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- [00:00]
Victor Davis Hanson
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- [01:42]
Jack Fowler
Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the host. You are here to listen to the man who will dispense wisdom as he does four times a week through this podcast. And that is Victor Davis Hanson, who.
- [01:57]
Sponsor
Is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior.
- [01:59]
Jack Fowler
Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. And he's the possessor and owner of a website, the Blade of Perseus. The web address is victorhansen.com. you should go there regularly. You should subscribe and later in this episode like to tell you why you should. What else? Victor's a farmer. He is a military historian. He's a classicist. He's a philologist. He's everything.
- [02:29]
Co-Host
He's everything? Then he's nothing.
- [02:32]
Jack Fowler
Well, you're more of an everything than some people that have everything, my friend. So hey, there's so many new viewers and listeners to this podcast we do four times a week. Welcome, welcome here. Thank you. Please hang around. Not for the co host here, but for the man with the wisdom. So, Victor, Today it's Saturday, April 12th. That's when we're recording. This episode will be up on Tuesday, April 15th begin this show. I want to welcome wish our friends, our brothers and sisters in Abraham a blessed Passover as it begins today. Plenty of things to talk about Victor. Lots of them have to do with illegal immigrants, criminal illegal immigrants, terrorists who are receiving welfare here in the us we have some language issues, we have a nasty principle to get your views on and maybe a few other things. Biden, sleepwalking, Trump and Big Law. Endless topics, but we'll get to them right after we come back from these important messages.
- [03:48]
Sponsor
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- [05:26]
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- [07:05]
Jack Fowler
We're back, Victor. Plenty to talk about today. As I said at the outset of the show, by the way, it's gloomy here where I am in Milford, Connecticut. I know it's sunny and lovely there.
- [07:17]
Co-Host
It's always sunny in California, Jack. Yeah. Except when it's. It's always sunny and it's always bleak at the same time.
- [07:23]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, well that's. So you have those, what do they call those? Hawaii, Those Pineapple.
- [07:28]
Co-Host
What are those? Gavin Express.
- [07:30]
Jack Fowler
The Pineapple Express or whatever.
- [07:31]
Co-Host
Yeah. Jerry Brown and Gavin and Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris. There are rain clouds.
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Jack Fowler
Well, I hope you, when we're finished here, you get outside, get a little vitamin D as you continue your improved health or improving health.
- [07:46]
Co-Host
I'm getting the doxacillin out of my system and I had a lot of very nice people that gave me all these recommendations how to get rid of a post flu sinus infection and not one of them said it was wise to take antibiotics. They all said this particular herb, this particular vitamin, this particular massage, this particular steam, this particular. You know what I did? I went out and bought a Navage system. You ever heard of those things?
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Jack Fowler
Oh, yes, I do. Yeah. Feels like a nose Navaj. I think so.
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Co-Host
So you see that I'm. Yeah, I'm thinking of all the alternatives to get back.
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Jack Fowler
I saw somebody send a comment on YouTube about gargling with. I think it was hydrogen peroxide. Peroxide, I'm not sure.
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Co-Host
But somebody wrote me that he said if you put white. That was about a month ago. If you put. When I had the flu, if you put whitener on your teeth, those strips, it'll kill your flu.
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Jack Fowler
Well, there you go. All right. Who knew that fluoride was bad was good for you?
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Co-Host
My father said smoking. That's why he never got the flu. The tobacco, because he smoked. Yeah, two packs a day. Plus he never did get the flu, by the way.
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Jack Fowler
Terrific.
- [09:00]
Co-Host
But I'm not recommending that. I have never smoked in my life.
- [09:06]
Jack Fowler
I remember the first time I smoked, I was like six. I picked up a lit bud on the sidewalk. They were everywhere to be had in the Bronx.
- [09:14]
Co-Host
I tried cool like three cool cigarettes in my life. And that was about.
- [09:18]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, well, you're too cool for cool. Okay, Victor, here we have a headline. We have two illegal judicial matters for your opinion. One, let's start off with the top of the Supreme Court which says the Trump administration needs to facilitate release of Salvadoran citizen. This was, I think, an I nothing unsigned opinion that came out yesterday, Friday. Your thoughts on this, Victor?
- [09:45]
Co-Host
Yeah, I'm mystified by this whole thing because there is a Fredville statute and it is a criminal statute that if you come into the country without permission, that is illegally, and then you continue to reside here illegally and you haven't obtained refugee status, then you're subject to deportation. And a force multiplier of that would be if you had committed a crime or you were a member of a designated gang, so to speak. So all of these people in theory are subject to deportation. I don't understand that. So then, now what the left is doing, they're cherry picking cases. In one case, an ex gang X. But he says if he goes back home to Latin America, a rival gang will kill him, which suggests to me that he might still have gang affiliations or he had long affiliations with a gang. But the point I'm making is they cherry pick these particular cases and then they make an argument this person is essentially a legal resident or, you know, a U.S. citizen almost. But they're not. They're just guests and they've been here a long time. And it's not hard to apply for a green card. So there's many culpabilities in these people. They come illegally, they reside illegally, they don't apply for a green card, they just exist. And then a new administration comes in and says the prior one broke the law by not enforcing the law. We're not going to do anything different, we're just going to enforce the law. And then everybody goes hysterical. And we always get back to this existential question as why did he let in 12 million people? Why did he every single day break the law and not enforce federal immigration law and have Mr. Mayorkas get up there with a straight face and lie to us that the border was secure. Once in a while he would say that they were whipping people or all these terrible things. The Border Patrol. Why, why, why? Was it to grow government and then put everybody on entitlements and higher taxes? Redistribution? Was it utopianism? They don't believe in 21st century, they're globalists they don't believe in borders. Or was it more mundane as people have suggested that under the post Covid election balloting laws in many states it's almost anybody can get a mail in ballot. And this was the idea that their message was not appealing to 51% of Americans. So they were going to change the demography. New Democratic majority Demography is destiny. All the slogans they use. So it's inexplicable why they can't just say to this person, you came into our country, we did not invite you, you didn't take the trouble to do it legally. Then you didn't register as an illegal alien and apply for a green card. And now we decided to follow the law. Does this mean that every single one of the 12 million people is going to have a lawsuit? And you know what is even weirder is that all this utopianism. Do they really think The United States, 37 trillion in debt, running a $2 trillion deficit with a $1 trillion trade deficit, do they really think we have the resources, we can bring more judges, we can have more jury, we can just do this for 12 million people. So what I'm getting at is this abstraction that all these justices have, it has no correlation with the real world. I just wish they would come to the San Joaquin Valley and go to a waiting room. A judge would, let's say one of the judges, a district court judge or even a circuit court judge says, you know, Joe X, we're going to go through all this. And I just wish that when he went to his Cardiologist There were 40 people in the waiting room, half of whom did not speak English, from all over the world, had never been to a doctor. And then he would just be there with all the other people that are trying, waiting for three months to get an appointment, four months, six months, or wish he just go to a grocery store and stand in line while every single person who doesn't speak English has three or four EBT cards. Or I just wish he would try to live in an environment with 40% of the auto accidents. The person leaves the scene of the accident in Los Angeles county, for example. I just wish they would do that one day and then they would see. The abstraction is not connected to the reality. Between the dream and the reality is Elliot comes the abstraction.
