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Jack Fowler
Hello ladies. Hello gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the host. You are here to get some wisdom from the great man himself, Victor Davis Hansen, back in the saddle in Selma, California. Victor 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. And he's the owner of a fantastic website, the blade of Perseus. VictorHansen.com's the address.
Victor Davis Hansen
You should be going there.
Jack Fowler
You should be subscribing also. We are recording on Monday, March 24. Rarely do a Monday, but man oh man, Victor's had a tremendous travel schedule. So have I. So we're going to talk about some breaking things this particular episode. Victor will be up Tuesday. Tomorrow, March 25th. We've got a lot to talk about, Victor. Donald Trump has gone after the Houthis. Israel is ba Vangu. We're back in Gaza. We're going to take this territory piece by piece and return it to Israel because of note the hostages remain. Some other interesting things. Donald Trump goes to the double NCA or the ncaa. Maybe someday it will be the double ncaa. I don't know. But the wrestling tournament, a huge reaction, huge positive reaction to him being the musk Tesla Judge Boasberg, one of the these reckless federal judges. So much to talk about and we'll get to all of this when we come back from these important messages.
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Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, it's good to see. See you here. Good to see that you're alive. You are indestructible, even though pathogens continue to try to destroy you. And you've had, you've had quite a week of travel. Went to the east coast and you were talk. We were talking the other day. If I just may ask you to tell your little story. Wasn't a pilot on one plane a fan?
Victor Davis Hansen
It was very nice of him to do that. And what did he do? He was very one. He just said that, thank me for being on the flight. And then we, we had a selfie. He was a really good guy and everybody was nice on the trip. Of course it's flying. So when the time you leave my farm to Fresno, you have to fly to a major city and get on the plane. Of course, everything was working like clockwork until how does a plane come in the night before? And you're going to get on it at your connection and something wrong with it. But it was okay the night. I never have understood that concept, but maybe pilots listening can inform me. Maybe something went bad at night or they knew there was something, you couldn't get it fixed and we had a little delay. Anyway, it takes me to get from my farm where I'm speaking about 14 hours, usually 13 hours, the East Coast. I don't know if I did very well. I had a lot of lectures I had agreed to do months ago, but I had the flu and it's been, you know, it was eight days and I took off, but I'm kind of still wiped out, but I'm definitely getting better. How's it? I only mentioned that because some people wrote me and said that I look like not just Skeletor, which I can handle, but with the hat on. Two left wing people wrote and said, you look like Freddy Krueger. That I can't handle. So I couldn't. I can plead I had the flu. I have the flu or whatever the post. Post viral fatigue, I think they call it.
Jack Fowler
Well, some people. I've seen a comment or two about a hat, but, you know, fedora kind of hat. This picture is Victor trying to be Matt Drudge. But the Victor's Victor.
Victor Davis Hansen
Oh, Matt Drudge. I forgot about him. Yeah, yeah. The mysterious Matt Drudge. Yeah, quite.
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, let's talk about some foreign policy matters. Donald Trump has gone after the Houthis and I think I'd like to ask you, as a little precis here, on how did the Biden administration, foreign policy screw things up so badly that empowered the Houthis? And your thoughts about Donald Trump sweeping up after another calamity was.
Victor Davis Hansen
Remember when they came in, Iran was almost bankrupt and had lost $100 billion in oil sales, was under severe sanctions unrest. There were a lot of minority unrest inside Tehran. They've had massive power failures. So they were reeling. The first thing that Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Joe Biden, to the extent he existed, was to beg them to get back into the Iran deal. That sent a message to Iranian surrogates throughout the Middle East. And by the surrogates, I would define that as the Houthis, number one. Number two, these terrorist groups that operate in Syria and Iraq, number three, Hezbollah. Number four, Hamas. So we know what Hamas got the green light for. We know that Hezbollah did. Two, the Houthis then were getting these rockets and drones from Iran. They can't make anything themselves. And they were sending them with regularity into the Red Sea, ostensibly to punish Israel. But the point was that the world didn't do anything about it. Now, Russia and China are patrons of Iran. So they, they kind of like that idea. I suppose they felt that that commercial corridor was not as important to them as it was to Europe and the United States. Then the Biden. That administration's policy, Jack, was to send a three or four million dollar missile or more after a $10,000 drone. And we spent, I think, more money on very sophisticated guided anti aircraft missiles than we had in the last 20 years. And it didn't do any good. We were just tit for tat. So everybody knew what the answer was and nobody wanted to admit it or was incapable of doing it. The answer was to tell Iran, if you keep sending these missiles, we're going to stop it, take them out, and we're going to go after the people who are doing this. So Donald Trump comes in, he's not even there 60 days, and he starts attacking and targeting the people in the Houthi command and control structure and their stockpiles. And he's told Iran that from now on he's going to hold them liable and the Houthis will probably want to do it again. And if that should happen, Trump will do something to Iran. Iran is in a very strange position because it's been 50 years enjoying the reputation as the agitator of the Middle east that everybody was scared of. And then when you look at it right now, there's only one. It only has one claim to deterrence, and that is it may or may not have a nuclear bomb, but otherwise it has no air defenses, its economy is shot, it's under severe sanctions. Now Trump is even going after people who stealthily buy Iranian oil against this Western embargo. The Hezbollah hierarchy has been wiped out. Hamas, did you notice during the hostage exchanges that they were bullying the hostages and they were bragadocio with their mask on and their camouflage uniforms and. And then what happened? They had a war again with Israel. The ceasefire ended. And what happened to those 6ft tall strapping guys with moss? Didn't they come out and start fighting? You know, hand to hand, block to block? They just disappeared into their tunnels. In other words, their only claim to being tough and macho is to go pick on defenseless, starving hostages and then to ridicule people. But it's not to go out and fight the Israelis. So we'll see what happens. But we're in a period of flux. The Middle east has not been in this flux since 1974 after the Yom Kippur War and the recession of the Soviet Union out of the Middle east for a while due to Henry Kissinger's diplomacy. So we'll see what happens. But we'll see what happens. And you're going to see something happen on the campuses too, because after we talked about Mr. Khalil and we'll see what happens to him, but the more that we learn about him. We're not learning extenuating circumstances, maybe put it that way. They're not. Well, I really wrote this track calling for a ceasefire or negotiations or I was really for the Palestine. It's hard. Hamas, it's hardcore. Great thing. On October 7th. It's hardcore. Let me negotiate on behalf of the apartheid divest that stormed two halls in Colombia, disrupted a thousand dollars worth of damage and drew the ire of the President herself. So the more we learn about Mr. Khalil, the more it doesn't look good for him. And now the existential question just simply does the United States have the right to say we blew it? We invited somebody into our country with a student visa who then transmogrified that into a work visa, who was a foreign national who supported a state designated Department of State designated terrorist organization, wrote literature promoting mass murder, wrote or distributed literature calling for the destruction of Western civilization, and represented the students who systematically committed violence and anti Semitic harassment. Now, do we have a right to say we wouldn't have done that if we'd known who you were, your real character. So why don't we just go back where you came from and have a good life? Go to the west bank, go to Gaza, go to. You're an Algerian citizen, go to Syria, you've been in Lebanon. But don't come here and get money from the UN or NGOs or Colombia. We don't need you. We don't need you. You don't bring anything to our, to our country except grievance. You know, that's all it's about. It's not about free speech. It's about, you know, it's about somebody coming in. You. You have an invitation for a party, you invite people in. You're sitting there at your party, at dinner, and this guy starts mouthing off how horrible your food is, how horrible your house is, how he has a right to be at your dinner party. And finally you say, leave, and he says, I have a right for free speech. That's what we're talking about.
