Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hilldale Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hilldale Dialogues, all of them
Speaker 1: at q for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hilldale Morning Glory and even Grace America. I'm
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewett. Thank you for joining us today. It's been
Speaker 1: a wonderful weekend. I know it's August and that some
Speaker 1: of you have left town and some of you have
Speaker 1: decided not to pay any attention to anything, But some
Speaker 1: of you have got to work. I know that, and
Speaker 1: so I'm here for you. I'm not going to leave
Speaker 1: you alone in August. No one will. I want to
Speaker 1: begin by playing for you. I'm going to focus a
Speaker 1: lot on Abdul Rahman lsayaid, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's L say ed or L said I say I'm both,
Speaker 1: because it's unclear to me whether or not one or
Speaker 1: the other is in fact the correct way to pronounce it.
Speaker 1: But I want to start by telling you the most
Speaker 1: important race in the United States in twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: is Mike Rogers versus Abdul Rahman Lsaed in Michigan. And
Speaker 1: what we've got to do is make sure that Mike
Speaker 1: Rogers is fully funded. And what that means is that
Speaker 1: you're ten dollars or one hundred dollars year. I think
Speaker 1: it's twenty eight hundred dollars now. Contribution can be made
Speaker 1: directly to Mike at Rogers for Senate dot Com, R O. G. E. R. S.
Speaker 1: Rogers for Senate dot Com. I want to begin by
Speaker 1: telling you that Mike Katie Pablick is an old friend
Speaker 1: of mine, old town Hall colleague. I've known Katie for
Speaker 1: a long time. She is now working with our friends
Speaker 1: over it in New Hiss Nation, and she's doing a
Speaker 1: great job ten o'clock Monday through Friday night. But Katie's
Speaker 1: a little less inhibited than I am. She's actually posted
Speaker 1: over on x what it is that hasan Piker has
Speaker 1: said what it is that he is quite proud to
Speaker 1: say again and again, things like America is nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: MAO was the greatest person to live in the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: Now killed one hundred million people. By the way, in
Speaker 1: case you didn't know that, In case you went to
Speaker 1: public school. He is anti black, he's anti woman, he's
Speaker 1: anti borders, he's anti police. And El Sayed is a
Speaker 1: SAN Piker, and a SAN piker is l Sayed. What
Speaker 1: I want you to understand is that the two of
Speaker 1: them campaigned together, as I've basically joined at the hit.
Speaker 1: They even had a pool party the night before the election.
Speaker 1: They were clicking their glasses because they had all these
Speaker 1: fake polls out there showing Laed beating Hailey Stevens by
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen points. A lot of people didn't even
Speaker 1: bother to show up and vote. He won by about
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand votes one percent of the vote, not ten,
Speaker 1: not fifteen percent. So I'm not really sure that tomorrow's
Speaker 1: election in Wisconsin is going to be the real deal.
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure that she's ahead by many points,
Speaker 1: as we've been told she's been. But let's go to
Speaker 1: the let's go to the tape. I'll say he made
Speaker 1: the rounds yesterday trying to normalize himself. He was on
Speaker 1: Kristen Welker Cut number eight.
Speaker 2: You know, you faced scrutiny for campaigning with socialist streamer
Speaker 2: Hassan Piker, who has made a series of inflammatory comments
Speaker 2: as you well know, including saying America deserved nine to
Speaker 2: eleven describing Hamas as a lesser evil than Israel. Do
Speaker 2: you plan to continue to campaign with Hassan Piker in
Speaker 2: the general election campaign?
Speaker 3: Look, I'm less concerned now with who I'm campaigning with,
Speaker 3: a lot more concerned about who I'm campaigning to. We've
Speaker 3: got a lot of work to do to continue to
Speaker 3: build the coalition that's going to be Mike Rogerson.
Speaker 2: Would you welcome him though on the campaign troop?
Speaker 3: Like I said, I'm a lot more focused on who
Speaker 3: I'm campaigning to. So I think we have this notion
Speaker 3: sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should
Speaker 3: not talk to certain groups of people. And I will
Speaker 3: tell you that the three million people who listen to
Speaker 3: Hassan are people I want to make sure understand that
Speaker 3: there's a pathway into our politics around getting money out
Speaker 3: of politics so we can keeput money back in pockets
Speaker 3: in past Medicare for all. And so I'm going to
Speaker 3: continue to have the conversations with those folks who we
Speaker 3: desperately need to reach out to, just like I'm going
Speaker 3: to continue to have conversations with seniors and senior homes
Speaker 3: folks up North, folks in Detroit, forks and Grand Rapids.
