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Victor Davis Hanson
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Jack Fowler
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor is the Martin and Neely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marcia Buskey Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. He is the owner of a website, the Blade of Perseus. Its address is victorhansen.com you should be subscribing. I'll tell you why later in this episode. We are talking here on it's Monday, May 5th and this particular episode will be up on Tuesday the 6th. Lots of stuff going on in the Middle East. We have, gosh, some real hijinks in Maine. Stripping a Republican representative of the ability to vote, some significant advances for, I would say for conservatives in England. Nigel Farage's Reform Party had a good week last week in some elections and we have npr. There's plenty of stuff to talk about. Get Victor's wisdom on today and we will start with the wisdom getting when we come back from these important messages.
Victor Davis Hanson
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Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the man who is lucky enough to ask Victor some questions. So here's a pretty big right down the plate. Swing at it Victor. The Middle East. We have Israel. The Houthis sent a missile over and hit Israel. America responded with a couple of missiles and now the Israelis are engaged in dropping some bombs on Yemen. And then we have Donald Trump talking about Iran and how he would like to see Iran's nuclear program dismantled, which was unclear earlier this week. Where he stood. So Victor, a big Ball of Middle east stuff. Take it away.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. His Special Mideast Envoy, Mr. Stephen Witkoff has given so many mixed signals, Jack, about 60% enrichment. 70, 80, 90. And I think they need to make this clear that Iran has the fifth largest fossil fuels as defined by gas and oil in the world. And they don't have that large of a population. In other words, they don't need any other source of energy for the rest of their existence. So when they want a nuclear program, it is for one purpose, to enrich uranium up to 90% to get enough enriched uranium to build 10 or 12 bombs. I don't know how many of those they already have, maybe one or two. And then to put them, find a way to miniaturize them, to put them on Chinese or North Korean supplied missiles so that they can tell Israel if you do this or that we're going to take you out and then act as crazy as they are. And that's not acting. They are crazy. So that at any moment, to quote the former Prime Minister, Mr. Ruff and Johnny, they can say you're a one bomb state. Everybody knows that. So why are we negotiating with him? We're negotiating with him for a variety of reasons. Number one, the MAGA doctrine is no optional military use of force in the Middle East. That's clear. That's what he ran on. That's what all that is the Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, you name it wing. That's what's behind the fight with Pete Hegseth, the people who were removed. They may have been leaking that Pete was under the capture of the neo conservative. There are no neoconservatives. I don't know anymore. They don't exist in the sense that they want to nation build and slay dragons all over the world. But nevertheless, that's the problem, number one. Number two, Donald Trump does want to be a Nobel laureate. I don't mean that in a deprecatory fashion at all. He's done enormous things already with the Ukraine were closer than any moment in the Biden administration. He would like to be the person who denuclearizes Iran. The problem is that the people he's dealing with make Vladimir Putin look rational. They're crazy. And he has. He knows that right now in this window, at this moment, he has more leverage than any other president has had in the half century into which these fanatics came into power. There is no Assad Arab receptacle for their terrorist money and arms to disperse. There is no Hezbollah to speak of. For another Year, maybe there is no Hamas there in the tunnels, and the Houthis may send a missile, but they are scattered, so it's. And Iran has no air defenses. Israel proved that to the world. So if Donald Trump wants to take out its nuclear facilities, he can do it with minimal risk, so can Israel. That's a lot of pressure. So he thinks that he's going to tell them, this is your last chance. Over the next couple of months, you can negotiate a deal with us and you will get to keep your regime, but we do not want you to send money to the Middle east, all of your tentacles. No, they're cut off. And I just don't believe they're ever going to do that. That's their reason to be. And they're very unpopular. So now the question is maximum pressure. Are you going to keep pressuring them and pressuring them? They have power outages, they have minority resistance, they have popular pushback, but none of that in the past 50 years, even the green revolution that Obama basically ignored or wanted to fix, fail, they've never been able to overthrow that government because it runs by terror. And I don't think they will be able to. So sometime at the end of the year, one of two things will happen. They will feel the squeeze so much that they will try to cut a deal. And if they do cut a deal, I can guarantee you they will break the deal in some manner or other. That's who they are. Or Donald Trump will do one of three things.
Jack Fowler
He.
Victor Davis Hanson
He will tell the Israelis, whatever's in your interest, go ahead and do it. And we will keep the Chinese and the Russians out and the North Koreans, you can do what you want. Or he will join a joint force with Israel. That'll be a little tricky if he does that. Or he will just do it himself. And we kind of see that. Jack, with the Houthi reply, Israel is going to reply, and we are going to reply, but they are not joint operations. They're separate. And I don't know quite. I think the Houthis status is more like Hamas. They are burrowed deep, they're disconnected, but they don't have a big command and control center and one big depot. They've scattered everything everywhere, and they're getting down to a small number of weapons. But the idea that this hypersonic missile, and they bragged about it, they said it was a hypersonic missile, and they said they were able to shut down the Ben Gurion airport, and they did for a few hours, and they said they'll do it again, no nation, no sovereign nation, no autonomous nation can have that happen. You can't have an entity say you can't have an airport. That's the whole nexus of travel and commerce. So they're going to have to deal with that. And the only way to deal with the Houthis is cut off the supply of where they're getting these weapons. And they're only getting the weapons from one place, and that is Iran. So you either have to deal with removing the regime in Iran or destroying all of their depots and their ability to make these missiles. That's where we are. And Donald Trump's going to have a problem within the MAGA rank. I wrote that article A New Criterion when he assumed office about the contradictions in MAGA between being a Jacksonian and a neo isolation, a Buchananite or Ron Paulite, and that's a lot of people. But he proved in the first administration, when he bombed the proverbial blank blank out of ISIS, when he killed Mr. Baghdadi, when he got rid of Soleimani, when he wiped out the Wagner group, that he is perfectly capable of retaliatory, responsive strikes to ensure U.S. deterrence. And I think that's what he'll do. I think he'll negotiate all summer long and at some point it'll dawn on him that they're playing him. And then he will then bring in his commanders and say, what is the feasibility? And they'll say, if you're ever going to do this, this is the year to do it. Because the surrogates are, you know, they're cut off from the octopus head and they're dangling, they're flopping around on the deck. They can't the dock, they can't do anything. They can't hurt anybody right now. And it's an unpopular regime. It's just a matter of then how you do it. Do you do everything? Do you take out the nuclear enrichment sites? Do you try to bomb anything you think might be a depot of about one or two stray bombs that are somewhere in the country? Do you take out the port facilities and spike oil prices? Do you take out all of its military capability? And what degree of punishment do you inflict on the Iranian people, if any? So these are a lot. These are all complex questions.
Jack Fowler
There's no real sense of peace though, Victor, unless this regime is somehow overthrown or destroyed. So I wonder how nuanced that is for the MAGA coalition, not against nation building. Yes, but this is really a matter of defensive of us because these SOBs want to come get us sooner or later. Did you see that The Brits stopped some terror attack, Iranian terror attack.
