now. Obviously people laugh about this Greenland thing, but
there I think there are actually very good reasons not
to allow the Russians and Chinese to gain footholds there.
The minerals are are difficult to get to. I think
people think we want to steal those. Maybe in the future,
as the earth warms, we'll be able to get to them.
We're in the future when technology lets us do that.
But I think there are good reasons. And it's clear
to me that he's putting tons of pressure on Denmark,
which kind of nominally runs the place. I guess it's
kind of a welfare state. I think they invest a
bunch of money. But Greenlanders, is that what you call him.
I think they can have a referendum on whether they
want to join the United States. I think we should
just bribe him into doing it the old fashioned way.
Just drop a bunch of money and give him some
promises of infrastructure and so on and take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think zero Hedge was pointing out, we could
just give everybody a million dollars and get this for
much cheaper than normal methods that it would take to
acquire place like this. I am on record from the
moment this started. So when Trump first said something, corporate
media use it as an example of how he was
losing his mind and how crazy it was, and how
that was the craziest thing they'd ever heard, And from
that day forward I have said, I think this is
a good idea. So I continue to think it's a
great idea for again the strategic interest reasons. People claim
that they think Russia is this huge threat all the time. Well,
if you really believe that acquiring Greenland would be a
really smart thing to do, just because of how easy
it would be for Russians to come over the Pole
after US and other things. And they're yeah, resource rich,
they're very Lutheran, right, I'm Lutheran. I like Lutherans. I
hope they're like the bad lefty Lutherans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean the Danes colonize that place a
few hundred years ago. Are Danes generally Lutherans? They might
be right, they are, yeah, they are. You are like
the Danes. I saw a great story where these Danish
politicians were talking about how they have to stop taking
US weapons now and start I guess going to the Chinese,
and in my head that I was like, this does
not It's not going to work out for you. Also,
I think we're both in NATO, so we're not going
to attack Denmark. But I think there, you know, it's
just but I have to say something. Donald Trump says
a lot of crazy stuff, obviously, but sometimes he says, oh,
someone had put it so well. Donald Trump doesn't do
all the crazy things he says he will. But all
the things he does he's talked about doing. You know
what I'm saying, there are no real surprises.
Speaker 2: So it's like I'm going to come in and get you, Maduro,
and then he does, I'm going to bomb you a
run and then he does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we'll see what happens with Greenland. I think
that would be that would be good for the nation.
Speaker 2: Well, just a reminder again he was elected. I think
people are very very very happy with the pivot in
foreign policy from Biden, Obama, Bush ears, but as happy
as that makes them, people vote for domestic policy reasons,
and he needs to understand that people voted for him
to fix this country. And I believe that a lot
of his foreign policy actions are designed to help this
country survive and even like economically they're wise going forward.
But it just, you know, just keep his eye on
the ball and his team.
Speaker 1: I saw a pole pre operation in Venezuela that most
Americans didn't want to be involved there after that Pole
just flipped on CNN that most people were for it.
Now you can believe these poles are not. I see
your credule it.
Speaker 2: Your well, I just I don't think it's I don't
think poles matter in the aftermath period, but they particularly don't.
You can't do a real, like high quality pole. But
I do think there's truth to what you just said, David,
which is people don't want nation building forever wars And
what the reason why I don't like freak out as
much as other people who don't want that. When Donald
Trump takes action is he tends to go in, get
the bad guy, and get out.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I understand that because of what Venezuela did with taking
over US companies a long time ago. There's a lot
to work out there. But if this becomes some kind
of nation building exercise that is not in the country's
interests and that involves a lot of death of Americans
or something like that, which I don't think it will,
that would be a problem. But people just still have
trauma associated with how poorly we prosecuted worth for a while.
But that doesn't mean Trump's going to and Hegesith are
going to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Well, well, The reason I brought up the poll was,
and I think you're right about that, is this just
show that people aren't very ideological about foreign policy. They
want successful foreign policy, which is essentially what you just said.
