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Here's Why Capitalism Still Beats Every Alternative · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
0:05
Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
0:08
Speaker 1: National Review. Three Martini's coming up. So glad to have
0:14
Speaker 1: you with us for the Wednesday edition of the Three
0:16
Speaker 1: Martini Lunch. And Jim, we kind of pick up with
0:18
Speaker 1: our good martini today where we left off with our
0:21
Speaker 1: crazy martini yesterday. Yesterday, there was that clip from about
0:25
Speaker 1: six years ago where James Tallarico was saying in order
0:27
Speaker 1: to fight climate change, we've got to dismantle capitalism. And
0:31
Speaker 1: then he his campaign put out a statement going, oh, no,
0:34
Speaker 1: I was off. I'm a capitalist now and I love
0:37
Speaker 1: oil and gas and all that nonsense. You know, he
0:39
Speaker 1: really doesn't. But he's trying to win in Texas. But
0:41
Speaker 1: the issue still came up on Newsnight with Abby Phillip
0:45
Speaker 1: and her panel of mostly lefties. But there's always at
0:47
Speaker 1: least one, sometimes two Republicans on there. So Camille Foster
0:51
Speaker 1: was one of the conservatives. And this issue came up
0:53
Speaker 1: about somehow capitalism being inextricably linked to white supremacy there.
0:58
Speaker 1: And he dismantles it very, very well, first of all,
1:01
Speaker 1: extolling the greatness of capitalism. But as Jemele Hill, who
1:05
Speaker 1: used to be with ESPN and found every racial or
1:10
Speaker 1: gender or LGBT problem in sports, that was her whole thing.
1:14
Speaker 1: She's now a political columnist, which is what she's always
1:16
Speaker 1: really wanted to be, I think, over at The Atlantic.
1:18
Speaker 1: And she's trying to make him prove that they're not
1:20
Speaker 1: inextricably linked. He's not having any of it.
1:23
Speaker 2: It's one thing to not think capitalism is what isn't working. Ideally,
1:28
Speaker 2: it's another thing entirely to insist that it is oppressive,
1:31
Speaker 2: that it is bound up with white supremacy. I've always
1:34
Speaker 2: I've always preferred I've always preferred Adam Smith's description of capitalism.
1:38
Speaker 2: capitalism as the natural system of liberty the idea that
1:42
Speaker 2: people can own property that they can exchange it freely
1:45
Speaker 2: with one another for profit that they can find ways
1:48
Speaker 2: to put their resources to good use those private property
1:51
Speaker 2: and and profit in a way that is actually beneficial
1:54
Speaker 2: to everyone else that there can be gains from trade
1:56
Speaker 2: that are mutually beneficial these are foundational ideas that have
2:00
Speaker 2: created more wealth than any other system in human history
2:05
Speaker 2: That is what capitalism is.
2:06
Speaker 3: That is not white supremacy.
2:06
Speaker 1: Do you think capitalism has always worked that way?
2:10
Speaker 2: I've just described the actual, I've actually just described the
2:14
Speaker 2: basic facts of economics. Slavery is an institution that is
2:19
Speaker 2: older than writing.
2:19
Speaker 1: It predates capitalism.
2:21
Speaker 2: The notion that white supremacy and all these other things
2:23
Speaker 2: are bound up with capitalism in an intrinsic and fundamental
2:26
Speaker 2: way is so absurd and laughable that it barely needs
2:30
Speaker 2: to be defended.
2:31
Speaker 1: What do you mean it barely needs to be defended?
2:33
Speaker 1: It barely needs to be defended.
2:34
Speaker 2: You actually have to articulate what the connection is.
2:36
Speaker 3: How are these two things the same?
2:37
Speaker 2: I'm talking about private property, the right to exchange and.
2:41
Speaker 3: Sell it with whomever you like.
2:41
Speaker 4: But you're talking about.
2:42
Speaker 2: Capitalism in the purest form of how it was intended
2:44
Speaker 2: to work versus how it's actually working. I'm talking about
2:47
Speaker 2: how it's working right now today. What is the white
2:49
Speaker 2: supremacist dynamic.
2:50
Speaker 3: Of private property?
2:51
Speaker 1: So again, great defense of capitalism by Kamala Foster, and
2:55
Speaker 1: he's not taking her bait of trying to have him
2:57
Speaker 1: prove that it's not tied to white supremacy. He's like, no, no, no.
