← Bulwark Takes
Loading summary
Transcript45 lines
- [00:01]
A
Hey, it's Bubba Wallace from 2311 Racing. You know what it feels like forever sitting on a plane waiting for takeoff? Good thing I've got Jamba Casino with daily boost and social casino games on tap. This is the kind of fun that makes time fly. Why not turbocharge your downtime play now@chumbacasino.com? let's Jumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary.
- [00:26]
B
VGW Group.
- [00:26]
A
Void where prohibited by Law21. Terms and conditions apply.
- [00:30]
C
Hi, this is Alex Canceroitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on air contributor to cnbc. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:05]
B
Hi, Bill Kristol here from Bulwark on Sunday. Very pleased to be joined by my longtime colleague, first at the Weekly Standard and then at the Bullwork, Founder of OG Original Bull Work Guy Jim Swift, senior editor, collaborator on morning Shots, Cincinnati bureau chief. Is that your most important title, would
- [01:22]
A
you say to my fellow Ohioans it is. They're glad that one of us is here. And I sure saw that yesterday when we were hiking around the hills of Cincinnati.
- [01:32]
B
How about your betray? Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. With no kings. How about your betrayal? You grew up in Cleveland, right? So how isn't it, Is that like, is that better to be from Cleveland and Cincinnati or even worse? It's sort of the rivalry and stuff.
- [01:44]
A
Even, even worse, you know, I mean, Cleveland's pretty hard on Cincinnati. Joke is that Cincinnati is more Kentucky and they say Cleveland, you're more like Canada. And both, both are right and both are wrong, but it's a friend. It's a friendly rivalry. You know, Tito Francona is the manager here now. And so there's, there's some bridge building going on between Cleveland and Cincinnati.
- [02:04]
B
They treat you, they treat you okay, I trust. Yes. Good. So you were at the Cincinnati no Kings yesterday. I was the one up here in Waltham, Massachusetts, just west of Boston. Let's exchange, you know, sort of what we thoughts about what we saw and what we better, of course, have seen elsewhere. And Read about elsewhere. What struck you that. Just curious. What most memorable moment, sign, encounter, experience there in your. In. In. In Cincinnati at the no Kings.
- [02:33]
A
Sure. Well, I followed the no Kings. It's actually my first one that I've attended. But huge, huge Turnout. At least 10,000 by my count and by some other more official counts, very long march that kind of went around downtown as the Cincinnati Reds were facing the Boston Red Sox, which a game they won, the Reds. But there were two signs in particular, Bill, that kind of stuck out for me. And on the screen now, and one was, I'm here for those who can't be here. And then the other one was, this all ends when enough of us say no. And the people I talk to, this all ends when enough of us say no kind of view was held by a lot of people. I spoke with Charlie Sutcamp, who's someone that you may know, I've met a number of times who's involved with principals first who recognized me, and he's just worried about not enough people standing up and wanting more people to get involved. And similarly, you know, I posted the picture. I'm here for those who can't be here on Blue Sky. And I got a lot of responses from people, you know, who do have jobs where they have to work on Saturday afternoons, who have family concerns and lives and other sorts of things. There are a lot of people who wanted to be there who could it. And so those were kind of some commonalities that I detected in talking with people who were all very heartened by the turnout.
