Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Mamdani's 10/7 Disgrace, LA Dems' Tax Backfires, Iran's UK Plot | Last Call

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Mamdani's 10/7 Disgrace, LA Dems' Tax Backfires, Iran's UK Plot | Last Call · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review. Three martinis coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the last call of the week for the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Three Martini Lunch. This is our weekly recap of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: biggest stories of the week. In this edition, New York
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: City Mayor Zoran Mamdani says he grieves for all of
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: those killed by Hamas on October 7th three years ago.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: and then immediately accuses Israel of genocide, occupation, and apartheid.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles Democrats are shocked, shocked to find out that
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: their mansion tax designed to pay for affordable housing backfired
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: on them big time. And Iran seems to have its
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: fingerprints all over an attempted terrorist attack against U.S. forces
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: at a military base in Britain. And in our Chaser
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: of the Week, the Fort Hood terrorist learns his execution date.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: But we begin with Mayor Mamdani's disgraceful message on the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: anniversary of the Hamas atrocities in Israel. Jim, as many
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: of our listeners know, it was three years ago today
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: that we all woke up to the news of the
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: horrific Hamas terrorist attacks, a bunch of them flooding into Israel,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: slaughtering people in every way imaginable, people at a music festival,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: people in their homes, horrific on every scale, taking hundreds
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of people hostage, doing things to them that I can't
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: even imagine, and Thankfully, now we all have either the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: bodies or the living prisoners back. But, you know, on
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: a day like this, it's a time for reflection and
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: resolve and things like that. But of course, there are
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: politicians who simply can't help themselves. And not surprisingly, one
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: of them is the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: who tweets today. This day is profoundly painful for so
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: war crimes of October 7th. On that day, Hamas killed
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: unthinkable loss. That's where it should have stopped. But he
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: didn't stop there. He says the suffering did not begin
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: government's devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, including more than 21,000 children.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: been killed. That suffering has intensified, with every Israeli bomb
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: reckoning with this unbearable grief when we mourn alongside them,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: with every arms shipment. To honor the dead, we must
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: fight for a world in which every person can live
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: with freedom, safety, and dignity. I can already hear the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: steam coming out of Jim Garrity's ears. So Jim, I mean,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: one paragraph would have done just pretty darn well there.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: But no, he just had to go out there and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: spew all sorts of ugly propaganda.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So Greg, we have This was posted by the mayor
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: at about 8.40 Eastern Time this morning. We were taping
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: this right before 11 o'clock. And in that time, it's
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: got nearly 2 million views on X. Now, I would
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: note where you said where it stopped and it would
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: have been a perfectly appropriate statement, on X, that's where
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the cutoff is of whatever, I guess, 150 characters or whatever,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: 200 characters, whatever it is now. And the rest of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: that is below the fold, so to speak. I wonder
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: how many people are only seeing that first sentence or
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that first, you know, paragraph of appropriate remarks. I wonder
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: how many people are missing where it immediately pivots to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: blaming the Israeli government and where it goes on and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: really spends most of its time, you know, talking about
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the terrible things allegedly done by the Israeli government. It's
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: like we're getting the Hamas attacks out of the way,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: pro forma, check the box, so that Zoran Mamdami could
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: talk about what he really wants to talk about, Israel
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and how terrible it is. I, you know, on the
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: one hand, we kind of knew he was going to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: do something like this. We knew this was, you know,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: he had run on pledging. He was going to get
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Bibi Netanyahu arrested if he ever came to New York City. And,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you know, we know exactly where Zoran Mamdami stands on this.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I also think, you know, we're now looking back at
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: this for three years. There were protests in support of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the Palestinians and against Israel on October 8th, 2023. So
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: all these people like, ah, you know, Israel wasted the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: world's sympathy. There were people who were preemptively angry about
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: any response that Israel was going to make. There are
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people in this world who are
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: very comfortable with Jews as victims. That's why they don't
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: mind going to Holocaust Remembrance Day. They don't mind talking
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: about how terrible anti-Semitism is. They're very comfortable being sad
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: for Jews. But they get very, very upset whenever the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Jews start standing up and defending themselves. Wait a second.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: That's breaking the deal. And whatever response Jews make in