3:01
Speaker 1: If you want to say that it is linked, you
3:02
Speaker 1: have to explain to me why that is the case.
3:04
Speaker 1: So great job by him. And of course, she had
3:06
Speaker 1: no answer.
3:06
Speaker 3: I was going to say, Greg, yesterday's episode, we kind
3:08
Speaker 3: of closed on this notion of the omni-cause, the idea
3:12
Speaker 3: that in the end, all causes of progressivism, all causes
3:16
Speaker 3: on the left start to blur together. And also they
3:19
Speaker 3: insist that that they are all interconnected. Blank is a
3:22
Speaker 3: blank issue. In this case, basically, the argument from Jemele
3:25
Speaker 3: Hill is overturning and getting rid of capitalism is a
3:28
Speaker 3: white supremacy issue and things like that. Well, what comes
3:32
Speaker 3: out of that discussion is I'd really like to hear
3:35
Speaker 3: more of the high number of young people who tell
3:39
Speaker 3: pollsters that they feel negatively about capitalism. They have They
3:43
Speaker 3: don't support capitalism. They oppose capitalism. I really like to
3:46
Speaker 3: get people to say, what do you mean by capitalism?
3:49
Speaker 3: And I get that they probably mean it as the
3:51
Speaker 3: status quo. Folks like you and I would say is
3:53
Speaker 3: that what the United States has isn't really capitalism. In fact, Greg,
3:58
Speaker 3: true capitalism has never been tried.
4:00
Speaker 1: I say that.
4:00
Speaker 3: Kind of tongue in cheek, but we have, you know,
4:03
Speaker 3: this is not an unregulated, true free market economy by
4:06
Speaker 3: any stretch of the imagination. And I have this sneaking
4:09
Speaker 3: suspicion that if you ask people, what really bothers you
4:12
Speaker 3: about There are system of trading goods and services and
4:16
Speaker 3: prices and things like that. They'd probably say things like, oh, well,
4:19
Speaker 3: you know, higher education.
4:20
Speaker 1: Is too expensive.
4:22
Speaker 3: OK, that's highly regulated by the government. And we've said
4:25
Speaker 3: for a long time that the more the government keeps saying, oh,
4:28
Speaker 3: we're going to give you bigger student loans. We're going
4:30
Speaker 3: to give you more student loans. We're going to, you know,
4:32
Speaker 3: like there's a great deal of market distortion in that.
4:35
Speaker 3: There's no downward pressure on prices from on the part
4:38
Speaker 3: of universities because the government is always coming saying, don't worry,
4:41
Speaker 3: we'll give you even bigger loans. You know, there's no
4:44
Speaker 3: sense of like, oh, if we don't lower prices, we
4:45
Speaker 3: won't be competitive. Students aren't going to want to come here.
4:48
Speaker 3: By the way, it was actually the Washington Post today.
4:52
Speaker 3: There are now 15 schools in the United States where tuition,
4:55
Speaker 3: room and board, all that kind of stuff, it adds
4:59
Speaker 3: up to more than $ 100, 000 per year. My older one
5:02
Speaker 3: does not go to those 15. Last year, by the way,
5:05
Speaker 3: it was two. So just kind of an indication that
5:07
Speaker 3: even when people say, oh, inflation isn't quite as bad,
5:10
Speaker 3: the rate of increase in tuition and room and board
5:12
Speaker 3: and all the costs associated with higher education has always
5:14
Speaker 3: gone up higher than the rate of inflation. High inflation,
5:17
Speaker 3: like we had during the Biden years, particularly 2022, does
5:20
Speaker 3: not do anything to mitigate those costs anyway. But people say, oh,
5:23
Speaker 3: health care is too expensive. OK, health care, again, is
5:26
Speaker 3: not free market economics by any stretch of the imagination.
5:30
Speaker 3: When is the last time you went in for any
5:31
Speaker 3: type of medical service and you saw the prices listed? Generalist, well,
5:35
Speaker 3: the insurance company is paying. I pay my premiums. Maybe
5:38
Speaker 3: I have a deductible. There's no clarity in pricing. The
5:41
Speaker 3: one area where you do have clarity in pricing is
5:44
Speaker 3: LASIK eye surgery, which is because it's not covered by
5:47
Speaker 3: most insurance plans. So doctors compete for patients, and then
5:51
Speaker 3: they have to list their prices and say, hey, I
5:52
Speaker 3: have lower prices than the next guy. Housing, hey, the
5:56
Speaker 3: rent is too darn high, as that famous gubernatorial candidate said.
