Latest / Yaron Brook Show / Labor Day; Afd; 9/11; Civilian Casualties; Gas Prices; VW; Iran; Achievements | Yaron Brook Show

Transcript

Labor Day; Afd; 9/11; Civilian Casualties; Gas Prices; VW; Iran; Achievements | Yaron Brook Show · Yaron Brook Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The Radical Fundamental Principles of Freedom Rational Self-Inquiry.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: And Individual Life This is The Yaron Show. Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you for watching this Monday, September 7th. I hope
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: everybody had a good day. a fabulous long weekend. It's
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: not a long weekend in Spain, not.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Today in Spain, but I know most of my viewers,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: 50% of my viewers are in the United States, so
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: for those of you in the United States, again, happy
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Labor Day.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Philip Sykes in New York City in 1982, 1882, 105.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: 140 years ago, right?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: The first one in September, a federal holiday in 1894.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: The sound is very bad. The sound is gobbled. Why
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: is sound gobbled?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Sound is gobbled, gobbled, gobbled, gobbled.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know, right?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, is that better? Is that better? Can anybody tell
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: me if it's better? Let me check this.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: One, two, three. Anything, any better? Sound check, sound check,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: sound check, sound check. Is that better now? One, two, three.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: No response from the... If it turns down, I can't
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: hear anything. Slightly better, only slightly better. One, two, three.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Is it still the same? Still the same. Still the same.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Still the same. Still the same. Some people say better.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Some people say sounds the same. I don't need that
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to be good. A little bit is not good enough.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: The bass is breaking. Still metallic. Okay, give me a second.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Let me try something. All right, what about now? And again,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: this seems usual.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I want it to be standard. I want it to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: be good. So video gone, sound gone. I restarted the box.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: It is supposed to be responsible for the preamp. It's
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: supposed to be responsible for it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Restarted it.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: And via back still sounds still not good.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, does that make any difference? Back to how it was.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Still bad. Seems to depend on your body position. It
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: can't depend on my body position. The mic is right here.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: The mic's not shifting. Still bad. Can't be body position.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: God.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I have no idea. I just have no idea. It's
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: just box.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: That I've got. I guess. GVI 161 says good enough.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Let me see.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Now it is better. Okay, how's that?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: One, two, three. One, two, three. Just a little loud.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Too much gain. Maybe it's the mic. I won my
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: money back. What money? Um, maybe that's what it is. Okay.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Maybe the gain was too high.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Let's try this. One, two, three. How's that? Is that better?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: All right. That's good. All right. It's not the box. It's, um,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: it's me learning how the freaking things works. So, uh,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Sound engineer, if he's out there, please contact me, particularly
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: a sound engineer that is familiar with Rode, R-O-D-E, Rode streamers,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Rode preamps. If you're good with those, if anybody out
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: there knows how these Rode machines work, give me a call.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Let me know. All right. Let's get to business. Happy
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Labor Day. as I was saying, first American Labor Day
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: parade took place in New York in 1882. And Congress
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: made the first Monday in September federal holiday in 1894.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: You know, that was a period of, you know, real industrialization,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: large-scale industrialization in the United States. It was also a
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: period in which workers worked long hours. They worked in
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: dangerous industrial conditions. I mean, this is the beginning of industrialization.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So people are just learning what works and what doesn't work.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: You know, what's safe and what's not. Also, there's limited
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: capital to improve safety. So safety is not a priority.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: And it's also a period of conflict between employers, unions, governments,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: And a lot of violent conflict. And this holiday was
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: an attempt to kind of celebrate, you know, celebrate the workers,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: celebrate the Industrial Revolution, celebrate the workers' aspect side of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: the Industrial Revolution. And nothing wrong with that. And notice
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: it's not on the 1st of May, which is the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Communist Labor Day, which is not to celebrate workers, but
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: that is to argue for egalitarian policies. But think about
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: what's changed over the last hundred and, what, 1894? That's
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: 102 years. Think about what's changed about 122 years since
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: this became a federal holiday. Real output per person has
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: multiplied many, many, many times. If you think about inflation-adjusted
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: GDP per capita, and we should start in 1776, we
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: have today a GDP per capita that's 46 times, 46 times, multiples,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: what it was in 1776. That is, just so you understand,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: that is inflation-adjusted. If you look at wages... A wage-based
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: comparison based on what, I don't know, an average wage,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a median wage was in 1776. And today, it's bigger
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: than 46 times. It's significantly higher. And of course, as
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I've said many, many times on this show and my talks,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: that way, way, way undercounts how much better life is today.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: How do you measure running water, the value of running water?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: How do you measure the value of flushing toilets? How
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: do you measure the value of electricity? How do you
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: measure the value of the internet? How do you measure
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the value of any of these things that dramatically improve
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: our lives, and yet their costs, which is what economists
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: can measure, are trivial. So, life has improved dramatically. American
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: workers today average roughly about 2,000 paid hours a year.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Workers in 1900 about the time when the holiday was created,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: worked about 50% more. So all these socialists constantly complain
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: about capitalism forces people to work and they work way more.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: But the reality is that there is so much more
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: leisure time today than ever in all of human history.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Workers have never had more leisure time than they have today.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: They've never worked less. Then they worked at it. And
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: that line is declining slowly, but it is declining. Modern
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: workers receive more output for every hour because they work
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: with what? Machines, computers, energy, knowledge, software, accumulated capital, and accumulated, yeah,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: accumulated skill and knowledge. Work is slow. vastly safer, right?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: OSHA reports that occupational deaths fell from about 38 per
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: day in 1970 to 15 per day in 2023. So
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: that's by more than 50%, 60, 70%. Reported injuries, illness
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: fell from 10.9 cases per 100 workers in 72 to 2.4
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: in 2023. So that's a 70% decline. Those are Those
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: are pretty amazing. And for those of you who think, yeah,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: OSHA did that, no. These declines in safety, the declines
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: in illness and injuries were starting way before OSHA. And
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: if you look at the trend line, OSHA just continued
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: what was already there. It makes sense. As companies accumulate knowledge,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: they accumulate capital, they accumulate skill, it makes sense for
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: companies to reduce Worker injuries, worker, you know, suddenly deaths, accidents.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: You know, nobody wants to see their workers injured or die.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, it's disruptive to the workplace.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: It reduces productivity. It's by no measure does the capitalist
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: benefit from worker injuries and death. So they make their
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: workplace more productive. or they make their workplace safer as
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: they can afford, when they can afford to make it safer.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And if you think about life again, over the last
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: 120 something years, we have, we spend a lot more
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: time on education today. Most people get high school degrees.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: A lot of people go to college. Workers today have
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: paid leave, didn't exist in 1894. Retirement, didn't exist in 1894.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Labor-saving household technology that makes it possible for both adults
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: in the household to go work. And much cheaper recreation.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, I often tell people, you know, the idea
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: of a restaurant, the idea of going on vacation, these
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: are modern concepts. The first restaurant is an 18th century creation.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, there were always places to serve food and
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: inns for travelers. But in terms of going out to eat,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: that's a creation of the Industrial Revolution and wasn't popular,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: wasn't prevalent until the second half of the 20th century. Today,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Americans eat out all the time. Vacations. Nobody went on
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: vacations 150 years ago. There was no such thing. There
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: were some hotels for rich people who got away. But,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, the average person, today's middle class, the common person,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: no vacations. And as we've documented on the show in
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the past, Americans are taking more and more vacations. Indeed,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: they're taking our vacations overseas at record numbers. Travel is
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: way up. So for all the people with nostalgia to
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the past, God help you. The reality is, again, there were,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: you know, people are saying, there were no, nobody went,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: nobody traveled for fun. Nobody went out to eat for
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: fun 250 years ago. Almost, you know, except for the very, very,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the aristocrats. They're very, very rich. And even 150 years ago,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: very few people did it. It's, again, only in the
