Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 3: I'm strong and Jettie and he I'm strong and Yetty.
Speaker 4: A lot of sports going on. The World Cup is
Speaker 4: here in La. Most of the world.
Speaker 2: Wow, see, I love it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, most of the world consider soccer the number one
Speaker 4: sport here. It's it's free where you put your kids
Speaker 4: when you don't want to pay for daycare.
Speaker 2: That's listen.
Speaker 4: I don't get to the attraction of soccer.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 4: There's more scoring at Bible Camp. But okay, if you
Speaker 4: love it, you love it, and I'm glad you have it.
Speaker 3: I grew up before soccer became a thing, so I've
Speaker 3: never played soccer in my life. Now, I very very
Speaker 3: few little kids don't play soccer at least one year
Speaker 3: when they're like five years old, very very few. But
Speaker 3: write a good piece somewhere New York Times are somewhere
Speaker 3: on and this was someone who doesn't care for soccer
Speaker 3: really either as a grown up and played when they're
Speaker 3: a kid. Like where the breakdown has occurred in America
Speaker 3: because it's now like everybody plays soccer everybody puts their
Speaker 3: kid in soccer, every kid plays soccer, and then there's
Speaker 3: somewhere a breakdown between that and the popularity of it.
Speaker 3: And they went through the ratings and comparing it to
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball and basketball and all the different things,
Speaker 3: and just we just somewhere in there we lose our
Speaker 3: interest in soccer as opposed to other countries where they
Speaker 3: just absolutely they played as little kids and then love
Speaker 3: it the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1: That is an interesting dichotomy for sure. Neil Ferguson, the Historian,
Speaker 1: wrote a beautiful piece quoting an author who wrote one
Speaker 1: of the most famous books about soccer ever about how
Speaker 1: soccer fans, hardcore fans like the Euros, that they're fans
Speaker 1: in order to suffer, and they all suffer together, and
Speaker 1: it's mostly frustration, and it's a it's like an addiction,
Speaker 1: which I don't quite get. I enjoy watching the games,
Speaker 1: but then if I don't for a year and a half,
Speaker 1: I don't miss it.
Speaker 3: I don't know how far to get into the weeds
Speaker 3: on this whole Elon Musk conversation. I got sucked into
Speaker 3: it because it was making me so mad. Over the weekend.
Speaker 3: The number of posts I was seeing and cable news
Speaker 3: hosts on the non Fox channels about how, oh of
Speaker 3: various government your Elon Musk's, your AOC's, you're Bernie Sanders.
Speaker 3: I predicted this on Friday we would hear from them
Speaker 3: by the end of the day, and we did. They
Speaker 3: all had very strong statements about how awful this is
Speaker 3: and how it's a sign that our country is just
Speaker 3: completely off track that we now have a trillionaire and
Speaker 3: somehow believe they seem to actually believe, as do a
Speaker 3: lot of the people that vote for them, that Elon
Speaker 3: having a trillion dollars took money out of your pocket. So,
Speaker 3: like I tweeted out that specific phrase over the weekend,
Speaker 3: something along the lines of, I can't believe the economic
Speaker 3: literacy we have in this country thanks to our public
Speaker 3: school system, that so many people feel like Elon becoming
Speaker 3: a trillionaire took money out of their pockets. That's insane. Well,
Speaker 3: the pushback is all the various government subsidies or contracts
Speaker 3: that he has that still don't make sense for all
Speaker 3: kinds of reasons that I can read to you. Here's one.
Speaker 3: This was a pushback against a senator that had posted
Speaker 3: that you know, the taxpayers made Elon Musk rich, not
Speaker 3: Elon Musk by us giving him all these various breaks.
Speaker 3: Elon Musk was awarded, not given, cost per result contracts
Speaker 3: to perform a service for the US government. The total
Speaker 3: of those for SpaceX specifically is twenty two billion dollars,
Speaker 3: which includes repaid, loan, state tax incentives center. The deal
Speaker 3: was simple, put stuff into low entry orbit at or
Speaker 3: below a set cost. If SpaceX does it below the
Speaker 3: set cost, SpaceX keeps the difference. If it doesn't, the
Speaker 3: company is responsible for the overrun. It was SpaceX versus.
