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Episode Three Hundred One: A Trump Holiday · The Death Of Journalism

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode three hundred and one of the Death
0:02
Speaker 1: of Journalism podcasts. My name is John Zigler. I'm your
0:05
Speaker 1: host on today's show, America Celebrates our two hundred and
0:08
Speaker 1: fiftieth Birthday. We'll review President Trump intervenes into the World
0:13
Speaker 1: Cup with disastrous results, budding Democratic superstar Graham Platner finally
0:18
Speaker 1: implodes on Liftoff. I have some thoughts on the American
0:23
Speaker 1: royal wedding and marriage in general, and we'll do part
0:27
Speaker 1: two of Ask John Anything. We begin this episode of
0:31
Speaker 1: the podcast with a quick acknowledgment that it appears as
0:35
Speaker 1: if hostilities in Iran have broken out again. President Trump,
0:40
Speaker 1: while overseas, has declared that he believes the cease fire
0:44
Speaker 1: to be over, so it looks as if the end
0:48
Speaker 1: is nowhere near in sight when it comes to the
0:51
Speaker 1: never ending conflict with Iran. I'm not sure what that
0:54
Speaker 1: means at this point, because it seems like we've been
0:56
Speaker 1: going through this cycle on and over and over and
0:59
Speaker 1: over again, and it has become tiring and tedious. But
1:04
Speaker 1: I just wanted to acknowledge that at the beginning of
1:06
Speaker 1: the podcast from a news perspective. I hope you had
1:08
Speaker 1: a good fourth of July holiday. Obviously, this was one
1:12
Speaker 1: like we will never experience in most of our lives,
1:15
Speaker 1: since it was the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
1:17
Speaker 1: the United States of America. And by and large it
1:22
Speaker 1: was good but not great. That's how I would describe
1:25
Speaker 1: it from a national perspective. I do think it's important
1:28
Speaker 1: to point out how remarkable it is, and I've not
1:30
Speaker 1: heard anybody say this, that we have this two hundred
1:34
Speaker 1: and fiftieth birthday celebration, which obviously is an enormous target
1:39
Speaker 1: for terrorist activity, right. I mean, taking out our two
1:44
Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration would be right at the
1:48
Speaker 1: top of the list for any terrorist stream. And considering
1:53
Speaker 1: how many different events there were related to the two
1:57
Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth, you would think that it would be
2:00
Speaker 1: pretty easy to do something. I mean, all you have
2:03
Speaker 1: to really do is is attack some parade in some
2:08
Speaker 1: place where the security is not that great, and you
2:10
Speaker 1: will get credit for disrupting the entire two hundred and
2:13
Speaker 1: fiftieth celebration, and somehow, some way that did not happen.
2:18
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer that sometimes the biggest things that
2:20
Speaker 1: occur are things that don't happen, and no one mentions
2:23
Speaker 1: how remarkable that is, because it would have been incredibly
2:26
Speaker 1: easy in theory and certainly something that terrorists would have
2:30
Speaker 1: liked to have done in order to disrupt officially our
2:34
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth birthday celebration. That did not happen. However,
2:39
Speaker 1: we disrupted the celebrations ourselves quite significantly, specifically when it
2:45
Speaker 1: came to cancelations related to the weather. And you're probably aware,
2:51
Speaker 1: since you're a fan of this podcast because you're listening
2:53
Speaker 1: to it, that I am someone who believes that we
2:57
Speaker 1: have become unbelievably pathetic when it comes to what I
3:02
Speaker 1: call cancelation nation, that we will cancel anything at any time,
3:06
Speaker 1: all in the name of a led safety, even when
3:09
Speaker 1: safety really isn't in peril, and even when it's really
3:15
Speaker 1: a situation that should be in a free country where
3:20
Speaker 1: people get to the side for themselves, whether or not
3:23
Speaker 1: they want to take the risk in participation. We've completely
3:27
Speaker 1: lost that. I've talked about this many times. This is
3:29
Speaker 1: one of the many things that occurred because of the
3:31
Speaker 1: COVID panic. It's one of the reasons why I'm convinced
3:35
Speaker 1: tackle football is in great peril, if not doomed, because
3:40
Speaker 1: we no longer have total control over our own medical decisions,
3:44
Speaker 1: our own risk taking decisions. And we saw that over
3:48
Speaker 1: the fourth of July two hundred and fiftieth birthday celebrations,
3:52
Speaker 1: where numerous celebrations, parades, events, what have you, were canceled
3:58
Speaker 1: because of the heat wave, generally on the East Coast
4:02
Speaker 1: and the Northeast, even in Philadelphia, where I grew up,
4:06
Speaker 1: obviously the birthplace of America. I mean the idea that
4:10
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was canceling major events because it was hot. And
4:16
Speaker 1: to be clear, it was hot, but it wasn't like
4:19
Speaker 1: historically dangerously hot. And I get, having lived there for
4:22
Speaker 1: many years, that one hundred degrees in the Northeast is
4:25
Speaker 1: a lot different than one hundred degrees in Arizona or
4:29
Speaker 1: here in southern California. I get that it was hot,
4:31
Speaker 1: but guess what participation in such an event was voluntary?
4:37
Speaker 1: If you didn't think you could do it, you didn't
4:39
Speaker 1: have to do it. But of course the authorities took
4:42
Speaker 1: that option and that freedom away. So a lot of
4:45
Speaker 1: people worked very hard, put a lot of time and
4:48
Speaker 1: effort into an event that did not happen, and the
4:51
Speaker 1: fact that we're canceling barades in Philadelphia on the twenty
4:58
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of our birth because it's hot is to
5:02
Speaker 1: me astonishing and a remarkable statement about how unbelievably woosified
5:07
Speaker 1: we have become and how far we have fallen, not
5:11
Speaker 1: just from the freedom perspective, but also when it comes
5:14
Speaker 1: to courage and bravery and risk taking and all sorts
5:17
Speaker 1: of other things that I talk about on a consistent
5:20
Speaker 1: basis that we are not the same nation that obviously
5:24
Speaker 1: was birth two hundred and fifty years ago. We're not
5:26
Speaker 1: the same nation we were thirty or forty years ago.
5:29
Speaker 1: Where the right thing to do here is give warnings,
5:32
Speaker 1: make sure everyone that wants to participate has lots of water,
5:36
Speaker 1: do everything you can to make it as comfortable as possible.
5:40
Speaker 1: And if you don't want to participate, you don't want
5:42
Speaker 1: to attend, you don't have to attend. But we're not
5:43
Speaker 1: going to just cancel, especially when there's no way to reschedule.
5:48
Speaker 1: This is one of those situations where you can't reschedule
5:51
Speaker 1: it for obvious reasons. So the cancelation element of this
5:57
Speaker 1: bothered me greatly, and I do think that at leads subconsciously.
6:01
Speaker 1: This is also representative of a phenomenon I've talked constantly
6:06
Speaker 1: about which Trump fans do not want to accept, which
6:10
Speaker 1: is that for better, for worse, or right or wrong.
6:12
Speaker 1: The reality is that, at least subconsciously, a lot of
6:16
Speaker 1: these decisions get made because Donald Trumps president, and the
6:21
Speaker 1: perception that this holiday took on that it was somehow
6:26
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's holiday. Now, obviously it was not Donald Trump's holiday,
6:29
Speaker 1: and Trump himself deserves a lot of blame for making
6:32
Speaker 1: it appear as if it was his holiday. You know,
6:36
Speaker 1: obviously that was a complete disaster, the two hundred and
6:39
Speaker 1: fiftieth Freedom Concert debacle, and then he replaces that with
6:45
Speaker 1: basically him giving speeches in front of you know, fireworks
6:48
Speaker 1: and national monuments. And so the reality is Trump owns
6:54
Speaker 1: the issue of patriotism, make America great again, what have you,
6:59
Speaker 1: And so to a lot of liberals and a lot
7:01
Speaker 1: of people making these decisions in blue territories like Philadelphia,
7:05
Speaker 1: whether they admit it or not, whether they even realize
7:08
Speaker 1: it or not, part of what is shaping their perceptions
7:12
Speaker 1: is that this is a Trump holiday and so therefore
7:16
Speaker 1: canceling it is actually a good thing. Again, I go
7:21
Speaker 1: back to COVID. That's exactly what happened during COVID. Some
7:25
Speaker 1: of it was conscious, some of it was subconscious. You know,
7:28
Speaker 1: there's a fine line in there. But the reality is
7:32
Speaker 1: that would these things have been canceled in blue territories
7:36
Speaker 1: if there was a democratic president. I question that. I
7:39
Speaker 1: don't think they would do that. Again, I don't think
7:42
Speaker 1: it's necessarily conscious. It's subconscious, And some of it's Trump's fault.
7:48
Speaker 1: Some of it's the fault of liberals for the way
7:50
Speaker 1: they perceive things. This should not be a partisan fucking holiday.
7:54
Speaker 1: This should not This would be the ultimate non partisan holiday,
7:58
Speaker 1: the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of
8:01
Speaker 1: the greatest nation that has ever been created by man.
