Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast.
Speaker 2: Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty Armstrong.
Speaker 1: And Getty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3: The American Revolution is the most important event since the
Speaker 3: birth of Christ in all of world history.
Speaker 4: I loved hearing that, flipping on face. The nation got
Speaker 4: back from vacation and they had ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker,
Speaker 4: the most famous documentary filmmaker who's ever lived, on there
Speaker 4: to talk about his new documentary about the American Revolution,
Speaker 4: which is coming out in November. But they interviewed him
Speaker 4: for Fourth of July weekend and him presenting it in
Speaker 4: this is a fantastic thing that happened for world history terms.
Speaker 4: It's just my whole life that was normal, but after
Speaker 4: the last you know, four or five years of wokeness,
Speaker 4: it kind of was a little.
Speaker 1: Like knocked me down. WHOA people still think this.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: I don't want to get off on this tangent too much,
Speaker 2: but I find myself a little bit surprised, as ken
Speaker 2: Burns has been a little howard zinish for me in
Speaker 2: recent years.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad to hear it.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's just a canny businessman, and he knows who's
Speaker 2: going to watch these this documentary. But I love what
Speaker 2: he's said. I hate to be that a cynical. Well,
Speaker 2: that makes you a sap. Before we get into the
Speaker 2: more of the interview, Well, I don't want to steal
Speaker 2: this thunder.
Speaker 1: We'll do that first.
Speaker 2: Then I've got another great quote that's a similar sort
Speaker 2: of sentiment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we missed fourth of July with you while we
Speaker 4: were gone on vacation, so we're catching up a little
Speaker 4: on that sort of talk here.
Speaker 1: And here's Ken Burns talking about his documentary.
Speaker 5: You called the revolutionary period a civil war? Was that
Speaker 5: always your conception of the rev How did you come
Speaker 5: to think of it that way?
Speaker 3: I think because there's no photographs and there's no newsreels,
Speaker 3: and they're in stockings and breaches and powdered wigs, there's
Speaker 3: a sense of distance from them.
Speaker 1: I think we.
Speaker 3: Also are so proud, rightfully of the power of the
Speaker 3: big ideas that we just don't want to get into
Speaker 3: the fact that it was this bloody civil war patriots
Speaker 3: against loyalists, disaffected people, native people, enslaved and free people
Speaker 3: within it, foreign powers that are ultimately engaged in this
Speaker 3: is a big world war. By the end, I think
Speaker 3: we perhaps are fearful that those big ideas are diminished,
Speaker 3: and they're not in any way. They're in fact become
Speaker 3: even more inspiring that they emerge from the turmoil.
Speaker 1: Why not roll on then we'll discuss, Michael, how should.
Speaker 5: We think about the Declaration of independence this period in
Speaker 5: America in our present day.
Speaker 3: First of all, I think the American Revolution is the
Speaker 3: most important event since the birth of Christ in all
Speaker 3: of world history. I mean, it turned the world upside down,
Speaker 3: which is the cliche. Before this moment, everyone was a subject,
Speaker 3: essentially under the rule of somebody else. We had created,
Speaker 3: in this moment a very brand new thing called a citizen.
Speaker 1: And this has had powerful effects.
Speaker 3: It's going to set in motion revolutions for the next
Speaker 3: two plus centuries all around the world, all attempting to
Speaker 3: sort of give a new expression to this idea that
Speaker 3: all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their
Speaker 3: creator with certain unalienable rights. And that's a big, big
Speaker 3: deal in world history.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and hearing ken Burns say that and CBS, you know,
Speaker 4: going along with it. It shouldn't be like cold water
Speaker 4: being splashed in my face, but it was, and I
Speaker 4: was happy to hear it.
Speaker 2: I remember when for a long time the notion, again,
Speaker 2: the Howard Zinish down with American notion was it wasn't
Speaker 2: a revolution. It was just a rebellion. I mean, theists
Speaker 2: not happy with the crown, and they decided they wanted
Speaker 2: a different government and it came to blows.
Speaker 1: And no, I mean it.
Speaker 2: Instituted on earth an experiment in self governance and a
Speaker 2: lot of other incredibly important fundamentals like free speech that
Speaker 2: had not been tried. Yeah, it was a rebellion against
Speaker 2: the crown, but in favor of trying something wildly new,
Speaker 2: which is perhaps the most successful experiment that's ever been
Speaker 2: done well.
Speaker 4: And to take it further than that, the fact that
Speaker 4: the sixteen nineteen project eld sway there for a couple
Speaker 4: of years and unfortunately still does in your freaking schools,
Speaker 4: your school's library. The idea that, no, the revolution was
Speaker 4: to found slavery and make sure we could keep the
Speaker 4: whole slavery thing going. That was the point of the revolution,
Speaker 4: and that was the prevailing view there for like a year,
Speaker 4: along to people with the megaphones of society.