- [14:35]
Jack Fowler
I think, Victor, in a lot of ways we live on memories of even things from two generations ago. College is still sis boom bah, Homecoming day. Yeah, we think about movies we still see and the melody lingers on the judiciary and I know your mom was a judge. You've talked about her many times. And we still think judges are like Judge Hardy. They're sober. And I wonder if there was an ideology scale, how badly the judiciary would compare to the rest of these institutions and organizations that are, that are really dangerous to America.
- [15:15]
Co-Host
It's lost a lot of its reputation. Here's how the American federal and state judiciary work for all practical purposes. If you can't get a law passed in a state legislature or in the US Congress, and if you disagree with something, then you go get the register of all the federal and state judges and you look at their decisions. And when you find one anywhere in the United States that has a record, and this is five times more common with liberals than conservatives, then you target that judge. He feels like he has a chance to be known for a landmark decision that will shock people and cement his liberal fides among all of his progressive friends and associates. And that's how the judiciary works. Why we're talking, I mean, Fanny Willis is really looking at some serious charges. You know, that she's been held in contempt. She's got to turn over all the records now that she hid about her contacts with the federal special prosecutor, Jack Smith. We've mentioned many times on this podcast that Nathan Wade, her paramour and lead prosecutor, was at the White House counsel on the same day that Jack Smith was appointed, on the same day that Michael Colangelo went left to go work eventually for Alvin Bragg. And then we look at Letitia James. She is. Did you see this latest report? I don't know if it's been confirmed or alleged, but people have argued that there's a deed that she bought a home and said that was her primary residence. It was not her primary residence. She said that for tax. She's got problems. Jack Smith is got problems because he seems to have been the beneficiary of what, tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees that he didn't report. I don't know if he reported his income tax or not, but he didn't report it on a conflict of interest form. And again and again and again, this is beyond, you know, merchand or any of those judges being biased. So the judiciary system has collapsed. It really has. It's sort of got the same reputation it did in the 1860s when, you know, a Dred Scott decision. Nobody, it was so crazy, nobody even followed it, and vice versa. So it's so politicized, the judiciary and activist judges and the ultimate culprit is the law school the faculty are about 95% leftist and they have this critical legal theory that says says that the Constitution is a construct of old white men and most of prior Supreme Court decisions. And therefore it's a fluid mechanism that should reflect this Marxist binary between victim and victimizer. That's pretty much what they think. So I'm not optimistic about the American judiciary system. I really am not. It's really scary to see what some of these judges, when they can fine Donald Trump $400,000 and try to take him out. It's just or Jack Smith can try to move up the schedule in a way that he never, no federal prosecutor had done to make sure he could synchronize the most sensational parts of his proposed prosecution with the 2024 Home Stretch Campaign. It's really scary. It is. I don't even need to get into the buffoon. Fanny Willis.
- [18:48]
Jack Fowler
Well, there's a force multiplier to this with many of the pardoning not pardoning boards, but parole boards. I want to ask you about that in a sec, but when we come back. Victor, just in a moment. But first I just want to give our listeners, particularly our new listeners, an important message for anyone who's concerned about their financial future. Have you seen the headlines? The Department of Government Efficiency has uncovered a staggering I think is now up to $150 billion in government fraud. I just checked out their doge tracker with investigators suggesting this is just the tip of the iceberg. Financial analysts are now confirming what many suspected. The previous administration's economic quote, unquote success was largely artificial, propped up by funneling trillions through NGOs and creating an economic mirage. As this corruption is exposed, experts predict we're heading toward a short but deep recession. When this false economic support evaporates, what does this mean for your retirement savings? Throughout history, when governments manipulate economies and currencies collapse, physical gold has been mankind's most reliable store of value. Shouldn't you consider protecting part of your retirement with an asset that governments can't create with keystrokes or devalue through corruption? American Alternative Assets is offering a free wealth protection guide to help safeguard your financial future from the coming economic correction. Call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today for your free guide and learn why now may be the perfect time to add precious metals to your portfolio. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com, protect what you've earned before the fraud economy collapses completely and we thank the good people from American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson Show. So, Victor, we are going to get back to federal judges and illegals and important decisions. But the other day in the New York Post, if you want to be disheartened about law and order in America, I suggest people subscribe to that paper. I mean, it's a terrific newspaper. Well, there was a piece earlier in the week that there's a cop killer, convicted cop killer, who's up for parole. And there have already been over 40 convicted cop killers who've been paroled in New York State. So this like, I mean, it's not that it's one thing to kill Jack Fowler and then that that's any less worse than killing a police officer. But we've always as a society held that killing, killing cops was, you know, really, you've crossed the line there. You should be executed for that.
- [21:43]
Co-Host
Even that. All changed post. George Floyd, remember what the lie was? The lie was that the police were open season on black males. And then the Harvard economist and this got him in trouble with Claudine Gay. Roland Fryer came out with a seminal article based on his research that he said that black males who came attack with police, that the numbers of contacts versus the fatal shootings of unmarned suspects was no different, actually in total numbers and roughly the same percentages than white suspects. And that got him basically on the wrong side of Claudine Gay. And they hounded him and hounded him and hounded him and tried to think of everything they could do. But there was no evidence even in that hysterical period that police were inordinately targeting people of color and shooting them while unarmed didn't matter. Defund the police started. And then people started to look at the police as their enemies. And it was okay. You can see, remember in that weird period of 2020-22, there'd be new York cops and they'd surround them. When they'd go to a yard, they'd get on top of the car and hit. They would fire. Nobody did anything because that was. And then they defunded. And now there was just an article today, I think it was in the New York Post, Jacques, that Greenwich Village is just the most left wing area of Manhattan is furious that the laws out there's not enough law enforcement. And people are camping out on their steps and robberies and assaults. So that's where we are. And the left did that. Everything the left touches turns to dross. Whether it's the border or law enforcement. They Destroy everything. And they always have. If anybody reads any history and their ultimate manifestations, it's really, really scary. And that's what got Donald Trump elected. Donald Trump's not doing anything. He didn't promise. He said he would crack down on crime, he would support the police, close the border and deal with China.
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Jack Fowler
Sounds like he's doing it. He is.
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Co-Host
I just want to make a footnote. I mentioned China that our friend David Bonson in his blog, I think it's called Dividend Cafe. He has a very astute article and basically I don't want to. It's a long, long article, but it's. Don't let your ideology or your politics cloud your investment strategy or the way that you react to market volatility. But look at what the agenda is and what the climate before Trump is, was. And the climate before Trump was that China's predatory commercial trade, financial, military trajectories was not sustainable for the West. In other words, it was running up huge deficits. It was trying to dump products deal. And someone had to deal with it. And that deal, whoever it was, it didn't matter. The US President had a rendezvous with that problem. And whoever chose to be that president, sooner or later, had to be sooner than later, was going to create market volatility because we're nearly. Well, a third of our trillion dollar trade deficit is with China alone. And they supply computers and Apple phones, everything. So that was going to be a disruptive event. And, and that's where we are right now. That somebody tried to put the bell on the proverbial one mouse put the bell on the cat. Right. And that's what this volatility is about. But if we can endure that China, and this is my own. This isn't Mr. Bonson's, who. You know him better than I do.
