1
00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:08,279
Speaker 1: A short time ago, the United States military began major

2
00:00:08,359 --> 00:00:17,480
combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the

3
00:00:17,519 --> 00:00:23,760
American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.

4
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:37,840
Speaker 2: And non in LoVa and Lodi. His Eminence, Grand Ayatola

5
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:40,719
Imam Komeni, we send salutations.

6
00:00:41,439 --> 00:00:45,240
Speaker 3: Yesterday we eliminated the tailand Kamene along with him, we

7
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:48,560
eliminated dozens of senior officials of the oppressive regime.

8
00:00:49,119 --> 00:00:53,119
Speaker 4: Our forces are executing with unmatched skill, and the mission

9
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,840
is advancing decisively. This is the kind of no nonsense,

10
00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:00,640
results driven war fighting that America demands.

11
00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,879
Speaker 2: Welcome everybody, it's the Ricochet Podcast number seven hundred and

12
00:01:07,159 --> 00:01:09,519
seventy nine. You can join us at ricochet dot com.

13
00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:11,000
You really can, and you can be part of the

14
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,599
most stimulating conversations and community on the web. I'm James

15
00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:16,920
Lallox in the middle of the country in Minneapolis where

16
00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,120
it's very foggy, and I'm joined by Steven Hayward and

17
00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,400
Sunny California, and Charles C. W. Cook in Florida, who

18
00:01:21,439 --> 00:01:23,159
knows what the weather is, who cares, and gentlemen. It

19
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,640
seems in retrospect that our first clue should have been

20
00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,840
renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. Here

21
00:01:28,879 --> 00:01:31,319
we are with one of the most astonishing displays we've

22
00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:33,680
seen in a long time. People were goggling over the

23
00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:35,879
snatching of Maduro, and now that appears to be like

24
00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:38,239
walking down to the corner store for a pack of smokes.

25
00:01:38,799 --> 00:01:41,000
This is big. This is something the likes of which

26
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,040
I've never seen in my lifetime. And I've been around

27
00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,079
for the Desert, for the Iraqi Wars and the rest.

28
00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:52,920
It feels different too. It feels like weapons free, like unburdened,

29
00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,599
like the rules of engagement have changed, like there is

30
00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:00,959
a Marshall spirit breast puffed. Seen it in a long time,

31
00:02:01,159 --> 00:02:04,599
and we can attribute that probably to probably to the

32
00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,000
President and to the sec deaf. So here we are.

33
00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:14,560
It's been since February twenty eighth BDA BDA from you guys,

34
00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:15,960
Stephen go first.

35
00:02:16,599 --> 00:02:19,120
Speaker 5: Well, I think not only the Department of War, but

36
00:02:19,159 --> 00:02:21,120
I think a bigger clue is the obvious one, which

37
00:02:21,159 --> 00:02:24,879
is sending so many forces over to the theater. And

38
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:26,800
you know, when Trump does that, and I think this

39
00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,000
was true of Venezuela, you know he's going to use it.

40
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,240
He's not just going to say never mind and withdraw

41
00:02:31,439 --> 00:02:35,080
without some kind of deal, which clearly was not in

42
00:02:35,159 --> 00:02:38,280
the offing. I think that, to me the most significant

43
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,800
facts so far. It's not the scale of it so much,

44
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:43,439
although that is a big thing, but it was the

45
00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:47,039
sinking of the Iranian warship out in the Indian Ocean

46
00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:48,360
with the torpedo.

47
00:02:48,479 --> 00:02:51,199
Speaker 3: You mean, the war crime, war crime right for the

48
00:02:51,199 --> 00:02:52,240
first time since World War Two.

49
00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 5: And the reason I say that's such a big deal is, well,

50
00:02:55,719 --> 00:02:57,960
it's not exactly the same. But you know, if you

51
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,599
know your early World War two history really well before

52
00:03:00,599 --> 00:03:03,479
we were in it, and it was when the British

53
00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,960
sunk the French war fleet in North Africa after Askton

54
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,400
surrender and they refused and you know, Churchill didn't want

55
00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:11,919
to do that, but thought it was necessary because he

56
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,280
didn't want the fleet to fall into German hands. And

57
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,280
that's when Roosevelt and his people said, oh, they really

58
00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:18,840
do mean to see this thing through and to win

59
00:03:18,879 --> 00:03:21,240
it if they'll do that, And that was, you know,

60
00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,080
a powerful moral effect, as Churchill put it. And I

61
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,080
think the fact that the order went out, yeah, sink

62
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,360
that ship out in the middle of the ocean rather

63
00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:31,319
than just hobble it or blockade or who knows what,

64
00:03:31,879 --> 00:03:35,199
shows that in fact, Trump and his team are in

65
00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,120
it to destroy Iron's capabilities from head to toe.

66
00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:39,599
Speaker 3: Charles.

67
00:03:39,599 --> 00:03:41,960
Speaker 2: Has been a lot of talk from the usual talkers

68
00:03:42,039 --> 00:03:44,000
about that this was a war crime, it was an

69
00:03:44,039 --> 00:03:46,400
unarmed ship, it was in international waters, and so forth,

70
00:03:46,639 --> 00:03:49,319
most of which were wave away by people said no, actually,

71
00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,879
it's war, it's worship, it's heading where it shouldn't be.

72
00:03:53,039 --> 00:03:56,919
And yeah, it seems we have the starkest dichotomy we've

73
00:03:56,919 --> 00:03:58,840
had in a long time between those people who believe

74
00:03:58,879 --> 00:04:01,280
still that there is an internet national rules based order

75
00:04:01,479 --> 00:04:06,000
is that simply exists and is enforced by moral persuasion,

76
00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,080
and by those who say no, that is a fiction

77
00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,000
that is promulgated by people who wanted to bang the

78
00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,639
United States and have us all descend into a Brussels

79
00:04:14,639 --> 00:04:17,439
style EU talking shop where nothing ever gets done and

80
00:04:17,439 --> 00:04:19,319
the bad guys get to go away. Is it the

81
00:04:19,439 --> 00:04:22,680
end of the old international order? We exposed it as

82
00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:26,160
just simply something that existed because American strength backstopped it.

83
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,399
Speaker 6: Well, that's what it's always been. That wasn't a war crime.

84
00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:35,879
But I will say that the apologists for the administration

85
00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:40,279
do need to accept that this is a war, which

86
00:04:40,319 --> 00:04:42,639
many of them won't, including the Speaker of the House.

87
00:04:43,759 --> 00:04:47,360
It is a war that was an active war. We

88
00:04:47,439 --> 00:04:49,639
can tell this because if somebody did any of these

89
00:04:49,639 --> 00:04:51,360
things to us, we would describe it as such. We

90
00:04:51,399 --> 00:04:54,399
wouldn't say it was a limited kinetic action. Actually, it

91
00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:55,199
is a war.

92
00:04:56,199 --> 00:04:58,680
Speaker 2: Because it is, as long as no one calls it

93
00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:01,879
a special military operation, right, I load that.

94
00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,040
Speaker 6: I think we should own it. Now that doesn't mean

95
00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,079
it's wrong. I don't think it is, but we should

96
00:05:07,079 --> 00:05:15,000
own that it's a war. The sinking of that ship

97
00:05:15,079 --> 00:05:18,199
was not a war crime, and in fact, the arguments

98
00:05:18,319 --> 00:05:21,360
that it was are based upon a misreading of the rules.

99
00:05:22,439 --> 00:05:25,839
The rule is that you have to help in so

100
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,959
far as it is possible to help, but you can't

101
00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,800
by definition, help with a submarine. Submarines have always been

102
00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:39,040
considered different because they have limited space. You can't just

103
00:05:39,079 --> 00:05:41,040
fill a submarine with one hundred Iranians.

104
00:05:41,439 --> 00:05:43,120
Speaker 2: Well, they can sit on the top and you can

105
00:05:43,319 --> 00:05:45,800
and you can drive the ship home at you know,

106
00:05:46,399 --> 00:05:47,959
without without going down.

107
00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,319
Speaker 6: I mean, this is silly, and I've seen some people

108
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,680
on the far left saying and This just proves that

109
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,519
we're worse than the Nazis, because even the Nazis, No,

110
00:05:57,639 --> 00:06:04,319
absolutely not, this was normal within the rules of war.

111
00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,279
And I think what it highlights more than that the

112
00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,199
United States is wrong in some way is the people

113
00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,720
have just forgotten, thankfully, what wars look like, because we've

114
00:06:13,759 --> 00:06:17,680
had a very long piece. Because even that there we

115
00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,240
are in one, now we live so far away from

116
00:06:20,319 --> 00:06:23,639
it that, with the exception of higher gas prices, perhaps

117
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,439
it's really not going to affect to many people, especially

118
00:06:27,439 --> 00:06:30,680
those who don't have children in the services. It doesn't

119
00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:34,399
affect them. But the average American doesn't. So the average

120
00:06:34,399 --> 00:06:36,800
American is sitting watching this as if it were a

121
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:40,240
TV show and thereby fixating on that sort of thing.

122
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:42,240
But no, this wasn't a war crime.

123
00:06:42,519 --> 00:06:45,120
Speaker 2: But this is a war when you talk about the

124
00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:49,199
realities of it, striking home we have seen ever since

125
00:06:49,199 --> 00:06:53,199
the Gulf War, a series of what are basically bloodless engagements.

