Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Iran Grapples With Widespread Power and Fuel Problems

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Iran Grapples With Widespread Power and Fuel Problems · 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 Corumbus of Radio America
0:07
Speaker 2: and Jim Garritty of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 1: Free Martini's coming up.
0:13
Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Thursday edition of
0:16
Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch, and Jim, there's a lot of
0:19
Speaker 2: talk and a lot of It makes a lot of
0:21
Speaker 2: sense that the US economy, we may talk about this
0:24
Speaker 2: in the second Martini as well, is deeply impacted by
0:28
Speaker 2: the fact that the Iran War is still going on.
0:31
Speaker 2: Gas prices, of course, and that affects the price of
0:34
Speaker 2: everything else, and that's going to be a financial crunch
0:37
Speaker 2: for many Americans. But the conventional wisdom is is that
0:41
Speaker 2: kind of like al Qaeda, Iran's got all the time
0:43
Speaker 2: in the world. This regime has all the time in
0:45
Speaker 2: the world. Not necessarily. We have to remember that the
0:49
Speaker 2: reason we had all these protests there in the beginning
0:51
Speaker 2: of the year was because of the massive inflation that
0:54
Speaker 2: was going on there. They were already an economic turmoil,
0:56
Speaker 2: and this war has not necessarily helped them either. Had
0:59
Speaker 2: to up to hot air, which sites a number of
1:01
Speaker 2: different sources here, including the x handle of open source
1:04
Speaker 2: Intel New Iran has begun nationwide plan power outages as
1:09
Speaker 2: electricity demand pushes the grid to its limits during an
1:12
Speaker 2: intense heat wave. Officials say more than two thousand grid
1:15
Speaker 2: sites were damaged during the forty day war with the
1:17
Speaker 2: US and Israel. While these huge temperatures, of course are
1:22
Speaker 2: major problem as well, averaging around one hundred and twenty
1:24
Speaker 2: degrees right now in the Middle East, which is nothing.
1:28
Speaker 2: And also according to another site, Iran's government set on Saturday,
1:33
Speaker 2: it would have to introduce new measures to manage gasoline consumption,
1:36
Speaker 2: saying changes to fuel prices or the country's rationing system
1:41
Speaker 2: were inevitable and so Jim, if you remember the Carter administration,
1:45
Speaker 2: we got these massive gas lines now in Iran. I
1:47
Speaker 2: know we're so nostalgic for those, but the bottom line
1:50
Speaker 2: is is that while yeah, they're going to be really
1:52
Speaker 2: hard to dislodge because of their warped ideology, real facts
1:56
Speaker 2: on the ground mean the people in that country are
1:58
Speaker 2: getting more and more and more frustrat and frankly, it
2:02
Speaker 2: might just be running out of resources.
2:04
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, Greg, if two years ago, or
2:06
Speaker 3: really at any point in the last decade, I'd said
2:08
Speaker 3: to you that by the middle of twenty twenty six.
2:11
Speaker 3: Two of the countries suffering the worst effects of an
2:14
Speaker 3: energy crisis to the point where they don't have gasoline
2:17
Speaker 3: are Iran and Russia. You would have looked at me
2:21
Speaker 3: like I had two heads that like this is ridiculous,
2:23
Speaker 3: and you know, if nothing else, well, at least you know,
2:24
Speaker 3: Iran's got a big energy infrastructure and all that stuff. Yeah,
2:28
Speaker 3: but the currency is worthless, and it started out the
2:31
Speaker 3: event before the Iran War, it was pretty worthless. Nothing
2:34
Speaker 3: that has happened during the war has let it become
2:36
Speaker 3: more worth more Over Hot Air, it's our old friend
2:41
Speaker 3: Dwayne Patterson, Hugh Hughes producer who points out all this
2:44
Speaker 3: and preserved it, like roughly, it's gotten one hundred and
2:46
Speaker 3: twenty five percent worse during the course of the war.
2:49
Speaker 3: And now they have all this infrastructure they have to rebuild,
2:51
Speaker 3: and yeah, it's mostly been targeting military infrastructure, but they've
2:55
Speaker 3: hit bridges, they've hit you know, some critical stuff, including
2:58
Speaker 3: the airport which was very important for bringing stuff in
3:01
Speaker 3: the main international airport outside of Tehran, which you might say, oh,
3:05
Speaker 3: it's a civilian target. No, that was very much dual
3:08
Speaker 3: use and Basher International Airport was what they used for
3:11
Speaker 3: all kinds of you know, bringing in supplies, bringing in munitions,
3:15
Speaker 3: bringing in stuff from China and Russia and stuff like that.
3:18
Speaker 3: As for the Russia front, the Financial Times has a
3:21
Speaker 3: new report out this morning. It says an analysis of
3:24
Speaker 3: refinery layouts, photographs, satellite images, and thermal infrared data shows
3:29
Speaker 3: that the damage at several major Russian refineries has persisted
3:31
Speaker 3: for weeks or.
