Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / One Year Without Charlie Kirk: How His Absence Changed the Right

Transcript

One Year Without Charlie Kirk: How His Absence Changed the Right · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
0:04
Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
0:07
Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 1: Three Martini's coming up.
0:14
Speaker 3: So glad you're with us for the Thursday edition of
0:16
Speaker 3: the Three Martini Lunch. So much to get to today.
0:19
Speaker 3: We should also let you know that tomorrow, of course,
0:20
Speaker 3: is the 25th anniversary of the horrific 9-11 attacks. Barring
0:25
Speaker 3: major intervening current news, Jim and I plan to spend
0:29
Speaker 3: the entire episode on that tomorrow. So please join us
0:31
Speaker 3: for that. But Jim, today is also, unfortunately, a very
0:35
Speaker 3: somber anniversary, the one-year anniversary of the brutal murder assassination
0:40
Speaker 3: of Charlie Kirk out at Utah Valley University last year
0:43
Speaker 3: in public. So many of us saw the images on
0:46
Speaker 3: social media and elsewhere that we wish were never in
0:49
Speaker 3: our minds, but they're impossible to scrub out. And so
0:53
Speaker 3: I think it's appropriate to think about the year that
0:56
Speaker 3: we've seen since then. I think in a couple different ways,
0:59
Speaker 3: it's been a really lousy year. It's been a lousy year, obviously,
1:03
Speaker 3: for the Kirk family and for many of the folks
1:04
Speaker 3: at TPUSA, not only dealing with the devastating loss of
1:08
Speaker 3: Charlie Kirk, but also having to deal with the insanity,
1:11
Speaker 3: the evil insanity of the likes of Candace Owens and
1:14
Speaker 3: others constantly projecting that it was Israel, it was Erica,
1:18
Speaker 3: it was TPUSA, it was an inside job, on and
1:21
Speaker 3: on it goes, and just absolutely relentless and only she
1:24
Speaker 3: cares and and all this garbage. I would also argue
1:26
Speaker 3: that the right, you know, the right's never been all under,
1:30
Speaker 3: you know, marching in lockstep, and that's probably a good thing.
1:33
Speaker 3: It's a bigger tent than the Democrats, even though the
1:35
Speaker 3: Democrats don't like to think that way. But I feel
1:38
Speaker 3: like the party's more fractured without Charlie Kirk on scene
1:41
Speaker 3: to kind of try to hold it together. Tucker Carlson's
1:43
Speaker 3: gone much further off the rails in the last 12 months,
1:46
Speaker 3: so have other people. And so the impact of this
1:50
Speaker 3: is significant, the emotional impact that we had back then.
1:53
Speaker 3: Significant understanding his role within the movement, I think, has
1:57
Speaker 3: become a bigger deal. And not having him around to
2:00
Speaker 3: kind of put out a lot of the fires has
2:02
Speaker 3: been very noticeable.
2:03
Speaker 1: You know, Greg, it is ironic and painful that we
2:08
Speaker 1: have two back-to-back painful anniversaries. The 9-11 attacks do not
2:13
Speaker 1: feel like they were 25 years ago, even though I
2:16
Speaker 1: have some young adults around in my life who weren't
2:18
Speaker 1: born then. But also this recognition that Charlie Kirk, that
2:22
Speaker 1: feels like it was more than a year ago. That
2:24
Speaker 1: feels like we've been living in the post-Charlie Kirk assassination
2:27
Speaker 1: world for a much longer time than that. And I
2:30
Speaker 1: concur with you. This has not been a good year.
2:33
Speaker 1: And not everyone in the country is responsible for this,
2:38
Speaker 1: but I do feel like our political culture has responded
2:41
Speaker 1: to that horrific moment. never justifiable event in two intertwined
2:48
Speaker 1: bad ways. One was obviously the reaction from the left. Thankfully,
2:52
Speaker 1: it was not many Democratic office holders or people in
2:55
Speaker 1: significant positions of responsibility. But one of the side effects
2:58
Speaker 1: of living in an era of social media is that
2:59
Speaker 1: anybody can jump online and instantly share their thoughts. And
3:03
Speaker 1: there was this question of, do you want your kid
3:06
Speaker 1: taught by a teacher who felt great hearing that Charlie
3:10
Speaker 1: Kirk had been assassinated? Do you want your company... Should
3:14
Speaker 1: your employer fire you? Does your company worry about damage
3:17
Speaker 1: to its reputation if you went out there and metaphorically
3:21
Speaker 1: danced on someone's grave? And I think that ideally this
3:24
Speaker 1: should trigger some soul searching. I think one of the
3:27
Speaker 1: things that's been really bothersome about this is that apparently
3:29
Speaker 1: none of these people have anyone in their lives who
3:31
Speaker 1: could say, what's wrong with you? No, even if you
3:35
Speaker 1: hated the guy, even if you couldn't stand his politics...
3:38
Speaker 1: Nobody deserves to die that way. Nobody deserves to be
3:40
Speaker 1: murdered in cold blood with all the people who were
3:43
Speaker 1: in that audience who were traumatized by the sight of that.
3:47
Speaker 1: So then we have that, and then on the intertwining side,
3:49
Speaker 1: the sheer number of folks on the right side of
3:51
Speaker 1: the aisle, most notably Candace Owens, but she's not completely alone,
3:55
Speaker 1: who have chosen to believe that this is the Rosetta
3:58
Speaker 1: Stone for all conspiracies and that there's always some other country,
4:01
Speaker 1: some other faction, the Jews, Israelis, the French, Brigitte Macron,
4:07
Speaker 1: you name it. At some point, Candace Owens has claimed
4:09
Speaker 1: that she was involved, this person, somebody was involved in it.
