WEBVTT - Stupid Joe 0:00:01.940 --> 0:00:05.780 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the 0:00:05.820 --> 0:00:07.820 George Washington Broadcast Center. 0:00:07.860 --> 0:00:12.140 Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now, 0:00:12.500 --> 0:00:17.320 here's Armstrong and Getty. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.139 In France, fresh curfews in Paris leave the city relatively 0:00:27.260 --> 0:00:29.960 quiet tonight after days of destructive riots over. 0:00:29.860 --> 0:00:31.860 The economy and cuts to education. 0:00:31.930 --> 0:00:35.989 However, student-led protesters took to the streets of Albania, some 0:00:36.030 --> 0:00:39.590 throwing stones at officials while police drenched them with water cannons. 0:00:40.050 --> 0:00:43.330 Authorities throughout Europe are bracing for more protests planned for 0:00:43.370 --> 0:00:43.990 this weekend. 0:00:44.110 --> 0:00:46.110 Yeah, it didn't get enough attention that there are a 0:00:46.150 --> 0:00:48.970 number of other countries where they had protests over the weekend, 0:00:49.010 --> 0:00:51.510 not as big as France, but they're at the beginning stages. 0:00:51.550 --> 0:00:52.110 That's why. 0:00:54.100 --> 0:00:56.880 What's her name? The leader of Italy, who flits out 0:00:56.900 --> 0:00:58.200 of my mind. I really like her. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:00.540 Ms. Maloney. What is her first name? 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.900 I like her act. But, man, she put out a 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:05.620 video where she is looking at the camera. She's like, 0:01:05.660 --> 0:01:07.780 we ain't putting up with that here. Basically, what she's saying, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:09.740 we got lots of cops. We're going to arrest you. 0:01:10.020 --> 0:01:11.319 We're going to throw you in jail. 0:01:11.660 --> 0:01:15.160 This won't last. And where was it? Was that in Italy? 0:01:15.410 --> 0:01:17.810 Did you see the video of the tough guys and 0:01:17.830 --> 0:01:21.479 the socialists meeting in the street? Where was it? 0:01:21.510 --> 0:01:24.730 I think it was Italy. Anyway, you had a bunch 0:01:24.750 --> 0:01:27.810 of your pizza present. You had. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.559 A you had a bunch of socialist looking dudes, weedy, 0:01:33.580 --> 0:01:40.200 you know, overly, overly fashionable facial hair doing their riding 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.369 and screaming and yelling. And some and some tough guys 0:01:44.890 --> 0:01:48.030 showed up basically saying, get off the street. And the 0:01:48.090 --> 0:01:49.890 socialist dudes were like, no, we can be here if 0:01:49.910 --> 0:01:51.850 we want. And one guy just shoves the... And I 0:01:51.890 --> 0:01:54.050 don't like violence. I don't like violence. 0:01:54.650 --> 0:01:56.190 Neither do I, theoretically. 0:01:56.210 --> 0:01:58.350 And there's probably all kinds of abhorrent things about the 0:01:58.390 --> 0:02:02.740 tough guys. But that's how this plays out always. You 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.480 get an equal and opposite reaction to that nut job 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:07.340 crowd with a different nut job crowd that says we 0:02:07.380 --> 0:02:09.920 ain't putting up with it often. But anyway, the tough 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.799 guys and just like big guys, T-shirts and jeans, like 0:02:12.900 --> 0:02:15.660 shoving the socialists back. And one of the socialists... Like, hey, 0:02:15.700 --> 0:02:17.860 you can't do that. And then slaps the guy in 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:19.310 the face, which I thought was a good move. A 0:02:19.389 --> 0:02:21.889 slap rather than a punch from a dude that looked 0:02:21.910 --> 0:02:27.030 like he was about 6'2, 240, all muscle. Slapped the 0:02:27.070 --> 0:02:28.010 guy with the man bun. 0:02:28.310 --> 0:02:31.520 Like, get. And they turned around and left. Yeah. 0:02:31.660 --> 0:02:35.460 Well, again, equal and opposite reaction. I agree completely. We've 0:02:35.500 --> 0:02:37.419 seen some of that in our country. We had not 0:02:37.460 --> 0:02:39.400 planned on this. I did not know Jack was going 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.600 to go off on that screed, but it is a 0:02:41.690 --> 0:02:45.380 perfect lead-in to A handful of things France-related, including a 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.750 couple of articles from the New York Times that speak 0:02:48.850 --> 0:02:51.610 more loudly than the words in them. The first being, 0:02:51.690 --> 0:02:55.350 to your point, it's not just France. Europe's political center 0:02:55.450 --> 0:02:59.109 is crumbling. Europe's centrist parties are losing ground among young 0:02:59.150 --> 0:03:02.950 people and workers who are increasingly tempted by populist promises 0:03:03.290 --> 0:03:04.450 of radical change. 0:03:06.030 --> 0:03:07.250 You know, it's true all. 0:03:07.169 --> 0:03:11.240 Over the world, but particularly in Europe, because of the 0:03:11.380 --> 0:03:15.380 false promises and inevitable crash of socialism. And that's what 0:03:15.419 --> 0:03:21.540 makes this so surprising. This is Ash Nelson and Jim Tankersley. Jim, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.430 we've talked to through the years, and he's with the 0:03:24.470 --> 0:03:25.430 New York Times at this point. 0:03:25.470 --> 0:03:27.230 God, I wish we could get him on about this. 0:03:27.250 --> 0:03:29.210 He's so good. Yeah, I like Jim. 0:03:29.870 --> 0:03:35.080 A doom loop threatens France as populism confronts markets. The subhead, 0:03:35.420 --> 0:03:39.650 the turmoil shows the profound challenges facing governments stuck between 0:03:39.870 --> 0:03:43.190 unhappy citizens and wary bond investors. 0:03:43.770 --> 0:03:46.850 So you're thinking, bond investors? I don't know from bond. No, 0:03:46.890 --> 0:03:47.410 here's the deal. 0:03:48.780 --> 0:03:54.160 These governments have made utterly unkeepable promises to their populace 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.430 about cradle to grave everything. And everything's a human right, 0:03:58.830 --> 0:04:01.990 and we'll tax the rich, and we'll deliver all of 0:04:02.050 --> 0:04:04.450 your dreams if you vote for us. Well, they voted 0:04:04.490 --> 0:04:07.070 for them, and these dreams are crumbling because they are 0:04:07.220 --> 0:04:10.880 out of freaking money. They're not only out of money, 0:04:11.100 --> 0:04:13.860 they're out of people dumb enough to lend them money. 0:04:14.300 --> 0:04:16.280 So the reference to the bond market, if you're not 0:04:16.339 --> 0:04:18.930 hip to this sort of thing, is you go to 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.909 people who buy government bonds and you say, hey, we'll 0:04:21.950 --> 0:04:24.810 give you, I don't know, a 7% return on this bond. 0:04:24.830 --> 0:04:28.570 And you're like, you're France. I want 20%. You're like 0:04:28.610 --> 0:04:31.460 a crackhead. I'm not going to trust you with my money. 0:04:31.940 --> 0:04:36.160 Their fiscal problem is that serious now. And for the 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.900 New York Times to have their lead article about France be, well, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.220 they put it in the acute terms, A doom loop 0:04:44.300 --> 0:04:49.420 threatens France as populism confronts markets. I would say as 0:04:49.580 --> 0:04:52.490 populism and socialism confront reality. 0:04:54.070 --> 0:04:59.589 I heard Macron over the weekend promise to however many 0:04:59.990 --> 0:05:03.020 gazillion euros or whatever their money is they use in France. 0:05:04.060 --> 0:05:07.330 Uh, Euros, which factors into the next story. 0:05:07.410 --> 0:05:10.590 To help the store owners who had their stores looted 0:05:11.050 --> 0:05:13.650 and that the government will blah, blah, blah. And I thought, no, 0:05:13.710 --> 0:05:16.750 you ain't. There's no way you're going to. I mean, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.279 that's the doom spiral you're in. All of these fancy 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.700 stores and churches and everything like that, they got smashed 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.320 and burnt down or whatever. The government can't come in 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:26.940 and bail you out. They got no money. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.380 And you're robbing Pierre to pay Jacques. Sorry, couldn't resist. 0:05:31.980 --> 0:05:35.339 So that leads me to the next brick in the wall. 0:05:35.940 --> 0:05:39.080 And that is some really good analysis that wouldn't have 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.870 occurred to me because I'm not as smart as Holman Jenkins, 0:05:41.890 --> 0:05:44.670 a senior who writes for the Wall Street Journal. He 0:05:44.870 --> 0:05:47.310 writes on finance and politics and markets and that sort 0:05:47.350 --> 0:05:47.670 of thing. 0:05:48.630 --> 0:05:49.690 Wish my name was Holman. 0:05:51.390 --> 0:05:52.590 Yeah, yeah. 0:05:52.670 --> 0:05:55.050 You know, I'm Joseph III, which is fine. 0:05:55.110 --> 0:05:57.000 Honors my father and my grandfather before me. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:57.600 I love that. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:05.179 But, you know, Wyndham or Holman or something fancy sounding. 0:06:05.220 --> 0:06:06.599 People would take me more seriously. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.020 Yeah, I know. I feel like people would listen to 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:09.260 me more if my name was Holman. 0:06:11.150 --> 0:06:13.030 I've thought of going with the first initial and the 0:06:13.050 --> 0:06:14.730 middle name because that sounds fancy. 0:06:15.350 --> 0:06:19.450 Jay Walter. Yes. That does sound fancy. We must take 0:06:19.490 --> 0:06:26.180 him much more seriously than Joe. Stupid Joe. Anyway, where 0:06:26.220 --> 0:06:31.969 was I? Stupid Joe. Oh, ignore him. He's named Joe. 0:06:32.890 --> 0:06:36.290 So, Holman Jenkins is talking about how, first, he leads 0:06:36.330 --> 0:06:40.390 with the Euro, and the whole Eurozone thing was looking 0:06:40.410 --> 0:06:44.060 a little weak before Putin jumped ugly with Ukraine. But 0:06:44.100 --> 0:06:46.339 it's brought Europe together, and so the Euro is here 0:06:46.380 --> 0:06:49.380 to stay, which I thought was interesting. I don't think 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.440 about that too much. But then he goes into. 0:06:56.029 --> 0:06:59.750 The fact that France is in a financial death spiral. 0:07:01.010 --> 0:07:05.590 They have a desperate need to cut budgets, to restore 0:07:05.650 --> 0:07:09.310 fiscal sanity, and it's going to be really, really painful. 0:07:09.750 --> 0:07:13.100 And they have both a political system and a populace that. 0:07:12.980 --> 0:07:15.680 Won't put up with the tiniest bit of pain. 0:07:16.100 --> 0:07:18.000 Even raising the retirement age from 62 to 63, they 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.160 went wild in the street. Well, Marine Le Pen, the 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.580 far-right candidate that currently would win the election if it 0:07:26.620 --> 0:07:29.580 were held today, but it's in six months, she's talking 0:07:29.620 --> 0:07:33.490 about lowering the retirement age to 60. It's kind of 0:07:33.530 --> 0:07:36.330 like Trump on the trail saying, we'll give you all. 0:07:36.090 --> 0:07:40.550 $ 5, 000. You vote me in and I'll lower the retirement age. 0:07:40.590 --> 0:07:43.020 The other bad people are trying to raise it. 0:07:43.650 --> 0:07:43.989 What? 0:07:44.630 --> 0:07:47.170 That's the right winger. Oh, Lord. 0:07:47.210 --> 0:07:47.570 Yeah. 0:07:48.630 --> 0:07:53.100 So Jenkins points out that France is too big to 0:07:53.180 --> 0:07:55.740 fail and also too big to bail out, which leaves 0:07:55.780 --> 0:07:59.140 only one realistic choice. France pulls itself together or takes 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.080 Europe down with it. This is an unbelievable rock in 0:08:03.100 --> 0:08:06.200 a hard place situation. He says there's really no other alternative, 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.510 no matter the winner of next year's presidential