Jack Fowler
Yeah, yeah, Victor, you know, it's interesting, but back on Gaza. Well, we'll get to Gaza in a second. But Middle east, it seems like our position is ascendant, at least under Trump and Israel. But the troublemakers of the Islamic world are ascendant elsewhere. And I was at a National Review Institute conference. They had an IDEA summit last week, and Ali, Ayan Hirsi. Ali spoke. She's terrific. And she said, she was asked what her real fears were. She says the collapse of Europe, she said uk, she believes, is on the brink. Sweden's prime minister has admitted he's essentially lost control over the Islamic.
Victor Davis Hansen
Question is, what do they do about it? That is a good diagnosis, but what is the treatment and what is the prognosis? In other words, Europe has about a 1.6, 1.5 fertility rate and they now have anywhere from 7 to 10 to 15% of the population is foreign born. I think Germany's got the highest at 16%. The vast majority of these people, there's a lot of Ukrainian refugees, but the vast majority are from the Middle East. And they're not acculturating, they're not integrating, they're not assimilating. And they're very bitter because they look at their prosperous hosts and they think they're decadent. They think the women are too promiscuous, they're too. I don't know, they're too free, they're too liberated. And it gets back to what Bernard Lewis talked about a long time ago. They have this strange dichotomy this desire to be in the west and to be experienced to all of its pleasures and attractions and appetites and then to hate the people who offer that to them and to hate themselves. In other words, remember that going Back to the 911 murders, I think there were six of them were in Las Vegas the night that week before with pornography, gambling, drinking. Nobody put a gun to their head and said they had to do that. Why was Bin Laden, when they went to his compound in Pakistan they found realms and realms of pornographic websites and things. And so there's something about this that nobody really wants to talk about. That these people from the Middle east come to Europe, they don't want to become European and they double down in a way. They weren't. They were not happy in their home. They had an Islamic paradise, but they felt that it didn't give them liberty, freedom or economic opportunity. So they went to somewhere that did and then they immediately began to despise the host. Like the fellow who just attacked a 43 year old rabbi in Orlan in France the other day. Macron said that he was terrible and they put him in. I think they put him under psychic observation. He doesn't have a psychological problem, he has a hatred problem. Right. And he has a lack of deterrence. He thought that if he were to do that. Put it this way, if you a bunch of Christians who were on a pilgrimage to look at historical sites in the Middle east, let's just pick a country, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and some of them started target the Muslim population and started hitting them. What do you think would happen to them?
Jack Fowler
Oh my gosh. They'd be. They'd be dead. Dead in a.
Victor Davis Hansen
So I think Europe's going to have. You're right, it's coming to a point of no return and that would mean they're either going to have to people green cards and have them re vetted or they're going to have to deport the people there. They have to deport all the people there who are there illegally. But they're going to have to decide to integrate them. If they don't integrate them, they're doomed or they're going to be in a civil war. There's the other thing going on though. This is happening because of the left. It's the left's therapeutic policy of. You saw that with Merkel open borders. There's something nihilistic or self loathing about this postmodern West. We saw it with the Biden administration. Nobody can still. It's like we woke up, we're thinking, wait a minute, in 20, 21, 23, were there really 10,000, 20,000 people coming across the border? Why this crazy Majorcas was saying it's secure. Why, why, why did they do that? Did they want more constituents? Did they want more welfare recipients? Did they want people to cause chaos? Are they anarchists and nihilists? Why did they do that? And we can't even believe it. And so now it's going to take to find all the people who came illegally, even the people who were flagrantly committing crimes.
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, we're going to get your thoughts on Israel and Gaza in a second. But first, folks, let's talk about what's happening in the markets. The Nasdaq is down 13%. That's in correction territory. And the S&P 500 is showing signs of a sharp bear market ahead. And we're watching major stocks break support levels with no buyers in sight. The experts at Dohmen Capital call this the start of a liquidation avalanche. Forced selling, margin calls, money managers scrambling to avoid career ending losses. And here's the part no one wants to talk about. The economy was never as strong as they claim. 2024's so called growth was built on manipulated numbers. And now the reality of a hidden recession is finally coming to light. So what does that mean for you? Tech stocks are getting crushed, household names like Costco are plummeting, and the everything bubble is about to burst. And when stocks crash and liquidity dries up, where does the smart money go? It goes to gold, silver and hard assets. And that's why our friends at American Alternative Assets are offering a free Wealth Protection Guide to our listeners to help you shield your savings before things get worse. Inside the guide, you'll discover how to protect your retirement from the spare market, why central banks are stockpiling gold at record levels and the three step strategy to safeguard your wealth before it's too late. History repeats itself. 2008, 2000, 1929. Some people saw it, saw the warning signs and took action. Others were wiped out. Don't be on the wrong side of history. Call 8332 USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com right now to claim your free wealth protection guide. That's 8332- USA-Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com protect your wealth, secure your future before it's too late. One more time, call 833-287-2465 or visit victorlovesgold.com to claim your free Wealth Protection Guide. And we thank the good people at American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, before we get to Gaza, I just want to mention one thing today. Mia Love, who was a black Republican congresswoman, the first black Republican congresswoman ever. She was from Utah, served a few terms and she passed away. You're very young, 49. And you know, I think of her, I know she wasn't the Trumpiest person in the world, but she was such a hardcore pro lifer. And I think about the Lieutenant governor of Virginia also Winsome Sears and these women, if they were how we genuflect before the first Democrats do. But she was a real trailblazer and a good woman too. And you know, I don't hear being talked about in on MSNBC or CNN for breaking barriers.
Victor Davis Hansen
So I really like Mia Love. And the irony was, although she was hurt politically because she didn't buy in, I mean, she wasn't a Trump supporter. I don't mean that in a derogatory buy in. But in 2017, she wasn't a Trump supporter. But if you looked at her record in the Congress as a congresswoman from Utah, it was indistinguishable almost from MAGA supporters. It was in the 90s. So she was a Trump supporter de facto, de jure. Maybe not. She had a very, her, she was only 49. I felt really bad when I read about it today, yesterday. 49, at the, at the zenith of life. Three children, happily married, congressional career, a very articulate, highly educated, highly intelligent black woman, conservative, as you pointed out. And she was fighting a three year fight with a glioblastoma. And my mother died of a malignant meningioma, brain tumor. And I watched her and I, you know, I was trying to help when I was in my 30s, trying to find new avenues and things. But a glioblastoma is something else and they've made enormous strides in that medicine. Doctors are maybe listening, know what I'm talking about? They've got all sorts of drugs and new types of radiation, chemotherapies, but it's a terrible sentence to have a glioblastoma. Meningioma, malignant meningioma is bad enough. Or an astrocytoma. But gosh, I felt so bad when I heard that. She fought that for three years. Yeah, well, tough lady person, wonderful person. She's like Aon Hirsi Ali. And the Republican Party and the conservative movement have been blessed by dozens of these very articulate black women.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. And courageous because they're, they're not only afraid to take the positions, but then to run for office. Nobody hates a black Republican more than liberals.
Victor Davis Hansen
It's funny, when you see black conservative women, they're not in the majority of black women in the same fashion. They're not like the majority of liberal Jewish Americans. But when you see conservative Jewish Americans, they remind me of conservative French intellectuals. When you see a French intellectual that's conservative, they're brilliant because they have to be. They're under such attack. And the same thing is about conservative Jewish Americans. Black women that are conservative, they have a constant struggle because they get incoming fire 360 degrees from culture, race, religion, everything. And they're on their toes. I really like French conservative intellectuals.
Jack Fowler
For some reason.
Victor Davis Hansen
All those people were.
Jack Fowler
Yeah, Pierre Menon, Raymond Daron. I just had a belly full of it with. I was at the Philadelphia Society meeting and you know, as you know my dear friend Dan Mahoney and there were a number, but actually Will Morrissey, who I know, you know, from up in Hillsdale and just there was lots of discussion of French.
Victor Davis Hansen
The French, right.
Jack Fowler
And you're dead on, Victor. They are rare and they are very.
