Latest / The Rita Panahi Show / The Rita Panahi Show | 19 October

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The Rita Panahi Show | 19 October · The Rita Panahi Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Starting right now, The Rita Panahy Show.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to The Rita Panahy Show.
0:10
Speaker 3: I'm James Morrow filling in for Rita and here's what's
0:13
Speaker 3: coming up tonight. This summer you may be better off
0:16
Speaker 3: just sticking your head out the window to see what
0:19
Speaker 3: the weather is doing rather than relying on the bomb
0:23
Speaker 3: as an audit reveals the mounting widespread errors and false
0:27
Speaker 3: readings in our own Bureau of Meteorology. And meanwhile, sacre bleu,
0:32
Speaker 3: France falls further into decline as President Emmanuel Macron struggles
0:38
Speaker 3: to keep the lid on protests that are raging on
0:40
Speaker 3: across the country. Plus, Vice President J.D. Vance, well, he's
0:44
Speaker 3: opened about his chances for a run in 2028. And
0:48
Speaker 3: yet another celebrity has their input on how Americans should
0:54
Speaker 3: vote in the upcoming elections. Yeah, yeah, all right, Matthew,
0:58
Speaker 3: keep your opinions to yourself.
1:00
Speaker 2: Nobody asked.
1:01
Speaker 3: And we'll have lots of lefties losing it coming up
1:05
Speaker 3: later on in the program, including this protester who might
1:08
Speaker 3: need to scratch up on her homework before spitting the facts.
1:13
Speaker 4: We know that the cops will, like, brutalize minorities.
1:16
Speaker 5: That's a fact.
1:17
Speaker 4: I've never been brutalized by a cop, by the way,
1:20
Speaker 4: and I'm a minority. I'm Asian American.
1:22
Speaker 6: I'm very thankful for that.
1:24
Speaker 2: Wow, boy, she seems like a charmer.
1:26
Speaker 3: But first, climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen is
1:29
Speaker 3: expected to reveal a multi-billion dollar cost blowout for the
1:34
Speaker 3: expansion of the snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project. Now, the
1:38
Speaker 3: Australian newspaper... has reported they understand that Bowen's office has
1:42
Speaker 3: been poring over a critical cost review of the project
1:46
Speaker 3: for at least a week, and industry experts estimate that
1:50
Speaker 3: the likely total cost of the expansion will range between,
1:55
Speaker 3: get this, $ 20 and $ 26 billion, with a B, but
2:01
Speaker 3: it will actually be closer to $ 40 billion when you
2:05
Speaker 3: include the transmission lines. Ah, how good is green energy?
2:09
Speaker 3: And there's apparently such little trust between Snowy and contractor
2:13
Speaker 3: WeBuild that the government is believed to have spent months...
2:17
Speaker 3: scrutinizing the figures to ensure they didn't underestimate the final figure.
2:22
Speaker 3: Joining me now to discuss this debacle and a whole
2:25
Speaker 3: lot more is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of
2:27
Speaker 3: Public Affairs, my good friend Daniel Wild, and Herald Sun
2:31
Speaker 3: senior reporter Seb Costello. Ah, guys, I don't even know
2:35
Speaker 3: where to begin with this one. Daniel Wild, you guys
2:39
Speaker 3: have probably had a fair... Bit of a look at
2:41
Speaker 3: this one yourself at the IPA. How on earth are
2:44
Speaker 3: we justifying $ 40 billion for this green energy program that
2:49
Speaker 3: the physics of it are so ridiculous we're pumping water
2:52
Speaker 3: uphill to run it back downhill? I mean, like, this
2:57
Speaker 3: is something that a six-year-old would tell you was a
2:58
Speaker 3: silly idea.
3:01
Speaker 5: Well, that's right.
3:02
Speaker 7: I mean, if only we had a six-year-old as an
3:04
Speaker 7: energy minister rather than Chris Bowen, we might be in
3:07
Speaker 7: a better place, I reckon. But, you know, this is
3:09
Speaker 7: just another example that every day that goes by, every
3:11
Speaker 7: week that goes by, there's more information about how much
3:14
Speaker 7: of a disaster, an economic and social disaster, the net
3:19
Speaker 7: zero obsession is. And also it's got to be said,
3:22
Speaker 7: thanks a lot, Malcolm Turnbull, for leaving us with this
3:25
Speaker 7: big steaming pile of rubbish. So, you know, the reality
3:30
Speaker 7: is that the money, as you rightly identify, is not
3:33
Speaker 7: delivering better outcomes. It's not getting energy prices down. In fact,
3:36
Speaker 7: it's actually costing more because of the transmission lines and
3:39
Speaker 7: the poles and wires that need.
3:40
Speaker 5: To be built. And for what? You know, I always
3:43
Speaker 5: come back to this.
3:43
Speaker 7: OK, maybe these costs would be worth it if we
3:46
Speaker 7: were getting a benefit.
3:48
Speaker 5: What is the benefit?
3:48
Speaker 7: There is no discernible benefit to the environment or the
3:52
Speaker 7: climate from any of these boondoggle projects. It is time
3:55
Speaker 7: to wind it up.
3:57
Speaker 2: Really is.
3:58
Speaker 3: But, Seb, you know, I want to put this in
4:00
Speaker 3: the context of the bigger energy picture. And you're down
4:02
Speaker 3: in Victoria where you've had all sorts of issues with
4:06
Speaker 3: your own different energy transmission programs. And it seems to
4:11
Speaker 3: me that really the weak link in absolutely every one
4:14
Speaker 3: of these projects is not just the renewable energy project itself,
4:18
Speaker 3: the solar or the pumped hydro or whatever, which is
4:21
Speaker 3: always going to be intermittent and unreliable and expensive, but
4:24
Speaker 3: then The much worse problem always seems to be how
4:28
Speaker 3: do you get those electrons to market because they're being
4:31
Speaker 3: generated in places that are so far from where they're needed.
4:33
Speaker 8: Well, James, you mentioned this project seeks to push water uphill.
4:39
Speaker 8: As a taxpayer, I feel like we're being asked to
4:41
Speaker 8: push something else uphill that begins with S, the way
4:45
Speaker 8: this has been going. I mean, the only benefit to
4:47
Speaker 8: Snowy Hydro, as I see it, is that it's not
4:49
Speaker 8: being done in Victoria because, of course.
4:51
Speaker 2: If this was an infrastructure project.
4:53
Speaker 8: that was being done in Victoria, we'd have to find
4:55
Speaker 8: at least $ 15 billion taxpayer dollars to give straight to
4:58
Speaker 8: the bikies just to get anything done, because that's how
5:01
Speaker 8: things work down here. I mean, perhaps it was a
5:03
Speaker 8: bad sign that the man in charge of Snowy Hydro,
5:06
Speaker 8: as I understand, is James Kane, the son of the
5:09
Speaker 8: late John Kane, the former Premier of Victoria, who happens
5:12
Speaker 8: to be Daniel Andrews' political hero. So maybe that was
5:15
Speaker 8: a bad sign for this approach to infrastructure.
5:19
Speaker 2: Indeed.
5:19
Speaker 3: But, you know, we're seeing problems with all of these
5:22
Speaker 3: sort of climate related projects right down to where the
5:25
Speaker 3: data even comes from that justifies them.
5:27
Speaker 2: And I've been shocked by this.
5:29
Speaker 3: Labor is refusing to address widespread errors and false readings
5:34
Speaker 3: from the Bureau of Meteorology that were revealed in a
5:37
Speaker 3: forensic audit that uncovered a whole spread, a whole bunch
5:41
Speaker 3: of widespread errors. in the bomb's raw climate data that
5:46
Speaker 3: included blocks of temperature readings cut and pasted and copied
5:50
Speaker 3: and pasted across years and years and different seasons. Dan,
5:56
Speaker 3: scientists have called for this secret climate business to end.
6:01
Speaker 3: I would think that the taxpayers who have been told, oh, well,
6:03
Speaker 3: you know, this is a dire emergency, we need a
6:06
Speaker 3: lot more accountability here.
6:09
Speaker 5: Well, heads have to roll over this. I mean, it's
6:11
Speaker 5: scandal after scandal.