6:00
Speaker 1: You go down the list.
6:01
Speaker 3: If you had fewer regulations that allowed people to build
6:04
Speaker 3: housing wherever they wanted, you would increase the supply of housing.
6:08
Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, with a lot of different options,
6:09
Speaker 3: there'd be competitions for prices. So every time somebody is
6:13
Speaker 3: complaining about capitalism, they're usually complaining about a part of
6:17
Speaker 3: the economy that is heavily regulated by the state, and
6:21
Speaker 3: that you don't really have this free exchange and negotiation
6:23
Speaker 3: of prices and things like that. Again, this is probably
6:26
Speaker 3: not something that Jemele Hill wants to hear, but good
6:29
Speaker 3: for seeing this on CNN in the 10 p.m. hour
6:33
Speaker 3: for dozens of viewers. CNN is a fine, fine network,
6:37
Speaker 3: and I might be on it later today.
6:41
Speaker 1: Yeah. So as usual, the left is good at slogans.
6:45
Speaker 1: They're not very good at actually backing that up with
6:48
Speaker 1: facts and history and good logic. But nonetheless, good for
6:52
Speaker 1: Camille Foster for laying that out and not taking the
6:55
Speaker 1: bait for making her defend it, which, of course, she couldn't.
6:59
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Speaker 1: a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. All right, Jim, it was
8:11
Speaker 1: just last week that we checked in on the L.A.
8:13
Speaker 1: mayor's race and Nithya Raman crowing about how her office
8:17
Speaker 1: managed to get a crosswalk painted seven stripes across a
8:21
Speaker 1: badly cracked street. Only took her nine months to get
8:24
Speaker 1: that done after the request first came in. So that's
8:27
Speaker 1: your government at work for you, Los Angeles. And that's
8:29
Speaker 1: who you voted for. Four years ago, Karen Bass, the
8:32
Speaker 1: incumbent mayor, won that race over Rick Caruso. Rick Caruso
8:37
Speaker 1: had been a Republican, but he was not a Republican
8:40
Speaker 1: when he ran for mayor for obvious reasons in Los Angeles,
8:43
Speaker 1: but still wasn't enough. And then he decided that he
8:47
Speaker 1: wasn't going to run this time around. Didn't hear a
8:49
Speaker 1: peep from him when Spencer Pratt was running. Didn't hear
8:52
Speaker 1: a peep from him really after saying that Karen Bass
8:55
Speaker 1: shouldn't be impeached because L.A. had too much to focus
8:57
Speaker 1: on and didn't need that distraction. But now he's popped up.
9:01
Speaker 1: So this is odd. Rick Caruso from his car. Shocked, shocked, Jim,
9:07
Speaker 1: that the DSA has some influence in the L.A. mayor's race.
9:11
Speaker 4: Hello, everybody. I saw a headline today in the L.A.
9:13
Speaker 4: Times that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.
9:16
Speaker 4: It says Communism Magazine Debates DSA Endorsement of Rahman. And
9:21
Speaker 4: it talks about whether or not the DSA is going
9:23
Speaker 4: to endorse Rahman. And Rahman's, as you know, who's running
9:26
Speaker 4: for mayor, Nathia Rahman, her wanting to have the DSA endorsement.
9:30
Speaker 4: So I'm not taking a position on any of this
9:32
Speaker 4: or anything. commentary on what's good or what's bad. It
9:35
Speaker 4: was just a little bit of a startling headline that
9:38
Speaker 4: I guess I'm not used to reading in the L.A.
9:40
Speaker 4: Times or anywhere else or certainly thought I'd be reading
9:42
Speaker 4: it in my lifetime. But the role of the DSA,
9:44
Speaker 4: the reality is getting bigger and bigger and potentially more
9:47
Speaker 4: important in the politics and the running of the city
9:49
Speaker 4: of Los Angeles.
9:50
Speaker 1: Jim, socialism is a topic in this year's elections. This
9:55
Speaker 1: is just dawning on me. I didn't know until I
9:57
Speaker 1: read it in the paper today. I guess this is
9:59
Speaker 1: something we should keep an eye on. What rock has
10:01
Speaker 1: this guy been living under for the last year?
