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Dems Call for Government to Take Companies Away From Elon Musk · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Three Martini's coming up. So glad you're with us for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Monday edition of the Three Martini Lunch. We are
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: just over a week from Election Day. And Jim, that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: means the candidates are in their final home stretches, closing messages,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and in some cases bringing out what they think are
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the heavy hitters, the big endorsers to try and help
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: with that closing message. Barack Obama finally on the campaign
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: trail in a couple of places, including Michigan, where he
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: stumped for Abdul El-Sayed, and I presume the entire Democratic
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: ticket there in Michigan. But in classic demagogic fashion, because
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: if there's anything Barack Obama's good at, it's that. He
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: made passing, mocking reference to allegations that El-Sayed is a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: jihadist sympathizer and a socialist. But here's how Obama responded
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to that.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Is par for the course, is running all kinds of
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: scary ads to make you think Democrats are radicals or
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: communists or jihadists or the woke police that will come
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: arrest you and force-feed you tofu instead of hamburgers.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: We are not going to fall for that okey-doke. We
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: are not going to be bamboozled like that. We're clear
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: about the choice in this election. Abdul is fighting for change,
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: real change.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, he's fighting the system on health care. And here
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: is how Obama talked about the radical allegations against El-Sayed.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: And you hear people say this is somehow radical.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: What is radical about that? Wanting everybody to have health care?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: How's that radical? You know as well as we do, Obama,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that it's not about whether people have access to health care.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: It's how the system is structured. You tried the public option.
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: You failed.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: We'll have more on that in just a second. But, Jim,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: as usual, Obama trying to blur everything in order to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: get his guys across the finish line.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: For listeners, this is not a rerun because we weren't taping.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: We only started taping in 2010. We're up on 16
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: years now. But if you think back to the 2007-2008 campaigns,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: There were a lot of people who raised questions about
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Jeremiah Wright, a lot of people who raised questions about
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn. And this idea that Barack
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Obama had always been surrounded by these leftist radicals, some
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: of whom, by any objective measure, were terrorists back in
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the 1960s and 70s and blew things up and things
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: like that. They should have gone to jail. We're not convicted, right?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: By any measure, objective measure. These people were extremely dangerous
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: left-wing radicals with terrorism ties, or in the cases of
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Ayers and Dorn, were indisputably actual terrorists. And Sarah Palin
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: had said Obama was palling around with terrorists. And oh,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: my goodness, how very, you know, even though objectively on
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the facts, that's what he did. Now, I think if
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: you asked a lot of Americans, was the Obama presidency
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: more conservative than you expected? about what you expected, or
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: more liberal than we expected? I think quite a few
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: would say more liberal than you expected, and I think
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: you can look at two terms of Obama. That's a
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: major factor in why Donald Trump got elected. So this
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: is Barack Obama's bread and butter, playing down ties to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: extremists and tying to people who are way out of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the mainstream and and arguably beyond the pale, and acting
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: like this is normal, because I speak in a normal,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: moderate tone of voice. Obama has referred to it as
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: his Midwestern news broadcaster voice. And as a result of that,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: he doesn't come across as, because he doesn't pound the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: table and frothing at the mouth when he speaks, he
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: must be very reasonable. His go-to rhetorical move is, some
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: people say we should do this conservative idea. Some people
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: say we should do this extremely, extremely left-wing idea. I
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: have this sensible left-wing idea in the middle. Wait a second.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: You didn't pick equal points on the spectrum there. And
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: that's a bit of how he shifted the Overton window,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: as they say, over in a leftward direction. Secondly, what's
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: so radical about wanting health care for everyone? Greg, wasn't
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: there a big health care bill that got passed recently?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And it was like, they called it Obamacare. This was
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: his signature thing. And what was the other name that
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: they insisted that by calling, I mean, I'm calling it Obamacare,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: you're making it more partisan. So what were we supposed
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: to call it?
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: The Affordable Care Act.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: The Affordable Care. Is care affordable right now, Americans? No. No,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: it is not. So here we are, more than a
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: decade later. Democrats are making the same. Oh, health care
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: is too expensive. That's why we need single payer. That's
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: like this idea. Like, oh, we just want to give
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: everybody health care. Well, first of all, they tried this
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: in Vermont. There are no Republicans in Vermont to stop this.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: They looked at the numbers. It was basically going to
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: double or triple the state's budget. They didn't have enough
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: money in the state to do to operate the way
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: they want to do this. But in this case, like
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: you can't have single payer or public the way that
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: he does without eliminating private health insurance. And when you
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: say to people, do you want to eliminate private health insurance?