Victor Davis Hansen
Camus example when he kind of converted to conservatism.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. Malraux, who was close to De Gaulle.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, I remember that book about Cambodia. I think it was translated the the Royal Way or something. And I read his. Met his anti memoirs when I was younger.
Jack Fowler
Oh really?
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't know how true all of it was. People suggested that he exaggerated, but if, if it was true for a guy who wasn't, I mean he did more than most people did in an entire 10 lifetimes if half of what he wrote was true. Anyway, I feel bad about Mia Love. I really did.
Jack Fowler
Victor, we're going to get to Gaza and Israel in a minute. We'll do that when we come back from these important messages.
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Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Monday 24th March, and today's episode will be up on Tuesday, the 25th victory. Here's a headline from the other day. Israel resumes war in Gaza with plan to conquer strip and a quote, if the Hamas terror organization continues to refuse to release the hostages. I've instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to capture additional areas, evacuate the population and expand the security zone around Gaza through permanent, I love that word, permanent control of the area by Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. The longer Hamas continues its refusal, the more and more land it will lose that will be added to Israel. So, Victor, two things. One, your thoughts on what's happening and I'm just curious, I didn't ask you this ahead of time, if you've ever met Katz or know anything about him.
Victor Davis Hansen
No, I haven't. I haven't. I've met members of the Israeli, current Israeli government, but I haven't met him. But there was also simultaneously with these announcements, both from Trump and Katz, there was a poll that was conducted that suggested that a majority of people in Gaza would like to be relocated in more peaceful circumstances. And I think you're seeing that you cannot have Hamas in control of Gaza. And yet the tunnel labyrinth is of such a magnitude and it's so hard to get them. And they're existing right now because of all the hundreds of billions of dollars in food, clothing, shelter that's pouring in. They steal it, they run it all. They run the distribution. They're like the mafia and they charge their own people and their own people are even terrified to pull that they don't have. This is what's so aggravating about Mr. Khalil. From his safe purse perch at Colombia, he can disseminate and encourage anti Semitism, but the people that he are, the people whom he is supporting, are inflicting enormous damage on Palestinians in Gazans and doesn't seem to be worried about it. If he was in Gaza and he was living there and he saw daily what Hamas was doing, I'm sure he might have a different attitude than being in subsidized housing owned by Columbia University. So we can see that all, I think all the country when Donald Trump about a month ago in front of Netanyahu said, well, I think we know we have to displace the population. And then it's beautiful, it's got great beaches. We'll get all foreign money, golf money, everybody Western money. We'll build this beautiful Dubai type situation and then we will have passport control and let people come in, but not Hamas. And everybody thought, what the. What's he talking? But the more. It's like everything Trump does, the first, the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first narrative. See, it's so unorthodox or against the grain or never heard it before. But then when you start to digest it, I'm not saying that, you know, we're going to absorb Greenland, but the idea that big fat Greenland sits there undefended, why China and Russia are going through its airspace and maritime waters. There's going to be a remedy. I hope it's the autonomy of Greenland with a defense agreement with the United States of mutual assistance or basing. But there has to be a solution. That has not been, because every single solution has not worked. The idea there's going to be a separate independent Hamas state in Gaza is never going to happen. It's never going to happen. That's like going across the Rhine in March of 1945 and then surrounding and all of a sudden having an armistice and saying, the Third Reich under Hitler's replacement at that time, Guring was still alive. Himmler. We're going to let Himmler and Guring have their little rump state here. They made it. No, it's not going to happen.
Jack Fowler
I wonder, Victor, what you mentioned the. Twice now, the tunnels. And I wonder just how much of a failing that is of our intelligence over the years that such extensive work was done and paid for by us. Essentially.
Victor Davis Hansen
We knew what was going on. We knew what was going on, what we were going to do about it. I mean, we had eight years of Obama was pro Hamas. We had four years of the people running the Biden administration was pro Hamas. So essentially, out of the last, oh, 20 years, we only had four years of an administration. The first Trump administration that was, I should say, the 16 years that was even worried about it. And they were, they had very, it was very strange. I mean, they. I looked at, I was looking at the pictures not too long ago and comparing them to the cartel, the Mexican cartel tunnels, which were very sophisticated, but the Hamas were much better designed. They had reinforced concrete rebar. They didn't have any wood supports like the cartels. They had everything, Internet and they had sophisticated German bulldozing equipment and tunneling equipment. It was all going on. Everybody knew what was going on. And when you looked at, I had gone to Gaza 2006 I think and when you looked at that, what was going on there was, you know, that was when they were pulling out the Israeli. Everybody was, you know, this was what. Everybody has this idea, the Israelis or the, the aggressor that they, all they want is every time they have a solution they get all excited about, they were saying, you know what, we've got all these hot houses, we've got this export market that we've trained the people there. They can. We're going to get everybody out of Gaza. They will have no complaint against us. They'll have their autonomous country and we're, and we even have American money that's going to continue these sophisticated winter vegetable and winter fruits and things like that to ship to Europe. So they even have a big. We're just going to give a. When you listen to that human nature being what it is, you think no, they're going to interpret your largesse as weakness to be exploited, not as magnanimity to be reciprocated. And they did. That's exactly what they did. So that was Sharon, that was his idea to get everybody out and we'll have a lasting peace. Never going to happen. Not if the United nations and the Europeans and the NGOs fund all of these radical groups that brainwash people from the age of 3 years old to hate Jews.
Jack Fowler
Yeah, I wonder how once the area is taken back, how many decades it's going to take to undo all that, that mining. Well, anyway.
Victor Davis Hansen
Oh, I'm sure they've mined every single. Their whole attitude is there's going to be some Western, Israeli or American or somebody's going to come in here at one day and try to explore these tunnels and we're going to booby trap them and kill as many as we can. Yeah, it's a death machine. That's what it is. It's a cult of death. It's a nihilistic cult of death. When I saw those poor emaciated hostages up there and all of these young men emerging out of the tunnels and shadows and these crisp new camouflage and screaming and yelling with mask on. And what reminded me of the students at Columbia, one of the demands to get their $400 million that is Columbia's been federal money is that they're. They have to outlaw mask. Nobody wears a mask unless you're on an airplane. I saw a couple this week, but they're wearing masks for one reason and that is they, they're so bold and brave, but they don't want their. Their identities revealed. Yeah, and that's what Hamas does.
Jack Fowler
Not funny, Victor, but the cult of death and tunnels, I just, I read this. I got it in front of me. I'm going to spring this on you. Andrew Arthur, who works with the center for Immigration Studies. That's Mark Ricorian's group. He's got an op ed in the New York Post today. And you know the cartels who are tunnelers on our border? I think it's a border again. They too are. They are demented with people. Now here's what he wrote. Cartels use money to enhance their operations and to run camps. This is, you know, they're doing the coyote business here of bringing, bringing people up as. Because the Biden administration says come and the Catholic NGOs say come. And what happens to the people that come? Well, they have to deal with these, these thugs and murderers and they run camps like the one uncovered outside Guadalajara two weeks ago.
Victor Davis Hansen
Something else.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
I mean, this is like Auschwitz. They had tennis shoes and clothes and then they had a crematorium. I mean, it was a deliberate emulation of the death counts. This is what we're dealing with. And these are the type of people, cartel people, M13 people, trend people. And this gets so infuriating that these we'll talk about in a second. But these individual regional judges can rule that even though these people came in illegally, even though they came in with an intent to harm and hurt people, even though they're agents of sinister forces, even though they in many cases are in terrorist designated groups and they should have no, they have no legal right to be here. It's illegal to take them back home. I don't understand that. And all of these judges, if they had to live in areas where I live out here in southwestern Fresno county, which has had enormous gang problem, M13 and not too long ago in Mendota was. Had overrun the whole town. And one day I was driving, I won't mention the name of the street, and I was driving down and all of a sudden I saw 8 or 9, 10 males in their boxer shorts, all arrested, sitting along the side of the road with about five different federal agencies, sheriffs, police, highway patrol, immigration, and with. With mask on some of them. And that was about a mile less than a mile from my house. So if they had to live in areas like that, any of these judges, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be so cavalier about grandstanding.
