Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to a new episode of You Were
Wrong with Molly Hemingway, editor and chief of the Federalist
and David Harsani, senior writer at The Washington Examiner. Just
as a reminder, if you'd like to email the show,
please do so at radio at the Federalist dot com.
We'd love to hear from you. Molly. It's nice to
have you back this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had planned for me not to be on
last week because I was taping the recording the audiobook
for my book Alito, which is coming out in April.
And in the meantime, also my beloved father died and
I've talked about my dad a lot on the podcast.
He's this larger than life figure and very dear to
everyone in my family large extended family. We had a
beautiful funeral. It was just awesome, overflowing at my parents' church.
My dad's a pastor, so there were like twenty clergy
that came from nearby churches to honor my father and
we're part of the processional. We had great hymns. It
was just a really beautiful service and people came from
all over. Like my parents have several godchildren, and two
of their godchildren came and one of them drove up
from Arizona. He said he keeps up with the family
on the podcast, so I was like, oh, I have
to make sure I'm keeping him updated. But it was
just great. And yeah, I mean, I will say that
my cousin, Kimberly, her dad died in late July, and
my brother and I were talking to her and we
were like, we had no idea what were going through.
Like we were there at the funeral, we offered condolences,
but we just had no idea. And then I keep
thinking like, oh my gosh, if it hurts this bad
when your dad dies, what happens when a spouse dies,
Like I'm definitely going to be much more, try to
be much more helpful to people when loved ones die,
because we've gotten so much help from people, and it's
just beautiful.
Speaker 1: I read the obituary. I'm not sure if you had
wrote it or someone else. I read it.
Speaker 2: My sister wrote it with help from a bunch of
other people.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he lived an amazing life in the service
of his community. So I think if you are listening,
you should seek out and read the obituary of Molly's
days Larry Larry's Elther Larry Ziegler.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, can I tell you something really quickly. We've
been going through all of his papers and so my
dad knew he wanted to be a Lutheran pastor from
the age of eleven, and he was this amazing pastor
who helped so many people. And my mother is I
jokingly call her the world's worst pastor's wife, Like most
pastors wives are. They're the organist, or they're they run
the Sunday school program, or they do what my mom
was like, I'll show up at church on Sunday. You know,
that's what my contribution is. But my mother was always
like a super Republican type person, and my dad and
his family were big time Democrats. So we were going
through his scrap book from childhood, which is amazing by
the way, childhood through college, and he really liked LBJ.
And my sister and I are like, well, I guess
dad wasn't perfect. You know, there was a I mean,
he like has pictures of him and he has cutouts
about what a great president he was. And he later
became not just Republican but kind of very Republican, mostly
during the Reagan administration.
Speaker 1: I would say, Mark and I, your wonderful husband, did
the show last week, and we got some letters. People
were not happy that we were in agreeance so often
and that we were so reasonable, and then we had
this conversation without any of your wrong arguments. One guy wrote,
which is my favorite email, that we sounded like two
old men speaking at a hardware store, which to me
sounds like a wonderful idea for a podcast. I have
to be honest, because guys at hardware stores know a
lot they really do.
Speaker 2: Right, well, we'll fight, we'll fight about something. Do you
have to tell me what the news is and then
I'll fight about it with you.
Speaker 1: I should lie to you.
Speaker 3: The uh.
Speaker 1: The next logical topic is bad Bunny, right the super
Bowl halft, I'm sure. I remember last year. I didn't
know who Kendrick Lamar was, and he was like the
really streameder. That's exactly what you said at the time,
and he was the most streamed artist. But the most
streamed artist actually is bad Bunny is he has like
some massive number of streamers. He has fifty one point
seven subscribers I think on YouTube, nineteen of his videos
had over one billion views, which is just insane because
I could not have named a song that he sang.
Apparently I couldn't name it anyway because I don't speak Spanish.
But anyway, super Bowl I think was subpar this year,
and the game itself. Didn't really enjoy it that much.
But I thought the halftime show became a litmus test
for what kind of like where you stand on immigration
and assimilation and all this stuff. And I think it's
just I don't know. Let me just ask, did you
watch any of that? Did you get a chance to
see it?
Speaker 2: I watched zero of the Super Bowl. My mother did
not have cable at that time, which was a saga
all of its own, and so I didn't see any
of it. Nor did I feel like I missed it out.
I'm I'm not the well. I think it was a
weird choice for a halftime show, mostly because and I
do speak Spanish by the way, and grew up in
a Spanish speaking community. I think it's weird for an
American super Bowl to have an artist who sings only
in English and actually are only in Spanish, and that
on that note, actually, I think it's weird to have
an artist who doesn't hit a wide swath of appeal.
