Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / The Houthis, The Midterms, and Beating AI Doomerism

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The Houthis, The Midterms, and Beating AI Doomerism · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the many free online courses there and of course to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at Hugh
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: for hillsdale.com or just google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: back America. I'm Hugh Hewitt joined by United States Senator
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  Speaker 1: John Houston from the great state of Ohio. Senator I'll
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  Speaker 1: give you some good news at the top. The Guardians
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  Speaker 1: are ahead 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh in
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  Speaker 1: their rubber match with the White Sox. So we got
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  Speaker 1: that going for us today. A couple of Buckeyes talking baseball.
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  Speaker 1: But you've been busy. You've been busy. And I want
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  Speaker 1: to cover data centers. I want to cover driver's licenses.
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  Speaker 1: And I want to cover college athletes. Let's start with
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  Speaker 1: data centers. I love them, but a lot of people don't.
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  Speaker 1: You're trying to hit the perfect spot. What is it?
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  Speaker 2: Make the data centers pay for their own electricity and
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  Speaker 2: have them build their own power supply and then have
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  Speaker 2: them put actually more electricity on the grid so we
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  Speaker 2: can lower rates for consumers and then say, hey, this
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  Speaker 2: is a local decision. Whether you want a data center
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  Speaker 2: or not, that's up to local governments. I'm trying to
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  Speaker 2: pass the rate payer protection plan here in Congress. Looks
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  Speaker 2: like the House is going to act on it today.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully you can get it through the Senate and help
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  Speaker 2: settle some of the outlying issues surrounding data centers by
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  Speaker 2: lowering electricity, using them, frankly, as a tool to lower
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  Speaker 2: electricity prices for consumers.
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  Speaker 1: That is the sweet spot. And so I think they're
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  Speaker 1: big revenue generators, provided they don't break the grid. Are
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  Speaker 1: you getting any pushback from the data center builders? Because
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  Speaker 1: I don't think they'll object to this. They really don't.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I know that they're not super excited about having
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  Speaker 2: to invest more capital about it, but they.
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  Speaker 3: They get it.
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  Speaker 2: It's a reality that if they want to be welcomed
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  Speaker 2: into a community, they're going to have to do right
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  Speaker 2: by that community. And one of the ways they do
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  Speaker 2: that is building their own power supply and putting more
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  Speaker 2: power back on the grid to lower local energy costs
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  Speaker 2: rather than increase them.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's a great idea. And if they
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  Speaker 1: want to get those things built anywhere, they've got to
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  Speaker 1: pay their own way. So well done, Senator Houston. Let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about the Red Light Act. You and Senator Marino,
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  Speaker 1: also a Buckeye member. This is long, long overdue. Why
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  Speaker 1: don't you explain it to people?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there are states, 18 states and the District of
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  Speaker 2: Columbia issue drive-only driver's licenses to illegal aliens, people who
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  Speaker 2: are in this country illegally. And over the course of
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  Speaker 2: 10 days, three Ohio citizens were killed by illegal aliens
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  Speaker 2: on our highways, including one. In one case, Connecticut issued
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  Speaker 2: an illegal alien a driver's license, and that person travels
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  Speaker 2: to Ohio and eventually kills somebody on our highways.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm saying stop.
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  Speaker 2: No more issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens. And if
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  Speaker 2: you do, we're going to cut off your highway funds.
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  Speaker 2: This is a common thing that we've done throughout history.
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  Speaker 2: Remember when we had a drinking age that was 18?
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  Speaker 2: The federal government wanted all the states to raise it
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  Speaker 2: to 21. And they said, well, unless you do that,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to cut off your highway funding. Well, I
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  Speaker 2: think it should apply to this one pretty simply. Let's
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  Speaker 2: look out for American citizens who not illegal aliens, and
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  Speaker 2: if you're unwilling to look out for the safety of
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  Speaker 2: our own citizens, then you should see your highway funding
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  Speaker 2: get cut off.
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  Speaker 1: And that, by the way, that device of using highway
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  Speaker 1: funding to bribe the states into doing the right thing
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  Speaker 1: that was upheld by the Supreme Court in Dole v.
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  Speaker 1: South Dakota, perfectly legit, no need to give them money
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  Speaker 1: if they will continue to give illegal aliens driver's licenses,
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  Speaker 1: great second. Now let's touch the hot stove. You want
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  Speaker 1: to get in, along with a member of the House
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  Speaker 1: from Michigan, into the American student-athlete situation. I've got to
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  Speaker 1: tell you, the only time I was invited to address
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  Speaker 1: the conference and this came up, I did one of
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  Speaker 1: your conference breakfasts before you had joined the Senate, probably
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  Speaker 1: six years ago. Senator Blunt had me up. And this
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  Speaker 1: came up, and the conversation went for an hour and
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  Speaker 1: a half, and no one agreed on anything. So what
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  Speaker 1: do you think you can get done when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to NIL and student-athletes, Senator Huston?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we got NIL passed in the Senate yesterday, at
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  Speaker 2: least the cloture vote got 74 votes for it. But
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  Speaker 2: my main concern is that we're being asked as Congress
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  Speaker 2: to save college sports, yet more and more college rosters
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  Speaker 2: are full of student athletes from other countries. And so
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  Speaker 2: I want to put a roster limit on that. We
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  Speaker 2: need to save college sports for American citizens. Literally, there
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  Speaker 2: are there are programs, tennis, golf, soccer, hockey, where almost
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  Speaker 2: the entire roster is made up of people from other countries.
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  Speaker 2: And if you do NIL and you put all of
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  Speaker 2: this new money in there to make it more lucrative,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have more and more pro athletes from
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  Speaker 2: Asia and Europe and other places take college roster.
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  Speaker 3: Spots away from American citizens.
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  Speaker 2: And remember why we created extracurricular programs Sports, to begin with,
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  Speaker 2: because we said there are three parts to education. You
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  Speaker 2: learn the academics, but you have the physical fitness part,
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  Speaker 2: and then you have the character-building part that comes from
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  Speaker 2: participating in athletic competition, and we're denying more and more
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  Speaker 2: American citizens those opportunities. I want to use this occasion
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  Speaker 2: to cap roster spots and make sure that there are–
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  Speaker 2: we're not banning– but we're saying 80% of the roster
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  Speaker 2: spots at least need to go to American citizens.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you about how The Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: University reacts to that. I will preface this by saying
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  Speaker 1: my boys played water polo in California, and all of
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  Speaker 1: the big water polo schools are West Coast schools, and
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  Speaker 1: they are all Serbs, Croats, Eastern Europeans. I think USC
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  Speaker 1: hasn't had an Anglo-American on their team in about 100 years.
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  Speaker 1: So I understand exactly. I didn't realize that it spread
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  Speaker 1: to other sports beyond water polo. Did you talk to
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State University people and other great universities in
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  Speaker 1: Ohio before you did this? Do they think it's a
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  Speaker 1: good idea?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, they didn't object to it.
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  Speaker 2: I can't say that they like it because many of
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  Speaker 2: them use this as a tool.
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  Speaker 3: And understand, I'm not banning athletes from other countries.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just saying that it's got to be capped at 20%
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  Speaker 2: of the roster spots, giving 80% of the roster spots away.
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  Speaker 3: To American citizens.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a pretty reasonable compromise. We're not, we're not
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  Speaker 2: afraid of competition, but look, we're training the Olympians for
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  Speaker 2: all of these other countries. And Hugh, look, I'm a
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  Speaker 2: kid that grew up in a small rural town and
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  Speaker 2: played college football. And there are lots of, and it
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  Speaker 2: was so important. I wouldn't be a U S Senator
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  Speaker 2: if I hadn't played college football, because it's where I learned,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the self-discipline, the grit, the determination, the resilience
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  Speaker 2: to do tough things. And I want, every American kid
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  Speaker 2: who dreams of being a college athlete, whether that's a wrestler,
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  Speaker 2: a soccer player, whatever it might be, we've got to
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  Speaker 2: make sure they have a chance to do it because
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  Speaker 2: that's where we develop character in our young people. And
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  Speaker 2: as we're making this, we're sort of professionalizing college sports now.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to professionalize it for people from around the
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  Speaker 2: globe and they're going to take these roster spots away
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  Speaker 2: from American citizens and.
