Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / The Big Weekend Pod

Transcript

The Big Weekend Pod · 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 Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take
0:06
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
0:08
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them
0:11
Speaker 1: at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple
0:14
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and Evening Grace America. Welcome
0:19
Speaker 1: the Big Weekend Pod, and what a weekend it is.
0:22
Speaker 1: We're still not really sure what's in the deal or
0:25
Speaker 1: if there is a deal. At the time that we
0:28
Speaker 1: put together the Weekend Pod with Matt Continetti, after John
0:32
Speaker 1: Ellis and Noah Rothman and Abe Greenwell, we still weren't sure.
0:37
Speaker 1: So I can't really tell you whether or not I
0:39
Speaker 1: like or don't like any deal. I don't know that
0:41
Speaker 1: there is a deal, and I'm very reluctant to render
0:47
Speaker 1: judgment on something I haven't seen anything about. It's apparently
0:50
Speaker 1: not a handicap for a lot of people in the
0:53
Speaker 1: world of the commentariat, but I think on a matter
0:56
Speaker 1: of this importance, two things stand out. One, don't try
1:01
Speaker 1: and mine read Iranians or the president or anybody else.
1:06
Speaker 1: See what happens, and if a deal is put down
1:09
Speaker 1: and they sign it, read the deal. Fog of war
1:12
Speaker 1: and all that other stuff I built. I like to
1:15
Speaker 1: tell everyone when Ston Churchill said in wartime truth is
1:19
Speaker 1: so important it must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lives.
1:23
Speaker 1: So I expect everyone is lying to everyone for purposes
1:26
Speaker 1: we have no idea about, and I doubt we really
1:28
Speaker 1: have any great visibility into how the Iranian rump regime
1:34
Speaker 1: is operating, or who's operating it, or whether the how
1:37
Speaker 1: many two point zero is actually live or the cardboard cutout.
1:40
Speaker 1: I don't know. But what I'm talking about today with
1:45
Speaker 1: for example, John Ellis on energy prices, or Matt Continetty
1:48
Speaker 1: on rising anti Semitism, Noah Rothman on what's a win
1:52
Speaker 1: and what's a loss. Here's my bottom line. We're so
1:55
Speaker 1: much better off than we were a year and a
1:57
Speaker 1: half ago. Because Iran was on a path to a nuke.
2:01
Speaker 1: They were going to get there. They were on a
2:02
Speaker 1: path to a nuke. On to the JCPOA. Donald Trump
2:05
Speaker 1: took us out of that. One of their masterminds for
2:07
Speaker 1: global terrorism, Solemony, Trump took him out. Operation Midnight Hammer
2:12
Speaker 1: absolutely obliterated Fodor which was their first attempt at getting
2:17
Speaker 1: beyond the range of our bombs. Everything smashed up. The
2:20
Speaker 1: dust is down there. We got to get the dust.
2:23
Speaker 1: We got to make sure that religious fanatics never get
2:26
Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon. Missile productions destroyed, drones are destroyed. The
2:30
Speaker 1: Israelis don a number on the besiege and a lot
2:33
Speaker 1: of the ier GC. I don't know if the people
2:36
Speaker 1: of Iran have I don't want to say they have
2:39
Speaker 1: obviously guts, but you murder forty thousand people in the streets,
2:43
Speaker 1: I can't really expect them to go out and have
2:45
Speaker 1: a parade when the war is over. But what has
2:48
Speaker 1: come out from the partial opening of the Internet is
2:51
Speaker 1: of course awful scenes from January's massacre by the regime.
2:56
Speaker 1: And please buy the Iranians too have access to the internet. America.
3:01
Speaker 1: Don't do a deal with these people. They're evil and
3:05
Speaker 1: I don't know what we're going to do. I don't
3:07
Speaker 1: have information. You don't have information. Only people at the
3:10
Speaker 1: highest classified levels actually know what's going on. But I
3:15
Speaker 1: think Iran is being throttled very effectively. And yeah, I
3:20
Speaker 1: know at gas costs. I'm in California, costs two bucks
3:22
Speaker 1: more here than it does anywhere else that you are.
3:25
Speaker 1: And I'm willing to pay that because for the first
3:27
Speaker 1: time in forty seven years, an American president, second time
3:30
Speaker 1: because Trump did it last year too, but for the
3:33
Speaker 1: second time in forty seven years, an American president has
3:37
Speaker 1: actually struck a blow at the head of the snake.
3:40
Speaker 1: And they are the equal of any evil regime on
3:44
Speaker 1: the planet, and probably the most unpredictable and the most dangerous,
3:47
Speaker 1: and the one you should want least to ever come
3:50
Speaker 1: close to any kind of WMD, whether it's a dirty
3:53
Speaker 1: bomb or an actual nuke. That having been said, let's
3:56
Speaker 1: turn the News of the week with John Ellison then
3:57
Speaker 1: bringing Matt Conney, Noah Rothman, and Abe Greenwall to talk
4:02
Speaker 1: about well, a lot of different things. Stay tuned. The
4:04
Speaker 1: Big Weekend Pod is now Welcome back to America. I'm
4:08
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewittt joined by Matt Continetti. Matt is a calumnist
4:12
Speaker 1: for The Wall Street Journal and their vertical Free Expression.
4:14
Speaker 1: Got a new column out today on the Paxton Corn
4:17
Speaker 1: and race and what it means. He's also the head
4:19
Speaker 1: of Domestic Policy Studies at AEI. Every Thursday he's on
4:22
Speaker 1: the commentary podcast Matt I was listening yesterday listening to
4:26
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and it's fascinating. I know you and
4:29
Speaker 1: I talked last week about anti Semitism in America. I
4:32
Speaker 1: don't think we can talk about this too much, so
4:34
Speaker 1: I'm moving it up to the top. It's sort of
4:36
Speaker 1: like saying, you know, in nineteen thirty three Germany, they
4:39
Speaker 1: were talking about anti Semitism too much. I don't think
4:42
Speaker 1: we can talk about it too much. The Michigan Senate debate,
4:46
Speaker 1: Graham Platner, the Glinda Lady who didn't win, thank on this.
4:51
Speaker 1: In Texas, they all ran or centered on explicitly. I
4:56
Speaker 1: have to sit there anti Submitic. They're running against APAC,
4:59
Speaker 1: which is Americans who happened to like Israel. Not necessarily
5:02
Speaker 1: Jewish Americans, but certainly lots of Jews are an Apec
5:06
Speaker 1: probably ninety five percent. But what's going on here? This
5:09
Speaker 1: is bubbling over to where my friends are actually worried.
5:15
Speaker 2: Well, I think people should be worried, Hugh. It's a
5:18
Speaker 2: big problem. I think it's a bigger problem in the
5:20
Speaker 2: Democratic Party than it is for the Republicans. But it's
5:24
Speaker 2: a challenge for us as a society. Where is it
5:27
Speaker 2: coming from? I think it's coming from a few places.
5:30
Speaker 2: One is the woke movement, the socialist movement, the reduction
5:35
Speaker 2: of everybody into oppressor and oppressed, and jamming the Israeli
5:40
Speaker 2: Palestinian conflict into that paradigm where that all of a sudden,
5:45
Speaker 2: Israel becomes the oppressors and the Palestinian become the oppressed,
5:49
Speaker 2: and no logic or evidence can dissuade.
5:52
Speaker 3: People of that.
5:54
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it, and some places like
5:56
Speaker 2: in Michigan, has to do with the growth of the
5:58
Speaker 2: Arab and Muslim vote in this country. That would be
6:02
Speaker 2: something we saw contributing to the rise of Zora Mamdani
6:06
Speaker 2: in New York. And so the politicians on the Democratic
6:11
Speaker 2: left and they're moving farther to the left, which means
6:14
Speaker 2: they're more likely to embrace this idea of Israel as
6:17
Speaker 2: an oppressor and of American Jews as kind of conspiring
6:22
Speaker 2: agents who are weakening America or exploiting Americans. And then
6:27
Speaker 2: you have the bank of votes that you can potentially
6:31
Speaker 2: get from that not just from different religious sects or
6:35
Speaker 2: from ethnic groups, but for.
