Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hillsdale 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 Laura and even Grace America. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Big Weekend Pod. On Thursday, President Trump issued
Speaker 1: a memorandum rebuilding the United States Navy and America's shipbuilding
Speaker 1: industrial base pretty dance, and it's very important. Hasn't been
Speaker 1: covered much outside of navalist literature like the United States
Speaker 1: Naval Institute Press and things like that, but it ought
Speaker 1: to be covered everywhere and in depth because it has
Speaker 1: major changes to our carrier fleet. It's got major changes
Speaker 1: to where we buy our ships, and it's got a
Speaker 1: new model, the quote Finland model, which I approve of.
Speaker 1: And I'm very aware of what I don't know in
Speaker 1: this area, and I don't know whether the change order
Speaker 1: for the carriers is a good idea or a bad idea.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about it on today's program. As one
Speaker 1: of the issues for John ellis founder of News Items,
Speaker 1: which I read first thing every single morning. Also be
Speaker 1: talking with Eli Lake of The Free Press, Matt Conney,
Speaker 1: the Wall Street journel also over head of Domestic Studies
Speaker 1: at the American Enterprise Institute, Ben Dominich, shall be along,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to throw in some questions about the
Speaker 1: vacancy at the front of the White House press room
Speaker 1: and the people that are in front of that lectern
Speaker 1: as well, because I don't think it's me. I just
Speaker 1: think they're getting dumber, and every dumb reporter who takes
Speaker 1: up space and as stupid questions is doing a disservice
Speaker 1: to their platform and to the American people. So I
Speaker 1: think it's about time we have some barriers to entry
Speaker 1: to getting a press pass, so I'll be talking about that,
Speaker 1: and of course we're getting close to football. There's gotta
Speaker 1: be a little football today too, because it can't be
Speaker 1: all vegetables. We need some dessert. A little football today
Speaker 1: on the agenda as well. Don't go anywhere, Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: A great big weekend pod is at the h Hewitt Show,
Speaker 1: and I regular weekend starting lineup is with us coming up.
Speaker 1: Eli Lake in the Free Press, Matt Continetti, of the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal and Ben Dominich of the Daily Wire.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of head and we begin as
Speaker 1: we always do him. We're lucky with John Ellis, founder
Speaker 1: and editor in chief of News Items, my Morning Read
Speaker 1: six days a week and Political Items fills in a
Speaker 1: couple of times. If you're not a subscriber to News Items,
Speaker 1: you ought to be. Look up Elis and News Items
Speaker 1: and you'll find it. John, you sent me word that's
Speaker 1: got best announced yesterday we are going to really turn
Speaker 1: the screws on Iran next week. On the banking side.
Speaker 1: What can we do that we haven't done? And what
Speaker 1: did he promise that we would do?
Speaker 2: Well, it's unclear because he didn't want to reveal what
Speaker 2: exactly you know, he was going to execute that would
Speaker 2: bring more strangulation than already exists. But one assumes that
Speaker 2: it just you know, it makes it much more to
Speaker 2: difficult for a Ran to conduct any kind of international business,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, obviously the blockade would continue as well.
Speaker 2: I think it's a funny thing because I think, you know,
Speaker 2: it's been a lot of a lot of difficulty in
Speaker 2: getting to where we are now, but where we are
Speaker 2: now is actually not a bad place. We set, you know,
Speaker 2: percent as articulated a policy of economic strangulation. The blockade
Speaker 2: is in place. The Uranians have two points of leverage.
Speaker 2: One is control of the strait. The other is what
Speaker 2: they believe. You know, they believe the calendar works to
Speaker 2: their advantage. But if President Trump is willing to forget
Speaker 2: the calendar, then you know, day by day economic strangulation
Speaker 2: gets worse and worse and worse. And you know, the
Speaker 2: Iranian economy is a disaster as it is, and if
Speaker 2: it gets worse and worse and worse, then they are
Speaker 2: the ones that are going to have to come to
Speaker 2: the table. So through all these twists and turns, I
Speaker 2: think we're actually in a fairly good place as long
Speaker 2: as President Trump is willing.
Speaker 3: To be patient.
Speaker 1: I saw Richard Goldberg at the Foundation for Defensive Democracies
Speaker 1: and a veteran of the Treasure Department Sanctioned Division, making
Speaker 1: this argument Bill Hammer this morning that in fact, we're
Speaker 1: doing quite well visa b Iran. But I got two questions,
Speaker 1: and maybe you can remember the answer to Warner book,
Speaker 1: there is a banking system which we shut North Korea
Speaker 1: off from once and wrecked havoc even on the Hermit Kingdom.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what he's plotting. Do you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about? Does that ring a bell? Yeah?
Speaker 3: It's the Swift It's the Swift system.
Speaker 2: I mean it's basically international transactions are shut they're shut
Speaker 2: out of the whole financial infrastructure that enables you know,
Speaker 2: somebody from Moran to buy treasuries that were to execute
Speaker 2: a trade with I don't know, you know, pick your country.
Speaker 2: So that's that system is there. And then there's obviously
Speaker 2: the US has a lot of allies, they have a
Speaker 2: lot of leverage with a lot of countries. We can
Speaker 2: say to them, look, you can't you can't do any
Speaker 2: business at all with Iran. Obviously Iran can do business
Speaker 2: with Russia, it can do business, you know, with China.
Speaker 2: But even there, you know, with President Trump getting ready
Speaker 2: to meet with President G, a favor that G can
Speaker 2: do for him without you know, without you know, breaking
Speaker 2: a sweat is shutting down economic support for Ran. So
Speaker 2: I think that's what pissonna is talking about is just
Speaker 2: every you know, piece of pipe and the plumbing that
Speaker 2: can be shut off, the US will shut off. And
Speaker 2: because the Iranian economy, I mean, the currency is wallpaper, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just unbelievable. The inflation is insane, and
Speaker 2: you know, the notion that they can survive this, you
Speaker 2: know forever, that the population is infinitely patient with the
Speaker 2: leadership that it doesn't like seems to me.
Speaker 3: Not accurate.
Speaker 1: Well, the second question I had, I was trying to remember,
Speaker 1: and this goes back to my college days. So that's
Speaker 1: a long time ago. South Africa eventually capitulated and they
Speaker 1: were ringed with sanctions of all sorts, and they eventually
Speaker 1: brought Mandela out freedom and they turned over their nukes
Speaker 1: and they just capitulated. I can't remember how long that took,
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 3: I think it was like twenty years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it switched, you know, it smitched with administrations with
Speaker 2: President Rake, Presidents Reagan and Bush. It came to pass
Speaker 2: and President Bush senior was an important part of that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, take these things take a long time. In
Speaker 2: this case, however, the Iranian economy is a disaster. And
Speaker 2: if it gets you know, if it gets strangled more
Speaker 2: it you know, things that can't be sustained don't aren't sustained.