6:13
Speaker 7: And I have to give a shout out to my
6:14
Speaker 7: former colleague, Dr Jennifer Marahasi, who for years and years
6:18
Speaker 7: and years was sounding the alarm on what is referred
6:21
Speaker 7: to as data homogenisation, which is basically when they collect
6:24
Speaker 7: different temperature records from different locations and they jam it together. Now,
6:28
Speaker 7: what they would always do, surprise, surprise, is the adjustments
6:31
Speaker 7: were always up, right? The temperature was always getting hotter.
6:35
Speaker 7: Whenever they made an adjustment, it was never getting cooler.
6:38
Speaker 7: And it was always the case that it was apparent
6:40
Speaker 7: that this was done to fit the preconceived climate narrative
6:44
Speaker 7: of global warming and climate change. So, you know, this
6:46
Speaker 7: scandal has been ongoing within the Bureau of Meteorology now
6:49
Speaker 7: for at least a decade and perhaps much longer. So
6:53
Speaker 7: there needs to be a proper audit, a proper investigation
6:56
Speaker 7: into what exactly is going on into this department. To
7:00
Speaker 7: what extent has it been hijacked by activists... You mentioned
7:04
Speaker 7: the taxpayers. We need to know. But also, this informs
7:07
Speaker 7: public policy. It's not just about, you know, when you
7:09
Speaker 7: open up the website and how's the weather going to
7:11
Speaker 7: be today. This informs multibillion-dollar economic-wide public policy, and it's
7:15
Speaker 7: clear they're fiddling around with the numbers. to fit a
7:19
Speaker 7: preconceived ideological narrative. It's not good enough.
7:22
Speaker 5: Heads have to roll.
7:23
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Sam Costello, it's not just public money
7:28
Speaker 3: and public policy that it informs. The bomb data also
7:32
Speaker 3: informs private decision-making because I recall, I think maybe three
7:36
Speaker 3: or four summers ago, the Bureau of Meteorology predicted a
7:39
Speaker 3: very dry, drought-like summer and a lot of graziers and
7:45
Speaker 3: pastoralists sold down their stock, sold down their herds because
7:49
Speaker 3: they didn't want to deal with carrying a lot of
7:52
Speaker 3: sheep or cattle through a drought. And so the price
7:55
Speaker 3: of all of these things crashed on the market. And
7:58
Speaker 3: then lo and behold, we had this incredibly wet summer
8:02
Speaker 3: and everybody would have been fine.
8:03
Speaker 2: Sam Costello, surely there.
8:05
Speaker 3: Needs to be a wholesale audit, not just into the
8:08
Speaker 3: climate data of what the bomb is doing.
8:11
Speaker 8: James, I think that's a good idea. The bomb get
8:14
Speaker 8: things wrong, and they get things wrong too often. I mean,
8:17
Speaker 8: you mentioned a really serious example there of people who
8:20
Speaker 8: had moved on assets based on Bureau of Meteorology information.
8:24
Speaker 8: I also think of about two years ago, the bomb
8:28
Speaker 8: incorrectly published a warning, warning New South Wales that a
8:33
Speaker 8: tsunami was on the way. Now, you know, that would
8:36
Speaker 8: have been a bit concerning for parents who were packing
8:37
Speaker 8: the beach bag to head down to Bondi or Coogee to...
8:40
Speaker 8: Just here there was a tsunami apparently coming, so it
8:43
Speaker 8: took them about, you know, a little while to bring
8:46
Speaker 8: that prediction back. So they've got problems down at the bomb.
8:49
Speaker 8: They've also got budget issues. Do you remember their supercomputer
8:52
Speaker 8: was going to cost $ 60 million? That blew out to
8:55
Speaker 8: more than $ 800 million.
8:56
Speaker 1: So there's problems.
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Speaker 8: Although, Dan, did you say they're practising data homogenisation at
9:01
Speaker 8: the bomb?
9:03
Speaker 2: Dan... That's right.
9:04
Speaker 5: Yep, that's exactly right.
9:06
Speaker 8: I'm outraged by that. I'm outraged by that. Where is
9:11
Speaker 8: the diversity of data? I thought all good public servants
9:15
Speaker 8: know that diversity is our strength.
9:17
Speaker 5: What are they doing down there?
9:18
Speaker 2: Oh, that's right. We don't want all this white bread data.
9:20
Speaker 3: We want to have a big multicultural rainbow of data. But,
9:24
Speaker 3: you know, The other thing, guys, it is important because
9:27
Speaker 3: a lot of farmers and other people who have economically
9:30
Speaker 3: sensitive businesses involving that are touched by the weather, they
9:34
Speaker 3: use private forecasters. And they're often more accurate than the bomb.
9:39
Speaker 3: And I reckon the bomb ought to maybe have a
9:41
Speaker 3: look at what those guys are doing with private money
9:44
Speaker 3: when they have to make a profit, you know, in
9:47
Speaker 3: the same way that the ABC should look at what...
9:50
Speaker 3: The real world does when it comes to the media.
9:52
Speaker 3: But anyway, let's move on here because I could talk
9:53
Speaker 3: about that all day. Let's go to politics. Let's go
9:56
Speaker 3: to Canberra.
9:57
Speaker 2: Let's go to the Lodge.
9:58
Speaker 3: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing for a major cabinet
10:02
Speaker 3: reshuffle next year. So I don't think this can come
10:06
Speaker 3: soon enough, given all the duds on the labor front bench,
10:10
Speaker 3: mounting pressure over the economy and a lot of other issues.
10:13
Speaker 3: Among the front benchers that are thought to be up
10:16
Speaker 3: for advancement would be Andrew Charlton, who I think would
10:18
Speaker 3: be a lock for Treasury. Jane McAllister, Dan Molino and
10:22
Speaker 3: Chris McBain are among those. apparently reportedly being considered for promotion,
10:29
Speaker 3: as well as a couple of Queensland MPs who've been
10:32
Speaker 3: gaining greater parliamentary representation at the next election. Dan, who
10:38
Speaker 3: do you have in the frame as who ought to
10:41
Speaker 3: be going, moving up the ladder, and who ought to
10:43
Speaker 3: be coming off the front bench?
10:46
Speaker 7: Well, is it possible to have no front bench? I
10:48
Speaker 7: think they should all be kicked off. They're not doing
10:51
Speaker 7: a good job, any of them. But I reckon Dr
10:54
Speaker 7: Jim's going to get the size 12 at the backside.
10:56
Speaker 7: I think that's pretty much guaranteed to happen here. It's
10:59
Speaker 7: pretty rare for a Prime Minister to throw the Treasurer.
11:02
Speaker 7: under the bus for a range of reasons, but I
11:04
Speaker 7: think Albanese has shown he's not shy of undertaking, you know,
11:07
Speaker 7: what might be considered politically necessary surgery to the front
11:10
Speaker 7: bench in order to get out of trouble. But, of course,
11:13
Speaker 7: it doesn't matter who they put on the front bench
11:15
Speaker 7: because they don't know how to run the economy. The
11:17
Speaker 7: other point that I'll make is, as you know full well,
11:19
Speaker 7: Labor is not based upon merit. It's based upon factions.
11:23
Speaker 9: Yes.
11:23
Speaker 5: And it's based upon states.
11:24
Speaker 7: So they divvy up all of the front bench positions,
11:27
Speaker 7: all of the Cabinet positions, all of the not based
11:29
Speaker 7: on who has experience or who's got demonstrated capabilities, but
11:32
Speaker 7: what faction are you from? What state are you from?
11:35
Speaker 7: All right, we've got to get the numbers right. So
11:37
Speaker 7: this is actually like, you know, the Servant Union trying
11:39
Speaker 7: to figure this out with a five-year plan. It takes
11:40
Speaker 7: them ages to actually get all the numbers sorted. So
11:43
Speaker 7: it's going to take them some time, but I reckon
11:44
Speaker 7: Big Jim, he's on his way out, I reckon.
11:47
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Dan Wild, I think you've given Albanese
11:49
Speaker 3: a bit of credit giving him a size 12 shoe.
11:51
Speaker 3: I'm not sure his shoes are that big. But anyway, Seb, though,
11:56
Speaker 3: what do you think about this, particularly the idea that
11:58
Speaker 3: Andrew Charlton, he's a member of Parramatta. Unlike just about
12:02
Speaker 3: everybody in the Labour Party and in the Labour Party room,
12:06
Speaker 3: he has real experience in the private sector.