Jack Fowler
Yeah, well, let's. I know you and Sammy talked about the judges at some, at some length, but I wanted to layer on to that. And I encourage our listeners, if they haven't caught the weekend shows with Sammy, that they do so. But this one, Judge Boasberg, he seems to be one of the prime instigators of stopping the deportation. But I wonder, Victor, if Judge Boasberg had been around 80 years ago and had been a federal judge in 1944, given their, their assumption of the power that they have now, they would have thought, he would have thought, hypothetically, he could have stopped the D Day invasion. He could have stopped the Enola Gay. I mean, where does their power end.
Victor Davis Hansen
If they see what Chuck Schumer bragged about? He said, look, don't, don't try to remove me. I got all. I held. I got all of these 50 something left wing judges and they're doing a great job. And what he's saying is the lowest rung of federal judge can affect the entire country. And they all have something in common, two things in common. They're all either Biden or Obama or some of them older Clinton judges, and they're doing, this is Lawfare 2.0. This is just a continuance of Judge Merchan, whose daughter made millions of dollars trading on her father's name as a Democrat. She was an activist consultant. Remember Judge Michonne and the Alvin Bragg. This is the same thing of Judge Kaplan and the E. Jean Carroll civil suit left wing judge who said even though Donald Trump had not been convicted of rape, it was a minor difference. Sexual assault and rape. This was the same. Same thing with Judge Engor on, you know, hamming it up in front of the cameras for Letita James, trying to get this astronomical, putting gag orders on Donald Trump. It's the same idea. They went Mark Elias and all of these Democratic operatives find, cherry pick individual district judges and they file the suit or the da, whether criminal or civil, in those jurisdictions, that they know they're going to be a blue state judge or blue state county, a blue state jury. And these cases, these executive orders. We had another one, Anna Reyes, I think she was, she was famous because she just got appointed. She was a naturalized American. And she was what the Biden administration bragged not about her qualification. She said, this is the first LGBTQ Latina judge. She just ruled and put a stay on the transgender prohibition that Pete Hexis had done. I remember. I'm pretty sure I know listeners will correct me because I'm doing this by memory. But Judge Boasberg was a FISA judge. And when Kevin Kleinsmith altered that document and lied, that was a felony, a very serious felony. And that affected, and that may well have affected the 2016 pulse of that election with all of that Russian collusion. And here you had the FBI submitting documents to a federal judge in which they had forged and adopted the evidence. And in the whole Papadopoulos, Carter Page stuff, surveillance, all, it was bogus. And what happens with that? Any other judge, if that had been any other judge, they would have said, wait a minute, you're an FBI attorney and you forged a document and you sent it to me, they would have thrown the book at him. But if you read what he said at the time, I remember what he said. Oh, this is, he suffered so much, Jack. He's just suffered. It was so much, it was so stressful. He didn't know what was going to happen. He's remorseful. So we're just going to give him a temporary, we'll just give him probation and some community service. And then the bar, I think, temporarily disbarred him and he's back in action. And that was this judge. And then we had this judge Furman, remember him? He was the one that has put the stay on Khalil. And I think his brother, correct me if I'm. He was a not another left wing appointed judge and his brother was an economic advisor to Barack Obama. So they not, they just don't pick Democrats. They pick ultra, or to quote Joe Biden ultra when he said ultra maga. These are ultra Obama, ultra Biden, ultra Clinton judges. You know, can you imagine in any other profession that this would go on? What if you were chairman of the English Department at Stanford and you said that all of your syllabuses in your department shall, I don't know, Jack Kerouac's on the Road will be required reading. And then you said, in fact, every English department in the United States is going to have the same reading list as I because I have ruled, because I am a chairman at Stanford. So this judge in this jurisdiction in Washington, every single person in the United States is going to be subject to my thought because as a Obama appointed judge and a Democratic activist with a long history of progressive thought and that's how I got appointed, I have decided in an imperial, autocratic, oligarchic fashion that everybody in the United States will be subject to my rule. And of course, the subtext to it all, Jack, is Donald Trump is a lame duck president and he's only here for four years. He can't be reelected. So let's see, he was going great guns and we interrupted him now for two weeks, three weeks, he's got to go to a circuit court. We've got a lot of liberals in the circuit court. Maybe they'll cherry pick that too. And by the time the Supreme Court we saw that there was some ambiguity on the part of the Supreme Court. By the time this all gets done, we ate up, I don't know, a year. This is getting Back to the 22 months, 40 million. Robert Mueller, after it was all over the left, said, well, I guess we were wrong about collusion. We lied about it.
Jack Fowler
Ha ha.
Victor Davis Hansen
You guys just lost 22 months of your raid. And then they said, and it doesn't end there. Now we've got an impeachment because Mr. Vindman was on a call and he called up his friend Eric Seramella and then he got together with Adam Shipp, which they lied about. And we've got an impeachment to eat for three or four months. That's how they operate. And what's lacking here, Jack, in my little rant? What's. What's lacking here? Everybody is. Has anybody heard any counter positive proposal? So when Tim Waltz is dancing on the stage and hamming it up about his little app and that he's got, oh, it's so great, it's going down the Tesla, even though he's got a multi million, if not over a billion dollars in Minnesota investments. And then he kind of apologized. And then he's talking about Musk as the a hole. And then he's talking about Musk is the Nepo baby creepy South African. And then he's talking about that part of the problem with the MAGA men is they're not masculine like he is. And he's gonna. This guy that does 71 years old and I did wrestle for three years and he was, I suppose that I would like nothing. I mean, I think every, every male listening to this. If you were walking alone at night in a city, your dream would be to that like Tim Waltz would walk by you and try to hold you up or something.
Jack Fowler
I mean, Tim Waltz coming out of.
Victor Davis Hansen
A dark alley, he's the epitome of I don't know what, I don't want to get down to his level, but when you have all that stuff and then you think Elon Musk has just saved Boeing and saved NASA and rescued two people and astronaut Kelly can't say a nice word about him other than he's an a hole. So we get all this. But what I'm getting at is why doesn't Chuck Schumer go on and says, look, we have no problem with reducing spending. Barack Obama used to give speeches about it. We were ahead of you guys. Clinton balanced the budget. We know how to do it. So here's what we want to do. I know it's not the Reagan years where the tax rates were in the high 20s. We've got up to 38, so we can't really raise taxes. But what we can do is work with you guys and let's get a freeze across the board, and then we'll work toward a balanced budget. I haven't heard any of that. I have not heard any of it. Or when they say something like, well, you know, we don't. We want to remind you guys that you guys were the free traders. You were the Milton Friedman Libertarians. We were the terrorists. Clinton had tariffs. Obama had tariffs. We like tariffs. So let's just be reciprocal. Let's get together and get a tariff policy, a bipartisan. Oh, now, I know we opened the border. I know we did. And we withheld illegally congressionally approved funds that were designated to finish the wall. But whatever happened in the past, I think everybody realizes it's much better now that zero people essentially are coming across illegally than 10,000 a day. So let's work on. Have you heard them say comprehensive immigration suddenly? I haven't heard that word. That's all they could talk about. So what I'm getting at is they don't have one concrete proposal either to work with Trump or to take credit for a successful program. Nothing. And Mark Penn got on the other day, and it was like, I, I watched his video. It was like, oh, my gosh, they've gone from 47% neck and neck with the Republicans all the way down to 27. And some of them are lower than 27. And he was saying they're going to destroy the Democratic Party because they're nihilistic. They don't have one positive counter proposal. Bernie Sanders was going on about climate change. Okay, Bernie, tell us exactly what you want to do. You want EVs, you want to build nuclear plants? Because with AI, we're going to be out of energy. What do you want to do? You want to go out here in California on Manning Avenue and see the thousands of acres of precious farmland have been taken out to build a solar farm when we already have 2 minute much daytime power, and now we're going to be able to build a battery power the last Time we built a battery plant in California at Moss Landi. It caught fire twice. So they don't have concrete counter proposals. So they do these tricks. It's either Gavin Newsom with his little shtick about podcasts as he tries to triangulate for the next election, or it's street theater with the campus protest and torching Teslas, or it's potty mouth, F word, S word, A word video stuff. That's about it. I can't think of anything else. Yeah. Meanwhile, all of the reference of the, of these people, they're in shambles. What happened to be the Black Lives Matter movement? The, the people absconded with all the money. They took it. They're all in retirement, nice homes. Even the BLM sanctuary space in Washington is being being dismantled. How about this, Jack? I could not get a memo from a Stanford administrator for four years without these. Their they, he, she. What happened to the pronouns? They're gone. I haven't seen any memo from an administrator with a pronoun. They just bing. They disappear. But you.