Speaker 3: So again, I'm a lot more focused on who I'm
Speaker 3: campaigning to rather than who I might campaign with.
Speaker 1: That's not an answer, because a son Piker is a
Speaker 1: malignancy in the country. He's an evil guy. He's deeply
Speaker 1: vile if you know anything about it. And I don't
Speaker 1: expect most of the people listening to me right now
Speaker 1: to have any idea who the son Piker is. But
Speaker 1: Twitch is a service that you can basically put yourself
Speaker 1: online twenty four to seven and you might draw a
Speaker 1: crowd of seventy five to one hundred thousand people at
Speaker 1: any given time. I'm talking to millions of people right now.
Speaker 1: So I've been doing this for thirty years, and my
Speaker 1: millions of people are normal people. Hassan Piker attracts both
Speaker 1: hate watchers and people who are nuts. Listen again to
Speaker 1: this answer, cut number eight.
Speaker 2: You know you faced scrutiny for campaigning with socialist streamer
Speaker 2: Hassan Piker, who has made a series of inflammatory comments,
Speaker 2: as you well know, including saying America deserved nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: describing Hamas as a lesser evil than Israel.
Speaker 4: Do you plan to.
Speaker 2: Continue to campaign with Hassan Piker in the general election campaign.
Speaker 3: Look, I'm less concerned now with who I'm campaigning with,
Speaker 3: a lot more concerned about who I'm campaigning to. We've
Speaker 3: got a lot of work to do to continue to
Speaker 3: build the coalition that's going to be Mike Rogers.
Speaker 2: Would you welcome him though on the campaign trip?
Speaker 3: Like I said, I'm a lot more focused on who
Speaker 3: I'm campaigning to so present.
Speaker 1: What Kristan ought to have done has said, pardon my language,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to use eth insta of the F word,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to quote a son Piker, and I
Speaker 1: want to know if you agree with this quote quote
Speaker 1: number one, quote number two, quote number three, quote number four.
Speaker 1: I would methodically go through everything this sociopath has said repeatedly,
Speaker 1: we want to open the borders so people from the
Speaker 1: South can come and rape your sisters and your brides
Speaker 1: and your daughters. That's a san Piker. He's crazy. He's
Speaker 1: an absolute malignant force and a narcissist. And he's got
Speaker 1: seventy five one hundred thousand people who are entertained by malignancy,
Speaker 1: like people who like to watch torture videos of cats
Speaker 1: being crushed. There's an actual Supreme Court case on that
Speaker 1: whether or not it's constitutionally protected to have crush videos.
Speaker 1: So asan piker is a walking, talking crush video, there's
Speaker 1: got constitutional protection. He's allowed to do whatever he wants
Speaker 1: to do and say whatever he wants to say. But
Speaker 1: when you're asked on meet the press, do you disavow
Speaker 1: this guy? He will not answer the question. In fact,
Speaker 1: he said it again. Cut number ten yesterday to Christian Walker.
Speaker 3: You know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with
Speaker 3: a dumb thing. Somebody said out of context that they
Speaker 3: just allowed themselves to say, Oh, well, what does that
Speaker 3: mean about what you think? I want to be held
Speaker 3: accountable for what I say and what I do, rather
Speaker 3: than this idea that we've were so stuck in cancel
Speaker 3: culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea
Speaker 3: back in twenty twenty, but we seem to want to
Speaker 3: bring back.
Speaker 1: That is not at all what's being asked. He's being
Speaker 1: asked specifically about an individual with whom he traffics on
Speaker 1: a daily basis, who he closed his campaign with for
Speaker 1: many days, who was at his victory party live streaming
Speaker 1: in a profane and vulgar way, saying the same sort
Speaker 1: of things that Hasan Piker always says. In fact, today,
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker asked to comment on Cea Weaver, who is
Speaker 1: director of New York City Mayor Zoron Mamdani's Office to
Speaker 1: Protect Tenants and has been since January one, twenty seven.
Speaker 1: She endorsed government seizure of private property, and she endorsed
Speaker 1: listeners impoverishing the white middle class. Hassan Piker responded by saying,
Speaker 1: beast mode, I love her. Critics highlighted Piker's own two
Speaker 1: point seven to four million dollar West Hollywood home, his
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars Porsche, and whether or not he
Speaker 1: ought to be applauding people who want to impoverish the
Speaker 1: white middle class. That's not something that's out of context.
Speaker 1: That's today, that's after yesterday's Meet the Press comment. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: he did get asked to a couple of softballs by
Speaker 1: Kristen Welker cut number nine.