12:09
Speaker 2: And in the corporate and commercial world.
12:11
Speaker 3: However skeptical we might be about labor, would it be
12:14
Speaker 3: good to bring some of that expertise into the Treasury role?
12:21
Speaker 8: Well, I think it would be good for the taxpayer
12:24
Speaker 8: and for the voter. But, you know, if I was him,
12:26
Speaker 8: I wouldn't be putting that about too widely in the
12:28
Speaker 8: Labor Party. They might disendorse him. I don't want anybody
12:30
Speaker 8: who knows how to run a business if you have
12:32
Speaker 8: a look at this government. When I was reading this
12:34
Speaker 8: report this morning, James, it kind of reminded me I'm
12:37
Speaker 8: a big Essendon supporter in the AFL, the Bombers. And,
12:41
Speaker 8: you know, we're tinkering around with our club. We're going
12:43
Speaker 8: to have a new captain next year. But the problem
12:46
Speaker 8: is we just don't have the talent. We can fiddle
12:49
Speaker 8: around as much as we like and it ain't going
12:51
Speaker 8: to make too much of a difference. That reminds me
12:54
Speaker 8: a bit of the Albanese government.
12:56
Speaker 3: I think that's a great analogy, Seb, and I don't
12:59
Speaker 3: even know sport. But because you gave me that fantastic analogy,
13:04
Speaker 3: I'm going to stick with you for a second here,
13:06
Speaker 3: because we have a story here that Melbourne shop owners
13:08
Speaker 3: have been forced to install panic buttons as they endure
13:12
Speaker 3: daily firebombings, violent assaults, ram raids, and huge losses at
13:17
Speaker 3: the hands of thieves. Tell us about this story in
13:20
Speaker 3: The Herald Sun, Seb Costello. It feels a bit like Melbourne...
13:24
Speaker 3: has gone a bit Parisian.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy. And, you know, I'm a reporter.
13:31
Speaker 8: It's my job to talk about crime in Melbourne, has
13:33
Speaker 8: been for sort of 20 years.
13:34
Speaker 9: But.
13:35
Speaker 8: I'm quite serious that this is as unsafe as this
13:38
Speaker 8: city has ever felt. You know, if you woke up
13:40
Speaker 8: yesterday morning in the suburb of Dallas, there was a
13:44
Speaker 8: shooting where a teenager was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.
13:48
Speaker 8: A couple of suburbs over in the west, in St Albans,
13:51
Speaker 8: there was a man stabbed to death. Another man has
13:53
Speaker 8: now been charged with murder. And that was all before 9am.
13:56
Speaker 8: On a Sunday morning.
13:57
Speaker 2: Good Lord... this city is... Yeah, I mean, it is
14:00
Speaker 2: currently out of control.
14:01
Speaker 8: That's shop owners talking about, you know, armed burglaries and
14:04
Speaker 8: that kind of thing. They're clearly concerned. We've got a
14:07
Speaker 8: new police commissioner in Mike Bush. He seems to be
14:10
Speaker 8: saying the right things, but we need to be seeing
14:13
Speaker 8: a police force that's prepared to.
14:14
Speaker 2: Take on crime.
14:15
Speaker 8: We need to see a government that's prepared to give
14:16
Speaker 8: them the resources to do it.
14:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed.
14:18
Speaker 3: Hey, Dad, before I let you go, I just want
14:20
Speaker 3: to ask you quickly about this shocking story out of
14:22
Speaker 3: the UK where a mother says that she was referred
14:25
Speaker 3: to the government's counter extremism program after officers received an
14:29
Speaker 3: anonymous tip. And what had this nefarious woman done? She'd
14:34
Speaker 3: supported Israel online and paid a visit to the Jewish state.
14:38
Speaker 3: The UK Telegraph has reported on this. But this is
14:42
Speaker 3: pretty shocking about where Britain is going, isn't it?
14:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, shocking, but I can't say I was surprised, sadly.
14:49
Speaker 7: You know, the great bastion and the birthplace of so
14:52
Speaker 7: many of our civilisational values, including Magna Carta, freedom of speech,
14:57
Speaker 7: is in such decline. But I tell you what, I mean,
14:59
Speaker 7: I don't think we're far from it. You look at
15:01
Speaker 7: what the government's doing with its digital duty of care,
15:03
Speaker 7: it very much wants to send us down the UK
15:05
Speaker 7: path of having coppers knock at your door for tweets
15:08
Speaker 7: that you've made or, you know, having wrong think, expressing
15:11
Speaker 7: the wrong opinion. So I hope that doesn't happen here,
15:13
Speaker 7: but I've got to say I don't have a lot
15:14
Speaker 7: of confidence.
15:15
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm afraid not.
15:17
Speaker 3: I can just see them doing the same thing as
15:19
Speaker 3: they do in the UK, where they knock on thousands
15:21
Speaker 3: of doors every year over mean social media comments and
15:25
Speaker 3: things of that nature. Gentlemen, I'm going to have to
15:27
Speaker 3: leave it there. Great to chat to you as always,
15:29
Speaker 3: and we'll speak again soon. Well, the chaos on the
15:35
Speaker 3: streets of Paris and around cities across France continues. The
15:40
Speaker 3: violence has spread even beyond France's borders to cities like
15:43
Speaker 3: Milan in Italy. President Emmanuel Macron has addressed the French people.
15:49
Speaker 3: Let's have a listen to what he had to say.
15:52
Speaker 10: There is nothing that justifies it, nothing that explains it,
15:55
Speaker 10: nothing that excuses it. We are all feeling anger and
16:00
Speaker 10: shame tonight. We should never confuse the demonstrators with those
16:06
Speaker 10: who have broke things and rioted and looted. There are
16:10
Speaker 10: legitimate claims about the cost of living and the price
16:13
Speaker 10: of fuel.
16:15
Speaker 3: Yes, legitimate claims to go and bust up, I don't know,
16:19
Speaker 3: a Chanel shop. To discuss this and more, let's bring
16:22
Speaker 3: in my friend, broadcaster, columnist and international relations expert, Ralph Schulhammer. Ralph,
16:29
Speaker 3: I was so depressed listening to Emmanuel Macron's little talk there.
16:34
Speaker 3: It sounded to me like he was justifying, at least partially,
16:39
Speaker 3: some of the violence.
16:42
Speaker 11: Well, it reminds one of the 2020 BLM riots, doesn't it?
16:46
Speaker 11: I mean, it was kind of the same situation. So
16:48
Speaker 11: you had people looting, burning things down, and the argument is, well,
16:52
Speaker 11: it's just a very small minority, and aren't the grievances justified,
16:56
Speaker 11: and so on and so forth. What's interesting, and you
16:58
Speaker 11: mentioned it in your intro, the fact that those things
17:01
Speaker 11: are spreading is evidence that this is not a France-specific thing.
17:05
Speaker 11: That was the argument. There's not enough investment in schools,
17:08
Speaker 11: and the conditions are very bad, and the youth is hopeless,
17:11
Speaker 11: which is, by the way, partially true. I'm not, again,
17:13
Speaker 11: entirely in disagreement with Macron there. But the fact that
17:16
Speaker 11: it spreads now to Albania, to Belgium, to Italy, of
17:20
Speaker 11: all places, I think that tells you that there is
17:22
Speaker 11: something else going on, and we can go through the
17:24
Speaker 11: details of that as well.
17:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like, this is a thing, and I'm
17:27
Speaker 3: still fascinated by this idea that, you know, you're protesting about,
17:33
Speaker 3: I don't know, the schools, or there's not a job
17:35
Speaker 3: for you when you get out of school after graduation,
17:38
Speaker 3: and yet for some reason the banner of your cause
17:42
Speaker 3: is the Palestine flag.
17:43
Speaker 2: Explain this to me.
17:46
Speaker 11: Well, it's not just the banner of your cause, right?