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I ask this of like smart, accomplished, left of center
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: friends that I like. And they'll say, I don't understand
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: why Republicans oppose Medicare for all. And I said, would
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you trade your current health insurance for Medicare? And they're
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: always like, well, no, not the way it is right now.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: It would have to get a lot better. And I'm like, no, no, no.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: There is no magic, much better Medicare waiting for you
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: once they pass Medicare for all. Once they pass Medicare
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: for all, your private health insurance, which like. I don't know,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: 80% of the people who are covered say they're satisfied with.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Nobody loves health insurance companies, right? Nobody, like insurance in
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: general is not a fun concept. It's not Coca-Cola. It's
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: not Disneyland. It's not something fun. It's something you pay
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: hoping you're never really going to need it that badly.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: And someday eventually you get hit by a bus and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: you do need it. And so it covers a good
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: portion of your expenses, but you still are upset by
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the fact like, you know. You got hit by a bus.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: You're not doing great. Same thing with auto insurance. Anyway,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: that's what the system is. And Obama just kind of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: makes it sound like you could be getting free health care.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: It's just those bad Republicans won't let you do it.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: That's not the facts at all. And he has to
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: go through this great rigmarole of, oh, they say they're
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: going to force-feed you tofu.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: No.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: It's just that once the government pays for your health care,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: they decide what health care you get. And that's the
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: way it's working in every single system that operates like this.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And when they're tired of paying for your
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: medical bills, it turns into Canada where they're like, well,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: we'll pay for one more thing, but you have to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: die now.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: It's soylent green.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. You know, Barack Obama got hit with the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: lie of the year back in the day for if
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you like your plan, you can keep your plan. There's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: another quote that got dug up as a result of
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: this speech, and that was his promise that you'll get
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: much better health care and it'll cost less than your
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: monthly cable bill. Thanks a lot, Barack. Thanks a lot.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Not one Republican voted for that.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: In Obama's defense, Greg, most people don't pay much for
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: cable anymore because they switch to streaming. So technically, we
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: don't have that comparison anymore. So it's kind of hard
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to say it's costing more than you're. Because really, most people,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: they don't have a cable bill. So there you go.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Yes, thankfully, we've broken up the cables and everybody got streaming.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And now it costs even more because everything you want
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to watch is on a separate streaming platform.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: What they're saying is they're going to put all the
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: streaming services together and they're going to bundle it in
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: something called a cable. And once they bundle it all, also,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: there's this new round thing called the wheel that they've
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: just reinvented.
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: Amazing.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: We've got more on this race, though, in just a second.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: We're going to hear from Haley Stevens, who narrowly lost
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: that primary to El Sayed. But in the meantime, let's
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: talk about your home. Jim, it says here, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: think about the last time something broke in your house,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: maybe a pipe burst in the middle of the night.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: That's not hypothetical here at the Columbus House. As you
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: well know, a few weeks back, water pipe burst in
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the Columbus House. We got all sorts of mitigation happening here.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: We're now in the process of trying to get the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: rebuild started. But thankfully, our home insurance did cover that.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: But in some cases, depending on the policy, that's not
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the case. But I'll tell you what home insurance doesn't
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: cover a lot of times, and that's the water line
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: in and out of your house. There's the sewer line.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: There's HVAC. There's hot water heaters and so forth. So
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: if you want that peace of mind, go with HomeServe.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Now, if your neighbor's tree gets recruited by the Russians
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: or the Chinese or Hamas or North Korea to kill you,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: as happened with me, then yes, home insurance is going
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: to cover a lot of that. But it's the wear
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and tear stuff, your plumbing failures or HVAC breakdowns, electrical issues.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Homeowner's insurance is not going to cover that stuff. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: that's why you need HomeServe. It can save you big
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: bucks and it'll buy a lot of everything else you
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: want to spend instead of having to do that. It's
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: very simple. You choose a plan for your needs and budget.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: When something on your plan goes wrong, you call their
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: 24-7 hotline and they get the repair process started.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it can be for starting at as little as $ 4. 99
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a month. But again, once the problem happens, you don't
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: pay anything extra. You call HomeServe.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: They take care of the rest.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Your next costly home repair could be coming and it's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: going to come at some point. So act now and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: get protected with a plan through HomeServe. To save 50%
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: your first year, go to HomeServe.com slash martini to find
