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Russian Lab Worker’s Death Triggers Quarantines and Unanswered Questions · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:02
  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 Martini's coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Monday edition of
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch. Yes, we will get to our
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: reactions to the Bears-Jets game towards the end of our
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: podcast today. Some might think because of the outcome, Jim
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: would want to avoid the topic like the plague, but
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: actually the plague is a topic we're leading with today.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: So it's... Moscow Times, as Jim reports in the Morning
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Jolt today, health officials in Siberia's Irkutsk region have placed
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: nearly 200 people under medical observation after a laboratory worker
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: died from plague, according to media reports and a statement
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: by a regional leader on Friday. This official confirmed that
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: the woman had died from an unspecified form of plague,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: but Irkutsk officials had previously described the illness only as
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a particularly dangerous infection. So Jim, there's a lot here
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that I know you'll unpack for us. But one of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the things that I think was maddening to you as
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: you wrote the jolt, it was pretty clear, maddening to
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: me is that, you know, most people, I'm one of them,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: had never heard of Irkutsk before, but apparently it's not
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that far from Mongolia. So you're thinking, oh, it's out
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: there in Siberia and nobody's near it. No, Irkutsk has 600,000 people.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We've learned nothing.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: We have yet another facility doing research on dangerous, contagious diseases.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: By the way, this place was set up in 1934
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: under the Soviet Union, right? So this is not like
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: they just did this recently, but it's always been there
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: right in the middle of this large city. that, yes,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: has an international airport, and over the last four or
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: five days, it's been like 250 flights that have departed.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: But it's about 50 flights a day, most days, from
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that airport. So, should you panic? No. And let me
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: put it this way. This is a grim topic, but
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: it's not nearly as grim as the Jets' performance yesterday.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Right now, one woman who was a researcher at this
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: anti-plague institute said, You know, she's dead. We know that part.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: We know that she has died because of something. Now,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the initial report was, oh, she died of the plague
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: after working at the Anti-Plague Institute. There was also a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: report that she said she had broken a test tube
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and that she may have been exposed to it. And
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you inhale, plague gets into your lungs and it kills you. Now,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: one of the details in that story that sounded either
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: maddening or too far-fetched is that apparently she had this
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: accident Four days went by. She wasn't feeling well. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: on the fourth or fifth day, she goes to the hospital.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Let me just, like, public service announcement. If you work
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: with dread communicable diseases and you don't feel well, get
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: your butt to the hospital immediately. Let everybody know. Avoid
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: contact with everybody. Let people know ahead of time, I
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: have been exposed to something really... I may have been exposed... isolate,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: take all the protective measures, all that kind of stuff. Greg,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: has anything in recent memory been the sort of thing
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: where we would have learned the hard way about the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: consequences of not doing this sort of thing? So this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is a completely different authoritarian regime that is suspected by
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the U.S. government of doing biological weapons research. Oh, by
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the way, a guy who was in the Soviet bioweapons
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: program who wrote his autobiography back in the early 90s
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: said that this facility was doing genuine anti-plague research. And
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you can do biological research because you want to stop
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: diseases or figure out how to fight them more effectively.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But this facility was also involved in Soviet biological weapons research.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Plague is bad. It is indeed the same thing when
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: they say the Black Plague. The good news is antibiotics
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: work well against it. And if you have antibiotics in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: your system, you should be fine. Um, so this also,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: it tends to incubate for one to seven days, very
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: high death rate. If you are not, uh, if you
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: don't have antibiotics or stuff like that. Now is this,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you know, the other thing is, is there again, it's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a sub it's it's Russia. The only statement from the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Russian equivalent of the CDC came out late last night.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Now this was all this, the news of this broke
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: on Friday on, on, uh, anti-regime Russian media sources based
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: outside of the country. looking at telegram messages and, as
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you said, statements from local governments in this part of Russia.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: By the way, this is a huge country. The head
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of their CDC went out. It's a six-hour flight. Now,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: if you take a six-hour flight, you don't just do
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: that for no reason, right? The fact that the head
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of the CDC went out there immediately is kind of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: an indication that, ooh, something important happened. There are also
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: reports that the ambulances involving this woman had FSB, which
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: is not just like the KGB overseas spying agency. It's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: also their domestic security agency. All of this points to, oh,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the other report is that at least one hospital has
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: been quarantined. And there are other reports that four or
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: five hospitals in the region have been quarantined. And the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: local steel mill has asked people to start wearing masks.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: All of this points to something significant happening. Now, the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: old Soviet Union covered up an anthrax release that ended