- [25:40]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, we're very good friends.
- [25:41]
Co-Host
Yes, I read his book and Blurred. But I've always admired him. I've spoken for him. He's a very sober and judicious person and I really have a great deal of admiration. So the article everybody should take a look at, it's by the Bahnson Group and David in particular wrote it. It's dividend cafe thebonsongroup.com but it's not a political argument. It's just keep rational, make your decisions not on the basis whether you're pro Trump or anti Trump, but that there were situations that are being addressed that are going to create market volatility, but they probably had to be addressed. And you can disagree on the methodology but that's what's going on. It's going to be a large readjustment and it reminds me of that article when I was in high school, I read the Sun Also Rises. Now it's, it's everybody says about bankruptcy when and they ask in the sun also write how do you go bankrupt? And he said everybody's quoting it now. It's kind of like end of the day and all that stuff but gradually and then suddenly and what I'm meaning by that aphorism is if you get in a trade war, and I don't want to get in a trade war, nobody listening wants to get in a trade war with China. But if Donald Trump tries to lessen the 300 billion plus big plus trade deficit and the predatory practices, it's going to be a rough ride. It's grab. But gradually China is going to lose that war and then it's going to be sudden, they're going to lose it big time. Because we are in a constitutional society and we have mechanisms to vent public disapproval. Donald Trump will survive. He won't be if, if everything goes to proverbial inferno. Yes, we have the midterms, we have mechanisms to vent public. They don't. So if 1/3 of their trillion dollar surplus is with the US and that starts to be cut down, they're going to have a third of those export factory workers with nothing to do. And this is at a time when they have demographic and pre existing economic problems. They're going to have a lot of social tensions. That's number one. Number two, they have 300,000 almost now again students and they're here on purpose to get Bachelor's, Masters and PhDs. They're all briefed when they go back to China by the PLA intelligence. 1%, maybe 3,000 are actively engaged in espionage. But pretty much they're basically to absorb Western technology, STEM business and go back. If you were to curtail that number, that would be deleterious for them. They just, it would. And in addition to that, they list companies on the New York Stock Exchange that by any fair measure do not comply with transparency rules. And we just sort of wink and nod and let these companies on there. There's no reason they have to to be on there. People have suggested, I think Maria Bartoloma mentioned that. So there are all of these levers that would escalate and would be far more. We don't want to go there. Nobody wants to go there. We want to cut a deal and we don't need to get rid of 300 billion trade deficit all at once. We can build down. But it had to be addressed because they're using that fund foreign exchange to buy luxury houses here, to buy farmland here, to create new businesses. They look at the world market, they say this, this, this product, this particular service we can go in and destroy. We're going to build a factory, have the government subsidize the loss, pour the product into this particular country and then take over that particular commodity market. And they have to be told they can't do that. And they're also using this huge amount of foreign exchange to build five nuclear weapons per month, to build five or six ships of all sizes every six months, six, even more rapidly. And they're arming at a fantastic rate because they're flush with foreign exchange. And so there's a lot of things. I get back to that 2003, I think it was. People can correct me if I'm wrong, but Warren Buffett's newsletter to investors I went back and looked at was a voice in the wilderness. He was very upset that people suggested he approved of what Donald Trump did. And I think he almost said that trade deficits didn't matter now, but this was a time when the trade deficit was like 98 million. 98 billion. Excuse me, it was even less than that. And it was not 300 plus billion. It was about a quarter or maybe 15%. And he was saying this is not sustainable, the drain and foreign exchange and what the Chinese do with that profiteering. So what I'm getting at is everybody, by reading this Bahnsen and seeing what he's at and seeing what's his name has taken a. Have you noticed that Jack, he's taken a completely different role.
- [31:06]
Jack Fowler
Who, Scott Besant?
- [31:07]
Co-Host
Yeah, Scott Besant. He's really articulate, he's very calm. He's not trying to sabotage the MAGA agenda. What he's trying to do is explain what Trump is trying to do to bondholders and stockholders. And he's had a pretty good effect. And he ran a big. I think he was what made George Soros unfortunately rich because he was the head of the Soros fund for years, even though he was sinner. Right. But he made Soros for a lot of money. But he's a very wise investor and people on Wall street respect him.
- [31:43]
Jack Fowler
Well, panics are part of the history of Wall street and panics are based on fear. And if someone could dispel the fear, rightly, you want that.
- [31:51]
Co-Host
Well, watching this volatility, I am starting to Get a different perspective on the Great depression and the 2008 meltdown because it was the same hysteria. And in 2008 it was subprime mortgage. In the Great Depression, it was buying on stocks on the margin that were not performing and global problems with debt from World War I. But my point is that these bondholders, and once they start saying, oh, nobody wants the bonds and I'm stuck with them, I've got to unload them and then I'll take a loss, but maybe I won't. They won't. You know, I don't know what they were thinking. They're going to collapse or something. Or the market, market's going to collapse. Oh my gosh, I'll have to jump out of a window like my great, great grandfather or something. But the point I'm making is that they didn't look at the. They didn't look at the facts. They didn't say to themselves, inflation is at 2.6. In the March report, 100,000 jobs were created that were not there. In the economist mind, they said there would be this, I don't know, 100,000, 135, 145, maybe 150,000 new jobs, and it exceeded it by almost 100,000. And oil prices and energy prices are down. And although Elon Musk is not going to make by any means, I never understood the trillion dollars. He may make. Two, he's up to 150 billion in cuts. He may make, I don't know, 250, 300 billion, but that's the first time anybody's done that. And that's what Wall street was always saying, that this is unsustainable, these deficits in debt. So what I'm getting at is when you look at all that, there was not a lot of reason to panic, especially given our position vis a vis our neighbors. There's other one thing, and that is the Europeans everybody should be very careful of because deep, deep, deep, deep. Can I say deep again, deep down inside, they are furious at China. They remember that China sent flights into Europe as they did the United States for about two weeks when they knew people had Covid and they would not let them fly anywhere.
- [34:11]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, they had that pipeline to Italy where they.