- [03:53]
B
No, that's great. And this all ends when enough of us say no. The bad news is that Trump's president for the next almost three years, in this sense, we don't have a parliamentary system. And his poll numbers could go down further and people could turn out even more. And but hopefully the elites, I feel like the public is now leading the elites by quite a lot. It's so striking, right. In terms of turning against Trump. You see it in the polls, but also in the turnout for no Kings. And the elitist institutions are still accommodating Trump to a somewhat shocking degree. Maybe at some point some of them break and some of the Republicans on the Hill, God knows break. I was in Waltham, which is west of Boston. It's where Brandeis is. Interesting. I happen to see a couple of friends who live near there. And so we went to that, and that's where they go, and that's where they've gone in the past. And some of their Family was there, so we went there. It was interesting because it's Walton's kind of a middle class suburb, I would say. It's got some academic and upscale types who have moved further west even than sort of Cambridge, Belmont, the kind of inner suburbs, you might say, out to the west of Boston. But it also has quite a lot of immigrants, actually, and there were a fair number there and more work, middle class, even working class. So it was more of a mixed crowd, good turnout. I hadn't been to Waltham before, so I couldn't judge comparatively, but they said it was at least as big as the previous one, was cold, kind of high 20s, so a little bit discouragement probably there in terms of the turnout. Very nice old Waltham Common. You know, these New England towns all have commons and there's a nice common in front of the City Hall. I was amused. I went over and I was wondering whether there's a statue there of a soldier and, you know, inscriptions on it and stuff. I walked over, you can see it there, and I, I assumed it was, you know, I don't know, maybe Civil War. There are a ton of Civil War, obviously, monuments up in New England and maybe World War I, World War II. It was the Spanish American War, or as they said on the, on the monuments, called it the Spanish War Veterans Memorial. And they had the dates 1898, 1902, and, and then mentioned Puerto Rico, Cuba and Philippines. It's sort of, it's funny how that's. Maybe other people know more about this than I do, but I would say that's been sort of somewhat forgotten to history though. Trump is bringing back the Cuba interest, I suppose, but at the time there were a lot of names on the back. So a lot of soldiers fought in those wars and perished in the one just forgets about certain aspects of American history compared to others. Anyway, I was struck that the crowd was. Well, I was struck how sane and sober this was. True of the previous one I was at in McLean. But if they don't go to McLean, Virginia, it's people who've worked in Washington, a lot of ex Republicans, a more moderate crowd, you know, if you will, then maybe a lot of places. So this is the suburbs of Boston, very Democratic area, and a lot of liberal types here. I got the typical, the typical response, you know, people recognize me. It was more like, I can't believe I'm here at a rally with you. You know, I was traveling against you 20 years ago against the Iraq war, worse. In McLean, Virginia. It's a little as you know, Jim, you know, a little more of people who, hey, you remember me, we met during the Bush administration. A lot of ex Republicans and.
- [07:06]
A
Yeah, Barber Comstock types.
- [07:08]
B
Yeah, Moto Jared was there Yesterday actually in McLean with Susan, my wife. And they were. Yes, yes, Mota was meeting lots of people who we used to be together on the conservative side. This is sort of different, this is more liberal, but I would say very sane. I mean very balanced, patriotic, but and calm. I mean I was very struck by the rich. You know, you go to a, I'm not a bit of big demonstration person or a rally person and probably that's because in my youth I saw the new left rallies and I was in high school and a little bit in college before they petered out and they were, they were kind of crazy. They felt they were a little crazy and sort of wasn't my, my style to kind of get. I would have been involved. I was on the other side politically. But it was a little foot off, I suppose, by the sense of thousands of people getting together sort of unleashes various passions and hatreds and so forth. But there's almost none of that, I've got to say. I mean a lot of anti Trump signs and ridiculing him and I guess not friendly to him but, or to Stephen Miller or to others. But I was struck by the sobriety of people and a sense that we were in this for a while. I mean this was not like we're going to show up here and everything's going to be great Monday. There's a lot of talk, a lot of people wanting to know what do I think is going to happen on the DHS and ice, on the war, on the million, on the elections in 26 and 28. I mean, very sober. I was amused. Some White House spokeswoman had said Thursday, I think something about this is Trump derangement syndrome, you know, therapy or something. And I really thought, you know, the one thing it doesn't feel like is any kind of derangement. They may, you know, you can say if you have a different political point of view that there people there are just wrong about their, you know, wanting not to go to war with IRA in Iran or, or about ICE or whatever. But it, there's no very, very few oddballs, honestly, or crackpots. Not that there's anything wrong with being an oddball, but, you know, yeah, it struck me, it struck me. It was, it was really in that respect, it was, it was sort of moving. I would say people were Serious and sober. But they were also good natured and happy to see their friends and neighbors. And then they liked the funny signs making fun of the Trump people, but also, as you mentioned, the more serious signs. What was the mood in Cincinnati, middle America there?