Speaker 3: First of all, they bid against other companies in one
Speaker 3: out and then against NASA. The end result is that
Speaker 3: SpaceX and Elon lowered the cost of getting a kilogram
Speaker 3: into low entry orbit by one hundred percent versus what
Speaker 3: NASA was previously doing. In other words, it would cost us,
Speaker 3: the taxpayer, all the stuff we were trying to put
Speaker 3: in space so much more money if we did it
Speaker 3: with the government program of NASA versus the SpaceX program
Speaker 3: of Elon. In other words, we got tremendous bang for
Speaker 3: our buy and as a government, we incentized innovation in
Speaker 3: a way that's going to pay off for generation centuries
Speaker 3: maybe right, And then once again responding to this particular senator,
Speaker 3: most of what is cited our government contracts, the money
Speaker 3: going to Elon. You see, the government which you helped run.
Speaker 3: I forget which senator was one of your lefty socialist centers.
Speaker 3: The government which you helped run wanted services and decided
Speaker 3: his company was best to provide them, which they did
Speaker 3: at a negotiated price. How on earth that entitles you
Speaker 3: to the profit he made providing those services, which you
Speaker 3: guys wanted and agreed to, is beyond well anyone, especially me.
Speaker 3: And the subsidies he got for electric cars were from
Speaker 3: your party because he did what you wanted him to do,
Speaker 3: remember when he was your darling. So there's that part
Speaker 3: of it. I was against the subsidies for all the
Speaker 3: electric cars. I don't think taxpayers should be given everybody
Speaker 3: else as seventy five hundred dollars or twelve thousand dollars
Speaker 3: brake on their electric car to incentivize them. But all
Speaker 3: y'all on the left decided that was a good idea,
Speaker 3: which got Elon started on the whole rich thing. But
Speaker 3: on the other thing, with SpaceX's we were mentioning earlier,
Speaker 3: Elon's the biggest taxpayer in world history already, and that
Speaker 3: is going to go exponentially higher because of all of
Speaker 3: his dealings and everything like that, plus the hundreds of
Speaker 3: thousands of jobs and all the taxes that they pay,
Speaker 3: and has been pointed out already in a couple of
Speaker 3: these things I've read, the service that are being provided
Speaker 3: to people that people want. Where are you all complaining
Speaker 3: when the cylinders of the world happen. They take your
Speaker 3: tax money, they give it to these green ideas that
Speaker 3: never pan out. So you don't get any jobs, you
Speaker 3: don't get any green energy, you get zero bang for
Speaker 3: your buck tax money because nobody's profiting in any way.
Speaker 3: And when is anybody complaining about that? So when one
Speaker 3: of these programs works out and somebody makes some money,
Speaker 3: then you're angry. That is just nonsensical, beyond nonsensical.
Speaker 1: I wish I still had in front of me that
Speaker 1: brilliant essay I READI part of a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: about how when the rich have a successful business and
Speaker 1: they come up with more, they end up with more
Speaker 1: money than they could ever spend. They don't spend it,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on which guy you're talking about. Maybe
Speaker 1: they buy a super yacht or whatever. But most of
Speaker 1: it they reallocate. They take that money and put it
Speaker 1: somewhere they think is even more productive, creating more companies,
Speaker 1: more jobs. And if you are Mark Zuckerberg and you
Speaker 1: decide you want a meggiacht, okay, somebody built that meggiacht.
Speaker 1: Somebody's maintaining it. Mechanically. You have captains and crewmen and
Speaker 1: cooks and cleaners and dock workers and all sorts of
Speaker 1: people that creates wealth, the wealth of the world. Here's
Speaker 1: the one thing you have to know. If you don't
Speaker 1: know this, you will be an ignoratus till the day
Speaker 1: you die. Wealth is not a pie of a fixed size.
Speaker 1: You can create wealth. Wealth can start with a dollar
Speaker 1: and end up with a trillion dollars a few generations later.
Speaker 1: If people are smart and they aloquate, you allocate money wisely.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: That seems to be one of the breakdowns is that
Speaker 3: in watching the pushback, the pushback seems to come from
Speaker 3: a crowd that thinks there is a fixed amount of
Speaker 3: money always right. And that was Senator ed Markley. By
Speaker 3: the way, how much of Musk's wealth sufferable. How much
Speaker 3: of Musk's wealth comes from government help, virtually all of it.
Speaker 1: He says, that's idiotic, that is absolutely untrue. More on
Speaker 1: this topic, which I find absolutely fascinating. After word from incognitiate, boy,
Speaker 1: this is chilling and it's a rip from real life.
Speaker 1: So you're at work in your phone, buzz is that
Speaker 1: your kid's number? Your kid gets on the phone, says
Speaker 1: he's been in an accident, needs money right now, and
Speaker 1: you do whatever you had to help right Well, that's
Speaker 1: what the scam is counting on. That wasn't your kid
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I wonder when I've gotten phone calls in the
Speaker 3: past and I say hello, Hello, if that's just them
Speaker 3: recording my voice to try to do some sort of
Speaker 3: scam for the future. Those are really really trumbling, troubling.
