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Episode Two Hundred Eighty Two: The Trump Trap · The Death Of Journalism

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcomed episode two hundred and eighty two of the Death
0:03
Speaker 1: of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm your
0:05
Speaker 1: host on today's show. The Ziggler Family barely makes it
0:09
Speaker 1: out of port of Iyarta, Mexico before it becomes a
0:11
Speaker 1: war zone. The US Olympic Hockey team wins gold for
0:15
Speaker 1: the first time since nineteen eighty, but it sure ain't
0:19
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty anymore. Trump sets a trap at the State
0:22
Speaker 1: of the Union address for the Democrats and they literally
0:25
Speaker 1: sit right on it. Gavin Newsom makes a critical presidential stumble,
0:30
Speaker 1: The Epstein insanity reaches a new low with the arrest
0:33
Speaker 1: of former Prince Andrew and an AI update. We begin
0:38
Speaker 1: this episode of the podcast with a personal story which
0:42
Speaker 1: will hopefully relate to the news and also provide a
0:46
Speaker 1: tale of how it is that in life, oftentimes luck
0:49
Speaker 1: can even out remarkably quickly. I'm referring to the fact
0:54
Speaker 1: that the Ziggler family took a trip to Portavarta, Mexico
0:58
Speaker 1: last week because of my wife and my two daughters.
1:02
Speaker 1: Their schools had a winter break, and my wife desperately
1:06
Speaker 1: needed a vacation and she loves going on these all
1:11
Speaker 1: inclusive resort trips because she doesn't have to worry about anything. Now,
1:16
Speaker 1: we can't possibly afford to go to anything all inclusive
1:19
Speaker 1: in America, or particularly California, because it's just way too
1:22
Speaker 1: expensive because we have minimum wage and we have taxes,
1:28
Speaker 1: and we have insurance rates that are crazy because you know,
1:32
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of liability and it's just not economically
1:36
Speaker 1: feasible to do it, especially in California. But in Mexico,
1:40
Speaker 1: those situations, those rules, those circumstances are very very different,
1:45
Speaker 1: for better or for worse. And we've now gone to
1:47
Speaker 1: Portafarta three times to all inclusive resorts there, and my
1:52
Speaker 1: kids and my wife love it and part of what
1:56
Speaker 1: we do when we go. And this sounds like a
1:59
Speaker 1: real first world problem, but trust me, it's not nearly
2:02
Speaker 1: as luxurious as it sounds. Because of the fact that
2:06
Speaker 1: it is so expensive to park at Lax Airport in
2:11
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, if you go on a trip that's more
2:14
Speaker 1: than four days, it really makes total economic sense to
2:19
Speaker 1: hire a driver to take you to and from the airport. Now,
2:24
Speaker 1: and this is particularly good for us because my wife
2:27
Speaker 1: insists on driving her car, the only one large enough
2:30
Speaker 1: for the four of us. To go anywhere, and it's
2:33
Speaker 1: a lot of stress driving to Lax and parking and
2:36
Speaker 1: all that. So it's a no brainer for us to
2:38
Speaker 1: hire a car. And we've done this several times without incident. Well,
2:42
Speaker 1: on this particular occasion, the driver never shows up and
2:46
Speaker 1: I'm in charge of the driver, and I'm pissed off,
2:49
Speaker 1: and I get a really BS explanation and we're totally
2:54
Speaker 1: hung out to dry. There's no backup plan, and we
2:57
Speaker 1: go from all being hyped up for our vacation, ready
3:01
Speaker 1: for the car to take us to Lax, to now
3:03
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we have not planned for this,
3:05
Speaker 1: because you know, when you plan for a car, it
3:07
Speaker 1: doesn't take as much time, you don't have to worry
3:09
Speaker 1: about parking. There's all sorts of reasons why you don't
3:13
Speaker 1: set the timing up consistent with you driving, especially when
3:17
Speaker 1: it's a pretty long distance to Lax. And now we're
3:20
Speaker 1: behind the eight ball. Tension level goes from a two
3:23
Speaker 1: to ten, and it's just a disaster. My wife and
3:27
Speaker 1: I are getting in fights. This is exactly why we
3:30
Speaker 1: hire a car to begin with, to avoid this stuff.
3:32
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, you know, here we
3:34
Speaker 1: are we're planning this perfectly. The weather in California stinks,
3:38
Speaker 1: it's perfect. In Port of oar To, everything's going great,
3:42
Speaker 1: and now it's a total disaster. Well, thankfully we get
3:45
Speaker 1: through that barely. And the weather in Port of Yarda
3:49
Speaker 1: is absolutely ridiculous. It's fantastic. It's eighty six degrees with
3:52
Speaker 1: no humidity every single day. We quickly, you know, realize
3:57
Speaker 1: how lucky we are. But one of the things that
3:59
Speaker 1: my wife and I noticed, which was odd, is because
4:02
Speaker 1: the last time we had conned of Portavararta, it was
4:05
Speaker 1: in the summertime, and most of those who went to
4:08
Speaker 1: this resort it's a nice resort, not crazy resort, but
4:11
Speaker 1: nice resort. Most of the people who attended or were
4:15
Speaker 1: in residence at this resort in the summertime were Mexican,
4:18
Speaker 1: which which is perfectly rational. It's Mexico, it's the summertime,
4:22
Speaker 1: people have off. But here in the wintertime. Almost everybody
4:27
Speaker 1: who was at this resort was white, but not just white.
4:31
Speaker 1: They were super pasty white. I mean like really really white.
4:35
Speaker 1: Of course, it's eighty six degrees and everyone's in their
4:37
Speaker 1: bathing suits, and you can see just how unbelievably pasty white.
4:42
Speaker 1: Everybody really is, and I'm wondering, how is this possible?
4:45
Speaker 1: Who are these people? And then all of a sudden,
4:48
Speaker 1: one day I forget which it was, at around ten
4:52
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, We're at the pool and we
4:55
Speaker 1: hear this massive roar from the bar area, which is
5:00
Speaker 1: about one hundred yards from where we are, I mean
5:02
Speaker 1: massively sounds like hundreds of people screaming in Unison. And
5:06
Speaker 1: it suddenly dawns on me who all these pasty white
5:10
Speaker 1: people in Portafye are to Mexico are They're Canadians. And
5:15
Speaker 1: the reason I figured this out was it was clear
5:17
Speaker 1: that the Canadian hockey team was playing in the Olympics
5:21
Speaker 1: and they had just scored a critical goal, so that
5:24
Speaker 1: suddenly made sense. Okay, we got a lot of pasty
5:26
Speaker 1: white people from Canada here, and that was really kind
5:32
Speaker 1: of fascinating because I love the fact that Canada still
5:34
Speaker 1: holds on to its culture to the extent that everyone's
5:38
Speaker 1: a hockey fan. It's a stereotype, but it's true. By
5:40
Speaker 1: the way. After I realized everyone was Canadian, I watched
5:44
Speaker 1: the goings on much more carefully, and it seemed to
5:46
Speaker 1: me as if the women were at least as much
5:48
Speaker 1: into the USA Olympic Hockey tournament as the men were
5:52
Speaker 1: from Canada. And so I thought, okay, that's cool. That's
5:56
Speaker 1: a unified moment here. We are as far away from
5:58
Speaker 1: Canada as you can get in this hemisphere basically, and
6:03
Speaker 1: all these Canadians are getting together to root for their
6:05
Speaker 1: team in the Olympics. That's awesome. And so we finish
6:10
Speaker 1: our vacation and everything's fine. You know, we have to
6:13
Speaker 1: go through the morning process of leaving the resort, which
6:17
Speaker 1: my wife and kids love so much, to come back
6:20
Speaker 1: to reality, and we get home without incident. And then
6:25
Speaker 1: only a few hours after we get home, we hear
6:27
Speaker 1: news that there was a massive uprising in port of Iarta, Mexico,
6:34
Speaker 1: that was ignited because of essentially the assassination of a
6:39
Speaker 1: major drug kingpin, and the cartels had retaliated by essentially
6:45
Speaker 1: burning down much of Mexico, but specifically Portavarta, shutting down
6:50
Speaker 1: the airport, all sorts of crazy videos looking like a
6:53
Speaker 1: war zone. And we were like, oh my gosh, how
6:57
Speaker 1: lucky we were. We I mean talking about the luck
6:59
Speaker 1: of the bad luck of the car driver not showing
7:02
Speaker 1: up to the good luck of getting out of Portaviara
7:05
Speaker 1: just hours before it would have been a disaster, and
7:08
Speaker 1: it's hard for us to determine just how bad it
7:11
Speaker 1: would have been. I mean, for there's no chance we
7:14
Speaker 1: would have been able to get if we were supposed
7:15
Speaker 1: to leave on Sunday. There's no chance we would have
7:17
Speaker 1: gotten out of Mexico on Sunday or maybe even Monday.