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: response to Ant-Man, well, that's too much. That's going too far.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: That's too extreme. Look, I have a very hard time
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: begrudging people when they've been attacked the way the Israelis
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: were in October. Concert goers, right? We saw the footage
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: of young women being abducted on motorcycles. We saw the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: abuse of the bodies in the streets. by crowds. It's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: very hard to believe that it's one or two bad
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: apples in Palestinian society. One of the problems here is
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: that Hamas was completely integrated with Palestinian society. Are there
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Palestinians who are opposed to Hamas? Yeah, but they're not
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: very loud. And if they are loud, they're not loud
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: for very long, right? So it's one of those things
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: where when you put your bases underneath hospitals, it was
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: pretty clear you're going to end up with some hospitals
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: being hit. And we've seen the evidence of bases and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: ammunition depots and all these things stored under civilian facilities
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and hospitals and stuff like that. Zohar Mamdami is not
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: interested in that because that complicates this very simple story
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he wants to tell of Palestinian victimhood and Israeli perfidy.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So it's pretty much the standard position inside the Democratic Party.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Not all Democrats, certainly some Jewish Democrats don't use this language,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: but we just talked about Troy Jackson last week using
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: the word genocide and then awkwardly trying to backtrack it.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And other Democrats... Are too. And so, you know, the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Democrats are supposed to do, we'll see in November, they're
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: supposed to do relatively well in this midterm election. And
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: so if they succeed with that rhetoric, what comes after that?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Well, we just saw the Green Party of the United
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Kingdom say that they do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: They believe in a one state solution. That one state
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: should be the Palestinian state. There should not be an Israel.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Jewish members of the Green Party were understandably deeply upset
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: by this and are leaving the party. But I also
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: kind of feel like the handwriting was on the wall
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for some, never mind the Green Party, Labor Party over
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: in the UK for a long time. This is, you know,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: we're not there yet in this country. We're not that
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: far from it. We can see it there. There really is,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you know, little or no pro-Israel voice, loud pro-Israel voice
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in the Democratic Party these days. almost everybody, you know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro, Rahm Emanuel, whatever support of Israel they express,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: they then have to say, and I am very upset
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: with Bibi Netanyahu for this, that, and the other thing.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And it's very clear that Israel has become a partisan issue.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: This is really bad news for supporters of Israel. This
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: is really bad news for the Israelis. I think really
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: bad news for the American Jewish community, because you could
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: be the most anti-Bibi Netanyahu Jew in the country. You
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: could be the most anti- You can be vehemently opposed
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to the policies of the Israeli government. Anti-Semitic yahoos, whether
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: they're of the white nationalist right-wing variety or the Arab
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Muslim Palestinian left-wing variety, they don't really care, right? When
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: we saw the college students tearing down menorahs on college campuses,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that's not the Israeli consulate. That's not the Israeli embassy.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Those are symbols of Jews, right? A whole bunch of
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: people who say, oh, I'm anti-Zionist, wink, wink. are actually
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: just flat out anti-Semitic. And we've had three years of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: this evidence piling up higher and higher. So look, I
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: would love to see the Democratic Party come to its senses.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see them recognize that no society that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: engages in anti-Semitism, generally it's a sign of mental illness.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Generally it's a sign you believe in vast conspiracy theories
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and things like that. It's a sign of deepening, worsening
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: irrationality in how you see the world. History has got
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Way too many vivid demonstrations of this. But we'll see
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: what happens. The only thing we can do is stand
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: up for what we believe in and hope that eventually
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: enough people agree with us and start to see the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: world the right way it is.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously there's a portion on the right. It's
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a much smaller percentage on the right. that holds some
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: of these similar views. But the pushback to those views
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: on the right is always very intense. On the left,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: you know, it's basically coming from John Fetterman and a
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: couple of Jewish congressmen, and they're demonized for it. The
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Democrats hate them because of that one issue. So they're
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: not the same. And also, unfortunately, Democrats love terrible ideas
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: from Europe, whether it's climate change policy, whether it's, you know,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: national health care.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right. It's not a terrible policy unless it