8:03
Speaker 1: But that's not the world we live in. So this
8:06
Speaker 1: was perceived, rightly or wrongly, and partially because of Trump's
8:09
Speaker 1: own doing, as a Trump holiday, and that I think
8:14
Speaker 1: diminished a lot of the greatness of what this event
8:19
Speaker 1: should have been. It diminished it with regard to the
8:22
Speaker 1: events themselves, No celebrity worth their salt would participate because
8:28
Speaker 1: they don't want to be seen as being on Trump's team.
8:32
Speaker 1: That's how toxic he is. I mean, I mean, it's
8:36
Speaker 1: just unbelievable that we've gotten to this point, and it's
8:38
Speaker 1: incredibly sad that we can't have full participation in the
8:43
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the nation because people
8:46
Speaker 1: are afraid to be perceived as being pro Trump. And
8:50
Speaker 1: we all know that the entertainment industry is completely and
8:53
Speaker 1: totally dominated by either liberals or people that are afraid
8:56
Speaker 1: to be perceived as conservative, especially given the toxicity of
9:00
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. So while we didn't have any terrorist attacks,
9:05
Speaker 1: and we did have some cancelations, but not everything got canceled.
9:08
Speaker 1: Something's got postponed for a few hours, including the fourth
9:13
Speaker 1: of July fireworks in Washington, d C. Which were spectacular,
9:17
Speaker 1: but they happened after midnight on the fourth of July,
9:20
Speaker 1: and they filed a long, rambling speech by Donald Trump. So,
9:25
Speaker 1: you know, I do not believe that the two hundred
9:27
Speaker 1: and fiftieth anniversary celebrations were nearly what they should have been.
9:31
Speaker 1: This should have been a unifying experience. There should have
9:35
Speaker 1: been memorable moments from celebrities, stars, people that you know,
9:40
Speaker 1: of course, you know a lot of them were at
9:41
Speaker 1: the Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey wedding, which may have actually
9:44
Speaker 1: not been coincidental, but I'll get to that later on
9:47
Speaker 1: in this episode of the podcast. But to me, I
9:50
Speaker 1: felt a little bit cheated, like this was not what
9:53
Speaker 1: it should have been, and in large part it was
9:57
Speaker 1: because of the nature of Trump and the for a
10:00
Speaker 1: reaction to Trump, and it shows just how divided we
10:04
Speaker 1: are instead of being united. If we can't be united
10:08
Speaker 1: at the two hundred and fiftieth, when the fuck are
10:10
Speaker 1: we ever going to be united? And so, while it
10:14
Speaker 1: was not bad, could have been a hell of a
10:17
Speaker 1: lot worse, and there were lots of great fireworks displays,
10:21
Speaker 1: there was some there was some negative stuff as well,
10:24
Speaker 1: you know, major arrests in Newport Beach, California, with a
10:27
Speaker 1: bunch of teenagers taking over things, or other events where
10:31
Speaker 1: you have these team mobs that destroy events. And I
10:34
Speaker 1: don't know how much of that is political or cultural
10:37
Speaker 1: or or just something that has always happened that we
10:39
Speaker 1: never gave much attention to in the past. But you know,
10:43
Speaker 1: I would certainly not give this, using old school grading,
10:47
Speaker 1: more than a B maybe a B minus in comparison
10:51
Speaker 1: to what it should have or could have been, given
10:53
Speaker 1: the greatness of this Nation and the two hundred and
10:56
Speaker 1: fiftieth birthday and the fact that this is never going
10:58
Speaker 1: to come around again. For most of the people living,
11:00
Speaker 1: or at least adults that are living through this, this
11:03
Speaker 1: was a squandered opportunity. And this is one of the
11:06
Speaker 1: costs of the Trump presidency. Not all his fault, a
11:10
Speaker 1: lot of it's the reaction to Trump. But this is
11:13
Speaker 1: the way Trump governs. Trump is a divider. And I
11:18
Speaker 1: was on News Nation on July third, the night of
11:22
Speaker 1: July third, before and after his speech that he gave
11:26
Speaker 1: at Mount Rushmore, and I was on for technically for
11:31
Speaker 1: about two hours. It was a very strange appearance on
11:34
Speaker 1: News Nation. I was part of a panel both previewing
11:39
Speaker 1: Trump's speech and then evaluating it and also talking about
11:43
Speaker 1: issues related to the two hundred and fiftieth Birthday of America.
11:47
Speaker 1: And I introduced Trump's speech on News Nation by basically saying, look,
11:53
Speaker 1: this is the essence of the Trump dilemma. Where Trump
11:58
Speaker 1: is great at patriotism, so this is right in his wheelhouse,
12:02
Speaker 1: but he is terrible at unity. He is a divider.
12:06
Speaker 1: He is not a unifier, and this is a moment
12:08
Speaker 1: for unity for the United States of America celebrating our
12:13
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth birthday, and I thought that was
12:17
Speaker 1: a pretty darn good setup, especially since the timing worked
12:19
Speaker 1: out almost perfectly. I don't know if I this guest writer.
12:22
Speaker 1: I just had a sense that Trump was about to
12:24
Speaker 1: come out, and they threw almost directly to Trump on
12:28
Speaker 1: the stage there at Mount Rushmore, and then his speech,
12:30
Speaker 1: and then afterwards I was asked for my reaction, and
12:33
Speaker 1: I thought the speech was actually pretty good by Trump's standards.
12:36
Speaker 1: I thought it was excellent, although thankfully he restrained from
12:42
Speaker 1: the announcing that he was going to be the new
12:44
Speaker 1: face that was going to be put on Mount Rushmore,
12:47
Speaker 1: which I'm sure he wanted the two, but he did.
12:49
Speaker 1: He was focused. He was focused mostly on the threat
12:53
Speaker 1: of communism and what it faces with the United States
12:56
Speaker 1: faces with regard to the new onslaught of communism and
13:00
Speaker 1: socialism within the Democratic Party, which I thought he was
13:03
Speaker 1: dead on about. I mean, it wasn't the most unifying speech,
13:06
Speaker 1: but he wasn't openly divisive. He was disciplined. It was
13:11
Speaker 1: fairly short by his standards. I thought he hit the
13:14
Speaker 1: right notes. So I was praising of the speech that
13:18
Speaker 1: Donald Trump gave on July third and Mount Rushmore. I thought,
13:22
Speaker 1: you know, it needed to be said. And other than
13:25
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan, there aren't too many presidents, maybe no other
13:28
Speaker 1: presidents in the modern era that would have spoken as
13:33
Speaker 1: plainly and as clearly about the threat of communism and
13:37
Speaker 1: what we are currently facing and how this is not
13:39
Speaker 1: a drill, this is the real deal, especially in the
13:43
Speaker 1: wake of Zoramndani in New York and all the things
13:46
Speaker 1: happening in California and the rest of the country, and
13:49
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party being taken over by socialists, if not communists.
13:55
Speaker 1: But then after the speech was over and we were
13:57
Speaker 1: doing some analysis, there was a little bit more general
14:00
Speaker 1: regarding where we are in the country. I took the
14:04
Speaker 1: opportunity to do something that not too many people do
14:09
Speaker 1: on television these days, that is be rather openly pessimistic
14:14
Speaker 1: about where this is all headed. Now, there's a lot
14:17
Speaker 1: of pessimism on television, but no one seems to be
14:21
Speaker 1: willing to say, folks, we might not be around for
14:25
Speaker 1: much longer. We're headed on a very dangerous path. And
14:30
Speaker 1: I'm actually trying to be as optimistic as I possibly can.
14:33
Speaker 1: I say that all the time on this podcast. I
14:35
Speaker 1: hate how pessimistic I am, especially given the fact that
14:39
Speaker 1: this is the two hundred and fiftieth celebration. Everyone's supposed
14:42
Speaker 1: to be happy, but it's also an opportunity to take
14:45
Speaker 1: a look at where we are and where we're headed.
14:48
Speaker 1: And I was asked by the host essentially that question,
14:54
Speaker 1: and I did not hold back. I related. I tried
14:58
Speaker 1: to relate, although it was I was lost a little
15:01
Speaker 1: bit in the translation because of interruptions, but I tried
15:03
Speaker 1: to relate where we are with regard to the age
15:06
Speaker 1: of our country to an aging Tom Brady during his
15:11
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers era, still capable of greatness, but you
15:16
Speaker 1: knew the end was near. And that's what I feel
15:20
Speaker 1: is a pretty good description of where we are in
15:22
Speaker 1: the United States on our two hundred and fiftieth And
15:25
Speaker 1: here was what that sounded like on News Nation television
15:29
Speaker 1: the night of July third, after Trump's speech at Mount Rushmore.
15:33
Speaker 2: Come a long way in two hundred and fifty years,
15:35
Speaker 2: but that we were a young country. I mean, two
15:37
Speaker 2: hundred ft years is not that long in terms of
15:39
Speaker 2: the history of other countries around the world and societies
15:42
Speaker 2: that have coming on as well.
15:45
Speaker 1: In some ways we're young. In other ways, it seems
15:48
Speaker 1: like we're kind of old. I kind of look at
15:49
Speaker 1: us as if we were not a football player. We're well,
15:53
Speaker 1: if we were an NFL football player, I think we're
15:55
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, the greatest to ever play. But we're in
15:57
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers era where we're still greatness. But
16:01
Speaker 1: you can see you can see the end of the
16:03
Speaker 1: line right in front of us. Has been just suggested
16:06
Speaker 1: to me, this is a really important moment for President Trump,
16:10
Speaker 1: and it really brings out the paradox of his entire presidency.