Victor Davis Hanson
They caught four or maybe even five Iranian terrorists and they were on the verge, according to the Brits, at a what, a World War II anniversary parade. They were going to stage a spectacular terrorist attack, according to the authorities. And these were the people who tried to kill Donald Trump, as we know that. And they've blown up Jews in Argentina, they killed dissidents, they've killed dissidents in the United States. They tried to kill a Saudi ambassador in the United States a few years ago. They're completely out of control and it's just a question of how. And then they have people, as we've talked about, that have infiltrated sympathizers. I mean the Harvard University just let one of their board of governors of their Middle east program go because he had pro Hamas sympathies and we have people in the Pentagon that had pro Iran sympathies during the Biden year. So they're deeply involved in the United States and Europe and they hate us with a passion. And they have a chip on their shoulder in the Middle East. They feel that the Shia, the Persians have been persecuted. They had been the minority religion, they have been the minority race, the Sunni Arabs and have all the power. And under Obama they felt given those Javert and Kerry talks which by the way went on apparently stealthily during the Trump first administration. So much for the left wings celebration of the Logan Act. But anyway, the point is they feel that Obama had empowered them as a legitimate half of the Middle east and then the other Sunni half, they would fight back and forth and then Obama would adjudicate. So they are, you know, there's nothing positive about them. Everybody likes Iranians, they're nice people. They've had a distinguished history going back to the achmented dynasty. I mean they, they're very sophisticated society but for some reason I think a lot of it is they've lost millions of people who have left. Some of their top people have left, but they don't have a nucleus that is going to rise up and take power. Everybody says they are and they're not. No matter how bad it gets, no matter if we put the squeeze on them. A power Audi, it's not going to happen and everybody seems to know it. To do it is to defang. I don't know what the react, I'm not a Persian expert. I don't know what the reaction would be among the Iranian people, whether their feeling of patriotism and anger at the west for defanging the theocracy's nuclear capability would outweigh their delight in seeing this government humiliated. Right. Get mixed signals. Israel humiliated it when it took out some of its air defenses. And you got both. We were told people like that and we were told people were angry about it.
Jack Fowler
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Victor Davis Hanson
Well, you know, I think a lot of these conservative parties that have been in the wilderness have. They're very enthused about Donald Trump. Not just that he was elected, but it's electrifying. If you read some of the European newspapers when they look at the border, because they imagine themselves in a similar position, they have been told for years that you either in the globalized world of Klaus Schwab, etc. In the UN you don't enforce a border that's a 19th century relic. Or they have been told that they cannot really control borders, fences are inadequate, which is a lie or wall. Or they have been told that it's not good that you need. They have a failing. Europeans are about 1.4 in their fertility rate, and therefore they need the people. Elon Musk has been very eloquent. He's. He's just, he's absolutely right and he's the most candid that when we try to find a answer for the inexplicable, why would Joe Biden let 12 million people in without any audit? At the same time, they were harassing Americans in 2021 for not having the Moderna, the Pfizer vaccination, or they were drumming people out of the military, some of our best soldiers, and yet you were letting these people come right across the border with no audit, no measles audit, nothing. And the answer was they wanted constituents. They wanted constituents for big government. They wanted to swell all the people dependent on social welfare. They wanted mail in and early voters. And the same is true, I think, in Europe. They want cheap labor, but they also want the classic constituency for left wing redistribution, big government. So my point is they look at Trump and they say, you know, he actually kind of solved the problem. And it's not. It is solvable. And he's kind of empowered people in Poland, but especially in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, and now in Britain. And Farage is sort of like the alternative for Deutschland in the sense that he's beyond the pale as far as conservatives, the conservatives in the Europe. If everybody looks at the European political system, it is one step to the left. So their Liberal or Labour Party is like aoc, the extreme wing. Our Democratic Party, the old Democrat is their conservative party. And what they call fascist right wing, beyond the pale right wing is sort of just mainstream maga. And I think maybe. And so they can't stand that their whole European project has about seven things that you can't question. You cannot question over regulation, you cannot question big deficits, you cannot question transgenderism you cannot question climate change, you cannot question open borders. To do any of that makes you a right wing fascist Hitler. And they're trying to, as you saw with the AfD. They won't even let them form a political party alliance with some of the Conservative Conservatives. Don't like a military and same thing with Farage. He's considered taboo. But the problem they're having is that Europe doesn't work and Britain doesn't work. And when I say that, I just look at, I don't get any delight out of it. I would love them to be prosperous and strong like they have been. But when you look at their fertility rate at 1.4 something and then you look at their GDP, Germany has been flat for two years. The EU is anemic. And then you look at their wind and solar and their green the New, the Green New Deal. And you look what's happened in Spain and Portugal with these massive outings. You look at the price of energy in Germany is four times what it is in the United States in most places. And then you look at the borders when they're getting up in some of these countries, 15, 16, 17% of people not born in your country. And unlike the United States, it seems to integrate, intermarry and assimilate people much easier. And we're having a problem with it. You go to Germany and you go to areas of Berlin, it looks like the Middle east, and you go to areas outside Rotterdam or outside Paris, those outer boroughs, it's the same thing. And these people are coming over there not because they want to be French or German or born British. They feel that Westerners are rich and leisured and decadent, and they want to come over and through demographics, become the dominant force and institutionalize Islam. And they hate European tradition. And they're going to try to do through demography what arms could not. And that's just a fact. And so there's people in these countries that say, not on my watch, I'm going to stop this. Just like Trump in, you know, Mutatis Mutantis with different conditions, Trump is saying the same thing. And they're energized by Trump because he seems to be successful. And we'll see how the, as this populist backlash rises, the more that they go after Farage or more they go after the Romanian conservatives, or the more they go after the afdef, it's going to just, it's like, you know, it's like heating up the kettle and not letting the steam out. It's going to get more and more and more. If they were wise, they would let these people participate in the main body politic. They would tell the media, don't demonize them, they're not Hitler. They have legitimate gripes that represent a majority of the population, but they're not going to do that. Europe is run by people like aoc. That's the simplest explanation. If you took a, if you took AOC over there and you let that half educated demagogue talk to those people, they would agree with everything she said. She would be a hero.
Jack Fowler
Maybe she is layered onto the British situation. Victor is the grooming scandal which I remain shocked over. It's been going on for so long. These rape gangs protected by the local governments or have been afraid to arrest or enforce or protect these usually white, you know, young women who are just, I don't know, the hands of these, these perverted men, mostly Pakistani. And you have a nation sitting there watching this happen and there's nothing being done about, there's no justice being. And I think this gets into the boiling over aspect.