126
00:06:54,439 --> 00:06:58,079
We see thermal imaging footage of people running around a

127
00:06:58,079 --> 00:07:00,639
missile launcher and then there's a bloom and then they're

128
00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:04,199
not there anymore. The graphic nature, the horrible nature, the

129
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,439
upfront nature, the mangled nature of it is just doesn't

130
00:07:07,439 --> 00:07:11,439
seem to be is not our screens. But there was

131
00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:14,519
something about the sinking of that vessel that did actually

132
00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,000
drive it home to you, because when the torpedo exploded

133
00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:19,759
beneath the bow and cracked the spine, an awful lot

134
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:21,959
of heat signatures went up in the air, and you

135
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,800
had to look at that and say, those are were

136
00:07:24,959 --> 00:07:29,199
people we don't see, you know, the mangled bodies being

137
00:07:29,319 --> 00:07:31,879
I'm not saying that we should, I'm just saying that

138
00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:36,160
the sort of unreal aspect of this continues to this

139
00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,360
very day. Today. I just saw something on Twitter that

140
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:43,120
said this again, this has to be confirmed that it's

141
00:07:43,279 --> 00:07:46,000
Israeli sorty of a large number of planes dropped a

142
00:07:46,079 --> 00:07:48,399
large number of bombs on what they call the remaining

143
00:07:48,959 --> 00:07:52,920
government figures of the Iranian regime. And you see the

144
00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,759
bunker busters, you see the blocks exploding, and it's all

145
00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,240
top down from above. And we have no point here

146
00:08:01,319 --> 00:08:03,519
of the to say that you're right, we don't. We

147
00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,759
don't see the consequences of our of our action. And

148
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:08,800
I'm not saying that we should have our noses rubbed

149
00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,199
into it. I'm just simply saying that once again we

150
00:08:11,319 --> 00:08:13,319
have this sort of video game aspect to it. I

151
00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,480
suppose that's unavoidable in modern conflict. No point, no point

152
00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:18,720
there whatsoever. Will hand it over to Steve to perhaps

153
00:08:18,759 --> 00:08:20,079
find a point in what I was saying.

154
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 5: Well, I'll just pick up on the international rules based

155
00:08:24,639 --> 00:08:26,879
order you brought up in your last question. Look, I've

156
00:08:26,879 --> 00:08:28,560
always been skeptical of that for a long time. I

157
00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,800
think you put your finger on it. It's usually used

158
00:08:30,879 --> 00:08:33,559
as a tool to hobble the United States and its allies.

159
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:38,960
It only international law only works among nations who can

160
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:41,559
be expected to abide by it, and of course that

161
00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,120
would not be Iran, right, and lots of other regions Russia.

162
00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:46,279
Speaker 3: Uh so are you?

163
00:08:46,679 --> 00:08:49,000
Speaker 5: Throughout the Cold War, James, I would ask people the question,

164
00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,080
why don't we need arms control agreements with Britain or France,

165
00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:54,840
or he might add Israel to that, since they have

166
00:08:54,919 --> 00:08:58,639
nuclear weapons. Well, the answer is obvious, right, They're they're

167
00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:01,679
fellow democracy with whom we have good relations, so we

168
00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:04,120
don't need it. We only need those kinds of agreements

169
00:09:04,159 --> 00:09:07,039
with our enemies. And even when you get them, like

170
00:09:07,039 --> 00:09:09,639
we did with the Soviet Union, they're not very good. Okay,

171
00:09:09,639 --> 00:09:12,960
that's point one. Point two is to extend your last comment.

172
00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,600
I do understand now in the press that we're flying

173
00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:19,799
a lot of B fifty twos because we've cleared away

174
00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,120
the air defenses of Iran and they can fly pretty

175
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,440
much with impunity. And of course those can carry so

176
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:30,240
much more ordinance than even the B two, let alone

177
00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:33,639
the B one whatever, they always bes right, the B

178
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,240
one and B two the stealth ones, and those can

179
00:09:37,279 --> 00:09:41,240
be used to really reduce a lot of targets to rubble.

180
00:09:42,159 --> 00:09:44,039
And you know, I go back to the end of

181
00:09:44,039 --> 00:09:47,000
the Vietnam War in nineteen seventy two, when Nixon had

182
00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,879
had it and the skies were dark over handway with

183
00:09:49,919 --> 00:09:52,120
B fifty twos, a number of whom were shot down.

184
00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,360
Back in those days, air defenses were more effective and

185
00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:58,080
we didn't have as many effective countermeasures. But it sobered

186
00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:00,159
up the North Vietnamese that actually, we do have have

187
00:10:00,159 --> 00:10:02,399
to make a deal and ended up being an enforceable one.

188
00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:04,200
Speaker 3: That's a problem for another day.

189
00:10:04,879 --> 00:10:06,759
Speaker 5: And so the big question here is are we really

190
00:10:06,799 --> 00:10:09,000
going to be able to achieve our war aims with

191
00:10:09,159 --> 00:10:09,879
air power?

192
00:10:10,039 --> 00:10:11,799
Speaker 3: And most experts say you can't.

193
00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:17,919
Speaker 5: And what Hegseth has not ruled out boots on the ground,

194
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:19,840
and when that happens, I think this whole thing goes

195
00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:22,320
pair shaped politically and may or may not succeed. I

196
00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,039
don't know, but well, I'll just end with this. Trump

197
00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,159
has taken a huge risk. He has met his entire

198
00:10:28,159 --> 00:10:31,840
presidency on this because if our economy wobbles, I agree

199
00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:36,320
with Charlie are we're the most immune from economic consequences

200
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:38,279
in the near term. But that's not true of our

201
00:10:38,279 --> 00:10:41,960
trading partners and the European economies and Japan, even in

202
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:45,960
South Korea. They could be having some serious economic troubles

203
00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,320
soon and that will spill over to us eventually. So

204
00:10:49,399 --> 00:10:52,559
this is a huge risk on Trump's part, and once

205
00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,120
again you've got to kind of admire him and worry

206
00:10:55,159 --> 00:10:55,639
about him.

207
00:10:58,799 --> 00:11:00,480
Speaker 2: Well, the buffs are doing the job is supposed to do,

208
00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,519
which is taking out the missiles storage facilities. It doesn't

209
00:11:03,519 --> 00:11:04,879
matter if you can get your launchers out, if you

210
00:11:04,879 --> 00:11:07,879
can't get those and taking out the launchers too. I mean,

211
00:11:08,639 --> 00:11:12,919
there's a very long term, calculated process going on here

212
00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,480
which seems to be proceeding correctly. But there's also something

213
00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:21,080
beyond that, which is China and the whole part that

214
00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,600
this fits in into an anti China, China containment strategy.

215
00:11:25,639 --> 00:11:28,600
That is what seems to me to be the emerging

216
00:11:28,759 --> 00:11:30,799
reality at the end of the day behind this. I mean, yes,

217
00:11:30,879 --> 00:11:32,840
Iran is off the table as a terrorist force. They're

218
00:11:32,879 --> 00:11:36,559
no longer supporting everybody. That's great, the region stabilizes, But

219
00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:39,240
it seems as if Iran made a bet that their

220
00:11:39,399 --> 00:11:42,559
underground cities full of missiles would be something the United

221
00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:44,080
States could never take out like they did in the

222
00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:46,879
Gulf Wars because they're on the ground, And China made

223
00:11:46,879 --> 00:11:50,120
a bet that by propping up Iran that they would

224
00:11:50,519 --> 00:11:52,879
pin down the US and in the Middle East in

225
00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:56,600
a series of engagements that were inconsequential in the end

226
00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,879
and unresolved, and that China would prosper and flourish because

227
00:12:00,879 --> 00:12:04,720
of this. Am I right in saying that, I think

228
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:07,639
it's easy to say that the Uranian strategy seems not

229
00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:09,840
to have worked out for them in the end. But

230
00:12:09,879 --> 00:12:13,440
am I right in saying that a success here really

231
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:16,279
does not put g in a good position, and it's

232
00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:18,159
his own fault. Charles.

233
00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:25,240
Speaker 6: I think there's a huge gap between the political performance

234
00:12:25,279 --> 00:12:27,879
of the White House, which I think has been poor

235
00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:37,080
and almost indifferent and the extraordinary performance of the military,

236
00:12:37,279 --> 00:12:40,399
which I assume is being watched around the world, and

237
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,840
not just in this instance, but also in Venezuela, which

238
00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:50,759
was really quite impressive. So as a piece of geopolitical engineering,

239
00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:55,720
I am thrilled that the Chinese and the Russians and

240
00:12:55,799 --> 00:13:00,559
anyone else has watched this and been reminded that the

241
00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:04,879
US is number one and ought not to be messed with.

242
00:13:05,519 --> 00:13:10,919
As a domestic political matter, I think Trump has once

243
00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:12,600
again been his own worst enemy.

244
00:13:13,039 --> 00:13:14,799
Speaker 2: Well I'll expand on that. I mean, we don't want

245
00:13:14,799 --> 00:13:17,399
to sit here in a a Polish tell me you

246
00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,320
think that they are domestic political soundings and statements have

247
00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:24,799
been insufficient or have been like a daisicle or what. Well,

248
00:13:25,039 --> 00:13:25,360
if you.

249
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,120
Speaker 6: Look at how this went down. Not that I am

250
00:13:28,159 --> 00:13:30,120
part of the story. I just say this is a preface.

251
00:13:30,159 --> 00:13:32,159
I wrote a column two weeks ago saying we needed

252
00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,080
to debate this, and it needed to go through Congress.

253
00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:36,360
This is a thing I write every time under every president,

254
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,159
and I had a line in there saying I don't

255
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,720
want to wake up one morning and be told we're

256
00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:44,639
at war. I would prefer, as a citizen to be

257
00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:46,759
part of this, and of course on Saturday, I woke

258
00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:48,639
up and was told that we were at war because

259
00:13:48,639 --> 00:13:51,200
the President had decided to do it. That's not a

260
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:53,840
judgment on the merits. It's not a cover for criticism

261
00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,480
on the merits. I am agnostic on this question. I'm

262
00:13:56,519 --> 00:13:59,080
totally open to the argument that this was the right

263
00:13:59,120 --> 00:13:59,519
thing to do.

264
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,879
Speaker 2: But yeah, America, you're right, because every Charles C. W.

265
00:14:05,039 --> 00:14:08,320
Cook speech ends with and we must have a congressional

266
00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,200
resolution on the destruction of Carthage or whatever the Latin

267
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,720
equivalence would be. Right, You're right, You're consistent, and I

268
00:14:14,759 --> 00:14:15,279
agree with you.

269
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,639
Speaker 6: Anyway, I went to my son's flag football game and

270
00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,320
people there who vaguely know what I do came up

271
00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:23,440
to me and said, so, what's this iran thing? And

272
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:27,600
I do think that's somewhat astonishing in a democratic republic. Now,

273
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,240
if Trump believes this is the right decision, and I'm

274
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:33,519
open to being persuaded that it is, I think, at

275
00:14:33,519 --> 00:14:35,279
the very least, even if he wasn't going to go

276
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,679
to Congress or have a long debate prior to doing it,

277
00:14:38,759 --> 00:14:41,919
and there are strategic arguments against that, he had to

278
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,759
do more than give a very short speech in a

279
00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:51,200
white baseball hat from his private club and then disappear.