16:13
Speaker 1: His greatest strength is patriotism. He loves this country. Make
16:17
Speaker 1: America great Again is obviously his slogan. But his greatest
16:21
Speaker 1: weakness is the ability to foster unity. We are the
16:24
Speaker 1: United States of America, and culturally, I don't think we've
16:27
Speaker 1: been this divided since at least the Civil War, and
16:31
Speaker 1: he is very poor at bringing us together at the
16:34
Speaker 1: moments when the president of United States is expected to
16:36
Speaker 1: do so. This is one of those great opportunities he
16:38
Speaker 1: has to bridge those two elements of his personality, the
16:42
Speaker 1: great patriotism and the weakness on unity. I hope we'll
16:45
Speaker 1: get both tonight. So on your screen.
16:48
Speaker 2: You're seeing a number of people still arriving. There you
16:50
Speaker 2: have White House Press Secretary Caroline Lovett entering the arena
16:54
Speaker 2: with her husband. And this is the stage at Mount
16:57
Speaker 2: Rushmore in South Dakota, waiting for President Trump. You can
17:00
Speaker 2: see the glass there around the American flags, and I
17:03
Speaker 2: believe the President will be speaking very soon. There he is,
17:07
Speaker 2: he's on the stage. President Trump has taken the stage.
17:11
Speaker 2: He is coming out now after taking a flight on
17:14
Speaker 2: the new Air Force One. Let's listen in to the
17:16
Speaker 2: President from out rushwa.
17:22
Speaker 1: Now. I don't want to belabor my pessimism in the
17:26
Speaker 1: wake of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the country,
17:29
Speaker 1: but I just want to put down that marker. Not
17:33
Speaker 1: because I'm looking for any credit. I'm hoping I'm wrong.
17:36
Speaker 1: I really, really, really really hope I'm wrong. I got
17:40
Speaker 1: two young daughters fourteen and nine, that I talk about
17:44
Speaker 1: quite a bit on the podcast, and I desperately want
17:47
Speaker 1: them to be able to live in a country that
17:49
Speaker 1: at least has some semblance of consistency or recognition to
17:56
Speaker 1: the country I grew up in. I mean, it's never
17:58
Speaker 1: going to happen because we're changing and Some changes are
18:01
Speaker 1: for the better, some are for the worse. But the
18:04
Speaker 1: essence of America, I want it to survive. Now, we
18:06
Speaker 1: live in California, which you know, in my opinion, really
18:10
Speaker 1: isn't part of the United States of America. And it's why,
18:13
Speaker 1: let's be clear, it's a huge part of why I'm
18:16
Speaker 1: so pessimistic because I think California is the future. I
18:20
Speaker 1: think I'm able to see things that are going to
18:22
Speaker 1: happen that a lot of other people can't see, especially
18:25
Speaker 1: when they live in Red state America. I think there's
18:28
Speaker 1: a lot of complacency when it comes to this communist
18:31
Speaker 1: threat in Red state America. They actually think A lot
18:34
Speaker 1: of people think, a lot of conservative commentators think that
18:38
Speaker 1: somehow this is going to act. I've mentioned this before,
18:41
Speaker 1: this communist surge is going to act like a vaccine
18:44
Speaker 1: for the rest of the country rather than a virus
18:47
Speaker 1: that's going to kill us all. I'm not as confident
18:50
Speaker 1: about that because I don't know that we have the
18:54
Speaker 1: foundations that are strong enough to withstand this. And I
18:59
Speaker 1: go go back to the COVID panic. Look what happened
19:02
Speaker 1: during the COVID panic, and tell me where there is
19:06
Speaker 1: evidence in the way we reacted during the COVID panic,
19:10
Speaker 1: even in the Red States. That tells me that we
19:13
Speaker 1: are not susceptible to a massive socialist communist takeover. The
19:19
Speaker 1: biggest problem here is, well, there's many, but the biggest
19:24
Speaker 1: is the issue of timing, especially for young people who
19:29
Speaker 1: are not very bright, not educated, don't have institutional memory
19:34
Speaker 1: about the way the country is supposed to function in
19:36
Speaker 1: the way that it's always acted. They think socialism and
19:40
Speaker 1: communism are great, and the institution of socialism and communism
19:46
Speaker 1: will always be effective for the short run. It's inherent.
19:53
Speaker 1: It's inherent in the short run, it's always going to
19:56
Speaker 1: feel good. It's like a drug. It's only in the
19:59
Speaker 1: longer turn that it's inevitably going to fall apart. But
20:04
Speaker 1: in that short run you have a situation or could
20:08
Speaker 1: have a situation where they take over. And I've seen
20:12
Speaker 1: this said many times. I think it's a really good
20:15
Speaker 1: way to look at it. You can vote yourself into socialism,
20:21
Speaker 1: but you can't vote yourself out of it, because once
20:25
Speaker 1: it takes over, the majority of the people are gonna
20:30
Speaker 1: think they're benefiting from it, and therefore they're gonna keep
20:34
Speaker 1: voting for it. That's why this is so dangerous. This
20:37
Speaker 1: is not a situation where we can just willly nearly
20:41
Speaker 1: go well, you know, well we go socialists for a while,
20:43
Speaker 1: people realize what a terrible idea that is, and then
20:46
Speaker 1: we'll go back. No, you can't go back. I use
20:52
Speaker 1: college football all the time. I I'm probably the only
20:55
Speaker 1: person that does this, but I think there's an analogy
20:58
Speaker 1: to be made to what may be happening with AI
21:01
Speaker 1: and what's happened with college football. I think there's another
21:04
Speaker 1: analogy here. People decided to completely radically alter the entire
21:09
Speaker 1: system of college sports in general, college football in particular,
21:13
Speaker 1: and you can't go back. There's no going back, which
21:18
Speaker 1: is why I get so frustrated even talking about I
21:21
Speaker 1: have all sorts of ideas for possible solutions to make
21:24
Speaker 1: things better, but I know none of them are ever
21:27
Speaker 1: going to happen. Because you've opened the Pandora's box. The
21:33
Speaker 1: dam is broken. You can't go back. And that's why
21:37
Speaker 1: you don't do these types of things, especially in a panic,
21:41
Speaker 1: or especially without thinking it through. And so I actually
21:47
Speaker 1: applauded Trump's speech because he seemingly understands the threat, and
21:53
Speaker 1: it's one of many threats that we face as a country.
21:55
Speaker 1: And it's all, by the way, related to this issue
21:59
Speaker 1: of lack of unity. Lack of unity, which I think
22:03
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of when it came to the
22:05
Speaker 1: celebration of our two hundred and fiftieth birthday, is a
22:09
Speaker 1: massive crack in the foundation because that has always been
22:14
Speaker 1: one of the strongest elements of the United States of America,
22:19
Speaker 1: fifty very different states. Our diversity makes us great. I mean,
22:25
Speaker 1: that is really the essence of the awesomeness of America.
22:28
Speaker 1: I've lived in ten different states, plus Washington, d C.
22:32
Speaker 1: I visited significantly, I think forty five of the fifty states.
22:37
Speaker 1: I feel like I understand this country pretty darn well,
22:39
Speaker 1: and almost every state has something unique, different and awesome
22:44
Speaker 1: about it. And that's what makes us great. But what
22:48
Speaker 1: makes us magical, or what has made us magical, is
22:51
Speaker 1: the unity, by and large of those fifty states. And
22:55
Speaker 1: I thought that that unity, in the way that we
22:58
Speaker 1: reacted to, in the way we sell it braided the
23:00
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth was lacking in large part, not
23:04
Speaker 1: in talk, not in totality, but at least in part
23:07
Speaker 1: because of Trump and because of the liberal reaction to Trump, Trump,
23:12
Speaker 1: which is just sad, pathetic and very telling about where
23:16
Speaker 1: we are and where we are likely headed. Now in
23:20
Speaker 1: the midst of the fourth of July holiday, we obviously
23:23
Speaker 1: have the World Cup Soccer tournament going on in the
23:25
Speaker 1: United States, largely in the United States, also in Canada
23:28
Speaker 1: and Mexico, but mostly in the United States. And I
23:33
Speaker 1: haven't talked that much about the World Cup Soccer tournament,
23:36
Speaker 1: but there's a lot to discuss, especially given what's occurred
23:40
Speaker 1: in the last week since the last episode of our podcast. Now,
23:44
Speaker 1: in general, when it comes to soccer, I'm not a
23:47
Speaker 1: big soccer fan. I'm a big sports fan out as
23:51
Speaker 1: nearly as much as I used to be. But I
23:53
Speaker 1: have played soccer. I played soccer as a kid. I
23:55
Speaker 1: even briefly briefly coached soccer kids soccer. I referee kids soccer,
24:00
Speaker 1: so I know enough to be dangerous. And every four
24:05
Speaker 1: years I pretty much forget about all the reasons that
24:09
Speaker 1: I don't like soccer, and I get you back into
24:13
Speaker 1: it when it comes World Cup time. So over those
24:16
Speaker 1: four years you kind of forget what soccer is really
24:19
Speaker 1: all about. And to me, soccer, at least at the
24:22
Speaker 1: World Cup level, is long periods of boredom interrupted by
24:29
Speaker 1: intermittent stupidity with occasional lightning bolts of drama and excitement.
