Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / U.S. Military Successfully Clears Mines From Strait of Hormuz

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U.S. Military Successfully Clears Mines From Strait of Hormuz · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
0:05
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: So glad you're with us for the Monday edition of
0:16
Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch. And Jim, I don't know about you,
0:18
Speaker 2: but it's been a little bit hard to find some
0:20
Speaker 2: really good martinis lately. And so when we find one,
0:23
Speaker 2: we are definitely going to grab onto it and talk
0:25
Speaker 2: about it. And to no surprise, our military is amazing.
0:30
Speaker 2: Mission accomplished. once again with one specific project as it
0:34
Speaker 2: relates to the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz.
0:37
Speaker 2: This story should have gotten a lot more attention, but
0:39
Speaker 2: kudos to you for making it the focal point of
0:41
Speaker 2: today's Morning Jolt. On Friday, Admiral Brad Cooper of U.S.
0:45
Speaker 2: Central Command announced, We have successfully cleared sea mines in
0:49
Speaker 2: the straits' international shipping lanes that were laid months ago
0:52
Speaker 2: by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Internationally recognized transit routes
0:56
Speaker 2: in the strait are now free of Iranian sea mines
0:58
Speaker 2: thanks to the incredible work of the U.S. military. Over
1:01
Speaker 2: the past few months, our forces meticulously and quietly cleared
1:04
Speaker 2: them of sea mine threats using a combination of Navy divers,
1:07
Speaker 2: Navy SEALs, and U.S. air power from the Army, Navy,
1:10
Speaker 2: Air Force, and Marine Corps. The circumstances were challenging and
1:13
Speaker 2: dangerous to say the least, but we got the job done.
1:16
Speaker 2: Bottom line, today international shipping lanes are open and momentum
1:19
Speaker 2: is building. Over the past several months, U.S. forces have
1:22
Speaker 2: assisted nearly 1,500 commercial vessels in transiting the strait by
1:25
Speaker 2: providing coordinated protection. Those ships were carrying nearly 750 million
1:30
Speaker 2: barrels of crude oil destined for global energy markets, which
1:34
Speaker 2: is a massive volume. So, Jim, obviously, there are certain
1:37
Speaker 2: challenges that persist, the negotiations, whatever they consist of at
1:41
Speaker 2: this point. still go on. The Iranians, I assume, remain intractable,
1:46
Speaker 2: but they lose a lot of leverage when they no
1:49
Speaker 2: longer have shipping companies scared of mines in the Strait
1:53
Speaker 2: of Hormuz. And so this is great work by the
1:55
Speaker 2: military and hopefully gives us a lot more leverage going forward.
1:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's strange that the Iran, I don't know if
2:01
Speaker 1: you want to call it the Iran war if it's
2:03
Speaker 1: in a state of ceasefire, but Iran really receded from
2:06
Speaker 1: the foreground of the news cycle for the better part
2:09
Speaker 1: of a month or so. And then really, since we
2:11
Speaker 1: stopped finished taping last Friday, it suddenly became a much
2:14
Speaker 1: more hot topic, including an exchange of fire over on Sunday.
2:20
Speaker 1: So first of all, this announcement about the clearing of
2:22
Speaker 1: the mines, this is indeed fantastic news. There was something
2:26
Speaker 1: interesting that Axios reported from Barack Ravid, saying that, quote,
2:31
Speaker 1: more than 200 mine-like objects have been swept from the
2:34
Speaker 1: main lane of the strait.
2:36
Speaker 2: U.S.