Victor Davis Hanson
It's very, it's a plague upon western civilization in general. One of the greatest tragedies and the worst thing in my life is to be, is to watch the collapse of western jurisprudence. And what I mean, the law is being used to achieve political purposes. And I mean that not in the generic sense, but left wing political purposes. So your racial background, your religious background, your political ideology that determines the degree to which. If you're a prosecutor in Minnesota and somebody has vandalized and terrorized people about Tesla, you're not going to be prosecuted. Not like if you're, if you walked into the rotunda when the door was open, you walked around in gaze and you didn't do anything, not one violent act. You could be. And you were arrested and put in jail for four or five months or longer because you were a political prisoner. And that's a scary thing. And when we see these big city in the United States we see these big city prosecutors are letting these felons out to prey on almost everybody who's injured by an illegal alien. We learn that the person was let out qua illegal alien. It was an idea that, and we saw that reified with Judge Dugan. She was a very valuable exemplar because she said to us this is the left wing attitude. We feel that our moral compass is stronger than the law and even custodians of the law will not follow it. If we feel in our considered opinion that it doesn't have moral force. So I have determined that letting an illegal alien out, denying the victims of his brutality and violence to see justice in my courtroom and to impede federal officers, an entirely federal matter. They have a detainer on him and to risk their lives if they have to go out of the courtroom and chase him down and who knows what level of violence. I don't care about that, that I'm going to break all those statutes and protocols. And that's what's wrong with the law. We saw it with Alvin Bragg and Fanny Willis and Jack Smith and Leticia James and Judge Ingaron. We saw it with the two faced treatment of Donald Trump's documents versus Joe Biden's doc. We've seen it everywhere in Europe. The way they, they have never said to, you know, I was laughing at the AfD, what they did to them and the Romanians. Don't you remember during the 70s, Jack, I think you're a little younger than I am, but you can remember. Remember the Communist Party came to power as a coalition in Italy and these communist parties were open. Nobody ever outlawed the Communist Party. They were the direct descendants of a Communist party that at one time controlled the Soviet Union and China that was responsible, between the two of them, 100 million deaths. And no European said we're going to outlaw the Communist Party even though we were in a cold war with the Soviet Union and we knew that Communist parties in Europe when they came to power, leaked and tried to pass information to our existential enemies.
Jack Fowler
Even in the 80s, the French Communist Party had a noticeable representation in parliament.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. So the left has taken the law and they have used it in lieu of popular support to destroy their enemies. They can't win. And in the United States, the Democratic Party has decided the following. We stand for men, biological men and women's sports and there's no support. We stand for an open border, there's no support. We stand against all deportations and there's no support. We stand for decriminalizing the law, there's no support. We stand for modern monetary theory and there's no support. We stand for woke dei, racial preferences, bias and prejudice and there's no support. Therefore, we only have two alternative. Actually, maybe they have three. We are going to use a federal lower court system and empower these judges who want to be famous to expand their authority well beyond their regional districts and I guess you would call them judge, jury and executors. Establish the law as we want it that nobody wants. That's number one or number Two, we are going to use the media to so demonize and call our opponents Hitler, fascist, assh. All this potty talk, all these smutty videos. We're going to create so much chaos that you just want Donald Trump out. We don't care if it's his fault or not, but if we got him out, then things would be nice. We'd be back to the Biden years or, and that's the other thing. Or we're just not going to. We don't follow the law. The law doesn't for us, it does not exist. For you, it does. So you don't dare ever, ever impeach a republic, a Democratic president. We're going to try to do Trump a third time. You don't dare say that Joe Biden's family is crooked and go raid his home after he's president. We did that to Donald Trump. You don't dare try to take a Democrat off the ballot if you're in a red state. We did that in 25. So that's where we are. And again, the commodity denominator, they don't have popular support. Nobody wants that agenda. Nobody. Even the mainstream Democrats don't, you know.
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, we're going to pound, pound down more on that because there's some, a real terrible situation I think in Maine. I'm pretty sure you think it also. So we have some Maine politics. I'll have another follow up on Lawfare. We'll get to your thoughts on these things when we come back from these important messages.
Victor Davis Hanson
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Field of Greens
We'll return to our program shortly. But first, an important message about your financial future. Have you noticed gold's remarkable movement? While headlines focus on record gold prices, what's really happening is our dollars are losing value at an accelerating rate. Gold isn't expensive. It's doing exactly what it's done for 5,000 years, maintaining consistent purchasing power while paper currencies weaken. It's like a financial measuring stick showing the truth about our shrinking dollar. Many investors hesitate, thinking they've miss the opportunity because gold seems high. This fundamental misunderstanding keeps them from acting until it's too late. When currencies begin to falter, gold doesn't inch higher. It typically makes dramatic moves that leave unprepared investors behind. American Alternative Assets created a free wealth protection guide to help safeguard your retirement savings. Call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com protect what you've earned before the opportunity vanishes.
Jack Fowler
Hey, folks, we're back with the Victor Davis Hanson show. It is Monday 5th May that we're recording and today's episode will be up on Tuesday the 6th. Gloomy day here in Milford, Connecticut. I don't know. We're gonna have a whole week of rain. Victor, I hope you have some rain out there in sunny California. Gloomy California.
Victor Davis Hanson
Nada. I'm trying to look at the report and it says on my little phone, Jack, nothing. Nothing on the horizon. Although it's usually past the rainy season, so we can't expect to have such gifts in April.
Jack Fowler
And speaking of gifts of gifts in May, Victor, be nice to give a gift of the subscription to the Victor Davis Hansen website, the Blade of Perseus. If you're a mom and Mother's Day is coming up in a few days or Father's Day will be here soon or for yourself, a subscription is $65 a year, $6.50 a month. Why would you subscribe? Because Victor writes two exclusive pieces every week and one exclusive video every week for his website. And in addition to that, you'll find the links to his weekly Essays for American Greatness, his syndicated column, numerous other appearances.
Victor Davis Hanson
Hey, Jack, I have a little idea. Oh, yeah, we were talking about illegal immigration in Europe.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
And all of these people, like Judge Dugan are removed from the actual consequences of illegal. So I was walking today on a farm that my great great grandmother and her sons. My great grandfather, great great grandfather. My great grandfather came and it was an artesian pond. It's right next to it. My siblings who inherited that part of the farm sold it. But here, I don't know if you can see it, but here's what it looked like this morning.
Jack Fowler
Dang. Well, it's. It's far worse than when you've talked about it.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, yeah, there it is.
Jack Fowler
Yep.
Victor Davis Hanson
And there was some nice appliances floating in there. And all of the literature had two things in common. The trash, the wet garbage. Because I kind of poked around it. One, it was all in Spanish. And two, there was not one indication of one envelope where the address was still there that had been filtered. And two nights ago, somebody was walking on the place. And I came around on my property and he came around in a four wheeler about 40 miles and almost hit me. And I jumped out in front of him. They had kind of road warrior big kind of goggles and helmets, and they were Hispanic. And I was talking to them. I think they had some connection with what I saw. But they told me that. I said, this is my property that didn't register. I mean, there's no sense that it's your property, it's our property. That's the left wing idea. There is no such thing as. But they said, yes, that they were on my property, but they were patrolling it to make sure that people didn't throw trash. And I said, if you're patrolling it for me that they don't throw trash, you're doing a very poor job. Well, we're trying to get better. And then.