280
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:54,080
But in the meantime talk to lots of journalists on

281
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,879
the telephone and give them different answers as to what

282
00:14:56,919 --> 00:15:01,200
we were doing. There have been three four different explanations

283
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,840
as to why we're in Iran. It's been a humanitarian case.

284
00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:05,919
It's been that it was an imminent threat against us.

285
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:08,200
It's been that we was tired after forty six years

286
00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:09,879
and them targeting us. It's been that we were going

287
00:15:09,919 --> 00:15:13,519
after the weapons program, in so on and so forth.

288
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,720
I think that Trump should have come out and said,

289
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:20,200
ladies and gentlemen, I understand that this is somewhat surprising,

290
00:15:20,399 --> 00:15:22,440
but this country has been a thorn on our side

291
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,240
for forty seven years. It has an institutional animus toward

292
00:15:26,279 --> 00:15:29,240
the United States. It says death to America, death to Israel.

293
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,080
It's been trying to get a nuclear weapon. It's been

294
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:33,919
killing our people for years, including in Iraq. And we

295
00:15:33,919 --> 00:15:36,440
were presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to

296
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,759
do something about this. And I Donald Trump, unlike the

297
00:15:38,879 --> 00:15:41,919
feckless presidents who came before me, that's his line, not mine,

298
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,960
have finally pulled the trigger, and then I think he

299
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:47,720
should have kept to that line for a week and

300
00:15:47,879 --> 00:15:49,879
acknowledged and this is something that Trump, and it's not

301
00:15:49,919 --> 00:15:51,840
just Trump, lots of presidents of the same Biden was

302
00:15:51,879 --> 00:15:54,559
also bad in this regard. Then he should have said

303
00:15:55,320 --> 00:16:00,000
that he could not in good conscience pass up that opportunity,

304
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,200
even though there would be downsides, including domestic ones such

305
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,200
as higher gas prices. I have been arguing for months

306
00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:08,320
in a separate sphere that he should be saying, yes,

307
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,799
there is pain in the economy, because there is pain

308
00:16:10,879 --> 00:16:13,559
in the economy, but he won't. He says we're in

309
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:15,720
a golden age. And I just worry with this that

310
00:16:15,799 --> 00:16:17,600
this is going to have been the right thing to do,

311
00:16:17,679 --> 00:16:20,039
that it's going to lead to really good outcomes in

312
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,200
the long run geopolitical and in the Middle East, but

313
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:26,159
that the American public is not going to be sold

314
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,360
and that if he isn't hurt by it, at least

315
00:16:29,399 --> 00:16:31,799
he will have got away with it rather than be

316
00:16:32,159 --> 00:16:34,720
rewarded for it. Perhaps he was never going to be

317
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,240
rewarded for it. Perhaps he had to take a brave

318
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,320
decision and deal with the consequences. But I don't see

319
00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:42,559
him doing a great deal. So I'm drawing a distinction

320
00:16:42,639 --> 00:16:45,240
here between the domestic political question, which matters because we

321
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:49,039
have elections, and the performance of the US military, which

322
00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:53,960
I think has been stella, and the potential geopolitical ramifications,

323
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:59,360
which I'm open to being told are solid, including that China,

324
00:16:59,559 --> 00:17:04,599
Russia and other countries are watching this and remembering, oh, yeah,

325
00:17:04,599 --> 00:17:06,920
that's why America is the hedge of them.

326
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,279
Speaker 2: Steve is Charles living in an old world where Martin

327
00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:13,759
Sheen gives us a speech from the Oval Office and

328
00:17:13,839 --> 00:17:16,480
with his hands folded and starts with my fellow Americans

329
00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,160
and ends with God bless America. That is that era

330
00:17:20,559 --> 00:17:24,319
just gone. And now it's it's it's you. You announced

331
00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,319
to the world what you've done in a vertical video

332
00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:29,880
on TikTok, and then you tweet about it a little

333
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,440
bit later, and this indistinct message, it's just part of

334
00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:37,559
a fractured attention span of the American public today.

335
00:17:37,839 --> 00:17:38,039
Speaker 3: Yeah.

336
00:17:38,079 --> 00:17:40,640
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, if you go back to the Cuban

337
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,440
missile crisis, when they first got the intelligence and that

338
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:46,240
the Soviets were putting in missiles, the Hawks wanted to

339
00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:50,119
do an attack right away, just and I forget who

340
00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,319
it was and you know, I've read all the books

341
00:17:52,319 --> 00:17:53,799
on this years ago, but I forget who it was.

342
00:17:53,839 --> 00:17:56,160
Somebody around Kennedy, and it might have been Kennedy himself

343
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,079
who said, we don't do surprise attacks. We don't do

344
00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,079
Pearl Harbor. Now this isn't quite the same, but it does.

345
00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:04,000
I take Charlie's point that you do it out of

346
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:05,720
the kind of out of the blue like this, I mean,

347
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:07,680
when you had the forces there, and we've been talking

348
00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,759
about it for a while Trump has, so it's maybe

349
00:18:10,759 --> 00:18:12,240
not out of the blue, but out of the purple.

350
00:18:12,279 --> 00:18:15,000
I don't know what the right color is. The other

351
00:18:15,079 --> 00:18:18,079
thing is, oh, the Oval Office address, James. I mean,

352
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,119
in the old days you and I grew up, that's

353
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,319
the days when the three networks had the roadblock right

354
00:18:24,799 --> 00:18:27,039
the state. The president would always appear on all the networks,

355
00:18:27,039 --> 00:18:29,599
and then the cable ones when they came along, and

356
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:32,039
so everyone would tune in because you weren't going to

357
00:18:32,079 --> 00:18:34,559
watch anything else while that was happening. Well, of course,

358
00:18:34,559 --> 00:18:37,160
that world was long gone because of cable and five

359
00:18:37,279 --> 00:18:39,559
hundred channels and so forth. And that's why I think

360
00:18:39,839 --> 00:18:42,200
one of the biggest reasons presidents no longer make the

361
00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:45,359
formal Oval office address anymore, which I think is unfortunate.

362
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:48,039
I think the way CHARTI made it out would be

363
00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,440
much to be advised. Trump as usual just improvises every day,

364
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:55,000
including this morning as we're talking, saying he wants unconditional

365
00:18:55,079 --> 00:18:59,599
surrender from Iran, which is probably a mistake to say

366
00:18:59,599 --> 00:19:01,519
that or and you know, we'll see if he really

367
00:19:01,559 --> 00:19:05,880
means that. But your other question, you know Bridge Colby,

368
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,240
who was a guest on this show two three years ago,

369
00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:11,440
he's been very open about and I think the administration

370
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:13,440
has gone along with it. They would like to settle

371
00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:15,640
business in the Middle East so we can pivot to

372
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,960
a more robust defense posture against China in the Pacific,

373
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,920
and so a lot of people are saying that is

374
00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,400
what's going on. Oh, by the way, I'll add Charlie

375
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,319
that I've been scribbling notes to myself. I do wish

376
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:30,480
Pete Hegseth would switch to decaf before his briefings. Right,

377
00:19:30,759 --> 00:19:33,279
He's just a little bit too over the top. So

378
00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:35,240
it is kind of a mess. But the last thing

379
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:40,680
I'll say, and here I agree with Charlie's inclinations on this,

380
00:19:40,759 --> 00:19:43,279
but I think we have a and enfeebled Congress across

381
00:19:43,279 --> 00:19:45,960
the board for years now, and it is an important

382
00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,920
project to try and unenfeeble them in so many ways,

383
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:50,839
and I think the Supreme Court is helping with that

384
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:52,240
on domestic matters.

385
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:56,160
Speaker 3: But second, you know, we had Bill barr On.

386
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,519
Speaker 5: Here about just three four or five weeks ago, whatever

387
00:19:58,519 --> 00:20:01,920
it was, and reminded us that before Gulf War one,

388
00:20:02,079 --> 00:20:04,599
President Bush thought he did not need the approval of

389
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:08,079
Congress to launch that war, but they decided for political

390
00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:11,839
reasons to ask for it anyway. Now, the Senate vote

391
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:13,480
in that was quite close. I think it was only

392
00:20:13,559 --> 00:20:16,119
fifty three forty seven or fifty four to forty six.

393
00:20:16,279 --> 00:20:19,440
Most Democrats opposed it. And remember we had moved five

394
00:20:19,519 --> 00:20:21,720
hundred thousand troops in the theater and all the pieces

395
00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:26,000
there and while trying to do a negotiated settlement. It's

396
00:20:26,079 --> 00:20:28,519
similar to what we've been through the last you know,

397
00:20:28,599 --> 00:20:29,599
several years with Iran.

398
00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,960
Speaker 3: But if that had failed, or if Congress.

399
00:20:32,559 --> 00:20:34,880
Speaker 5: Held a debate here in the last two weeks and

400
00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,200
Trump had lost in the House, which I think is

401
00:20:37,279 --> 00:20:40,279
conceivable that he might have lost the resolution in the House,

402
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,160
then he's in a very weak position because I do

403
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,440
think at the end of the day, our constitution has

404
00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:48,240
always been intentional on this, but I think the commander

405
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:51,039
in chief powers do authorize the president to take us

406
00:20:51,039 --> 00:20:54,279
into into action like this. I think by the way

407
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,319
the war powers act, most presidents, I think all presidents

408
00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,480
since then think it's unconstitutional, wanted to challenge it, and

409
00:21:01,519 --> 00:21:03,799
Trump is the one person who will challenge it if

410
00:21:03,799 --> 00:21:04,359
it comes to that.

411
00:21:07,839 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 2: I'm like Charles. I agree with all of his positions

412
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,920
about what should be done and the processes that we

413
00:21:14,039 --> 00:21:18,559
have that have served a swell in the past. I

414
00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:21,039
can't just disagree with any of this positions. But at

415
00:21:21,039 --> 00:21:22,839
the same time, I feel as though I've got one

416
00:21:22,839 --> 00:21:24,920
foot on the dock of the twentieth century and the

417
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,400
other on a boat of the twenty first, and they're

418
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,880
drifting apart. And if you've ever been out of the

419
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:32,720
lakes and found yourself in that situation, you know at

420
00:21:32,759 --> 00:21:34,200
some point you have to make a choice or you're

421
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,599
in the drink. And so I don't I mean, I

422
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:38,799
put it this way. If we had had and I'm

423
00:21:38,799 --> 00:21:41,319
not saying well, if we'd gone ahead and asked Congress

424
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:44,079
and done the whole thing by all the rules, I mean,

425
00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:49,160
but if we had, you know, that answer code pink,

426
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,400
everybody would have ramped up the pre printed signs and

427
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,599
the big demonstrations, and there would have been this sort

428
00:21:54,599 --> 00:21:58,759
of faux show of moral superiority in every city in America.

