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Victor Davis Hanson
Before today's episode, an urgent message about your financial security. The dollar reset that currency experts have warned about for decades just shifted into overdrive. And the warning signs are impossible to ignore. Central banks are hoarding gold at unprecedented rates while global powers coordinate to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. This isn't temporary market volatility. History shows that when nations reach this level of coordination, a massive reset in inevitably follows. Gold isn't overpriced at record highs. It's the dollar that's rapidly losing its 80 year global dominance. Meanwhile, central banks are purchasing over 1000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years. This isn't just economic policy. It could be the early stages of complete monetary restructuring. And that's why American Alternative Assets created the Dollar Reset Survival Kit that shows you exactly how to position your retirement savings before this historic transition accelerates and potentially receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To jumpstart your protection strategy, call 833-2USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 830-322-87-2465 or victorlovesgold.com Protect your wealth before it's too late. Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. If you heard a slurp, that was Victor. He has a website.
Jack Fowler
I'm not drinking hot coffee.
Victor Davis Hanson
I know.
Jack Fowler
Preparation for my sinus surgery for yes, I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. Well, I expect to go in, go out and then do some podcasts quickly after and sneeze and splatter the screen with clots.
Victor Davis Hanson
Cottage cheese. Okay.
Jack Fowler
That's what he called. It's what the ent called it. Scraping out the cottage cheese. Well, I'm sorry to the audience. I don't want to be.
Victor Davis Hanson
No, no, they're not a hearty. They're a hearty. A lot of people. Since we've gone down this road, I should let them know we do intend to record these podcasts in the future closer to the actual date of when they're they are aired.
Jack Fowler
Especially since I've curtailed my travel. I finished the Washington week and I've said no, sorry, can't. No can do to all of June, July, maybe one in August, all and one in my Hillsdale thing in September and I'm done for the year.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I do want to let our friends and listeners know that we will record your recovery time, sinus recovery time.
Jack Fowler
So we're, we have some great questions. I looked at some of the questions and so I'm looking forward to. I think everybody will enjoy it too because they're on everything from the war to everything on World War II to everything.
Victor Davis Hanson
But that's not this episode. We'll be doing those no next week. So today's episode, Victor only did you did two podcasts, one with Sammy and then I can't wait to watch David Mamet and you.
Jack Fowler
That was, that went 46 minutes. Some people person said, why didn't you do three hours with him? Because he, the reason I, I didn't do three hours with him is that he had a busy schedule. I mean he had one after another. He's been on every Bill Maher, Fox, everywhere. I've known him a long time, off and on. I really like him. I really do. The thing about him is so amazing. Every time you look at DirecTV and you look at some movies, his name pops up. The Untouchables, the Edge. The Edge, Alec Baldwin and then the other one, Ronan with Robert De Niro. And he's just everywhere, the guy, I mean he, he's a very soft spoken person. He can be animated, which is good, but he never really apprises you. If he was a different type of personality or his politics were now different, he would be considered probably the greatest living screenwriter as well as dramatist. He's written, I don't know, some of the most. And they're action, you know what I mean? They're not just dramas, they're live action movies and they're really good.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I was privileged to write an article in an issue of National Review, the magazine that he had a piece in. And I thought something's wrong, something's wrong with this picture. How could I be in a magazine where David Mamet is published? I wrote him and he wrote me back. It was a cherished show.
Jack Fowler
We talked about everything. About his new book, the Disenlightment, which I urge everybody to buy. He's got a lot of great essays in it. And then as well as the Israel, Iran negotiations, except et cetera, et cetera. So it was, it was a very enlightening, you know, trying to spice it up a little bit. I did Julie Mondeiras of Fox News. That was really fun. And I did a couple more. I have some coming up. But I think what's happened because our ratings on some of these services like Amazon or Apple, and the top 10 that we're getting requests from politicians. And you know how agents get they get a bonus for placing people in podcasts or interviews. Well, I think we're on those lists now because we're getting a lot of requests for authors. Yeah, we're in transition, I think a lot because we're doing a lot of I'm doing the Daily signal things every morning, five minutes. So it's a lot of soul searching about where we want to go and what we want to do.