2:36
Speaker 1: Officials say that only 11 of them were actual mines
2:40
Speaker 1: and just a few were properly deployed. So I heard
2:43
Speaker 1: a bunch of people say, oh, my goodness, this whole
2:44
Speaker 1: thing was a psychological operation. There was never that much
2:47
Speaker 1: of a threat to ships in the Persian Gulf and
2:51
Speaker 1: in the Strait of Hormuz. And man, did the Iranians,
2:53
Speaker 1: you know, fool everybody. Well, let's keep in mind that, A,
2:58
Speaker 1: if you're a ship captain, you don't have the equipment
3:02
Speaker 1: to determine a decoy from a real mine or things
3:04
Speaker 1: like that. There were some reports that even some of
3:06
Speaker 1: these were simply like trash bags inflated to kind of
3:09
Speaker 1: float and look like objects and stuff like that. But look,
3:12
Speaker 1: I can't begrudge a ship captain for not wanting to
3:15
Speaker 1: go through waters that he's heard have been mined. Let's
3:19
Speaker 1: also point out that since the start of the conflict,
3:21
Speaker 1: 65 vessels have been attacked by Iran, oil tankers, container ships,
3:26
Speaker 1: bulk carriers. Now, most of them are drones or other projectiles, missiles,
3:30
Speaker 1: things like that. So I went looking around. It was
3:32
Speaker 1: kind of hard to find any cases in which a
3:35
Speaker 1: ship said, yes, we were damaged because of a mine
3:38
Speaker 1: as opposed to some other, you know, a drone or
3:40
Speaker 1: a missile. But again, this is, you know, this was
3:43
Speaker 1: a new risk that obviously not just the world ship,
3:46
Speaker 1: you know, ship crews were reticent to sail through. Insurance
3:49
Speaker 1: companies suddenly got very nervous and wanted to raise their rates.
3:52
Speaker 1: And that was another factor raising the difficulty of sending
3:55
Speaker 1: the ships through. By the way, not surprising, the Iranian
3:58
Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard Corps says, no, no. We still have some
4:02
Speaker 1: out there. You guys haven't found them, so it's still
4:04
Speaker 1: not safe. And the other thing which was interesting is
4:07
Speaker 1: just this morning, Iranian state television claimed that Iranian mine
4:11
Speaker 1: damaged a supertanker. Now, the Iranian news report state-run media
4:15
Speaker 1: did not specify which ship, did not specify where, no
4:20
Speaker 1: particular details, any information about the crew. So it's entirely possible,
4:24
Speaker 1: you know, this is Iranian state TV. They could be
4:26
Speaker 1: making up the whole thing. But, you know, for what
4:28
Speaker 1: it's worth, they're saying that they're still out there. The
4:31
Speaker 1: other thing which is interesting is that U.S. Central Command
4:34
Speaker 1: said last night U.S. forces took, in their words, a
4:38
Speaker 1: limited precise action against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, mine-laying
4:42
Speaker 1: forces posing an imminent threat to the Strait of Hormuz.
4:46
Speaker 1: Captain Tim Hawkins, a Central Command spokesman, said the U.S.
4:49
Speaker 1: strike on Sunday targeted two Iranian rocket launchers on Iran's
4:52
Speaker 1: Larak Island. which observed Iranian forces preparing to launch rockets
4:57
Speaker 1: with mines into the Strait. So clearly, I think to Iran,
5:00
Speaker 1: it is really important to them that the perception that
5:03
Speaker 1: the Strait of Hormuz is very dangerous and you don't
5:05
Speaker 1: want to sail through is doing it. When the U.S.
5:07
Speaker 1: announces on Friday, we have cleared it up. It's full,
5:10
Speaker 1: you know, smooth sailing. Everybody can go through. Iran feels
5:13
Speaker 1: the need to put some more out there. U.S. strikes them.
5:16
Speaker 1: They fired missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan and the
5:20
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates. None of those missiles hit their targets,
5:23
Speaker 1: which I think is good news. Obviously, you know, it's
5:27
Speaker 1: also interesting that like this, this counter, we've been hearing
5:29
Speaker 1: that the Iranians have been replenishing their drone arsenal and
5:33
Speaker 1: rebuilding their missiles very quickly. Didn't really come with a
5:36
Speaker 1: particularly big strike last night. So maybe Iran is holding
5:39
Speaker 1: them in reserve. Maybe Iran actually isn't building them as
5:41
Speaker 1: fast as they are, or maybe the new ones aren't
5:43
Speaker 1: working as well. But anyway, so after being really quiet, Iran,
5:47
Speaker 1: the conflict with Iran heated up again last night. So far,
5:51
Speaker 1: everybody's OK. And it appears the fact that Iran feels
5:54
Speaker 1: the need to put more mines into the Strait suggests
5:57
Speaker 1: to me that actually they don't believe their own rhetoric
5:59
Speaker 1: that there are still mines out there.
6:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I believe the CENTCOM guy more than
6:04
Speaker 2: I believe what the rhetoric is from the Iranians. Ever
6:07
Speaker 2: since you mentioned the island where the missiles were being
6:10
Speaker 2: fired from, all I can think of is Sean Connery saying,
6:12
Speaker 2: welcome to the rock.
6:14
Speaker 1: But yeah.
6:15
Speaker 2: Hopefully we don't have to actually put boots.
6:16
Speaker 1: On the ground there. It's different from Karg Island, and
6:18
Speaker 1: the president put out some AI-generated video showing Karg Island.
6:23
Speaker 1: Karg Island and Laroque Island are not just not the
6:25
Speaker 1: same thing, they're like 400 miles apart. So, you know,
6:28
Speaker 1: this is not the island, Karg Island, with all the
6:32
Speaker 1: shipping facilities that they periodically talked about during the course
6:35
Speaker 1: of the war.
6:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, important distinction there. And so, again, phenomenal work by
6:39
Speaker 2: our U.S.
6:39
Speaker 1: Military.
6:40
Speaker 2: Everything we asked them to do throughout this mission has
6:43
Speaker 2: just been performed flawlessly from amazing rescues of downed pilots
6:47
Speaker 2: to precision bombings to everything else and now up to this.
6:50
Speaker 2: So thank you. Thank you to our military. Thank you
6:54
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6:57
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8:13
Speaker 2: marquee primary, or I could say a marquee primary tomorrow
8:17
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, U.S. Senate Democratic primary, the featured race most
8:21
Speaker 2: people are paying attention to tomorrow. That is Ed Markey,
8:25
Speaker 2: who has been around a long time, and we'll talk
8:26
Speaker 2: about that more in just a second, up against Seth Moulton,
8:29
Speaker 2: a former veteran of the war on terror, and he's
8:32
Speaker 2: been in the House for a long time. We pointed
8:35
Speaker 2: out how after the 2024 elections, he Like our party's
8:38
Speaker 2: got to get sane on the trans issues and sports.
8:40
Speaker 2: I don't want my girls being run over by boys
8:42
Speaker 2: on the soccer field. And then now he's groveling back
8:45
Speaker 2: for their support again and retracting all that. But the
8:48
Speaker 2: latest polling out of Massachusetts shows Ed Markey with a
8:52
Speaker 2: sizable lead. It's almost two to one, 60.4 to 32.8.
8:57
Speaker 2: But I'm sure Ms. Hong of Wisconsin is saying, hey,
9:01
Speaker 2: you might want to actually count the votes before you
9:03
Speaker 2: decide who's won this thing. But Bernie Sanders in neighboring
9:07
Speaker 2: Vermont is on the Ed Markey train, probably because he's
9:10
Speaker 2: way ahead, but also because they've worked together a long
9:13
Speaker 2: time on radical environmental and other deals. Ed Markey's about
9:17
Speaker 2: as left as you can get, unless Bernie's in the equation.
9:20
Speaker 2: So Bernie tweets out yesterday after stumping for Ed Markey, Dorchester.
9:24
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm not saying that right in the Massachusetts accent.
9:26
Speaker 1: Dorchester. There's no letter R's in the state of Massachusetts.
9:30
Speaker 2: Thanks for the great turnout today. Status quo politics and
9:33
Speaker 2: status quo policies are not working. We have to fight
9:37
Speaker 2: for an agenda that works for all, not just the few.
9:40
Speaker 2: And that's exactly why we need to send Ed Markey
9:43
Speaker 2: back to the United States Senate. Bernie Sanders has been
9:47
Speaker 2: in Congress since January of 1991. He was elected in
9:49
Speaker 2: the fall of 1990. Ed Markey was elected to Congress
9:53
Speaker 2: in 1976 and actually took office right after Election Day
9:57
Speaker 2: because the previous guy had died. So he filled the
9:59
Speaker 2: seat immediately. He was actually first in Congress when Gerald
10:03
Speaker 2: Ford was still president. And Bernie Sanders is saying, Jim,
10:06
Speaker 2: status quo politics and status quo policies are not working.
