Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Acosta’s TDS, Libs Panic at Elon's Trillion, & The Patriotic Divide | Last Call

Transcript

Acosta’s TDS, Libs Panic at Elon's Trillion, & The Patriotic Divide | Last Call · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stolnext to
0:05
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 1: Free martinis coming up.
0:13
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Last Call of the Week for the
0:15
Speaker 2: Three Martini Lunch. This is our weekly recap of some
0:18
Speaker 2: of the biggest stories of the week. Jim Garrity was
0:21
Speaker 2: on vacation, so we enjoyed hearing from some guest hosts,
0:24
Speaker 2: including National Reviews Charlie Cook. In this edition of Last Call,
0:29
Speaker 2: Charlie and I discussed three different examples this week of
0:32
Speaker 2: how the left is losing touch with reality. We react
0:35
Speaker 2: to Jim Acosta's absurd analogy to President Trump's name coming
0:40
Speaker 2: off the Kennedy Center, the left's meltdown over Elon Musk
0:43
Speaker 2: becoming a trillionaire, and an NBC poll showing a sharp
0:47
Speaker 2: divide between right and left over who is proud to
0:50
Speaker 2: be an American? And in our Chaser of the Week,
0:53
Speaker 2: even winning an NBA title doesn't diminish the desire for
0:56
Speaker 2: a lower tax bill. But we begin with Jim Acosta's
1:00
Speaker 2: the night vigil at the Kennedy Center and an utterly
1:03
Speaker 2: ridiculous comparison. Well, let's start with one of these weird things.
1:08
Speaker 2: We see these Democratic vigils where they think they can
1:11
Speaker 2: own Trump for just a little bit. They're just gleeful
1:13
Speaker 2: for a chance to stick it to Donald Trump. I remember,
1:17
Speaker 2: was it even in London. You probably know this better
1:18
Speaker 2: than I would London when there was the Trump baby
1:21
Speaker 2: balloon that some protester had and this turned into like
1:24
Speaker 2: this day's worth of coverage that just oh, they're humiliating Trump.
1:28
Speaker 2: It's we just got to keep showing this.
1:30
Speaker 1: Well.
1:31
Speaker 2: A judge recently ruled that Trump's name has to come
1:33
Speaker 2: off the Kennedy Center in Washington, d C. And there's
1:36
Speaker 2: a debate about that. And I don't really care what
1:39
Speaker 2: happens with the Kennedy Center name, but if the law
1:41
Speaker 2: says that it's got to be an Act of Congress
1:44
Speaker 2: to change the name, then that should be the law.
1:46
Speaker 2: And there for you know, his name shouldn't be on there.
1:48
Speaker 2: But the Democrats are very very excited to see the
1:51
Speaker 2: name come off, and they're very frustrated that right now
1:54
Speaker 2: there's this kind of scrim this covering that even though
1:57
Speaker 2: the name's not on the building anymore, they can't see
2:00
Speaker 2: that it's not on there, and so they're basically holding
2:03
Speaker 2: a vigil like they're watching the Vatican chimney for the
2:06
Speaker 2: smoke that there's a new pope elected or something. But
2:10
Speaker 2: if that weren't enough, you've got crazy people like Jim Acosta,
2:14
Speaker 2: formerly of CNN making the most ridiculous comparisons to Trump's
2:18
Speaker 2: name coming off the Kennedy Center.
2:20
Speaker 3: This is a giant waste of time, and it's a
2:23
Speaker 3: sign of what a petulant manchild he can be. But
2:29
Speaker 3: as we've been saying all night long and all day
2:32
Speaker 3: long for that matter, this is very much like watching
2:37
Speaker 3: the Berlin Wall coming down.
2:39
Speaker 1: It is a sign that.
2:42
Speaker 3: Mankind, that humankind can stand up against tyranny.
2:46
Speaker 2: Charlie, waste of time and you know, whatever dementa. Whatever
2:50
Speaker 2: word he used there to describe Trump could easily be
2:52
Speaker 2: used to describe Jim Acosta spending all day waiting for
2:56
Speaker 2: the moment he could finally confirm that Trump's names not
2:58
Speaker 2: in the building.
2:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:59
Speaker 5: Well, I think that's the point, which is that the
3:02
Speaker 5: argument against this, which I agree with, is that it
3:06
Speaker 5: was petty and narcissistic. It's just not what a president
3:09
Speaker 5: should be doing. It's not called the Trump Kennedy Center
3:12
Speaker 5: it's called the Kennedy Center. The law says Kennedy Center.