I know the NFL has been taking its like base,
its regular base for granted, and they're always like trying
to reach new audiences, foreign audience's, Latin audiences, whatever. But
I think it was like just an embarrassing mistake by
the NFL. And I don't say that as someone who
hates Bad Bunny or anything like that. I don't like him.
I think he's kind of like but I am very
gen x about this. Like, I think it's always suspect
when someone has a large number of you know, Spotify followers,
something like a sort of code for not great. I
thought it was like, hihilarious that all of these people
who care so deeply about what people think about them
were like, no, no, no, I like Bad Bunny. I'm like, no,
you don't. I mean it's repetitive. It's in Spanish. You
don't speak Spanish. You don't like this. You're just trying
to make people think you're okay by saying you like them. Ye,
so I didn't really, I don't know, I don't really care,
like I I know, it's hard to book the Super
Bowl halftime. I think maybe they should go back into
more like Medley type stuff where you have a variety
of artists or something, because that would also be kind
of exciting if you were at a Super Bowl party
and you know, you got your country artist, you got
your rap artist, and you got your bad bunny, and
you got you know, you could like mix it up.
But I just think it was a mistake by the NFL,
and that it really was a mistake because they had
an alternative program that got like a sizeable number of
views given that it was only on YouTube. I think,
so now you're going to start seeing I'm sure more
alternative programming during halftime, particularly the easier it is to
do that, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can stream and just create your own programming
on YouTube and get a ton of people. I have
a few things to say. I think you're right. I
don't think the NFL is like, I don't think this
was a political statement as much.
Speaker 2: As I do, absolutely, But I just think they're.
Speaker 1: Trying to internationalize the game. I mean, there was like
tons of European games they're trying to spread to Mexico.
I think that that is there are capitalistic reasons that
probably drove this more than good all wanting to get
statement about immigration or whatever. But I've kind of taken
aback at how meh. The whole thing is like I
can appreciate like I'm old. It's not aimed at me,
I get it. But I can appreciate music that I
don't love. I can't believe this is like the most
popular musician, and honestly, I sound like a cranky old
man at a hardware store. Again, it's hard for me
to even call this guy a musician because he's almost
not even rapping, just speaking.
Speaker 2: I saw this Twitter thread from Democratic Socialists of America
and it was going through like all the political meaning
behind what Bad Bunny's performance was, and a call to
end the colonialism in Puerto Rico by the United States,
and I just want to say I agree with that.
I think I think Puerto Rico is not doing the
best with what they have. I have been there, and
I love Puerto Rico. I think it's like a beautiful island.
And I was so horrified by the NonStop bankruptcy and
loan ads that were on the teleelevision while I was there.
It's like there's not a lot of financial literacy there.
I guess there's you know, like just bad problems there
and the amount of money we give to Puerto Rico,
and I agree that it has like strategic import and
has for a very long time. I mean, some of
the cool things to see in Puerto Rico are the
forts that are guarding that area. But I think we
need to do better. And they definitely, like people that
can't operate their lives as well as they should be
should not be welcomed into the United States as like
a state until they get that back together.
Speaker 1: No more states, no more states. And this is a
welfare state already. We don't need any more states.
Speaker 2: Like super welfare state.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah it is. So this whole thing became
a litmus test for like where you stand on I
sent immigration and all this stuff. I want to talk
about one of my favorite tweets that I saw on
this at the time, and it's from David from who people
probably know that is it's a picture of Joe DiMaggio
with Eisenhower and Rocky Marciano in an event looks like
at the White House, and he says, President Eisenhower posing
in nineteen fifty three with Joe Dimagio and Rocky Marciano.
I ask you to imagine a nineteen fifties Republican who
didn't live in a lunatic asylum getting upset when he
saw Italian American stars on his TV.
Speaker 2: I feel like we all know David Brumm is not
as stupid as he's trying to make himself seem with
a tweet like that, and like we should just acknowledge
that he's a much smarter individual than that tweet would indicate.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, okay, But I think it reflected a lot
of the arguments people were making when they make these
comparisons about immigration in the past. And hey, I know,
you know growing up in certain areas that there were
a lot of Italian festivals, people would speak in Italian.
That's not like, you know, people embrace their culture, don't
think there's anything wrong with it. But these three, these
people when they met, I think this was the war.
Let me put it this way. I think this was
the worst example you could give. Because Joe DiMaggio's parents
were off the boat. He spoke English without an accent.