6:38
Speaker 3: Broader progressive activists.
6:40
Speaker 2: This has become a big deal and it's threatening to
6:42
Speaker 2: I think, really sink the Democratic Party, because if we
6:45
Speaker 2: know one thing, Hugh, it's that once any institution or
6:48
Speaker 2: individual embraces anti Semitism, it will lead to their ultimate ruin.
6:54
Speaker 1: I agree with that. Do you think the moderators in debate?
6:58
Speaker 1: The moderators failed in Michigan? They failed to press the
7:01
Speaker 1: issue for clarity, clarity before agreement that Dennis Peger likes
7:05
Speaker 1: to say. They did not press those candidates on are
7:08
Speaker 1: you anti Semitic? Or what's the difference between being an anti
7:11
Speaker 1: Zionist and being antisomitic? Or anything. They just let it
7:15
Speaker 1: go because it's a dangerous, it's edgy. Do you think
7:19
Speaker 1: Democrats running in twenty twenty seven for their party twenty
7:23
Speaker 1: twenty eight nomination will face serious heart eating questions on
7:27
Speaker 1: this problem.
7:29
Speaker 2: I wish I could say so, but I'm very doubtful.
7:33
Speaker 2: I mean, what's the record. We've seen the mainstream media
7:36
Speaker 2: continually cover for Democrats and the Democratic left. Just look
7:40
Speaker 2: at the way in which they covered Operation Epic Fury.
7:43
Speaker 2: You and I had several conversations about just the unrelentingly
7:47
Speaker 2: negative coverage of a very effective military campaign, and so
7:51
Speaker 2: that same type of idea that anything Republicans touch, anything
7:55
Speaker 2: that has to do with Donald Trump is suspect and
8:00
Speaker 2: should be criticized, and whoever is opposing Donald Trump and
8:04
Speaker 2: what his agenda is should be handled with kid gloves.
8:08
Speaker 2: I think that's going to carry on into twenty twenty eight.
8:11
Speaker 2: You see the way some of these mainstream media figures
8:15
Speaker 2: and commentators are covering the Graham Platner campaign in Maine.
8:19
Speaker 2: This is a man who literally has a Nazi symbol
8:23
Speaker 2: emblazoned on his chest, and yet we're much less the
8:28
Speaker 2: record of offensive comments he's put on social media like
8:32
Speaker 2: Reddit over the years, and they're explained away by mainstream
8:36
Speaker 2: media personalities says, oh, well, you know, he's been through
8:39
Speaker 2: a lot, or he's a victim too, or we need
8:43
Speaker 2: to give him a pass. That same kind of exemption
8:48
Speaker 2: of agency and responsibility is going to carry on to
8:52
Speaker 2: the Democratic primary as well.
8:53
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think Platner can sell. He's so explosive,
8:58
Speaker 1: so extreme, and there's more coming. I think it's coming
9:01
Speaker 1: from the New York Times, but we will see Matt
9:04
Speaker 1: just very quickly before we go to break. Nick Lemon's
9:06
Speaker 1: written this wonderful new book, returning He's a Jew. He's
9:09
Speaker 1: about being a Jew. It's about five generations of Jews.
9:12
Speaker 1: I don't think he can win any book award, the
9:14
Speaker 1: Poets or the National Book Award because he's Jewish. Do
9:16
Speaker 1: you agree with me.
9:18
Speaker 2: I think it'd be very unlikely. I mean, you look
9:21
Speaker 2: at these cultural events that are being canceled. You look
9:24
Speaker 2: at the harassment that plagues Jewish events, of the murders
9:29
Speaker 2: in the case of the Israel event in Washington last year.
9:33
Speaker 2: I think there's a stigma attached to Jewish authors and
9:37
Speaker 2: especially pro Israel voices.
9:40
Speaker 1: It is a pivotal moment time for choosing on this issue,
9:43
Speaker 1: and Democrats are choosing poorly.
9:46
Speaker 4: Republicans choose well.
9:47
Speaker 1: I'll be right back with Matt during the break, and
9:48
Speaker 1: then on the other side of the break, stay two.
9:51
Speaker 1: I'm back with Matt continetty. If you listen to the
9:53
Speaker 1: Commentary podcast this week, or you read Matt's column in
9:56
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal on Friday, you know he's drilling
9:59
Speaker 1: down under Corny and Paxton and what it meant. I
10:02
Speaker 1: just did that with John Ellis. The fellows over at
10:05
Speaker 1: Ruthless Podcast did it on their last podcast. All of
10:09
Speaker 1: Paxson people came back for the second round half of
10:12
Speaker 1: John Corny's people didn't. What do you read into that, Matt,
10:17
Speaker 1: that Ken Paxton got eight or eighty and it went
10:20
Speaker 1: up to eight ninety. John Corny had nine hundred thousand
10:23
Speaker 1: and it went down to five hundred thousand. Who are
10:25
Speaker 1: those four hundred thousand people and what did the Republicans
10:27
Speaker 1: have to worry about them?
10:30
Speaker 5: Well?
10:30
Speaker 2: I think some of those people were probably swayed by
10:34
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's endorsement, Hugh. I mean, the Trump endorsement is
10:38
Speaker 2: the most powerful tool in Republican politics, and when Trump
10:42
Speaker 2: intervened on behalf of Ken Paxton, in my view, that
10:46
Speaker 2: really was kind of sealing the deal for Paxton's victory
10:50
Speaker 2: in the primary. Others may have just assumed that, you know,
10:55
Speaker 2: Paxson was going to win, and so we stay home.
10:58
Speaker 2: I find it hard to believe that the Republican base
11:02
Speaker 2: in Texas in twenty twenty six isn't going to come
11:04
Speaker 2: out to vote for the Senate nominee just because he's
11:09
Speaker 2: running against someone who is far to the left of
11:12
Speaker 2: Texas and in fact, someone in James Tallerrico's far to
11:15
Speaker 2: the left of the country. So I think this race
11:18
Speaker 2: is really going to boil down to Paxson's biography and
11:22
Speaker 2: all the controversies and ethical clouds that have followed him
11:26
Speaker 2: over the years, versus Talaco's ideology. And I have a
11:31
Speaker 2: feeling that Texas voters will reject the ideology in the end.
11:35
Speaker 1: So I heard you and the Fellows on commentary talking
11:38
Speaker 1: about tall Ico versus Platner. Tall Rico is weird, I mean,
11:43
Speaker 1: just way left woke. Platner is dangerous. I think he's
11:48
Speaker 1: actually not balanced. Do you agree with me on my
11:51
Speaker 1: assessment of these two, Well.
11:55
Speaker 2: Well, you look at Graham Plattner's biography, and by his
11:57
Speaker 2: own admission and several of the profiles that been written
12:00
Speaker 2: about him, he's had a very.
12:02
Speaker 3: Tumultuous life, to say the least.
12:05
Speaker 2: And I think he would even agree that at times
12:07
Speaker 2: he has been unbalanced, you know. And so it does
12:11
Speaker 2: make you really worry about his beliefs, his state of
12:16
Speaker 2: mind in a lot of places. Anyone who can get
12:18
Speaker 2: that tattoo put on his chest you got to really
12:21
Speaker 2: worry about. That's what Congressman Jake Auschenklaus was saying when
12:24
Speaker 2: he said that Nazi tattoo is disqualifying in his view.
12:27
Speaker 3: And I think he's right, and Austin Claus is a Democrat.
12:30
Speaker 2: Taalareco just seems to me to be someone who is
12:33
Speaker 2: just far left and he thinks that he can fool
12:35
Speaker 2: people like Barack Obama did. So if you look at
12:38
Speaker 2: the way Talareco speaks, You've noticed it. He copies Obama's
12:42
Speaker 2: mannerisms and speech patterns. And I'm sorry, you're not Barack Obama.