3:32
Speaker 1: Even months after the attacks.
3:35
Speaker 3: The Ukrainian campaign has knocked out more than thirty and
3:37
Speaker 3: forty five percent of Russia's actual and nominal capacity, triggering
3:41
Speaker 3: the worst fuel crisis in the Petro States since the
3:42
Speaker 3: collapse of the Soviet Union. Strike teams are now being
3:46
Speaker 3: brief by engineers on which parts are most are indispensable,
3:48
Speaker 3: which ones are hard to replace, which ones are most
3:50
Speaker 3: likely to keep a plant offline. This is, you know, like,
3:54
Speaker 3: this is not a problem that's going to solve very quickly.
3:56
Speaker 3: Russia does not have this abundant supply of spare parts around.
4:00
Speaker 3: And if you think they got a problem with supply chains,
4:02
Speaker 3: think about a rant and try to get their stuff
4:04
Speaker 3: to get like, you know, so you look at this,
4:05
Speaker 3: like we'll talk about the US economy, and we have
4:08
Speaker 3: real legitimate gripes, and there are things in the economy
4:10
Speaker 3: that are not going as well as we'd like to be. Yeah,
4:12
Speaker 3: it's really frustrating to be paying four dollars a gallon
4:14
Speaker 3: of gas, but at least you can get gas, and
4:17
Speaker 3: at least you don't have to spend a huge chunk
4:19
Speaker 3: of your day waiting online or the you know, nineteen
4:22
Speaker 3: seventies thing where dependent on whether you had an even
4:24
Speaker 3: number or an odd number at the end of your
4:26
Speaker 3: license plate, or people were siphoning gas out of the
4:29
Speaker 3: cars of each other. Like you look at that, You're like, oh,
4:32
Speaker 3: this is this is actually okay, we're not doing so bad.
4:34
Speaker 3: And I think it's a good demonstration that autocracies, because
4:37
Speaker 3: job one is always keep control over the people, keeps,
4:40
Speaker 3: you know, do whatever it takes to stay in power,
4:42
Speaker 3: they're really not great problem solvers.
4:44
Speaker 1: And the energy.
4:46
Speaker 3: Crisis is pounding each of these countries worse and worse
4:49
Speaker 3: week by week.
4:50
Speaker 2: But then the question comes up, of course, and we
4:52
Speaker 2: just talked about this and how the Iranian malaws are
4:55
Speaker 2: pretty hard to dislodge. Does this ever rise to the
4:59
Speaker 2: level where the regime does actually get to be unstable.
5:04
Speaker 3: I'm like, look, there's a question of how stable are
5:06
Speaker 3: they really you think about it. You know, there's almos
5:09
Speaker 3: gonna be a little of a rally around the flag effect.
5:11
Speaker 3: And you know, we talked a little bit a couple
5:12
Speaker 3: of days ago about Okay, smart guy, what would you
5:14
Speaker 3: do well?
5:15
Speaker 1: Option one is you all out.
5:17
Speaker 3: Try to do everything you can dis lodge the regime
5:19
Speaker 3: and expand the military effort, which it looked like that's
5:22
Speaker 3: the direction Trump was leaning in towards the end of
5:24
Speaker 3: last week. Then by Sunday the word is no, we're
5:27
Speaker 3: not doing that. Then the Iranians struck the Jordanians, then
5:30
Speaker 3: we hit back, and now he's, you know, saying we're
5:32
Speaker 3: going to uh. He gave a profanity laced tie rate
5:36
Speaker 3: to Trey Yinstav of Fox News Channel.
5:38
Speaker 1: Earlier this week. I don't know what it's going to be.
5:41
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of this halfway thing.
5:42
Speaker 3: But the idea, interesting is like if we were to
5:44
Speaker 3: let up over and say, Okay, we've won, we're walking away. Yeah,
5:47
Speaker 3: they might still be able to threaten ships in the
5:49
Speaker 3: straight of Horror moves and Persian Gulf. But the problems
5:52
Speaker 3: of Iran in the economy that started to begin with.
5:54
Speaker 3: Nothing's gotten better, nothing's gotten easier. It's an interesting question
5:58
Speaker 3: of six months from now or three months from now,
6:01
Speaker 3: once the US is still longer there as the boogeyman,
6:03
Speaker 3: no longer than as the outside threat, do the Iranian
6:06
Speaker 3: people turn against the regime again. I think it's extremely likely,
6:09
Speaker 3: so we'll see how things shake out. But like it's
6:11
Speaker 3: very hard to believe. The average Ranian thinks of the
6:13
Speaker 3: Mullas are doing a terrific job of responding to his
6:16
Speaker 3: needs and his ability to feed his family.