Speaker 2: Just to be very clear, you're describing this tradeoff, you
Speaker 2: are effectively acknowledging that people making less than a million
Speaker 2: dollars could see their taxes go up. I just wouldn't
Speaker 2: be very clear.
Speaker 3: Is that a yes, I'm saying that we'd be paying
Speaker 3: for healthcare in a different way instead of paying a
Speaker 3: health insurance company who ceo makes twenty million dollars. I
Speaker 3: would much rather pay for durable health care into a government, which,
Speaker 3: of course we all know provides healthcare for seniors who
Speaker 3: need health care the most. So if I'm trading paying
Speaker 3: a CEO to make more money or paying a government
Speaker 3: to guarantee me health care, I'm picking the latter.
Speaker 5: Every time.
Speaker 1: He's stupid. That's just a stupid thing to say. That's
Speaker 1: that is just a stupid thing to say. It's not
Speaker 1: even single payer. It's not Medicare for all. It's stupid.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it's not responsive. But then he said this
Speaker 1: cut number eleven.
Speaker 2: Some Americans worry, though, you can only make Medicare free
Speaker 2: and universal if you increase taxes. So if you are
Speaker 2: elected and make this push, would you need to increase taxes?
Speaker 3: As I've said across this campaign, I am for taxing
Speaker 3: billionaires their wealth.
Speaker 2: What about people who make less for less than a
Speaker 2: million dollars though, doctor elsayd what about people making less
Speaker 2: than a million dollars?
Speaker 3: So for the average person, and you look at your
Speaker 3: W two. If you're an employee, he gets paid every
Speaker 3: two weeks or four weeks.
Speaker 5: After you pay your taxes.
Speaker 3: The next biggest check that comes off the top of
Speaker 3: your pay stub is to your health insurance company. So
Speaker 3: you imagine instead of paying that to your health insurance company,
Speaker 3: who CEO makes twenty million dollars a year. Instead you
Speaker 3: paid a little bit more in taxes for healthcare that
Speaker 3: you wouldn't lose if you lost your job or turn
Speaker 3: twenty six.
Speaker 1: So, yes, your taxes are going to go up a lot.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. It's not thought through. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have a plan, he doesn't have a platform. He's
Speaker 1: a complete imbecile, and he's around a radical Hassan biker
Speaker 1: that it makes him himself a radical. Go to rogersfirsenate
Speaker 1: dot com and contribute to Mike Rodgers the most important
Speaker 1: race in the United States in twenty twenty six. I'll
Speaker 1: be right back on the U Zealer check America. Senator
Speaker 1: Tom Cotton is from the Great State of Arkansas, the
Speaker 1: chair of the Republican Conference, making the third ranking Republican
Speaker 1: in the United States Senate. He is also the chair
Speaker 1: of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a member of the Armed
Speaker 1: Services Committee, Senator Cotton, I want to get to Iran,
Speaker 1: but can I first get your comments on the nomination
Speaker 1: by the Democrats of Abdul Rahman l Said to be
Speaker 1: a United States Senator. I just can't see it happening, heugh.
Speaker 6: It's just the latest example and evidence that socialists are
Speaker 6: the driving intellectual force and the political muscle and the
Speaker 6: Democratic Party. They're nominating these radicals not just in New
Speaker 6: York City but now in one of the key swing
Speaker 6: states in the Midwest. And abdulah say Ed is truly
Speaker 6: radical compared to most normal michigan ors, or our candons,
Speaker 6: or Americans, if you look at his deep hostility and
Speaker 6: tipathy towards Israel and Jews, if you consider his support
Speaker 6: for abolishing ice, opening the borders, go.
Speaker 1: On and on.
Speaker 6: But the thing is, that's not really that kind of
Speaker 6: the mainstream the Democratic Party anymore. That's kind of what
Speaker 6: most Democrats these days, I think, and certainly the way
Speaker 6: they vote in part because they're scared of the socialists
Speaker 6: who are running against them in primaries, are voting in
Speaker 6: these primaries. I suspect you're going to see it again tomorrow,
Speaker 6: Hugh in Wisconsin and in Minnesota in jubernatorial and in
Speaker 6: Senate primaries there, and it's a reminder of the stakes
Speaker 6: of this election. We cannot let these radical socialists take power,
Speaker 6: not just in some city that's far away that you
Speaker 6: may never want to travel to, but in our Congress
Speaker 6: to make laws that we all live under.
Speaker 1: Now, I've been trying to argue to the audience that
Speaker 1: Chevalier Valdez, Hamawi, Caros, they will be a problem for
Speaker 1: their districts, but they can't screw up the House completely
Speaker 1: without the complexity of their party. One senator can do
Speaker 1: a lot of damage, can't they.
