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Speaker 1: Morning. Can you hear me?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're really loud.

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Speaker 1: Too hot, too hot. I will adjust.

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Speaker 3: I will adjust that.

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Speaker 2: Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask

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what you can do for your country.

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Speaker 4: Mister garbachow, tear down this wall.

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Speaker 1: It's the Ricorship Podcast with Stephen Hayward and John You

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sitting in for Charlie. I'm James Lylyas. Today we talked

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to Matt Connnetti about a new edition of his book

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End what twenty five is all about? So let's Saffrasel's

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a podcast.

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Speaker 5: Has your Attorney general told you this was a hoax?

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Speaker 2: One evidence?

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Speaker 4: Jerry Jeneral, No, I know it's a hoax.

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Speaker 1: It's started by Democrats. It's been run by the Democrats

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for four years.

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Speaker 4: You had Christopher Ray and these characters and call me before.

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Speaker 2: Him, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into.

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Speaker 3: The net and so they try and do the Democrats work.

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Speaker 1: Welcome everybody, It's the Ricochet Podcast, number seven hundred and

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forty nine. Hey you, why don't you go to ricochet

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dot com. Join up and be part of the most

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stimulating conversation and community you'll find on the web. I'm

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James Lilyx in Minneapolis. Stephen Hayward is in California, and

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also in California, sitting in for Charles C. W. Cook, or,

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for all I know, permanently replacing him by some sort

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of palace Who is John Woo Coo Woo you?

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Speaker 3: And a name is you? When when you bow down

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before your robot over lord, you better get their names right?

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Speaker 1: You got that straight? Well, gentlemen, I hope your next

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are okay and haven't been whiplashed too much. But apparently

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we have another Epstein twist story which I have been

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sort of minimally following because I don't know what to think.

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I have had many opinions and they have drained away

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in importance over the years. But why don't you tell

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me exactly where we are now? A letter was released,

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supposedly in a well supposed letter by Drumm and the

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Wall Street Journal, threats of suits, threats of consequences. Trump

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says it's fake and now we're going to release the files.

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I say that with hesitation because by the time somebody

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listens to this, they may discovered there's no files whatsoever.

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They've been burned, and they have been sent into a

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pit in the year.

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: So where are we now?

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Speaker 2: Well, all I was going to say is what I've

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said before, is that I don't think there's any There

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was never any list, or at least not a list

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kept by Epstein, and any reconstructed list is probably unusable.

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I suspect we've reached the Keystone Cops phase of the investigation.

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There's just all kinds of problems with it. And I'm

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more interested in the Richard Epstein files, which could be

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even more.

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Speaker 4: Tedious in some ways.

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Speaker 2: But I don't know. This is now just a giant distraction.

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And this new wrinkle of Trump sending a birthday greeting

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to Epstein twenty two years ago, is that right? Something

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like that? And Trump is now apparently this morning the

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news is out He's going to sue the Wall Street

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Churn for publishing what he says is made up. And

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I don't know. There is this great debate going on

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on Twitter about whether there's a certain word Trump used

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in the letter that someone said no, Trump would never

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use that word. I forget what it is now, But

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then someone found video I'm using a you know, a

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slightly recondite term. I can't believe I can't remember it.

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But so we're now down to the you know, parsing

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out what words are in Trump's vocabulary from twenty two

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years ago. And so it's silly season.

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Speaker 1: You're saying it's a distraction, John distraction. Who's being distracted?

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Are you distracted?

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Speaker 3: I'm terribly distracted, as it seems America and our political system.

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Speaker 4: I have to say, I enjoy reading about this, just.

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Speaker 3: In the way you might like reading about how your

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former employer the workplace is all screwed up. Now, I

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guess I used to work at the Justice Department. And

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first idea of people like Cash Pattel and Dan Bongino,

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who are wonderfully entertaining TV and radio and podcast hosts

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actually in charge of the FBI. FIRSTUS shocking. Then they

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made part of it careers by saying that the government

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had somehow covered up or conspired to kill this Jeffrey

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Epstein fellow. And then they get into the FBI and

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then they say there's no evidence of that, and then

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all their fellow travelers are now piling on them. The third,

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I gotta say, there's no way that President Trump can

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order the release of the Epstein files. Someone you shouldn't

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release anything in the Epstein files. And if you've ever

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seen a raw law enforcement file, you know, to prepare

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for prosecutions, could be filled with gossip in you window,

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people you know, getting back at other people, lies, mistruths.

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It's almost like the transcript of a podcast. Then, so

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the purpose of this is you don't release that in

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the public because you're going to besmirch the reputations of

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all kinds of people. Usually the only way the justice

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departments should be speaking is when they indict someone, and

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the indictment speaks for itself. You don't go around releasing

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all the gossip and rumors. You come cross. Second point

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I'll stop here is the really sensitive material has been

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sealed by a grand because it was presented to a

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grand jury for indictment.

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Speaker 4: It has been sealed by a federal judge. The President

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can't order it released.

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Speaker 3: The only people can release it would be the judge

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or Congress would have to change the law about how

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we keep those things secret. Congress isn't going to do that.

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So I don't think we're really going to know unless

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people who are in the files themselves go to the

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judge and say I want my name to be released.

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I want to prove my innocence. Perhaps that's only where

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we're gonna get it.

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Speaker 1: Highly unlikely, highly unlikely that's going to happen. I can't

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see anybody. I mean, I can see somebody volunteering to

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be on a cold Play JumboTron with their mistress before

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I can.

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Speaker 3: Well, any way, that just sounds like another cabinet interview

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with President Trump.

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Speaker 1: Well again, you know my whole I don't know what

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we're supposed to find out from these things. I think

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what a lot of people. There's sort of nations and

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numbers of q about this, because there's a lot of

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people who have gone down to the Epstein file as

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part of the proof that there's this large satanic conspiracy

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of trading children around. And I have no idea that

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I have no doubt that there are people in Washington,

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d C. In power and finance everywhere who have absolutely

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appalling records of behavior when it comes to the youth

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of America or other countries. But whether or not that

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there's some actual, you know, Pizzagate style thing going on here,

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I don't think so. Anyway, that's just my naive belief

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sitting here thousands of miles from anything important. Moving right along,

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we've got McMahon versus New York. This is interesting, John,

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You being the legal guy, why don't you tell us

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what this one's all about.

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Speaker 3: So McMahon versus New York, this is the case about

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just recently decided by the Supreme Court about whether the

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president can continue to go forward with his reductions in force.

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This is at the Department of Education and how to

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explain it. So the Supreme Court did not issue an opinion.

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The only opinion we saw were from the dissenters. This

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was just to lift a district court's ban on carrying

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out the reductions in force. So this is really the

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Supreme Court saying, hey, you chriald judges. There's a thousand

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of them. Hey you guys, did you not read our

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opinion from two weeks ago in the nationwide Injunctions case?

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Speaker 4: Do we need to spell it out for you? Let

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us repeat ourselves.

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Speaker 3: A district judge cannot stop the entire federal government from

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carrying out its policies unless it goes to the US

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Supreme Court. That's all this case says. It's actually not

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a review on whether President Trump ultimately will win. I

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think that's going to go back up to the Supreme Court.

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But in the meantime, the Court said, no single judge

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in Boston or New York or Maryland is going to

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sit there and sort of sit and be the onwoodsman

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or the micromanager of the executive branch. Now, the important

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thing that people didn't observe in the news reports is

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that the government promised that it would not shut down

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the Education Department unless Congress said so, And in fact,

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it's said in its pleadings to the court, we're only

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getting rid of the fat We're not going to fire

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anyone who's essential for the core operations of the Department

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of Education. We understand that when it comes down to

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shuttering the place, only Congress can do that. And so

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all these claims in the media of you know, out

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of control president defining congressional orders, shutting down agencies left

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and right, it's just not true. It's just not true.

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Even the Trump administration is court papers says, we understand

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Congress is preeminent. We're just getting rid of people who

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are not necessary for the core functionings of the department

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and try to save money for the taxpayer.

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Speaker 1: Stephen We've been told that the State Department is now

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non functional, that war will break out everywhere because because

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they went through with the with a meat cleaver, with

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a wood chipper and just absolutely cleaned out the place.

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Is that what happened?

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Speaker 2: Of course not I don't have the headcount numbers in

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front of me, but the State Department's total headcount has

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gone up by something like ten thousand people over the

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last fifteen years. And so this twelve hundred thirteen hundred

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laid off last week is a reduction force of less

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than two percent. But beyond all that, what do all

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these people do? Mostly bad stuff? And I've been ranting

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for quite a while now about three particular places. We

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spent over a billion dollars to build an embassy compound

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in Bagdad. It's the largest US embassy compound in the world,

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has a very nice reflecting pool by the way, and

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some nice architecture. And we spent seven hundred million dollars

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on a huge embassy compound in Kabul, Afghanistan that's now

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the largest office building for the Taliban. And we're also

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in the process of building, or may have finished, a

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billion dollar embassy compound in Beirut. Now I'll just submit

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to you that the Israelis did more for the progress

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and improvement of Lebanon by taking out Hesbola than a

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billion dollar State Department footprint in Beirut is ever going

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to do. Why these huge, expensive palaces and the huge

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staffs that go with them, Well, because of.