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: comes from the Terrible region of France. Second of all,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: this is organic, artisan Terrible ideas. So it's not that
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: mass-produced plastic stuff you're getting in America. These are handcrafted
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Terrible ideas that often have a proud tradition going back
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to the 1930s or even earlier.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Is the Terrible region of France currently on fire? Because
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: most of the country is, it seems like.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's burning Horrible, which is actually the adjacent region.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Unbelievable.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: But somehow we managed to find a laugh out of
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: that story. But all right, well, let's talk about something
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: that is good and that's your business. And if you
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: want to make it better and stronger and more profitable, well,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: you need happy clients and more and more happy clients.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: And so keep those existing clients happy. Attract those new clients.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Get that word of mouth going from the happy existing clients,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: and then make sure you actually respond to all of
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: these people in really quick fashion through the best possible
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: communication system. And that is where Quo comes in. Today's
• 10:27
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• 10:32
  Speaker 1: We're in October. Halloween is approaching and you get all
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the decorations of ghosts and goblets and I don't know
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: about you, Greg, way too many nine foot skeleton in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: my neighborhood. It was cute when the first guy did it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: The third guy, it's not original anymore. But anyway, all
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the things that are supposed to scare you, what's not
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: supposed to scare you is your own business ghosting customers.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Nobody picks up. Nobody calls back. And just like back,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: they vanish. Your opportunity to make money does not work.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: It goes into a void, into a competitor's inbox. Now,
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  Speaker 2: go to Quo.com slash 3ML.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: That's Q-U-O dot com slash 3ML.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: See, the last tax story was frustrating, right? Because even
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: if you're not making a million, you can see how
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: it's not really going to help make things more affordable.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Decades ago, we had the yacht tax, which was designed
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: to soak the rich, but then the rich just didn't
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: buy yachts because the tax was so high and it
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: put a bunch of yacht makers and their employees out
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: of business. So it did not accomplish the goal that
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: they were hoping for. Los Angeles, California now has the
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: mansion tax. And the New York Post reports the mansion
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: tax was sold to people in Los Angeles as a
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: way to tax the rich and boost housing. But instead,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: it's blocked the building of about 9,100 homes, wiped out 16,650
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: full-time construction jobs, and cost $ 452 million in revenue. A
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: new report says the tax, which is officially known as
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: United to House LA, or ULA, has had a negative
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: impact on the city's high-end and multi-family real estate markets
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: and collected less than half what it was expected to
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: generate to tackle the city's housing crisis.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: The ULA was expected to raise.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: About $ 900 million a year, or $ 2. 7 billion over its.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: First three years. Instead, over those first three years, it brought.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: In about $ 1. 2 billion, so less than half. The tax,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: which went into effect in April 2023 and was championed
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: by socialist mayoral hopeful Councilwoman Nithya Raman, means if a
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: property in L.A. sells for more than $ 5. 4 million, the
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: seller is taxed 4% of the price at closing. If
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: it sells for more than $ 10. 9 million, it increases to 5.5%.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Here's where it really gets weird. Despite its nickname, L.A.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: 's mansion tax applies far beyond luxury homes. Apartment buildings, offices, warehouses,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: and vacant land can all trigger the tax if they
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: sell above those thresholds. About 1,000 of the 9,100-plus new
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: homes that were lost would have been affordable units, the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: very thing the tax was supposed to create, according to
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the Rand Corporation. Westside real estate broker Danny Brown told
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: the California Post the tax was, quote, another disaster initiated
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: by the incompetent socialists who run our city. ULA has
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: chopped the legs from under the residential and commercial real
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: estate industry. which is one of the largest parts of
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: our city's economic engine. So once again, Jim, the promises
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: are never what the reality.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Proves to be. So I'm thinking of the number of
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: times Democrats and progressives have fumed that, you know, there's
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with the inheritance tax. When you die, the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: government should get, you know, as much of that of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: what you leave to your heirs as it wants. You know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: your spoiled brat offspring don't deserve your fortune nearly as
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: much as the wise stewards of government do. And, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Republicans started calling it the death tax and the idea that, well,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you've just died. Now the government is going to tax
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: you because what are you going to do? Argue against it?