Speaker 6: Well, there's no question that any one senator has a
Speaker 6: lot more influence than any one representative. And it's not
Speaker 6: just a function Hue, as you suggest, of being one
Speaker 6: of one hundred verses one and four and thirty five.
Speaker 6: The Senate is a deliberate institution in which each Senator
Speaker 6: has a lot more power from a structural standpoint than
Speaker 6: each individual representative because the House is a much more
Speaker 6: majoritarian institute. So there's there's no question that if l
Speaker 6: si Ed were to win, which I do not for
Speaker 6: a minute believe he will, that he would be a
Speaker 6: massive head a not just for Chuck Schumer and Senate
Speaker 6: Democrats before the Senate is an institution for this country.
Speaker 6: And unfortunately, he'd probably have a lot of allies as well.
Speaker 1: The good news is Mike Rodgers is the nominee. Mike Rodgers,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you campaigned for him two years ago.
Speaker 1: I guess you would against Elizie Slotkin, but she's kind
Speaker 1: of an army Democratic came down to less than one percent,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping that Michigan reconsidered. He's an army guy.
Speaker 1: He's an FBI guy. Fourteen years in the House, he
Speaker 1: was chair of the House Intel Committee. He's like abundantly
Speaker 1: qualified to join the Senate. Don't you think.
Speaker 6: No question to you that Mike Rodgers is assault of
Speaker 6: the earth guy. I campaigned with him a lot two
Speaker 6: years ago. I served with him the House of Representatives.
Speaker 6: As you say, he's a patriot who served our country
Speaker 6: in uniform, who served in the FBI, who led the
Speaker 6: House Intelligence Committee. He understands where, he understands what it
Speaker 6: takes to keep the country safe. He knows what it
Speaker 6: takes to get the economy moving, to help prices stabilize
Speaker 6: to help improve the quality of life for michigan urs
Speaker 6: and keep them safe as well.
Speaker 1: All right, no, sa if I can switch over to
Speaker 1: Iran with you. Many of our listeners, many of our
Speaker 1: viewers today don't really have a good idea of what's
Speaker 1: going on there. I think it's just the blockade and
Speaker 1: strangulation strategy. But I don't know how do you view it.
Speaker 6: Well, Hugh? At this stage, we haven't had a major
Speaker 6: exchange of fire now and I think nine or ten
Speaker 6: days the President said last week that there may be
Speaker 6: a deal underway. I frankly think there's never going to
Speaker 6: be a deal with these revolutionary fanatics. I wish we
Speaker 6: had simply finished the job back in early April, whether
Speaker 6: before starting this on again, off again series of cease fires.
Speaker 6: I don't think it's too late to finish the job.
Speaker 6: We need to destroy the remnants of their military, especially
Speaker 6: their military assets that are near the straight Up for
Speaker 6: Moves that can continue to threaten shipping through the Straight.
Speaker 5: Up for moves.
Speaker 6: If we did that, we'd be able to get more
Speaker 6: tankers out every single day. That would help get the
Speaker 6: price of gas and diesel under control for our cans
Speaker 6: ins and all Americans. It would also prevent Ron from
Speaker 6: using that point of leverage in the future, and then
Speaker 6: in the meantime, we can keep the blockade in place.
Speaker 6: Does hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to
Speaker 6: Iran every single day. We have left their military and shambles.
Speaker 6: We have destroyed their nuclear program. So I think it's
Speaker 6: better that we try to finish the job sooner rather
Speaker 6: than later. That's been my consistent view now for four months.
Speaker 6: And furthermore, we should acknowledage that revolutionary genetics are never
Speaker 6: going to make the kind of deal that we could accept.
Speaker 1: Now you're on the campaign trail, you're up for election
Speaker 1: this year. What do our Kansas say to you about
Speaker 1: the war? Because you get a lot of different points
Speaker 1: of view wherever you are in the country. I just
Speaker 1: wanted prosecuted to a successful conclusion, which means capitulation by
Speaker 1: the regime to the reality that they can't terrorize their neighbors.
Speaker 1: But what do our Kansons tell you on the trail?