election. There's 0:08:09.550 --> 0:08:12.750 likely no alternative to self-help except France flaking out of 0:08:12.810 --> 0:08:16.610 the Eurozone, seeing its living standards plummet, and seeing all 0:08:16.630 --> 0:08:19.510 those nice chateaus and paintings bought up by rich Chinese 0:08:19.590 --> 0:08:23.260 and Americans. Or it can become North Korea on the 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.010 Cote d'Azur, shutting itself off from the world in pursuit of, 0:08:27.020 --> 0:08:30.560 he uses the term, penurious. If I was Jay Walter, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:35.120 I would say things like penurious, but economic self-sufficiency. 0:08:36.390 --> 0:08:38.030 They're hurting for certain. 0:08:38.230 --> 0:08:40.500 Fancy French paintings are going to be in the hands 0:08:40.550 --> 0:08:45.040 of actual oligarchs, Russian style or Chinese style. 0:08:45.780 --> 0:08:49.120 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're going to buy the whole country. Hell, 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.250 I may put my bid in. I searched this just 0:08:52.330 --> 0:08:53.970 to confirm it. 0:08:54.690 --> 0:08:57.970 Yes, Marine Le Pen is pushing to bring France's retirement 0:08:58.050 --> 0:09:01.530 age back down to 62 and then 60 for people 0:09:01.550 --> 0:09:06.699 who started working young. At a debate just about six 0:09:06.740 --> 0:09:10.160 weeks ago, she confirmed she would keep this pledge. That's 0:09:10.580 --> 0:09:16.920 the conservative right-winger wants to lower the retirement age in 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.960 a country that has just fallen apart because the socialism 0:09:19.980 --> 0:09:20.860 has gone too far. 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:21.870 Yeah. 0:09:22.250 --> 0:09:23.449 It's unbelievable. 0:09:24.230 --> 0:09:28.330 This is politically better metaphor, the unstoppable force meeting the 0:09:28.470 --> 0:09:33.370 immovable object. The immovable object being French sentiment. Yeah, and 0:09:33.410 --> 0:09:35.329 it's the whole race to the bottom thing that I 0:09:35.370 --> 0:09:38.280 always worry about. Once you start a race to the bottom, swirling, 0:09:38.940 --> 0:09:40.780 and then when people, and I think this is where 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.179 they are in France, where she's saying, I can talk about. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.260 Raising it to 65 or lowering it to 40. It 0:09:47.300 --> 0:09:48.980 doesn't make any difference. We're doomed. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.230 But if I say the lower direction, I get elected. 0:09:53.330 --> 0:09:55.760 and then can do the hard stuff theoretically. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.810 Or it doesn't make any difference. It's all falling apart. 0:09:58.850 --> 0:10:00.820 Whether I get elected or someone else gets elected. But 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.219 I'd rather I get elected. I mean, they might be 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.040 at that point of cynicism where they think, it's done, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:06.660 it's over. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.900 Then I'll get the money from the Chinese oligarchs. I 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.380 might as well get those checks exactly. Penurious means extremely 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.890 poor or poverty stricken. And they will be. So that's 0:10:17.980 --> 0:10:21.160 enough like big picture why I keep saying this could 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.780 be the most important story of our time and not 0:10:23.820 --> 0:10:24.400 in a good way. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.760 Europe is wobbling. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.670 It's a prize fighter that clearly isn't sure which direction 0:10:31.710 --> 0:10:35.949 his corner is. And this could end not great. I 0:10:35.990 --> 0:10:38.929 want to get into the specifics of the politics, though, 0:10:39.270 --> 0:10:43.550 in the next segment, because the stench of what got 0:10:43.630 --> 0:10:47.340 France into this position is on our doorsteps. Hell, it's 0:10:47.390 --> 0:10:50.040 in our living room right now in the United States. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.480 And by God, we better wake up to it, or 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.179 we are heading down that same road. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.400 What's the name of the guy on the left, Melonhead, 0:10:58.460 --> 0:10:59.760 or whatever he is there in France? 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:00.179 Melenchon. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:00.420 Melenchon. 0:11:00.900 --> 0:11:05.610 He is, how dare you try austerity? So you got the, 0:11:06.370 --> 0:11:10.089 austerity is a no-go. He was supporting the rioting in 0:11:10.110 --> 0:11:12.470 the streets of the idea of any cutbacks. 0:11:12.950 --> 0:11:13.670 He's the left. 0:11:13.790 --> 0:11:17.480 The person on the right wants to lower the retirement age. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:19.660 Oh, my God. 0:11:20.179 --> 0:11:22.140 All right, class, and then we need to take a break. 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:28.959 Why would Mr. Melanchon support austerity? policies that will bring 0:11:29.059 --> 0:11:31.290 the ruin of the French Republic. 0:11:32.390 --> 0:11:36.990 Why? Is he that stupid? Jimmy in the back? Because 0:11:37.030 --> 0:11:39.330 he wants it to fail to take it over in 0:11:39.350 --> 0:11:43.329 a Marxist revolution. Good, Jimmy. At least somebody's paying attention. Yeah, 0:11:43.350 --> 0:11:46.150 that's the point. They're trying to crack the system so 0:11:46.190 --> 0:11:49.559 they can take it over. Interesting. Any thoughts? Text line 415295KFTC. 0:11:49.580 --> 0:11:59.949 Armstrong and Getty. Mentioning another show, which is probably not 0:11:59.970 --> 0:12:00.650 the best idea. 0:12:00.690 --> 0:12:03.750 Apparently, Eric Erickson went off on the whole Vivek ad 0:12:03.809 --> 0:12:07.580 last night that we played last hour, declared it disqualifying 0:12:07.620 --> 0:12:10.439 if he doesn't blame a staffer or disavow it. I 0:12:10.460 --> 0:12:13.260 think I'd agree. If you didn't hear that, it's pretty 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.840 darn interesting. It's an hour to get the podcast Armstrong 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:16.820 and Getty on demand. 0:12:17.700 --> 0:12:21.459 Continuing the discussion of France, if you're an occasional listener, 0:12:21.540 --> 0:12:24.740 don't follow the news much, and you are still thinking 0:12:24.780 --> 0:12:27.079 this is student protests over schools. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.370 Not enough chalk! Yeah, no, not at all, not even close. 0:12:31.410 --> 0:12:33.750 It may have started as that, but we'll get to 0:12:33.890 --> 0:12:35.949 the significance of that in a minute. A couple of 0:12:35.990 --> 0:12:37.890 just quick updates for you, and then we'll get to 0:12:37.910 --> 0:12:42.420 the main point. The arsonist who was behind, who ran 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.240 the burning of the Limoges City Hall, this is the 0:12:45.380 --> 0:12:49.610 beautiful 19th century historic building that the Nazis occupied and said, 0:12:49.620 --> 0:12:51.200 this is too beautiful, we're not going to damage it. 0:12:51.929 --> 0:12:55.929 But the rioters burned it to the ground. The arsonist 0:12:56.010 --> 0:12:59.990 has been detained. He is a 40-year-old far-left Antifa activist. 0:13:00.470 --> 0:13:03.770 on France's national security watch list for his ties to ultra-radical, 0:13:04.590 --> 0:13:07.350 ultra-left extremist movements. He has a long history of police 0:13:07.390 --> 0:13:11.069 records for violence against a person holding public authority. He's 0:13:11.470 --> 0:13:15.330 a hardcore Marxist, not surprising at all to me. And 0:13:15.350 --> 0:13:19.329 then I saw this on Twitter. It's an argument taking 0:13:19.390 --> 0:13:20.550 place in France. 0:13:20.570 --> 0:13:21.350 I think it's in Paris. 