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: You're dead. There's nothing you can do. Right. And so,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you know, the death tax, the inheritance taxes became much
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: less popular because you'd see, you know, attack ads. So
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and so voted to raise the death tax and stuff
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: like that. Right. So this idea of, oh, you know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: inheritance taxes aren't so bad because you're you're only punishing
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: spoiled brat heirs of millionaires and billionaires and stuff like that.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: People are like, well, wait a second. You worked hard
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: to accumulate that fortune or the family farm, the value
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: of land that gets passed down. Like all of a sudden,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: that's usually well past a million dollars out there to
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: say nothing of the equipment and all the other kind
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: of stuff. So again, what you name something is very important.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I know there are many people who object to the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Patriot Act and say that it, you know, that it
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: was not patriotic, that it was too much of an
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: invasion of privacy, etc., Calling something the mansion tax and
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: having it apply to vacant land. Well, that's really not
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a mansion.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Now, is it?
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: It might be, you know, a big California hillside or
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: something like that. But if it's more than those thresholds
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: in there, you're going to end up paying more in taxes.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: And that old saying, if you tax something, you get
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: It, right?
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Look, this is the idiot socialist out there, but also
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: this is under the jurisdiction of... Karen Bass, the idiot incumbent.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Good luck, Los Angeles. You have a situation in which
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the city and the county have confronted an honest-to-God housing crisis.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: There's not enough housing. Too many people want to live here.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: We need more residential units. And their answer was, we're
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: going to make housing more expensive. You need to increase supply.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: You need to give people incentives to build more, not, well,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: if you sell that, by the way, like also keep
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: in mind, like you're not just like saying, oh, we're
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: going to punish people who are building new things. It's
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: anytime you try to sell something, we're going to take
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a bigger and bigger chunk of it. Yeah.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: So this thing passed in 2023. They're putting ramen on
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: the hook for it. I'm sure she supported it. So
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: she deserves blame for it. But doesn't stuff passed by
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: the council have to be approved by the mayor?
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Because Karen Bass was mayor in 2023.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: So. It's a weak office and she's been semi-retired, but
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: she probably, I certainly don't recall Karen Bass saying this
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: is a bad idea and we should not do this.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That would very much not be in her, but if
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: she ever did, good for her, but I don't think
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: she did. That does not, you know, very standard issue
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Democrat out in Los Angeles.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Jim, there's been plenty of elections in my lifetime where
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: I've been unenthused about the Republican in the race. But
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: to stare at Nithya Raman versus Karen Bass, it's just
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: like staring into a hopeless wasteland for at least four
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: more years.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: It's just so sad.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Aliens versus predator. Whoever wins, we lose.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Let's take a look at your health and specifically your
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: oral health. Chewing gum was usually considered not good for
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: your oral health, but now it is if you are
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: chewing lorinco. Lorinco is better for your chewing gum. It
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: uses the same mineral your teeth are made of to
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: support daily enamel health. I love lorinco gum. Like I said,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: kind of the small pieces, but the flavor is big
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: and it lasts and it's helping keep my teeth strong.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Nanohydroxyapatite. It's the word of the day every day. Because
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: that's what your enamel is actually made of. And that's
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: what Lorinco uses to strengthen your enamel and repair damage.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: It comes in tons of flavors, including mint, cinnamon, bubblegum,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and berry. They have a great fluoride-free toothpaste, too. And