Jack Fowler
How old were they?
Victor Davis Hanson
They were about 25, 30. But they. One guy was very surly. He didn't like the idea that the other person was trying to be cooperative. And I don't know if they were had arms or what. But my point is, when all of these people like Judge Dugan talk about illegal immigration and they don't, they don't ever think of the consequences. So illegal alien A comes in and breaks the law. Then if he comes in without impunity and with exemption, then he thinks they must want me here or they would. So then I'm going to reside illegally. If I have to reside illegally to facilitate my illegality, maybe I'll get by a false id and then they're going to put me in an area with other illegal aliens where we're all going to be exempt from worry about until Trump. And so when I look at my environs, I see all these ancient farmhouses and I see 10, 20 people. So I said to these people, which compound do you live at? The one with 50 people? The one with 30 people? The one with 20 people? The one with the horses, the one with the chickens? The one with the 40 dogs? Which one? And they just said somewhere they didn't want to say. But my point is that these are the real things that happen to people in their daily lives. And when you call up a doctor, you know, or specialist, and they say, well, you have a sinus infection, well, we can get you in in two months. And then you go to a urologist or one of the specialists, and there used to be three people in the waiting room, and there's 15, and you have two minutes rather than 10 or 15. That's what. That's the reality in places like California. 40% of the state is on Medicaid, what we call Medi Cal. And many of them just came across the border. So Judge Dugan is a very caring person. Yes, she is. And she goes back to her very caring house and shuts the door with her very caring, nice neighborhood. And the same as all these lawyers are now trying to sue and stop on the theory that it was okay and lawful to break the law and allow 12 million people in. But it is illegal and unlawful now to enforce the law and ask them to go back home where they came from. So we don't have one person who was stopped at the border and said, you can't go anywhere because we have to have due process. You're illegally doing. You're breaking the law right now. We're going to detain you, put you in a cell, and you're going to wait until we can give you a judge. No, you just go. But if we apprehend you and we want to send you back, well, then we have to have 12 million of these hearings and you can show up because we'll give you good lawyer. That's the idea behind it. But what I was getting out with this cheap little performance art trick was that's what people's land looks like when you have massive amounts of a demographic that has large percentages of people here illegally. They have the idea that, you know what? I'm living. There's 10 or 12 of us here. We only have one garbage can we have to pay for. They do one of two things. They either just throw their trash out, or some of them are entrepreneurial. They'll Go around to other illegal communities with a truck and say, hey, I'm the garbage man. They'll pay them money and then they'll come out outside to a farm. Then I drove this morning right around the corner on a big. The person who farms my place farms this place as well. But it's got a big. It has ample space between the road and the almond orchard. And you should see it. Jack, that, that poor guy, he goes through there every week to take stuff out. There is a refrigerator. There is cars and seats that have taken out of a wrecked car. There is a washing machine. There is tons of plastic child seats from a car. There's everything from. Thrown along the side of the road. And all of the standpipes have red and blue block gang gothic. It's just, it's like nothing's ever seen. And what we're supposed to do is say, Victor, you don't judge these things. You lived in a racist, sexist, illiberal society in the 50s, 60s and 70s when this didn't exist. So this is karma for you and people like you because the other now is in control. And we don't worry about little petty things like whether you're a citizen or whether you came in legally or whether you have a green card or whether you know the language of the country of which you want to venture into or the civic nature of its constitution. Nothing. We're just going to throw stuff out. And it's all empowered by the wealthy bicolor coastal elite who make these laws that never suffer any of this. They never have anything. They. I see them because I work with them at Stanford.
Jack Fowler
I, I would encourage you to put those pictures up on your website.
Victor Davis Hanson
I think I will. I do. I did once. And it's all. I mean, it's not as bad as once. Once I had a 600 foot row. 600ft and a flatbed came out. I could see the, the tire tracks. And he unloaded the whole thing. 600ft of light bulbs, neon bulbs, used paint cans, wet garbage. There was some kind of dead from a chicken rat, dead chickens, everything. And he just threw it in between the vineyard. And when I called the sheriff, I think I mentioned this, the sheriff said, you got a problem, Mr. Hansen, because you didn't see the person do it. And all of this is toxic. And California environmental law says you've got to get rid of it. And you can only get rid of it by calling a licensed environmental person. Otherwise you're going to be cited for suspicion of dumping all of your own trash. Here I said, yes, I would dump my own trash in my own vineyard. And so I had to dispose of it myself. And I filtered through it for about, I don't know, six months and try to put stuff in the bin that was. But they wanted me to cart it all the way to a hazardous waste dump. And that time, because the person who dumped it was a carrier, he didn't care about sifting through it. He told, maybe he told the people he was legit. So there were names and addresses there, Jack. And I gave them to the law enforcement officer. And he just said, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to go to these people's homes. So that's where you are. And it's so funny about the left. All of this goes up against their cherished. If you notice about the cherished thing about the left, they always told us that one of the canons of liberalism was ecology and environmentalism. And yet they judge environmentalism not by the act itself or the desecration of the environment. And by that I mean when the pond fills up like the snow melt is hard, it's very sad to see this ancient, I used to swim in it. And you see now diapers floating on the top and trash and plastic bottle all over it is environmental desecration. But because the people who did it are an exempt group, then there's no such thing. It's kind of like transgenderism. We always thought female sports were going to catch up and get equity and parity and inclusion and diversity with male sports. And then all of a sudden a new cause, Celebrate for the left, puts them down on the moral ledger and suddenly transgender men have preference. If they can beat the heck out of a woman in a boxing match or a volleyball, it doesn't matter. That's the new left wing cause celeb. Or it's the same thing about violence toward women. We were told during MeToo, the worst thing, even Harvey Weinstein, was he ever convicted of hitting a woman?
Jack Fowler
I don't think hitting.
Victor Davis Hanson
Sexual assault maybe? Yes, but I don't know if he actually beat up a woman. But we've had all these incidents of men hitting women.
Jack Fowler
The first, the second husband of the.
Victor Davis Hanson
United States, yes, Doug Hempton. There was two people who said that he slapped a woman and he should have been charged with assault. And we had Mr. Obuego Garcia. And there was new information out, as you saw Jack over the weekend, that she said that she woke up in the middle of the night and he was assaulting her. He Assaulted the children. He put them in danger. She was afraid. She said that he would kill her and no one would care, and she was afraid of his family, and nobody cares. And so suddenly, the Women. After the MeToo problem, and we saw the person in Judge Dugan, I think his name was Flores. Was it Flores Ruiz? And he beat up. He didn't like the music, so he. He beat up his roommate 30 times, and he beat up the roommate's girlfriend, and he beat up the peacemaker that was trying to separate them. And Judge Dugan, who must be a feminist, says, you know, I don't really care that he beat up a woman. He's a new cause celeb. And illegal aliens under the Trump administration now have a higher moral score than women who get beat up. So that's my cause, and I don't care about the other causes. Well, it's weird how they do this.