7:20
Speaker 1: It would have been at least thirty six forty eight
7:23
Speaker 1: hours before we finally got out of there. It would
7:26
Speaker 1: have been harrowing and scary during that time period, especially
7:29
Speaker 1: for our kids. Who knows what the supplies would have
7:32
Speaker 1: been like. It certainly wouldn't have been all inclusive, all
7:34
Speaker 1: you can eat, all you can drink, as it normally
7:37
Speaker 1: would be at the resort, which was on lockdown, and
7:41
Speaker 1: I'm I'm sure the supply chain was greatly disrupted. But
7:44
Speaker 1: one of the many things we were thinking about, other
7:46
Speaker 1: than the fact that we were really lucky to get
7:48
Speaker 1: out of Mexico when we did, was what an awful
7:52
Speaker 1: day it must have been for the Canadians at that
7:55
Speaker 1: resort who were planning on leaving that Sunday afternoon or evening,
8:01
Speaker 1: because not only did they not get out of Mexico.
8:04
Speaker 1: Not only were they suddenly in a warzone, but this
8:06
Speaker 1: was the very same day that their Canadian hockey team
8:09
Speaker 1: lost in overtime to the United States to lose the
8:12
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medal. That's a tough day. Thankfully, I don't
8:16
Speaker 1: think anybody got physically harmed, but that's a rough day.
8:20
Speaker 1: So that was the Zigular family experience over the winter break.
8:25
Speaker 1: And of course it does lead me to, by the way,
8:28
Speaker 1: one of the strangeness of life. I'm fascinated by how
8:33
Speaker 1: one thing will impact another, which will impact another, of
8:36
Speaker 1: the domino effect of life. It's just so crazy to
8:39
Speaker 1: think about how your life is impacted by events that
8:42
Speaker 1: had absolutely positively nothing to do with you. It seems
8:45
Speaker 1: to me as if if the drug kingpin's mistress had
8:53
Speaker 1: decided to not stay overnight after servicing the drug kingpins,
9:00
Speaker 1: it's a darn good chance we're still stuck in Mexico
9:03
Speaker 1: and you probably won't exact what the hell you're talking about. Well,
9:05
Speaker 1: it sounds as if this whole operation to take out
9:09
Speaker 1: the drug kingpin was based upon intelligence information regarding one
9:14
Speaker 1: of his mistresses, and they were waiting for the mistress
9:17
Speaker 1: to leave the residents before Mexican authorities, with the help
9:22
Speaker 1: of the United States intelligence agencies, took this guy out.
9:27
Speaker 1: So if she decides to not stay the night, the
9:30
Speaker 1: entire series of events is completely different. Our lives are
9:34
Speaker 1: very different, and I'm telling you a very different if.
9:37
Speaker 1: I may not even be able to be able to
9:39
Speaker 1: tell you a different story because I might not be
9:41
Speaker 1: able to get in time to be able to tape
9:43
Speaker 1: this podcast. So that's the strangeness of life. Now back
9:46
Speaker 1: to the Canadian and US hockey game for the gold medal,
9:50
Speaker 1: which was probably the biggest news story of the last week,
9:54
Speaker 1: certainly in the world as sports, and it took on
9:56
Speaker 1: a political element, as unfortunately it always does. You probably
10:00
Speaker 1: know because I talked about this extensively a couple of
10:03
Speaker 1: episodes ago. The nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey gold medal
10:08
Speaker 1: played a massive role in my life, and so that perspective,
10:14
Speaker 1: I think was the prison through which I was seeing
10:17
Speaker 1: the United States team win the gold medal in twenty
10:19
Speaker 1: twenty six, I was a little bit conflicted about, Okay,
10:26
Speaker 1: do I want another USA team to win? Of course
10:29
Speaker 1: I'm always rooting for the United States, but does that
10:33
Speaker 1: somehow take away from what happened in nineteen eighty, which
10:37
Speaker 1: was so incredibly magical, the Miracle on Ice of nineteen eighty.
10:40
Speaker 1: The United States defeats the Soviet Union in the middle
10:43
Speaker 1: of the Cold War, then beats Finland to win the
10:46
Speaker 1: gold medal game, and it's never been repeated, it never
10:48
Speaker 1: will be repeated because the Olympics aren't the same anymore.
10:51
Speaker 1: They're professionals. This team from twenty twenty six is a
10:55
Speaker 1: bunch of NHL All stars that came together for a
10:58
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, not the same thing as a bunch
11:01
Speaker 1: of college kid amateurs who got together for almost an
11:05
Speaker 1: entire year on a quest to do something special, which
11:09
Speaker 1: they actually did in a completely different world under totally
11:12
Speaker 1: different circumstances. So I felt like, there's nothing that really
11:17
Speaker 1: can take away from nineteen eighty. But then what convinced
11:20
Speaker 1: me that there's really nothing to fear here was the remarkable,
11:26
Speaker 1: the remarkable situation where one of the players on the
11:30
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six team had direct relatives including a grandfather,
11:35
Speaker 1: on the nineteen eighty team and direct relatives on the
11:38
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty US Olympic Hockey gold medal winning team. So
11:43
Speaker 1: you can't ask for a better lineage than that, more
11:46
Speaker 1: of a connection from a nineteen eighty ten to a
11:50
Speaker 1: twenty twenty sixteen. But then there's even a weirder coincidence.
11:54
Speaker 1: This is purely coincidental, doesn't seem to be genetic in
11:56
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. But this is really mind blowing.
12:00
Speaker 1: So the US Olympic hockey team wins the gold medal
12:03
Speaker 1: in overtime where one of the Hughes brothers, Jack Hughes,
12:07
Speaker 1: who lost a tooth earlier in the game. I mean,
12:10
Speaker 1: this is as hockey as it gets. Hockey culture has
12:14
Speaker 1: not changed nearly as much as the culture and other
12:16
Speaker 1: sports has. I've talked about this in the past, and
12:18
Speaker 1: I think it's largely because they don't feel the need
12:21
Speaker 1: to bend, the need to woke culture and to be
12:26
Speaker 1: seen as being popular in the mainstream like the NFL
12:30
Speaker 1: and the NBA and baseball have all done. Hockey has
12:35
Speaker 1: changed a little bit, but not nearly as much as
12:37
Speaker 1: the other sports. And there's still the institutional memory, and
12:40
Speaker 1: there's still the culture of a guy who loses his
12:43
Speaker 1: teeth and then scores the game winning goal at overtime,
12:46
Speaker 1: as Jack Hughes did. But one of the most amazing
12:50
Speaker 1: coincidences I've ever seen, and I was even unaware of
12:52
Speaker 1: this until I saw it on a TikTok video. Is
12:56
Speaker 1: Jack Hughes wins the US Olympic hockey team the gold
12:59
Speaker 1: medal with a goal in overtime, the golden goal and
13:04
Speaker 1: for the nineteen eighty team in the movie Miracle. This
13:08
Speaker 1: is not made up. This is totally true. In the
13:11
Speaker 1: movie Miracle, which depicts the story of the nineteen eighty
13:15
Speaker 1: US Olympic Hockey team winning the gold medal, they're going
13:18
Speaker 1: through the final cuts and there is a scene in
13:23
Speaker 1: the movie where the name Jack Hughes is crossed out
13:29
Speaker 1: as one of the final cuts of the team. They
13:31
Speaker 1: even take the name Hughes off of the locker of
13:35
Speaker 1: this player another guy named Jack Hughes, who was one
13:39
Speaker 1: of the final cuts from the nineteen eighty team. Now,
13:42
Speaker 1: there's apparently no relations between the two of them, but
13:45
Speaker 1: it's just a remarkable coincidence and a subliminal connection between
13:49
Speaker 1: the two teams. So I felt comfortable with the United
13:53
Speaker 1: States team winning and not taking anything away from nineteen eighty. However,
13:58
Speaker 1: I did feel more conflict about the game itself because
14:03
Speaker 1: first of all, Canada was the better team. Now that
14:06
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean that the win is illegitimate. The Soviet
14:10
Speaker 1: Union was clearly the better team in nineteen eighty when
14:13
Speaker 1: the US Olympic hockey team won, that was they just
14:16
Speaker 1: put it all together. The US team did. The Soviets panicked,
14:19
Speaker 1: They pulled their their goaltender, who was thought to be
14:22
Speaker 1: the best goalie in the world at the time, and
14:25
Speaker 1: then when they were they were tied and losing in
14:27
Speaker 1: the third period, they totally panicked. They got out of
14:29
Speaker 1: their own game. The United States held on and so
14:33
Speaker 1: you know, the better team didn't win that day, which
14:36
Speaker 1: is part of what makes sports great. Sometimes that happens.