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: think about it. It's just about the easiest, most effortless
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: way to make sure you're taking the best care of
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: your teeth possible.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Right now, Lorinco is offering three martini lunch listeners up
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: to 50% off at buylorin.com slash 3ML. That's buylarine.com for
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: up to 50% off. We've seen more than our share
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: of attempted terrorist attacks lately, from the attempted downing of
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: a fly Dubai flight filled with Israeli passengers to an
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Islamist in Minnesota plotting to shoot up the Mall of America.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Before those, there were the arrests of five people on
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: explosive charges that near Royal Air Force Base Fairford in
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: the United Kingdom. And now there's growing evidence that Iran
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: has its sights on that base. Jim, I think it
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: was just last week that we were talking about the
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: suspected terrorist attempt against Royal Air Force Base Fairford in
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: the UK, where the United States has a pretty significant
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: presence as well, although the presence is not as big
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: as it was a week ago, as we're about to
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: explain here. And it looks like The reason for all
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: of this may well lead back to Iran, although some
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: of those dots still need to be connected. But this
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: is how you lead your morning jolt today. It is
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: apparently as bad as some feared.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: The U.S.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Worried that the Iranians were preparing a version of Ukraine's
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Operation Spider's Web, smuggling drones into the country and attacking
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: planes parked on the airfield. The Wall Street Journal reports.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Quote, The U.S.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Abruptly moved a dozen B-1 bomber aircraft from a U.K.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: military base on Sunday because of urgent concerns about a
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: potentially complex drone attack ordered by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: according to U.S. and European officials briefed on the matter.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: The planned attack was part of a multifaceted Iranian plot
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: to target the aircraft and kill personnel at RAF Fairford,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: including American pilots. And there are many reasons you want
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: to read The Morning Jolt, but one is because Jim
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Garrity digs in way past the most recent.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Headlines to this.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Also in July, there was this insufficiently noticed report in
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the UK Daily Telegraph. Smuggling networks run by Iran are
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: responsible for transporting people with links to the Iranian regime
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: across Europe and into Britain, Tehran's officials told The Telegraph.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: They added that some human trafficking routes between the Middle
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: East and the channel were owned by the Iranian Revolutionary
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Guard Corps. So, Jim, I know there's a few more
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: dots you can fill in here, but it looks like
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Iran had very specific intentions here.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. By the way, the following sentence in the Daily
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Telegraph article from July, which again... You know, I realize
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: it's a busy news cycle and, you know, Chapel Roan
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: had a hangnail. There's a lot of important stuff to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: cover in this world. But like when they say the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: IRGC owns some of the human smuggling routes, that seems
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: kind of important. The very next sentence says it comes
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: after Iran vowed to attack RAF Fairford following Andy Burnham's
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: decision to renew permission for the U.S. to use the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: British base to launch airstrikes. So back in July, we
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: are seeing this very specific Iran wants to hit this airbase.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: They have ways to get their people into Iran. And
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the other article that struck me as interest from last month,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the UK Independent, said there were 340 security incidents involving
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: drones reported at or near Ministry of Defense sites in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the year from August 2025 to August 2026. Basically, it's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: doubling every year. Now, are some of these, you know,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: dumb recreational drones saying, hey, let me fly my drone
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: near a military base. What's the worst that could happen?