10:04
Speaker 3: To use a very old SportsCenter reference for those folks
10:07
Speaker 3: out in California, this just handed to me. Tim Brown
10:10
Speaker 3: is fast. For those who remember the blazing fast that
10:15
Speaker 3: Los Angeles Raiders and Oakland Raiders received were five of
10:18
Speaker 3: them correctly. Greg, for starters, the only ramen I endorse
10:22
Speaker 3: are the noodles. I remember writing a bit about that
10:26
Speaker 3: mayoral race of Rick Caruso against Karen Bass. And I
10:30
Speaker 3: really thought Rick Caruso had a great deal of potential.
10:33
Speaker 3: And yes, he was a Democrat.
10:35
Speaker 1: Wink, wink.
10:37
Speaker 3: He was the kind of Democrat who served on the
10:38
Speaker 3: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Board. You know, those kind of Democrats.
10:42
Speaker 3: And he just seemed like he was a bit of
10:44
Speaker 3: a developer. He obviously was a billionaire, so he had
10:46
Speaker 3: plenty of money to self-fund. And he gave, you know,
10:49
Speaker 3: for a right-of-center candidate or a comparably right-of-center candidate, he
10:53
Speaker 3: did the best campaign we'd seen in Los Angeles in
10:56
Speaker 3: a long time. And the sense was, OK, you know,
10:59
Speaker 3: a rematch after Karen Bass is AWOL during one of
11:02
Speaker 3: the biggest crises in the city's history. This should be
11:05
Speaker 3: an easy one. You mentioned he chose not to push
11:07
Speaker 3: for a recall effort against her, saying the city had
11:10
Speaker 3: enough on its plate. I was a little surprised by that,
11:13
Speaker 3: but I was like, OK, all right, you know, maybe
11:15
Speaker 3: you got a point.
11:16
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to look magnanimous.
11:17
Speaker 3: You want to look like you're focused entirely on the
11:19
Speaker 3: city and its problems in the immediate aftermath of the wildfires.
11:25
Speaker 3: But then he chose not to run. And you could say, ah,
11:27
Speaker 3: blessing in disguise. Now we know a lot more about
11:29
Speaker 3: Spencer Pratt. We see the natural charisma that Pratt brought
11:32
Speaker 3: to that race. But in the end, Pratt did not
11:34
Speaker 3: make the runoff. So, yeah, there is a bit of
11:37
Speaker 3: a where you been, man, and gee, Rick Caruso, if
11:40
Speaker 3: only you'd been in some position to do something about this,
11:42
Speaker 3: to have averted this outcome to the Los Angeles mayoral race.
11:46
Speaker 3: I know there was also talk about him running for governor, and,
11:49
Speaker 3: you know, we see how Hilton is doing out there.
11:51
Speaker 3: I think running for governor, a Republican successful bid for
11:54
Speaker 3: governor is just an extraordinary, that's the Mount Everest of challenges.
12:00
Speaker 3: But I really thought there was a chance he was
12:01
Speaker 3: going to run. I thought he had a great argument
12:03
Speaker 3: against Karen Bass, and... the attitude of, I'm sure, a
12:06
Speaker 3: lot of folks, right-of-center folks outside of the city right now,
12:10
Speaker 3: is that they've signed on to the Lex Luthor plan
12:12
Speaker 3: from the original Superman film to cause the latter, a
12:15
Speaker 3: chunk of California, to fall off into the ocean and
12:17
Speaker 3: just start over with the desert further inland.
12:20
Speaker 1: I don't want to see it go that.
12:21
Speaker 3: Far, but it is a little infuriating to see Caruso saying,
12:25
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, this is terrible. Yes, yes, we've been
12:28
Speaker 3: talking about this all year, Rick Caruso, and you really
12:31
Speaker 3: thought you were the guy who'd be best positioned to
12:33
Speaker 3: do something about it, Again, you now have the option
12:36
Speaker 3: between bad and worse, the failed incumbent versus the outright socialist.
12:40
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess the.
12:41
Speaker 3: Really– Greg, could that video come across as a de
12:45
Speaker 3: facto endorsement of Bass?
12:48
Speaker 1: He said he wasn't going to endorse or he wasn't
12:50
Speaker 1: going to comment, but I think you don't go public
12:52
Speaker 1: with that unless– You're trying to highlight the fact that
12:55
Speaker 1: you think that's crazy. He said he'd never expected to
12:57
Speaker 1: see that. So I guess maybe if you squint. But,
13:01
Speaker 1: you know, between those two candidates, I'd be staying the
13:03
Speaker 1: heck out of it when it comes to an endorsement.