Speaker 6: Hughes something very similar. I remember when the war first started,
Speaker 6: talking to a farmer who acknowledged that he was already
Speaker 6: paying a little bit more for diesel and a little
Speaker 6: bit more for gas, but also said, you know, I'm
Speaker 6: about your age, Senator. Orn's been terrorizing America for forty
Speaker 6: seven years, and it's fine time that we finally ended
Speaker 6: this threat once and for all. But I understand that
Speaker 6: the people who are paying a little bit more for
Speaker 6: gas or for diesel wish we had actually eliminated the
Speaker 6: threat entirely in March and in April as opposed to
Speaker 6: go into this series of positive That's why I think
Speaker 6: again the best course of action is to finish the
Speaker 6: job militarily, especially the threat that are on poses to
Speaker 6: the Strait, and then keep the embargo in place. That'll
Speaker 6: keep the price of gas and diesel and other products
Speaker 6: lower than there are right now. It'll also keep the
Speaker 6: vice on a run.
Speaker 1: Now, crude oil today is up to eighty two dollars
Speaker 1: and change up about five percent, which usually portends something's
Speaker 1: going to happen. But at the same time, every day
Speaker 1: and every week we talk the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the
Speaker 1: Gulf State, they're building pipelines, they're providing different means of
Speaker 1: getting oil to market. Is the straight declining of depreciating
Speaker 1: asset for the revolutionary regime as it stands, even if
Speaker 1: we don't do anything except the blockade.
Speaker 6: I think that's probably the case. You that's a medium
Speaker 6: term solution, not a near term solution. The near term
Speaker 6: solution is to finish the job and to prevent or
Speaker 6: On from continuing a threat in the Strait. That's what's
Speaker 6: going to get prices down for our cantons right now
Speaker 6: in the next few months. The near term solution, say,
Speaker 6: over the course of the president's final two and a
Speaker 6: half years in office, as you suggest, to build a
Speaker 6: new pipeline infrastructure that may basically makes the story to
Speaker 6: removes immateial for global oil supply. That'll keep prices down
Speaker 6: in the medium to long term. I've talked to Arab
Speaker 6: leaders whose countries would be building and hosting these pipelines.
Speaker 6: I talked to leaders of the oil industry who say
Speaker 6: the same things. These are not engineering challenges. They're frankly
Speaker 6: not even that expensive on the scale of what oil
Speaker 6: major major companies and Arab countries have to budget. You're
Speaker 6: talking about very minor expenses and expenses because they don't
Speaker 6: face the same kind of ridiculous obstacles and red tape
Speaker 6: to permitting for infrastructure that we have in America that
Speaker 6: could probably be brought online within again a couple of years.
Speaker 6: That's the way to diminish to runs leverage in the
Speaker 6: medium to long term. In the short term, it's to
Speaker 6: finish the job against them militarily.
Speaker 1: I agree, Center Tom Cotton. Always good to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Back to the campaign trail for you, and thank you
Speaker 1: for spending some time with me on this Monday. Don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere in commons. I'm joined by kind of a Midwesterner,
Speaker 1: Selena Zito calms to America. I know Pennsylvania is not
Speaker 1: really the Midwest, Selena, President Trump's famous favorite journalist, Selena, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know the Midwest pretty well for a Pennsylvania who
Speaker 1: comes over to our side of the line once in
Speaker 1: a while. What do you make of l Sied in
Speaker 1: Michigan and hung in Wisconsin. How do they fit in
Speaker 1: the Midwestern matrix, of which you are somewhat aware they
Speaker 1: do not?
Speaker 4: But I think is really interesting is if you remember
Speaker 4: in my book Butler, I laid out that what Democrats
Speaker 4: have been missing is that white working class and Hispanic
Speaker 4: working class and black working class all vote the same,
Speaker 4: and they don't vote far left. So what we saw
Speaker 4: in that in this midterm contest, in the Democratic primary,
Speaker 4: he did not win those voters. And it's very talent
Speaker 4: because going into a general, those Democrat working class voters
Speaker 4: are going to do one or two things. They're either
Speaker 4: going to sit on their hands and stay home, or
Speaker 4: they're going to vote Republican.
Speaker 1: So let's follow up on that. And Butler, you talked
Speaker 1: about the rally would have a lot of African Americans come,
Speaker 1: a lot of people, have all sorts of races come.
Speaker 1: And when we look at the cross stabs in Detroit,
Speaker 1: El Saya did not do what Democrats typically do in
Speaker 1: the inner suburbs or the inner wards of Detroit, blacks
Speaker 1: don't like him.
Speaker 7: Why is that, Oh, well, because you know, I think
Speaker 7: a lot of times people don't understand that black voters,
Speaker 7: in particular black working class voters are much more.