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it's probably some of that. But experts
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: there are saying, the former defense minister, in fact, tells
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the paper, some of these are Iran, some of these
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: are Russia. This is definitely people up to no good.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And right now, it's presumably only surveillance, checking out the base,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: seeing where planes and stuff's parked on the runway and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. But it doesn't take much to add
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: much explosive to that and then use the drone to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: try to attack some of the people or the structures,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the equipment on that base. So You start putting these together,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: it becomes increasingly clear. It's like, okay, I got into
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a discussion with Stephen Green, who I usually get along
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: with really well, yesterday. And I said, look, if you
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: have this excuse to bring planes back, you could theoretically
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: apply this to almost any base in Europe. He's like,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: are you downplaying the threat? No, no, not in this case.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And certainly what comes out here, this is very serious.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: When we saw Operation Spider's Web executed by the Ukrainians
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: late last year, All of us were like, yes, this
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: is awesome. And anybody who's in charge of a military base,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: really anywhere in the world, was like, oh, bad word.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: If the Ukrainians can do this, anybody could do this.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I mentioned that I was over on my European trip
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: earlier this year. I spoke to a Finnish drone company, Sensofusion.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And they're only an anti-drone drone company. They only build
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: interceptor drones. They're not into killing people. They only want
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to kill other drones. Fine, you know. But they're building
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a drone production factory that looks utterly indistinguishable from a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: shipping container. They showed it to us. This thing looks
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: like a shipping container. I don't even know if you're
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: a trained professional. There's nothing that makes this stand out
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: from an ordinary shipping container. Well, as you can imagine,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the United Kingdom has lots and lots of shipping containers
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: come in. Shipping containers go all over the world. It's
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: all of our NATO allies and stuff. So anything our
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: guys can think of, there's a good chance the bad
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: guys can think of. Are there hostile states, drones sitting
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: in some shipping container or some truck somewhere waiting to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: strike a U.S. airbase or an allied airbase? We don't know,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: but the technology is out there. They certainly could do it.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure that when Ukraine did their attack, I'm
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: sure every other country was like, hmm, I wonder what
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it would take for us to do that. Could we
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: smuggle our stuff into other guys' bases? So very serious
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: threat here. And I can't say– this certainly seems like
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: a responsible move by the administration– The last thing you
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: want is to see a bunch of very expensive B-1
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: bombers getting blown up on the runway. On the other hand,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and that kind of raises the question, is it safe
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: for the U.S. to use any of these U.K. air
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: bases or any various air bases in Europe?
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: You've got to be more vigilant than ever on that
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: because basically Iran seems to have a pretty well-organized system.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: And a pipeline of sending operatives into the West. I mean,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: if they're literally admitting it to the Telegraph, it's kind
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: of them.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they might be bragging. That might feel like disinformation.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: But like the odds of the, it's not like we
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: could say, oh, it's not like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Corps would ever do something like that. You know, they're
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: too moral a bunch of guys to ever get involved
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in human trafficking.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Well, not only that, but the UK, of course, has
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: its own immigration system. controversy and crisis, some would say, certainly,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: and other Western nations as well. And so if you're just, hey,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: waving everybody in, a few really bad actors can get
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: in pretty well undetected and cause a whole lot of
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: damage once they're there. So countries, wise up and sift
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: through these people a lot.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Better than you already are.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: In fact, we're going to talk a little bit more
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: about immigration in the United States here in just a
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: second and whether that's going to be a factor here
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: in the 2026 midterms. But as it relates to this,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: hopefully the fact that, you know, this is being exposed
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: means the plot is not likely to happen. But, you know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: the Iranians are pretty dedicated to this stuff, unfortunately. So
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: who knows what they'll adjust? Who knows what else they'll
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: do here? Yeah, Greg, what do they have to lose?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: They're hanging on by the thread. Their economy's been trashed.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: The birth rate apparently in the last year has plummeted.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Go figure. Iranians a little nervous about having kids in
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: this situation. You know, at this point, their attitude might
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: be we might as well. What else do you know?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: What are we going to what are we worried about
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: escalating with the United States, escalating with the United Kingdom?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: What's the UK going to do to you?
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Right. Yeah.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: So carry on with the plan as you already have it.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Maybe tweak it or maybe just go to a plan
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: B if they have that, which would be pretty chilling
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: as well. So in any event, UK, you've probably got
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: some really bad actors on your soil. Hopefully you can
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: find them before they do a lot of damage.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Let's, in the meantime, talk about something also very important,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: and that is your health. And for that, let's talk
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: about ZocDoc.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: What if you've just moved to a new community?
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's true for you, but if
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: it is, you know, there's a lot of things you've
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: got to try to figure out.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And one of them is, who's a good doctor? Who's
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: a good dentist?