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  Speaker 3: I'm trying to get out ahead of it. It's already
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  Speaker 3: a problem.
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  Speaker 2: Once this whole save college sports, make it more lucrative
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  Speaker 2: thing gets passed, it's going to put it on steroids.
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  Speaker 4: I agree.
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  Speaker 1: And I got to say as well, taxpayers built those universities.
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  Speaker 1: People who live in the states which are hosting these
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  Speaker 1: major sports, they ought to at least get 80 percent
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  Speaker 1: of the roster spots for Americans. It's not nativist. It's
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  Speaker 1: simple ROI on your taxpayer dollars. Is anyone opposing you
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  Speaker 1: on this, Senator Houston?
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  Speaker 2: Well, no one will come right out and oppose me
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  Speaker 2: on it. Of course they won't. But they have concerns
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  Speaker 2: and they want to make sure that it's done the
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  Speaker 2: right way. Well, it's being done the right way. We've
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  Speaker 2: spent our time on this. But look, seriously, we protect
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  Speaker 2: American jobs. That's what the whole Made in America, America
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  Speaker 2: First agenda is supposed to be about.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not even saying ban it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just saying let's limit it to 20 percent, for
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  Speaker 2: goodness sakes.
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  Speaker 1: You've won me over in 10 minutes. It's a winner.
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  Speaker 1: Drivers Licensed Data Centers, Athletes from America, 8 out of
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  Speaker 1: 10 if you're paying them. John Husted, Senator from Ohio,
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  Speaker 1: always good to see you, Senator. Have a great close
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  Speaker 1: of the session because it's going to be hectic for
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  Speaker 1: the next two weeks. Thank you, Senator. I'll be right back. America,
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  Speaker 1: stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by
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  Speaker 1: Sarah C. Bedford. Sarah is the investigations editor at the
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  Speaker 1: Washington Examiner, which you can read at dcexaminer.com. Sarah, you
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  Speaker 1: wrote last week a very interesting piece on why 9-11
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy theories survived for 25 years. Explain to our audience
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  Speaker 1: how that's even possible in an age of instant information
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  Speaker 1: and the ability to go to chat GPT and have
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  Speaker 1: them debunked immediately. How did they last?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really shocking, right? There's so much information now.
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  Speaker 6: It's almost overwhelming about every little detail of what happened
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  Speaker 6: on 9-11. But part of what's perpetuating the conspiracy theories
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  Speaker 6: is that there's this whole generation of people who were
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  Speaker 6: not alive on 9-11 or who were babies on 9-11
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  Speaker 6: who are experiencing this tragic milestone through TikTok and through
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  Speaker 6: Instagram reels. And, you know, obviously social media is not
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  Speaker 6: a place.
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  Speaker 5: Where truthful information tends to flourish.
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  Speaker 6: You also have this younger generation who is looking at
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  Speaker 6: 9-11 through this new progressive grievance lens. I use the
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  Speaker 6: example of Osama bin Laden's letter to America going viral
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  Speaker 6: on TikTok a couple of years ago, right after the
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  Speaker 6: October 7th attack. And you had people hundreds of of
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  Speaker 6: creators making videos that were racking up millions of views
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  Speaker 6: talking about how maybe osama bin laden had a point
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  Speaker 6: like maybe america did deserve 9-11 you people like hassan
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  Speaker 6: piker who are extremely popular online who are parroting those
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  Speaker 6: kinds of lines and so that sort of distorts the
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  Speaker 6: reality about 9-11 now that the number of people who
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  Speaker 6: experienced it for real is dwindling.
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  Speaker 1: Now now my next question is will this happen to
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  Speaker 1: every catastrophic event for example 10-7 in Israel, has now
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  Speaker 1: been subjected to a number of conspiracy theories within the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish state and abroad. And now we have a new, quote,
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  Speaker 1: documentary called Naza that got all the virtue signaling left
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  Speaker 1: standing ovation for 25 minutes. It blamed the Israelis for
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  Speaker 1: all the havoc in Gaza. You can't find the word
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  Speaker 1: Hamas linked to any culpability whatsoever. Is every bad event
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  Speaker 1: going to get the same treatment now, Sarah?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, probably. Unfortunately, I mean, that's like not a satisfactory answer.
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  Speaker 6: But the conspiracy theories, the propaganda about October 7th in
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  Speaker 6: particular started right away.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 6: You had just this complete denialism from a lot of
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  Speaker 6: progressives and from, you know, countries and actors aligned with
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  Speaker 6: the Palestinian cause who denied that sexual abuse took place
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  Speaker 6: on October 7th, tried to paint that as some sort
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  Speaker 6: of Israeli disinformation campaign, even though there was like a
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  Speaker 6: ton of objective evidence that there was horrific, sexual abuse
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  Speaker 6: on October 7th. And it took a really long time
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  Speaker 6: for that to become part of conventional wisdom on the
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  Speaker 6: left because of all of that propaganda. But all catastrophic
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  Speaker 6: events are kind of doomed to that same fate because
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  Speaker 6: so many people, young people in particular, are getting their
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  Speaker 6: information through the warped lens of social media.
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  Speaker 1: I am curious, after you wrote this piece, did you
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  Speaker 1: get pushback about being part of the cover-up gang on 9-11?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's what happened early on when everyone, I would
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  Speaker 1: be on the air, and I said, this is nuts. Yes,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: steel can melt, jet fuel can collapse and bend building girders,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and it's all crazy. 4,000 Jews did not stay home
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  Speaker 1: from work. I get pushback online, and I just ignore it.
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  Speaker 1: Did you get pushback from your article from the crazies?
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  Speaker 5: No, not personally.
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  Speaker 6: Hopefully the crazies stayed away from it because it didn't
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  Speaker 6: validate any of the conspiracy theories, although we did get
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  Speaker 6: into what some of them are just so we could
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  Speaker 6: debunk them.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad to hear that they left you alone.
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  Speaker 1: Very quickly, Sarah, you've also been keeping your eye on
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  Speaker 1: the 10 Senate races, North Carolina, Georgia, Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Maine,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, and Minnesota. Ten big Senate races. Do the
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  Speaker 1: Republicans hold on to the Senate majority?
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  Speaker 5: It's going to be tough, but I think it's looking good.
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  Speaker 5: They've got some pickup opportunities in Michigan.
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  Speaker 6: For example, Abdul El-Sayed seems to be flailing a little bit.
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  Speaker 5: He's bogged down in controversies.
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  Speaker 6: He keeps putting his foot in his mouth, talking about
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  Speaker 6: the race of the vice president's wife and things that
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  Speaker 6: just have nothing to do with the concerns of Michigan
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  Speaker 6: working class voters. The mainstream media doesn't talk about it
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  Speaker 6: a lot, but Troy Jackson is now trailing Susan Collins
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  Speaker 6: and the Real Clear Politics average. Plattner was not at
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: the time that he dropped out. So that is not
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  Speaker 6: looking good for Democrats. I mean, there are some dark
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  Speaker 6: spots for Republicans. I still don't think, I think you
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  Speaker 6: and I disagree here. I still don't think Ossoff is
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  Speaker 6: going to get voted out in November. But I do
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  Speaker 6: think that Republicans have a real shot at holding on
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  Speaker 6: to the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: I just had John Husted on. Ohio Senator is being
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  Speaker 1: challenged by old, old, old, old, old, old Sherrod Brown.