12:47
Speaker 2: You know you're a puny white dude. You're not Barack Obama.
12:51
Speaker 2: Who is this mega star from the very get go.
12:55
Speaker 2: When he addressed the Democratic National Committee in two thousand
12:58
Speaker 2: and four, I was there it, So for that reason, Yeah,
13:02
Speaker 2: I think Platner is more threatening.
13:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we've talked about this before. You and
13:08
Speaker 1: I were both in the Fleet Center that night and
13:10
Speaker 1: we both walked out of there saying that was something
13:13
Speaker 1: and nothing Tallerco done has caused me to pause. Then,
13:16
Speaker 1: by Matt coming back to talk about Iran right after
13:19
Speaker 1: this Welcome Back America, Matt Continetti talk at length about
13:33
Speaker 1: what the President had to say on the true Social.
13:36
Speaker 1: He put up a true social, and that true social
13:38
Speaker 1: said the bomb can't have the bomb, there will be
13:42
Speaker 1: no money at the beginning. But we still don't know.
13:46
Speaker 1: How confident are you about what's going to happen.
13:50
Speaker 2: Well, I'm pretty confident, Hugh, that the status quo is
13:53
Speaker 2: going to continue. And after reading the Trump Truth, my
13:58
Speaker 2: confidence was bolstered. You know, Donald Trump has been what
14:01
Speaker 2: General Jack King calls the backstop throughout this entire administration.
14:06
Speaker 2: He is on a mission to deny the Islamic Republic
14:10
Speaker 2: a nuclear bomb, and that has been his goal through
14:14
Speaker 2: whether it's Operation Mona Night Hammer, or whether it's Operation
14:17
Speaker 2: Epic Fury, or whether it's this battle of the blockades
14:21
Speaker 2: we have in the Strait of Hormuz in Persian Gulf,
14:24
Speaker 2: where we're kind of trying to find a negotiated solution.
14:28
Speaker 3: I think it's interesting.
14:29
Speaker 2: I think that the diplomacy has now outlasted the actual
14:33
Speaker 2: conflict when and what's happening there, well, I think it's
14:37
Speaker 2: a test of wills. I think the Iranians believe that
14:42
Speaker 2: their stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz is going to
14:46
Speaker 2: impose enough economic pain that Trump will settle for less,
14:50
Speaker 2: settle for less than what he wants. And Trump believes
14:54
Speaker 2: that our blockade of Iranian ports is causing enough damage
14:58
Speaker 2: to an already ruined Iranian economy, that eventually the Iranians
15:02
Speaker 2: will fold or the.
15:04
Speaker 3: House of cards will collapse.
15:06
Speaker 2: And so I when I look at the different currents
15:09
Speaker 2: of diplomacy taking place, Hugh, I actually think it has
15:12
Speaker 2: more to do with managing expectations in the energy markets
15:16
Speaker 2: than it does with actually getting to a deal, because
15:20
Speaker 2: if we know one thing about the Iranians, they're gonna
15:23
Speaker 2: lie and they're gonna cheats.
15:25
Speaker 3: I don't want a deal, really.
15:27
Speaker 1: I'm kind of hoping the President walks out and says
15:29
Speaker 1: there is no deal because these people won't actually get
15:32
Speaker 1: an agreement in place, but I tried, and that we
15:35
Speaker 1: go back to combatant active combat. The problem is the
15:40
Speaker 1: Saudis have got decil plants on which they rely and
15:44
Speaker 1: the journal post to destroy the UAE has been in
15:46
Speaker 1: their punch and above their weight hard against Iran. They're
15:50
Speaker 1: ready to go a few more around om on Is
15:52
Speaker 1: setting up a toll booth because they haven't got the
15:55
Speaker 1: natural gas that cut her ads or the oil that
15:58
Speaker 1: the Saudis and the UAE they'd love that system. I
16:02
Speaker 1: think that we are much better up than we were
16:05
Speaker 1: fifteen months ago, so much more better off. But Americans
16:09
Speaker 1: like perfect a lot more than they like the good Matt.
16:11
Speaker 1: Is that going to weigh heavily on Donald Trump's mind
16:14
Speaker 1: and making a decision here?
16:17
Speaker 2: Well, look, I think the war has been unpopular in
16:19
Speaker 2: the polls because there is no discernible outcome at the moment.
16:26
Speaker 2: But I don't think that's affecting Donald Trump's decisions. We've
16:30
Speaker 2: heard it again and again. He said he's willing to wait.
16:32
Speaker 2: He said that he doesn't care about the midterms. Now,
16:36
Speaker 2: of course, you know that really panicked a lot of Republicans.
16:39
Speaker 2: But that's Trump telegraphing to the Iranian government.
16:42
Speaker 1: Right.
16:42
Speaker 2: You can't frighten me into signing a bad deal ahead
16:45
Speaker 2: of the elections, because I'm going to I have a
16:48
Speaker 2: longer time horizon. I have another two years in office,
16:51
Speaker 2: and so we have to put this in the context
16:54
Speaker 2: of the other conflicts in the region.
16:56
Speaker 3: Here, these wars are not easily settled.
16:58
Speaker 2: Israel and Hesbala canntinue to fight right as blussed striking
17:02
Speaker 2: Israel with these drones and Israel striking.
17:05
Speaker 1: Back, and history does not wararmed history does not reward
17:09
Speaker 1: leaders who let electoral politics interfere with geo strategy. I'm
17:14
Speaker 1: thinking Nixon in nineteen seventy in Vietnam. I am thinking
17:17
Speaker 1: about w after getting thumped, as he said in two
17:21
Speaker 1: thousand and six, he doubled down with the surge. You know,
17:25
Speaker 1: you can't be driven by polling for a midterm or
17:28
Speaker 1: you'll make bad mistakes.
17:30
Speaker 6: Churchill.
17:31
Speaker 1: I'm reading The Finest Hower right now, his second volume
17:34
Speaker 1: in the World War Two memoirs. He applauds Roosevelt for
17:38
Speaker 1: just insulting Mussulini. You know, five months ahead of the
17:42
Speaker 1: nineteen forty election, when he needed the Italian American vote,
17:45
Speaker 1: and he said, some leaders have their resolves, and FDR
17:48
Speaker 1: had a resolve about England and Germany. Do you think
17:52
Speaker 1: Trump has a resolve about Iran that they they're gonna
17:57
Speaker 1: lose this war, this regime is going to eventually collapse.
18:02
Speaker 2: I think his resolve is about the regime cannot have
18:06
Speaker 2: a nuclear bomb. That's what he's been clear about since
18:09
Speaker 2: before he entered electoral politics. It's what he's been clear
18:13
Speaker 2: about since the day he launched his first campaign in
18:16
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. And so that means that until Iranians say
18:21
Speaker 2: that they are going to give up their nuclear infrastructure,
18:24
Speaker 2: I really am skeptical that will reach a deal. There's
18:28
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure in Washington for some type of
18:30
Speaker 2: deal to open the Strait of Hormuz and in exchange
18:35
Speaker 2: for US relaxing our blockade of ports of the Iranian ports.
18:40
Speaker 3: And while that.
18:42
Speaker 2: Might lead to some short term economic benefit for the
18:45
Speaker 2: world and for Trump in terms of lowered gas prices,
18:50
Speaker 2: it doesn't really meet his goal of preventing Iran from
18:53
Speaker 2: obtaining a nuclear weapon. So that's why I believe that
18:56
Speaker 2: the status quo this kind of roller coaster ride threats
19:01
Speaker 2: and then diplomacy, and then we're on the verge of
19:03
Speaker 2: a deal, but then we kind of wait a little
19:06
Speaker 2: bit longer. That's going to continue as the blockade imposes
19:09
Speaker 2: economic pain on the Iranian government.