0:13:22.330 --> 0:13:27.370 A woman had rioters and looters break into her building 0:13:27.630 --> 0:13:33.030 and threatened to rape her They were immigrant fellows while 0:13:33.100 --> 0:13:36.720 she was holding her child in her arms. And she 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:41.140 was talking about this, and she was confronted by the 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.280 feminist activist Bettina Zorli, who holds a master's degree in 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.840 gender studies and focuses her work on gender norms, motherhood, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:54.600 reproductive rights, etc. She describes herself as feminist, child-free, and antifa. 0:13:55.179 --> 0:13:59.500 But she lectured this woman that that's collateral damage. You're 0:13:59.830 --> 0:14:02.590 the bourgeoisie. You're going to be heard in this for 0:14:02.630 --> 0:14:04.690 the people to rise up and take what is theirs. 0:14:04.750 --> 0:14:06.410 That's straight out of the French Revolution. 0:14:07.150 --> 0:14:09.890 She's lectured in gender studies, including at the University of 0:14:10.070 --> 0:14:11.770 Lille and University of Rennes. 0:14:12.340 --> 0:14:15.020 Anyway, I thought that was interesting. It's in French. 0:14:15.059 --> 0:14:18.160 Otherwise, I'd run you the audio. But she is a 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.859 she's exactly what you said. She's a terrifying specter. of 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.109 the sort of intellectual who will slaughter millions of people 0:14:25.150 --> 0:14:29.430 for their goals because Marxism is always run by the intellectuals. 0:14:29.450 --> 0:14:32.490 Man, they got to grease up the guillotine. That's what 0:14:32.550 --> 0:14:34.010 I say. That's what you just said. 0:14:34.410 --> 0:14:36.550 So, uh, I wanted to get to this, uh, by 0:14:36.610 --> 0:14:39.620 Richard Pollack. Uh, he says, France is burning again. The 0:14:39.650 --> 0:14:43.160 late legendary May, 1968 French riots are returning. 0:14:43.180 --> 0:14:45.220 Um, and he points. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.440 Out getting back to the student protest thing, which is 0:14:48.700 --> 0:14:51.240 another example of they spend like crazy on the schools 0:14:51.300 --> 0:14:54.230 in France. I mean, lots and lots of money, but 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.490 the schools are terrible because socialism and unions and the 0:14:58.510 --> 0:15:02.210 rest of it ruin everything. Um, But he points out 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.590 most Marxist playbooks start with a grievance, then morph into 0:15:05.670 --> 0:15:10.270 revolutionary violence. And we're seeing that playbook again. as the 0:15:10.290 --> 0:15:13.360 Prime Minister said, a shadowy network of far-left and revolutionary 0:15:13.430 --> 0:15:16.260 agitators were seeking to orchestrate, quote, a profound disorder in 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.940 the country leading up to the presidential election. And Pollack writes, 0:15:20.140 --> 0:15:23.440 he knows quite a bit about Marxism and revolutionary violence. 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.320 One of his, in the 70s, his roommate was one 0:15:26.340 --> 0:15:30.270 of the Chicago Seven defendants, and he knew the people 0:15:30.770 --> 0:15:35.570 who knew Saul Alinsky, who wrote the Bible of Leftist Protest, 0:15:35.950 --> 0:15:40.670 Rules for Radicals, a practical primer for realistic radicals. And 0:15:40.750 --> 0:15:43.030 he goes into all the techniques that he's seeing in 0:15:43.050 --> 0:15:49.720 the French riots and how right Alinsky was with his strategies. 0:15:49.900 --> 0:15:54.020 And Herbert Marcuse, who I think was a German, but 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.570 who was into liberation, Marxism, that sort of thing. But 0:15:59.630 --> 0:16:04.340 he makes it infinitely clear that This is straight out 0:16:04.380 --> 0:16:06.660 of Rules for Radicals. And this is another example of 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.620 what I'm always yelling about, which is these people told 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.540 us precisely what they were going to do, how they 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.440 were going to do it. Their names are on the 0:16:14.500 --> 0:16:17.520 spines of the book. This is not a conspiracy theory. 