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: post-World War II era that you really get this at scale,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and only in the late 20th century. I mean, when
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I was a kid, we almost never went out to
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: eat to a restaurant. Today, families eat out once, twice
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: a week on average. And some people, I won't mention who,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: eat out all the time, every day. Tourism, again, was
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: unheard of. So the conditions of the worker have vastly
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: improved over the last 150 years. I mean, there's a
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: lot to celebrate in Labor Day. Life is so much
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: better today. Now, we can always talk about how much
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: better it could be. But before we do that, we
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: should stop and appreciate how much better it already is.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And particularly those out there tempted by socialism or tempted
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: by the idea of destroying the existing system and just
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: wiping it out and starting afresh rather than thinking about
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: what works and what doesn't and building on the things
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: that work. Now, this incredible success, the wealth, the shorter hours,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: the safer workplaces are not a product of unions and
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: government legislation. They're primarily a result of increased productivity, more profit,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: more revenue, more capital available, and the recognition that safety
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: and leisure, shorter hours, actually increase productivity. I mean, competition
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: for labor markets play a big role. An employer can
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: offer better pay and conditions when workers have alternatives and
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: when capital makes each worker more valuable, which is exactly
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: what happened. Again, something that the socialist the other day
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: on our chat denied. Oh, there's only one employer. You
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: can never change jobs, which is bizarre and not, you know,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: completely negating of the reality, evasive of the reality that
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: in which we live, in which people change jobs all
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the time. Now it's true. The regulations sometimes codified improvements
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: and unions sometimes bargained for a greater part of the gains,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a greater share of the gains. But first, the wealth
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: has to be created. And then we can get more
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: or less. And regulations codified stuff that was already happening.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: It's rare, like OSHA. I mean, there were massive improvements
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: in safety at the workplace. And then OSHA came about
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: and codified it and sent inspectors. But there were inspectors before,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: just they were more likely to be from insurance companies
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: or from the mother company. So, you know, again, there's
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: a lot to celebrate. Labor's a Labor is a good thing.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: We're not anti-labor. Capitalists, shockingly, are not anti-labor. But the
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: moral ideal is productive achievement. And what should be avoided,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: like the plague, because of how disastrous it is, is
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: class warfare. Too many Americans in America today take every
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: opportunity to pit one class against the other, to exploit
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe legitimate grievances, but grievances. Labor and capital
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: are complements when, and only when, property rights and voluntary
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: exchange are protected and have replaced coercion. So, you know,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: it's sad, but the reality is that even on Labor Day,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: people tend to emphasize and remember every little factory disaster,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: every little bad thing that's happened, but they forget the
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: massive decline, for example, in workplace danger and increase in safety.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: You know, people are fearful right now of data centers
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: and AI, but the reality is that machines, when introduced
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: into factories, into the workplace in the past, have increased productivity.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: and increased wages. The reason workers make so much money,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: more money today than they did 200 years ago is
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: not because they're smarter. It's because they have better tools
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: to work with. And again, we forget We forget how
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: much things could be even better if we didn't have
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: all these regulations and controls and restrictions and minimum wage
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: laws and, you know, minimum, you know, weekly hour laws,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff. Europe is much worse. than the
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: United States. And that's the reason why Europe has tended
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: to stagnate in the last couple of decades. So workers
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: have done well and that is a reason to celebrate.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: But not good enough. A lot more can be achieved
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: and to do that we need We need what we
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: needed when we... We need the same as what caused
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the increase today, which is more freedom. More freedom, better outcomes.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: More freedom, better outcomes. Less regulations, less control. And particularly
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: regulations today on things like data centers and AI really
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: could do a lot of harm in terms of the growth,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: the improvement in quality of life into the future. There
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: was an interesting story today in the Wall Street Journal
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: related to this, related to the job market. We've talked
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: about job numbers better than expected job numbers. But in particular,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: one segment of the job market seems to be doing
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: particularly well. The headline in the Wall Street Journal suggested
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: that the job market without college degrees was particularly good.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Workers without four-year degrees are enjoying one of their strongest
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: labor markets in decades relative to their own history, right?
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: So relative to how undegreed workers have done in the past,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: they're doing much better today. Among workers age 22 to
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: 34 who did not graduate from college, unemployment has rarely
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: been lower than over the last two decades than it
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: is right now. Young college graduates are experiencing the opposite.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Their unemployment rate has been worse in recent times than
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: in the past. Now, in absolute terms, a degree is
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: still worth it. For workers aged 25 to 54, Average
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: unemployment during the 12 months through July was 2.7% for
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: degree holders and 3.6% for those with some college and 4.7%
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: for high school graduates. So if you get a degree,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: you're more likely to be employed. Again, there's a lot
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: of rhetoric out there that suggests that getting a degree
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: hampers your ability to be employed. Not true. Now, It's
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: also true that nearly one quarter of younger high school
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: graduates are outside the workforce, so they don't get counted
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: in unemployment numbers. Only one in seven people with college
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: or advanced degrees are outside the workforce. So again, if
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: you get a college degree, you're more likely to be
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: in looking for a job or have a job, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: you're likely to be employed. Employers do face shortages in
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: skilled trades and in-person services, particularly as the baby boomers
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: are retiring and as immigration goes negative. That is, more
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: immigrants are kicked out than come in. And, you know,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: we'll see. I mean, so far, AI has not had
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: a negative impact on the job market. And I don't
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: think it will in aggregate, but it will have on
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: some jobs. And that has not really played out yet
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: in detail. So, you know, notice that of the 162,000
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: jobs that were created supposedly in August, were added in August, 60,000
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: of those were in food services and drinking places. So hospitality, face-to-face,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: you need human beings. Robots still can't do that job.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: So for decades in the past, there's been some degree inflation,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: you know, where people with credentials got paid more, got
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: more jobs. But that degree credentials value is shrinking. That is,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: the gap is shrinking. There's a lot of value today in.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Just in specialized manual skills, in physical presence, in, you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: leisure and entertainment, but also in caregiving and in things
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: like welding, plumbers, electricians. So there's a strong relative market for,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: you know, somebody with a high school degree relative to
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the past. Again, doesn't wipe out the advantage that still
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: exists if you've got, if you actually do have a degree. So,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: you know, too many of the college degrees I think
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: employers have found are useless or don't have that much value.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: And again, the premium for getting those degrees has declined significantly. So,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: you know, and you have to ask questions like, are
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: young people choosing college because it creates value or because
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: employers and governments have made it a default credential or
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: because their families demand it or because they get their
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: self-worth out of getting that credential? Education is valuable only
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: if it actually creates value. teaches you something. It's four
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: years of your life. So, you know, pick something where
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: you're actually going to learn. We're actually going to gain.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we will see whose jobs AI affects more,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: the white-collar, blue-collar jobs. We'll see that over time. All right.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: One more Labor Day, I guess, related story, a little
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: bit out of sequence from the list that I put
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: up there, is the gas price record. So AAA reported
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: that on Labor Day, the gas was selling on average
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: in the United States 4.15%. dollars per gallon. Now, just
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: to be clear, this is way, way, way, way, way,
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: way cheaper than in Europe. But most of you Americans,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: so you don't care. But in America, it's 4.15. This
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: is compared to 3.19 a year earlier, which is an
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: increase of about 30%. This is the highest price per gallon. Right?