3:16
Speaker 5: But you can't move seamlessly from petty, which it is
3:20
Speaker 5: to It's like the Berlin Wall coming down and you
3:24
Speaker 5: have to pick a lane. So my view is it
3:26
Speaker 5: was petty for him to do it, and now that
3:29
Speaker 5: petty thing is being undone apply the same level of
3:32
Speaker 5: magnitude to each one. I think that some of these people,
3:38
Speaker 5: I think two things. I think first, they are desperate
3:41
Speaker 5: for anything that they can use as a substitute for
3:45
Speaker 5: re litigating the last election. I don't mean that they're
3:50
Speaker 5: denying the election, but I think they think that if
3:54
Speaker 5: they can take his name off a building, he won't
3:58
Speaker 5: be president anymore, or at least so that access as substitute.
4:02
Speaker 5: That that's the Catharsis for them, that it's similar in
4:05
Speaker 5: some way, which of course it's not. Second, one of
4:10
Speaker 5: the problems with modern progressivism, and in this respect it
4:13
Speaker 5: differs from older progressivism, is that it is filled with
4:18
Speaker 5: people who believe that words create reality rather than reflect reality,
4:28
Speaker 5: and they are as a result, absolutely obsessed with what
4:33
Speaker 5: names are on buildings, what people are expected to call
4:37
Speaker 5: each other. They think that they can invent new terms
4:41
Speaker 5: birthing person, for example, and that that will change the
4:44
Speaker 5: underlying sexual reality of human beings. And I think you're
4:48
Speaker 5: seeing that here. They're very, very excited about this, because
4:53
Speaker 5: to them, what really matters is the words that you
4:57
Speaker 5: put on things, and if you take his name off
4:59
Speaker 5: the building, then that somehow changes realty. But it doesn't.
5:02
Speaker 5: He's still going to be president until twenty twenty nine,
5:06
Speaker 5: so really they should find better things to do.
5:09
Speaker 2: Jim has made the point. We talked about it with
5:10
Speaker 2: Scott Pelley last week as he got fired from CBS
5:14
Speaker 2: News in sixty minutes. And you know, you have all
5:16
Speaker 2: these people when they're in these corporate media jobs and
5:20
Speaker 2: they take heat for being partisan or biased, like no, no, no,
5:23
Speaker 2: we are objective reporters. We are simply reporting the facts.
5:27
Speaker 2: How dare you suggest that? And then the minute they
5:29
Speaker 2: go on their substack or their free agents, they're about
5:32
Speaker 2: as hard left as you can possibly buy.
5:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, And Jim Acoss is a funny one because not
5:36
Speaker 5: only does he fit that description, but he really does
5:40
Speaker 5: believe himself to be some sort of hero, and he
5:42
Speaker 5: wrote a ridiculous book last time around. He talked about
5:47
Speaker 5: himself as if he was serving on Okinawa in late
5:52
Speaker 5: nineteen forties. He is now camping out and pretending that
5:58
Speaker 5: he's watching the Berlin coming down. And obviously we played
6:01
Speaker 5: that clip and it's implied, but is worth just for
6:03
Speaker 5: a brief moment thinking about what he's suggesting there. Trump's
6:08
Speaker 5: name is not going to be on a building in
6:10
Speaker 5: a free republic. The Berlin Wall was the main mechanism
6:15
Speaker 5: by which the Soviets Union kept millions of people tracked
6:19
Speaker 5: in each Germany. Did he say that free people can
6:22
Speaker 5: rally and defeat tyranny? Tyranny? I mean, this was a
6:26
Speaker 5: renaming of a building petty I think illegal too. I
6:30
Speaker 5: don't like that about Trump, but tyranny, we're just we've
6:34
Speaker 5: lost all conception of what our grandfathers went through.
6:38
Speaker 2: Yes, this is very much like watching the Berlin Wall
6:41
Speaker 2: come down. And then he said it's a sign that mankind,
6:44
Speaker 2: But then he caught himself because oh, we can't call
6:46
Speaker 2: it mankind. It's a sign that humankind can stand up
6:49
Speaker 2: against tyranny, because we certainly wouldn't want to offend anyone
6:52
Speaker 2: in the intersectional world. So Jim a Casta is living
6:56
Speaker 2: up to every inch of what we expect from Jim Casta,
6:59
Speaker 2: But I don't know. Maybe he's still out there on
7:02
Speaker 2: the patio of the Kennedy Center days later, trying to
7:05
Speaker 2: figure out what's going on behind the screens, to.
7:07
Speaker 5: A champagne in his hand.
7:10
Speaker 2: Right, Maybe you know, Jim Acosta just needs to touch
7:14
Speaker 2: grass or flowers or a tree or something, and for
7:18
Speaker 2: that he should get it from fast growing Trees. And
7:21
Speaker 2: Fast Growing Trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery,
7:25
Speaker 2: with thousands of trees and plants and more than two
7:27
Speaker 2: million happy customers. And now you know, we're halfway through June,
7:30
Speaker 2: so by this point of the summer, you've probably spent
7:32
Speaker 2: more time outside than you have the rest of the
7:33
Speaker 2: year combined. And maybe you had a chance to look
7:35
Speaker 2: around your yard or look around your house and say,
7:37
Speaker 2: you know, we could use a little sprucing up here.