Speaker 1: If you can't. So I feel in people's cars they
Speaker 1: notice second issue about the Strait oil spills in the
Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that, Well, there's a guy named Javier Blass.
Speaker 2: He writes a column, probably the best column columnists at Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: And you know, the question has been, why is the
Speaker 2: price of oil the commodity itself, uh not, you know,
Speaker 2: risen dramatically?
Speaker 3: Why isn't it doubled? Why isn't it tripled?
Speaker 2: And he's pointed out, and I think this is accurate
Speaker 2: that more obviously, China demand has has dropped significantly, so
Speaker 2: that's probably the biggest reason that the price of oil
Speaker 2: has not gone up as much as everybody thought it would.
Speaker 2: But the second thing that he's arguing now is that
Speaker 2: more tankers are getting through the straits than the reporting
Speaker 2: on it. That it's not six or twenty or thirty three,
Speaker 2: it's probably one third. And he bases that on the
Speaker 2: fact that there are oil spills all over the strait,
Speaker 2: which indicates that the Iranians are hitting some, but the
Speaker 2: fact that they're hitting some is an indication and that
Speaker 2: a lot more are getting through.
Speaker 3: It's a very good column. People can find it at Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: All Right. A third story and I found this both
Speaker 1: alarming and also somewhat inspiring. The United States Army faced
Speaker 1: off in a war game with Ukrainian drone operators and
Speaker 1: lost decisively at Fort Hood or not fort Hood in Germany.
Speaker 1: So tell me about that, because the lesson I drop
Speaker 1: from that is every superpower ought to take a big,
Speaker 1: deep breath before they engage in conflict.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Yeah, I mean, you know the
Speaker 2: classic wargame US Army which the troops came from Fort Hood,
Speaker 2: they were up against drone operators from Ukraine, and in
Speaker 2: the war you know, in the wargame, the Ukrainians won.
Speaker 2: This fits into the LS theory of the Pentagon, which
Speaker 2: is we should buy essentially the Iranian Defense Department or
Speaker 2: take a forty nine percent stake in it, and begin
Speaker 2: the process of building Pentagon two point zero, which would be,
Speaker 2: you know, we would follow the example of the Ukrainians
Speaker 2: or in fact by the Ukrainian drones capability, but also
Speaker 2: bring in all these new technologies that are going to
Speaker 2: be the ones that we fight future wars. In the
Speaker 2: current Pentagon is you know, it's tangled up. It's a
Speaker 2: congressional military is you know, corporate maze it's very difficult
Speaker 2: for it too. It's very difficult to turn the battleship around,
Speaker 2: so to speak. But if we if we just set
Speaker 2: aside and say, Okay, this is Pentagon two point zero
Speaker 2: and we're gonna, you know, build out all of the
Speaker 2: tools necessary to fight warfare in the future, that would be,
Speaker 2: in my view, a good idea.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk with Matt Connelly about the memo
Speaker 1: the President put out yesterday about shipbuilding, because that's right
Speaker 1: down that alley. But before we get to that, in
Speaker 1: our last moment, I talked to State Center Betton Court
Speaker 1: from Texas two weeks ago. Tom Me, Texas already has
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty data centers AI centers, and one
Speaker 1: of them in one county more than double their revenue
Speaker 1: in property Texas. Uh so, yeah, they may have some
Speaker 1: negative externality, but they bring in a lot of revenue.
Speaker 1: How loud are they?
Speaker 2: John, Well, there's a I did a podcast with a
Speaker 2: guy named Alan to Upson, who sort of is the
Speaker 2: guy who measures the march to artificial superintelligence, and everybody
Speaker 2: in the business and the AI business reads his memo
Speaker 2: and he had a little sidebar, which was that the
Speaker 2: data center. If you have X number of racks of
Speaker 2: Navidia machinery, the decibel level is one oh one, which
Speaker 2: is essentially the same as standing next to a helicopter,
Speaker 2: and that if you lose and if you use evermore right,
Speaker 2: if you use a larger group of racks of Navidia equipment,
Speaker 2: the decibel level goes to one hundred and thirteen. One
Speaker 2: of the big complaints that people have who live near
Speaker 2: data centers is noise, because they don't It's not like
Speaker 2: they run from nine to five, they run twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven.
Speaker 1: That is bad. That's why I do live under a
Speaker 1: flight path in the Beltway, and that's not pleasant. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine lesaring next to one hundred and ten decibels.
Speaker 1: John Ellis from news Items, Thank you. If you want
Speaker 1: to subscribe to news items, be smarter than the average
Speaker 1: fair and most of the Beltleigh every morning by seven am,
Speaker 1: go to news Items on substack or Google news items
Speaker 1: and John Ellen's subscribe and you will be taking care
Speaker 1: of John. Thank you so much of me. Right back
Speaker 1: with Eli Lank of the Free Press, stay tuned to
Speaker 1: the QQ at show Bernard or and I mean Grace
Speaker 1: America again. Eli Lake is back with us. He is
Speaker 1: with the Free Press. He's as the host of the
Speaker 1: Getting of the Breaking History podcast we ought to be
Speaker 1: Getting History ELI. Earlier today, I posted on x a
Speaker 1: list of books that I think anyone who gets a
Speaker 1: White House press pass ought to have read, because I
Speaker 1: think the questions being asked of the press Secretary of
Speaker 1: the President are going down the drain and levels of
Speaker 1: acuity and literacy. Do you agree with me? And number two?
Speaker 1: If so, what books would you think someone would have
Speaker 1: to read?
Speaker 4: It's a great question, Hugh, I generally agree that. I mean,
Speaker 4: my view is that the briefings are like kind of
Speaker 4: a spectacle anyway I understand, but it feels more like
Speaker 4: a pageant, less like a news kind of breaking thing.
Speaker 4: I think that I wouldn't mind if they basically called
Speaker 4: it off and they only had these kind of press
Speaker 4: conferences when there was a national emergency or they had
Speaker 4: to roll out of policy. Books that I think that
Speaker 4: political reporters should read. I'm going to give you some
Speaker 4: one just off the top of my head. It's a
Speaker 4: good question. Have you ever heard of the book Plunket
Speaker 4: of Tammany Hall, which exploded politics? That's a good one
Speaker 4: for any kind of political reporter to understand it.