24:36
Speaker 1: That's the best way I can describe World Cup soccer.
24:40
Speaker 1: Mostly boredom interrupted by stupidity with occasional lightning bolts of
24:46
Speaker 1: drama and excitement. And boy, has that been the case
24:50
Speaker 1: during this World Cup. However, it's in my estimation that
24:56
Speaker 1: the boredom quotion hasn't changed much, but the stupidity quotion
25:02
Speaker 1: has increased, dramatically, increased dramatically. I don't remember things being
25:09
Speaker 1: this stupid, and it's mostly because I had no idea,
25:13
Speaker 1: and I know that this is mostly new, not entirely new,
25:17
Speaker 1: but it's never gotten to this level before at the
25:19
Speaker 1: World Cup. The level to which that video replay is
25:24
Speaker 1: now dominating the sport is frankly comical and sad and
25:32
Speaker 1: absurd and scary to me. I referenced you know that
25:37
Speaker 1: I often look at college football and AI. I think
25:40
Speaker 1: the other thing that relates to AI is what's happening
25:43
Speaker 1: in sports with video replay, whether it's in baseball or
25:48
Speaker 1: what we've now seen in soccer at the World Cup,
25:51
Speaker 1: where we as a society seem to be pretty okay
25:56
Speaker 1: with video replay just completely taking over the sport to
26:01
Speaker 1: the point where you have a situation involving Croatia where
26:08
Speaker 1: some mechanism in a ball depicted or picked up on
26:13
Speaker 1: the idea that maybe the ball got grazed by a
26:16
Speaker 1: guy's hair, which you couldn't even see on video, and
26:21
Speaker 1: that ended up just determining a World Cup soccer game.
26:25
Speaker 1: What what that is? That was never the intention of
26:31
Speaker 1: video replay. If you can't see it with the naked
26:33
Speaker 1: eye on video replay, then it shouldn't matter. It clearly didn't.
26:39
Speaker 1: It didn't impact the play in any way. So why
26:42
Speaker 1: the fuck would you change a call on a goal
26:46
Speaker 1: based upon the sensors in a soccer ball that the
26:49
Speaker 1: human eye could not possibly pick up. By the way,
26:52
Speaker 1: what's one of the few good things that golf does
26:54
Speaker 1: with regard to the rules. Golf has video replay rules,
26:58
Speaker 1: but there's a stipulation, and this is simplifying it, but
27:01
Speaker 1: there's a stipulation that if the youan eye can't pick
27:04
Speaker 1: up on it, then it doesn't count, because otherwise you
27:08
Speaker 1: get into absurd situational situations like what happened with Croatia.
27:13
Speaker 1: But that was just one of many circumstances. Egypt may
27:18
Speaker 1: have gotten robbed from beating Argentina because because video replay
27:23
Speaker 1: took away maybe the best goal with the entire tournament
27:26
Speaker 1: for something that happened like twelve seconds beforehand, they went
27:31
Speaker 1: back twelve seconds or something like that before this spectacular
27:35
Speaker 1: goal and decide to be of replay that there was
27:38
Speaker 1: a foul erasing the goal. And almost every goal you
27:43
Speaker 1: gotta wait to find out whether not the everyone was
27:46
Speaker 1: on sides if the flag goes up, So there's almost
27:50
Speaker 1: no situations where the greatest moment in soccer. This is
27:55
Speaker 1: what drives me crazy. I just can't believe there's not
27:58
Speaker 1: more backlash amount soccer fans because the beauty of soccer, right,
28:05
Speaker 1: and I'm a very open minded guy. The whole world
28:07
Speaker 1: loves soccer. There's got to be a reason, right. The
28:10
Speaker 1: reason why you love soccer is that because it's so
28:14
Speaker 1: low scoring at the highest levels, every goal matters so much.
28:21
Speaker 1: And so when you have high stakes like the World
28:24
Speaker 1: Cup knockout round, you know, win or go home, right,
28:29
Speaker 1: that's as big as it gets, world's largest stage, So
28:35
Speaker 1: every goal matters. The beauty, the magic of soccer is
28:40
Speaker 1: the joy that explodes when your team scores. Right, that
28:49
Speaker 1: doesn't get any better than that. It's all this build up,
28:52
Speaker 1: it's all this boredom, putting up with all the stupidity.
28:55
Speaker 1: But occasionally you get a lightning strike of excitement, drama,
29:00
Speaker 1: and joy. Except now video replay has stolen that. There
29:08
Speaker 1: are almost no situations where you can have unbridled joy
29:13
Speaker 1: over a soccer goal because you gotta wait. I mean,
29:16
Speaker 1: I think this sucks in American football. I can't stand
29:20
Speaker 1: replay because now almost every time, not every time, but
29:24
Speaker 1: most times, especially in dramatic situations, when it comes to
29:29
Speaker 1: a football touchdown, you gotta at least wait. You have
29:32
Speaker 1: to at least be a little bit hesitant. You can't
29:34
Speaker 1: really be sure that the touchdown is going to stand. Well,
29:38
Speaker 1: it's worse in soccer. And what makes it worse is
29:42
Speaker 1: even dumber in soccer is how few goals there are.
29:46
Speaker 1: So you only get three, maybe four opportunities to express joy,
29:53
Speaker 1: because that's how many goals there generally are in a
29:55
Speaker 1: World Cup soccer game, and you know invariably on two
29:59
Speaker 1: or three of them you're gonna have to wait or
30:02
Speaker 1: it might get reversed. I mean, so many calls are
30:05
Speaker 1: getting reversed, and many of them because of this stupid
30:09
Speaker 1: reliance on video replay. So I guess I'm astonished. I'm
30:15
Speaker 1: really am stunned that soccer fans are putting up with this.
30:19
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to have impacted the interest, the TV ratings,
30:25
Speaker 1: the attendance, the enthusiasm, but they've just killed the whole thing.
30:30
Speaker 1: They've just destroyed the magic. They've they've put a stake
30:34
Speaker 1: through the heart of joy and people seem to be
30:37
Speaker 1: okay with it, which gets me very antsy about the
30:40
Speaker 1: whole AI thing, because if we're willing to accept, you know,
30:44
Speaker 1: video and sensors taking over the world, cupped and what
30:49
Speaker 1: the hell aren't we gonna be okay with with technology
30:52
Speaker 1: taking over? And so there was a video replay situation
30:58
Speaker 1: that occurred in a game with the United States where
31:01
Speaker 1: we beat Bosnia and the best American scorer ended up
31:08
Speaker 1: getting a red card, and the call itself was borderline.
31:16
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually think that it was a justifiable
31:20
Speaker 1: It was certainly a foul. People to tell you it
31:22
Speaker 1: wasn't a foul are being ridiculous. Whether it was a
31:27
Speaker 1: yellow card or a red card, I think is a
31:30
Speaker 1: reasonable debate. I hate the fact that it happened via replay.
31:36
Speaker 1: I hate even more the punishment involved. The punishment for
31:41
Speaker 1: a borderline red card was that our best scorer was
31:46
Speaker 1: going to be not just out of the game for
31:48
Speaker 1: the rest of the game in America playing with ten players,
31:50
Speaker 1: although we were able to overcome that to win, but
31:53
Speaker 1: they were going to be out for the entire next game. Now,
31:57
Speaker 1: I agree that that is a ridiculous punishment, especially for
32:02
Speaker 1: a situation that was borderline. Whether it was a yellow
32:05
Speaker 1: or red card, I completely agree with that the punishment
32:10
Speaker 1: doesn't fit the crime. I've never understood this whole idea
32:15
Speaker 1: that the red card entails with it that much punishment.
32:18
Speaker 1: But I guess they're trying to create an incentive structure
32:22
Speaker 1: that prevents injuries, because everything's about preventing injuries. Now we've
32:26
Speaker 1: got to risk no one can get hurt, and we've
32:29
Speaker 1: got to diminish risk as much as possible. It's okay, fine,
32:33
Speaker 1: but I still believe that the punishment is too great.
32:36
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, maybe it should be closer to
32:38
Speaker 1: what happens in college football, which I hate. I despise
32:42
Speaker 1: the targeting rule, especially since it's implemented in ways that
32:46
Speaker 1: are incredibly inconsistent. But if you know, if you get
32:48
Speaker 1: a targeting in the second half of one game, you're
32:51
Speaker 1: out for that game, and you're out for the first
32:53
Speaker 1: half of the next game, you know, to me, that
32:55
Speaker 1: would be far more reasonable, even though I still think
32:58
Speaker 1: that's excessive. But the United State faced and playing its
33:02
Speaker 1: Round of sixteen game without its best scorer, and for
33:05
Speaker 1: several days that was just accepted as the reality that
33:10
Speaker 1: we were gonna have to somehow win this game without
33:14
Speaker 1: our best score. It was unfair, It was a bad punishment.
33:18
Speaker 1: Was it really a legitimate red card? That's all fine,
33:22
Speaker 1: and well, that's legitimate sports debate. But then it appears
33:28
Speaker 1: as if Donald Trump decided that he needed to interject himself.