7:39
Speaker 2: So this is a really good time to plant. We
7:41
Speaker 2: just recently got our lavender plant.
7:43
Speaker 1: It's out on the deck.
7:44
Speaker 2: It smells great, it looks great, arrived in terrific condition.
7:47
Speaker 2: Even helps to keep the mosquitoes away, which is a
7:49
Speaker 2: nice edded bonus. But whatever you're looking for from fast
7:52
Speaker 2: growing trees, they have an outstanding selection more than sixteen
7:55
Speaker 2: hundred varieties of trees and plants. They have guaranteed quality.
7:59
Speaker 2: It doesn't arise in fantastic condition, they'll replace it, no
8:02
Speaker 2: questions asked through they're alive and thrive guarantee, and they
8:05
Speaker 2: give you ongoing support if you don't have a green thumb.
8:07
Speaker 2: So listeners get twenty percent off with the code Martini.
8:10
Speaker 2: That's an additional twenty percent off, better plants and better
8:13
Speaker 2: growing at Fast Growing Trees dot Com slash Martini code Martini.
8:17
Speaker 2: That's Fast Growing Trees dot Com slash Martini Code Martini
8:20
Speaker 2: offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions
8:24
Speaker 2: may apply. Charlie Cook and I began the week by
8:32
Speaker 2: discussing how so many on the left were losing their
8:36
Speaker 2: minds because Elon Musk became a trillionaire well after Jim
8:40
Speaker 2: and I recorded on Friday, but for a lot of
8:42
Speaker 2: Friday and into the weekend, one of the things that
8:45
Speaker 2: really had the left of really mad was the fact
8:48
Speaker 2: that SpaceX went public and as a result, on paper,
8:53
Speaker 2: Elon Musk has become the first trillionaire, worth about one
8:57
Speaker 2: point one or one point two trillion dollars. As a
8:59
Speaker 2: result of this depending on which estimate you look at.
9:02
Speaker 2: And the Left is losing its mind over this, so
9:05
Speaker 2: many different reactions. You've got Graham Platner up there in
9:09
Speaker 2: Maine simply saying, Elon Musk just became the world's first trillionaire.
9:13
Speaker 2: Let's make sure he's also the last. Which could be
9:15
Speaker 2: about economics or could be more sinister than that, depending
9:18
Speaker 2: on how you interpret it. I'll give him the benefit
9:21
Speaker 2: of the doubt, which maybe I shouldn't. But nonetheless, he
9:23
Speaker 2: doesn't think there should be any trillionaires. Doesn't think there
9:25
Speaker 2: should be any billionaires either. By the way, Bernie Sanders says,
9:29
Speaker 2: Elon Musk's rise to trillionaire status is not a time
9:32
Speaker 2: to celebrate. It to cull to action, to take on
9:34
Speaker 2: the unprecedented income and wealth inequality that now exists and
9:37
Speaker 2: the greed and power of a ruling class that is
9:39
Speaker 2: destroying the social fabric of America. Elizabeth Warren, Elon Musk
9:44
Speaker 2: just became the world's first trillionaire. The typical American household
9:47
Speaker 2: would have to work more than eleven million years to
9:49
Speaker 2: make Elon Musk's level of wealth. We need a wealth tax.
9:54
Speaker 2: The other Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey says a five percent
9:57
Speaker 2: tax on Elon's net worth would fund every community health
10:00
Speaker 2: center in America for the next twenty six years. I'll
10:03
Speaker 2: say it again, tax the rich. Well, they have trillions
10:06
Speaker 2: of dollars to spend every year. They don't seem to
10:08
Speaker 2: get the same results as Elon Musk. That's an interesting
10:10
Speaker 2: question and of itself. But they act like Elon Musk
10:13
Speaker 2: just happened into this money. It's not like he put
10:15
Speaker 2: his own capital into this and found it. Here's my list,
10:18
Speaker 2: it's probably in complete, PayPal, Tesla, Starlink, Neuralink, SpaceX, and
10:23
Speaker 2: of course buying what used to be Twitter now X.
10:26
Speaker 2: So this is a guy putting a lot of skin
10:28
Speaker 2: into the game. He's getting rewarded for it in the
10:30
Speaker 2: left can't handle it.