Victor Davis Hanson
All Victor, all the time. You sure that.
Jack Fowler
No, it's called overexposure. I've had a couple of people say you're overexposed.
Victor Davis Hanson
Gosh. Well, Victor, I raised the mammoth almost to make the case that you, you typically do two headline podcasts with the great Sammy Wink. You only did one, which means you did not get have the time to.
Jack Fowler
Talk about the big topic, which is Trump and Musk. I wrote a tweet, my daughter posted it and the new year it got over 500,000 and I think I don't know what it is today. I wrote it, I think at 10 o' clock yesterday morning. And the New York Post picked it up as a column today.
Victor Davis Hanson
But on Saturday, we are Saturday. It was June 7th.
Jack Fowler
I had some people write me and say, you wishy washy, mousy Victor, you're calling for, you know, he said, he said, he said calm, you can't have a reconciliation. And they were evenly divided between Trump is too sensitive. And then Musk is on ketamine or something. But. Well, I was surprised. I thought most people would agree that you wanted to get this over as quickly as possible, redefine the relationship so that Musk is not in the White House because familiarity breeds contempt, but that they talk weekly and they have a good mutually advantageous relationship. But most importantly for the country at large, that's the thrust of what the column was.
Victor Davis Hanson
Let's get more of your. We have to make a stop here. We will get more of your take on what your thinking and what you wrote and we'll do that when we come back from these important messages. In today's fast moving world, your team needs to stay connected to your customers without mixed messages, communication silos or slow phone systems. A flexible and efficient business phone system isn't just nice to have, it's essential to succeed. Enter Open Phone OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer. So no more carrying two phones or using a landline. With openphone Your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. 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. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts, or have a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Openphone is a no brainer. See why over 50,000 businesses trust Openphone to manage their businesses calls and texts. Openphone is offering our listeners 20% off your first 6 months@openphone.com Victor that's O P E N P H O-N-E openphone.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over at no extra charge. Openphone no missed calls, no missed customers. Foreign Fowler here. I'm dressed differently than you just see me. As the show began, Victor's dressed differently. Also. The show of June 10, we recorded this on Saturday, I believe Saturday was the 7th. And between that time and today, and we're talking, Victor and I are talking on Monday, the riots happened, the chaos, the looting has happened in Los Angeles. We're recording two special shows today, Victor and I, so we thought we'd take a few minutes also and get Victor's take on the rights and insert them in the show that is appearing on Tuesday, June 10th. So Victor, get, as you've seen, riots, National Guard called in, Gavin Newsom threatening to sue the Trump administration. Tom Holman explaining that what this, what precipitated this was an actual criminal investigation that was not related to any illegal immigrant roundup. So here we have the powers that be, the ideologues of California and themselves, instigating relentless madness that I hope Victor is not going to spread elsewhere. Anyway, Victor, what are your thoughts? About what?
