Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Virginia Cops & CPS Punish Mom for Letting Son Take a Walk

Transcript

Virginia Cops & CPS Punish Mom for Letting Son Take a Walk · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review. Three Martini's coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Thursday edition of
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch. It's going to be quite a
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: ride today, so buckle up and enjoy it along with us. Jim,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: let's head out first to Nebraska for a, in some ways,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: if you really squint, good, because we're learning about this
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: ahead of Election Day, but for the most part, it's
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: bad and crazy, but Dan Osborne is this quote-unquote independent
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: who keeps running, and the Democrats keep pulling back their
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: candidates in favor of the independent, but he's totally not
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: their guy, despite the fact that he's getting money through
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the normal ways the Democrats make money. He wants to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: abolish ICE. He's pro-abortion and all that stuff. But there's
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: apparently some audio that was recorded of Dan Osborne explaining
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: how in Nebraska, he can't really say... what he really
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: thinks about certain issues. Cause he, you know, he wants
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: to win.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I have people recording me, so I can't say I
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: want to abolish ICE.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I can't say those words.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: The state is made up of 50% Republicans, 26% Democrat,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: 24% independence. So my win numbers, mathematically, I have to
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: get probably 10 to 15% of Republicans to win this race.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: How am I going to do that? By, saying, oh, I.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Love trans people and they should be able to play
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: in sports.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Like, no, Jane, that's not how I went.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: That obviously needed more bleeps than an Andrew Dice Clay
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: special during primetime on Comedy Central back in the 80s.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But Jim, you know, we always trot out the old
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Dennis Green phrase. He is who he thought he is.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: This is a Democratic candidate, but he can't say the
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: things that most Democrats would say because it's a red state.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: The question is, will it work against Senator Ricketts? Hopefully not.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: If I'm Pete Ricketts, I'm putting that all over the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: airwaves to let people know that, like, look, the Dan
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Osborne that is being sold to you is not the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Dan Osborne you're going to get if you elect him
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to the Senate. I've alluded to this in past episodes.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I've never just come out and said it. And I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: guess now I kind of feel like there's no point
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: in hiding it. So I was on a panel for
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: The Washington Post back in 2024 talking about the Senate outlook.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: And I had said something about, ah, you know, the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Democrats are going to have a tough time. There just
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: aren't enough competitive races. And I should say it was
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: at that point fellow columnist Jen Rubin who said, oh,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: don't count out the Democrats picking up a seat in Nebraska. Now,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of course, back then Dan Osborne was an independent, wink, wink.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And I remember at the time I had not heard
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: anything indicating that the race out there was competitive. And,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you know, being enough of a professional, there's a part
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: in me that feels a certain degree of mortification if
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: there's a competitive Senate race out there. And I've completely
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: missed it. And so I kept looking for it. And
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I really couldn't find any evidence that Osborne was going
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to be putting that race into play. And I kept
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: looking for it. Now, the other thing is like there
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: was just not a lot of polling out there. And
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the polling that was out there was conducted by the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Osborne campaign. But I went back and I checked. So,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you know, was Deb Fischer, you know, more vulnerable than usual?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I suppose so. You know, there was one poll. It
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: was independent. It was done in, you know, mid to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: late October. That had her up by two. OK, that's
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in Nebraska. That's a little, you know, much more competitive
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: than expected. And then The Economist and YouGov did one
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: about a couple of days later. And that one had
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Deb Fischer up by seven. So I looked at that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't really see it. Like,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, Osborne might be in the running for like
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a beta O'Rourke award, which, oh, you kept it close.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: You covered the point spread. Great news for all the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Vegas oddmakers. But basically, you want to win the race,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: not just, you know, cover. And Deb Fisher won by 6.6
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: percentage points. So, yeah, more competitive than usual, but really
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: not down to the wire or anything like that. And
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: my sneaking suspicion is we will get something like that again.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I think Dan Osborne is turning into one of these
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: figures that Democrats, they want to believe. What we used
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to be able to say about Texas, we'll see how
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the Texas Senate race shakes out this year. The polling
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: out in Nebraska, the good news is there's more polling
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: out there this cycle. The bad news is that almost