13:05
Speaker 3: Also, in other breaking news, there's a communist magazine. That's
13:08
Speaker 3: the title of the magazine. What's their circulation?
13:11
Speaker 1: And also, great question. What do they charge? Oh, they're
13:15
Speaker 1: not giving it away? Oh, wait.
13:17
Speaker 3: I thought to everyone, you know, to their needs and
13:20
Speaker 3: from their, you know, from their.
13:21
Speaker 1: Means and all that.
13:22
Speaker 3: Oh, okay. All right.
13:24
Speaker 1: I wonder if they're making money on that deal. Yeah.
13:26
Speaker 1: I mean, you're never going to get a rocked rib
13:27
Speaker 1: conservative running for mayor of LA who has a chance
13:30
Speaker 1: to win. And so, you know, I don't expect Rick
13:33
Speaker 1: Caruso to, you know, be Ron DeSantis here. But I
13:36
Speaker 1: think in addition to backing away from the recall effort, his...
13:41
Speaker 1: Denunciation of ICE coming to L.A. to round up illegals
13:45
Speaker 1: was definitely a bloom off the rose in my mind.
13:48
Speaker 1: And some people said, well, he's a developer. He knows
13:49
Speaker 1: where that labor comes from. Well, when it comes to
13:52
Speaker 1: immigration enforcement policy, I think I agree more with the
13:54
Speaker 1: developer in the White House than the developer out in L.A.
13:57
Speaker 1: But anyway, I don't know if he's just kind of
14:00
Speaker 1: easing away from politics, but not a great look. All right.
14:05
Speaker 1: In a moment, the result we expected in Massachusetts, but
14:08
Speaker 1: maybe with a little bit of a twist. All right, Jim,
14:16
Speaker 1: the Maine primary, not the state of Maine, but the
14:19
Speaker 1: primary primary that we were focused on yesterday was the
14:22
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Senate primary on the Democratic side. There was no
14:25
Speaker 1: competition on the Republican side. John Deaton is the GOP nominee,
14:29
Speaker 1: and I'm sure he'll be a significant underdog in November.
14:33
Speaker 1: Ed Markey, been in Congress, like we said, since 1976,
14:35
Speaker 1: been there longer since Seth Moulton has been alive. Seth
14:39
Speaker 1: Moulton is 47 years old, and he said it was
14:41
Speaker 1: time for a generational change. Massachusetts Democratic voters did not
14:45
Speaker 1: agree that it was time for a generational change. The
14:48
Speaker 1: polls are pretty much spot on. They said marquee by
14:50
Speaker 1: 30 and it's marquee by about 29 and a half, 64.8
14:53
Speaker 1: percent to 35.2. And honestly, Jim, I don't know where
14:58
Speaker 1: these guys differ much on policy. I think the main
15:00
Speaker 1: thing that was discussed in this race was how Seth
15:03
Speaker 1: Bolton voted. after 2024, had said the Democrats need to
15:06
Speaker 1: get wiser on the trans issue. And then that wasn't
15:08
Speaker 1: working in the polling. So he tried to squirm his
15:10
Speaker 1: way back. And Ed Markey's out there, you know, pushing.
15:13
Speaker 1: I've been on your side the whole time. I'm pushing
15:15
Speaker 1: for a trans bill of rights. But he also talked
15:17
Speaker 1: about what he expected Congress to do if Democrats have
15:20
Speaker 1: the majority come January. And let's just say we're in reruns.
15:27
Speaker 3: We need to slash the Pentagon budget and... And we
15:32
Speaker 3: need to impeach Donald Trump now.
15:37
Speaker 1: Impeach Donald Trump and slash defense spending. Man, Jim, you
15:41
Speaker 1: could have written that talking point a good 10 years ago. But,
15:45
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of Democrats in Congress who
15:47
Speaker 1: are saying, no, we probably don't want to do that.
15:49
Speaker 1: At least, you know, if we want to keep our momentum,
15:52
Speaker 1: if we get the majority into 2028. So Ed Markey,
15:55
Speaker 1: about as left as you can get, 80 years old,
15:57
Speaker 1: and he's probably headed to six more years in Washington.