Speaker 1: Another one.
Speaker 4: And I'm just thinking now in terms of political books
Speaker 4: that I really like What It Takes.
Speaker 1: Book of the Decade Century YEP of.
Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty eight. That is the best book I've ever
Speaker 4: read about what it means to run in a presidential campaign.
Speaker 4: The level of detail is just a masterful. I think
Speaker 4: you should read that. Then I would say I'm going
Speaker 4: to do two by one author, or two series of
Speaker 4: books really one author, and it's you know, read Robert
Speaker 4: Carrow on the Lynnon Johnson biographies, because you're not you're
Speaker 4: getting more than the Lyndon Johnson and that you're getting
Speaker 4: a history of the Senate, You're getting a history of
Speaker 4: Texas politics. And then read his book on Robert Moses
Speaker 4: to understand how local power, particularly New York works. So
Speaker 4: those are some Those are some good ones. I'm sure
Speaker 4: I'm missing stuff right now.
Speaker 1: An good one I went in the direction that you
Speaker 1: should be literate in Western civilization before you Oh yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: And so I listed the Lonely Tower because that's the
Speaker 1: enemy of the West. Yes, Israeli by Lord Blake Napoleon
Speaker 1: and Salisbury by Andrew Roberts I listed to provide and
Speaker 1: maintained by Henry Hendrick since he's in charge of shipbuilding
Speaker 1: over at omb, but to rule the ways by Arthur
Speaker 1: Herman Jews versus Rome, Barry Strauss American Caesar. But stuff
Speaker 1: like that, I just don't think they know much. I
Speaker 1: listened to Hassan Piker. This all got started because of
Speaker 1: two things, Hassan Piker rising up to my level of
Speaker 1: consciousness and Carol Lovett leaving. And I'm beginning to what
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker just doesn't know anything. I think he's just
Speaker 1: flat out stupid.
Speaker 4: You're putting him on the spot, But I mean, he
Speaker 4: has a gift for shocking people, I suppose, transgressive and
Speaker 4: babbling for hours on end on his twitch stream, but
Speaker 4: there's no wisdom there. He's a poser when it comes
Speaker 4: to dealing.
Speaker 1: When he's I think he's trying.
Speaker 4: He's like a shock jock, so he's trying. He knows
Speaker 4: that he knows that there are lots of people who
Speaker 4: understand the evils of Mause Tongue or Joseph Stalin and
Speaker 4: what he and he's gonna say he likes them or
Speaker 4: that they were there were and you know, listen, there
Speaker 4: are professors, there are people who are experts and historians
Speaker 4: who can make arguments that I would disagree with about
Speaker 4: how bad things were before now, and you know, the
Speaker 4: conditions that led to the revolution. But he's not doing that.
Speaker 4: He's skipping all over that. He's what he's trying to
Speaker 4: do is just provoke a reaction but also kind of
Speaker 4: reveal a preference for what I've called the anti American
Speaker 4: or anti patriotic I mean that is the anti patriotic left.
Speaker 4: They've been going strong cute now for some time, for
Speaker 4: about half a century. It's this view that America is
Speaker 4: irredeemably evil, and so therefore you are no longer if
Speaker 4: you're progressive trying to perfect the union, but you're you know,
Speaker 4: you're trying to tear it apart. So and that is
Speaker 4: where I would put intellectuals that are much more serious
Speaker 4: than Piker, like a Howard Zinn. I would put him
Speaker 4: in that category nom Chromsky to a certain extent. But
Speaker 4: those of you know this is like, you know, he's
Speaker 4: standing on this. He's a midget standing on the shoulders
Speaker 4: of those anti American giants.
Speaker 1: Short short historian, Eli, you do breaking history, I would
Speaker 1: like to know what broke in Columbia, which once had
Speaker 1: the most revered Western civilization undergraduate education in the country,
Speaker 1: and now I don't know if they read anything. I
Speaker 1: had to read stuff that I didn't want to read.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I've got Believer by David Axelrod
Speaker 1: on my list and the Right by Matt Continetti. I
Speaker 1: don't want people to be blind to one side or
Speaker 1: the other. But David Axelrod is a very smart guy,
Speaker 1: and there are very smart people on the left. I
Speaker 1: just wonder did they teach the West at all anymore
Speaker 1: in the university system.
Speaker 4: Well, this is a good question for your next guest,
Speaker 4: Matthew Counnon, who's a graduate of Columbia. But I can
Speaker 4: tell you in my own kind of research. I did
Speaker 4: an episode about this a little over a year ago.
Speaker 4: I think that you know the introduction of Edward Said,
Speaker 4: and you know the fact that he was so revered
Speaker 4: and you know, emulated throughout the academy, but he was
Speaker 4: based at Columbia. That to me is kind of the
Speaker 4: beginning of the end, because one of his conceits is
Speaker 4: that if you are a scholar, if you're a historian,
Speaker 4: or if you are an analyst. If you're in the
Speaker 4: academic disciplines, you have to have to be an activist
Speaker 4: for justice and for the you know, for him it
Speaker 4: was the Palaesidian cause. But it really does. It requires
Speaker 4: people to in the to sort of take a stand
Speaker 4: and to try to make the world a better place.
Speaker 4: And in the process, I think what it does is
Speaker 4: it blinds them to the alternative view, and that is
Speaker 4: an anti intellectual position, and that is I think what
Speaker 4: gets Columbia into so much trouble to now where you know,
Speaker 4: I agree with you that it looks like most of
Speaker 4: the most important kind of treasures of Western civilization are
Speaker 4: not are no longer kind of mandatory. They've been replaced
Speaker 4: with a lot of gobblygooks, Like everybody seems to have
Speaker 4: read bell Hooks and no one seems to have read Tacitus.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even asking for great books in Hillsdale.
Speaker 1: I'm just asking for a basic outline of Western civilization.
Speaker 1: I begin every con law class with the Greeks, the Jews,
Speaker 1: the Romans, the Brits, and the Americans. That's how we
Speaker 1: ended up in the law school classroom in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: seven or whatever year, I'm going back in the in
Speaker 1: the spring of this next year and I begin same
Speaker 1: way for thirty years, the Jews, the Great the Romans,
Speaker 1: the Brits, and the American Eli. Did you have a chance,
Speaker 1: and we may go in the break on this if
Speaker 1: you meany more time to read the President's memorandum on
Speaker 1: shipbuilding he issued yesterday.