- [09:18]
A
Oh, Bill, I was so impressed by the 50501 organizers. And that's 50 states, 50 protests. I might be getting the last one part, but like one common goal. Yeah, I was just really impressed by their organization. Not only just the parade route, which had I known how long it was, I might have packed a little bit differently. It was very cold, but also very sunny. And I was exhausted at the end of it. It was like playing around a golf, you know, and carrying your clubs. It was, I got them. Granted, it's also my middle age. But what really impressed me about their organization, I mean, they had, I would say probably 50 to 100 people who were volunteers wearing orange and yellow vests and they had different meetings for each. They were all radioed up and you know, the police, obviously there was a permit and the police were escorting the march through downtown. Like you said, there's always elements of kind of quackery at any kind of political protest, whether it's on the left or whether you're the Tea Party protesting Obamacare outside of the house in 2010. But what I was truly impressed by was looking at these signs, you could tell that there were people within the group that didn't agree with each other either on a policy specifically or a candidate, for example. It wasn't really candidate driven, but locally you can look at the signs and do the math. Those people aren't going to agree. Why aren't they arguing with each other? Because it was one cause. And so, you know, there was no attempt really to co opt this to make it about just one thing. And I was impressed by that, that people kind of put aside their differences and that was more left on left than right on left, for example. But it wasn't co opted. It was people who had different views on flashpoint issues with signs that kind of contradicted each other. They're marching in peace together. Now, granted, I didn't get to see how all 10 or 20,000 people were interacting, but I think I got a pretty good sense of it. And I didn't see any arrests, I didn't see any bad behavior. There was, there was a little bit of a counter protest element where Trump supporter was walking in front of it to kind of troll with Christ is king. And you know, some people said, like what are you doing here? Go do your own thing. But nothing in the way that worried me or I felt was an endangered anyone's safety. It was really heartening. And like I said in my overtime newsletter, fresh off of our events in Minnesota and Dallas and Austin, these things really, to be corny, put the wind in our sails of the bulwark, so to speak. And that's not just a marketing line. It really is. I mean, when you, like, you and I do kind of live in a bath of this perpetual horrible news cycle and we're just so painfully aware of even weird minutia that, you know, doesn't cross most people's news feeds, it's depressing. So to go out and see how like there was a guy, Bob, who had about 10 bamboo poles that were 7ft each and he had fixed flags from Ohio, Cincinnati, but places like Greenland, Ukraine, Mexico, Canada, and he just gave them out to his friends there. Yeah, in U.S. u.S. Of course, it was, it was like a super, it was like the Super Bowl. So we don't want to avoid that US flag was there prominently, maybe even a little higher per the flag code. But you know, this guy had like a belt with like flagpole holders that just from bamboo. And you know, he was worried about election. I talked to him. He was worried about the midterm elections and what Trump's trying to do with the Save act, whether he might, he might be using ice at the polls. You know, a lot of things to be worried about there, but I think everyone had their head on pretty. Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with chums. Jump in@chumbacasino.com let's shamba.
- [13:11]
B
No purchase necessary BTW group void where prohibited by law.
- [13:14]
A
CTNC21+ sponsored by Chumba Casino.