4:13
Speaker 1: And thankfully, there are only folks on the right who've said,
4:15
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous. This is asinine. There's no evidence for this.
4:19
Speaker 1: There's a trial going on with the actual assassin. The
4:21
Speaker 1: investigation itself got wrapped up pretty quick. This is not
4:24
Speaker 1: the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination. This is all
4:27
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. But the bothersome thing, and look, it's a
4:31
Speaker 1: free country. Watch whatever you want to watch. I know
4:33
Speaker 1: people think my habits are weird. People are like, you
4:35
Speaker 1: voluntarily watch Jet Games? But if you're voluntarily listening to
4:39
Speaker 1: Candace Owens, and my friend Mickey did the back of
4:43
Speaker 1: the envelope calculations on how many people are watching and
4:46
Speaker 1: how much this has increased the payouts for Candace Owens,
4:50
Speaker 1: it is really considerable. And I don't get why you'd
4:53
Speaker 1: watch that. I don't see the appeal. I don't understand
4:56
Speaker 1: why you'd want to hear... that Candace Owens basically throws
5:01
Speaker 1: a dart at a map and says that country was
5:03
Speaker 1: behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And it's just kind
5:05
Speaker 1: of this, there's just something very disturbing about that. And again,
5:09
Speaker 1: I doubt our audiences overlap very much, but in the
5:11
Speaker 1: rare case that you are listening to Candace Owens and
5:14
Speaker 1: you find that entertaining, rethink your decisions in life. Rethink
5:17
Speaker 1: how you got to this point and reevaluate because there are,
5:21
Speaker 1: really honestly, even watching the Jets isn't that painful. And
5:24
Speaker 1: I just don't think that there's any reason to add
5:27
Speaker 1: fuel to the fire of this. Are there folks in
5:30
Speaker 1: our political leadership who are not great? I didn't love
5:33
Speaker 1: it when, I thought it was an amazing moment when
5:35
Speaker 1: Erica Kirk said that she forgave the assassin. Maybe on
5:38
Speaker 1: some level I related to Donald Trump saying I don't
5:40
Speaker 1: forgive my enemies. I don't know if I'd have the
5:42
Speaker 1: strength to do that. I don't know if I have
5:44
Speaker 1: the Christian forgiveness within me to forgive someone who killed
5:47
Speaker 1: someone I love. But no, it's been a rough year
5:51
Speaker 1: and his absence is felt in ways I don't think
5:53
Speaker 1: we ever would have foreseen before. And I think that
5:56
Speaker 1: the fractiousness of the left is one part that no
6:00
Speaker 1: one could have replaced Charlie Kirk. But I also get
6:03
Speaker 1: the feeling, Greg, there are not that many figures in
6:05
Speaker 1: the conservative world who want to replace Charlie Kirk and
6:08
Speaker 1: be that sort of bridge builder. And certainly, I think
6:11
Speaker 1: there's a lot of understandable cynicism on the right about
6:15
Speaker 1: what is the value of engaging with the left if
6:17
Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk tried that and he got murdered for it.
6:19
Speaker 3: I think some people have tried to become the next
6:22
Speaker 3: Charlie Kirk. There's not going to be exactly another... Charlie Kirk,
6:25
Speaker 3: and if it's... There was never.
6:26
Speaker 1: Another Rush Limbaugh. There was never another Newt Gingrich or
6:29
Speaker 1: Ronald Ritt. You can't be the next X. The only
6:32
Speaker 1: thing you can be is the first U, and hopefully
6:35
Speaker 1: that first U will be pretty good.
6:36
Speaker 3: And like you said, there were disgusting comments last year.
6:38
Speaker 3: There's disgusting comments this year. Hat tip to libs of
6:43
Speaker 3: TikTok finding, and I think forwarded internal messages from California's
6:48
Speaker 3: Claremont College's chats with things like, happy Kirkmas Eve, everyone.
6:53
Speaker 3: Who wants to be my Kirkentine on the 10th? I'm
6:55
Speaker 3: going on a Kirkiversary bender starting Thursday and even have
6:59
Speaker 3: people talking about getting hickeys on their neck in the
7:02
Speaker 3: same spot where he was shot. Jim, there's a big
7:04
Speaker 3: chunk of this population that's not well.
7:07
Speaker 1: No, and like, again, where are these people's families? Where
7:10
Speaker 1: are these people's friends? Is it, you know, like, if
7:12
Speaker 1: you found out that any of your friends or family
7:15
Speaker 1: were talking about anyone, I'm trying to, you know, I
7:18
Speaker 1: won't even do my usual Adam Gase joke here. I'm
7:20
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, You and I really vehemently disagree
7:24
Speaker 1: with Bernie Sanders. I don't want to see Bernie Sanders assassinated.
7:27
Speaker 1: I hope he lives to be 100. Not that far away.
7:30
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, I hope he lives a long and happy
7:32
Speaker 1: life with his three homes as a socialist. I'll make
7:35
Speaker 1: fun of him. And I prefer the voters of Vermont
7:39
Speaker 1: did not return him. And I don't want him to
7:40
Speaker 1: be this big influential voice of the Democratic Party. But
7:44
Speaker 1: I don't want the person to suffer. There's a There's
7:48
Speaker 1: sadistic impulses in people that I think has been revealed
7:52
Speaker 1: by all this, which is deeply troubling. You should not
7:55
Speaker 1: walk through life hoping to see misfortune happen to other people.
7:58
Speaker 3: Again, thoughts certainly with Erica and the family and those
8:01
Speaker 3: who knew him well, worked with him.
8:03
Speaker 1: It's got to be a very, very tough day.