16:00
Speaker 3: I was going to say, Greg, let's see, we need
16:03
Speaker 3: to slash the Pentagon budget. I'm looking at the Financial
16:05
Speaker 3: Times today. Russia secretly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles.
16:12
Speaker 3: Is Markey under the impression the world is getting.
16:15
Speaker 1: To be safer?
16:16
Speaker 3: And, you know, ah, the world's calming down. And, you know, Russia, China, Iran,
16:21
Speaker 3: North Korea, they're all very laid back, chill guys. And
16:24
Speaker 3: they kind of, you know, there's no reason to worry
16:26
Speaker 3: about any of this stuff. You know, Is there waste
16:29
Speaker 3: in some corners of the Pentagon budget?
16:31
Speaker 4: Yes.
16:31
Speaker 1: But he's not saying that.
16:32
Speaker 3: He's just saying we need to cut the Pentagon budget, period. Secondly,
16:34
Speaker 3: he mentions we want to impeach President Trump. No, this
16:37
Speaker 3: is not a rerun episode from Trump's first term, listeners
16:40
Speaker 3: and viewers. I wrote about that in today's Morning Jolt
16:43
Speaker 3: and just kind of the sense that, you know, despite
16:45
Speaker 3: Jim Clyburn saying, oh, it's not going to be our focus.
16:49
Speaker 3: He also didn't rule it out. And it's, you know,
16:51
Speaker 3: near certain that at some point House Democrats are going
16:54
Speaker 3: to impeach the president. Even regardless of whether the Democrats
16:59
Speaker 3: win control of the Senate or not, it would then
17:01
Speaker 3: automatically go to the Senate. I don't think the trial
17:03
Speaker 3: would take very long. Looking back at 2021, after January 6th,
17:08
Speaker 3: which was pretty darn bad, 57 senators voted to impeach Trump.
17:13
Speaker 3: That included seven Republicans. Most of those seven Republicans are
17:17
Speaker 3: not around anymore. Cassidy is going to leave because he
17:19
Speaker 3: lost his primary. Murkowski is still going to be around.
17:23
Speaker 3: I think Collins will still be around. We'll see how
17:25
Speaker 3: that shakes out in November. But really, like... you're not
17:30
Speaker 3: going to get more than 57. So as somebody who
17:32
Speaker 3: could be as critical of Trump on this podcast as anybody,
17:37
Speaker 3: I'm kind of left wondering, what's the point? What is
17:39
Speaker 3: this idea? This is all going to end with Trump
17:43
Speaker 3: still there, sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.
17:47
Speaker 3: So what are you trying to do there? And I'm
17:48
Speaker 3: sure the president, the message from Markey and other Democrats.
17:50
Speaker 1: Say, well, we're holding him accountable, to quote Dr. Phil.
17:55
Speaker 3: How's that working out for you? Does Trump seem he's
17:58
Speaker 3: been chastened? Does he seem like he's been reprimanded and
18:02
Speaker 3: he's changed his ways?
18:03
Speaker 1: No, no, he does not.
18:05
Speaker 3: In fact, in an interview with Will Kane, Trump referred
18:07
Speaker 3: to the past two impeachments as victories. He saw them
18:09
Speaker 3: as wins. And at first, I kind of rolled my
18:12
Speaker 3: eyes and said, you know, 57 people saying you should
18:14
Speaker 3: be removed from office does not strike me as a win.
18:16
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, when your opponents spend an
18:18
Speaker 3: enormous amount of time and energy to try to remove you,
18:22
Speaker 3: and it doesn't succeed and nothing changes, well, then maybe
18:24
Speaker 3: that is a win in that point. So that's where
18:26
Speaker 3: Markey stands. This is what I'm supposed to be talking
18:28
Speaker 3: about on CNN later today, and I'll just kind of observe.
18:32
Speaker 3: We've seen this trend of young progressive DSA types knocking
18:38
Speaker 3: off older establishment Democrat incumbents. And I think in this case, Moulton,
18:44
Speaker 3: at least on that one comment on the trans issue,
18:46
Speaker 3: was nominally less progressive than Markey was. So it kind
18:50
Speaker 3: of It really doesn't indicate that it doesn't fit the
18:54
Speaker 3: usual narrative we've seen. It's very tough to run to
18:56
Speaker 3: the left of Ed Markey. And I think he is
18:58
Speaker 3: really well positioned for his reelection bid when he's 86, Greg.