- [13:17]
C
Hi, this is Alex Canceroitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on air contributor to cnbc. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
- [13:52]
B
Now that's encouraging. You know, one of the things I think they did a very Good job with the organizers. They did a lot of. A lot of training. They were also marshals, and Waltham was very peaceful. And they asked people to thank the police who showed up. And there were a few cops who were standing. Basically there was no issues, but it was good to have them there. And people went up and thanked them. And yeah, I'm struck at the organizers. I know the indivisible guys a little bit, and they were a key element there. Many groups involved and many different people in different places. One of those really intelligent things they did, I think, was so here they scheduled most of the no Kings events in places like Waltham or Cambridge or elsewhere, sort of late morning, so people could then go, if they wish, to the Boston Common, which is where the big mutual event was. More than 100,000 people in Boston, downtown Boston. And. But they didn't. So they had several big events. Minneapolis with Springsteen, obviously, in New York. But unlike other marches where it's a march on Washington or a march in New York or some few big cities, they really went out of their way to encourage local communities, and they helped them. I went to the website many times over the last few weeks, helped them organize, put them in touch with each other. You could sign up to go to McLean and they told you where to go and they told you, made some recommendations about signs, and then they had some available for you there and so forth. So it really was a kind of. It felt like it was a lot of people around the nation, some in very big groups of 100,000, but many, many, many. And much, much smaller groups of something like 10,000 Cincinnati, but some more like, I don't know, 500 to 1,000, I'm going to guess Waltham. And that's really. I thought that was intelligent. I mean, it was. It was nice. It felt more like communities getting together to express their sentiments, not like a mass, you know, a mob scene kind of thing. And I think it was intelligent politically in the sense that it just makes it seem. And really makes it seem, because it really was more of a. More of a natural thing. They also. I talked with one of the organizers about this before the last no Kings, but they obviously kept to the same playbook. They didn't have speeches. I don't know if Cincinnati did. But in the smaller ones, like in Waltham, they. They went out of their way not to have, you know, a mike. And local dignitaries. The local, you know, they could have. God knows everyone, I think. So that's an office in the Waltham area is probably on Board with no kings. It's all Democrats. And so they would have been happy to speak, and they could have had the leaders of different groups, and they really understood that that changes the character. Then it's a poor political. Then you got in. If you invite this group, you've got to invite that group. And Suddenly you have 18 different speakers, and then they're three minutes each, but they don't stay at three minutes. And then suddenly it's an hour and a half of standing around listening to speeches. None of that milling around, waving the signs. A little bit of a couple of pickup bands, sort of marching bands, you know, people with like six instruments, trombone and stuff, you know, kind of walking through the parade and playing fun tunes and also some folk songs and this Land is My Land and then some patriotic, you know, songs, Battle Hymn of the Republic and. And stuff. And so that was. That was good for the. That was nice. But they really went out of their way to make it. But mostly it was just people. And then, as I say, found people chanting a little bit, but not even that much. They really encourage people driving by to honk, and there's a lot of that. So that was. The noise was mostly people. But again, think about it. That's individual citizens in their cars showing support. It's not. They're not chanting in a mob the same thing. There's always something slightly off putting. I find about 100,000 people chanting the same thing. It could be powerful, but it's also a little bit like, you know, has a vague, you know, sort of feel of. They could also be chanting things you don't like. Right. Whereas people showing up, not all at the same time. Some at 10:30, some at 10:45, some at 11, coming and going a bit, saying hello to their families and chatting about life in general before they sort of start, you know, joining along in one of the songs. I mean, it has a real community feel to it that I think they went out of their way to encourage. And I think that I think it worked. And I think it's intelligent, obviously, politically.