6:18
Speaker 2: No, no, and they're only going to it more and
6:20
Speaker 2: more hostile towards the regime. But of course the regime
6:22
Speaker 2: doesn't care. But they just need to be in a
6:25
Speaker 2: position to hang onto power.
6:26
Speaker 1: So good to see.
6:27
Speaker 2: I don't want to see the Iranian people suffer, especially
6:29
Speaker 2: the ones that detest this regime. But if it helps
6:32
Speaker 2: them become more unstable and somehow lead to their removal
6:36
Speaker 2: from power, that would be great. But I still think
6:38
Speaker 2: we're a long way away from that. All right, Well,
6:40
Speaker 2: your business is hopefully doing better than the Iranian economy,
6:44
Speaker 2: and if that's the case, good for you. But you
6:46
Speaker 2: always want to grow. You also always want to get better.
6:48
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6:50
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7:50
Speaker 2: to our second Martini, and unfortunately it's our bad Martini
7:54
Speaker 2: for today the economy. You flag this from the Wall
7:57
Speaker 2: Street Journal the Commerce Department saying Thursday, a US Gross
8:00
Speaker 2: Domestic Product quarterly economic number, the value of all goods
8:04
Speaker 2: and services produced across the economy, adjusted for inflation in
8:07
Speaker 2: seasonal changes, rose at one and a half percent annual
8:11
Speaker 2: rate in the second quarter. Economists surveyed by The Wall
8:14
Speaker 2: Street Journal head expected GDP growth of one point eight
8:17
Speaker 2: percent for the April to June period. The economy grew
8:20
Speaker 2: at two point one percent.
8:21
Speaker 1: In the first quarter.
8:22
Speaker 2: Conflict with the RAN posted some challenges for the US
8:24
Speaker 2: economy in the April to June quarter by significantly raising
8:28
Speaker 2: fuel costs and inflation that ate into household wages. Regular
8:32
Speaker 2: gas averaged four to twenty two a gallon in the
8:34
Speaker 2: second quarter, according to Triple A, up from less than
8:37
Speaker 2: three dollars a gallon before things started with the RAN
8:40
Speaker 2: in February. So, Jim, yes, this is not good news
8:44
Speaker 2: for Republicans heading into the midterms. More significantly, a lot
8:48
Speaker 2: of people are hurting because of this, and so it's frustrating.
8:53
Speaker 2: We want to see better growth numbers. It's better positive
8:56
Speaker 2: than negative and hopefully things will get better soon.
8:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say, if you're looking for the
9:00
Speaker 3: silver lining, it's not a shrinking economy, it's not a recession.
9:04
Speaker 3: There are worse economic conditions that you could be heading
9:07
Speaker 3: into the midterms, for if you're a Republican, but you
9:09
Speaker 3: also could be in much better shape. And I think
9:12
Speaker 3: the fact that this is kind of where I feel
9:14
Speaker 3: like most people feel like the economy is. I know
9:17
Speaker 3: that always there's a significt number of people who say
9:19
Speaker 3: that the US is in recession, even when it technically
9:21
Speaker 3: is not. You know, one point five percent growth in
9:24
Speaker 3: a quarter. It's not disastrous, but that's lower than they
9:27
Speaker 3: were looking for, lower than the projections. And you know,
9:31
Speaker 3: I think one of the things this jumps out at
9:33
Speaker 3: me is the look, we know that basically for the
9:35
Speaker 3: last two three years, artificial intelligence has been this like
9:38
Speaker 3: really exciting thing. The companies want to dump tons of
9:41
Speaker 3: resources into. They wanted to build data centers all over
9:44
Speaker 3: the place. That's become a very big controversial one. But
9:46
Speaker 3: you know, you need more electrical power this There's gonna
9:49
Speaker 3: be a whole growth boom around the development of artificial
9:53
Speaker 3: intelligence by all these tech companies it's stopped, but it's
9:56
Speaker 3: slowing down. I kind of had this feeling, you know, Greg,
9:59
Speaker 3: you and I have lived through the dot com boom.
10:01
Speaker 3: You know, something gets really really exciting. People are dumping
10:03
Speaker 3: lots of money in the glory days of policy dot
10:06
Speaker 3: com and intellectualcapital dot com. We've put out excellent work.
10:09
Speaker 3: We just had one tiny little flaw. We really hadn't
10:12
Speaker 3: figured out how to make money. Yeah, it turns out, yeah,
10:15
Speaker 3: turn it turns out venture capitalists that eventually that matters
10:17
Speaker 3: after a while. They're willing to keep throwing money for
10:19
Speaker 3: a while, and they want to see some return on
10:22
Speaker 3: the investment.
10:22
Speaker 1: They are so unreasonable that way.