17:48
Speaker 11: It is also what you then do. If you have
17:52
Speaker 11: any kind of sense of respect for the country you
17:54
Speaker 11: live in, and by the way, that goes for those
17:56
Speaker 11: with a migrant background and those without a migrant background,
17:59
Speaker 11: the first thing you usually do is not burn down
18:02
Speaker 11: a 19th century town hall. Now, Emmanuel Macron in 2017,
18:06
Speaker 11: and that's a direct quote, he said that there is
18:09
Speaker 11: no French culture, right, but there are different cultures in France. Now,
18:14
Speaker 11: that comment alone by him shows the heart of the problem.
18:18
Speaker 11: If you tell people that your nation, your country doesn't
18:22
Speaker 11: have a distinct culture, that it is nothing that's worthwhile
18:25
Speaker 11: to be continued, that it is something to be respected,
18:28
Speaker 11: then people don't have respect. And by the way, this
18:31
Speaker 11: goes both for those who have a migrant background and
18:35
Speaker 11: those who don't have a migrant background. James, we must
18:38
Speaker 11: not forget a nation state is a constant act of labor.
18:43
Speaker 11: Like there's this idea you have a nation state and
18:45
Speaker 11: that's it. No, no, you also have to quasi integrate
18:48
Speaker 11: every new generation into this idea that this is something
18:51
Speaker 11: that is important. that is part of our heritage, that
18:54
Speaker 11: you are in a compound with generations of the past,
18:57
Speaker 11: of the present and the future. If they don't have it,
19:00
Speaker 11: and now comes my answer to your question, if they
19:02
Speaker 11: don't have that, they will reach for any alternative because
19:06
Speaker 11: every one of us wants to be part of something greater.
19:09
Speaker 11: If the idea of France can no longer be that
19:12
Speaker 11: greater thing, you will reach for something else. And in
19:15
Speaker 11: the case of France and many other places, it has
19:17
Speaker 11: become the Palestinian flag and interestingly also the Pride Progress flag.
19:22
Speaker 3: And those two really go together if you think about it. But, Ralph,
19:27
Speaker 3: I saw a fascinating line. Somebody said a thing I
19:30
Speaker 3: thought was very smart. I forget who it was, but
19:32
Speaker 3: they said, civilization is a forever war against barbarism, but
19:37
Speaker 3: it feels like civilization is in retreat in France. And
19:42
Speaker 3: this is the pointy end of a much bigger problem
19:46
Speaker 3: in the West where no matter where you are, whether
19:49
Speaker 3: it's France, or Australia or Austria, we've lost our civilizational
19:54
Speaker 3: confidence to say there's something unique and special here worth preserving.
20:01
Speaker 11: No, I think that's very true. And we tend to
20:03
Speaker 11: forget that civilization was achieved through a civilizing process. And
20:07
Speaker 11: that process was very often quite brutal. And if you
20:11
Speaker 11: have a society, and this is what's currently happening, by
20:13
Speaker 11: the way, it's also happening in Australia. I mean, I
20:15
Speaker 11: remember this was a couple of years ago, I think
20:18
Speaker 11: when somebody was proudly showing pictures of a guy that
20:21
Speaker 11: was just recently beheaded. If you import large numbers of
20:25
Speaker 11: people into your country, and I'm going to say something
20:27
Speaker 11: that's very uncomfortable. that have not yet reached your level
20:31
Speaker 11: of civilization. And I know, I know that's something we're
20:33
Speaker 11: not supposed to say, but that is the case. Then
20:36
Speaker 11: what you have is a development of de-civilization of your society,
20:40
Speaker 11: and then you have to re-implement policies to re-civilize them.
20:44
Speaker 11: And very often that means punishments. That means, unfortunately, as
20:48
Speaker 11: Macron says, what are you supposed to do? You cannot
20:51
Speaker 11: reason with those protesters. I mean, it's a complete absurdity
20:54
Speaker 11: as somebody who just burned down the town hall. What
20:57
Speaker 11: are you going to tell them? Oh, you're right, you
20:59
Speaker 11: need new pens in schools. and you get 10 additional laptops.
21:02
Speaker 11: I mean, this is completely insane. The government then needs
21:05
Speaker 11: a heavier hand, which I'm no fan of. But this
21:07
Speaker 11: is unfortunately where the journey is going. Ultimately, you will
21:10
Speaker 11: then end up in a more authoritarian system.
21:12
Speaker 3: And Ralph, I mean, that's my next question then. Just quickly,
21:15
Speaker 3: where does this go? At what point does the government
21:20
Speaker 3: allow its forces, the police, maybe even the military, to
21:26
Speaker 3: reassert the control that they've lost?
21:30
Speaker 11: Well, basically, there are two outcomes of this on the
21:32
Speaker 11: long run. One is that you have a situation as
21:34
Speaker 11: it is, for example, in Chicago in the United States,
21:37
Speaker 11: that you have segregated, gated, very wealthy communities where people
21:41
Speaker 11: don't know what's going on outside of them. And you
21:43
Speaker 11: can have the same in Paris, right? There are places
21:45
Speaker 11: in Paris right now that are completely peaceful. You wouldn't
21:48
Speaker 11: know that those riots and protests are going on. Or
21:50
Speaker 11: the second one, which was my preferred one, that the
21:52
Speaker 11: government and the state have to reassert their authority, but
21:56
Speaker 11: then also change course, for example, in the educational system
22:00
Speaker 11: and reinstill this sense of reference, this sense of respect
22:04
Speaker 11: for a state, its symbols and its history. But that's
22:07
Speaker 11: going to be a very long and very difficult task.
22:10
Speaker 3: Ralph Schulheimer, we're going to have to leave it there,
22:12
Speaker 3: but I have a feeling we're going to be talking
22:13
Speaker 3: about this again real soon. Really appreciate your time. Always
22:17
Speaker 3: great to get your insights.
22:19
Speaker 11: Anytime, James, anytime.
22:20
Speaker 3: Still to come, lefties losing it. Plus, to the dismay
22:23
Speaker 3: of Republicans, J.D. Vance might not be the front runner
22:26
Speaker 3: for the 2020 presidential nomination. Oh my gosh, what's happening?
22:31
Speaker 3: Joel Pollack will be here to explain. Hey, now it's
22:41
Speaker 3: time for lefties losing it.
22:42
Speaker 2: And with the U.S.
22:43
Speaker 3: Midterm elections just around the corner, Democrats are doing what
22:47
Speaker 3: Democrats do best. That is, attempting to shut down their opposition. Yes,
22:53
Speaker 3: let's have a look here at sitting U.S. Senator Alyssa
22:56
Speaker 3: Slotkin from Michigan, saying that she wants to prosecute Trump
23:00
Speaker 3: administration people to stop young conservatives from wanting to go
23:06
Speaker 3: work in government.
23:07
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm saying.
23:08
Speaker 6: I want to look at these signature cases and not
23:11
Speaker 6: just focus on the president, but on the people who
23:14
Speaker 6: enabled him. I want young people coming out of school
23:17
Speaker 6: to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? Like,
23:19
Speaker 6: that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity. I want
23:22
Speaker 6: them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself
23:25
Speaker 6: a ton of problems that I don't want. And so
23:28
Speaker 6: let me avoid participating in that. I want that deterrence message.
23:33
Speaker 3: Yes, that's not what you can do for your country. Anyway,
23:36
Speaker 3: there's a lot of this going on, I gotta say,
23:39
Speaker 3: which makes me think that all those people who say
23:42
Speaker 3: that Trump is a threat to democracy, well, maybe they themselves, they're.
23:47
Speaker 2: The real threat to democracy.
23:49
Speaker 3: Speaking of which, here's Florida Democrat Senate hopeful Angie Nixon
23:53
Speaker 3: calling for her opponent to be thrown in jail and saying, hey,
23:57
Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong with that.
23:58
Speaker 12: You said she should be locked up and punished in jail.
24:02
Speaker 12: Given in the past that Democrats have expressed discomfort with
24:05
Speaker 12: some Republicans using that kind of language, do you worry
24:08
Speaker 12: that that sounds like a desire to weaponize the justice system?
24:15
Speaker 13: It's not language to weaponize the, it's not a desire
24:18
Speaker 13: to weaponize the justice system.
24:20
Speaker 11: It's designed to actually hold corrupt politicians accountable for what
24:24
Speaker 11: they're doing.
24:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, right.