- [18:01]
A
Yeah, we had a couple speeches in Cincinnati, but I think that they were smart to avoid that sort of, you know, coalitions group trap. Like, once you start giving groups a microphone, you know, where do you draw the line? And then it's my group. Not important enough. There weren't groups. They had some kind of, like, I might be butchering their name. It was like the Cincinnati Democracy Singers, which was like a little choir, diverse choir of people who were singing folk songs and other Hymns and that was really nice. The organizers spoke a little bit and then, I mean, really the main feature and I tried to get him to talk was Professor Timothy Snyder from Yale. And he dates, you know, he said that his family has been here in southwest Ohio for, you know, 125 years. And so he has come to every single no Kings in Cincinnati. And he spoke at the last one and he spoke at this one too, and gave a very nice speech about, you know, which is fitting for one of his books on freedom and getting people to kind of associate no Kings. And then the response from the crowd was freedom now. No blue William Wallace face paint though. Maybe next time. But it was, yeah, they avoided the kind of coalition's trap and we had guys with trombones and whatnot going around too. But it was just really impressive because you didn't get a sense of the size of the scale of the parade until we started going up one of the hills back into downtown. Because when we're all around City hall, it's hard to know because everyone was so densely packe in. But then as the, the march kind of made its way, I had kind of gone around Great American Ballpark and crossed over U.S. 50. And I was on a bridge kind of walking back. I'm like, wait a minute, there's a group going all the way around the Underground Railroad Freedom Museum, which is here in Cincinnati on the kind of same street in between the baseball and the football stadiums. That's when I realized, well, you know, I thought maybe five, six thousand when we were just around City Hall. But no, it was clearly 10,000 plus. And so I was just very impressed. And if you look at, you know, the map that you were talking about, I was looking at that too. Of course, for my first one, I had to go to downtown Cincinnati as a new Cincinnatian. But they had ones in Covington across the river. They had ones in Eastgate, which is kind of, you know, mostly kind of working class suburb. They had one in Mason. They were all around. And if you look at that map, it's just so impressive, just the amount of protests that they had. And so really you didn't have, unless you lived in, you know, Utah or, you know, kind of one of the more Mountain west states. You didn't have to go very far to find one of these things. And really just the scale of it was, you know, struck me as impressive too.
- [20:47]
B
Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's, that's interesting and important. What, anything strike you about the substance of maybe what Issues were on people's minds either in terms of just what signs you saw. So many of the signs are homemade. I do think it reflects people's concerns much more than if they're handing out, you know, mass produced ones. There are a couple that were sort of available that had been produced, but actually the huge majority, at least where we were, where I was, was, were handwritten and handmade. And anything that struck you that one issue was more or less dominant or surprised you. We discussed it on the live stream yesterday a little bit and there was some question about is the, how central was the war to people? How central was the war in people's minds?
- [21:28]
A
Yeah, I would say that, that, that's probably one of the top three issues and signs was the war on Iran. But I would say that a lot of the people that I'm, that I spoke to, of course, were concerned about that, but they may be reusing their signs because the big, big fear really is the SAVE Act. Right. And you know, things that they're trying to do to meddle in the elections. But one, to your point about the kind of pre printed nature of the signs, I think people were maybe a little wounded by these accusations of astroturf. Right. And so, you know, I saw a number of hand done signs that said, you know, no one's paying me to be here, I hate you for free. And you know, I saw, I saw a number of signs like that, you know, ranging from PG to, you know, beyond PG 13, let's put it that way. But, you know, people really resented the insinuation that someone was paying them to be out there. And you know, some of the signs that you'd seen in Waltham about older people, it's like, you know, I'm 91 and it's that bad. I saw a bunch of signs like that. And you know, big props, as the kids say to the, to the elders in their, in their 80s and 90s who came out because they, it is that bad. And they wanted to be out there and show the importance of their presence, which I found pretty powerful.
- [22:52]
B
Yeah, no, that was, I was struck by that. Waltham, There's a fair amount of anti war stuff in Waltham. I think someone who Andrew Ecker had been in North Virginia thought it was more ICE focused. I do think Minneapolis remains very much on people's minds. And what ICE continues to do, not just in Minnesota, but everywhere else. And what they could do, of course, with this force that Trump's disposal is recruiting people and doesn't seem to be Particularly following any laws or rules. So yeah, I was struck by people's concern about that. But I think you're right. People have different. The sayback thing is interesting that that's sort of broken through as their attempt to I guess. Of course Trump talks about it all the time, so why wouldn't it break through? But, and he clearly cares about it and it's such a transparent effort to just to deal with a non problem, you know, but not to deal with a non problem, but to suppress the vote basically and give the feds excuse to come in and do so. So I'm glad people actually were focused on that. Yeah.