He became a legend in the most American sport and
the most American thing you can imagine, which is baseball.
He was completely assimilated. He was the perfect example of
someone who embraced America.
Speaker 2: And yet also I think the equivalent too would be like, Okay,
so let's say you could imagine a world in which,
you know, I know, the super Bowl wasn't doing halftime
shows like this. You could imagine a world where Frank
Sinatra would sing at the halftime show, right sure. And
David Frump's tweet is like saying, imagine someone getting upset
that pop star and Italian actress and singer Mina was
singing at the super Bowl because Mina sang an Italian
and Frank Sinatra sang in English. You know what I mean?
Likes to point there is a thing about pride from
the culture that you fled to come to the United States.
That is different from demanding that other people speak the
language of the place that you came from or adopt
as your own exclusively, like a fairly narrow cultural idea
or a neurocultural expression. And I think what we had
is decades of people and there's a lot to this, right.
America is a country of immigrants, which is something that
people said without actually thinking it out or thinking about
that we actually are a country of Americans, and that
that's different than being a country of immigrants, and people
kind of accepted it for so long that they have
just completely grown to either not know or to forsake
and hate American identity. And there is an American identity,
and it is fed by a lot of different things,
but it's not the same thing as like a narrow
German identity or a narrow Russian identity, or a narrow
Irish identity, or a narrow Puerto Rican identity. Like do
you know what I'm saying, Like, there's it's just it's
it's not expressive of a global event that is based
in America.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, to be fair, Puerto Ricans are Americans, right,
so we should say that.
Speaker 2: So are so are like you know, Argentinians, But I
mean it in Puerto Rican it's part of the United
States of America. I get it. I get it. Yeah, but.
Speaker 1: No, no, no go. It'd be like Rosemary Clooney singing
Mambo Italiano, right, like that is a celebration of being Italian.
But it doesn't feel like an imposition or a demand
right on the American people to speak Italian all the time.
And that's what this kind of feels like when he
is marching at that. You didn't watch it, but like
he's marching there with everyone. He's got all the flags
of all the Latin American countries, but that is those
countries are not America. And when you come here, oh
he did unless I mean, you know, I was in
and out. I gotta be honest with you. I found it.
I found it really boring.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but also I don't like what people. I mean,
there is a difference between being a territory of the
United States and being a state of the United States.
Speaker 1: No, there is, but I don't. I think the Puerto
Ricans can can consider themselves American. And unless we want
to give them their you know, walking papers or you know,
or make them a stake, it's not their fault that
they're neither right. They didn't make that choice. So I
have no problem calling the Puerto Rican an American, and
the Puerto Rican language is Spanish.
Speaker 2: I look forward to the biggest artist out of the
Northern Mariana Islands being the halftime Did you look at that?
I was like, should I go with American, Samoa or Guam.
Speaker 1: Let's say, I've been on here many times arguing and
I think it's super important that people learn English, like
it is. You're holding yourself back. When you don't know English,
You're not in you know, you're not assimilating if you
don't learn English. It's a problem. Also, Italians like New
York is like or still is and was like a
clearinghouse for immigrants who came here. You were in that
little community with people, and then you moved out and
went away, you went somewhere in America, like, there are
large areas in this country that are Spanish speaking. That's problematic.
The number one radio stations and the number one cable
station I believe are Italian, I mean are Spanish speaking. Actually,
I don't have.
Speaker 2: A problem with that at all. I love well. I
love Spanish. First of all. I think it's a great language.
I just think that for cultural events that unite the country,
it should not be in Spanish. But I think, like
I like listening to Spanish radio and Spanish language.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not against it. I'm just saying
that if you want to be successful in this country,
if we want to have like a common outlook on
the world and all that I mean to call common language.
Everyone knows this and from history is super important for
people to have if they want to have a consignation.
Speaker 3: We hear a lot, especially online, about conservatives attacking other conservatives.
Sometimes it even seems like conservatives are fighting each other
more than they fight the left. That's where the new
podcast Conservative Crossroads with Henry Olsen, Senior Fellow at the
Ethics and Public Policy Center comes in. It doesn't shy
away from these disputes. It leans into them by putting
two conservatives who disagree about an important issue together to
hash it out on the air. Every other week, Conservative
Crossroad does what no other program does explore conservatisms disagreements
without name calling. Conservative Crossroads is the podcast for conservatives
who want to understand what's happening to their movement. Join
Henry Olsen and his guest at Conservative Crossroads every other
Monday as they hash out the ideas and principles that
will decide the future of the right. Download Conservative Crossroads
from our partner Ricochet or any platform where you get
your podcast. Conservatism is at a crossroads, which is why
all conservatives need Conservative Crossroads. Listen today.