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the plan that's right for you. That's HomeServe.com slash martini
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: for 50% less. Savings compared to renewal price void in Florida.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: All right, Jim, as you well remember, Abdul El-Sayed was
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: supposed to coast to the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: back in August. He ended up winning by, I think,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: one percentage point over Congresswoman Haley Stevens. His big thing
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that whole campaign is that she's a tool of AIPAC.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: So the fact that he's like, how dare you? How
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: dare you link me to the Muslim Brotherhood just because
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: half my family or more has direct links? And I
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: wrote an open letter supporting them when they took over
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: in Egypt.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: How dare you?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: But so Haley Stevens, though, was on State of the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Union with Dan Abash. Dan Abash is very concerned. that
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Haley Stevens is not doing enough to help get Abdul
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: El-Sayed elected. And so she had to try and press
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: that issue that she's she's still on the team. You're
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: still with Abdul El-Sayed, right?
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: You're still fully behind Abdul El-Sayed.
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: Look, I'm I'm on the Democratic ticket. You know, I
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: can't say that I agree with everything that's gone on.
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: You know, I wish that first debate had been more about,
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: you know, that rubber stamp for Trump because we got
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: a lot of chaos in Michigan. You know, I don't
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: want to debate, you know, who's the enemy of the
• 11:17
  Speaker 6: United States. It's very clear that Iran is. I didn't
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: run my campaign on foreign policy issues, but that was
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: litigated in my primary. You know, I'm not looking to
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: be front and center right now. I'm looking to be
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: on the team to support, you know, my next governor,
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: Jocelyn Benson, and Frankly, these great Democrats who are working
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: their tails off, who are going to make Hakeem Jeffries
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: the first black speaker of the House.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: You didn't mention Abdul Hussein in that last answer.
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: Well, look, I would just say you would ask me
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: if I'm still on the team. I'm on the team.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a ringing endorsement. But, Jim, after how she
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was treated during that primary campaign, I'm not surprised.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: You know, I haven't seen an endorsement that rote and
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: unenthusiastic since Mrs. Paxton. When you don't even say the
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: candidate's name, support the party and any candidate here who
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: is on the ticket of that party. I mean, it's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: probably about as good an answer as Haley Stevens can
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: give to that question. I suppose we should give her
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a little bit of credit for not, you know, pretending
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that she likes Abdul Al-Sayed and saying a bunch of
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: things that she clearly does not believe is true. She's
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: clearly not defending the who can say between Israel and
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Iran who's the bigger threat to America and who's to
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: say who's the bigger enemy. You can tell she is
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: pretty revolted by some of the answers he's made. On
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the other hand, she's not going to go out and
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: endorse Mike Rogers. So on the one hand, this is
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: kind of what you have to do. On the other hand,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I would kind of say two primary electorates of either
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. When you choose
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: to nominate the nut job, you make life harder for
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: everybody else in your party. By the way, we say
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: this never happens to Democrats. Kudos to Dana Bash for
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: actually asking another Democrat, do you stand by Abdullah Zayed
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: and some of his more controversial statements. It doesn't happen
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: nearly as often to the Democrats, but in this case,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: it has occurred here. Because when you nominate a nutjob
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: and every couple of days they say something new or
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: some other insane comment from their past comes to the fore,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: then everybody else in the party is like, do you
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: agree with this person? And they have to be in
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: a position where, clearly, Haley Stevens would prefer almost any
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: other Democrat in the state of Michigan to be the
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: nominee rather than Abdul El-Sayed. Primary voters made that choice.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: And in a state where, you know, I'm going to
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: say everything's coming up roses for Democrats, but things are
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: looking really good for them. They're really nervous about this state,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and they should be really nervous about this state because, one,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: it's much closer than the governor's race and a bunch
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: of other states we've seen. But also, like, you can
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: see– you have to wonder how many Democrats aren't going
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to vote for Abdullah Syed and don't want to tell
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: a pollster.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Now, that could be the case. And she did also
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: say– which might be the reason Dana Bash asked the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: question– is that Mike Rogers has been working his tail
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: off in Detroit and that Haley Stevens advised Abdul El-Sayed,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: you know, make a big speech geared towards black voters
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: because obviously he didn't do very well among them in
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the primary. And he hasn't done that. But she says, well,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: but he had Obama in. So maybe that'll do the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: job for him. But as we found out, surrogates, Jim,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: whether it's Trump, whether it's Obama, if their name's not
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: on the ballot, it's not the same.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Greg, you're from Michigan. Are African-Americans an important part of
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: the demographics out there in elections, particularly for a Democrat? Absolutely.