Speaker 2: Yeah, education and media it's an I've seen a suggestion
Speaker 2: absolutely obscene. You know I'm going to hit you with
Speaker 2: this real quickly from Jonah Goldberg. Then we can get
Speaker 2: back to the interview. I just don't want to steal
Speaker 2: all of its thunder. The birth of the United States
Speaker 2: of America was not merely the most important geopolitical event
Speaker 2: since the Fall of Rome, or the most important intentional
Speaker 2: political event ever. Because Rome's fall wasn't exactly a planned
Speaker 2: out exercise, it was the signature catalyst for the real
Speaker 2: world realization of various Enlightenment principles like democracy, human rights,
Speaker 2: free speech, and representative government. The unfolding success of that
Speaker 2: experiment over the subsequent two and a half centuries, with
Speaker 2: America becoming the single most influential and powerful country in
Speaker 2: the world, lends even more weight to the momentousness of
Speaker 2: the American founding, and it certainly ranks among the most
Speaker 2: consequential events in all of human history, political and non
Speaker 2: political alike.
Speaker 4: No doubt I mean to argue against that is well,
Speaker 4: it's crazy.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 4: I hope it's over, but you can't look at enough
Speaker 4: that period. We just came through the whole George Floyd
Speaker 4: sixteen nineteen project tearing down the statues, which I saw
Speaker 4: some of in New York. All that sort of stuff,
Speaker 4: just craziness. We lost our minds. Thank god that didn't
Speaker 4: win the day. At the time, it felt like it
Speaker 4: was gonna win.
Speaker 1: The day, right, right, And if you were fighting against it,
Speaker 1: good for you.
Speaker 4: And I'm so excited that Ken Burns thought, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do a documentary about the American Revolution and
Speaker 4: present it as a good thing, like a great thing,
Speaker 4: like one of the greatest things that ever happened to
Speaker 4: human beings.
Speaker 2: Right, As I've said many, many times about religion and
Speaker 2: a dozen other subjects, if you ask human beings to
Speaker 2: be in charge of something, it's gonna get screwed up.
Speaker 2: That's the way we are. But that doesn't diminish the
Speaker 2: greatness the wonder of the founding of the country and
Speaker 2: the principles on which it was founded. Yeah, human beings
Speaker 2: were in charge. So we did a bad job of it,
Speaker 2: but it's still a wondrous thing. Do you want to
Speaker 2: do the other one or the other clipper now, all.
Speaker 1: So, what happens here.
Speaker 3: Is I suppose you could, you know, miss the point
Speaker 3: and say it's a quarrel between Englishmen. But it is
Speaker 3: the beginning of something absolutely new in the world, and
Speaker 3: that is something to celebrate and to understand. Two that
Speaker 3: it comes out of so much division that's going on
Speaker 3: between the states. People in New Hampshire and Georgia are
Speaker 3: they're from different countries, they believe different things. That you
Speaker 3: could have the divisions of loyalists and patriots, you could
Speaker 3: have this, all the things that are roiling in these
Speaker 3: colonies and understand that out of that we could still
Speaker 3: figure out a way to come together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, making the point that we've always been divided, very
Speaker 4: divided over various subjects of various times, and so what
Speaker 4: we're doing now is not something new. They do get
Speaker 4: into a conversation that I really liked about the importance
Speaker 4: of people, you know, being into this, caring about it, Yes,
Speaker 4: paying attention to what's going on, and you know, so
Speaker 4: I think that's the different thing that people are missing
Speaker 4: is the lack of civic engagement that we have. So
Speaker 4: we're arguing about things in a nonsensical way that I
Speaker 4: don't feel like was always.
Speaker 1: Our nation's history.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Politics is always grubbier in the
Speaker 2: moment than when we look back on it in history
Speaker 2: and more stupid. The thing that troubles me, and I
Speaker 2: was just going to say to set up the next segment,
Speaker 2: is if you think, well, ken Burns is back to
Speaker 2: being a patriot so everything's fine.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: There's a new Gallop poll out about patriotism pride in
Speaker 2: the United States, and the numbers particularly are going to bring.
Speaker 4: I had brought my self up listening to the ken
Speaker 4: Burns interview thing and Wow, I can't believe this is
Speaker 4: on network television, that they're even okay saying out loud
Speaker 4: the American Revolution was a good thing and the founding
Speaker 4: fathers did something great for humanity, because I can't remember
Speaker 4: the last time anybody said that out loud on network TV.
Speaker 1: I was so excited about that. Now you're gonna bring
Speaker 1: me and it's gonna be like a good movie.
Speaker 2: Jack, I'm gonna slap down your childlike enthusiasms, and then
Speaker 2: we'll bring it back around.
Speaker 1: Move it there.
Speaker 2: But then at the end, at the end, Michael, we'll
Speaker 2: be moving up. I thought that was clear as the
Speaker 2: commuters and again say I'm gonna take a flamethrower to
Speaker 2: that thing. I swear to God, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was.