24:27
Speaker 3: But anyway, let's go out of the TV studios and
24:29
Speaker 3: onto the streets where the left is being a bit more,
24:32
Speaker 3: let's just say, entertaining, perhaps unintentionally. Here's a bit of
24:36
Speaker 3: them at the latest No Kings protest that they held
24:41
Speaker 3: over the weekend.
24:46
Speaker 14: Feels like leftism now is just one big humiliation ritual.
25:04
Speaker 2: Over and over again.
25:05
Speaker 3: Now, I don't know about you, but it does feel
25:07
Speaker 3: like there's a lot less people going to these No
25:10
Speaker 3: Kings rallies this time around.
25:12
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know what it is.
25:13
Speaker 3: Maybe it has something to do with USAID funding being
25:16
Speaker 3: cut and whether Democrats are really doing so well in
25:21
Speaker 3: the polls as they say they are. I mean, just
25:23
Speaker 3: have a look at these goofballs.
25:25
Speaker 5: We know that the cops will, like, brutalize minorities. That's
25:29
Speaker 5: a fact.
25:30
Speaker 4: I've never been brutalized by a cop, by the way,
25:32
Speaker 4: and I'm a minority. I'm Asian American.
25:34
Speaker 6: I'm very thankful for that.
25:35
Speaker 4: Hey, why are there so many white people? Why is
25:38
Speaker 4: this No Kings movement just a bunch of white boomers?
25:42
Speaker 7: Thoughts?
25:43
Speaker 4: You guys don't seem to be attracting all the minorities.
25:45
Speaker 4: I thought the minorities would be part of this by
25:47
Speaker 4: now if they really hate Trump.
25:48
Speaker 11: I am totally here supporting No Kings.
25:51
Speaker 4: How do we get more minorities and younger people here?
25:54
Speaker 15: That is such a good question.
25:55
Speaker 2: That is such a good question. Indeed, it is.
26:00
Speaker 3: But even if the coming midterms go well or don't
26:03
Speaker 3: go well for the Democrats, there's still the big question
26:05
Speaker 3: of what happens in 2028. And will the Democrats nominate
26:10
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris to run again for president? And this panelist
26:14
Speaker 3: on The View, well, she said, maybe that's not such
26:18
Speaker 3: a good idea. And the gang almost had a meltdown.
26:22
Speaker 16: Anna, I would never tell someone not to win, but
26:24
Speaker 16: I do think... Run. Run, sorry. But if the Democrats
26:27
Speaker 16: want to win, I don't think she's the right candidate,
26:30
Speaker 16: because I think the Democrats have been screaming for new energy.
26:33
Speaker 16: They've been saying, we need something new to combat this.
26:36
Speaker 16: This would be her third time on this ballot. From
26:39
Speaker 16: the first time when she didn't, she was out really
26:41
Speaker 16: early when she ran, and then the time with Biden,
26:44
Speaker 16: this would be the third time. People are clamoring for
26:46
Speaker 16: fresh energy, and there's a lot of candidates, Pete Buttigieg,
26:50
Speaker 16: Mark Kelly, Shapiro, Wes Moore, they're moderates, moderate Democrats, and
26:56
Speaker 16: I think they could sweep.
27:00
Speaker 17: And they're men.
27:00
Speaker 1: And they're men.
27:01
Speaker 16: But if there was someone of that caliber, Alyssa Slotkin,
27:05
Speaker 16: too young and a senator.
27:06
Speaker 14: Thank you, Sarah.
27:06
Speaker 2: Give me a female out here.
27:07
Speaker 16: I'll give you a female. She's someone I'll have my
27:09
Speaker 16: eye on down the road when she comes around, but
27:11
Speaker 16: that's a female that I would vote for, like, for that,
27:14
Speaker 16: for the polls. Is there men?
27:16
Speaker 3: Yes, they still haven't learned the lessons of the failure
27:20
Speaker 3: of identity politics. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger,
27:23
Speaker 3: let's check in with J.D. Vance, the vice president. Now,
27:26
Speaker 3: listen to him here as he's asked a tough question
27:29
Speaker 3: by a migrant woman who's annoyed about the way the
27:32
Speaker 3: VP and his administration have handled the issue of the
27:36
Speaker 3: border and immigration. Here's the setup with the question.
27:39
Speaker 18: Because of the reasons you just mentioned, I was concerned
27:42
Speaker 18: about border safety as in the trafficking and the drugs,
27:45
Speaker 18: not because I think immigrants actually take away jobs from Americans,
27:49
Speaker 18: but after seeing ICE behave like military police and you
27:55
Speaker 18: recently call H1 visa workers, foreign indentured servants, I think
28:00
Speaker 18: Americans are anything but safe. So I'm just curious, why
28:05
Speaker 18: are you scapegoating immigrants for the issues you're supposed to
28:10
Speaker 18: be solving as a vice president.
28:12
Speaker 2: Well, nice try there, ma'am. But look how J.D.
28:14
Speaker 3: Vance pivots to turn this question about an answer around
28:19
Speaker 3: protecting American workers.
28:21
Speaker 17: And to the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here,
28:24
Speaker 17: that's on me. But what I said about certain visa holders,
28:27
Speaker 17: certain H-1B visas, not the entire category, is here's what
28:30
Speaker 17: happens with an H-1B. You may know a lot about this,
28:33
Speaker 17: but other people may not. Is when they come in
28:35
Speaker 17: on an H-1B, they're very often coming in and the
28:39
Speaker 17: company is certifying that they're doing a job that they
28:42
Speaker 17: can't find an alternative American labor applicant for. And importantly,
28:47
Speaker 17: their visa is their only lifeline to the United States
28:49
Speaker 17: of America. So when I say an indentured servant, that's
28:52
Speaker 17: not a criticism of the H-1B visa holder.
28:54
Speaker 5: That's a criticism of a.
28:55
Speaker 17: Company who brings a person in, who sometimes will literally
28:59
Speaker 17: lay off an American worker, bring somebody else in, and.
29:02
Speaker 2: Knows that person.
29:03
Speaker 17: If they complain, if they get too uppity at work,
29:06
Speaker 17: if they have a disagreement with their boss, they couldn't
29:09
Speaker 17: just lose their job, which is what could happen to
29:11
Speaker 17: any American citizen, could happen to me in a couple years.
29:14
Speaker 17: It's what fundamentally, they can be shipped back to their
29:17
Speaker 17: country of origin. And I think that gives employers way
29:20
Speaker 17: too much power.
29:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, Mr. Vice President.
29:23
Speaker 3: Never apologize, never explain. I don't think you need to
29:26
Speaker 3: apologize for your language there. But otherwise, good work. And
29:30
Speaker 3: I expect we'll see more of this style of campaigning
29:33
Speaker 3: on the campaign trail, perhaps soon enough. Though for my money,
29:37
Speaker 3: I'm still a Rubio man. Well, as we just spoke about,
29:42
Speaker 3: Vice President J.D. Vance took part in a CBS News
29:45
Speaker 3: town hall in Michigan where he was grilled with a
29:48
Speaker 3: series of tough questions. But he all took it all
29:51
Speaker 3: in stride, hit it out of the park. He was
29:52
Speaker 3: grilled on issues ranging from Iran to immigration to soaring prices.
29:58
Speaker 2: And he showed why he is, in.
30:00
Speaker 3: Many people's minds, the frontrunner to succeed Trump as Republican
30:04
Speaker 3: nominee for president. But the vice president also said, There's
30:09
Speaker 3: a chance he might not run.
30:12
Speaker 2: Have a listen to this.
30:14
Speaker 17: Is there a chance you don't run for president in 2028?
30:17
Speaker 17: Of course there's a chance. I mean, we've got four
30:19
Speaker 17: little kids. My wife has never loved politics. She loves
30:23
Speaker 17: public service. People ask me this question all the time,
30:25
Speaker 17: and I think they assume because I'm a politician, of
30:27
Speaker 17: course she's going to run for president in 2028. The
30:29
Speaker 17: way that I think about life, big life decisions, my
30:32
Speaker 17: wife will tell you this, is I'm a procrastinator.
30:34
Speaker 1: I hate thinking about it.
30:36
Speaker 17: And what will happen is that, first of all, after
30:38
Speaker 17: all of these fine people elect Mike Rogers, United States
30:41
Speaker 17: Senator for the state of Michigan, what's going to happen
30:44
Speaker 17: is they don't have to think about it. And then
30:45
Speaker 17: I will actually have to make a decision.
