← The Josh Hammer Show
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In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told, the living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. Foreign.
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I'm Josh Hammer, and this is Josh Hammer show well, I'm in Texas today for CPAC speaking today, a speech that I put a lot of thought into and I hope that you will view it favorably. We will discuss it certainly, and perhaps even play parts of it on tomorrow's show. Meanwhile, coach Bruce Pearl, the former Final Four coach of the Auburn Tigers basketball team, joins us today for an extended conversation on how the war against the Iranian regime is going, as well as this wonderful tournament, this College Basel tournament that is going on. It's very easy to focus on the ups and downs of the news cycle. Sometimes it's important to think about some of the lighter things in life as well. And that is where March Madness comes in. But I am out here in Texas and my thoughts right now are on all things CPAC and all things Concerned Movement related. And that is the subject of our opening monologue today. The Concerned Movement finds itself at something of an inflection point. If you listen to or watch this show on a daily or near daily basis, these are not going to be new thoughts to you. You likely understand that there is a lot that is currently up for grabs. There are a lot of folks that are trying to now try to shoehorn and retrofit their highly idiosyncratic at best and deeply dastardly and insidious ideas and thoughts at worst into this somewhat open definition as to what it means to be a conservative. But our stance here on the show is pretty straightforward, which is that what it means to be a conservative, what it means to be on the right in general, what the right does stand for, what the right must stand for if it wants to have any chance of succeeding, of defeating the left and by extension of actually saving the United States, and by extension even further, of saving Western civilization, what the right actually stands for is not infinitely malleable. This is not an all options are equal sort of calculation. There are some conceptions of what it means to be on the right that make sense. There are some that are consonant with basic philosophy, with basic ways of thinking, and there are some that are not consistent. We read to you on the show, I believe it was last week, the opening line of Alexander Hamilton's essay in the Federals Papers, the Federalist paper number 31, where he famously says that, quote, in disquisitions of every kind, there are certain primary truths or first principles which upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend. In other words, you have to start somewhere. If you don't actually start somewhere, you're not going to know actually how to arrive at a public policy conclusion. Public policy, law, legal interpretation, legislation, drafting policy ultimately for the common good, which is the foundational task of the statesman, is an impossible task. It is literally not possible unless you have a starting place, unless you have certain places where you are entering from in order to ultimately reason to. For as long as what we think of as conservatism has been around, that starting place has been fairly simple. That starting place has been the biblical inheritance, the values, the principles, the ideals, the axioms, the ways of life that have been passed down from one generation to the next in this broader biblical inheritance, the shared inheritance of the two biblical religions, Jews and Christians alike. Unfortunately, many of the leading organs and many of the leading impresarios, let's call them of capital C conservatism, have tended to obfuscate and have tended to diminish and downplay the importance of these primary truths and anchoring principles. They have tended instead in their stead in their place, to promote the notion of just trying to get clicks, clout or perhaps just straight up cash. They have decided, in other words, in order to appease the algorithms of the day and perhaps the ratings of the day, or the clapping like seals, useful idiots of the day, that sometimes it is more convenient to just abandon all that you once purported to care for, instead to adopt by means of pure, just convenience. Pure convenience, something that just plays for the news cycle. Cpac, the conference that I'm here in Texas to speak at, has definitely at times fallen to that. There are a lot of great folks speaking at this particular conference at the cpac. There are certainly a number of less than Stell inclusions in the lineup as well many of the other major conservative organizations, Turning Point USA among them, very much the same way I was a friend. As you know, if you watch this show of the late Charlie Kirk, I did not agree with all of Charlie's platform decisions. I actually disagreed mightily with some of his decisions in the final, final few years as the movement descended into some of the chaos and the strife that it is currently in. So this is a real moment for choosing, and that is the main theme indeed of my speech at this conference. Is this moment going to go down the conspiratorial rabbit hole? Is it going to just completely shunt aside any pretense of having any fealty, any loyalty, any care about principles, values, any of that? Or is it going to make a conscientious effort to recover some of that which it holds dear? And a lot of this is happening right now in the context of the war in Iran. It very much pertains not just to overseas and geopolitical events, but it very much pertains also to domestic events as well. All sorts of domestic policy, all sorts of other non policy issues, namely this subversive fifth calm operation trying to tear apart the Jewish Christian Biblical alliance has been a big theme of our show for a long time now. It's really, it's really all up for grabs and it's an extraordinarily crucial time there. And here's hoping, here is hoping that some of these leading organizations, some of these leading conference impresarios, organizations like cpac, organizations like Turningpoint usa, given the sheer level of the grift that is out there, given the fact that there are people like, like Joe Kent who are now openly admitting that they tried to subvert and undermined the movement and this administration from within, it is a time for choosing and is crucial that we choose correctly and that we choose timeless principles and values. And yes, we can be a little more malleable when it comes to tactics for sure. My thesis, for instance, when it comes to lawfare, is that the only way out is through and that mutually assured lawfare destruction is the only viable path forward towards getting us back to a mid to long term stable equilibrium. That's not necessarily your quote unquote nice answer. That's not perhaps what the lawyers learned or were taught in law school. So the tactics might need to get a little more brass knuckle, a little more hands on, a little more aggressive. But the actual principles, the guideposts, the lodestar, those primary truths that Hamilton spoke of, those haven't changed. And perhaps even more to the point, it is indispensable that they be there in the first place and that we not just promote loudmouths and shameless promoters and hawkers and grifters and people who are in it fundamentally for themselves and not for the greater good. By the way, folks, this show, as you hopefully know, is on the Salem News Channel where we are deeply proud to have the show distributed. It's a big day here on the Salem News Channel because Salem News Channel is expanding. SNC is available live on the Roku Channel. You can now find SNC on the Roku Channel app or on the Live TV Guide on your Roku tv. For more ways to watch, go to SNC TV and click on Ways to Watch. We hope that you check out this show on the Salem News Channel if you have not already done so. So among the ways, as I mentioned, that this is all playing out here in real time, including at this conference. CPAC that I'm speaking at is on the foreign policy issues of Iran. And this is a war that Donald Trump did not choose. It is a war that was 47 years in the making. We're going to bring on coach Bruce Pearl. Surely we'll get his thought on that matter. That's been that that's been our thesis on the show for a long time now is that this is a 47 year forever war. In fact, just, just last night I did a separate event in Dallas while I am in town here in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. And my, my interlocutor asked me how I could reconcile what Trump is doing when it comes to Iran with how he vowed to end forever wars. And I said it's actually very simple. There is literally no issue perhaps other than tariffs on which this man has been more consistent over the past 47 years. In 1980, he criticized Jimmy Carter for not using military to go in and get the hostages out of the embassy after the revolutionaries there seized the US embassy in 1988. He told the Guardian, the British newspaper, that he would, quote, go in and take Kharg island, this highly strategic island there near the crucial 21 mile wide straight off Hormuz oil choke point. Trump has been deeply, deeply consistent on this issue. So it is not like other people force his hand there. It's not like the Jews, the Israelis, as some of these idiots say, force his hands. In fact, the country has actually gotten the bulk of this incoming fire has actually not even been Israel, as we've said repeatedly, it's been the United Arab Emirates. They've gotten roughly 60% of all of the attacks. And their minister of state, Lana Nusabel is actually on Fox News talking about this all with Bret Baier last night. Let's go ahead and watch this from Fox News.
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There are a lot of questions there. I think they're really important ones. But you're right, over 60% of the attacks, more than Israel and the Gulf countries combined, have been directed at the uae. And that's a fundamental question why? But going back to your first question, we've always tried the diplomatic channel with Iran. We've tried it for decades. And I was in Tehran in early February. We have been working with the United States for months to try and de escalate tensions in the region. We were supportive of direct negotiations between the United States and Iran. We did not ask for a war in our region. We did not start a war in our region. But as a result of these operations, we have now seen Iran take the irresponsible decision instead of negotiating with the United States over really well understood concerns over its nuclear program, over its ballistic missiles program, over its support of state, non state terrorist actors in the region, instead of negotiating over those issues, they chose instead to fire over 2,200 missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates, a peacemaker in the region.
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So the UAE is all in on this conflict. As you hear, Saudi Arabia apparently is all in on this conflict as well. Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince there, the big decision maker, is apparently telling Donald Trump privately to keep your foot on the gas pedal. So what exactly is happening there? Well, taking what we said earlier, it ought to be self evident that a solid conservative principle is to preserve Western civilization against its Islamist would be subjugationist enemies, Islam Republic of Iran, which has been at war for us, war at war against us for 47 years. They are an Islamist enemy if there ever were one. I'm not saying that this war can or should go on forever. Obviously it cannot. I don't particularly want to see boots on the ground or anything like that either there. But once you've started this conflict, it is indispensable that you see this mission through. That is certainly. Take us back to our opening thoughts here, the principled way out of this current quagmire, folks, we're going to a quick commercial break. Stay with us. On the other side. Coach Bruce Pearl joins us to talk about this and much more. We'll be right back with Coach Pearl.
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Folks. Joining us back on the show today is a wonderful, wonderful guest, a wonderful man as well. And that is Coach Bruce Pearl. Coach, is Bruce Pearl returning here to the Josh Hammer Show? He is the former coach of the Auburn Tigers, made the Final Four and he is now joining us yet again. So Coach Pearl, welcome back to the show. We want to talk about basketball. That's a real passion of mine, real passion of yours. And it's a wonderful time of the calendar, Coach, but there are plenty of other issues that we discussed last time you were on the program that you are passionate on. Among them are US Israel relations, rising, anti Semitism, foreign policy more generally. You are the chair of the board of the US Israel Education Association. Among the other hats that you wear. And I wanted to open by getting your survey of what we've seen over the last month. There's a lot of rumors flying around right now as to what exactly this next stage of the Iran conflict might look like there. And how do you assess things putting on your geopolitical political cap, perhaps before your basketball cap, if I may, how have things gone over the past month and how do you assess the geopolitical map today compared to one month ago?
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Well, Josh, it's great to be with you and having this discussion. Let's ask ourselves the question why are we involved? Why are we doing this? And for me the answer's pretty simple. We're learning from history. Back in the late 30s, mid to late 30s after World War I, Hitler was beginning to build a tremendous war machine with the intent on taking over Europe, designs it putting genocide against the Jews and other certain folks of people. And he was actively working on it. But at the time, you know, Europe was tired of war, had been just gone through a terrible World War I would do anything to try to appease Hitler and find ways for peace and exchanging anything they possibly could in the hope that he would wind up being somewhat reasonable. But all you got to do is read the book Mein Kampf and all you gotta do is see what was intended to know what was going to happen. For 47 years we have been at a Iran has been at war with us and we have been dealing with it. We have been dealing with it sometimes we've been appeasing it, doing everything we can to try to diplomatically give them an opportunity to change turn. I've always said that I truly believe, Josh, that Barack Obama was well intentioned and thinking that he, maybe he, as Barack Hussein Obama, could be the one American president that could get Iran to go. Come on, guys, you're out there by yourselves now. There aren't that many out there anymore. Just come back into the real world and live peacefully with your neighbors and look at the resources you have. You're from Persia. You've got a rich history and tradition and culture. Just can you come back the other way? And the answer was simply flat out no. And all he did was enrich them and empower them, just like Chamberlain did in England and appeased Hitler. That's what the United States presidency have done with the exception of Donald Trump. And so why are we doing this right now? Because we're trying to prevent World War three. We're trying to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which they were really close to obtaining. And if you look at all the damage they've done in the Middle east right now, when their ballistic missile stockpile was reduced by, say, 60 or 70% after we did damage back in June, what would it be like right now if we hadn't had that operation? It would be an even bigger mess. So it just blows my mind to hear people in the media or Democrats or even a few Republicans asking the question, well, why are we doing this? Over and over and over again, you give the exact same answer, but they just won't listen. We are in a much better place right now than we were before. Our gas prices a little higher? Yes. Are interest rates a little high? Yes. Have food costs come down enough? No. Is this place as affordable as we'd like? No. But you know what my grandfather would be ashamed of? The Americans whining today about the state of things compared to what they went through 45, 50 years ago to rid the world of an enormous threat. And that's what we're doing right now. We just got to hang in there. We gotta hang in there until it's done. And that would be my initial take.
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You can follow Coach Bruce Pearl on X at Coach Bruce Pearl, Coach. I guess that's the logical follow up here. And by the way, I love the way you frame that. That's very much the way that we've been framing it here on the show as well, which is that Iran has been in a 47 year forever war with the United States. Okay, Americans, we live in the greatest country in the world. We have two mighty oceans on our coast. We don't think of ourselves as being at war. But from the Iranian's perspective, they have been at war since their init acts in Tehran 47 years ago, which was literally to storm the US embassy and take dozens and dozens of people hostage for 444 days. So I love the way that you frame that. But at some point, at some juncture, and this is kind of a lot of this, this back and forth, these various headlines that we're seeing play out, a lot of rumors. Pakistan trying to host some, some mediation between the United States, Israel and Iran, potentially as soon as tomorrow. Thus far, that's not being corroborated. So there's a lot of questions now as to will there be an off ramp soon? What will allow Donald Trump to authentically and persuasively declare victory and say that the job is done? That's kind of what you were just saying. There is that keep on going until the job is done, which is, which is our stance here on the show as well. But how to define the job being done is is a somewhat difficult question. So what, what are your thoughts on that?
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D
Well, Josh, again, great follow up. Let's be really clear here. What do you think the United Arab Emirates wants the United States and Israel to do right now? They want the United States and Israel to continue until this threat is either eliminated or so weakened that it gives some form of opposition in Iran the opportunity to become more of a normalized country. That's what Saudi Arabia wants as well. That's where many of the other Abraham Accord countries, well, some may say it more loudly than others, some believe it, but have to be quiet about it because they don't want to stir the radicals within their own society. And so they need to maintain some sort of public neutrality. But I'm telling you behind the scenes, virtually the entire Middle east wants this enemy to either be destroyed or so set back that they cannot regain power if there's been a regime change because there's been so many of their leaders that have been eliminated just by virtue of that. We've already seen some elite regime change, but what kind of change? I trust President Trump. He's done all the right things. And sometimes you're not sure when he says all these things, whether you agree with him or not. You're not sure whether he's serious or whether he's sending different messages or trying to confuse the opponent and keep them off guard as to whether or not you're changing defenses or whether this player's playing or that player's not playing. And so you're going to take what he says with a grain of salt. But look at what he's doing. And so I would anticipate that he's not going to take a bad deal, that he's not trusting this regime and that he's got the political backbone to do what's best for America and what's best for our country. And shame on the Democratic Party for using this as an opportunity to inflict some doubt in the American people on what are we doing and why are we doing it in American lives and on foreign soil. And, you know, people that are heroes, that are in our armed service, they signed up so that you and I can live this wonderful life that we live. Every time I talk about, you know, doing this, people say, well, I'm a warmonger. Your son's not at war. No, my son's not at war. He's not trained to be at war. He didn't sign up to be at war. But you asked the vast, vast majority of our heroes in the military, they're over there so that we can live this life over here, and we are grateful. And President Trump has made the world a safer place at great political risk right now. And how many, because he's not a politician, how many politicians historically do what what the public says they should do so they can stay elected? Not this president. So we've got to continue to stay the course. We gotta continue to set things up so they're so diminished that they can't regain power and willing to sign off with the right people on some form of a lasting peace that can be verified. And like President Trump has said over and over again, we thought maybe the last time we were there, they would maybe decide, you know what, we're going to get our brains beat out. We can't win this war. Let's go. They don't care. Their job is jihad. Their job is Islamic religious extremism. This is a war they want. They don't care about their own people. Their own people are smart enough and they are ready for a better life. We're getting closer, Josh.
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Amen, and very well said. You can follow Coach Bruce Pearl on X at Coach Bruce Pearl. Amen. Not just known for his basketball prowess, which we will definitely get to after a short commercial break, but a man who clearly has some sharp insights when it comes to all things geopolit politics as well. Another part of this whole equation, of course, is the buttressing and bolstering of the US Israel alliance itself, which is a huge thing that I know you are very, very passionate about, Coach Pearl. And we're going to dive into that and much more, folks, after a short commercial break. Stay with us. Bruce Pearl joins us right here after a short commercial break to wrap up here on the Josh Hammer Show.
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Welcome back. And coach Bruce Pearl joins us here on JOSH hammershow. You can follow Coach on X. Oach Bruce Pearl, he's the chairman of the board of the US Israel Education association, former coach of the Auburn Tigers, among other hats currently seen all over CBS News. When it comes to college basketball analysis and coach, you're so passionate about US's relationship partially with your position there as chairman of the board on the US Israel Education association, just really all that you do in general. And Israel really has, I think solidified itself as one of America's most valuable allies, if not its most valuable ally over the course of this past month because they have really shown that unlike a lot of these more feckless, perhaps NATO countries, European nations, that when America is actually at war, that they are an ally that will go into war side by side and to help get the job done. And you're so outspoken about these issues. Coach, I'm curious if you have just any thoughts there on what I said, but I'm also curious for something else which is kind of transition conversation a little bit to the college basketball realm. I'm curious. You kind of are in both of these worlds now. You're in kind of the political geopolitical commentary realm and also the sports realm. Does anyone ever question some of your outspokenness on any of these issues, whether it's Israel, whether it's your support for President Trump and conservism, does this ever come up? I'm curious at all when it comes to putting on Your college basketball cap.
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D
Yes, of course it does, Josh. And you know, but I had enough success at Auburn and I live in a wonderful community, a great university that respects my freedom of speech rights. I speak as a citizen of this country, not the basketball coach at Auburn. And now I'm no longer the basketball coach at Auburn. But of course I took a great deal of hate and of course I get all kinds of threats to my safety and security. And of course on social media I'm an enormous target. But I give both CBS Sports and Turner Sports credit for saying, coach, we have hired you to be an analyst and we want you to break down these games and tell us about what we're seeing. And I'm just loving what I'm doing. And they're letting me just be myself when I'm off the court because I don't represent them necessarily with obviously what my political views are. And then, Josh, part of the move out of transitioning, out of coaching because, you know, in addition to my work with US Israel Education Association, I'm also senior fellow with America First Policy Institute and spend a great deal studying things. I've been to Israel dozen times in the last 10 years, you know, and I've been to Judea and Samaria every time I go. And I've met with Palestinian leaders. And I do have an opportunity to get myself, you know, in a situation where educated understanding. When I was coaching basketball, I was trying to win championships, I was trying to be Kentucky. That no longer became as big a priority for me as it was making sure that my children had the same living the opportunity to have the same, living the same American dream that I did. This is the greatest country in the world for all of us, but in particularly for the Jewish people. We're running out of places to go. You get past the United States and Israel and there's not many other lands in the world where we can live, worship, pray. Yeah, I know there's a rise in anti Semitism, but it's gone crazy around the world and at least here we've got way more friends and way more allies. So I would rather fight for America and I'd rather fight for the Jewish people than necessarily have to fight to win a few basketball games. And that's where I've been and that's what I hope to continue to do.
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B
And it absolutely, I'm sure, is what you'll continue to do. And it's why you and I have developed this rapport. And we're so grateful that you've joined the show now multiple times. Coach Bruce is probably going to follow him on X. Coach Bruce Pearl. Coach, notwithstanding your passion when it comes to fighting for America, fighting for the biblical inheritance for Jews and Christians and all this, I do want to spend a little time at least talking about college basketball. I can't help myself. Of course. I'm a huge mega fan. I actually texted you after the NCAA selection show just to give you a little tongue in cheek kind of grief about how you didn't pick my beloved Duke Blue Devils to make it to the Final Four. And now we're in the second week in the tournament. It's sweet 16 day starting today, and three of the four, one the big upset of the tournament thus far is that the Iowa Hawkeyes took down the Florida Gators and essentially a home game for Florida game played in Tampa, Florida. All sorts of other great stories this year as well. I want to zoom out a little bit, Coach, and not really focus necessarily on the X's and O's here. Maybe we'll get to that. We have time there. But you've coached in this tournament many times. Can you just tell us a little bit about what makes this tournament, what, from my vantage point, just as a fan, easily one of the most special sporting events, not just in America, but in the world?
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D
Well, Josh, I don't know that I know exactly what makes it so special, but let's just say what makes March Madness. You've got teams that have been battling all year long, training all summer long, trying to put themselves in a position to maybe win a regular season championship in their respective leagues. The toughest league in the country is the one you're in. So anytime you hang a banner from that league, it means a great deal. But then there's this thing called postseason and March Madness and tournament play. And to the victor go all the spoils. And so when March Madness starts and the NCAA tournament starts, there are 68 teams, and in one week, you're down to just 16. And so last week's first and second round and first four, I think, are the best two weeks, the best week of college basketball because everything's on the line. What makes it different is 40 minutes. It's not a. It's not a grind. It's not the regular season. It's not a. It's 40 minutes. Anything can happen. Iowa plays Florida 10 times. They only beat him once. Maybe they only beat him once, but they did this time. High Point plays Arkansas, and that one's a lot closer. But, you know, Arkansas has the advantage but anything can happen. The game that High Point beat Wisconsin, Wisconsin is going to beat High Point seven out of ten times. And that's what makes it so very special. Everybody loves the underdog. Everybody roots for the underdog. And I get that. And I think the last thing would
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be
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D
what happens at the end of the season. If fans want to know, why do coaches and players cry about losing a basketball game at the end of the year? And the answer is it's this. It's not just about that game and it's not just about what was lost in the way of opportunity. Tomorrow you're not going to practice. Tomorrow you're not sitting there and film. Tomorrow you're not in the weight room together. Tomorrow, all of a sudden your life is completely different. That family that you, that blood, sweat and tears with for the last 11 and a half months, whenever you got started in this season, together, it's now going to be different. And that's emotional, that's sad. And that's why we call it one shining moment when you're able to survive in advance.
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It's a very special, special moment every year when the final nets are cut down and there's always that compilation of the old song, One shining Coach we're now in the second weekend. The Final Four, of course, will be in Indianapolis next weekend. Actually a very special weekend for both Jews and Christians. It's Easter Sunday, of course, the weekend. It's right smack in the middle of Passover for Jews as well. So kind of weaves together some various themes of our conversation today. I hate to put you on the spot, but I'm going to put you on the spot because you are an on air college basketball analyst. Among many other impressive hats that you wear. How do you see it shaking out? Who's going to make it at this point to Indianapolis?
- [31:45]
D
Well, the East Regional right now is all Final Four material. You've got John Shire, who's the best young coach in college basketball along with Todd golden and my son, Stephen Burrell. Little self, little praise there for my son. Yeah, I love John Shire. The job he's done at duke. The fastest 124 wins in the history of college basketball doesn't get nearly enough credit going up against the Cagius vet. The oldest coach in the tournament left. The best coach I've ever gone up against is Rick Pitino. And the other side of the bracket you had Danny Hurley and UConn who's won two out of the last three Final Fours, and Tom Izzo, who's gone to 17 sweet sixteens longer than any other active coach. That alone is a Final Four in the east regional in Washington, D.C. i picked St. John's and the upset from the beginning, so I'll stay with it. But I think a healthy Duke and I do think Duke is healthy, they've got a, they've got a chance. I love the way Michigan State is playing right now. So, you know, Michigan State to me and St. John's look like the two hottest teams going in. So anyways, I got to stay with St. John's I picked him from the jump. Arizona, I like out west. They got to beat Arkansas and the best player on the floor in Darius Acup. But I think they're too big, too strong, too deep. I like Michigan to be able to advance out of their region. They got Alabama team that'll spread it and shoot it. But again, too big, too strong, too deep. And then Houston and Kelvin Sampson, they got to beat Illinois, which will be a real challenge. And there's some other teams there. But I like Houston being able to advance out of that regional. Maybe Kelvin Sampson wins a national championship and then he is able to retire and enjoy a little bit more golf.
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Well, he got shockingly close last year, Kelvin Sampson did after upsetting Duke in the Final Four, narrowly losing that game to Todd Gold in Florida in the championship. Basically a home game for Houston, playing there in the South Regional in Houston, we'll see how it shakes out. But Bruce Pearl, we are very much watching how your next moves shake out. So again, folks, coach Bruce Pearl. You can follow him on X at Coach Bruce Pearl, he is a man of many on air college basketball analyst, also the chair of the board of the US Israel Education Association. He's involved as well as a fellow with America First Policy Institute. Just a great American patriot, wonderful man and proud to call him a friend as well. So, Coach Pearl, God bless you. Look forward to seeing you on air soon. Thank you as always for joining us here on the Josh Hammer Show.
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D
Coach God bless you too, Josh. Thank you.
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B
You bet. Folks, give us through one final commercial break. We'll be right back with more on the other side.
- [34:07]
C
Health insurance rates in America are surging, leaving millions without affordable options. But Christians don't need to waste money on a broken system. Christian Healthcare Ministries is an alternative to health insurance at half the cost with chm. Fellow believers contribute monthly to help pay each other's medical bills while lifting one another up in prayer. It's financial and spiritual support when you need it most. Join CHM today by visiting chministries.orgwelfarewell. that's chministries.orgwellness.
- [34:48]
B
Welcome back. So great conversation is always with Coach Pearl. Wishing him the best of luck in his continued duties predicting and analyzing the on air tournament that I love so much, this March Madness tournament. And again folks, I, I will just say if you have not been paying attention to this tournament, I'm obviously a big sports fan. I know that not all of you share that passion that I do. But it's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful tournament. It really is there, seeing the passion, the fervor, the close games, the Cinderella stories there. And perhaps when you have a slower moment, whether it's this weekend or even next weekend for the Final Four and the championship game, it really would be a nice time just take a bit of a break from the hectic nature of the daily news cycle and to go ahead and tune in to this tournament. One of our favorite quotes when it comes to the bramble sports is this quote that I often cite from a man who I frankly don't agree with on a whole lot, which is the very liberal, very left wing former Chief justice of the US Supreme Court, Earl Warren, who famously said, and I'm paraphrasing, it's a close paraphrase, he famously said that when he opens the newspaper every morning, he does not open with the news section because he prefers to read more about man's triumphs than his sorrows and his failings. Therefore, he starts in the sports section, not in the new section. It's a very, it's a very sentimental sentiment, but frankly, we would argue here on the show that there is a lot of truth to that sentiment as well. Now in other big news this week, one of the issues that I've been following, paying attention to a lot over the years is the big tech issue. So among the many hats that I wear is I am senior counsel not merely at the Article 3 project, but at our sister organization, a group called IAP. The Internet Accountability Project was founded by my friend and colleague Mike Davis handful of years ago for the purpose of being a conservative watchdog when it comes to the issue of big tech. And when we started this IAP operation maybe six years ago, six, seven years ago, give or take, it was not a particularly popular thing in conservative circles because at the time there was this notion that the private sector, free enterprise capitalism, how dare you talk about regulating all sorts of free corporations there? Aren't you, aren't you a capitalist? Aren't you not a socialist there? How dare you Talk about trying to put restrictions and just various other forms of regulation when it comes to private companies and private services and private products there. And the basic argument that many of us advanced for years. Well, there's a lot of basic arguments, but one is that the government itself had breached this public private distinction. This is what we saw play out over the course of the Missouri vs Biden litigation, where we saw how the Biden White House was in frequent communication coordination with the big tech oligarchs, with Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Facebook, with Jack Dorsey back in the enchantment regime over at Twitter, various other folks at Google, with YouTube as well there. And there was a coordinated effort to try to threaten and indeed cajole, to cajole the big tech companies into trying to do the Biden administration's dirty work when it came to things like censorship of COVID 19 related information, masking Hunter Biden laptop related information things, things like that. The other, though and more profound point to make, I think, is this. We opened our show today by talking about conservatism and the importance of starting somewhere and primary truths. The primary truth that is relevant here is that we exist and we operate in the realm of politics. We operate in the realm of media commentary. All that we are doing here when it comes to law, policy, all of the above. We are here ultimately because we are seeking to preserve, perpetuate, enhance and improve upon the customs, manners, way of life, et cetera, that we have inherited from our forebears. We seek to preserve, perpetuate and improve that for our children and for our children's children. That is what we are called to do. What we are not necessarily called to do is to simply lazily say, ah, can't touch that, that it's a private corporation there. Don't get me wrong, free market economics are generally great. On the other hand, it is ludicrous. It is ludicrous to suggest that the market is the end all, be all when it comes to judging the health of society or what a society should seek to do, its goals, how it is flourishing, GDP is not how we measure how societies flourish. I have long resorted to a very simple example to illustrate this most basic of points. Think about San Fernando Valley, California. If you know anything about Southern California, San Fernando Valley, AKA the Valley as they know it in Los Angeles county, the Valley is a hub of the pornography industry, one of the most awful and sordid of industries known to mankind. If pornography is in greater demand and therefore supply catches up and there are more pornographers hired. There are more men and women, quote, unquote, actors and producers and production companies and editors. And that would be good, one presumes, for the GDP of San Fernando Valley and perhaps by extension Los Angeles county, perhaps by extension the state of California, perhaps even by extension, the United States. Does that mean that the United States is better for more pornography? The answer is obvious. No. So GDP is not the end all, be all. And I say all that because there were a couple of huge, huge jury verdicts that came out this week in the case of Big Tech, which I'm not necessarily comparing to pornography per se, but I think that frankly, tobacco of the 1990s is a more apt comparison because what these two juries found. First, there was a jury in New Mexico earlier this week, and the jury there determines that Meta, AKA the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it already knew about child sexual exploitation on this platform. It's been a huge issue for a long time on Instagram in particular is the child sexual exploitation there. So for the first time, a jury was able to breach what is known as Section 230, which is the statute that was passed in 1990s, part of the Communications Decency act of 1996. A jury for the first time was able to breach that in order in order to find that Meta was liable. And in perhaps an even bigger case, actually just yesterday, on Wednesday out in Los Angeles, they trial actually that Mark Zuckerberg personally testified and various others, a jury here found both meta and YouTube, which means Google. They found both Meta and Google liable for harms to children using their services. And in this ruling are all sorts of analogies to the addictive nature of the products. Essentially what they say is that the companies knew that their products were addictive and not only did they not care, they actually sought to make them even more addictive to make sure you spend even more time on your Instagram feed just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, looking at stories there that they were manipulating the algorithms not to try to improve your mental health, but try to improve their own screen time. This is a huge deal. In fact, along with the detransitioner, so called medical malpractice jury victory that we had in New York State about two months ago, that was the first time that a jury's ever held for medical malpractice when it comes to a detransitioner case. These are big, big rulings when it comes to plaintiff side litigation in America. And Traditionally, look, a lot of chamber of commerce types say that, oh, you never support plaintiffs in a lawsuit, you always support the corporate defendant there. Again, I'm challenging a lot of these notions because we're not in it to just blindly nakedly defend corporations. We're certainly not in it to nakedly defend doctors or the medical lobby. Doctors are a very noble profession, but like many noble professions, they have been institutionally captured by ideologues and by left wing radicals here. When it comes to big tech, this potentially could lead to a place where the big tech products are forced to put on their websites a similar warning label. Similar to if you walk into your local gas station and buy a pack of cigarettes today, what you might see as a warning label about how highly addictive a product that it actually is. This is a really, really, really big deal when it comes to our fight. That again, I've been a part of for some time now, pushing back against this notion that these big tech corporations who control our modern day public square, that they can just do whatever they want carte blanche and we the people cannot act in a way that redounds to the common good. That's not how it works. Technology must ultimately be channeled through the prism of that which is best for human flourishing in the common good.
- [43:58]
D
Good.
- [43:58]
B
All technology must be oriented towards that. There is a prudence role for regulation there. There is a prudence role for legislation, for law and for statesmanship. Technology run amok might be good. It also might not be good. That is the role of politics and the role of law and judges is to make sure that technology proceeds in a way, even it's a little bumpy. Not a straight shot, but it's a little bumpy to make sure that it's it proceeds in advances in a manner that redounds to the common good. These two jury verdicts this week, folks, I think are a big, big step forward in that most noble of pursuits. Folks, have a great rest of your evening. I will be back home in my home studio tomorrow and we will talk about my speech at CPAC then. Hope you enjoyed today's show. Josh Hammer signing off, folks. We'll be right back tomorrow.
- [44:51]
A
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