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  Speaker 1: I think he's fine. I think Ashley Hinson's fine. North Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: Does not look good for Michael Watley right now because
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  Speaker 1: they ran a normie down there. Democrats ran Roy Cooper
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and he's a normie. John Ossoff's an incumbent. But up
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  Speaker 1: in New Hampshire, have you decided to pay attention much
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: at the Governor Sununu versus young Chris Pappas?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, that is potentially a bright spot for
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  Speaker 6: Republicans as well. I think Democrats weren't expecting to sweat
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: that one. But the polls are certainly showing that tightening.
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  Speaker 6: And then, you know, we haven't mentioned Texas, but even
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  Speaker 6: though there's been some polling that Democrats are getting excited
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: about with James Tallarico, you just can't convince me that he's.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Going to win in Texas. This happens every year. MJ Hagar,
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: Beto O'Rourke, Colin Allred. It never comes to fruition for Democrats.
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  Speaker 6: And so Texas is not, I think, necessarily going to
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  Speaker 6: be a pickup opportunity for Democrats.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to finish with my surprise about Tallarico. Two
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: days ago, when an apparently friendly fella says to him,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I was with you when you defended drag queens. Who's
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: your favorite drag queen? And he came up with a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: name without even thinking about it. That's going to be
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: all over Texas in about five seconds. And we're on
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: all across Texas right now. I just don't think they're
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: going to vote for Tallarico. However, let's go way north.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Peggy Flanagan. She's off the chart to the left of
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the DFL. She's not quite DSA, or not formally DSA,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: but she's way left. Running against Michelle Tafoya, sideline reporter
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: in the NFL. She's got five Emmys. What do you think?
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  Speaker 6: You know, if Republicans could stay on message talking about
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  Speaker 6: the extremism of some of these Democratic candidates, I do
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: think they would have a better shot. That's their best shot, right,
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: at staving off a blue wave here. It really depends
• 15:36
  Speaker 6: if the National Party, though, can stay focused on that message,
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: because you're right, Peggy Flanagan is pretty far left in
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  Speaker 6: a state that, you know, it is blue. It sometimes
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: kind of leans purpley. There's always a dream that Republicans
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: can have some success there. So if Michelle Tafoya can
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: sort of defy gravity there with the National Party message,
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: maybe she does have a shot.
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  Speaker 1: She's fabulous on air. She was on with us yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: like John Houston today. And by the way, every Democrat
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: is welcome anytime they want to call. Abdul El-Sayed, you're
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: welcome here as well. Just like Sarah C. Bedford is. Sarah,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time and for a
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  Speaker 1: great piece on 9-11 conspiracy. Follow her on X at
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Sarah C. Bedford. Follow me in the next segment. I'll
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: be right back, right here on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Spencer Claven.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: You've heard Spencer before. He's the host of the Young
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Heretics podcast, also an editor at the Claremont Review of Books,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: teaching at the University of Austin this semester as well.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: His brand new book, A Way With Words, comes out
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: in a few weeks. Spencer, welcome back. I wanted to
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: ask you two big things, two big topics. The first
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: big topic comes from the OECD's every four-year study of
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: reading across the developed world. American students fell to the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: lowest level in decades, 15 points over the last four-year quadrennium.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: That's redundant. What do you put that down to? Why
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: are American kids at the age of 15 not reading?
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: Well, I do think that a lot of it comes
• 17:07
  Speaker 7: down to our technology. There are more distractions in kids'
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: hands than there ever have been before. Obviously, AI has
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: made it tempting to summarize books or just get chat
• 17:20
  Speaker 7: GPT to take your quiz for you or whatever.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: But the reality is the ground was.
• 17:27
  Speaker 7: Laid for this way before the tech. started to bring
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: in all of these distractions. You're hearing a lot of
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: professors and a lot of high school teachers say, there's
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: nothing we can do to resist the onslaught of these machines. Well,
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: I'm a college professor. I teach literature and I'm working
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: now with some very bright students on Homer's Odyssey, which
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: is not an easy book. And I can tell you
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: the situation is not hopeless, but a lot of the
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: leaders of higher education in this country have spent a
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: lot of time and effort persuading people that the great
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: works of the West are actually evil to begin with.
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: And so there's a lot of reason for kids now,
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: I think, to be suspicious of books. And they've been
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: told that, you know, this is all racist and backwards,
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: besides which a lot of the books that they've been
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: handed are not particularly exciting, especially to boys, I would say.
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: The curriculum has really underserved boys. So We have put
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: ourselves in a bad position. And what we need to
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: do instead of just rolling over and letting the tech
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: take over is insist that in a world where digital
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: technology and phones and distractions are everywhere. It's actually far
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: more important to cultivate the humane arts than it ever
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: has been before. It is possible to insist on that.
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: It is possible to show young people the value of
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: sitting quietly in a room with a book and discussing
• 18:54
  Speaker 7: with your peers something that really matters, like what is
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: true virtue. But you have to insist on it and
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: you have to be the adult in the room. And
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: I think that a lot of our educators have failed
• 19:05
  Speaker 7: to do that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So, Spencer, there's a debate. right now, ranging from New
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: York State to California and every place in between, about
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: how much, if any, technology ought to be allowed in schools.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And they're mostly talking about cell phones and the fact
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that they beep and they go off and they distract
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and they break attention. But generally, some schools require students
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to have cell phones because the apps their teachers use
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: put their homework assignments on there. And you know Jonathan
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Haidt's work about the anxious generation. What do you think
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: ought to be the model program for a public school?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Private schools can do whatever they want, but what about
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a public school?
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm familiar with this debate. and I understand that
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: some of this technology can be useful. I also think
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: that kids do need to learn gradually how to make
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: use of the tools that we all rely on to
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: a certain extent. So I'm not in favor of kicking
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: the phones out maybe altogether for the entirety of a
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: young person's education. But certainly in the early grades, you know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: first grade through sixth, seventh, even I would say eighth,
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: up into high school, I don't really see any reason
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: why a student needs to have a phone on him
• 20:23
  Speaker 7: during the school day or on him or her during
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: the school day. In my classes, there are no screens allowed,
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: and it's mostly a relief to the students not to
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: be plugged in every second of every day. I can
• 20:36
  Speaker 7: see why parents might have some concerns about reaching out
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: and contacting their kids during the school day. But frankly,
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: I actually think that it's the administrators and the teachers
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: that they should be reaching out to in case of emergency.
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: Kids don't need to be supervised at every moment. They
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: definitely don't need to be plugged into the outside world
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: at every second. Then I would say from ninth grade onward,
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: you can start to gradually reintroduce this stuff once you've
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: got a solid base.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: In place.
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: And Haidt's work is so useful, especially when it comes
• 21:06
  Speaker 7: to psychological development, right? An ancient truth that we sometimes
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: lose sight of is that we're not the same kinds
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: of beings at every stage of our development. Kids are impressionable,
• 21:17
  Speaker 7: and you don't want them jacked in from the base
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: of the spine to the internet from the very beginning.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Once you've schooled.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Them to a.
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: Reading literature, thinking for themselves, so they have that base
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: from which they can expand, then I think, yeah, to
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: be an adult in the world, you've got to learn
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: to manage your tech and your relationship to it. But
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: I would keep them out of schools for quite some time.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, now I'm going to go to the opposite end
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: of the education spectrum. You're an Oxford PhD. The front
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: page of the New York Post today, which is about
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: AI doomerism and the push by open AI and anthropic
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to get themselves regulated for regulatory capture purposes, It lists
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a group of people, the woke wizards of AI, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: they are these people from METER, acronym unknown. I know
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: what it stands for. They're all Oxford PhDs. What is
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the intellectual environment at Oxford that it's turning out people
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: who want to run my world for me?
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: I have to apologize on behalf of my storied alma mater.
• 22:20
  Speaker 7: There's a lot of really valuable work. that goes on
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: at Oxford. But this is a particular intellectual environment that, yeah,
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: you're right, it took shape in Oxford. But it is also,
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: I think, and this is important to stress, it's not
• 22:35
  Speaker 7: just on university campuses. It's also very much an online environment.