10:10
Speaker 2: That's why we've got to have the guy who's been
10:12
Speaker 2: there for 50 years to stay in the U.S.
10:15
Speaker 1: Senate. When you've been in Congress as long as you
10:17
Speaker 1: and I have been alive, that's a sign. And probably
10:20
Speaker 1: it's a need for some new blood. I was thinking about,
10:23
Speaker 1: you know, so way back in the day, in my
10:26
Speaker 1: wire service days, among, you know, Bangor Daily News and
10:29
Speaker 1: other New England papers, I also wrote for the Boston
10:31
Speaker 1: Globe and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. So I covered
10:35
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts delegation quite a bit. They were, Markey was
10:39
Speaker 1: part of it because he's been around for so long.
10:41
Speaker 1: And there were a lot of frustrated Democratic members of
10:45
Speaker 1: the House. who wanted to run for Senate someday. But
10:48
Speaker 1: one of them was Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and the
10:51
Speaker 1: other one was John Kerry. And these guys had both
10:54
Speaker 1: been around for decades, and neither one was interested in
10:57
Speaker 1: giving up their jobs until John Kerry was appointed Secretary
11:00
Speaker 1: of State and Senator Kennedy passed away in office. So
11:04
Speaker 1: if you're an ambitious Democrat, you're itching for it. Markey's
11:08
Speaker 1: in there, and so I'm not surprised Markey's running for
11:10
Speaker 1: re-election and will probably keep running for re-election even when
11:14
Speaker 1: he's older than Methuselah. Speaking of Methuselah, Bernie Sanders, it's
11:18
Speaker 1: very bizarre how Bernie Sanders, Politico talks about him today.
11:21
Speaker 1: You know, Politico, the one that totally botched everything about
11:24
Speaker 1: me on Friday's edition. I'm sorry, The Politico, since that's
11:29
Speaker 1: what they call The National Review. We're just National Review. Anyway,
11:32
Speaker 1: Politico says that Bernie Sanders is the indisputed leader of
11:36
Speaker 1: the modern progressive movement. And I'm not going to dispute that,
11:39
Speaker 1: but isn't it kind of bizarre that the oldest man
11:41
Speaker 1: in American politics, who is older than Joe Biden, is
11:45
Speaker 1: the face of this revolutionary vanguard change. And you're looking at, well,
11:49
Speaker 1: no wonder Bernie Sanders wants to do this. He's reliving
11:53
Speaker 1: his glory days in his youth in 1917 in Moscow.
11:58
Speaker 1: So this is the bizarre thing. And you can see
12:02
Speaker 1: in a bunch of other primaries we've seen this year,
12:04
Speaker 1: mostly in the House, Democrats frustrated with folks who've been
12:08
Speaker 1: around for a long time and that there's been this
12:09
Speaker 1: push for a youth movement. There's been this push for
12:12
Speaker 1: the DSA candidates, I do think there's been this like
12:15
Speaker 1: delayed backlash against the experience with Biden in which they
12:19
Speaker 1: were told heading into 2024, don't worry, Biden's not too old.
12:23
Speaker 1: When you can't see him, he's doing cartwheels down the hall.
12:25
Speaker 1: Everything's fine. And then he goes on the debate stage
12:28
Speaker 1: and he poops the bed. So I kind of figured
12:30
Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of repressed, we're tired of the gerontocracy.