8:05
Speaker 3: First anniversaries of losses, especially shocking losses, always are. And
8:09
Speaker 3: so praying that that heals slowly over time and that
8:13
Speaker 3: justice is done in that case.
8:16
Speaker 1: All right.
8:16
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about making sure that you are okay.
8:20
Speaker 3: And that makes it necessary to go to the doctor
8:23
Speaker 3: once in a while, whether it's the annual checkup, maybe
8:25
Speaker 3: seeing that specialist that your primary recommended. Maybe it's finding
8:28
Speaker 3: a new doctor that you like better. For all that stuff,
8:31
Speaker 3: go to ZocDoc. ZocDoc lets you search and compare local
8:34
Speaker 3: in-network doctors. You can even find an appointment without having
8:38
Speaker 3: to call anyone. Jim and I have both used ZocDoc.
8:40
Speaker 1: We've had great results. I was going to say, if
8:42
Speaker 1: you're the kind of person who procrastinates and doesn't want
8:44
Speaker 1: to go to the doctor... ZocDoc will make your procrastination
8:48
Speaker 1: much harder. You're going to not have nearly as many
8:51
Speaker 1: excuses because you get to see actual appointment openings. You
8:54
Speaker 1: can click to instantly book a visit. Appointments happen fast,
8:57
Speaker 1: usually within 24 to 72 hours. And you can even
9:00
Speaker 1: score same-day appointments sometimes.
9:02
Speaker 3: Your health matters and taking care of yourself should not
9:04
Speaker 3: be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with ZocDoc.
9:06
Speaker 3: Head to ZocDoc.com slash 3ML to get started and check
9:10
Speaker 3: that appointment off your to-do list. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com
9:14
Speaker 3: slash 3ML. All right, Jim, we're all going to die,
9:26
Speaker 3: which is true, but most people don't think we're all
9:29
Speaker 3: going to die in the next decade unless you work
9:33
Speaker 3: in AI. And that is certainly the situation right now.
9:37
Speaker 3: You write about it in the Jolt today. Axios has
9:40
Speaker 3: reported on it, Fox News and others have reported on it, CNN.
9:43
Speaker 3: Former anthropic AI... And that term still bugs me because
9:47
Speaker 3: anthropic resorts to human. That's what the root of that
9:50
Speaker 3: word is, is human. But anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon,
9:54
Speaker 3: you write in the journal today, caused more than a
9:55
Speaker 3: little bit of a stir when he posted on X
9:57
Speaker 3: Tuesday evening, quote, I resigned from anthropology.
10:00
Speaker 2: Today.
10:00
Speaker 3: I spent the last three years doing pre-training research at
10:03
Speaker 3: both open AI and anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly.
10:07
Speaker 3: They are racing straight to self-improving super intelligence and gambling
10:11
Speaker 3: with our lives. The people building AI earnestly believe that
10:15
Speaker 3: it could kill us all by the end of the decade.
10:17
Speaker 3: This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives
10:20
Speaker 3: and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press
10:23
Speaker 3: to sound sensible, but I hear the same people express
10:26
Speaker 3: fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger.
10:32
Speaker 3: And so another guy who was at Anthropic named Evan
10:36
Speaker 3: Hubinger that you quote in the jolt today says, Jacob
10:39
Speaker 3: is correct. We really do believe AI could kill all humans.
10:42
Speaker 3: I personally think it is a greater than 10% chance
10:44
Speaker 3: within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best,
10:47
Speaker 3: but we do not have a plan to solve alignment
10:50
Speaker 3: for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to. Now,
10:54
Speaker 3: Coxon was on Fox News Channel with Brett Baer last
10:56
Speaker 3: night saying, yes, it's a huge problem, but it's not unsolvable.
11:00
Speaker 3: He says it's not like we think this is some
11:03
Speaker 3: impossible thing. It's just we're racing so fast we haven't
11:05
Speaker 3: got time to solve it correctly. We're not being careful
11:08
Speaker 3: and everyone wants to be careful. So he's sounding the
11:10
Speaker 3: alarm that we need to Put some guardrails on this
11:13
Speaker 3: thing before it's too late and it sounds like it
11:14
Speaker 3: might already be too late.
11:15
Speaker 1: So, uh, Jim.
11:17
Speaker 3: This seems like more concern than, you know, ending net
11:21
Speaker 3: neutrality is going to kill us all or Republican tax
11:23
Speaker 3: cuts are going to kill us all. But this is
11:26
Speaker 3: probably overkill. But when the people who invent this stuff
11:29
Speaker 3: have no way to control it, it does become pretty alarming.
11:32
Speaker 1: Greg, if someone who really understood how things work came
11:36
Speaker 1: to you and I and said, guys, I hate to
11:38
Speaker 1: tell you this, but if you continue doing the Three
11:41
Speaker 1: Martini Lynch podcast, there's a 10% chance it could destroy
11:44
Speaker 1: human civilization. And kill every human being on the planet.
11:48
Speaker 1: I think that's the end of the show. I think
11:50
Speaker 1: we just, you know, it's not a great risk, but
11:53
Speaker 1: is it worth it to do the podcast if, you know,
11:57
Speaker 1: it's going to kill that many people? Thankfully, no one
11:59
Speaker 1: has said that. And so we are going to continue
12:01
Speaker 1: into perpetuity. So I try to walk through a lot
12:05
Speaker 1: in this, you know, to not try not to use
12:06
Speaker 1: one of my cliches, but there is a lot to
12:08
Speaker 1: unpack here. And I will begin that Coxon, I'm sure
12:12
Speaker 1: he's a bright guy. I don't know whether his message
12:15
Speaker 1: is considered more credible or less credible by the fact
12:19
Speaker 1: that he looks like he graduated from Hogwarts last week.