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: Reddit based, forum based intellectual environment where it gets really,
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: really easy to theorize your way into thinking that you
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: can use numbers to calculate morality. And I think that
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: is the fundamental mistake at the heart of some of
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: these extreme effective altruist positions is the idea that you
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: can use numbers to predict the future and you can
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: use numbers to calculate the virtue of the human soul.
• 23:05
  Speaker 7: The smartest people who have thought about this have done
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: their best effort to make a science of ethics and
• 23:11
  Speaker 7: concluded that, in fact, numbers ain't the way to do it.
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: And I think that a lot of this has to
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: do with people who are very, very smart in a
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: certain domain who know how to work with things that
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: are predictable and calculable and quantifiable. But they haven't been
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: broken out of that mindset enough to realize that there
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: are some things that don't actually boil down. to pluses
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: or minuses or ones and zeros. And the internet has
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: done a lot to create that situation. So has our
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: hyper-technologized world. So I would lay this mostly at the
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: feet of the kind of Reddit forum brain that ends
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: you up thinking you can plug humans into a formula
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: and come up with the right answer for how you
• 23:55
  Speaker 7: and I ought to run our lives.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: But Spencer, the pond out of which these microbes developed
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: is Oxford. I know the Stanford is part of it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And you don't need another producer. But if the young
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: heretics could ever address what's in the water over there,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: that it produces all these effective altruists. And you use
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: that term. I didn't even feed that term to you.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: That's what it is. Did you run in? We only
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: have 30 seconds. Did you know any of these people when.
• 24:18
  Speaker 8: You were there?
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: This is what I mean by silos, because, no, I mean,
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: I'm I was obviously a classicist at Oxford. And I
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: don't think that these groups communicate as much with one
• 24:30
  Speaker 7: another as perhaps they should. Part of this might in
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: fact be the disciplinary segmentation that's going on at the academy.
• 24:38
  Speaker 7: It keeps people from talking to each other.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Well, it's it's beyond belief what they believe. And they're
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: all coming out of your alma mater. So I thought
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I'd give you a chance to answer that. Spencer Clavin,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: host of The Young Heretics. A podcast that taught me
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: more about Dante than I'd learned in decades. And now
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: they've moved on to translations and other things. I recommend
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: it highly to you. Go like and subscribe to The
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Young Heretic. Spencer, we'll talk to you in a few weeks.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, America. I'll be right back on The
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Jim
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Talent is a fellow with the Reagan Institute, study of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: peace through strength. Senator, crude oil is at $ 102 a barrel.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: The Houthis are stopping the 4 million barrel flow out
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of the Red Sea. They might be able to attack Mecca.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: They fired at Mecca. They've hit the Saudi Arabian pipeline.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Who's going to do anything? It seems to me like
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a coalition of the willing has to get together here
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: pretty soon.
• 25:34
  Speaker 9: Well, I mean, the Saudis are doing a lot right now,
• 25:36
  Speaker 9: and so are the Yemeni government forces, and they're supported
• 25:40
  Speaker 9: by Israeli forces. targeting and intelligence and by advisors from CENTCOM,
• 25:45
  Speaker 9: and we'll see if they can do the trick. I mean, look,
• 25:49
  Speaker 9: I was not surprised to see the Houthis try something
• 25:53
  Speaker 9: because they're the last remaining proxy, the last one that
• 25:57
  Speaker 9: Iran's got left. I mean, Hezbollah, severely degraded, Hamas gone,
• 26:02
  Speaker 9: Syria is not an ally. The Houthis are what they
• 26:05
  Speaker 9: had left, and the Houthis are not directly confronting the
• 26:08
  Speaker 9: Israelis now. So, They're pulling out all the stops, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 9: they're pulling out all the stops because we are successfully
• 26:14
  Speaker 9: attacking their center of gravity, their ability to fund their
• 26:18
  Speaker 9: repressive mechanism. And if they can't get us to stop,
• 26:22
  Speaker 9: I don't think this regime is long for the world.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: So I agree with that, Senator. Mark Montgomery, Admiral Montgomery,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: is on Friday or Thursday, and he said our B-2s,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: our B-52s, our B-1s ought to be bombing using J-dams.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: We've got piles and piles of J-dams, the Houthis, wherever
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: they are. And we ought to finish the job in
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Iran by bombing everything that is moving there. And I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: am with him. I think it's also good politics. A
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: lot of people think it's good warfighting, but bad politics.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I think it's both good warfighting and good politics. What
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: do you think about both? Yeah, I mean, I agree
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: with that.
• 27:01
  Speaker 9: I do think what you have to take into account
• 27:04
  Speaker 9: here is the effect of this on the Saudis, on
• 27:08
  Speaker 9: their prestige, on their standing in the region. And I
• 27:12
  Speaker 9: suspect they want to try and deal with it, along
• 27:15
  Speaker 9: with the Yemeni government, which is, of course, their supporters.
• 27:19
  Speaker 9: I'd like to see the UAE get involved. So I
• 27:21
  Speaker 9: think that's part of it here, Yu, is the Saudis
• 27:24
  Speaker 9: don't want to be in a position where we have
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: to go in and rescue them. So I think it'll
• 27:29
  Speaker 9: give them some time to deal with it. They're fixing
• 27:31
  Speaker 9: the pipeline. And Chris Wright said, probably going to be
• 27:35
  Speaker 9: partially operational soon. They're loading more oil in the Strait
• 27:40
  Speaker 9: of Hormuz. You know, I understand why the speculators react
• 27:45
  Speaker 9: to the prospect of insecurity. But I, you know, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: wonder at what point they're going to understand there's a
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: big volume of oil still flowing out of the Middle East.
• 27:55
  Speaker 9: We're going to keep it flowing. So are the Saudis.
• 27:57
  Speaker 9: There's only one direction this is going to go in.
• 28:00
  Speaker 9: And I wonder when the market is going to stop
• 28:04
  Speaker 9: reacting in such a panicked fashion to this kind of thing.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I think people are always going to try and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: make money off of risk. And as we saw with
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Anthropic and OpenAI, some people love to scare you for
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: their own profitability. And I do believe that's just regulatory
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: capture unfolding in front of us. I'm going to ask
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you about that in a second. My impression is the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz is not only open, it's wide open
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: for people who are leaving with natural gas and oil.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Is that your impression?
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 28:35
  Speaker 9: And they're going during the day now. I mean, the
• 28:38
  Speaker 9: southern route is clear. We know every time the Iranians
• 28:42
  Speaker 9: try anything, we take out whatever launchers or installations that
• 28:47
  Speaker 9: they're using. There's a lot of oil flowing out of
• 28:50
  Speaker 9: the Middle East. And remember you, I say this a
• 28:54
  Speaker 9: lot on local radio. Yeah, gas prices are too high
• 28:58
  Speaker 9: because oil prices are too high, all of which shows
• 29:02
  Speaker 9: why the Middle East matters and why it is important
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: for us when we have this opportunity to do it,
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: to get rid of the only country in the Middle
• 29:11
  Speaker 9: East that wants to disrupt oil traffic, the only country
• 29:14
  Speaker 9: in the Middle East that has a policy of attacking Americans,
• 29:18
  Speaker 9: American allies. Once we get rid of them, once we
• 29:22
  Speaker 9: stop kicking the can down the road and every other
• 29:25
  Speaker 9: president has done it, once we successfully get rid of
• 29:28
  Speaker 9: them or at minimum emasculate them, We're going to have
• 29:32
  Speaker 9: a region that agrees basically on the broadest interests, which is, yeah,
• 29:37
  Speaker 9: we want to pump oil. We want economic development. and
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: we want stability in the region. That's what this is
• 29:43
  Speaker 9: all about, and I think we're going to get it.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I believe what you just said is the key. We
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: are paying an Iran premium everywhere in the world. Since 1979,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: we have paid an Iran risk premium. Do you think
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the world economists understand that if you turn that into
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a quasi-normal government, that premium goes down, if not to zero?