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: up killing like 70 people. And they said it was, oh,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: contaminated meat and stuff like that. So on the one hand,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: we know the Russian government is, you know, It's just
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the definition of untrustworthy. When they say everything's fine, it
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean that everything is going to be fine.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: That said, lots of people dying from the plague would
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: be very hard for them to cover up. I think
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: this is something worth monitoring. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: said that the U.S. is monitoring the situation. But as
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of now, we would not characterize this as an outbreak
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of the plague. And for what it's worth, Russia is
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: saying everybody's testing negative. I guess we'll see, Greg.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Again, we certainly hope that it is. Isolated and limited,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: but like you said, we've seen this movie before, so
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: something to keep.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: An eye on for sure.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about something definitely better than that, and
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: let's talk about Lorene. Lorene, of course, is fantastic toothpaste.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic gum. Our family has been using Lorraine in
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: both ways for a very long time. I love the gum.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Small pieces, so you think, you know, is that really
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: going to be enough to freshen my breath? Is the
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: flavor going to last long? It really does. And I
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: love it. My daughter loves it. The boxes get empty
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: pretty darn fast. And I've been using the Lorraine toothpaste
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: for a very long time now as well. Basically, Lorraine Co.,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: It's better for you chewing gum that uses the same
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: mineral your teeth are made of to support daily enamel health. Jim,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: what mineral is that?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It is nanohydroxyapatite, Greg. And I only can pronounce that
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: because of my extensive scientific research and reporting that I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: did during COVID. Now, I want to be clear. Nanohydroxyapatite
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: cannot prevent plague. Plaque, maybe, but not plague. It's one
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: letter difference there. Nanohydroxyapatite is the mineral your enamel is
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: actually made of. And so laryngeal Both the toothpaste and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the gum will strengthen your enamel and repair damage. Comes
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: in tons of flavors, including mint, cinnamon, bubble gum, and berry.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Let's not forget about that fluoride-free toothpaste as well.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Right now, Lorene Co. offering three martini lunch listeners up
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: to 50% off at buylorene.com slash 3ML. That's buylorene, L-A-R-I-N-E
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: dot com slash 3ML for up to 50, yes, 50% off.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim, talking economics here in the next couple
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of martinis. And one of the things that, of course,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Democrats are pounding the drum on heading into the midterms,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: which are now less than a month away, is affordability. Affordability, affordability, affordability.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Abigail Spanberger ran on it and then things did not
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: get more affordable here in Virginia. Much to the contrary.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: And now the Democrats are saying that again. Mark Kelly,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: a Democratic senator from Arizona who definitely has at least
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: some 2028 ambition in running for president, was on Face
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the Nation on CBS. And to her credit, host Margaret
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Brennan says, OK, keep talking about this, but how are
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: you actually going to do that? Well, Mark Kelly then
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: explained what his plan was.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Well, we're going to lower costs for the American people.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: We've got to win the House and or the Senate.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: We'll Well, how will we do this? I have legislation
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: with with Chris Van Hollen. We've got to get Republicans
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: on board. Raises taxes for people who make over a
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: million dollars a year in income. And it provides tax
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: cuts for people, individuals and even couples up to who
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: make up to about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: a year. That's some relief.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: OK, well, first of all, after they've already paid taxes,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: it's well less than a million dollars. Jim, I look
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: some of this up. according to our AI friends here,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: roughly 800,000 to a million Americans earn more than $ 1
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: million a year. If you factor in married couples filing jointly,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that's roughly 1 million to 1.4 million. When it comes
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: to couples making less than 160, that's 60 to 65%
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: of American couples or approximately 38 million to 41 million couples.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: The other thing I looked up was how many businesses,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: specifically subchapter S corporations, file as individuals 5.1 to 5.3 million.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: So if those businesses get caught up, if they make
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: more than a million dollars a year, I wonder how
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: they're going to make ends meet, Jim. And I wonder
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: how those people making and maybe getting a tax cut,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: maybe from the Democrats, are going to pay for all that.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Gee, if only there was some precedent for Democrats. You
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: mentioned Abigail Spanberger. I'm thinking of Bill Clinton back in 1992.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Gets into office. Oh my goodness, I had no idea
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the deficit was this bad. Well, we're going to have
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to get rid of the middle class tax cut that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I promised over and over again on the campaign trail.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Mark Kelly is kind of doing this shell game thing
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: where he's kind of hoping that you will see the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: terms taxes and prices as interchangeable. Now, taxes are an
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: element of the prices you pay. We've talked about state
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: taxes on gasoline. Georgia, in fact, just suspended its gas
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: tax for 30 days. Kemp was like, OK, this is
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: getting really bad. I have to do this to alleviate
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the pressure on the citizens of my state. But so
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: he's basically saying, well, to alleviate prices and the fact
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the cost of living is very high. We're going to