Speaker 4: I have not yet had a chance to read it.
Speaker 4: I know that it's a very important thing. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm hoping it's it's what I hear it is, but no,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, we'll come back around to it next week.
Speaker 1: What is the next breaking history going to be?
Speaker 4: I am working on a big are kind of a
Speaker 4: series that is going to be coming on the fall
Speaker 4: on the narrative side right now, and it is going
Speaker 4: to be looking at sort of the order that Trump destroyed,
Speaker 4: a look at the Bush dynasty, a second look if
Speaker 4: you will, at the Bush dynasty, which I have to
Speaker 4: say has been a real joy kind of reading about
Speaker 4: what an extraordinary family and their ability to kind of,
Speaker 4: you know, produce really if you think about it, three
Speaker 4: generations of national leaders, starting with Prescott, that I think
Speaker 4: had a sense of civic duty and Republican virtue that's
Speaker 4: very much missing today, not just in the Republican Party
Speaker 4: but our politics overall.
Speaker 1: That I look forward to that will be very well received.
Speaker 1: And I think if Baxrod's theory on electing personalities that
Speaker 1: differ Bush hw personality would be very much welcome post Trump,
Speaker 1: not partisans, just in terms of gravitas, experience in the
Speaker 1: public sector, public sector, public minument you, I thank you,
Speaker 1: I'm you right back to America with Matt Contenetti. Stay tuned,
Speaker 1: walking back on to Hewett. Matt Contnetti is a charge
Speaker 1: of Domestic policy over at the American Enterprise Institute. He's
Speaker 1: also the Wall Street Journal Free Expressions columnist and Matt Connetti,
Speaker 1: I hope you have thrown yourself into shipbuilding in the
Speaker 1: President's memorandum of yesterday. Am I lucky there? Have you
Speaker 1: read it yesterday? Yet?
Speaker 5: I dove in, Hugh. As soon as I heard that
Speaker 5: this was of interest to you, I dove in. I
Speaker 5: started studying the US Code, and I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's start with the President's section one
Speaker 1: his purpose, which is the United States Navy has been
Speaker 1: screwing up for decades. Agree or disagree.
Speaker 6: Agree.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think this also speaks to a
Speaker 5: broader program with the prime defense contractors. I know that
Speaker 5: the Department of War Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is
Speaker 5: incredibly frustrated with the major weapons manufacturers that we depend on.
Speaker 5: They're not producing what we need at the speed with
Speaker 5: which we need it. And that's clearly the case with
Speaker 5: the shipbuilders as well.
Speaker 1: All Right, So that takes us section two, and this
Speaker 1: is the one about which I am an agnostic. Restoring
Speaker 1: steam and hydraulic systems to carriers. Now the Ford has
Speaker 1: a magnet to catapult our fighter planes into the sky.
Speaker 1: Everything before the Ford used catapults, and the President's memorandum says,
Speaker 1: go back to catapults. Got brief last night by people
Speaker 1: who know this stuff, and I said, look, the problem
Speaker 1: is the Ford took twelve years to build. Nimtz takes
Speaker 1: four years to build, and we can't We're going to
Speaker 1: be down to six or seven carriers when it's mandated
Speaker 1: by law to have twelve at this rate. What do
Speaker 1: you think of a go back to get faster mode.
Speaker 5: Well, I know that it's a priority for President Trump, Hugh.
Speaker 5: This is something that he raised repeatedly during his first
Speaker 5: term in office, and now it seems that he's using
Speaker 5: the executive order to actually get some results. My operating
Speaker 5: philosophy is, if it was good enough for top Gun,
Speaker 5: then it's good enough for our carriers. But whatever makes
Speaker 5: the most sense in getting these ships operational and you know,
Speaker 5: on on station as quickly as possible, that's what I
Speaker 5: would pursue.
Speaker 1: So the big debate is our carriers, the battleships of
Speaker 1: this century. In other words, Pearl Harbor came along and
Speaker 1: we realized, oh, those big battleships are nice, but you
Speaker 1: can't really use them except for bombardment the Nazi fortifications
Speaker 1: or the islands. The Marines are taking the Pacific. It's
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers that have we gone a generation forward. And
Speaker 1: I'm a civilian. I don't know. You're a civilian, You
Speaker 1: probably don't know. But do you get the sense that
Speaker 1: maybe aircraft carriers are going away of the battleship.
Speaker 5: It's a definite possibility when you consider that we're in
Speaker 5: this new age of missile and drone warfare, and we
Speaker 5: know that our carriers in the Persian Gulf have to
Speaker 5: be at a certain remove in order to prevent them
Speaker 5: from coming under attack by Iranian missiles. And so I
Speaker 5: think we need to think new about all of our
Speaker 5: weapons platforms. And I do believe this has been a
Speaker 5: priority of the President and of Pete Hegseth, is to
Speaker 5: get the new platforms for this new age, that is
Speaker 5: the autonomous platforms, that is the missiles, the interceptors, the
Speaker 5: undersea submersible, autonomous on surface, autonomous weapons like we saw
Speaker 5: with the rescue of our down pilots last month or
Speaker 5: so in the Persian Gulf. We need to get those
Speaker 5: on ready and ready to fight, ready to go in
Speaker 5: theater as soon as we can.
Speaker 1: So Part three, and we'll take this into the break
Speaker 1: and come back and talk about something else. We're going
Speaker 1: to go with the Finland model which we use for icebreakers,
Speaker 1: which is they build a lot them in Finland. We're
Speaker 1: going to buy two off the Finish assembly line, provided
Speaker 1: that that shipbuilder produces a shipyard in the United States
Speaker 1: that builds the same ship here using Americans. We're going
Speaker 1: to open that up to the South Koreans and the
Speaker 1: Japanese for other ship lines like frigates, maybe destroyers, I
Speaker 1: doubt destroyers, but frigates and maybe some other support ships.
Speaker 1: What do you think of the Finland model?
Speaker 5: Oh, this's a great idea. I think it's absolutely overdue.
Speaker 5: My friends who study this subject for a living have
Speaker 5: been talking about partnerships along the Finland model for for
Speaker 5: a long time now. I think Korea and Japan in
Speaker 5: particular can help us. There are allies. That's the way
Speaker 5: that we should be using our alliances as one of
Speaker 5: our many superpowers. So I'm in a firm firm support
Speaker 5: with this part of the executive order.
