Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB | Go Big or Go Home: America’s Exceptional 250th Spectacle Amidst Toxic Politics

Transcript

610 CKTB | Go Big or Go Home: America’s Exceptional 250th Spectacle Amidst Toxic Politics · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is time for Litkey has a take. Good morning John,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning Jeane. Now you were checking up fourth of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: July activities and you have a report for us now.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Looking at the news feeds on Saturday, I was checking
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it out. It looked like a total cancelation with the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: heat wave, storms, emergency evacuations on the National mall. So
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: what was your impression watching July fourth from where you
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: sit across the border? How did they handle the chaos
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and basically what was your impression of the entire event?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Well, Gene, thanks for having me. I was expecting a
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: historic cluster bomb. Quite frankly, there was the massive heat index,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a full secret service emergency evacuation, a parade of dropout celebrities.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: It should have been a disaster, but instead we've got
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a masterclass and basically telling Mother Nature to sit down
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and shut up. Trump rejected a backstage suggestion to postpone
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the event. He snapped back at an aid, saying, this
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: is the big day. We aren't looking for July. Something
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: else was the quote, and that storm delay provided Trump
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: with the opportunity to practice trump Ism in its purest form,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: shaping and demanding reality to conform to what he wants.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: It was a bold move, had a big risk of
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: going the other way, but this time it paid off
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: for him. It was a spectacle. It was a ten
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: out of ten show.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Wow. The political and media talking heads are already divided
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: over the address, critics calling it a rhetoric overly partisan.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: But from your perspective, forget the critics. Watching this with
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: your own family's US military history in mind, I know
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: that about your family. How did the tone? How did
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the tone of this milestone speech hit you?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: You know, the professional hallway monitors on cable news. Yeah,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: they're going to question our pearls about this and whine
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: about his anti communist rhetoric and branded as a dark
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: campaign reality. But you know, in reality, America and the
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: West did defeat communism in the USSR through massive outspending.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: That is literal, objective twentieth century history. It's not a
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: camp partisan campaign rally statement to say that. But quite frankly,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: at two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, milestone is too massive
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: to mock. It demanded the solemnity, which is why Trump
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: wisely did step away from what he typically does through
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: his teleprompter grievances and the staging was incredible too. They
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: had the American flag that was draped over Lincoln's coffin,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the seventeen seventy seven Revolutionary War flag from Saratoga, the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: British War flag of Surrender, the Eojima flag from the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: iconic photo that people have all seen, and the original
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Moon flag, as well as what I think fifteen other
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: historic flags and in most cases the descendants of the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: people involved with those flags or American heroes who were
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: involved with those flags specifically. But as you mentioned, you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: as someone with deep family roots across the border and
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: on my dad's side of the family, virtually everyone served
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: in various branches of the Milot Harry. Seeing the military
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: honored like that, it wasn't cheap theater to me. It
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: was a sincere reminder of the sacrifices and what it
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: exactly took to build the West and America to what
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: it is and precisely what it's going to take to
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: keep it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: You can disagree with our friends, yeah, you know, last
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: week on Canada Day, before Canada Day and after Canada Day,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was asking a lot of our guests to compare
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and contrast how we celebrate Canada Day and how Americans
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: celebrate the independence date July fourth, and I think the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: consensus was Canadians are grateful for Canada Day. But on
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: July fourth, Americans really put it out there. We're a
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: number one, We're number one USA. USA. They have those
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: great military flyovers, which I love, by the way, but
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: there really is a difference. I would say there's a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: fundamental gap between US and them. Do you agree or disagree?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I agree the American ethos gene. It's beautifully simple, go
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: big or go home. I mean I had it quite frankly,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: we lack the logistical ambition to even conceptualize something like
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: what the US just put on on their broadcast. There
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: were flyovers every twenty minutes in Washington, not to mention
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: across all the other major cities that were hosting events.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: But back home in Ottawa, we had the Snowbirds fly
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: over Ottawa a couple of times, and for the US
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Ambassador's party, we deployed two CF eighteens alongside a couple
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: USF thirty fives, and then we had a single loan
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Chinook fly by a World Cup viewing party. You know, listen,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the Toronto and Ottawa elites and the professional online anti
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: American class love to claim that we prefer a quiet,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: more modern dignity as opposed to brash, us exceptionalism. But
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: you know, living in Windsor, and I'm sure that you
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: living in Niagara on a border towns, we can see
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: that that's nonsense. I see at least that Canadians cover
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: for our government instinctively because we know that we don't
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: possess the imagination to even get to that point to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: pull it off. So I don't care what your political
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: stripe is. When you look at that American scale, you
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: just have to simply say wow.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, including the eight hundred and fifty thousand firework
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: shelves compressed into one show and it got so smoky, Well,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you tell a story, because it's pretty something.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: It was pure on adulterated madness. Jean an Arsonist would
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: have been impressed. I mean, here in Windsor, we've got
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the Windsor detroit Ford Fireworks and it's referred to as
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: one of the best in North America. We set off
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: ten thousand fireworks this year, far short of the eight
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand that they sent off there. It
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: was a city's budget every forty five seconds. Quite frankly,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: hundreds of explosions per second at ten different launch sites,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: eight massive barges. But because of the DC humidity and
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the wind, at one point there was just a solid
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: wall of thick, soupy gray smoke. You couldn't even see
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: the color of the fireworks. You could just see the explosions.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Jeane Washington hasn't seen that many explosions and smoke since
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: we burned down the White House show.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jeremy Hanson, the Canadian astronaut, was there. What.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's so great seeing him and the Artemis
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: two crew after the historic moontrip up on that stage.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: The US willingly sharing that brightest spotlight with us. To me,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that was a nice reminder of the closeness of our
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: two nations what we need to get back to. It
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: proves that in the real world, outside of the talks
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: of tribal noise that we see on our TV screens
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and on our social media feeds, our two nations are
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: still coupled together and we're not going anywhere. America is
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: not getting going anywhere. So we need to get back
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: to working together. And you know, to the US, here's
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: to the next two hundred and fifty.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, thirty seconds and I'm not telling tales at a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: school here. You're not a big Trump fan, but has
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: this weekend and his speech changed your outlook or not.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not putting a Maga hat on yet, Jean, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I think I think we need to get objectively back
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: into modern political discourse. You can dislike a politician but
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: not be legally obligated to hate every single thing that
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: they touch, say, or execute. I don't play that game.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: So does a fireworks show remove my criticisms of Trump?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Not a chance. Did I enjoy the show and the speech? Yeah?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: And I think we need to move past our toxic polarization.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And I think at least I'm mature enough to give
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: credit where credits due, And I think your listeners are too.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: So I thought it was a ten out of ten show.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I respect the execution. It doesn't change my opinion of
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the man. But listen, I like big sparkly things in
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the sky. Blame me.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Another great take, Thank you, John, thank eg. There he goes.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: John Litkey has a take. He's with us all the time.