Jack Fowler
My thoughts, Jack, are every single thing that officials in California have told us was either a lie or misleading. So Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, assured us that this was caused by Tom Holman and ice, that they were investigating people with criminal records. And then the ICE detention center was mobbed and there was no violence. But then she said, and everybody should listen to this, she said, we're not going to stand for this. And what she was referring to was a normal ICE operation, federal government has jurisdiction to go after people who are wanted by the federal government as these illegal aliens were. So what did she mean by that? I guess she meant that she didn't call the police for two hours, the lapd. And then she put them behind her as if they were. And they kind of went like this, uh, oh, I don't want to get fired, so I have to toe the party line. This is peaceful. Then we had Representative Torres. I think she's a Guatemalan immigrant, so she should be very sensitive to these issues. She said to ice, get the F out of la. Think about that. That was a member of the House of Representatives. In other words, I thought, well, how are you going to do that? What do you mean by that? And so the narrative was that it was all peaceful, which it never was, because they were throwing rocks from the beginning at passerby cars. Then Donald Trump said, we might have to send in federal troops because they don't have enough. And then that escalated. What escalated at everyone were this commentary, this commentary from Hikem Jeffries a couple of days earlier, where he said he was going to dox the identification of ICE office. I think that's illegal to do. And then there was, as I said, the House of Representative member Torres threatening ice, get the F out. And then there was Karen Bass. We won't stand for. And then we had our governor. And the subtext of that, Jack, is he. There was a poll taken a couple of weeks ago how many Democrats think Gavin Newsom should be the presidential nominee in 2028. 2. 2%. And then we had another poll in Survey Monkey, and it surveyed 30 polls. And what was Gavin's approval rating? Income, 27% favorability. So I think he feels. So what did he do about that? Well, the first thing he said was that ICE was cruel and reckless and it was just going after quotas. Well, what else are they going to do, Gavin? You guys let in 10,000 a day for four years, every day, 12 million. So to deport them, on a good day, they can deport maybe, I don't know, 1000, 1500. If they were having a quota to match what you guys did, they'd need 8,000 a day. So they're not even going to get near the number that you let in, you being the Democratic Party, unaudited. So then Gavin, then he attacked Trump for nationalizing the Guard. He dared Holman to arrest him for impeding federal officers. And then he did something really weird. He said he got very angry, Jack, because in California, not far from us, Clovis, California, the. This. The high school state track finals were held and we had a biological male, transgendered female, if you will, who just swept the offices. And Trump had done what Obama did. When Obama wanted to make sure that everybody in educational institutions followed his ideas of sexual harassment, he just said that the preponderance of evidence is all you need. Do not dare have a inquiry where guilty until innocent until proven guilty. And if you don't, we're going to withhold funds. That's what he said. And they said earlier Democratic, we're going to make women's budgets the same as men. If you don't, we're going to withhold funds. So all Trump did is, that's a good idea. So, Gavin, if you break this order, we're going to withhold funds and actually said fines rather than wholesale. All of California. So what did Gavin do? He said, okay, we give these many billions to the state, and this is what we get back in billions in service, and there's an $80 billion shortfall. So maybe we won't give any federal taxes to the government because we pay the bills. We in California. Gavin, you're an ignoramus. You really are. Do you realize that the Federal government gets $5.5 trillion a year in federal revenue? And if you are correct, and I don't think you are, because when you say Californians pay this amount and they get back this in services, they have a lot of other overhead, you're not talking about, like, more homeless and more illegal aliens than any other state. And that requires a lot of federal help that you're not adjudicating. But any case, Gavin's 80 billion that he thinks pays the bills, it equals, Jack, 1.5% of all federal revenue's income. So, Gavin, you're trying to tell all of us that we pay the federal bills and we shouldn't. And if you look at the statute, and I looked it up, the federal statute, if people take Gavin's advice and don't pay their federal income taxes in protest of transgender. And by the way, Gavin, your transgendered stance is contrary to your recent manifestation where you said that wasn't right. That's when you were talking to Charlie Hurd and you were trying to position yourself as a moderate. That failed. Your podcast failed. So now you're back to your. I don't know what you were. Nobody knows what you are. It depends on the day and the issue. But in any case, you told people not to pay their taxes. If they don't pay their taxes, it's a felony for anyone to aid, abet, advocate someone to break federal tax law. So what we're