- [34:14]
Co-Host
Exactly, exactly. And they know that China never came clean and said the 50, 80 million people died because this was the virus. This is why we created it. This is when we created it. This is how it got out. And here's the people who were involved and they're missing. And here's what happened to they will never say that because they're culpable and they know what they do in trade and they bully the Philippines and Taiwan and Japan. They know all that and they know that they have wiped out industrial centers in Europe, Europe and they understand that all that. They also know Jack, that when they are running a third of a trillion dollar, their deficit with China of the whole EU community, 30something nations is about what ours is with China. So they know that. But one of the ways they get back is they say well we're afraid of China, we have no military, they're the rising sun. The United States has spent. But one of the ways we're going to on the foreign exchange, we'll run almost the same amount of debt with the United States. So China gets a 300 plus billion dollar surplus with us, we get a 200 plus billion surplus with the United States. We'll build the biggest Volkswagen factory, biggest car factory in the world in Germany for export to the US etc. But deep down inside they understand what China is doing to them and they would like someone, that is the United States to confront China and make it stop its mercantile policies and reduce this predatory approach to trade belt and roll. But they're not going to say that. And the question we're all looking at now is and I don't have the answer, but maybe the listeners do. Maybe you do, Jack, maybe Sammy does on our next one. But the question is if Donald Trump still persists in trying to hold China account, what will be the attitude of the Europeans? Will it be a secretly we're really happy that he's doing this because we are the same victims as the United States and now they are calling them accounts. So stealthily we're going to support the United States and one way we can support the United States is be reasonable on either no tariffs or reciprocal tariffs and help them or this is really interesting. The United States is losing its relationship with China vis a vis. There's some transparency there and we're going to jump in and try to have new relationships with China. Now that would be disastrous given what China's plans are for Europe in the not too distant future. Or are they going to say not secretly for or not secretly against the but openly for the United States because what China more importantly, if there is a reduction in Chinese exports to the United States or their price too high, it only helps us and we will lower our tariffs but we will get a bigger product into the United States to replace some of the things even though we can't, you know, make iPhones cheaply. So there's all these. And I don't have the answer to what their attitude is going to be. I know they don't like the United States and they don't, they hate Trump and they, they like the bicoastal elite which are identical to the European establishment.
- [37:52]
Jack Fowler
Strasbourg.
- [37:53]
Co-Host
There is one last wildcard in this matrix and that is Europe is sitting on a maga volcano. And we saw that in Romania, we see that in Poland, we see that in Germany, we see that in France. And they don't know what starting in England, they don't know what to do with it. But there is a populist conservative backlash which is, is echoing or synonymous or equivalent to what's happening in this country. So the ultimate people who run Europe, we don't really know who they're going to be. It depends on how successful they are. By stripping these people of the party, if they can't participate in coalitions in Germany or their candidates are disqualified in Romania or they're persecuted in Poland or in France, yeah, they're law fared. All this is going on. And just a final thought. Trump didn't have to do any of this. He could have played Biden, he could have played Obama, he could have played George W. Bush, he could have just said, you know what, I didn't create this huge 37 trillion dollar debt. I'm just going to spend more. 1.5 trillion, not 2 probably. Country won't be broke. It'll go from 125% of GDP, the aggregate national debt to maybe 135. It got that point once in World War II. I'll let the next sucker deal with it. I'm not going to deal with it because why would I do it? I can have a pretty good economy with borrowed money and nobody's going to object. He could have done that. And same thing with everything.
- [39:33]
Jack Fowler
That's why we're at where we're at, because people do it.
- [39:37]
Co-Host
Yeah, they voted for a counter revolution and they should stick with it.
- [39:41]
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, I have a question or two more on this from you. China and its demographics. But you know what, let me ask you that and then we'll get back to some lawfare or big law and some other the domestic matters when we come back from these important messages.
- [40:03]
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- [40:50]
Victor Davis Hanson
Like the orange blossoms outside my kitchen door.
- [40:53]
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- [40:58]
Victor Davis Hanson
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- [41:02]
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- [41:23]
We'll be back to our show in just a moment. But first, an important message for anyone concerned about their financial future. Have you seen the headlines? The Department of Government Efficiency has uncovered a staggering $115 billion in government fraud, with investigators suggesting this is just the tip of the iceberg. Financial analysts are now confirming what many suspected the previous administration's economic success was largely artificial, propped up by funneling trillions through NGOs and creating an economic mirage. As this corruption is exposed, experts predict we're heading toward a short but deep recession. When this false economic support evaporates, what does this mean for your retirement savings? Throughout our history, when governments manipulate economies and currencies collapse, physical gold has been mankind's most reliable store of value. Shouldn't you consider protecting part of your retirement with an asset that governments can't create with keystrokes or devalue through corruption? American Alternative Assets is offering a free wealth protection guide to help safeguard your financial future from the coming economic correction. Call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today for your free guide and learn why now may be the perfect time to add precious metals to your portfolio. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com protect what you've earned before the fraud economy collapses completely.
- [43:09]
Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson show, recording on Saturday, April 12, Passover. Blessings to our brothers and sisters in Abraham. This episode is up on Tuesday, April 15th. We're just a few days away from the demisesquisite centennial. I don't know the word, but the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord. Yes, maybe the maybe the great Sammy Wink will discuss that with you on the actual anniversary day episode. Victor's website the Blade of Perseus. You'll find it@victorhansen.com Please do subscribe. Why? Because Victor twice a week writes an exclusive article for the Blade of Perseus and once a week does an exclusive video. I mean in addition, there are links galore to Victor's other appearances, the archives of these podcasts, his books, etc. If you're a fan of Victor's writing, you will want to subscribe. $65 a year, which is discounted from 650amonth. But do the monthly plan if you want, but do subscribe. Victorhansen.com and also Victor's on XD Hansen. He's at the Daily Signal. I know he's American Greatness. He's writing weekly once a month now, I think a piece for the Free Press. Victor is I don't know how many hours in a day you have. Victor, I just have to mention you mentioned David Bonson before. Just to be open. We are extremely close. David has money. He handles my money. I love love him. David's mindset is pretty old school. Dividends matter. Companies that pay dividends are not speculative as much as let's bet on this stock as opposed to one that is paying you off. But he's a very dear friend. Victor, I just thought before we get back to maybe the thoughts on big law and the judge rule ruling on, I want to get your thoughts on Mahmoud, however Mahmoud Khalil and federal court decision on him with China. Well, two things. One to me it always seems forgotten in these discussions is India. It's just like the most massive country and friends with the US and probably the entity that will be decisive in these longer term global India is now.
- [45:47]
Co-Host
In Washington because they have, I think they have $100 billion surplus with us or more and they have high tariffs and they've also I'm kind of out of my lane as far as the Hoover economists. I shouldn't be talking about economics. I got kind of a subtle message about that from one person. But nevertheless, mind your business. They have 5% GDP growth. China has 6. So why haven't trade deficits ruined their GDP? But my point is they have a very long border with China, as does Russia. I think Russia's border is 2000. Russia during the czars Previous appropriated a large chunk of China in the mongolian area, Mongolia, etc. And the Chinese think that it really belongs to them. So my point is I think people forget that one of the reasons that Donald Trump has been so complimentary of Modi and likes him and India and one reason that he wants to settle the Ukraine war is he wants to Henry Kissinger China and that means that Russia and be no better friend to China than they are to the United States or no worse enemy, etc. Etc. And triangulate against China and tell those countries in the case of India and Russia, you've had border disputes that have gone to violence with China and we know what they would like to do to you and we have two oceans. So this is something that you should be aware of and join us. And the thing is China, if you look at all of the economies that matter, if you look at the Indian economy and the EU economy and the United States economy and the Japanese and South Korean economy, I think the $20 trillion of, I think it's over a hundred and something trillion dollar aggregate economy, China's only about 15%, still only 2/3 of our 30 trillion. So my point is that there, there are resources of everybody. I'm not trying to persecute China. If they just said, hey, bam, bam, bam, you've got to follow the rules, you can't steal technology, you can't break patents, you can't dump market, you have to respect copyright, you can't do all of this that you're doing, then I think they would.
- [48:19]
Jack Fowler
Well, layered onto that, Victor, is the demographic nightmare that it's, I mean, the world's and well, the world's in.