30:48
Speaker 3: Joining me now to discuss this and a whole lot
30:50
Speaker 3: more is California Post opinion editor Joel Pollack here from
30:54
Speaker 3: Los Angeles.
30:55
Speaker 2: Joel, welcome back to the program. Great to chat to you.
31:00
Speaker 3: What did you make, Joel, of his performance at the
31:03
Speaker 3: town hall overall, but specifically that interesting little comment there,
31:08
Speaker 3: leaving the door open not to running, but to not running?
31:14
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think it means very much at this stage.
31:17
Speaker 9: I think any successful presidential candidate has to cast themselves
31:22
Speaker 9: as being undecided until they have finally decided.
31:25
Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
31:26
Speaker 9: The environment will never be as propitious for a run
31:31
Speaker 9: as it is now for J.D.
31:33
Speaker 1: Vance. He's going to have the.
31:35
Speaker 9: Advantage over every other candidate as the chosen potential successor
31:40
Speaker 9: to Donald Trump. And if he takes time off the
31:44
Speaker 9: way Joe Biden did for four years and tries to
31:46
Speaker 9: come back out of the wilderness, I mean, it worked
31:48
Speaker 9: for Biden, but it only worked in extraordinary circumstances with
31:51
Speaker 9: a pandemic and a very crowded field of left-wing socialists
31:54
Speaker 9: and so forth. Vance is going to have a more
31:57
Speaker 9: difficult time coming back to politics after leaving it for
32:00
Speaker 9: a while. And so I do think he's going to
32:02
Speaker 9: have to strike while the iron is hot and run
32:04
Speaker 9: for president.
32:04
Speaker 3: Well, it is a tough question because, of course, you know,
32:07
Speaker 3: vice presidents historically also have a bit of trouble sometimes
32:11
Speaker 3: making that leap after a president.
32:12
Speaker 2: I think George... H.W.
32:15
Speaker 3: Bush was probably the last one to do it directly
32:17
Speaker 3: in 1988, if I recall correctly. But at the same time, though,
32:22
Speaker 3: he does have a point. Four small kids, that's a
32:24
Speaker 3: big ask when you're going out on the campaign trail.
32:28
Speaker 9: Well, yes, but he also ran for president or vice
32:32
Speaker 9: president with a couple of small children.
32:34
Speaker 2: True, true.
32:36
Speaker 19: I agree with him generally, and I think it's smart
32:39
Speaker 19: for him to show empathy with parents and the difficulty
32:42
Speaker 19: of having a career life and a family life, but
32:46
Speaker 19: I don't think it.
32:46
Speaker 1: Stopped him in the past and it wouldn't stop him now.
32:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, look, you're probably right. We'll see.
32:51
Speaker 3: Could have big old Brady Bunch sort of situation there
32:54
Speaker 3: out on the campaign trail.
32:55
Speaker 2: We'll see.
32:55
Speaker 3: And I guess probably a lot will hinge on what
32:57
Speaker 3: happens in a couple of weeks to those midterms. But, hey,
32:59
Speaker 3: I was fascinated also, Joel, by this story, big story
33:03
Speaker 3: in The New York Times, breaking down U.S. government data,
33:07
Speaker 3: revealing that not just illegal immigration, but legal immigration has
33:11
Speaker 3: fallen drastically since Trump started power. his policies since coming
33:17
Speaker 3: into office, cutting legal immigration in half with huge declines
33:22
Speaker 3: in areas like Africa, other parts of the world. This
33:26
Speaker 3: is interesting to me as an Australian, because in Australia,
33:29
Speaker 3: you know, we're told, oh, if we don't have a
33:30
Speaker 3: huge number of legal immigrants, the whole economy will stop moving.
33:34
Speaker 3: But clearly that's not the case in America.
33:39
Speaker 11: Right.
33:39
Speaker 9: Well, Keep in mind, we had essentially an open border
33:42
Speaker 9: for four years and Trump has closed it. And there
33:46
Speaker 9: are two components to that. One is enforcing the law
33:49
Speaker 9: against illegal migration. And the other one is restricting legal
33:53
Speaker 9: immigration because there is an understanding that at least in
33:57
Speaker 9: some parts of the economy, even legal migrants compete with
34:00
Speaker 9: American workers and drive down wages. And so Trump is
34:03
Speaker 9: responding to the concern of his working class voters and
34:06
Speaker 9: slowing down all immigrations. He does distinguish between illegal and
34:10
Speaker 9: legal and talks about how he wants a big, beautiful
34:13
Speaker 9: door for legal immigrants to walk through.
34:15
Speaker 1: But there has been a decline.
34:17
Speaker 9: A lot of that decline is because so much of
34:19
Speaker 9: the migration that was allowed under Obama and Biden was
34:23
Speaker 9: illegal or was for family unification, reunification from different parts
34:29
Speaker 9: of the world that are not necessarily so high skilled
34:33
Speaker 9: or advanced economically.
34:34
Speaker 16: Yeah.
34:35
Speaker 1: There's been a real step backward. And that's what the
34:39
Speaker 1: American public wanted.
34:40
Speaker 9: In poll after poll, regardless of party, Americans believed that
34:45
Speaker 9: there was too much immigration, illegal or legal. And so
34:49
Speaker 9: Trump is responding to that. And as a result, legal
34:51
Speaker 9: immigration is also going down.
34:53
Speaker 3: Hey, tell our viewers here about the contentious nature of
34:56
Speaker 3: this whole story about the H-1B visas, which are apparently
35:00
Speaker 3: these visas which are used specifically in the tech industry. Now,
35:04
Speaker 3: my mail from people in the U.S. is that people
35:06
Speaker 3: there have been furious about these visas for years because
35:09
Speaker 3: they say that they lock American tech workers out of
35:12
Speaker 3: the economy for cheaper imports from overseas.
35:14
Speaker 2: Tell us about that.
35:17
Speaker 9: Well, my understanding is what happens with the H-1B visa
35:20
Speaker 9: program is that there are a number of intermediaries, kind
35:23
Speaker 9: of middlemen, who step in and They apply for these
35:27
Speaker 9: visas on behalf of workers from countries like India, and
35:32
Speaker 9: these workers are not necessarily competitive at a skill level
35:35
Speaker 9: with American workers, but they get brought in, they get trained,
35:38
Speaker 9: and then they earn a lot less than American workers
35:41
Speaker 9: to do the same thing. It's not that people oppose
35:44
Speaker 9: the idea of bringing in skilled tech workers. It's just
35:47
Speaker 9: that this particular system is notorious for being exploited and abused,
35:51
Speaker 9: and often to the detriment of the workers from India
35:55
Speaker 9: and other parts of the world that are being brought
35:57
Speaker 9: in because they're not earning what they should be earning
35:59
Speaker 9: for doing the same work. And often they have a
36:03
Speaker 9: difficult situation in terms of their own legal status in
36:07
Speaker 9: the country, and they're very dependent on their employers. So
36:10
Speaker 9: there's been a call for reform of the H-1B program
36:12
Speaker 9: for a long time. Yeah.
36:14
Speaker 3: And I mean, I played a little bit of J.D.
36:15
Speaker 3: Vance before on the program speaking about the them as
36:19
Speaker 3: indentured servants or indentured servitude. And some people took exception
36:23
Speaker 3: to that, but I think he's got a point. Just
36:25
Speaker 3: on another issue, and it does touch on immigration a bit,
36:28
Speaker 3: I guess, actually quite a lot. Borders are Tom Homan
36:31
Speaker 3: has said that Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar could be denaturalized
36:37
Speaker 3: and deported if investigators find that she committed immigration fraud,
36:42
Speaker 3: doubling down on his assertion that no one is above
36:46
Speaker 3: the law, which is a phrase, Joe, that we heard
36:49
Speaker 3: about Donald Trump a whole lot from the left. But
36:52
Speaker 3: now they're getting all very touchy about the idea that
36:56
Speaker 3: it might also apply to Ilhan Omar.
37:00
Speaker 9: Right. Well, they get very touchy every time it's applied
37:02
Speaker 9: to anybody except Donald Trump.