• 30:04
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I remember the president saying that when all this
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: is over, gas is going to go down below $ 2
• 30:10
  Speaker 9: a gallon. And I think that's right. I don't see
• 30:12
  Speaker 9: any reason why it shouldn't. Between what we're producing, now
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: Venezuela is online, and what they're going to be producing
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: in the Middle East, as a matter of fact, I'd
• 30:22
  Speaker 9: be a little bit careful if I was heavily invested
• 30:24
  Speaker 9: in the oil companies because I'm not so sure they're
• 30:27
  Speaker 9: going to be making these kinds of profits in the
• 30:29
  Speaker 9: future because I think there's going to be a lot
• 30:31
  Speaker 9: of supply. Now, demand is always going to be there
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: as well. Does the world see it? They see it
• 30:38
  Speaker 9: in the region, Hugh. Everything I'm seeing coming out of
• 30:41
  Speaker 9: the region says they know this Iranian threat has been
• 30:45
  Speaker 9: very vastly reduced and the regime is not long for
• 30:48
  Speaker 9: the world.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Let me switch over to open AI and anthropics appeal.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I think it's an effort clearly to dig a moat
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: around what they've got and keep others out. What do
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you Jim talent think?
• 31:01
  Speaker 9: Oh, absolutely. Look, you, I said this on the pod yesterday.
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: I chaired the small business committee for four years. The
• 31:10
  Speaker 9: list of, of, of companies that want, they say, Oh,
• 31:13
  Speaker 9: we've got to regulate. And what they, they think they
• 31:16
  Speaker 9: have the political ability. to control what regulation comes out,
• 31:21
  Speaker 9: either of the executive branch or of the Congress. And boy,
• 31:25
  Speaker 9: how often it's true that those regulations hurt their competitors
• 31:30
  Speaker 9: and not them.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 31:32
  Speaker 9: It's either that or these people really are as naive
• 31:37
  Speaker 9: as sometimes they appear to be. Yeah, I think this
• 31:40
  Speaker 9: is an attempt. It's the old regulatory capture thing. This
• 31:44
  Speaker 9: is an attempt to bend federal law, and federal regulatory
• 31:48
  Speaker 9: policy in the direction of their segment of the industry.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And in 30 seconds, if they were to actually make
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: an argument to a committee, what would be the committee
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: of jurisdiction over AI? I think it should be Intel,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: but what do you think it would be?
• 32:03
  Speaker 9: No, it would be energy and commerce in the House,
• 32:08
  Speaker 9: and it would be commerce, is my guess, in the Senate.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Now, it depends.
• 32:13
  Speaker 9: It depends on what bills they were working on and
• 32:17
  Speaker 9: what ideas they had.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: It might be judiciary.
• 32:20
  Speaker 9: Certainly, Intel or the Foreign Affairs Committee or the Armed
• 32:24
  Speaker 9: Services Committees could have hearings on it. But I don't
• 32:27
  Speaker 9: think they'd have jurisdiction over any legislation.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Senator Jim Talent, always good to talk to you. Follow
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: him on X at Jim Talent. Listen to him last
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: night on Dwayne's World. And tomorrow, listen to Lilacs on
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Dwayne's World. But you've got to be a member of
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: the universe. Subscribe at Hugh Hewitt. I'll be right back.
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• 36:14
  Speaker 1: He's back now. He's four years a member of the
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Arizona State Legislature. Georgetown guy, University of Pennsylvania lawyer, Goldwater
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Institute Reagan fellow, probably knows Tim Sandefur, and I won't
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: ask him to confirm or deny that. But Alexander, welcome back.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Why do you want to be the Secretary of State
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: of Arizona? That's nothing but lawsuit magnet.
• 37:02
  Speaker 8: Well, ever since Adrian Fontes got into an elections administration position,
• 37:07
  Speaker 8: our state's elections have gone from being a national pride
• 37:11
  Speaker 8: to a national embarrassment. And it's been bad for Arizona.
• 37:14
  Speaker 8: It's been bad for our culture. It's been bad for
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: our politics. We need a secretary of state who can
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: restore confidence in our elections because we're the most important
• 37:22
  Speaker 8: swing state in the country. And Arizona voters have the
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: right to decide the fate of the country and even
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: of the world. But they need a secretary of state
• 37:29
  Speaker 8: who will protect that right and ensure that our elections
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: are transparent, honest elections. lawful, and secure. Adrian Fontes has
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: repeatedly failed to do that. He's been unable or unwilling
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: to follow the law in his four years in office,
• 37:42
  Speaker 8: and it's time for a change.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: You know, it is a mess. It has been a
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: mess for four years. How did he make it a mess?
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: This was never an issue in Arizona. I would go
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: there almost every two years with CAP or in different
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Arizona to do a post-election review of what happened, and
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: this was never an issue. What did he do?
• 38:06
  Speaker 8: Well, this is a guy who's got a record of
• 38:08
  Speaker 8: lawlessness from being indicted for a felony for running from
• 38:11
  Speaker 8: the cops when he was a kid, admitting he could
• 38:14
  Speaker 8: have killed somebody and being called mentally unstable in police
• 38:17
  Speaker 8: reports to becoming eventually a lawyer for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: This brought more crime, trafficking and human mystery to this
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: state than just about any other organization. A secretary of state,
• 38:29
  Speaker 8: he hasn't been any better about following the law. Just
• 38:32
  Speaker 8: this past month, numerous courts ruled that he intentionally tried
• 38:35
  Speaker 8: to mislead Arizona voters with the description of the measures
• 38:39
  Speaker 8: that he was going to put on the ballot. He
• 38:41
  Speaker 8: had to be stopped by three Democrats on the Ninth
• 38:43
  Speaker 8: Circuit Court of Appeals for trying to make it a
• 38:47
  Speaker 8: crime to criticize him. And another federal judge had to
• 38:50
  Speaker 8: stop him from seizing the power to disenfranchise potentially millions
• 38:54
  Speaker 8: of Arizona voters. The judge compared that to trying to
• 38:58
  Speaker 8: make a nuclear bomb to use against Arizona voters. And
• 39:02
  Speaker 8: you know federal judges, they don't talk that way. And
• 39:05
  Speaker 8: of course, he has completely refused to clean up our
• 39:08
  Speaker 8: voter rolls or enforce our proof of citizenship requirements. In fact,
• 39:12
  Speaker 8: he's in front of the United States Supreme Court right
• 39:14
  Speaker 8: now trying to dismantle our state's common sense proof of
• 39:17
  Speaker 8: citizenship requirement for voter registration. And he even went so
• 39:21
  Speaker 8: far as to say that you could register to vote
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: with a Social Security number even though you don't need
• 39:26
  Speaker 8: a Social Security number in order to vote.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: That is this lawless requisition.
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: That has taken Arizona's elections off the rails.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: All right. Now, Alexander, political candidates use a lot of rhetoric,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and I have a long, a lot of breath to
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: give them. But a lawyer for the Sinaloa cartel, am
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I going to get sued for defamation? That's a big one.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Not at all.
• 39:50
  Speaker 8: And he doesn't even, at least as far as I've
• 39:51
  Speaker 8: ever heard, dispute that. In fact, he represented the lead
• 39:54
  Speaker 8: defendant in the Fast and Furious saga. This guy was
• 39:58
  Speaker 8: running stinger missiles to the Sinaloa cartel. Adrian Fontes represented him.
• 40:03
  Speaker 8: Luis Manuel Acosta.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Look it up.
• 40:06
  Speaker 8: It's right there on the public Internet. He doesn't deny it.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: It's the truth.
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: So, Alexander, tell us how, why are you qualified? You've
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: been a legislator for four years. You're a lawyer, good lawyer.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Penn State. Marginal law school, we'll give it okay. Georgetown, okay.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: But why are you good to be the Secretary of State?