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Speaker 1: Still fair to be fair staved in Beirut. You're going

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to want the walls to be about fourteen feet thick,

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so I think.

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Speaker 2: That's cost Well, yes, but you're going to put hundreds

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of people in it. And I bet we could do

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our essential business with maybe fifty people or one hundred

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people and still have adequate security. You don't need to

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spend that kind of money. You only spend that kind

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of money if you have this grandiose presumption that you

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are there to run the country and run the world.

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Why do we want to have a big footprint in

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Kabul Afghanistan, even if we're going to keep some military

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force there, which we didn't. It just you know, the

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shocking waste of all this and presumption of it is

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to my mind unconscionable. And I think Trump didn't fire

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enough people from the State Department. I think that you

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get rid of another ten percent. Oh, Steve, yes, I know,

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I'm they can all go to work for NPR.

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Speaker 1: Haha, which brings us to the great cries and lamentations.

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As I was reading my local subreit about Minnesota and

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they caught an old lady who lives in the Sticks,

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who loves the polka show that they run, and now

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she's not going to have her polka show anymore. I

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feel for her. I remember the days when AM radio

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was absolutely full of poker when you drove around the

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rural parts of the state. But A, it's possible that

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locals may pick up the slack if they wish, and

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B it's possible that she has access to something called

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the Internet, where one can find in abundance poka of

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all manner, sort, shape, and variety. We've been told that

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the cuts are going to destroy in PR and PBS,

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but A, no, they're not. And B the whole notion

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of state media in the first place ought to seem

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a little un American to people. But we've been living

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so long with the holy ghost. The whole presence of

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PBS and NPR held up as a model, an absolute,

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shining beacon of non partial, essential cultural commission that without

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it there would be no Masterpiece Theater, there would be

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no Sesame Street Therapy. Now that'd be a bit true

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at one time in the past, but it isn't anymore.

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So it's a small cut and it's not going to

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destroy these things. And I'm not sure why it's as

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controversial as it is, unless, of course, James.

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Speaker 3: I love PBS. I love NPR, actually I do. I

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really enjoy listening to them. It's just like sitting around

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at the Berkeley Faculty Club meetings and it's just like

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on the radio instead. It's great. But look, I actually

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love Masterpiece there. I love all those British TV shows.

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I love watching all these ways that the British think

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of murdering each other. They're so clever at it. They

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should be killing more of each other. Every British TV

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show seems to be about who done it? Murders but

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loved like watching I Claudius and Brideshead Revisited. But now,

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if you get a streaming service and you pay I

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think I paid ten dollars a month, I can watch

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almost every BBC TV show that was ever filmed, you know.

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I can watch Steve Hayward's favorite show Doctor Who where

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the reptilians show up and you can see the floppy

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arms have human beings in them, and it's really just

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fake clothes they got on it. It's wonder in black and white,

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it's wonderful. But you know what, I've never given a dollar,

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not a single dollar to NPR or PBS, even though

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they run these you know, campaigns endlessly because the government

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paid for it. Now you've put me in this terrible

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situation where I have to decide where I'm going to

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give money to keep it going.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but John, you really are behind the times. I

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mean all of the I'll put this way, costume dramas

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these days are not appearing first on PBS. You know

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Bridgerton and you know Rome twenty years ago, they're on HBO.

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Speaker 3: Steve, I don't want you know, you're just watching the

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ones that you just watch, the ones that have nudity

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in them. I mean, come on, you can admit it.

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Speaker 2: Oh no, that was my joke of I never could

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get into a Game of Thrones because there wasn't enough

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sex and violence in it for me. I just I

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actually did find it boring, I have to say.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, of course I understand exactly what

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you mean. When I when I was growing up, PBS

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was the source for Monty Python on Sunday Night, for

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the Prisoner, for all of these shows, none of which

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they made, none of which they made, but they brought

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them over and that was fine and well good. I

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remember when I was a seed salesman in the South

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Downe in nineteen seventy nine, I would try to time

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my weekends for a city that was big enough to

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have a PBS reception so I could watch I Claudius.

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But that was a very long time ago, and things

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have changed.

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Speaker 2: Can I say a quick point of order changing? I mean,

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I think this is relevant if I recall this right.

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National PBS was offered Monty Python. They said, no, this

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is too weird. It was a Dallas affiliate that picked

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it up first, and then it spread from there, so

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it was a local station and said, actually we think

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this is pretty funny. I think that's how it went.

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Speaker 1: I think I think you're absolutely right, and we've been

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told a different story, perhaps because we've been lied to.

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Are you being lied to? More friends? Are you being

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lied to? You know they tell you to defer paying

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your taxes by saving it a four oh one k

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But if that was true, why are so many retirees

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on yourself dot com slash ricochet. Bank on Yourself dot

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com slash ricochet. And we thank bank on Yourself for

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sponsoring this the Ricochet Podcast. And now we welcome back

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to the podcast. Matthew KANINEITI, director of Domestic Policy Studies

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and the inaugural Patrick and Charlie Neil Chair in American

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Prosperity at the American Enterprise Institute. And of course he's

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a columnist at Commentary Magazine and The Free Press, and

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he's the author of The Right, The one hundred Year

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War for American Conservatism. Matt, welcome back.

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Speaker 5: Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Well, you completed The Right in nineteen or nineteen twenty

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two points worth. Sorry feel a little old to I

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retired in twenty twenty two, and you, of course were

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aware the story was ongoing. I've thought about how the

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final chapters your book would look if you were wrapping

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it up today because right keeps getting redefined underneath us,

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doesn't it?

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Speaker 5: It does? And I think a lot about that question.

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If I were to update the story to the summer

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of twenty twenty five, what would I cover. When the

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paperback edition of the write came out, it included a

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new chapter that I had written and sent to press

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right after the midterm elections of twenty twenty two, and

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if you recall, that was really the low point of

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Donald Trump's political strength in the Republican Party. The midterms

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had not gone as well for the GOP as they

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had expected. A lot of that was because of Trump's

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endorsing candidates who the electric just didn't really like. Trump

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announced his presidential campaign, his third presidential campaign for the

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GOP nomination, shortly after the midterm election, and the event

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at Mar A Lago did not go very well. People

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weren't really excited by it. All. The energy was on

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Ron DeSantis a side. Ron de Santis, who had done

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very well in twenty twenty two, seemed to represent the

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next iteration of Maga Mago, perhaps without Trump's baggage, And

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within six months of the paperback coming out and me

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saying that there was a chance that the Republican Party

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might move on from Trump. Trump had solidified once again

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his position as leader of the GOP and leader of

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this MAGA movement. One was one reason for that was

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his just natural political talent. But the second and main

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reason I think was shortly after the midterm election is

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when the law fair campaign against Trump began, and then

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in the spring of twenty twenty three is when the

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New York indictment came down as well. That had the

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effect of rallying the Republican Party to Trump's side, and

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it has not left him ever since. So that was

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the main unanticipated event was the revival of Trump, a

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revival that only accelerated from twenty twenty three through the

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assassination attempt one year ago, this past week and into today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, my realization that I know absolutely nothing came to

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me when I thought Thissaners was going to just walk

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away with it because I thought it was palatable. I

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thought that he would cross body like he had this

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proven record of governance and just died on the vine,

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and I thought, Okay, that's it. My instinct's I'm never

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going to trust him again. Stephen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So Matt, you're lucky today that we have John

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Hu sitting in for Charlie Cook. Because you may not

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know this, but John's nickname or acronym is og NC,

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which stands for Original Gangst the Neocon. And that brings

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me to you guys at Commentary. I do tune into

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your daily podcast fairly often when I'm home and on

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a walk on the afternoon, and I've noticed something. I mean,

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let's not put too fine a point on it, but

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Trump has never been a favorite of John Putt Hart's

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an abe and your colleagues. I mean, you're the one

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person who's always said the nicer things about him. But

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now suddenly, starting about three weeks ago and maybe more,

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it seems to me that you guys have signed up

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for MAGA. And now is it just because he bombed

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the forid of Nuclear Side, which you know John said

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on Twitter a couple of times that's enough for me.

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He's great, right, But I have to say there's been

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a real change in tone and looks to me like

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it's going to last. And so what say you to

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that provocation?

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Speaker 5: Well, I can't speak for my colleagues on the Commentary podcast.