Speaker 4: I mentioned this earlier as at the Museum of Natural
Speaker 4: History in New York, and they first time I'd been
Speaker 4: there since they took down the Teddy Roosevelt statue. That
Speaker 4: was like the iconic front view of that very famous museum,
Speaker 4: Teddy Roosevelt on his horse and the fact that they
Speaker 4: took it down because they were like Native people walking
Speaker 4: along the horse and that symbolized white men. Did my question?
Speaker 4: I was asking my kids. They got really tired of
Speaker 4: my rants over vacation, But like, did that help a
Speaker 4: single human being? Taking down that statue? Did that help
Speaker 4: one human in any way? Was there anybody ever by
Speaker 4: the way, that ever walked by that statue and was
Speaker 4: hurt by it?
Speaker 3: One?
Speaker 4: I'm looking for one human being that was damaged by
Speaker 4: the existence of that statue.
Speaker 1: No, I could make a counter argument.
Speaker 2: It's so crazy, Yeah, that it actually benefited people, many people,
Speaker 2: including a Native people.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 4: Anyway, Joe's got his poll to bring us down, and
Speaker 4: then he's going to bring his back up next.
Speaker 3: The American Revolution is the most important event since the
Speaker 3: birth of Christ in all of world history.
Speaker 4: I love hearing that from Ken Burns about his new
Speaker 4: documentary because it's true, and it's amazing how little we
Speaker 4: teach it anymore. I remember when David McCullough, the historian
Speaker 4: who wrote the real popular books John Adams in seventeen
Speaker 4: seventy six and those great, great books, very accessible, and
Speaker 4: he said, we can never learn enough about these people
Speaker 4: in this period.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the whole thing, it's the whole ball
Speaker 1: of acts. And yet we've.
Speaker 2: Let, especially our education system and some other of the
Speaker 2: institutions run by the left, pervert that story and teach
Speaker 2: young people, most tragically the opposite that it was an
Speaker 2: act to perpetuate slavery by evil people and racists, and
Speaker 2: it's regrettable and it should have never happened. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's an obscene thing to teach the young people of
Speaker 2: this country.
Speaker 4: Or you just leave out all the good stuff and
Speaker 4: focus on the bad stuff, which is ken Burns actually
Speaker 4: said that in his interview on CBS. He said, I'm
Speaker 4: pretty sure that's where he said it is. Imagine if
Speaker 4: you did that with your spouse or wherever. All you
Speaker 4: do is you focus on their negatives as opposed to
Speaker 4: all the positives that they'd bring.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: John Fund wrote a great piece for the National Review,
Speaker 2: and it's entitled or wellianly enough, when we forget our history,
Speaker 2: we risk our future. But it's based around the fact
Speaker 2: that a new Gallup poll shows that the partisan gap
Speaker 2: on basic patriotism is now the width of the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2: And more troubling than the partisan gap to me, although
Speaker 2: that's truggling enough, is the youth gap we have. As
Speaker 2: my athletic trainer Dave often says, you get what you
Speaker 2: train for you sit around all day. That's what your
Speaker 2: body's going to be good at sitting around all day. Well,
Speaker 2: if you teach your young people to hate their country,
Speaker 2: they're going to hate their country. Gallup reports that Americans
Speaker 2: have become less patriotic over time. That difference is primarily
Speaker 2: driven by Democrats. Only thirty six percent of them say
Speaker 2: there extremely are very proud of America, the lowest number
Speaker 2: ever recorded.
Speaker 1: Sarely more than a third that is so crazy.
Speaker 2: Among Generations Z, which is those adults born in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety seven or later, only twenty four percent of Democrats
Speaker 2: are extremely or very proud of the United States.
Speaker 1: Under a quarter.
Speaker 2: More Gen Z Democrats say they have little or no
Speaker 2: pride in being American that's thirty two percent to twenty
Speaker 2: four over extremely or very Oh well, all there.
Speaker 1: Are reasons for this. I was about to jump out.
Speaker 1: We all know what the reasons for this.
Speaker 4: We've created a culture, especially in our schools, where you
Speaker 4: should be shunned or embarrassed to feel good about the
Speaker 4: United States.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would be mocked and shamed for that.
Speaker 4: I mean in your librarian told you this, and your
Speaker 4: second grade teacher, and you know, it's just the culture.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So only thirty six percent of Democrats say they're extremely
Speaker 2: or very proud. By comparison, fifty three percent of Independence
Speaker 2: express a great deal of pride in their country, though
Speaker 2: that is seven points down from the most recent poll
Speaker 2: before it. But again that is a what is that
Speaker 2: a twenty seven percent at nine percent more than Democrats.
Speaker 1: That's shocking.
Speaker 2: National pride among Republicans registered at ninety two percent, which
Speaker 2: is up from eighty five percent in Gallup's measurement last year.