14:39
Speaker 1: So I don't have a huge problem with the fact
14:42
Speaker 1: that Canada was clearly the better team, clearly outplayed the
14:44
Speaker 1: United States, and it was the US goaltender that kept
14:48
Speaker 1: the United States in it. Without the US goaltending there
14:52
Speaker 1: would have been a blowout of me. It was one
14:54
Speaker 1: of the greatest goaltending performances of all time. Even Donald
14:57
Speaker 1: Trump seems to understand that, and so so more power
15:00
Speaker 1: to the United States for hanging in there despite getting
15:03
Speaker 1: completely dominated. But here's the part where I don't like
15:06
Speaker 1: the fact that the team that dominated the game didn't
15:11
Speaker 1: actually win. And it's not just because I felt bad
15:13
Speaker 1: for Canadian friends in Portavarta who had the worst day
15:17
Speaker 1: ever if they stayed around for Sunday. The problem was
15:20
Speaker 1: the format, the format of the overtime, and I've talked
15:25
Speaker 1: about how, you know, hockey culture hasn't changed very much.
15:28
Speaker 1: It stayed much more to its roots than other sports has.
15:33
Speaker 1: But they have caved a little bit. And one of
15:36
Speaker 1: the ways that they have caved is that in this
15:39
Speaker 1: particular competition, instead of playing real five on five hockey
15:45
Speaker 1: in overtime and then waiting for someone to finally score
15:49
Speaker 1: and determine a winner, they play three on three hockey,
15:53
Speaker 1: which is the format that the NHL uses during the
15:57
Speaker 1: regular season, which makes sense in the regular season where
16:03
Speaker 1: you're playing eighty two games and you know most of
16:06
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the teams make the playoffs anyway,
16:08
Speaker 1: so the regular season games aren't that significant, and you
16:11
Speaker 1: don't know whether or not, you know, an overtime game
16:14
Speaker 1: might come on a day where you've got to travel
16:17
Speaker 1: and play the next night, and so you've got to
16:20
Speaker 1: worry about the future when you're dictating the rules for
16:25
Speaker 1: a regular season game in the NHL. So, even though
16:28
Speaker 1: I don't like it, even though it's woossified, even though
16:31
Speaker 1: it's not really hockey, at least get it from a
16:34
Speaker 1: TV perspective and from the standpoint of maintaining the health
16:39
Speaker 1: of the players and not getting them overtired in the
16:41
Speaker 1: middle of the season. But this is not just the Olympics.
16:46
Speaker 1: This is the final game of the Olympics, and the
16:49
Speaker 1: NHL and the playoffs does not do this. They understand
16:52
Speaker 1: that you got to hold the line. The playoffs matter.
16:55
Speaker 1: You can't determine a winner based upon some bullshit sport
16:59
Speaker 1: that the that doesn't even resemble what hockey is. Hockey
17:03
Speaker 1: is five on five with goalies, not three on three.
17:06
Speaker 1: It's a completely different sport. Especially, this is so ridiculous,
17:11
Speaker 1: and even I was kind of shocked. I thought stupidly,
17:15
Speaker 1: naively that they would make an amendment for the final game.
17:21
Speaker 1: In other words, the whole thought process behind making three
17:25
Speaker 1: on three overtime, again, going back to the NHL example,
17:29
Speaker 1: is that, well, you gotta worry about the next game.
17:33
Speaker 1: You can't have a situation where teams are playing in
17:36
Speaker 1: extra twenty minutes or whoever know how you know it
17:39
Speaker 1: could be longer than that. If it's a low scoring
17:41
Speaker 1: game five on five, no one scores and you're just
17:44
Speaker 1: exhausting the teams. I get that would be a problem
17:48
Speaker 1: if there's still more games to play. But this is
17:51
Speaker 1: literally the final game. This is the gold medal game,
17:56
Speaker 1: and you're gonna determine the gold medal for the Olympics
18:00
Speaker 1: based upon complete luck, which is essentially what three on
18:04
Speaker 1: three hockey was down in this case, the United States
18:07
Speaker 1: turned out to be the luckier team and Jack Ughes
18:10
Speaker 1: scored the goal, and fantastic More power to the United
18:13
Speaker 1: States and yah rah rah rahsa USA. But to me,
18:17
Speaker 1: it took something out of the win. I mean took
18:19
Speaker 1: a lot out of the wind. I basically felt like, well,
18:22
Speaker 1: that was stupid. I mean, what does that prove? That
18:26
Speaker 1: proved absolutely nothing, And it was stupid because there's no
18:30
Speaker 1: reason to do it when it's the last game of
18:33
Speaker 1: a tournament. There's nothing to reserve your energy for, because
18:38
Speaker 1: this is it not to mention that the stakes are
18:40
Speaker 1: as high as it gets, being the gold medal game,
18:42
Speaker 1: And from a media perspective, it was very frustrated to
18:45
Speaker 1: me that this issue was not even really discussed at
18:49
Speaker 1: all that I heard on the NBC broadcast. And of
18:53
Speaker 1: course there's a massive conflict of interest because NBC and
18:56
Speaker 1: the Olympics are partners and they are very has to
19:00
Speaker 1: criticize anything that the Olympics decides to do, and of
19:04
Speaker 1: course in this particular case, there's a double conflict event
19:07
Speaker 1: just because part of the reason why that rule exists
19:10
Speaker 1: is for NBC because they don't want to have to
19:12
Speaker 1: have games that can go on forever if it's a
19:15
Speaker 1: low scoring game and you're an overtime and you're waiting
19:18
Speaker 1: for someone to finally score to end the game. So
19:22
Speaker 1: that was the downer for me, was the way in
19:25
Speaker 1: which this contest was determined, And from a sports perspective,
19:30
Speaker 1: I didn't like it at all. Now, back to the
19:32
Speaker 1: comparison between the twenty twenty six American goal winning hockey
19:38
Speaker 1: team and nineteen eighty In a weird way, I actually
19:41
Speaker 1: think it elevated the nineteen to eighty team even more.
19:44
Speaker 1: I mean, it would have been awesome if it had
19:46
Speaker 1: been fifty years later, because then you'd have the whole
19:48
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary instead of it being forty six years later.
19:53
Speaker 1: But look, obviously life at anything close to perfect, And
19:57
Speaker 1: you know, all these guys from nineteen eighty, or at
19:59
Speaker 1: least most of them were around. Mike Ruzione was in attendance,
20:03
Speaker 1: the captain of that nineteen eighty team, so they got
20:05
Speaker 1: their due. And I'm perfectly fine with all that. But
20:09
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting and relevant to compare the media
20:14
Speaker 1: impact of the nineteen eighty team to the twenty twenty
20:19
Speaker 1: six US Olympic gold winning hockey team, because in the
20:24
Speaker 1: miniature minds of the media and most of the public,
20:29
Speaker 1: I don't think people have any idea how much larger
20:33
Speaker 1: in significance and media footprint the nineteen eighty team was
20:38
Speaker 1: in comparison to what the twenty twenty sixteen is and
20:42
Speaker 1: will be. I laughed the night before the game when
20:45
Speaker 1: Mike Turiko was interviewing the coach for the US team
20:49
Speaker 1: and joked about who might play him in the movie
20:52
Speaker 1: if they won the gold medal, because obviously there was
20:54
Speaker 1: a major movie made called Miracle about the nineteen eighty
20:57
Speaker 1: team starring Kurt Russell, and I laughed because I realized,
21:01
Speaker 1: Tariko is just trying to have fun with it, but
21:04
Speaker 1: there's no chance. There's no chance the decades are now
21:08
Speaker 1: there's going to be a major movie made about the
21:10
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six US Olympic hockey team for a whole
21:14
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. I mean, movies are different, the culture
21:17
Speaker 1: is different, our memories are much shorter, and the impact
21:21
Speaker 1: being made by the twenty twenty six team is nowhere
21:24
Speaker 1: near what was made by the nineteen eighty team. And
21:29
Speaker 1: let me prove it to you. So now, we had
21:33
Speaker 1: a weird situation where this game in much of the
21:35
Speaker 1: United States was early in the morning on Sunday, and
21:38
Speaker 1: that's clearly going to impact the ratings to a certain degree.