429
00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,720
That would give the spineless people in the House in

430
00:22:02,759 --> 00:22:05,839
the Senate reason to say, I'm decide with those who

431
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,400
are protesting, because as we know from the sixties, anybody

432
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,400
who gets out in the street and waves a placard

433
00:22:10,519 --> 00:22:13,240
is indeed themselves on the moral high ground, and that

434
00:22:13,559 --> 00:22:15,559
might have affected what happens. And then at the end

435
00:22:15,559 --> 00:22:19,880
of the day, eventually Iran scoots and scoffs at us

436
00:22:20,039 --> 00:22:25,319
and the Chinese solidification of the solidification, the Chinese tightening

437
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:30,400
of their own hegemony is unabated. So I mean, that's

438
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,160
not an answer for anything. I'm just saying that I

439
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:38,119
feel sort of intellectually confused to the point of useless

440
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:42,200
inaction by what I'm drawn towards and new realities that

441
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:45,640
seem to be in our politics and society at the moment.

442
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,000
And nobody answered my China question. By the way, somebody

443
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,920
take my China question, did she make the wrong I mean,

444
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,240
it's just open ended softball, But did she make the

445
00:22:54,279 --> 00:22:57,519
wrong back? How does this redound in Chinese politics, especially

446
00:22:57,599 --> 00:23:00,200
since he just killed about two hundred of his top generals.

447
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,279
Speaker 5: Well, look, I mean I think it was a traditional

448
00:23:03,319 --> 00:23:06,680
alliance where you want to make links with the enemy

449
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,440
of your enemy. So the alliance with Iran looked good.

450
00:23:09,519 --> 00:23:12,000
I think the bigger problem for or at least one

451
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,680
of the bigger problems for gi right now is, at

452
00:23:14,759 --> 00:23:17,279
least from what you can read in media sources, which

453
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,119
maybe isn't everything or even correct, but a lot of

454
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,720
the Chinese technology has proved to be ineffective.

455
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 3: And there's a broader point about that.

456
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,680
Speaker 5: I mean, China is more technologically available and has a

457
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,839
more robust economy than the Soviet Union ever had, and

458
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,119
so we worry about you know, they build more ships

459
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,880
in a year than we have in thirty or something

460
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,960
like that, you know, those figures. But there's also I

461
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,119
know a lot of people who really know their Chinese

462
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:43,680
history and they say, yeah, they can build submarines and

463
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:45,559
aircraft carriers, but you know what, they have a really

464
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,039
bad record of fighting wars over the years, unlike the Russians, right,

465
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,240
they're not very good at it, and what they had

466
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,079
a submarine that sank at the dock, what two three

467
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,720
years ago, you know, brand new submarine and somebody didn't

468
00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:58,880
close the screen door or something that sank at the dock.

469
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,599
Speaker 3: So I think there is some doubt.

470
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:05,279
Speaker 5: That the Chinese military capacities are all that good. But

471
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:07,839
we're making this Texas now back to run. We are

472
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,279
making the bet and have now at the same bet

473
00:24:10,319 --> 00:24:12,759
we did during the long Cold War of the Soviet

474
00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:18,319
Union that our quality of armaments would overwhelm their quantity.

475
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,240
And okay, that's fine, but we have a lot of

476
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,079
really expensive stuff in the whole new frontier drone wars

477
00:24:25,079 --> 00:24:27,880
we've learned about in the last few years. It means,

478
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,440
you know, we're now shooting down what you know, I'll

479
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,440
just say a five hundred thousand dollars drone with a

480
00:24:32,759 --> 00:24:36,119
five million dollar missile. That doesn't pencil out very well

481
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,119
over time. And I think we're learning a lesson from that,

482
00:24:40,079 --> 00:24:42,000
and we'ren have to figure that out pretty soon because

483
00:24:42,039 --> 00:24:43,839
I think we the old American way of war of

484
00:24:43,839 --> 00:24:47,839
overwhelming them with our wealth and technology has got its vulnerabilities.

485
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,039
Speaker 6: It's interesting on that because we went from World War

486
00:24:52,039 --> 00:24:54,880
Two where we overwhelmed them with our ability to produce

487
00:24:55,799 --> 00:24:58,480
to the Cold War where we overwhelmed them with our

488
00:24:58,519 --> 00:25:03,799
ability to think, and now we're probably going to need both. Yeah,

489
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,000
I agree with Steve. I don't have too much to add.

490
00:25:06,039 --> 00:25:10,680
I think it makes sense for China to ally itself

491
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,240
with other countries that don't like the United States, given

492
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:17,640
that China wants to become the global hegemon and believes

493
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,079
that it's been embarrassed for a thousand years and that

494
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:24,119
it is destined to rule the world once more. I

495
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,640
of course oppose China in that aim and hope it loses,

496
00:25:28,599 --> 00:25:30,920
but I don't think it made the wrong bet. I

497
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:37,599
think it should in this game behave accordingly. I'm just

498
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,400
glad that we were once again able to thwart them,

499
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,720
and I hope that if they are planning on going

500
00:25:43,759 --> 00:25:46,240
into Taiwan next year, this has had an effect on

501
00:25:46,319 --> 00:25:50,839
them and reminded them. As I say that it's not

502
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:55,079
just theoretical, we can apparently do incredible things. I've been surprised.

503
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,400
I'm not a military expert or a foreign policy expert

504
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:01,079
by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have

505
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,880
a very rosy conception of America's military capacity in my mind,

506
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:09,440
and I was surprised that the share brilliance of operations,

507
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,400
So I hope the Chinese were too.

508
00:26:12,559 --> 00:26:14,400
Speaker 2: I just want to say, in reference to what Charlie

509
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,720
said about China and then looking at our technology, yes,

510
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,440
I mean we've seen lasers in this war. Israel has developed,

511
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:22,079
you know, sort of an iron dome system that doesn't

512
00:26:22,079 --> 00:26:24,039
need actual missile but you know, just can pew pew

513
00:26:24,079 --> 00:26:25,960
pew them down or when you see the laser beams

514
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:28,079
striking into the sky, you think, well, this is a

515
00:26:28,079 --> 00:26:30,519
different level. And if I were China, I would I

516
00:26:30,519 --> 00:26:33,000
would not be surprised if they massed forces to go

517
00:26:33,039 --> 00:26:35,240
into Taiwan and then looked up into the sky and

518
00:26:35,279 --> 00:26:37,519
there we had a death star, you know, with Peter

519
00:26:37,599 --> 00:26:41,200
Cushing behind the the consoles, you know, making it fully operational.

520
00:26:41,279 --> 00:26:44,160
What do we have in the quiver? Yet still ought

521
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,799
to keep them interested? Three gorgeous damn for example. It's

522
00:26:47,839 --> 00:26:49,960
not a military target, but it sort of puts them

523
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:51,720
behind the eight ball. Anyway, you're going to say.

524
00:26:51,599 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 5: About her own well, are you saying, Marjorie Taylor Green's

525
00:26:54,519 --> 00:26:56,039
right about the Jewish space lasers?

526
00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 3: James?

527
00:26:57,759 --> 00:27:01,519
Speaker 2: Well, boy, I let it out of the bag, didn't

528
00:27:01,559 --> 00:27:03,559
I Yes, the air control the weather. They control the

529
00:27:03,559 --> 00:27:05,680
weather as well. Oh, let me just sell my dreadlugs

530
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:07,240
are twitching an embarrassing materials. Go.

531
00:27:08,559 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 5: Well, that's a quick observation about Iran and we'll see

532
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,039
how this plays out. But it's one thing for them

533
00:27:13,039 --> 00:27:15,319
to shoot missiles at the American bases in the Middle East,

534
00:27:15,319 --> 00:27:17,640
but they seem to have been somewhat indiscriminate about it

535
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,880
and arguably wanting to punish the other Arabs who have

536
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,400
been hosting our bases in are friendly the United States

537
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,440
and hostile to them. And they've done an amazing thing.

538
00:27:27,599 --> 00:27:30,640
They have united most of the Arab world against them.

539
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,480
And the reason this I think this is really significant

540
00:27:34,599 --> 00:27:37,960
is you might remember Independence Day from thirty years ago,

541
00:27:38,079 --> 00:27:39,720
you know, the remake of World of the Worlds, and

542
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,400
there was a scene towards the end after a Jeff

543
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,359
Goldbloom was going to send a virus to the you know,

544
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,680
the motherships where and then the whole world was going

545
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,079
to coordinate by Morse code to attack, and there was

546
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,640
a scene, a scene is maybe ten seconds long, and

547
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:57,200
it showed Israeli in Arab troops getting together to prepare

548
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,599
their attack. Now that cost a huge controversy, and Arab

549
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,160
Nations wouldn't show the movie unless that scene was removed.

550
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:06,920
I don't know if you remember this, you know it

551
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,319
made some press at the time. So I mean that's how,

552
00:28:09,759 --> 00:28:11,599
you know, how the politics have fallen out since then.

553
00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:14,279
We've had the Abraham Accords and so forth, and now

554
00:28:14,319 --> 00:28:17,480
you're having Arab nations saying we're going to fight alongside

555
00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:21,799
the United States and Israel against Iran. And I think

556
00:28:21,839 --> 00:28:24,680
this would have been unthinkable even twenty five years ago,

557
00:28:24,759 --> 00:28:26,400
and yet here we are, and you know.

558
00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 3: We'll see I mean, it looks to me like this

559
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,480
is arguably Iran just lashing out.

560
00:28:31,759 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 5: If they're going to go down, they're going to go

561
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,119
down and take as many people with them as they can.

562
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:37,880
And so and by the way, I mean, the other

563
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,519
thing is is what when are we going to see

564
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,279
Kamakazi style nine to eleven attacks on targets in the

565
00:28:44,319 --> 00:28:48,599
Middle East, including you know, the Burj Khalifa, right.

566
00:28:48,599 --> 00:28:49,799
Speaker 3: I wouldn't I wouldn't put that.