- [48:30]
Co-Host
Yeah, it's like South Korea. It's one person, you know, they have some propaganda. Have you seen these things on the Internet that China is running? Well, they have a picture of a Chinese sewing factory, you know, with all these. I've seen Americans. Yeah, well, yeah, but they substitute all the Chinese female workers for big fat Americans and they're like £350 and they have a bag of chips and Coke at the table and they can hardly move. And then the Chinese, one of them was translated. This is what America thinks they can do. And the worst one is I want to give a message to my friends in China. If you want to run propaganda and you think that one of your ex students who's back in China that lived in the United States five to ten years knows the United States and can give you sophisticated. I taught hundreds of Chinese students at Pepperdine at Cal State. And I know they don't in that four year period any more know about the United States than I would about China. Even my fang fang, my encounter. Hey, man. Hey, dude. The Valley girl talk. But I mean by encounter, somebody was in the room when she showed up to complain about a column I wrote about China. Said she was a consul personnel from the embassy in kachin meat for 20 minutes. But anyway, my point is they have a video out Jack of Mao Zedong and it looks like it's around 1953 because he's in a harangue against Dwight Eisenhower, who came into office on January 20, 1953, when the Korean War was static. Both sides were pretty much where the DMZ at the 38th parallel was. And Ike did not want to go as MacArthur did. Ridgway didn't want to go either. He was now in Japan taking MacArthur's place as pro consul. But my point is he wanted to settle it kind of like Trump. And every people thought we were going to lose Korea. Then when we went back and lost Seoul and we went back in and 51 got sold, went back across. And then the question is, well, now we can go back way up to the yala river like MacArthur did. No. So we're not going to do that. But my point is that Eisenhower did not have a reputation for being very bellicose. His famous farewell address about the dangers of the military industrial complex became iconic. So here you have a. Think of what they're thinking of, Jack. We're going to put out a video of the world's greatest mass murderer who killed between 50 and 70 million and out did Stalin and Hitler and Tamerlane and Genghis Khan and Attila, the worst mass murder in the world. Yelling at a US President that did not want to expand the war and left, warning the country about the dangers of never ending wars and military US that's not going to persuade anybody who would think that that would be effective propaganda anywhere other than the Communist Party.
- [51:47]
Jack Fowler
Elite or maybe, maybe some faculty.
- [51:51]
Co-Host
Excuse me. Yes, it'll be at Columbia too.
- [51:53]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, so. Well, Victor, I just want to take a moment for our sponsor, Open Phone. Open Phone 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 call 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 OpenPhone. I'm going to spell it. O, P E N P H O-N-E.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone, we'll port them over at no extra charge. OpenPhone, no missed calls, no missed customers. And we thank the good people at OpenPhone for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. VICTOR Back to America, back to illegals. Let's talk about get your thoughts anyway, judge rules Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. This was yesterday, Friday, April 11, a federal judge in Louisiana, hey, I'm glad he ruled how he did. But you know, again, it's up to one man to make a decision, as you've been talking about before. But anyway, your thoughts on that?
- [53:26]
Co-Host
Well, there was a bigger landscape around that. Remember that the interim Columbia president promised the DoJ and the state Department that they would comply with the Trump administration's strictures about $400 million in federal money. And by the way, as everybody said, I don't know why Colombia, with about a 15 billion dollar endowment, needs any federal money. 1950s maybe when they were doing research for the government, but they're not doing that now. They have some valuable health stuff, but most of it is just anyway, my point is that they, they violated that. She talked out of both sides of her mouth and they caught her and resigned. So there's not a lot of good anywhere in the United States right now for Colombia. They just understand that. They stick their tongue, they think they're sacrosanct, that they can do whatever they want. And so they're having these anti Semitic protests. They're still wearing masks. But Khalil, the question is, and the person, the go to person on this is Marco Rubio. He's like Scott Bessant. He has an ability to boil things down into a very succinct, convincing two or three lines. He just basically always says when I write somebody in my house and they crap all over the floor or destroy my dinner table, do I just sit there and say they have a legal right to come in because they're an American, no American resident? No, I ask them to leave. So they, this guy came over here ostensibly to get an education, take advantage of the security and safety and prosperity of America, which he felt he could not enjoy in his native, I guess, either Algeria or Morocco or in Lebanon, places that he grew up or the west bank or Gaza. And what does he do? He immediately joins dives Colombia and becomes a point man to explain and demand their positions and they're committing violent crimes. And then he is disseminating literature of a State Department designated terrorist organization, Hamas. And all he had to do was say, I'm Mr. Khalil, I want to get my master's degree in blah blah education or whatever it was when I get to the United States. But in addition to that, I'm very interested in joining the divest group of students that are demanding that Columbia University sell anything that has anything to do with Israel, stock, bonds, anything. And I also want to participate in numerous demonstrations and I want to pamphleteer the Hamas position on October 7th. That's all he had to do. And they would have said, you know what? I think I'll take a break on this one. See, I wouldn't want to be you. Well, that's what, it's very simple. We don't have to cater to people who don't like the United States and don't then praise a terrorist designated organization. We don't have to. Just, just if I, I keep going back to that. I had a visa for two and a half years in Greece. If I had written an article and said when I was there it was a very anti American climate. There had been a dictator, Papadopoulopoulos, who had been there since 67. He was put in, I think it's fair to say, with the agency of the CIA. He was a strong anti communist, but he was a dictator and the socialist government was overthrown. And then when I was there he was kicked out. And they put a really tough guy named, they didn't think he was tough enough, Ioannidis. And he was even more right wing and they were trying to home port a big carrier and there was just protest every day. And I went down in November and I was a stupid kid, just turned 20 and they were at the polytechnion and about four of us watched a tank, a Patton tank, just smash the gate and go right, right into the polytechnic. And I think there were 17 or 18 people killed during that series of protests. My point is this. Had I done one of two things. Had I said I was going to join the students at the polytechnion and been a big spokesman for their anti American, I would have been deported by the dictatorship. Contrarily, had I joined the students, if I had joined the government and said this is a necessary crackdown and I support it and I've been very loud about that. When that government was overthrown in June and I was still in Greece, I would have been deported by the new socialist government. So the point is, if you are a guest in some country and you're there to study archaeology and classical languages and you divert from that express purpose on your visa and you get actively involved in controversial positions contrary to half the country, what do you think is going to happen? You're not a citizen, you're a guest. And so what do these people think is going to happen when they come over here and after October 7th start praising Hamas and they take it to the next level? What were the Stanford people thinking? That they were going to go into the President's camp and ransack it and cause 20 or 30 thousand dollars worth of damage? Did they think that was fine? What did they think they were going to do when they were supposed to have a tent no more than 24 hours and camp out there for three or four months? Why? Why? Why? So it's not a question of any of this protest, civil rights, First Amendment. It's just a question. Did you keep your promise as a resident and come over to the country and go through a brief audit as a student, and no one would let you in if they knew that you were going to be an advocate and a promoter of either violence or the interest of a terrorist organization?