They don't want you know, if you do it right,
there will be for it. I mean most people were
for Iraq in the beginning when it looked great, and
then when it didn't, they weren't. So what I mean
is I just don't think they pay the sort of
attention to it as you also said, and they just
want successful operations. The problem I do have, though a
little bit, is like you're saying, like there's a lot
of this, and I see from JD. Vance and others
who are like, yeah, well Donald, you have to trust
that Donald Trump's going to do it the right way. Well,
we have to have a sort of doctrine of foreign
policy in essence, and we have to not just trust
that one person isn't going to get us into trouble,
and that we have types of politicians who aren't going
to get us in trouble. I don't think there are
a lot of neocons in the real sense left who
are out there wanting to build democracies elsewhere with boots
on the ground, I don't. But this is nation yeah,
but this is nation building in a sense. I mean,
we're pressuring this nation into being a more hopefully democratic place.
And let's talk about another thing. In Iran right now,
there are protests everywhere in the country. I see a
lot of excitement about it. I have a few qualms,
Like one is, we've seen this before. I think there
have been three basic nation wide protests and they haven't
worked out. I'm not sure this one will. And also
I always worry about what comes after some sort of
populist revolt, right I mean, I don't know that's going
to be better. I don't know what's going to happen.
I do think that we should always be I think
that American foreign policy should be for our interests, but
there has to be a little bit of idealism in
there that we will try to help people who want
to help themselves be free, because the world is a
better place for us when we have countries who are
friendly with us, when we have countries who are a
democratic in some sense. So we'll see what happens in Iran.
And I would never want to drop boots down there
at all, But I wonder if we should be doing
a little more somehow to help them. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh what I wanted to mention about that is this
weekend when we went into Venezuela the next day, there
were a lot of videos that were presented as if
they were people in the streets of Venezuela celebrating the
ouster of Maduro. Now, let me first off say that
Venezuela has an incredibly well organized, well funded, vibrant and
massive opposition movement, so it is in fact something they've
been working quite hard for. Was the ouster of this
dictator who straight up stole elections, And that is true.
And at the same time, the videos that people kept posting,
I'd be like, why are all these people wearing Maga hats?
And then it would be like, oh, this is the
Venezuelan diaspora in Miami or something like that, you know,
And I am so distrustful of video that supposedly show
or something. I saw another one that said like, actually,
this is not Venezuela, this is Colombia and it was
ten years ago or something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean too quickly, you know, when you
see Gaza stuff or you know, the Palestinians. So there's
so much AI and everything that you should not trust
a lot of those videos.
Speaker 2: For sure. What I want someone to explain to me
is that particular footage evidence that you see on social
media supposedly of Iran protests. I have never seen such
poorly done footage. It seems like an op. It's always
like shaky cameras, shaky, shaky, can't zone in on anything.
People are running, it's dark, you're told what you're seeing,
but you can't actually see it yourself, And I'm like, maybe,
and then also because you just said there have been
mass nationwide protests in Iran before, maybe or maybe we
were told they were. I don't know, but the footage
is so non compelling and it angers me to see
people sharing it like they're so willing to be told
what they're seeing without verifying themselves, and I would like
them to do a better.
Speaker 1: Job with that. We know though there are protests. I
think I don't know about all the videos, but there
are economic problems there and it's clear that there is
something going on. I don't know to what extent it is.
Maybe maybe it's exaggerated by because there is a well
organized anti Mullah movement, you know as well outside of
Iran from Iranian diaspora. So I get that, but I
do think something's going on there. I it's going to
be hard to disoldge that that government. So we'll see
what happens there. But in any event, let's talk now
a little bit about domestic domestic problems that you mentioned
before about the is it Somali or Somalian or is
it there? So I'll say Somali community in Minnesota, especially
around Minneapolis, that has been involved in widespread fraud. We
don't exactly know. I don't know the entire story yet,
but one prosecutor said that it might be that half
half of all money sent to I think it was
all medicaid money something like that, but like nine billion
dollars since twenty eighteen has been fraudulently taken. So you
have programs for autistic kids that don't have autistic kids.
You have all kinds of charitable programs that have employees
that have you know, infrastructure, but not are not actually
doing anything. So obviously, and what's the guy's name, Nick Shirley?
Speaker 2: Surely, yeah, right, So.