Jack Fowler
If Luigi, whatever his last name is.
Victor Davis Hanson
Mangione.
Jack Fowler
She made Mangione.
Victor Davis Hanson
You're an Italian. Come on.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. What if. What if. What if he was in her court?
Victor Davis Hanson
Would it.
Jack Fowler
Would she have not let him out the side door, too?
Victor Davis Hanson
I mean, I wonder if she has her ticket to the opera. Comic opera about his life that's being played in San Francisco.
Jack Fowler
This happened four, five months ago, right? Murder happened. And already the art community, the left wing art community of the United States has some musical about this guy.
Victor Davis Hanson
He killed a man who was born from the lower middle class, worked himself up, had two children, orphaned them, and no one cares. On the left, he's a hero, just like we had. Same thing with Elon Musk. Had a tweet. I don't know if it's accurate. I do know that half of it's accurate. Half of it is the Media Research Center. And we know that group, they do this work. Yeah. 96% of all news coverage was negative of Elon Musk. Elon said that it was the same as the news coverage of Obrego Garcia, which was positive.
Jack Fowler
96% positive.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. I couldn't find whether that was true, so I can't make that statement. But I do know that most. I did Google searches when I read that, and every single thing. When I said Obrego Garcia, I wrote Obrego Garcia. Wife beater, Obrega Garcia. Obrego Garcia. Assaulter, illegal. I used every pejorative word, and everything that came up was still positive on Google, getting their algorithms. And so here's a man who reinvented. I shouldn't say invented the EV industry, saved NASA saved social media, gives more, more satellites than all the governments probably in the world put together. And he's, he's demonized. This is a very sick group of people, the left that are doing these things. They have no.
Jack Fowler
Can I tell you one thing on the back end, the back end of this also Victor is in New York. It was an article in the New York Post this weekend. The 48th convicted cop killer is having his parole hearing. 47 since 2018 when the laws were changed here when Andrew Cuomo, who's now running for mayor of New York City when he was governor, they passed a whole new parole apparatus and filled the parole board with left wingers. 47 guys who have made murdered New York City police officers have been given parole and some of them have been like directly assassinated. You know, it wasn't a gunfight. It was come up behind you in a cop, in a cop car and blow your brains out. And this is what jurisprudence is. This is the other end of lawfare.
Victor Davis Hanson
I think what it's doing, it's building, building, building, building up. So the left is just shocked that after the hundred days and the 96, 6 also negative of Donald Trump and all of the fake polls, Larry Kudlow was very eloquent showing that that they were fake and that they deliberately underrepresented by a third Trump voters who are under polled so they would get this only 43, 44% of Trump. But the point is that we're getting to the point now where they can't figure out why Trump is popular because the Rasmussen had him 50, 49. Trafalgar Insider Advantage had him 46, 44. After all they've done 95%. He's still pop in this. He's popular because of the things we talked about. He's popular because of Trump as Trump. But he's also popular because of the alternative. The alternative is anti civilization. It's chaos, it's barbarism, it's tribalism, it's pre civilizational. And just to put a finale to our mutual rant, did you see in the California legislature that they passed a bill which Gavin Newsom says he's going to oppose to almost decriminalize to end felony consequences for older men, to solicit sex from 16 and 17 year old boys? And that has been a part that if you looked at that man boy love association and that idea of resurrecting ancient pederasty which we read about Greek literature from Plato to Anacreon, it's everywhere. But they really do feel that they're Greek philosophers and if they cloak their unlawful and amoral desires to have sex with a young boy, I think 16 qualifies for that. And they can cloak it with some type of intellectual rigor or moral philosophizing. Then they think they're Socrates or Plato or something, although Socrates never reified his lust. They were all, we were told in Plato, intellectual. But that is really sick. And I thought that the left wing always said we're here for the children. That's what Hillary said. That's what Nancy Pelosi said. This is all about the children. We're here to protect kids. We're here to protect kids.
Jack Fowler
That's what the sex traffickers are there for. They're there for the children also.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. So do you really believe that a grown man who drives in his car and drives down somewhere in West Hollywood and sees a 16 year old boy walking along and gets out of his car and walks up to him and offers him $200 that he's worried about his moral, his moral education? Is that what it is? Pederasty? Is that what it is?
Jack Fowler
I got to tell you something about that, Victor, because Guy Benson had some comment and I'd like to get to that in one second. But we have an obligation here and it's to tell our listeners and viewers about our friends@besthotgrill.com they make hot, fast Solaire infrared grills. With rising prices everywhere, you want to make sure your hard earned money is spent well. Well. So here's what you get when you buy a 21 inch and larger Solaire Infrared backyard grill. American made, built to last with all stainless steel, welded design and commercial quality features. Radiant infrared burners that heat up to 1,000 degrees in just three minutes regardless of the outside temperature. High direct heat that results in the juiciest and most flavorful food that you've ever had from a gas grill and limited lifetime warranty on the burners, grates and stainless steel. Also, when you buy a Solaire infrared grill@besthotgrill.com you support our advertisers which helps them keep our voices, Victor's voice anyway and values on the air. Learn more about Solaire infrared grills@besthotgrill.com including their try before you buy demo rental program. That's best hot grill.com besthotgrill.com and we thank the good people from Solaire for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen show. Victor, before we get to our last break, you were about that bill. You were talking about Guy Benson posted something, but he posted a tweet that was about an Assembly Democrat, Mark Gonzalez, who's from Los Angeles. He went on an unhinged rant. He attacked a, I believe he's a gay Republican member of the State Assembly, Carl DeMaio attacked him for being gay, but somehow voting against the civil rights. I love this quote, quote, unquote, civil rights of gay people by wanting to make it a felony to solicit 16 and 17 year olds. So now that is a civil. The expansion of that concept of civil rights by the LGBTQ community is kind of staggering.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I think Guy, who's a very bright and principled person, was. I think he's trying to say either explicitly, but I think explicitly and overtly is that this is not supported by the gay community who has the same worries about the detrimental effect of sexual intercourse on young people, usually in an asymmetrical fashion, than the heterosexual community. And we would. If it's felonious to go out and pick up a 16 year old girl and then have sex with her, then it should be, be the same thing, regardless of one's sexual orientation. But Mr. Gonzales, if you follow his train of thought, follow it through Jack, he's saying Mr. Smith goes out and he picks up knowingly a 16 year old boy and he has sexual congress with this boy whether he pays him or not. And therefore he should get a misdemeanor slap on the wrist. Most misdemeanors people, they're just booked and they go home and sometimes they're not even booked immediately. That's what he's saying should be the penalty. And I think he's saying that gay people, because they're a persecuted minority, he thinks that should get special exemption. But I thought his party cared about the children and he doesn't, obviously. And well, Victor, I've never seen times like this, never have seen times like this in my entire life. It's not just that I'm old and cranky, but I've never seen it before. Not even during this, the craziness of the 60s. We had more terrorism than violent, but not like this. Not this idea that a man can say that he is a woman and then go in a boxing or fencing match and defeat a woman. And then, you know, when he's a mediocre athlete and when, by, when transgendered males, that is women who become males, don't win one single event. And we're supposed to think that it doesn't matter what your biological sex was.