getting, bottom line, Jack, is we have something like the nullification crisis of South Carolina in 1832, or we're on the eve of the Civil War and we have all of these state officials who seem to think that Californians are not Americans. You know, sorry, Gavin, I lived here my whole state, my whole life. I'm a fifth generation. My allegiance is not to California, it's to the. And I pay my taxes to the United States and I follow federal law. When I go to Yosemite or I go down I5. These are federal jurisdictions, they're not yours. And I feel much more comfortable being an American than one of your Californians. If you want to talk about cruel, Gavin, cruel is what you are doing. Highest gas taxes, highest income tax, among the highest sales tax, 70 billion dollar deficit, some of the worst schools in the nation, half the homeless, fifth of the people under the poverty line, one quarter don't pay their power. I could go on. That's your state. So why don't you take care of that rather than grandstanding about illegal aliens that are breaking the law. And then finally we get to the optics, Jack. So Hikem Jeffries, who wants to dox ice, and Karen Bass, the mayor, who she's not in Ghana, by the way. She's here. She seems to like to have, she likes to see LA burn. In other words, when she was there, it was burning and now it's burning again and she doesn't seem to be bothered by that. But she's not doing her job. Maybe the deputy mayor can step in. No, he can't. That's right. He's arrested and he pled guilty to phoning in a bomb threat. He was the deputy mayor of Los Angeles for public safety and he's unfortunately in jail now for lying about it as well. But the optics for all these people. Adam Schiff weighed in. Kamala Harris, this is 2.0. The first one was. And these demonstrations are going to go on and they're not going to stop. They're going to go on to the election. That was the 2020. She's back again with more of that. And so they're advocating something that is not going to work. We just got a poll, As I said, 54%, even with this negative publicity, still support the deportations. 62% of Hispanics three weeks ago said that they support Donald Trump's policies. The first three months, that was the highest ethnic group of any. So I don't know if the. You're going to get a wide scale defection in the Hispanic, but most of them are going to think, God, I don't want that guy in my neighborhood. And the optics. So we're. I wrote about this in Mexifornia 20 years ago. So basically, you'd watch all these optics, and it's kind of like back in CNN in 2000. Mostly peaceful when you see the car burn. Well, they say most peaceful. Why these cars are burning and they're defacing things. But the biggest, the worst thing for the left is you have these illegal aliens, apparently, and they are throwing American flags on a fire and they are destroying property and they're waving the Mexican flag. So I said, oh, wow, this is really smart. You're waving the flag of the country under no circumstances you wish to return to, but you're so proud of it that you're waving it as long as you don't have to go back there. And then you are burning the flag that under no circumstances you would like to leave that country. That doesn't make a lot of sense. That does not make a lot of sense. And I think those optics are toxic. I wish they have a. I hope in the midterms they have a commercial and the first shot is Gavin telling people not to pay their taxes. And then it's Karen Bass saying that we're not going to stand for this. Why? There's all this burning in the background, and then there is Representative Torres saying, you know, get the F out. Then there's Hikem Jeffries saying his little spiel. And then they show these people burning, waving the Mexican flag and then burning the American flag, mobbing all of the streets, spitting in the face of ice, people throwing rocks at them. And then they have a little cut from President Sheinbaum that we're going to do. We're going to protect our people, and we're going to give them legal counsel. I don't think so. She kind of went quiet today, Jack, because the big beautiful bill, if you read it, has a provision and they are adjudicating where it should be, 2.5 or 3.5 tax on the 63 billion that these people that are. Some of them are out in the street burning send back to their relatives in Mexico, many of them on public support of some sort in the United States. So I think if I know Donald Trump, he got on the phone to her because she hasn't said anything today. He probably said something like this. It's 5%. Now you want to keep talking. It's 10%, because I like to tax it. And you've got. You say you're Always bragging. Obrador said he you sent 40 million and we're not going to pay their housing, their education, their food, their health care costs so they can Send you back 2 or 300 a week of money that you won't spend on your own people. So we're going to tax it. And the more you talk and interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, the higher the taxes. What I'm getting at, it's a lose, lose optics are bad, politics are bad, the people mouthing off are bad, polls are bad, everything is bad.
Victor Davis Hanson
Be interesting at some point to see a dollar and that leaves America into Mexico and where it finally ends up. Also I'm glad you mentioned South Carolina because Gavin Newsom seems to have to me a little bit of a resemblance to John C. Calhoun. It might be nice someday to look at the.