37:04
Speaker 1: You know, they said that over and over again. No
37:06
Speaker 1: one's above the law. No one's above the law. Well,
37:07
Speaker 1: that applies to Democrats as well.
37:10
Speaker 9: And Ilhan Omar has been under suspicion for quite some time,
37:12
Speaker 9: ever since she ran for Congress in 2018.
37:15
Speaker 1: There is a conservative blog called the Powerline blog, and
37:18
Speaker 1: they're the first people to expose her.
37:22
Speaker 9: Possible involvement in marrying her biological brother so that she
37:26
Speaker 9: could help him get a visa to come into the
37:28
Speaker 9: United States.
37:29
Speaker 1: And it's a whole mysterious part of her life. The
37:32
Speaker 1: issue now, apparently, is that.
37:34
Speaker 20: She may have fudged the date of her application for
37:38
Speaker 20: immigration and in a way that would have made her
37:41
Speaker 20: ineligible to become a citizen on the back of her parents'
37:44
Speaker 20: citizenship or her father's citizenship.
37:46
Speaker 9: And in addition to that, there are questions about whether
37:48
Speaker 9: the father really should have been admitted as a refugee,
37:50
Speaker 9: which apparently he was, when in fact he was a
37:53
Speaker 9: member of the Somali military, apparently.
37:55
Speaker 1: So it's really murky.
37:59
Speaker 9: And the questions really will be how honest was she
38:04
Speaker 9: with the government and.
38:05
Speaker 1: How honest was she with the general public.
38:07
Speaker 9: There have been accusations that her staff altered documents. And
38:11
Speaker 9: so we'll see where this all shakes out. But obviously,
38:13
Speaker 9: there was some kind of probable cause because the search
38:17
Speaker 9: warrant had to be issued by a judge in Washington, D.C.,
38:20
Speaker 9: which is not exactly a conservative jurisdiction.
38:23
Speaker 1: So some judge, federal judge.
38:26
Speaker 9: Had to have seen the evidence against a sitting member
38:28
Speaker 9: of Congress and decided it was serious enough to allow
38:31
Speaker 9: the federal government investigators to go in there. So we'll
38:35
Speaker 9: see how it shakes out. I mean, do I think
38:37
Speaker 9: that the government should target political opponents?
38:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
38:40
Speaker 9: We did see that throughout the Trump years, and that's
38:43
Speaker 9: what the government was focused on doing. Not just Trump,
38:45
Speaker 9: but thousands of other people who are seen as Trump supporters.
38:49
Speaker 9: But I don't think this is tit for tat. I
38:51
Speaker 9: think there is actually something there. People have been talking
38:53
Speaker 9: about it for quite some time.
38:54
Speaker 2: Well, yeah.
38:56
Speaker 3: And just on that, Joel, I'd point out that the
38:59
Speaker 3: concurrent investigation into her finances and her financial disclosure forms,
39:03
Speaker 3: apparently that began under the Department of Justice when Joe
39:07
Speaker 3: Biden was president. So I think that really puts the
39:09
Speaker 3: lie to any idea that this is all political. But hey,
39:12
Speaker 3: just very quickly, too, We've also got the race in
39:15
Speaker 3: Texas and James Tallarico, or James Talafrico, as Donald Trump
39:19
Speaker 3: calls him. Well, he thinks that America's solutions, the solution
39:23
Speaker 3: to America's problems, come from looking to Western Europe.
39:28
Speaker 2: Have a listen to this.
39:29
Speaker 21: We haven't lived up to the promise of democracy. And
39:32
Speaker 21: of course, some countries are farther along than others. And sadly,
39:35
Speaker 21: here in America, where that experiment started, we are backsliding.
39:39
Speaker 21: And that troubles me greatly. But all of us still
39:43
Speaker 21: have so much more work to do to create a
39:45
Speaker 21: true democracy.
39:47
Speaker 2: But you're right.
39:48
Speaker 21: You know, the We should look as Americans to other countries,
39:52
Speaker 21: especially in Western Europe, for inspiration about how to continue
39:58
Speaker 21: with this experiment and ultimately reach that goal of a
40:02
Speaker 21: true democracy.
40:04
Speaker 3: So I don't know, Joel, I'm looking at the TV
40:06
Speaker 3: these days, look at my phone and I see riots
40:09
Speaker 3: in France, illegal boat migration going across from Belgium and
40:13
Speaker 3: France to the UK, Germany having all of its problems,
40:16
Speaker 3: the riots have moved to Poland. I love Western Europe,
40:19
Speaker 3: but I'm not sure I'd want to base my politics
40:21
Speaker 3: on it.
40:23
Speaker 9: Yeah, what he means by true democracy is where the
40:26
Speaker 9: government can redistribute property, redistribute wealth. In the mind of
40:29
Speaker 9: the democratic socialists, the only true democracy is one where
40:32
Speaker 9: we democratize other people's property by voting on whether they
40:35
Speaker 9: get to keep it or not. And that's what he
40:37
Speaker 9: means when he talks about Western Europe. He's talking about
40:39
Speaker 9: the social democracy, the socialist policies of Western Europe, which
40:42
Speaker 9: are failing. And you can see the results of the
40:44
Speaker 9: failure on the streets of France. The French government has
40:48
Speaker 9: overspent to the point where it now has to institute
40:51
Speaker 9: changes to the retirement system. It has to cut spending.
40:55
Speaker 9: And you're going to see a lot more unrest in
40:57
Speaker 9: the future. You combine that with a highly permissive immigration
41:02
Speaker 9: situation where they allow people to come in because not
41:05
Speaker 9: just to show what non-racist they can be, but also
41:09
Speaker 9: because this immigrant class is now needed to perform manual
41:13
Speaker 9: labor and to pay taxes into France's.
41:16
Speaker 1: Collapsing welfare state. And so they're out there destroying the
41:21
Speaker 1: country that invited them in.
41:22
Speaker 3: Joel, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank
41:23
Speaker 3: you so much for your time tonight. Great pleasure as always,
41:26
Speaker 3: but yes, you're absolutely right. And if you like that
41:28
Speaker 3: kind of democracy, well, maybe you should look to Australia.
41:31
Speaker 3: Got some stories here. Thank you so much, Joel.
41:33
Speaker 1: Thank you.
41:34
Speaker 3: Still to come, Matthew McConaughey lectures Americans on how they
41:38
Speaker 3: should vote.
41:39
Speaker 2: Are you listening?
41:40
Speaker 3: Kinsey Schofield's going to join me on that next. Welcome
41:48
Speaker 3: back to the program. James Morrow here filling in for Rita.
41:52
Speaker 3: And let's hear from another celebrity who has decided to
41:55
Speaker 3: say his own lines rather than simply read the ones
41:59
Speaker 3: that have been scripted for him. And this time we
42:02
Speaker 3: have Matthew McConaughey injecting himself into US politics.
42:07
Speaker 2: What else?
42:07
Speaker 3: Calling on voters to embrace independent candidates, saying they can't
42:12
Speaker 3: rely on either Democrats or Republicans?
42:16
Speaker 2: Have a listen.
42:16
Speaker 15: So they've been telling us for years that an independent
42:19
Speaker 15: vote is a wasted vote. Well, a great question for
42:24
Speaker 15: our times is, has that unwasted vote been working out
42:30
Speaker 15: for you? Independents belong in the fight. Not as a protest,
42:34
Speaker 15: not as a spoiler, but as a real and potential
42:38
Speaker 15: winner on the ballot and considered seriously by us. Now
42:44
Speaker 15: let's clear something up about the word independent. Independent does
42:49
Speaker 15: not mean you're middle of the road. Independent is the
42:52
Speaker 15: original road. Before there was ever a Republican or a Democrat,
42:56
Speaker 15: there was an American. Our birth certificate is not the
42:58
Speaker 15: declaration of compromise, it is the declaration of independence.
43:03
Speaker 3: Well, joining me now to discuss this and a whole
43:05
Speaker 3: lot more is the host of the Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered podcast,
43:09
Speaker 3: Kinsey Schofield. Kinsey, welcome back to the program. Great to
43:12
Speaker 3: chat to you. This was a little fascinating here. Besides
43:15
Speaker 3: Matt McConaughey speaking this video like he sounded like he
43:19
Speaker 3: was voicing over, doing the voiceover for an educational video
43:22
Speaker 3: that you might have watched, watched in school. What is
43:26
Speaker 3: this thing about independence? Because I thought Hollywood was reliably Democrat.