Speaker 3: The only way you can stop this is if they
Speaker 3: can't get a hold of you in the first place.
Speaker 3: You can't stop them from cloning a voice, but you
Speaker 3: can make sure they never get your number in the
Speaker 3: first place. Within Cognity's help, because they're going to go
Speaker 3: to all these data brokers use the law on their
Speaker 3: side and say you cannot sell your data. You got
Speaker 3: to get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Yep, we're both on Incognitiate contracts hundreds of those data
Speaker 1: brokers and keeps after them over and over again. Costs
Speaker 1: about seven dollars a month. It's worth every penny. Really
Speaker 1: easy go to in cognity dot com slash armstrong. So
Speaker 1: I n cog ni dot com slash armstrong sixty percent
Speaker 1: off in cognity dot com slash armstrong.
Speaker 3: For instance this back and forth which was on our
Speaker 3: Twitter feed. Elon gets paid roughly eight million dollars a
Speaker 3: day by the American taxpayer via his government contracts. Explain
Speaker 3: how taxpayer subodies aren't literally money out of our pockets.
Speaker 3: One of our very smart listeners, thankfully, was willing to
Speaker 3: argue with all these people all day yesterday when I
Speaker 3: wasn't somebody that goes by the handle common sense. Do
Speaker 3: you understand the difference between a contract for delivering a
Speaker 3: service or product versus a handout?
Speaker 1: I don't think so, Yeah, well said, it's astonishing ignorance.
Speaker 3: Nearly all competitive contracts that had deliverables launches, Starlink services,
Speaker 3: et cetera. SpaceX won those awards by offering a lower
Speaker 3: cost than other companies, or that the government could do themselves.
Speaker 1: The government of these people don't understand the difference between
Speaker 1: Stacy Abrams and SpaceX.
Speaker 3: That was Elon's pushback. For instance, the Stacy Abrams thing.
Speaker 3: Stacy Abrams started an NGO and thirty days later was
Speaker 3: given two billion dollars by the Biden administration. She has
Speaker 3: not had to return a penny of that. The NGO
Speaker 3: never did any thing. And there are tons of those
Speaker 3: kinds of things that happen all the time. Are do
Speaker 3: you all get mad about that or you just don't
Speaker 3: notice because they're failures. They're all failures, and so nobody
Speaker 3: is making money off of that. If we could invest
Speaker 3: in someone that would clean up the homeless situation and
Speaker 3: make it cheaper than all the homeless government programs and
Speaker 3: that guy gets rich, I'll sign.
Speaker 2: Up for it today, right.
Speaker 3: I don't care if he gets rich, if it ends
Speaker 3: up being cheaper than the government programs that are doing nothing.
Speaker 3: You give out money to these green I keep mentioning
Speaker 3: the green programs because there's but there's tons of stuff
Speaker 3: that's not just all kinds of crap that they they
Speaker 3: put money into that doesn't produce any taxpayer revenue doesn't
Speaker 3: make a thing. It doesn't do anything for anybody. It's
Speaker 3: not a product that people want. It's just a money hole.
Speaker 2: Right right.
Speaker 1: So we've been addressing the faulty and dopey uh he
Speaker 1: had government contracts argument. We haven't even gotten to the
Speaker 1: main socialist argument, which is that income essentially should be
Speaker 1: capped and once you have a certain amount, you should
Speaker 1: be restricted from ever making anymore. I want to get
Speaker 1: to that. I will tell you two things. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: lay two truth bombs on you. One is an old,
Speaker 1: great old saying you can't remember who came up with it.
Speaker 1: But a triumph is temporary because you'll go seek new
Speaker 1: challenges and battles and you might not win all of them.
Speaker 1: But an excuse is eternal because you can just lay
Speaker 1: there with your excuse covering you like a warm blanket
Speaker 1: and never try anything, all right. That's truth number bomb
Speaker 1: Number one. Number two is envy is like a shot
Speaker 1: of fentanyl. It just numbs you. You get sleepy, you
Speaker 1: bend over at the waist, and you stop thinking. The
Speaker 1: politics of envy are so powerful and so easy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope I raise my kids in such a
Speaker 3: way that they have the feeling I have when there
Speaker 3: is a you know, a guy like Jeff Bezos inventing Amazon,
Speaker 3: or Bill Gates and you know, doing what he did
Speaker 3: with computers all through the nineties or elon.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I think it's freaking cool as heck. I admire it.