Jack Fowler
I think that is very over. I think that's over generous. He's to me, he's Jefferson Davis. He is saying that I do not accept the sovereignty of the United States. Maybe George Wallace would be better. It's 1962. I'm in the doorway of the University of Alabama and I say segregation for now forever. And I'm not going to obey the federal government. So they Kennedy nationalizes the Alabama guard and they remove him. So maybe they'll have. Why doesn't he do that? He keeps taunting Holman. Why doesn't he get in front of an ICE thing and break the law and say not in my name are you going to enforce the law. And they just say all those state guards are nationalized now and you're going to jail just like George Wallace, because that's what he is. He's a nullificationist and a states rights chauvinist.
Victor Davis Hanson
Amen, brother.
Jack Fowler
He's got very little. He's polling in the dumps. The issue is polling in the dumps. And people get really angry when people come to this country illegally and then they spit on it and then they wave a flag of a country that they don't want to go to. And by the way, if there were a bunch of expatriate Americans, of which there's about a million in Mexico, I'm told, and they decided that Mexico was unfair to the United States. Let's say they were all blonde hair, blue eyed, white people, I don't know in Mazatlan, they all went to the central plaza in Mexico City and they started burning the Mexican flag and waving the American flag to protest. I don't think they'd get out alive I really don't. I think people would be vigilantes and attack them. I know the government would. So what Donald Trump is trying to do, and by the way, they lied about the nationalization. You know, when he did this before he tried, you know, in 2020 and all the army people said not in my name and we're not going to do this. Hey everybody. Colin Powell in 1992 during Rodney King in this same place he wrote correspondence call. The transcript is there to his friend George H.W. bush and said I've got 5,000 marine they're mad about. Hegseth offered 500. Colin Powell said I've got 5,000. You just say the word. And he did say the word. And Colin Powell sent 5,000 U.S. marines into south central area to stop the violence. Does anybody talk about that today? No, no, no, no, no, no. So they do it all the time. They've done it dozens of times in American history.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, you've been terrific. And we, we have other things to do today, Monday when we're recording this special little segment. And thanks for that wisdom. And we now return our fair viewers to their regular scheduled podcast. Bye bye.
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Victor Davis Hanson
We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show a little later. Victor will also get your larger thoughts on this agro Chinese communist terrorism. What else do we have? We have Trump with no visas for foreign students at Harvard University of Florida, their president candidate was looked like it was going to happen and then was the kneecapped and probably rightly so, ICE agents in la. So we'll get to all these, but let's get started with your thoughts, Victor. Broader thoughts on Trump and Musk and the initial rage at each other seems to have calmed down. I don't think you can sustain that level of relentless rage, but take it over, my friend.
Jack Fowler
Everybody remember the background Trump. There were rumors post facto this that there had been rising tensions and that there had been near physical confrontation between Elon and others. The rumor mill said his black eye wasn't from his son, but from some fisticuffs. I don't believe that. But he got in a big tangle with Rubio, Scott Bessant, the Treasury Secretary and we've on this program said that those are the two stellar people in that Cabinet. Not that there are not other great ones, but those are so important and they're so well managed by both Rubio and Bessant. But anyway, there was this rumors a little bit that Elon was using the DOGE to override the authority of the Cabinet secretaries, who may have agreed with most of his cuts, but not all of them. So there had been rising tensions and then his temporary employment status expired. There were controversies. Whether he wanted renewed or not, I don't know the answer to that. And then he left on May 30, I think in good graces. But then he went after that bill and the bill, remember, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will increase the national debt, but also, I think somewhere between 1 and a half and 3 trillion in aggregate deficits, even though it has the largest tax cut and the largest spending cut in history. But Musk gleamed on that and wouldn't stop. He kept saying that's a bad bill, bad. And I agree that they should have had more cutting. But there were two, three extraneous circumstances, Jack. One is what the President wants and what the President gets in a constitutional system are two different things. Even when he has a majority in the Congress. It's not like being the CEO of Tesla or a private company like SpaceX where you will buy Fiat and it gets done or a head's lopped off. He's got all sorts of House of Representatives guys that have, you know, pork barrel agendas he needs. So he's not going to get exactly what he wants and