43:31
Speaker 3: Is he going to get smashed for straying off the reservation?
43:34
Speaker 13: I mean, I do think that this is the type
43:37
Speaker 13: of stuff we've come to expect from Matthew McConaughey. He's
43:40
Speaker 13: considered running for office in Texas before. He's spoken passionately
43:44
Speaker 13: about gun violence. But what I do appreciate is that
43:48
Speaker 13: he's measured. He's not hateful or dismissive of people who
43:51
Speaker 13: disagree with him politically. That's refreshing here in Hollywood, where
43:55
Speaker 13: some celebrities think winning an Oscar qualifies them to rewrite
43:58
Speaker 13: the Constitution. So while I do typically say, please, for
44:02
Speaker 13: the love of God, stop telling us how you're politically motivated,
44:07
Speaker 13: who you're voting for when it comes to celebrities, I am,
44:10
Speaker 13: in this case, thankful that he is doing it in
44:13
Speaker 13: a kinder way than somebody like, you know, Ruffalo, whatever,
44:20
Speaker 13: Mark Ruffio does, the way that he talks about it.
44:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, look, I mean, that's why I say
44:25
Speaker 3: it was a little bit, it was a little refreshing.
44:28
Speaker 3: It wasn't quite what I expected there, that he's not
44:31
Speaker 3: just simply screaming about Democrats or yelling at Trump and
44:34
Speaker 3: Trump supporters, you know? Good on him, I guess, for
44:37
Speaker 3: a change. Let's move on to other news, though, I
44:40
Speaker 3: guess with this here. Miley Cyrus, well, this is a
44:43
Speaker 3: bit sad. She broke down while on stage, mourning the
44:48
Speaker 3: death of her beloved godmother, Dolly Parton.
44:51
Speaker 2: Have a look at this.
44:53
Speaker 11: So many reasons that I wanted to perform at the
44:55
Speaker 11: Hollywood Bowl.
45:00
Speaker 1: Above every single one of them.
45:04
Speaker 10: Is that I only got to see Dolly Parton live
45:08
Speaker 10: in concert one time in my entire life, and it
45:12
Speaker 10: was here.
45:15
Speaker 3: Dolly was such a great inspiration to her, but so many.
45:17
Speaker 3: But it really is, you know, it does underline what
45:20
Speaker 3: a sad loss that was and just how much she
45:24
Speaker 3: continues to affect people even weeks after her passing.
45:28
Speaker 13: Absolutely. She was glamorous, Dolly. She was funny and unapologetically herself.
45:33
Speaker 13: She was one of those rare celebrities who seemed universally loved.
45:37
Speaker 13: The hair was big, the personality was bigger, and somehow
45:41
Speaker 13: the heart was bigger than both of those things.
45:43
Speaker 9: So.
45:44
Speaker 13: I'm not surprised to see Miley continue to honor her.
45:46
Speaker 13: I suspect Miley, her entire legacy going forward will be
45:52
Speaker 13: honoring her godmother.
45:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, good for her, good for her, good honour for that. Also,
45:57
Speaker 3: I want to talk about this one here, Ellen DeGeneres. Now,
46:00
Speaker 3: there's a name that I haven't heard for a very
46:04
Speaker 3: long time. She's made a surprise appearance on The Graham
46:08
Speaker 3: Norton Show last week, and she reflected on her lengthy
46:13
Speaker 3: absence on the screen and said that she missed being
46:17
Speaker 3: on TV. Kinsey, she said she doesn't have any work
46:20
Speaker 3: lined up, but do you think... This is a, some
46:23
Speaker 3: sort of harbinger of a future Ellen DeGeneres comeback. And
46:27
Speaker 3: if it was, what would we see her doing?
46:29
Speaker 13: Oh, I have a referee between, you know, a referee between,
46:36
Speaker 13: I guess, two people taking swipes at each other. I
46:39
Speaker 13: think of Ellen DeGeneres as a bully. I don't necessarily
46:42
Speaker 13: think of her as an entertainer anymore. You know, she's
46:46
Speaker 13: discovered the hard way that it's much easier to destroy
46:49
Speaker 13: a reputation than rebuild one. And it is, It's interesting
46:52
Speaker 13: to me that Meghan Markle was recently spotted with Ellen
46:55
Speaker 13: in the UK, two women attempting to rehabilitate their public
46:58
Speaker 13: images after developing rather unfortunate reputations. So perhaps they should
47:04
Speaker 13: launch a podcast together. There's our answer. The Meghan Markle
47:08
Speaker 13: Ellen DeGeneres podcast.
47:10
Speaker 2: Be kind.
47:10
Speaker 13: Terms and conditions apply.
47:13
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that idea, kids. That's so great.
47:17
Speaker 3: And it would probably do a little better than Meghan
47:19
Speaker 3: Markle's own podcast of some of her own. media ventures,
47:23
Speaker 3: or who knows, maybe we'll just go right down the toilet.
47:25
Speaker 3: But hey, let's stick on Meghan Markle with revelations that
47:29
Speaker 3: Markle has lashed out at her designer friend, Roland Morel,
47:34
Speaker 3: over a little mix-up involving Kate Middleton. Kinsey, this sounds
47:39
Speaker 3: like it's going to be good. What is this all about?
47:43
Speaker 13: So, I mean, it was a miscommunication and Megan, you know,
47:47
Speaker 13: kicked it up a notch the way she typically does,
47:49
Speaker 13: according to the author of this book, the clothing designer, um,
47:53
Speaker 13: when he, his team was trying to collect some clothing
47:56
Speaker 13: that he'd allowed Megan to borrow. Um, they reached out
48:00
Speaker 13: on accident to the princess of Wales, his team asking
48:04
Speaker 13: Catherine's team, if they could collect Megan's clothing and Megan
48:07
Speaker 13: picked up the phone, called him and said, you've humiliated me.
48:11
Speaker 13: I can't wear your clothing anymore. I find Megan's apparent
48:15
Speaker 13: obsession with Catherine exhausting. Megan married into the most famous
48:21
Speaker 13: royal family in the world. She was given a huge
48:23
Speaker 13: platform and still seems dissatisfied. Catherine isn't competing with a
48:27
Speaker 13: condiment saleswoman. She's preparing to become queen. And at some point,
48:33
Speaker 13: Megan has to realize that Catherine isn't responsible for every
48:36
Speaker 13: disappointment in her life. So I just felt like this story,
48:39
Speaker 13: while it's, Coming up now because the book's coming out,
48:42
Speaker 13: and it happened, you know, when Meghan was a working royal,
48:45
Speaker 13: I think it's a reflection of who she truly is.
48:48
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
48:49
Speaker 3: Hey, very quickly, just want to get your take, too,
48:51
Speaker 3: sticking on the royals. Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail
48:53
Speaker 3: has written this piece here saying that, oh, well, maybe
48:55
Speaker 3: we should give Prince Harry back his titles. That would
48:57
Speaker 3: be the thing to do to bring him back into
49:00
Speaker 3: the fold. Give them what they want, and then they'll
49:02
Speaker 3: play nice.
49:04
Speaker 2: Do you buy it?
49:06
Speaker 13: Absolutely not.
49:06
Speaker 5: Since when do we reward?
49:08
Speaker 13: Deplorable behavior with privileges. He voluntarily quit his role six
49:13
Speaker 13: years ago. Continued to attack the family. I think Charles
49:16
Speaker 13: should strip them of their titles the way he did
49:19
Speaker 13: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and I think the British royal family should
49:22
Speaker 13: release the Meghan Markle bully report. That's how I think
49:25
Speaker 13: that they should handle Harry and Meghan's faux royal tour.
49:28
Speaker 3: Absolutely right. Kinsey Schofield could not agree with you more.
49:31
Speaker 3: That's an absolutely five-star idea there. I love that about
49:34
Speaker 3: releasing the bullying report as well. Thank you so much.
49:38
Speaker 3: We'll speak again soon. Now, that's it for me, but
49:40
Speaker 3: stick around because Late Edition is next.