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: all of it has been affiliated with the Dan Osborne campaign.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: But here's, I'm just looking at the New York Times
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: now does the RealClearPolitics gig of just putting together all
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the polls. I'm going to show you, I'm going to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: read to you the outcomes in the last seven polls, Greg.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Ricketts by 1, Ricketts by 1, Ricketts by 7, Ricketts
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: by 9, and now we're up to like May, right?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Then Osborne by 5, Ricketts by 16, and even. So
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the last three polls are giving you an option of
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: either it's even or Osborne by 5. If Forbes was
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: still in the race, Ricketts would be ahead by 16.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But nonetheless... The Osborne campaign say Dan Osborne is doing great.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Color me a little bit skeptical. Yes, it's not a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: great year for Republicans, but Nebraska is a pretty Republican-leaning state.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: We'll see how this shakes out. But this is just
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: one of those things where now that Ricketts can say, look,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Dan Osborne is trying to tell you he's a moderate.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Here he is on tape saying, bleeping, I can't, I
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: have to bleeping pretend to bleeping be a moderate. I'm
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: clearly a bleeping hard left, bleeping progressive. And once I'm
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in the Senate, I'm going to bleeping bleep this bleep
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: as hard as I bleeping can. Be very careful about
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the language for the rest of this episode. This is
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: not the most family-friendly episode of Three Martini Lunch you're
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: going to get.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: It's all, it is all bleeped, though. So you have
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that going for you. But the Democrats have this thing of,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: you know, pretending that the independent isn't their chosen candidate,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: which is hard to pull off when you've convinced the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Democratic nominee in Nebraska to pull out of the race
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: as soon as she won the primary. They've also convinced
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: the Democratic nominee in South Dakota to get it out
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: so they can get behind the independent there against Mike Rounds.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: And they're really super duper duper mad at the Democrat
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: for not getting out in Montana because they have an
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: independent candidate there as well. And she's messing up their
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: plans by not getting out. So You know, if you're
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: trying to hide your support for the independent, the Democrats
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: are really bad at it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Remember, Bernie Sanders isn't independent. Right.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So anyway, I don't know why they pull this
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: off or go this strategy because it's so obvious. But
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: like you said, it is a little bit closer than
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: if the Democrat had stayed in in Nebraska. So hopefully
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: it won't work. And now that we've exposed him or
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: some people have exposed him or exposed himself, that will
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: make it easier for Nebraska voters as well.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Greg is going to say, to quote Bill Murray in
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Ghostbusters 2, you don't want him exposing himself.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what else you don't want exposed, your
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: personal information. And it's easier to find online than you think.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Your name, your phone number, your email, your home address,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: data brokers, they collect and sell it all, making you
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: an easy target for scammers and identity thieves. And that's
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: where Incogni comes in. Instead of filling out manual opt-out forms,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Incogni handles removal requests across more than 420 harmful broker sites.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and automatically resubmits requests every 30 to 60 days to
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: keep brokers from relisting your data.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: For even broader protection, Incogni's unlimited plan includes an exposure
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: scanner that will search the wider web and surface your
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: exposures all in one dashboard. You choose the links that
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you want removed, and Incogni's human privacy experts will manually
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: handle the takedown, the requests for you. Remember, they can't
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: harm you if they can't find you.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's true. So go to incogni.com slash 3ML and
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: use the promo code 3ML to get 60% off an
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: annual plan. That is incogni.com slash 3ML, promo code 3ML,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: backed by a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. All right, Jim. Next,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the insanity that's happening not that far away from us
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: in Virginia. It's down in the Williamsburg area, which is
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: about two to two and a half hours away, depending
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: on traffic, sometimes three. But a mother of five was
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: convicted last week of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Her offense, this is according to Reason Magazine or Reason.com,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: allowing her five-year-old son to walk about half a mile
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: by himself in their gated community. Until recently, Carrie Ann
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Parkinson lived in Leafy Williamsburg, Virginia. She and her husband, Dallin,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: moved there from Utah so Parkinson could attend William and
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Mary Law School. In June, when she was preparing for
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: the bar and also happened to be eight months pregnant
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: with her fifth child, she and her then-youngest, Sam, went
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: for a bike ride as they often do. They stopped
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: for her son's favorite activity, collecting goose feathers from the
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: path near their community pond. When they got home, he