567
00:28:49,759 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 5: Past the Iranian crazies to do something like that just

568
00:28:52,279 --> 00:28:54,440
to make a statement to all of their neighbors that

569
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,119
you're not putting you're not taking us down without you

570
00:28:57,240 --> 00:28:58,119
having a lot of hurt.

571
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 6: James, I just move on that. We know that the

572
00:29:02,079 --> 00:29:04,680
Jews can't control the weather, because if they could, there

573
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:08,240
wouldn't be so many of them moving to Florida. And

574
00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:10,920
if you could control the weather where you live, you'd

575
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,359
stay and do it right, you wouldn't moved down to

576
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:14,519
Fort Lauderdale.

577
00:29:14,839 --> 00:29:17,759
Speaker 2: Well, that's just the dodge, the cover story, isn't it.

578
00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:20,559
Just though? Yes, well, I mean when it comes to

579
00:29:21,079 --> 00:29:22,880
what Stephen was talking about, are they going to hit

580
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,000
the Birch guy? I think you know, they tried. They

581
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,799
did some stuff beforehand. They it seemed as if they

582
00:29:27,799 --> 00:29:31,200
had their own Samson option, that long rumored story about

583
00:29:31,519 --> 00:29:33,599
if Israel was attacked by a nuke, that they just

584
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,799
simply hid everybody in the neighborhood. And now it turns

585
00:29:36,799 --> 00:29:38,319
out it's Iron doing it. But it is kind of

586
00:29:38,319 --> 00:29:41,039
funny to say, knowing the history, that Iran has done

587
00:29:41,079 --> 00:29:45,279
something quite astonishing. They've united the Arabs in hatred of

588
00:29:45,319 --> 00:29:49,480
the Persians. That's the same time you have the Greeks,

589
00:29:49,759 --> 00:29:54,359
who are you know, dealing with the you know, the ancients.

590
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,000
It's nothing changes, nothing changes, nothing is new under the sun.

591
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,119
But what we do know is the sun is getting

592
00:30:01,119 --> 00:30:04,640
warmer because the year is getting longer. You know, the

593
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:06,920
days and the rest of it. And you know, the

594
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,119
resolutions that you made on January first, they seem like

595
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:11,880
a long time ago, but that doesn't mean they're not

596
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:15,880
pertinent and they're not important. So you've done all your resolutions,

597
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,559
you know, probably not Well. A good thing is there's

598
00:30:18,599 --> 00:30:20,920
nothing stopping you from making another go of your resolutions

599
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:22,839
in March. And what was the one that was bugging

600
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,519
you got under your skin, made you feel a little nervous. Well,

601
00:30:25,519 --> 00:30:29,079
there's nothing stopping you from thinking long term about insurance.

602
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,440
Oh that word, that word that everybody just rolls. Yeah, yeah,

603
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,519
one day day. Look beyond wellness concerns, beyond your health,

604
00:30:36,599 --> 00:30:38,839
beyond how good you sleep, beyond what your sheets are.

605
00:30:39,119 --> 00:30:40,799
You know, making sure that the ones you love are

606
00:30:40,799 --> 00:30:44,480
covered after your gun is really important. So yes, insurance

607
00:30:44,519 --> 00:30:48,839
today's sponsor fabric is here to help. If you've been

608
00:30:48,839 --> 00:30:51,440
putting it off, there's no better time to do it

609
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,880
than now. Over two thirds of Americans overestimate the cost

610
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,119
of life insurance and it's going to cost too much. Well,

611
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,960
you know, It's more affordable than you think, and Fabric

612
00:31:00,279 --> 00:31:02,960
by gerber Life makes it so quick and easy to

613
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,119
make sure that your family has more financial protection in

614
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,559
the coming year. Fabric by Gerber Life is term life

615
00:31:08,599 --> 00:31:12,200
insurance you can get done today. It's made for busy

616
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,519
parents like you. It's all online, it's all on your schedule,

617
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:18,200
right from your couch. You can be covered in under

618
00:31:18,279 --> 00:31:21,279
ten minutes with no health exam required. If you got kids,

619
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,519
especially if you are young and healthy, now is the

620
00:31:23,599 --> 00:31:27,319
time to lock in low rates. You know you should

621
00:31:27,359 --> 00:31:29,319
do it. Don't be that guy who doesn't Don't be

622
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,960
that galo doesn't do it cling to those resolutions. Sure,

623
00:31:33,079 --> 00:31:35,000
regret the ones you didn't do, but don't let any

624
00:31:35,039 --> 00:31:37,039
of that stop you from thinking ahead. Do it now.

625
00:31:37,119 --> 00:31:39,319
Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help

626
00:31:39,319 --> 00:31:43,319
protect their family. Apply now in just minutes at meetfabric

627
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:49,519
dot com slash Ricochet. That's meetfabric dot com, slash ricochet

628
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:54,119
me tfabric dot com. Slash Ricochet. Policy is issued by

629
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,279
Western Southern Life Assurance Company, not available in certain states.

630
00:31:57,319 --> 00:31:59,720
Prices subject to underwriting and health questions, and we thank

631
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:08,559
Faber responsoring this. The regaget podcast. So the next question

632
00:32:09,519 --> 00:32:12,279
is because I had something else about the Samson option,

633
00:32:13,119 --> 00:32:17,839
I never mind Europe, Ah, how relevant are they to this?

634
00:32:18,079 --> 00:32:19,960
What are the saddest stories? Charles? And I'm sure you

635
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:23,119
might agree, or you might not think it's sad at all,

636
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,880
you being an expat and come here to be an

637
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,079
American citizen, for which we are always grateful. Is the

638
00:32:30,119 --> 00:32:33,440
sad decline of the British Navy, the inability to put

639
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,559
anything out. It seems to see what once spanned the

640
00:32:36,559 --> 00:32:40,599
globe is, you know, a bunch of rusty buckets, dry dock,

641
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:45,319
without enough sailors to go on. And it's it's dismaying.

642
00:32:46,119 --> 00:32:49,079
So let's start there and talk about where Europe finds

643
00:32:49,079 --> 00:32:49,839
itself in all of.

644
00:32:49,799 --> 00:32:53,559
Speaker 6: This has no ram, no sorto mean, no last left.

645
00:32:56,279 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 3: I was thinking that very thing.

646
00:32:59,039 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 6: It's astonishing, isn't. I don't find it sad. I find

647
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:09,799
it predictable. Perhaps it's sadly predictable, but it's astonishing. The

648
00:33:10,279 --> 00:33:14,920
British have slowly slipped into irrelevance. I was thinking about

649
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:22,720
this yesterday, back in twenty thirteen, when President Obama announced

650
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,759
that he might like to go into Syria, and I

651
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,000
James said, the thing I always say, which is you

652
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,359
need to go to Congress, and he said, no, I don't,

653
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:34,079
which was a complete reversal of his promise in two

654
00:33:34,119 --> 00:33:37,119
thousand and eight when he was running, quite explicitly a reversal.

655
00:33:39,039 --> 00:33:46,359
The American public revolted such that he backed down and

656
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,279
said I could do it, but I'm not going to.

657
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:52,400
And there are a couple of things that happened that

658
00:33:52,519 --> 00:33:56,640
led to that backing down. One was that there was

659
00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:02,759
a bipartisan sentiment against going into Syria. It wasn't just

660
00:34:03,119 --> 00:34:08,280
the Democrats, the Republicans also were hostile to the idea.

661
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:11,719
And the second thing that happened was the British Parliament

662
00:34:12,519 --> 00:34:16,039
met debated whether they would join the United States in

663
00:34:16,079 --> 00:34:19,360
Syria and said they wouldn't. Now that wasn't just positive,

664
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,320
and it was perhaps less important than the British thought

665
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,079
it was at the time, but it did have an effect.

666
00:34:24,159 --> 00:34:27,519
It made big news in the press, and it was

667
00:34:27,599 --> 00:34:32,119
by all accounts processed by President Obama. And I was

668
00:34:32,119 --> 00:34:35,559
thinking that if that happened today, no one would care

669
00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:41,599
or even report on it. Could you imagine caring whether

670
00:34:41,639 --> 00:34:45,920
the British Parliament was on board with this? Iran adventure

671
00:34:46,079 --> 00:34:49,760
or not. The idea is almost silly. And that was

672
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:54,159
only thirteen years ago. Forty years ago, it would have

673
00:34:54,280 --> 00:35:02,000
killed any plan. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were close

674
00:35:02,199 --> 00:35:05,800
because they shared a political worldview, but also because they

675
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,840
had to be. Britain really mattered in the nineteen eighties.

676
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,199
It mattered in the nineteen nineties we joined in Kosovo,

677
00:35:12,239 --> 00:35:14,679
and it matted in the early two thousands. Getting Britain

678
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:19,320
on board with the Afghanistan and Iraq wars was crucial.

679
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:24,320
Now it's not It's not just that the British don't

680
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:29,280
have a navy and that their military is weaker than

681
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:35,639
it should be. But Britain as an economic power is declining.

682
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:42,119
Britain as a cultural power is declining. Britain as a

683
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:46,519
member of Europe. I don't mean the European Union solely,

684
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:52,519
but as a cultural member of Europe is declining. I

685
00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:56,079
take no joy in that, but you're absolutely right, it's true.

686
00:35:56,159 --> 00:35:59,719
And to look at the state of the British military,

687
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,079
which is a choice. All that money, I'm afraid has

688
00:36:03,079 --> 00:36:05,559
gone on welfare. This is not me being a mean

689
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:10,119
right winger. Just look at the books. They've spent it

690
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:14,199
all on welfare. They have cut everything except welfare. They

691
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:18,559
now are at their highest tax rates as a percentage

692
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:22,239
of GDP since nineteen forty five. That is to say,

693
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,039
the British public is now being taxed more than it

694
00:36:25,119 --> 00:36:28,719
has been since the end of World War II, and

695
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,760
they have this pathetic military to show for it. Why

696
00:36:32,039 --> 00:36:35,280
because all they spend their money on is welfare, and

697
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,880
that has been a choice. It has been a disastrous choice,

698
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,440
and it has led to them being irrelevant to the

699
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,360
point at which now they are less important to world affairs,

700
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,199
not regional affairs, to world affairs than Israel.