Speaker 4: Conservative than college educated blacks that live in places like
Speaker 4: New York or DC. It's very very different. Their experience
Speaker 4: are very different, and they're much more conservative, much more
Speaker 4: pro life, don't want government in their lives, and they
Speaker 4: don't want an overreaching government, right, which is what you
Speaker 4: have with socialism and communism, right, you do those freedoms
Speaker 4: that they work so hard to achieve from the Civil
Speaker 4: War all the way up to the Civil Rights Act
Speaker 4: are then stripped away under socialism and communism.
Speaker 1: So what do you make of Francesca hang Is on
Speaker 1: the ball tomorrow in Wisconsin not liking Thanksgiving? How's that
Speaker 1: going to fly with the folks in your area of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4: Well, it's not gonna fly. And it doesn't matter how
Speaker 4: many times she walks it back or pretend she didn't
Speaker 4: say it. It's out there. She said it, and as
Speaker 4: a matter of convenience, she's now saying, well, that's not
Speaker 4: actually what I really meant. You know, the voters are
Speaker 4: not stupid, but the assumption is that they are. You know,
Speaker 4: the challenge for Democrats right now are primaries because the
Speaker 4: furthest left shows up.
Speaker 8: Look.
Speaker 4: I have been reporting this in Pittsburgh since twenty seventeen,
Speaker 4: when Mick Pappas first won as a Democratic Socialist of
Speaker 4: America member for magistrate, followed quickly by Summerlee winning a
Speaker 4: state repsy. And it's been happening in Pittsburgh now for
Speaker 4: almost a decade. They've been very very strategic in how
Speaker 4: when they won run and where they run and they
Speaker 4: were very patient as well to pick off moderate Democrats
Speaker 4: in an election cycle, in a primary where far left
Speaker 4: tend to show up more than your average moderate Democrat.
Speaker 1: So, Selena, until this week, have you ever heard of
Speaker 1: a San Piker? Have you followed the rise of this
Speaker 1: very vile person?
Speaker 4: Now I tend to avoid people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, But now what do you think that
Speaker 1: can El Sayed shed him? I think they're joined at
Speaker 1: the hip. They were at a pool party the night
Speaker 1: before the election. They campaigned together for the last week.
Speaker 1: Piker live stream the election night party. There's the video
Speaker 1: of people are watching on the Salem news channel. Can
Speaker 1: El sai ed hide him? Now?
Speaker 5: No, he can't.
Speaker 4: This is the Internet age. You can't hide from anything
Speaker 4: that you did. It's not like when we were in
Speaker 4: high school and you would write something like Kilroy was
Speaker 4: here in the bathroom wall, right like those days are
Speaker 4: nobody knew who wrote it. Those days are gone. It's
Speaker 4: out there and you can you can't walk away from
Speaker 4: it now.
Speaker 1: Last thing I would ask is, I don't know that
Speaker 1: you've covered Arab Americans, very diverse community of Arab Americans.
Speaker 1: For example, the last United States Senator to serbu as
Speaker 1: an American Arab American to my knowledge, was from Michigan,
Speaker 1: and he was a Lebanese Arab American Spence Abrams. I
Speaker 1: think that the Arab American community is being type cast
Speaker 1: as radical and it's not.
Speaker 4: What do you think, well, I mean we also know
Speaker 4: an Arab American who was the governor of Indiana and
Speaker 4: the president of Purdue Andy Yinzer.
Speaker 1: Mitch Daniels. Right, Yes, I didn't know Mitch Daniels was
Speaker 1: Arab American.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was part of Yeah, absolutely, and and so
Speaker 4: you know, and and just like any other ethnic group,
Speaker 4: it's a very diverse group of people, and and so
Speaker 4: you know, I don't see it as a whole as
Speaker 4: a radical group. I you know, there's there's there's differences obviously,
Speaker 4: but you know, I just don't see it as as
Speaker 4: you can put it in one mold.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a column forthcoming on that on how
Speaker 1: the DSA is all the fault of Pittsburgh since it
Speaker 1: got started there. Selena Zeito, good to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Follow on exit Zito Selena read everything Selena writes at
Speaker 1: Selenazito dot com. I'll be right back to America, my friends,
Speaker 1: you've probably seen the headlines are worse. Your latest bill.
Speaker 1: Meg Wireless is raising rates again. That means you could
Speaker 1: be paying more for the same service or getting pushed
Speaker 1: into a price your plan you simply do not need.
Speaker 1: That's not right. You can switch to consumer sellutor right
Speaker 1: now and save an additional fifty dollars when you go
Speaker 1: to consumer Sellular dot com slash hue and use the
Speaker 1: promo code Hugh fifty. And if you happen to be
Speaker 1: over the age of fifty listening to this, you can
Speaker 1: get a single line with unlimited talk, text and data
Speaker 1: for just thirty five dollars a month. Remember their numbers
Speaker 1: eight hundred four to one one forty four to fifty four,
Speaker 1: eight hundred four one one forty four to fifty four,
Speaker 1: eight hundred four one one forty four to fifty four.