Speaker 2: This is a tangent, but at the funeral, my favorite
high school teacher saying your aunt was there. He was
friends with my dad and actually like an elder at
my dad's church before he retired, saying, your aunt would
always visit various Spanish speaking countries with his super hot wife.
She's still very hot, and he would do slide shows
where we saw, you know, where they went, oh, this
mayan pyramid or whatever, and it was always funny because
his super hot wife would be in some of the
pictures and he'd just be like, look at that, look
at that, And I loved it.
Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, I mean, I yeah, I I. You were
just talking about immigration, Like, I like that they're all, like,
it's the flavor of America that people come from all
different places. Originally they're still American, but they haven't left
back their tradition, you know, some of their traditions and stuff.
I love that stuff. I like that my parents spoke Hungarian,
Like I like that I know that language. You know,
it is not something I want to get rid of,
though I don't consider myself Hungarian. I consider myself an
American for very good reasons. But anyway, I didn't think
it was that big a deal either way. I just
think it's one of the like everything has to become
this massive, political, politicized event, and it is that to
me is like the most annoying thing that I can
watch a Super Bowl without having to get into a
having to write a column about it. Like I'd like
that if there were things in the world that I
didn't have to write columns about, like the Olympics. We
shouldn't have to write a column about the Olympics. I
am not a huge I am a huge I should
say I'm a huge fan of team sports. I'm not
a big fan of individual sports. Not that I don't
think they should happen, not that I'm not impressed, I
just don't like watching it. So the Olympics gives me
something more, like I can root for the American now
when the American's not there, I can make geopolitical decisions
on who I root for, like Swiss, or do I
roote for the French? You know what I mean? Swiss. So,
but there's a new thing at the Olympics since Donald
Trump's president, And this thing is we're going to ask
journalists are going to ask every American athlete if they
feel bad representing a country that's so awful, that has
ice rays, that shoots people in the street, and I
hate when they politicize the Olympics, and it is infuriating
to me, a champion of free speech, when one of
these idiots takes the bait and starts ripping Americans on
foreign soil, I cannot stand it. And that's what this
skier hunter has did. When he said he had mixed
emotions about representing the country, it's a little hard. He said.
There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the
biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.
Just because you know, I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean
I represent everything that's going on in the US. Who
is happy with everything that goes on in their country?
Do you think the Chinese are? Do you think the
French are? Like, it's a stupid question and that's a
stupid answer to give, and it's unpatriotic to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hate when people do this. Well, okay, first off,
our corporate media are evil, and you know this in
part because they say, how do you feel about representing
a country that is the most free in the entire world,
in which you are free to answer this question in
a way however you see fit. They don't go hey,
Eileen Goo, product of the United States of America who's
a trader to her country and is skiing for China
or whatever she does. How do you feel about all
of the horrors that your country, that you betrayed your
real you know, your United States for to ski for
How do you feel about what they're doing? How do
you feel about the imprisoning of Christians. They don't ask
her because they know she can't answer, and also because
they're just Democrat radical extremists, right, So, like it would
be one thing if you were really asking the question
of everybody, but it's only based on what like Midwi
New York City reporters think about the world, right, Like,
it's not it's not anything substantive. And then as for
any American who says word one against the United States
of America, I hope they lose and I hope they
get replaced. I mean, they should never ever be able
to be part of the team America. And I don't
care Biden is president or Trump is president or a
kangaroo as president. You don't talk ill of the United
States of America. End of story.
Speaker 1: On foreign soil, Yeah, when you're representing the flag which
is the I mean as an American, as an ambassador
of the country. Yeah, like it, come home, go off,
go off all you want, but you don't go to
Europe and do it. And that's what they want. They
want you to bash it. Now. Of course, implicit in
every question here to US athletes is like something terrible
is happening here, and you know you have to say
something because it is like nefarious, beyond belief, worse than
anything that's happening anywhere else, which is stupid. But here's
the thing on Eileen Goo. This is so I looked
her up, and you know how Google AI just comes up.
I don't know if you know this, but it'll maybe
turned it off somehow. But everywhere I go, they're shoving
AI down my throat. I open an email, there's AI.