19:12
Speaker 1: All Right, last question again referencing yesterday's commentary podcast, and
19:16
Speaker 1: if you missed it America, go find Thursdays. I was
19:18
Speaker 1: fascinating at the end. John, for whom I have the
19:22
Speaker 1: equal of respect of any commentator and analyst in America,
19:26
Speaker 1: said the ris in christ could run as the Republican
19:28
Speaker 1: nominee in twenty twenty eight and he's not going to win.
19:31
Speaker 1: I don't agree with that, but you didn't comment what
19:34
Speaker 1: do you think.
19:37
Speaker 2: I didn't comment because I wasn't there. Oh, I was
19:40
Speaker 2: on Wednesday's podcast. But if John.
19:44
Speaker 3: Had said that in my presence, I would have laughed
19:46
Speaker 3: and said, no, you're wrong. Okay, I think he'd win.
19:50
Speaker 1: Because well, that's easy way out, Matt.
19:54
Speaker 4: But I don't think that's really the easy way out.
19:57
Speaker 4: But what about the bigger point that Republicans are doomed,
20:01
Speaker 4: whether it's jd or Marco or Dave McCormick or Tom
20:05
Speaker 4: Cotton or Mike Pompel, what about that.
20:08
Speaker 3: I don't think they're due oh in twenty eight. Yeah, no, far,
20:12
Speaker 3: it's far too early.
20:13
Speaker 2: Look that the Republicans have a lot of troubles right now, Hugh.
20:16
Speaker 3: But they have one great advantage.
20:18
Speaker 2: They're going up against the Democrats, Yes, and the Democrats.
20:22
Speaker 3: The Democrats.
20:24
Speaker 2: It's not that the Democrats haven't started thinking about what
20:26
Speaker 2: went wrong in twenty twenty four. They're not interested in
20:29
Speaker 2: thinking about what meant wrong in twenty twenty four. Look
20:32
Speaker 2: at the reaction to Jill Biden's comments, oh gosh week
20:36
Speaker 2: saying that she thought that her husband had a stroke
20:39
Speaker 2: and then cheering him on to key stay in the race.
20:42
Speaker 2: Democrats are the Republican's best.
20:44
Speaker 1: Weapon and the gift that keeps on giving is the
20:47
Speaker 1: base of the Democratic Party. Matt Continent, he follow him
20:50
Speaker 1: on Extra Continent. He go read his column in the
20:52
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal today, and of course anything he writes
20:54
Speaker 1: that AI or anywhere. Thank you, Matt. I'll be right
20:57
Speaker 1: back in America Station and it's going to be are
21:00
Speaker 1: one for you. I'm fighting part of it with no
21:02
Speaker 1: sc Rothman, who's been a guest a lot on the program,
21:05
Speaker 1: but Blood in Progress took him away from his normal
21:08
Speaker 1: normal spot this week because his brand new book, Blood
21:11
Speaker 1: in Progress. He got to be out there promoting Blood
21:13
Speaker 1: in Progress. And I have a specific Blood in Progress
21:17
Speaker 1: question for you, Noah, after we do the breaking news.
21:20
Speaker 1: Here's the breaking news from courtesy of J. Jason Brodsky
21:24
Speaker 1: on x New York Times. Quote. President Trump's meeting in
21:27
Speaker 1: the Situation Room lasted about two hours, but the President
21:30
Speaker 1: did not reach a decision on any new deal with Iran,
21:32
Speaker 1: according to a senior administration official who spoke on the
21:36
Speaker 1: condition of anonymity to speak about internal deliberations. Quote, the
21:39
Speaker 1: administration believes there's still close to an agreement, but that
21:42
Speaker 1: there are certain matters being debated, including the unfreeing of
21:45
Speaker 1: funds for the Iranian The official said. My comment on that, Noah,
21:49
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to go to yours, which I
21:51
Speaker 1: just posted, is I hope President Trump provide zero relief
21:55
Speaker 1: to the Rump regime until all the enriched uranium, including
21:59
Speaker 1: the three percent sense stuff, is removed from the country
22:02
Speaker 1: and all suspected sites, including Pickaxe Mountain, are inspected. And
22:06
Speaker 1: destroying Around's nuclear program is the defining accomplishment of his presidency.
22:14
Speaker 1: That's how I see it. How do you see it?
22:17
Speaker 3: Not only did define accomplishment of his presidency.
22:20
Speaker 7: I wrote on the eve what turned out to be
22:22
Speaker 7: the eve of Operation Upic Fury, that the President's legacy
22:26
Speaker 7: will be defined by his efforts to reshape the geopolitical
22:28
Speaker 7: landscape in the Middle East, full stop Iran being the
22:32
Speaker 7: final piece of that puzzle. But it was a project
22:34
Speaker 7: that began in twenty seventeen with the very nascent outlines
22:38
Speaker 7: of what became the Abraham Accords, with the intelligence sharing
22:40
Speaker 7: relationship between the Sunni States and Israel.
22:44
Speaker 3: And that is the President's legacy.
22:45
Speaker 7: He has the opportunity to cement it or fatally muddy it,
22:49
Speaker 7: depending on his determination of where this ceasefire talk is going.
22:53
Speaker 7: And sometimes I hear the President himself say, you know,
22:57
Speaker 7: no release of funds except for performance or rewards. And
23:00
Speaker 7: then I read on background reporting from some murky sources,
23:05
Speaker 7: usually out of Axios, but usually then often confirmed by
23:08
Speaker 7: CNN or NBC or others, about the details of this proposal,
23:11
Speaker 7: all of which make me queasy and very little I
23:14
Speaker 7: feel like I can rely on. These are just rumors
23:18
Speaker 7: floating around no one. Bloom, who produces the commentary podcast,
23:20
Speaker 7: at a great line he said following these, the will
23:23
Speaker 7: he won't he stories around the Iran deal is like
23:26
Speaker 7: mock executions. It is just a psychologically brutal thing to
23:30
Speaker 7: subject yourself to, and so it's probably healthier.
23:33
Speaker 3: Just got to now.
23:34
Speaker 1: Yesterday I had to fly coast to coast. I had
23:36
Speaker 1: a lot of time with books, and so I was
23:39
Speaker 1: reading Churchill's The Finest Hour, Volume two of his World
23:42
Speaker 1: War two memoir And we're at the point where Italy
23:45
Speaker 1: declares war on a reeling France and England, and FDR
23:49
Speaker 1: goes on the radio in June before he is election
23:52
Speaker 1: in November and just denounces Italians in Italy as having
23:57
Speaker 1: taken the dagger and stabbed their neighbor in the back.
24:00
Speaker 1: Churchill said, you know, I thought, what about the Italian
24:02
Speaker 1: American vote, But I'm glad that the president FDR has
24:06
Speaker 1: his resolves which triumph over politics. I think Donald Trump
24:10
Speaker 1: has his resolves about Iran. Do you agree with me.
24:15
Speaker 7: To the yes to the extreme frustration I think of
24:18
Speaker 7: some of his Republican colleagues because at times he conveys
24:21
Speaker 7: that resolve by saying, listen, I don't care about the
24:24
Speaker 7: midterm elections, or I don't care about the status of
24:28
Speaker 7: the economy, which and he's trying to convey that he
24:31
Speaker 7: is one hundred percent committed to this project and nothing
24:34
Speaker 7: else will dissuade him from pursuing it to completion, which
24:37
Speaker 7: is valuable, especially in a wartime president. But the way
24:40
Speaker 7: he talks about it does create opportunities for Democratic ad
24:44
Speaker 7: makers to make Republican lives much more difficult, and they're
24:47
Speaker 7: not shy about saying so behind closed doors.
24:49
Speaker 1: Now, I want to go to a part of Blood
24:51
Speaker 1: in Progress, which I didn't bring the book with me.