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I have noticed that my friend and leader John pod

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Hortz has been very positive about Trump's decision to join

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the Israeli campaign against Iran and bomb the three nuclear

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facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer. And that is because John

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and others in our Orbit and Commentary magazine have argued

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for exactly that sort of military intervention in order to

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prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon for decades, and

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it was Donald Trump who actually did it. So Trump

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deserves to be commended for that. I still think my

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friends on the Pod are going to have criticisms of

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Trump now and then, and there are a few things

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that Trump has done in this administration that I disagree with,

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but I think overall, what we've seen in this second

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administration is, first, Trump has advanced conservative priorities, long standing

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conservative priorities, along with the new MAGA agenda, not all

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of which we agree with. But second, and perhaps most importantly,

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the left's reaction to Trump and the radical swing of

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the Democratic Party toward socialism, toward anti semitism isolationism is

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something that my friends, commentary, my colleagues, and I strongly

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condemn and oppose. So you know, as you know, Steve,

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in politics, it's often what you're against matters more than

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what you're actually for. And when you look at the

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Democratic Party today, or at least when I look at it,

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I see everything that I'm against and nothing that i'm for.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's take another domain. Let's leave Israel aside for

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a moment. And so just this week, the Republican Congress

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finally defunded NPR and PBS. You know, people back as

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far as the Reagan years want to do that. New

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Gingridge took a run at it, right, and people said,

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I remember one interview with Nude in nineteen ninety five

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and someone said, oh, but you'll kill big Bird, and

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Newt said, back, big bird makes money. Why I think

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the army. But he didn't get anywhere with it, right.

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It took Trump and the Trumpian moment. You might say,

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to do that as well, and I can think of

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there are a few stronger care of that whole domain of

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state run media. Then again, the commentary crowd. So it

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seems to me you've got to give Trump and the

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Republican Congress's galvanized just huge props for doing things that

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they were always too chicken to do previously.

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Speaker 5: That's right, you know, not only were they chicken to

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do it, but they just didn't have the consensus within

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the party. They weren't prepared to do it. This is

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a paradoxical advantage of having such narrow congressional majorities is

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00:23:29,519 --> 00:23:33,640
there's less room for that marginal member to hide and

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to throw a wrench into the congressional agenda or to

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the president's agenda. And Trump has been able to exercise

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incredible leverage over the Republicans in Congress. That's partly because

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Trump is so popular in the Republican Party. It's also

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because Trump has changed the Republican Party so that people

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who have been vocally against him or his policies just

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00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:05,400
aren't there anymore. And then it's also I think a

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result of the twenty twenty experience, the pandemic experience, the

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great awokening that happened in twenty twenty that had the

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effect of making many Republicans much less tolerant of taxpayer

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subsidized leftism. And whether that was in the schools, whether

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that's in the universities, or whether it's at PBS and NPR,

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Republicans as a rule just don't have the tolerance for

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it any longer. They don't want to continue to spend

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taxpayer funds propping up anti American, anti Western ideologies.

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Speaker 4: Hey, Matt, good to see you.

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to revise any details, but Matt and

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I were at one of the last remaining as Steve

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00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:58,160
calls them, neo conclaves. I think they were just the

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two of us there and all these other constr heard.

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00:25:00,279 --> 00:25:02,720
It was great. It was like it was like Back

468
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:07,480
to the Future two thousand and six edition. That was wonderful.

469
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000
I got to see the CONTINENTI family struggle at pick

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00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,519
a ball at pick a Ball as Dick Cheney slammed

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00:25:17,559 --> 00:25:21,000
on them with his aeriel Michael Jordan reverse back slam

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on the pick a ball court. So, actually, I got

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00:25:24,559 --> 00:25:26,880
to ask you about something I just don't get, which is,

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00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,880
why is this Epstein thing causing such a disruption in

475
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:32,839
the Trump I don't know if you can call it

476
00:25:32,839 --> 00:25:37,079
a coalition or explain why this is so important. It's

477
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:40,200
totally I think killed Trump's political momentum. He spent the

478
00:25:40,279 --> 00:25:43,160
last week talking about Epstein instead of the passage of

479
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,759
his tax bill, instead of the recision package, and it

480
00:25:46,799 --> 00:25:50,039
seems to be flooding both conservative and liberal media.

481
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:55,519
Speaker 5: What explains this well killing Trump's political momentum explains why

482
00:25:55,559 --> 00:26:00,319
the Democrats are so excited by the Epstein story. They

483
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,640
have finally found a story. They finally found an issue

484
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:07,440
that puts the administration on its back foot, and that

485
00:26:07,599 --> 00:26:12,640
divides the Republican MAGA coalition. It's been months since they've

486
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,680
been on the offensive the Democrats. So that's the Democrats,

487
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,279
that's easy. The question is the Republicans and MAGA, and

488
00:26:21,279 --> 00:26:27,279
in particular the MAGA influencers, the podcasters, the kind of

489
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:32,720
activist crowd that, at a recent conference held by Charlie

490
00:26:32,799 --> 00:26:37,720
Kirk of Turning Point USA, went after the Trump administration

491
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:43,039
for covering up the Epstein case. Is what's going on here? Well,

492
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,319
I think the writer Park McDougall had a very good

493
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:51,359
piece in The Free Press speaking about how what's happening

494
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:57,119
is some of Trump's podcast base has been alienated from

495
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:02,160
the administration in the second hundred, whether that was Operation

496
00:27:02,279 --> 00:27:06,319
Midnight Hammer, which they had argued against, whether that was

497
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:10,559
the One Big Beautiful Bill which Elon Musk famously left

498
00:27:10,599 --> 00:27:15,319
the GOP over and other figures like Steve Bannon felt

499
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,759
should have raised taxes instead of keeping them low. There's

500
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:24,359
an ongoing debate inside the administration right now about whether

501
00:27:24,519 --> 00:27:29,839
there should be some sort of immigration arrangement that either

502
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:35,799
legalizes or at least kind of puts safe caps on

503
00:27:36,079 --> 00:27:41,359
safeguards around the migrant worker population or even the hotel

504
00:27:42,079 --> 00:27:46,880
worker population. So for on those three axes, you see

505
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:52,119
that the new right wing, the Bannons, the Tucker Carlson's,

506
00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:57,440
they are very much on the defensive and they have

507
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,880
real problems with certain policies of Trump. How does this

508
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:07,200
manifest itself, Well, it manifests itself, I think in going

509
00:28:07,279 --> 00:28:12,480
after the administration on Epstein. Now, a couple more things.

510
00:28:12,559 --> 00:28:17,079
The first is the administration hasn't helped, and that is

511
00:28:17,279 --> 00:28:22,240
Attorney General Bondi did over promise and under deliver. Whether

512
00:28:22,319 --> 00:28:24,960
it was saying that the Epstein files were on her desk,

513
00:28:25,079 --> 00:28:28,839
Maybe I'm sympathetic, she may have misspoken on TV, but

514
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,160
you know, when you're ag you have to be careful

515
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,200
with what you say. Whether it was that photo op

516
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,200
where they brought the influencers into the White House and

517
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,359
then they gave him these binders where it turns out

518
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:43,000
that it was pretty much previously disclosed information about Epstein.

519
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,519
To have those two moments followed a few months later,

520
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:54,119
by this just pronouncement that the investigation was over and

521
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,960
that there was no list, there was no blackmail, and

522
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,599
there was no foul play in Jeffrey Epstein's death really

523
00:29:02,119 --> 00:29:05,599
antagonized a lot of people who look at other stories,

524
00:29:06,079 --> 00:29:11,079
whether it's the JFK files that have been released, or

525
00:29:11,359 --> 00:29:15,160
whether it's the UFO story where Caroline Levitt came out

526
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,400
and she said, we looked into this, what we found

527
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,720
that the strange lights in New Jersey that we were

528
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:25,160
following last year turned out to be all domestically made right.

529
00:29:25,279 --> 00:29:28,720
Whether it's the president's health, you know. Just yesterday, in

530
00:29:28,759 --> 00:29:32,119
response to people who had been noticing that Trump's ankles

531
00:29:32,119 --> 00:29:36,000
had been swollen and the bruise on one of his hands,

532
00:29:36,119 --> 00:29:40,119
the administration came out with the letter actually from his

533
00:29:40,279 --> 00:29:44,519
physician saying that he has a typical condition for people

534
00:29:44,519 --> 00:29:49,119
of his age that leads to ankle swelling. Epstein, there

535
00:29:49,279 --> 00:29:53,039
just hasn't been that same amount of transparency and even

536
00:29:53,079 --> 00:29:56,640
though there may be no there there, and I'm very

537
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,279
skeptical that there is a there there, that's led to

538
00:29:59,279 --> 00:30:02,680
additional question students as well. So it's a combination john

539
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:07,599
of opportunism by the Democrats and never Trumper's, along with

540
00:30:08,599 --> 00:30:12,240
a mishandling of the way in which this information was

541
00:30:13,079 --> 00:30:16,279
presented to the public on the part of the administration,

542
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,400
which then has produced this kind of revolt. I will

543
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,839
just say this finally, the Wall Street Journal story that

544
00:30:25,079 --> 00:30:29,119
broke today July eighteenth, before what broke on the seventeenth.

545
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:33,440
We're recording this on the eighteenth, with the alleged letter

546
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:38,519
that Trump sent Epstein on for Epstein's fiftieth birthday, that

547
00:30:38,599 --> 00:30:40,839
has had the effect, it seems to me, of rallying

548
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:45,599
MAGA together, because yes, a lot of MAGA pundits want

549
00:30:46,079 --> 00:30:49,920
transparency and they believe in kind of these theories that

550
00:30:50,119 --> 00:30:55,880
powerful people are shielding one another from accountability on sex crimes.