Speaker 1: He released a forty minute video I think the day
after Christmas maybe of Somali run childcare centers that it
look like we're fraudulently taking some you know, taking funding
and people weren't showing up and so on. That went viral. Yeah, listen,
I'll just say this. I think the guy has made
some mistakes, but he's like, you know, he's just starting
out as a journalist. It is what it is. But
it is funny to watch, especially CNN attempting to discredit
the guy rather than moving the story forward, considering their
atrocious record at journalism recently. But that's the reaction quite
often from the left when you see any kind of
story that puts immigrants in a poor light, they immediately
try to you know, marginalize the people who brought it
up or diminish it. And there's this I don't know
how to put it. I guess there's this like obligation
everyone feels to celebrate immigrants, all of them, all the time,
like they all share identical values, like they all have
the same motivations, Like they're all just the same I
have the same successes, And it's just not true. We
have a responsibility to bring people into this country who
are who are successful and who assimilate and who embrace.
If everyone says they we're a country of ideas, and
I think that that's true in large part, and you know,
we're also people and all that. But if it is
ideas then and they're not accepting those ideas, then why
can't we talk talk about it? Right? And obviously there's
a problem here, and now you just want to say
it's not just a criminality, that's the problem. Of course,
that's the thing we focus on. It's that like eighty
one percent of Somalis in Minnesota are on welfare to
some ex sense or whatever the numbers, it's huge. We
have immigrant groups where they're like five percent are on
welfare from Kenya. We have Christians come here and they're
on the low end of welfare and they're quite successful.
So it's obviously a cultural thing and it's something where
we should be allowed to talk about and not be
called racists immediately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and many states are refusing to share their welfare
data with the federal government precisely so that the federal
government cannot accurately understand the level of fraud in different
immigrant populations. And that is a huge red flag that
various Democrat governors and Democrat leadership of state don't want
people to know about the level of fraud. There have
been benefits to Democrats in Minnesota of turning of creating
systems that enable easy fraud and then turning a blind
eye to the fraud or maybe even participating in the fraud.
They have gained control of what used to be a
purple state pretty decisively. So we know the motive of
Democrats to allow mass fraud of US taxpayer funds because
some of these moneies are from Minnesota taxpayers, some of
these moneies are from you and me. Federal taxpayers assume.
Speaker 1: More and more from federal taxpayers to stay stick on
less and less of the burden over the years.
Speaker 2: So I'll just first off note that Tim Walls, the
Great White Hope of the Christ of the Democrat ticket,
was forced to step down from running for reelection.
Speaker 1: Another comy gone.
Speaker 2: Over this fraud that he had been warned about. He'd
been told about and he did literally nothing to stop it.
He's now claiming he did a ton to stop it.
Clearly that's not true, and he's been forced to step
down because Democrats need to keep this state to keep
this operation going, and so he understood, like the best
chance his party has to keep this crime happening is
to step down. So he did that. It's a big scalp,
though for this young journalist. I want to just say
the dude who was working with Nick Shirley was my favorite.
I think his name is just David, like we don't
have a last name. And he was the one who
had seen something and said something. He noticed that all
of these government funded centers had no actual clients in
them when he was just driving around and living in
his neighborhood, and so he dug into it. And I
think that guy's a hero, and I love that he
was interested in it, and I hope more people are
interested in this type of crifting.
Speaker 1: I just quickly quickly had that. Chris Rufo did a
story not long ago about how some of the funding
from these Somali people had gone to a terrorist organization,
Al Shabab. Yeah. There have been almost one hundred indictments,
you know, and I think around ninety percent of those
indictments over this sort of fraud where Somali's already I'm
not saying that this isn't a big story by him
because it is, because it brought up a lot of
attention to this, but it has been simmering on kind
of for a while, and people knew it was happening,
and they haven't done much, especially I mean, you know,
Democrats and Democratic politicians in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: But like the two big picture issues that I think
are one, you're absolutely right that this brings out much
needed thought about our entire idea of immigration. There has
been this cultural force feeding of this idea that all
im mimagration is good, all immigration is equally good, or
some immigration is more equal than others. In other words,
much better to come from Somalia than South Africa, if
you're you know what I mean. Like, there's that thing
on the left that they say, and there's been this
thing where we tell ourselves, oh, yes, we all become
American when we get here, and that's through this beautiful
process where it's like a magical process. You just become
American when you come here and you get your papers.