- [59:49]
Jack Fowler
It's what basic human nature, Victor, if you invited me to your house or I showed up as people want to show up at the Hanson house, and you and Mrs. Hansen were hypothetically having an argument of some kind, and I got involved in it. I took a side while you there. You would think if there was a documentary of this, people would think that Guy Fowler isn't an idiot. They probably think that anyway. I mean, we don't tolerate that. Just a normal interaction.
- [60:19]
Co-Host
That's a very good point. About eight years ago, a film crew came. I won't mention them. I've had a lot. I used to have one every month to come out here and film for various things. But this particular crew came out and they said they wanted to be in a particular ag building. And then they said, I don't like this building. And then one of the guy goes, wow, this is really old. And then the next thing they said, let's move everything and go to the barn. I said, well, the barn. And they go in there and they said, wow, this is. There's a woodpecker up there. We can't do that. And I was following them around, and then they Said, let's go outside. And then they said, wow, there's all this jet noise. I said, the Fresno Airport is 30 miles away. We're in the flight path. And then they said, no. And I said, no, we're not going to do any of this. You're a guest. You came here. I explained that you wanted to be outside and have an agricultural background. I said there'd be noise. You didn't get it, and now you're ordering me. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to do it right here, right now, and then you're going to leave. Now, if you don't want to do that, please leave. And they got really freaked out. Well, what do we do? I said, you didn't do anything other than be a rude guest and I'm a rude host. That's the only time that had ever happened. But when people come to your house or to your country, they can't order you and tell you what they can do. You can do whatever you want as the owner of your country. And they're not citizens, they're guests. I know that residents have the same rights under the, the Bill of Rights, but not as a visa holder. You don't have to go through everything. You just don't have to issue a visa. And when I say don't issue a visa, don't renew it or cancel it, either one. Well, and I think everybody understands that.
- [62:15]
Jack Fowler
But, Khalil.
- [62:17]
Co-Host
Yeah, we created a climate in this international Western community where we praise radical Islam, Islamic groups and quasi terrorists and nominal, I mean, openly terrorist groups, and they become a cause celeb. And then they think they are going to be immune from any consequences. And then as soon as there is a moderate consequence, nobody's putting him in jail, nobody's saying that he can't. He can write, he can say anything he wants. He just can say it over in Gaza because we don't have to extend that.
- [62:53]
Jack Fowler
Victor, he's a piker compared to some others because they're more than cause celebs, they are welfare recipients. I want to get your thoughts on that. And Big Law. Maybe another topic, because we're rounding a stretch here, rounding a turn into a home stretch on this episode. But we'll do that when we come back from these final important messages.
- [63:21]
Sponsor
We'll be back to our show in just a moment. But first, an important message for anyone concerned about their financial future. Have you seen the headlines? The Department of Government Efficiency has uncovered a staggering $115 billion in government fraud. With investigators suggesting this is just the tip of the iceberg, financial analysts are now confirming what many suspected. The previous administration's economic success was largely artificial, propped up by funneling trillions through NGOs and creating an economic mirage. As this corruption is exposed, experts predict we're heading toward a short but deep recession when this false economic support evaporates. What does this mean for your retirement savings? Throughout our history, when governments manipulate economies and currencies collapse, physical gold has been mankind's most reliable store of value. Shouldn't you consider protecting part of your retirement with an asset that governments can't create with keystrokes or devalue through corruption? American Alternative Assets is offering a free wealth protection guide to help safeguard your financial future from the coming economic correction. Call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today for your free guide and learn why now may be the perfect time to add precious metals to your portfolio. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com protect what you've earned before the fraud economy collapses completely.
- [65:04]
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- [65:57]
Jack Fowler
We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Victor it's not shocking. Nothing shocking anymore. Headline Doge Terror Watch List Migrants Secured Medicaid after release into US A bombshell report by Doge revealed that migrants on the federal government's terrorist watch list were able to secure Medicaid after being released into the United states by Joe Biden's administration. 6,300 of Biden's migrants paroled into the US interior with no immigration status were either on the terrorist watch list or had criminal records. And when you see yet still rewarded work permits and Social Security numbers. I mean, Khalil is nothing compared to these. Well, gotta watch my mouth.
- [66:48]
Co-Host
It used to be that if you were here illegally and you were residing illegally Most states would not allow you to have Medicaid or what we call in California Medi California. And liberal, far left progressive California 1994 had this 187 and they voted overwhelmingly not to extend these types of services to illegals. And you know what? It was almost automatically declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in California. Federal judiciary, the judges study the cases, the ballot propositions in advance. So then when they see one that they don't like, I guess they talk to colleagues because they have a pre prepared rejection or overturning the will of the people. But to take California and this response, we're not even talking about. Criminal aliens in California were short over $7 billion of MEDI CAL funds that went to illegal aliens. I mentioned before, 50% of all the births are on Medi Cal and 40% of all the residents in California are on Medi Cal. And Gavin Newsom Virtue signaled that during COVID he was allotting an extra half billion dollars to illegal aliens. This is even worse than because these are criminal illegal aliens. And so when people come across the border, 12 million of them, many of them in their home countries, have never been to a doctor. I had a doctor, I won't mention anything about him, but he would tell me how difficult it was to have somebody come illegally into the United States from the southern regions of Mexico. And then where do you start? With a complete workup. Blood, cholesterol, everything. And the, you know, everything from teeth to, you know, this is a humanitarian. But the accruing medical cost never covered his cost, his real cost in time or the insurance companies, I mean, the actual cost of the surgery. So what happened is a lot of the labs, a lot of the doctors just wouldn't take it anymore. Medi Cal because the return was so long and so much paperwork and below the actual market cost. And yet it was increasing and increasing and increasing. And then the left was saying, how dare you do this? But they didn't give them any mechanism to how to address the problem. And it also was an incentive, say for Mexico. Mexico's idea was if I have a lot of very poor people that have never gone to a doctor and we export them. I'm quoting Mr. Obrador, the former president, almost literally when he said, I think it's a beautiful thing. I think it is a beautiful thing that 40 million people came into the United States. And he was talking about illegal. I don't think it was quite that high. But his whole point was that the United States and then they need massive subsidies of health education, food, housing, etc. And that's a wonderful thing. And for the poor American citizen that has to compete for those services, it's terrible. And so when you see somebody in the left that makes that argument, oh, how dare you say it. You should just say to them, how many? Why not take all of Venezuela? Why don't we take all of Argentina? Or why don't we, I don't know, why don't we just put a health clinic in Malibu, right in the middle of Malibu, right on the beach. Just take one of the government can buy one of those 40 million dollar homes, say this is the Malibu Medical Clinic and anybody's going to get free care. And by the way, you can park anywhere you want along.
- [70:54]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, just like the clinic at Martha's Vineyard.
- [70:57]
Co-Host
Martha's Vineyard, that would last. So what I'm getting at, everybody, is the whole liberal ideology is based on the fact that the Democratic Party has transmogrified into a party of the high professional classes, the wealthy, the investor class, and they are exempt from the consequences of their own politics and ideology. And that's, that's why they have that ideology, their biggest fear in the world. I got so much money, I'm so successful, I got such a title. I got so many degrees, I gotta live to 95. Most of them are agnostic or atheist. I gotta live to 95 and that means global warming. And I gotta feel good about myself. I gotta do that. But I don't want anything to, I don't want any reality to intrude on my privilege. So all the consequences of my programs are going to fall on people in East Palestine or Hanford, California, but not me. And that's pretty much sums up the Democratic Party. They would not want an illegal alien criminal to be in their neighborhood. They would not want their child to sit next to him in the waiting room to get an ear infection treated. But they don't care if it's someone else.