551
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,440
But they hate the mainstream media even more, and so

552
00:31:00,519 --> 00:31:04,400
if Trump was able to focus on the media as

553
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,960
the common enemy, then he might be able to bring

554
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:07,920
the band back together.

555
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,319
Speaker 1: I was provided by a producer a quote from your

556
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,839
recent piece of yours, James Burnham. I like this quote.

557
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:20,920
I hate it, but I like it. Quote when the

558
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:23,799
Western liberals feeling of guilt and his associated feeling of

559
00:31:23,839 --> 00:31:27,319
moral vulnerability before the sorrows and demands of the wretched

560
00:31:27,599 --> 00:31:31,279
become obsessive. He often develops a generalized hatred of Western

561
00:31:31,319 --> 00:31:33,839
civilization and of his own country as part of the

562
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,519
West End quote. And we've been seeing this everywhere. You

563
00:31:36,559 --> 00:31:40,400
see it in stories every single day on Twitter, of course,

564
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,119
if the algorithm has figured out that you kind of

565
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,079
like these things. One of the most notable to me

566
00:31:44,119 --> 00:31:46,359
the other day was they were having a cultural enrichment

567
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:50,640
diversity celebration event at a school in England and a

568
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,119
girl wore a Union jack and she had a speech

569
00:31:54,279 --> 00:31:57,119
about englishness and how it was wonderful and she was

570
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,519
proud to be She was sent home because I was

571
00:31:59,559 --> 00:32:02,279
the wrong. We're not going to celebrate that. Somebody else

572
00:32:02,279 --> 00:32:07,000
pointed out that a quote that talked about suicidal empathy,

573
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,400
referring to I think it was a New York Times

574
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,920
piece which talked about how empathy became a toxic subject

575
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,000
on the right and the rest of it. The idea

576
00:32:15,519 --> 00:32:22,039
that one should become a globalist, a global philanthropist before

577
00:32:22,079 --> 00:32:25,240
a national philanthropist, because the West has committed so many sins,

578
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,039
has done such evil is so uniquely inherently intrinsically bad

579
00:32:29,599 --> 00:32:33,559
that the only enlightened position is to detest it and

580
00:32:33,599 --> 00:32:35,440
to seek to tear it down, or at least to

581
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:40,960
acquiesce in its destruction. So you wrote that, Explain how

582
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,240
you used that quote in your piece and how it

583
00:32:44,279 --> 00:32:47,440
applies today to let's say, the campus situation.

584
00:32:47,759 --> 00:32:53,279
Speaker 5: Sure well, the quote comes from James Burnham, the Titanic

585
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,759
intellectual who exercised such a remarkable influence on William F.

586
00:32:57,799 --> 00:33:02,640
Buckley Junior in the National Review. The quote specifically comes

587
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,880
from Burnham's book Suicide of the West, first published in

588
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:11,319
nineteen sixty four. And what I like about that quote,

589
00:33:11,359 --> 00:33:15,160
and what I like about that book is this is

590
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:23,920
James Burnham really diagnosing the liberal mentality decades before I

591
00:33:24,119 --> 00:33:29,799
was born, and you know, some sixty years before what

592
00:33:29,839 --> 00:33:34,839
we've seen on our college campuses after October seventh, this

593
00:33:35,559 --> 00:33:41,319
guilt drive that seems to explain a lot of liberal views,

594
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:48,480
in particular their obsession with the victimizer binary and always

595
00:33:48,599 --> 00:33:54,920
identifying with the victim, and the victim is always the

596
00:33:55,119 --> 00:34:00,440
victim of Western society or systemic racism or the patriot barchy.

597
00:34:01,559 --> 00:34:06,480
That it can be identified throughout the history of the left,

598
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:11,320
in more radical forms, but also in the mildier forms

599
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:16,440
of American liberalism. So it's a very stunning quote, and

600
00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:19,840
I recommend the book, which is still in print. Encounter

601
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:23,239
brought out an edition about a decade ago that you

602
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:29,239
can get to understand liberals, and there are some dated parts,

603
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:34,800
but really that fundamental diagnosis holds up, and we, like

604
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:39,440
you say, we see it on campuses today, and we

605
00:34:39,519 --> 00:34:43,440
see it in the anti Semitism, the anti Zionism that's

606
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:50,400
coming from campuses today. This guilt over Israel, the guilt

607
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:55,639
stemming from this idea that Israel is a Western colonial project,

608
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:56,440
which it is.

609
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 4: Not, saying God, I hope so.

610
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 1: The whole.

611
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 3: And so.

612
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 5: This tendency to always fall back on oppress or oppressed uh,

613
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,800
and this guilt complex that motivates, I think, a willful

614
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:24,480
blindness among liberals towards the enemies of civilization. This is

615
00:35:24,519 --> 00:35:28,559
something that has been present for a long time. In

616
00:35:28,599 --> 00:35:31,360
one way, it's reassuring because it means that even though

617
00:35:31,519 --> 00:35:36,840
our technology changes, the names and faces change, the fundamentals

618
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,719
of politics remain the same. The argument remains the same.

619
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,159
But what I think we need more of today are

620
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:48,239
people who will stand up for the Western civilization, stand

621
00:35:48,320 --> 00:36:00,280
up for Biblical civilization. Judaism Christianity, Zionism, and Americanism, the

622
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:04,119
principles and institutions of the American founding, and say that

623
00:36:04,159 --> 00:36:07,280
we're proud of these, we are not ashamed. And if

624
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,880
I have to identify one source of Donald Trump's political longevity,

625
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,960
I would say is that he does proudly say he

626
00:36:15,079 --> 00:36:18,360
is for all these things, and he's certainly not afraid

627
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:25,519
when the left or others try to delegitimize him, demean him,

628
00:36:25,679 --> 00:36:27,599
or kill him.

629
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:31,320
Speaker 1: It is refreshing. I mean, because when politicians are the

630
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:33,840
left talk about how much they love America, either the

631
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,519
words just sort of turn to ashes in their mouth

632
00:36:35,519 --> 00:36:39,159
you don't believe them, or it's a theoretical America that

633
00:36:39,199 --> 00:36:41,400
they like. It's one that's never existed that will be

634
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,039
perfect if and or when they're particularly I mean like

635
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,599
New York's mayor in a year may say I love America,

636
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,760
but that's just because he's successfully nationalized every corporation in Manhattan.

637
00:36:51,639 --> 00:36:56,920
Speaker 2: Stephen Well, one of the other things you mentioned I

638
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,920
can send your book is that Bill Buckley, much more

639
00:37:00,039 --> 00:37:03,559
back in the news because of the Townhouse biography, once

640
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,760
kind of equivocated about his famous remarket it's better to

641
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,639
be governed by the first two thousand names in the

642
00:37:08,639 --> 00:37:12,519
Boston phone Directory than the faculty of Harvard University. Okay,

643
00:37:12,519 --> 00:37:15,079
so maybe Buckley is at his core an elitist. They

644
00:37:15,159 --> 00:37:17,440
used to say, look, when I want heart surgery, I

645
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,599
want an elitist doctor. So of course, so you confess

646
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:23,519
to that. But I've always thought that that phrase should

647
00:37:23,519 --> 00:37:26,760
be modified, that it'd be better to be educated by

648
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,920
the first two thousand names in the Boston phone directory

649
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:33,000
than the faculty of Harvard University. That I don't think

650
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,840
he would dissent on at all. Now, I'm not following

651
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:40,719
the machinations at Columbia at a granuar level, like your successor,

652
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:42,599
the Free Beacon, el Eanla Johnson is, But you're a

653
00:37:42,599 --> 00:37:45,960
Columbia graduate. What's the latest on that? Are you optimistic

654
00:37:46,039 --> 00:37:49,239
that for all the blunderbus that Trump is using, much

655
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:50,840
of which I like, maybe all of which I like,

656
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:52,920
are you optimistic that we're actually going to see some

657
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,199
fundamental changes at Columbia or anywhere else.

658
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,679
Speaker 5: Well, the Free Beacon has been reporting that the administration

659
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,519
and Columbia maybe close to a deal, and many in

660
00:38:03,599 --> 00:38:08,639
the pro Israel community, many critics of Columbia University. Columbia

661
00:38:08,679 --> 00:38:11,920
University are a little bit alarmed at the details of

662
00:38:12,039 --> 00:38:16,199
this deal, which has not been finalized. They feel that

663
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,519
though Columbia would pay a very large fine and make

664
00:38:19,599 --> 00:38:24,440
some changes to its governance, the underlying problems will not

665
00:38:24,639 --> 00:38:31,360
be treated appropriately. So we'll see that what happens. Of course,

666
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,800
the deal would have to be authorized by Trump, and

667
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:41,239
he hasn't done so yet. I think, Steve that Columbia's

668
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:45,599
problems run really deep, and they think that there are

669
00:38:45,639 --> 00:38:49,039
many decades in the making. And I always have to

670
00:38:49,039 --> 00:38:53,599
say I was a little bit shocked when Trump suspended

671
00:38:53,639 --> 00:38:58,760
the foreign student visas to Harvard. There was a flurry

672
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,920
of articles about the percentercentage of foreign students at ar

673
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:07,199
Lee University's Columbia, if I recall correctly, was somewhere around

674
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:12,639
forty seven percent of the student body comes from overseas.