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: He also doesn't like cars. Cars are a big deal
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: out there, aren't they?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, they are.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Also, he hates Mackinac Island, which I've never been there.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: I know some people, it's there. There are no cars there.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: So you'd think you'd like it with no automobiles there.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: It's like horse and buggies and stuff, right?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And bikes.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: So the only thing this guy doesn't like about the
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: state of Michigan is everything. Which kind of, that's kind
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: of a big deal, you'd think. We'll see how it
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: shakes out for him.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: If you don't like Mackinac Island, I mean, the problem's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: with you. It's not with Mackinac Island. I mean, there's
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: some touristy aspects to it, but.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: It's just glorious. He's a doctor.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: Wink, wink.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: No, he's a non-practicing doctor. Isn't, like, saltwater taffy a
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: big deal? Not totally. Like, some sort of... Is taffy
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: a big deal up there?
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: He's worried about some of that fudge. It's best known
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: for fudge.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Fudge. OK, that's what it is. He's worried about people's
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: blood sugar. He doesn't like everybody going and eating fudge.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Maybe he is going to make you eat tofu, America.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: He might. He just might.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Vote smart, Michigan. I know you already can vote. So
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: so don't be dumb. Anyway, let's talk about quo, because,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're running a business, this election is
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: probably going to matter a lot to you, too. Do
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you want more taxes? Do you want more regulations? Be smart,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: be smart. But for the moment, the one thing that
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: you're going to be smart about your business is having
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  Speaker 1: the best possible communication system to make your existing and
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: future clients happy. And that's where Quo comes in. Today's
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  Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O, the
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• 16:04
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  Speaker 1: Q-U-O dot com slash 3ML. All right, Jim, our longtime listeners,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you and I certainly remember Robert Reicher, as Rush Limbaugh
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: used to call him. Clinton Labor Secretary was there for
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: all eight years. He was considered super far left at
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the time, and he still is super far left. But
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the party, in many instances, has kind of caught up
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: with him. But Robert Reich is really, really mad that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk is supporting Ken Paxton and other Republicans in
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: these midterm elections. And so obviously the proper response is
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: not to, you know, raise money to campaign for the
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: other candidates. It's no, we're going to take away Elon
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Musk's businesses and we're going to nationalize them. Here he
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: is on a podcast called The Coffee Clatch.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: We've got to defund Musk. And when I say defund Musk,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: 75% of his wealth is dependent on taxpayers who are
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: buying Starlink systems for the Department of Defense. Defund Musk.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: I mean this. If we have a democratic administration and
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: the democrats ought to be starting this, not just with
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: oversight hearings, but also starting laying the groundwork for nationalizing
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: Starlink and SpaceX. nationalize it. It should be a public corporation.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: We should not ever have that kind of power in
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: one person's hands, one private person's hands. I mean, Musk
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: is trying to buy the senator from Texas. I mean,
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: why should we allow this? Seriously.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk was a supporter of Barack Obama both times,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I believe. So Jim, if Elon Musk was pouring all
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this money into James Tallarico or any Democrat across the country,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: think Robert Reich would want to be nationalizing his businesses?