Jack Fowler
Victor, I want to Encourage our listeners and viewers to check out a city journal which you're on the masthead of that as a contributor. There's a piece by Christina Buttons about Man Boy love. It's titled this group wants to affirm Pedophilia. So I guess this past weekend there's a group called before youe Act, a Maryland based organization that's, you know, pro pedophilia and they were meeting, they were hosting a conference in Ohio to train mental health providers in affirmative map therapy. Map means minor attracted persons. I know we're going to see this justified through the mental health community that these map is a real thing and it's natural, it's not some perversion. Anyway, this is what happens is happening right now and I want to recommend that all article to folks.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I think we're in the third stage and the third and last stage of liberalism. Liberalism started, I think it was, I mean it was a flawed idea in most of its manifestations but it was trying to get equality of opportunity for blacks, for women, for Everybody in the 50s and 60s greater and legislated. And then the second step stage was well we did that but we still don't have a quality of result. So therefore they began affirmative action diversity and they wanted a quality mandated on the back end. We called it proportional representation or disparate impact. But we didn't really care about the individual. We just wanted demographics to show that we were had gone into stage two of the civil rights movement. Now we're in the lunatic stage three in which all of the liberal canons of stage one and two are thrown out because we want to make mainstream or equal or make sure that people who we would prior have called criminals, that is people who pray sexually on youth or felons that are in jail and should not be voting when they come out or people who kill policemen. We feel that they are the last horizon of victims and we're going to use all of our influence to make sure that they're just like us and they don't face any consequences for their deviant behavior. Because we don't believe it's deviant. We think that a bunch of white Christian, heterosexual. I'm quoting Susan Rice now when she got fired from the Defense Policy Board by Pete Hexseth. White Christians cisgendered male has gone after us. They feel that they have gone after us and set arbitrary rules against us. Just because a white Christian cisgendered male doesn't shoot policemen as often as other people may not. I don't know the demographics. Please correct me if the FBI statistics prove me wrong. That doesn't. That. That's the only reason it's illegal. Just because white CIS gender Christian males do not solicit young boys in the same percentage as other people. They made a law against it, Jack. They don't like Michael Jordan air shoes, so they say you can't steal them. That's critical legal theory. That's what it's about. And it's just, it's really. I keep going back to this famous novel. It was written in the age of Nero, probably 60 AD to 65. It was one of my PhD areas of interest. The Latin text of Petronius, the Satiricon. But everything I just talked about is in there. Everything. Transgenderism, sexual violence, pedophilia, pederasty, gluttony, ostentatious wealth, nudity, child pornography. You name it, it's in there. And it's all. It's a bitter satirical novel to show what the leisure and affluence of the early Roman Empire has done to the old Italian agrarian ethos. And it's destroyed them. And Trimalchio is the gluttonous half educated bore and all the sophisticated people who are at the dinner making fun of him are themselves worse. It's just the most damning portrait of a society that has destroyed its legacy and heritage. And it's very modern. But cross dressing, it's in there. Cross dress. Transvestism, transgenderism, transsexualism, sexual assault, sexual battery, pedophilia, pederasty. Pederasty. Everything is in there. Pornography is in there.
Jack Fowler
Well, there seems to be a bottoming out of the irreligiosity or the people, you know, leaving faith and some signs of renewal of belief. So I have a feeling, Victor, these things in our world now and 2025 are connected. Religious worship and these variations of depravity or weirdness.
Victor Davis Hanson
I think you're right. I think they're afraid when all this hysteria about the Hundred Days, they're afraid it might work. And if it worked, it would be. It's the first time that a Republican president has tried to wage a true counter revolution. Reagan did, didn't do it. George H.W. bush turned on Reagan with a kinder, gentler nation. Read my lips. George W. Bush was more conservative, but even he didn't try to do this. This president is saying that in the 11th hour we're going to wage a cultural, social, economic, political, diplomatic, military, counter revolution. We're going to stop all of this. We're going to make these universities return to their proper role. We're going to tell the PBS and corporate NPR propagandists you can't do that on the public dime. It's really multifaceted. And part of that is a traditionalist emphasis on religion and also on the American founding. And the whole theme is you don't have to be perfect to be good. And America was always better than the alternative. And your desire or your demand that we have to be perfect According to your 21st century more is it's irrelevant. That's never happened in history. Sorry, we're not going to play that game. That's what he's doing.
Jack Fowler
It's backed up in the rhetoric of his executive orders. I encourage people to read them. Go to the whitehouse.gov website, click on executive Actions. Look at the texts of these executive orders. I mean, it is very much in line, totally in line, Victor, with what you're saying. We are fighting a cultural battle here. And it's not holding back the dawn. It's not pussy footing. It's not a rear guard action. This is a battle.
Victor Davis Hanson
No, he's saying you don't have to go to a museum and see a bunch of excrement thrown on the canvas and say, that's art. We're going to champion clarity, classical art, impressionist art. You're not going to have to see a building that looks like a tinker toy and say, that's a great piece of architecture. We're going to try to bring back appreciation for neoclassical architecture, sculpture. We've talked about that before with Saban Howard, you know. Yeah. And we're trying to do this all across the board. Great literature and religious liberty.
Jack Fowler
He just put Religious Liberty Commission and one after the other, it's really almost breathtaking.
Victor Davis Hanson
And there's a lot of people who want to join this, and that's why they're angry is what I'm getting at. The hundred days they think, this guy, I don't know what he's doing, but he's trying to wreck the liberal, progressive, socialist, communist project. And he. We don't know where he got these ideas, but when he closed the border, when he is re establishing deterrence, when he is getting people to pump more oil, he's trying to get prices down for the middle class. 62%. Jack. Of Hispanics polled in that restaurant, that was the highest ethnic group favoring Trump. I had been saying that in these podcasts that every time I went into my local community and I was stopped by a Mexican American male, but all Mexican Americans. And they mentioned politics. They were overwhelmingly for Trump. They didn't give a blank blank about the stock market. They did give a lot of attention to the price of gas, the price of electricity, the regulations, how hard it was for them if they were contractors, the lack of good paying jobs, the crimes that of people dumped in their neighborhoods that were illegal, the lack of law enforcement. It was something's going to happen because the Latino community's leadership is left wing mostly at least. Yeah. And they don't represent the people that they say they represent. I saw that Sheriff Villanueva, remember him, the Los Angeles sheriff who was a Democrat. He was kind of during the early days of COVID kind of extreme and enforcing those rules. And he was a Democratic stalwart. He's now flipped to the Republican Party. I think he's probably going to run for governor.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, something.