Speaker 3: I wish I could be more like that, as opposed
Speaker 3: to the immediate feely being I've just been taken from.
Speaker 3: That's bad. I have a negative feeling you stole from
Speaker 3: me good.
Speaker 1: That's sick because the valuation of his company is such
Speaker 1: that his share of it makes him a trillionaire.
Speaker 2: You lost?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: Wow? Any thoughts on this text line four one five
Speaker 3: two nine five KFTC. Yesterday was Trump's eightieth birthday? Is
Speaker 3: that right? And uh? He claimed all along that the
Speaker 3: big giant UFC match on the White House lawn was
Speaker 3: not because it was his eightieth birthday. It was just
Speaker 3: a coincidence. It was part of the two hundred and
Speaker 3: fiftieth anniversary of Our Country celebration, But clearly it was
Speaker 3: for his eight birthday. Funny piece in the Wall Street
Speaker 3: Journal today, of all things, what astrologers see in Trump's
Speaker 3: birthday horoscope in the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1: What what does prenologists have to say the president.
Speaker 3: That's people who read the lumps on your head. The
Speaker 3: president's cage match celebration makes perfect sense for a gemini.
Speaker 3: The Wall Street Journal goes on to explain what the
Speaker 3: right AnyWho.
Speaker 1: They stoned over there was there a ghastly I don't know,
Speaker 1: so it was yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3: So they had a whole bunch of different matches and
Speaker 3: stuff like that, and it's like, you know, boutside. I
Speaker 3: don't follow UFC for real, but I did see the
Speaker 3: celebrity pictures. Anybody who's anybody leaning right, celebrity or politician
Speaker 3: was there with.
Speaker 2: From Shane Gillis to j d Vance. They were all there,
Speaker 2: Jack and.
Speaker 3: Joe Rogan and uh yeah, all kinds of different people.
Speaker 3: So I don't know this heavyweight guy who won his match.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Josh Hockett. He's a stud whoa boy.
Speaker 3: He won his match, and then you know, they put
Speaker 3: the microphone in his hand. He's all amped up, having
Speaker 3: just a beaten the crap out of some guy in
Speaker 3: front of the President of the United States on he's
Speaker 3: eightieth birthday, and he had this to.
Speaker 5: Say, Hey, shout out to Trump for having the ball
Speaker 5: to put on, And if I'm gonna say anything, there's
Speaker 5: only one person more incredible than the incredible Hulk, and
Speaker 5: that's why Lord has Savior, Jesus Christ. Now listen, Alex Perrera,
Speaker 5: I want to Sharma, I your mama. And lastly, Mochelle Obama,
Speaker 5: he's a man, Am I right, America?
Speaker 1: That was not as dignified as when John Quincy had
Speaker 1: him Junior all day Virginia Reel.
Speaker 2: In the Easter room.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it took a turn mentioning Jesus and
Speaker 3: then that I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was quite the winding road, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: Michael, I like him saying Jesus is even a bigger
Speaker 3: deal than hul Cogan. Okay, yes, Michelle Obama is a
Speaker 3: man he closes with.
Speaker 1: After winning his fight, Hockets wearing an American flag, bantanna
Speaker 1: and sunglasses, presented Trump with his gold chain necklace.
Speaker 2: That's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 1: It's not quite Churchill and the Resolute Desk or whoever
Speaker 1: get it was that Queen Elizabeth doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: That was some flyover. I don't know if you saw
Speaker 3: that some of the rules that was that was awesome.
Speaker 3: I should have been.
Speaker 2: There for that.
Speaker 3: I'm not like hurt or appalled by this, but I mean,
Speaker 3: if I got to vote, do we do that or not?
Speaker 3: I would go with a no.
Speaker 1: I say bring back the roller derby next right there
Speaker 1: on the south lawn.
Speaker 3: But for everyone who has pointed out Joe Biden during
Speaker 3: June when he was president had uh bumped with trans
Speaker 3: what do you call the dudes addressed like women in
Speaker 3: danced drag correct queens had the drag queen dance celebration
Speaker 3: up on a stage. So is that also dignified in
Speaker 3: a way that I'd like?
Speaker 1: No, in an ugly world where men must be ready
Speaker 1: for war, yeah, I'd rather have a punch up. And
Speaker 1: and you know nutty fighter saying, oh, Michelle Obama's a man.
Speaker 1: Then that sick, twisted, troubled individuals showing his completely fake
Speaker 1: breasts to America for some reason.
Speaker 3: Oh that's right, the guy took his shirt off.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, So there you go.