21:43
Speaker 1: But when you consider how fragmented we are and the
21:46
Speaker 1: fact that the game was on live, Unlike the Miracle
21:49
Speaker 1: on Ice game against the Soviet Union, which was tape delay,
21:54
Speaker 1: the game was on live from Italy very early in
21:58
Speaker 1: the morning in America on a Sunday. The ratings for
22:02
Speaker 1: the game were extraordinary. I mean, the ratings for the
22:05
Speaker 1: entire Olympics for NBC have been exceedingly good. My theory
22:10
Speaker 1: is that sports is doing very very well in the
22:13
Speaker 1: television ratings because there's literally no competition anymore. There's nothing
22:17
Speaker 1: else on television worth watching. And a live event that
22:21
Speaker 1: people care about is gonna do exceedingly well because there's
22:26
Speaker 1: nothing else competing with it. So when you consider the
22:29
Speaker 1: fact this was an early Sunday morning, and you know
22:33
Speaker 1: America isn't a huge hockey country, the fact that this
22:37
Speaker 1: game between Canada and the United States averaged twenty point
22:40
Speaker 1: seven million viewers is an extraordinary number in this day
22:45
Speaker 1: and age. There's no way that you can possibly downplay
22:50
Speaker 1: how big a number that is. Twenty point seven million
22:53
Speaker 1: viewers on average, a high of twenty six million viewers
22:59
Speaker 1: when Jacus won the game in overtime, So twenty six
23:03
Speaker 1: million Americans saw that event live. That's a big deal
23:09
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. By twenty twenty six standards, that
23:13
Speaker 1: is very significant. Now let's compare that to what happened
23:17
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. Now, remember, in nineteen eighty we had
23:22
Speaker 1: a population in the United States that was well over
23:25
Speaker 1: one hundred million people less than what we have today.
23:31
Speaker 1: Over one hundred million fewer Americans existed in nineteen eighty
23:37
Speaker 1: than the people the number of people who reside in
23:39
Speaker 1: the United States in twenty twenty six. So keep that
23:43
Speaker 1: in mind when I give you these numbers in nineteen eighty,
23:48
Speaker 1: the gold winning game against Finland, it was not against
23:51
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, it was against Finland, and it was
23:54
Speaker 1: aired unlike the Soviet Union game live on a Sunday,
23:59
Speaker 1: so I don't remember how early it was, but it
24:02
Speaker 1: may not have been quite as I can't remember because
24:03
Speaker 1: I was on the East Coast. It wasn't that big
24:05
Speaker 1: of a deal for me to watch the game, And
24:08
Speaker 1: obviously it was in America and like Placid, so I'm
24:11
Speaker 1: sure it wasn't nearly as early, so that you should
24:14
Speaker 1: be taken into consideration. But in nineteen eighty, the gold medal,
24:18
Speaker 1: effectively the gold medal game against Finland, with a far
24:22
Speaker 1: smaller population, had an average viewership of thirty two point
24:27
Speaker 1: eight million people. Thirty two point eight million people the
24:33
Speaker 1: Soviet Union game on tape delay, which is really astonishing.
24:39
Speaker 1: So on tape delay, a game that was not live,
24:42
Speaker 1: a game where many people already knew what the result
24:45
Speaker 1: was because there had been news reports that the friends
24:48
Speaker 1: had called friends. There was no Internet obviously, so word
24:51
Speaker 1: traveled much slower than but the tape delay broadcast of
24:56
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty miracle and ice game against the Soviet
24:59
Speaker 1: Union had thirty four point two million viewers fourteenth, effectively
25:06
Speaker 1: fourteen million more people watch that tape delay game with
25:11
Speaker 1: over one hundred million fewer residents of the country at
25:15
Speaker 1: the time than did on NBC this past Sunday in
25:21
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six Olympics. Now, I tried to figure out, well,
25:25
Speaker 1: what does that mean as far as a rating is concerned.
25:27
Speaker 1: And you know, Nielsen doesn't even do quote unquote ratings anymore,
25:32
Speaker 1: I think parts of because they're embarrassing to the networks
25:36
Speaker 1: in most cases. But a rating is the percentage of
25:41
Speaker 1: all televisions that are on a particular broadcast at that time.
25:47
Speaker 1: And I asked chat GPT to see if they could
25:50
Speaker 1: estimate it, and they did so, and the rating, the
25:54
Speaker 1: rating for the nineteen eighty Miracle on Ice game was
25:59
Speaker 1: about twenty five, so about twenty five percent of all
26:05
Speaker 1: televisions in the United States were tuned into a tape
26:08
Speaker 1: delay broadcast of the United States versus the Soviet Union.
26:13
Speaker 1: The best chat GPT can figure is based upon the
26:17
Speaker 1: raw numbers. The rating for the US versus Canada game
26:23
Speaker 1: was an eleven or twelve, so less than half of
26:27
Speaker 1: the media impact when it came to just purely numbers
26:32
Speaker 1: of people watching. Now, I'm not trying to piss on
26:36
Speaker 1: what happened with the twenty twenty sixteen. It's fantastic, it's great.
26:40
Speaker 1: You know, we need something to rally around, and this
26:43
Speaker 1: was something that was theoretically a unifying moment. I'm gonna
26:48
Speaker 1: get to what happened next momentarily, but from a purely
26:52
Speaker 1: media footprint perspective, there is no comparison. It's not really
26:57
Speaker 1: the fault of the twenty twenty sixteen, although though I
27:00
Speaker 1: do think that people have become much more cynical, especially
27:04
Speaker 1: people my age who experienced what it used to be
27:07
Speaker 1: like and now see you know, the facsimile that exists today.
27:11
Speaker 1: But mostly we're just way, way more fragmented. There's way
27:16
Speaker 1: more things distracting us there. You know, we live in
27:20
Speaker 1: a world that wears a million TV channels with nothing
27:24
Speaker 1: to watch. Obviously, the Internet and everything that goes along
27:27
Speaker 1: with social media. None of that existed in nineteen eighty,
27:32
Speaker 1: so I don't think it really has that much to
27:35
Speaker 1: do with the teams themselves. It has much more to
27:38
Speaker 1: do with the culture that existed. But that culture, that
27:42
Speaker 1: media culture, has an impact because when you make a
27:46
Speaker 1: mark as large as was made in nineteen eighty and
27:50
Speaker 1: people remember that forever because it hit them in their souls,
27:55
Speaker 1: that's going to have staying powers. This is not going
27:59
Speaker 1: to have nearly the staying pill as nineteen eighty, and
28:02
Speaker 1: again has nothing to do with the team itself. I
28:04
Speaker 1: really respect how this team handled the whole situation, the
28:08
Speaker 1: fact that they won against a better team. Yes they
28:11
Speaker 1: got lucky, and yes the format helped with all that.
28:15
Speaker 1: But you know, it was a great victory and something
28:17
Speaker 1: that Americans should be proud about. But of course, much
28:21
Speaker 1: like we don't live in the same media landscape as
28:24
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, we clearly don't live in the same political
28:27
Speaker 1: landscape as we did in nineteen eighty. You know, ironically enough,
28:32
Speaker 1: you know, I think you could make an argument that
28:34
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty, somehow the US Olympic hockey team winning
28:38
Speaker 1: the gold medal out of nowhere might have hurt Jimmy
28:41
Speaker 1: Carter and his reelection did I mean, it would have
28:44
Speaker 1: been subliminal, But I think from a subconscious perspective it
28:49
Speaker 1: kind of helped Reagan, partially because of his persona and
28:53
Speaker 1: the whole anti Soviet thing and the American patriotism thing,
28:57
Speaker 1: and the fact that Jimmy Carter pulled out of the
28:59
Speaker 1: Olympic in Moscow later that year. So I actually think
29:04
Speaker 1: it all kind of weirdly hurt Jimmy Carter. I can't
29:07
Speaker 1: prove that, but that's my sense of it. But it
29:12
Speaker 1: was never an overtly political event. I mean, it did
29:15
Speaker 1: not become partisan. It was unifying in nineteen eighty. We
29:18
Speaker 1: don't live in that world anymore. And it certainly became
29:24
Speaker 1: a situation where the US Olympic hockey team became a
29:28
Speaker 1: political weapon on both sides. And this happened for a
29:32
Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One because unfortunately everything is political now.
29:36
Speaker 1: I mean, just the fact that they were all white
29:38
Speaker 1: guys inherently, in the liberal mind somehow made it political
29:42
Speaker 1: and probably illegitimate and not worthy of an event or
29:45
Speaker 1: a team that should be, you know, rallied around and
29:49
Speaker 1: be promoted as American heroes. I mean, that's the way
29:53
Speaker 1: the left looks at this. Now. My god, look at this.
29:55
Speaker 1: They're all straight white men. This is outrageous. I don't
30:00
Speaker 1: know how many people actually said that publicly, but that's
30:03
Speaker 1: the mentality of the left now. Inherently there is cynicism
30:07
Speaker 1: and suspicion if not something worse than that, if a
30:11
Speaker 1: bunch of straight white guys are succeeding without any even
30:15
Speaker 1: a token black person on the team. But it got
30:19
Speaker 1: worse when the US team was celebrating after the game
30:23
Speaker 1: in the locker room, and somehow, some way, one of
30:26
Speaker 1: those celebrating by chugging beer and wearing a gold medal
30:31
Speaker 1: that they didn't deserve was FBI director Cash Battel. And look,
30:37
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of Cash Betels. I don't think
30:40
Speaker 1: he was qualified for the job. I think he's a
30:43
Speaker 1: bit of a whack job. I think he's a narcissist.