10:25
Speaker 3: But that's kind of what I suspect is happening with
10:27
Speaker 3: the AI boom, is that they've been financing it for
10:29
Speaker 3: the better part of a year, maybe two years, and
10:32
Speaker 3: now it's like, Okay, show us some results, show us
10:34
Speaker 3: some efficiency, show us some productivity gain, show us something.
10:38
Speaker 3: And if you don't show that in significant numbers, next
10:40
Speaker 3: year's investment is going to be a little bit less.
10:42
Speaker 3: So it's not a huge panic point. But again, if
10:45
Speaker 3: you're a Republican, these are not the numbers you wanted
10:47
Speaker 3: to see. Heading into the midterm, and I think that
10:50
Speaker 3: it probably doesn't help when Trump keeps running around saying
10:52
Speaker 3: this is a golden age and you've never had it
10:54
Speaker 3: so good or something like that. I think that just
10:55
Speaker 3: makes Republicans look out of touch. And you know, affordability,
10:59
Speaker 3: cost of love are still front and center in people's minds.
11:02
Speaker 1: It could be worse.
11:03
Speaker 2: Is probably not the best midterm campaign message.
11:06
Speaker 3: So at the convention in Dallas, they're doing a midterm
11:10
Speaker 3: convention this year, and I'd be curious about what they
11:12
Speaker 3: say about the economy because I honestly, I don't think
11:15
Speaker 3: if the whole message of Republicans in twenty twenty six
11:19
Speaker 3: and the closing months is it's going great, I don't
11:21
Speaker 3: think it's going to work very well for them.
11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, bide improved, and every president's learn this. You know,
11:26
Speaker 2: you can't fool people about how much they're is on
11:28
Speaker 2: their monthly credit card statement, what the receipt looks like
11:31
Speaker 2: from the gas station or the grocery store. You just can't.
11:33
Speaker 2: And so there are things I think you can point to.
11:36
Speaker 2: I think they can say, hey, your taxes would have
11:38
Speaker 2: gone up a lot, and we passed that in the
11:40
Speaker 2: big beautiful bill last year, and they can go and
11:43
Speaker 2: maybe talk about a bunch of different things that are
11:44
Speaker 2: in that bill that make people's lives easier and don't
11:46
Speaker 2: realize it came from that. They can talk about how
11:48
Speaker 2: horrible the Democrats are, they can talk about the things
11:51
Speaker 2: that they want to get done, but they can't because
11:52
Speaker 2: of the Senate. Right now, we've talked about this over
11:56
Speaker 2: and over and over again. I don't see them doing
11:58
Speaker 2: a lot of that. Lot of it is just, you know,
12:01
Speaker 2: my Democratic opponent is insane, which in many cases is
12:04
Speaker 2: true this year, in fact true even more than usual.
12:07
Speaker 2: But you still got to be able to explain why
12:09
Speaker 2: you should be sent back or why you should go
12:13
Speaker 2: instead of the Democrats. So you know, uh, they're they're
12:16
Speaker 2: doing pretty good on part three of making sure that
12:18
Speaker 2: people know the Democrats are insane, which is always kind
12:21
Speaker 2: of the first order of business at the RNC. But
12:23
Speaker 2: I do think on some of this other stuff, explained
12:25
Speaker 2: why the Democratic agenda is terrible, I would definitely be
12:27
Speaker 2: worse and explain some of the things you did do.
12:29
Speaker 2: So it's not worse right now, Greig.
12:30
Speaker 3: I don't want to sound like a broken record. You know,
12:32
Speaker 3: listeners know I'm a skeptical of tariffs other than maybe
12:35
Speaker 3: China for national security reasons. What would this economy look
12:38
Speaker 3: like without the tariffs?
12:39
Speaker 1: You others?
12:39
Speaker 3: We've got we've got the tax cut, you know, benefits,
12:42
Speaker 3: we've got booming stock market, we've got all the AI boom.
12:46
Speaker 3: What are things looking like if everything we were importing
12:48
Speaker 3: was not so expensive? What would have you know, like,
12:50
Speaker 3: would that would would the economy? Would Americans feel like
12:52
Speaker 3: the economy was really roaring? And would the growth rates
12:55
Speaker 3: be higher? I guess we'll never know.
12:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know a lot of people said just just
12:58
Speaker 2: keep deregulating and and watch the economy do well. I
13:02
Speaker 2: don't know if that's exactly what would have happened. You
13:04
Speaker 2: never know what factors pop up. But sometimes less is more.