Speaker 1: You know what I want to bring you speaking of
Speaker 1: America and what a wonderful country this is. Although last
Speaker 1: night I agree was kind out there, Oh European or
Speaker 1: international soccer fans coming to the u U and marveling
Speaker 1: at this country, seeing it for the first time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen that Twitter meme.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3: People who've never seen a giant giant convenience store before,
Speaker 3: for instance, like that in the US and apparently don't
Speaker 3: have in Europe. Freed Zakaria believes California is falling apart.
Speaker 3: I wonder why he thinks that, among other things. On
Speaker 3: the run, we gotta check in on Iran again. There's
Speaker 3: some new details and quotes come out have come out,
Speaker 3: not details about the deal though for some reason, that's
Speaker 3: being kept a secret. What kind of who announces a
Speaker 3: piece deal and then we won't tell you what's in it?
Speaker 1: What is that we have a memorandum of understanding of
Speaker 1: a framework for a negotiation.
Speaker 3: That's not a deal.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. To our surprise and delight.
Speaker 1: Freed Zakaria on CNN's what the hell is it in
Speaker 1: the Compass Point GPS.
Speaker 2: That's it?
Speaker 1: Unleashed a sick this minute, thirteen to second screed last night.
Speaker 1: That was utterly calm, gentlemanly, non bomb chuckery, and an
Speaker 1: incredibly thorough indictment of the misgovernance of the state of California.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely terrific. He's a man of I would
Speaker 1: say the center left. He used to make me a
Speaker 1: little nuts talking about foreign policy because he's very much
Speaker 1: the internationalist. But I think this is so good. Let's
Speaker 1: start with fifty one. Work our way, Michael.
Speaker 6: The frustration is real and justified. California is one of
Speaker 6: the most dynamic places on the planet. It has Silicon Valley, Hollywood,
Speaker 6: world class universities, extraordinary agriculture, ports, talent, and natural beauty.
Speaker 6: But it is a case study in how a rich
Speaker 6: society can spend more and more while producing less and
Speaker 6: less of what its ordinary citizens need. Paradox of California
Speaker 6: today is a successful economy attached to a failing model
Speaker 6: of governance. Consider the fiscal record. Since two thousand. California's
Speaker 6: population has grown by roughly fifteen percent, but the state's
Speaker 6: general expenditures have grown more than two hundred percent, from
Speaker 6: seventy eight billion to about two hundred and forty eight
Speaker 6: billion dollars. General spending per person has risen from about
Speaker 6: two thousand, three hundred to about six three hundred dollars.
Speaker 6: The number of state employees has grown by more than
Speaker 6: fifty percent. By one count, does anyone think that California
Speaker 6: government and its benefits have gotten two hundred percent better
Speaker 6: in the last twenty five years.
Speaker 3: I live here, so I know it's not true.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I knew the expenditures and number of employees that skyrocketed,
Speaker 1: but that is beyond I mean beyond reasonable. And this
Speaker 1: certainly is practically beyond imagination. It is a giant jobs
Speaker 1: program for cronies and lackeys.
Speaker 3: The state employee number has grown fifty percent this century.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: So in the next section he talks about the failure
Speaker 1: of housing in California, and the essence of it is
Speaker 1: that California produces new dwellings at a rate that is
Speaker 1: a tiny fraction of other functioning government's production of those
Speaker 1: dwellings because of incredibly strict zoning and hypocritical zoning. And
Speaker 1: also you can sue developers over a list of one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty different ridiculous things as a blackmail, so
Speaker 1: they have to pay you off. And how that culture
Speaker 1: is rampant in California, and so they underbuild housing. Let's
Speaker 1: move on to fifty three where he talks about education.
Speaker 6: Oh, look at education. For years, California schools had a
Speaker 6: plausible excuse they were underfunded. Total spending on edge location
Speaker 6: through twelfth grade has more than doubled since the early
Speaker 6: twenty tens, and per people spending by twenty twenty three
Speaker 6: was well above the national average, Yet the results remain dismal.
Speaker 6: In the twenty twenty four Nations report Card, California was
Speaker 6: forty third in fourth grade math, thirty ninth in fourth
Speaker 6: grade reading, thirty sixth in eighth grade math, and thirty
Speaker 6: eighth in eighth grade reading.
Speaker 3: Well, I bet Gavin didn't like this. He's hoping that,
Speaker 3: and he's right that nobody watches CNN weekend shows. But
Speaker 3: you know whoever's those opponent, if he would end up
Speaker 3: being the nominee, they're gonna grab this stuff.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Yeah, I hope it goes viral.