Speaker 1: And then the last part is a fifth public Navy shipyard.
Speaker 1: Whoever gets this, and this is a throw a dart
Speaker 1: will be an enormous benefit to the state wherein it
Speaker 1: is located. If you had to guess where it's going,
Speaker 1: where do you think it's going to go?
Speaker 6: Matt Contnetty, I don't know.
Speaker 5: Somewhere near the Gulf of America is what I would say.
Speaker 5: That's what I was on one of the states, one
Speaker 5: of the states bordering the Gulf of America. But you know,
Speaker 5: Q this I think it's absolutely crucial as well. But
Speaker 5: it does introduce Congress, and when I look at this
Speaker 5: executive order, I support it, but I need Congress to
Speaker 5: pass that defense budget to appropriate these resources, and I
Speaker 5: have to say I've been slightly disappointed in Congress this summer.
Speaker 5: They haven't moved with the speed they need to resupply
Speaker 5: our armed forces in a time of low intensity conflict.
Speaker 3: Would be wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk with Matt Connenny about that very
Speaker 1: subject during the break and be back on the other side.
Speaker 1: We talk about the next White House Press Secretary and
Speaker 1: the people who want to be allowed into the press
Speaker 1: from stay tuned. I'm going to do it, so I'm
Speaker 1: back with Matt Connenny. Matt, the President requested a trillion
Speaker 1: and a half dollars. I'm all for it, a huge
Speaker 1: amount of spending Golden Fleet, Golden Dome, and other long
Speaker 1: neglected parts of the defense supply chain. The Republicans did
Speaker 1: not use reconciliation three Senator Collins to Charity Appropriations Committee
Speaker 1: wanted to go through appropriation. Democrats said no. They passed
Speaker 1: a sear to December. Do you think if it's a
Speaker 1: lame duck session they can do a reconciliation three point
Speaker 1: zero in the lame duck? No.
Speaker 5: I think it becomes much harder hu in the lame duck.
Speaker 5: I really do, because you don't. The Republicans may be demoralized.
Speaker 5: Democrats may be in a position to say, look, we
Speaker 5: don't want to do anything until we take over the
Speaker 5: House or even the Senate. I think the time for
Speaker 5: reconciliation is overdue, and I'm with Senator Kennedy on this.
Speaker 5: I think that we need to move to another reconciliation bill,
Speaker 5: not only on the economic priorities, but on defense, because
Speaker 5: it's an emergency. When you read these headlines about the munitions, Look,
Speaker 5: I don't know the reality. I don't think anyone who
Speaker 5: doesn't have a top secret clearance knows the reality about
Speaker 5: our munition stockpiles.
Speaker 6: But we need more.
Speaker 5: We need more, whatever the level is, we need more,
Speaker 5: and we need it now.
Speaker 1: Do you read news items in the morning by John
Speaker 1: Ellis Because he had a news item this week that
Speaker 1: we had a wargame in Germany between the United States
Speaker 1: Army and the Ukrainian Army and we got smoked. The
Speaker 1: Ukrainian smoked us because they sniffed out all of our tanks.
Speaker 1: That's very alarming. We can fix that, but it's very alarming.
Speaker 5: It's an incredibly important story. I believe leave Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 5: my paper broke it. John Alis publicized it in his
Speaker 5: excellent newsletter. But it shows you this new reality. We've
Speaker 5: confronted this new reality with Iran, where the short range
Speaker 5: missiles can really constrain the behavior of the American armed forces,
Speaker 5: the greatest military in the world. It certainly constrain our
Speaker 5: political leadership. And we see it in Ukraine every day
Speaker 5: where the Ukrainian drone efforts, their drone warfare has pinned
Speaker 5: the Russian advanced to a standstill, kills tens of thousands
Speaker 5: of Russians a month. And then also now the long
Speaker 5: range drones are wrecking economic havoc on Russia. That is
Speaker 5: the new reality, and we need to change our thinking,
Speaker 5: and we need to change the way in which we
Speaker 5: supply and build our armed forces in a response. Otherwise,
Speaker 5: I think we're going to be caught off guard, just
Speaker 5: as we seem to have been in that exercise the
Speaker 5: Journal reported on, and.
Speaker 1: The Black Sea is now could be denied completely. We
Speaker 1: actually asked the Ukrainians to stop bombarding Russian cargo because
Speaker 1: it was driving up the cost of oil nation worldwide.
Speaker 1: Do you think we've absorbed the vulnerability at every littoral
Speaker 1: area and indeed far out to sea. Do you think
Speaker 1: that's been internalized.
Speaker 5: No, I don't think it's been internalized human And you know,
Speaker 5: it's funny, I was thinking about it this just the
Speaker 5: other day, is that I've been reading about the you know,
Speaker 5: the weapons build up, the missile build up, this new
Speaker 5: strategy of anti access area denial for years, and then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden it becomes a reality. It's a
Speaker 5: reality in Ukraine, it's a reality in the Black Sea,
Speaker 5: It's a reality in the Persian Gulf and Iran. It
Speaker 5: could well be a reality in Taiwan. And so we
Speaker 5: need to be able to have a proactive posture here.
Speaker 5: And like I've been said saying, I think that secretary.
Speaker 1: On the network will come right back, brought them back America.
Speaker 1: You are talking, is Matt Totten Many about what is
Speaker 1: really a Tom Clancy novel. The world has changed so
Speaker 1: rapidly when it comes to warfare that that Matt and
Speaker 1: I both agree that the United States public, I think
Speaker 1: the military studying it, but I don't think we're equipped
Speaker 1: for it. I think actually all of war has changed
Speaker 1: in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, And you know we kind of saw it. I
Speaker 5: think even before Ukraine We kind of saw it in
Speaker 5: the war against Israel in the sense that for many
Speaker 5: years Israeli's had to live under the daily threat of
Speaker 5: Hummas rockets, the short range rockets, and then of course
Speaker 5: that led to Iron Dome and all now that the
Speaker 5: even more sophisticated Israeli technologies to knock out missiles and
Speaker 5: to intercept drones before they hit the target. And then
Speaker 5: we see it in Ukraine where the Ukrainian innovation on
Speaker 5: drones has changed not just the Ukraine Russia war, but
Speaker 5: war in general, and like I've been seeing it in
Speaker 5: Iran as well, where it seems as though this new
Speaker 5: reality of missiles and drones you gives an edge to
Speaker 5: the defense because they are able to pin down maneuver,
Speaker 5: They're able to deny their enemy the maneuver capability. And
Speaker 5: this is something that we really need to reckon with.