10:32
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:32
Speaker 5: And before that, it was a company I was reading
10:33
Speaker 5: about last night called zip two, which was a really
10:36
Speaker 5: early internet service that was bought by Compac for three
10:42
Speaker 5: hundred million dollars in the late nineties. So, you know,
10:45
Speaker 5: most people that would be the one thing they did
10:47
Speaker 5: in their whole life was sell a company, the Compac
10:49
Speaker 5: for three hundred million dollars. He made about eighteen million
10:52
Speaker 5: dollars at that and he immediately plowed it into PayPal,
10:55
Speaker 5: and when he made his money from PayPal, he immediately
10:58
Speaker 5: plowed it into SpaceX and Tesla and others. Because this
11:02
Speaker 5: is who he is. I don't know where to start
11:05
Speaker 5: with this, Greg, so I'll start with this. I hate
11:08
Speaker 5: this so much. I hate this reaction. It revolts me.
11:13
Speaker 5: It's not just politically, it's I moved to this country
11:17
Speaker 5: because this is the attitude that I see elsewhere. And
11:23
Speaker 5: there's this guy called Harry Echoles, who's this English green socialist,
11:27
Speaker 5: and he tweeted out Elon Musk has a trillion pounds,
11:30
Speaker 5: and he doesn't. He doesn't have a trillion pounds, he
11:34
Speaker 5: has a trillion dollars. There's a reason no one has
11:37
Speaker 5: anything close to a trillion pounds, and it's because of
11:40
Speaker 5: this envious, sclerotic, myopic attitude that you see in Europe.
11:46
Speaker 5: But you also, unfortunately see from all of the people
11:49
Speaker 5: you just described. We want people like Elon Musk. It
11:52
Speaker 5: doesn't matter if you personally like Elon Musk. It doesn't
11:56
Speaker 5: matter if you think he's virtuous or not. He's not.
11:58
Speaker 1: Really.
11:59
Speaker 5: It doesn't matter whether he is a weirdo. He is
12:03
Speaker 5: most of the great inventors entrepreneurs of history have been weird.
12:10
Speaker 5: If you look at the British aristocracy, which was heavily
12:13
Speaker 5: involved in science and innovation in the nineteenth century, they
12:18
Speaker 5: were out of their minds. Now Eilan Muski is too,
12:21
Speaker 5: he said himself, he probably has aspergers. He doesn't pick
12:24
Speaker 5: up on social cues and so forth. I just don't care.
12:27
Speaker 5: There's nothing I care less about than that. What I
12:29
Speaker 5: care about is that he's found a way of cutting
12:32
Speaker 5: the cost of going into orbit by up to ninety percent.
12:36
Speaker 5: I care about the fact that he's built a system
12:38
Speaker 5: of satellites that deliver internet, fast Internet everywhere in.
12:42
Speaker 1: The whole world.
12:43
Speaker 5: I care about the fact that he developed the first
12:45
Speaker 5: useful electric car that can drive itself, and that he
12:48
Speaker 5: seems to be developing software that allows people who are
12:50
Speaker 5: completely disabled to control machines with their minds. That's what
12:55
Speaker 5: I care about. So I don't care that he has
12:57
Speaker 5: a lot of money. But also he doesn't have a
12:59
Speaker 5: lot of money in the way the Left seems to
13:01
Speaker 5: think that he has a lot of money, which is
13:02
Speaker 5: that he's sitting like Scrooge McDuck with his great big
13:05
Speaker 5: vault full of coins. The money is the companies. It's
13:10
Speaker 5: not extricable from it. The value of it is what
13:14
Speaker 5: people already or in the future will assigned to that
13:17
Speaker 5: company because they believe that it will do something useful.
13:21
Speaker 5: If that goes away, either because Elon is forced to
13:23
Speaker 5: sell his companies for money to pay the government or
13:25
Speaker 5: because he fails, that valuation will drop, drop, drop. So
13:30
Speaker 5: I just think this whole thing is very stupid. But
13:32
Speaker 5: it's also exactly the sort of instinct that I left
13:37
Speaker 5: quite willingly left at home in England and move to
13:40
Speaker 5: a new home because I love the fact that we
13:42
Speaker 5: have these sort of people here who do things.
13:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, so well said. Been a couple of follow
13:47
Speaker 2: up points here. First of all, the left doesn't hate billionaires.
13:51
Speaker 2: They hate billionaires that don't agree with them. When Elon
13:54
Speaker 2: Musk was voting for Obama, they were fine with the
13:56
Speaker 2: Elon Musk, They had no problems with them whatsoever. They
13:58
Speaker 2: only have a problem with the Elon Musk once he
14:00
Speaker 2: decided that he really appreciated free speech and wanted to
14:03
Speaker 2: buy X. Then he became enemy number one. And then
14:05
Speaker 2: he supported Donald Trump, and that made him absolutely anathema
14:09
Speaker 2: to these people. And so that's why we started torching
14:13
Speaker 2: Tesla dealerships when he started to run the Doge operation there.