Speaker 1: I hope it gets the retweeted and center around at
Speaker 1: a million zillion times.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The educational system is absolutely miserable. Go ahead, play the
Speaker 1: next junk Michael.
Speaker 6: California's headline prosperity generated in good part by a few
Speaker 6: industries like tech masks, weaknesses underneath, job creation has been sluggish.
Speaker 6: In twenty twenty five, California essentially failed to add any
Speaker 6: new jobs on net private industries outside government and government
Speaker 6: supported healthcare actually shed jobs. According to the Center for
Speaker 6: Jobs in the Economy, the state is using public spending
Speaker 6: to paper over private sector stagnation.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Correct, Yeah, significant net loss of jobs if you exclude government,
Speaker 1: which we discussed in government supported healthcare directly government supported.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about homelessness in fifty four.
Speaker 6: Micls homelessness tells the same story and a more painful register.
Speaker 6: A twenty twenty four audit revewed California had spent twenty
Speaker 6: four billion dollars on the problem over a five year span,
Speaker 6: Yet in twenty twenty four, California reached a record high
Speaker 6: in homelessness almost two hundred thousand. Homelessness did decline by
Speaker 6: about three percent from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five,
Speaker 6: but the state's expansive, expensive, and elaborate homelessness aid complex
Speaker 6: has not proven to solve homelessness in any significant way.
Speaker 3: Yeah. They don't have to be a genius to know that. Now.
Speaker 1: There was a headline in the very left Sacramento b
Speaker 1: the other day the Capitol California auditive Sacramento homeless shelter
Speaker 1: costs showed no strong link to good outcomes. They couldn't
Speaker 1: find a link to it doing any damned good. Yet
Speaker 1: the money continues to flow.
Speaker 3: I'm not an accountant. I can look around. You spent
Speaker 3: millions of dollars. It looks worse than it used to be.
Speaker 1: So what is happening right right now? The next section,
Speaker 1: Fred goes into a couple of minutes on LA and
Speaker 1: it's it's longest showing. Going to summarize some of it.
Speaker 1: You know what, Go ahead, do fifty six, Michael, and
Speaker 1: then we'll go from there.
Speaker 6: Nowhere is this more vivid than Los Angeles, where Hollywood,
Speaker 6: the city's defining industry, is and slow motion collapse. The
Speaker 6: effects are being felt not by celebrity actors and influencers,
Speaker 6: but the carpenters, costumers, sound engineers, camera operators, editors, drivers, caterers,
Speaker 6: dry cleaners, prop houses, and small businesses that once formed
Speaker 6: one of the world's great industrial clusters.
Speaker 1: And then he goes into the statistics about the number
Speaker 1: of shooting days in LA are just they're down eighty
Speaker 1: five percent of.
Speaker 3: Shooting films, not shooting other people.
Speaker 2: That's a good point.
Speaker 1: Those days are up, but the shooting films days are down.
Speaker 1: All those gigantic soundstages and movie sets and complexes are empty.
Speaker 1: They're just completely empty. And all of those working class people,
Speaker 1: many many of whom I would guess, lean left and
Speaker 1: vote for these policies of way over regulation, insanely high taxes,
Speaker 1: lawsuits for everything. They probably support those policies, which tragic. Then,
Speaker 1: in fifty eight he summarizes the la situation.
Speaker 2: Hollywood is still.
Speaker 6: The symbol, the brand, the mythology, and it still houses
Speaker 6: the big studios that produced most of the world's greatest
Speaker 6: entertainment for almost a century, but thanks largely to high taxes, costs,
Speaker 6: and regulations, the work has moved elsewhere to Georgia, New Jersey, Toronto, London,
Speaker 6: and Warsaw. Michael Linton, who ran Sony Entertainment, told me
Speaker 6: that the big studio lots look like ghost towns now,
Speaker 6: with tens of acres of sound stages and recording studios
Speaker 6: when nothing is happening. He said, Los Angeles is becoming
Speaker 6: a sunny version of Detroit. Consider the simple fact, according
Speaker 6: to Fortune, none of the ten films nominated for Best
Speaker 6: Picture this year were primarily produced in Hollywood. Los Angeles
Speaker 6: still hosts the Oscars, but increasingly it does not actually
Speaker 6: make the movies being honored there.
Speaker 3: So I've toured the big movie lots just in the
Speaker 3: last couple of years that my kids doing the tourist thing.