Jack Fowler
And I want you to elaborate on this after, because I'm going to read a message here first. But you still think that we're on the cusp of a kind of a civil war.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, what Donald Trump is trying to do is he got. When they were trying to destroy him for four years, he got a lot of brilliant people around him. Amen. Everybody remember that. And he said, you know, I didn't have people who agreed with me in my first administration, in every case, at cabinet heads and advisors, so I'm going to get everybody, no exceptions. And we're going to sit and contemplate. And they came up with the idea that the left was not waging a political revolution, they were waging a cultural revolution as well. So they are going after the universities, because they're not universities anymore. They're indoctrination centers. They're looking at taxing the endowment. They're looking at anti Semitism, they're looking at gouging the federal government with 50, 60% overhead on grants. They're looking at everything. And it's an, It's a multifaceted effort to bring the country back to sanity. Right. And it can't just be political. It's economic, political, cultural, social, military, everything.
Jack Fowler
Right.
Victor Davis Hansen
And you can. It's kind of like they pulled up this rock and they looked underneath this mossy rock, and here was all these strange creatures at the. You know what I mean? It was like USAID and this $40 million for the Wuhan virology lab to help kill us again. Here's some money for the BBC so they can say they hate America more effectively. Here's money for the LGBTQ people in Nigeria. It was all a monstrosity to keep this whole university, left wing foundations, NGOs, government going. And they said we could either do what every other Republican has done. George W. Bush, George H.W. bush, what Mitt Romney ran on, what McCain ran on, we'll just let it go. Just say, you know what, we'll try to trim around the edges, we'll kind of hack the thornbush and do it here. Or we're going to try to uproot it. And if we uproot it, they're going to go absolutely insane.
Jack Fowler
Imagine if you were at a Republican potentates meeting in say 2010 and presented the idea of getting rid of USAID. You'd be, you'd be shown the door of the room immediately.
Victor Davis Hansen
Rick Perry, remember when he ran in 2016 and they asked, he said, and I'm going to eliminate the Department of Education, I'm going to eliminate the Department of Energy. And was the third HHS or something, I can't remember. But he forgot.
Jack Fowler
Well, he, he, yeah, he had a brain.
Victor Davis Hansen
I liked it. He was on the right track.
Jack Fowler
He was, he was also on painkillers at the time. Hey Victor, we have a couple other things to talk about, but I just.
Victor Davis Hansen
Want to take note of his bad back. Had a terrible back.
Jack Fowler
Well, he was on, I think it was actually that moment where he had that missing, missing third H was.
Victor Davis Hansen
They went after him too. They remember that he was gone. They had some rock they found with an inscription on his golf course and they claimed that he was some kind of white nationalist or something.
Jack Fowler
My gosh. Well, but first, before we talk about more things, I want to take a moment for our sponsor, OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer. So no more carrying two phones or using a landline. With OpenPhone, your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. Plus, with AI powered transcripts and summaries, you'll be able to automate follow ups, ensuring you'll never miss a customer interaction again. OpenPhone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months@openphone.com Victor that's O-P E N P H O-N E openphone.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. Open phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. And we thank the good people at OpenPhone for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen show. Victor, you mentioned, by the way, Jack Kerouac.
Victor Davis Hansen
He was a very dissolute guy. But remember when he was in his final years, he was pudgy, post alcoholic and not post.
Jack Fowler
He was, he was, he was kind.
Victor Davis Hansen
Of bisexual too with Allen Ginsberg and Neil Cassidy. And then at the end he was for the Vietnam. He was like Steinbeck. Remember he flipped and he was for the Vietnam War and everything. He's very concerned.
Jack Fowler
Well, he. Let me tell you something. He. First of all folks should Google him in Buckley because he was on an episode of Firing Line and he was pioneered and oh yeah, it was really wild. Well, he also died reading National Review. And the weirdest thing happened. I'm sorry to go down a rabbit hole here, but when the former managing editor, Priscilla Buckley, she died. She was Bill's sister. She was just the loveliest lady. And her nephew sent, said call me up one day. I was still the publisher.
Victor Davis Hansen
Jack.
Jack Fowler
I have all these boxes of priscilla's stuff. So 24 of the 25 boxes were books. And the last box had all kinds of folders of interesting things, kind of shocking things, books. There was a file called Kerouac. And Jack Kerouac had submitted an article to National Review and we were getting it set and he died. So the article was never published. But I had it there in my hands and I had to deal with his estate. And he was a conservative, even younger. He was, you know, he's very Catholic and he prayed the rosary a lot.
Victor Davis Hansen
He went to Columbia too. I think he was an English major in the writing program. And Ken Kesey, you know, was Electric Cholite Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. He was in the wall Stegner. He financed that tour with One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Revenues. Yeah, even that one. Was it sometimes a great notion. I really loved that movie with Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. They made a movie of his second big novel. He had a very tragic life. To Ken Kesey. His son died. He was a wrestler too. I think he was a state champ.