12:33
Speaker 1: We're tired of these guys going around. And yet here
12:36
Speaker 1: we are in Massachusetts and in all likelihood, Ed Maki, again,
12:39
Speaker 1: there's no letter R, Markey is going to probably be
12:42
Speaker 1: around for another six years. And it's just bizarre. But again,
12:46
Speaker 1: like Massachusetts, like once you're in there, you have the
12:50
Speaker 1: kind of stability that usually is like for dictators or
12:53
Speaker 1: Supreme Court justices. Like you are in there and you're
12:56
Speaker 1: going to be in there until you die. And as
12:59
Speaker 1: Seth Moulton, you know, sorry about like this is, you know,
13:02
Speaker 1: this is not a state that is that is often
13:04
Speaker 1: embracing the upstarts. And he's, you know, whether or not,
13:07
Speaker 1: even if you aren't the kind, and of course, you know,
13:09
Speaker 1: Massachusetts always loves its Democrats to be, you know, charismatic
13:13
Speaker 1: and dashing, like, you know, Michael Dukakis.
13:18
Speaker 2: Michael Dukakis, still going strong. But yeah, Seth Moulton was,
13:21
Speaker 2: this whole campaign was based on generational change. It's time
13:23
Speaker 2: for a new generation to take the leadership reins. And
13:26
Speaker 2: he's watching all of these other primaries play out, you know,
13:28
Speaker 2: New York City, all the young blood, they're socialists, he
13:31
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't quite identify with that. But Incumbents losing all
13:34
Speaker 2: over the place, even on the Democratic side. And Seth
13:36
Speaker 2: Moulton's like, sweet, this is going to roll right into
13:38
Speaker 2: my campaign. Nope, brick wall. People love Ed Markey and
13:41
Speaker 2: his radical Green New Deal and all sorts of other
13:43
Speaker 2: stuff that he's been peddling for 50 years up on
13:46
Speaker 2: Capitol Hill. So barring another massive polling error, it looks
13:50
Speaker 2: like Seth Moulton is headed to the private sector. And
13:53
Speaker 2: Ed Markey is going to be in Congress, if he survives,
13:56
Speaker 2: for 56 years at least.
13:58
Speaker 1: To Bernie Sanders, like Ed Markey is the new generation.
14:01
Speaker 1: Ha ha ha.
14:04
Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders turns 85 next week. So in a moment,
14:08
Speaker 2: you thought we were done bashing Alaska's ranked choice system?
14:12
Speaker 2: Not even close. Stay with us. Jim, you and I
14:19
Speaker 2: are not fans of jungle primaries. We're certainly not a
14:22
Speaker 2: fan of four people advancing from a jungle primary to
14:25
Speaker 2: the general election. And we're not fans of ranked choice voting,
14:29
Speaker 2: where it's not just whoever gets the most votes out
14:31
Speaker 2: of those four becomes the next governor, senator, congressman, whatever.
14:35
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, no.
14:36
Speaker 2: If you don't get over 50%, then they start whittling
14:38
Speaker 2: off the people at the bottom and seeing who their
14:40
Speaker 2: second choice was, and then their third choice, and on
14:42
Speaker 2: and on it goes. And it's just a ridiculous system.
14:45
Speaker 2: And so, you know, we've got the dueling Dan Sullivans
14:49
Speaker 2: in the Senate race now out of the top four,
14:53
Speaker 2: the incumbent Republican, as well as... Former Congresswoman on the
14:57
Speaker 2: Democratic side, Mary Peltola. But the governor's race is also
14:59
Speaker 2: completely bizarre. Back during the primary, four people advanced, of course.
15:04
Speaker 2: The top two were Democrats, quite easily. A guy named
15:07
Speaker 2: Jonathan Christ-Tomkins and then Tom Begich, not to be confused
15:11
Speaker 2: with the Republican congressman, Nick Begich. And then the next
15:15
Speaker 2: two were Republicans Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson. Well, Tom
15:20
Speaker 2: Begich has now dropped out. And so then they were
15:23
Speaker 2: down to three. So then they had to... bump somebody
15:25
Speaker 2: up to fill the four slots, and that was going
15:28
Speaker 2: to be former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. But now
15:32
Speaker 2: there's a problem with Treg Taylor. The Anchorage Daily News
15:34
Speaker 2: reports that Alaska's campaign finance watchdog has recommended against certifying
15:39
Speaker 2: former Attorney General Treg Taylor's candidacy for governor. The Alaska
15:43
Speaker 2: Public Offices Commission found that Taylor failed to complete a
15:46
Speaker 2: financial disclosure form as required by state law, even after
15:49
Speaker 2: months of requests to do so by commission staff. Taylor
15:53
Speaker 2: reported more than a million dollars in rental income, but
15:55
Speaker 2: did not disclose the full names of his tenants despite
15:58
Speaker 2: a requirement to do so. Well, all that's getting adjudicated.