Speaker 3: Universal and Warner Brothers. Yeah, they that's interesting. So they
Speaker 3: look so it's more of like it's like going to
Speaker 3: an old West, old Western town that used to be
Speaker 3: you know, during the gold Rush or something like that,
Speaker 3: and all these buildings that used to be saloons and
Speaker 3: whorehouses or whatever, but they're no longer those things. They're
Speaker 3: they're they're selling candiy kids as tourist stuff. So now
Speaker 3: the big movie lots are a tourist thing to go
Speaker 3: to to see where some of the best movies, you know,
Speaker 3: of the last one hundred years were made, and you
Speaker 3: can star Wars and Jaws or you know what of
Speaker 3: all these great movies. But they're not doing it anymore.
Speaker 3: Where are the great movies made now? Dan literally anywhere
Speaker 3: but California. Son, that's interesting, enjoy the tour. Finally this.
Speaker 6: For years, Democrats in California have governed without any real competition.
Speaker 6: The recent primary results suggests that even in deep blue territory,
Speaker 6: voter there restless. They're not becoming Republicans, But they are
Speaker 6: asking a reasonable question, why does a state with so
Speaker 6: much money, talent, and promise make life for ordinary people
Speaker 6: so hard?
Speaker 2: Good question, It's an excellent question.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I saw enough unrest to give
Speaker 1: me a lot of optimism in the recent primaries, but
Speaker 1: it registered on the Richter scale of this sucks the
Speaker 1: Suctor scale well.
Speaker 3: As long as people have their identities, their entire identities
Speaker 3: tied into a political party, so true, it's different than uh, well, like,
Speaker 3: I've never had my identity tied into a car brand. Really,
Speaker 3: I don't know. It would be another good example, but
Speaker 3: just a lot of restaurants or something. You know, this
Speaker 3: place has got better chicken at a lower price. I
Speaker 3: don't care. I'm just going to go to the one
Speaker 3: I like the best and as the most bang for
Speaker 3: the buck. My identity is not tied up in it, apparently,
Speaker 3: especially now our we have our self worth tied up
Speaker 3: and being an R or a D so much we
Speaker 3: just won't change.
Speaker 2: And remember if you're a D.
Speaker 1: If you're a D, one of the cornerstones of your
Speaker 1: identity is that conservatism is evil. Republicans are evil, not wrong,
Speaker 1: not misguided, not where the party is policy wise right
Speaker 1: now doesn't suit me. No, they are eternally evil and
Speaker 1: so I mean it's like the most extreme example of
Speaker 1: changing your identity. You can imagine. It makes going trans
Speaker 1: look subtle.
Speaker 3: Here the political scientists answer one.
Speaker 2: More, one more thought.
Speaker 1: I liked how Freed said, Uh, they haven't become Republicans.
Speaker 2: I mean, right, let's be reasonable there.
Speaker 3: That's disgusting. So we know what states that are too
Speaker 3: blue look like we just described one m what are
Speaker 3: states that are too red? They're one party but republican
Speaker 3: is there? Is there something bad that happens?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they can go a little far in.
Speaker 1: Like outlawing things that are harmlessly lefty dopey, like what
Speaker 1: oh gosh, I'd have to think about it for a while.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, passing resolutions to end gay
Speaker 1: marriage or something like that. Even though it'll never get
Speaker 1: by constitutionally a little too fundamentalist, it's generally a subset
Speaker 1: of conservatism that is really feeling its oats and there's
Speaker 1: no there's no pushback. I you know, I if you want,
Speaker 1: I can work on it and come up with some
Speaker 1: examples for you.
Speaker 2: I should ask Rare.
Speaker 1: Though, see, the problem is there's no such thing as
Speaker 1: a right wing bubble that's as bubbly as a left
Speaker 1: wing bubble.
Speaker 2: For the reasons we've discussed many times.
Speaker 1: I should ask a lefty that like that, they should
Speaker 1: probably cite abortion rights. Nobody can get an abortion anytime,
Speaker 1: inting you know, victims of rape and says their you know,
Speaker 1: terrible health threat to the mother, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Other than that, I wonder what it would be.
Speaker 2: They would invent stuff.
Speaker 1: And my path is all of the talk about how
Speaker 1: if Trump is re elected, gay marriage will end, gays
Speaker 1: will be hunted down in the streets, transit people et
Speaker 1: said R Yeah, hey, hey, let me know when that starts.
Speaker 2: All right, it be scary to watch.
Speaker 3: I want to watch, Hey, gab and running for president.
Speaker 3: When Farreid Zakaria dedicates that much time to what a
Speaker 3: mess your state is? That? Ain't good man? On CNN?
Speaker 2: Yeah, amen to that, well said metal guy.