Jack Fowler
Well, let's talk about wrestling, Victor. Wrestler Donald Trump walks into the NCAA wrestling championships and the house roars for him. And I thought it was cool. I'm not from a wrestling family, although in high school I worked, you know, cooking. We had big wrestling, huge tournaments at my kids high school. And there's something about wrestling families. I Mean, this just. And the wrestling teams, it's just a great dynamic relative to other kind of sports. That was my impression.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, they started when I was a Jr. In 1970 and I was a terrible basketball player. So in winter sports they started a wrestling. Excuse me, I was a freshman, 19 7, 67. They started a wrestling team at Selma High School. And I was on the first wrestling team on the JVs. And I think we didn't win a match that year, but I learned something about wrestling. I mean, we went. It was. My dad was such a wonderful person, but he was so frustrated because, you know, we went all around the San Joaquin Valley. We were out there at Gustein and then it was like a two hour bus ride and I get back at midnight and he'd say, what are you doing? I say, I signed up for an early AP class or something like that. And I would be up till. And he goes. And then I was always trying to lose weight. I was 6:1 and I was in the 127 pound. I wanted to get down to 121. So I was spitting all the time. And my grandfather, every morning I'd run around the ranch and my grandfather would be out irrigating and he'd say, please. He'd hand me a chocolate bar, Please. I had to find you. You got to eat this, you're going to kill yourself. But I was kind of like son of flubber, in other words, when my. I went out for three years, but I had a reputation of not being a good wrestler, but a person who wasn't able because I was like a lanky, you know, it couldn't be pinned. They had a rule. You couldn't go up to more than two or three weight classes because everybody get the flu and sick. So when I was in 121, if I would go to all, I never missed any of the meets. So we'd go to Dos palace or way out in the middle of nowhere and they would put me in the 145 class and I would just grab onto somebody where they. For six minutes they flip me back like a fish on a wharf. And they wouldn't let go. There was a very famous guy, I won't mention his name, he's really strong and his father was there and I grabbed onto him and he threw me six or seven times. We turned it, we flipped around. I did a cross face on him so he couldn't do it. And the whole point, you see, is not to lose your team five points by being pinned, but by Just lose by default, by points. So the coach would say to me, look, I don't know. I don't want to do it this to you, Victor, but we don't. What's his name is sick with the flu in the 146 class. So you're going to go up 20 pounds. This guy is the Central Valley runner up. You go out there and you grab him and you do not get pinned. I would get. I don't think I ever got pinned, but man, I was. I don't. I think my record was something like 6 and 20. Another thing I noticed was about wrestling. This is an interesting fact. You can't tell how good your opponent will be by his physique. I was really scared when I was wrestling once. This guy looked like he was arnold Schwarzenegger at 127 pounds. But he looked so formidable. And I beat him, but he was not very strong. And then I remember another time I was ahead. I. I looked out and this guy looked like he was one of those. He. He just look up like a tub of beans. Yeah, he was just a rolly poly. And I thought, this is going to be so easy. And he had little twigs for arms and this huge belly, man. I got on there and he put. He got that weight going. It was a pan. Bam, bam. It was like a. It was like a cannonball at a siege. And I was the gate. You just bam, bam. I remember the next day I got up, I was all bruised, and he beat me. But I don't know, there's something about wrestling that was weird about it. There's a lot of tense. I get really. You know, you look at the guy when you're gonna. You're all in the weight classes in the chairs, and you look across the mat and you see the guy you're gonna wrestle in the next 10, 15, 20 minutes. And he kind of goes. And then you. When you're the next guy, then you're up there and then waiting thing and you're going like this and you're. And. And you're all, you know, like 15 years old for. I was actually. I just turned 14. 15 and 16. And you have all this, you know, there's this guy I can. I'll just make one other thing. He was really good. He was an African American guy, one of the sweetest guys from. I think it was Los Banos. But he was something like 22 and 0. And he was looking at me right before. And my coach came over and he said, now don't psych yourself out, Victor. You've got to go in there like you can beat him. And I said, coach, there's no way in the world that I can beat this guy. He's impossible. And we went out and they you. The guy before had been a big sweat hog and there was still sweat on the mat and they hadn't quite cleaned it. And the first thing he did is he ran at full speed to take me down and he fell on his back and I just jumped on him and I came within like two seconds of pinning him. And then he just kind of rose from the debt and the rest of it was like jellyfish again. But I always liked our coach. Don't get psyched out. Just because he's bigger, stronger and better than you doesn't mean you can't win this again.
Jack Fowler
You know, it's an, as you know, individual sport, right? One. One on one. But the. There was always a sense that wrestling teams. There was some camaraderie that kind of transcended other. Even basketball team.
Victor Davis Hansen
It's like golf or so it. I've never played golf, but it's like box. It's with. It's a team, but it's an individual sport. You can't hide like in football or basketball or baseball. I mean, you're. There's especially football if you don't make a tackle, you can say that, but you're just out there alone. And yet your points will help your team. And, you know, so you have all these strategies. Don't get pinned. You are you. If you win by points, it won't help your team at this point. You got to pin the guy. Do anything to pin him. You know, you get down to one minute and the coach is yelling, you don't get pin and we win. Then you're like scratching around. You know, you like a piece of. You're like a steer with a guy trying to rope you as you try to evade. It's a fascinating sport.
Jack Fowler
Well, before we head into the final break, Victor, and then we're going to do one other subject before we close out today. Any thoughts? What were your thoughts of Trump's appearance at that NCAA tournament?
Victor Davis Hansen
It's very good that he does this like the Madison Square Garden when he walked in that time with Joe Rogan, Dana White, rfk to that thunderous applause. It's just a reminder to people that he has that when he. This is the all American Midwestern, small town, rural. You know, it's really something. And to see all of that support reminds people not to listen to the media. I think everybody, if you look at the real clear politics today and you look at some of the latest polls, they're about dead even and even. Think Rasmussen and Morning Advantage or what, they have him ahead a little bit or dead even. And that's a pretty amazing thing, Jack, given this comprehensive revolutionary, counter revolutionary policy he has. And everybody gets kind of depressed and. Well, it's so chaotic. But actually, most people really do want Doge to cut, and most people really do want affordable energy. And most people really want to find a legitimate ceasefire in Ukraine. And most people really do want a closed border. And most people really do want illegal aliens, especially those violent, to go back home and try it again if they want to come, but only legally, and that finish the wall. So he's on the right side of everything and the hysteria is all we hear, but that's not the story. So when he goes to this wrestling thing and you see this overwhelming response, you know, it's kind of like when he was at McDonald's and that iconic moment when that Indian American couple and he said, we're just so happy. We're just ordinary. You're not ordinary. And then his wife said, but thank you for taking a bullet. And he kind of looked around like he was a philosopher, said, you know, I guess I did. Those are good moments for him. He's very good in on script authenticity. Genuine moments. Yeah, yeah. And the more he does that is the better.
Jack Fowler
I don't know why you just made me think of Obama mocking him at that White House correspondence dinner.
Victor Davis Hansen
The birth thing. Yeah, but that's all of that was Mr. Obama, if your literary agent had not had a flyer for your memoir, who said, Barack Obama was born, and I'm quoting, in Kenya. In Kenya. And why did she write that? She wrote it to GenUp sales. As if you were naturalized America with genuine African roots. It says that you were born in Kenya. That was a flyer they distributed to promote your book. I have written, I think now, 26 books. I can tell you, Jack, in 26 cases, no agent, no literary promoter working. Sure. No ad person, no any of them have ever written anything about me without my knowledge. The idea that they wrote that without his knowledge is preposterous. I'm not saying he was born in Kenya. What I am saying is he thought it was kind of cute that they could spread that little thing for a while and get sales for Dreams from my father, which he probably did write himself.
Jack Fowler
His books were full of lies. His girlfriend, which was a composite of Girlfriends.
Victor Davis Hansen
The whole book was fiction and I think Garrel wrote that about it.
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, we've got time for one more topic and that will be we are going to go back over topic of Teslas which I know you and the great Sammy Wink have talked about it, but there's an angle here I'd like to get your take on and we will get that when we come back from these final messages.
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Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Monday the 24th. This episode's up on Monday the 25th. I said at the outset, Victor's got a website. We have a ton of new listeners and viewers even we're on Rumble. Sammy showed me some info about this podcast on YouTube that hundreds of thousands.
Victor Davis Hansen
Of people are very you know, I hadn't been out because I'd been sick and I went out on the plane and by the way, I took a influenza A test to make sure it was no longer positive before I went okay. And I, yes. And I, I tried not to cough. This is the first day really, I haven't coughed in over two weeks. But anyway, the point I'm making is most of the people who came up at the airport or talk, they, they, they used to say, well, I read a book and there wasn' or Fox. But almost all of them, their point of reference was a podcast, which is really good news that people are tuning in and I was shocked.
Jack Fowler
I saw my friend, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, my friend said he saw me on YouTube although I didn't know what he was talking about. But I guess we're on YouTube, so. Well anyway, but. But because we have all these new listeners and viewers should know about your website, the blade of Perseus victorhansen.com and when you go there, you will find links to Victor's weekly essay for American Greatness weekly syndicated column, the archives of these podcasts, links to his books and many appearances. And then there are some special things. They're under a little insignia ultra. Victor writes two pieces exclusively every week for the Blade of Perseus and he does one exclusive video. So you should subscribe if you're a fan of Victor's wisdom, that means you should be subscribing. It's 650amonth. Do that times 12 and you'll come up with some number but as we discount it to $65 for the full year. The Blade of Perseus Victor Yeah, you and Sammy were talking about Elon Musk and Teslas and of course the attempts to firebomb Tesla dealerships and harass Tesla owners. But I saw a link the other day and I think I sent it to about that someone was released the names of every Tesla owner in America for the. For what nefarious purpose? Obviously for, for trying to encourage locals to cause mischief and damage. I know you're an owner of a Tesla. Do you want that known that you. Where you live and that some nuts going to show up at your house?