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: raise taxes on some people. But don't worry. Other people
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: will get relief. Now, do you think that the tax
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: relief that you get, which, by the way, let's say
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: they get elected in 2027, they get passed in 2027,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: it would not kick in until the tax bill that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you pay in 2028? So this is not fast acting.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: This is not something that's going to happen right there.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And as you said, it's going to be increasing it
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: more on increasing taxes on wealthier Americans, but oh, who
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: cares about them? The other thing that I, so you're like, okay,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: we'll talk more about an example of this in our
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: third martini. What do rich people do with their money? Well,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, sometimes they just put it in the bank,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: but that's pretty rare. Generally, they invest it sometimes in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the stock market, sometimes in their own businesses, sometimes in bonds. Oh,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: by the way, is the government trying to sell bonds lately, Greg?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Are we having to raise interest rates because people don't
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: want to buy our bonds as much? Yeah, let's do
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: something to make sure that the rich people have less
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: money to buy U.S. government bonds. There's no way that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: could backfire on us. Oh, by the way, rich people,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: they buy their Lamborghinis. Well, okay, but the guy who
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: works at the Lamborghini dealership, his living requires on that, right?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: We will talk more about the yacht tax down there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: The idea that by raising taxes on rich people, you're
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: going to make prices at the store less. No, no,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: none of that. And in fact, you're probably going to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: hit industries that serve the interests of rich people. That
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh, well, who cares? Well, how about the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: people who work in those industries? They are not rich themselves.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Not every guy who owns a jewelry store is a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: multimillionaire wealthy person himself. The people who build yachts are
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: not wealthy people. The people who sell expensive cars are
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: not necessarily wealthy people. The people who do mechanic and
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: shop work on expensive cars. They're probably making an okay living,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: but you would not classify them as the rich, right?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: So this is just Mark Kelly saying, you know that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: thing we've always wanted to do of raise taxes on
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the rich? Well, now we're saying it's a magic wand
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: that will make prices lower. No, it will not. And
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: if you're voting for the, you know, like the Republicans
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: have it, you know, like I can rip into them
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: over tariffs and all kinds of stuff. But if you're
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: voting for the Democrats, you're like, ah, we're going to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: elect a Democratic House and Senate. And then we're finally
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: going to see prices become more reasonable. No, it will not.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And the signs are all around you.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: No, that's exactly right. And as I was mentioning, those
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: businesses that file as individuals will get socked and they're
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: going to have to raise their prices. And everybody, regardless
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: of your income bracket, ends up paying more because they
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: have to raise those prices. So on and on it goes.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: people who get relief, if there's any relief at all,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: shrinks and shrinks and shrinks for exactly the reason you said. Oh, gosh,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: it's just Just a worse fiscal situation than we thought.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: But we have much more to say about taxes in
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: a much more hilarious way from the Democratic perspective in
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: just a moment. So make sure you hang with us
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: for that. But in the meantime, you know, let's talk
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: about your health and not just out there in Siberia, Russia,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: but also right here in the United States or wherever
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: you happen to live. You know, have you gotten the
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: annual checkup? Have you gotten your teeth checked? Have you
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: gotten your eyes checked this year? Are you trying to
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: find a specialist? Well, ZocDoc makes it easy. They have
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: great reviews. They have the ability to make appointments without
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: calling anybody. And basically, ZocDoc lets you search and compare
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: local in-network doctors and pick the one that's right for you.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Now, if you happen to have just returned from Russia
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and you have a serious coughing problem, well, then you
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: should go to emergency room just to do it. But
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: for any other health ailment, you can use ZocDoc. And
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: ZocDoc lets you search and compare local in-network doctors. They
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: have more than 150,000 providers within more than 200 specialties
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: across all 50 states. Their website has tons of reviews
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: from real patients and detailed doctor profiles that will help
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: you choose the right one. But the best part is
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you get to see actual appointment openings and click to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: instantly book a visit. And usually they happen fast. Sometimes
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you can even score a same-day appointment.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Jim and I have both used ZocDoc. It's super easy.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: We've both been really happy with the service, so check
• 14:18
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• 14:21
  Speaker 2: should not be complicated. Find and book the right doctor
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: with ZocDoc. Head to ZocDoc.com slash 3ML to get started
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: dot com slash 3ML. See, the last tax story was frustrating, right?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Because even if you're not making a million, you can
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: see how it's not really going to help make things
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: more affordable. But as Jim mentioned, you know, decades ago
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: we had the yacht tax, which was designed to soak
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: the rich, but then the rich just didn't buy yachts
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: because the tax was so high and it put a
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: bunch of yacht makers and their employees out of business.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: So it did not accomplish the goal that they were