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: asked if he could walk back and get some more.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Parkinson said, yes, it's a short walk along a sidewalk
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: separated from the street by 10 feet of grass. Sam
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: would have to cross two streets with crosswalks, which she'd
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: seen him do safely hundreds of times, including six times
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that morning. Off he went. She made lunch. A passerby
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: saw Sam and alerted security. One of the community's security
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: guards escorted the boy back and gave Parkinson an earful.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Pretty soon there were three cop cars, just as many cops,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: a security vehicle, and two child protective services workers at
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Parkinson's door. CPS ended up investigating her for abuse and neglect.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: The cops, meanwhile, charged her with contributing to the delinquency
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: of a minor. CPS found the allegations substantiated and placed
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Parkinson on the state's child abuse and neglect registry, where
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: she will remain for seven years. The ordeal reached its
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: nadir last week when a judge convicted Parkinson of the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: delinquency of a minor charge of first-degree misdemeanor. This comes
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: with a six-month jail sentence. The judge did suspend that
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: pending good behavior in compliance with CBS's conditions. Parkinson assumes
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: this means she will not be able to volunteer in
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: her kids' schools, which might actually be a benefit, but
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: she fears it could also mean she will not get
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: her law license. And so, Jim, you know, we've had
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: five-year-old kids. Our kids are significantly older than that now.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I would not probably let them walk alone half a
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: mile at five years old. But when we were growing up,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: you know, our parents told us to go ride your bike,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: hang out with your friends, especially in the summertime, be
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: back for dinner, that kind of thing. So, I don't
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: necessarily agree with the decision she made, but the idea
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: that CPS and the cops had to get involved here,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: this is way too much nanny status.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Three cars, three police cars responding to this, making me
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: suggest this is a quiet day in that community. Again,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I have been accused of being a Vulcan in my
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: lack of emotional response to news stories that are often
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: hyped in a way to generate this. I would like
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: to have asked the prosecutors, what was the delinquency? Because
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it's contributing to the delinquency. How was this five-year-old harmed?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: How are they delinquent? How are they going astray in society?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: All they were doing was walking home, right? Now, I
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: think you and I would agree. Five strikes us as
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: a little on the young side. And it's one of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: those things where I think if you and I were
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: in law enforcement, you know, why is this five-year-old kid?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: You'd probably talk to the mom. And you might say
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: to the mom, hey, you know, five-year-old is a bit
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: young to have your kid walking around the neighborhood unattended.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: You know, just be careful or something like that. I've
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: noticed in our often political debates, there are two settings
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: when someone is accused of a crime. No one is
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: above the law. This is what you say when someone
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you don't like has been accused of a crime and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: or is convicted. Or this is a police state. This
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: is a witch hunt. This is, you know, clearly law
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: enforcement and prosecutors are being unreasonable in this. And the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: no one is above the law kind of makes this
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: argument that the law must be applied. And if you
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: break the law, if you violate the law in any
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: kind of circumstances, you must face the full consequences of it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: There can be no recognition of any extenuating circumstances. There
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: can be no understanding of the context. The law must
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: be applied, right? Now, people say like, you know, if
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: we have a speed limit, it is conceivable that maybe
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I drive faster than the posted speed limit. But there's
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: a question when you get pulled over, the cop has
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to decide, is this someone I want to
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: write a ticket for or can I let them off
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: with a warning? Now, if the cop is systemically saying,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to write tickets for everyone, but if it's
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a pretty girl, I'm going to let her off with
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a warning. That does make us feel a little bit
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: like there's an inappropriate standard being applied. If all of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: one race was getting one treatment, all of another race
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: was getting another treatment, then you'd kind of say, okay,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: there's something in violation of the spirit of the law
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: going on here. But we give cops discretion about whether
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: or not they're going to charge someone or let them
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: off with a warning. Prosecutors all the time get presented
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: with cases and they have to decide, is this a
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: case that we can convince a jury beyond a reasonable
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: doubt that a crime was committed here? And can we
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: sustain that conviction upon appeal? Or are there evidence missing?