Speaker 2: So there's obviously a I don't know, five to ten
Speaker 2: percent shift based on the politics in the direction of
Speaker 2: the country at any given time.
Speaker 1: I wish they could craft the question in a way
Speaker 1: that got past that, but they haven't.
Speaker 2: And then fun gets into the fact that there are
Speaker 2: many possible explanations for the general decline patriotism from poor
Speaker 2: economic prospects for young people the greater partisan ranker. But
Speaker 2: surely one factor is at public schools. In many private
Speaker 2: schools now rarely teach civics or a positive view of
Speaker 2: America's America's founding. New Cato Institute poll reveals a shocking
Speaker 2: level of ignorance about US history and our government. More
Speaker 2: than half did not know why the American colonies adopted
Speaker 2: the Declaration of Independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 1: Couldn't even come up with a coherent explanation.
Speaker 2: Young people the least likely to know, with two thirds
Speaker 2: of eighteen to twenty nine year olds expressing ignorance. Maybe
Speaker 2: that explains why fifty three percent of gen z also
Speaker 2: support writing.
Speaker 1: A new constitution.
Speaker 2: It's easy to want to scrap something when you don't
Speaker 2: even know the value of what it is or what
Speaker 2: it's about. Right, And then my favorite, maybe my favorite
Speaker 2: part of this, and we could get more into the
Speaker 2: poll numbers, because I've got the whole poll in front
Speaker 2: of me. But then he gets into Ronald Reagan's farewell
Speaker 2: address in nineteen eighty nine. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: young folks on the right who who can't stand Reagan.
Speaker 2: They think he's a relic of the past and his
Speaker 2: ideas are irrelevant. Here are some of the things he said.
Speaker 2: We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion,
Speaker 2: but what's in important. If we forget what we did,
Speaker 2: we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an
Speaker 2: eradication of the American memory that could result ultimately in
Speaker 2: at in an erosion of the American spirit. And we're
Speaker 2: absolutely feeling that, God, I would say, and then getting
Speaker 2: back to his speech couple paragraphs later, he was far
Speaker 2: too practical to believe that the job of reintroducing the
Speaker 2: study of self government could be left to the schools alone.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Speaker 2: And this is the part I really wanted to get to,
Speaker 2: to bring everybody back up again. So tomorrow night in
Speaker 2: the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if
Speaker 2: your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to
Speaker 2: be an American, let him know and nail them on it.
Speaker 1: That would be a very American thing. To do.
Speaker 2: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
Speaker 2: We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
Speaker 2: It must be fought for, protected and handed on for
Speaker 2: them to do the same. Friends, were all in a
Speaker 2: fight for the hearts of our children. Are young people
Speaker 2: and are young adults who under our watch got indoctrinated
Speaker 2: in this awful, poisonous anti American philosophy.
Speaker 1: Fight back. Let's get him a lot more on the way.
Speaker 4: If you miss a segment, get the podcast Armstrong and
Speaker 4: Getty on demand.
Speaker 6: Armstrong and Getty, big send off for the man who
Speaker 6: called himself the Prince of Darkness. For fans packing a
Speaker 6: British soccer stadium for Ozzy Osbourne, the seventy six year
Speaker 6: old Black Sabbath lead singer in his final concert tribute
Speaker 6: Saturday from rockers Metallica and Aerosmith Stephen Tyler, as well
Speaker 6: as Dolly Parton and Sir Elton John Osbourne at the
Speaker 6: end thanking fans for decades of support.
Speaker 4: Dolly Parton, why is Ozzie such a big deal? He
Speaker 4: just I don't know. He has no place in my life.
Speaker 4: Ozzy Osbourne a.
Speaker 2: Black Sabbath scene as kind of the founding fathers of
Speaker 2: heavy metal. Okay, a lot of heavy rock that people
Speaker 2: have loved ever since. You know it overstated to say
Speaker 2: like a Chuck berry ish figure, but something like it.
Speaker 1: It's all a bit much for me. Well, Dolly Marton
Speaker 1: was there.
Speaker 4: So we were on vacation on last week, which if
Speaker 4: you're a fan of the show you probably noticed. I
Speaker 4: went to Florida South Beach for a couple of days,
Speaker 4: then went down to Key West, rented a house. We
Speaker 4: were down there for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 4: I talked to a number of people who worked at
Speaker 4: restaurants and whatnot was in Florida, and they were talking
Speaker 4: about how awesome it was during COVID in Florida to
Speaker 4: be in their industry because people were coming from all
Speaker 4: over the country because they didn't shut down. They shut
Speaker 4: down for a couple of weeks total. Then we're up
Speaker 4: and running like it was normal. Ron death sentence, I
Speaker 4: remember that right. Well, the rest of the country was
Speaker 4: acting like you can't do that, everyone will die.
Speaker 1: They're talking about how awesome it was down.
Speaker 4: There, and I doubt that these servers were like conservatives.