19:04
Speaker 1: Well, I saw some commentary that said, well, when Ed
19:06
Speaker 1: Markey came to Congress, he was pro-life and pretty moderate
19:09
Speaker 1: on some other issues. It's only recently that he's become
19:12
Speaker 1: a lefty. Jim, you were covering him back in like
19:16
Speaker 1: 25 years ago. Was he not a hardcore lefty then?
19:19
Speaker 3: He's always been, you know, and Massachusetts Democrat. But when
19:22
Speaker 3: you say he used to be pro-life, let's point out
19:24
Speaker 3: that when Markey first ran for office, abortion hadn't been
19:27
Speaker 3: invented yet.
19:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
19:29
Speaker 3: I exaggerate slightly, but it was only a couple of
19:32
Speaker 3: years after 73 Roe v.
19:34
Speaker 1: Wade. And also, look, it's Massachusetts.
19:37
Speaker 3: There are a lot of Irish Catholics there. You could see,
19:41
Speaker 3: at least back in the 1970s, probably a little bit
19:45
Speaker 3: into the 80s, maybe a little bit of wiggle room
19:47
Speaker 3: on abortion on that, the Democratic Party. was not as
19:50
Speaker 3: uniformly pro-choice or pro-abortion as it certainly as it is today.
19:55
Speaker 3: But Markey was always on the left branch of his party.
19:58
Speaker 3: He was always far to the left. Um, maybe by
20:01
Speaker 3: the standards of Massachusetts Democrats, he was more moderate. You
20:04
Speaker 3: could find one or two that was for the left,
20:06
Speaker 3: but like, yeah, I think it's like, again, I covered
20:08
Speaker 3: this for the Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram Gazette from,
20:10
Speaker 3: I'm going to say like 2001, 2002 to, until I
20:14
Speaker 3: started National Review in 2004. And, you know, personality wise,
20:19
Speaker 3: there were differences within the Massachusetts Democratic House delegation, but
20:23
Speaker 3: in terms of ideology, um, Again, this is the Bush era.
20:26
Speaker 3: So they're all voting against whatever Bush wants to do
20:29
Speaker 3: nine times out of 10.
20:30
Speaker 1: So this is not a.
20:31
Speaker 3: Matter of you're seeing wide ideological variety amongst Massachusetts House
20:35
Speaker 3: Democrats back then.
20:36
Speaker 1: No, no, not at all. Yeah. And now you can
20:39
Speaker 1: just hang out. The pro-lifers need not apply at the
20:41
Speaker 1: Democratic Party. They've made that absolutely a rite of passage, unfortunately. So,
20:46
Speaker 1: all right. In the Hunter Biden, I don't even know
20:50
Speaker 1: what to say. We'll talk about it next. All right, Jim,
20:58
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden has disgusted us. He has lied to us.
21:03
Speaker 1: He has surprised us in some ways. He's now, of course,
21:06
Speaker 1: trying to somehow rehabilitate his image or maybe just reemerge. Anyway,
21:11
Speaker 1: I don't even know what podcast this is on, but
21:14
Speaker 1: this is the clip that was making the rounds on
21:16
Speaker 1: social media yesterday.
21:17
Speaker 3: Are you gay?
21:19
Speaker 2: Only a little bit.
21:21
Speaker 1: More or less than 50%.
21:22
Speaker 4: What? More or less than 50%. 48.6%.
21:27
Speaker 1: 48.6% gay. Now, Jim, given the amount of experimentation this
21:34
Speaker 1: guy has definitely done, and there's video evidence of it,
21:37
Speaker 1: I would not be surprised if he's done all sorts
21:41
Speaker 1: of different combinations with anyone or anything. But the question is,
21:45
Speaker 1: why would he say this now? I think it's because
21:48
Speaker 1: he will actually, he thinks, probably successfully, rehabilitate his image
21:53
Speaker 1: on the left. After all... You know, your former governor
21:56
Speaker 1: up there in New Jersey, Jim McGreevy, had a horrible
21:58
Speaker 1: corruption scandal and he made most of it go away
22:00
Speaker 1: just by saying, oh, my truth is that I'm gay.