12:22
Speaker 1: A very bizarre Harry Potter resemblance there. Look, anytime someone
12:28
Speaker 1: from the AI industry comes out and says, wow, I'm
12:31
Speaker 1: freaked out, I'm walking away from this. And his co-workers say, yeah,
12:35
Speaker 1: but it's like 10%. That still does not, like, most
12:39
Speaker 1: of us operate, like the Three More Teens at Lunch podcast,
12:42
Speaker 1: there's really a 0.0 chance we're going to destroy the
12:45
Speaker 1: universe just by doing this sort of thing. And I
12:48
Speaker 1: also would note when people say, you know, there's a
12:50
Speaker 1: 10% chance that our work might destroy all of humanity,
12:55
Speaker 1: I notice they never quite elaborate how. They just kind
12:58
Speaker 1: of basically say at some point the AI will break
13:01
Speaker 1: out of containment, and it'll become self-aware, and everyone kind
13:05
Speaker 1: of reverts to James Cameron movies. And the whole thing
13:09
Speaker 1: out of this Terminator thing was, you know, and they
13:11
Speaker 1: explain this in the second one, like, you know, the
13:13
Speaker 1: Skynet is this great program, the Defense Department loves it,
13:17
Speaker 1: hooks it up to everything in the Defense Department, including
13:20
Speaker 1: the nuclear arsenal, and effectively gives Skynet the authority to
13:24
Speaker 1: launch nuclear weapons. And that's, you know, it launches them
13:27
Speaker 1: at Russia, because it wants Russia to destroy the U.S. government.
13:30
Speaker 1: And then before you know it, you've got giant metal
13:32
Speaker 1: skeletons walking across a devastated landscape. I think, as I've
13:37
Speaker 1: looked through, not just from the thriller research, from other stuff,
13:39
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways that if AI decided to
13:42
Speaker 1: mess with us, it could do so. In one of
13:45
Speaker 1: the novels I wrote about quantum computing, and the day
13:48
Speaker 1: somebody breaks through on this, you could make an argument
13:50
Speaker 1: that basically all firewalls in all computer systems are hackable.
13:54
Speaker 1: There's nothing safe anymore. That basically these things that we
13:57
Speaker 1: think are utterly... suddenly become breakable fairly easily. Now, that's
14:02
Speaker 1: really bad, Greg. I don't know if it ends with
14:05
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty and the beach and intelligent apes
14:07
Speaker 1: walking around. Like, you go from like, oh, that would
14:10
Speaker 1: be really bad to that would be the end of
14:13
Speaker 1: human civilization. I don't know if we necessarily get there. Now,
14:16
Speaker 1: I also found an article in the Wall Street Journal
14:18
Speaker 1: from early this summer. where basically people were using open
14:22
Speaker 1: AI and basically saying, how can I create a really
14:24
Speaker 1: devastating biological weapon? How can I create a strain of
14:27
Speaker 1: measles that would infect those who already have vaccinations? AI
14:34
Speaker 1: doesn't have to become self-aware to become really destructive. And
14:38
Speaker 1: the idea of enabling people who are angry at the
14:41
Speaker 1: world or who have malevolent intentions or something like, and
14:44
Speaker 1: giving them ideas and giving them the knowledge that is
14:48
Speaker 1: necessary to do something that is really devastating, that'd be
14:51
Speaker 1: really bad. Honestly, we don't need the intelligent AI, self-aware AI.
14:56
Speaker 1: That by itself is really bad as is. And the
15:00
Speaker 1: other thing I kind of wonder about, and again, we
15:02
Speaker 1: could talk about this for hours and hours and we
15:04
Speaker 1: try not to make this podcast go too long. Greg,
15:07
Speaker 1: how many times in your life have you said, except
15:09
Speaker 1: terms and conditions, And it's like 40 pages of solid
15:12
Speaker 1: text in, you know, six point font. And they could
15:16
Speaker 1: have language in there. I have, you know, we reserve
15:18
Speaker 1: all rights to your firstborn and you just got to
15:19
Speaker 1: click OK because I want to use the app or
15:21
Speaker 1: something like that. You know, we live in an era
15:24
Speaker 1: with that in which God, we have no idea what
15:25
Speaker 1: we're agreeing to, you know, giving a company or an
15:28
Speaker 1: app access to our phone, to our computers, all that stuff.
15:31
Speaker 1: We live in an era where our refrigerators are connected
15:33
Speaker 1: to the internet. We live in an era where our
15:35
Speaker 1: cars have computer systems. Like the idea of, oh, we've
15:39
Speaker 1: created this AI program that can alter things. And it
15:43
Speaker 1: might break out of its, it may not operate by
15:45
Speaker 1: the rules we think it does. I found this fascinating
15:48
Speaker 1: article by the Washington Post tech columnist who says, I
15:51
Speaker 1: told the AI to find eggs that were cheap and
15:54
Speaker 1: it ordered a dozen eggs for $ 31 and they arrived
15:57
Speaker 1: at my house. And I realized that when I gave
15:59
Speaker 1: it access to the supermarket app, I had forgotten it
16:02
Speaker 1: had access to my credit card and it just bought
16:04
Speaker 1: it by itself and it didn't bother to check with me. So,
16:08
Speaker 1: I could see a lot of problems coming out of that.