16:00
Speaker 2: So then if he can't make it to the final ballot,
16:03
Speaker 2: then the sixth place person is a Republican named Click Bishop,
16:08
Speaker 2: who got 11,509 votes. So then there would be three
16:11
Speaker 2: Republicans and the one Democrat in the runoff. So, Jim,
16:16
Speaker 2: when the sixth place person is advancing to the general election,
16:19
Speaker 2: your system stinks.
16:21
Speaker 1: They didn't even have to win a play-in round. Usually,
16:24
Speaker 1: I understand that the next proposed version of this will involve,
16:28
Speaker 1: as a candidate, you have to win your division or
16:31
Speaker 1: you qualify for three wildcard spots and then you get
16:34
Speaker 1: a bye week in the playoff of it. Secondly, I
16:37
Speaker 1: was going to say, why is every politician in the
16:40
Speaker 1: state of Alaska named either Bigich or Sullivan or Murkowski,
16:44
Speaker 1: I suppose? They realize we have Trigg and Click in
16:48
Speaker 1: this one. Who's naming these candidates? Mitt Romney? Mitt Romney.
16:52
Speaker 1: That's a very deep cut joke for those who know
16:55
Speaker 1: the Romney offspring names. Again, whether you want open primaries
16:59
Speaker 1: or whether you want closed primaries, I don't like this
17:01
Speaker 1: whole firehouse sort of thing. I know it's supposed to
17:05
Speaker 1: reduce partisanship or allow moderates to win or something. Everybody
17:09
Speaker 1: strongly suspects this is the Lisa Murkowski incumbent protection program
17:14
Speaker 1: because they don't want to have this situation where she
17:15
Speaker 1: loses her primary and has to do a write-in campaign again.
17:19
Speaker 1: Whatever happened to the idea of you win the most
17:21
Speaker 1: votes you're in? Like just, you know, because now you
17:24
Speaker 1: speak of trig, you have to do trigonometry to figure out. Well,
17:27
Speaker 1: by having this many of the second vote, like really
17:31
Speaker 1: counting is supposed to be kindergarten, first grade math. It's
17:34
Speaker 1: supposed to be. It's not weighted averages. And well, you
17:37
Speaker 1: have this many second place votes, this many third place.
17:40
Speaker 1: And no, just just get the most votes. There is
17:43
Speaker 1: something clarifying about saying like. Very often, this comes up
17:48
Speaker 1: in presidential primaries, where candidates will run and they'll say, well,
17:51
Speaker 1: I walked around, this is back when Iowa, it's no
17:53
Speaker 1: longer on the Democratic side, it's still an important state
17:54
Speaker 1: on the Republican side. Well, I walk around Iowa to
17:57
Speaker 1: these diners and I go to New Hampshire and people
17:58
Speaker 1: really like me. Well, I'm assuming that's true. And there
18:01
Speaker 1: are a lot of Iowans, New Hampshire's who are just
18:03
Speaker 1: being polite to you, Mr. Candidate. But nonetheless, the goal
18:08
Speaker 1: is not to get them to like you. They have
18:10
Speaker 1: to like you the best, right? They only get to
18:11
Speaker 1: vote for one. So having a favorability rating, hey, that's good.
18:16
Speaker 1: That's a prerequisite. But you have to be the one
18:19
Speaker 1: who the people like the most, unless you're in this
18:22
Speaker 1: system in which you just need to be in apparently
18:24
Speaker 1: the top six if two candidates drop out because they
18:27
Speaker 1: failed to fill out a form correctly or something like that.
18:29
Speaker 1: It's absolutely ridiculous. And I'm just going to let, you know,
18:33
Speaker 1: will the real Dan Sullivan please stand up?