Speaker 5: I know, smart people are thinking about it all the time,
Speaker 5: but they also now have to add in the additional
Speaker 5: dimensions of artificial intelligence and robotics. And when you put
Speaker 5: those three things together, robots, AI, drones and missiles, I mean,
Speaker 5: we're talking science fiction stuff here, but yet it's coming,
Speaker 5: and part of.
Speaker 1: It's already here. Goodness, the China people have to do
Speaker 1: the same thing. They built a new navy, they built
Speaker 1: a bluewater navy, but all of a sudden they've got
Speaker 1: a new reality to deal with as well, provided we
Speaker 1: make them realize aggression.
Speaker 5: Well, I think that that's exactly it. We need to
Speaker 5: make this new reality work for us. And you can
Speaker 5: see how the Ukrainians have done it. You can see
Speaker 5: how Israel has used it defensively. America needs to think,
Speaker 5: how are we going to be able to use these
Speaker 5: new technologies to give us the edge in the Indo Pacific?
Speaker 1: All right, now, I want to change over to the
Speaker 1: fact that Carolyn Lovett, a very fine press secretary, is retiring,
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of speculation about who ow
Speaker 1: to do it. I don't know if your phone's been ringing,
Speaker 1: Matt or Ben Dominich's. I think both of you would
Speaker 1: be great. But I don't think the issue really is
Speaker 1: who's at the front of the electn I think it's
Speaker 1: who's in front of the electron And generally speaking, I'm
Speaker 1: beginning to wonder. I think Peter Baker is a fine reporter.
Speaker 1: Steve Holland is a fine reporter. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of these reporters read, read, read, and they're well versed
Speaker 1: in Western civilization. I'm not so sure about the youngs.
Speaker 1: Do you think the youngs are well read in Western
Speaker 1: civilization and American political history?
Speaker 5: Not at large, I would say, I mean, I would
Speaker 5: say my friend and colleague Phil Wegman is, and he's
Speaker 5: very good, and he covers the White House, and so
Speaker 5: you'll find you find stars like that who know history,
Speaker 5: who know kind of the political tradition of the United States.
Speaker 5: They can ask informed questions, tell interesting stories. But I
Speaker 5: think in general your point stands you, which is, no
Speaker 5: one reads anymore, no one really has much of a
Speaker 5: historical memory beyond what happened the other week, or certainly
Speaker 5: beyond the Trump era, which is now, of course, ten
Speaker 5: years old. And so you want to have a White
Speaker 5: House press corps that actually knows something about Washington and
Speaker 5: knows something about the presidency, and knows something about world affairs,
Speaker 5: so that they can ask intelligent questions. I don't see
Speaker 5: us having that, not to the degree that maybe we
Speaker 5: once did.
Speaker 1: Well. The reason this came up is I listened. I
Speaker 1: actually was obliged by the events in Michigan to listen
Speaker 1: to some Hassan Piker. That man doesn't know anything. And
Speaker 1: I don't know that Abdi Lsie knows anything. I know
Speaker 1: Graham Platner didn't. I'm not too sure about a lot
Speaker 1: of the nominees across the board, say, compared with Susan Collins,
Speaker 1: who I think is very well read. But if I
Speaker 1: ran down my books blooming Tower, Disraeli, Salisbury, Napoleon Diplomacy,
Speaker 1: I've got them all lined out. I even included The
Speaker 1: Right by You and Believer by David Axrod. Do you
Speaker 1: think the White House Press Corps would score very well
Speaker 1: on like a basic reading list that Columbia might have
Speaker 1: used when what they still believed in Western civilization there?
Speaker 5: I think maybe on the Hugh Hewitt Reading List, the
Speaker 5: average would be kind of a C. And that's you know,
Speaker 5: if we don't grade on a curve like most schools
Speaker 5: do on the Great Books List, I say it'd be
Speaker 5: a D. Don't unless you go to a Great Book school.
Speaker 5: I think it's very hard to encounter the Great Books
Speaker 5: through through your college education. Hillsdale grat like Jack Biden Hillsdale, Right, yeah,
Speaker 5: hills Now he's at the Journal, and so that's why
Speaker 5: he was on my list, Well, well.
Speaker 1: Would you, if you were actually pick on a White
Speaker 1: House reporter, give them some kind of probing, a series
Speaker 1: of questions to find out whether or not they knew
Speaker 1: that Jews, the Greats, the Romans, the Brits, and the
Speaker 1: American experience because that's basically Western sid isn't that what
Speaker 1: you learned at Columbia before the Columbia Western Civilization course collapsed?
Speaker 1: It is, you know.
Speaker 5: Rather than ask the questions to which I would be
Speaker 5: disappointed with the answers, I might give them a copy
Speaker 5: of Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order, which goes
Speaker 5: through precisely that history you talk about. I think it's
Speaker 5: a very firm grounding. I might give them the book
Speaker 5: What It Takes by Richard ben Kramer, just fantastic book
Speaker 5: about the nineteen eighty eight presidential elections. Think yeah, And
Speaker 5: I was looking at your list and I thought, you know,
Speaker 5: you have Believer on there by David Axelrod, which.
Speaker 1: Is a good book.
Speaker 5: I'd also include Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove Oh,
Speaker 5: a memoir of his his life in politics and the
Speaker 5: Bush presidency. I learned a lot about from that book.
Speaker 5: When it came out, and I think it would hold
Speaker 5: up for reporters today.
Speaker 1: And did you read one damn thing after another by
Speaker 1: Bill Barr Oh?
Speaker 6: I loved it.
Speaker 1: I think it's maybe the best classic, the best political
Speaker 1: memoir in since Axel Rods and Carl's was before that,
Speaker 1: But it was also a primer and con Law, I mean,
Speaker 1: that guy's a smart fellow. He's also funny.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and you learn a lot about how the
Speaker 5: government works. I think that's what's missing is we used
Speaker 5: to have a lot of veteran reporters who have been
Speaker 5: doing covering this beat for so long, they really knew
Speaker 5: how Washington and the government worked. Now, because of the
Speaker 5: changing economics of media, we have a lot of young people.
Speaker 5: They don't really know much about what works, what doesn't,
Speaker 5: what has happened, what is actually new, and so giving
Speaker 5: these young people some grounding is very important, and I
Speaker 5: do believe books are really the only way we can
Speaker 5: do that today.