33:32
Speaker 1: And this is where things got absolutely batshit crazy, even
33:37
Speaker 1: by Trump's standards, because it certainly appears as if Donald
33:44
Speaker 1: Trump essentially called FIFA that runs the World Cup, and
33:50
Speaker 1: who knows what exactly he said, but he was able
33:55
Speaker 1: to convince them to reevaluate something for which there is
34:01
Speaker 1: no actual legitimate mechanism for an appeal. This doesn't exist.
34:10
Speaker 1: There is no actual appeal process for a red card.
34:15
Speaker 1: Now they do have a rule where they can basically
34:17
Speaker 1: do whatever the fuck they want in an emergency situation.
34:21
Speaker 1: But this had not happened at a World Cup game
34:26
Speaker 1: where a red card was later suspended or revoked since
34:31
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two. And in nineteen sixty two, people then
34:35
Speaker 1: presume that this was some sort of a fixing or
34:38
Speaker 1: ringing situation, and it put a cloud over the entire tournament.
34:42
Speaker 1: But nineteen sixty two is a very very very long
34:45
Speaker 1: time ago. This is a completely different world, completely different
34:47
Speaker 1: tournament now, and Donald Trump seemingly convinced FIFA to do
34:54
Speaker 1: something that was effectively unprecedented and to suspend the red
34:58
Speaker 1: card and a allow America's top scorer to play in
35:04
Speaker 1: the next game. Now, the reason why we know that
35:08
Speaker 1: Donald Trump had an influence or a significant role here
35:12
Speaker 1: is that Donald Trump lacked the discipline stop me if
35:17
Speaker 1: you've heard this before. Lacked the discipline to keep his
35:21
Speaker 1: fucking mouth shut, and instead of just letting FIFA take
35:26
Speaker 1: the heat for suddenly deciding that this was an injustice
35:30
Speaker 1: so great that they needed to do something effectively unprecedented
35:35
Speaker 1: and piss off the entire world by allowing the United
35:38
Speaker 1: States to have their best scorer play in the next
35:41
Speaker 1: game instead of doing that. No, Donald Trump leaked. It
35:46
Speaker 1: appears very clear Donald Trump leaked word that the red
35:51
Speaker 1: card was going to be suspended to Dave Portnoy, the
35:55
Speaker 1: guy who owns Barstool Sports. Now hasn't said that Trump
36:01
Speaker 1: did this, but it was very very clear he made
36:03
Speaker 1: it as obviously as he possibly could. That Donald Trump
36:07
Speaker 1: or someone very very close to Trump. I think it
36:09
Speaker 1: was probably Trump himself gave him the heads up. So
36:12
Speaker 1: you have Portnoy predicting that he has information. I guess
36:18
Speaker 1: it was a prediction. I guess it was a report
36:20
Speaker 1: as well, you know, posting that he believes that the
36:25
Speaker 1: red card is going to be suspended and he has
36:27
Speaker 1: good information on this, and then all of a sudden,
36:30
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happens. And then Trump decides to speak
36:36
Speaker 1: openly about this at a press conference, fully acknowledging, essentially
36:41
Speaker 1: taking credit for the reversal of this decision. And this
36:45
Speaker 1: is where things got frankly comical, because Trump, in as
36:50
Speaker 1: trumpy a fashion as possible, brags about how much he
36:54
Speaker 1: knows about sports, which he does. I have praised his
36:57
Speaker 1: sports knowledge. I think he's better on the college football
37:00
Speaker 1: and college sports situation than anybody else that's in charge.
37:05
Speaker 1: I've praised him for understanding how threatened the Army Navy
37:09
Speaker 1: football game is by the new system and his efforts
37:12
Speaker 1: to try to protect it. He does no sports. However,
37:19
Speaker 1: you can't get any more ridiculous than the President United
37:23
Speaker 1: States intervening to make a major change when it comes
37:28
Speaker 1: to the World Cup soccer tournament in the same press
37:32
Speaker 1: conference where he confesses he had no idea what a
37:36
Speaker 1: red card was. You literally can't make this up, Natalie.
37:44
Speaker 1: Is it a completely insane for the President United States
37:48
Speaker 1: or any other world leader to intervene and directly appeal
37:53
Speaker 1: to FIFA to do something unprecedented and go outside their
37:57
Speaker 1: own procedures so that one of your players can play
38:01
Speaker 1: in the next round of the tournament. But when you
38:04
Speaker 1: openly admit that you don't even know what a red
38:07
Speaker 1: card is, you've never heard of it before, and somehow
38:11
Speaker 1: you have the moral authority to be making this appeal,
38:16
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just flat out ridiculous. It doesn't get
38:20
Speaker 1: any more insane than this, And of course Trump fans
38:24
Speaker 1: love this. To me, this was quintessential Trump, quintessential Maga
38:30
Speaker 1: where Maga being a cult and not being very smart,
38:34
Speaker 1: not being educated, and not being able to think things through,
38:36
Speaker 1: much like their cult leader, who at best is playing
38:40
Speaker 1: checkers and never playing chess. They don't understand the problems
38:44
Speaker 1: with this, which are massive. There's a principal problem. The
38:50
Speaker 1: principle is that the rules matter. I mean, here we are,
38:53
Speaker 1: we just celebrated our two hundred and fiftieth birthday. One
38:57
Speaker 1: of the founding tenants of our country is, you know,
39:01
Speaker 1: we're a nation of laws, not men, and equal justice
39:05
Speaker 1: under the law. And here our president is making sure
39:08
Speaker 1: that that entire concept is obliterated in the largest stage
39:12
Speaker 1: in sports, where this player was being allowed to play
39:18
Speaker 1: in a game that they had been barred from purely
39:22
Speaker 1: because they play for the United States. That's the only
39:27
Speaker 1: reason no other country could have gotten this done. And
39:30
Speaker 1: that's another part of why it's ridiculous for Trump to
39:34
Speaker 1: have done this that no one wants to fully understand.
39:37
Speaker 1: I went on News Nation again to talk about this,
39:40
Speaker 1: and I made this point emphatically. Can we please use
39:44
Speaker 1: our brains here? This is not, you know, the leader
39:49
Speaker 1: of a small country trying to gain approval from their
39:55
Speaker 1: citizens by making a completely irrelevant state on behalf of
40:02
Speaker 1: their player that their fans think got a raw deal
40:06
Speaker 1: that would be natural and fairly harmless because they don't
40:12
Speaker 1: have any leverage over FIFA. But Trump is the president
40:17
Speaker 1: of the most powerful country in the world and the
40:20
Speaker 1: country that's currently hosting the fucking event. So it doesn't
40:26
Speaker 1: take a vivid imagination to understand all the possible leverage
40:33
Speaker 1: points that Trump had, and he may not even have used,
40:38
Speaker 1: but it didn't matter. FIFA is not completely stupid. They
40:41
Speaker 1: understand the way Trump operates. I mean there's also the
40:44
Speaker 1: mind boggles over all the things that Trump theoretically could
40:48
Speaker 1: have threatened to do, especially when the final is is
40:52
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. I mean, there's all sorts of things
40:56
Speaker 1: that the president of the States, whether it was real
40:59
Speaker 1: or procede or somewhere in between, could have threatened to
41:03
Speaker 1: do where they have leverage points over FIFA, then no
41:07
Speaker 1: other world leader would have possibly had, and FIVA, being
41:11
Speaker 1: a corrupt organization, caved and did something that was to
41:16
Speaker 1: me unfathomable and rightly created outrage in the rest of
41:21
Speaker 1: the world and probably destroyed a huge portion of the
41:26
Speaker 1: good will that had been created by the World Cup
41:30
Speaker 1: happening in America and having all these foreign fans sing
41:34
Speaker 1: the praises of America on social media. We're the big
41:38
Speaker 1: bad bully again. And then, of course the worst thing
41:41
Speaker 1: happened and we got our butts kicked. So Trump effectively
41:46
Speaker 1: causes us to cheat and it doesn't work. In fact,
41:51
Speaker 1: it seemingly backfired. You know, the other team actually mocked
41:57
Speaker 1: Trump in the locker room after they beat us forward
41:59
Speaker 1: to one. The America team looked like they were completely
42:03
Speaker 1: out of it, totally unprepared, uninspired, you know, kind of ironically.
42:09
Speaker 1: We were preparing for days to play without our leading scorer,
42:12
Speaker 1: and then we ended up playing the game effectively without
42:15
Speaker 1: a goalkeeper was the worst goalkeeper I've ever goalkeeping I've
42:18
Speaker 1: ever seen at that kind of level, and we lost
42:23
Speaker 1: four to one. So did Trump get blamed for that?
42:27
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure liberals are blaming him for what
42:30
Speaker 1: ended up happening. Maga fans aren't, of course, you know,
42:33
Speaker 1: as I said to them on social media, Look, I'm
42:36
Speaker 1: not blaming Trump for the loss. There's a lot of
42:39
Speaker 1: reasons why America lost. But if America had won, would
42:43
Speaker 1: Maggot not have been giving Trump the credit? Of course,
42:47
Speaker 1: they would have been because that's what they do as
42:51
Speaker 1: a cult. The logic and consistency are not their forte.
42:56
Speaker 1: But the bigger issue here is this was totally wrong,
43:00
Speaker 1: a horrible precedent, and it was quintessential Trump because he
43:05
Speaker 1: was mostly well intentioned, he kind of had a point.