Jack Fowler
Let us pray. Hey Victor, we have time for one more topic. I mentioned earlier, Maine and some political hijinks going on up there. And it's really much in line with what we've been talking about on this show today. And we're going to get your thoughts on this when we come back from these final important messages.
Victor Davis Hanson
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Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show. Victor, here's a headline. Maine's shocking assault on democracy and free speech. I'll just read this quickly. Talk about tone deaf to what's going on. And remember, you know, 80% of Americans do not like oppose men in women's sports. The Democrat majority in the main House of Representatives Representatives on a party line vote to strip Republican Laurel Libby not only of her right to speak on the floor but of a right to vote in the chamber, leaving her constituents effectively unrepresented. It did this solely to punish Libby, a Republican, for dissenting from the Democrat party line on transgender athletes in women's and girls sports. Now, Victor, it seems like Representative Libby has taken this case to the Supreme Court asking for some emergency action thus far. Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson, I guess it's her district. The north New England has slow walked the emergency application, sitting on it for three days and then yesterday asking for a response to be filed by next Thursday, which is actually this coming Thursday, blah blah blah.
Victor Davis Hanson
So anyway, Victor, tone, that's logical, isn't it? She was the one during her confirmation hearing that was asked to define a woman. Remember she said she was unable to define a woman. So maybe she's still confused about that. There was also a survey, did you see it Jack? About the nine justices. And it was about those who had the most speech, who talked the most in minutes and they ranked Them.
Jack Fowler
No, I didn't see this. Clarence Thomas says the least, I think.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, well, it was kind of gender specific. The three most vocal were, she was first Justice Brown and then Kagan and then Comey Barrett. And the men were less talkative, but she was the latest, most recent appointee. But also the loudest in the sense of talking all the time. But this whole thing about transgenderism, it's one of the strangest things about the Democratic Party. They know that after the 2024 election, they outspent them. They had the money, they had a billion. See, a lot of people say, well, it wasn't a landslide because he only won by 2,300,000 votes and he only won by 1.5% and he got 49.8. He didn't get 50. And Obama got a better electoral college and he did. Yes, yes, yes. But he had a billion dollars more spent against him and he had 95% negative coverage of him. And they tried to kill him twice. And he still did that. That's how to look at the. And that's something that they, they just can't, they just can't get around that people don't support these issues. So the main legislature can talk all they want about men participating, biological men participating in women's sport, but their own constituencies have daughters and they. Daughters are sports women. And they don't support this. They don't. They. Nobody wants their daughter to go into a volleyball match and have a six foot man who says he's a woman slam a volleyball down her throat. They just don't want to do it. And that's just a fact. And yet they keep hammering this issue. And then the second problem with it is they were the party that told us women's liberation, this is the year of the woman era. They drummed it into our heads and they are now the most anti woman party imaginable on this particular topic. They don't care about women's records. They don't care about equal opportunity for women and women's sports. And if you say to them just politely, I had a question not too long ago. I was trying to remember, I was speaking when somebody took issue with me on this matter and I just said, why don't we have a separate category? And he said something like, oh, like transgender. I mean the Special Olympics. As if these people are trying to suggest that I thought they were somehow impaired. I didn't say that. I said just categories which are distinctive by men, by gender, women. And this is, if you think this is the third gender. Then let's have a transgender.
Jack Fowler
Well, they can have their own graduation ceremony.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, they can have their own graduation ceremony. Why don't they do that? Because they don't do that. Because going back to the 19th century, Havelock Ellis and others, and also the British government commissioned a study to find out what. How many people were really traditionally suffering from gender dysphoria. It's about.001%. It's a very minuscule. It's less than one in a thousand. And so there's a very small constituent. They can say, oh, Everybody's transgendering in Hollywood. 30% of the brown undergraduates want to. That is a cultural phenomenon based on the media saturation. But a very, very little. Tiny group of people. Tiny group of people. And so they know that if they had a transgendered sport and the sport was intended to satisfy the transgendered community a sense of belonging, there wouldn't be enough people to go to it. So they want.
Jack Fowler
Leah Thomas would be swimming against himself.
Victor Davis Hanson
They want to piggyback on to a very popular women's sport and deracinate it and drain it and weaken it. I have another little rant before we finish. You don't watch the show the Last of Us, do you?
Jack Fowler
Do not.
Victor Davis Hanson
What is it? It's a story about the end of the world when it's an Armageddon apocalyptic story where a fungal disease has killed everybody. But there's enclaves of people who are still surviving years later. And there's the girl who was in the Game of Thrones, Lady Marmont, I think her name is Bella something. She's in it. And Pablo Pascal, who's a really good actor. He was in Game of Thrones and he for the first year led her because she's immune for some reason and people want her blood or something. So they have an odyssey around the United States and they fight vigilante groups and all these. Most of it, there's a thin anti Christian because all the people who are crazy seem to be Christians or. You know what I mean, of course. But enclaves of people who haven't been infected. But my point is, the actress is gay, and now there's a new actress in it is gay. So season two comes. But of course, the guy who is the hero of the whole thing is her shepherd, the guy who fights off all the zombies and all the crazy people to make sure this one little girl who's actually the actress is probably about 19, but she plays at this time 12 or 13, that she's safe because Somewhere, sometime they'll be able to use her blood to save mankind. Right. Even though they want to kill her and drain it. So he, he's. And he's kind of violent, but he, but he's the best actor. Well, they killed him all off the second episode. Remember the John Wayne movie, the Cowboys where they kill John Wayne off very early?
Jack Fowler
You know, I never, I never saw.
Victor Davis Hanson
That, but I have, well, you know, westerns that it was a canon. If you really do want to lose your audience, you don't kill off, right? I don't. Did Don Wayne die in the sands of Iwo Jima?
Jack Fowler
He did, he did.
Victor Davis Hanson
But he got killed at the very end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't kill your. You don't hero. But they killed him and then they changed the emphases to her and then they had a surrogate young girl who's a gay actor. And so they're now trying to revenge the people who killed him. But in this latest episode they have to have a homosexual love scene and it is explicit and they see an ancient pride building with a pride flag that you know from years ago. And they had an earlier segment where a guy who was a Mr. Know It all and he had a generator and he was self sufficient. Somebody wandered in and they ended up in bed together. So my point I'm making is something, it's that issue now dominates the whole story. And the one thing that people wanted to see is this Jack of all trades kind of renaissance man who was really smart. He kills the zombies, he fights these militias and he protects this girl and he develops a very wholesome mentor relationship with her. He's dead now and he's replaced by a gay woman. And I think in the movie they're 15 or 16, but they're shown in kind of a very explicit sexual congress amid all the zombies. They're attacked by zombies, but they go into a warehouse and have sex together. And that is half of the show. And so what I'm getting at is whether it's the radical gay or radical trans, whatever it is, they want to mainstream this even though they're a very small segment of the population and it's almost every perceived enemy of this has to be the CIS gendered male patriarch who, you know, he's too toxic. Masculinity that saves her numerous times. He's got to get. And who does? Who would kill him if you were the screenwriter? Well, you'd have to have a feminist woman who would be beat him up and then drive a spike through his Head. And that's how she killed him, the hero. And then all of the heroes are either women or gay. It's very strange just losing. I can't watch it anymore because it's lost. It would be like reading the Odyssey. And all of a sudden Calypso or Circe killed Odysseus, you know, just said, listen, you toxic man, you were supposed you ran away from your wife. She's been gone. You haven't been there in 20 years. I'm a dominant feminist hero. We're going to. And Circe and Calypso did have sex with her. But you're going to be, you know, we're going to be here and you're. You're no good. Or have him go back, I guess. Just when he arrives in Ithaca and just as he's ready to organize Eumaeus and Telemachus to fight the suitors who are eating the suitor, he gets killed. And then Telemachus becomes gay and he has a relationship maybe with one of the suitors or I don't know. But it's not the stuff that appeals to a lot of people. And I'm not saying because it's gay. It's not the gay issue. It's the idea that you warp the plot. You know what I mean, Jack?