I open a word document, there's anyway. This is how
Google's AI. I think it's called Gemini. This is what
they told me she is doing. She is competing in
the twenty twenty six Winter Olympics in Milan, aiming to
inspire a new generation of Chinese skiers, specifically girls, while
balancing her Chinese heritage and American upbringing. Like this is
chicom propaganda. Like you, it's probably word for word chicompropataganda.
Now the only notable heritage of the Communist state there
which does not represent the Chinese people or Chinese heritage.
Communism is a European idea, unfortunately, is that it is
maybe the most evil regime that has ever existed on Earth.
I mean, it's definitely in the running. Maybe Stalin, maybe Hitler.
I think the Chinese are probably worse she this woman
is worth twenty three million dollars, Like, couldn't she inspire
Chinese from here? Couldn't she represent Taiwan? You should I
don't know if you've looked it up, but you should
read and you should watch the coverage of her, the glowing, unctious,
like sickening coverage of this woman, who I think also
is just a trader. They're Americans who have dual citizenship,
who can't make the US team, who will like play
for Italy or something like that. It happens, I get it.
This woman could make the American team. She has no
reason to be representing a geopolitical foe of the United
States and the and and a person who criticized Trump
the other day but has never criticized the concentration camps
and the young Chinese women who are systematically raped in
them and used as sports labor, like anyway, So I just,
I just, I mean, can you imagine a US athlete
playing for the Soviet Union and like I'm celebrating her
here in nineteen, you know, seventy six or eighty or
whatever the Winter Olympics were Just no.
Speaker 2: But I'm also okay, I do have a problem with
dual citizenship period. I do not think it makes sense. Actually,
And I have a sister in law who's got dual
citizenship with the US in Canada, and I'm always like,
I think I've mentioned this before. I'm always asking her, like,
if we went to war, who would you fight for?
And she goes ha ha ha ha ha, And I'm like,
I'm not asking, like a joke, which one would you
fight for? And that goes quad druple billion for US
and China. And I don't even think China allows dual citizenship, right,
does not recognize.
Speaker 1: I don't think it has any rules, meaning, I think
it's whatever the state decides, like there was no real
there was no real I'm not an expert, but when
I tried to figure out how she got her dual
citizenship or whatever it's called there. I'm not even sure
it's full citizenship. They just broke every rule like they
hadn't did whatever they wanted. And she's not the only one.
I think there's another athlete like this. I think dual
citizenship makes sense for some people who work in two countries,
who have family in two countries, who leave a country
where they have children, Like, there are reasons people have them.
It's not a big it's not like a hill I
want to die on. I don't really care that much,
but it's just I don't know. I wish you could
be sanctioned in some way by the US, like I
don't know. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the Olympics. I like watching
curling if you're a fan of that sport.
Speaker 2: Like everything I do like curling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, every four years I watch it. I'm like so
into it, and then I forget that it exists for
another four years until they come back.
Speaker 2: And you know, I haven't watched any of the Olympics
just because I've been so busy with everything with dad.
But I normally sort of enjoy watching the Olympics. Yes,
watch Carling is great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, curling is great. Americans are quite good from what
I've seen.
Speaker 2: I play for the United States of America. That's what
I'm talking about. That's the proper response to any question. Also,
you could go with I have no idea what you're
talking about. This is the best country in the whole world.
We're celebrating our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary being better
than everyone else in the world. You can do anything
when you're an Olympic athlete, and I know, I know
that when you're focused a lot on skiing or speed
skating or whatever, like maybe you're not reading a lot
of books, but you should be smart enough to know
how to handle a gotcha question from a reporter like
would you care to alienate two thirds of the country
that you're skiing for? You should be able to answer
to that better.
Speaker 1: Just not a place for politics, This is a place
for you know, like, yeah, I played for the USA.
I love my country. I don't know why it's so difficult.
And if you don't, and that's perfectly acceptable in this
country to do, don't join, don't be on the Olympic team.
Why are you there? Do whatever you want to do
I get that this is a finance opportunity for a
lot of these people as well, because it makes them famous.
But there are endorsement deals that come with that, and
there aren't big crowds to watch skiing, so you need
those endorsement deals. But you know what I mean, just
shut up and wait to get home. My column this
was called shut up and ski. Yeah, you just mentioned
Miracle on Ice, the movie where it's the greatest scene
in movie history where he keeps at her Brooks keeps
asking them what they play for, like the University of Minnesota,
blah blah blah, till one guy's like I played for
the USA, and it's just the best moment. I'll mention
it again. I think I mentioned it last week on
Netflix has a Miracle on Ice documentary that I think
that I think, you know, very formative event in my life,
and this documentary I think was the best, and I'd
watched them all. It has a lot of the guys
came back to talk about it and they saw a
lot of footage of their family and stuff that they
hadn't ever seen. So it's like really emotional and great.