24:54
Speaker 1: I'll get it again when I'm back on the East
24:56
Speaker 1: Coast Wednesday. But I am of the of the view
25:00
Speaker 1: that were like at nineteen thirty three levels of anti
25:03
Speaker 1: semitism in this country. That so much so that Nick Lemon,
25:07
Speaker 1: who wrote this amazing book Returning, he's a left liberal Jew,
25:12
Speaker 1: but he can't This book should win National Book Award Poetry,
25:15
Speaker 1: it won't because he's Jewish. I think we're getting the
25:17
Speaker 1: point that Jews are actually afraid of going out with
25:21
Speaker 1: their kippa at I think it's really the worst of
25:24
Speaker 1: my lifetime. I'm seventy years old. Is this a necessary
25:28
Speaker 1: part of the blood in Progress cycle? No, that the
25:32
Speaker 1: left goes through an anti semitism.
25:34
Speaker 7: Cycle, it's certainly related, and I think it's definitely the
25:41
Speaker 7: worst environment for anti Semitism in my lifetime. It's so
25:44
Speaker 7: much worse in Europe than it is here, and it's
25:46
Speaker 7: really bad here. But this didn't just happen overnight, didn't
25:49
Speaker 7: even happen in the immediate aftermath of October seventh, even
25:52
Speaker 7: though though that was the trigger, the perverse trigger for
25:55
Speaker 7: a lot of the violent anti semitism we've been experiencing
25:58
Speaker 7: in New York City. It's been going on for the
25:59
Speaker 7: better part of it decade and only getting worse. Visibly,
26:02
Speaker 7: Jewish people of being attacked on the streets of New
26:04
Speaker 7: York City all throughout even the de Blasio years, to
26:07
Speaker 7: saying the thing of Eric adams tenure, and even today
26:10
Speaker 7: and in Blood and Progress, I do describe the degree
26:13
Speaker 7: to which a lot of the narratives that are fomenting
26:15
Speaker 7: violence against Jews internationally and at home have roots in
26:20
Speaker 7: Soviet soil. A lot of the narratives that you hear
26:23
Speaker 7: expressed by anti israel forces and therefore designed to incriminate
26:28
Speaker 7: Jews for being proximate to adjacent to the Zionist project
26:33
Speaker 7: eminate and a Soviet effort to discredit the Israeli state
26:38
Speaker 7: after Soviet investments in the Arab armies that were defeated
26:42
Speaker 7: in nineteen sixty seven in nineteen seventy three proved to
26:45
Speaker 7: not be generating the returns that the Kremlin expected, so
26:48
Speaker 7: they sought to articulate narratives that would discredit the Jewish state,
26:53
Speaker 7: among them that it was a colonial outpost, a neo
26:56
Speaker 7: colonial project, and enemy to proletarian civilization, a white enclave
27:01
Speaker 7: in the brown global South, that it had been conducting
27:04
Speaker 7: genocide campaigns against Palestinians and Arabs, that used rape as
27:08
Speaker 7: a weapon of war, famine as a weapon of war.
27:11
Speaker 7: All of these narratives are frozen in amber. They are
27:15
Speaker 7: unfalsifiable in the minds of their believers, and they creep
27:19
Speaker 7: back into the discourse every now and then, and sometimes
27:21
Speaker 7: in an unreconstructed version of what we were exposed to
27:24
Speaker 7: in nineteen seventy three, which was retailed, documented evidence, retailed
27:28
Speaker 7: by KGB elements to far left, reactionary and guerrilla movements
27:34
Speaker 7: inside the United States designed to foment tension, racial tension,
27:39
Speaker 7: internal dissension, and to frustrate American geopolitical objectives.
27:43
Speaker 3: Well, I do.
27:44
Speaker 1: It's the same thing, the same legacy, but it's much
27:47
Speaker 1: deeper in the Democratic Party than it's ever been. I
27:50
Speaker 1: know people want me to say it's on the right,
27:51
Speaker 1: but I just don't think it is. To the extent
27:53
Speaker 1: that you go be on a couple of podcasts, is
27:56
Speaker 1: just not there. And those podcasts are entertainment, Are you
27:59
Speaker 1: not subject? They're not changing the opinion of standing with
28:02
Speaker 1: Israel in the Republican Party, it's still like one hundred percent. However,
28:06
Speaker 1: Democrats had a Michigan Senate primary this week and they
28:11
Speaker 1: wholly failed the reporters. The moderator wholly failed to talk
28:15
Speaker 1: about Israel or anti Zionism, much less anti Semitism. It's
28:19
Speaker 1: all one thing to me, But they wholly failed. Do
28:23
Speaker 1: you think, Noah in the twenty twenty seven and twenty
28:26
Speaker 1: twenty eight debates that Democrats who want to be their
28:29
Speaker 1: nominee will.
28:30
Speaker 3: Have will the moderators press.
28:33
Speaker 1: On this issue not just of Israel, but of Jews,
28:37
Speaker 1: because the Democrats have a Jewish.
28:39
Speaker 7: Problem, not if the moderators are aligned with democratic objectives.
28:44
Speaker 3: They know this is not a winning issue for them.
28:46
Speaker 7: They know the party's activist class has them an a
28:48
Speaker 7: vice and wants to hear things that make the party's
28:52
Speaker 7: nominees less palatable to the general electorate. It's shocking that
28:56
Speaker 7: Michigan and the Michigan debate did not focus at least
29:00
Speaker 7: little bit on the degree to which not just the
29:03
Speaker 7: Israel and the Jews, radical Islam has become a wedge
29:08
Speaker 7: issue YEP in the Michigan Senate primary. It is a
29:12
Speaker 7: divisive issue on the American left. They don't quite know
29:15
Speaker 7: how to deal with it, which is shocking given our
29:19
Speaker 7: proximity to the September eleventh attacks, which is really not
29:22
Speaker 7: all that long ago. Given our lifetimes. One of the
29:25
Speaker 7: candidates there struggles to say whether or not the Iranian
29:29
Speaker 7: regime should dissolve or whether it was valuable for us
29:32
Speaker 7: to dispense with the Iranian leadership, which has hundreds of
29:35
Speaker 7: American bodies on their hands, thousands if.
29:38
Speaker 3: You really play out the.
29:42
Speaker 7: Iranian efforts to kill Americans and kill our allies overseas
29:45
Speaker 7: over the course of the fifty years that the Islamic
29:48
Speaker 7: State Islamic Republic rather has been in existence. It's something
29:51
Speaker 7: that really kind of makes abdel Lsiied, who's one of
29:55
Speaker 7: the leading candidates for this nomination, queasy to denounce radical
30:00
Speaker 7: Islamists who want to see the United States destroyed and
30:03
Speaker 7: it's people murdered. That seems like something that the Michiganders
30:07
Speaker 7: should get a real eye full of and be able
30:10
Speaker 7: to evaluate.
30:10
Speaker 1: But there, I think it's so disparaging of Arab Americans
30:14
Speaker 1: like who I know many of and who are on
30:17
Speaker 1: both sides. They're both red and blue Arab Americans. But
30:20
Speaker 1: for the moderators not to bring it up is cowardly.
30:24
Speaker 1: Don't take the job if you won't ask the hard
30:27
Speaker 1: questions you agree with that.
30:28
Speaker 7: See, No, I don't think it's cowardly. I think it
30:31
Speaker 7: was malicious because I think they don't want to get
30:33
Speaker 7: the answers.
30:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think they want the answers.
30:36
Speaker 7: They certainly don't want to put their candidates in a
30:38
Speaker 7: position to say something that will put the crosswise with
30:41
Speaker 7: the activist class, or to create more tensions within the
30:44
Speaker 7: party that exposes the extent to which radical Islamist terrorism
30:48
Speaker 7: is a dividing line within the party. They know that
30:50
Speaker 7: reflects badly on Democrats, so why even bring it up?
30:53
Speaker 7: So Yeah, I think there's more intent there.
30:55
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I have to think about that. No Ce
30:58
Speaker 1: Rothman follow them on exit and Noan C. Rothman go
31:01
Speaker 1: to Amazon, get Blood and progress. It will bring you
31:04
Speaker 1: up to speed very quickly on where we are headed,
31:06
Speaker 1: which is back to the sixties, which is not good.