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: The highest price per gallon, uh, I guess, you know,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: ever in absolute terms. Inflation adjusted, maybe not, but in
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: absolute terms, it would be the highest price per gallon.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: The previous Labor Day record was 3.82 in 2012. But
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: that's none of these inflation adjusted. If you take inflation adjustment,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: the 2012 3.82 is actually 5.57 today. in July, 2026 dollars.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: As bad as oil markets are, as high a price
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: as oil is, and as bad as gasoline prices are,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: there's still significant, in inflation adjusted numbers, there's still significantly
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: lower than what they were in 2012, which is interesting.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: There was no war in 2012. Now, the all-time nominal average,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: that is, nominal average being non-inflation adjusted, but outside of
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Labor Day, was in June 2022 after the breakout of
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: the war with Ukraine, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: was 5.02. Diesel is expensive. Crude is trading around 90
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: per barrel. U.S. refineries are operating near 98% capacity, which
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: is extraordinary. And there's little margin for, I mean, we're
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: lucky this year because we've had no big hurricanes in
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: the Gulf. Imagine a hurricane in the Gulf shutting down U.S.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: refineries for a few days when they're operating at 98% capacity.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: And suddenly you get a shock to gasoline markets. It's
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a problem, right? It's a problem. So in spite of
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump's promises that gasoline prices would only go down
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: once he got elected, gasoline prices have actually gone up.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: And again, gasoline prices are now 30% higher than they
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: were a year ago, primarily because Donald Trump and I
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: guess the people responsible for the Iran war did not
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: think strategically about how to keep the state of home
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: wars open. And we are suffering the consequences. And in
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: spite of what they're telling us, that oil is flowing
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: out of the Strait of Hormuz, while it's physically passable,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: it's not really open. Few vessels are coming through. I mean,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: there are days where the U.S. is escorting more ships out,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: but on an average day, very few ships are coming out.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: So we're still, and this is why oil price is
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: going up, because oil You know, the oil market keeps
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: getting optimistic about the ability to get oil out of Hormuz,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: and then they get disappointed. They get disappointed. Today, Iran
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: again threatened that they would shut down the strait. They've
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: got a new mechanism, and they're expanding the territory that
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: they consider under their influence to the Gulf of Oman.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: So they're flexing muscles. I don't know if they've got
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: any muscles. their pretend muscles, they're flexing their pretend muscles.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: So data shows that an average of about 10 commodity
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: vessels are coming out of the strait a day over
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: the last 10 days. That's the lowest level since May.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: So it's actually gone down. Two passed on Saturday, six
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: on Sunday. So Hard to tell where all this American
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: optimism about the state is open. We're scoring ships out.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like it's actually happening. Energy Secretary Chris
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Wright said approximately 9 million barrels of oil per day
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: were passing through the state. The AP noted they disappeared
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: higher than any independent estimates for the preceding 28 days.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: So hard to tell where this administration are getting their numbers.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Financial Times reports that the United States spent four months
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: secretly clearing Iranian mines, often at night, using Navy SEALs,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Navy divers, robotic surface crafts, underwater vehicles, and sonar. No
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: American casualties were reported. So the mines have been cleared.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: The lanes are safe. But Iran still has missiles, drones,
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: fast boats, and they can still lay additional mines as
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: far as we know. But as I told you, the U.S.,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: As I told you months ago, this has the capacity
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: to clear the minds. It just didn't want to do
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: so in a way that might risk anybody's lives. So
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: they've done it stealth. They've done it slowly. They've taken
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: four months to do it. It shouldn't be done in weeks.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So we will see right now. The Iranians are threatening U.S.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Navy ships. The United States has more than 20 warships
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: supporting the blockade of the Iranian ports in the area.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: And Iran is threatening those ships right now with supposedly
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: new and improved cruise missiles. We'll see what happens with that. So, yes,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Iran lacks uncontestable control. But the United States has not
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: restored ordinary commercial navigation. There's a lot of huffing and puffing.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: But the status quo is not good for the U.S.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: It's not good for Iran because Iran's not getting any
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: boats in and out either. It's still not clear what
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: the United States wants, what the aim is. And it's
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: not clear what the United States is willing to do
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: in order to achieve it. There's no question, as I've
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: said over and over again, the U.S. can open the
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Strait of Hormuz. Is it willing to do it? And,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: you know, the U.S. Navy can escort ships out of
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: the Strait for a while, but for how long? So,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: you know, markets are responding to the fact that it
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: doesn't look like things are going to get better anytime soon.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: That's why prices are higher. Oil prices are higher. Diesel
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: prices are higher. And I don't see how this goes away.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I don't see how Trump gets out of this. I mean,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: some people are speculating, maybe hoping that after the midterms,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Trump will strike Iran hard. I'm skeptical. I mean, he's
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: shown no willingness, no ability, and really no willingness to
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: do so. And you still have to worry about the
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: depleted you know, the depleted resources the United States military
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: has of missiles. So we will see. We will see.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: All right. I think that covers, yeah, we covered some
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: of those questions. Okay. Let's move to Europe. So in
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: what wasn't really surprising, but still shocking to many people,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: The AFD, the right-wing political party, Alternative for Germany, in Germany,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: won an election in Saxony-Anhalt. Now, Saxony-Anhalt is a region
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: of Germany that used to be part of Eastern Germany,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: so it's part of the eastern part of the country,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: where the AFD, the Alternative for Germany, is particularly popular.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: But these numbers were pretty astounding. I mean, alternative for Germany,
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: we won 43.8% of the vote. More than twice, it doubled.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: It's showing from 2021. It received 39 of 83 seats.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: So very close to a majority. Three short of a majority.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: The CDU, which was the governing political party of Germany
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: and was the governing political party at Saxony, fell to 17.2%
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and 15 seats after it has led the state for
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: 24 years. This is the strongest state result that the
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: AFD has received in any election in Germany. And it
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: basically solidifies the AFD as probably right now the largest
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: political party in Germany. In Germany. So I thought we'd
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: spend a little time on, you know, maybe thinking or
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: talking about the history of the AFD and who they
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: are and what they are. So it was founded in 2013.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: And think about what 2013, the year 2013 was. I
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: think it's important. 2013 saw the EU come out, you know,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: so first come out of the Great Recession of 2008
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: which devastated Europe, which was incredibly destructive. It saw a
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: deep recession. But whereas the United States starting in 2009
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: kind of came out of it, and even though growth
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: was slow coming out of it, it still came out
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: of that recession and growth continued throughout the 2000s. In Europe,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: the Great Financial Crisis was immediately followed by the Greek
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: financial crisis and the Southern Europe financial crisis, where Greece
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: basically was bankrupt and required a massive bailout from the EU,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: a complete change in the way the European Central Bank
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: worked in order to help bail out Greece, and when
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Germany and Northern Europe was generally viewed as having to subsidize,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: bail out, Southern European countries. Southern European countries that have
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: been irresponsible for decades, borrowing money and growing state employment
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: and pension plans and state enterprises and killing their private enterprises.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: And basically the Germans at the time, and still to
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: this day, the richest country in Europe, We're stuck with
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: the bill. They were the ones paying for all this.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: So this is a time of great angst in Europe,
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: particularly in places like Germany. Why are we paying the bill?
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Why are we bailing out Greece and Spain and Italy?
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Spain and Italy list directly, although Spain pretty directly, through, again,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: the European Central Bank. But why are we bailing out
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: all these people? We've been responsible. As a consequence of
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: being responsible, we're relatively rich. They're irresponsible and poor, and
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: now we have to bail them out. So, as a consequence,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: an economist by the name of Bernd Gluck, and I'm
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm mispronouncing these names. And other U.S. skeptics
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: founded AFD as basically a project opposed to the European Union.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Its early identity combined opposition to the U.S. on bailouts,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: and they were somewhat market-oriented, not really, and they had
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: these national conservative themes. Germany first. Froke Petri displaced Luke
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: in 2015. And remember what 2015 was. 2015 was the
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: migration crisis. You got mass migration coming out of places
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: like Syria, primarily Syria, where there was a civil war,
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: people were running for their lives. And they'd got an
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: idea that Europe was open. And not only was Europe open,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: they would be welcome and they would get welfare checks.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: As they walked into Germany, they would get a check
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: and they would get an apartment, which was actually true.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: So in 2015, you got mass migration primarily to Germany
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: and to Sweden. Other countries that were less hospitable to
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: migrants were less, provided less welfare to migrants. The migrants
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: didn't stay there. Like Denmark. The migrants walked through Denmark
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: to get to Sweden, but they didn't stay in Denmark.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Denmark was not as hospitable to the migrants as Sweden was.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: They went to Sweden. When you've got robust welfare states
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: that are willing to support illegal migrants, migrants who are undocumented,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: the migrants go to those countries. So AFD basically changed
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: its orientation starting in 2015 to emphasize less economics and
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: much more issues of borders, migration, national identity, social cohesion,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: what they call social cohesion. And the party also developed
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: strong Eastern and Western wings. Remember, Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Eastern Germany, Eastern Germany developed has been since the unification,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: has been generally much more statist, much more collectivist than
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Western Germany, which is much more oriented towards, call it
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: liberal ideas, ideas around individual liberty and freedom. Eastern Germany
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: is much more inculcated with the old communist ideas, Now,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: there's also another pattern that happens between East and West,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: which is important. Young people in Eastern Germany left. They
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: went to West Germany. That's where the jobs were. That's
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: where the tech was. That's where the future was. Eastern
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Germany was old and focused on manufacturing, but a lot
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: of manufacturing plants in Eastern Germany were old and unproductive.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: They were inherited from the communists. And while Western Germany
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: invested a lot of money in Eastern Germany and tried
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: to build up the manufacturing base in Eastern Germany, young
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: ambitious people left Eastern Germany and went to the West.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: So Eastern Germany is significantly older, older, the population is
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: older than Western Germany. So Eastern leaders, people like Bjorn Hocke,
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: and pushed a much more radical, and still push a
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: much more radical, ethno-nationalist and populist line. And while West were,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: you know, more open. So, for example, the leader of
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: the Western Germany AFD is a lesbian, whereas the Eastern
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: German AFD is very, very intolerant. towards gays. Her name's
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Alice Weidel, right? But the reality is that the East
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: and West unite because that's what gives us this national
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: power and because they agree on the fundamental issues, which
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: we'll get to. The most important one, the most important one,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: I think, in this election, the most important one in