Speaker 4: I mean they could have been, but they looked like liberals,
Speaker 4: I mean their island hippies with you know, things through
Speaker 4: their nose and uh and you know the usual. But
Speaker 4: it's really interesting that that happened. Part of the country said, yeah,
Speaker 4: we're gonna pretend it's not happening.
Speaker 1: And everything was fine. It's just it's crazy.
Speaker 2: Sometimes counties that are practically side by side took wildly
Speaker 2: different approaches, and when one worked.
Speaker 1: Way better than the other, the people who went with
Speaker 1: the bad approach said nothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, drove or flew back up to New York because
Speaker 4: it was too hot.
Speaker 1: He just got too hot, too much beach sun.
Speaker 4: Sam and I flipped our jet ski rented a jet
Speaker 4: skis a double jet ski, and I somehow we flipped it.
Speaker 4: He was driving, and that ended up costing me a
Speaker 4: lot of money because if you flip it and ruin
Speaker 4: the motor, then you got to pay for it part
Speaker 4: of the deal you sign, and so that cost me
Speaker 4: a lot. But so we flipped it, and I was
Speaker 4: panicked about trying to get it turned back up forgetting
Speaker 4: the warning they had made about all the barnacles in
Speaker 4: the bottom and stay away from it. And sliced my
Speaker 4: knee open so bad and was bleeding all over the place,
Speaker 4: and I'm glad shark didn't come eat us because that
Speaker 4: would have sucked.
Speaker 1: AnyWho.
Speaker 2: Oh agreed, Yeah, it would be a terrible thing to happen.
Speaker 2: We just getting eaten by a shark. Yes, so we
Speaker 2: uh just does it look? By the way, how's your
Speaker 2: knee look?
Speaker 1: Is it healing?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the same knee I heard on my motorcycle wreck.
Speaker 4: So I have no feeling in it because it damaged
Speaker 4: it so much. In so I couldn't even tell.
Speaker 1: That I got myself. I was bleeding all over.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, because refrash is a thing, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if barnacles are similar, but if you like,
Speaker 2: scrape yourself on a knee. Yeah, there's so much my
Speaker 2: chrobia life in there. My brother, a healthy throng naval officer.
Speaker 2: He got refreshed and it was horrible to get rid of.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They told us about that some trip we took out
Speaker 4: to see a reef in Key West. I remember they
Speaker 4: were telling us about that. AnyWho, So we fly up
Speaker 4: to New York because it was hot, and decide to
Speaker 4: do something else and we go and we spend several
Speaker 4: days in New York and we're at this park where
Speaker 4: all the people are playing chess, just like I'd seen
Speaker 4: in movies.
Speaker 1: Do they do that in.
Speaker 4: Cities all across the country or is that local in
Speaker 4: New York? Do they do that in Chicago?
Speaker 1: You're Chicago guy.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, it's when I picture it. I picture it
Speaker 2: in New York.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's a New York thing.
Speaker 4: And I need to do some research because I don't
Speaker 4: really know what it is or how it works, like
Speaker 4: do they make how do they make money, or do
Speaker 4: they make money or what's exactly going on there. I've
Speaker 4: just seen in movies where all the people are playing
Speaker 4: chess in these parks. Well, my son is obsessed by chess,
Speaker 4: as I've talked about several times, although he's still a beginner,
Speaker 4: and or the whole time on the trip, he said,
Speaker 4: I want to play chess in the park with one
Speaker 4: of the one of those guys I want to play
Speaker 4: schis So you really wanted to do that. So we're
Speaker 4: walking through Washington Square Park after we watched the weird
Speaker 4: hippie chick dor Art that I talked about earlier. Get
Speaker 4: the podcast if you didn't hear that, and uh, and
Speaker 4: he said, there's a guy he's not doing I want
Speaker 4: to go play chess, and I said, okay. So we
Speaker 4: go over there and I very quickly figure out that
Speaker 4: this guy, he's probably sixty old black guy. He sounds
Speaker 4: exactly like Tracy Morgan from Saturday Night Live. So when
Speaker 4: I'm doing my impersonation, if it sounds like that, that's why,
Speaker 4: because that's what the guy's on like. He's hammered drunk,
Speaker 4: just hammered drunk, sitting there at the chest table and
Speaker 4: h He said, what's your what's your name, Henry?
Speaker 1: What's your rating, Henry?
Speaker 4: And Henry told him I don't know whatever his number
Speaker 4: is on his rating, because you get a chest rating
Speaker 4: when you're on chest dot com. Oh yo, beginner, Okay, Henry,
Speaker 4: Well then I won't play you. I will give you
Speaker 4: a lesson. Five dad, five dollars for a lesson.
Speaker 1: Okay, fine, and he says, is on there.
Speaker 4: And it was just one of the most amazing, interesting
Speaker 4: things I've ever witnessed. Henry walked away from it saying,
Speaker 4: this is the coolest thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 1: But it was so strange. The guy was so drunk.