701
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:51,119
Speaker 2: Well, it's gone from a special relationship to a special

702
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:55,199
ed relationship. Stephen. You have in the background, if I'm

703
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:57,880
seeing it correctly, way in the corner of your room

704
00:36:57,920 --> 00:36:59,320
there back by the door, I think you have a

705
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:03,599
poster of and it says, if I recall deserve victory.

706
00:37:04,039 --> 00:37:06,079
I was always I was always caught up by the

707
00:37:06,119 --> 00:37:10,320
phrasing of that. My correct deserve victory be a people

708
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:14,559
who deserve it and earn it. Are the British public?

709
00:37:15,159 --> 00:37:17,800
They are they still that people?

710
00:37:18,599 --> 00:37:19,519
Speaker 3: Is there still something?

711
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:21,719
Speaker 2: Is something there that you can blow on the dying

712
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:26,119
embers and find find the lion's spirit, the bulldog spirit

713
00:37:26,199 --> 00:37:27,840
that got them through the blitz and the rest of it,

714
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:29,760
because I don't see it.

715
00:37:30,519 --> 00:37:32,800
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think the full quote that

716
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,519
that's taken from is Churchill said something like it's not

717
00:37:35,599 --> 00:37:38,880
possible to assure or guarantee victory. It is only possible

718
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,199
to deserve it, which again gets back to the phrase

719
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:44,119
I used earlier about the destroyer being stun the moral

720
00:37:44,159 --> 00:37:47,199
effect of the people, the moral I mean, you know

721
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,679
that crucial period that's dramatized in you know, the Darkest

722
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:52,559
Hour movie that came out three four years ago with

723
00:37:52,559 --> 00:37:57,000
Gary Oldman as Churchill. The calculation then was the morale

724
00:37:57,159 --> 00:38:00,000
of the Everything depends on the morale of our fighting force,

725
00:38:00,199 --> 00:38:03,559
which have now evacuating without their weapons from France, right,

726
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:06,360
and consequently the morale of the people.

727
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 3: And if we start saying.

728
00:38:08,599 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 5: We're going to have backdoor negotiations for a deal with Hitler,

729
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:16,159
everything will collapse. And yeah, it's hard to see. I mean,

730
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:20,320
we made jokes about France forever. Well, you know, we

731
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,880
want the French to teach the Iranians how to surrender, right,

732
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:24,119
but boy.

733
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:24,639
Speaker 3: This is not good.

734
00:38:26,039 --> 00:38:29,159
Speaker 5: Although Charlie's right, and it's very significant that we can

735
00:38:29,679 --> 00:38:32,360
stand alone without them if need be, it would be

736
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,719
much better to have them. I think, by the way,

737
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,079
I thought you were going to say, Charlie when you

738
00:38:37,079 --> 00:38:39,920
mentioned the Thatcher and Reagan, I am not sure if

739
00:38:40,039 --> 00:38:43,840
Argentina invaded the Falklands again, if Britain could muster the

740
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:45,360
military might to fight back.

741
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 3: Absolutely be veryonymous, right, No, of course not.

742
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 2: I'm convinced their entire culture decided that the Falklands were

743
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,000
was wrong because Elvis Costello wrote a mean song about it.

744
00:38:55,079 --> 00:38:59,079
Speaker 6: Well, she was exceptional even within that era for willing

745
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:05,199
to do that. I well, No, the idea that this

746
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:10,000
was a reflexive British response, that the island was consumed

747
00:39:10,079 --> 00:39:16,239
by Churchillian fortitude, It's just not true. The institutional response,

748
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,239
the establishment response, what we would call the swamp today,

749
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:25,079
said leave it. Because Britain had been through decades of decolonization,

750
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:31,679
that was its reflexive mode, and the British public initially

751
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:36,360
and certainly the bureaucracy, thought that this was just another

752
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:41,079
example of our dismantling the empire. And she said no,

753
00:39:41,679 --> 00:39:45,079
and she was right, of course, she said not literally,

754
00:39:45,079 --> 00:39:49,400
but I'm paraphrasing that there was no meaningful difference between

755
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:53,599
the Argentinians invading the Falcons and the Argentinians invading London

756
00:39:54,159 --> 00:39:57,239
in that they were British citizens who wanted, almost to

757
00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,000
a man, to remain British citizens. It was British territ

758
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:03,119
and you can't allow it to stand. And this was

759
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,800
regarded in the same way as Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire

760
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,559
speech that we all love was regarded as sort of

761
00:40:09,599 --> 00:40:14,159
the black and white maniche and thinking of a jingoistic roube.

762
00:40:15,039 --> 00:40:20,719
But she won and having one, the public loved her

763
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,480
for it. But I think the point you're making is

764
00:40:23,559 --> 00:40:25,760
the right one, which is not really about the resolve,

765
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,320
but is about the ability to project force, which the

766
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,880
British at that point could still do quite easily. We

767
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,320
sent an ar martyr of sorts down to the Falklands.

768
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,880
We just couldn't do it now. Also, it's not just

769
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,760
the lack of ships and modern weaponry. It's little things.

770
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:44,760
For example, did you know that the aircraft carries the

771
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:48,000
British have They don't have the catapults on them, they

772
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:51,079
don't have any of the stuff that American ones have

773
00:40:51,119 --> 00:40:51,760
had since.

774
00:40:51,519 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 2: The atl They have to be vtol the French have catapults.

775
00:40:57,119 --> 00:41:00,800
The Charles de Gaull can show more and it's amazing.

776
00:41:01,119 --> 00:41:04,440
The Brits invented, if I'm correct, the angled airstrip on

777
00:41:04,559 --> 00:41:07,360
the aircraft carrier, but we don't need that anymore.

778
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:11,199
Speaker 6: American roller coasters have catapults to launch them, but the

779
00:41:11,199 --> 00:41:14,840
British aircraft carriers done well.

780
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:19,159
Speaker 2: Speaking as a jingoistic rub who believes in Menechean dualism,

781
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:23,199
I sided with the Thatcher view of the world alas,

782
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:24,960
but now people are saying that one of the reasons

783
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,079
that Britain seems politically and culturally paralyzed in a leadership level

784
00:41:28,119 --> 00:41:31,800
is because Kirstarmer can't alienate those people who are really

785
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,760
mad that the Molos got pounded. And that's a different

786
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:38,159
element now than existed back in the Falklands War. That

787
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,960
the idea of British and the idea of monoculture, the

788
00:41:41,039 --> 00:41:42,679
idea of what it means to be English and all

789
00:41:42,679 --> 00:41:46,480
the rest of these things have been defined differently in

790
00:41:46,519 --> 00:41:49,960
different ways without the consent of the people who previously

791
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:55,000
fit under that definition. So that's our little bit for them. France, however,

792
00:41:55,079 --> 00:41:58,559
seems to be using this opportunity to look muscular Macron

793
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,280
sending thels to gall I believe didn't Macron recently say

794
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,360
that he was going to extend the French nuclear force,

795
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:08,079
you know, force frape or whatever it is, to England

796
00:42:08,159 --> 00:42:10,800
that he would he would, he would was willing to

797
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,079
include them in the nuclear umbrella. Did I did I

798
00:42:13,079 --> 00:42:15,480
get that correctly? Well?

799
00:42:15,559 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 5: I missed that if he did say it. But I mean,

800
00:42:18,039 --> 00:42:19,360
you know, we love to throw a lot of shade

801
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:20,920
at the French. You know, why do they plant the

802
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,920
trees because the German army likes the margin a shade.

803
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:24,960
Speaker 3: All those great old jokes.

804
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,199
Speaker 5: But the truth is is, you know it's I think

805
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:29,760
it's still true today that when the French get their backup,

806
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,239
they're not hesitant to lash out quite effectively. I mean,

807
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:35,119
my favorite moment, it's now back in the eighties, but

808
00:42:35,159 --> 00:42:37,320
you know, they blew up a green Peace ship that

809
00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:39,639
was trying to interfere with one of their nuclear tests

810
00:42:39,639 --> 00:42:40,559
in the South Pacific.

811
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,679
Speaker 3: I kind of admired that, right, And.

812
00:42:43,519 --> 00:42:46,519
Speaker 5: You know, they they they rummaged around a bit in

813
00:42:46,559 --> 00:42:48,480
the last few years in Africa and some of their

814
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:52,000
former colonies and some governments that are allied with them now.

815
00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:56,039
Speaker 3: They often had to borrow I think ten years ago.

816
00:42:56,079 --> 00:42:58,079
Speaker 5: As I recall that maybe more, they had to borrow

817
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:03,400
transport capacity from Russia. So they do lack certain complete capacities.

818
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:04,800
But you know, when the French want to do it,

819
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:08,119
they can still do it, which amazing I think. I

820
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,199
like to think Macron has a sense of humor saying

821
00:43:10,199 --> 00:43:12,760
we'll defend England now, which I.

822
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,079
Speaker 3: Can see him doing that just to be mischievous and annoying.

823
00:43:15,599 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 2: He did four days ago in Brittany speech in Brittany

824
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,719
saying Macron said, quote, the next fifty years will be

825
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,280
an era of nuclear weapons. I guess we're past the

826
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:31,440
old days of the freeze and the rest of that stuff. Yeah. Right, so, gentlemen,

827
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:33,760
if you could talk amongst yourself. I'm seeing a huge

828
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:35,719
amount of smoke coming from outside my eyes. I just

829
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:36,880
want to make sure nothing's on foot.

830
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 3: Oh go ahead, Yeah, Well, good grief.

831
00:43:40,599 --> 00:43:41,159
Speaker 6: Well I saw.

832
00:43:42,679 --> 00:43:46,800
Speaker 5: Well, well, we should ask James about this when he

833
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:48,360
comes back, if we have time. I just saw some

834
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,920
figures yesterday from a friend of mine. Mark Perry used

835
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:53,800
to be an economist to the EI, but he's from

836
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,599
Minnesota and he's moved back to the Twin cities. Apparently,

837
00:43:56,679 --> 00:43:59,800
auto thefts are soaring in Minneapolis St.

838
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 3: Paul right now, eighteen a day on average job this year.

839
00:44:03,039 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 5: And that's while crime and auto thefts are falling everywhere

840
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:06,840
else around the country.

841
00:44:07,159 --> 00:44:08,079
Speaker 3: So what's this about.