16:12
Speaker 1: The idea of we end up giving an AI access
16:15
Speaker 1: to that. And this was not, you know, at no
16:19
Speaker 1: point was the AI ordering eggs must destroy humanity, you know,
16:23
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. It just was like, oh, I'm
16:25
Speaker 1: going to help you. I'm going to spend $ 31 on
16:27
Speaker 1: a dozen eggs because you have not told me that
16:30
Speaker 1: is too much to pay By the way, fairly generous
16:33
Speaker 1: tip from the AI. So, I know when they say
16:35
Speaker 1: that AI is malevolent, I think it still takes care
16:37
Speaker 1: of workers. So, good for that. But so, like, there
16:41
Speaker 1: are real legitimate reasons to be concerned about AI. And
16:44
Speaker 1: I would also note that as someone who uses, you know,
16:47
Speaker 1: Microsoft Word to write the morning jolt, and we use
16:49
Speaker 1: computers all the time, I don't love how AI is
16:52
Speaker 1: getting shoved in my face by every app, everything that
16:55
Speaker 1: I use. Google, right? You know, oh, we're not going
16:57
Speaker 1: to give you links. We're just going to give you
16:58
Speaker 1: the AI explanation. Don't worry, you know. Um, the inescapability
17:02
Speaker 1: of AI, by the way, I think by all of this,
17:04
Speaker 1: by the way, I think it's a driving factor in
17:06
Speaker 1: the panic over data centers. Um, so look, there are
17:10
Speaker 1: legitimate reasons to be concerned about. I've also heard people
17:13
Speaker 1: kind of not as convinced that this guy, uh, Coxon
17:16
Speaker 1: knows as much as he seems to, or as he
17:18
Speaker 1: spent as much time there as he seems to. Um, I, again,
17:22
Speaker 1: you know, don't, and the other thing, my closing note
17:24
Speaker 1: in the morning jolt was Y2K.
17:25
Speaker 2: Okay.
17:25
Speaker 1: You know, you and I are of a certain age.
17:27
Speaker 1: We remember that was a very big deal. And the U.S.
17:30
Speaker 1: total spent like $ 100 billion updating the software for all
17:32
Speaker 1: that stuff. So we've seen this sort of thing before
17:35
Speaker 1: where people are like, this is a really terrible deal.
17:38
Speaker 1: The world's going to end. I put up a link
17:39
Speaker 1: to this fascinating video narrated by Leonard Nimoy, Spock, talking
17:44
Speaker 1: about all the dangers of how the Y2K pug is
17:47
Speaker 1: going to destroy your society and how you can help
17:50
Speaker 1: your family prepare. And of course, you know, January 1st, 2000,
17:55
Speaker 1: Life went on. It was not a disaster the way
17:58
Speaker 1: the doomsday predictions were. So this is worth keeping an
18:01
Speaker 1: eye on. I would not go into a panic over it.
18:04
Speaker 1: I would not be digging a shelter in my backyard
18:07
Speaker 1: or moving out to the middle of nowhere. But nobody
18:10
Speaker 1: who gets involved in AI signs up to become a
18:14
Speaker 1: participant and to build it because they don't like it.
18:17
Speaker 1: Everybody gets into it because they like it and they
18:19
Speaker 1: see all the wonderful possibilities of it. I don't think
18:21
Speaker 1: there's a lot of pessimism in Silicon Valley. And as
18:23
Speaker 1: a Jets fan, who is very pessimistic. I think pessimism
18:26
Speaker 1: is always a good voice to have at the table.
18:27
Speaker 1: A couple of thoughts here.
18:29
Speaker 3: I'm sure at the time that Leonard Nimoy documentary was fascinating,
18:34
Speaker 3: as he always used to say as Spock on Star Trek. Also,
18:37
Speaker 3: I've talked to some IT people and they differ on
18:39
Speaker 3: whether Y2K was a nothing burger or whether they had
18:42
Speaker 3: enough time to prepare for it so it became a
18:44
Speaker 3: nothing burger. So I don't know if there's a parallel
18:47
Speaker 3: to AI there. Also, Jim, prominent political figure I almost
18:51
Speaker 3: had the opportunity to interview who years ago wanted, I
18:54
Speaker 3: guess it was probably three years ago, wanted to bring
18:57
Speaker 3: the world together to put guardrails on AI, kind of
19:01
Speaker 3: in a UN style. Michael Dukakis was trying to get
19:04
Speaker 3: everybody on board to put the guardrails on that. I
19:07
Speaker 3: ended up talking to his chief researcher who I couldn't
19:09
Speaker 3: understand a word he said because English was not his
19:11
Speaker 3: first language. So we didn't end up running the interview.
19:13
Speaker 3: But Michael Dukakis was one of the first people concerned
19:17
Speaker 3: about this thing getting out of control.
19:18
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Greg, he's got the time to look
19:20
Speaker 1: into that sort of thing. Yes, yes.
19:24
Speaker 3: He's had lots of free time since 1990 when he
19:27
Speaker 3: stopped being governor of Massachusetts and not being in the
19:30
Speaker 3: White House.
19:31
Speaker 1: All right.
19:31
Speaker 3: Well, Let's talk about your future. Let's hope you have one.
19:35
Speaker 3: I think you'll still have one. So it's still a
19:37
Speaker 3: good idea to prepare for retirement. I don't think AI
19:40
Speaker 3: is going to get you before then, but you need
19:41
Speaker 3: to be ready for it either way. And you definitely
19:44
Speaker 3: need to make sure that your portfolio is diversified and
19:47
Speaker 3: you have the most secure retirement possible. And that includes
19:50
Speaker 3: a chat with the good folks over at Noble Gold Investments.
19:53
Speaker 3: They'll explain the precious metals, why that might be right
19:55
Speaker 3: for you. You make the decision. One thing they do
19:58
Speaker 3: want you to know, though, is that some of these
19:59
Speaker 3: emerging industries, whether it's AI, whether it's data centers, on
20:02
Speaker 3: and on it goes, silver is more and more critically important.