675
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,159
And that was not the case when I graduated there

676
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:21,159
twenty years ago. And I think what's happened over the

677
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:27,320
intervening years is that Colombia really decided to become Edward

678
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:34,320
Sayid University really decided to become the institutional body that

679
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,920
represented the views of one of Columbia's most famous professors,

680
00:39:38,159 --> 00:39:42,840
Edward said, the author of Orientalism and a supporter of

681
00:39:43,079 --> 00:39:50,440
the PLO, a critic, vociferous enemy of the State of Israel,

682
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:56,679
and someone who was a stylish literary writer, but who

683
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:02,320
used that verbal ability which he did have to advance

684
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:07,159
a very anti Western, anti American, anti Israel perspective. That

685
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:12,719
mindset has been slowly embedded into the institution over time

686
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:18,760
because of different decisions by the administration successive administrations. Let's

687
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:23,000
not forget that. When I was there, we welcomed Lee Bollinger,

688
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:28,000
the famous defender of affirmative action, from the University of Michigan.

689
00:40:28,039 --> 00:40:31,360
He came and became president of Columbia University. I think

690
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:35,280
in my final year there two three, and just a

691
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:40,440
few hours years after I left, he ostentatiously invited Mahmud

692
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:45,159
Ahmadinijad to address the campus, the man who had called

693
00:40:45,199 --> 00:40:50,119
for the destruction of Israel, destruction of America. You know,

694
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:56,039
a radical Iranian politician. And to get that word radical

695
00:40:56,159 --> 00:40:58,639
in front of you, when you're an Iranian politician, you

696
00:40:58,679 --> 00:41:00,800
really need to be radical or it's not. It's not

697
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,639
just an ordinary anti American mola. I mean, I'm aninjod

698
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,280
if you remember, as I know you do, he was

699
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,079
he was out there and yet here he was at Columbia.

700
00:41:10,199 --> 00:41:16,079
So this deal, you know, making Columbia pay is important,

701
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,679
But if we really want to change Columbia, I always

702
00:41:20,679 --> 00:41:22,199
prefer the Carthaginian option.

703
00:41:23,159 --> 00:41:25,519
Speaker 1: You Know's well, you know, it used to be said

704
00:41:25,519 --> 00:41:28,519
that we want foreign students to come here so they

705
00:41:28,519 --> 00:41:30,639
can learn about America and love America and spread their

706
00:41:30,639 --> 00:41:32,599
love of America when they go back home. And now

707
00:41:32,599 --> 00:41:33,960
it's just like, well, you know what, you can hate

708
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,000
America from a distance. From now on, Colombia is only

709
00:41:37,039 --> 00:41:39,000
going to be for American kids, so they can so

710
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:41,840
our kids can learn how to hate America the Columbia way.

711
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,119
Johnny got something, I got a last one from that

712
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:44,679
before we go.

713
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,119
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just curious about So this split you were

714
00:41:48,119 --> 00:41:52,639
talking about before within the GOP that you see reflected

715
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,639
in the response at Epstein files, what do you think

716
00:41:56,679 --> 00:42:00,840
that shows about the struggle inside the administration? You know,

717
00:42:01,159 --> 00:42:04,920
is this is this the JD. Vance wing versus the

718
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,000
Marco Rubier wing? What does suggests for what's going inside

719
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:10,440
the administration? And uh, you know, if you I mean

720
00:42:10,639 --> 00:42:12,840
so early, but you know, how do you think this

721
00:42:13,639 --> 00:42:17,320
plays into handicapping who you know Trump's successor is going

722
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:17,480
to be.

723
00:42:18,119 --> 00:42:21,599
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's less about

724
00:42:21,639 --> 00:42:27,119
a struggle inside the administration because it's clear from the

725
00:42:27,159 --> 00:42:32,920
past several weeks that Trump is the decider. Trump is

726
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:37,079
the most powerful force in the administration, and even if

727
00:42:37,079 --> 00:42:42,800
people are counseling alternate approaches, they really don't bring their

728
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:47,280
their differences of opinion to the public. So there really

729
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,440
is Trump that he he defines what that administration is

730
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,400
going to do. And as we were talking about in

731
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,239
his true social posts this past week, he said that

732
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,239
the critics, the outside critics of his position and appin

733
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,840
were former supporters. He doesn't want their support. I think

734
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:07,280
where this really comes into play, though, John is the

735
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:13,159
twenty twenty eight stakes, and clearly JD. Vance is the

736
00:43:13,199 --> 00:43:16,360
front runner for the Republican nomination in all the polls.

737
00:43:16,639 --> 00:43:20,039
He's far and away ahead in first place. He is

738
00:43:20,079 --> 00:43:24,239
the incumbent vice president, which always counts for a lot.

739
00:43:25,199 --> 00:43:29,360
But I do think that Vance is has his kind

740
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:33,719
of eyes over his shoulder at a potential candidate from

741
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:38,880
the more online wing of MAGA, the podcaster wing, if

742
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,639
you will, would Tucker Carlson decide to run for the

743
00:43:42,679 --> 00:43:47,880
Republican nomination. That would present a political challenge for Vance

744
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,760
and how he formulates his policies and message. At the

745
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:55,039
same time, though, I also think that what's been revealed

746
00:43:55,079 --> 00:43:58,400
over the past few weeks is these podcasters don't have

747
00:43:58,519 --> 00:44:02,320
much influence. You know, we're looking at polls of Republican

748
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:06,280
support for Trump. Republican support for Trump went up during

749
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:10,360
the Epstein scandal, even as the public says the administration

750
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,480
should be handling it better and should disclose more information.

751
00:44:13,639 --> 00:44:17,119
So the same thing with Operation Midnight Hammer. By the way,

752
00:44:17,119 --> 00:44:20,079
all the polls we have showed that Republicans really support

753
00:44:20,119 --> 00:44:24,880
Trump's peace through Strength approach on Iran. So I do

754
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,480
think there's more bark than them bite here. But it's

755
00:44:29,159 --> 00:44:34,480
one reason that Vance is very circumspect about how he

756
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:39,840
handles these more controversial issues for the podcast.

757
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,239
Speaker 1: Right, the idea that podcasters are not influential is one

758
00:44:43,239 --> 00:44:45,840
of those ridiculous statements.

759
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:48,360
Speaker 5: Men, well the other podcasts.

760
00:44:50,159 --> 00:44:51,880
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, And it's the same thing with people

761
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,920
who marinated on twitter x all day. You become convinced

762
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:56,760
of a certain line of thought that it's the dominant

763
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:58,920
line of thought. It shapes everything that you hear, and

764
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:01,360
you're completely unaware that most people don't agree, don't know

765
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:03,000
what you're talking about, and don't care, or.

766
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:04,239
Speaker 5: They view it as entertainment.

767
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:04,639
Speaker 3: Right.

768
00:45:04,679 --> 00:45:07,159
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people just watch these podcasters

769
00:45:07,159 --> 00:45:09,000
and it's just something to do. It's better than what's

770
00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:11,679
on TV, that's for sure, But that doesn't mean they're

771
00:45:11,679 --> 00:45:14,599
going to believe everything they say or act on what

772
00:45:14,639 --> 00:45:15,400
they say, and.

773
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:17,480
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily mean that they even listen to the podcast.

774
00:45:17,559 --> 00:45:19,760
They may see a video clip that shows up on TikTokers.

775
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,800
They're scrolling between a million different feeds. Well, thank you

776
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:24,440
for being on with us today. Man. I have to say,

777
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:26,760
you had the opportunity to write an extra chapter to

778
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,239
that book about twenty two that ended with twenty twenty two,

779
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,199
and you did not go back and redcon the rest

780
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:33,440
of it so that you could be proven absolutely correct.

781
00:45:33,639 --> 00:45:35,800
It's a marvelous opportunity you've missed. But it shows that

782
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,519
you are an ethical man and we admire that also.

783
00:45:38,639 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 2: Lazy.

784
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:43,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Well, we'll look to see what your next

785
00:45:43,639 --> 00:45:46,280
prediction is and then we will go on and bet,

786
00:45:46,559 --> 00:45:49,119
perhaps in a contrary wise based on that so we

787
00:45:49,199 --> 00:45:52,159
got to get that average out there. Matt Conanetti, follow him,

788
00:45:52,159 --> 00:45:54,039
Mariam wherever you got them, And it's been a pleasure

789
00:45:54,079 --> 00:45:56,039
as ever to talk to you today. Have a great

790
00:45:56,119 --> 00:46:00,559
rest of July you too, Thanks again back by. So

791
00:46:00,679 --> 00:46:02,239
we need to tell you about a couple of things

792
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:05,639
before we head out here, and one of them is, well, well,

793
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:08,800
we got Ricochet meetups. That's right. Ricochet is not just

794
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,559
a website with a bunch of guys who gam are

795
00:46:10,599 --> 00:46:13,280
away on podcasts. It is a community and if you

796
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,199
go there and you sign up for the member feed,

797
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:18,719
which is cheap, you get access to all kinds of

798
00:46:19,519 --> 00:46:22,639
new friends. Frankly, that's what they become quite quickly, and

799
00:46:22,679 --> 00:46:25,639
then they get together sometimes periodically in person and talk

800
00:46:25,679 --> 00:46:29,679
about generally anything except politics. The Ricochet meetups I've been,

801
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:31,599
it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can talk about that,

802
00:46:31,639 --> 00:46:33,599
but there's so much more to discover about each other

803
00:46:33,679 --> 00:46:35,639
and share it and talk. Hey, you're into old coins

804
00:46:35,679 --> 00:46:38,000
from Rome too, so am I? And if you go

805
00:46:38,519 --> 00:46:40,480
so we got three coming up here, we think. Matt

806
00:46:40,519 --> 00:46:44,280
Ballser holding the annual German Fest meet up July twenty

807
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:48,000
fifth to twenty seventh, In of course, Milwaukee, Randy Wilva.