more. Second thing, it's just the first budget of that the bill of his own. So he's got three more and he can go back and cut, cut, cut, cut. And then the third thing is the Congressional Budget Office is left wing. It always is. And it doesn't cut compute the stimulus. And the reason it doesn't to be fair to it is that a lot of supply siders say we're always going to get more money by cutting taxes. And then there's a discussion whether we actually did or the deficits were a result of increased spending. But Kevin Hassert was on yesterday on some of the shows and he made a point that these recent economic indicators, Jack, were so good that so good. And I just want to mention one of them. I just had a little note here. The consumer confidence index, it went up 12 points in May. The price index, the consumer, you know, the inflation was the third consecutive monthly decline under Trump. The pace of the 12 month increases hasn't been this low. Think of that on an annualized rate since 2010. Remember, everybody said from the Economist, the Wall Street Journal that Trump's packaged tariffs were going to spike inflation. In fact, they're lower than they've been for four years. I didn't realize the Standard and Poor's 500 recorded its best month of May return since 1990. Remember, that was supposed to tank as well. The job market had 177,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate is down to 4.2. But what's weird is that most of all of these jobs were in the private sector full time and good paying jobs and with a massive cut in federal jobs. And yet the job rate didn't go down. So there's a transference. And what Kevin Hassert was saying is he thinks the economy will grow at 4. That's incredible if it would at an annualized rate at 4%. But more importantly, he pointed out that this, all of this good news that I just recapulated doesn't take into consideration the relief that this largest tax cut will be sustained and that will be stimulatory. And then second of all, there's record amount of revenues, more than I had imagined that would come in from tariffs. And then more importantly, there's 8 to 10 trillion dollars in federal, I mean, foreign investment that's coming in supposedly if these people honor their word and the lower courts don't hamstring Trump's ability to negotiate, he has to put the fear of tariffs into people to get foreign investment here. So you add it all up and maybe it will be true that the economy could grow at 4 to 5% and then the federal revenues would go from 5.2 trillion to 6 or something, and that would stabilize the deficits. But that was musk as that's what he started on Jack, that he's kept saying it's a ugly bill and it's terrible. Not that he hadn't done stuff earlier. I mean he attacked a lot of Peter Navarro. He said he was an ignoramus and all that stuff. And then they asked Trump at the German Chancellor's meeting and Trump said something to the effect that he didn't know what was going on with Elon. That was a fair enough statement. And that Elon might have been angry about the ev. Elon had been on record basically saying he wanted the elimination of the EV subsidies, not because he was altruistic necessarily, although he may have been, but because his Tesla sell and other EVs don't and the subsidies go disproportionately to his less competitive competitors. So he thought. And so I don't know what that was, but that started an Elon eruption and Elon in a series of tweets and I read them last night, Jack, all of them. I mean then there was that the Epstein files are going to be the big bomb. They're not Elon, it's not going to happen. Because the left would have under Biden had every gory detail out. People have remarked on that. There's nothing there. And then he suggested that Trump be impeached and Pence takeover. That's not going to happen unless he loses the house. I guarantee you if he loses the house, there will be be impeachment proceedings. But at Elon there won't just be impeachment against Trump. They will go after you. And then he said he wanted to have a third party. I don't think he was serious. The point there is who. Who goes after Elon? Who drove Tesla out of California? Who curtailed his wonderful rocket program, the California Coastal Mission said he commission said he couldn't have additional launches from California. That was just out of spite. Who is terrorizing the Tesla charging stations and the dealers and individual. I could go on, but it's all the left left. And who is against Doge? It's the left. So there is no place for Elon. And the middle party never goes anywhere unless you're Teddy Roosevelt and you get 22% of the vote, 26% of the vote, or you're Ross Perot and you get 19, but you're still losing. So that's not going to go anywhere. So whether he Likes it or not, he's there in the Republican corner. But when you say the President of the United States should be impeached, or you say that he is basically involved with the Epstein. I don't know what you would call that, Jack. Pedophilia. It was horrible. Epstein. And then you also suggest that you're going to pull out of the dragon. And then Trump responds by saying, elon's got a lot of contracts and subsidies we could look at. And he did say we were. We'd only do things if it was fair and lawful, meaning maybe they were asymmetrical or inordinate. But anyway, you can see where this