20:05
Speaker 1: You know, Greg, if and when we live in a
20:07
Speaker 1: Terminator-style apocalyptic landscape, Is your 401k going to be accessible?
20:13
Speaker 1: Probably not. Is the green pieces of paper in your
20:15
Speaker 1: wallet going to be accessible and worthwhile? Gold would probably
20:19
Speaker 1: be worth it. But, you know, if you don't take
20:21
Speaker 1: my word for it, you can always talk to the
20:22
Speaker 1: good people at Noble Gold Investments. They're going to be
20:25
Speaker 1: able to explain it and probably give you a sense
20:27
Speaker 1: of like, look, even what if the world doesn't end?
20:30
Speaker 1: Is gold going to be valuable? Everything is transparent. They're
20:32
Speaker 1: not pushy. They're not high pressure. They see themselves as educators.
20:36
Speaker 1: They want to explain exactly what you're going to buy
20:39
Speaker 1: and why.
20:39
Speaker 3: Own the metal the future depends on. Visit noblegoldinvestments.com slash 3ML.
20:44
Speaker 3: That's noblegoldinvestments.com slash 3ML. Download the free investor kit. No pressure,
20:50
Speaker 3: just the information. And for a limited time, when you
20:52
Speaker 3: open a new qualified account, Noble Gold will send you
20:55
Speaker 3: a free 1 10th ounce gold coin as a thank
20:57
Speaker 3: you gift. Available for qualified gold IRA accounts and cash purchases.
21:01
Speaker 3: That's noblegoldinvestments.com slash 3ML. All right, Jim, we'll also get
21:13
Speaker 3: to the Republican midterm convention in our chaser. But it
21:17
Speaker 3: did kick off yesterday in Dallas, as we said on
21:19
Speaker 3: yesterday's three martini lunch. There were some entertaining moments, certainly
21:23
Speaker 3: along the way. Former Jets kicker Jay Feeley passionately talking
21:26
Speaker 3: about how we need to preserve our freedom. There was
21:29
Speaker 3: also Brandon Gill, one of our favorite congressional interrogators, opening
21:32
Speaker 3: with a land acknowledgement that this is the greatest country
21:35
Speaker 3: on earth that has put forward some of the greatest
21:37
Speaker 3: people the planet has ever known as a Also a
21:40
Speaker 3: way to mock what the Democrats do is explain what
21:43
Speaker 3: Indian tribe used to hold the land but never gives
21:45
Speaker 3: it back. But anyway, President Trump.
21:48
Speaker 1: Is speaking both days. He spoke last night.
21:50
Speaker 3: So one of the things he promised is that if
21:53
Speaker 3: the Republicans keep the House and Senate, there will be
21:57
Speaker 3: checks for all adult citizens.
21:59
Speaker 2: What we're doing is because we've done so well and
22:03
Speaker 2: because our country is making so much money that Only
22:09
Speaker 2: I can make this promise to you, and here is
22:12
Speaker 2: my promise. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives
22:16
Speaker 2: and the United States Senate, both of them, because of
22:20
Speaker 2: our economic, tremendous economic success, like in history we've never
22:27
Speaker 2: had anything like what's happening, but because of our tremendous
22:31
Speaker 2: strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to
22:36
Speaker 2: every adult citizen in the United States of America for $ 5, 000.
22:42
Speaker 3: So Brett Baier of Fox News was among those saying
22:46
Speaker 3: last night. So you're basically telling people that they get $ 5, 000
22:51
Speaker 3: if they reelect Republicans. That's going to be seen potentially
22:55
Speaker 3: as a bribe. Others of us are saying, look, we've
22:58
Speaker 3: done the checks. We've done the checks. We did it
23:00
Speaker 3: during COVID. Biden did it again. Biden then jacked up
23:04
Speaker 3: the spending by a trillion dollars in the stimulus. And
23:06
Speaker 3: then we ended up with massive, massive inflation. We don't
23:10
Speaker 3: need to go down this road again. We know exactly
23:12
Speaker 3: what happens.
23:12
Speaker 1: I was going to say, Greg, when you give everyone,
23:14
Speaker 1: every adult in the country, a $ 5, 000 check, are you
23:17
Speaker 1: increasing the money supply or are you decreasing? You are
23:20
Speaker 1: increasing the money supply. Have you increased the supply of
23:23
Speaker 1: goods and services? No, you have not. What does that do?
23:26
Speaker 1: It makes the currency worth less. This is a formula
23:31
Speaker 1: for inflation. What's been bedeviling this administration since they took over? Inflation.
23:35
Speaker 1: Cost of living. It is the equivalent of pouring gasoline
23:39
Speaker 1: onto a fire of the single biggest problem to most
23:41
Speaker 1: American voters. But note, by the way, Greg, Trump said
23:45
Speaker 1: this right after he said we can't elect the Democrats
23:47
Speaker 1: because they'll enact socialism. Some of us see some irony there.
23:52
Speaker 1: The other thing is, first of all, I mean, everything
23:54
Speaker 1: he says from beginning to end is wrong. The tariff
23:58
Speaker 1: revenue actually has not been off the charts. And in fact,
24:00
Speaker 1: part of the reasons is because we have to pay
24:02
Speaker 1: back the revenue after the Supreme Court ruled that some
24:06
Speaker 1: of the tariffs were not constitutional. By the way, if
24:09
Speaker 1: the tariff revenue is so terrific, could we get Congress
24:12
Speaker 1: to pass any of them? We have done it. It's
24:14
Speaker 1: all been enacted by executive order and all that stuff. Secondly,
24:16
Speaker 1: Trump said the Democrats can't do this. Traditionally, the Democratic
24:21
Speaker 1: Party was the more anti-free trade, more protectionist party. And
24:25
Speaker 1: I noticed when you listen to Democrats complain about Trump
24:28
Speaker 1: and his tariffs now, they do not sound like Milton Friedman.