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Are there cases where the defendant is very sympathetic? And,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you know, let's say you're a president and your testimony
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: is just blatantly false in a whole bunch of ways,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: but you're getting up into your 80s and the jury
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: is going to say, oh, this is a person with
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: memory issues, as was the case with Joe Biden. Prosecutors
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: are entirely reasonable to say, you know what? I think
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: a crime got committed here, but I have a real
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: tough time proving it or I can't prove it. And,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you know, the jury is going to be sympathetic to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the defendant. I'm not going to bring charges. In this case,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: it is just very hard to believe that Carrie Ann
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Parkinson is some sort of menace to society and that
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: she belongs on the child abuse registry list and that
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: she potentially doesn't get her law degree and all of
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: that stuff. Her five-year-old walked around the neighborhood alone. You know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you and I could argue about the wisdom of this.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Kid was not hit by a car. Kid was not abducted.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Kid was not, you know, the kid did not go
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: on a terrible crime spree. The five-year-old did not rob
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a liquor store. Again, I'm looking for that delinquency here
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and I'm not seeing it. So this just seems utterly ridiculous. And,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: you know, there are days I have my disagreements with
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the libertarians. But Reason Magazine does a really good job
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of spotlighting cases like this, of which, you know, the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: police state has kind of gone absolutely out of control.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Hopefully the attention will increase pressure for a better outcome
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: for her and her family, but just deeply frustrating on
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: multiple levels, Greg.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Just a good thing that geese aren't some protected species
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: or else the feathers would lead to some sort of
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: kicking down the door and raid of the house.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: The green police, the EPA, you know.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You know what I say when someone says we should
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: protect the geese? Boo hiss. Because by the way, geese
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: poop everywhere. Can we just observe that? Every sporting field,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: every school ground, playground, geese, I feel like they have
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: this amazing capacity to generate waste. Almost like the federal government.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: They're just mean, too. And they're so aggressive. Yeah, just
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: get them out. I'm not a big fan of the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: geese at all. But yeah, absurd work here by the police,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: absurd work by CPS, this judge. None of this should
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: have ever gone past CPS. anything. Let the kid get
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: the feathers and come home. His mom was probably making
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: lunch for him. But anyway, coming up, Susan Collins tells
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: you out loud what she's not going to talk about.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim, let's head up to Maine. Another competitive
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Senate race there, of course. Susan Collins and her team,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, just taking reams of opposition research to the
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: shredder over the last several weeks here since Graham Plattner's
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: gotten out of the race, and now they're digging for
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Troy Jackson. And there's been some stuff in his record,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: violence back in the late 80s and so forth, including
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: towards his current, I don't know if you'd call her
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: common-law wife or partner is the term the left loves
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: to use with all these things. They're not married. Oh,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: and by the way, they're second cousins. This was a
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: martini back when this was revealed. several weeks ago. But
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Susan Collins, no, no, no, I'm not talking about that.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Should the circumstances of his personal life and the mother
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of his children be relevant to this campaign?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Is that fair game, do you think?