Speaker 4: For one thing, he had the really drunk guy eyes
Speaker 4: you know where they're like really good, yes, and watery,
Speaker 4: and he kept sho shoveling these. He had a paper
Speaker 4: bag with him. He'd brought sandwiches from home. This gets
Speaker 4: to the I don't know what these people are doing,
Speaker 4: if they make money doing this or is this your job?
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess you play them for money.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: A good friend of the show is a friend of
Speaker 2: mine just texted the New York chess hustlers usually play
Speaker 2: for a few bucks.
Speaker 1: They're usually very good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean it was unbelievable. As drunk as
Speaker 4: this guy was, he started, I'm gonna give you a lesson, Henry.
Speaker 1: You remember this arrest of your life.
Speaker 4: First of all, number one, get one thousand and one
Speaker 4: chess moves. Get the book, and he names the guy Dad,
Speaker 4: buy him that book. Okay, And they set up the
Speaker 4: chess pieces and they start to play. Let me see
Speaker 4: how good you are, Henry. So they play for a
Speaker 4: little bit, and Henry would go to make a movie.
Speaker 1: He put it back, Henry. Henry put it back.
Speaker 4: No, Henry, think about it, Henry, And so then we
Speaker 4: do that. It's okay, So let me give you a lesson,
Speaker 4: And so then he gives him a lesson. And he's
Speaker 4: sitting by and he's shoveling this sandwich that he made
Speaker 4: into his mouth, and parts of it are getting in
Speaker 4: his mouth, but most of it's not, and the rest
Speaker 4: of it's just like falling on his shirt and onto
Speaker 4: the chessboard, and he'd have to wipe the chunks and
Speaker 4: sandwich away as he's moving the chessboarder. At one point,
Speaker 4: he kicks over his half a bottle of Miller Lite
Speaker 4: and it tips over and rolls between my legs. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's just he's a drunk like he seems like a
Speaker 4: homeless guy. Yeah, I don't even know what's going on there, Henry.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you a lesson.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: The best guy in the park, that guy over there
Speaker 4: with the sunglasses on, he's the best player in the
Speaker 4: park right now. Nobody will play him again, Which gets
Speaker 4: to my if nobody will play you because you're so good,
Speaker 4: how do you make any money.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how this works.
Speaker 2: Hey, you gotta wait for somebody strong. My chest playing
Speaker 2: friend also pointed out that it's a thing among chest enthusiasts.
Speaker 2: There are there are videos of grand masters going under
Speaker 2: cover and playing these guys and appreciating how good someone.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, this dude was amazing when Henry was actually
Speaker 4: playing him, how fast he would move and how he
Speaker 4: saw the whole board was, to be as drunk as
Speaker 4: he was in the hot sun was really quite amazing.
Speaker 1: Was he really drunk or do you think this was
Speaker 1: part of the hustle?
Speaker 4: No, he was drunk. I know, I know a drunk guy,
Speaker 4: and he was very drunk. And there were many people
Speaker 4: playing chess. It was mostly dude sitting at empty chess
Speaker 4: tables waiting for somebody to come play him for whatever. Anyway,
Speaker 4: So his lesson was, Henry, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 4: You're a home by yourself. And outside the door there
Speaker 4: was a gorilla and two dogs. Okay, a gorilla and
Speaker 4: two dogs. Wow, they knocked down the door and they
Speaker 4: come into the house. What do you do, Henry, I
Speaker 4: don't know. I called my dad.
Speaker 1: You don't have a phone, Henry.
Speaker 4: What do you do when the gorilla and the two
Speaker 4: dogs coming home?
Speaker 1: And it was just like this the whole time, so
Speaker 1: wild the dogs and punched the gorilla.
Speaker 4: No, I guess I worry about the dogs because I
Speaker 4: can't fight a gorilla. No, Henry, Henry, that is wrong.
Speaker 4: What is the biggest threat, Henry?
Speaker 1: The gorilla?
Speaker 4: That's right, The gorilla is the biggest threat. So do
Speaker 4: you see where my queen is right now? That is
Speaker 4: your biggest threat. Get rid of the gorilla, Henry. And
Speaker 4: so Henry moved and got rid of the queen. Now
Speaker 4: you don't have to worry about the gorilla. Do you
Speaker 4: see where my two dogs are?
Speaker 1: Henry? And it was just like that through the whole thing.
Speaker 1: He went on for like forty five minutes.
Speaker 4: It was incredibly entertaining and really interesting imagery to try
Speaker 4: to figure out some chess strategy.
Speaker 1: For a few bucks.
Speaker 2: For five bucks place, that's the best money you've ever
Speaker 2: spent in your life.
Speaker 4: And did the entertainment alone, let alone the chess lesson.