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: No. Let's point out the entire situation of Starlink and
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the other military related program and the slowing of the
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: speeds to Ukraine. This stinks to high heaven, because here's
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: the thing. If you don't want to allow Ukraine to
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: strike at targets in Russia, come out and say so.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Don't have this claim of, oh, it's a technical snafu or, oh,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Ukraine's violating the terms. No one can say whether it
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: was Trump, whether it was Musk or something like that.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: But with that said, if Robert Reich wants the Democrats
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: and some future Democratic president to cease all federal government
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: contracting with Musk's companies, I assume that means we would
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: no longer use SpaceX to get stuff up into Earth orbit.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Who else you got? Do you, do you, you know,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: is it blue or like there, it's not a lot
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: of companies that are capable of doing what SpaceX is
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: doing right now. And if you want to say, I
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: want us ability to function in space, which is, you know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: whatever you think of space force in the name, space
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: is a very important part of our, the national defense,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: our access to satellites, our ability to communicate all of
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that stuff. It is not just the final frontier. It
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: is a front in our conflict with Russia and China
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: and other hostile states that If you're willing to say
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: we're willing to be weaker there because we don't want
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: to be reliant on Elon Musk, OK, but be upfront
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: about the tradeoffs you're making there. Then we've been hearing
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: all fall. Democrats are socialists. Democrats are communists. Look at
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Zoran Mamdami. And Republicans say this is that's Democrats say
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: that is false. That is nonsense. You know, we just
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: listened to Obama earlier. That's crazy talk. And here's Robert
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Rice saying we need to nationalize multibillion dollar companies in
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the name of the leadership is not doing what we
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: want them to do. Well, when you do that, you
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: start– he starts to sound a little South American dictatorish.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: He starts to sound a little Eastern European. Your company
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: is mine now, comrade. Like that– you can't say we
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: want to nationalize a bunch of companies but stop calling
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: us communists because that's– That's kind of what they do, right? Now,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: I've got beeps with the administration taking ownership shares in
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: 30 private companies. That's not good. And I think that
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: makes it a little bit harder for Republicans to run
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: against socialists and communists. But these are generally like golden share,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: one seat on the board kind of stuff like that.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I don't like it, but it is because it is
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: creeping socialism. But like Robert Reich is leaping socialism, pouncing,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: as the media likes to say about Republicans whenever we
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: notice something bad that the Democrats have done. I won't
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: make a Robert Reich short joke.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, do it.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: He's pouncing, but he's not pouncing. But the point is,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: you can't say we should nationalize companies, but it's out
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: of line to call us communists.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, his logic has always come up short. Anyway, Robert
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Reich has been who he's always been, like I said,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the rest of the parties.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Just one last point. I have no problem with selecting
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: this as a topic, Greg. It's absolutely legitimate. He is ridiculous.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: But when it comes to people with the surname Reich,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Frank is a bigger problem for me these days than
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Robert Reich. For those who don't know, Frank Reich is
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the offensive coordinator of the New York Jets, who had
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: first and goal from the one-inch line late in the
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: game when they were trailing by seven, and they kicked
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: a field goal because of some great play calling. But anyway,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: this is not a sports talk podcast. We just turn
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: into that every Monday.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The Jets have problems. The Democrats have problems. The Republicans
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  Speaker 1: have problems, too. Let's make sure you don't have problems
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  Speaker 1: purchase is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. All right, Jim,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: we just talked about Alaska with the shenanigans and the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Democratic money flowing in to support Republican Daniel J. Sullivan
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: against Republican Daniel S. Sullivan, as well as Democrat Mary Peltola. Basically,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: what you've got here in Alaska is this ranked choice thing.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: The top four candidates from the primary, regardless of party,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: make it to the general election. And then it's ranked choice.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: So you can say, well, I want Senator Dan S. Sullivan,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: number one, and then you can rank the others in
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the order that you like them. And that way, if
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: the person you do like gets knocked out, well, your
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: second choice then becomes your vote and on and on
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: it goes. And so it's a convoluted system. It's not
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: just vote for the best person as it should be.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: So Dan Sullivan's campaign, Senator Dan S. Sullivan's campaign came
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: up with this song, which is cringy, Jim, but not
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: as cringy as the system up there.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Ranked choice voting in the last frontier.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Put Dan S. Sullivan in that number one spot.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: Give him all the backing that we've got.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Dan S. Is your number one. That's what we say.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: If he's not, rank him second.
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: Don't throw your vote away.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Dan S.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Daniel Jerry.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Just don't rank Mary.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Just whatever you do. Before I stay.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: Dan S.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Daniel Jerry. Just don't rank Mary.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Dan S.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Daniel Jerry.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: Just don't rank Mary.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: So if you obviously never put a checkmark, no matter
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: what round it is next to the Democrat, they can't
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: get your vote. So what do you make of that
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: ad and the insanity of the system?