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: hoping for. Los Angeles, California now has the mansion tax.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And the New York Post reports the mansion tax was
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: sold to people in Los Angeles and as a way
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: to tax the rich and boost housing. But instead, it's
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: blocked the building of about 9,100 homes, wiped out 16,650
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: full-time construction jobs, and cost $ 452 million in revenue. A
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: new report says the tax, which is officially known as
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: United to House LA or ULA, has had a negative
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: impact on the city's high-end and multi-family real estate markets
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and collected less than half what it was expected to
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: generate to tackle the city's housing crisis. The ULA was
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: expected to raise about $ 900 million a year or $ 2. 7
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: billion over its first three years. Instead, over those first
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: three years, it brought in about $ 1. 2 billion, so less
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: than half. The tax, which went into effect in April
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: 2023 and was championed by socialist mayoral hopeful Councilwoman Nithya Raman,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: means if a property in LA sells for more than $ 5. 4 million,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: the seller is taxed 4% of the price at closing.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: If it sells for more than $ 10. 9 million, it increases
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: to 5.5%. Here's where it really gets weird. Despite its nickname,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: LA's mansion tax applies far beyond luxury homes. Apartment buildings, offices, warehouses,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: and vacant land can all trigger the tax if they
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: sell above those thresholds. About 1,000 of the 9,100-plus new
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: homes that were lost would have been affordable units, the
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: very thing the tax was supposed to create, according to
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: the Rand Corporation. Westside real estate broker Danny Brown told
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the California Post the tax was, quote, another disaster initiated
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: by the incompetent socialists who run our city. ULA has
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: chopped the legs from under the residential and commercial real
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: estate industry, which is one of the largest parts of
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: our city's economic engine. So once again, Jim, the promises
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: are never what the reality.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Proves to be. So I'm thinking of the number of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: times Democrats and progressives have fumed that There's nothing wrong
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: with the inheritance tax. When you die, the government should
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: get as much of what you leave to your heirs
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: as it wants. You know, your spoiled brat offspring don't
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: deserve your fortune nearly as much as the wise stewards
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of government do. And, you know, Republicans started calling it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the death tax and the idea that, well, you've just died.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Now the government is going to tax you because what
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: are you going to do? Argue against it? You're dead.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: There's nothing you can do, right? And so, you know,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the death tax, the inheritance taxes became much less popular
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: because you'd see, you know, attack ads. So-and-so voted to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: raise the death tax and stuff like that, right? So
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: this idea of, oh, you know, inheritance taxes aren't so
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: bad because you're only punishing spoiled brat heirs of millionaires
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and billionaires and stuff like that. People are like, well,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: wait a second. You worked hard to accumulate that fortune
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: or the family farm, the value of land that gets
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: passed down. Like all of a sudden, that's usually well
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: past a million dollars out there. To say nothing of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the equipment and all the other kind of stuff. So again,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: what you name something is very important. I know there
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: are many people who object to the Patriot Act and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: say that it was not patriotic, that it was too
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: much of an invasion of privacy, et cetera. Calling something
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the mansion tax and having it apply to vacant land. Well,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: that's really not a mansion. Now, is it? It might
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: be a big California hillside or something like that. But
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: if it's more than those thresholds in there, You're going
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to have to pay more in taxes. And that old saying,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: if you tax something, you get less of it. If
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you subsidize it, you get more of it, right? Look,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: this is the idiot socialist out there, but also this
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: is under the jurisdiction of Karen Bass, the idiot incumbent.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Good luck, Los Angeles. You have a situation in which
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the city and the county have confronted an honest-to-God housing crisis.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: There's not enough housing. Too many people want to live here.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: We need more residential units. And their answer was, we're
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: going to make housing more expensive. You need to increase supply.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: You need to give people incentives to build more, not, well,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: if you sell that. By the way, also keep in mind,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you're not just saying, oh, we're going to punish people
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: who are building new things. It's anytime you try to
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: sell something, we're going to take a bigger and bigger
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: chunk of it.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so this thing passed in 2023. They're putting ramen
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: on the hook for it. I'm sure she supported it,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: so she deserves blame for it. But doesn't stuff passed
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: by the council have to be approved by the mayor?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: because Karen Bass was mayor in 2023, so.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: It's a weak office and she's been semi-retired, but she probably,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I certainly don't recall Karen Bass saying this
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: is a bad idea and we should not do this.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: You know, that would very much not be in her,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: but if she ever did, good for her, but I
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: don't think she did. That does not, you know. Very
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: standard issue Democrat out in Los Angeles.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Jim, there's been plenty of elections in my lifetime where
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I've been unenthused about the Republican in the race. But