30:46
Speaker 1: I think he likes too much to have a good time.
30:50
Speaker 1: He's been credibly accused of using government resources for his
30:56
Speaker 1: own enjoyment and even his I think his girlfriends and
31:00
Speaker 1: ooman and promotion of his girlfriend. And here he is
31:05
Speaker 1: celebrating in the locker room. Now, there's one thing to
31:08
Speaker 1: be there and to honor the event, but he was.
31:12
Speaker 1: He was way over the top, and it was obvious
31:15
Speaker 1: that the team itself clearly liked that. They clearly had
31:19
Speaker 1: no problem with him being there. They clearly embraced him,
31:23
Speaker 1: which of course, created the impression that, oh my gosh,
31:27
Speaker 1: we have a bunch of straight white males that must
31:30
Speaker 1: be maga and that perception and perception is reality. That
31:35
Speaker 1: perception got promoted further when Donald Trump called the team
31:40
Speaker 1: after the game, cracked a few jokes, even cracked a
31:44
Speaker 1: joke about the fact that he would have to invite
31:46
Speaker 1: the women's team, which also won the gold medal against Canada.
31:50
Speaker 1: By the way, look, I'm you know, I have two daughters.
31:53
Speaker 1: I'm all for gender equality of opportunity. But there's no comparison.
31:59
Speaker 1: I mean, the ratings were not even a remote comparison
32:03
Speaker 1: when the US women's team beat Canada. By the way,
32:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's just a non scientific way of looking
32:10
Speaker 1: at it. But back to the resort in Mexico. When
32:13
Speaker 1: the US and Canadian women's teams played for the gold medal,
32:17
Speaker 1: the bar at our resort was completely empty. The Canadians
32:20
Speaker 1: didn't give a damn about the women's team. They only
32:23
Speaker 1: cared about the men's team. But you know, Trump took
32:25
Speaker 1: some flak from making a joke about having to invite
32:28
Speaker 1: the women's team, and it was obvious that the team
32:32
Speaker 1: had a lot of affection for Trump. Which I have
32:34
Speaker 1: no problem with these the president of the United States,
32:36
Speaker 1: they're more than entitled to express that. But we'd live
32:40
Speaker 1: in a world that's so politically divided that the left
32:43
Speaker 1: immediately looked at this and go, oh my god, here
32:46
Speaker 1: we go. These straight, white maga guys are now no
32:52
Speaker 1: longer a source of unification. They're a source of division.
32:56
Speaker 1: And there were some media articles, not a ton, but
33:00
Speaker 1: there were some that promoted this idea that the US
33:05
Speaker 1: Olympic hockey team had somehow ruined this unifying moment by
33:09
Speaker 1: becoming seen as too partisan, and that perception probably got
33:14
Speaker 1: promoted further when most, although not all by my count,
33:19
Speaker 1: a little over half of the team ended up being
33:23
Speaker 1: the guest of Donald Trump at the State of the
33:26
Speaker 1: Union address, and there was a what should have been
33:29
Speaker 1: a fantastic moment where about I think seventeen of the players,
33:33
Speaker 1: wearing their gold medals and USA sweatshirts were introduced to
33:38
Speaker 1: the crowd at the State of the Union and got
33:40
Speaker 1: an extended standing ovation. And I hate the fact that
33:45
Speaker 1: we can no longer have a truly unifying moment because
33:48
Speaker 1: we are so politically divided. But I have to say
33:53
Speaker 1: that because perception is reality. I can kind of understand
33:57
Speaker 1: where the laft is coming from, mostly because of the
34:00
Speaker 1: Cash Btel. I mean, what the hell is Cashptel doing
34:05
Speaker 1: acting like he's the Jon Stewart for The Daily Show
34:10
Speaker 1: to be with some make a Wish kid. But that's
34:14
Speaker 1: kind of what he looked like celebrating in the locker room.
34:18
Speaker 1: I mean, again, it's one thing to be there and
34:20
Speaker 1: to give your respects, but to be as involved in
34:25
Speaker 1: the celebration as Cash Hotel was, I thought was beneath
34:28
Speaker 1: his office. And also I think it created a misperception
34:32
Speaker 1: of the team that was not beneficial either to the
34:35
Speaker 1: team or to what could have been a very rare,
34:39
Speaker 1: unifying moment of victory for the United States of America.
34:43
Speaker 1: But overall, I'm glad the United States won. I'm glad
34:46
Speaker 1: that the nineteen eighty teen got its respect, But I
34:49
Speaker 1: do think it's important that we keep it in context
34:52
Speaker 1: and we understand just how much the world has changed,
34:55
Speaker 1: mostly for the worst, both from the media perspective as
34:58
Speaker 1: well as a political standpoint. Now that leads me to
35:01
Speaker 1: the State of the Union address, which also used to
35:04
Speaker 1: be a unifying event, and I really think you can
35:09
Speaker 1: learn a lot about how America and our culture and
35:12
Speaker 1: our media environment has radically changed. Simply by looking at
35:16
Speaker 1: the State of the Union address, I feel like it's
35:19
Speaker 1: very similar to the Oscars. Frankly, the State of the
35:22
Speaker 1: Union dress has become a lot like the Oscars, with
35:26
Speaker 1: especially under Trump, you know, all these different types of
35:29
Speaker 1: people coming forward to get various medals and awards. I mean,
35:33
Speaker 1: it's it's almost like a combination of the Oscars and
35:36
Speaker 1: the s pist now and look, you know, Trump is
35:39
Speaker 1: very good at television, and I'm sure it's very effective
35:44
Speaker 1: at least to the people that are watching. But one
35:47
Speaker 1: of the problems is I don't think very many people
35:50
Speaker 1: are watching in comparison to what to what used to
35:53
Speaker 1: watch the State of the Union Address. I mean, I
35:55
Speaker 1: went through the numbers in comparison between twenty twenty six
36:00
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty hockey in the Olympics, and I'm sure
36:03
Speaker 1: it's even more dramatic when it comes to the State
36:05
Speaker 1: of the Union. I don't have the ratings for this
36:07
Speaker 1: particular State of the Union address yet because it's it's
36:10
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning and the thing just happened last night. But
36:14
Speaker 1: you know, historically the ratings much like the oscars have
36:18
Speaker 1: been going down, especially as the event has become more
36:21
Speaker 1: and more partisan. So it's not just fragmentation and the
36:25
Speaker 1: fact that you know, in the olden days, back when
36:28
Speaker 1: I was a kid the nineteen eighties, there were only
36:31
Speaker 1: four or five options to choose from on television, and
36:35
Speaker 1: all of them were showing the State of the Union address. Now,
36:38
Speaker 1: even though you know it's on ten different networks if
36:41
Speaker 1: you include cable news channels, the reality is there's still
36:46
Speaker 1: way more opportunity for people to avoid the State of
36:49
Speaker 1: the Union Address if they're not political, and more and
36:53
Speaker 1: more people would avoid it, not just because they're inherently
36:56
Speaker 1: not political, but because they now perceive it as any
37:00
Speaker 1: politically partisan event. So the vast, vast majority of people
37:05
Speaker 1: who end up watching this, especially those under the age
37:07
Speaker 1: of say sixty, and I guess his people over the
37:11
Speaker 1: age of sixty, still feel some sense of obligation out
37:14
Speaker 1: of patriotism to watch the State of the Union dress,
37:17
Speaker 1: But those that are not old enough to feel that way.
37:20
Speaker 1: Almost all of those who watch the State of the
37:23
Speaker 1: Union dress are very likely either Trump's supporters or at
37:28
Speaker 1: least Trump curious. I mean, there's nobody who's turning in
37:32
Speaker 1: who hates Donald Trump because they don't want to watch
37:35
Speaker 1: him get cheered For what turned out to be two hours.
37:38
Speaker 1: This was the longest State of the Union address in
37:41
Speaker 1: history by far. But I have to say, even though
37:46
Speaker 1: I had low expectations for this, I thought Trump did
37:51
Speaker 1: a good job. First of all, My number one takeaway
37:55
Speaker 1: is that the idea that he is losing it mentally
37:59
Speaker 1: or physically, he starting to become confirmed as he hits
38:03
Speaker 1: eighty years old, is just not accurate. I mean, there
38:07
Speaker 1: is absolutely no possible way that Joe Biden today could
38:11
Speaker 1: have pulled off what Donald Trump did for two hours.
38:15
Speaker 1: Can you imagine? I mean, it would have been comical
38:19
Speaker 1: to see Joe Biden try to do this. So from
38:22
Speaker 1: a physical standpoint, I think Trump proved himself to still
38:26
Speaker 1: have it, and there were a lot of really good moments.