14:17
Speaker 2: And the other thing is is, you know, people like well,
14:19
Speaker 2: the left economically has really gotten far off the course
14:23
Speaker 2: here with Bernie and Graham Plattner. That's not the this
14:26
Speaker 2: is not a recent trend. This is I think twenty
14:29
Speaker 2: ten with Barack Obama.
14:31
Speaker 4: I want to be clear, we're not trying to push
14:35
Speaker 4: financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean,
14:42
Speaker 4: I do think at a certain point you've made enough money.
14:45
Speaker 2: No, No, at a certain point we haven't made enough money.
14:48
Speaker 2: We have the ambition and the success and the drive
14:50
Speaker 2: and the ideas that customers will respond to. We can
14:53
Speaker 2: make as much as we possibly want. And so this
14:55
Speaker 2: idea on the left that somehow, I don't know whether
14:58
Speaker 2: they think it's ultimately they they're chunk of the money,
15:01
Speaker 2: then that somehow you should have a cap on what
15:03
Speaker 2: you can earn. I don't know where this originated from,
15:06
Speaker 2: but it's been around for way too long, and like again,
15:08
Speaker 2: this reaction is ridiculous.
15:10
Speaker 5: Well but again, what does it mean? Because if you
15:14
Speaker 5: were to put some artificial, arbitrary limit on it, forget
15:18
Speaker 5: government policy for a second. Just describe morality to it.
15:21
Speaker 5: So let's say it's two hundred million dollars. It has
15:24
Speaker 5: to be at least that, because Rocana is running around
15:27
Speaker 5: complaining and he's worth more than that. So let's say
15:31
Speaker 5: it's that. Well, when masksol PayPal, he made one hundred
15:35
Speaker 5: and eighty million dollars after taxes in cash. So would
15:38
Speaker 5: that have been better for him to say, you know,
15:41
Speaker 5: I think I've made enough money now and then just
15:44
Speaker 5: go live in a big house somewhere and spend all
15:46
Speaker 5: day driving fast cars and drink drinks with umbrellas in them.
15:49
Speaker 5: Or was it good that he put one hundred million
15:52
Speaker 5: dollars into Tesla and seventy into SpaceX and ten into
15:57
Speaker 5: this solar company that's SEMs to have done quite well,
16:00
Speaker 5: but no one ever talks about. I think it was
16:03
Speaker 5: good funny. Now, I actually have a not direct but
16:07
Speaker 5: a close ish family member who works for SpaceX who
16:11
Speaker 5: came from nothing and probably I haven't asked him, but
16:13
Speaker 5: probably did pretty well on Friday. So I would imagine
16:17
Speaker 5: that he thinks it's pretty good that Elon must didn't
16:21
Speaker 5: just sit down. So what Obama is really saying there
16:24
Speaker 5: and what Graham Platner is saying far more explicitly is
16:28
Speaker 5: we don't want SpaceX, we don't want Tesla, we don't
16:32
Speaker 5: want Neuraling, we don't want the boring company. That's what
16:34
Speaker 5: he's saying, because that's the obvious consequence of telling rich
16:38
Speaker 5: people not to make more money, because the way rich
16:41
Speaker 5: people make more money is they invest or, they start companies.
16:43
Speaker 5: That's it. That's the only way it happens. And I
16:46
Speaker 5: think we want investment. I think we want innovation. I
16:48
Speaker 5: think it's what makes America America.
16:51
Speaker 2: It's yeah, punishing success and just this division and pitting
16:56
Speaker 2: people against each other and envy. There's class envy that
16:59
Speaker 2: they're really ginning up here, and that's pretty much their
17:01
Speaker 2: whole deal with some of these candidates that they're running.
17:04
Speaker 2: And it's absolutely distasteful and completely contrary to the American
17:09
Speaker 2: founding and the pursuit of happiness. I think Elon Musk
17:12
Speaker 2: is pursuing what he considers happiness. Like you said, his
17:15
Speaker 2: personal life and he's gone about siring children is kind
17:18
Speaker 2: of a whole mess of its own. But what he's
17:21
Speaker 2: accomplished professionally is amazing, utterally amazing. It should be cheered
17:24
Speaker 2: and champion, not denigrated, and hopefully other people have ambition
17:29
Speaker 2: to reach that level as well. That's the real lesson here.
17:31
Speaker 2: I think well still ahead on last call. The very
17:34
Speaker 2: pragmatic reason why the New York Knick star who just
17:37
Speaker 2: led his team to the NBA title still misses Texas
17:41
Speaker 2: and it has to do with his financial bottom line.