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: the future is migration and nationality. AFD stands for much
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: tighter asylum rules, deportation or re-migration policies, and more cultural
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: or ethnic conception of German identity. So to be German
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: is to be white, it's to be heritage German. It's
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: not to be, you know, immigrants are not real Germans.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Now they, in their plaque, They do say, you know, assimilated,
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: like assimilated Muslims who have assimilated into German society, they're okay.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: You know, they can stay and they're okay. They count.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: But ultimately, to really be German is to embrace skin
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: color and heritage. So a huge issue is migration, and
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: particularly the issue of Islam. and we'll come back to
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: that in a little bit. The second is European integration.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: They resent the idea that Brussels gets to, you know,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: determine Germany's fate. They want a transfer of authority on
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: more and more issues back to the nation states. They
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: want to replace the current European union with a looser association. Um,
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: And they're hostile to the euro, although they don't have
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: plans to do away with the euro and move back
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: to a German currency. One of the most troubling, I mean,
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: they have many troubling views, but one of the more
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: troubling views is their view on Russia and Ukraine. They
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: believe in removing all the sanctions on Russia, renewing the
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: purchase of Russian gas, fixing the pipelines. And they oppose
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: any support for Ukraine. They don't want Ukraine in NATO.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: They don't want Ukraine in the European Union. They are,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: of all the right-wing parties in Europe right now, they
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: are the most explicitly pro-Russia of all the right-wing political parties.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: On energy and climate, they're actually quite good. They reject
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: decarbonization mandates. They support fossil fuels. They want to reverse
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: the exit from coal, and they definitely want to return
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: to nuclear power. And again, this is another issue I
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: want to come back to in a minute. On economics
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: and welfare, you know, they want to do the very Republican.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: They want to cut taxes, and they want some deregulation.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: But they also are very much in favor of social
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: populist They're big on the welfare state. They're huge believers
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: in the welfare state. They want to expand family support.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: They want higher pensions for retired people. And they want
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: to limit the amount of debt the German government can
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: take on. And they find that in culture and government,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: they're socially conservative. They're anti-LGBTQ. They're, you know, they emphasize
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: in all of their literature the role of the traditional family,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: the big and law and order, direct democracy. They want more,
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: what do you call it, national referendums for decision makers.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: They want people to vote on more stuff. So it's
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: a party that is very much a mixed bag. A
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: lot of bad stuff, some good stuff. But two issues
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: where I think really dominate why they're winning. There are
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: two issues that really, if you will, the establishment, the
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: conventional right and the center right and the center left
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: of German politics have not addressed, have not faced up to,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: and have not found solutions for. And therefore, the German
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: people are turning against them. And the two issues are
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: migration and energy. And I'd say the third issue, which
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: they have no solution for, that is AFD, is the
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: mixed economy. So you've got migration, energy, and the mixed economy,
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: the three things that are turning people away from regular
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: politics and making it possible for this political party this
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: is a political party on the left which is communist
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: and it's just it's just horrific it's just awful um
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: that is also on the rise now what is it
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: about these issues Or migration, mass migration from a civil
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: war of people just running for their lives and getting
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: welfare and not being expected to integrate into society and
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: assimilate is a problem. It's always been a problem. Particularly
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: Islamic immigration and the unwillingness of the authorities to recognize
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: the challenge of Islamic immigration. That is, you get terrorist
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: attack after terrorist attack after terrorist attack and the government
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: does nothing and says nothing. They typically hide the fact
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: that the terrorist wasn't a Muslim. They hide the Islamist affiliation.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Germany has not banned the Muslim Brotherhood, has not put
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: any curbs on radical mosques. So it's the continuing tolerance
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: of the German elites, German intellectuals, and German political parties
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: towards Islamism, towards radical Islam, towards the kind of Islam
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: that comes to Europe in order to turn Europe into
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: an Islamic state, that people are justifiably rebelling against. They
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: don't know what a rational alternative would be, so they
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: embrace whatever the AFD is proposing, because at least the
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: AFD is proposing something, at least the AFD is being
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: honest and saying there is a problem. governing the major
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: political parties are evading the problem completely and denying that
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: it exists. And that there is something to be done
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: about it. Now, that's changing a little bit. You know,
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: Europe is now on the verge of approving a bunch
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: of new laws that are making it easier to deport people,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: to get rid of criminals, But Europe needs to ban
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: the Muslim Brotherhood. It needs to ban radical mosques. It
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: needs to make clear that it will not accept an
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: ideology that calls for using violence in order to bring
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: about a revolution in Europe. It needs to take much
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: harsher steps against radical Islam. So the fact that since 9-11,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Europe and the United States have been evading the nature
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: of this enemy. And that it's obvious to the common
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: people that the enemy is there, more in Europe than
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: in the U.S., because the U.S. doesn't really face many
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: terrorist attacks. And the U.S., there are not a lot
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: of Muslims here. There are many, many more Muslims in Europe.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: They see it on a day-to-day basis. They're confronted with
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: it on a day-to-day basis. And the politicians are giving
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: them no guidance in terms of what to do about it.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: So they're the one political party saying there's an issue here,
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: there's a problem here, and we're going to do something
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: about it. And there's no question that the German people
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: are responding to that. The second part of that is energy.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: Energy that has consequences, for example, for industrialization. You know,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: Germany is an industrial country where the industry is fading
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: because it cannot afford to produce stuff because of the
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: high cost of energy. Never mind the high cost of employment,
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: but the high cost of energy. And yet again, everybody
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: admits that it was a mistake to shut down the
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: nuclear power plants. Nobody has a plan on what to
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: do about it. Nobody has a plan to turn them
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: back on. Nobody's willing to take that action. Nobody has
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: a plan on how to, you know, get the coal
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: plants going again and actually get Germany back to producing
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: electricity and driving costs down. And again, the AFD comes in,
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: whether they, you know, and on this, they're absolutely right.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: You know, stop this decarbonization that is destroying our capacity
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: to compete internationally. We can't run our industries internationally. You know,
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: economy is going to tatters. You know, we need to
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: fix our energy policy. And again, it's the failure of
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: particularly right-of-center political parties to do something about it that
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: has left an opening for the AFD. And finally, there's
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: just a mixed economy. The fact that Germany is suffering
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: from the fact that it has a heavily, heavily, heavily
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: regulated economy where there's very little entrepreneurship, there's very little innovation.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: where the old industrial base is slowly dying because of
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: the cost of energy, but not just. Also because they
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: haven't kept up with technology. They can't compete with the
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: Chinese on electric cars. And the cost of labor is
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: very high, partially because they've given such a huge role
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: to labor unions in running, for example, many of these companies.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: So labor unions sit on the boards of most German companies.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: So the mixed economy is failing in Germany. And again,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: nobody's offering a solution. And add to that the growing,
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: the incredible growth in the welfare state. And how are
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: we going to fund this? Where's the money going to
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: come from? And of course, the AFD has no solution
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: to that. It's not proposing a solution to that. But
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: the angst that the failure of the mixed economy is causing.
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: The angst that the failure of the mixed economy is
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: causing here in the United States has brought about the
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: rise of populism. The angst that the mixed economy is
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: causing in Germany is bringing about the rise of the AFD.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: So migration, legitimate. Some legitimate, not all. The AFD is
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: not legitimate in its ethnocentric nonsense about German identity. It's
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: not legitimate in terms of going after all migrants. It's
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: not legitimate, again, in terms of focusing on heritage. But
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: in terms of seeing a real problem with Islam, they're
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: absolutely right. The fact that they see a real problem
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: with shutting down the nuclear energy and working away from
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: fossil fuels, absolutely right. And then there's the mixed economy,
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: which just creates a melee throughout Germany, particularly in the East.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: where again, these industry and these factories are shutting down
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: and people are unemployed and people are afraid and people
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: are old and they romanticize old communist East Germany where
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: their jobs were secure and they didn't have to worry. So,
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: you know, sadly, it takes these legitimate concerns and mixes
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: it in with ethno-nationalism It mixes it in with statist
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: economic policy. It mixes it in with admiration for Putin.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: And I think the support of Russia is not just practical.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: We need the gas. It's the same thing that drives
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: many on the right in the United States admire to
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: be on the Russian side. It's admiration for Putin. He
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: is the real representative of Western civilization. He's fighting against gays.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: He's fighting against you know, he's fighting for white Christianity.
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: Of course, Russia has more Muslims than Germany, but we'll
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: put that aside. So it's sad that Germany is falling
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: for another ethno-nationalist political party. Last time they did that,
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: didn't turn out too well. I don't think it's going
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: to turn out the same way this time, but I
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: don't see anybody with a counter, anybody standing up to them,
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: anybody having constructive proposals around migration, around energy, around the economy,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: they can stop the rise of AFD or much worse. Now, politically,
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: the AFD has a problem right now because all of
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: the other political parties have basically said we will not
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: work with the AFD. We will not sit in a
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: government with AFD. So, for example, in Saxony, they're just
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: short of a majority, but they still need three more seats.
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: None of the other political parties would grant them support.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: How can they govern? They can't govern without that support.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: They could form a minority government, but even that would
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: need some support on some issues from other parties. This
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: idea of a firewall the German parties have erected against AFD,
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: it's not clear that it can hold. And if we
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: go to elections again, you know, they might do better. So,
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: you know, should the AFD be denied representation? They got
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: 44% of the vote. They're not allowed. to form a
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: coalition government with other political parties because other political parties,
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: nobody will sit with them in a government. I mean,
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: one of the things that you will discover is that
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: when these populist political parties get into power, they discover
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: they don't know what to do and that all their
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: ideas don't work in practice and cannot be implemented. I
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: think in Europe of today, they will moderate dramatically. So
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: we will see. AFD is also under constant monitoring by
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: the German central government because they are extremists. That is wrong.