going then. Elon. The coup de grace, Jack, was when Elon took credit for winning Donald Trump's election. But the vast. And he did. He was wonderful. And he put 300 million. But the focus or the loci of his investments were in Pennsylvania because everybody thought that would determine the election. But he did win Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan and Pennsylvania. So it was a cherry on top. But it wasn't essential. He could have won without Pennsylvania. So I tried to digest all that and I wrote a tweet yesterday calling for. I think all of our listeners feel the same way, that they're both very talented, they're outspoken, they liked each other because they were eccentric. Elon joined the Trump team when he was almost killed. He admired Trump's defiance and they think out loud. But again, a CEO has a lot more instant power than a president, but a president has more exclusive power. He's much more powerful than a CEO, even the richest man in the world. So they have different responsibilities and power and they're empowered in different ways, which I don't think Elon realized when he was attacking the bill. Bottom line, the only people that were happy about this was the left. The left is never going to take Elon back. And some people speculate he might want to go there. And let me just sum up. Elon is a Renaissance man. When you look at what he's done with starlink, the philanthropy, whether it's the LA fires or the flooding and Georgia, Georgia and the Carolinas or Ukraine, he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to save lives. That SpaceX rescued NASA, it was going nowhere. He rescued Tesla. Whether you like him or not, that reinvented the car industry. And it's not just an ev, it's a wonderful car. It's head and shoulders above any other model. It's just a beautiful design car that keeps ahead of the competitors consistently.
Victor Davis Hanson
You have One and you drive one and you love it.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. And I. To support Elon, I have a son that I'm going to give my. It only has 18,000 miles on. I'm going to give it to him and then I want to buy a new one just because I like what he is and I wish everybody would buy a Tesla. But all of. And then you have Trump and I just read the economic indicators and what he went through with the law and the raid at Mar Lago and the deballoting effort and I could go on with collusion, laptop disinformation. Any other person would have melted, they would have quit, they would have gone insane. And then the two assassination attempts. So there is a. There's never been anybody more indestructible. Rebounding, all recalibrating, reborn. It's the most amazing place political comeback in US history. Far more impressive even than Nixon's 68 victory. Or, you know, I guess you could say Grover Cleveland getting a second term after that four year in the wilderness. It's just. Or Andrew Jackson the same. It's just amazing what Trump has done. And then to be told every single day of his presidency that you're going to destroy the income of the American people, you're going to destroy the stock market, you're going to cause a trade war that's going to destroy us. And then to see this economic indicators. I just read. And he didn't back down. And then you see the opposition. It's vulgar, it's obscene, it's pornographic, it's potty mouth videos, it's obstruction in Congress, it's these lower district judges that want five minutes of liberal fame by, I don't know, freelancing in a way that the court system was never designed for them to be a regional judge and not Washington or San Francisco and just say 340 million people today are going to listen to me because I'm going to invalidate. And then you go through the immigration. What we saw we're going to discuss at ice. So Trump is a historic figure. The idea that two of them were parallel and not perpendicular was amazing. Everybody said it wouldn't last. But here, all I did in this tweet and column, as I was saying, you know, it's kind of like Harry Hopkins. Everybody said it's never happened like this. The private. Yes, it has. The liberal FDR gave his friend Harry Hopkins all sorts of portfolios. He was a hardcore leftist and he designed the detente with Joseph Stalin for good or evil during the war. And Then he moved in to the White House. He lived there for the rest of the wartime tenure of fdr. So it wasn't unusual necessarily. But I think there'll be distance between the two. But ideally, intermediaries, Jack this week will talk to both of them and point out the advantages of their relationship outweigh the disadvantages. And they could just set, they should just set. Every Monday or Tuesday we're going to have a 30 minute call and we're going to discuss areas of mutual interest, Internet, SpaceX, the budget and just clear the air so that they are working in tandem with the other tech lords that have joined the, the MAGA cause and not do this public thing because it hurts. It really hurts. The only people again are happy are the left. And I think they could work out a less intense friendship, but one that would be mutually advantageous for them and the country. And that was my point. I don't think anybody. Steve Bannon was saying, I've known Steve off and on a little bit and I don't understand why he was tweeting things like to deport Elon Musk.