Victor Davis Hansen
And I don't know, I, I'm worried about it. I was gone and three Fresno county sheriffs showed up at my house and they said they had gotten a 911 call from somebody, that there was an event going on. So I'm assuming that was some kind of. I don't know if it was a prank or swatting because it was right. It was almost the same time as this. These. They were very nice. My wife said very. I mean they didn't come out guns drawn, but somebody obviously called them for the point of having more than one sheriff show up. Three of them. And so. And every once in a while it's one of the great, the weirdest things about the left because as we have talked about, Elon Musk voted for Hillary Clinton and he gave an interview in which he said he voted for Joe Biden. He didn't endorse Donald Trump, I think and correct me if I'm wrong until mid July after the first assassination attempt. And so he was canonized especially in California. Everybody loved all everybody was everybody I knew things like this in the Stanford Palo Alto era. If you talk to oh man, the Tesla's the only EV that works. It's got the greatest range. It's just so much better than everything. It's so wonderful. And then to see them go from that because he endorsed Trump then to hate him, try to destroy him. And I was thinking about Tim Waltz when he said that he went after Elon Musk. He was a horrible person or Bowman said that he was a thief. I wanted to say what have you done in your life Mr. Bowman other than be kicked out of Congress after you turned off even your left wing constituents for probably committing a felony and getting away with it about yeah, fire alarm. Yeah principal who used his duty was to tell people never to do that and endangered does it himself. What have you done Mr. Wallace except every single thing you said about your military records. The conditions under which you went to Iraq, the conditions about the rioting. Your wife said open the windows so we can smell the burning in the air. What have you done compared to Elon Musk while you were saying all this about him? He was providing free Internet service to Ukrainians. If they didn't have it, they would be in big trouble for their command and control. He was providing to a left wing community in Palisades and other places in Los Angeles area free Internet. He was rescuing two people that NASA and Boeing could not. He was. In addition to that, most of the people that are attacking Elon Musk are doing it on X and Jack Dorsey wasn't. Jack Dorsey, the previous owner was not only censoring them, but he is inviting the FBI to come in. And remember the FBI's Chief Counsel, James A. Baker rotated into a seven million dollar a year job at Twitter. They all did. There's about 12 of them that retired and went right to work and they had why? Because as when they were working for the FBI they were doing all they could to censor the news and collude and do things like stop Miranda Devine and other people from reporting about the authenticity of the FBI controlled Hunter laptop. So I don't understand it what they're doing but I hope Pam Bondi, she's got great rhetoric. She's. But she's still assembling her prosecutorial team. But it seems to me that they should. They've got three or four of them they caught red handed. They should bring them in and see if they want to make a deal and tell us exactly where they got the information, who is paying for this and they need to go after him. When you have Jasmine Crockett going on video and telling everybody to resist and to stop and bring, I think she said the word bring him down, we're going to bring him down. And then she has that little qualifier about violence. Or as I said with Sam the other day, Jimmy Kimmel. Hey everybody, don't burn Teslas. That's right at the point of racketeering, Rico. It really is.
Jack Fowler
Right.
Victor Davis Hansen
And so I stand with him. Gosh, gosh, the left is an expert at going after people with so called conspiracies after January 6th. But we'll see.
Jack Fowler
Can you imagine that guy and all those late night guys. By the way I watched recently, I forget where I found the link. Couple of old Johnny Carson programs and compare it to these clowns. All of them on. All except for of course Greg Gutfeld and the narrow aspect of America they talk to and how they degrade America and how out of sync they are with America and how these networks make them their prime guys in the late evening. Yeah, I just don't get it.
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't either. It's like the left doesn't even make a. What I don't understand is in this counter revolution of the last 70 days they don't even offer a defense. Nobody says well why are you cutting USA $40 million to Wuhan? That was necessary. And of course the BBC needs our, that state supported. That needs our group, that needs our support. Yeah, we, we've got to do that. And Boeing's a lot better than. It's a lot better company than Tess Elon Musk. SpaceX. We don't need SpaceX. We could have just packed them on that. It came home. Okay, why don't they just make all these arguments? But they don't. Or you know what? 36 trillions million, big deal. So we have 125% of GDP. So we pay $3 billion a day in interest. That's okay, that's sustainable. What's the problem? And you have AOC. AOC, OC. Oh, gas has dropped 40, 50 cents a gallon. That's terrible. We can get it back up there. And Stephen Chu said that, remember Obama's energy. So why don't they just make the argument is what I'm trying to say. But they don't even make the attempt when they're caught. They don't even. Oh, the border is closed. There's not 10,000 people swarming around. Oh, how'd that happen? Well, let's bring it back. We can do that. Donald Trump, you better let in 10,000. That's what we did. But they don't. They don't even. And they don't because all of their issues, they're polling 20 to 30%. And the biggest gift to Donald Trump is that all of the polls show that the independent voter, conservative Democrat, does not like what's going on. But the vocal base, when they poll Democrats, they're angry that they're not more left wing, that they're not. They're going to move that party even further and further to the left. And you know, when you see people like Mark Penn or Douglas showing and then you see nothing get. There's nothing that Gavin Newsom does that's not overtly political. He has no ideology. Really vaguely center left. But when you see him bring on Steve Bannon and people, you know, Charlie Kirk and people on. He's just, he's just saying, you know what, California, there's a poll. Jack that. And we can talk about it next.
Jack Fowler
We're going to talk that about in the next show.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, but Californians have had it.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
50% of the people are on Medi Cal. And medi cal is 7 trillion. $7 billion in the whole quarter. That people are not paying their power bill. I mean, you're talking about civilizational collapse. 50% of all the birders or medical. 40% of the population is on Medi Cal and it's flat broke. Meanwhile, these 1% that pay 50% of the income taxes are fleeing now. Wait till Ron DeSantis gets property tax. He's going to try to end property tax in Florida. If he does that, you're going to see a bigger stampede from California.
Jack Fowler
My gosh. Well, Victor, when, when, when you're on, when you're on Gavin Newsom's podcast.
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't think that's going to happen.
Jack Fowler
Coming.
Victor Davis Hansen
I wrote a call.
Jack Fowler
We can talk about that.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah. Again today.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
Okay.
Jack Fowler
Well, you've been, you've been terrific. Hey, Victor, I gotta, I gotta read something here from one of our, you know, listeners.
Victor Davis Hansen
Viewers.
Jack Fowler
This is from Rumble. We thank folks. Now there are so many places to leave comments. I gotta, I gotta look at YouTube more now, see what people say. Just Jack, shut up, please. But here's from Rumble. Dolly Freedom left a comment on Rumble. Victor, I'm addicted to your insights and witty imitations of people. Thank you for distilling otherwise chaotic and confusing events into intelligent and bite sized pieces of information for normal folks. By the way, 70 is young. Stop saying you're old. All the best freedom.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, the flu I never had over. I've had it for a week of a fever and then a week of wiped. Well I worked the whole time. Week of travel, travel and then this is my third week and I'm feeling better and I haven't can't imagine I was feeling great because I thought I got over the Skeletor slur but then the Freddy Krueger affected me.
Jack Fowler
I say this in a manly Christian way. You're a beautiful man. I want to thank the folks who send me emails because they've signed up for Civil Thoughts, which is the free weekly email newsletter I write for the center for Civil Society where we are trying to strengthen civil society. Civil Thoughts comes every Friday. 14 recommended readings a bad joke. I know you'll like it. We're not selling your name so it's, it's totally free. Go to civilthoughts.com please and sign up.
Victor Davis Hansen
I know you're going to enjoy it.
Jack Fowler
Victor, you've been terrific. Thanks folks for listening and for watching. Thanks to our sponsors and we will we will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye bye.