13:08
Speaker 2: And then also a lot of people on the right said, well,
13:10
Speaker 2: we got the big bill done last year, so anyway,
13:13
Speaker 2: think we're done here, We're done. Yeah. I think there's
13:16
Speaker 2: could have been some more economic things done. And they
13:17
Speaker 2: did do a couple more things to reconciliation this year,
13:19
Speaker 2: but that was more on the border, So there's more
13:22
Speaker 2: that could be done. Talk about that, what you'd like
13:24
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15:00
Speaker 2: savings compared to renewal price void in Florida, Well Jim,
15:10
Speaker 2: Tuesday and Wednesday were days of funeral services for the
15:13
Speaker 2: late South Carolina Center Lindsay Graham. Service at the Capitol
15:16
Speaker 2: Service at National Cathedral here in DC on Tuesday, and
15:19
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15:23
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15:28
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15:30
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15:33
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15:36
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15:39
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15:43
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15:47
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15:50
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15:55
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15:58
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16:00
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16:04
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16:08
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16:13
Speaker 2: He ran for governor this year, did not make the runoff,
16:15
Speaker 2: and of course because he just can't stay away, former
16:18
Speaker 2: Congressman and Governor Mark Sandford, who's gonna pause his time
16:23
Speaker 2: on the Appalachian Trail at least for a couple more
16:25
Speaker 2: weeks and Jim, I you know, some people are saying
16:29
Speaker 2: this was kind of a twist, Darley and Graham was
16:31
Speaker 2: supposed to be just the seat filler till January, and
16:34
Speaker 2: this was kind of a kind of a sneaky move
16:36
Speaker 2: that some people don't like. But ultimately I think it
16:39
Speaker 2: comes down to her and Norman and Fry. Fry's got
16:42
Speaker 2: an interesting situation though, because he'd be running for two
16:45
Speaker 2: offices at the same time, and if he does win
16:47
Speaker 2: the Senate seat, that House seat would be vacant, and
16:49
Speaker 2: if it's super tight come the next Congress, that would
16:52
Speaker 2: be one of both that the Republicans don't have until
16:53
Speaker 2: probably the middle of May. Ralph Norman seventy three years old.
16:57
Speaker 2: That's two years old, and Lindsay Graham was when he passed.
17:00
Speaker 2: So I don't know how you look at this, but
17:02
Speaker 2: I know you've got family in the state. You follow
17:04
Speaker 2: up closer in most states. What's your read right now?
17:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's ironically Thoday in the Wall Street Journal,
17:10
Speaker 3: Barton Swam has a column he calls the quiet Senator Graham.
17:13
Speaker 3: He's referring to the current one, Darlene Graham, and how
17:16
Speaker 3: you know this, we're talking about twelve days away from
17:19
Speaker 3: this primary. She's been appointed, she's you know, everyone feels
17:22
Speaker 3: great sympathy for here. I think everyone kind of just
17:25
Speaker 3: is instinctively likes her. But we're still getting to know her,
17:29
Speaker 3: and there's not going to have a lot of time
17:30
Speaker 3: to get you to build that record. Between that, she's
17:32
Speaker 3: obviously advocating for Lindsey Graham's sanctions bill against Russia. I
17:36
Speaker 3: think it's a very good start. I think it's you know,
17:38
Speaker 3: what was one of them's near and dear to his heart,
17:41
Speaker 3: So fine, great. I guess if you're a South Carolina Republican,
17:45
Speaker 3: you know, are you comfortable, since you know the odds
17:48
Speaker 3: of Republican winning the general election are very high, do
17:51
Speaker 3: you feel like, Okay, that's good enough. We'll keep her
17:54
Speaker 3: in place for the next six years. She'll probably be fine.
17:58
Speaker 3: But again, there's this, you know, and since this now
18:00
Speaker 3: we're treating a Senate seat like a family heirloom. There
18:03
Speaker 3: was a time when Mark Sandford was a true rising
18:06
Speaker 3: star in the Tea Party days. There was a time
18:10
Speaker 3: when he ran for the House in one back a
18:12
Speaker 3: seat back in where my parents, where my parents lived,
18:14
Speaker 3: down on the southern tip of the state. He out
18:16
Speaker 3: hustled Stephen Colbert's sister, and I kind of had this
18:18
Speaker 3: sense of like, Okay, you know, you really screwed up
18:20
Speaker 3: on the Appalachian Trail thing. But you know, we have
18:24
Speaker 3: second acts in American life. The worst thing you do
18:26
Speaker 3: doesn't always define you. And he out hustled, he worked
18:29
Speaker 3: hard and convinced people, and then year by year there
18:33
Speaker 3: just kept being new pieces of drama associated with Mark Sandford.
18:37
Speaker 3: He too, is getting pretty long in the tooth, and
18:39
Speaker 3: I don't think that there's an enormous appetite for that.