17:44
Speaker 2: But we're also concerned about your financial bottom line and
17:47
Speaker 2: making sure that you are financially secure in the near
17:50
Speaker 2: and the long term and especially for retirement. And that's
17:53
Speaker 2: where the good folks at Noble Gold Investments can really
17:57
Speaker 2: help you out, making sure that your portfolio is versified
18:00
Speaker 2: and looking to see if precious metals, particularly gold and silver,
18:04
Speaker 2: could be right for you. First of all, when it
18:06
Speaker 2: comes to precious metals, it's nice to have something that
18:09
Speaker 2: AI can't touch. Also, the demand for silver is climbing
18:12
Speaker 2: and that can make it profitable as well. It's becoming
18:14
Speaker 2: a critical resource for solar panels, electric vehicles, defense systems,
18:18
Speaker 2: AI infrastructure. Plus, you'll get fantastic service, their white gloves
18:22
Speaker 2: service through the whole thing, and the best part, there's
18:25
Speaker 2: no pressure. They just give you the information, they let
18:28
Speaker 2: you decide so own the metal. The future depends on.
18:31
Speaker 2: Visit Noblegoldinvestments dot com Slash three mL. That's Noblegold Investments
18:36
Speaker 2: dot com Slash three mL. Download the free investor kit,
18:40
Speaker 2: no pressure, just the information, and for a limited time,
18:44
Speaker 2: when you open a new qualified account, Noble Gold will
18:47
Speaker 2: send you a free one tenth ounce gold coin as
18:50
Speaker 2: a thank you gift. Available for qualified gold IRA accounts
18:54
Speaker 2: and cash purchases. That's Noble Gold Investments dot com Slash
18:59
Speaker 2: three mL. All right, Charlie, onto our third martini. Also
19:07
Speaker 2: a crazy one here, and you know we're just a
19:10
Speaker 2: couple of weeks away now from officially July fourth, twenty
19:13
Speaker 2: twenty six, and two hundred and fifty years since the
19:15
Speaker 2: declaration of independence, and as a result of that upcoming
19:20
Speaker 2: major celebration, NBC News did some polling, and yesterday on
19:24
Speaker 2: Meet the Press, the NBC numbers guy Steve Kornaki crunching
19:27
Speaker 2: the numbers and then breaking it down between Democrats and
19:31
Speaker 2: Republicans or at least left and right, as well as
19:33
Speaker 2: by age, about how proud people are to be Americans.
19:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, some some big picture numbers on how folks feel
19:40
Speaker 6: about the country where it is Some sobering numbers. Maybe
19:43
Speaker 6: take a look at this one. How proud are you
19:46
Speaker 6: to be an American? We asked as we celebrate two
19:48
Speaker 6: hundred fifty years. So you've seen the different options here.
19:50
Speaker 6: Look extremely proud, very proud.
19:52
Speaker 1: Those numbers together get you fifty six percent.
19:55
Speaker 6: At the other end of it, only a little or
19:58
Speaker 6: not proud at all twenty one percent.
20:01
Speaker 1: The significance of this this number is in.
20:03
Speaker 6: Decline, a steady twenty first century decline.
20:06
Speaker 1: At the turn of the century.
20:07
Speaker 6: Three quarters of Americans were extremely or very proud. That
20:11
Speaker 6: numbers full and to fifty six percent. What's behind this,
20:14
Speaker 6: It's familiar fault lines Christian political demographic tech.
20:18
Speaker 1: Check this out here. First, it's partisan. Look at this.
20:21
Speaker 6: Republicans are almost universally going to tell you extremely are
20:24
Speaker 6: very proud.
20:25
Speaker 1: Look at that number for Democrats.
20:27
Speaker 6: And meanwhile, only a little or not at all twelve
20:29
Speaker 6: times as many Democrats.
20:31
Speaker 1: Say that compared to Republicans.
20:33
Speaker 6: We have talked about age here so many times. Older
20:36
Speaker 6: Americans more likely to have that extremely proud feeling.
20:39
Speaker 1: Younger Americans much more ambivalent.
20:41
Speaker 2: So ninety percent of Republicans proud to be an American,
20:44
Speaker 2: just twenty nine percent of Democrats. If you're over sixty five,
20:47
Speaker 2: sixty five percent proud, and only thirty six between the
20:50
Speaker 2: ages of eighteen and thirty four proud to be an American,
20:54
Speaker 2: And so Charlie. If there's a Democratic president, that Republican
20:57
Speaker 2: number might wobble a little, but it's still way in
20:59
Speaker 2: the positive territory. When it comes to Democrats, it seems
21:02
Speaker 2: like it's almost entirely conditional on the current politics of
21:04
Speaker 2: the day.
21:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there are two mistakes here that the
21:08
Speaker 5: first is to make your perception of the United States
21:13
Speaker 5: and your pride in being a citizen of it contingent
21:16
Speaker 5: upon who was president. And I didn't like America less
21:19
Speaker 5: when Joe Biden was president or when Barack Obama was president,
21:24
Speaker 5: and I'm particularly like this president. Doesn't change my view
21:27
Speaker 5: of the United States. We're just talking about going on
21:30
Speaker 5: road trips around the country. You'd be hard pressed to
21:33
Speaker 5: know who was president traveling around most of the time.