0:16:17.610 --> 0:16:20.670 It's a political movement. It's super popular. 0:16:20.770 --> 0:16:23.070 It's well-financed, and they're dead serious. 0:16:23.530 --> 0:16:25.310 Then the last thing I wanted to squeeze in is 0:16:25.350 --> 0:16:27.390 that he points out the thing that was missing in 0:16:27.410 --> 0:16:28.350 the 1968 and the early 70s was Islamism. 0:16:28.370 --> 0:16:28.440 Hmm. 0:16:34.270 --> 0:16:34.830 In France. 0:16:35.170 --> 0:16:39.290 So now you've got this huge coalition of angry, alienated 0:16:39.490 --> 0:16:43.000 Muslims who either hate their lives or they hate France 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:44.340 for not being Muslim. 0:16:45.020 --> 0:16:48.360 And they have a grievance. Back to the first sentence. 0:16:48.860 --> 0:16:52.040 Most Marxist playbooks start with a grievance, then morph into 0:16:52.100 --> 0:16:56.229 revolutionary violence. We're seeing that playbook again. France is terrible. 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.380 and Europe is teetering, and I don't think most people 0:17:00.420 --> 0:17:01.239 appreciate that yet. 0:17:01.700 --> 0:17:05.850 Young plays a big role in this, too, usually. Sure. 0:17:05.869 --> 0:17:08.949 They buy the politics easier, and they got more energy. 0:17:09.369 --> 0:17:13.689 France's youth unemployment is 20%, three times what it is 0:17:13.750 --> 0:17:14.969 next door in Germany, by the way. 0:17:15.260 --> 0:17:17.500 That's a lot of unhappy, unemployed young men. 0:17:18.300 --> 0:17:19.379 Armstrong and Getty. 0:17:21.230 --> 0:17:21.670 That U.S. 0:17:21.710 --> 0:17:24.950 Citizen held by Russia has just been freed. And it 0:17:25.030 --> 0:17:28.810 comes as Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia overnight 0:17:29.150 --> 0:17:32.110 to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss ending his invasion 0:17:32.250 --> 0:17:37.590 of Ukraine. 74-year-old Stephen Hubbard has been in custody. since 0:17:37.590 --> 0:17:40.590 2022 when Russia arrested him and accused him of being 0:17:40.630 --> 0:17:44.730 a mercenary fighting for Ukraine. Hubbard is a retired school 0:17:44.780 --> 0:17:48.680 teacher from Michigan and has been classified as wrongly detained 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:49.240 by the U.S. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:50.100 State Department. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.560 This seems so transparently cynical to me, or I suppose 0:17:53.580 --> 0:17:56.420 you can take it as a goodwill gesture that shows 0:17:56.500 --> 0:18:00.960 Putin's actual inclination for peace, if you're like a child 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.720 or have an IQ of 40. But who is this 0:18:04.780 --> 0:18:09.530 dude that Russia let loose? He's actually a quirky old bird. 0:18:09.550 --> 0:18:11.010 He left the U.S. 0:18:11.090 --> 0:18:15.630 Decades ago. He didn't like the government. He went to Japan, 0:18:15.650 --> 0:18:18.609 then Cyprus, and finally Ukraine. He was living in a 0:18:18.690 --> 0:18:21.310 small town in eastern Ukraine when the Russians invaded. 0:18:22.210 --> 0:18:26.690 They snatched him up. When was this written? He's 74 0:18:26.690 --> 0:18:27.010 years old. 0:18:29.060 --> 0:18:31.960 They snatched him up and accused him of fighting for Ukraine, 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:37.360 this quirky old bearded, you know, old American who just 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:41.580 like taught English to feed himself. I've known a few 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.929 people that traveled around the world doing that. Apparently, it's 0:18:43.970 --> 0:18:44.830 really easy to do. 0:18:45.650 --> 0:18:47.510 You can go to all kinds of different countries and 0:18:47.550 --> 0:18:50.310 there are rich families that would be happier in hell. 0:18:50.550 --> 0:18:52.490 And you don't have to be like a teacher. Just 0:18:52.530 --> 0:18:54.449 sit around and speak English to their kids. 0:18:55.260 --> 0:18:55.450 Yeah. 0:18:56.060 --> 0:18:56.940 And conversational English. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.959 And they pay you enough to make a living. I've 0:18:59.980 --> 0:19:00.719 had friends who did that. 0:19:01.550 --> 0:19:02.030 If there is. 0:19:02.010 --> 0:19:04.070 Reincarnation, I would like to come back and do that. 0:19:04.090 --> 0:19:06.370 Cause that would be an unbelievable adventure. And you'd learn 0:19:06.430 --> 0:19:06.770 so much. 0:19:06.810 --> 0:19:08.889 I think. Except you'd talk like a heck if I 0:19:08.910 --> 0:19:10.570 did it, you know, talking like a heck. Do you 0:19:10.590 --> 0:19:13.150 want that? No, no, you got to get a bread 0:19:13.190 --> 0:19:15.960 in there. Uh, give him the, the accent. 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.919 But one more thing on this guy, uh, apparently according 0:19:18.980 --> 0:19:22.119 to the, one of the guys he was held with, um, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:25.070 And keep this in mind when you hear some of 0:19:25.090 --> 0:19:34.710 the clips coming up. He was regularly beaten, tortured. His cellmate, 0:19:34.750 --> 0:19:39.490 I'm flipping down to it, said they were regularly stripped naked, 0:19:39.810 --> 0:19:45.070 forced to stand at attention all day, every day, forced 0:19:45.130 --> 0:19:48.590 into the splits, and guys would tear tendons and not 0:19:48.630 --> 0:19:51.939 be able to walk normally anymore. anymore just absolute and 0:19:51.980 --> 0:19:55.290 the russians took particular liking to tormenting this guy because 0:19:55.350 --> 0:19:57.629 he was an american um and it. 0:19:57.609 --> 0:20:02.530 Was very very ugly they should be more scared of that. 0:20:04.490 --> 0:20:06.909 I remember Henry Kissinger, who some people think is a 0:20:06.970 --> 0:20:08.750 war criminal and too much of a hard ass. I 0:20:08.770 --> 0:20:13.200 liked him saying years ago, countries around the world should 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.880 be terrified the idea of snatching an American. 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:18.780 I love that. 0:20:18.820 --> 0:20:21.470 Not you get to snatch an American and torture them 0:20:21.550 --> 0:20:24.510 for years. And we just consider it goodwill if you 0:20:24.550 --> 0:20:26.690 give them back. And there's really no price to pay. 0:20:27.190 --> 0:20:27.390 Yeah. 0:20:27.910 --> 0:20:28.869 Yeah, no kidding. 0:20:29.109 --> 0:20:31.210 And then, well, I don't want to steal the thunder, 0:20:31.250 --> 0:20:33.190 but say things like you're about to hear. 0:20:33.210 --> 0:20:35.649 Yeah, so I thought this was pretty interesting. I don't 0:20:35.670 --> 0:20:37.950 know if I'd ever heard this guy before on Fox, 0:20:38.010 --> 0:20:41.450 Fox and Friends, Dan Hoffman, who apparently has been a 0:20:41.510 --> 0:20:45.100 correspondent out of Russia and knows Putin's act really, really well. 0:20:46.100 --> 0:20:51.220 He wasn't quite going with the happy, happy, joy, joy, 0:20:51.859 --> 0:20:54.900 isn't it fantastic that Russia gave this guy back? Look, 0:20:54.940 --> 0:20:57.760 Putin is in a is a humanitarian who wants peace. 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.600 This is Dan Hoffman on Fox this morning. 0:21:00.090 --> 0:21:04.490 So he was wrongfully detained, a 74-year-old school teacher from Michigan. 0:21:05.090 --> 0:21:07.850 After teaching in Japan, he taught in Cyprus. He moved 0:21:07.890 --> 0:21:12.350 to Ukraine, to Izyum in eastern Ukraine in 2014. And 0:21:12.369 --> 0:21:16.669 then in April of 2022, the Russians wrongfully detained him. 0:21:16.750 --> 0:21:21.090 They claimed that he had signed a contract worth $ 1, 000 0:21:19.770 --> 0:21:22.330 a month to fight on the behalf of the Ukrainians, which, 0:21:22.369 --> 0:21:26.090 of course, he denied. That's a chip for Vladimir Putin, 0:21:26.170 --> 0:21:27.490 and he cashed it when. 0:21:27.390 --> 0:21:28.020 They released him. 0:21:28.170 --> 0:21:30.820