And they don't realize how much of earlier immigration stories
did not involve welfare and involved a lot of effort
at assimilation and that doesn't happen anymore. These you know,
the Catholic charities, the Lutheran charities, which I think have
dropped Lutheran from their name because they're so not Lutheran anymore.
They are maybe they still do, I don't know, but
they just take money and then they set up little
mini somalias or mini whatevers where there's no assimilation taking place,
there's no effort to convert, like apparently that would be
a dirty word, to convert you ideologically or religiously, And
it's not surprising that we have this horrific situation. And
then I think that's combined with bureaucracies that are designed
for fraud and designed to make it difficult to catch fraud.
We talk about this all the time with voting systems,
and like the more complex they are, the harder it
is to even you know, there's no way you would
even know or be able to find out. Sometimes it's
a crime to try to find out whether a vote
is a legit vote from a legit person. And we
do that with all sorts of public good systems. And
so I'm worried about the breakdown of entire civil society
when you look at how these somalis do no work
and they get your money, and then you have to
work really hard and while the rules or your life
is destroyed.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned before that when immigrants come here they
have to reject communism, which my parents I mentioned them
many times, but when they came here in the sixties
had to do. But they also had to had to
promise not to be a public charge. Public charge doctrine requires,
you know, immigrants to say they're not going to be
a burden on taxpayers. They're not going to receive public
assistance until they become citizens. But the reasoning for it
is because it's anesthetical to American principles to be a
dependent on the state, right, I mean. And it also
undermines the ability to assimilate. So the reasons we have
public charge doctrine are still in play after you become
a citizen. So if there's a group that's coming here
and eighty percent of them are relying on welfare, and
then there's a country nearby where people come here and
they don't rely on welfare, we should be limiting immigration
from one place and move you know, and bringing people
in who are going to be good citizens. Because I
do think, you know, I'm probably a bigger fan of
it immigration in general right now, then you are I'm
going to go out on a lim and say that,
but we have we need, we need, we need self dependency.
And if we're going to bring in people who are
have extraordinarily high levels of dependency, then something's wrong there.
And now they're involved in criminality. I mean, there's no
way to go. I'm not saying every somalis that way,
but the number is massive. And like you say, you
know in Europe, we had in Europe you have areas
around Paris, for instance, they are virtual ghettos filled with
Muslim newcomers. And then I've been newcomers, They've been around generationally.
Also in Germany you have Turkish families that came in
the fifties and they still live in the same ghetto
generationally and have no jobs. Like but we're going to
create that sort of dynamic here, it's going to be
terrible for this country in the long run. So we
should be avoiding that. And I think that that's really
the big issue here. Now. People tell me, like they
may someone made fun of me on Twitter saying, oh,
you think other immigrant immigrant groups haven't engaged in criminality?
You know, they mean, like the mafia or something. Yeah,
of course they do. But by the way, the mafia
was took advantage of other immigrants. In essence, that's how
they really became power. But where is the Somali Joe
DiMaggio or Frenk Sinatra Firmi or anyone like they are?
Not there's not a Somali mafia. And then also another
kind of group of Somalis that are really doing well
in this country. Right, that's the problem I think. I mean,
I don't.
Speaker 2: Know everything I know about Smali is like David Bowie's
wife with Somalian?
Speaker 1: Was she not Ethiopian?
Speaker 2: Wasn't she?
Speaker 1: No, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, No, I
don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm on m Yeah. And then and then I was
thinking about like that that really America hating member of
Congress her she's also very pretty, So they might be
really like a people that are that have an over
representation in the criminal or fraud element, But they also
make lovely ladies, don't they.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean remember that.
Speaker 2: Alig episode about are doing immigration based on hotness of jobs?
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm like, Okay, if you're really hot, you can stay.
But the ilhan Omar is evidence that being hot is
not sufficient for being a good American.