18:37
Speaker 2: It's incredibly frustrating for a lot of people, I'm sure.
18:40
Speaker 2: The real Dan Sullivan at the top of that list.
18:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:43
Speaker 2: Lisa Murkowski got beat in the primary in 2010 to
18:46
Speaker 2: a guy named Joe Miller, but then ran as a
18:48
Speaker 2: write-in candidate and got reelected. And then in 2022, she
18:52
Speaker 2: lost the plurality to another Republican named Kelly Chewbacca. But
18:57
Speaker 2: because of ranked choice and then the bottom people get
18:59
Speaker 2: their second choice and all the Democrats prefer Lisa Murkowski to,
19:03
Speaker 2: you know, a more conservative Republican. Well, the other Republican
19:07
Speaker 2: never gets to 50%. So, yeah, Lisa Murkowski definitely has
19:09
Speaker 2: her fingerprints all over this. But regardless of how we
19:13
Speaker 2: got here, the sixth place person getting into the general
19:15
Speaker 2: election is just absurd. And more than one vote per
19:19
Speaker 2: voter is insane.
19:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is like when the team that's eight and
19:21
Speaker 1: nine qualifies for the playoffs because it's a really weak
19:24
Speaker 1: year of the conference. Just happy to be here. I'm
19:28
Speaker 1: in the top six. We went to the NCAA tournament.
19:32
Speaker 1: Give them a participation trophy and let the real candidates
19:35
Speaker 1: move on. All right.
19:36
Speaker 2: Well, in a moment, as Jim says and has written
19:39
Speaker 2: over the weekend, ICE finally arrested and made deport the
19:43
Speaker 2: worst of the worst. All right, Jim, ICE is heavily
19:51
Speaker 2: criticized by the left. I think the mainstream Democratic position
19:54
Speaker 2: now is the complete abolition of ICE, which is absolutely insane.
19:58
Speaker 2: But there was one arrest recently that I think might
20:01
Speaker 2: actually have a bipartisan reaction. You wrote about this over
20:04
Speaker 2: the weekend. And you say, reasonable people can have disagreements
20:07
Speaker 2: about the effectiveness of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies,
20:11
Speaker 2: but the news that ICE arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal
20:14
Speaker 2: alien from the United Kingdom, is a sign that America
20:17
Speaker 2: is truly becoming great again. And then you include the
20:20
Speaker 2: ex-post or tweet from Homeland Security that says, on August 27th,
20:23
Speaker 2: ICE arrested Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom,
20:27
Speaker 2: at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Yiannopoulos illegally
20:30
Speaker 2: entered the country on May 14th, 2019, through New York City,
20:33
Speaker 2: New York. He chose to outstay his legal status here.
20:37
Speaker 2: And so, Jim, for those who don't remember or are
20:40
Speaker 2: too young to remember, he was kind of a prominent
20:43
Speaker 2: figure before the 2016 election, a gadfly, he's a racist, anti-Semite,
20:50
Speaker 2: and flagrantly homosexual and all this other stuff, and just
20:55
Speaker 2: an odious figure on the political stage. I don't know
20:57
Speaker 2: if you would necessarily call him a precursor to Nick Fuentes,
21:00
Speaker 2: but I think you're in the same neighborhood. but he
21:04
Speaker 2: had kind of dropped off the map in recent years.
21:06
Speaker 2: Hadn't heard a lot from him, but didn't even know
21:08
Speaker 2: he was back in the country. But I don't think
21:10
Speaker 2: anybody's going to cry any tears over this one.
21:12
Speaker 1: First of all, Greg, our long national nightmare is over.
21:16
Speaker 1: If listeners, if you don't recall the name of Milo Yiannopoulos,
21:20
Speaker 1: I envy you. He was started at Breitbart.com. He got,
21:25
Speaker 1: you know, driven off a bunch of social media because
21:28
Speaker 1: he did comments where he said that Sexual relationships between
21:31
Speaker 1: teenage boys and adults could happen perfectly consensually and be
21:34
Speaker 1: positive experiences for adolescents, which many people thought went beyond it.