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Who's a good.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Optometrist, you're maybe flying blind in these things and your
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: neighbor might have some ideas, but you really don't know
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: your neighbor that well either. So you try to do
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: a little bit of research here and see who's out there.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And so ZocDoc makes it super easy. ZocDoc lets you
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: search and compare local in-network doctors, check out a ton
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: of reviews and book an appointment right there.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: You know, Greg, I figure if you're in charge of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: air defense for any U.S. military base, either at home
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: or abroad or really any vital, you know, government building
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: or sports arena or anything like that, My guess is
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you have a headache and you may have been having
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: headaches for the past year or so, which means you
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: probably want to go see a doctor about that. ZocDoc
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: has more than 150,000 providers within 200 specialties, actually more
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: than 200 specialties across all 50 states. Their website has
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: tons of reviews from real patients and detailed doctor profiles
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: that will help you choose the right one. You get
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to see the actual appointment openings, click to instantly book
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a visit, and they can happen fast, usually within 24
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: to 72 hours, but sometimes you can even score a
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: same day appointment.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Your health matters and taking care of yourself really shouldn't
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: be complicated. So find and book the right doctor with ZocDoc.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Head to ZocDoc.com slash 3ML to get started and check
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: that appointment off your to-do list. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: slash 3ML. All right, Jim, on to our chaser now.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: And this was potentially a nominee for the good martini, too.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: But this report from Fox News, but it was everywhere yesterday.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: The date is set for Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hassan
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: to face an army firing squad. Hassan's execution is scheduled
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: for December 3rd at 1 p.m. Central Time at Fort Hood, Texas,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: where the terrorist attack occurred. According to an army execution
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: order issued Tuesday, the former army major killed 13 people
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: and wounded 32 others when he opened fire on unarmed
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: soldiers at Fort Hood back in 2009. President Trump approved
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Hassan's death sentence after Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended execution by
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: firing squad. And many people point out it's actually 14
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: people killed because one of the women killed was pregnant.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: So, Jim, this should be a no brainer. This is justice.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: This is not a victory lap of some kind. You
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: kill a bunch of people like that, you should face
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: the executioner.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, Greg, that my other podcast
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that I do, The Editors with National Review, we talked
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: about the Krista Pike case. We talked about the death penalty.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I think it's entirely natural for some people to have
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: certain mixed feelings about it. Obviously, you want to make
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: sure you have the right person. You want to make
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: sure the person had a fair trial, had adequate representation,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: had every opportunity to appeal. But in this case, look,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt that we have the right person. The
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: example I like to cite is that I believe about
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: 19% of self-identified death penalty opponents said they supported the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. I think
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: even death penalty opponents sometimes come across a case that
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: strikes them as so heinous, and I think this is
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: adequately responsible. And I know there are some people who say, ah,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you know, this guy's a jihadist. These people want to die.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: They want to die at the hands of the enemy.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: They think he'll get rewarded in the afterlife. So by
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: executing him, you're giving him what he wants. Greg, to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that I say, I'm a uniter, not a divider. And
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: if this is what he wants, well, look, everybody goes
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: home happy. Well, some of us go home happy in
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: one piece. Some don't.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Now, Jim, this is a long time ago, 17 years ago.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Do you remember how the Obama administration labeled this particular
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: terrorist attack at Fort Hood?
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Gun violence, if I remember correctly.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: Workplace violence.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Workplace violence. I mean, yes, it was violence in a workplace,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: but that's really not, you know, there's no sense of, ah,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I'm so stressed or, yeah, someone took my stapler. No, no,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: it's not that.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: That's the last call of the week for the 3
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Martini Lunch. Please subscribe to the 3 Martini Lunch podcast
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Monday through Friday. Also, please leave us a review. You
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: can get the 3 Martini Lunch on your home devices.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: All you have to say is play 3 Martini Lunch podcast.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Follow both of us on X. Jim is at Jim Garrity.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: I'm at Greg Karumbas. And follow 3 Martini Lunch on
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Facebook and Instagram. Have a great weekend and please join
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: us on Monday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.