Speaker 2: So when we wrote the book on Justice, Kavanaugh, Carrie
Saverino and I we had a part in there about
how Justice Kavanaugh's hype game was to replay that part
of marklon Ice about playing for the United States of America.
It's such a good movie. It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I make my family reluctantly sometimes watch that once
a year.
Speaker 2: So good.
Speaker 1: Kurt Russell is so good in that. Did you watch
any of the commercials.
Speaker 2: Or anything, Not a one, but I remember that after
the and it was like after Biden was elected, Jeep
had an ad where they were like, Okay, every corporation
has been crazy and has been financing to the tune
of one hundred billion dollars all of the left wing's
most left wing causes, but we would like things to
calm down now that we got Biden elected. So they
had no notorious unifier Bruce Springsteen. I rate a gpad
and all the media were like, this was so unifying
and great, and it was to your point about a
litmus test. It was kind of like that. A lot
of the rest of America was like, what is this,
Get this off my television, Get Bruce Springsteen out of here.
Speaker 1: There's this weird perception of born in the USA. That
album of being this patriotic album about the United States,
but it's actually not that at all. It's it's this
is incredibly critical of the United States in very dishonest ways.
And a lot of the lyrics in that album. I mean,
I just which is fine, that's your choice, but why
are we pretending Born in the USA is some patriotic song.
Speaker 2: I loved well in part because Ronald Reagan used it
in his campaigning, and then Bruce Springsteen was like, no,
you don't understand. I'm trying to say I hate the USA,
and Reagan and the Republicans were like, we just love
the USA, so we'll just keep on singing Born in
the USA as if it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: When I think of gone Ie, I assume that that
just was the event that got Ronald Reagan elected, basically,
and that's how I think about it, you know. I
think like everyone hated America and then that happened and
everyone loved America. And also I thought I watched it live,
which my parent my dad later told me was not
the case. I had watched it later on tape.
Speaker 4: Okay, how has consumer confidence fallen to the lowest level
in over a decade watched Out on Wall Street podcast
with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection
between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet.
The media income is eighty four thousand dollars, but people
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insurance costs go down, will there be more of the same.
Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street,
it's affecting you financially.
Speaker 1: Be informed.
Speaker 4: Check out the watch Dot on Wall Street podcast with
Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: So apparently, across the United States and cities, the crime
rate has plunged to like centuries low numbers, which to
me is actually fascinating for a reason. We'll talk about
it after, but this is how Axios decided to cover
that story. Crime plunges in major cities despite Trump's crackdown rhetoric,
which makes zero sense because Trump said sent the National
Guard to a couple of cities because to help alleviate crime,
not despite it's not the word that belongs there. But
also it's not just rhetoric, he actually did some stuff.
Now you could like it or not, but it's clear that,
for instance, in DC, the National Guard just being around
helped lower crime rates, specifically murder. Am I wrong about this?
Speaker 2: So James Toronto when he was running the Best what
was it called? I Forget the Best?
Speaker 1: So the way I think at the.
Speaker 2: Wall Street Journal would love examsamples like this one, which
he called the Butterfield fallacy, named after a New York
Times reporter Fox Butterfield. Or when a reporter encounters facts
that are contrary to his political narrative, and usually you
find it with the word despite, followed by a clause
that actually explains the thing that is confusing to the reporter.
So I loved this example from Axios that despite Trump's
crack down on crime and talking about it, crime has
been cracked down on. It's like, huh, I'm not such
a mystery to everybody else in the United States, with
like twenty five different reasons, including the National Guard, including
deportation of criminals, including greater scrutiny of illegal immigrants, like
all these things that contribute to a decrease in crime.
I'm not always always want to highlight that record keeping
can be a disaster for crime statistics. But yes, yeah,
that's kind of a consistent thing over time. So God
bless the new world that Axios is learning about today.
Speaker 1: I am still find it surprising. I understand that I
think there's downward pressure from the federal government that kind
of convinces localities and cities to do a better job
with crime. I think you're right about probably about the
deportations and all that. But these numbers are massive, like
Orlando fifty eight percent drop, Tampa fifty to Denver forty
seven like this is these are huge drops in homicide
rates for a city, and people had some theories. I
wonder what you think that there And this is a
theory I heard years ago when there was the initial
crime drop in the nineties, that there are just fewer
kids around and or young people, and that they are
the leading criminals basically, especially young men obviously, and that
it's lower crime rates are great, But sometimes they also
represent that there just aren't that many young people around anymore.