- [23:57]
A
And you know, I saw a guy from the American Postal Workers Union who had a beat up old shirt that you could tell an owner of many old T shirts that was 20 plus years old about the importance of the mail in vote, which of course Trump himself just voted in that Palm beach election which Democrats flipped. But yeah, so they were, they were very interested in the, in the election stuff. And I would say that they were also concerned about ice. I mean just, you know, about an hour and a half north of here is Springfield, Ohio where I've gone a couple of times to do some reports. People were organizing and giving out whistle kits. Now I bet Springfield, I didn't check the map because I wasn't going up there. But I'm positive Springfield had a no Kings rally. I would bet my life savings that there was one in that area. But that is what everyone hears about that.
- [24:49]
B
When I was in Cincinnati with you giving a talk about what is that Thursday for the election. So 18 months ago, Vance had just demagogued the Haitians and Springfield stuff and it really shameful way and we didn't make it up to Springfield. We talked about it that I had to give this talk in Cincinnati and stuff and I wasn't there that long. But what's going on up there? I mean there hasn't been the crackdown yet in Springfield and life just goes on. Or do you have the sense. Well, you were there pretty recently doing some reporting for us.
- [25:16]
A
Yeah, I was there on the eve of Kristi Noem. She had revoked their temporary protective status and Judge Garcia had stepped in and for an undetermined, it's stayed for the, for the short term. So everyone's kind of breathed a sigh of relief. But you know, I spoke with Viles Dorseinville from the Haitian Immigrant alliance up there. I spoke with Pastor Ruby from the Central Mission Church. I went inside the church where they are prepared for sanctuary, should it come to that? Everyone is scared there. The same sorts of issues that you're seeing. We went up to Minnesota, you know, for you, you went, you were at some of the sites, but we were raising money for second Harves up there. People are afraid to leave their homes. So it's a small version of what's happening in Minneapolis. And the sense of the community that I got up there was that everyone recognizes that Springfield was a dying industrial town that would be in much worse shape. Pastor Ruby told me that if Trump goes through with this and goes in and starts, you know, after stripping away protective status from Haitians and sends them all back to war torn Haiti, it would set the city back over 50 years. And they are very appreciative of just the community contributions that the Haitian community has brought to that area. The building, growth and housing that it's doing. It isn't, you know, a Detroit situation. I mean, every small town in Ohio has old rundown houses. But I was at, you know, up next to a shopping center where I was doing some, some microphone shopping and, you know, watching them build huge new kind of townhouse communities and whatnot. So you get the sense that that kind of growth is in part, largely in part fueled by Haitians helping, taking over housings and housing in that area and allowing people to, you know, find newer and better housing. This kind of happens in a kind of gentrification sort of way. You know, there's a demand and the Haitians are meeting it both in work and filling the housing. And it's doing pretty well. But people are on edge there. They're thankful for that kind of reprieve. But the organizers in Cincinnati were giving out whistle kits. I'm not as worried about ICE going around downtown Cincinnati since it's so. The city itself is so blue. But people are acutely aware that Springfield could be a smaller version of what we saw transpire in Minneapolis and the greater Minnesota area.
- [27:50]
B
You know, the Springfield thing, I just remember that in September, obviously of 2024, and I really thought they can't, Surely this is a bridge too far. Surely people are going to rebel against it. It's so obviously racially motivated and so obviously a dog whistle and so obviously addressing a problem that's not a problem. Since the governor and the mayor were happy to have these Haitians there and they were law abiding and they were had legally temporary protected status that's they'd applied for it. If you get TPS temporary protective status, you have to, I think, register or show up every six months or check in every six or 12 months. You're not near the opposite of undocumented, end of, you know, people not being able to keep track of you. You're literally on a list and you show up and you say, I'm here and I'm working. You're allowed to work with tps. That's the point of it. You're paying taxes. If you break a law, you can be deprived of tps. And people are, if they, if they do something illegal. So it's not as if they're, it's not a get out of jail free card either. So in a way, you would want people to be on this. If you're concerned, as they claim to be, about undocumented people going around doing terrible things. And, and, and it was so evidently a dog whistle and the fact that they got away with it. I really felt like that, for me, that was when I thought, geez, maybe Trump will win. I mean, if people aren't going to be upset about that. And then it was such a, I think, in a way an indicator of what the second term would be like, just how unembarrassed the authoritarianism would be and the bigotry. Honestly, first term was held in check somewhat by different, various constraints within the administration. And probably people weren't used to it yet, but after eight years, it really. Well, now we have the second term. We have. I don't know. People were in general, hopeful, worried, some combination, I'm sure. But did people, I mean, any sense of, I guess they'll be politically motivated in November, presumably, do you think?