Speaker 1: Consumer Cellular ranks number one for network coverage and for
Speaker 1: customers satisfaction according to ACSI. And when you switch, you'll
Speaker 1: talk to an actual human being base right here in
Speaker 1: the United States. No long term contracts, no inden fees.
Speaker 1: You can keep your phone or choose a new one,
Speaker 1: get an additional fifty dollars off when you switch today.
Speaker 1: Using promo code Hugh fifty and do not forget. If
Speaker 1: you are over fifty, you get a single line, unlimited
Speaker 1: talk texting data for thirty five dollars a month. Visit
Speaker 1: Consumer Cellular dot com slash Hugh and use promo code
Speaker 1: Hugh fifty or call one eight hundred and four four
Speaker 1: fifty four and use promo code Hugh fifty.
Speaker 9: Half a century later, Watergate still shapes how Americans view power,
Speaker 9: scandal and trust. This weekend, the America two fifty film
Speaker 9: series presents Watergates, Secrets and Betrayals. Revisit the investigation through
Speaker 9: archival footage, interviews, and new arguments about what happened. Launch
Speaker 9: Saturday and Sunday at seven pm. There an on Salem
Speaker 9: News Channel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back America. Kyrgyzstan. You don't hear about Kyrgyzstan much,
Speaker 1: but it is August and it is important. So I've
Speaker 1: asked Philip Balboni to join me and talk about Kyrgyzstan.
Speaker 1: Philip is the founder and the editor in chief of
Speaker 1: Globalposts GlobalPost dot com. It is free, by the way,
Speaker 1: for all you high school students out there, teachers, homeschoolers.
Speaker 1: We'll get back to that In the end, Philip, I
Speaker 1: got this big, long article from you this morning on Kyrgyzstan,
Speaker 1: and I had to go to my globe and we
Speaker 1: got a map at Kyrgyzstan, which I think Harley can
Speaker 1: put up for our audience so they can understand it.
Speaker 1: What drew your attention to Kyrgyzstan. And that's the map
Speaker 1: from the Global Post, by the way, which has great
Speaker 1: maps every single day.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 8: You good to see you as always. So your viewers
Speaker 8: are looking at Central Asia. And so Central Asia is
Speaker 8: a really fascinating place that most Americans know little or
Speaker 8: nothing about. So it stretches from China in the in
Speaker 8: the east on the right side of this map all
Speaker 8: the way over to the Cascian seeing from Russia down
Speaker 8: to Iran and the Middle East and South Asia. So
Speaker 8: what we're focusing on today in Global Posts is Kyrgyzstan,
Speaker 8: but really it's all of Central Asia, these five countries.
Speaker 8: And so this area is where the historic trade routes
Speaker 8: were from China to Europe, you know, in you know,
Speaker 8: millennia ago and famous as the Silk Road, and these
Speaker 8: trade routes are still important here we are in the
Speaker 8: twenty first century, and so you know, the story is
Speaker 8: really about the rise of China and to some degree
Speaker 8: the decline of Russia in this area. So these five states,
Speaker 8: including Kyrguistan, were part of the old Soviet Union, and
Speaker 8: when the USSR as we used to call it, broke
Speaker 8: up in nineteen ninety, all of these states became independent republics.
Speaker 8: But Russia continued to be, of course, very important. But
Speaker 8: with China's rise as a global economic and military power,
Speaker 8: they have pushed deeply into Central Asia. So in Kyrguistan,
Speaker 8: they're creating large centers for the transshipment of goods and trade,
Speaker 8: and the people of Kyrgyzstan and other parts of Central
Speaker 8: Asia as well are starting to resist this and to resent,
Speaker 8: you know, the Chinese incursion.
Speaker 1: Let me say, for the benefit of the audio audience,
Speaker 1: fill the stands as they are colloquial called. There are
Speaker 1: five of them. There's Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and there's Bekistan.
Speaker 1: And they're usually just called the Stans because most Americans,
Speaker 1: just like me, don't know their geography very well unless
Speaker 1: we put that map up. I had no idea, by
Speaker 1: the way, until I looked at that map, how much
Speaker 1: bigger Kazakhstan is than the other five. But the one
Speaker 1: that's buttoned up against China, there's some Kazakhstan, but it's
Speaker 1: Kyrghyzstan is their first step in that Silk Road twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six.