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: People are persecuted in Germany for holding extreme ideas. On
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: the right, not on the left, never on the left,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: but on the right, because of the experience of Nazism.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: But that is wrong. That is not what freedom is about.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: The party itself, it's hard to say what the future
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: of the party is going to be. It mixes a
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: lot of elements that are kind of incompatible. Like the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: anti-bureaucracy from Brussels and from the German state and failed
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: migration policies, but they embrace nationalist collectivism, you know, bigger welfare,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: more bureaucracy and welfare, protectionism. They have the national economic
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: protectionist kind of policies. And the, you know, the moral
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: evasion about Russia. And then of course they're led by
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: a lesbian, which the people in the East hate the
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: fact that she's a lesbian. That's unacceptable. What exactly happens
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: here is very hard to tell. How this all develops
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: is very hard to tell. But it looks like AFD
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: will win probably three different parts of East Germany. They
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: might even win the city of Berlin, which would be
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: quite astounding given how young the city is. And the
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: reality is that young people are attracted to AFD. They're new.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: You know, they've got not fresh ideas. but ideas that
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: seem to be addressing the challenges that people face in
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: Germany right now, even if they're addressing them badly. At
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: least they're acknowledging they exist. All right, this one is
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: a story about VW, about Volkswagen again. We talked about
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: shutting down all the plants and shrinking in Volkswagen. Well,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: one of those plants, it appears, folks are going to
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: sign a letter of intent to sell one of those
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: plants that they want to shutter to an Israeli-based private
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: equity fund called Eurelius. This is a vehicle production plant.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: They are scheduled to stop producing vehicles in 2027, next summer.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: Eurelius at that point would become the majority owner. And
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: I guess Lower Saxony, maybe the governor of Lower Saxony,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: would be participating in this deal. The private equity fund
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: wants to develop the plant into a center for security
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: and defense production. The first anchor project would involve Raphael
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: Advanced Defense Systems. This is the Israeli defense company. And
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: the idea would be to use this facility that is
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: making cars now to manufacture air defense systems and components
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: for Germany and for Europe. So you can see demand
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: for air defense systems is creating new industrial possibilities in
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: Germany and new uses for manufacturing plants that used to
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: make automobiles will now defend, will now create Given that
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: it's Rafael, you'd expect it to now create Arrow 2
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: and 3 missile systems that then Israel will be selling
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: to Germany and to the rest of Europe. A great
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: market solution for the fact that the German auto industry
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: needs to shrink. The American auto industry needs to shrink.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: The Chinese auto industry is going to eat them up.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: It sounds like between 1,400 and 1,800 jobs might be preserved. So,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: you know, this is the kind of thing that happens.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: Once Volkswagen announces it's going to shut all these plants
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: down and it basically is freeing up this capital, this
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: equipment and these factories, somebody comes in and say, hey,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: I could use that. I could use that to do
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: something productive with it. Rather than build cars that make
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: no money, build cars that nobody wants, I can build
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: something that people do want. This is, again, how capitalism works.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: If you've ever watched a movie I've recommended many, many times,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: Other People's Money, that's kind of what happens to the
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: old wire and cable industry. A Japanese company comes in
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: and buys the company up to make the metal mesh
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: that goes into airbags. That is constantly happening in markets.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: So factories, capital, skills, labor are not tied to one
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: product indefinitely. They can be recombined by the same owner
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: or new owners to respond to changes in demand. Now,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: this is not a pure market story. Lower Saxony is
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: a major Volkswagen shareholder, the government of Lower Saxony, and
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: a prospective corner of this defense company. But this is
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: pretty standard practice, I guess, in Germany, that local governments
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: are investors in companies. The United States is just discovering
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: the wonders of that. It is interesting, though, that an
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: Israeli defense company is going to come in to help
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: repurpose a German automobile plant to protect European cities from
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: missiles and drones. I think there's kind of a little
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: irony there. It's pretty cool. All right. Let's see. Two
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: more stories. Oh, and then we've got human achievement. All right,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: today's going long. It seems like all these shows go long,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: so I'll remind you I'll remind you that these shows
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: are funded by you. Can't happen without you. My time,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: you pay for it. So ask questions. Super Chat is open.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: We're behind a little bit. So maybe come in and
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: ask more questions. Also, you can do a sticker. Value
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: for value. Just a dollar amount with no question attached
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: to it. Just to show your appreciation or to basically
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: pay for the values that you are receiving. All right,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: this is a quick story coming out of the BBC
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: about September 11th and some new evidence about Saudi, potential
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: Saudi involvement. So there's a new video out that concerns
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: Omar al-Bayoumi. Omar al-Bayoumi is a Saudi man that is
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: at the center of the 9-11 victims' families' civil lawsuit
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: against Saudi Arabia. The families are seeking $ 1 trillion from
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: the Saudi government and holding them responsible for 9-11. One
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: of the videos shows Bayoumi, a Saudi citizen, warmly greeting
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the hijackers, on 9-11. He actually
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: led al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, so he wasn't one
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: of the 9-11 hijackers. He was one of the organizers
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: and planners of it. Another shows Bayoumi and al-Awlaki paintballing
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: near San Diego with an official from Saudi Arabia's Ministry
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: of Islamic Affairs. Now, the footage contradicts Bayoumi's longstanding presentation
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: of himself as a politically uninvolved student and adds to
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: the evidence of his extensive ties to Saudi officials. Bayoumi
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: was shown to have been connected to the Saudi hijackers
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: when they were in San Diego. British police seized the material.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: Notice this. They seized the material after September 11th. 25
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: years ago. And the FBI had access to it within days.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: The 9-11 Commission did not see, you know, a lot
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: of this evidence that they seized. For example, there's a
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: diagram of a plane that was found in his apartment,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: the paintball footage, and other evidence that links Bayoumi to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: the hijackers. None of that was seen by the 9-11 Commission.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: A federal judge previously found a reasonable inference that Bayoumi
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: and a Saudi diplomat coordinated with the Saudi government while
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: assisting two future hijackers. That ruling allowed claims to proceed,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: but it didn't decide the ultimate merits. It still hasn't
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: decided the ultimate merits. So we still don't know And
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll never know. But if there is a conspiracy
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: behind 9-11, it's this. It's that the Saudis knew or
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: had strong suspicions or, maybe even more likely, that certain
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: members of Saudi intelligence, certain members within the Saudi government,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: actually helped the hijackers. So, You know, we don't know
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: exactly what happened, but all of those are possible. Remember
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: that Bush had deep ties to the Saudi royal family
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: and that the only plane to leave New York, the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: only plane to leave New York right after 9-11, the
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: only plane that was allowed to take off was a
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: private plane taking a bunch of Saudi royals from the
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: United States back to Saudi Arabia. Without the FBI or
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: without anybody interrogating them or finding out if any of
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: them had any connection to what had happened. So there
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: are serious concerns about the conduct of particular officials, particularly
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: financial institutions, certainly ideological networks. We don't know whether any
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: of those institutions were connected to the royal family or
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: to the government or to the security agencies. And, you know,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: this new evidence just raises more suspicions. It doesn't prove anything. Remember,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: it's always good to remember this, 15 of the 19
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: hijackers were Saudi nationals. And Saudi institutions spent decades exporting
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: a religion hostile to reason, individualism, the West, the Wahhabi sect.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: Saudi institutions spent decades exporting that. And funding the madrasas,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: the schools in which the worst kind of Islamism was taught.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: We have to remember too that American politicians treated the
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: Saudi monarchy as a partner and resisted at every turn
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: a full accounting of the ideological and financial environment from
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: which al-Qaeda emerged. So we One of the things that
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: was required after 9-11 is that we identify who the
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: enemy really was, who enabled them, who made them possible.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: And there's no question in my mind, wasn't any question
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: at the time, no question today, that the Saudis were involved.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: Who exactly, I don't know. It's a massive institutional failure
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: in the United States that there was no follow through. Now, maybe...
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: If this trial continues, maybe more evidence will come to
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: the forefront. But, of course, it's 25 years later. The
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: Saudis will claim that even if there was some participation
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: from people within the intelligence services, let's say back then,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: or from within that Wahhabi religious sect, they were all
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: long gone. And the new administration is much more pro-Western.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: And nobody will be held accountable. And I wonder what
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: happens if a court assigns a liability of a trillion
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: dollars to Saudi government and the Saudi government says we're
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: not paying. What is the U.S. government going to do?