Do you think that has I mean, I know we're
not criminal.
Speaker 2: I have no idea. So I was I was wondering
if what if kids are just not interacting with other
kids anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this study about dating
and how young people basically don't date anymore, they just
this is this weird. They're not I'm sorry to say.
I mean, they're just it's weird to say this because
it feels like the opposite of what I should be saying.
But they're just not dating and having sexual interactions anymore.
It's just not like growing up in the way that
I you know, people grew up in our day, but
when you met someone spontaneously things would happen. I think
it's unnatural, even though no, you should not have sexual
relations before you're married, but it's unnatural that people don't
seem to have even interest in such things. Is that
weird to say?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: I kind of feel this way when I encounter adults
who are not getting married. I'm like, don't you just
want to have sex more? You know, like, like, do
you ever meet those people who are like of a
certain age, They even have a like a significant other,
but they're just not getting married. And I'm like, what
is going on? Because sex is a powerful motivator in
a good way. It's why you get married, It's why
I don't know, I know, they're like they're having it
anyway or whatever, but no, they're not, actually, But yeah,
that's I feel like that.
Speaker 1: But there's this weird thing where some people are and
they're just in hookup culture. You know, they have apps,
they just meet, they just hook up with people randomly,
which I think anyone in the world sooner or most
people in the world sooner or later probably realize is
a very empty way to live your life. But it
is just weird, and obviously it has a lot to
do with technology and how we use it. Okay, Molly,
let's do culture. Was there a lot of culture in
your life?
Speaker 2: The last couple of weeks, there's been a ton of
culture in terms of time with family. I love my
family so much, and my mom's side of the family
held like two gatherings for in conjunction with my dad's funeral,
which is just amazing. And then the Thursday before the funeral,
my sister had already made plans to go see Milania
with a group of girlfriends, so I went along with
them and it and yeah, that's the only culture I've
seen the documentary Milania, so I had I will just
say I had extremely low expectations going into it, like
I thought it was just like a seventy million dollar
money transferred to the Trump family from Netflix or something,
So I was I was pleasantly surprised, like it was
just the twenty day around the second inauguration, and what
her life is like. So it was interesting to see
how focused she is on fashion and how knowledgeable she is.
Also you know, the design of the events, the people
who were working on that. Also funny to see her
interactions with her husband, and it was, Yeah, it was good.
I liked it. And I saw some people I knew
in it, which was exciting, Like one of my friends
from church works at the Blairhouse and so she was
like all over it, Like got very excited by seeing that.
But Milani is just a beautiful woman, and it's one
of the things that really annoyed me about the first
Trump administration. I tend to be less critical of first
ladies than a lot of people. I mean, I'll go
after Hillary Clinton like anybody else, but I mean, it's
not an enjoyable job. And so if you tell me that,
you think what was George W. Bush is white? Laura?
If you tell me Laura Bush is beautiful, I'm like
yes she is. Oh, Michelle Obama has a great fashion sense,
Yes she does. But when Malania Trump, who was objectively
a gorgeous woman with amazing fashion sense, came on the
scene and everybody was like, I don't see it. I
don't like her. She's ugly, her fashion is ugly. You're
just like, that's insane. Not a single cover of a
magazine when you're forced to, like see again Laura Bush
or Michelle Obama on the cover of everything, and like
doctor Jill Biden on the cover of every magazine, and
you're like supposed to believe that these people are beautiful.
But then an actual supermodel becomes First Lady and the
media are like, no, she's not very pretty. So I
enjoyed just being able to see her and stuff too.
Speaker 1: Well, not every first Lady is the same. Like Hillary
acted like co president, basically involved. She was literally involved
in policymaking, so I think she's fair game.
Speaker 2: Is that what we're calling the string of murders? Just kidding?
Speaker 1: She was involved in all kinds of nefarious actions, including
the healthcare plan that she released. But Laura was just
this nice woman. I mean, she didn't get involved in
policies Michelle Obama, however, always had things to say about
the United States. I think they were very off putting,
and if you're going to get involved in that way,
I think it's very fair for people to point that
out as well. I don't think a lot of the
abuse she got for her looks or whatever is fair game,
but certainly, certainly stuff she said that does.