• 40:25
  Speaker 8: So I have a track record of over a decade
• 40:29
  Speaker 8: in the courtroom and as a member of the legislature
• 40:32
  Speaker 8: fighting to defend the civil rights of all Arizonans. I've
• 40:34
  Speaker 8: actually taken Adrian Fontes to court for breaking the law
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: when he tried to give any legal instruction to voters
• 40:41
  Speaker 8: that could have disenfranchised them. And that resulted in obviously
• 40:44
  Speaker 8: me beating him, but also winning the right for every
• 40:47
  Speaker 8: Arizona voter to challenge the unlawful act of an elections official.
• 40:51
  Speaker 8: As a member of the legislature, I've managed to work
• 40:54
  Speaker 8: in very challenging circumstances of divided government with the Democrat governor,
• 41:00
  Speaker 8: one seat majority during my first term, but still managed
• 41:03
  Speaker 8: to author, pass with bipartisan super majorities and have signed
• 41:07
  Speaker 8: into law a groundbreaking election reform packages. Our election results
• 41:12
  Speaker 8: came in faster this primary. That's because of a change
• 41:14
  Speaker 8: to the law.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: That I made.
• 41:16
  Speaker 8: And when Adrian Fontes tried to go too far, even
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: for our Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, and tried to exclude
• 41:24
  Speaker 8: lawful elections observers, from Pima County early voting locations, which
• 41:29
  Speaker 8: is not a partisan issue. Both parties, all parties agree
• 41:32
  Speaker 8: that you need to have election observers in those voting locations.
• 41:36
  Speaker 8: When he tried to do that, I actually had to
• 41:38
  Speaker 8: join forces with Katie Hobbs in.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Order to stop him.
• 41:43
  Speaker 8: I wrote a bill that prevented him from doing that,
• 41:45
  Speaker 8: and she signed it. That is my track record. I'll
• 41:48
  Speaker 8: put it up against his any day of the week.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: All right, two more questions, Alexander. What is your website?
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Where do people go to help you out, volunteer for
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: the campaign, otherwise learn about you?
• 42:00
  Speaker 8: They can go to my website, www.alexforaz.com, alexforaz.com. We're only
• 42:07
  Speaker 8: up by one point, and Adrian Fontes has got three
• 42:10
  Speaker 8: and a half times as much cash on hand. So
• 42:13
  Speaker 8: we need every donor. We need every person who's willing
• 42:16
  Speaker 8: to knock doors, distribute literature, to go to our website
• 42:19
  Speaker 8: and do what you can, because this is about restoring
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: confidence in American elections, not just for us, but for
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: our kids and our grandkids. alexforaz.com.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: And then, last question, what's the general environment in Arizona
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: for Juan Siskamani in Tucson? Everywhere. For your statewide people
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: besides you, but for all the congressional delegation, what's it
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: feel like?
• 42:43
  Speaker 8: It feels very much like things are on a knife's edge.
• 42:45
  Speaker 8: We could go either way. We could become Florida or
• 42:48
  Speaker 8: we could become California. And as a guy who goes
• 42:51
  Speaker 8: to California from time to time, it's like a post-apocalyptic
• 42:55
  Speaker 8: zombie hellhole over there, okay? We don't want to become California,
• 42:59
  Speaker 8: but we're perched right on that knife's edge. We need
• 43:01
  Speaker 8: everyone's help to restore this state that we love to
• 43:04
  Speaker 8: be in the most vital place in the country for
• 43:07
  Speaker 8: job creation, to be an affordable place again. and to
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: be a place where all Arizonans have confidence that all
• 43:14
  Speaker 8: lawful votes are being counted properly.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Alex, call it in, alexforaz.com, A-L-E-X-F-O-R-A-Z.com. Is that right, Alex?
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Is it F-O-R or is it the number four? F-O-R. alexforaz.com.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. Good to see you again. We'll
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: check in as we get closer to the election. Welcome back, America.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. As I told you, I went back
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and forth to California last week, and I took this
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: book with me, Profit from the Profit, the Past, Present,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: and Future of Dividend Growth Investing by my friend David Bonson.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: At the start, I'm about to interview David. I always
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: like to remind people, David is not a sponsor of
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: my show. I'm not a client of his. He is
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: not a client of mine. We are just longtime friends
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: over 30 years. But I listen to David when he
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: appears on CNBC. I listen to him on the National
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Review podcast. I read his books. I enjoyed Profit from
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: a Profit. David, welcome back. Where do we find you today?
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: I'm actually in my office in Phoenix, Arizona. So I
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: had to check what state I was in myself this morning.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad to know that you're somewhere not in
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: New York City. People will be mad at you if
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: they find out what's in Profits from the Profit. But
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: I want to go right to page 165 and read
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: to you two paragraphs for the benefit of the audience.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: It stands to reason that of all my arguments about
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: dividend growth investing, about profiting from profits, presupposes the continued
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: existence of civilization. Not only would a society where everyone
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: became extinct be a difficult landscape for dividend growth investing,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: it would also create challenges for enjoying one's dividends. Skip
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: a couple of graphs. But I digress. There are certain
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: doomsday forecasts for the world that suggest public stock markets
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: will evaporate. It goes on to talk about doomerism. David,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: it was so perfectly timed for the bout of doomerism
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: we got over the last 96 hours. What did you
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: make of that? I think it's just a play for
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: regulatory capture of the AI space.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: Well, Hugh, you mentioned my National Review podcast. It's called
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: Capital Record. It's what I talked about just a couple
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: of days ago in the aftermath. It's textbook doomerism. It
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: needs a historical context. I love talking to you because
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: you know history. You know what telecom did, what the
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: railroads did. what trucking did, what tobacco did. The tobacco
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: one is one of the funniest, if it wasn't so tragic,
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: because they literally in 2009 decided that they supported a
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: ban on marketing of cigarettes after I'm pretty sure the
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: Marlboro brands were reasonably well known in American society. But
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: now we're not going to let anybody else advertise. Look,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: I recognize, Hugh, that this is more complex than cigarettes,
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: that there is a legitimate issue. But I was very
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: much on David Sachs' side, and I'm critical of David
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: Sachs on certain other elements, particularly around crypto. But he
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: was dead on, that there's nothing that they're talking about
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: doing that they're not free to do right now. They
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: do not need to pull the ladder up. And that's
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: what's going on here.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: And I remember a conversation you and I had probably
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: six months, it might be longer, where we talked about
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: bubbles and AI and whether or not the profits could
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: ever maintain the valuation. And just like the dot-com bubble,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: there will be some successful companies and there'll be a
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: lot of dead parrots that people are going to have
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: to sort through. And then it began to make sense
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: to me after the doomerism showed up this weekend that
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: They want the government to dig a moat around their
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: businesses into which a whole bunch of money has been invested,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: and they don't want the risk. Is that unfair, or
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: am I on it?
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: Well, there's a couple of things. I think that, first
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: of all, there is a desire for waivers from product
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: liability and antitrust legislation. You see a lot of this
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: even on data center construction, where they want to be
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: able to bypass zoning, state and local zoning requirements. My
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: view on the whole thing, because I'm not a Luddite,
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: I'm not anti-AI, and I'm not a cronyist, is just
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: let everybody play by the same rules, and I don't
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: think you have these issues. What's very unique here, Hugh,
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: is the unbelievable amount of capital that is needed. If
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: these companies were exposed to normal product liability, capital markets
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: would be your regulator because they could not raise the
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: trillions of dollars of debt and equity capital that is
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: needed to fund the build-out at the same level. So
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: it would serve as a governor position. on a lot
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: of the concerns.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: So you lead me to my question, which was actually
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: raised by the All In podcast. I don't often listen
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: to those because I'm a political policy government guy, not
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: an investor guy, right? But I listen to that because
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I want to know about what I thought is creeping
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: capture underway. And they made the point. Now that they
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: proclaim that they can destroy the universe, what do they
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: put in their IPO? How do they do their securities
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: and exchange commission filing? We might destroy the world. What
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: do you think about that, David?