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going to bring up the fact that
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the mother of his two children is his second cousin.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether people know that or not. I'm
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: just going to talk about the issues, Jim. If others
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: want to talk about incest involving my opponent, that's their business,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to stay on the high road.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Susan Collins sits on a throne of skulls of all
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: of her former opponents. Again, I suppose it's theoretically possible
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that Troy Jackson wins this race, but as I'm fond
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of pointing out, six years ago, Susan Collins trailed Sarah
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Gideon in every single poll and then won by nine
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: on election day. So I think either polling is really
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: bad in Maine or Susan Collins just has this very
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: quiet base of support that doesn't come out. But I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: also think, again, there's a little iron lady-ness to her.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: That nice lady persona hides the ability to not just
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: pull out the shiv, but to twist it. And so,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but it feels like we're watching Katharine
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Hepburn say, you know, I'm not going to bring up
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the fact that he bangs his cousin like a screen
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: door in a hurricane. And just this degree, like this
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: amazing ability to say this should be on the issues,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: not the fact that he's doing this with his cousin.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: There's an art to that. She doesn't come across as
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: nasty as she's bringing it up. Now, Jonathan Martin of
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Politico mentions, you just brought it up. But there's this
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: kind of this like, again, her whole persona of being
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the main nice lady who's, you know, never the table pounding,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you know, shouting type. Again, but it is a question
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: of whether this is as harmful to Troy Jackson as
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: it seems. I don't know whether this is the sort
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of thing that, you know, Mainers are going to, oh
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: my God, he's a weirdo. What the heck? Or whether,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: you know, post Graham Plattener. If neither cousin is a Nazi,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: doesn't this seem pretty normal?
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: I don't want to know what normal is after Graham Plattner, but,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: you know, going to be another tight run. They also
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: have ranked choice in Maine. So if Susan Collins is
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: going to win, she either needs to get to 50
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: on the first one or get really darn close, because
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: my guess is that the lefties are going to, and
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: even some independents, not have her as the second choice.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: But we'll see. how all of that unfolds. But yes,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, he did bring up the subject and she's like, oh,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to bring that up. Interestingly handled there.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Well, we talked about a little bit about how life
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: was for kids in the 80s. You know, be home
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: by dark for dinner and just don't get into trouble
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: the rest of the day. But some people want us
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: to believe that the 80s were a terrible time. How
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: dare they? All right, Jim, on to the chaser now.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And Ryan Reynolds, he is gonna be in a new
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: movie called Mayday on Apple TV. He stars as a
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: US Navy pilot who builds a friendship with an eccentric
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: ex-KGB agent obsessed with 80s American culture. This according to Variety.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And so on the red carpet, Ryan Reynolds is asked
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: about that time of the 80s and oh, the nostalgia
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: has blurred the lines of how awful it is. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: just like Dan Osborne, Ryan Reynolds can't keep the F-bomb
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: out of his comments.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a tumultuous period. But you look back
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: at it now and you're like, oh yeah, Top Gun, cocaine.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Like, no, it was like a really scary. Yeah, cocaine
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: wasn't a good thing about the 80s. Ryan Reynolds, I
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: think that tells us a little bit of a window
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: into your world. But, you know, the 80s had its challenges,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: of course, Jim. The Soviets were still, you know, pretty strong.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: There were terrorism. We had the Iranian hostage crisis bleeding
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: into the early 80s. There were definitely challenges. But compared
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: to the tumultuousness of the 70s, you know, the eight
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: years of of Ronald Reagan creating Morning in America. The
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: pub culture was awesome. The music was awesome. Like we said,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: there was so much freedom as a kid, and none
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: of it ended up on social media. It was awesome.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So I've enjoyed a great deal of Ryan Reynolds' work,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: so I'm a little disappointed to hear this. I also
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: point out, though, that a lot of Hollywood celebrities, sometimes
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: they're very open about their politics. Sometimes they're less outspoken.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I think up until now, Ryan Reynolds hasn't been particularly
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: outspoken in his political views. but I kind of noticed
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: that when you ask the question on the red carpet,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: some celebrities are very good at deflecting and not taking
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the bait, others not so much. But when Reynolds says
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: this was a time of great violence and great strife,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: we should point out that March 12th, 1988, 2 a.m.,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: someone kicked in a door at a home, grabbed another