Speaker 2: Remind me of something. I saw this video that was
comparing two recent interviews. One was by JD. Vance talking
about living with his family in the Naval Observatory and
one was Michelle Obama talking about living with her family
in the White House and JD. Vance he was being
very he wasn't being like Pollyanna ish or anything, but
he was just saying, yeah, you know it can be difficult,
but it's amazing. Most of your meals are taken care of.
You don't have to go through TSA with your children.
The American people are so generous with the gift of
this home and it's upkeep and love. And then Michelle
Obama was like, it's awful, it's horrible. People don't know
what we had to go through. You know, you have
to buy your own meals and you know, everything is
horrible about this, and I just want to say, if
you can live a life of gratitude, it is so
much better than to be angry all the time. And
it makes me sad that Michelle Obama, who's had one
of the most privileged lives of any human in history,
would be so angry about it. And I compare it
again with my father, who grew up extremely poor. His
mom was sixteen when she got married, did not have
a ton, worked very hard his whole life, and is
so so grateful for everything that God gave him. And
it just, I don't know. It is inspiring to me,
but it also makes me sad when I see other
people not being full of gratitude.
Speaker 1: She just oozes resentment. I mean, she's resentful of the nations.
She seems resentful of voters that put them in the
White House. And for me, I don't understand that. Now,
if that's not the life you want, and I get that,
I never understand why anyone would ever want to be
involved in politics. With politics, then don't be It's not
our fault, right, It's not our fault that the light
shining on you. It's something you did. I have some
mild curiosity about this movie because I just like documentaries
and I like, I'm really interested in seeing what goes
on behind the scenes. Now, obviously it's not probably not
going to show us like the uglier moments or stuff
like that, I guess, but still, but I wouldn't go
to a theater to see it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it wasn't. I have had the benefit of
interviewing her, and she's pretty much a closed book, so
you don't really get much in there. You get a
lot about her love of her parents. I will say that.
Speaker 1: I have never, out of all the first Ladies I've
lived through, seen someone who seems less excited about being there, Like,
she does not seem like someone she does not seem
like she wants to be first Lady do all. And
that I'm fine with that. I mean, she's just I
never think about her or see her around, and that's
fine by me.
Speaker 2: I do think there's a difference between the first the
first Trump term Milania and the second Trump term Milania.
So first Trump term she was really closed off and
she was very focused on Baron, who was still living
with them at that time. I have found this second
term interesting just to see how affectionate she and her
husband are and oh there was this great part that
they showed her editing his inauguration speech and he kind
of doesn't want to change it, but then he does
in the real speech, turns to her and like winks
at her, and she smiles like this very slight smile,
and it was just cute to see that that connection
that they have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I don't have much. I been watching the
Olympics a lot, and I did watch it. Did you
ever see the movie Rumblefish? No? So Rumblefish is like
after Francis Ford Coppola made The Outsiders, he retained the
crew and some of the people in the movie. So
in this movie you have matd Dylan, Mickey Rour, Diane Lane,
Nicholas Caged and Hoppers in it as well Tom Waits.
Isn't it but a lot of those people appear in
The Outsiders. It's a very, very kind of experimental film.
I'd say maybe I.
Speaker 2: Did see it in college, but I can't quite remember.
Speaker 1: I like the score. It's by Stuart Copeland, who was
the drummer for the Police. It's kind of like a
lot of red mixed stuff and it's just it's not great,
but it's an oddity and just I think interesting people
who were into that. And then, for some reason, I
have no clue why. As I told you, I locked documentaries,
I started watching that. Amazon had this Grateful Dead documentary
called Long Strange Trip. I think, I don't even like
that band, really, but I do. You know, I watched
It's really well done. If you're into that band or
you're a deadhead of culture I do not appreciate. When
I was growing up, they would play near my house
at Nasau Coliseum and the whole place would be taken
over by these dirty hippies. So I did not like it,
but it does give you a nice glimpse into the
late sixties early seventies era and now how a lot
of Americans lived, especially in the Bay Area. Thought it
was interesting. I thought I.
Speaker 2: Should Sapel Dead is one of those bands that I
had to get past my general disdain of hippie culture
to realize that they're a good band.
Speaker 1: I am a fan.
Speaker 2: I mean like, I'd hear him and I'd just kind
of like turn off, and then I was like, oh, actually,
this is really good music.
Speaker 1: I was just talking to my wife about this, you know,
her older siblings had Grateful Dead albums and then when
they should put it on, and she thought it was
going to be like this heavy music, but you know
it's the opposite of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that the esthetics they use, of course, are
not indicative of what they do. I am a workingman's
dead in American beauty. I think are two just fantastic albums,
but I could never really get over dead head culture.
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