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: Are they going to try to force them? No. I mean,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: the great tragedy here is, of course, that the U.S.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: government will not fight for the rights of its own
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: citizens in the face of the Saudis. It's pathetic and ridiculous,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: but that is the reality. And it's not this administration.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: It's really all administrations. You could see this way before
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: 9-11 and certainly since 9-11. So we'll be watching. You know,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: it's good to see this coming out of the BBC.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: The BBC is often pretty biased, but they did the investigation.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: They looked into these videos. They looked into their background
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: and their history. It came out because of this lawsuit.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: but it is the BBC that's bringing it to the forefront. Finally,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: in terms of, before we get to the human achievements,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: a story that's dominating a lot of the news feeds
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: is the story of civilian casualties in Lebanon. Supposedly, Israel
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: carried out two early morning airstrikes in Kfar Rouman in
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: southern Lebanon. And according to the Lebanon's health ministry, at
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: least 12 people are dead including two children, and additional
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: people are injured. The casualty count rose during the day.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: Early reports gave lower totals. The identities and combatant status
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 2: of every adult casualty has not been established. But already
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: everybody's freaking out. Israel's killing civilians left and right. And
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: of course, there was also a story a couple of
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: days ago about an American missile hitting a wedding or something.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: in Iran and killing a lot of civilians. This always
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: gets a lot of press. It gets a lot of along.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: Everybody apologizes. There's investigations. A lot is made of this.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: I'm sure these are case studies that are studied at
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: West Point. These are case studies that are studied in
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: the Israeli military. This is not what not to do.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: Iran launches missiles at countries all over the Middle East,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: including Israel, that are clearly targeting civilian populations, and nobody cares.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, Hamas for 15 years, more than 15 years,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: was launching missiles into Israel, into civilian populations in Israel.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: Nobody cared. Partially because Israel could defend itself. So it
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: knocked the missiles out of the sky. So few people died.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: But one errant missile, one wrong identification, one home that's
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: blown up, let's say by accident. I'm not even sure
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: it's an accident. And Israel and the United States get
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: full blame for it. And more blame and people are
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: going to go to trial. And again, you know, it
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: delegitimizes the entire military operation, which is absurd. I mean,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: the crucial thing to understand here is that Israel is
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: fighting in Lebanon in a war of self-defense. It is
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: fighting against an aggressor who would like to exterminate it.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: The Israeli strikes for retaliation for Hezbollah's explosive drone launches
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: against Israel's soldiers in spite of the fact that this
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: supposedly is a ceasefire. And I'm sure because I've been there,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: I've done this work, that, you know, Israel identified this
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: building in Kfar Roman as being a hideout of terrorists,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: a hideout of Hezbollah. Hezbollah technically not terrorists, they're a
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: military group within Lebanon. And they bombed it. And it
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: turned out there were civilians in it. Now, whose fault
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: is that? It's Hezbollah's. But let's say they were even wrong.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: They identified it as a military target. It turned out, no,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 2: there were no combatants there. It was all civilians. And
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: civilians all died. Whose fault is that? Hezbollah. They started
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: this war. They're violating the ceasefire. They continue to demand
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: the extermination of Israel. They continue to state that their
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: goal is to eliminate the state of Israel. I mean,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: Israel's is way too gentle with them. You know, as
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: soon as Israel identifies targets, it needs to strike. And
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: I know, you know, rules of law today require all
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: kinds of verifications and checking, but that is all immoral.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: That is all prohibiting Israel and the United States from
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: fighting A self-defense war. It prohibits them from winning. It
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: restricts their ability for killing the people who need to
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: be killed. The enemies. the people who are actually responsible
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: for the violence in Lebanon. The idea that you can
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: somehow fight a war and every missile can distinguish between
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: combatants and non-combatants is absurd and ridiculous. And all it
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: does is handcuff and cripple the party that is trying
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: to defend itself. Now, gratuitous killing is, of course, unacceptable.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: But there's zero evidence in all the cases I've seen
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: in Gaza and in Lebanon that Israelis are engaged in
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: gratuitous killing. And the Israeli military would prosecute people if
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: they were engaged in gratuitous killing. There's another case now
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: that's being reviewed of the killing of aid workers in
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: Gaza that And, you know, the guy who ordered the
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: launch on the vehicles with the aid workers believed that
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: there was Hamas fighters among them and that they were
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: carrying weapons and that the vehicles were not just aid vehicles,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: but were moving Hamas fighters from location to location. Completely
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: legitimate military target. They bombed them. And it turned out
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: it was mostly aid workers. Sad. It's unfortunate. But you
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: know what? I mean, you should really think twice about
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: aiding Hamas, about being an aid worker in Gaza. And
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: if you do become an aid worker in Gaza, I
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: don't know, because you care about the children, you care
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: about the truly innocent, you know, maybe those under 12,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: but almost nobody above 12. If you care about the
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: truly innocent, you go work there, then you're taking... you're
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: taking a risk with your life. And accept that risk.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: Stop complaining. You go into a war zone, yeah, there's
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: a chance, not a trivial chance, a real chance, that
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: you will get killed. I mean, a lot of the
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: stories talk about proportionality. You know, Hezbollah launched a drone
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 2: and then Israel goes in and bombs stuff. Proportionality is.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 2: An immoral idea. You should use all the weapons and
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 2: all the means at your disposal to win the war
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 2: quickly and effectively. I mean, it's such blatant altruism to
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 2: demand that you sacrifice your own troops. You sacrifice your
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: own troops in order to guarantee that you don't hurt
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 2: civilians of the enemy. Any deaths are the fault of
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 2: the enemy, not yours. So, you know, this is all
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 2: Hezbollah's responsibility. Israel does not, does not bear responsibility. You know,
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: unless you could show gratuitous murder, gratuitous killing for no reason,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: which nobody has shown. But personality is egalitarianism brought to warfare,
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 2: and I can't think of anything more barbarian than that. Oh, yeah,
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: I need a, you know, I'm not going to use
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 2: my bazooka versus your knife, you know, because you've only
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: got a knife, so I need to have just a knife.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, what? Absurd. My life is the standard. And
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: I'm going to use the biggest weapon I can find,
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: you know, to defend my life. Don't run at me
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: with a knife when I've got a bazooka because I'm
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: going to use it. So proportionality is a ridiculous concept.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: It's an absurd concept. You know, the only sense in
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: which proportionality means anything is in proportion to the goal, victims.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: you know, do you need to nuke the village in
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: order to win? No. So don't nuke the village, right?
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: You can win and still minimize your own casualties without
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: nuking the village. You know, one story covered this, and they,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: you know, they said, look, in this other place, the
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: Israeli military, here's a reading for this, the Israeli military
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: issued an evacuation warning for a specific home in Deir
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: el-Zahran on Monday. So they actually, evacuated the building and
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: they blew it up. Well, what's the point exactly? That
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: came earlier in the day. Let me just see. I
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 2: wanted to focus on something else. Yeah, Israeli troops are
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: fired on from inside a house. So they killed the
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: Hezbollah member who wounded two of them rather than bombing
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: the house in the air. So they engaged in ground operations,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: which put the lives of the Israeli soldiers at risk
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 2: in order to make sure they only killed the shooter
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: instead of calling in an airstrike and blowing up the building.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 2: Because there might have been civilian casualties if they did that.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's suicidal. You blow up the building. And
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 2: whoever's dead inside is the responsibility of the guy shooting
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: from the building. But that is hailed. You see, this
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 2: is how they should be. This is what morality looks like.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: Morality looks like sacrificing your own troops, you know, to
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 2: save civilians. No, that's immoral. Your troops have a right
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: to their life. Your job as a military commander, as
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: a government, is to protect the lives of your troops.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: They don't forfeit their lives because they are in the military,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 2: particularly not in conscription, in a conscription military. take out
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 2: the enemy, and you save your own people. That's what
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: a war of self-defense requires. All right. So yeah, a
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: lot of stories about that out there. Okay, quick, two
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: quick stories. So this one's, surgeons at the University College
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: London hospitals used an AI system to support a neurosurgeon
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: in real time while removing a tumor that threatened the
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: patient's sight. The system analyzed the live endoscopic video and
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 2: highlighted for the surgeon critical structures at the base of
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: the brain, including blood vessels and nerves. It supplemented rather
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 2: than replace the surgeon's judgment. The tumor was removed, the
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 2: patient's vision was protected, The system worked by learning from
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: hundreds of annotated surgical videos. So every time they do
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: a video, a surgical procedure like this with a camera,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: they record it, they videotape it. Well, the AI can
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: learn from all those. Now, this was the first patient
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: in an ongoing safety and feasibility trial And so the
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: idea here is can AI turn accumulated surgical experience into
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: a tool that helps an expert see what's going on
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: in real time? So this is not just reviewing past images.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: This is in real time showing the surgeon what is
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: going on and highlighting issues for him and guiding him.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: through the process, in a sense. All right, another AI.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: I guess it's an AI. Maybe this is not AI.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: This is AI. This is the first autonomous blood draw
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 2: robot that's been authorized by the FDA. The FDA granted
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 2: De Novo Marketing authorization for Vitestro Aletta. I don't know
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: why they give these things such names. the first standalone
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 2: device able to draw blood from an adult outpatient without
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 2: hands-on operator intervention. Aleta combines near infrared imaging, ultrasound, and
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 2: Doppler to locate a vein and distinguish it from an artery.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: It can apply a tourniquet, disinfect the skin, insert and
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: dispose of the needle, change tubes and apply a bandage.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 2: It's so cool. The machine refuses to attempt a puncture
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 2: when it cannot identify a suitable vein and stops when
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: patient movement creates an unsafe condition. A trained whatever nurse
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: must initiate the session and remain available. And, you know,
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 2: one such person can supervise three such devices. In a
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: multicenter study of more than 1,600 people, a letter achieved 94.5%
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 2: first-stick success rate after identifying a suitable nerve, a vein, sorry,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: not nerve. Results, you know, the results remained strong among
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: older patients, patients with obesity, and people reporting difficult vein access. Now,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 2: I have, you know, veins that nurses love because they're
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: easy to identify, great access. But if you don't have
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 2: veins like mine, this machine sounds like it's probably better
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 2: than a nurse. Very cool. Increased productivity and increased precision.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: Let's see, what else do we want to do? Yeah,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: this is a quick story from Human Progress. It summarizes
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 2: the changes in terms of sanitation over the last 26 years.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: So basically one in three people, one in three people
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 2: had access to safe sanitation in 2000. Today it's 60%.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: So the coverage of running water and sewage and all
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 2: of that today reaches 60% globally. So 2.8 billion people
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 2: gain safely managed sanitation between 2002 to 2024. There's still 3.4
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 2: million who lack safely managed sanitation. But at this rate,
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 2: within 25 years, they the number will be very close
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 2: to zero. So again, the world is getting richer, and
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 2: with that, we're getting more water, more electricity, more safety,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: better human conditions, better conditions for human beings to live.