18:42
Speaker 3: So there is kind of this sense of like, do
18:43
Speaker 3: you want to stick with this or do you want
18:45
Speaker 3: to stick with some of these lesser known candidates. And
18:48
Speaker 3: you kind of had this, you know, this sense of
18:50
Speaker 3: frustration that like, if you're going, if you want that
18:54
Speaker 3: full six year term, but I'd love to see her
18:56
Speaker 3: doing lots of interviews. I'd like to see her doing
18:59
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, questionnaires, and you know, and look,
19:03
Speaker 3: maybe she hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about
19:06
Speaker 3: all kinds of different issues. Well, but if you want
19:09
Speaker 3: to be a senator for six years, you do you do?
19:11
Speaker 3: And again, we all kind of think she would be
19:13
Speaker 3: aligned with Lindsay Graham's you know, platform and values and worldview,
19:17
Speaker 3: but we don't know that for sure. And every now
19:19
Speaker 3: and then she says things like, I'm my own person.
19:21
Speaker 3: I'm different from Lindsay Graham, which is natural, but also
19:24
Speaker 3: there's that sense of, okay, well, where do you differ
19:26
Speaker 3: from your brother? Did your brother ever take a vote
19:28
Speaker 3: or have a position that you thought was the wrong one?
19:30
Speaker 3: These are good questions to have answered. And again, you know,
19:33
Speaker 3: we've got about twelve days to figure this out. And
19:36
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, there's probably some strategist saying, ah,
19:39
Speaker 3: the smart thing is is just remain a blank slate.
19:42
Speaker 3: Don't say anything. Don't say anything, can alienate anyone, And
19:46
Speaker 3: I really think that serves the constituents poorly. And again,
19:49
Speaker 3: I don't the odds of a Democrat winning in South Carolina,
19:52
Speaker 3: even in a good year for Democrats, it's really really low.
19:55
Speaker 3: But it just feels like the sense of like, are
19:57
Speaker 3: you serving the constituents well if you don't out your
20:00
Speaker 3: views in great detail?
20:01
Speaker 2: She did the one interview with Sean Hannity, and Hannity
20:05
Speaker 2: through her I don't even want to call him softballs.
20:06
Speaker 2: Doen't think they were nerf balls? And he's like, Wow,
20:08
Speaker 2: you've led the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind.
20:11
Speaker 2: That's a ton of experience. And I'm thinking what other
20:14
Speaker 2: candidate would Sean Hannity say, Well, they led the National
20:16
Speaker 2: Council of State Agencies for the Blind. Obviously they're qualified
20:19
Speaker 2: for the Senate. Maybe they are. Maybe she's done a
20:21
Speaker 2: great job. I have no idea, but you're right, we
20:23
Speaker 2: need to know exactly where she stands on a ton
20:25
Speaker 2: of issues. I'm sorry for her loss, but this is
20:27
Speaker 2: a job that's going to last six years and we
20:29
Speaker 2: need to know where you stand. Ralph Norman way too
20:32
Speaker 2: close to Ralph Northam. But Ralph Norman, he's got a
20:36
Speaker 2: record in Congress. He's been there since twenty seventeen. We
20:38
Speaker 2: know how he's voted on these issues. Russell Frye twenty
20:41
Speaker 2: twenty three. We know he stands on a lot of issues.
20:43
Speaker 2: He certainly aligns himself with Trump, even though Darlene Graham's
20:46
Speaker 2: got the endorsement, so we have we have that track record,
20:49
Speaker 2: and when you look at the endorsements, you know she's
20:53
Speaker 2: got Trump. She's got a few Senators Barasso, Shelley Moore, Capito,
20:58
Speaker 2: Tom Cotton, as well as one South Carolina Congressman William Timmons.
21:02
Speaker 2: Norman's got a bunch two, Mark Meadows, Jim DeMint, Mike Lee,
21:06
Speaker 2: Rick Scott, Nancy Mace. I'm not sure how public I'd
21:08
Speaker 2: make that one, but like you said, we've got to
21:10
Speaker 2: know a lot more. I don't feel comfortable with her
21:12
Speaker 2: until we know a lot more, and we'll see if
21:14
Speaker 2: we have a debate. Some people are pushing for a
21:16
Speaker 2: debate here. I think if that gathers momentum, there will
21:19
Speaker 2: have to be one. With twelve people on the stage.
21:21
Speaker 2: She might be able to hide for a little bit,
21:23
Speaker 2: but like most presidential debates, most of the questions go
21:26
Speaker 2: to the people who are most likely to win. So
21:28
Speaker 2: I think she could be a decent senator, but I
21:31
Speaker 2: wouldn't be ready to support her until I know a
21:32
Speaker 2: lot more.
21:33
Speaker 3: You put it well, Greg, that wasn't just a softball interview.