43:09
Speaker 1: I think the point was better about the punishment not
43:13
Speaker 1: fitting the crime than it was about the crime itself,
43:15
Speaker 1: because there was a foul involved. But Trump doesn't think
43:21
Speaker 1: it through. He doesn't think about unintended consequences. He doesn't
43:24
Speaker 1: give it damn about precedent, he doesn't give it him
43:26
Speaker 1: about the Pandora's box. But now the president has been set.
43:32
Speaker 1: I mean I joked on social media after England won
43:36
Speaker 1: and one of their best players got a red card,
43:38
Speaker 1: so they'll be out against Norway coming up, and I said, well, okay,
43:43
Speaker 1: your move, King Charles. I mean that this is going
43:47
Speaker 1: to be the new normal. Now. Do you have enough
43:49
Speaker 1: influence with FIFA to get this reversed? England doesn't because
43:53
Speaker 1: Englinn's not the most powerful country in the world and
43:56
Speaker 1: the World Cups is currently happening in England, so that
43:59
Speaker 1: read art is going to stand. Egypt's leader just complained
44:04
Speaker 1: about the situation I referred to earlier filing some sort
44:08
Speaker 1: of a formal complaint. So you know, it's all turning
44:12
Speaker 1: into a reality TV show where even when contestants get eliminated,
44:17
Speaker 1: you're never quite sure they're really gone. I mean, if
44:19
Speaker 1: they're popular enough, if the audience says they want them
44:22
Speaker 1: to come back, maybe they will. I even joked about
44:25
Speaker 1: that on newsdation. Are we really sure the United States lost?
44:30
Speaker 1: You know, because maybe FIFA will realize that the ratings
44:32
Speaker 1: would be better in the quarterfinals if America was playing.
44:36
Speaker 1: The entire essence of sports is being lost, and it's
44:41
Speaker 1: in large part because of what Donald Trump did completely wrong.
44:46
Speaker 1: Quintessential Trump. I mean, to me, all you need to
44:50
Speaker 1: do to understand Trump is to look at what happened here.
44:55
Speaker 1: It's Trump in a nutshell. It really is the ego,
45:00
Speaker 1: the desire to be the hero. He gets things done.
45:04
Speaker 1: I'll give him that. He got it done and something
45:07
Speaker 1: he thought was in the best interest in the United States,
45:10
Speaker 1: and he got cheered for it, at least initially, but
45:13
Speaker 1: the unintended consequences were terrible. I mean, I'm not going
45:17
Speaker 1: to blame him for a four to one loss, but
45:19
Speaker 1: it certainly didn't help, that's clear. And there was a
45:24
Speaker 1: cost involved here. There was a cost in the perception
45:27
Speaker 1: of our country, and there was a cost when it
45:29
Speaker 1: came to the precedent and the principles and the nature
45:33
Speaker 1: of sport. And of course Trump moves on and just
45:36
Speaker 1: washes his hands from it. And it doesn't really matter
45:39
Speaker 1: to Trump because now he doesn't care about the World
45:41
Speaker 1: Cup and most Americans don't care about the World Cup anymore.
45:45
Speaker 1: But I just found that whole situation to be really telling,
45:49
Speaker 1: really telling about Trump and about MEGA and about FIFA.
45:54
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'm even willing to say, go ahead,
45:59
Speaker 1: try to use American influence if you really think that
46:03
Speaker 1: America was wronged, but don't have your fingerprints on it.
46:08
Speaker 1: Don't take away plausible deniability. I mean, look again, if
46:12
Speaker 1: if this, if Trump had not leaked this to Dave
46:15
Speaker 1: Portinoy and said nothing about this publicly, right, this would
46:20
Speaker 1: have looked significantly different. There would have been people that
46:23
Speaker 1: questioned it, but FIFA would have been the target. FIFA
46:28
Speaker 1: would have been the entity that was perceived as having
46:32
Speaker 1: broken their own rules for unknown reasons. It wouldn't have
46:36
Speaker 1: been seen as the big bad United States of America
46:40
Speaker 1: twisting their arm, and especially since Trump is so toxic,
46:44
Speaker 1: everyone's more than willing, understandably to believe anything bad about
46:49
Speaker 1: him and what he might try to do behind the scenes.
46:53
Speaker 1: To me, that was the worst part of this whole
46:55
Speaker 1: thing from Trump's perspective. If you're gonna do this, don't
46:59
Speaker 1: brag about it. But Trump can't help himself. He has
47:03
Speaker 1: to take credit, even for things that end up blowing
47:06
Speaker 1: up in his face and turning out very, very poorly.
47:10
Speaker 1: So this whole situation was this classic Trump. But you know,
47:14
Speaker 1: at least now Americas no longer have to pretend to
47:16
Speaker 1: care about the World Cup moving forward. There are very
47:20
Speaker 1: few teams that I have any interest in moving forward
47:23
Speaker 1: in the World Cup other than maybe Norway. And I
47:27
Speaker 1: want to take just a moment to talk about the
47:28
Speaker 1: situation involving Norway, because I find this to be hilarious
47:33
Speaker 1: and telling. Norway is a team that's going to be
47:37
Speaker 1: playing England in the quarterfinals, and they're a team that
47:42
Speaker 1: social media and even some in the liberal media establishment
47:47
Speaker 1: have really embraced, I mean really embraced, and it's understandable
47:53
Speaker 1: why they're an engaging team and they do this Viking
47:57
Speaker 1: Row thing, and the Norway fans do the Viking even
48:00
Speaker 1: school kids. There's all sorts of viral video of school
48:04
Speaker 1: kids in Norway doing the Viking Row, and I love it.
48:08
Speaker 1: To me, it's it's what sports should be about. But
48:11
Speaker 1: I also look at this that I go, holy hypocrisy, Batman.
48:16
Speaker 1: I mean, why does Norway get to be celebrating the
48:22
Speaker 1: origins of their gene pool when their gene pool is
48:28
Speaker 1: actually rather problematic if you use the rules that have
48:33
Speaker 1: been created by liberals. I mean, Norway's team still looks
48:38
Speaker 1: like people from Norway. They're almost entirely white, Nordic, blonde,
48:44
Speaker 1: good looking, and you know, the Viking Row. It wouldn't
48:49
Speaker 1: take much for a liberal to look at the Viking
48:52
Speaker 1: Row and say, well, wait a minute, it doesn't that
48:53
Speaker 1: represent raping and pillaging of foreign lands? Why are we
48:58
Speaker 1: celebrating that? Again, I'm not in that camp, but that's
49:01
Speaker 1: the way liberals look at this generally, at least when
49:05
Speaker 1: it's in the United States. I mean, it's a it's
49:08
Speaker 1: not a long distance from the Viking Row to okay
49:13
Speaker 1: with them? You know, in American terms, why can't we
49:17
Speaker 1: have the redskins? What happened to the Cleveland Indians? What
49:20
Speaker 1: did you do to the old miss Rebels? And and
49:23
Speaker 1: you know, Confederate symbols. Why can't we have our own heritage?
49:28
Speaker 1: Why can't we take pride in some of the things
49:31
Speaker 1: that made us unique? Liberals hate all that stuff, Yet
49:37
Speaker 1: because these guys are good looking, I've seen numerous there's
49:39
Speaker 1: been ridiculous articles written by liberals, many of them female,
49:44
Speaker 1: about how awesome the Norway players are and how good
49:49
Speaker 1: looking they are, and salivating over their gene pool. And
49:52
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, a whole lot a second, Wait a minute.
49:55
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought jeans, what happened to Sydney Sweeteye?
50:00
Speaker 1: Zidny sweety deserves in that gene commercial, deserves an apology.
50:03
Speaker 1: I thought genes, especially white jeans, were inherently bad. You
50:07
Speaker 1: couldn't possibly celebrate white jeans. Well, well, we're celebrating the
50:11
Speaker 1: white jean pool of Norway. Why Well, because they're good
50:14
Speaker 1: looking and because they're good at soccer, because their star
50:17
Speaker 1: player is a stud. Well, okay, fine, but can we
50:22
Speaker 1: at least have a little bit of consistency here? And
50:26
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of what I'm talking about here
50:28
Speaker 1: is not all that significant. I do think there is
50:31
Speaker 1: some importance to it, but in the bigger picture, this matters,
50:36
Speaker 1: and because you know, one of the reasons Norway is
50:39
Speaker 1: able to do this and have a homogenized culture where
50:43
Speaker 1: their school kids are literally learning the Viking row at
50:48
Speaker 1: two and three years old, which is fantastic. It creates
50:52
Speaker 1: unity and culture and it makes you know, Norway unique
50:59
Speaker 1: and gives pride in their country something the United States
51:02
Speaker 1: used to have in unity until you know, recent decades. Well,
51:07
Speaker 1: obviously we've had conflicts in the past, but I truly
51:11
Speaker 1: believe we were more culturally unified with all of our problems
51:14
Speaker 1: in the two hundred anniversary than we are in the
51:16
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth. You can argue that, but that's
51:19
Speaker 1: my belief having lived through both of them. But Norway
51:23
Speaker 1: is an interesting case because Norway is mostly white, mostly
51:29
Speaker 1: culturally homogenized, but that is not necessarily going to be
51:34
Speaker 1: the case forever. They haven't suffered as much from the
51:38
Speaker 1: immigration invasion as other European countries. They're partially protected by
51:42
Speaker 1: their geography, but in recent years their demographics have changed
51:49
Speaker 1: somewhat significantly. It's not to the point of an emergency yet,
51:53
Speaker 1: but it's absolutely an emerging problem. And that's why I
51:57
Speaker 1: find this so interesting that with Norway making this run
52:01
Speaker 1: in the World Cup, there seems to be this embrace
52:04
Speaker 1: of what it means to be Norwegian, which absolutely has
52:08
Speaker 1: a genetic element to it, and I'm fine with that.