22:04
Speaker 1: And then, of course, we had Bradley Manning, who was
22:06
Speaker 1: a traitor to the United States. And then Bradley decided
22:09
Speaker 1: he was Chelsea. And all of a sudden he gets
22:11
Speaker 1: commuted by Obama and a trans celebrity to some extent
22:15
Speaker 1: on the left. And so a lot of political and
22:17
Speaker 1: other sins can be washed away by this. But maybe
22:20
Speaker 1: that's too cynical. What's your take here?
22:22
Speaker 3: You know, I wonder if Hunter has felt this way
22:24
Speaker 3: ever since he first heard his dad discussing when he
22:28
Speaker 3: saw two gay men making out in public in 1950s
22:31
Speaker 3: Wilmington in a story that... And his father had told him,
22:35
Speaker 3: they just love each other in a spectacularly implausible story
22:39
Speaker 3: from Joe Biden.
22:42
Speaker 1: 48.6.
22:43
Speaker 3: That's an oddly precise number, Greg. And I seem to
22:46
Speaker 3: recall people saying... in polling, decimal points really don't mean
22:51
Speaker 3: that much. It doesn't make, you know, that really, it
22:53
Speaker 3: means nothing if you're 49.9 versus 49.1. That in the end,
22:59
Speaker 3: you know, so I'd like to know when he says 48.6,
23:02
Speaker 3: what's the margin of error? I kind of feel like,
23:05
Speaker 3: what's the sample size? How are we looking at this?
23:08
Speaker 3: How did he come out to that thing? I've just
23:10
Speaker 3: got to the last point. You know, we do champagne toast.
23:12
Speaker 3: We did not mention the passing of the legendary, brilliant,
23:16
Speaker 3: and wildly entertaining actor, Tim Curry.
23:18
Speaker 1: You know, Clue and.
23:21
Speaker 3: Just all kinds of roles over the years, usually villains,
23:24
Speaker 3: but all kinds of, you know. And as you might say,
23:27
Speaker 3: Tim Curry never discussed his personal life. Many people kind
23:29
Speaker 3: of speculated that he was gay, but he was never
23:31
Speaker 3: he never talked about who he was dating. He never
23:34
Speaker 3: made it with who he was involved with. As far
23:35
Speaker 3: as I know, he never got married. And so he
23:38
Speaker 3: just he believed that this was simply not the public's
23:41
Speaker 3: business and he never talked about it. Greg, I miss
23:44
Speaker 3: Tim Curry. And I also kind of miss people saying, oh,
23:47
Speaker 3: that's my private life. That's none of your business. And
23:49
Speaker 3: not saying and just shutting it down right there. Now, apparently,
23:53
Speaker 3: we need to bring in Nate Silver to get the
23:55
Speaker 3: actual calculations of the degree to which someone is gay.
23:59
Speaker 1: Well, why would he talk about that? Do you think
24:01
Speaker 1: there's anything to that? Does he have a reason for
24:05
Speaker 1: doing that?
24:05
Speaker 3: So, Greg, for a long time, I think a lot
24:08
Speaker 3: of us saw sexuality as kind of like the soft serve.
24:12
Speaker 1: At the ice cream.
24:12
Speaker 3: It was either chocolate or it was vanilla. It was
24:14
Speaker 3: one or the other, you know. But then they're like, oh,
24:16
Speaker 3: the swirl in the middle.
24:18
Speaker 1: I'm bi. I play for both teams. I bat both
24:20
Speaker 1: lefty and righty. Whatever metaphor you want to use there.
24:23
Speaker 3: Now today, Greg, sexuality is Baskin Robbins.
24:26
Speaker 1: There are 59 flavors. There's 57 flavors.
24:29
Speaker 3: All kinds of different varieties. And everyone feels the need
24:32
Speaker 3: to talk about it. I got to tell you, we've
24:35
Speaker 3: seen more than I ever want to see. And we've
24:38
Speaker 3: heard more than I ever want to hear. about Hunter
24:41
Speaker 3: Biden's sex life. Thank you, anonymous podcaster person who asked
24:46
Speaker 3: that question and felt the need for a follow-up for percentages.
24:50
Speaker 3: This is the one time I wish someone had paid
24:55
Speaker 3: less attention in math class, Greg.
24:58
Speaker 1: Hopefully Hunter Biden will go away. I don't think that's
25:00
Speaker 1: going to happen, but we can wish. Anyway, have a
25:03
Speaker 1: great day. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow, Greg. Jim Garrity,
25:06
Speaker 1: National Review. I'm Greg Karumbas of Radio America. Thanks so
25:08
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