842
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,679
Speaker 5: I get the feeling that, I mean, you may know

843
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:15,559
this that the number of deportations by ICE are much

844
00:44:15,599 --> 00:44:18,679
higher in California and Texas other bigger states, but that's

845
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:20,440
not what we're seeing the protests in the trouble we're

846
00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:23,639
seeing in Minneapolis Saint Paul. And I don't know, I'm

847
00:44:23,679 --> 00:44:25,840
never going to understand that crazy place. It's sort of

848
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:27,480
worse off even than Portland, Oregon.

849
00:44:28,199 --> 00:44:28,760
Speaker 3: That's one thing.

850
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,039
Speaker 6: I think There's two things going on there. One is

851
00:44:33,199 --> 00:44:36,480
the lack of enforcement, which is how you stop car thefts,

852
00:44:36,599 --> 00:44:39,079
as the National Guard showed in Washington, d C. I

853
00:44:39,079 --> 00:44:41,320
don't want the National Guide outside of Washington, d C.

854
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:45,039
Necessarily because Washington, d C is a federal city and

855
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:50,159
Minneapolis is not. But you do stop this with preventative measures,

856
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:53,880
and on the immigration front, California, it's very interesting that.

857
00:44:54,199 --> 00:44:57,920
But Texas is explained by the cooperation of the state

858
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,480
with the federal government, because once you have it makes

859
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,519
it very difficult for people to get in the way.

860
00:45:03,039 --> 00:45:05,559
If the state's handing over the people that it wants

861
00:45:05,639 --> 00:45:09,280
to the federal government, it's easy. But that's interesting about California.

862
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:10,480
I wonder why that is.

863
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:12,960
Speaker 3: I don't really know.

864
00:45:13,039 --> 00:45:17,199
Speaker 5: I actually drive by every Sunday a anti ICE protests

865
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:20,079
with maybe one hundred people with signs on highway one

866
00:45:20,079 --> 00:45:23,079
on one outside the county jail and Sheriff's office. So

867
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,920
because I think my local DA is cooperating with ICE,

868
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,599
because he's very concernative, Okay, But I think it varies from.

869
00:45:28,519 --> 00:45:29,119
Speaker 3: Place to place.

870
00:45:32,519 --> 00:45:34,880
Speaker 6: The topic times is why is Minneapolis crazy?

871
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 5: Oh?

872
00:45:36,199 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 2: So many reasons, so many reasons. And by the way,

873
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,000
I'm not on fires in the excess of water vapor

874
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:45,159
coming out of the heating system since we're selling soon,

875
00:45:45,199 --> 00:45:47,599
I'm a little Actually, I would prefer for the place.

876
00:45:47,639 --> 00:45:49,320
I would prefer for the place to go up in

877
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,480
absolute fire and just collect the check and walk away.

878
00:45:51,519 --> 00:45:53,400
But it wasn't that. Why is Manylos?

879
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:56,840
Speaker 5: Remember Rob Long always said that if you're in California

880
00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:59,119
where you can't afford earthquake insurance, right, I mean, just

881
00:45:59,159 --> 00:46:00,760
it's off the charge to go offer to me every

882
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:02,679
year and I forget it. And he said, if you

883
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:04,559
have an earthquake and your house falls over, what you

884
00:46:04,599 --> 00:46:05,800
want to do is send it on fire.

885
00:46:06,039 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 3: Because of the fire, insurance will cover it.

886
00:46:08,559 --> 00:46:15,679
Speaker 2: Minneapolis. Minneapolis is crazy because it decided that it had

887
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:18,559
solved everything and that the thing to do to make

888
00:46:18,599 --> 00:46:21,880
things better was to keep expanding every single instrument of

889
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,320
the state that it thought had solved everything. And there

890
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:27,440
were a couple of instances where things weren't solved. So

891
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:30,679
it just spend more. So that's it. So the process

892
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:35,719
naturally pushed into politics people who believed in strong status intervention. Now,

893
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,440
the thing which is not unusual, but what made Minnesota

894
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:43,960
unusual was that we had a high Scandinavian northyn European

895
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:46,599
culture quote, which gave us a lot of social capital.

896
00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:48,920
One of those high trust societies all the people are

897
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:52,320
always entering about on X. We were that you paid

898
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,239
a lot of taxes, but you got good government, you

899
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:58,719
got clean streets, you got no potholes. You had expectation

900
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,239
that the corporate leaders were their money as well. The

901
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:04,320
big companies will pledge to get five percent of their

902
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,159
stuff to charities and whatnot you and it all produces

903
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:12,480
wonderfully civilized society. Those generous with its benefits. Generous benefits

904
00:47:12,639 --> 00:47:15,840
attract people who do not desire to contribute, and then

905
00:47:16,039 --> 00:47:20,639
that gets more of that, and eventually the social capital decreased,

906
00:47:21,079 --> 00:47:24,199
the trust decreased, and the people who stayed in Minneapolis

907
00:47:24,199 --> 00:47:27,000
in particular were generally, you know, hardliners, I mean just

908
00:47:27,199 --> 00:47:30,400
dead enders. Or there are people who had not changed

909
00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:33,159
their politics at all ever since college and believed these

910
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:35,960
things with increasing fervor, and it never really examined the

911
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:38,719
whole intellectual constellation in their head that made them both

912
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:40,880
the way they did. And so the city sort of

913
00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:44,480
self selects, and it's a smart city, highly educated people,

914
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:48,360
but it's those highly educated you know, liberals and progressives

915
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:53,320
who have a moral certainty attached to outmoded, unworkable ideas,

916
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,599
and so that's what gets you crazy and alias and

917
00:47:56,639 --> 00:47:59,559
a lack. So I am going to be moving, but

918
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:04,559
I'm going to be about twelve blocks from the city limits.

919
00:48:04,559 --> 00:48:06,599
Speaker 6: So I was going to ask you. I was hoping

920
00:48:06,639 --> 00:48:07,719
I might have a new neighbor.

921
00:48:09,599 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 2: No, Alast Florida isn't on the table yet, but it wouldn't.

922
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:16,880
I have sort of a year here where I'm figuring

923
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:20,679
it out and we will see I you know, the

924
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:23,119
or Alabama for that matter, I.

925
00:48:23,039 --> 00:48:26,639
Speaker 6: Should be on commission, I think. And my prostizement for Florida.

926
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:28,800
Speaker 2: I just I want to go to Alabama so I

927
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:31,639
can lord it over the Canadians. I was thinking of

928
00:48:31,679 --> 00:48:32,320
going to a Winnebeg.

929
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:35,599
Speaker 6: But you know, but it's Alabama.

930
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 2: I know, that's the thing. That's a great thing. Well yeah,

931
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:41,079
I mean, so are we alone in this? I mean

932
00:48:41,119 --> 00:48:43,400
we seem like an outpost of what you take to

933
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:48,760
be southern California or just California crazy liberals and transplanted here.

934
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:50,760
I mean des Moines isn't like this, And I wouldn't

935
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,679
say that des Moines is necessarily historically all that different

936
00:48:53,679 --> 00:48:57,480
from from from Minnesota. Iowa was not settled by a

937
00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:02,079
bunch of you know, raging individual lists who like to

938
00:49:02,079 --> 00:49:04,480
do any form of collective I mean, it's the Midwest

939
00:49:04,519 --> 00:49:06,199
is generally sensible settled places.

940
00:49:07,679 --> 00:49:08,559
Speaker 3: Why we are that.

941
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 2: Shanker of red In or shanker of the well No, no,

942
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,280
shankers don't Why why we're crazy?

943
00:49:16,639 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 5: Yeah?

944
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,360
Speaker 6: But you know what else is interesting about this? James?

945
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:21,119
And you can tell me if I'm wrong, because I'm

946
00:49:21,159 --> 00:49:24,519
making comments on your state, but if you look at

947
00:49:24,559 --> 00:49:28,679
say the presidential election results in Minnesota, it's really close.

948
00:49:29,639 --> 00:49:33,320
So yeah, you've got a strange phenomenon here where the

949
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:37,000
Democrats win, and they win most of the time, and

950
00:49:37,039 --> 00:49:40,239
then they're completely crazy as if they were winning in

951
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:45,719
say Oregon, where they win by twenty points, which is unusual.

952
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:49,519
And Wisconsin is in some ways a progressive state, but

953
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:53,840
that is much less so than Minnesota, and it's a

954
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:58,639
swing state two or it's close to being one. So

955
00:49:58,679 --> 00:50:01,360
there's something about this that really pushes the people who

956
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,679
are in charge to go for it in a way

957
00:50:03,679 --> 00:50:05,599
that they don't seem to in other states that are

958
00:50:05,639 --> 00:50:08,199
divided by five or six points. California is a bit different.

959
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:11,280
I mean, California is what was it like sixty one

960
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:15,360
to thirty in the last presidential election. It's not even that,

961
00:50:15,559 --> 00:50:18,239
but I yeah, yeah, they can just they can run

962
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,519
hog wild, as you might say. And now in Florida,

963
00:50:21,599 --> 00:50:24,199
maybe this will change, but I mean the last gubernatorial

964
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:26,599
election in Florida was decided by twenty points. Of course,

965
00:50:26,639 --> 00:50:29,400
they came back and did constitutional carry in the school

966
00:50:29,519 --> 00:50:32,079
choice and tax cuts and so forth. But I'm just

967
00:50:32,119 --> 00:50:35,639
fascinated by Minnesota because it's actually not that democratic. It's

968
00:50:35,679 --> 00:50:37,719
just that the Democrats who are there are wild.

969
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:41,159
Speaker 2: It is and it isn't. I mean, you're right, it's

970
00:50:41,199 --> 00:50:46,000
the metro core that is the throbbing blue out state.

971
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:48,800
It's red and it's purplish as you go out here

972
00:50:48,840 --> 00:50:52,079
and there. But there's also a strong socialist tendency when

973
00:50:52,119 --> 00:50:54,360
you get up north to the Iron Range and places

974
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:55,920
that were settled by people who said, now we're going

975
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,880
to bond, to get bond together for for union reasons.

976
00:51:00,079 --> 00:51:03,119
For the rest of it, you have that old early

977
00:51:03,159 --> 00:51:06,280
twentieth century sort of leftism that still is part of

978
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:08,960
the character. And so you know, they may vote this way,

979
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,360
they may vote that way, but they're culturally not on

980
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:15,199
board with the whole progressive twenty first century agenda, just not.