21:36
Speaker 3: That was a nerf tee ball interview. And part of
21:39
Speaker 3: the problem is that Hannity is trying because this was
21:41
Speaker 3: her first interview. Half of it is like a good
21:44
Speaker 3: portion of it is Hannity trying to say, tell me
21:46
Speaker 3: about your brother, tell me about what he meant to you,
21:49
Speaker 3: like the sort of thing you would do at a
21:51
Speaker 3: memorial service or at some sort of like you. And
21:53
Speaker 3: then then there's a separate question of like your pro
21:56
Speaker 3: life where you draw the line or there any exceptions,
21:59
Speaker 3: you know, the hard, crunchy policy type stuff. And it's
22:03
Speaker 3: entirely understandable. You wouldn't want to get into it in
22:05
Speaker 3: that first interview, but that's why you need to have
22:08
Speaker 3: that second interview. That's why you need to have one.
22:10
Speaker 3: Like Okay, we're all very sympathetic to you. God bless you,
22:12
Speaker 3: Darlene Graham. We hope you find peace. Now we've got
22:15
Speaker 3: to subject you to the typical questions that a senatorial
22:18
Speaker 3: candidate would get because you're running for a six year term.
22:21
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. One hundred percent. So yeah, we'll see
22:24
Speaker 2: how this goes. I know a lot of people, of course,
22:26
Speaker 2: we're out of respect waiting for the services to conclude.
22:29
Speaker 2: But time is ticking down there, twelve days, twelve candidates.
22:32
Speaker 2: I'm guessing the ads will be up pretty darn soon. Jim,
22:36
Speaker 2: you know, we talk about the vacancy in the house,
22:38
Speaker 2: would it be possible if he were to win, could
22:41
Speaker 2: Russell fry I don't even know if the laws are
22:42
Speaker 2: on this. Could Russell Frye say I'm gonna resign at
22:46
Speaker 2: the time of the special election, So I'm calling it now.
22:49
Speaker 2: You've got till May to fill the seat, and then
22:52
Speaker 2: could you do the job on both sides of the
22:54
Speaker 2: hill for four months?
22:55
Speaker 1: No, No, you cannot. I'm pretty darn I'm pretty un
22:57
Speaker 1: sure you can't.
22:58
Speaker 2: Right, that would be I assume you can't do that.
23:01
Speaker 2: But wouldn't that be a great reality show of him
23:03
Speaker 2: just like sprinting to I got a boat over here,
23:05
Speaker 2: I got a committee hearing over here. Oh man, that
23:07
Speaker 2: would be it.
23:07
Speaker 1: That would be yeah.
23:08
Speaker 3: But then the democracy you know, in trumbs America, even
23:11
Speaker 3: Russell fry has to work two jobs. Rubios like forty
23:17
Speaker 3: percent of the job growth in today's economic numbers like
23:19
Speaker 3: thirty nine percent gold Rubio doing more jobs.
23:24
Speaker 2: Amazing. All right, Well, it's going to be wild to
23:26
Speaker 2: watch down there. So your folks and others in the
23:29
Speaker 2: Palmetto State get ready. It's going to be a while,
23:32
Speaker 2: not even two weeks down there, and maybe two weeks
23:34
Speaker 2: after that. So all right, in a moment, you can't
23:37
Speaker 2: even have fun with donuts. But right now, let's talk
23:41
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Speaker 2: about them, So please support our show and tell them
25:01
Speaker 2: that we sent you. Jim, I like donuts. I assume
25:08
Speaker 2: you like donuts. I don't know anybody that doesn't like donuts.
25:10
Speaker 2: And Tim Horton's up in Canada, but they got a
25:12
Speaker 2: lot of locations in the United States too. They put
25:15
Speaker 2: out this full page ad saying extra extra magic has arrived.
25:20
Speaker 2: Here's what's brewing at Tim's on August twelfth, and enchanting
25:25
Speaker 2: and exclusive partnership has formed between Harry Potter and Tim Hortons.
25:30
Speaker 2: So they're gonna have Harry Potter themed donuts. Who wouldn't
25:34
Speaker 2: love to get Harry Potter themed donuts? Well, of course
25:37
Speaker 2: that's a problem. CBC News up in Canada. The reaction
25:42
Speaker 2: online is perhaps not as magical as Tim Hortons had hoped.
25:45
Speaker 2: But when the coffee chain announced it's new Harry Potter
25:47
Speaker 2: menu and merchandise on Monday, a celebration of the beloved
25:50
Speaker 2: movie franchise is twenty fifth anniversary, the backlash from the
25:54
Speaker 2: two s LGBTQ plus community and allies was swiftquote. As
26:00
Speaker 2: a brand that is synonymous with Canada, Tim Hortons and
26:03
Speaker 2: their partnership should reflect Canada, a country that is inclusive
26:06
Speaker 2: and proud of its diversity on quote. According to advocacy
26:09
Speaker 2: group Egallee Canada, the partnership contributes to a brand associated
26:15
Speaker 2: with a person whose public advocacy has contributed to anti
26:18
Speaker 2: trans narratives and they roll back of trans rights around
26:21
Speaker 2: the world.