24:32
Speaker 1: They do not sound like they want. They very much
24:34
Speaker 1: sound like, well, the Trump tariffs are bad because he's
24:39
Speaker 1: doing them wrong. And I, you know, so in other words,
24:42
Speaker 1: the idea of, oh, you know, this is only Republicans
24:45
Speaker 1: could deliver something like this. But thirdly, so no, we
24:48
Speaker 1: don't have this money. We have a $ 40 trillion debt.
24:50
Speaker 1: That is what's driving up interest rates. That is what's
24:53
Speaker 1: driving more and more of our budget is, you know,
24:56
Speaker 1: the money that comes in has to be used to
24:57
Speaker 1: pay down that debt. It's an astonishingly terrible idea. And
25:01
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of baffled by... the notion that the
25:05
Speaker 1: Republicans can beat the Democrats by sounding more like the Democrats,
25:09
Speaker 1: that we're going to get into a bidding war, and
25:12
Speaker 1: we're going to give away more, we're going to become
25:15
Speaker 1: the free ice cream party, and then we're going to
25:18
Speaker 1: run to victory and all that stuff. Because, oh, by
25:20
Speaker 1: the way, let's assume this happens. Well, then you've got
25:23
Speaker 1: to keep that promise, and we're talking about trillions of
25:25
Speaker 1: dollars that we simply don't have, and there is not
25:28
Speaker 1: coming in from tariffs. Oh, by the way, who pays
25:30
Speaker 1: the tariffs? U.S. consumers, ultimately. It makes everything more expensive.
25:34
Speaker 1: It's an important good. So, kind of what we expected
25:37
Speaker 1: from the... Like, Greg, if this is September, by October,
25:41
Speaker 1: I think Trump rallies are just going to look like
25:43
Speaker 1: the Joker at the end of the first Batman movie,
25:46
Speaker 1: where he's at the parade. He's just throwing piles of
25:48
Speaker 1: cash around or something like that.
25:50
Speaker 3: That is where we're headed towards between now and the
25:51
Speaker 3: midterms at this rate. Yeah, we don't want that promise
25:54
Speaker 3: to be kept. We do want the Republicans to hold
25:56
Speaker 3: the House and Senate, but if they conveniently forgot about
25:59
Speaker 3: that one, I think it would be good for all
26:00
Speaker 3: of us and certainly be good for the economy. I
26:03
Speaker 3: think somebody put the price tag on that of $ 1. 3 trillion.
26:07
Speaker 3: That seems like, when we already got $ 2 trillion deficits,
26:10
Speaker 3: that seems like a lot. Just give me my money
26:12
Speaker 3: back as much as you can in tax cuts and
26:14
Speaker 3: I'll decide what happens to it. I don't need to
26:16
Speaker 3: launder it through the government.
26:17
Speaker 1: All right.
26:18
Speaker 3: In a moment, we are going to talk about another
26:21
Speaker 3: twist from the convention last night. But in the meantime,
26:25
Speaker 3: if you don't like the taste of what you're hearing
26:27
Speaker 3: from libs on a variety of issues, or even what
26:30
Speaker 3: you heard right there about $ 5, 000 checks, Lorinco is the
26:34
Speaker 3: way to go. Lorinco is better for you chewing gum
26:36
Speaker 3: that uses the same mineral your teeth are Made up
26:39
Speaker 3: to support daily enamel health. I love the toothpaste. I
26:42
Speaker 3: love the gum. My daughter loves the gum as well.
26:44
Speaker 3: And Jim, it all boils down to one amazing mineral.
26:48
Speaker 1: I was about to say, Greg, this probably ranks among
26:51
Speaker 1: our darkest, most depressing, and gloomiest episodes. And so when
26:55
Speaker 1: you're in this state, what can you turn to? Nano-hydroxyapatite. Now,
27:00
Speaker 1: nanohydroxyapatite is the mineral that your tooth enamel is actually
27:04
Speaker 1: made of. And Lorinco can actually strengthen your enamel and
27:07
Speaker 1: repair the damage. Comes in tons of flavors, including mint, cinnamon, bubblegum,
27:11
Speaker 1: and berry. And let us not forget the great fluoride-free
27:15
Speaker 1: toothpaste they also offer.
27:17
Speaker 3: Right now, Lorinco is offering our listeners up to 50%
27:19
Speaker 3: off at buylorin.com slash 3ml. That's buylorin, L-A-R-I-N-E dot com
27:25
Speaker 3: slash 3ml. for up to 50% off. All right, Jim,
27:35
Speaker 3: real quick here in our chaser. John Fetterman showed up,
27:38
Speaker 3: sort of, at the GOP midterm convention. He appeared by
27:41
Speaker 3: video to introduce his great friend and Pennsylvania Republican Senator
27:45
Speaker 3: Dave McCormick. He immediately issued a statement saying, this doesn't
27:48
Speaker 3: mean I'm not going to stay in the Democratic Party.
27:50
Speaker 3: I vote with you people 90% of the time. I
27:53
Speaker 3: think the number is slightly less than that, but it's
27:54
Speaker 3: still overwhelmingly most of the time. But you had folks
27:58
Speaker 3: on the CNN panel yesterday saying, oh, he's a traitor
28:00
Speaker 3: to the Democratic Party. Other people saying, oh, he's certainly
28:03
Speaker 3: going to jump now. He insists he's not. Other Democrats
28:07
Speaker 3: are telling some other Democrats to calm down because they
28:10
Speaker 3: think they need that vote in the next Congress and
28:12
Speaker 3: so forth. But it's a little bit further down the
28:16
Speaker 3: road when you start showing up at other people's conventions.