808
00:46:48,199 --> 00:46:50,360
I never pronounced your name right, Randy, And as a

809
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,239
guy who's been Lilix all of his life instead of

810
00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:55,559
the correct Lilacs, you have my sympathy anyway, Randy. Long

811
00:46:55,559 --> 00:46:58,440
standing members assembling a group to meet in Detroit August

812
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,880
fifteenth through the eighteenth. Huh, I wonder if I'm going

813
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,840
to be anywhere close and Red Herring, I am so tempted.

814
00:47:06,039 --> 00:47:08,719
Just posted about a Ricochet at Sea cruise meetup to

815
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:11,159
tour the Caribbean in December. If you're a fan of

816
00:47:11,159 --> 00:47:14,239
the old National Review cruise is you know what that's like.

817
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:16,920
It's a great ship. Actually, it's one of the new ships.

818
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:18,760
I haven't been on it and just bobbing are on

819
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:21,119
the Caribbean for a week, having good meals, enjoying the

820
00:47:21,119 --> 00:47:24,440
buffet and the shows and the conversations and nights up

821
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:27,599
in the Crow's Nest. I miss it, I really do.

822
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:32,079
And I am tolutely tempted anyway. So that's that. So, John,

823
00:47:32,119 --> 00:47:34,480
what's on your mind that you would like to leave

824
00:47:34,519 --> 00:47:37,039
us with. I'm curious about your take, since you are

825
00:47:37,039 --> 00:47:39,960
a Californian, and you since you know the state intimately,

826
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:43,679
whether or not. People there are more upset about the

827
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:46,599
funding of the train to nowhere, or upset about the

828
00:47:46,599 --> 00:47:50,239
fact that Ice, cruel mean Ice is apparently keeping pot

829
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:52,639
farmers from using illegal migrant children to.

830
00:47:52,599 --> 00:47:53,159
Speaker 3: Grow the weed.

831
00:47:53,599 --> 00:47:55,760
Speaker 1: Where are we as a country, for Heaven's sakes.

832
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,039
Speaker 3: Well, since Steve is the only one who's ever likely

833
00:47:59,119 --> 00:48:02,760
to see either Sings in person, high speed rail or

834
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,199
the pot farms right given where he lives down in

835
00:48:05,199 --> 00:48:07,440
the center of the state. But I can tell you

836
00:48:07,519 --> 00:48:11,719
up here in San Francisco people are pissed off about

837
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,480
the pot They don't they We're never going to see

838
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:18,159
the high speed rail up here. Although I have to say,

839
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,840
and I think Steve agrees with this, people san Francisco

840
00:48:22,039 --> 00:48:26,960
are suddenly turning optimistic because we have a mayor who

841
00:48:27,039 --> 00:48:30,519
doesn't seem to be a left wing radical. Crime is dropping,

842
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:34,320
the streets are becoming safer. I think businesses are returning.

843
00:48:34,639 --> 00:48:37,159
And it's all because we put the guy whose family

844
00:48:37,199 --> 00:48:39,000
made Levi jeans in charge.

845
00:48:39,159 --> 00:48:40,039
Speaker 4: Now that's where.

846
00:48:40,039 --> 00:48:42,320
Speaker 3: That's you know, that's when I hope we can get

847
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:45,360
the guy from Wrangler to come next, because.

848
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:47,519
Speaker 4: They are turning the city around.

849
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:51,320
Speaker 2: Right right right, So on the by the way they're saying,

850
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:53,920
I'm surprised James that you didn't Maybe you did think

851
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,000
of the link between high speed rail and getting high

852
00:48:56,039 --> 00:48:57,960
on pot. I mean they want to run the rail

853
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,360
through the pot farms. I think one thing. You know,

854
00:49:01,559 --> 00:49:04,679
I am not far away from those pot farms in Camerio.

855
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:06,639
I drive by there when I head down to Pepperdine

856
00:49:06,679 --> 00:49:09,519
every week during the semester, and I watched the TV

857
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,199
news coverage and it was all hysteria. You know, they

858
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:14,760
kept interviewing the protester around the corner saying this is

859
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,679
the Gestapo, this is fascism, all the rest of that. Well,

860
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:19,559
I know a few people in the egg business down

861
00:49:19,559 --> 00:49:23,079
in that area, and they all hate the pot farms

862
00:49:23,079 --> 00:49:25,280
because they're some smelly and intrusive, and a lot of

863
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,599
them got their permits during COVID. I have a sneaking

864
00:49:28,639 --> 00:49:31,519
suspicion that the media will never investigate that a lot

865
00:49:31,559 --> 00:49:33,360
of those other people in the egg business are the

866
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,519
ones who dropped the dime on them to ice. I'll

867
00:49:35,559 --> 00:49:37,519
bet some of those people called up Eisen said, you

868
00:49:37,559 --> 00:49:40,679
know who's got a whole lot of illegal farm labors

869
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:44,320
and children working or this this this farm Otherwise, how

870
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:46,880
did Ice know to go, you know, ninety miles north

871
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,239
of Los Angeles to conduct those raids. I am convinced

872
00:49:50,239 --> 00:49:52,360
that is what happened, and you heard it here.

873
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:57,159
Speaker 1: First listeners entirely possible, or drone surveillance using some sort

874
00:49:57,199 --> 00:50:00,519
of height calibration devices. I mean, who knows, who have

875
00:50:00,559 --> 00:50:03,519
absolutely no idea, But yeah, I mean I don't want to.

876
00:50:04,039 --> 00:50:07,800
I don't like the pond farms either, But dead generally

877
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,480
has to do with my dislike of the stuff today

878
00:50:10,559 --> 00:50:13,639
because it is absolutely everywhere. The guy who stole my

879
00:50:13,639 --> 00:50:15,880
car was reeking of the stuff, and when I got

880
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:18,000
in my car it actually went. After it was recovered,

881
00:50:18,039 --> 00:50:21,960
it still had that faint skin. No, No, I had

882
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:23,599
a driver on for a day with the windows open

883
00:50:23,639 --> 00:50:25,639
and the AC blasting full, just to get it out.

884
00:50:25,679 --> 00:50:28,360
I mean, just the guy had spent maybe thirty five

885
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:30,920
minutes in my car, and it was permeated with weed smoke,

886
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:34,079
and downtown when I work downtown, which I don't anymore,

887
00:50:34,559 --> 00:50:37,119
you would just smell it wafting off people as they

888
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:39,760
and it's just I don't remember it from my youth

889
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:42,199
smelling that bad. As a matter of fact, I remember

890
00:50:42,519 --> 00:50:44,960
having an almost attractive aroma to it. But there's something

891
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:49,239
about modern pop culture and modern pot strength and the

892
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:51,519
rest of it that I don't think it's a good idea.

893
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:53,960
I really don't. I don't think that you can't.

894
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:55,960
Speaker 3: Afford the good stuff back then. James. That's what.

895
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:00,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Minnesota, ditchweed is what we're talking talking about. You.

896
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,239
That stuff that they brought up from from the south

897
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,920
of the state in black plastic garbage banks, bushels.

898
00:51:08,039 --> 00:51:12,199
Speaker 2: It like tumb me anyway now, James, Yeah, So since

899
00:51:12,239 --> 00:51:15,119
you you brought it up briefly, how was your first

900
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,719
two questions? How was your first week of retirement? You

901
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:19,599
may have talked about the diner, which I have not

902
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:22,239
caught up with, but how was your first week of retirement?

903
00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:26,159
And secondly, after my dad retired and started working from home,

904
00:51:26,559 --> 00:51:29,280
my mother said they should have changed the wedding vows

905
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:32,480
to for better or for worse, but not for lunch.

906
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,679
My dad drove my mother nuts. So how is missus

907
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,039
Lilacs adjusting to your new retirement regime?

908
00:51:38,519 --> 00:51:41,039
Speaker 1: Fine? Because I get into the house the first week.