31:08
Speaker 1: We're already there. We're just already there. And the bombings
31:12
Speaker 1: of we started yet, but we're already there. Thank you. Noah.
31:15
Speaker 1: Coming right back with Abe Greenwall, executive editor of Commentary
31:20
Speaker 1: State Quarterback America. I'm here you and on this Friday
31:25
Speaker 1: and this weekend, I'm joined by Abe Greenwall, the executive
31:29
Speaker 1: editor of Commentary magazine. Abe. I want to fill you,
31:33
Speaker 1: And I've been talking with Noah Rothman and with Matt
31:37
Speaker 1: Continetti about anti Semitism and the Democratic Party, and I
31:41
Speaker 1: want to make sure a new audience know I'm not Jewish.
31:44
Speaker 1: I didn't know any Jews until I went to college,
31:46
Speaker 1: and I lived with Jews for four years and got
31:48
Speaker 1: to know some Jews and figure it out. But I'm
31:50
Speaker 1: just not Jewish. I've always been a supporter of Israel,
31:53
Speaker 1: but I am observant, and I observe a lot of
31:57
Speaker 1: anti Semitism in the United States. I mean a whole lot,
32:00
Speaker 1: and yet reporters won't ask Democrats about it. There was
32:05
Speaker 1: a Michigan Senate primary campaign debate and they did not
32:10
Speaker 1: drill down on this issue. That it's lurking like jaws
32:14
Speaker 1: beneath the Will any journalists do their work in this cycle.
32:21
Speaker 5: In the large scale, mainstream legacy media, whatever you want
32:26
Speaker 5: to call it, absolutely not. They would do it in
32:29
Speaker 5: the second Well, you know what, I'm going to retract
32:32
Speaker 5: that I was about to say, they do it in
32:33
Speaker 5: the second if the candidates involved were on the right
32:40
Speaker 5: or Republicans. But I'm not even so sure of that anymore,
32:44
Speaker 5: because they have extended a kind of open hand to
32:50
Speaker 5: the most outspoken anti Jewish voices on the right as well.
32:58
Speaker 5: There's been a kind of meeting of minds there, so
33:02
Speaker 5: no they will absolutely not do it for two reasons.
33:05
Speaker 5: Mainstream journalism these days is filled with young liberal reporters
33:13
Speaker 5: and writers and editors who believe largely that anti Zionism,
33:22
Speaker 5: as they call it, is legitimate and good and humane
33:26
Speaker 5: and not to be confused with anti Semitism. And because
33:31
Speaker 5: they do not want to challenge anyone from the Democrats
33:37
Speaker 5: and risk losing that party's support.
33:41
Speaker 1: So you're in agreement with Noah that legacy media at
33:46
Speaker 1: least is complicit with Democrats. I thought they were afraid
33:52
Speaker 1: of radicals, which are different things. To be complicit with
33:55
Speaker 1: Democrats and not bring up their broken arm issues is
33:58
Speaker 1: one thing. To be a raid of blowback terrorism violence
34:03
Speaker 1: is another thing. Do you think any of the latter
34:06
Speaker 1: is a play here.
34:08
Speaker 5: I think they were petrified of the radicals in twenty twenty,
34:12
Speaker 5: and the radicals took them over, so they have no
34:16
Speaker 5: reason to be petrified of them anymore. They have knelt
34:22
Speaker 5: kneeled before them and are acting in exactly the ways
34:28
Speaker 5: that the radicals would like. I mean, we Also remember
34:31
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty there was those reports of internal slack
34:36
Speaker 5: streams at the New York Times and elsewhere and a
34:39
Speaker 5: bunch of liberal nonprofits where you had this younger generation
34:43
Speaker 5: of radical leftists complaining to the sort of liberal higher
34:48
Speaker 5: ups about not feeling safe and what not because the
34:53
Speaker 5: voice or activities of the body in question were not
34:58
Speaker 5: radical enough. And I think they all jumped into submission.
35:07
Speaker 5: And that's where we're at all right now.
35:08
Speaker 1: I want to switch topics to the breaking news at
35:11
Speaker 1: this hour of the New York Times is reporting that
35:12
Speaker 1: President Trump has not decided on an Iran deal, and
35:17
Speaker 1: there are lots of reasons. We don't know what they are,
35:19
Speaker 1: and the President hasn't said anything, but he's always said
35:22
Speaker 1: no dust, no dollars, and they want dollars. I think
35:26
Speaker 1: I interpret it at that way. There's a small club.
35:30
Speaker 1: It includes you and me, Noah and Matt Continetti. It
35:34
Speaker 1: doesn't include John. It maybe comes in and out of
35:36
Speaker 1: that club, which is we are so much better off
35:39
Speaker 1: as the world in the country fifteen months into Donald
35:42
Speaker 1: Trump's presidency because of the damage he's done to Iran,
35:46
Speaker 1: that to a certain extent, it doesn't matter if he
35:49
Speaker 1: finishes the job. But I want him to finish the job.
35:52
Speaker 1: Do you think he will. I think it is one
35:55
Speaker 1: of his resolves, one of his historical markers, to destroy
36:00
Speaker 1: the nuclear program in Iran, and I mean destroy it.
36:05
Speaker 5: I've never been more unsure of what the President's going
36:10
Speaker 5: to do, and that's saying a lot, because I am
36:13
Speaker 5: habitually sure of what he's going to do. I have
36:17
Speaker 5: a real hard time looking into the future here because
36:21
Speaker 5: I find it impossible to believe that he will take
36:28
Speaker 5: a suckers deal that resembles in any way the JCPOA.
36:33
Speaker 5: And I also am finding it almost impossible to think
36:38
Speaker 5: he will resume kinetic operations. So I don't know, but
36:42
Speaker 5: obviously something has to give, and I don't know which gifts.
36:45
Speaker 5: And I just want to address the point about our
36:47
Speaker 5: being safer. I agree with you the bulk of the
36:54
Speaker 5: overwhelming majority of the around nuclear program lays in rubble,
37:00
Speaker 5: as do tons of missiles, and that that undoubtedly makes
37:05
Speaker 5: us safer. I will say, if the US withdraws winds
37:10
Speaker 5: down this operation with some sort of faulty, bogus deal
37:17
Speaker 5: with the remnants of the Iranian regime, it's that it's
37:21
Speaker 5: not that we will be in as much danger or
37:24
Speaker 5: more danger than we were before, but it will introduce
37:27
Speaker 5: a new danger into the world, something akin to our
37:34
Speaker 5: pointless withdrawal from Afghanistan. From Afghanistan in the sense that
37:39
Speaker 5: we will send a signal to bad actors that this
37:44
Speaker 5: is the best shot that the US gave it, this bold,
37:49
Speaker 5: overwhelming action, backed up by all sorts of bluster, and
37:54
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, they couldn't finish the job.
37:57
Speaker 5: And that is a different kind of danger that I
37:59
Speaker 5: think Donald Trump risks introducing.
38:03
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about another danger, which is any
38:06
Speaker 1: kind of a deal over international waterways that make them
38:09
Speaker 1: less international that ought not to just scare us or
38:13
Speaker 1: the world. China's got to look at the Strait of Malacca,
38:16
Speaker 1: which doesn't run past their friends. They run past our
38:19
Speaker 1: friends and say, and we've got the Virginia Class SUMMARYE
38:23
Speaker 1: and say we don't like this deal either. Do you
38:26
Speaker 1: think China might actually be pushing Iran to back away
38:29
Speaker 1: from the idea that they get.