Speaker 1: Somalia is the most corrupt country on Earth. Right, you
can look at lists. It's literally will be number one
on almost every list. There's a reason for that. By
the way, I blame us too. We have not we
have no expectations anymore that people will come here and
learn civics and be American good Americans. Right, I mean
it's it's and I think it's mostly on the left,
but it is us.
Speaker 2: There's a lot on that and that video that was
really interesting by Nick Shirley. I watched all forty two
minutes of it after my kid brought it to my attention.
There's a woman in there, a white woman, who is
trying to defend and protect the fraudsters. And I'm like,
that's the that's one of the most evil people in
this entire video.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like the it's like the you know, I
keep hearing Mamdani became mayor because of immigrant groups. Probably
partly that's true, but there are tons of heritage Americans
living in Brooklyn, very expensive lives who are social supposedly socialists,
who make this happen and ruin are ruining the future
of immigrant groups and other poor people. In my view,
you know, we have to have an expectation. If we're
a country that believes in itself, it's perfectly fine to
have the expectation or the idea that we and our
culture is better than other cultures. That's why we don't
go to Somalia and they come here, and that we
should expect them to act like us.
Speaker 2: You just said though Somalia is on the top of
the list for corruption and that that is a culture
that doesn't work with American culture. And I do think
that's what people are trying to say. Being American is
not just paperwork. It's about norms and ideas and cultures.
And there are certain groups and belief systems that are
incompatible with that. And that means that America isn't just
like an idea, but a really complicated thing about our
culture and norms and ideas. And I don't like when
people get like too rigid on either side of things,
because they are better because of ideas, but also because
of you know, who we are as a people.
Speaker 1: I think people say that we're called we are a
country of ideas because we are definitely not a country
of blood and soil, meaning there are many different nests
city here. It's not like you have to be Hungarian
to live in Hungary. We have all kinds of people here.
That doesn't mean that everyone is compatible with being an American.
And obviously those are.
Speaker 2: A country of soil. If you mean by that we have,
I mean we're I mean you have to be inside
of here to be American.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, but blood and soil to the concept
meaning like Germans foreran you know, Germany for Germans and
Hungary for Hungarians. Yes, we are more flexible on those things.
Of course, I view it like we're a country of
ideas and principles with borders, you know, and we have
to protect those borders. By protecting those borders, we protect
the ideas inside. But I don't believe half this country
or Stucy really cares about those ideas.
Speaker 2: You can't have those ideas when you're importing people who
don't culturally understand or have the capacity to, you know,
have self government. And like we are, we're not Christian
in terms of having an official religion of our country.
But what made this country was people being Christian and
the people within it being Christian. There is of course
a tolerance for people who aren't. But you can't import
the entirety of the Muslim world and expect that they're
going to have the same ideas about rule of law
that we have because of our particular philosophy Western civilization.
All that.
Speaker 1: Right, No, I agree, it's clearly like Germany can become
a fascist state tomorrow, it's still Germany. If we become
a fascist state tomorrow or communist state, we're no longer
the United States of America or something else. That's all
I'm saying that it is based on princely When you
come to this country, you vowed uphold the constitution, right,
and I don't think these people.
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Speaker 1: Be informed.
Speaker 4: Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do something else. Culture.
Speaker 2: Okay, well you told me we were going to get
to talk about Cassidy Hutchinson. But familiar with that. Maybe
do you want to say it for next week or
do you want to do it?
Speaker 1: Let's just do it. We say it for next week.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of culture.
Speaker 1: Oh good, well, why don't you start then?
Speaker 2: Okay, So first off, I'll just say that on TV,
the most negative email I ever got was when I
said that I hadn't seen evidence that Jeffrey Epstein didn't
kill himself. And the most negative email I've ever gotten
on this podcast was when I said I didn't like
the animated version of the Grinch. I mean, I was
getting email this morning about it. Just people on the
street have been talking about it, people in my neighborhood.
They're really upset. I just want to say I read
them all and that's about all I have to say
about it.
Speaker 1: Oh did you say? You said that on the with
Mark episode? So when you say you don't like the
animated version of the Grinch. You mean the real like
the old one, old one, Yeah, like bars Karlak.
Speaker 2: By the way, Mark was screaming at me. It was
so great.
Speaker 1: Even I don't know how. I love to be contrarian.