- [29:41]
A
I assume so, yeah. I mean, every. I would say both simultaneously hopeful and worried. I was wearing the Bulwark Band hat for visibility because I'm not one of, One of our biggest faces. Unless you're really obsessed with the Bulwark and have been here from the beginning, you might not know who I am. And remember one lady, if you are
- [29:57]
B
such a person, we give you credit, we give you, we give you a hat tip for being yes, but not everyone. It's shocking to know not everyone is obsessed with every single person's work. Terrible.
- [30:07]
A
Fair enough. But one lady said, you're not Sam Stein. I said, I'm a little taller and I had sunglasses on. So I mean, kind of white guy, darkish hair. I could have been Sam Stein and no Pearl. So I wasn't Tim Miller. But I did talk to a OG reader named Blaze, who I did a little interview with, and he had a funny message. He goes Tim Miller's going soft. And he said that in a joking way, but more like that Tim has a soft, you know, he, he's, you know, as hard as Tim goes. But like he's a softy heart, which we all know about Tim. He's a very loving colleague to, to, to everybody. But, but it was, it was nice to meet some bulwark people. I mean, of course I know Charlie Setkamp who I referenced earlier from Principals first, but a couple people would just see my hat and they say, well, bulwark, thank you for being here. I love what you guys do, you know, which is, which is just really so heartening. I mean you think about. I put this in overtime thinking about what our live streams were like on Thursday night Bulwark in those early days and you know, kind of the professionalism now that we're streaming almost every day. Here we are.
- [31:13]
B
You put it in your overtime newsletter on Saturday. The. You mentioned the Thursday night bubble, which I think was our first effort. We had the notion that people might like to see us talk, not just to read. Well at the time there was really Charlie Sykes's morning shots and JBL's triad. I think we're already that one of these. Those are the two newsletters or the two regular publications that were they even. Maybe they were newsletters already. And. And then there was Charlie's podcast and that was. And then Tim joined but I mean and then the rest of us chipped in a lot but for the website. But yeah, you're right. That was sort of. Let's. Maybe people would like to see us talk, you know, just in a kind of more informal way. Not, not an interview like a podcast. But there's two or three or four of us and I. Yeah, those are Thursday night and I guess that was the germ of the whole. Yeah of. Of a lot of the secret podcast and the next level and all the different sort of interval work talk talking stuff as well as obviously the bulk of what we do is interview, bring in others and talk to them and get their knowledge. But that was a while ago.
- [32:15]
A
Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chamba. Jump in@chumbacasino.com let's shamba.
- [32:25]
B
No purchase necessary BTW group void where prohibited by law.
- [32:28]
A
CTNC21+ sponsored by Chumba Casino.
- [32:30]
C
Hi, this is Alex Canitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on air contributor to cnbc. And if you're like Me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies, companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
- [33:05]
B
When was that? That was like, 2019. 2020, you think?
- [33:07]
A
Yeah, 2019. 2020 was during the pandemic. And that was part of the logic, too. It was like, people are walking home, let's do this at night, and we do it on, like, zoom and things like that. And it was. It really was tin cans and wire and duct tape and a lot could go wrong. And not to say things don't go wrong these days, they do, but everyone's nice and accepting about it. But it really was a little snowball that kind of turned into this now where I can wear a bulwark hat, walk around Cincinnati and have people say bulwark, like the publication. I'm like, yeah. And talk with them about it. And just to meet our community members out there. It was nice. And to. Just to chat with them. Not all of them wanted to be on video, and I didn't ask why that they didn't want to talk about video. That's. I was happy not to. To feature them, but they have bosses
- [33:54]
B
who may not agree with them and so forth. I don't blame them.