Speaker 1: You know, if we had analytics for the press the
Speaker 1: way that they do for baseball, Steve Holland would be
Speaker 1: the first guy that Brad Pitt would draft in the
Speaker 1: movie for the watch Out Quite Outs Press Corps Matt Cottnetty.
Speaker 1: You'd score pretty eye on that too. Thank you for
Speaker 1: spending time with the follow Matt at Continetti. Read them
Speaker 1: in the Wall Street Journal twice a week. Follow him
Speaker 1: over at the American Enterprise Institute and at Continetti follow
Speaker 1: me in the next segment right here on the viewers.
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Speaker 5: It is finally time for a straightforward assess of the
Speaker 5: state of our nation.
Speaker 7: What happens when the institutions built to protect a liberty
Speaker 7: are accused of working against it. This weekend, Salem News
Speaker 7: Channels America two fifty film series presents Government Gangsters. Watch
Speaker 7: a hard hitting look at power, corruption, and accountability in
Speaker 7: modern America Saturday and Sunday at seven pm Eastern only
Speaker 7: on Salem News Channel.
Speaker 1: Morning Laura and Even Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewittt. Welcome
Speaker 1: to your weekend. Ben dominate showings me as he does
Speaker 1: most Fridays. Ben, I want to begin with a very
Speaker 1: difficult question for you. I'm going to put you on
Speaker 1: the spot. I know you're on vacation, I know your rush,
Speaker 1: but I got to play for you. Secretary of State
Speaker 1: Rubio on what the best day would be like, and
Speaker 1: then go to the controversial part of it at number one.
Speaker 8: Here's the thing, The day would actually start much earlier.
Speaker 8: The greatest show on television today in America is College
Speaker 8: Game Day. Great show starts around ten or eleven, and
Speaker 8: that leads you to noon and then the noon game,
Speaker 8: and then there's a three thirty game, and then there's
Speaker 8: a so I messed, and then the idea like this
Speaker 8: is a crazy weekend.
Speaker 1: It would never happen.
Speaker 3: So I'm just putting this out there.
Speaker 8: But you could start at ten am on Saturday, you know,
Speaker 8: run the whole college football day, sleep for a few hours,
Speaker 8: then you wake up, and then you're in the NFL
Speaker 8: game Day. Then you've got the one o'clock game, the
Speaker 8: four o'clock game, the NBC game that night. That is
Speaker 8: an incredible weekend in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Now, Ben Dominic shirts that apparently is a very very
Speaker 1: mainstream opinion. However, it's actually anti Big ten and pro
Speaker 1: sec because we all know Big New kickoff with Urban
Speaker 1: Meyer is better. Is much better than say it.
Speaker 6: It's much better. Actually, yes, and I actually don't think
Speaker 6: it's close, though I will point out, you know, I mean,
Speaker 6: come on, we know Marcos allegiance is here. Yes, so
Speaker 6: you know, but look, I think I can't think of
Speaker 6: a more human like comment in that. Also, I think
Speaker 6: that he is implying heavily that like, this is what
Speaker 6: I want for my birthday present.
Speaker 1: Yes, my father's day, but it doesn't work on July,
Speaker 1: works in the fall.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't know what his birthday is, but yes.
Speaker 1: In the sending order of importance, the President issued a
Speaker 1: executive order a memorandum on shipbuilding yesterday. Carriers are going
Speaker 1: back to same catapults. We're going to go the Finland
Speaker 1: model and buy ships and pairs of two from South
Speaker 1: three and Japan provided to build a shipyard here and
Speaker 1: start making the real thing here. And we're going to
Speaker 1: have a fifth public shipyard. This is enormously important. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen it covered anywhere. Have you had a chance
Speaker 1: to read it yet.
Speaker 6: And I have not had a chance to read it yet,
Speaker 6: but I have to say that it is enormously important.
Speaker 6: It's been something that we you know, and obviously it
Speaker 6: popped up on my feet. I, you know, think that
Speaker 6: this is one of those things that you know is
Speaker 6: long overdue and that we need we need to go
Speaker 6: back to this quite frankly years ago, and in terms
Speaker 6: of the approach that we've had to this process and
Speaker 6: too into shipbuilding generally has been just so lax, especially
Speaker 6: considering what the conflicts of the next decades look like.
Speaker 6: And so it's it's well overdue and I'm glad the
Speaker 6: President is taking action on it.
Speaker 1: All right now, I want to turned to the White
Speaker 1: House Press secretary. Keron Levitt did a great job, and
Speaker 1: we've been blessed on the Republican side by a lot
Speaker 1: of good ones. A couple of steps, but data Perno
Speaker 1: and Tony Snow and you go back to Ery Fleischer,
Speaker 1: and you go back all the way to to HW's
Speaker 1: team and to Reagan's team, Merlon Fitzwater. We had great
Speaker 1: press secretary. But I think the press corps in the
Speaker 1: White House is getting dumber. I just don't think they
Speaker 1: read much. Ben and I posted my list of what
Speaker 1: I would require the press to be credentialed to have read.
Speaker 1: Do you think they're getting dumber?
Speaker 6: Well, I think that in terms of the press corps,
Speaker 6: they are absolutely getting dumber. They're also getting much more forgetful.
Speaker 6: They don't they don't have any sense of history. They
Speaker 6: don't really I don't think that they actually, I mean,
Speaker 6: you just rattled off a list of some of the
Speaker 6: most prominent you know, press secretaries and comms directors who
Speaker 6: have been you know, in the White House over the
Speaker 6: last a couple of decades, and you know, and most
Speaker 6: of my lifetime, you know, I was you know, had
Speaker 6: the pleasure of being able to work in the w
Speaker 6: administration and meet not just Dana but but Tony snow
Speaker 6: before he passed, and and get to know the team
Speaker 6: that was there, that was obviously expert and knew how
Speaker 6: to handle things. And it's really really shocking to me
Speaker 6: that you could run through a list like that. And
Speaker 6: I wonder how many of the people who are currently
Speaker 6: in the press corps today could run through that list
Speaker 6: and would be able to tell you who work for who,
Speaker 6: who was a Republican.
Speaker 1: Well, I can also do Marlon Fitze. I mean, I
Speaker 1: can do Mike Murphy for Clinton. I can go back
Speaker 1: and do.
Speaker 6: Crazy Murphy was great. Murphy was the one. He was
Speaker 6: great when I first started paying attention to and you know,
Speaker 6: and the way that he handled that room, especially with
Speaker 6: the level of difficulty that the Clinton administration presented in
Speaker 6: terms of representing them every day. You know that that
Speaker 6: was impressive. You know, I got to meet him as well.