Speaker 3: We gotta check in on World Cup soccer, which I
Speaker 3: actually watched some of the over the weekend. Yes, the
Speaker 3: edge of the Seats stuff USA, USA, A bunch of
Speaker 3: other stuff on the way stay here.
Speaker 1: Has starts off the bad less than seven minute ten.
Speaker 3: The Americans are here in their home country, Los Angeles Stadium,
Speaker 3: the United States four Paraguay ware such as close as
Speaker 3: you can hear from that crowd. I mean, I didn't
Speaker 3: have any idea because I'm not a soccer fan, but
Speaker 3: I didn't have any ideas There's gonna be a ton
Speaker 3: of people there cheering like crazy for the United States.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was electric. I was watching on TV. I
Speaker 1: wish I'd been there in person, but oh it was fantastic.
Speaker 1: And it was an arsewhooping too. The American boys look
Speaker 1: extremely sharp, four over Paraguay.
Speaker 3: So we play Australia Friday in Seattle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh I want to go to that. I'm not gonna,
Speaker 1: but I wanna.
Speaker 3: It's in Seattle.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then Thursday, the twenty fifth versus, they spelled Turkey
Speaker 3: tu with a couple of dots above it RK. Iye,
Speaker 3: I guess that's the international spelling a Turkey. That's how
Speaker 3: Turkey spells it. Yeah, well good for that. I'm not
Speaker 3: America runs the world. We spell it like we spell
Speaker 3: our Thanksgiving dinner exactly.
Speaker 1: And we certainly run America. Where are you right now
Speaker 1: reading in America?
Speaker 3: Damn it? Are you playing freaking soccer. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I send some of those MMA guys over to that
Speaker 1: whoever wrote that anyway back to you. Oh so, I'm
Speaker 1: loving this meme online. It's a meme hashtag whatever of
Speaker 1: folks from all over the world visiting the US for
Speaker 1: the first time and to sea World Cup games and
Speaker 1: traveling around, and the difference between what they thought they
Speaker 1: would find in what they actually find in America is
Speaker 1: charming and it's kind of funny. Here's one guy says, dude, lmao,
Speaker 1: this is a gas station with three weeping faces.
Speaker 2: It's a BUCkies.
Speaker 1: It's a BUCkies, the king of all rest stops.
Speaker 3: Which might think about, but I've never been to one.
Speaker 1: Hull and gas pumps for miles. It's amazing. And then
Speaker 1: inside a different guy. The European mind cannot comprehend how
Speaker 1: intoxicatingly good these things are. It's the beaver nugget nuggets
Speaker 1: at BUCkies. I don't even know what that is. Here's Freddy,
Speaker 1: just had our first waffle house experience at one am.
Speaker 1: Great food, great price, is friendly staff. Ten out of
Speaker 1: ten will be coming back. And here is a I
Speaker 1: think this guy's a brit I've just covered barbecued ribs
Speaker 1: in America Carolina style with a vinegar sauce, and frankly
Speaker 1: every other meat is ruined for me.
Speaker 2: Now that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Here's a different guy. Let's see what flag is that
Speaker 1: it might be France. We found another surreal place on
Speaker 1: our way. I know some people will say I'm too
Speaker 1: positive about everything I'm seeing, but this place was crazy.
Speaker 2: They had a shooting range in the store.
Speaker 1: And then say an exterior shot and two interior shots
Speaker 1: of a Bass Pro shop outdoor world store to each.
Speaker 3: But you never went to the United States until your
Speaker 3: soccer team was going to be there. I mean, like,
Speaker 3: I've never been to France, but if I ever go,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be because an NBA team I
Speaker 3: like is playing. I got other things I want to
Speaker 3: see in France rather than.
Speaker 2: A basketball game.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Honestly, like a lot of football fans go, they think,
Speaker 1: all right, this excuse to go.
Speaker 2: My favorite team is playing in London or whatever. I'm
Speaker 2: going to check it out.
Speaker 1: But having gotten there, I wouldn't want to spend all
Speaker 1: that time at a football game, right, can go to
Speaker 1: the one hundred of those at home anyway.
Speaker 2: The final one I like is this guy again. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure what flagg. This is.
Speaker 1: First time experiencing the flyover thing Americans do before big
Speaker 1: sporting events, and I gotta say I've got chills. There's
Speaker 1: two giant bombers flying over the stadium. Spectacular. Yeah, got
Speaker 1: their bomb, America. Welcome to our land. Enjoy yourself, mind
Speaker 1: your p's and qusers are bombers for a reason, all right.
Speaker 3: Stand. Oh wow, you turned the belligerents Armstrong and Getty