- [33:56]
A
Yeah.
- [33:57]
B
So.
- [33:57]
A
But I got. I got stopped probably a dozen times. And it was. It was. It was just wind in my sails, as I said earlier. And as tired and old as I am getting, you know, I can't wait for the next one.
- [34:11]
B
No, no, same here. And it really was not. More importantly than its effect on us is its effect on the country, which I really think was important. And each of these things is only part of the mosaic. We obviously have to win legislative victories and stop things in court and get institutions to change their behavior, law firms and businesses and so forth. So there are a million different fronts to fight on, but this one is an important one, and it is a democracy. And there's a kind of popular. There's kind of legitimacy. I think that comes from just the numbers. And again. But again, not just numbers, but peaceful and thoughtful gatherings of people committed to democracy, not committed to some particular cause, not committed to. Look, I respect unions. I respect interest groups. I respect other kinds of identity groups, but they're fighting often for their own benefits. They're totally entitled to do so. And often it could be a just cause. I don't mean to in any way minimize that. It could also be of greater significance than just their interest. But still, this is really remarkable. And maybe I'll just close on this. I think people don't quite appreciate this, is people coming out for the public good. Many of the people at Balfam, it was, you know, they were doing okay. I didn't see a lot of, you know, people have jobs, people are retired and they've saved some money. People have young families and seem to be happy and they were going to a ball game afterwards and you know, it's little league or something or I mean it's struggle or I guess it's not quite baseball season. But they said they're going to sports events, you know, God knows, hockey, hockey's big up here. Hockey, basketball and stuff. And you know, so it wasn't like people are. People are probably entitled to protest, you know, on more immediate sort of self interested grounds. If you want to quote thing with this, what's very striking here is that people are coming out for the, for the common good. And so for all the talk about how the culture is corrupted and people don't care anymore about the country and there's no patriotism anymore, I really think these no Kings protests make one think, you know what, the country maybe a little better than we think it is. We made some mistakes electorally and we're paying a real price. And not all of our fellow citizens maybe have the same attitude, but no, it is heartening and it's important, I think, for all of us to have that sense that there's a country here that's worth saving and that may save itself. So that's. Yeah, I was very cheered up by it. Final word, Jim, Final word.
- [36:33]
A
I mean, you can tell who the hardened protest professionals are, but that was not most of the people there. It was very Bulwarkian in that sense, you know, and we have, you know, we've made T shirts and whatnot and taglines. You're not the crazy ones. One of the best things about the Bulwark is the community and realizing you're not alone. And, you know, not everyone is someone who has a flag flying of any kind. Whether it's a protest or an American flag or a sign in their yard. People were curious, they were fed up. And they went out and they saw that tens and thousands of their neighbors, just like them who are not hardened politicos or protest professionals were just like them and that they weren't alone. And the high visibility, unless you had to take off from your job, it doesn't really cost all that much to do. And I think that's really why these marches and rallies have been so successful. So I think we'll see more of them and they're going to continue to be great if they keep the playbook up, I think.
- [37:26]
B
Yeah, I agree. Well, thanks, Jim. That was well said. And thank you for everything you've done, obviously, at the Bulwark and all these years of working together. But thank you for joining me this Sunday morning on on the Bulwark on Sunday and thank you all.
- [37:38]
A
Happy to be here. Tyler reddick here from 2311 racing another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in@chumbacasino.com let's jumba. No purchase necessary BTW Group void where prohibited by law.
- [37:52]
C
CTNC21+ sponsored by Chumba Casino hi, this is Alex Canceroitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on air contributor to cnbc. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts.