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- [00:00]
Victor Davis Hanson
Folks, I have to tell you about.
- [00:02]
Jack Fowler
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- [01:28]
Sammy Wink
Hel Ladies. Hello, gentlemen. I got to pull my mic over here. Victor. Excuse me. Sorry, folks.
- [01:33]
John Wolfe
Hello, ladies.
- [01:34]
Sammy Wink
Hello, gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the inept and bumbling host. We are recording on Sunday 19th January. This is the last full day of the Biden presidency. It may be the last full day of the Obama era. Victor Davis Hansen, who is the star of this show, is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. This episode will be up on the World Wide web on Tuesday the 21st. Those of you who are listening on the 21st and wanting Victor's take on Trump's inauguration inaugural speech, whatever it'll come, you'll get that analysis. He'll do it with the great Sammy Wink in a few days. We got plenty of mop up sweep up after the Democrat elephants to get Victor's take on. And I think the first thing Victor, oh wait, I forgot to mention you have a website. The blade of Perseus. Victorhansen.com More about that later in the show. But when we come back from important messages, I think we should first get Victor's take on Joe Biden's farewell speech. I think it was a speech. But your take on that again when we come back from these important messages.
- [03:03]
Victor Davis Hanson
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- [04:42]
Maria
Hi everyone. If you've been injured in an accident that was not your fault, listen up. We have leaked legal professional standing by to answer your questions for free. Call now and find out if you have a case and how much it's potentially worth. Call 800-550-7400. I'm here with spokesman John Wolfe. So John, tell everyone listening who should call right now. Well Maria, first off, thank you for having me here.
- [05:07]
John Wolfe
It's always nice to answer the listeners questions. Now as far as who should call in, anyone who's been injured in an accident and think you deserve compensation, give us a call right now 800-550-7400. You'll find out if you have a case and how much it's potentially worth.
- [05:23]
Maria
Thanks John. You heard it folks. Take advantage of this opportunity and call now, 800-550-7400.
- [05:34]
John Wolfe
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- [05:44]
Sammy Wink
We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Now it's a podcast. It's been a podcast for several years with JustTheNews.com and we are also on Rumble and thank you for those who catch it this way. So Victor, yeah, we are on the end of an error. Error. Joe Biden put the punctuation mark on that, although he still did a few things following his farewell speech. A few pulled some rabbits out of hats. We can talk about them too on the ERA and some more presidential pardons. But Victor, what was your take on the farewell?
- [06:26]
John Wolfe
Well, Joe Biden gave two farewell speeches, one to the State Department and one to us. I'll start with the latter. First he thought he was Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jack. And it was, you know, he gave that on almost the same January, I think Biden did on the 16th. Ike did it on the 17th of 1961. So 64 years later, as Ike left, he gave the speech about the dangers of the military industrial complex and he and his speechwriters created that word. In other words, we were in a Cold War mentality. We were building the B36, the B52, all this taxes. The citizen was feeling that we were an empire. To quote Pat Buchanan, not everybody, et cetera. So I guess Biden thought he was Dwight Eisenhower. And I would like to, because Biden was worried about a modern comparable danger. And he called it oligarch and multi billionaires. Now, as I see it, there were three things wrong with it. To quote our dear departed Lloyd Benston about our dear Dan Quero, Joe, you're no Ike. I knew Ike, so I didn't know Ike as Benson knew jfk. But the point is, Eisenhower was coming out of a two term successful presidency. He was the hero of the great crusade, as that was his crusade in Europe, his memoir. From Normandy, the beaches of Normandy, across the Rhine to the interior of Germany. What did Joe did? He got out of Afghanistan in humiliation. And then he had bragged to the State Department there'll be no president after me whoever has to fight in Afghanistan. That would be as if Roosevelt said there'll be no president after me that ever has to worry about D Day again because I lost. And so he had no credibility. And then he got so what was he worried? He was screaming about the oligarchs. Oligarchs, oligarchs, oligarchs. And I thought, you shameless, hypocrite, liar. This is a guy who gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros, a multi billionaire who broke the bank of England, who is a convicted criminal in France and can ever go back. And he used $60 million in 2020 to help subvert the election and then another 60 or 70 to get elected the likes of George Haskahn and Chesi Bud, all of the rest of them, Kim Fox, all Alvin Bragg, all of the people who have ruined criminal jurisprudence in our major cities. And then he was the one that Mark Zuckerberg volunteered to put $419 million to subvert the work of the registrars and absorb some of Their employees added their own employees to add mailboxes and facilitated this disastrous mail in voting in the swing states and help Joe Biden win. That was an oligarch, Joe. That's what you did. And then he was the one that conspired with oligarchs to suppress news of the Hunter, as Miranda Devine has written so wonderfully about suppressing the news of the genuine authentic Hunter laptop and incriminating computer. And so he's a cold hypocrite. And then number three, these oligarchs, quote, unquote, they're not just people like George Soros. I'm not making fun of finance. Finance is important as the fuel that runs the American economy. But when you see that erector hand grab a rocket by Elon Musk, or you see that Elon Musk broke into the top three automakers and no one else had done that, when you see Elon Musk reinvent social media and then he steps up for almost nothing, that's pretty impressive. And now he's a frenemy of Jeff Bezos. He praised Jeff Bezos's rocket and Jeff Bezos refused as remember to endorse have his Washington Post megaphone endorse Kamala Harris. So he's down. He's making. What do we call it, Jack the Hajj, the holy trek to Mar a Lago. Is that the Hodge? They're all.
- [11:03]
Sammy Wink
It deserves its own special term.
- [11:05]
John Wolfe
Yeah, yeah, some kind of Hodge. But Mika and Joe Scarborough, they made it. Bezos made it. Zuckerberg's made it.
- [11:13]
Jack Fowler
Bill Gates.
- [11:15]
John Wolfe
Bill Gates is there and he says he's re examined. Snoop Dogg made it. Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg who cut a video about how to shoot Donald Trump. Remember that? He was on my list of all the people who threatened to shoot Donald Trump. And now he says he likes Donald Trump. He likes him.
- [11:30]
Sammy Wink
So people get religion.
- [11:32]
John Wolfe
They do. So my point is that these oligarchs are active people who do things. They make cars, they make rockets. They change the way we buy things. In the case of Amazon, they change the way we communicate. So, Peter, tell David Sachs, Mark Andreessen, Netscape, all of them do stuff. They're not just waging. Not that it's not good to be a stock market. They can be very good. I'm not criticizing. But what they remind me of is what FDR did in 1941, all during the National Recovery act that was declared unconstitutional, the New Deal, civilian conversation, Conservation Corps, et cetera. All these captains of industry opposed it because he took over the Free market controlled it and prolonged the 29 depression all the way to 38, almost 10 years. And they said that he was ruining the economy and he went after them. Then the war started and he thought that the New Deal paradigm would work and it didn't. We had an army smaller than Portugal when the war broke out. And so what did he do? He created something called the War Production Board. These were oligarchs. They were Charles Wilson, the head of ge, and guys in Dupont Campbell Soup. And then he turned, he thought, well, even that's not enough. And what did that war production do? They kind of did what Elon did, only they did it to a much greater degree. They took over Louisville Slaughters and started making war equipment. They took over dupont Chemical and made napalm. I don't mean he took it over, but the people transformed it, who owned it. Then he turned to three people, kind of like the version of Bezos and Elon or Ramaswamy or Kent, and he said, william Knudsen, you were the head of gm. I fought you my entire life. I'm going to make you a two star general. You just do what it has to take, but this is what I want. So then Knudsen got together with Henry Kaiser and said, just plow a path through Contra Costa county to the sea. And I want a Liberty ship. Here's a design for Liberty ship, here's a dime for free. I want them every three days. And he did. And he said to Henry Ford, go out to Willow Run, biggest building in the private sector. Make it. And I need a B24 every hour. And he did. And so those were oligarchs. And those oligarchs, they were called the dollar a day men. They got no compensation. They made a lot of money. But the point I'm making is what Trump is envisioning is not turning over the government to shady bunch of oligarchs, but enlisting a bunch of high profile people who everything they do is scrutinized media to use their talents that made them billionaires on behalf of us. So they're saying to these people, you can make us the preeminent space, you can make us preeminent in biotechnology, you can make us preeminent. And artificial intelligence, you can make us preeminent in crypto currency, you can make us preeminent in genetic engineering. These are the new challenges that our great grandfathers and grandfathers faced at the beginning of, and I think it's very exciting. And so Joe Biden, of course, that was some of his speech. Then he just lied. And I'll just very quickly pile in on what he said to the State Department. He said, he praised Afghanistan. I know you don't believe it, but he did that. He got out pride flag, gender studies, whole thing. 50 million. He had a pride flag in a gender studies program at Kabul flying, but he didn't care about 13 people who died or 50 billion in munitions that he abandoned. And then he praised. He praised the. I could not believe how shameless he was. He. He praised Iran for being weakened and Hezbollah weakened and Hamas weakened and Assad falling. And all those happened despite, not because of him. It was Israel that he. He thwarted at every turn. So he paid $6 billion for hostages and fueled Iran. He lifted the embargo and gave him $100 billion in oil revenue. He begged, got down on his knees. Please, please, can we get back in the Iran deal? He told Israel not to respond in kind to the Iranian 500 projectiles they sent. On two occasions. He said, don't take out the hierarchy. Don't kill Nasarov. Don't take out these people at home. He did all of that, and yet he was taking care, taking credit for Netanyahu's work in the Middle East. It was so shameful. Everything about it was shameful. And then, just to finish, Jack, now we hear, and we can get into that. Why are we hearing all this stuff now? Why now? Now, now. Oh, 50 people tell us he was senile. 50 people tell us he was always demented. And now we hear that Speaker Johnson went in a room with him and he said, everybody get out. And he says to Johnson, what do you want? And Johnson says, well, you shut down all the liquid national gas export terminals in my state. And you had bragged that you were going to help Europe withstand this Ukrainian war and the subsequent related closure of natural gas imports, which they. Russia, and now we can't send him any. And Joe Biden said, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. He said he didn't do it. He said he didn't do it. Well, who did? And can you imagine if Trump. Trump did that? And then the other. The final thing. I'll shut up. Is the. He says, Jack, yesterday, that 25 equal women. I get more than my women. And the 28th amendment, the equal rights have. I love the land. And he actually put it that in writing. That's treason. That. That's ins. That's insurrection. Where's Liz Cheney? Liz Cheney would be tweeting or kidding her. And all those people. Where's Nancy Pelosi? The President of the United States took a inert, defunct, failed era that had been declared null and void when it, the time expired 42 years ago. 42 years ago. And by executive fiat, he claims that it is now the law of the land. Can you imagine if Donald Trump did that?
- [18:17]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [18:17]
John Wolfe
And, and no one said really a thing about it.
- [18:21]
Sammy Wink
Well, some people have said. Some.
- [18:23]
John Wolfe
Well, they set a precedent, Jack. They set a precedent that you can try. Why don't they impeach him right now, have a special Sunday session and impeach him and then try him as a private citizen as they did to Trump?
- [18:36]
Sammy Wink
Well, if you look at what Speaker Johnson said, and the totality of it was he thought Biden really didn't remember that. Just more evidence of him being daft. But since he is daft and others, as you referenced Jack Reed, the senator from Rhode island, saying, we need two neurosurgeons to prove that this guy is, you know, cuckoo bird back, back in the summer. Nevertheless, Victor, there have been people like Christian Gillibrand, the senator from New York, who is saying, ah, so it is now the law of the land. So he's give him, give Biden this. He's, he's nuts. Right, but what about the people that aren't nuts that are taking the nutty, illegal, crazy thing he said and now trying to say it is the law of the land. Exactly.
- [19:30]
John Wolfe
And on the natural gas, he's basically saying to Speaker Johnson that a bunch of people that are wacko green people said to themselves, he's senile and he's leaving office, so let's draw up an executive order and just put it under his nose and say, this is going to create a green utopia. Joe, sign up. And he did. And then they, they said, do you realize that you put up thousands of people out of work and you're costing Europe? Oh, it's winter, Joe. It's winter over there and they're not going to get natural gas. Do you know what you're doing to the lives of people? These people don't care. You know, it's so much what Joe Rogan said about Newsom, they don't care about people. When they were talking to Newsom about the fire and he was trying to explain, you remember what he did? He went like this. Joe.
- [20:25]
Sammy Wink
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. What was that? I, I don't know. Some nervous. Well, I don't want to make fun of people having.
- [20:32]
John Wolfe
Well, I mean, don't. When Donald Trump did that Making fun of someone. Yeah, it wasn't like this. They said, oh my gosh, he's making fun of disabled people. That speaker was. But it was. Yeah, they don't, they don't care about people.
- [20:46]
Sammy Wink
It's kind of like the, the Third Man. You know the scene where, where Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton are up in the, up in the Ferris wheel.
- [20:54]
John Wolfe
Ferris wheel.
- [20:55]
Sammy Wink
And Orson Welles character says, would you care if one of those little dots down there disappeared? So from their height, they don't care about the dots. They just don't.
- [21:07]
John Wolfe
No, they don't.
- [21:08]
Sammy Wink
I recommend that. Speaking of movies, by the way, Victor, by the way, to our dear listeners, boy, do I have a great movie for you. The new heart pounding military thriller Valiant 1 is everything you need in a movie with tensions high between north and South Korea. A US military helicopter crashes deep into North Korean territory. With the platoon leader dead and no rescue coming, young sergeant Edward Brockman must find a way to get the survivors back to safety. He must rise to the challenge to lead his team on a daring escape through treacherous and hostile territory. With enemy soldiers hot in pursuit, only courage can bring them home. Valiant One has all the grit and explosive action you'd expect, along with a story of survival and bravery under fire that keeps you on the edge of your seat. All you need is popcorn. Don't miss the new action thriller from Briarcliff Entertainment and Monarch Media, Valiant One, featuring Chase Stokes and Lana Condor, only in theaters January 31st. Kind of reminds me, Victor, of. I love that movie bat 21 with Danny Glover and Gene Hackman from I think it was late 80s, you know.
- [22:24]
John Wolfe
And I think there's going to be a market for movies like this.
- [22:28]
Sammy Wink
Absolutely.
- [22:29]
John Wolfe
People do not want to have any more psychodramas or melodramas of some neurotic metrosexual who have a little section of how he fence about Donald Trump and how awful people are to him, why he breaks up for 55 times with his girlfriend and then they have a long two hour monologue about whether that should have kids in the age of global warming.
- [22:51]
Sammy Wink
And I was waiting for the Colonel Vindeman story.
- [22:53]
John Wolfe
Yeah.
- [22:57]
Sammy Wink
Hey, Victor. Picking up, excuse me, picking up on the senility issue. And you think of when grandma who's got dementia, all of a sudden her will, she passes away. Her will is read, they realize the will was signed, you know, one week before she kicked the bucket by some nefarious nephew, held her hand. And these things go to court, right?
- [23:20]
John Wolfe
My own family, I've seen that happen in My own family.
- [23:23]
Sammy Wink
Okay, well it's, it's totally fine that the, the campus mentis, if it's applicable to the estate of a farmer, not or anybody. Why isn't applicable to the United States of America?
- [23:37]
John Wolfe
I don't know. I do not know. And then I superimpose all of this. This is why the left has zero credibility. They had Bandy Lee, some part time psychiatrist or psychologist at Yale, go lecture the Senate that Donald Trump needed an intervention. Straightjacket, she wrote an edited book. And then they had. And that prompted, I guess it was Andrew McCabe and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, the interim FBI. About now, should you wear the wire or should I wire? One of us has to catch him in his dementia. So we can go to the cabinet, go to Mike Pence, the cabinet members and get a 25th amendment. That's what they were trying to do. And yet I haven't heard. Have you heard Doc Wilsonstein say it work or Andrew McCabe on his analyst position at CNN? I think it is very messy. I haven't heard him work say anything. Has McCabe said, you know what, I think you need to get a wire and trap choke and get that on record. Maybe James Comey can come forward and say you need to have a private conversation with Joe like I did with Trump, tell him he's not under investigation, just. And then go out in your FBI vehicle, memorialize it and link it to the New York Times. That worked with me. So. No, they don't, they don't none of that. These people are. It's.
- [24:59]
Sammy Wink
By the way, Victor, you started this conversation about the farewell speech going after Biden's stressing of oligarchy. What, what in Greek is oligarchy? What is the meaning?
- [25:12]
John Wolfe
It's a term. Oligos means the few and arche, it means the rule. And so in Greek city states there was either democracy, democratia, that means the rule of the demos, or the people, that means a lot of people. So usually there's a property qualification. So if you have a city state of 20,000 citizens that Athens, they could all, they could all participate. And an oligarchy, you might have 5,000 participate. 500. And they both were in opposition. I'm doing this impromptu so I hope it sounds convincing. They were, they were in opposition to aristocracy crap. The Arabs, the aristoid, that is the best people. That's their term for landed noble title.
- [26:02]
Sammy Wink
The elite.
- [26:03]
John Wolfe
The elite by birth. So the aristocrats. And it's a very rare word in Greek, plutocracy, that's the rule of the people with Plutos or wealth. Plutocracy. They don't, they don't use the word in the United States of aristocracy because nobody believes that Elon Musk is there or Mark Zuckerberg or Bezos because they were born into a third generation Ivy League east coast title family. But they do use the word oligarchy. There's a few of them but it's a really and it's a misplaced term because oligarchy does not mean two or three people. It means an oligarchy is people have said it of the United States that the people with money and influence a small number run the country. That's an olive art. I think that they're going to be exact if they were really, they could say a plutocracy. People who were multi billionaires.
- [26:59]
Sammy Wink
Why did they say some, some lazy.
- [27:02]
John Wolfe
I have one other word for you. There's also an occasy. I think we are really an oclock loss is the mob what the Romans called the turbo. The turbo. So the oclocracy is a rule of the mob. Bread and circuses. The people who are on the dole and they determine budgets and spending and they have to be entertained by TV all day.
- [27:28]
Sammy Wink
I think we're really run by, by a bureaucracy.
- [27:32]
John Wolfe
Yes. The bureau. The bureau. That's a good French word that came out in the 19th century. The Bureau.
- [27:39]
Sammy Wink
It's funny, we've been run the last four years. It's not funny by someone who sold out cheap. His references to oligarchy were about wealth and billionaires. But maybe there's resentment there that he could have, I mean he cashed in. Look, he cashed in but he cashed in really cheap. Given what I guess he could have gotten away with. 20 million bucks.
- [28:04]
John Wolfe
Yeah, he sold out the country for 20 million bucks. Remember I'm speaking and you're speaking right now. I'm in the west coast obviously at about 9:30 in the morning on Sunday and we've got about another 24 hours. So don't underestimate Joe. He can still give Jim Biden a pardon. Ashley Bad Biden a pardon. A lot of people can still get pardons. He will.
- [28:31]
Sammy Wink
He just gave one to Marcus Garvey who's been dead 100 years.
- [28:35]
John Wolfe
So he doesn't know that though. We did not know that. I, I, he's, he did sell the country out on 2 cents on the dollar. That not that it would have been better if he charged more but.
- [28:49]
Sammy Wink
Right.
- [28:50]
John Wolfe
He's a despicable human being. I hate to say that it sounds cruel for someone who's senile, but he was mean his entire life. He's a racist. He always said. We've talked about that so often, all the racist vocabulary. And then when he. He's a hypocrite and a liar. When he keeps saying, I can't take this about. I tried to unite the people. No, you did not. Your semi fascist ultra maga Phantom of the Opera speech was horrific. You attacked the Supreme Court. Your vitriol against the members led to people showing up at their houses, including an assassin. You did all of that. You really weakened the court. You bragged that they had. That you had canceled student loans, which was unconstitutional. And then you bragged that you nullified their order and found ways to circumvent our own Supreme Court. I could go on, but he was really a mean person. Well, I'm glad he's gone. I don't wish ill to him. But he's gonna. He's one of these people who. He's gonna be a millard. He's gonna be Millard Fillmore eyes very quickly. You're not going to hear much out of him. Nancy Pelosi's daughter was giving a Parthian shot, that's a nice little term for the Parthians that when they would ride their horses, they would come up to the Roman army and then have the Roman army come out of formation to charge them. Then they would turn around and shoot their bow while they were riding at them. But my point is that she. As the Pelosi's fade into obscurity, the daughters, that it was really mean that Joe. Jill. Jill would not talk to Nancy, wouldn't show up where Nancy was. And this was so mean because Jack, when Joe had no money as a junior center, he went out to see the Pelosi's in San Francisco and guess what they did? They loaned him their car so Joe could drive around San Francisco. How did he repay that 50 years later? How did she. He didn't speak to her. His wife was mean to Nancy for staging the coup that got rid of him.
- [30:59]
Sammy Wink
Lady. Lady McBiden, she called her.
- [31:03]
John Wolfe
Yeah, Catfi. If I could be so sexist to say Nancy Pelosi versus Joe Biden, I wonder who to win that one.
- [31:10]
Sammy Wink
Well, I think Nancy, if she could pick up her walker and use it as a club, she might. She might get away.
- [31:19]
John Wolfe
Somebody wrote me a neat email, Jack, that now that we know it's kind of like the old Soviet Union when they wanted to get rid of somebody on a plane. And you know, some people when they threw away their boarding pass, never showed up. Well, Nancy's not showing up and Mike Pence's wife is not showing up. And Jill Biden, I don't know if there she is or not. But Michelle, Michelle Obama's not showing up. And the person wrote and said, Victor, is this a coincidence something. And they were serious. Something bad is going to happen. That's why they moved it indoors.
- [32:00]
Sammy Wink
Indoors. Yeah, yeah.
- [32:01]
John Wolfe
I said no. Well, there was some security questions, but they had. The Iranian president can't pronounce his name. It has actually an Armenian ending to it. And he said, he gave an interview and he said something to the effect we don't want a bomb. We're for peace. We see our hostilities with Israel in cessation. We never tried to kill Donald Trump. We don't want to kill Donald. I wonder why that's happening. Why is all this happening? I just don't understand it. It's all happening from Soup Dog to the President of Iran to Mr. Trudeau to my gosh, the, the whole country of the Assad, of the Assad's discombobulates. Everything is just, it's like the world upside down. And the British are playing into Georgetown.
- [32:56]
Sammy Wink
Well, it's beautiful in its way to, to watch, I think Victor Obama, Michelle Obama, and we should talk about the Obama era. Is, is it over? And we'll do that when we come back from these important messages.
- [33:17]
Victor Davis Hanson
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- [34:55]
Jack Fowler
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- [36:14]
Sammy Wink
We're back with the Victor Davis Hanson show recording on Sunday, January 19th. This episode is up on the 21st Tuesday, the first full day of the Trump 47th presidency. Victor's got a website, the Blade of Perseus. I heartily recommend you all check it out regularly because when you do, you will find the links and actually the actual pieces. Victor's weekly essays for American greatness, his weekly syndicated column, his various appearances, links to those, such as pictures regularly on, say, Megyn Kelly's podcast, the archives of these podcasts, links to his books, links to some of the Twitter de facto essays he writes. I said Twitter. I know that upsets some people. I'm sorry. X X and then the Ultra articles which he does twice a week for the Blade of Perseus and a weekly, a video for the Blade of Perseus, which you can access if you're a subscriber.
- [37:21]
John Wolfe
Now, don't you like the new Megyn Kelly? Her podcast?
- [37:25]
Sammy Wink
Well, I.
- [37:26]
John Wolfe
She reminds me of a carnivore that she gets these. Yeah, they're kind of bullet bully people. She carves them up.
- [37:36]
Sammy Wink
She's terrific. But I just wish, you know, I just wish the blue lingo would just. I'm on her mother's side, but be careful.
- [37:45]
John Wolfe
We were criticized by A reverend for using an F your word.
- [37:49]
Sammy Wink
Once I think we said the F word as opposed to word. Yeah, yeah.
- [37:55]
John Wolfe
I don't think I ever said it. I'm very careful. You are, you are a very nice woman. Came up to me when I was speaking in Los Angeles not too long ago and said she really liked our podcast because her 10 year old daughter worked out and could listen to the language.
- [38:13]
Sammy Wink
Right.
- [38:14]
John Wolfe
And I, I'm very conscious of the audience.
- [38:17]
Sammy Wink
Well, I will say, let me just say, folks, go, subscribe, go. Victorhansen.com and that's the blade of glasses.
- [38:24]
John Wolfe
I like Megyn Kelly.
- [38:25]
Sammy Wink
Well, she's, Yeah, I, I'm very, she's done all great.
- [38:28]
John Wolfe
She's done a great service. She's very well prepared and she, she dissects these things that need to be dissected.
- [38:36]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, she's, she is fearless and I think open minded and fearless and that's very appealing thing.
- [38:43]
John Wolfe
And unlike Skeletor, she's beautiful.
- [38:46]
Sammy Wink
Oh, mama mia. Okay.
- [38:49]
John Wolfe
So she has an added advantage.
- [38:51]
Sammy Wink
She is beautiful. Actually. When she was at fox and Andy McCarthy, our friend and my old colleague at National Review would go in and I said, Andy, I don't know how you sit across, but she, I mean, she's just stunning.
- [39:02]
John Wolfe
She doesn't remember, but in 2003 during the Iraq war, I'm trying to remember the press conference. He was such a wonderful person. I feel so bad I don't recall him. But you know him. I think you knew him. He was the press secretary for George Bush and he was, he had an ascendant career and he got bowel counsel and he died.
- [39:25]
Sammy Wink
Oh, Tony. Tony Snow.
- [39:26]
John Wolfe
Tony. Tony Snow, yes.
- [39:28]
Sammy Wink
Oh, Tony was great.
- [39:29]
John Wolfe
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he and Brett, on Saturdays, they were talking about the wharf. They asked me for six Saturdays to go into Fox. And I remember, I think they had just hired me. I think it was Megyn Kelly they just hired, you know, as a right, I think a legal analyst. Or maybe she was an intern or maybe she was just visiting. I just, I remember saying to Tony Snow, wow, that woman is very bright and very.
- [39:56]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, you were, you were at the Naval Academy then.
- [39:59]
John Wolfe
Why you were visiting professor. I realized that after I can look back at that. I have been a visiting professor in a number of places and that is the, was the most liberal left wing department I have ever been to.
- [40:14]
Sammy Wink
I hope Secretary Hegseth will think of that.
- [40:18]
John Wolfe
I was sitting there, I think I told you once, I was sitting there when a professor who was a uniformed officer in the Marine Corps Gave a talk on Iwo Jima, where my father landed twice in a disabled B29. Saved his life, 25,000 landings. I know some of them, like his were repeated, right? But this officer said it was basically a worthless campaign. They killed 25,000 Japanese for no reason that could have been bypassed. They had actually P51s they stationed there. My father said that not only when they took the island were they able to save the crew, but when they went into Japan, they were escorted most of the way from Iwo Jima on. And that saved lives. But he gave this talk that was basically that we were racist, that we just wanted to kill Asian people. I got so angry that I got up and there was. I was my. It was like my first week there. And then there was this weird professor, Chinese American, Mao Chong Yu. I didn't know him. And he just got up and he said, you don't know any of the sources, to the speaker. And this Victor Hansen and I will be leaving. And so we got up and left, and I turned to him and I quoted Frenchie in Casablanc. I said, miles, Mao Chong, I think this will be the start of a beautiful relationship. For one year, we were best friends. We ate every day. We're still very close friend, but he was a wonderful guy. But that's the type of thing that. That I remember. Not that there weren't great people there, but, my gosh, I thought these four midshipmen, they're just getting this revisionist history.
- [42:04]
Sammy Wink
Yeah. Well, we are going to cap this intro to the second segment of today's podcast just by, I will say, since we kind of got off on vulgarity, that even off camera, off audio. Victor. Victor, is. Is. Is not blue. Yeah. There's no mf. Whatever coming out of it.
- [42:30]
John Wolfe
My mother. My mother, we were driving Yosemite once, and my dad said, my butt hurts. He was driving.
- [42:36]
Sammy Wink
Okay.
- [42:37]
John Wolfe
Then we had an old 54 Chevy pickup with a 50s, you know, with the windows in the corner.
- [42:43]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, yeah.
- [42:44]
John Wolfe
I think it was a 55 or six. It was all bumpy with wires in the seats. And one of the wires came out, and she said, bill, I just appreciate it that in front of the boys, you not use that type of language.
- [42:58]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [42:58]
John Wolfe
And my grandfather, her father, I asked him when I was, like, 14, I said, what the hell's going on out here? When I was trying. And he said, big girl, don't disappoint me. We don't use that language on this phone. It's going to do better. What a Good boy.
- [43:15]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, that reminds me. And we're going to get your thoughts on time. But Victor, quickly, this Michael Mann case, that National Review and Mark Stein, whatever, this free speech case has gone on for 13 years and national Review actually got a bit of a victory in this regard A few weeks ago. The judge said part of its legal bills had to be paid by man. But when this first began and I was doing fundraising for National Review, we had an online campaign to, you know, donate money to fight this case because we're going to kick Michael Mann in the hiney. And in the first hearing in the court in Washington, the man's attorney was lamenting that publisher Fowler said we're going to kick in the heiney. And the judge started laughing. So anyway, yeah, use, use children's words.
- [44:11]
John Wolfe
I'm a little disturbed sometimes when I don't care. But if you notice our national politicians, they use the S H I T word now just like it's anything. Well, it always conjures up. So I don't like that. I mean our private, I, I know my wife is now saying be careful, Victor, I hear you say all sorts of things. Yes, I do. In private sometimes to you.
- [44:35]
Sammy Wink
Well, let me get you cursing. Let me get you blue. Let's talk about Barack Obama. So he has since 2008 with a four year period and that period of what Trump's presidency, he was very active to dismantle it. He has been the force of the Democrat party for 16 years. Is the Obama era over? May not be. What are your thoughts, Victor?
- [45:04]
John Wolfe
Well, everybody always goes back to that original Star Trek John Gill episode where the person is drugged and there's they go to a planet and he's used a national socialist paradigm and it's got a hand. But he has handlers. That's what Biden was. John Gill and the Obamas and their team that were infiltrated, I can use that term. And the Biden inner circle, with help from Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Black Caucus wings, they ran the country and they ran it into the ground. But the Obamas themselves then made a strategic move along with Nancy Pelosi to move to and Chuck Schumer. They pressured Truman to get rid of Joe. I'm not sure the Obamas wanted Kamala. I know at one time somebody's going to say, well, Victor, he said she was a hot or good looking attorney general here and he did. But he had talked to her more than five minutes so he knew that she was in it. I don't know who Stacey Abrams maybe I mean, there were three people. Do you remember when Joe said he wanted a black white president and they mentioned three people. You know who one of them was?
- [46:16]
Sammy Wink
The mayor of Los Angeles. So the communist mayor of Los Angeles.
- [46:20]
John Wolfe
Now, I'm going to leave it to our audience to decide who would have been worse. Kamala Harris, Karen Bass. And the third one was Stacey Abrams, the real governor, the election denialist who just. Her PAC just got fined or what, $300,000 for intellectual. I mean, for election fraud. So that was the choice. But the Obamas were behind that and they made the strategic decision to use their gravitas. So I guess I don't know if they're living together because there are rumors now that they've had marital problems. But let's just for the sake of argument, say that Barack flew out from the Oahu mansion on the beach and Michelle flew out from the Kalorama beach after she locked out, locked up the Martha's Vineyard estate. And they hit the campaign trip separately. And then they did their. What they always do. Barack Obama got some African American young people together and said, you don't know what you're doing and you are falling into a trap of being sexist and misogynist. That old Marxist dialectic. The people are deluded by religion or any of the opiate and the masses. So that's what he did. And then he put his credibility online and so did she. She called it Donald Trump, repeatedly, a racist. There was no evidence for that. It was very embarrassing. And then what happened was that Donald Trump, just days after the Obamas had put their credibility on the line, Donald Trump got the highest number of black voters probably since the 1940s or even higher. Maybe as high as Ike, maybe higher. I haven't looked at Ike's percentages, but. And Hispanics higher than almost anybody. Maybe even higher than George W. Bush, if you actually look at particular states. And so they were kind of discredited. Discredited because they didn't produce. Discredited because they came off as they are talking down to people. People sanctimoniously so. And they had tension over this. So Michelle did not show up at the Carter funeral because she did not want to get near Donald Trump. And I don't think. Did Jill. Was Jill there? I can't remember. But if she was, she didn't get near Donald Trump or didn't. She didn't. Maybe she thought, I don't know if she had a plastic glove on when.
- [48:46]
Sammy Wink
She, she, she infam, she, Jill Biden sat Stonily next to Kamala Harris.
- [48:54]
John Wolfe
Yes, that's what it was. Mike Pence's wife didn't want to touch Donald Trump.
- [49:01]
Sammy Wink
Right.
- [49:02]
John Wolfe
So, but anyway, Joe Bide, Barack Obama was joking around the whole time, actually kind of against the grain of the solemnity, the solemn nature of a funeral. But they were laughing and getting, and that got Michelle even angrier. It got a lot of people on the left very angry. How. And after all, they had a point. How can you call somebody a racist, a Hitler like fanatic, a dictator like Joe Scarborough? And those people did. And then, and then. And the answer is people convicted. The answer is he's President of the United States. And Barack Obama, who cooked up in the Oval Office, we should remember it was before, before Trump took office, and he cooked up the FBI surveillance and the Steele dossier. And he knew as he left office that James Comey had hired or was going to hire Christopher Steele. And then Brennan discussed that CIA involvement in the Oval Office. We know that these, all the principals in the government side, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Bruce and Nelly or James Baker, FBI counsel Andrew McCabe, all of them were Obama people. And so he understands what a president can do to hurt somebody. And again, everybody should keep this in mind. They project. So all of these people that are making their hajj to mar a lago or they're trying to kiss up to Donald Trump, they're, their premise is, we know what we did to him. We know what we said about him. We knew how we tried to destroy him. And we know that if we were now in an ascendant powerful position, I wish we were, but we're not. But if we were him and we had suffered what we did to him, he, and we were him, he would go after us legitimately. So, and therefore we're terrified of him. And I, private citizen Barack Obama, do not want somebody from the National Archives popping up and said, you know, I was silenced all those years. But, you know, he didn't bring, he didn't give us the stuff we, when we wanted it. Or I was in the CIA and we were snooping on people we shouldn't have. And Stephen Harper and somebody from the FBI said, well, that order came down from they don't want any of that stuff. And so that Barack Obama's smart. So he was trying to, you know, I like dong talk and the other people are not smart. And so, yeah, that's, that's, that explains Mark Zuckerberg. He's bringing, he's blaming DEI now on what's her name, you know, the, the well known Facebook CEO.
- [51:56]
Sammy Wink
Oh, the one that got. Yes. Fired.
- [51:59]
John Wolfe
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're blaming Di, he's blaming that. And then, and all of these people understand in their minds they're saying, do we really want people like Peter Till and Elon Musk, they have the inside Larry Ellison, People like that have been pretty strong supporting Donald Trump for at least more than a year. We want them to have the inside track. So we want to have, we want to broaden the field and Trump wants to broaden the field. But again, it's the idea that a lot of these people are worried that Trump might do to them what they tried to do. We've got to remember one thing, that if we take back, and we go Back to about January 20th, just about this time of the year four years ago, we were in the aftermath of January 6th and Google and Apple and Facebook conspired to destroy Parler. That was an upstart alternative to Facebook and Twitter. And remember that it, for a brief moment it was signing up millions of people and it was breaking down their capacity to hire them. And then suddenly those three consortia conspired to deny app access and destroyed that company. And that was, I think they. And they had billions of dollars to destroy partly a good friend of mine, Rebecca Mercer, they destroyed her company. And so Joe Biden was absolutely happy with that. So when he lectures about oligarchies and monopolies, it's only because he feels that he doesn't have them at his disposal or the left has lost complete control of.
- [53:50]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, well, you know, the upside, as frustrating as it is to see a story about Bill Gates having a great three hour meal thinking this guy has done so much, not only hostility towards Trump and Republicans and conservatives, but generally the world through his philanthropy to try and spread this one worldism and one of the leading voices for the COVID 19 vaccine and all this oppression that came around that. But all that said or blathered, I should say in my case, we, I think Trump, when he said success will be the best revenge, that's probably the more motivating factor in his mind.
- [54:39]
John Wolfe
Yeah, I just want to come. I think that's why people are excited it because whatever their particular area of interest or expertise, there's people right now, millions of people saying, I can frack, I can frack, I can track, I can produce 25 million barrels, I can get natural gas, I can supply Europe, I can build ships, I can build more cars, I can get. I can revive the nuclear Industry. I can get precious metals for batteries. I can open online. I can go in and get Latin and Greek and traditional history and English back into the prep schools, the high schools. I can. Everybody in their own, according to their station, feels that there's all this pin up talent and energy in the United States. Yeah. And they've been told, don't do that, you can't do that. You're racist, you're homophobic, you're transphobic, you can't. And they're just tired of it. They want to be. The animal spirits want to be set free. And he's, and Trump's idea is kind of like a ringmaster and he just, he's just going and then he's telling his 13 cabinet members, Be loyal.
- [55:41]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [55:42]
John Wolfe
No, no. Rex Tillerson? No. John Bolton. No. Anonymous. Just be loyal. Follow the agenda and let it go. Let open it up.
- [55:50]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [55:50]
John Wolfe
And let's see what America can do. It's like 1941.
- [55:54]
Sammy Wink
I remember a guy from a National Review cruise, 2016, right after the election and he was so pumped. He was small businessman in Tennessee. I forget his name, but he, he, he said, freon is back, baby. So whatever business he had needed refrigerated trucks. And this was essential, that, that, that with Trump's election, he anticipated the restrictions on Freon being removed. And he said, I'm gonna, I just bought like, made an order of four or five new trucks. You know, small thing, it's very small.
- [56:27]
John Wolfe
But the excitement, you're, that's funny you mentioned it, that California just suspended its mandate of outlawing diesel trucks produced before a certain date. You had to put this, you know, debt or whatever it was, that urine urea into your tank. And I had a diesel truck. You have to put it blue, stuff called blue, and you put it in and it neutralizes supposedly the diesel. But under the, the new California guidelines, your truck had to burn at very high temperatures. That's why you see a lot. I had a good friend, I won't mention his last name, Gary, who wrote me about this very eloquently and showed that there's a lot of problems, problems the diesel truck industry is having and truckers in general under these new mandates, with turbos and especially the temperatures that are required in California. This had a bearing on the 100 fire trucks that were in maintenance in LA, right? Yes. I had a beautiful diesel. I had 25, 000 miles on that Echo diesel. It was a wonderful truck. As long as you didn't drive uphill at 105 or try to tow anything because they burn so hot, right? And so that's suspended and people. And it's not just academic. I had a very. A good friend, I won't mention his name, but he rented a portion of our farm with one of my siblings. Sold out. So I saw him almost every day one of my walks, and he was farming. You know, it was tough to farm, especially renting property from this absentee loan owner that bought one of my brother's parcels. And he had just showed me this beautiful truck he had rehabbed, a diesel truck, big flat truck. I think it was a two ton. And he was explaining you could put his equipment on it. And he got it. And then I saw him about a year later and he was just, I'm gonna have to destroy that truck or go somewhere, I don't know even if that's legal, to take it out of state and sell it. They barter because of the engine. It's got it. And that wasn't the reason, but that was one of the reasons he killed himself.
- [58:39]
Sammy Wink
Oh, my gosh.
- [58:40]
John Wolfe
Yeah, he said, I can't make it. That was very tragic because everything was conspiring against him. His son is a wonderful guy too. I'm very lucky his son is farming. But he had a. A very valuable John Deere tractor. And because renters, you know, they don't have one, just one place they can store their equipment. So when he would do his tractor work, he didn't know because I live, you know, I have all these criminals now. They come and dump stuff and steal. So out in the vineyard, he tried to hide it and they stole the battery. So I just said to him, look, come into my shed and put it next to the house. And he did. And what was this was the $100,000 brand new John Deere was a wonderful tractor. And it just sat there for two months. And I thought, wow, where is he? And I didn't realize he'd killed himself and his family didn't know where it was. And yeah, it was. What I'm getting at again is that when all of these people get together in little room and they make these decisions, most of these, these stupid, arrogant, over educated, no common sense, they destroy lives. And that, that's what I get so angry about Los Angeles when I see all of those poor people and their whole. It's just those homes are just Dresden like, or Hiroshima like. And then you think, oh, I'm going to junk it to Ghana. Oh, I called in a bomb threat. Ha ha ha. Oh, I Let the reservoir be dry since February. Ha ha. Oh, I'm making twice the salary as I. Oh, I'm a DI. I hired 70%. I can't carry a man and he has no place being there when I come to the door. Oh, I'm going to look like all of that are Gavin Newsom. Oh, the reservoirs are full. No, they're not, Gavin. I just went by Pacheco. It's 70% full. Folsom's 37% full. We're in a drought right now. You're still letting. You should be spanking every drop. But when they act that way or they do this with their shoulders. Oh, it's a local problem. They don't care about people. That's the thing about the left. It's all. They love humanity in the abstract and they hate humans in the concrete.
- [60:59]
Sammy Wink
By the way, Bill Maher made a funny little comment about the fires. He said people aren't able to escape it because of California's high speed rail. And that, as you've talked about many times, Victor, that project is. I saw a headline from the LA Times from last March or May, despite some progress, states high Speed rail is 100 billion short and many years from reality.
- [61:30]
John Wolfe
I don't think there's no. It's. The whole thing was supposed to be up and running by now from Sacramento to San Francisco and from the San Joaquin Valley over Pacheco to the Bay Area on all the way down through Tempachu, La. It's 15 years and it was supposed to be done for I think 80 billion. I think they've spent. They claim they've spent 17 or 20 billion. They have. They've spent more than that with. And one, I don't think they've laid more than 10ft of rail. Two, they've been caught up in imminent domain lawsuits like you wouldn't believe. They could have taken the right of way of the Santa Fe and these parts. The Santa Fe, there is a right of way. Just expanded that rail and improved the rail line and got it up to 70 or 80 miles an hour and had two trucks. They have one. So you have these waiting trains when you cross over. They didn't want to do that. They had to be that. And so they've got over the skyline of Fresno, there's this huge bridge and their biggest problem right now is. I'm exaggerating is graffiti. It's graffiti. Graffiti. The former Fox Nation. Laura Logan came out here to do a thing on it. So she came out about four, four years ago. And she said, my God, it's got graffiti all over. I said, yes, it's brand new too. It just sits there like Stonehenge. And so I mean they had all these, right? They've instant, they've issued communique, we've hired this percentage of disabled, this percentage of gay, this percentage of trans, this, they have the whole DI thing. But it's, it's never going to be done. And then the worst thing about it is if it were to be done from Bakersfield to Mercedes and you look at the operating cost, it's going to be union, public utility unions, it's going to lose money every day.
- [63:28]
Sammy Wink
Oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely.
- [63:30]
John Wolfe
And then you look at the sin, that's the sin of commission. And then you look at the sin of omission. You have parallel in many places to it are perpendicular. The 99 Freeway from Bakersfield to Sacramento. And per mile driven it is the most deadly in the United States. There are still places. Well, there's only two lanes in each direction and it's prone to fog. And it's superimposed on a state where 27% of the population was not born in the United States. So they have different ideas about driving. And he could have made that three lane freeway all the way for a fraction of what he spent. And then of course we had $7.5 billion, most of it for at least almost 3 billion for reservoirs. He didn't build one reservoir. He used 500, 250 million from that bill to blow up four reservoirs, as I keep saying. So everything he touches, he's the on Midas. Touch everything.
- [64:33]
Sammy Wink
He's Gavin Newsom. Yes.
- [64:35]
John Wolfe
He turns it to dross.
- [64:37]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [64:37]
John Wolfe
And Stonehenge is one of his. He didn't create it, he inherited it and he made it. He touched it like this. Touch dross. Dross. Anything that the Golden State touches, it turns to dross. Yeah, well, Victor pot iron touch.
- [64:57]
Sammy Wink
Kryptonite. I don't know. Hey, when we. We're going to take one last break. And since this episode is being recorded the day before and will come out the day after Martin Luther King Day. And since we have many new listeners, I thought it would be good to hear you talk again about the time young Victor met Martin Luther King. And we'll do that when we come back from these final important messages.
- [65:29]
Victor Davis Hanson
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- [66:47]
Sammy Wink
We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. So Victor, two things you know, tell us again if please, the it's a charming story, but I think also an important story. And then if you maybe cap it off with what would, I guess what would Martin Luther King and Martin Luther King ism, if there is such a thing, how would that go over with America's black leadership today? And by black leadership, I don't mean Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele. I mean the Congressional Black Caucus that Mayor Bass used to be the head of.
- [67:24]
John Wolfe
Yes. Well, I mean, he's most famously quoted as its content of our character, not the color of our skin. That was part of his dream that his children would be judged on the content of their character, not the color of skin. And the tragedy, to answer your second question first is that the third generation of black leadership still believes that it's the color of your skin that matters the most and that people like Martin Luther King, who states the content of their character are sellouts or they're deceived or they suffer from false consciousness. So it's tragedy that we reverted. We turned the civil rights movement, just when it was working, into a tribalist movement. So we're all going to be in parts of the identity politics, tribal choosing, I say of our choosing because in a multiracial society I've had at least three cases, instances of people that I've known in the last three or four years that I had no idea they were African American. I had no idea. A person who's very good, I mean, he's one of the best. I think he's the best student employee I've ever had. So bright and he's so. And he just casually remarked that he was African American. I didn't have any idea. So the point Is it's. We. We went from content of our character to DNA badges. Oh, by the way, I said that once to a student and he said that he got a DNA test, he was from India and sent it. That he was dark and he had the DNA that he. He put with his application. So it's not so I remember that the old days from the civil rights movement. My parents. My mom was a Democrat. My dad was. They were. I don't know what you'd call them, Harry Truman Democrats, former Democrats. They'd gone to university. They were kind of the upward mobility. They thought that the country was, you know, they loved Kennedy and everything thing. And so when the civil rights came, there was something called dollars for Democrats. And my mom would put us in her old car, had no money. They lived in 1100 square foot. No, no, it was about 900 square feet. My brother still has it. And we. My mom wasn't working. She had three kids. She lost a child, so she was kind of still worried bad about that. I remember hearing stories of my sister who died. She had German measles. She was pregnant. And then my father was just farming cotton and then he was teaching part time at Wheatley Colleagues. So we had very. We were living on a corner of the ranch and helping my grandfather. And anyway, to make a long story short, we would go around and to what was then the barrio. Today it's the whole city or Mexican American. But then there was a smaller problem and knock on doors to try to raise $1 for dollars for Democrats. And that was the 1960 election for looking back, I think I would have voted for Richard Nixon over jfk. I'm sure I would have even given what happened later tragically to both of them. But nevertheless. But in that period, I was 11 years old, of course, Martin Luther King announced the Grace Cathedral. I think it's an Episcopalian church or Anglican church. I don't. You can define the difference to me and their closer relationship to Catholicism than evangelical Protestantism. But in any case, the church had either been just. I know had taken years to be built. It was either just built or rehabilitated. But it was a big event San Francisco. And they could not believe that mortal. So my mom had a friend that was the daughter of someone who was the dean of women, I think at college. And she called up and said, why don't we go. Why don't you all drive up from Selma and we'll go to the Grace Cathedral. So we all got up at 4 in the morning and put on little Font Lord A little clip on ties. I think it was 11. I think this was March, I think Jack. Actually it was 60 years ago this March 65. I remember the date was March of 65. And I put a little clip on Ty. We had corduroy coats. We got all the three of the. We all got into this little 5, 4, 4 Volvo with a hundred thousand miles, no seat belts. So my dad putted over the thing and then we stopped before we did in Los Banos. And my father called the woman who was arranging to pick us up and she said, there's an African American family that has no car. Their car broke down, they want to go. So my dad. Then when we got to San Francisco, we picked up the woman that was going and we didn't fit in the car, but she had a car. So then we traded cars and we went out to Hunter's Point and picked up two women, African American women. And then by this time we were late. We would have been two hours early. But going around San Francisco, picking up everybody. So we get to Graceland, up on the top of the hill, and we all get out and there's a huge line. I could not believe it. It's snake for, I don't know, a mile, but we're in it. And the woman who was escorting us, who knew, don't worry, this thing is a cathedral. This is like Notre Dame. It'll hold the whole city. So we get up and we're right there. And I was kind of. I had glasses. Nobody cares. But in my family, my two brothers were very bright, but they were very athletic too. My twin brother was a great baseball player. My soul is my older brother, but I wasn't. I had glasses. The only one who wore glasses, I was left handed. I wasn't bad in athletics. I participated, but I was mediocre. And I always wanted to read books. And they always say, ah, you know, we want to play two on two baseball. Look at Victor, mom, he won't play with us. He's got his head in that stupid book. They were right about that. So anyway, we get to the thing and they start to close the door right in front of my parents. And they said, no more. So my mom took both her hands and pushed me in and I almost fell over. And I was locked in by myself, right by the door. And it was. I. It was kind of. I just remember the speech was that famous speech that he gave on Numersic. If you're going to be a janitor, you be the best Jack. If you're going to be a gardener, then you be the best gardener. Whatever your station in life is, you be the best and let other people worry about whether you're, you know, black. And it was very moving. And then at the end, he walked around. He didn't go down the aisle where everybody who was important was. He walked around the periphery. And so he. As he walked around the periphery, he stopped right by the door. And there was about four of us. I was the only white person there. And then he tapped the speech on the shoulder like this, hey, you know, thank you. And then he walked along. And then they opened the doors and my mother said, well, what was it like? They heard it outside on a speaker. She said, now, I know you're not going to believe this, Victor, but I pushed you because someday after I'm dead, you will remember that moment. So that was sweet. Yeah, I remember it, though. My entire life. It was. It was really. I remember my parents, they were so idealistic. They were farmers, they had no money and they were kind of caricatured because my mother had gone. My father had gone to University Pacific. And then he got drafted or he joined the Marine Corps. Then. It's a long story. He ended up in the Army Air Force. And then he. On these horrific missions over Tokyo. And then my mom, as soon as she went up to follow him, got a degree there, then had to start over and got another BA from Stanford. And then she got a law degree. Almost never happened for a woman in 1945. And then they came back and they had all this education but no money. And so my dad, then, he grew up on a farm. He was farming little cotton. Cotton. He had a 10 acre cotton allotment. And then he was coaching football and teaching at wheelie than my mom.
- [75:51]
Sammy Wink
What was he teaching at Reedley?
- [75:53]
John Wolfe
He. He taught physical education. And then he became an administrator of the night division. But he was a football coach, okay, of Reedley High School and then Reedley College for a while. So I remember growing. Growing up. And then he. He got in a big argument with the president. And then when I was in high school, there was somebody that. My dad was my mom. They were always champions of lost causes, St. Jude type thing. There was a guy who was kind of loud, but he was always checking on everybody that if the coach came in late, he was another coach. And he would write it down or if somebody fought, he was always right. But he was disruptive and they fired him without cause. So then he came over to our house and my father had gotten along great with everybody. And my mom said, I wouldn't get involved in here. All of your friends are running the college or up for maybe a presidency. Do not champion this guy. She didn't know it. And my dad goes, well, what they're doing, my dad was huge. He was 6, 4, 2, 10, really. So he championed this guy. One thing led to another and the president yelled at my dad. My dad picked him up and held him up in the air for a minute. Luckily, he didn't get fired because my mom was. Even though she, well, she was a lawyer. So the result of all that was my dad went from this high administrative to teaching bonehead English and bonehead history. So I was like the little bookworm. So I'd come home and he had these weird hours where he was doing night school. So I would come up my school and he said, victor, just in time, I've got some exams for you. And he'd hand me like a hundred of bonehead English multiple choice. And there was no scan front. Like an idiot. I would find all the football players that I liked. They all took his class. I go, dad, Jimmy James Jones, he's got 68%. He's my favorite reedy college football player. Look, that little mark on that D, A, B, C, D. I don't think he meant it. I think there's some there. And he said, well, use your judgment. Use discretion. No preferences, but go ahead. And then. So I, I did all this correcting and then, yeah, he bought a three, three volume book called English Grammar. That's how I earned English Grammar, because I read the whole thing and I talked it with him. Subject predicate.
- [78:26]
Sammy Wink
Victor, you were looking for, you were looking for your versions of hanging chads back in the day.
- [78:31]
John Wolfe
I was. I learned all about hanging chad. So, yeah, I. I don't know. I don't want to get personal about your family, but everybody believes. Is that true, Jack? Everybody believes they were blessed with their parents. No, not everybody believes that.
- [78:46]
Sammy Wink
Well, we are all blessed with parents. So you believe it or not is a different story.
- [78:51]
John Wolfe
So, yeah, I mean, I was. Won the lottery. I had wonderful mother.
- [78:56]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, Yeah, I worshiped them.
- [78:58]
John Wolfe
I don't know if my siblings worship me the same degree. Maybe I was coming. Well, I did. I owed a lot. Anything I. I was able to do was because of.
- [79:07]
Sammy Wink
I think any regular listener to this podcast is that very much comes through your. Your love for your. Your parents and all your family. Including. Including. Didn't you have a crazy uncle Luke or something like that?
- [79:21]
John Wolfe
Rodeo or tango? Tango. Tango. Johnson. I liked him, but I was his favorite. And Victor, are you going to vote for my own Reagan or are you going to be a commie of your parents? You're going to be a big commie. And vote. The Deadocrats. They kill everything. The Deadocrats. God rest.
- [79:46]
Sammy Wink
God rest all their souls. Well anyway, Victor, we've come to the end of this.
- [79:50]
John Wolfe
We gotta go with that.
- [79:51]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, but one, a couple things again, folks. Visit Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus. Do subscribe. It's now 6. $65 for the full year, but it's discounted monthly. 6. No, it's, it's. Yes, that is discounted from monthly. It's 650 for a year. $65. So Blade of Perseus victorhansen.com Alaska we.
- [80:17]
John Wolfe
Always have a shared. I just thought a shared favorite movie. The Best years of our Lives.
- [80:23]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [80:24]
John Wolfe
And the. Is it Myrna Lori, wasn't it? Yes, she was. When her husband would get a little out of it and wrinkle and she was a long suffering wife.
- [80:33]
Sammy Wink
Well, she always had a little smile on her face.
- [80:36]
John Wolfe
We would go somewhere like a restaurant.
- [80:39]
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
- [80:39]
John Wolfe
And there would be somebody be ready be readying their waitress. My mom looks like Marta Loy. She turned to us, oh my God, here comes mission number 51. He got out of the B29s at 40 and now we've already got 11 more missions. Oh please. She said, please Bill, don't say anything, don't do it. And he would get up and say mister, I expect to go to a restaurant where you accord the working people some courtesy and respect. And I haven't heard it. In fact, you've been insulting. Now whatever you say said to her, you say to me. And my mom would go like, oh my God. I was, I would always hide under the table.
- [81:22]
Sammy Wink
There was a, there was a great scene of many great scenes in that movie where Dana Andrews is back working as a soda jerk. And he and Harold. Oh, I forget his last name. Who won the Oscar, who had the. And he was. Got into it with a customer and, and Dana Andrews clocked them into, into.
- [81:46]
John Wolfe
I remember that scene very well. You know the, you know that customer was, he was the sheriff on Bonanza.
- [81:52]
Sammy Wink
Oh sure, yeah, yeah.
- [81:54]
John Wolfe
But he was a good. And that guy was sort of the, the representation of the early McCarthy.
- [82:01]
Sammy Wink
He was. Yeah, it was very. It's not a conservative film. I mean it's a great film, it's wonderful film.
- [82:08]
John Wolfe
But he was a great actor. Danahan.
- [82:11]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, he.
- [82:11]
John Wolfe
He was.
- [82:12]
Sammy Wink
So was, you know, Frederick March and, and.
- [82:17]
John Wolfe
Over Tokyo Ray, that was another.
- [82:19]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, Frederick March was a bit of a. And Myrna Loy also. They were, they were people of the, I don't know, the left, but they were left of center, definitely. But somewhat, you know, they make great movies, they great contributors to our culture.
- [82:33]
John Wolfe
Bill was a good, he was a concern.
- [82:36]
Sammy Wink
Well, he was, he was Ronald Reagan's best man.
- [82:39]
John Wolfe
Yeah.
- [82:39]
Sammy Wink
When, when Reagan married Nancy, the second marriage. So, yeah, I was, I just thought.
- [82:46]
John Wolfe
That was fascinating just to not belong things. But when Fred, you remember the Bridges of Tokyo Ray, when Bill Holden was in it?
- [82:55]
Sammy Wink
Yes. And, and Mickey Rooney and Grace Kelly.
- [82:58]
John Wolfe
Yeah. And the, the old man, they called him the head of the carrier. That was Frederick Marshalls.
- [83:05]
Sammy Wink
I think so. I haven't seen the movie.
- [83:08]
John Wolfe
Remember that? I just said that because they faulted Reagan for saying, quoting him when he said, when after Bill Holden gets killed, he kind of. The movie ends and he kind of says, where do we get some, where do we get such men that will fly over hell and they'll come back into this little place and land it? And Reagan said something, the AB effect. It was a great speech. He said, where do we get such people? And then they all said, ah, he's.
- [83:33]
Sammy Wink
Just quoting, he's stealing. Yeah, yeah, he. A couple of Henry Kissinger bought Frederick March's house in Connecticut. I don't know why I know that. But that was a very disturbing movie because the, the fear of Bill Holden as the pilot, very palpable. And you, you know, while you're in.
- [83:58]
John Wolfe
Colorado, remember they called him on.
- [84:00]
Sammy Wink
Yeah, yeah.
- [84:02]
John Wolfe
I think I told you once my father had this pilot, his name was Allenby, and that guy was a genius and he figured out how to run the RPMs up high and hit the brakes. And when they took a lot of planes, didn't make it off the Runway at Tinian, which by the way, they're clearing the jungle right now, Jack, at Tinian in the Mariana Islands and they're rediscovering those 7,000 foot runways for B29. They're all overgrown with jungle, nobody's seen them. And they're using GPS to find them and clear them because they're using dispersion tactics. If we get in a war over Taiwan and rather than put a carrier out there, we're going to put planes all over the Marianas and surrounding islands. A great strategy. But this guy was a great pilot and he was a civilian. After flying over Fort Dublin, got his crew over 40 missions. Twice in Iwo Jima. They had all kinds of near death. And he went back to Korea just like Bill Holden. And he flew another 40 missions.
- [85:05]
Sammy Wink
Dang, you're right.
- [85:07]
John Wolfe
They shot down a lot of B29s in Korea. I remember seeing him once, he had kind of a he collected furniture and stuff and sold it. I know he had a. I don't know what was a furniture store, but he would pull into this big he came from Oregon and he had kind of a jumpsuit. He was kind of heavy. And I kind of said something to my mom once, God, that guy looks really weird. I was like, 10. Yeah, man. Saved 11 people, including your father. And you're going to go up to him and say, I want to thank you, Mr. Al.
- [85:43]
Sammy Wink
God bless Mom. Yeah.
- [85:46]
John Wolfe
Yeah.
- [85:47]
Sammy Wink
Okay. Two things. One, I write civil Thoughts, a free weekly email newsletter for the center for Civil Society. Has 14 recommended readings. It's totally free, doesn't sell names, comes out every Friday. Check it out. Go to civil thoughts.com sign up. I know you're going to like. Second thing, we get many people who go to Apple listen through Apple and rate the show zero to five stars and 7200 something folks have done that and the average is 4.9. Which all due to the wisdom Victor shares us four times a week, sometimes five times a week through this podcast. So thanks for those who do that. Some leave comments and here is one. It's from Sears Jaelin and it's titled Modern Takes with Historical Bases. I've been listening to VDH for about six months now and truly enjoy hearing his perspective on modern events grounded in historical knowledge. There's always something new to learn and Professor Hanson puts it out there in an easy to digest manner with a healthy dose of realism. Both friendly co hosts Sammy and Jack are great additions. I named read it for this reason to the conversation. I also really enjoy the weekend segments in which a historical topic is discussed, usually in a series if it hasn't been covered yet. A series on war tactics, tools and formations from antiquity would be a wonderful series. Corbus, Phalanx, etc. So thank you Sears Jalen Victor, you've been terrific. Thanks for all the wisdom you share today. Thanks folks for listening and we will be we if I could speak English. We will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye bye.
- [87:35]
John Wolfe
Thank you. Thank everybody for listening. We're getting our ratings on Audible and Apple and we're just off the charts, you know, top 10 in the nation. It's only because the people listening thank you everyone.
- [87:52]
Victor Davis Hanson
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