21:36
Speaker 5: That's not to say it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter,
21:38
Speaker 5: but the day to day life that most people lead
21:41
Speaker 5: is not filtered through the White House. Perhaps if you're
21:45
Speaker 5: a political obsessive it is. But the second problem, and
21:49
Speaker 5: I just think this is a sin basically is to
21:51
Speaker 5: be ungrateful for what the United States is, not could
21:57
Speaker 5: be and not would be if the right person and
22:00
Speaker 5: was elected, or this law were passed, or people would.
22:02
Speaker 1: Just do this.
22:03
Speaker 5: All that but actually is right now, most of which
22:06
Speaker 5: is the product of other people who built this for us.
22:08
Speaker 5: Certainly me, I'm an immigrant, I did nothing, But you know,
22:11
Speaker 5: most of us are the beneficiaries of our grandfathers and
22:15
Speaker 5: great grandfathers who survived the depression and fought a world
22:19
Speaker 5: war and the civil rights battles, and we just showed
22:23
Speaker 5: up in this unbelievable place, me more than anyone in
22:28
Speaker 5: twenty eleven. And I think if you can't see that
22:32
Speaker 5: this country is utterly exceptional and just a phenomenal place
22:37
Speaker 5: to be and raise a family and work, then you're
22:41
Speaker 5: a fool. I'm just not that interested in all of
22:43
Speaker 5: the caveats that people provide. It's foolish. If you were
22:50
Speaker 5: pretty much anyone born anywhere at any point in human
22:53
Speaker 5: history and you had the chance to live here right now,
22:57
Speaker 5: you would do it. It would be a no brainer. So
23:00
Speaker 5: for those who were given that not to appreciate it,
23:04
Speaker 5: to me is absurd.
23:06
Speaker 2: Certainly the prosperity of the character of the people. And
23:09
Speaker 2: as we celebrate, you know, in the coming weeks here
23:11
Speaker 2: with the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the radical
23:14
Speaker 2: idea that we have God given rights and the whole
23:17
Speaker 2: point of government is to secure those rights. And then
23:20
Speaker 2: we put together a constitution and a bill of rights
23:22
Speaker 2: that is still the envy of the world, or at
23:24
Speaker 2: least should be. And instead we've got people absolutely nitpicking
23:28
Speaker 2: at it and making it seem like it's the most
23:30
Speaker 2: unfair place on earth when it is absolutely the most
23:32
Speaker 2: opportunity rich place on earth. But some people will never
23:36
Speaker 2: be happy. They love being miserable, and they hope they
23:38
Speaker 2: can convince other people to be miserable too. But we
23:41
Speaker 2: don't have to do that. We don't have to listen
23:42
Speaker 2: to that at all. But if you are convinced that
23:45
Speaker 2: there is a problem with this country and it's the
23:48
Speaker 2: worst thing in the world, well we've got help for
23:51
Speaker 2: you at Better Help. And this episode is sponsored by
23:54
Speaker 2: Better Help. And whether you're struggling to understand the benefits
23:58
Speaker 2: of being an American or you're just frustrated and stressed
24:01
Speaker 2: about what to do this summer with the kids, out
24:03
Speaker 2: of school. Maybe vacation is a stressful time for you
24:05
Speaker 2: rather than a relaxing time for you. Whatever's weighing on you,
24:09
Speaker 2: whether it's personal, professional, or otherwise, you can get help
24:12
Speaker 2: with Better Help. They've got more than thirty thousand therapists.
24:15
Speaker 2: It's the world's largest online therapy platform, having served more
24:18
Speaker 2: than six million people and with more than one point
24:21
Speaker 2: seven million client reviews. They're rating is four point nine
24:24
Speaker 2: out of five. They will match you up with a therapist.
24:27
Speaker 2: It almost always works out great, but if not, they'll
24:29
Speaker 2: find you a new one and it'll work out great then,
24:31
Speaker 2: and you don't have to say yes to everything this summer.
24:33
Speaker 2: Find support in therapy. Sign up and get ten percent
24:36
Speaker 2: off at Betterhelp dot com slash three mL. That's better
24:40
Speaker 2: h e LP dot com slash three m L. Well
24:49
Speaker 2: in between the time Charlie was British and the time
24:52
Speaker 2: Charlie lived in the South, Charlie lived in New York
24:54
Speaker 2: and so that's where we go for our chaser today.