26:22
Speaker 1: This is all, of course, because JK.
26:24
Speaker 2: Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter, has been very public in
26:27
Speaker 2: recent years as a feminist and saying that men, real
26:31
Speaker 2: men who claim to be women do not belong in
26:34
Speaker 2: women's locker rooms and sports and so forth. Her quote
26:37
Speaker 2: trans women aren't women. If that hurts your feelings, be
26:39
Speaker 2: grateful you live in a society where you are just
26:41
Speaker 2: as free to espouse gender ideology as I am to
26:44
Speaker 2: speak the truth. So jim their donuts. I don't see
26:48
Speaker 2: what the big flap is here, but some people just
26:51
Speaker 2: refuse to be happy.
26:52
Speaker 3: First of all, Greg two s BLTQ was my favorite
26:55
Speaker 3: droid and Star Wars. Second, you've heard back in you know,
27:02
Speaker 3: the Great Recession or the Wall Street meltdown, the idea
27:05
Speaker 3: that some banks and some institutions were too big to fail.
27:07
Speaker 1: That if they, you know, they were so integrated with.
27:09
Speaker 3: The rest of the economy, the federal government had no
27:11
Speaker 3: choice but to bail them out. Harry Potter is too
27:14
Speaker 3: big to cancel that. I know that these people would
27:17
Speaker 3: like to cancel it. They'd like to make it controversial,
27:19
Speaker 3: they'd like to make it. Oh, I can't associate with that.
27:22
Speaker 3: This is a kid to Chick fil A where like
27:24
Speaker 3: you know, ah, you know, you can't you can't eat
27:26
Speaker 3: those those chicken sandwiches. They are homophobic, but they're just
27:28
Speaker 3: so darn good that people could not stop eating them.
27:31
Speaker 3: It's probably because they're made with love, given to you
27:34
Speaker 3: by just suspiciously friendly teenagers who appear to have been
27:38
Speaker 3: brainwashed in some way. But like if I were, if
27:41
Speaker 3: I'm President, I'm putting Chick fil A in front of
27:43
Speaker 3: in charge of the country's education because they just stepfordized
27:47
Speaker 3: teenagers and turned them into the nicest, politest, happiest people
27:50
Speaker 3: you've ever seen, at least while they're behind the counter.
27:53
Speaker 3: And then finally I've looked it up as we were
27:55
Speaker 3: getting ready for this. Harry the Less Harry Potter novel
27:57
Speaker 3: was in two thousand and seven, so we're coming up
27:59
Speaker 3: on twenty years of this. So it's interesting that, like
28:01
Speaker 3: it's not just that Harry Potter is still very popular
28:05
Speaker 3: and that a Shane like Tim Hortons wants to introduce
28:08
Speaker 3: now magic wand don't it whatever whatever flavors that are
28:11
Speaker 3: putting in there. A lot of stuff like this is
28:14
Speaker 3: still popular enough that this, you know, fairly big you know,
28:16
Speaker 3: Chain wants to be associated with the Harry Potter brand.
28:20
Speaker 3: HBO is like remaking all the movies, and they just
28:23
Speaker 3: kind of like, but there's nothing. I was like, oh,
28:25
Speaker 3: there's anything wrong with the old movies. It's just like, hey,
28:28
Speaker 3: Harry Potter's popular, let's just remake it.
28:30
Speaker 1: You know. They decided like it.
28:32
Speaker 3: Like so it's one of those things where like, you know,
28:34
Speaker 3: next to maybe bud Light. I know that, like conservatives
28:38
Speaker 3: like to say, you know, get woke, go broke, and
28:40
Speaker 3: it doesn't always work out that way. But in this case,
28:42
Speaker 3: there has been this concerted effort to cancel JK. Rowling
28:46
Speaker 3: and the Harry Potter series, and it has utterly failed.
28:50
Speaker 3: And just kind of a recognition that some institutions are
28:53
Speaker 3: just too big, too popular, and too beloved for to
28:56
Speaker 3: be canceled over culture war issues.
28:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And so she's raking in the
29:01
Speaker 2: money as she should. She did the work, and as
29:03
Speaker 2: much as people try, you know, Harry Potter is still
29:06
Speaker 2: going to remain popular. But to not go get donuts,
29:10
Speaker 2: to not go get donuts because you don't.
29:12
Speaker 1: Like to sting out there, you know, that's.
29:15
Speaker 2: Just more donuts for us, I guess capt that instead. Jim,
29:21
Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, See you tomorrow, See tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty,
29:25
Speaker 2: National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus Radio America. Thanks so much
29:27
Speaker 2: for being.
29:28
Speaker 1: With us today.
29:28
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