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: man by the throat, and punched him in a dispute
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: over a girlfriend. The perpetrator of that, of course, was
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Troy Jackson, who we talked about in the previous martini.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: And the woman in question that they were fighting over
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was his cousin. And I understand the man who was
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: attacked was Ryan Reynolds. So all of a sudden, this
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: all fits together. It makes sense that why Ryan Reynolds
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: would think of the 80s. But it was not Ryan Reynolds.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: But the first two parts of that are true. Look,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: you know, is a portion of the reason you and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I have such great nostalgia for the 80s. the fact
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: that we were kids and teens then. And yeah, like,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you know, like, you know, we didn't have to pay
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: mortgages then. We didn't, you know, like life was simpler
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: and easier other than like maybe bullies and stuff like that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: You know, was there probably, you know, were there problems
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: in the 80s? Sure. You know, this was the era,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: as he mentions cocaine. This was when, you know, cocaine
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: was turning into crack. This is when there was a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: much higher crime rates compared to today, even with the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: COVID surge. Sure, the 80s had their problems. But there
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: was a reason, the interesting thing is like you look
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: back at the, the, uh, The overwhelming tone in the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: pop culture of that era was remarkably positive, was remarkably cheery, optimistic.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to say there was
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a Reagan effect or other things. Economic boom. Whatever it
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: was that was going on, Americans were feeling pretty good
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: about themselves. And I think it says something that you
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: see this wave of 80s nostalgia, Stranger Things, things like that.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: There's kind of this sense of like, I feel like
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: there's a sense that we have lost that. It was also...
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: with the internet coming along in the mid-90s or so,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: it was one of the last eras of the monoculture.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Reagan was able to keep up with what was going
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: on because he was watching primetime television and saying, referring
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: to different strokes, and Nancy Reagan was able to do
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: those things. Being in tune with the same thing that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: everybody else was watching was kind of an interesting power
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that I think is just, you can't do it because
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: we no longer have the monoculture and everyone's watching a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: million things at once. This is much longer than we
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: usually do in our Chaser segment, so I will wrap
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: it up. But there's a possibility we could do some
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: sort of entirely 80s-focused episode of this, just talking about
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the legacy of the 80s and why Ronald Reynolds is
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: not remembering it all that accurately. No.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Well, he's from Canada, too. So keep in mind, the
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: 80s in Canada might not.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Have been that great. It was under Pierre Trudeau. Maybe
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: it was a nightmarish, terrible time back then.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, no doubt. But pop culture back then, you had
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: movies that were unabashedly anti-communist, and very much pro-American. You know,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: you had high school kids, you know, Wolverines fending off
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the Russian invasion in Red Dawn. You had Rocky single-handedly
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: starting the beginning of the end of the Cold War
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: by knocking out Ivan Drago. And of course, the Bears
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: were world champions right in the middle of the decade. So,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, what's not to love?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to observe that, you know, you
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: could say, oh, well, if it's militarism and this excitement
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: of American, you know, aren't you learning to trust the state?
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Aren't you just saying that the military industrial complex is
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a good thing? But, Greg, I'm going to observe that.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Let's say your father gets taken hostage in some generic
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Middle Eastern country. Iron Eagle taught us that as long
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: as you have Louis Gossett Jr. as your mentor, you
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: can just steal a U.S. combat plane and do it yourself.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: And that's the American spirit. We're not going to wait
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: for the government to save hostages. We're going to steal
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: planes and do it ourselves. It's individual responsibility. And that
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: was the message of the 1980s.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: That was awesome, too. Amazing. Two planes. You can do
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the job in two planes. Anyway, Jim, have a great day.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I'll talk to you again tomorrow.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, Greg.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karambas of Radio America.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: sure to subscribe to the podcast if you don't already.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: your five-star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Get us on your home devices. All you have to
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: say is play 3 Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: on X. He's at Jim Garrity. I'm at Greg Karambas.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: And follow 3 Martini Lunch on Facebook and Instagram.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Have a great Thursday.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Join us again Friday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.