Even I don't know how you could not like that,
But go on, well, okay, and I'll.
Speaker 2: Just say, like one of my friends who's or one
of my neighbors and friends, who's not even Christian? He
was because I said I didn't love the message when
it was confusing. He's like the message of forgiveness. And
you know, Christmas being real, even if the Grinch tries
to take away all the material goods, it's actually quite
Christian malling, It's like, okay, got it. Anyway, I just
wanted to respond to that. What have you watched?
Speaker 1: Oh me, I probably watched more, a lot more than this,
but this is what I remember. I wasn't writing it down,
so I watched. You might be interested in this. A
documentary on Netflix called l Way.
Speaker 2: Oh, I want to see that? So bad?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It's pretty good?
Speaker 2: Is it good?
Speaker 1: It's okay? Okay, I mean it's weird. Obviously, he's one
of the great quarterbacks ever. Probably, and but it's a
pretty straightforward story. You know, you get picked high, kind
of struggle a bit, you win some Super Bowls, finally
you retire. It seems like, you know, a guy obsessed
with football, and I think, actually there's some interesting stuff
about how that affect that his life is real, you know,
his everyday life and stuff. So I watch it.
Speaker 2: For a long period of time. Yeah, I don't like that,
But other than that, I really like John Elway kind
of a childhood hero of mine. And Broncos are back
on top right now and kind of with one of
these like the quarterback that we have is not, you know,
considered one of the greats, but he keeps on pulling
victories out of nowhere and we are a number one seed.
Speaker 1: Congratulations. Yeah, I remember I wasn't there, didn't l Way
of a restaurant like in Cherry Creek or something. Remember
there was a big Lways.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you go into the Denver Airport terminal,
the second terminal or B terminal, I think it's right there.
Speaker 1: And I think he owned car dealerships too when I
was there.
Speaker 2: But remember, yeah, okay, so I watched a bunch of movies.
I have been sick. You might hear that in my voice,
and that always decreases my ability to work late in tonight.
But I watched it movie called Amos and Andrew. Have
you seen that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I mean it was really interesting. What You're nineteen ninety
three and it stars like a petty criminal named.
Speaker 1: I got to ask you something. Yeah, so we've came
out in nineteen ninety three. It says here, why how
do you like? How do you pick the movies? You will?
Speaker 2: I don't pick any movies. My husband picks all movies. Okay,
the secrets to our happy marriage. I just let him
guide the way. But yeah, so it's a it's I thought,
kind of like an interesting discussion. It's about a wealthy
black academic name and he's played by Samuel L. Jackson
and then a petty criminal nick Nick Cage. And then
the racism, like the casual racism of elite white lefties,
and then it rise to do a lot, is what
I will say. And it's not entirely successful, but it's
really interesting, I thought, and I would I would still
probably recommend it, Okay. He also wrote the screenplay for
something Wild.
Speaker 1: Oh Jonathan Demi movie or whatever, it was. Uh wasn't
there a movie recently with Jeffrey Wright where it was
had a similar kind of plot line? Do you remember
that movie?
Speaker 2: I mean I remember that it came Americans something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, American fiction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Okay, I have more. Yeah. I saw the
ref which I do believe I'd seen before but didn't love.
But this time I totally loved it. I thought it
was fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's when the Kennleary, Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis who
love Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: She's fantastic. And I was telling Mark that I'm sad
about Kevin Spacey's problems with harassment of younger men because
he's really a fantastic actor.
Speaker 1: He really is.
Speaker 2: Then Mark was like, you know, like on the scale
of me too, wasn't rape?
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, I mean a lot of
how can I say this isn't it? Do we know
for sure when he did or didn't do? Like I
don't I didn't follow it that closely, but I'll just.
Speaker 2: Say one of my friends, handsome when he was a
handsome young man, did get groped by Kevin Spacey at
a Bloomberg party after the What is that like? Awful
nerd prom thing. Oh, the White House Correspondence Dinner and
Bloomberg used to throw these amazing parties which I have
crazy stories from and that's one of the crazy stories. Okay.
I also watched Crazy Rich Asians. Okay, loved it. Thought
it was fantastic, like very fun. Have you seen it? No,
it was very popular, so.