909
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:43,119
The first week was great. First week seemed to be

910
00:51:43,119 --> 00:51:47,480
primarily paperwork because getting your pension on your social security

911
00:51:47,519 --> 00:51:49,480
and all these things requires phones and forums and the

912
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,400
rest of it, because, as I said in the podcast before,

913
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:55,000
everything that came to you as part of your employment

914
00:51:55,079 --> 00:51:57,679
was just this gravy that naturally flowed from their bucket

915
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:01,000
to yours, the paycheck, the health insurance, all the rest

916
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,519
of it. And once that's gone, you have to get

917
00:52:04,599 --> 00:52:07,360
it yourself and clawed in and fix all these things

918
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:09,880
and dot the eyes. I ended up calling Social Security

919
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,760
on Monday morning, being the first in the queue, and

920
00:52:13,039 --> 00:52:16,880
it was expecting two hours of gruesome wait time and

921
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:19,960
then some an indifferent bureaucrat who didn't care about my story,

922
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:22,920
the whole Brazil movie thing, And what I got was

923
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:26,800
a kind, pleasant, easy to understand, a helpful woman who

924
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:30,159
really wanted me to get my money and really wanted

925
00:52:30,159 --> 00:52:32,360
to help. And it was the first experience I'd had

926
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:34,480
with the system, and I was I was impressed with its.

927
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:38,639
Speaker 4: Professionals, except your creation. After you, what is this social security?

928
00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:40,880
Speaker 1: You speak of nothing, John, You don't have to think

929
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:43,920
about it, you don't have to worry about it. Boom

930
00:52:44,599 --> 00:52:46,519
us boomers will just sop it up and then pull

931
00:52:46,559 --> 00:52:49,679
the gate, pulled the bridge, you know, the Drawbridge up

932
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:53,519
with us. So there was that and that was nice.

933
00:52:53,559 --> 00:52:55,880
But it's been finding a new gym. It's been doing

934
00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:58,000
stuff around the house that I've been putting off. It's

935
00:52:58,039 --> 00:53:02,480
been realizing that I don't have to sort of subject. Well,

936
00:53:02,559 --> 00:53:04,719
the funny party is really is that the last thing

937
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,199
I did before I left the paper was to file

938
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:09,519
a piece that was the antithesis of the thing that

939
00:53:09,559 --> 00:53:12,199
they'd wanted me to write. When they took away my column,

940
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:14,159
the idiots in charge of that said, now we want

941
00:53:14,159 --> 00:53:16,079
you to write, but we don't want you to write opinions,

942
00:53:16,119 --> 00:53:18,119
and we don't want you to write humor. So the

943
00:53:18,199 --> 00:53:20,480
last thing I did there was to hit send on

944
00:53:20,519 --> 00:53:23,000
a piece to the op ed section. And the op

945
00:53:23,159 --> 00:53:25,880
ed section, of course, can do whatever it likes. And

946
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:28,920
I sent them a humorous piece with opinion about being carjacked,

947
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,199
and they not only published it, they put my name

948
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:33,480
in the headline as if to say, hey, everybody, that

949
00:53:33,519 --> 00:53:38,920
writer you liked, he's right here. And it did baffo business.

950
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,400
So that's that, and that was the end of the paper.

951
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,039
But I've been writing tons. I've got my substack to do,

952
00:53:44,119 --> 00:53:46,199
I've got a new video series. I'm ramping up. I've

953
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:49,039
got the bleat, I've got a book that I'm putting together.

954
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:52,559
So yeah, it's been wonderful and I've been relieved of

955
00:53:52,599 --> 00:53:56,199
the opportunity to go downtown and to be frank. I

956
00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:57,880
don't miss it a bit.

957
00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:01,760
Speaker 2: So Yl's unleashed, Lileox unleashed, I'll call it. And by

958
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:04,639
the way, James, you you know, I should have known

959
00:54:04,679 --> 00:54:06,880
that you would make a fleeting reference to the greatest

960
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:10,440
anti bureaucratic movie ever made, that being Brazil from nineteen

961
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:12,440
eighty six. So I have to tease you. Did you

962
00:54:12,519 --> 00:54:14,920
see the director's cut or the theatrical release?

963
00:54:15,679 --> 00:54:16,199
Speaker 1: I've seen both.

964
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:18,360
Speaker 4: God, I'm gonna shoot myself.

965
00:54:18,639 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 2: I don't see. That's why I brought it up.

966
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:24,039
Speaker 3: I thought I kind of escaped the three whiskey hap

967
00:54:24,039 --> 00:54:27,400
how and all these crazy references by coming to this podcast.

968
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,119
Speaker 1: No, no, no, Michael Baylon is a friend of mine

969
00:54:30,119 --> 00:54:34,679
and so I think he did really well. No, but yes,

970
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:39,880
but no, we we had dinner together in London a

971
00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,199
year and a half ago. Wow, we have mutual friends.

972
00:54:43,679 --> 00:54:45,639
Speaker 2: So did you say John stepped on your line? You

973
00:54:45,679 --> 00:54:47,760
say he liked the theatrical or the kid?

974
00:54:48,039 --> 00:54:50,159
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. We never got around to it. I never

975
00:54:50,239 --> 00:54:51,920
asked him about his work. I asked him about this

976
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:54,400
stuff you talk about, this stuff that other people don't

977
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:56,920
ask about. And when we did a show, my friend

978
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:59,320
and I who knows him, did a show in London

979
00:54:59,519 --> 00:55:02,920
last he came to the show and it was a

980
00:55:03,199 --> 00:55:05,480
highlight of my life to look out at the audience

981
00:55:05,519 --> 00:55:09,480
and see Michael freakin Peylins sitting there smiling at our

982
00:55:09,679 --> 00:55:12,559
at our bits and our routines, and he remembered me.

983
00:55:12,599 --> 00:55:14,519
After we I got to introduce him to my wife

984
00:55:14,519 --> 00:55:17,679
and daughter. My daughter was absolutely thrilled. He's about the

985
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:20,760
nicest man on the planet. He really is just a

986
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:23,760
decent guy. I gave him a bag of swag from Minnesota,

987
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:26,719
including spam. I mean, you can't not make a spaw

988
00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:30,320
way for a time, so I gave him. I gave

989
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,920
him spam from the source, from the absolute source, and

990
00:55:34,039 --> 00:55:35,719
a copy of my book that with which he could

991
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:37,039
do as he pleased.

992
00:55:37,239 --> 00:55:38,679
Speaker 4: Another kind of spam.

993
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:43,440
Speaker 1: So so yeah, Brazil Is Brazil is a great movie.

994
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:46,599
I think DeNiro is miscast in it somewhat. But and

995
00:55:46,639 --> 00:55:50,760
Jonathan Price apparently, you know, he had his difficulties the woman,

996
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:55,320
Kim Kim. What was her name, Alistair Kim. She was

997
00:55:55,360 --> 00:55:57,400
apparently a pain for everybody, but she was a great

998
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:59,559
eighties heart throb with that short hair and that sort

999
00:55:59,599 --> 00:56:04,440
of go to spirit. Great movie depressing ending. I love

1000
00:56:04,519 --> 00:56:08,679
Terry Gilliam. He's another Minnesotan and a brilliant man. But

1001
00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:13,280
that's probably his highlight, I guess. And it's been a

1002
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:14,840
while since I've seen it. I'll have to go back

1003
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:15,760
and give it another look.

1004
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:18,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that'll be it.

1005
00:56:18,719 --> 00:56:20,199
Speaker 1: Unless you, guys want to talk about a movie or

1006
00:56:20,239 --> 00:56:23,280
television show that you think the viewership should listen to.

1007
00:56:23,559 --> 00:56:25,559
So you've got about a minute, John, what are you watching?

1008
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:26,840
Speaker 2: Oh?

1009
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:30,519
Speaker 3: I just watched the third seed final season of Squid

1010
00:56:30,599 --> 00:56:33,199
Game and I'm about to start the course. I'm just

1011
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:36,679
about to start a Foundation on Apple TV. I've been

1012
00:56:36,719 --> 00:56:38,559
I love this series. I mean I love the books

1013
00:56:38,679 --> 00:56:40,239
when they came out. I mean I wasn't around when

1014
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:41,039
they came out, but I read them.

1015
00:56:42,119 --> 00:56:45,159
Speaker 1: John, have you heard have you heard anything about that

1016
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:46,639
Foundation television show?

1017
00:56:47,079 --> 00:56:47,440
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1018
00:56:47,519 --> 00:56:48,039
Speaker 2: It's bad.

1019
00:56:49,079 --> 00:56:52,079
Speaker 4: Oh, I mean it's so different from the books, but

1020
00:56:52,119 --> 00:56:52,559
I love.

1021
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:56,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the books. And then I watched the

1022
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,039
first couple of episodes, and I said, I hate everybody involved.

1023
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's a different story, but I'm kind

1024
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:06,800
of curious how they changed it or updated it. You know,

1025
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:09,800
it's I think, isn't it directed by the guy who

1026
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,599
has done a lot of superhero movies and so on.

1027
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:16,639
It's it's certainly got that take on it. Yeah, and

1028
00:57:16,679 --> 00:57:19,880
then I'm about to start watching Star Trek, you know,

1029
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:22,920
the Star Trek series on Parallel Plus. I think that's

1030
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:24,079
starting in a week or so.

1031
00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:27,039
Speaker 1: Be very careful for If it's Discovery, don't watch it.