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: Well, there's actually a writer at Bloomberg who writes about
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: this a lot. He's a very astute guy. He's kind
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: of left-wing, but he points out at this point the
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: IPO disclosures will say we may destroy humanity. And they've
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: done it in a way that it's almost like funny.
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: Like you don't have to worry about destroying humanity because
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: you put in the IPO document you might destroy humanity.
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: You've desensitized people to the point where they don't even
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: take it seriously. And I think that there is a
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: group of people that might very well be well-meaning, but
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, most of this is
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: regulatory capture.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: It's moat building.
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: And to the extent there are legitimate concerns, I am,
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: from my limited government, constitutionalist, free-market, classically liberal, conservative standpoint,
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: of the belief that you never have to do something
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: new when the present laws and structures already address it.
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: We have laws that deal with this stuff right now.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: So back in my young days, I would walk past,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: in my big law firm, the conference rooms where the
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: corporate lawyers were working on the offerings. Because if you
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: got sucked into it, you could never get out. You'd
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: be in there all night long for a week because
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: they're working on every word in the prospectus. What do
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: they do now? I mean, can open AI go to
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the market? Can Anthropic go to the market with this
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: kind of alarmism, wreathing it in clouded black smoke?
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: Well, there's two things. First of all, it's such a
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: unique world now, Hugh, especially if you think back to
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: the way IPOs used to go. They were raising capital
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: that was very necessary at the front end. Right now,
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: private markets have had almost infinite capacity to fund these things.
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: So a lot of the IPO desire is to give
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: liquidity to investors that have already funded the company. They
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: still need to raise more primary capital. But the reason
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: why I think that they can almost go extreme in
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: the prospectus and not worry about it cutting into their
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: capital raise is what Elon just did with SpaceX. If
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: you were to read through that prospectus, you would think
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: it was written to tell people not to invest. And
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: I assure you, they didn't have any trouble raising money.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: You write in Profit from the Profit about momentum investing.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Does momentum investing simply carry us past the whole process
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: of disclosure and filings, because X is going to make
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: up for, in publicity, what the IPO circulation normally would
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: have had to go through the green eye shade people?
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question. I think that the problem
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: there is that history has not been kind to people
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: who believe momentum would carry from those private round successes
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: into post-market. You know, there's people right now that are
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: underwater on SpaceX 30%. They were at one point underwater 50%.
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: But then there's a whole bunch that were just at
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: a graveyard of outcome. And so the momentum thing doesn't carry. Now,
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: the same is true, by the way, even of very
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: successful companies in public markets that have already been mature.
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: That momentum is momentum only until it is not momentum.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: And therefore, it becomes a really difficult, sustainable investment strategy.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be right back with David Bonson for
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: another segment. His book is Profit from the Profit. David
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: is one of those rare investment advisors, wealth advisors that
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: you really can't trust. He is not mine. He is
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: not my client. He is not my sponsor. He's just
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: a smart guy I like to have on the program.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned, America. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, and
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: I am not an investment advisor, nor have I ever been,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: nor do I ever give investment advice. David Bonson does
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: to his clients, and he also writes for the American public.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: You'll often see him over at National Review as well.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: His brand new book is Profit from the Profit, the Past, Present,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: and Future of Dividend Growth Investing. David, I know you
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: cannot promote your new exchange-traded fund, TBG. someday when I'm
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: off the radio, I'm going to go invest in TBG,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: but I'm never going to invest in it, provided that
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to you on the Salem News Channel or
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: the radio. But TBG, your new fund. I want to
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: give you five minutes, just runway, to explain to people
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: what dividend growth investing is so that they don't have
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to read the book, though they should read the book
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: because it's written for laymen.
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, thank you, Hugh. And I knew
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: our 30 years of friendship would pay off today. Hugh,
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: profit from the profit is the term that I want
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: to attach to dividend growth investing. It's the idea that
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: all investors are trying to extract risk premia. So that
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: sounds like a fancy term. You're taking risk through your
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: capital because you want to get a bigger return in
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: the future. And you believe in doing that through profitable companies.
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: You want to get a claim on the profits of
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: good companies. And what I'm suggesting in profit from the
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: profit is that when they are returning some of those
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: profits to you in the form of dividends, the profits
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: go from the hypothetical to the real. They can't go negative.
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: You can't have to pay money to owe the company.
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: The stock price goes up and down, but the dividend
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: is never below zero. And so you are profiting from
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: the profits of companies. And then this is the most
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: important argument of the book. It changes the focus. of
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: what you're making money on, From something that is exogenous,
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: you're trying to make money from what the public thinks,
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: the momentum, the popularity, the kind of fad or mania
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: of a company that is going to push a stock
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: price up and then you're going to get out of
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: it just in time to something endogenous, something that's inside
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: the company, the thing itself, the profitable company. These companies,
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: and I use as examples McDonald's and Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble,
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: Johnson & Johnson, because they're well-known American brands, but there's
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: A lot of companies you're going to want to have
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: to diversify a portfolio, but they have to manage you
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: to a social contract. In other words, they can't go
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: do crazy M & A. They can't go over-lever the
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: balance sheet if they're going to sustainably grow the dividend
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: year over year, as some of these companies have done
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: for decades. And so we believe there's a maturity and
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: stability in their business model that is very good for investors.
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: It does not require them to give up return. They
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: get a better return over time. With less volatility, less
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: roller coaster, and by the way, if you're a retiree
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: or someone taking cash flow, it allows you to be
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: immunized from the up and down volatility. Your dividend is
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: constantly going up and to the right, and the stock
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: price volatility becomes far less important to you.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: So my question is, why do so few people do this?
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got an exchange-traded fund. How many others
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: do this, and how are they different from income funds
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: of the sort that a lot of seniors have?
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: A lot of income funds are focused on high income
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: or steady income, but dividend growth is still the stock market.
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: You're still buying companies that will go up and down
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: around macroeconomic cycles, around the Fed, around geopolitics. So some
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: bond income funds are intended to be less volatile because
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: they're not connected to the equity market. Dividend growth is
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: less volatile than the whole S & P 500, less
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: volatile than a big tech fund, but it's still the
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: stock market. So there's still going to be up and
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: down volatility. I argue that dividends become a friend of
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: that volatility. There's a whole chapter in the book about that.
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: When people ask me why others don't do it, I
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: would first point out there are a gazillion who do.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: This is not exactly a secret that I tapped into.
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: But my career began in the 1990s, and it was
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: very difficult to talk to people about the incredible dividend
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: growth of McDonald's when Pets.com was going up 1,000%. I
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: think that McDonald's, having generated something in the range of
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: a 700,000% return in my lifetime, has probably beat a
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: lot of those high-flying tech companies, basically one of the
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: best performers in the history of the stock market with
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: reinvested dividends. But the reality is that sometimes people think
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: dividend growth is boring. And when you get companies like
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: NVIDIA that go up 100% three years in a row
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: then it's perfectly understandable.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: You used the magic word I didn't want to put
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: on the table. Boring is what people just don't like
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: about dividend growth investing, but boring is good for people
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: with their money. The book is Profit from the Profit.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: The advisor is David Bonson. The Bonson Group has got
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: billions under management all across the world and all across
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: the United States. And David's a wonderful guy. Go get
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: profit from the profits. And don't worry about a quarter
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: point increase in the Fed like we got this afternoon.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Get the basics down. Notice I didn't ask David about
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: that because it's not relevant to the basics. David Bonson,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: always good to talk to you, friend. Stay tuned, America.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Mary Katherine Hamm is next. Welcome back, America. I hadn't
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: heard much about you in Texas. I listened to my
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Getting Hammered podcast this morning with my guest, Mary Catherine Hammond,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: our co-host, Vic Mattis. I hadn't heard about the LFLs either.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Mary Catherine, I'm so out of it. I don't know
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: what you guys are. You're middle-aged, but you're making me
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: feel ancient, and your kids are making you feel ancient.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: That was funny.