Speaker 8: Correct, exactly exactly, And it's a good call on Kazakhstan. You,
Speaker 8: I mean, what an enormous country. I mean, you can
Speaker 8: see how it stretches the entire width of that whole
Speaker 8: Silk Road, and it is just an amazing country. But
Speaker 8: it carries out as much smaller. It's a very mountainous country.
Speaker 8: It's known as the Switzerland of Central Asia. It's ninety
Speaker 8: percent mountainous country, about eight million people, so not a
Speaker 8: very large country in terms of population, but.
Speaker 1: It's city eight point zero eight million, Yes, eight million people.
Speaker 1: That's not a lot, no.
Speaker 8: No, But this is a like so many other places
Speaker 8: that we see in the world, this is an important
Speaker 8: battleground for the rise of China. Russia of course above
Speaker 8: down in the war in Ukraine doesn't have the capabilities
Speaker 8: that it once did, so its influence is declining.
Speaker 5: It's by no means gone because remember these.
Speaker 8: Countries were part of the Old Sort Union for many,
Speaker 8: many decades, so Russian is widely spoken along with the
Speaker 8: local languages.
Speaker 1: So what is China aim to do here, Philip Balboni,
Speaker 1: Are they trying to basically take over southwestern Asia, to
Speaker 1: not annex, but have it as a certant, to actually
Speaker 1: have it as a vassal state.
Speaker 8: Well, you know about the Belton Road initiative, Hue, there's
Speaker 8: really extraordinary physical not a structure so much, but although
Speaker 8: there were our structures railroads and roads and ports that
Speaker 8: stretch from China all the way into Europe. In fact,
Speaker 8: even Italy was part of the Belton Road at one point.
Speaker 5: And this is China's kind of.
Speaker 8: Worldwide strategy for the movement of Chinese goods through all
Speaker 8: these countries. And Central Asia is a very important place
Speaker 8: because they can have you know, a land transhipment of
Speaker 8: goods and move things more quickly than having to go
Speaker 8: you know, by sea. And of course, now with the
Speaker 8: you know, straight at home news closed and all these
Speaker 8: terrible difficulties in Iran, alternatives are more important than ever.
Speaker 8: So this is kind of the grand vision of President
Speaker 8: Shy Jimping with the Beltian Road initiative, of which Central
Speaker 8: Asia is a critical piece now.
Speaker 1: Of course, in fact you brought up around I'm glad
Speaker 1: you did. I was going to say, I believe that
Speaker 1: the United States has bombed some rail links that run
Speaker 1: through the stands over to China as a means of
Speaker 1: disrupting the export of oil via land and rail, and
Speaker 1: so China obviously wants to re establish that. Why are
Speaker 1: the people of Kyrgyzstan objecting to this?
Speaker 8: They are starting to to I guess it's like maybe
Speaker 8: people anywhere when you have an external power, move in
Speaker 8: and start to throw their way around kind of basically
Speaker 8: a lot of money. I mean, China's trade with the
Speaker 8: five Central Asian countries now totals one hundred billion dollars.
Speaker 8: So it's an important source of investment capital into these countries,
Speaker 8: and the the governments of those countries want that investment.
Speaker 5: But the people are starting to feel.
Speaker 8: That this may not be in their best long term
Speaker 8: interest to have yet.
Speaker 1: In last question, are there governments corrupt? Are we generally
Speaker 1: talking about kleptocracies here.
Speaker 5: We're talking about autocracies.
Speaker 1: We have so much I want to make sure everyone
Speaker 1: finds out GlobalPost dot com very inexpensive. It's absolutely free
Speaker 1: to high school students, college students. Once a month Philip
Speaker 1: comes in and just throws up a map and educates
Speaker 1: me on something. Today. It's Kyrgyzstan, Philip. Let people know
Speaker 1: it's on the toolbar, right.
Speaker 8: It's well, it's not in the toolbar, so it's if
Speaker 8: you are a listener or a viewer of you Hewett,
Speaker 8: you can get a fifty percent discount on our annual subscription.
Speaker 8: So rather than paying forty six dollars, you'd only pay
Speaker 8: twenty three dollars. We published five days a week. It's,
Speaker 8: you know, quite a good deal. So just GlobalPost dot com,
Speaker 8: fold slash q h q he and that will immediately
Speaker 8: get you your fifty percent discount.
Speaker 1: But if you're a student, you get it for free.
Speaker 1: Go find that on the toolbar. Phillip Balboni, CEO, founder
Speaker 1: of GlobalPost dot Com. That's getting the world about the world.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. All is good to talk to
Speaker 1: you here in September. Don't go anywhere time.
Speaker 5: Keep you up.