Speaker 4: It was really so it was like out of a
Speaker 4: freaking movie. And I thought, what are you? I mean,
Speaker 4: his clothes he looked like a homeless person. I mean,
Speaker 4: his shoes had holes in him. He smelled bad, he's
Speaker 4: spinning his sandwich all over, he's hammered, drunk, but brilliant
Speaker 4: at chess. I just so, I don't know what's going
Speaker 4: on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think we've all known people like that, whether they're
Speaker 2: musicians or writers or what have you, that they have
Speaker 2: an incredible level of capability at one thing, but not
Speaker 2: so much on life skills or hanging on to a
Speaker 2: job for instance, or don't want to right for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: God dang it, that was interesting.
Speaker 4: Like I said, Henry walked away from saying that was
Speaker 4: the greatest thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 1: He really really liked it.
Speaker 4: Both the chess lesson and just the entertaining flare of
Speaker 4: the whole thing was so well again, like straight out
Speaker 4: of a flip and movie.
Speaker 2: Well, the downside was you didn't get a chance to
Speaker 2: talk about the big beautiful bill on the air since
Speaker 2: you were on your vacation.
Speaker 4: On our vacation didn't come up in conversation with anyone.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you that a round up.
Speaker 2: Of different people, many of them conservatives, and their takes
Speaker 2: on that message.
Speaker 1: In your home. You're gonna worry about the dogs first.
Speaker 1: Think about it, Henry.
Speaker 7: To try to imagine that anyway, So he keep spitting
Speaker 7: sandwich all over I don't know what to say. The
Speaker 7: dogs are happy with the sandwich leavings, so a bunch
Speaker 7: of different folks, especially on the right side of the aisle.
Speaker 2: What they think of the big, beautiful bill. I found
Speaker 2: it interesting. I think you will too, say with us.
Speaker 8: The bill fulfilled some of the president's key campaign pledges,
Speaker 8: like no taxes on tips and overtime, and it extends
Speaker 8: Trump's twenty seventeen tax cuts at a cost of four
Speaker 8: trillion dollars, much of that going to the wealthiest Americans.
Speaker 8: The bill dramatically increases funding for immigration enforcement, allowing the
Speaker 8: administration to nearly double immigrant attention capacity and allocating more
Speaker 8: than one hundred billion dollars to ice and border enforcement.
Speaker 8: It also guts biden ear, clean energy protections and student
Speaker 8: loan forgiveness programs.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, there's so much, including the number that's
Speaker 4: constantly thrown out of how much this is going to
Speaker 4: add to the deficit, And I'm sure it is going
Speaker 4: to add a lot of money to our national debt.
Speaker 1: Rather, Hello, did everybody hear that or did I have? Okay,
Speaker 1: just you.
Speaker 4: Uh. One of Trump's guys was on I think face
Speaker 4: the nation saying those numbers are from the CBO are wrong.
Speaker 1: CIDEO is wrong all the time. They're wrong about Obamacare.
Speaker 4: They are wrong about the Trumps tack cut the first
Speaker 4: time around, and nobody ever holds them to account on
Speaker 4: the fact that they're wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't have any idea. So for what it's worth, that.
Speaker 2: News report was the living embodiment of Twains, you know
Speaker 2: statement that if you don't watch the news, you're uninformed.
Speaker 2: If you do watch that stupid report, you're missing form R.
Speaker 2: I mean, that was terrible. Virtually every phrase of it
Speaker 2: was was prejudicial.
Speaker 1: I thought this was interesting. This is the opposite.
Speaker 2: The good folks that's free Press put out a delio
Speaker 2: where they talked to a bunch of their their writers
Speaker 2: and thinkers and people who are not under their umbrella,
Speaker 2: but they reached for their overall impressions.
Speaker 1: Of the so called big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2: They touch on some of the main provisions and extension
Speaker 2: of the twenty seventeen tax cuts, an increase in the
Speaker 2: debt ceiling of five trillion dollars, tax deductions on tips, overtime,
Speaker 2: and loans for cars made in America. Those they're limited.
Speaker 2: They phase out their temporary blah blahah new work requirement
Speaker 2: of eighty hours per month for Medicaid, and caps on
Speaker 2: medicaid provider taxes, which is a giant, complicated scam, as
Speaker 2: we've talked about, work requirements for food stamps. An additional
Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty billion dollars in spending on defense
Speaker 2: and border security, an end to some tax credits for
Speaker 2: green energy but not enough, among other things. The salt
Speaker 2: deductions has grown, which is disgusting.
Speaker 1: Oh right, so where did they end up on the
Speaker 1: salt deductions?
Speaker 2: Forty grand with phaseouts after you make like half million
Speaker 2: dollars a year.
Speaker 4: There is no reason, no good reason. There are plenty
Speaker 4: of bad reasons, including the fact that the bill passed.
Speaker 4: There is no good reason to put all of this
Speaker 4: disparate doesn't have anything to do with each other's stuff
Speaker 4: in one bill.
Speaker 1: There's just no good reason for it, right, agreed.
Speaker 2: So they at the Free Press they asked a bunch
Speaker 2: of thinkers what they thought of it.