Victor Davis Hansen
Thank you everybody for listening again. Much appreciate and watching. Now.
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The Victor Davis Hanson Show: "Defeating Our Worst, Losing Our Best"
Release Date: March 25, 2025
Hosts: Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler
Location: Selma, California
In this episode of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show," hosts Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler delve into pressing political and social issues, including foreign policy maneuvers in the Middle East, immigration challenges in Europe and the United States, economic downturns, and the recent passing of influential figures like Mia Love. The conversation is enriched with personal anecdotes, sharp critiques of current administrations, and reflections on societal trends.
Victor Hanson opens the discussion by critiquing the Biden administration's approach to the Middle East, particularly its handling of the Houthis in Yemen. He attributes the rise of the Houthis to the softer stance of the Biden administration, which, according to Hanson, emboldened Iranian surrogates and terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
Notable Quote:
"Donald Trump comes in, he's not even there 60 days, and he starts attacking and targeting the people in the Houthi command and control structure and their stockpiles. And he's told Iran that from now on he's going to hold them liable..." ([09:29])
Hanson argues that Trump's decisive actions, albeit brief, sent a strong message that deterred further aggression from Iran and its proxies. He contrasts this with the Biden administration's tit-for-tat responses, which he claims have been ineffective in curbing instability in the region.
Additionally, Hanson touches upon Israel's ongoing conflict with Hamas, emphasizing the futility of negotiating with a group he describes as a "cult of death." He draws historical parallels, suggesting that solutions like those proposed by previous administrations have failed to achieve lasting peace.
The hosts shift focus to the immigration crisis in Europe, highlighting concerns raised by figures like Ayan Hirsi Ali about Europe's control over Islamic immigration. Hanson underscores the lack of effective integration policies, pointing out Europe's declining fertility rates and the high percentage of foreign-born populations that struggle to assimilate.
Notable Quote:
"European has about a 1.5 fertility rate and they now have anywhere from 7 to 16% of the population is foreign-born. The vast majority are from the Middle East... they double down in a way." ([16:52])
Hanson criticizes the left-wing policies that, in his view, have led to increased radicalization and societal unrest. He advocates for stricter immigration controls and better integration strategies to prevent civil conflicts and ensure societal cohesion.
Jack Fowler introduces the topic of the struggling stock market, noting significant declines in the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices. He cites Dohmen Capital's analysis, describing the situation as a "liquidation avalanche" driven by forced selling and margin calls.
Hanson concurs, attributing the economic woes to manipulated growth figures and a hidden recession. He advises listeners to consider hard assets like gold and silver as protection against ongoing financial instability.
Notable Quote:
"The economy was never as strong as they claim. 2024's so-called growth was built on manipulated numbers. And now the reality of a hidden recession is finally coming to light." ([21:07])
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to honoring Mia Love, the first black Republican congresswoman, who recently passed away at the age of 49. Hanson reflects on her political legacy, emphasizing her staunch pro-life stance and her trailblazing role within the Republican Party.
Notable Quote:
"She was a real trailblazer and a good woman too. And I don't hear being talked about on MSNBC or CNN for breaking barriers." ([24:11])
Hanson lauds Love's contributions, comparing her to other influential conservative black women and highlighting the challenges they face within a predominantly liberal landscape.
The conversation turns to the judiciary, with Hanson expressing deep concerns over the dominance of left-leaning judges appointed during the Obama and Biden administrations. He criticizes judges like Boasberg for their handling of cases involving political figures and their perceived overreach into national affairs.
Notable Quote:
"These are ultra Obama, ultra Biden, ultra Clinton judges... This is just Lawfare 2.0." ([44:23])
Hanson argues that these judges undermine the integrity of the judicial system by prioritizing political agendas over impartial justice, drawing parallels to historical figures and suggesting a systemic erosion of judicial independence.
A highlight of the episode is Trump's appearance at the NCAA wrestling championships, which Hanson interprets as a clear indicator of robust grassroots support. He praises the overwhelming positive reception Trump received, viewing it as a counter-narrative to mainstream media portrayals.
Notable Quote:
"When he goes to this wrestling thing and you see this overwhelming response, you know, it's kind of like when he was at McDonald's and that iconic moment..." ([69:29])
Hanson emphasizes the significance of such public displays in rallying the conservative base and challenging the narratives pushed by liberal media outlets.
Throughout the episode, Hanson shares personal stories from his wrestling days, drawing parallels between the sport's individualistic nature and the current political climate. These anecdotes serve to illustrate themes of resilience, strategy, and the unpredictability of opponents—both in sports and in politics.
Notable Quote:
"There's something about wrestling that was weird about it... There's a lot of tense, you get really..." ([68:26])
These stories humanize Hanson, providing listeners with relatable insights into his experiences and perspectives.
Hanson and Fowler discuss the increasing harassment of Tesla owners and the broader challenges faced by Elon Musk. They lament the shift from initial support to targeted attacks, highlighting instances of swatting and vandalism against Tesla users.
Notable Quote:
"I know you're an owner of a Tesla. Do you want that known that you where you live and that some nuts are going to show up at your house?" ([77:50])
Hanson supports Musk's endeavors, including his contributions to Ukraine's internet infrastructure and rescue missions, positioning him as a pivotal figure against left-wing antagonism.
The episode wraps up with Hanson and Fowler encouraging listeners to engage with their content through various platforms, including their website "The Blade of Perseus" and newsletters. They also acknowledge listener feedback and testimonials, reinforcing the community aspect of the show.
Notable Quote:
"Don't be on the wrong side of history. Call 833-287-2465 or visit victorlovesgold.com to claim your free Wealth Protection Guide." ([30:27])
They stress the importance of informed engagement and staying resilient amidst societal and political upheavals.
Decisive Foreign Policy: Hanson advocates for strong, proactive measures in foreign policy to counteract destabilizing forces in the Middle East, citing Trump's brief but impactful actions against the Houthis.
Immigration Reform: Emphasizes the need for stricter immigration controls and better integration strategies to prevent societal unrest and maintain national security.
Economic Vigilance: Warns of an impending economic downturn, advising listeners to safeguard their finances through investments in hard assets like gold and silver.
Judicial Independence: Critiques the influence of left-wing judges on the judiciary, arguing for a reestablishment of impartial justice free from political biases.
Community and Resilience: Stresses the importance of community support, informed engagement, and resilience in the face of political and economic challenges.
Foreign Policy on Houthis:
"Donald Trump comes in, he's not even there 60 days, and he starts attacking and targeting the people in the Houthi command and control structure and their stockpiles..." ([09:29])
Immigration Challenges in Europe:
"European has about a 1.5 fertility rate and they now have anywhere from 7 to 16% of the population is foreign-born..." ([16:52])
Market Downturn and Hidden Recession:
"The economy was never as strong as they claim. 2024's so-called growth was built on manipulated numbers..." ([21:07])
Tribute to Mia Love:
"She was a real trailblazer and a good woman too. And I don't hear being talked about on MSNBC or CNN for breaking barriers." ([24:11])
Judicial System Critique:
"These are ultra Obama, ultra Biden, ultra Clinton judges... This is just Lawfare 2.0." ([44:23])
Trump's Support at Wrestling Championships:
"When he goes to this wrestling thing and you see this overwhelming response, you know, it's kind of like when he was at McDonald's..." ([69:29])
Harassment of Tesla Owners:
"I know you're an owner of a Tesla. Do you want that known that you where you live and that some nuts are going to show up at your house?" ([77:50])
Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler conclude the episode by reinforcing the importance of staying informed and proactive in addressing the myriad challenges facing society today. They invite listeners to join their community through various platforms and express gratitude for the support from their audience.
Connect with The Victor Davis Hanson Show:
Stay informed, stay resilient, and join the conversation to navigate the complexities of today's world with informed insights and strategic thinking.