38:30
Speaker 5: A toll Well, one hopes. I mean, you know, I
38:35
Speaker 5: think clearly Donald Trump wanted wanted China to lean on
38:41
Speaker 5: Iran one way. During his summit with g they're so
38:48
Speaker 5: tight lipped about about what they may or may not
38:53
Speaker 5: be doing visa vi Iran. The Chinese are that I
38:59
Speaker 5: don't know, but I agree with you. Then again, if
39:04
Speaker 5: this all comes down to a question of the Iranians
39:09
Speaker 5: being able to wait out a situation that the US cannot,
39:15
Speaker 5: We're in a whole new world altogether.
39:17
Speaker 1: And I'll leave it at that. I'm hoping, as I
39:21
Speaker 1: told Matt and know another, that the presidents this is
39:25
Speaker 1: one of his quote resolves. That's a Churchill word about FDR.
39:28
Speaker 1: He had certain resolves that he would not cross. I
39:30
Speaker 1: hope the nuke program is one of those resolves. And
39:33
Speaker 1: they don't get a dollar anyone who's talking to them
39:36
Speaker 1: about breaking his bake. He's going to crack his base
39:40
Speaker 1: if he does a bad deal. That's the problem. Hey
39:43
Speaker 1: Greenwall all, he's good to see you. A great Thursday
39:46
Speaker 1: and Friday edition to the Commentary podcast. I enjoyed them both.
39:49
Speaker 1: Go follow a at Abe Greenwald on X listen the
39:54
Speaker 1: Commentary podcast as well. Come right back, shud be do
39:57
Speaker 1: it now. I want to take a moment to tell
39:59
Speaker 1: you about our great sponsor, Consumer Cellular. They have a
40:01
Speaker 1: brand new offer, so I want you to listen carefully
40:04
Speaker 1: to this. You've probably seen the headlines are where it's
40:06
Speaker 1: your latest cell bill, big wirelesses raising rates again. Well,
40:10
Speaker 1: you can switch to Consumer Cellular right now and get
40:13
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars off your bill by going to Consumer
40:16
Speaker 1: Cellular dot com slash hue and use a promo code
40:20
Speaker 1: Q two hundred. That's right, Q hugh two hundred, and
40:24
Speaker 1: when you switch, you'll get the same coverage as big
40:27
Speaker 1: wireless carriers, just not the coverage that's anything other than
40:31
Speaker 1: high quality. Are you tired of your wireless company telling
40:35
Speaker 1: you have to talk to an AI chatbox or even
40:38
Speaker 1: pay ten bucks to talk to someone when paying your bill.
40:40
Speaker 1: That's happening now. Really, with Consumer Cellular, you'll talk to
40:44
Speaker 1: an actual human being based right here in the United
40:47
Speaker 1: States whill help you every step of the way when
40:49
Speaker 1: you switch for a limited time. If you're over fifty
40:53
Speaker 1: as well, you can get two hundred dollars off your
40:55
Speaker 1: bill when you switch two unlimited lines. That's two lines
40:59
Speaker 1: of unl it to talk texting data for sixty dollars
41:02
Speaker 1: a month, plus two hundred dollars off. Hurry the extra
41:06
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars off your bill will not last long.
41:09
Speaker 1: This offer and June fourteenth, visit Consumer Cellular dot com
41:14
Speaker 1: slash you use the promo code Hugh two hundred or
41:18
Speaker 1: call one eight hundred four one one forty four fifty
41:21
Speaker 1: four one eight hundred four one one forty four to
41:24
Speaker 1: fifty four one eight hundred four one one forty four
41:27
Speaker 1: fifty four. I mean Grace America. I'm here Hewan in
41:29
Speaker 1: Studio West. I had become West yesterday for a moil
41:33
Speaker 1: service tomorrow and for our friend Fid, the contractor. So
41:36
Speaker 1: thanks to Mark Davis for sitting in for me. But
41:39
Speaker 1: it's Friday, and that means John ellis editor and founder
41:43
Speaker 1: News Items. Anyone who knows me or follows me on
41:45
Speaker 1: X News every morning about six o'clock you'll see me
41:48
Speaker 1: start the day on X with one or two items
41:51
Speaker 1: from John's morning newsletter news Items. And at the end
41:54
Speaker 1: of the week we go over the stories that are
41:55
Speaker 1: most interesting or most provocative, and we want to start
41:59
Speaker 1: with the papal in John. I haven't read. Probably I
42:03
Speaker 1: was latest because he's my age, and I really this
42:07
Speaker 1: is not a theological statement at all. I don't think
42:10
Speaker 1: he has any idea. He might as well have issued
42:13
Speaker 1: an encyclical about volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes. It's coming. Well
42:18
Speaker 1: have you read it yet?
42:20
Speaker 6: I have read about half of it, and I have
42:23
Speaker 6: a more generous view than you do.
42:27
Speaker 1: He's trying, but I mean, really, they're not going to stop.
42:31
Speaker 1: People are not going to stop innovating. Right.
42:36
Speaker 6: Well, he makes the point that you know, there are
42:41
Speaker 6: two things. There's understanding and there's love. And AI won't
42:45
Speaker 6: be able to understand better than any of us in
42:48
Speaker 6: a very short period of time. But it's It's emotional
42:52
Speaker 6: capabilities are zero, or at least there's zero at the moment.
42:56
Speaker 6: What's most interesting to me is a fellow named Metz,
43:00
Speaker 6: who writes about technology for the New York Times and
43:03
Speaker 6: is arguably one of the best technology reporters in the business,
43:07
Speaker 6: did a piece this week in which he interviewed sort
43:11
Speaker 6: of the Silicon Valley tech elite, and one of its
43:16
Speaker 6: members went on to say that it was all fine
43:19
Speaker 6: and well that the Pope had his views, but the
43:21
Speaker 6: fact is that Ai was going to do better what
43:26
Speaker 6: God was supposed to do. Heal the sick and feed
43:31
Speaker 6: the poor and so on and so forth, and what everybody,
43:35
Speaker 6: what all of the insiders, so to speak, were driving
43:39
Speaker 6: toward was a machine God essentially.
43:44
Speaker 1: Well, I noted that you brought up Dawkins, and of
43:46
Speaker 1: course Hitch was a friend of mine, is on the
43:49
Speaker 1: program every week till he died, and we had the
43:51
Speaker 1: God delusion discussion a number of times. Professor Dawkins had
43:55
Speaker 1: been on the program as well, mocked me for being
43:57
Speaker 1: a Christian. That's okay, I'm used to it, but I
44:00
Speaker 1: would imagine the bros are not very God driven, although
44:03
Speaker 1: Peter Teel.
44:04
Speaker 6: Is well, I you know, the thing that makes it
44:09
Speaker 6: politically relevant, I think is that if you know, these
44:13
Speaker 6: tech bros should keep their mouths shut, because now that
44:16
Speaker 6: they've said what they've said, which is that they were
44:19
Speaker 6: working towards a machine God, there's about I don't know,
44:23
Speaker 6: eighty five percent of the country that thinks that's a
44:25
Speaker 6: really bad idea.
44:26
Speaker 1: Amen.
44:27
Speaker 6: And if you're trying to, you know, build public support
44:32
Speaker 6: for AI and build public support for your ability to
44:37
Speaker 6: be you know, unencumbered by regulations so that you can
44:41
Speaker 6: innovate your little heart out at the same time that
44:44
Speaker 6: you're arguing that the machine is God. I think it's
44:48
Speaker 6: going to I mean, I think AI is going to
44:50
Speaker 6: be the major issue of the twenty twenty eight election
44:53
Speaker 6: presidential election, and I think the reason for that is this.
44:58
Speaker 6: You know, it's a basic DEVI vision. Eighty five percent
45:02
Speaker 6: of as sort of not eighty five percent, but of
45:05
Speaker 6: the majority of Americans and certainly majority of the electorate
45:09
Speaker 6: believe that religion is not the sphere of tech Bros.
45:12
Speaker 6: And Silicon Valley and the politicians left hand right can
45:18
Speaker 6: use this issue to great effect.
45:20
Speaker 1: I believe it's very rare that John Ellis and the
45:23
Speaker 1: news items staff step away from the news and do
45:26
Speaker 1: a little bit of prophecy. So when he does, I
45:28
Speaker 1: go along on to that you just prophesied the issue
45:31
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight. I agree with you because I've
45:34
Speaker 1: seen like the Robins returning and tell Us at Spring.
45:38
Speaker 1: The opposition to data centers wherever I live is big,
45:42
Speaker 1: and I think it's dumb, but it's real, and I
45:46
Speaker 1: think that's connected the AI and AOC. Of course, the
45:50
Speaker 1: squad hates AI and data centers. So it is going
45:53
Speaker 1: to be big in twenty twenty eight, but I'm not
45:55
Speaker 1: sure how it candidate how to approach it well.
46:00
Speaker 6: And the Fox News poll is out today and it
46:02
Speaker 6: says that eighty percent of the American people believe that
46:07
Speaker 6: it is quote urgent end quote to put some guardrails
46:12
Speaker 6: around AI. So public opinion has moved very fast toward,
46:18
Speaker 6: you know, hamming these these tech bros in, and that
46:24
Speaker 6: will only increase.
46:25
Speaker 3: I believe.
46:26
Speaker 6: I had an interview with a guy named Josh Tarangel
46:29
Speaker 6: who wrote a book called AI for Good. It's a
46:32
Speaker 6: story about people who, you know, various people who use
46:35
Speaker 6: AI to do great things. And I asked him how
46:38
Speaker 6: the book tour went and he said, well, I learned
46:40
Speaker 6: one thing. I said, what was that? He said, everybody
46:43
Speaker 6: hates AI.
46:44
Speaker 1: Well, there's nothing like a book crowd to tell you that, John,
46:49
Speaker 1: I want to make sure we get to Carol, and
46:51
Speaker 1: I don't want to mispronounce her name Kasani or Kassan
46:54
Speaker 1: because Kissan Cassan. Her never coming back is eye opening
46:59
Speaker 1: because when something big happens, like the closure of the Strait,
47:03
Speaker 1: and we realize there's a vulnerability fragility, the market adapts,
47:08
Speaker 1: I mean really quickly. The market is very smart. A
47:10
Speaker 1: million people make decisions about their energy future. You want
47:13
Speaker 1: to sum up what she wrote about and I thought
47:15
Speaker 1: that was fascinating.
47:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, Carolyn teaches at NYU, teaches energy business at NYU,
47:23
Speaker 6: and she wrote a piece today or posted a piece
47:26
Speaker 6: today that said, what we thought was a supply story
47:29
Speaker 6: has become a demand story. And what she meant by
47:32
Speaker 6: that is that over one hundred nations, various policies have been,
47:38
Speaker 6: you know, put forward to suppress demand for energy, and
47:45
Speaker 6: it has created a situation where, you know, with four
47:50
Speaker 6: day work weeks and only use air conditioning x number
47:53
Speaker 6: of hours. And you and I remember, you know, the
47:56
Speaker 6: Nixon stuff after OPEC raise prices thing of governments, governments
48:02
Speaker 6: trying to suppress demand so that you know, the cost
48:05
Speaker 6: of energy will not run away, and you know. Her
48:09
Speaker 6: point is that this is now going to be learned behavior,
48:13
Speaker 6: and that it's behavior that won't go away and that
48:17
Speaker 6: will create, you know, with less demand, there will be
48:19
Speaker 6: less less, lower prices for energy. And so she thinks
48:25
Speaker 6: that one of the outcomes of the war will be
48:29
Speaker 6: quote demand adaption, meaning living in a world of less
48:34
Speaker 6: and therefore demanding less and therefore stabilizing the price of energy.
48:38
Speaker 6: The whole thing of the price of oil is going
48:41
Speaker 6: to go to one hundred and fifty dollars a barrel
48:43
Speaker 6: or two hundred dollars a barrel. She argues persuasively that
48:46
Speaker 6: that's just not going to have.
48:48
Speaker 1: You know, I noticed yesterday because my wife and I
48:50
Speaker 1: own a little bit of Costco stock. It's widows and
48:53
Speaker 1: orphan stock, and the Costco had their blowout quarter. Of course,
48:59
Speaker 1: prices download today, but that's because people are trying to
49:02
Speaker 1: save money, and they go to Costco for their guests
49:04
Speaker 1: and they stay to shop. That's adaptive behavior. Now transfer
49:09
Speaker 1: the fact that everyone's adapting to China, And for Jijenping,
49:13
Speaker 1: don't you think he's looking at the fact that strait's
49:16
Speaker 1: being closed is a very bad thing. I mean, he'd
49:19
Speaker 1: like the Taiwan Strait to be under control, but the
49:21
Speaker 1: Strait of Malacca is what he needs to never be closed.
49:24
Speaker 1: Isn't this a very bad precedent for China?
49:28
Speaker 3: Very bad?
49:29
Speaker 6: China has probably adapted best simply because of their reserves
49:34
Speaker 6: and because of the government being able to say, you know,
49:37
Speaker 6: don't do this, and everybody you know has to go along.
49:40
Speaker 6: But the Malacca Strait is obviously a key concern. It's
49:45
Speaker 6: even more important, arguably than the Strait of Hormuz, and
49:50
Speaker 6: the precedent of you know, a country claiming sovereignty over
49:56
Speaker 6: a vital choke point is not something that's I'm just
50:00
Speaker 6: going to allow in its neighborhood. That's for sure.
50:03
Speaker 1: Let me close with something you brought to my attention.
50:06
Speaker 1: The fellows over at Ruthless Podcast alluded to this. Ken
50:10
Speaker 1: Paxton's voters came back John cornyn voters did not, so
50:16
Speaker 1: that the whole election is Ken Paxton got his eight
50:19
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people back out for the runoff. John Cornyan
50:23
Speaker 1: did not get his nine hundred thousand people back to
50:26
Speaker 1: the runoff. It's a Tuesday, after the long weekend. It's
50:30
Speaker 1: hard to do. But the Paxton people are more motivated.
50:32
Speaker 1: But that's a warning sign to Republicans about energy in
50:36
Speaker 1: the base. Is that what you take away from it? Yeah?
50:41
Speaker 6: I mean Paxton got I think eight hundred and seventy
50:43
Speaker 6: eight thousand in the first primary and loss to Cornan.
50:48
Speaker 6: But Cornyan didn't get a majority, so there's a runoff primary.
50:51
Speaker 6: Paxton's vote increased from eight hundred and seventy eight thousand
50:55
Speaker 6: votes to eight hundred and eighty five thousand votes, so
50:58
Speaker 6: a net gain of seven thousand votes. What happened Cornan's vote.
51:02
Speaker 6: He got nine hundred thousand plus the first time around.
51:06
Speaker 6: You got five hundred thousand the next time around. So
51:09
Speaker 6: four hundred thousand voters essentially disappeared. So the question is
51:14
Speaker 6: why if you're a Republican and you're worried about these things,
51:18
Speaker 6: you think to yourself, we can't have those four hundred
51:21
Speaker 6: thousand metaphorically sit out this election because we'll lose to
51:26
Speaker 6: James Tallerico. If you're looking at the packing campaign you
51:30
Speaker 6: got us, you have to say, we have to make
51:33
Speaker 6: tall Rico so unpalatable that those cornon voters will vote.
51:41
Speaker 1: Well, we come back and it's Greig Abbott's job. And
51:44
Speaker 1: Johnson came to the program on Wednesday say it's our
51:47
Speaker 1: job too, but I think it'll get done. But you're right,
51:50
Speaker 1: those four hundred thousand are a marker for every Republican
51:54
Speaker 1: campaign in the fall. John Allis follow him on exit
51:58
Speaker 1: alis item. If you want news item, you can try
52:01
Speaker 1: it for free. It's a substack lose item John Ellis
52:04
Speaker 1: Google substack and you'll get there at stay tuned. I'll
52:06
Speaker 1: be right back in there.