38:28
Speaker 1: The US Olympic hockey team was a good moment. There
38:31
Speaker 1: are all sorts of emotional moments. I think he I mean,
38:35
Speaker 1: he hit almost every possible demographic. The speech, which used
38:39
Speaker 1: to be the State of the Union, it used to
38:41
Speaker 1: be a policy speech. It used to be an opportunity
38:44
Speaker 1: for the President States to literally lobby Congress on live
38:49
Speaker 1: national television with a massive audience on what kind of
38:54
Speaker 1: agenda they went past in the coming year. There's almost
38:58
Speaker 1: none of that. I mean, Trump doesn't seem to care
39:00
Speaker 1: about legislation as it is, but there was almost no
39:04
Speaker 1: talk of agenda or policy or legislation being passed. Maybe
39:10
Speaker 1: it's partially because he realizes that the majority is so
39:13
Speaker 1: thin that there's no real chance of passing anything significant anyway,
39:17
Speaker 1: But I think mostly it's because Trump now sees this
39:21
Speaker 1: through the lens of a television producer. I mean, that's
39:25
Speaker 1: what Trump really did here, and a lot of it
39:28
Speaker 1: was really good television. Now how much impact it has,
39:31
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical because I don't think that people that were
39:35
Speaker 1: tuning in generally are open minded. I don't think there's
39:38
Speaker 1: many people who were against Trump who can suddenly be
39:41
Speaker 1: persuaded to go, oh, wait a minute, maybe I should
39:44
Speaker 1: rethink this. No one's rethinking Donald Trump at this point.
39:49
Speaker 1: We've all, you know, we're in our partisan bunkers, and
39:54
Speaker 1: you know, Trump's approval rating is at all time lows,
39:58
Speaker 1: and it might get a slight bump, but you know,
40:02
Speaker 1: using the nineteen eighty example again, if this same speech
40:06
Speaker 1: that was given last night, was given in a nineteen
40:09
Speaker 1: eighties media environment where there was a massive audience of
40:14
Speaker 1: independence and liberals who were at least somewhat open minded
40:18
Speaker 1: to what the president was saying. I think he would
40:20
Speaker 1: get a massive bump. I think it would have been
40:22
Speaker 1: a five or ten point bump in his approval rating.
40:25
Speaker 1: But we don't live in that media culture anymore. We
40:28
Speaker 1: don't live in that political environment anymore. We're far more divided.
40:32
Speaker 1: We're far more partisan than we were in any time,
40:37
Speaker 1: you know, at least in my lifetime, and maybe since
40:40
Speaker 1: the Civil War, and Trump has both exacerbated that and
40:46
Speaker 1: taken advantage of that. But to be fair, as I
40:49
Speaker 1: always am to Donald Trump, I thought that there were
40:52
Speaker 1: some really interesting moments, some compelling television and I think politically,
40:59
Speaker 1: the significant thing that happened, and it might not even
41:02
Speaker 1: be close. In fact, this might be the only significant
41:05
Speaker 1: thing that happened, was that Donald Trump Live on national
41:09
Speaker 1: television effectively produced a series of television commercials for the
41:17
Speaker 1: Republican Party in the midterm elections. And it was obvious
41:21
Speaker 1: to me and the others who were observing. I saw
41:25
Speaker 1: online that this was clearly contrived. Now I don't know
41:29
Speaker 1: this is Stephen Miller, Susie Wiles. I don't know who
41:33
Speaker 1: was behind it, but it was obvious that Trump was
41:36
Speaker 1: on board because Trump perked up. Trump the entertainer, Trump
41:42
Speaker 1: the actor suddenly turned it on and he set the
41:48
Speaker 1: Democrats up for what I believe, if done properly, could
41:53
Speaker 1: be two or three fantastic midterm election commercials. And the
41:58
Speaker 1: way he did this was amazing. I mean, it was
42:02
Speaker 1: remarkable in its simplicity, but the execution was almost perfect.
42:09
Speaker 1: I mean, it could not have gone better from the
42:11
Speaker 1: perspective of whoever planned this, because it was obvious to
42:14
Speaker 1: me that someone planned this to set the Democrats up
42:19
Speaker 1: for an easy commercial to remind people of the issue
42:23
Speaker 1: of illegal immigration and where the Democrats stand and where
42:28
Speaker 1: the Republicans stand, because this was an issue that clearly
42:31
Speaker 1: played a major role in Trump winning in twenty twenty four.
42:34
Speaker 1: But it's an issue that Republicans have essentially lost in
42:37
Speaker 1: the last couple of months because of all the chaos
42:40
Speaker 1: and insanity that's going on in Minnesota and the two
42:43
Speaker 1: people that were killed, and so politically it's no longer
42:48
Speaker 1: a winning issue, at least not right now. Weirdly, I
42:50
Speaker 1: think Trump is a bit like this is a weird analogy,
42:54
Speaker 1: a bit like dentistry, where he has essentially ended the
42:58
Speaker 1: illegal immigration problem to his own detriment. You know, dentists
43:02
Speaker 1: became I think, maybe too good for their for their
43:05
Speaker 1: own business model. And when you you close the border
43:09
Speaker 1: and you don't have a flood of illegal immigrants coming anymore,
43:12
Speaker 1: it's no longer at the top of people's list with
43:15
Speaker 1: regard to urgency, and so no, you no longer get
43:19
Speaker 1: credit for it. There's no longer as much fear driving
43:23
Speaker 1: the political energy of the of the issue. So you
43:25
Speaker 1: got to remind people of it. You got to take
43:27
Speaker 1: the issue back because on paper, it is an absolute
43:32
Speaker 1: winning issue for Republicans, especially considering how utterly crazy Democrats
43:38
Speaker 1: have become on the topic, something that Donald Trump specifically said.
43:42
Speaker 1: He called the Democrats out as crazy when they refused
43:47
Speaker 1: to stand up for his little contrived but brilliantly contrived test.
43:53
Speaker 1: Now you're not going to be able to get a
43:54
Speaker 1: full appreciation for this because it's audio, but you'll I
44:00
Speaker 1: think if you use your imagination, you can understand where
44:03
Speaker 1: I'm coming from on this. Here is just some This
44:06
Speaker 1: is not the full exchange. The full thing went on
44:09
Speaker 1: for about five minutes. My guess is there could be
44:12
Speaker 1: at least three, maybe four commercials that, if someone knew
44:16
Speaker 1: what they were doing, could be very effective in a
44:18
Speaker 1: midterm election. But this was an obvious trap set up
44:23
Speaker 1: by Donald Trump. The Democrats literally sat down right in
44:27
Speaker 1: the trap that he laid for them on live television
44:31
Speaker 1: as he was effectively producing these midterm commercials right before
44:36
Speaker 1: their eyes. And here's a little bit of what that
44:39
Speaker 1: sounded like.
44:40
Speaker 2: One of the great things about the State of the
44:43
Speaker 2: Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see
44:46
Speaker 2: clearly what their representatives really believe. So tonight, I'm inviting
44:52
Speaker 2: every legislature to join with my administration and reaffirming a
44:56
Speaker 2: fundamental principle. If you agree with this state, then stand
45:01
Speaker 2: up and show your support. The first duty of the
45:05
Speaker 2: American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal area.
47:01
Speaker 2: In that shame, you should be ashamed of yourself not
47:05
Speaker 2: standing up.
47:06
Speaker 1: He should be ashamed of yourself.
47:08
Speaker 3: That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly
47:12
Speaker 3: sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties
47:17
Speaker 3: for public officials who block.
47:19
Speaker 2: The removal of criminal aliens in many cases, drug lords,
47:24
Speaker 2: murders all over our country. They're blocking the removal.
47:29
Speaker 3: Of these people out of our country, and you should
47:32
Speaker 3: be ashamed of yourself.
47:41
Speaker 1: So I'll give credit where credit is due. That was
47:44
Speaker 1: Donald Trump at his best when it came to creating
47:48
Speaker 1: political theater. Now I'll hold total judgment until I actually
47:54
Speaker 1: see whether or not they're able to produce the commercials
47:58
Speaker 1: that they I think they can what Donald Trump provided
48:01
Speaker 1: them at the State of the Union address. But that
48:04
Speaker 1: was masterful and I think it could be very effective.
48:07
Speaker 1: Now is it enough to save Republicans in the midterms.