52:13
Speaker 1: I'm just looking for consistency which doesn't exist. And you know,
52:20
Speaker 1: I don't even know. It'll be interesting to see in
52:23
Speaker 1: then England Norway game, who America is rooting for. My
52:28
Speaker 1: guess is probably more for Norway than for England. But
52:30
Speaker 1: that's probably the last game that I'm going to find
52:32
Speaker 1: any interest in because I'm actually a fan of what
52:36
Speaker 1: Norway is doing. But I'm also looking at this as
52:39
Speaker 1: a cultural commentator and going, wait a minute, oh, can
52:44
Speaker 1: we please? Can we please be a little bit consistent here?
52:47
Speaker 1: There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy, especially from
52:50
Speaker 1: liberal women salivating over the genetics of the of the
52:54
Speaker 1: Norway men on the soccer team. Now, speaking of sports
52:58
Speaker 1: and genetics and race, I've got to mention something really
53:04
Speaker 1: interesting that happened with ESPN stephen A. Smith over the
53:08
Speaker 1: last week. And you know, I'm not a fan of
53:11
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith. In fact, I'm a critic of his,
53:14
Speaker 1: I think he's a buffoon. He's wrong a lot. You know,
53:19
Speaker 1: I was a reader of his way way way way
53:22
Speaker 1: back when he was covering high school sports for the
53:24
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Inquirer. He's a fraud at times, he's a race baterer.
53:30
Speaker 1: He tries to pretend to be moderate politically. He was
53:34
Speaker 1: completely and totally wrong on the Penn State Joe paternal
53:36
Speaker 1: Jerry Sandusky case. He is entertaining, and occasionally he'll say
53:42
Speaker 1: things that need to be said that no one else will,
53:45
Speaker 1: but it's a very small percentage of time. And he
53:48
Speaker 1: went on a rant about the Los Angeles Lakers in
53:54
Speaker 1: the aftermath of Lebron James announcing or the Lakers and
53:57
Speaker 1: Lebron James announcing that he will not be playing for
54:00
Speaker 1: the Lakers this coming year, and the fact that without
54:04
Speaker 1: Lebron James, it looks like next year's Lakers team is
54:08
Speaker 1: going to be dominated by what Stephen A. Smith refers
54:12
Speaker 1: to as white dudes. And he went off on how
54:17
Speaker 1: ridiculous it is that a major NBA team could possibly
54:21
Speaker 1: think they could win a championship with a bunch of
54:24
Speaker 1: white dudes. And I'm not exaggerating because here's what that
54:28
Speaker 1: sounded like. This is the number to call. I just
54:32
Speaker 1: got to say it, y'all, Where.
54:35
Speaker 3: The hell the Los Angeles Lakers think they're gone with
54:37
Speaker 3: a bunch of white dudes. Somebody had to say so,
54:41
Speaker 3: I'm saying, your three top players of white dudes. Really,
54:50
Speaker 3: this ain't golf, this ain't baseball. Hell, it ain't even soccer.
54:57
Speaker 3: And we got a whole bunch of brothers on Team USA.
55:00
Speaker 3: But y'all think this is basketball. This is basketball in
55:07
Speaker 3: NBA history. When have you seen your three most prominent
55:12
Speaker 3: players on the basketball team all be white? And that
55:17
Speaker 3: takes you to the promised Land? Somebody got to say so,
55:19
Speaker 3: I'm saying it. Sorry to the leadership of Series X, Sam,
55:25
Speaker 3: Eric Spitz, Steve Tory, mad Dog Russo sorry if it
55:29
Speaker 3: makes y'all uncomfortable.
55:30
Speaker 1: Love y'all, y'all know that, But damn it, we didn't
55:33
Speaker 1: do that.
55:34
Speaker 3: I'm a brother, yo. This is basketball. I'm not complaining.
55:41
Speaker 3: I'm simply making the point, ladies and gentlemen. The Los
55:46
Speaker 3: Angeles Lakers tinsel Town. Tinsel Town, a place where everybody
55:56
Speaker 3: from Wilt and Koree.
56:00
Speaker 1: And Check and Magic.
56:04
Speaker 3: And Kobe Yes, Jefry West, before them, yes, George Mike
56:10
Speaker 3: and before the aforementioned centers. But this is the Lakers,
56:16
Speaker 3: this is southern California, this is La La, this is
56:20
Speaker 3: La Baby, this thing Utah.
56:25
Speaker 1: Now, to be clear, I have no problem with what
56:30
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith said there. It's a bit like the
56:33
Speaker 1: Norway soccer team. I got no problem. But the hypocrisy
56:38
Speaker 1: issue is off the charts because if a white commentator
56:45
Speaker 1: ever even fought about making a similar commentary about a
56:51
Speaker 1: sports team having too many black dudes, like a hockey
56:55
Speaker 1: team having too many black dudes, they would be fired immediately.
57:01
Speaker 1: I mean, this is not even in question. Even if
57:04
Speaker 1: they were at the celebrity level of Stephen A. Smith,
57:08
Speaker 1: There's no chance you could possibly get away with that.
57:11
Speaker 1: So I think the hypocrisy issue is important. By the way,
57:15
Speaker 1: when there was backlash, Steven A. Smith didn't even back down.
57:18
Speaker 1: He double or triple down on this. And the reality is, yes,
57:25
Speaker 1: basketball is dominated by black men for a reason. Now,
57:30
Speaker 1: no one wants to talk about those reasons. Even Steven A.
57:32
Speaker 1: Smith doesn't really want to talk about those reasons, which
57:35
Speaker 1: I find to be really interesting in telling because even
57:38
Speaker 1: that is probably too hot of a potato for Stephen A. Smith.
57:43
Speaker 1: But there's obviously genetic differences in the way humans have
57:47
Speaker 1: evolved from different areas of the globe, and basketball and
57:53
Speaker 1: other sports are dominated by people from portions of Africa,
57:59
Speaker 1: not completely, but and off in many areas in large part,
58:03
Speaker 1: especially in basketball, almost completely. And I always go back
58:08
Speaker 1: to the fact that this entire discourse is still in
58:12
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six being completely stunted. I think this is
58:18
Speaker 1: a significant, important area of discussion. I think we should
58:22
Speaker 1: be open and honest about this. Frankly, black athletes are
58:26
Speaker 1: very open and honest about this on podcasts and places
58:30
Speaker 1: where they don't think they're going to be canceled for
58:32
Speaker 1: telling the truth. But in the main street, we're not
58:35
Speaker 1: allowed to talk about this. And it's all because of
58:39
Speaker 1: our Campanis and Jimmy the Greek, two guys that got
58:43
Speaker 1: their lives totally destroyed two generations ago. And yet that's
58:49
Speaker 1: how powerful their legacies are because especially in the media
58:53
Speaker 1: is especially every white guy is to this day terrified
58:57
Speaker 1: of being Ol Campanis or Jimmy the Greek. Now fanis
59:00
Speaker 1: former GM of the Dodgers who had a stellar record
59:03
Speaker 1: on race and they made a really stupid comment on Nightline,
59:07
Speaker 1: probably deserved, especially at his age, to get bounced. Jimmy
59:11
Speaker 1: the Greek got totally railroaded. I've talked about my experience
59:15
Speaker 1: with Jimmy the Greek and probably being the last person
59:17
Speaker 1: to interview him before he died, a totally, completely broken
59:21
Speaker 1: and crushed man, because we had a Steubenville, Ohio connection.
59:24
Speaker 1: That's where Jimmy the Greek grew up. But the reality
59:29
Speaker 1: is we're terrified of this subject, and in a weird way,
59:33
Speaker 1: I kind of think it's good that Steven X. Smith
59:35
Speaker 1: has said this, maybe because you know, in some small
59:39
Speaker 1: way it'll open up. It won't dramatically, but in some
59:43
Speaker 1: small way it might open up more honesty when it
59:45
Speaker 1: comes to this discussion, because it's not racist to talk
59:49
Speaker 1: about our differences. I think our differences should be celebrated.
59:53
Speaker 1: But when we're terrified to talk about him, it creates division.