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 2: All right, that, my friends, is the news for this Monday,
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 2: September 7th. We will now move to our Super Chat.
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 2: Before we do that, I will remind you, we're still
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: way off the goals, about $ 350 short of our second
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: hour goal, and we're well into the second hour. We
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: don't have a lot of questions, so it is a
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 2: week evening for questions, so please consider asking a question.
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 2: $ 20 questions, $ 50 questions, $ 100 questions will get us to
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 2: the goal much faster. Also, if you would like to
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 2: support the show on a monthly basis, I mean, the
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 2: show couldn't exist without you, you, the listeners. If you
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 2: would like to support the show on a monthly basis,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 2: you can do so on Patreon or PayPal. Just go
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 2: to Patreon or PayPal and put in your runbook show
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 2: and become a subscriber, become a supporter of the show. Finally,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 2: the Ayn Rand Institute is a sponsor of the show. And,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 2: you know, they are launching ARU with a three-semester course
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 2: on objectivism, a deep dive into the philosophy, guided by
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 2: Ankur Ghatik. It'll be three semesters long. If you want
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 2: to be graded, a graded student, it will cost you nothing, basically.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 2: $ 100 just to sign up, but other than no tuition.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: You even can apply for a scholarship of $ 500 cash
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 2: to pay you to take the class. We're looking for
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: young talent. If you just want to audit the class,
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: you will have to pay, but that's pretty normal. Check
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: out einman.org. for more information. By the way, I'm teaching
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 2: a class on Western Civilization, the origins and nature of
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 2: Western Civilization, starting in the first week of October. And
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 2: if anybody wants to sign up for that, please go
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: to ARU website and sign up for it. Looking for students,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: need more students for the class. Let's see. Alex Epstein
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 2: is the number one authority in the world on all
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: things energy. and fossil fuel and electricity, and is more
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: recently becoming kind of a world expert in data centers
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 2: and a big defender for building data centers. So check
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 2: out alexepstein.substack.com. You'll learn a huge amount from reading his Substack.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: I do. I read it whenever something new comes out.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: Defenders of Capitalism, defendersofcapitalism.com, dedicated to designing programs that defend
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: capitalism on an economic, political, social, and most importantly, moral
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 2: and philosophical basis. I've been involved for many, many years
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: with Michael in developing this. We've both been involved in
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 2: the Leadership Program of the Rockies, teaching all of this.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 2: Check out, you know, I think the registration of the
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 2: Leadership Program is over, but check out Defenders of Capitalism, defendersofcapitalism.com.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: And finally, Hendershot Wealth, HendershotWealth.com has products that can reduce
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 2: your capital gains tax liability significantly. If you hold stock
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 2: in SpaceX or Anthropic or OpenAI, and you're going to
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 2: have this huge capital gains, and you're going to owe
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of money to the state of California and
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: to the federal government, they can help you. Check out Hendershot, Hendershot,
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 2: with two Ts, Hendershot Wealth. Dot com slash YBS. Hendershopwealth.com
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: slash YBS. All right. Let's see. Let's jump in with questions.
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: And let me first thank the Austica people. John, thank you. GVI,
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 2: thank you. Roland, thank you. Enric, thank you. Tony, thank you.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 2: Let's see. GVI again, thank you. And what else do
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 2: we have? What else do we have? Oops. Yeah, I
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 2: think we caught everybody. I think GVI did three stickers. Yeah,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 2: thank you. All right.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 4: So let's talk about Shabza. Shabza says, Michael Sanders asks
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 4: about Coke. Where is Michael Sanders asking about Coke? Oh,
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 4: let me go back to Michael Sanders.
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 2: So Michael says, as a former Coke addict, that's me,
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 2: do you find Coke Zero or Diet Coke to be
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 2: a reasonable alternative, or have you gone cold turkey? Oh,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 2: my God. I find them absolutely disgusting. I cannot drink them.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, Diet Coke is undrinkable, and I can't drink
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 2: Coke Zero. So when I decided, I was drinking, I
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 2: don't know, six, seven, eight cans of Coke a day,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: and Coke was my diet. I loved it. You know,
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 2: a cold Coca-Cola, that first sip, it's one of the
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: great pleasures in life. Anyway, I decided I had to stop.
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: Huge quantities of sugar. I was putting on weight. I
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 2: was entering my 40s, and I was going to stop.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 2: I was in my late 30s, I think. And I
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 2: decided to stop. And a friend of mine said, drink
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 2: Coke Zero instead. So I said, but I don't like
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 2: Coke Zero. He said, if you can drink it for
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 2: like 10 days, you'll get used to it, and it'll
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 2: taste exactly like Coke. So I started. I drank it
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 2: for like, I think, five days. And I gave up.
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 2: It was so disgusting. I find the taste of artificial
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 2: sweetness generally. I can't tolerate them. I don't like them.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 2: I've tried all of them. Some a little better than others,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 2: but none of them are likable. And the one in
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 2: Coke was in Diet Coke was terrible. And then they
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 2: tell me Coke Zero is better. So I tried Coke Zero.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 2: Couldn't tolerate that either. And the end of the day,
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't need Coke. So I went cold turkey, basically.
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 2: And I'm fine. I never really suffered too much. I
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: still miss that first sip. I remember it fondly. But
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 2: I went cold turkey. And today I only drink two things, basically.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 2: Three things. Four things. I drink water. That's mostly what
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 2: I drink. From plastic bottles. And, you know, I know
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 2: I'm filled with microplastics at this point. I drink coffee,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 2: two to three cups in the morning. But I have
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 2: to stop early because otherwise I don't sleep well. Once
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 2: in a while, it's pretty rare these days, I drink
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 2: a glass of wine, just one glass, not more. And then, again,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: once in a while, I'll drink like a protein smoothie
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 2: type thing. Uh, I try to make it as the
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: least sweet possible. I don't like sweet. So, but with, with,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 2: with protein in it and stuff. So I, like protein shakes.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 2: So I'll drink that. But it has to be with...
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: But that's it. That's all I consume in terms of liquids.
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 2: But it's mostly water and coffee. Shazbat. Michael asked about Coke.