24:56
Speaker 2: For the first time in fifty three years, the New
24:59
Speaker 2: York nick are NBA champions. They won it in five
25:02
Speaker 2: games over the Spurs, making a pretty traumadic comeback in
25:05
Speaker 2: all five games actually and winning four of them, clinching
25:09
Speaker 2: it on Saturday night. Jalen Brunson. Just a magical performance
25:12
Speaker 2: all throughout the playoffs, and he's the most valuable player
25:15
Speaker 2: in the NBA Finals. And then he's also talking about
25:18
Speaker 2: a lot of different things in the postgame press conference
25:20
Speaker 2: on Saturday night. But you know, they were playing the
25:22
Speaker 2: San Antonio Spurs and intensity got pretty high there at
25:26
Speaker 2: different points in the series, and so you know, the
25:28
Speaker 2: question was, well, what do you think about Texas after
25:30
Speaker 2: all this.
25:31
Speaker 1: I have nothing against Texas. I love Texas. I miss
25:37
Speaker 1: I missed the Texas taxes.
25:38
Speaker 2: I missed the Texas taxes. Yeah, he used to play
25:41
Speaker 2: for the Dallas Mavericks and then now he's in New York.
25:43
Speaker 2: Of course, Texas has no income tax. As you know, Charlie,
25:46
Speaker 2: I looked it up. New York has the third highest
25:48
Speaker 2: state income tax behind California and Hawaii, just barely lower
25:52
Speaker 2: than Hawaii maximum is ten point nine percent. Jim and
25:55
Speaker 2: I talked earlier this year about how California taxes cost
25:57
Speaker 2: the Seahawks quarterback more than the act made for winning
26:01
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Jalen Brunson, I'm sure he's not going
26:03
Speaker 2: to be scrauching for coins on the couch, but right now,
26:06
Speaker 2: I'm sure he does. Where she was in Texas financially
26:09
Speaker 2: compared to New York.
26:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm not a Knicks fan, although I was
26:12
Speaker 5: rooting for them because my wife's from New York and
26:14
Speaker 5: so many people I work with her from New York.
26:17
Speaker 5: So I didn't have that visceral feeling that you get
26:20
Speaker 5: when your team wins. But it was a really exciting
26:24
Speaker 5: series and I was hoping that they could pull it out,
26:26
Speaker 5: and as she said, they just kept coming back. I
26:28
Speaker 5: actually missed the big comeback. I have to confess. I
26:31
Speaker 5: said to my wife, they're not coming back from thirty points.
26:33
Speaker 5: So I turned it off. We went to sleep, woke
26:35
Speaker 5: up in the morning, looked at Twitter, and someone said,
26:37
Speaker 5: that's the first time in the history of the Finals
26:39
Speaker 5: that any team has come back from that big a deficit.
26:42
Speaker 5: Ninety six times it's happened. One time there was a comeback.
26:45
Speaker 5: So I missed the great game, I guess. But look,
26:49
Speaker 5: it does matter within the United States where you live,
26:52
Speaker 5: and in his case, I would play for the next
26:55
Speaker 5: if I were him. I mean, they just want a championship.
26:57
Speaker 5: That's probably more important. But if you're doing most jobs,
27:01
Speaker 5: then yeah, you're going to look at the taxes in
27:03
Speaker 5: New York and the taxes in Texas or where I
27:05
Speaker 5: live in Florida, and you're you're going to make a
27:08
Speaker 5: rational decision. And it's not just the taxes, it's what
27:10
Speaker 5: you get for it.
27:11
Speaker 3: You know.
27:12
Speaker 5: One of the first things when we moved down here
27:14
Speaker 5: we did was go to the DMV. We had to
27:15
Speaker 5: replace our licenses and change the tags on our car,
27:18
Speaker 5: and it was this incredibly warm, friendly place, instant appointments,
27:24
Speaker 5: you know, welcome to the South, honey kind of stuff like.
27:29
Speaker 5: And I thought, this is not like the DMV in
27:32
Speaker 5: New York City. So yeah, it does. It does matter.
27:36
Speaker 5: But I'll just say I love New York too as
27:38
Speaker 5: a place.
27:39
Speaker 1: I love it.
27:39
Speaker 5: It's a it's a great part of America, vibrant. I
27:41
Speaker 5: was just there. What a wonderful city.
27:44
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on this last call of the
27:46
Speaker 2: week for the Three Martini Lunch. For Jim Garrity of
27:48
Speaker 2: National Review and Charlie Cook of National Review, I'm Greg
27:52
Speaker 2: Corumbas of Radio America. Please check out and subscribe to
27:55
Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch podcast Monday through Friday on your
27:58
Speaker 2: favorite podcast platform and also get us on your home devices.
28:01
Speaker 2: All you have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast.
28:05
Speaker 2: Follow all of us on x Charlie's at Charles CW
28:09
Speaker 2: Cook with an E at the end of Cook, Jim
28:11
Speaker 2: is at Jim Garritty, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Also follow
28:14
Speaker 2: Three Martini Lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have a great
28:18
Speaker 2: weekend and join us again Monday for the next Three
28:21
Speaker 2: Martini Lunch