59:58
Speaker 1: And I'm always just had a very different view of
1:00:02
Speaker 1: this kind of topic when it comes to race. I mean, like,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: for instance, the N word. I think the N word
1:00:09
Speaker 1: should doesn't deserve the power that we give it by
1:00:12
Speaker 1: putting it in the place where you know, only black
1:00:15
Speaker 1: people are allowed to say it. White people are not
1:00:18
Speaker 1: allowed to say it, and you have your life destroyed
1:00:20
Speaker 1: even if you By the way, there have been people
1:00:21
Speaker 1: who've been fired from jobs that didn't even say the
1:00:24
Speaker 1: end word, that said something that sounded similar to the
1:00:27
Speaker 1: end word, that gives the word too much goddamn power.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: So to me, we're just we're just looking at this
1:00:34
Speaker 1: whole thing very upside down fashion. So I'm not My
1:00:39
Speaker 1: problem was not with Stephen A. Smith. My problem is
1:00:42
Speaker 1: with the entire media industrial complex and the absolute hypocrisy
1:00:48
Speaker 1: that would be there if anyone ever tried to have
1:00:51
Speaker 1: a similar discussion, especially if they weren't black, and they
1:00:55
Speaker 1: weren't a celebrity. If you're a black celebrity, you know
1:00:58
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith, Charles Barkley, that type of person you
1:01:01
Speaker 1: can get away with saying almost anything you want, which is,
1:01:03
Speaker 1: by the way, partially why they're popular. They've been given
1:01:07
Speaker 1: more free speech rights than anybody else has, largely because
1:01:11
Speaker 1: of their race, if not entirely because of their race.
1:01:14
Speaker 1: As far as the Lakers are concerned, I mean, I
1:01:16
Speaker 1: don't I'm not much of an NBA fan anymore. I
1:01:18
Speaker 1: don't really follow the Lakers nearly as much as I
1:01:20
Speaker 1: used to back in the Kobe and Shack days when
1:01:23
Speaker 1: I first came to Los Angeles. But you know, I
1:01:27
Speaker 1: do think there's a difference between white dudes and European
1:01:32
Speaker 1: white dudes. There's American white dudes and there's European white dudes.
1:01:36
Speaker 1: There does seem to be a difference, and European white
1:01:39
Speaker 1: dudes seem to do quite well in the NBA. It's
1:01:42
Speaker 1: American white dudes that don't be that aren't particularly successful
1:01:47
Speaker 1: in the NBA. So there might be an important distinction
1:01:49
Speaker 1: to be made there that Steven A. Smith is forgetting
1:01:51
Speaker 1: about what we'll see when it comes to the Lakers. Now,
1:01:54
Speaker 1: just to show you how unbelievably different the NBA is
1:01:59
Speaker 1: to the WNBA when it comes to discourse and political correctness.
1:02:04
Speaker 1: So Stephen A. Smith can say one of the most
1:02:07
Speaker 1: politically incorrect things you can think of when it comes
1:02:11
Speaker 1: to race and basketball in the NBA, and at the
1:02:17
Speaker 1: same exact time, the head coach of the Indiana Fever,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: Stephanie White, who is a white woman who used to
1:02:27
Speaker 1: be straight, used to be married to a man, has
1:02:29
Speaker 1: had kids with a man, but is now a lesbian.
1:02:34
Speaker 1: I don't even know how that works. But she's not
1:02:37
Speaker 1: just a lesbian. This is an important part of the
1:02:39
Speaker 1: story that no one wants to discuss publicly, and it's
1:02:42
Speaker 1: amazing to me that ESPN is getting away with this.
1:02:45
Speaker 1: But they're getting you know, they got away with the
1:02:47
Speaker 1: Diana Russini situation where they hired her, and they've had
1:02:51
Speaker 1: no blowback because of the Mike Rabel scandal, even though
1:02:55
Speaker 1: it's clear that even while she was at ESPN that
1:02:58
Speaker 1: was going on. Well, she's dating or partnered with a
1:03:04
Speaker 1: very prominent ESPN reporter named Lisa Salters, who happens to
1:03:08
Speaker 1: be a black female and all this is significant because
1:03:12
Speaker 1: of something we talked about in the last episode of
1:03:14
Speaker 1: the podcast, which is the attacks on Caitlin Clark, who
1:03:17
Speaker 1: plays for Stephanie White. Now you would think, if who
1:03:21
Speaker 1: lived in a remotely rational world, that defending your star
1:03:25
Speaker 1: player against physical assault would trump your loyalty to your
1:03:33
Speaker 1: sexuality and the race of your partner. But that's apparently
1:03:39
Speaker 1: not the case, because Stephanie White decided to defend Alyssa Thomas,
1:03:48
Speaker 1: the WNBA player who and I think it's been exaggerated
1:03:53
Speaker 1: by some, including the use of AI which I've publicly
1:03:55
Speaker 1: criticized but clearly committed a very flagrant foul against Caitlin Clark,
1:04:03
Speaker 1: you know, putting her knee into her groin and he
1:04:07
Speaker 1: her fist into her neck and it you know, it
1:04:10
Speaker 1: wasn't called. And then she got a one game suspension.
1:04:13
Speaker 1: Well then there was a lot of criticism of Melyssa Thomas,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: understandably so. And then Thomas using the last fashion of scoundrels,
1:04:22
Speaker 1: or at least woke scoundrels. You know, when you get
1:04:25
Speaker 1: criticized for doing something wrong and you're a black, I
1:04:28
Speaker 1: guess lesbian female, you can either claim racial or sexual
1:04:34
Speaker 1: slur or you can claim death threat. And for whatever reason,
1:04:39
Speaker 1: Thomas decided on the latter and claimed, without evidence that
1:04:43
Speaker 1: she is the victim of death threats because of the
1:04:46
Speaker 1: reaction to the whole Caitlin Clark controversy. Now, I don't
1:04:50
Speaker 1: believe Alyssa Thomas because this is a tactic that has
1:04:54
Speaker 1: been used many times before and I'm very suspicious of it.
1:05:00
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean there hasn't been any threats whatsoever, but
1:05:03
Speaker 1: everybody's got death threats, and especially in the social media age,
1:05:07
Speaker 1: you can take anything and claim that, Oh my god,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: it's a death threat when it's not really a death threat.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: So I'm not defending death threats or but the idea
1:05:17
Speaker 1: that somehow you can't criticize Alyssa Thomas because why because
1:05:21
Speaker 1: she's a black lesbian what. But believe it or not,
1:05:27
Speaker 1: Stephanie White decided to effectively defend Elissa Thomas at least
1:05:33
Speaker 1: as much if not more then she defended her own player,
1:05:37
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark. And here's what that sounded like.
1:05:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know I got AB's sneakers on today. Before
1:05:43
Speaker 4: we start with questions, you know, I just want to address,
1:05:47
Speaker 4: you know, what's going on with at You know, I think,
1:05:49
Speaker 4: first and foremost, it's absolutely unacceptable. You know, I think
1:05:53
Speaker 4: as a league, as a whole, there's been so much
1:05:56
Speaker 4: more toxicity, racism, straight out like nonsense, hate, nonsense, and
1:06:04
Speaker 4: it's it is absolutely unacceptable. Most of this coming from
1:06:08
Speaker 4: the online community. Most of this, you know, in my
1:06:11
Speaker 4: heart of hearts, I believe not coming from w NBA fans,
1:06:15
Speaker 4: Indiana Fever fans. You know, I believe that this is
1:06:18
Speaker 4: people who are using our league, using our players, to
1:06:21
Speaker 4: further devisive agendas.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: It's not acceptable. Now that was astonishing, but the part
1:06:28
Speaker 1: that bothered me most was the fact that almost nobody
1:06:33
Speaker 1: who was made exposed to that statement, whether it was
1:06:39
Speaker 1: on the mainstream media or on social media, fully understood
1:06:43
Speaker 1: the context of Stephanie White. And I posted this and
1:06:47
Speaker 1: people were stunned to hear this. Stephanie White is a
1:06:51
Speaker 1: formerly straight person who is now dating a black female
1:06:56
Speaker 1: ESPN reporter partnering with her, I guess, and that creates
1:07:01
Speaker 1: all sorts of conflicts of interest. And it clearly created
1:07:05
Speaker 1: in White a situation where she felt compelled to defend
1:07:10
Speaker 1: another black lesbian because she's partnered with a black lesbian.
1:07:16
Speaker 1: And no one even fully understands the context because the
1:07:19
Speaker 1: media won't tell you this. It's just amazing, and this
1:07:26
Speaker 1: Caitlyn Clark thing is just never going to end. This
1:07:29
Speaker 1: is why, in a weird way, it's working very very
1:07:31
Speaker 1: well for the WNBA, ways they could never possibly have
1:07:35
Speaker 1: imagined or predicted or planned on, because it's causing conservatives
1:07:40
Speaker 1: to rush to the defense of Caitlin Clark when even
1:07:43
Speaker 1: her own coach seems to be more concerned with the
1:07:47
Speaker 1: activism of promoting race and lesbianism than protecting her own
1:07:55
Speaker 1: star player. It's amazing and It's another indication of just
1:07:58
Speaker 1: what a joke the W is, but in a weird way,
1:08:03
Speaker 1: why people are interested in it, because it's creating all
1:08:05
Speaker 1: sorts of political drama and causing conservatives to be engaged
1:08:10
Speaker 1: in a sport that they ordinarily would ignore. Thanks for
1:08:15
Speaker 1: listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show. If
1:08:18
Speaker 1: you're interested in listening to the entire show, you must
1:08:21
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1:08:26
Speaker 1: T R e O N dot com. Patreon dot com
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Speaker 1: slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. My name
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Speaker 1: is j hn z I E G L e R.
1:08:39
Speaker 1: That's patreon dot com. Slash the Death of Journalism with
1:08:46
Speaker 1: John Ziggler. Good luck to you on that. But that's
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Speaker 1: how you can subscribe.