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 2: That reminds me. Is there any progress on the new
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 2: sweetener research you mentioned in the past? No, I haven't
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: seen it. You know, sweeten the made of protein, something
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 2: like that. I haven't seen it. I'll have to ask
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 2: Chet UBT if there's an update on it. And I
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 2: will put back. I will put back. Mike, we need
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 2: to work with Democrats until after the election when we
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 2: can start fighting them again. How far does that support
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 2: need to go, though? Is voting for them enough or
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 2: should I contribute money to their campaigns? I don't know,
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 2: will your money make a difference? How much of a
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 2: difference could it make? I really think it depends on
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 2: the candidate too. I mean, you don't want to be
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 2: sending money to a DSA, Democratic Socialist of America candidate.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 2: You want to find the better Democratic candidates to the
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 2: extent they exist and support them. But I would avoid
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: doing anything with the really nasty ones, the really bad ones.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 2: You don't want to encourage people that tendency within the
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: democratic party. So support cautiously and modestly, right? Because they
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 2: are bad guys. And the reality is that the really
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: bad element with the democratic party is winning out. So
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 2: be careful. All right, Daniel, I build automated machinery and
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 2: every piece of equipment, has a safety factor. We determine
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 2: the safety standards. OSHA is only indirectly involved. We value
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 2: our work and our customers, so we build quality equipment. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 2: And as I said, safety was improving. Safety has been
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 2: improving for 100 years. Basically, since the beginning of the
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 2: Industrial Revolution, it's been improving. And the improvement didn't accelerate
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 2: when OSHA came about. OSHA just took credit for the
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 2: improvements that happened after it came about. But every manufacturer
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: out there has strong incentives to create a safe workplace,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 2: not to hurt themselves and their workers. And again, the
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 2: incentive is just caring about human beings, and it's a
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: profit incentive. The disruptions of workplace accidents are value-destroying. All right, again,
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 2: not a lot of questions, so we're done even a
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 2: little bit. So if you want to support the show
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 2: with a sticker or with a question, now is the
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 2: time to do it. Remo says, why so many people
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 2: in East Germany long for the time of DDR, like
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: many people in Russia long for the USSR, for the
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 2: Soviet Union? Is it it is probably not the majority
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 2: with quite a significant number because they, many of them
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 2: grew up in a world where they were told, you know,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 2: they weren't brainwashed, but they were told that they were
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 2: going to be taken care of, that they were safe,
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 2: that they had no worries, that there was everything, everything
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 2: was known. They lived with no uncertainty. You know, they
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 2: went to work. They came home. They did the things
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 2: at home. They went to work. They came home. Every
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 2: day was the same. So people who are not ambitious,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 2: people who have no real vitality in life, people who
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 2: just want their routine, reminds me of kind of front
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 2: porch conservatives. They want, they don't want uncertainty. The change,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 2: the technology and progress and innovation break. They don't want
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 2: the risk of losing their job and having to retrain.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 2: What they really don't want, they don't want to take
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 2: personal responsibility over their life. They want to be able
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 2: to bitch and complain, which they did, I bet you,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 2: when they lived under East Germany, about the government, knowing
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 2: that it was the government's fault, not theirs. Today, If
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 2: they bitch and complain, they know deep down that it's
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 2: their fault, not the government's. Whatever they did or didn't
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 2: do with their lives, it's on them. And they know it.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 2: They can't blame communism. They can't blame fascism. Their life
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 2: is their responsibility. And that's what they can't cope with.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 2: And they can't tolerate. So they long for the days
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 2: where they didn't even have to think about it. Let's see.
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 2: Remo says, value for value. Thank you, Remo. Michael, what
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 2: made you want to become a Navy SEAL? Altruistic duty? Mostly,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, two things. Certainly there was an altruistic, collectivistic
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 2: kind of sense that I'd been grown up with. And second,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 2: I identified with the idea of heroism. being a hero
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 2: of if I had to go into the military, I
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 2: wanted to do the best job that I could. I
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 2: was going to be there anyway. I thought it would
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 2: be incredibly challenging and exciting and in some sense fun.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 2: And I think it probably would have been. But ultimately,
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 2: you know, I'd read a lot of books about brave
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 2: Navy SEALs and the cool things that they did. So,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 2: you know, I like the water. All of those things
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 2: motivated me. But at the end of the day, there
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 2: was definitely a sense of collectivistic duty that drove me.
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 2: Catherine says, sending stickers does not work for my broken iPhone. Well,
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 2: thank you, Catherine. You found a way to support the
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 2: show anyway. I appreciate it. Catherine also says, I heard
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: a lot about the public sector in Europe is using
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: less and less American tech like Microsoft. Is it just
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 2: a short trend or the beginning of using a lot
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 2: of European tech? Well, I mean, I don't know that
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 2: it's about to develop. I think that that's the big question.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 2: Will it develop? I think to the extent that the
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 2: developed Europe wants to move away from American tech and
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 2: almost all of that is Trump. They don't trust America anymore.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 2: They don't want to be dependent on America for anything important.
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 2: And so I think you're going to see Europe trying
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 2: to disengage, trying to become more independent of the United
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 2: States because of the Trump administration's attitude and behavior. And look,
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 2: you could say it's just Trump, but Europeans will reply,
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 2: you guys voted for him. Who knows who you'll vote
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 2: for next? And they're like, They're absolutely right. All right. Michael,
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 2: did you know a lot of concentration camp survivors growing
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 2: up in Israel? I mean, yeah, you know a lot
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 2: of them. They don't, they didn't tend to talk about it.
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 2: You often saw the concentration camp numbers that were tattooed
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 2: on their arms. So you knew them. A lot of
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 2: my Some of my friends, their parents were Holocaust survivors.
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they were everywhere. I mean, I didn't know
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 2: them personally because they were older. And again, they were traumatized.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 2: And many of them, you know, never talked about the experiences.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 2: Michael says, did Enlightenment thinkers understand that reason is a
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 2: source of innovation? Or was that not recognized until Rand? No,
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 2: they realized that reason was the source of innovation, absolutely.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 2: Reason was the source of science and technology. They didn't
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 2: completely understand how that was related to freedom and capitalism,
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 2: and therefore capitalism, but they certainly understood the relation between
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 2: reason and innovation. They could see the mind at work.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 2: Roman says, good stuff. Not sure what he's referring to,
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 2: but I'll take it. Thank you, Roman. GOP Senate campaign
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 2: fund says, are hesitant to fund Paxton. Surprise, surprise. Can
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 2: you discuss the Texas Senate race and how strong a
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: candidate Teleracio is? I don't know how strong a candidate
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 2: Teleracio is. The issue is how weak a candidate Paxton is.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 2: Paxton is an incredibly weak candidate. He is, by most accounts,
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 2: unbelievably corrupt. He's MAGA, but he's Purely MAGA, from what
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 2: I gather, you know, for power-lusting reasons. He was impeached.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 2: He was tried. He was, you know, in the Texas
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 2: Senate wouldn't... wouldn't convict him. But in the House, he
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 2: was convicted. But much more than that, he's just got a,
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 2: everybody knows him as just a bad guy. Right now,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 2: his big thing is he's anti-data centers. He's got the
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 2: whole plan to fight data centers because he thinks that's
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 2: what will get him elected. So the problem is, Paxton,
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 2: they had a better candidate. Kanye, who is a huge
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 2: fan of Trump's and a conservative senator, could have beaten
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 2: Tel Aviv. But Republican primary voters and Donald Trump voted, endorsed,
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 2: and the primary voters voted for Paxton. He's an awful candidate.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 2: They're seeing the same thing, by the way, in Georgia.
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 2: The primary voters elected an awful candidate, and it looks
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 2: like the Senate seat in Georgia is going to stay Democratic,
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 2: which it shouldn't be. Georgia's still a state Republicans can
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 2: win if they have decent candidates. They haven't had a
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 2: decent candidate for Senate in a long time because Trump
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 2: keeps insisting on these horrible candidates. And the Democrats keep
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 2: picking up seats that they shouldn't pick up. There's no way.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 2: should win Texas. But he's got a really good chance.
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a toss-up, I think, because of how
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 2: weak Paxton is. Now, Talarizo himself is hard to pin down.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 2: You know, he's tried to move to the center on
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of issues. He's very religious, even though he's
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 2: a leftist, which I guess fits Texas. It's not a
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 2: good outcome. He's not a good guy. He's not a
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 2: good guy. And Paxton is not a good guy. You're
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 2: not going to get a good guy out of Texas
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 2: in either case. I couldn't vote for Paxton. I don't
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 2: think I could vote for Tallarico, Tallariso, whatever his name is.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 2: It's another one of those elections I'd probably sit out.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, maybe I'd vote Democratic only for the purpose
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 2: of penalizing the Republicans, because they deserve to be penalized.
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, they really do deserve to be crushed in
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 2: the House and crushed in the Senate. We don't deserve that.
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 2: The people. But they deserve it. They deserve it. We
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 2: will see. All right, guys. That is the show for today.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow we'll be back. It'll be later. So the show
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 2: tomorrow will be 3 p.m. East Coast time. But there
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 2: will be a show tomorrow. There will be a show
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 2: on Wednesday. probably either 2 or 3 p.m. East Coast time.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 2: There'll be no show on Thursday. There will be a
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 2: show on Friday, and Friday we'll do Critics of Capitalism.
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 2: No shows on Saturday and Sunday. And then we'll see
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 2: the rest of the week. But so this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 2: Those are the three shows to look forward to. I
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 2: guess I will see you tomorrow. Bye, everybody. Have a
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 2: great rest of your week.