- [72:12]
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, one of the big components of that elite is big law. And it just of late seems to be coalescing, that this is a target. And Donald, part of the coalescing and the focusing has been Donald Trump and his executive orders. I think he's gone now after about his fourth firm, Sussman Godfrey. And these folks are, I don't know if they're terrified, but they are, from our perspective, mine anyways, conservative. They should be targets. They are at the controls of so much that is going wrong with our country and our world. And Donald Trump is taking them on through, through these executive orders removing their security clearances, which are means a big loss of money. I think one of the firms was predicting they came to terms with Trump. But, well, what they are, it cost them $1.2 billion.
- [73:19]
Co-Host
I mean, they're the landing pad. They're like big tech. They're the landing pad for left wing bureaucrats or political appointees to go to with law degrees after they're done and they get security clearances, they get invited to national security briefings, and then they market that, Market that. And in addition, they intrude into politics. And that locus Classicus is Perkins Coey. They partnered with the DNC to transmit Hillary Clinton's payoffs to Christopher Steele. Then they basically got the money from the dnc and then they gave it to Fusion gps, then they gave it to Christopher Steele. And the FBI was also paying, you know, another informant to spy on Donald Trump. And there were no consequences. And so what Trump is saying is, you have a perfect right to practice law. Go to it. We're just not going to extend any of the traditional federal privileges to you, and you're going to be subject to all the laws and protocols of every other law firm in Nebraska and Kansas and North Dakota. But the idea that you're a bunch of insiders and we're going to give you security clearances or federal grants or you're going to, we're not going to do that. We're not going to put you on boards. We're not going to do any of that. And that's a lot of the stuff that they market, their blue chip. And by the way, you and I know lawyers, and I'm thinking of Cleta Mitchell, one of my best friends and one of the nicest people in the world who was ostracized by her law firm for just listening on a call that Donald Trump made to the registrar. He didn't say create 10,000 votes. He said, find them. I know they're there somewhere. And that happens all the time. You talk to candidates in close races, they always call up officials and say, darn it, I know you didn't get that precinct. And it's up to the registrar to say, you know what? We either didn't and we're working on it, or you don't call me, but that's not a criminal offense. And she tried to make that into a racketeering rico. Da, da, da, da, da. But my point is that anybody that was on that call, even if they said anything and they were working for big Law, they were basically fired. And they didn't really say, we're firing you for being on it. We just says, oh, maybe our big corporate clients won't go to us because of your name, so we're going to just end your career. And that's what they did. They were bullies. They act like they're victims now, but they were knee deep in the January 6th, all of that stuff.
- [75:58]
Jack Fowler
If you worked in the first Trump administration, they were not going to give you a job.
- [76:04]
Co-Host
Absolutely. They had an informal boycott, almost a racketeering method of operation, that if you were in these big blue chip New York and Washington law firms and you were MAGA or Trump or something, they colluded to make sure your corporate career was over with no one who defended January 6th people or no one who advised Donald Trump was going to get a job in any of those. And most of them, if the few who were already working were going to be terminated, not by any oh, we're firing you because you were on a phone call even though you didn't say a word. But we're firing you because we're afraid all our clients will not have business with us if you're here. That's the ruse they used.
- [76:55]
Jack Fowler
Well, Victor, have one more quick topic before we conclude today's episode and it has to do. I'm interested in your thoughts on. I will call her nasty. God forgive me if I'm too hardcore there. The nasty principal at that Columbus, Ohio high school where there was supposedly a threat of a bombing and police came to investigate the bomb threat and the principal stopped them. And politically, by May, I kind of feel like, well, good, because this is your. I think you're emblematic of what the left is all about, but this is warped, just warped. If there is something dangerous going on at school and you are, are play acting, not play acting principal, real principal, but stopping cops from doing their job. There's something really, really wrong with our education. K12 educational.
- [78:00]
Co-Host
You don't believe the principal should have the right to raise our children. It's a really old topic in Western literature, Plato's Republic, you know, his whole idea was of nepotism or that children that, that looked like their parents or there were actually genuine children from their parents would get preferential treatment or they would be subject to the vagaries of a good or bad parent. However, if you had the state, if you mix them up and no one knew who their parents were and the state, they would have a uniform utopian education. And that tradition was very entrenched. Even though Plato was supposed conservative, it was very entrenched on the extreme right and left. And that was kind of the idea of when Hitler went into Poland, you know, they looked at all these Aryan looking blond and blue eyed kids and they thought, you know what, we're losing a lot of Germans, we're going to lose a lot of Germans. So they just kidnapped them and gave them to members of the Nazi party so that they could be raised as good little Nazis. And then Atlas, Huxley's Brave New World. The same idea that you're going to have a state come in and take over the parental role, that's always been a dream, especially the left. And you can see that issue, you know, with transgendering and all of that stuff that the state in the form of the parent of the teachers. I don't know what the status is in California, so I shouldn't opine on it. But I don't think there are school districts that whatever the particular student under 18 believes his or her gender is, they will be assumed to be that gender in school regardless of the parents volition. So that's kind of that utopian idea, the state taking a over parenthood and that's what the left would really want. Just as a footnote, I have kind of ambiguous views on the Department of Education because on the one hand there was no need for it and it's been hijacked by the left. But if it was run right for four years and it tried to tell school districts like California or New York or Illinois or Connecticut, you should have a mandatory civic education, we don't care how you do it, just here's the guidelines. But then I start thinking, I think no, it'll be like no Child Left behind as soon as Trump leaves or something. So it's probably to abolish it. But everybody, conservatives should realize if you abolish the Department of Education, which we should do, these individual states will get the federal monies in block grants and half of them are going to be delighted because there's no restrictions on what they'll do with the money. And I guess the only remedy is you can move but expect that. I've just noticed among the left, they shout and shout about the Department of Education, but they feel that they might even be able to go further to the left if there was no federal oversight of left wing though it is. Well, I think that California would be teaching, you know, let's give the land back to Mexico.
- [81:26]
Jack Fowler
Except, except under the. Is it the French Laundry?
- [81:32]
Co-Host
Well, there would be enclaves The Malibu, the Berkeley Hill, Presidio Heights in San Francisco. Brentwood. Yes, those are exempt.
- [81:45]
Jack Fowler
Victor, a few weeks ago, you. Actually, it was last week we ended the show. Not the show. You talked about Jasmine Crockett and picking cotton. And, you know, we've come to the end of this particular episode where we read comments. A couple things here. First of all, I always say I've said, and it was honest, we read all the comments. Well, you know what? There are just too many comments to read now on one. Just one YouTube posting of this show. It was like 800. And within a day. Within a day, staggering. So we appreciate the people that do comedy which give it. Give it the old college try. So. And I have a few that are in response to. To what you said about Jasmine Crockett. I want to read these. One person, Mrs. Ms. 7LF. Whatever. I hope I got that right. Writes, I don't understand Jasmine Crockett with her cotton fields. I'm white. My dad was born in 1923. He grew up picking cotton. My mom spent much of her youth picking pinto beans. It's not only people of color who have to do these things. So that's one. The second from 68 orange crate 26. Professor Hansen's point regarding the devastating effect of less bureaucracy on the average American is among his most poignant. Jasmine, who picked more cotton, you or me? Priceless. And then finally, from Quick Deuce, read the stabbing. Except me. The actual. Oh, the stabbing. The stabbing. This is not about the cotton. This is about the teenage murderer or alleged murderer in Frisco, Texas.