Speaker 6: I got you know, I've met most of these folks
Speaker 6: that you've mentioned. The thing, the thing that is you know,
Speaker 6: striking about them is they have to learn to speak,
Speaker 6: you know, for the president, but also not to nail
Speaker 6: something down that is not nailed down by the president,
Speaker 6: which is a very unique position to be in. It's
Speaker 6: not the same as being a speech writer, where when
Speaker 6: you run a speech through you you are doing something
Speaker 6: that is getting approved and so there is a betting process.
Speaker 6: There is a you know, we are going to take
Speaker 6: this line and we are going to make sure that
Speaker 6: we stick it in there because we want to send
Speaker 6: a message to whichever country needs to listen. That's not
Speaker 6: the same as having to do this stuff on the fly.
Speaker 6: And I think that you know, everyone who has who
Speaker 6: has done this job, you know, for Donald Trump, has
Speaker 6: had a particularly unique challenge in doing that because, of course,
Speaker 6: the president changes his mind a lot. And look, I
Speaker 6: think that quite frankly that the the the job that
Speaker 6: Caroline Lovett has done is enormously impressive. It's going to
Speaker 6: be hard, hard to follow up that act with anything
Speaker 6: that approaches the level of skill that she presented in
Speaker 6: that job, which by the way, people thought she was
Speaker 6: capable of.
Speaker 1: You better have good humor. So here's that what led
Speaker 1: to this line of questioning Hassan Piker, I was obliged
Speaker 1: to dig into over the last couple of weeks, and
Speaker 1: I'd never really care to him, and I am sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't think he knows anything. I've listened to him
Speaker 1: rattle off like critical legal studies, jargon, crits, jargon about
Speaker 1: all sorts of just the language deconstructionists, and it's nonsense.
Speaker 1: Do you think like this generation, generally, if they're not
Speaker 1: a Hillsdale graduate, will know anything about the Greeks, the Jews,
Speaker 1: the Romans did break you.
Speaker 6: If you look. You know, I know that. I know
Speaker 6: this is kind of a dated reference because it's it's
Speaker 6: it's a movie that doesn't get as much praise this
Speaker 6: at the time. But you know, one of the points
Speaker 6: about Goodwill Hunting that is correct is that you can
Speaker 6: get a better education with a library card. And that's
Speaker 6: the truth about like one of the one of the
Speaker 6: things that we see going on this generation. You know,
Speaker 6: there they are going to schools where if they actually
Speaker 6: went to a public library and did the right reading list,
Speaker 6: they would have a better education than the one that
Speaker 6: they're paying tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 6: dollars for. And I think that that's pathetic and sad.
Speaker 6: But as someone who was an absolute nerd, spent a
Speaker 6: lot of time the library, was was literally a library
Speaker 6: volunteer for many years growing up. Let me tell you
Speaker 6: it was very useful and has proven you.
Speaker 7: Were nerd.
Speaker 6: That is thief, that is I'm telling you man, I
Speaker 6: had a lot of I had a lot of I
Speaker 6: had a lot of friends.
Speaker 1: They were so let me let me ask you about
Speaker 1: I'm going to just pull the name ount of Rent
Speaker 1: Michael Knowles. Michael Knowles I've met twice and I had
Speaker 1: on the radio once. I just don't know. Michael seems
Speaker 1: to me to have read everything, like literally everything. And
Speaker 1: there are some people out there with whom I didn't
Speaker 1: agree who have read everything like Sorouh and others. I
Speaker 1: just don't agree with them, but they're they're very well. Rent.
Speaker 1: Why is the left turning up such dummies? I'll say
Speaker 1: it is all.
Speaker 6: First all agree with you about Michael. He is one
Speaker 6: of the very rare humans, and I would include ross
Speaker 6: Stout that this number, and you know a couple of
Speaker 6: other folks, including yourself, by the way, who can make
Speaker 6: references that I don't get. And that's and that's not
Speaker 6: a not a long list because again, but it's one
Speaker 6: of these things where when he does that, it makes
Speaker 6: me curious and I say, hey, wait a minute, that's
Speaker 6: what is that from? I haven't you know that I've
Speaker 6: read that author, but not that book, that kind of thing.
Speaker 6: Spencer Clayven and his father are another of them. But look,
Speaker 6: it's it is really, I think an indictment of the
Speaker 6: nature of our current politics that we have people who
Speaker 6: are being very successful in it, who who don't really
Speaker 6: have any knowledge of the philosophical basis for even the
Speaker 6: positions that they hold. Like now, on a certain level,
Speaker 6: is that a good thing? You know, would I rather
Speaker 6: have a dumb version of a son biker than a
Speaker 6: smart version because you know that's going to be something
Speaker 6: that's harder to debate, harder to win. On a certain level, Yes.
Speaker 6: On the another level, it's like he's catering to the
Speaker 6: TikTok morons, the you know, the twitch Trotskyites who want
Speaker 6: to you know, completely upend everything that makes America great
Speaker 6: without actually understanding what they're going to replace it with
Speaker 6: or how that will hurt them. I had a conversation
Speaker 6: with a casual friend of mine the other day who
Speaker 6: is someone who is entirely in favor of socialism of
Speaker 6: the Mom Donnie style, and she is very much of
Speaker 6: the opinion why isn't everybody against this? It's just the
Speaker 6: most basic thing. You know, It's gonna be great, it's
Speaker 6: gonna work, and we're going to have healthcare for everybody
Speaker 6: and things like that. And it's how do you even
Speaker 6: have a conversation with that when you're starting from such
Speaker 6: a difference of opinion about the history of socialism, about
Speaker 6: what this communist movement represents.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. And by the way, I don't
Speaker 1: know Spencer Claven Andrew Clavin. I know, I don't know Spencer.
Speaker 1: How old is he is? He like Michael Moll.
Speaker 6: Smart yes and uh and he's he's very smart and
Speaker 6: you should check out his stuff. He writes a lot
Speaker 6: for us about at the Baily Wire, about classics, uh
Speaker 6: and and things of that nature. He's very much He's
Speaker 6: one of these guys who can talk about, you know,
Speaker 6: the Plato, Aristotle, and Ai all in the same piece.
Speaker 6: And that's the kind of skill that I appreciate.
Speaker 1: And time to book, Spencer Claven Ben Dominic, enjoy your vacation.
Speaker 1: Thank you for spending time with me.