28:18
Speaker 1: So, Greg, at the start of the week, I wrote
28:20
Speaker 1: about this in my Washington Post column. I had been
28:23
Speaker 1: a skeptic of the notion that Fetterman was going to
28:25
Speaker 1: switch parties. The last number I'd seen was 78% of
28:28
Speaker 1: the time he votes with the Democratic Party. So if
28:31
Speaker 1: you're a Republican in Pennsylvania, why would you want a
28:35
Speaker 1: senator who only votes your way roughly one out of
28:37
Speaker 1: every five times? Maybe you can get up to one
28:40
Speaker 1: out of every four, but you figure you could find
28:42
Speaker 1: any replacement level Republican would do better. Now, if you're
28:45
Speaker 1: a Pennsylvanian, I would say enjoy it while you have it.
28:48
Speaker 1: Having one Republican senator and one Democratic senator who get
28:51
Speaker 1: along very well and work together on your state's priorities.
28:54
Speaker 1: That's really good, but that used to be fairly normal
28:58
Speaker 1: in the U.S. Senate. It was not that rare to
29:00
Speaker 1: have states that had one Democrat and one Republican. And
29:03
Speaker 1: whatever else they thought of each other or other disagreements,
29:05
Speaker 1: they had to work together to serve their constituents as
29:07
Speaker 1: best they can, and particularly to protect local industries and
29:10
Speaker 1: things like that. But I now look at something like this.
29:14
Speaker 1: Fetterman knows what he's doing. This is a highly symbolic
29:17
Speaker 1: gesture here. His odds of re-election, his approval rating amongst
29:23
Speaker 1: Republicans and Democrats has basically flipped over the last two years. Which,
29:26
Speaker 1: by the way, demonstrates how little people pay attention to
29:28
Speaker 1: voting records. And I think if you're a Pennsylvania Republican,
29:31
Speaker 1: you can love the guy for his stance on Israel.
29:33
Speaker 1: You can vote, love the guy for his stance on saying,
29:36
Speaker 1: you know, border security is not xenophobia. We love how
29:40
Speaker 1: he makes fun of Bob Menendez, who's now, you know,
29:42
Speaker 1: making license plates. There's a lot to like about the guy.
29:46
Speaker 1: I'd also be very glad that he recovered from the
29:48
Speaker 1: stroke as well as he has. But in the end,
29:50
Speaker 1: he's not really a Republican. I do think it's very
29:53
Speaker 1: likely if he's going to run for reelection, which is
29:54
Speaker 1: not a guarantee. He's going to run as an independent.
29:56
Speaker 1: I think his path, there's no way he wins a
29:58
Speaker 1: primary in that state. And again, I don't think it
30:00
Speaker 1: makes sense for him to switch to the Republicans because
30:03
Speaker 1: in the end, he is more left of center than
30:04
Speaker 1: he is right of center, even though he has some
30:06
Speaker 1: very high-profile exceptions to that. But something like this, look,
30:10
Speaker 1: is it a nice thing to do for McCormick? Sure.
30:12
Speaker 1: Does he kind of know that this is going to
30:14
Speaker 1: enhance his image as a guy who reaches across the aisle? Sure.
30:18
Speaker 1: But also, this is a Republican midterm convention. And if
30:22
Speaker 1: Fetterman shows up there, he is well along the road
30:26
Speaker 1: to Zell Millardom.
30:28
Speaker 3: True, but Zell Miller never switched parties. He did give
30:30
Speaker 3: the keynote address at the 2004 Republican Convention. So if
30:33
Speaker 3: John Fetterman shows up at the GOP convention in two
30:35
Speaker 3: years and says that the Democratic nominee is going to
30:37
Speaker 3: hollow out the military to the point where we're going
30:39
Speaker 3: to be left fighting with spitballs, then you know he's
30:42
Speaker 3: gone full Zell Miller.
30:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, for good point. But I think he's going down
30:45
Speaker 1: that road. That is the direction he's pointing at. Or
30:47
Speaker 1: Joe Lieberman-ishness. That is the probably best parallel of a
30:51
Speaker 1: guy who lost his primary, ran as an independent- and
30:54
Speaker 1: remained in the Senate for, I believe, Joe Lieberman, former
30:57
Speaker 1: Three Martini Lunch podcast guest, I should point out. Yeah, absolutely.
31:01
Speaker 3: Go back in the archives and listen to Joe. We
31:02
Speaker 3: talked to him just before the Russians invaded Ukraine. And
31:06
Speaker 3: we were talking about the biggest threats in the world
31:08
Speaker 3: at that point. So early 2022. But anyway, as mentioned, Jim,
31:12
Speaker 3: tomorrow we'll be talking all about 9-11, what we experienced
31:16
Speaker 3: that day, what has happened over the last 25 years,
31:19
Speaker 3: and where we go from here.
31:20
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you then. See you tomorrow, Greg.
31:22
Speaker 3: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karumbas of Radio America.
31:25
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
31:26
Speaker 3: sure to subscribe to the podcast. If you don't already,
31:28
Speaker 3: tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
31:30
Speaker 3: your five-star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
31:34
Speaker 3: Get us on your home devices. All you have to
31:35
Speaker 3: say is play 3 Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both
31:38
Speaker 3: on X. Jim is at Jim Garrity. I'm at Greg Karumbas.
31:41
Speaker 3: And follow 3 Martini Lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have
31:44
Speaker 3: a terrific Thursday. Join us again on Friday for the
31:47
Speaker 3: next 3 Martini Lunch.