- [83:39]
Co-Host
Football player? Yeah, football.
- [83:41]
Jack Fowler
Or the track meet. Was that track? Read the stabbing. Back in the day, if there was going to be a brouhaha, it was after the game in the parking lot. Noses got bloody, knuckles may have been busted, perhaps a tooth or two dislodged. But everyone left the parking lot alive and went home. Not to a hospital.
- [83:58]
Sponsor
Er.
- [83:58]
Jack Fowler
Why are things different in the last 30 or more years? Is it the video games or is it the media? When the media makes these bad things a big deal. Is that right? That's a open question there, but certainly things are quite different.
- [84:13]
Co-Host
When I was in high school, we had a rivalry with a Swedish town where my family was actually from Kingsburg. My father's side. My mother was from Selma. But during the big game between the two, at one year, I think it was my junior year, they said this. I won't mention the name. All these names are still here. But this guy was. He was one of their Biggest guys. But then we had a guy who was really tough and mean and they said they're going to square off in a Selma parking lot at 4 o'clock on Friday before the game, before they suit up. And so everybody ran out there, right? And there must have been 500 people. And they thought this is going to be the knockdown, drag out fight and Salma's going to win and Kingsburg. And then they walked out there, they started and they kind of liked each other, they said. And basically they smiled and said, I'll see you in two hours on the field.
- [85:06]
Jack Fowler
They hugged it out.
- [85:07]
Co-Host
Yeah, they hugged it out. It was really good to see that. And I remember that. And. But they did all that stuff and nobody brought a knife and stabbed somebody in the heart and then said he was a victim and raised, I don't know, two or three hundred thousand dollars for that.
- [85:23]
Jack Fowler
Over three hundred thousand already. This is, that's my mind. Remember Rush Limbaugh made a big thing. You remember that years ago the woman got killed by some mountain lion.
- [85:32]
Co-Host
Yeah.
- [85:33]
Jack Fowler
And there was a fundraiser for the cubs of the mountain lions. Something about the.
- [85:40]
Co-Host
Remember the ant? It's anti humanist. They believe. The hard left believes if humans were just disappeared, then all of this natural, wonderful, peace loving nature would come by. Somebody who fought nature for most of my life, farming, it's not necessarily, necessarily a wonderful thing.
- [85:59]
Jack Fowler
Well, the great man on that is Wesley Smith, who writes occasionally still for National Review.
- [86:06]
Co-Host
But he, oh, he's terrific.
- [86:08]
Jack Fowler
And he covers all these things. Like there's an effort to make the Great Lakes equivalent to people. Various mountains and ranges. Lakes are people too. This is the way of the life.
- [86:19]
Co-Host
You know what's funny about nature? Just if any. When you pick grapes, you put them on a tray to dry into raisin paper tray. But we have a boulevard. It's all been sold off now. I only have 40 acres, but we used to have 135 here. And this avenue I live on goes right in the middle of it. So you put people you hire to pick grapes on the row next to the road, right. Because they can get hit or killed and it's dangerous. So they would. And nobody wants to pick there. So they would have us pick two siblings and cousins. We would pick along the road. And you know, it's pretty hard. It's like 105 degrees and you're underneath this grapevine and you have a steel pan. You got to pick all the grapes and you got to move out and not get run over and then pour the Grapes on a trip. And you got five cents a tray if you were really good. You could make 200 if you were that. Anyway, I was 6 and 7 when I started. I did that from 6 all the way till I was, like, 16. But the point is, my grandfather would come out. They always called him Mr. Davis. He wore a railroad suit, you know, those big overalls, and he had all these accoutrements. He had little cuff things that held his sleeves. Blue work shirt underneath. He had boots, and he had a big straw hat. And it was all a little scarf around his neck. It was all about how he was Welsh, so he had all of this white skin he'd burned. But anyway, he was in his 70s, and he would come and he'd say, now you're going to confront all sorts of things. I remember when I was six under this vine. So be careful. There's wasp nest. There's black widow spiders that love to be in the grapes. So when you get the grapes, push it down. And when you turn around, there'll be cars that are getting close to the road. So he did all that. And I thought. And we were all, don't tell us what to do. So the first day I ever picked grapes, I was on there, and I looked up and there was a huge red hourglass on the bottom of a black spider looking at me. And then I thought, oh, my God. And then I moved away in my pan. I poured, and I had. Inside one of the beds were two of those huge blue mud daubers, those huge hornet type. And they were in there. And then this is even worse as I got to the next one, because the vine was, you know, somebody was picking in the other row. In those days, we had what they called an outhouse, and you were supposed to go down and use it. They didn't have porta Potties, but there were two outhouses. But as I got in to the next one, I looked down. There was human feces under the vine, and my pan was in it. And this was just after I told my grandfather, don't worry, this will never happen. That was my first 20 minutes of picking.
- [89:14]
Jack Fowler
It's all uphill from there, Victor.
- [89:16]
Co-Host
Next 10 years were just as bad.
- [89:20]
Jack Fowler
Hey, you've been terrific today as ever. Thanks for all the wisdom you shared. I do want to say thank you to the folks who get Civil thoughts. That's the free weekly email newsletter I write for the center for Civil Society, comes out every Friday. It's also up on Philanthropy Daily, which is the website of the center how do you get it? You go to civil thoughts.com, sign up and you'll start getting it right away.
- [89:45]
Sponsor
What do you get?
- [89:47]
Jack Fowler
You get 14 recommended readings. Great article. I've come across the previous week that I just think good people will enjoy and I think people are enjoying it. Get a lot of emails from folks on that. So thank you for doing that. Again. It's free and we are not selling your name again. Again. Victorhansen.com that's the blade of Perseus. Also, I should mention if you're on Facebook, VDH's Morning Cup. And we have a very good friendly group of folks at the Victor Davis Hansen fan club. It's like 65,000 or so people. That's all on, on, on, on Facebook. So yeah, if you're there, join it. And by the way, Victor, I noticed on X I think you're at the cusp of maybe you're just over 700,000 followers. That's a lot of people.
- [90:40]
Co-Host
That was good. I think when we inherit I had an inert account Twitter that everybody got at Hoover and we had never really, I never put new content but now with all these videos and stuff, we got new content. And I about every week or so I try to write a short X and my daughter does it even though she has three children. And so it's up. It went from 150 to 700,000.
- [91:08]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, that's terrific. Up, up, up. Okay, thank you everyone for, for listening. Thank you for watching. We will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show.
- [91:19]
Co-Host
Bye bye. Thank you everybody for listening and watching.
- [91:25]
Victor Davis Hanson
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