981
00:51:16,519 --> 00:51:18,599
But they find themselves ruled by a party that is

982
00:51:19,199 --> 00:51:23,760
I mean Peggy Flanagan. You know, the Tenant governor shows

983
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:26,039
up with a shirt that says protect trans Kids has

984
00:51:26,079 --> 00:51:30,039
got a big knife on it. Who much supposed to stab?

985
00:51:30,599 --> 00:51:32,559
I mean, when they had a trans Day of Visibility

986
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:35,440
or a trans Day of Remembrance, I can't remember what

987
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:39,239
it was they had this drag guy queen dancing in

988
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:41,840
high heels in this sort of demonic costume. And I'm

989
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:43,320
not saying that lightly. I mean I think he had

990
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:46,360
horns in a tail on the star which is this

991
00:51:46,559 --> 00:51:49,280
in the rotunda of the Capitol building. There's this beautiful

992
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,519
inlaid star, symbol of the state, and it's roped off

993
00:51:53,559 --> 00:51:56,280
so that nobody walks over it, like the you know,

994
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:58,880
the flame of the Unknown Soldier to the Unknown Soldier flame.

995
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:02,239
There he was clopping away at it, and everybody's clapping

996
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:04,559
away to and you know, the guys out of state

997
00:52:05,039 --> 00:52:07,800
in the Range Farmers sitting there at the VFW Club

998
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,199
looking at this is thinking what a bunch of weirdos.

999
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:13,079
I had nothing to do with them. But then, but

1000
00:52:13,119 --> 00:52:15,400
then you know, coming election time, they may pull the

1001
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,320
letter from the lever for the d Yeah, it is.

1002
00:52:18,559 --> 00:52:22,000
It is a peculiar place. It it is. But I

1003
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,239
don't misunderstand all the things that you hear from Minneapolis

1004
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,159
and all the things that you've seen. It is still

1005
00:52:27,639 --> 00:52:31,199
a beautiful city and a fantastic city. And I leave

1006
00:52:31,239 --> 00:52:35,599
my neighborhood with regret against my will, and the state

1007
00:52:35,679 --> 00:52:38,320
itself is beautiful and the people are good, and you know,

1008
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:43,599
it's it's mad in spots, it's deft, but damn, it's

1009
00:52:43,599 --> 00:52:44,119
still home.

1010
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,039
Speaker 6: You sound like a Californian talking about California.

1011
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, it's it's it's it's a Stockholm syndrome.

1012
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:53,480
It really is. Well, gentlemen, we're on the way out here,

1013
00:52:53,639 --> 00:52:55,079
just got a few minutes before we come to the

1014
00:52:55,119 --> 00:52:57,880
end of our arbitrarily decided to time package here and

1015
00:52:58,000 --> 00:52:59,840
he notes, Stephen, anything you'd like to tell us that

1016
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:02,840
we talk about that we haven't mentioned in our in

1017
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:04,360
a basis around the world.

1018
00:53:04,679 --> 00:53:06,199
Speaker 5: Well, there's a whole lot. I mean, we could go

1019
00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:08,920
on a CHRISTI nom. I'll just say I won't tell

1020
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:10,480
a story because in the time, but I just.

1021
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:12,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's from South Dakota. Those people are old.

1022
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:13,159
Speaker 3: There you go.

1023
00:53:14,159 --> 00:53:16,400
Speaker 5: I did see her once, only once up close and

1024
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:18,199
in person, where I formed two impressions.

1025
00:53:18,239 --> 00:53:20,440
Speaker 3: One is, wow, she's really pretty in person.

1026
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:23,119
Speaker 5: But second, I came away from what should have been

1027
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:26,559
a slam dunk easy command of the room where she

1028
00:53:26,679 --> 00:53:30,000
was very stiff and didn't read the room that was

1029
00:53:30,199 --> 00:53:32,360
terribly sympathetic to her, and I came away thinking, you know,

1030
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:34,000
she really hasn't.

1031
00:53:33,599 --> 00:53:36,320
Speaker 3: Got it at the high level that she aspires to.

1032
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:38,039
Speaker 5: This is five or six years ago now that she

1033
00:53:38,119 --> 00:53:42,000
really has not got the talents and political knows for

1034
00:53:42,079 --> 00:53:44,119
the levels that she aspires to, and I think that's

1035
00:53:44,119 --> 00:53:45,639
what we've seen over the last year with her.

1036
00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, because I'm inclined otherwise to want to like.

1037
00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:50,719
Speaker 6: Her, she should never have been chosen. And it is

1038
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,760
one of the great and possibly fatal flaws in the

1039
00:53:53,800 --> 00:54:02,960
MAGA movement that they have this absolutely fervent conviction that

1040
00:54:03,039 --> 00:54:05,559
if they don't win on every issue they care about,

1041
00:54:05,639 --> 00:54:07,880
many of which are the issues I care about the

1042
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:12,960
country's over and yet they put in positions of administration

1043
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:16,559
people who are simply not up to the task. And

1044
00:54:16,599 --> 00:54:21,679
you can see the difference between the results when they

1045
00:54:22,519 --> 00:54:27,000
find good people, say Marca Rubio or Scott Besend, than

1046
00:54:27,039 --> 00:54:32,079
when they find not good people, say Christynome or well,

1047
00:54:32,119 --> 00:54:33,920
we nearly got Matt Gates, which would be the worst

1048
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,440
of all, but Pam Bondy, who I was open to,

1049
00:54:36,519 --> 00:54:38,880
but it's not up to the job. And I think

1050
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:43,599
that the Trump administration ought to be aware that if

1051
00:54:43,639 --> 00:54:47,159
it had filled itself with Edwin Meese types, it would

1052
00:54:47,239 --> 00:54:51,440
be further along in its goals, then it is now.

1053
00:54:52,039 --> 00:54:54,880
I have nothing particular against Mark qwain Marlin. I think

1054
00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:57,360
some of the criticisms of him are deeply unfair. But

1055
00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:04,039
the border and scurity in general was Trump's issue. Why

1056
00:55:04,039 --> 00:55:08,079
can't they find someone who is boring but unbelievably good

1057
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:14,400
at running an executive department that well, for better or

1058
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:18,960
for worse, be in charge of deportations for the next

1059
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:21,639
three years. I don't understand this. You could get me

1060
00:55:21,719 --> 00:55:24,000
going about how the fact that Malon wants to leave

1061
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:27,159
the Senate is an indictment of the state of our legislature,

1062
00:55:27,199 --> 00:55:30,519
because no historical senator would be caught dead leaving for

1063
00:55:30,559 --> 00:55:33,679
anything other than the Secretary of State. But the Trump

1064
00:55:33,679 --> 00:55:36,039
administration just has a problem in this regard. If it

1065
00:55:36,079 --> 00:55:39,119
could fill every position with someone excellent, which it could,

1066
00:55:39,599 --> 00:55:41,320
I think it would be better off. But it doesn't.

1067
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:45,840
And so yet Christine known of all people at DHS.

1068
00:55:46,159 --> 00:55:48,119
Speaker 2: You get the feeling that Mark Graccorreon is checking his

1069
00:55:48,159 --> 00:55:50,519
phone settings to make sure the notifications are turned off.

1070
00:55:50,519 --> 00:55:53,119
Speaker 6: He should be. That's exactly who they should pay for.

1071
00:55:53,199 --> 00:55:57,719
Speaker 2: Someone like that, right, yeah, exactly, or us for that matter,

1072
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:00,440
we who convene here weekly and have all the answers

1073
00:56:00,599 --> 00:56:02,239
we'll actually know we don't, but we just like to

1074
00:56:02,280 --> 00:56:03,719
talk about the things that we think that we know.

1075
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:06,000
And I hope that you've enjoyed hearing the things that

1076
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,679
we've said, because otherwise what's the point. But as ever,

1077
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:12,760
Stephen and Charles, you have been a delight and interesting

1078
00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:15,119
and fun to listen to. And I always come away

1079
00:56:15,119 --> 00:56:18,199
from this glad I've spent this hour with you, and

1080
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:20,199
you folks at home. If you haven't been a member

1081
00:56:20,199 --> 00:56:26,880
of Ricochet yet, what the sam touton hell are you

1082
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:29,000
waiting for? It's cheap And the thing about it is

1083
00:56:29,079 --> 00:56:32,280
it's not just one of those websites where people post opinions.

1084
00:56:32,599 --> 00:56:35,480
It's about everything, and there's a member site that has

1085
00:56:35,519 --> 00:56:37,639
just It has a community and a breadth of topics,

1086
00:56:37,639 --> 00:56:39,599
the likes of which you have not seen on the internet.

1087
00:56:39,719 --> 00:56:41,639
It will not drive you mad like Facebook. It will

1088
00:56:41,639 --> 00:56:43,679
not waste your time like Twitter. It will not be

1089
00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:46,039
as a scrolling, endless time suck. It is a place

1090
00:56:46,079 --> 00:56:49,960
to sit down and actually expand and be calm. I

1091
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:51,599
get a little head up when somebody says this, but

1092
00:56:51,679 --> 00:56:53,400
it's a community waiting for you. The likes of which,

1093
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:56,480
as I said, you haven't found and if you remember,

1094
00:56:56,519 --> 00:56:58,760
you get to post, and if you're not, you don't.

1095
00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:01,719
And that's why it's a civil, samee place to be.

1096
00:57:02,280 --> 00:57:04,599
If you could go to Apple podcast or whatever it's

1097
00:57:04,599 --> 00:57:06,880
called these days and give a five stars, we'd really

1098
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:11,119
appreciate that. Somewhere around episode one thousand, I'm gonna stop

1099
00:57:11,159 --> 00:57:13,159
saying that, but since it's seven to seventy nine, that

1100
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:15,079
gives me a little how many more On the two

1101
00:57:15,119 --> 00:57:18,760
hundred and twenty one we thank fabric Fabric by Gerber,

1102
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,960
which will provide you with insurance in like ten minutes.

1103
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,199
And if you've been putting it off, there's absolutely no

1104
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:28,559
reason you should. It's easy, sit down, open up your laptop,

1105
00:57:28,679 --> 00:57:31,119
a couple of questions, and bang, there you are. Peace

1106
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,280
of mind. Gentlemen, it's been great and we'll see everybody

1107
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:37,880
in the comments, said Ricochet. Four point whatever, Bye bye.

1108
00:57:37,719 --> 00:57:40,599
Speaker 3: Bye, Ricochet.

1109
00:57:41,119 --> 00:57:44,280
Speaker 2: Peah, join the conversation