Speaker 1: In general.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to read you the headline and like
Speaker 2: the first two sentences of each for.
Speaker 1: Time limitation reasons, among other things.
Speaker 2: But Newt Gingrich President Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill is
Speaker 2: an amazing achievement on several grounds. First, it's an enormous
Speaker 2: policy bill about taxes, regulatory processes, badly needed reforms, and
Speaker 2: spending cuts. The sheer scale of the bill is stunningly audacious.
Speaker 4: Yeah, politics wise, it's absolutely amazing. As I saw a
Speaker 4: bunch of quotes from Democratic strategists who are like, man,
Speaker 4: he is killing it. I mean, they basically say, I
Speaker 4: don't like the guy, but he is killing it in
Speaker 4: terms of this second term.
Speaker 2: Larry Summer's economist, former Treasury Secretary, of the biggest rollback
Speaker 2: in the social safety net in our history. It's an
Speaker 2: addition of trillions to the national debt. Slee risk certainly
Speaker 2: does not guarantee of giving a million dollars on average
Speaker 2: to the richest one in one thousand families and paying
Speaker 2: for it by denying healthcare and basic social services like
Speaker 2: rides to doctor appointments is grotesque, an expensive mistake. But
Speaker 2: not the last words is Jason Furman, economics professor at
Speaker 2: Harvard and former chairman of the White House Council of
Speaker 2: Economic Advisors. Too much deficit and debt, not enough protecting
Speaker 2: of the vulnerable, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But it could all change.
Speaker 4: Well, Mack Tyler, Yes, who on the politics of it again, though,
Speaker 4: which is an enormous win. Even Dan Balls of the
Speaker 4: Washington Post we've had on said, by any measure, passage
Speaker 4: of the bill represents a major victory for our president,
Speaker 4: whose influence and dominance continues to expand in a.
Speaker 1: Matter of weeks.
Speaker 4: Who has brought a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after
Speaker 4: a massive bombing attack on Iran's nuclear sites, got a
Speaker 4: pledge from NATO nations to increase their spending on defense,
Speaker 4: has seen the financial markets hit record high, and now
Speaker 4: can boast of legislation that fulfills many of his campaign promises.
Speaker 1: He is a political colossus. Brit Hume called him.
Speaker 4: He is one of the biggest deals in politics in
Speaker 4: a century.
Speaker 2: Agreed, yep, undeniably. Tyler Cowan, who's an economist in a
Speaker 2: great free Press calumnist, says, one of the most radical
Speaker 2: experiments in fiscal policy in my lifetime. I view the big,
Speaker 2: Beautiful Bill of Trump as one of the most radical experiences.
Speaker 2: In essence, Trump is deciding to push all of his
Speaker 2: chips to the center of the table and bet on
Speaker 2: the American economy. And he mentions run up some big
Speaker 2: fat debts, but to bet that we can grow away
Speaker 2: out of it.
Speaker 4: Oh. The debt part of it is just when I
Speaker 4: has listened to a podcast yesterday. When Reagan did his
Speaker 4: big tax cuts, we were at fifty percent of GDP
Speaker 4: debt to GDP. We're now one hundred and fifty percent.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: The president of the Manhattan Institute wants to know how
Speaker 2: real are the cuts.
Speaker 1: They're not.
Speaker 2: He doesn't think that the fiscal sanity stuff is legit.
Speaker 2: Kyle Scanlon, economic commentator. A lot of people know his
Speaker 2: work online. Where's the strategy? The One Big Beautiful Bill
Speaker 2: is a major restructuring of US fiscal policy. It combines
Speaker 2: extended Trump here tax cuts with new deductions. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: We have to look beyond its implications on just domestic policy.
Speaker 2: And he talks about how and Elon Musk is big
Speaker 2: on this. He's starting new political party. If you didn't
Speaker 2: hear this, He's like, we're going to be a geopolitical
Speaker 2: weakling if we spend ourselves into poverty.
Speaker 1: Absolutely true.
Speaker 4: And every president or politician decides, yeah, well, that's gonna
Speaker 4: have to be somebody else's problem because I'm about getting
Speaker 4: re elected.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Final headlines were pressed for time, disappointing in its bottom line,
Speaker 2: promising in its details, promise in peril for Democrats. According
Speaker 2: to a Democrat, fiscal responsibility is dead. That's Charles Lane,
Speaker 2: Free Press column.
Speaker 4: Clearly, yeah has been dead for quite some time. We
Speaker 4: just were slow waking up to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And now it just doesn't really have a constituency.
Speaker 4: Well, Elon's gonna try. We should talk more about that.
Speaker 4: When he claims his plans are how serious he is
Speaker 4: about I don't know. After he made that announcement over
Speaker 4: the weekend, Tesla stock dropped. I don't think they like
Speaker 4: him getting involved in politics again. Got a lot more
Speaker 4: in the way. If you missed a segment, get the
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