21:38
Speaker 1: You said he hasn't made much of a splash. Late
21:40
Speaker 1: last year, Greg, he said that he believed there was
21:44
Speaker 1: a possibility that Charlie Kirk had faked his own death. Now.
21:48
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure, like right now, all of our viewers,
21:51
Speaker 1: all of our listeners are like, we watched it. What
21:53
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Right on camera. I wish I
21:55
Speaker 1: could unsee it. What are you talking about? And that
21:58
Speaker 1: was just the kind of guy that Milo was. Now,
22:01
Speaker 1: the really bizarre thing, what is this guy doing in
22:03
Speaker 1: this country? Well, back in 2017, when he was dismissed
22:06
Speaker 1: from Breitbart, he said that he had entered the country
22:08
Speaker 1: on an O-1 visa, which was reserved for those who have, quote,
22:12
Speaker 1: extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics.
22:18
Speaker 1: So first of all, whoever picked him for that, like, really?
22:21
Speaker 1: We lowered the bar on that one? But so he
22:24
Speaker 1: chose to overstay his visa. Now, I'm not going to
22:27
Speaker 1: get into it. I'm just going to say that he
22:28
Speaker 1: made extraordinarily crude comments about immigration enforcements that's been going
22:35
Speaker 1: on in the last year or so. Even if you
22:37
Speaker 1: think everything going on with immigration enforcement is 100% terrific,
22:41
Speaker 1: he said that he was– enjoying himself in an inappropriate manner,
22:46
Speaker 1: watching these sorts of things. He was saying that while
22:49
Speaker 1: he was an illegal immigrant, right? Notice the great irony
22:53
Speaker 1: of this. And then, even better, another one of my
22:55
Speaker 1: all-time favorites, Mike Cernovich argued that Milo Yiannopoulos is as
23:00
Speaker 1: spiritually American as it can get. I hope this misunderstanding
23:04
Speaker 1: is corrected. By the way, Greg, he has been deported.
23:07
Speaker 1: He is gone. Oh, great. His United Kingdom's problem now
23:11
Speaker 1: The favorite comment I've seen is it isn't safe for
23:14
Speaker 1: the United States to send someone who identifies who's gay
23:17
Speaker 1: back to a Muslim country. And sorry for the dark
23:22
Speaker 1: humor to wrap up the show. But, you know, but so. Oh,
23:25
Speaker 1: wait a second. Milo Yiannopoulos is spiritually American, Greg. Now,
23:31
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I remember Barack Obama talking about the
23:34
Speaker 1: dreamers and he said they're Americans in their hearts and
23:37
Speaker 1: in their minds in every single way but one on paper. Hey, Greg,
23:41
Speaker 1: how do we determine someone's citizenship?
23:43
Speaker 2: On paper.
23:44
Speaker 1: On paper. You can't just hand wave it away. But
23:47
Speaker 1: once Milo gets deported, all of a sudden it's like, wait,
23:50
Speaker 1: but he has an American aura. He gives off a
23:53
Speaker 1: vibe that's American. No, no. So it's like some people
23:58
Speaker 1: who claim to be immigration restrictionists are all for deportations
24:02
Speaker 1: and all for zero tolerance right up until the moment
24:05
Speaker 1: it affects somebody they know. And all of a sudden
24:07
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, no, this is cruel. We can't do this. Well,
24:09
Speaker 1: wait a second.
24:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:11
Speaker 1: So there are some fair weather friends of immigration enforcement.
24:15
Speaker 1: You know, he had an opportunity for a hearing. He
24:16
Speaker 1: didn't show up for the hearing. There's no excuses. America
24:21
Speaker 1: is great again, Greg. We no longer have to deal
24:23
Speaker 1: with Milo. Bye, Felicia. Yeah.
24:25
Speaker 2: All right. Jim, quite a start to the week. We'll
24:28
Speaker 2: see what's on tap for us tomorrow. See you then.
24:30
Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, Greg.
24:31
Speaker 2: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karambas of Radio America.
24:34
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