Speaker 1: I know it didn't look like something I would enjoy,
but maybe I'll watch it.
Speaker 2: I was just well done in like every Asian is
in the film, and I should.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, it's not because it's Asian
theme that I can watch it. It is because it
just didn't seem like it had this kind of subject
matter that would intrigue me.
Speaker 2: Okay. And then I think my final one is One
False Move, which came out in the early nineties. I
think it was written by Billy Bob Thornton and he's
also in the movie.
Speaker 1: And oh I know this movie. The guy who passed
away is in it. Bill Paxon or whatever. Pakistan.
Speaker 2: I love him so much, and I mean, he's he's
big in this.
Speaker 1: I saw this in the movie theater, by the way,
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I remember liking it quite a bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was directed by Carl Franklin.
Speaker 1: You know, just remember snow, and there's lot of snow
in this movie. Is that this one? Anyway?
Speaker 2: There's no there's no snow.
Speaker 1: All right. I must have been confused.
Speaker 2: Are you thinking of a Simple Plan? Yes, okay, don't
I have the same people in it? I love A
Simple Plan. That's one of my favorite movies. But No. One.
False Move is about violent drug criminals. Like these two
guys who are violent drug criminals, and Billy Bob is
dating this girl and she kind of gets you know,
she's kind of an accomplice to a horrific crime. And
then they're on the run and it's about that and
the efforts to catch him. But it's also about race
in really interesting ways. And I really I keep on
thinking about it. That's my metric for you know.
Speaker 1: A Simple Plan also had Bill Paxton and Billy Bob
Thornton in it.
Speaker 2: Well maybe what year was that made?
Speaker 1: Eight?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so maybe they met on this other move. Like
this is not the finest screenplay I've ever countered, but
it was still worthwhile and Billy Bob is terrifying in it. Okay,
what about you, David? About two weeks of probably nothing
but watching l Way documentaries.
Speaker 1: Here's what I remember. I watched the Phoenician scheme.
Speaker 2: Oh what'd you think? I kind of like used to
love that dude and then I got tired of him.
Speaker 1: I actually thought this was better than the last few
movies he did, and I think I think it's better
because Benicio del Toro is so funny. I didn't like
Asteroid City. Was it called very much? This one? I liked. Okay,
So the woman who stars in it is Mia Threepoulton,
and that is a daughter of Kate Winslet, I found out,
So I feel old. Then I watched too old fashioned
like action, you know, testosterone fu oled movies F one
with Brad Pitt.
Speaker 2: I loved F One, Did you not?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did. I didn't think. I didn't think I would.
I did kind of annoyed that Brad pitticks his shirt off.
He's sixty over sixty and he's just like ripped, and
I'm like, it's just annoying. It's good looking, fella.
Speaker 2: I loved how simple that movie was. It was literally
like we're just gonna race cars. It's a car similar
like Days of Thunder, barely a plot, and I loved
every minute of it. And then also every time I
get behind the wheel now I'm like root.
Speaker 1: Room, Yeah it's I see they're making a sequel. I
think it's one of the highest grossing quote unquote sports
movies ever made, or maybe the highest grossing. So it
just gives you what you want. And speaking of lack
of plots, here's the thing. I want to preface this.
There are movies that have no plot, that have a
lot of wow waving to make you think there's a
complex plot, but there's nothing. And that is the last
mission impossible movie. I just watched like seven or eight
or whatever it is. I thought it was so boring
and bad. I mean, it really has this kind of
AI story going, but it's really just a chase and
they end up on a biplane, like fighting on a byplane,
like Raiders of the Lost Art. But you know, it
was just I don't know. I think Tom Cruise has
moved on, and I think you should. Those movies have
gotten really boring. But that's what I remember. But I
think there's more and I will save them for next
week and we can talk about some TV that I've
been watching. Yeah, Okay, well, it's nice to be back.
I hope if anyone has any criticisms of our cultural
choices that can email us at radio at the Federalist
dot com. We'd love to hear from you, and we'll
be back next week. Until them be lovers of freedom
and anxious for defray.
Speaker 4: A much day.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: Why hides turn top of the both side down