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: to stare at Nithya Raman versus Karen Bass, it's just
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: like staring into a hopeless wasteland for at least four
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: more years.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: It's just so sad. Aliens versus predator. Whoever wins, we lose.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: That's right. Good luck, Angelenos. You're going to need it.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about businesses. And well, you know, Mark Kelly
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: has his way. It could be a rough stretch for
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: you coming up. And if you're in Los Angeles. Haven't
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: helped you already. But when it comes to landing customers
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  Speaker 2: and keeping existing customers happy, you want the best possible
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  Speaker 2: miss a call.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Greg, every single one of us every week has to
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: take care of business, except the New York Jets. But
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: your business does need to take care of business, which
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• 21:22
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim, last week, all of our chasers were
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: filled with those dastardly independent negative ads against the Bears,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: against the Jets. And in the end, the game was
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: played yesterday.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: The Bears win.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: 23 to 12. You guys did a pretty good job
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: of keeping us out of the end zone much of
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: the day. However, the stat that jumps off the page
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: is nearly 43 minutes for the Bears in time of possession.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of hard to score when the other
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: team has the ball for the Jets. So hopefully both teams,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: you know, do very, very well going forward. But I
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: know it's a bit of a disappointing day for you.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Greg, my congratulations to the Bears. I'm still waiting for
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the Jets to show up because they really didn't show
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: up at kickoff. Yeah, it was kind of nice to
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: have a goal line stand and stop them at fourth
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and goal and all that stuff. But, you know, the
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Jets are now one and three. The, you know, two
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: losses they had to your division rivals, the Lions and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the Packers, they were at least competitive. They were in
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it in the fourth quarter. And so you could kind
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of hang your hat on that and say, OK, this
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: team is making progress. There was no progress yesterday. Jets
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: had a couple injuries on offense, but like, boy, they
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: got nothing going for, you know, I believe at the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: end of the game, the Jets defense, supposedly even the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: strength of this team, gave up more first downs than
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I believe the total number of plays that they had.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: That's a sign where not only are you not getting
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: into the end zone or kicking a field goal, You're
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: just not doing anything when you hit the ball. So
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: my congratulations to them. This is your second string quarterback
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: or your third string?
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: This is our second string.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Tyson. No offense to you, Greg. You could have
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: started and probably got the deal. Don't let people fool you.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: The score was way better. By the way, the other
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: thing was weird. I'm watching the game with my son
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and a friend at a restaurant. Greg, did you notice
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: that after the Jets scored that one lone touchdown, They
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: missed the extra point, apparently. I don't remember CBS showing it.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: So they missed it, so they had 12 points. Fox Sports,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: which was broadcasting the game, had the Jets having 13
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: points for like 10 minutes during the game. And I'm
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: checking online and I'm looking at the screen and I'm
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: checking online. The idea of having a typo or something,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that's not it. Having a typo and keeping it up
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: on the screen for like 10 minutes, that is weird.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: And I was very unimpressed with the coverage of the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: game yesterday. It's a terrible game, but that like, also like,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: can you get, the score is kind of important, isn't it?
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: It is. Yeah.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Just think if you put money on the game and
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: that one point is wrong up there and you're not
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: sure whether or not.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: You're showing you're better. Look, see, it was 23 to 13,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: not 23 to 12. Yes, exactly.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Now, one of our listeners goes by the X handle
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: of Movie Churches, says, you don't have to approve their methods,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: but you have to admit the ground the Jets pack
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: gets results. Jim, it was pretty harsh stuff from the
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: ground the Jets pack last week. I like to give
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: the team the credit, but... You know what they say
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: about negative advertising. It happens because it works.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm going to point out that at one point,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Americans United for a Bears defeat on October 4th said
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that the Bears should run it up 40 times up
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the middle. Lo and behold, they did. It worked just fine.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: They listened to you. They took your advice. They did. Yeah. Amazing.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, I'm glad we're past this. Hopefully, we'll
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: meet again in February. But a lot of work to
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: do between now and then. obviously, but obviously a lot
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: of fun leading up to the game anyway. So anyway, Jim,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: have a good day, good Monday, and I'll see you tomorrow.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, Greg.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karumbas of Radio America.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: sure to subscribe to the 3 Martini Lunch podcast. If
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: you don't already, tell your friends about us as well.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Thanks also for your five-star ratings and your kind reviews.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices.
• 25:18
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• 25:21
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• 25:23
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• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Facebook and Instagram. Have a terrific Monday. Join us again
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Tuesday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.