48:10
Speaker 1: I doubted because right now, at least on paper. As
48:15
Speaker 1: I discussed with my good friend, former Democrat Congressman John
48:19
Speaker 1: Yarmouth in the last episode of the podcast, it is
48:21
Speaker 1: really really difficult to see how Republicans hold on to
48:24
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives. Impossible, no, but really really difficult
48:29
Speaker 1: at this point, at this juncture, it is much more
48:32
Speaker 1: likely that Democrats win the House of Representatives in effectively
48:37
Speaker 1: a landslide, than it would be for Republicans to hold
48:40
Speaker 1: onto the House. But if done properly, that could at
48:45
Speaker 1: least give Republicans a chance in the midterm elections now
48:48
Speaker 1: as far as where things stand for the twenty twenty
48:51
Speaker 1: eight presidential campaign, and I have obviously been very, very
48:57
Speaker 1: concerned about California Governor Gavin Newsom, and I have created
49:02
Speaker 1: several months ago for the purposes of this podcast a
49:05
Speaker 1: fear rating from one to ten on how large my
49:10
Speaker 1: fear factor is regarding whether or not Gavin Newsom will
49:14
Speaker 1: become the next president of the United States. And to
49:18
Speaker 1: be clear about the fear factor thing, this is effectively
49:23
Speaker 1: a situation where I'm rating the likelihood sort of of
49:29
Speaker 1: Gaven Newsom becoming president because there's zero doubt in my
49:33
Speaker 1: mind that if he does become president, that's an extinction
49:36
Speaker 1: level event for the United States of America. It is
49:39
Speaker 1: almost impossible for me to think of someone I would
49:43
Speaker 1: be more concerned about being the next president of the United
49:47
Speaker 1: States than Gavenussom, although unfortunately, one of the other people
49:52
Speaker 1: that I would be very concerned about would be Josh
49:54
Speaker 1: Shapiro of the governor of Pennsylvania because of my knowledge
49:58
Speaker 1: of him in the whole penn State to Joe Paterno,
50:00
Speaker 1: Jerry Sedusky's story, and unfortunately, I actually think that there's
50:04
Speaker 1: going to be an opening for Josh Shapiro in this
50:06
Speaker 1: Democratic primary situation that seems to be emerging right now.
50:11
Speaker 1: It's obviously very very very early, but I do see
50:14
Speaker 1: an opening for him based upon some of the things
50:16
Speaker 1: that have occurred just in the last week. So we
50:19
Speaker 1: may have to create a second fear factor rating. But
50:22
Speaker 1: currently the fear factor rating for Newsom becoming president is
50:26
Speaker 1: seven point five out of ten. I'm going to lower
50:29
Speaker 1: that to seven, and maybe that's being too conservative, and
50:35
Speaker 1: now I think we're it's seven and dropping. I never
50:38
Speaker 1: want to get too optimistic, because that's pretty much the
50:41
Speaker 1: only time I'm ever wrong. But I do think that
50:44
Speaker 1: there's some reason for optimism, and that's because my greatest
50:48
Speaker 1: concern about Newsom becoming president has always been in the
50:54
Speaker 1: Democratic primary. In other words, if he's going to be defeated,
50:59
Speaker 1: I think it has to be in the Democratic primary.
51:02
Speaker 1: I think if he gets the nomination, and you know,
51:06
Speaker 1: all the problems that Donald Trump can create for jd
51:08
Speaker 1: Vance and all the problems with the Republican brand, and
51:12
Speaker 1: who knows what the unemployment rate is, then if AI
51:15
Speaker 1: has taken over nearly as much as a lot of
51:18
Speaker 1: the experts are claiming that it will that the Democratic
51:21
Speaker 1: nominee is going to have a huge advantage over JD.
51:26
Speaker 1: Vance and the trouble making Donald Trump. So to me,
51:30
Speaker 1: if you want to beat Newsom, you gotta beat him,
51:33
Speaker 1: or you should beat him in a Democratic primary. I
51:36
Speaker 1: think he's more vulnerable in a Democratic primary, partially because
51:40
Speaker 1: he's a straight white male from California and you know,
51:45
Speaker 1: from a background that's not really relatable to most Democratic
51:49
Speaker 1: primary voters. That's where you got to take him out.
51:53
Speaker 1: And I have been very concerned that there wasn't anybody
51:57
Speaker 1: who could take him out. You know, Harris is obviously
52:01
Speaker 1: an exceedingly weak candidate. Buda Judge's day AOC has now
52:07
Speaker 1: proven herself to not be ready for prime time, which
52:10
Speaker 1: I think is part of the opening I'm now seeing
52:12
Speaker 1: for a Josh Shapiro. You know, there's no other candidate
52:18
Speaker 1: that really is huge, that has the name recognition and
52:22
Speaker 1: the celebrity other than a Gavin Newsom who is going
52:27
Speaker 1: to have a massive amount of momentum, especially if Democrats
52:30
Speaker 1: win the House in twenty twenty six, and he's given
52:32
Speaker 1: credit for it because he was the one that led
52:35
Speaker 1: the redistricting. Jeremaron jerrymandering charge here in California to give
52:40
Speaker 1: Democrats an extra five congressional seats, and so you know,
52:45
Speaker 1: I've been very concerned. Okay, how do you beat Newsom
52:49
Speaker 1: in the Democratic primary? And one of the hurdles, one
52:52
Speaker 1: of the major hurdles for Gavin Newsom is the black vote,
52:57
Speaker 1: and traditionally, in the last several cycles of Democratic primaries,
53:02
Speaker 1: it's the black vote that has ended up determining the winner.
53:06
Speaker 1: They don't care. The Democrats don't care about Iowa anymore.
53:09
Speaker 1: They really don't even care that much about New Hampshire anymore.
53:11
Speaker 1: It's all about South Carolina and whether or not James Clyburn,
53:17
Speaker 1: South Carolinian African American congressman, who's a legend there, whether
53:23
Speaker 1: or not he endorses you. I mean, he effectively gave
53:25
Speaker 1: Joe Biden the Democratic nomination in twenty twenty when Joe
53:30
Speaker 1: Biden was in big, big trouble and South Carolina saved
53:34
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. James Clyburn save Joe Biden. Newsom, not a dummy,
53:39
Speaker 1: understands South Carolina is his biggest hurdle. He's gotta at
53:44
Speaker 1: least finished, probably at least second in South Carolina to
53:48
Speaker 1: be able to win the nomination in what would be
53:51
Speaker 1: a crowded and competitive field, and Newsom went to South Carolina.
53:57
Speaker 1: He did James Clyburn's podcast that went okay, and then
54:02
Speaker 1: he did a public event in South Carolina with a
54:07
Speaker 1: clearly black audience. There was a black person hosting this
54:12
Speaker 1: interview on a stage with a black audience in South Carolina,
54:17
Speaker 1: and Newsom went on a soliloquy that I believe what
54:24
Speaker 1: happened was he thought that this had already been approved
54:30
Speaker 1: or vetted by a previous podcast audience. And I am
54:36
Speaker 1: the last person in the world, the last person in
54:39
Speaker 1: the world to defend Gavendussom. All right, but I'm gonna
54:43
Speaker 1: do so in a slight, very tiny way here because
54:47
Speaker 1: he's being accused of making an overtly racist statement to
54:53
Speaker 1: this black crowd in South Carolina. And I always debate, Okay,
54:59
Speaker 1: do I provide context before or after I play the clip?
55:03
Speaker 1: In this particular situation, I'm gonna give you the context
55:05
Speaker 1: before the clip, because I watched Newsom very very carefully,
55:10
Speaker 1: and I have heard him tell the story you're about
55:13
Speaker 1: to hear previously. But he did so in a podcast
55:18
Speaker 1: that was hosted by black athletes, and he told a
55:23
Speaker 1: version of the story you're about to hear, and the
55:26
Speaker 1: reaction wasn't very negative. But I think the context of
55:32
Speaker 1: only having a couple of guys in the room and
55:34
Speaker 1: then being athletes, and Newsom thinks of himself as an athlete.
55:38
Speaker 1: Apparently he was a very good athlete as a young man,
55:42
Speaker 1: I think that played differently than it plays in front
55:46
Speaker 1: of a black audience of normal people. And the reason
55:51
Speaker 1: why Nwsom is being accused of racism here and I
55:55
Speaker 1: get it, I mean, by the liberal standards of racism,
55:58
Speaker 1: this absolutely qualifies. The reason why Nwssom is being accused
56:03
Speaker 1: of racism is he starts talking about how stupid he is,
56:08
Speaker 1: which is amazing. It's amazing we now live in the
56:11
Speaker 1: world where a guy wants to be president desperately thinks
56:14
Speaker 1: that one of his calling cards is that he's an idiot,
56:17
Speaker 1: and he did so poorly on his SATs and he
56:20
Speaker 1: can't even read. Although he doesn't specifically mention here, it's
56:24
Speaker 1: because of his dyslexia that he is relatable. This makes
56:30
Speaker 1: him relatable. But when you're talking to an all black
56:34
Speaker 1: audience and you say I'm just like you, I did
56:39
Speaker 1: crappy on my SATs and I can't read. I can
56:43
Speaker 1: totally understand why people think, what the hell is that?