1032
00:57:27,199 --> 00:57:30,159
If it's strange New Worlds, You're absolutely going to love it.

1033
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:31,880
Speaker 4: But why would you make a New Worlds?

1034
00:57:31,960 --> 00:57:33,599
Speaker 1: But I don't get it. We're going to make a

1035
00:57:33,639 --> 00:57:36,119
movie about the Foundation books that everybody loves, but it's

1036
00:57:36,119 --> 00:57:37,880
not going to be that story. It's like we're going

1037
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:40,159
to make Lord of the Rings, but it's actually going

1038
00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:42,519
to be about a couple of women traveling around Southwest

1039
00:57:42,559 --> 00:57:47,480
America in a car. I don't make It's not that hard.

1040
00:57:47,519 --> 00:57:49,760
I mean, yes, the first book is episodic from what

1041
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:54,880
I understand, because asthmov cobbled together various stories, yeah, stories,

1042
00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:57,119
you know, but you know that's what Raymond Chandler did

1043
00:57:57,119 --> 00:57:59,800
with his novels. But that's fine, go episodic. I don't care.

1044
00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:05,440
Just give me those stories please. But yeah, I understand,

1045
00:58:05,519 --> 00:58:10,119
I understand. So I didn't watch. The second was the

1046
00:58:10,119 --> 00:58:12,000
season of Squid Games because I just figured that it

1047
00:58:12,119 --> 00:58:14,559
sort of left the story where it was and it

1048
00:58:14,599 --> 00:58:16,960
was such an appallingly violent show in the first place

1049
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:18,599
that I really did not want to go back to

1050
00:58:18,639 --> 00:58:21,559
that world ever again period. But then again, I watched Mobland,

1051
00:58:21,599 --> 00:58:25,440
So what do I know, Steven? You Yeah, I've I

1052
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:28,360
have to stop saying Johnny's on the podcast.

1053
00:58:28,599 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 2: That will confuse him.

1054
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:31,079
Speaker 4: Right, I finally got my last name, right.

1055
00:58:32,920 --> 00:58:34,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. The only thing I've watched lately because I've been

1056
00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:37,920
too busy to watch anything, is the Netflix documentary about

1057
00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:41,480
the Ocean Gate Titan submersible. And the amazing thing there

1058
00:58:41,559 --> 00:58:43,400
is it's almost an hour and forty minutes long. The

1059
00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:46,559
amazing thing is that a Stockton Rush guy was such

1060
00:58:46,599 --> 00:58:49,400
a megalomaniac that apparently had either a film crew or

1061
00:58:49,400 --> 00:58:53,239
people's cameras constantly, so you have footage of the whole saga,

1062
00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:56,440
which now looks very bad, of course, right, And then

1063
00:58:56,440 --> 00:58:58,599
I interviewed the engineers, he fired, and so forth, so

1064
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,000
that I found the interesting. You know, you knew what

1065
00:59:02,039 --> 00:59:03,360
the ending was going to be, but it was still

1066
00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:05,719
fascinating watching. Otherwise have been too busy to take in

1067
00:59:05,800 --> 00:59:09,360
anything except for John when he appears on Outnumbered on Fox,

1068
00:59:09,400 --> 00:59:12,480
where this week he outdid himself by engaging in fat shaming.

1069
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:13,920
So I'll just leave it at that.

1070
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:16,199
Speaker 3: I didn't even know that fat shaming was a thing.

1071
00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:19,280
I thought you to make fun of the fat kidding class, Like,

1072
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,960
what under that rule change? I still do it when.

1073
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:25,760
Speaker 1: I teach I was the fat kidding class. What did

1074
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:26,880
you do? What did you say?

1075
00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:30,360
Speaker 3: Oh? So the you know this Outnumbered show, you know

1076
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:33,360
you're the guy in the middle. There's four Fox four

1077
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,440
women have Fox hosts on the couch with you, and

1078
00:59:36,559 --> 00:59:38,760
half the show's about current events. But then the second

1079
00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:41,400
half of the show where I really unprepared his popular

1080
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:45,280
culture and lifestyle. So they said, the use of ozepic

1081
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:50,280
has gone up amongst children because there's a juvenile you know,

1082
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:53,119
outbreak of juvenile obesity. So they said, what do you think?

1083
00:59:53,199 --> 00:59:56,360
And I said, I know a secret, you know, recipe

1084
00:59:56,400 --> 00:59:58,119
for weight loss.

1085
00:59:58,280 --> 00:59:59,960
Speaker 4: It's called sports.

1086
01:00:01,239 --> 01:00:03,320
Speaker 3: And I say, just get the fat kid out there,

1087
01:00:03,360 --> 01:00:04,760
make him play sports every day.

1088
01:00:04,880 --> 01:00:06,119
Speaker 4: That's what I had to do growing up.

1089
01:00:06,159 --> 01:00:08,519
Speaker 3: I went to school, I had to play sports every

1090
01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:11,800
single day. I hated it because as a good Asian kid,

1091
01:00:11,840 --> 01:00:14,039
I just wanted to go back for preparing for the exams,

1092
01:00:14,039 --> 01:00:17,159
but they wouldn't let me. So I learned these sports

1093
01:00:17,159 --> 01:00:18,840
and I'm glad I did. I was forced to, and

1094
01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:20,679
I still play some of those sports today.

1095
01:00:20,760 --> 01:00:21,920
Speaker 4: But then we don't need.

1096
01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:23,719
Speaker 3: Know of zempic. Just get the kid, kick the kid

1097
01:00:23,760 --> 01:00:25,400
in the butt and make him go play sports.

1098
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:26,719
Speaker 1: That's incredibly so.

1099
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 3: Steve immediately says, I'm shaming fat kids right because he's

1100
01:00:31,400 --> 01:00:35,320
so sensitive to the plight of the week and underserved community.

1101
01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:38,239
Speaker 1: Let me make this then a promo John Woo's promo

1102
01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:41,360
for The Diner, which discusses the trials and tribulations and

1103
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:44,440
humiliations of being the fat kid in junior high in

1104
01:00:45,119 --> 01:00:50,280
gym class which I was more grade school, but the

1105
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:53,119
last guy to be struck in battleball, the last guy

1106
01:00:53,159 --> 01:00:55,239
to stagger across the finished line of this.

1107
01:00:55,360 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 3: It worked, James, because now you're in great shape because

1108
01:00:57,519 --> 01:00:58,280
of humiliation.

1109
01:00:58,800 --> 01:01:03,039
Speaker 1: That's precise. That's exactly why. Because I was shamed, and

1110
01:01:03,079 --> 01:01:05,920
I was ashamed of myself, and I was determined not

1111
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:10,000
to be that kid, thinking someday it'll be the fiftieth

1112
01:01:10,239 --> 01:01:12,760
high school reunion and I'll come back and I'll walk

1113
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:14,880
in fit and all of the old jocks will be

1114
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:17,039
dead or have a big you know, or be out

1115
01:01:17,079 --> 01:01:17,360
of shape.

1116
01:01:17,360 --> 01:01:19,559
Speaker 3: So yeah, tell me it wasn't that satisfying? Did that

1117
01:01:19,639 --> 01:01:21,159
make you warm and fuzzy inside?

1118
01:01:21,199 --> 01:01:24,679
Speaker 1: I haven't hit it yet, but yet, fiftieth anniversary. I

1119
01:01:24,719 --> 01:01:27,960
think that's next year. Oh good old. Anyway, with that

1120
01:01:28,039 --> 01:01:30,519
cheerful note, we would like to thank bank on yourself.

1121
01:01:30,639 --> 01:01:33,000
Go there and find out exactly what they're talking about

1122
01:01:33,039 --> 01:01:36,519
for these investments and these opportunities for you support us

1123
01:01:36,719 --> 01:01:40,760
also by becoming a best part of the best place

1124
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:43,280
for civil and center right conversation. That would be Ricochet.

1125
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,079
And am I going to ask you to do a

1126
01:01:46,159 --> 01:01:48,320
five star review on Apple Podcasts? Or am I not?

1127
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:53,039
I don't know. It's Shortinger's into the show thing this week,

1128
01:01:53,119 --> 01:01:56,199
so just leave it at that. Thank you, John, It's

1129
01:01:56,199 --> 01:01:59,519
been a pleasure, Stephen. Always good to hear from you.

1130
01:02:00,079 --> 01:02:02,199
Next week, John, I hope you're back. You know, it's

1131
01:02:02,239 --> 01:02:03,000
because it's.

1132
01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:03,960
Speaker 4: I'm always available.

1133
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:05,719
Speaker 3: You know. I've been waiting and waiting to get a

1134
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:08,000
call back from the Bush leagues to play in the

1135
01:02:08,119 --> 01:02:11,000
MLB within the show the show. I finally made the

1136
01:02:11,039 --> 01:02:12,719
show again and.

1137
01:02:12,679 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 1: We're happy to have you here. So we'll see everybody

1138
01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:18,559
next week, and we'll see you possibly tonight in the

1139
01:02:18,599 --> 01:02:21,159
comments on Ricochet four point zero. Bye bye,