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
You deviate from a classical plot of male hero who is kind of a Shane type character, takes on to protect a little girl for humanity and he fights everything successfully and in the process he trains her to be self sufficient. And then they kill him prematurely. A woman kills him and then he's replaced by a gay woman and there are partners. And the point they're making things in the. In the plot that don't make sense. They're there. If you're fighting zombies and you're in a warehouse and they're all around you and you got on the left side, zombies that want to eat you. On the right side, you've got a militia that wants to kill you. You're not going to have sex. You know what I'm saying?
Jack Fowler
I dig. Maybe Rick and Victor Laszlo would be kissing in a remake.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, it would be exactly like that. That all of a sudden Rick comes in, he wants the transport papers. He comes up to Humphrey Bogart's room and Humphrey says, you know, where is Ingrid Bergman? And he says, she's out the door. Well, and then he just jumps on. Because in the scene one of them just. And then they jump and then they show graphically they're having sex. What would be the purpose of that other than an agenda is one of the saying.
Jack Fowler
Yes.
Victor Davis Hanson
So last of us has gone the way of Budweiser and the Target transgendered underwear and all that stuff.
Jack Fowler
And this is the world we live in. But hopefully, hopefully someone is sweeping up after the elephants, Victor.
Victor Davis Hanson
So I hope so.
Jack Fowler
Anyway, we are at, we are at the end of the little road here of Victor's great wisdom sharing. I want to say before I read a final thing that I want to thank people who have written me and a lot have lately for Civil Thoughts. That's the free weekly email newsletter I do for the center for Civil Society where we are trying to strengthen civil society. And every Friday, Civil Thoughts comes out in your email inbox. It's 14 recommended readings, great pieces I've come across the previous week. Go to civilthoughts.com Sign up as easy as that. And while you're going to places to sign up, go to the blade of Perseus victorhansen.com Sign up there too. You can get on the email list there and get a weekly email. But do subscribe also. Victor, lots. Oh my gosh, there's so many comments now. So many now that we're on YouTube and last episode you did with the great Sammy wink it. Think there's 4, 505 to 600 somewhere in that range. Just that one show. But here's some one comment that I pulled out of there from Michael Wilson, 7971 Good Morning Victor and Sammy. Another great show I got my mother watching on Saturdays now. She likes the show and Sammy, she is learning a lot. She needs a different news source than Spectrum News I saw. Especially thank Victor for his wealth of knowledge and for continuing to educate America in a calm, rational, truthful way. Thank you so much. There are so many comments like this. Yeah, very true. Victor, you've been wonderful in rantio ergo sum. I love it. I'm sure our listeners and viewers do too. Thanks for all the wisdom you shared, folks. Thanks for checking in. No matter what platform you are, you're on. Thanks for watching and listening and we will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye bye.
Victor Davis Hanson
Thank you everybody for listening and viewing. Thank you.
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The Victor Davis Hanson Show: Detailed Summary
Episode Title: Iran's Nuclear Program, Man-Boy Solicitation, and Grooming Girls
Release Date: May 6, 2025
Hosts: Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler
Co-Hosts: Occasionally Sami Winc
Discussion Points: Victor Davis Hanson delves into Iran's nuclear program, emphasizing the country's strategic motives. He highlights Iran’s substantial fossil fuel reserves, arguing that their nuclear ambitions are not for energy diversification but for weaponization. Hanson critiques the inconsistent messaging from U.S. Special Mideast Envoy Stephen Witkoff regarding the level of uranium enrichment Iran seeks.
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Discussion Points: Jack Fowler introduces the recent successes of Nigel Farage’s Reform Party in British local elections, noting significant gains at the expense of the traditional Tories and Labour. Hanson analyzes the underlying causes, linking Farage's popularity to broader European disillusionment with entrenched political systems and immigration policies.
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Discussion Points: The conversation shifts to alarming trends in California, where grooming of young girls and solicitation of teenage boys have become pressing issues. Hanson criticizes the lack of effective law enforcement and the judicial system’s leniency towards illegal immigrants involved in these activities.
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Discussion Points: Hanson critiques the phenomenon of lawfare, where legal mechanisms are weaponized for political purposes by the left. He cites instances of selective prosecution, biased judicial decisions, and the undermining of legal integrity to achieve ideological ends.
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Discussion Points: The hosts discuss the contentious issue of transgender athletes in women's sports, criticizing policies that allow biological males to compete against females. Hanson argues that such policies undermine fairness and reflect broader cultural erasures of traditional gender roles.
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Discussion Points: Hanson and Fowler critique contemporary media portrayals, using the TV show "The Last of Us" as an example. They argue that modern storytelling often deviates from classical narratives by introducing LGBTQ+ themes in ways that disrupt traditional plot structures and character archetypes.
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Discussion Points: Building on earlier discussions, Hanson describes the tangible impacts of illegal immigration on daily life in California. He illustrates environmental degradation, increased crime rates, and strained public resources, attributing these issues to lenient immigration policies and judicial exemptions.
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Discussion Points: Hanson forecasts the trajectory of current political tensions, particularly focusing on the Republican and Democratic parties' strategies. He predicts increasing polarization, potential legislative overreach by the left, and the rise of counter-movements aiming to restore traditional values.
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In the closing segments, Hanson and Fowler reiterate the urgency of addressing the discussed issues, emphasizing the need for policy changes and societal shifts to combat what they perceive as cultural and political decay. They encourage listeners to engage with alternative media sources and support initiatives that align with their viewpoints.
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This episode of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show" provides a robust discussion on pressing geopolitical issues, internal political dynamics within Western democracies, and cultural battles shaping contemporary society. Hanson and Fowler articulate a narrative of declining Western values and the rise of progressive policies they argue are detrimental to societal cohesion and national security. Through personal anecdotes, policy critiques, and cultural commentary, the hosts aim to inform and mobilize their audience against what they perceive as ongoing ideological and legal overreach.