• 58:38
  Speaker 5: It's It's true, but welcome to the Ella Fella party.
• 58:42
  Speaker 5: It's a good time. I love that song.
• 58:45
  Speaker 11: It sounds like an old country music song.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: It does. I am now an Ella Fella because I
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: like the song. What I wanted to talk to you
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: that you and Vic covered today is AI doomerism because
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: I talked to David Bonson just now, and he and
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: I laugh about it. It's regulatory capture. The very first
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: lecture I had in college was about it at the
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 by the late, great James Q. Wilson.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: I don't believe any of these guys. Not a word.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: That's what Congress is for. They can go up and
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: present their case there. But what are they doing, Mary Catherine?
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be stampeded.
• 59:18
  Speaker 11: Yeah, I think it's we don't want to kneecap ourselves
• 59:23
  Speaker 11: in this debate.
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: Arms race with China.
• 59:26
  Speaker 11: And by the way, you know, when the Ossoffs of
• 59:28
  Speaker 11: the world chide Trump for not having a position on this,
• 59:32
  Speaker 11: he does have a position because he thinks the threat
• 59:34
  Speaker 11: to humanity is that we don't innovate and that we
• 59:37
  Speaker 11: let China have the biggest innovation on the table. That
• 59:41
  Speaker 11: has consequences for humanity as well that are quite present.
• 59:44
  Speaker 11: And so that's his philosophy. And also he wants the
• 59:47
  Speaker 11: economy to continue to churn along with this innovation that
• 59:50
  Speaker 11: we're leading on, which is a great thing. So I'm concerned.
• 59:54
  Speaker 11: I do think it's regulatory capture for the most part.
• 59:56
  Speaker 11: That doesn't mean concerns can't be real, but David Sachs
• 59:59
  Speaker 11: is exactly correct when he's like, no one's stopping you
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 11: from pausing and figuring out exactly what you're doing here.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 11: My concern is sometimes I think the people, the titans
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 11: of industry and tech are genuinely incredibly smart and innovative
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 11: and rash. And then you have on the other side,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 11: the people who would regulate them I think are not
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 11: very smart, but think they're very smart. And that is
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 11: a problem too, because Asaf, Senator Asaf of Georgia, he
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 11: speaks nicely, but his solutions for this are, well, we
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 11: should send some inspectors into the labs. Okay, some mid-level
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 11: bureaucrat from OSTP, what's the plan? We've got, oh, we're
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 11: going to bring them to the Hill and ask them questions.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 11: That's always so enlightening. And number three is treaties, which
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 11: as Noah Rothman pointed out nicely on CNN, don't always
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 11: hold so much with folks like the Chinese.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Well, the last nail in the coffin of a new
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: agency was what you told me today on Getting Hammered,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: which is Bernie Sanders, Steve Bannon and one Randy Weingarten
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: are in favor of this. If Randy's in favor of it,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: I'm against it because I don't think she's ever been right.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: And I would be willing to recognize if she'd ever
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: been right. Has she ever been right about anything?
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: Not in my experience.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 11: And that horrendous horseshoe trio is not something I want
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 11: to be.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: A part of at all.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I agree with you on that. Okay, let me ask
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: you about the other thing that came up today. You
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: ditched your kids in the Travis Menuhin 5K. I mean, really,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: you ditched your kids. I got ditched by my grandkids
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: in my 10K this summer, and I felt bad, but
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: I'm old, and they're young. You left your kids in
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the dust.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 5: Well, I wouldn't say that I.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 11: Left them in the dust because I think my daughter
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 11: beat me. And then the two littles went with Steve.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 5: So that was, we kind of trade off.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 11: Sometimes he'll be going for a PR and I take
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 11: the kids and we switch off. Now, this year I
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 11: was not a very fast runner, so we'll have to
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 11: revisit another time. But, you know, you got to teach
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 11: those kids to fly on their own, Hugh. You know,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 11: they can make it through a marked course.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: My grandkids love for me to see nothing except the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: bottoms of their running shoes. Let me ask you, are
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: you a once-a-year racer or ten-times-a-year racer? What are you?
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 11: I used to be much more of a cardio person,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 11: but I don't really like it. I like to lift weights,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 11: and that's what I do on a regular basis. And
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 11: then someone will talk me into running a race against
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 11: my better judgment. The 5K is fine. That's always a
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 11: fun time. But someone has talked me into a 10-miler
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 11: later this year. So I will be suffering to do that, and.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: I'll keep you posted.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: All right. Now I want to close by talking about
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed. You and Vic covered some of the Senate
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: races today. I've got a whole bunch of clips to
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: play from him from the debate last night or the appearance.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Mike Rogers doesn't want to be near him, which tells
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: me Mike Rogers is winning by 10 points. But can
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: I play for Mary Catherine? Cut number seven, please. This
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: is Abdul El-Sayed yesterday.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 11: I know you don't want to talk more about Hassan Piker,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 11: but do you just wish that you hadn't?
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Was it a mistake to campaign with him?
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 12: Again, this race is not about a streamer in California.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 12: This race is about gas prices and grocery prices in Michigan.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 12: And that's about Donald Trump and his sock puppet. And
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 12: his sock puppet couldn't come today.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: But was it just a campaign slip-up, basically?
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 12: Again, this campaign is about gas prices and grocery prices
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 12: in Michigan. It's not about a streamer in California as
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 12: much as.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: They really want you to ask. Should he be getting
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: hammered over his refusal to talk about Ahsan Piker and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: the fact that he brought him to Michigan and Ahsan
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Piker carried him over the finish line? Does he get
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: to just say, no, no, that was a party trick.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: We're not going to talk about him again.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, this isn't working.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 11: I think the answer is clear because he continues to
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 11: be asked about it to the point that he's now
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 11: losing a debate that he was in by himself.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 5: This is the news that came out of it. The
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: answer ain't working.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 11: Come up with a different one.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: So now we got a minute. What would you recommend?
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: I think he's way upside down. I think most Michigan
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: and in particular, I think the black community thinks he
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: is not on the up and up. What do you
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: think this the current situation?
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 11: I agree. There are core former Democratic voters and the
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 11: constituencies that don't trust him with good reason.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 5: They don't really go for the socialism.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 11: They don't really go for this kind of partnership with
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 11: a Hassan Piker. And then they don't believe him when
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 11: he says that he's just a streamer in California because
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 11: he's not. He was a surrogate on the campaign trail.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 5: That was very obvious to everyone.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 11: And if you lie to everyone about it, they will
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 11: notice you're lying and then they won't trust you even more. So, look,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 11: and he's also too dumb to move off of this
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 11: answer that's clearly gotten him in a rut for the
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 11: last two weeks.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Do you think all Democrats had, like, the worst year
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: in the consulting business? You know, Graham Platner had bad consultants.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed must have bad– Peggy Flanagan up in Minnesota,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: bad consultant. Do you think they just drew the short
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: straw this year?
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 5: No, I don't think that.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 11: You know what I think? Stephanie Cutter said after the
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 11: last presidential election in a postmortem that they had lost
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 11: a bunch of people during the COVID years because Democrats
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 11: didn't get out in the field and work.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: So a lot of people who should have come up
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 5: their ranks getting smarter didn't do that.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 11: And I think they hollowed themselves out to some degree.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, I got to go find that. Stephanie and I
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: never have gotten along too well, but she's very smart,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: and that's very astute. Mary Catherine Hamm, follower on X
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: at MKHammer. Go and download Getting Hammered, and Vic and
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: Mary Catherine will educate you on what the youngs are
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: up to so you don't have to be out of
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: the loop as much as I felt this morning. The
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: only crossover pod in my whole house. Everybody listens to
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Getting Hammered. Everybody does. So, Mary Catherine, thank you.