56:47
Speaker 1: That certainly sounds like a racist statement, at least given
56:50
Speaker 1: the standards of twenty twenty six and the Democratic Party
56:54
Speaker 1: and the entire environment of wokeism. So with that context
57:00
Speaker 1: in mind, Newsome has basically told this story before and
57:04
Speaker 1: it didn't backfire on him. So I think he thought
57:07
Speaker 1: it was it was approved, it was black people approved,
57:11
Speaker 1: but it really wasn't, especially not for this kind of
57:14
Speaker 1: a crowd. And here's what it sounded like when he
57:17
Speaker 1: tried to revisit this, this same idea of I'm just
57:21
Speaker 1: like you because I'm not that smart. I'm not you know,
57:25
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to
57:28
Speaker 1: impress upon you. I'm like you. I'm no better than you.
57:34
Speaker 3: You know.
57:35
Speaker 1: I'm a nine sixty SAT guy. Yeh, And you know,
57:40
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying
57:42
Speaker 1: to act all there if you got nine forty, but
57:47
Speaker 1: literally a nine sixty SAT guy. I cannot you you've
57:51
Speaker 1: never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read
57:56
Speaker 1: a speech. Maybe the wrong business now in the room.
58:04
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like that was a complete disaster. There
58:07
Speaker 1: is some chuckling, there's some people that seem to be
58:12
Speaker 1: at least pretending that they know where he's going with this.
58:15
Speaker 1: There's no overt negative reaction, Oh my god, you just
58:20
Speaker 1: insulted a room of black people by saying you're just
58:23
Speaker 1: like us because you're not very smart. However, online that
58:28
Speaker 1: did not play well at all. There was a lot
58:31
Speaker 1: of very strong negative reactions to what Newsom said there.
58:37
Speaker 1: It seemed to me as if it was one of
58:39
Speaker 1: those moments where, oh, okay, he doesn't have the same
58:45
Speaker 1: magic with the key Democratic voting block as Bill Clinton did,
58:53
Speaker 1: or you know, somehow Joe Biden did. I never quite
58:56
Speaker 1: understood Joe Biden's appeal because Joe Biden made a lot
58:59
Speaker 1: of other statement somewhat similar to what Gavin Newsom said there,
59:04
Speaker 1: and black people still loved him. So it's not a
59:08
Speaker 1: death now for Newsom. That's why I'm only downgrading this
59:10
Speaker 1: from seven point five to seven, because Joe Biden made
59:13
Speaker 1: a lot of somewhat similar statements regarding black people that
59:17
Speaker 1: could have easily been perceived as racist. The point here, though,
59:22
Speaker 1: is that the perception and perception becomes reality, especially when
59:27
Speaker 1: it's being created early on. Once the narrative is set,
59:30
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to go back on that. There is
59:34
Speaker 1: now at least the beginnings of a narrative about Newsom
59:38
Speaker 1: that he can't resonate with black people and that he
59:41
Speaker 1: doesn't have the magic. And Clyburne, who, assuming he's still
59:45
Speaker 1: alive and assuming he still has the same kind of
59:48
Speaker 1: influence that he did in twenty twenty, you know, he
59:52
Speaker 1: may see this and go, well, this is not the guy,
59:55
Speaker 1: this is not our guy. So we're there's still a
59:58
Speaker 1: lot of f's there, LIFs there. You know. I think
1:00:02
Speaker 1: Republicans are way way over confident when it comes to
1:00:05
Speaker 1: how easily it will be to defeat Gavin Newsom, and
1:00:09
Speaker 1: a lot of people are using this as an example
1:00:11
Speaker 1: of Aha, he's just terrible at this. I'm nowhere near there.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: My focus is, Okay, can this be a situation where
1:00:20
Speaker 1: he doesn't get the Democratic nomination because he can't get
1:00:23
Speaker 1: the black vote, he can't get Cleburne's endorsement, he can't
1:00:26
Speaker 1: do well enough in South Carolina, and there's no other
1:00:29
Speaker 1: state early on where Newsom would naturally do exceedingly well,
1:00:34
Speaker 1: I mean, where does he win. I mean, I don't
1:00:36
Speaker 1: think again, Democrats don't give a shit about i Iowa
1:00:39
Speaker 1: anymore because there's too many white people. I can't see
1:00:42
Speaker 1: Newsom playing particularly well in New Hampshire, but who the
1:00:46
Speaker 1: hell knows. But in a crowded field, I guess anything's possible.
1:00:50
Speaker 1: But it's really all going to come down to South Carolina.
1:00:53
Speaker 1: And you know, if this was you know Newsom's first
1:00:58
Speaker 1: at that this was a strikeout. He may foul, tipped
1:01:03
Speaker 1: a couple of off, a couple of balls off first,
1:01:06
Speaker 1: but he struck out here. That doesn't mean he can't
1:01:08
Speaker 1: come back at his next at bat, but that's not
1:01:10
Speaker 1: a good start. And that's why I'm downgrading the fear
1:01:13
Speaker 1: factor from seven point five to seven. Also similar to
1:01:18
Speaker 1: that the AOC thing, I mean, she crapped the bed
1:01:23
Speaker 1: with her statement about China and Taiwan, and it was
1:01:28
Speaker 1: a disaster for her. She got a lot of negative publicity.
1:01:31
Speaker 1: You heard Congressman Yarmouth say that even though he likes her,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: that he doesn't think that she's going to be a
1:01:36
Speaker 1: major factor in the Democratic presidential race in twenty twenty eight.
1:01:42
Speaker 1: So I'm downgrading AOC's chances, which, Okay, you might be asking,
1:01:47
Speaker 1: how does that relate to Newsom? Doesn't that actually help
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Newsom if AOC is downgraded. No, I actually think that
1:01:55
Speaker 1: hurts Newsom because I think it engraces the chances of
1:01:59
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris getting back in. And I think Harris is
1:02:03
Speaker 1: the biggest problem for Newsom when it comes to the
1:02:06
Speaker 1: Democratic primary process. She's from California, she's a woman, she's
1:02:12
Speaker 1: a woman of color. She's effectively Newsome's kryptonite. He cannot
1:02:17
Speaker 1: criticize her. By the way, Interestingly, in this event, in
1:02:22
Speaker 1: this event, and I don't know for sure how much
1:02:26
Speaker 1: of this was intentional and how much of this was accidental,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: but Newsom actually took a shot at Harris during this
1:02:35
Speaker 1: very same event in South Carolina, where he effectively says
1:02:41
Speaker 1: that without Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco,
1:02:45
Speaker 1: you never hear of Kamala Harris, which was a kind
1:02:48
Speaker 1: of a demeaning thing to say to begin with. But
1:02:50
Speaker 1: it's particular the meeting when everybody knows that, I'm sure
1:02:54
Speaker 1: Newsom knows that what he's really referring to is the
1:02:57
Speaker 1: fact that Harris had an affair with Willie bred He's
1:03:01
Speaker 1: the one that jump started her political career. So there
1:03:05
Speaker 1: were shots fired there against Harris. And I don't know
1:03:10
Speaker 1: what the reaction was within the black community or the
1:03:12
Speaker 1: Democratic Party to that. But Harris is a problem for
1:03:16
Speaker 1: Newsom because I don't think he can get away with
1:03:19
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff and not lose the black vote. See,
1:03:22
Speaker 1: it's a catch twenty two. He has to win the
1:03:25
Speaker 1: black vote in South Carolina. How do you do that
1:03:28
Speaker 1: when you're running against a black female from your own
1:03:31
Speaker 1: state who was already vice president of the United States,
1:03:34
Speaker 1: and who ninety five percent of the Democratic primary voters
1:03:37
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight will have already voted for in
1:03:40
Speaker 1: president for president in twenty twenty four. And I'm not
1:03:43
Speaker 1: saying Harris would be the nominee. I'm saying she's a
1:03:45
Speaker 1: problem for Newsom, and then anything that's a problem for
1:03:49
Speaker 1: Newsom in the Democratic primary, I'm rooting for. So I
1:03:53
Speaker 1: actually think AOC potentially being off the table makes it
1:03:58
Speaker 1: more likely that Harris's room For Harris, that's her you know,
1:04:03
Speaker 1: a female obviously is her path, that's her potential demographic
1:04:09
Speaker 1: to getting another shot at the nomination. Obviously there's a
1:04:12
Speaker 1: whole lot of ifs and butts in this circumstance, but
1:04:15
Speaker 1: I do want to at least acknowledge that Newsome made
1:04:19
Speaker 1: a misstep and that there is at least some level
1:04:22
Speaker 1: of optimism, which is why I've downgraded the fear factor
1:04:24
Speaker 1: from seven point five to seven point zero. Thanks for
1:04:29
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1:04:32
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