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: OK, I did find myself humming and bopping along. So
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: credit for that. I'm looking at this and thinking, like,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: what if I want the real Dan Sullivan as in
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: the incumbent Republican senator and I don't want any of
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: the other ones? You just vote once? Yeah, just vote
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: him in the first round and that's it. So then
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: the question is, am I disadvantaging him if he's in
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the later rounds by not having him as the second choice?
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Do you vote for him first every round? Do you.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Say if you, it gets really complicated after a while
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: of this sense of like, well, if this candidate is
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: removed of the remaining three, which do you like? If
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: these two are left and it's a down between these two,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: like I just want to make it my first choice.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: I just leave it. And I was just talking with
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: some members of my family about circumstances where you have
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: multiple candidates for multiple seats. But I live in Alexandria.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: There was like a city council and they had like
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: three slots that were open. And at the time, there
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: were two candidates. There was one who was an open Republican,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: one who was an independent but, wink, wink, was, you know, quote, unquote,
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: on our side, you know. And then there were a
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: bunch of other ones. And what they said to those
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: who were Republicans and Alexandria was vote for those two
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: and then don't vote for any others. Don't vote for
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: a third candidate because that could end up doing– I
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: was going to say if that's the system you want
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: to have, fine. But you really shouldn't have to talk
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: people through strategies– of multiple rounds, nor should you need
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: a theme song of how to vote for the candidate
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: you want. Alaska, this is far too complicated. First past
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the post, most votes. It's real simple. Everybody understands that.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: I don't understand what you know. And also, like, you know,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: the other thing I've been thinking about, and again, I
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: mentioned this for my colleague, Michael Bernandorti, last week as well.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: So let's say, you know, it's close and the candidate
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: wants a recount. And in some states, it's automatic. And
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: if it's within a certain margin in certain states, if
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: the candidate's willing to pay for it, you know. So
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: you recount and you're going through just the first round
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: or like you recount and you go in most elections,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: but it's just first past the post. Whoever gets the
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: most votes wins. With this, you have to recount the
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: first round and then you have to recount the second
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: round and then you have to recount the third round.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: And it just gets to a longer process. More opportunities
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: for shenanigans, more opportunities for a miscount or human error Or, oh,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: we forgot about this box of ballots or, you know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: all this other kind of stuff. So like anything that
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: makes the process more complicated requires the public to have
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: more faith and trust in the people who are running
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: the elections. There's a reason in this country we've always
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: had elections run at the local level, right? Ideally, you're
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: going down the street. You're not having to go to
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: some county-wide. So the idea that the people who are
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: closest to you They live in your community. You can
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: run into them and say, hey, what happened with that
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: election where, you know, it took you forever and you
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: stopped counting and all that kind of stuff. There's a
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: reason we have a local. I know there are certain
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Republicans like, oh, this is why we need to have
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: them federalized. Well, if you put the federal government in
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: charge of elections, then whoever runs the federal government can
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: set the rules and start tweaking around with them and
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. The idea being if everything is localized,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: the opportunities for mischief, they're not eliminated, but hopefully they're minimized.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And you know where the people who did the mischief live.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: They're close to you. They live in your community. That's
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: a deterrent to shenanigans and things like that. So Alaska,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I think this is not working. At some point, Alaska
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: is going to have a messy election. It might happen
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: this year. And the consequences of ranked choice of voting
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: will become abundantly clear.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they almost got rid of it on a statewide
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: referendum last year or two years ago. And I think
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: it's maybe up again or will be soon. But eventually
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: it'll go away and that'll be That'll be a very
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: good thing. I think the folks at Schoolhouse Rock are
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: going to listen to that and go, we'll call you.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: We can do better.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Anyway, Jim, fun start to the week.
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: See you tomorrow.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: See you tomorrow, Greg.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karambas of Radio America.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: sure to subscribe to the 3 Martini Lunch podcast. If
• 29:05
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• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Thanks also for your five-star ratings and your kind reviews.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices.
• 29:12
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• 29:15
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• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. Have a terrific Monday. Join us again Tuesday
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: for the next 3 Martini Lunch.