Victor Davis Hanson
I was going to say Musk is.
Jack Fowler
A naturalized citizen and if you think he's not patriotic, think of the thousands of lives he's saved with the Internet and what he's done to the US to astronauts.
Victor Davis Hanson
You know that he.
Jack Fowler
Well, I mean right now the United States is preeminent in space, outpacing China and Russia because of one man. The US is preeminent in electric vehicles because of one person. The US has the largest free wheeling open social media platform in the world thanks to one man, Elon Musk. And so for all of his eccentricities, we've got to give him some allowance of room. And I think Trump was doing that. When I looked back at the back and forth and I read all the Wall Street Journal and the Insider, he said Trump was actually very magnanimous. You know what I mean? He gave him a lot. A lot of people wanted him out because they thought he was too disruptive. And Trump understood that. And I think Trump, that that was a genuine realization of all. People with that type of genius have social complications in communication and comportment. And you have to create a space for them to operate. I'm not saying you have to be hypocritical and have a separate standard for them, but when you look back through history and you look at people like Thomas Alva Edison or you look at someone like the weird Wright brothers, that type of genius is, is a particular and it comes at the expense of social skills.
Victor Davis Hanson
A lot, Victor. I have a little follow up on that, but first I have to let our listeners and our viewers know about Delete Me. Delete Me makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Delete Me is the best solution that I found to protect my personal trust. Data Deleteme isn't just a one time service. Deleteme is always working for you. Constantly monitoring, removing the personal information you don't want on the Internet. Delete Me knows your privacy is worth protecting. Sign up and provide Delete Me with exactly the information you want deleted and their experts take it from there. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft, harassment, doxing? If you haven't, you probably know someone who has. Delete Me can help take control of your data. Keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. By the way, that's all one word. Delete Me. D E L E T E M E Now at a special discount for our listeners today, get 20% off your delete Me plan by texting Victor V I C T o R to 64000. The only way to get 20% percent off is to text Victor to 64000. That's Victor to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. We thank the good people of Delete Me for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, first of all, I never heard the Wright brothers called the weird Wright brothers, but that's kind of.
Jack Fowler
I don't mean they're weird in the bad way, just eccentric.
Victor Davis Hanson
Okay?
Jack Fowler
Addison was eccentric.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah.
Jack Fowler
Da Vinci was eccentric, Michelangelo was eccentric. Machiavelli was eccentric. But that's the type of people, if you adjudicate what he's done, that he's in league with as far as the accomplishments. And I know there's all these rumors about his use of pharmaceuticals and what he says and explosive temper, but you have to put that on the ledger about what he's accomplished for the country. And it's staggering. And Trump knew that. And Trump is someone. The irony of it is they're very much alike. That Trump is also an eccentric politician. He's a tragic hero, as I've said before. And societies need people like him. They bring in Ethan Edwards and the Searcher, Shane and the John Ford westerns, Antigone or Ajax and Esophagalian play. They bring people in when they are at a standstill. They're ossified they're calcified. And that's why he was elected in 2017, and that's why he is here now. He was a disruptor. And when they start to act, nobody would have closed that border like Trump. It's 95% closed. That bill has a lot of good things in it. It's going to fund 10,000 Border Patrol and finish another 700 miles of wall that will take it all the way to the canyons where it's almost impossible to build a wall. But my point is that no one could accomplish that. No one could still be alive and go through what he went through. And yet we know that the tragic hero's methods and comportment. There's a reason why John Ford filmed Ethan Edwards walking out that door when he didn't get any credit for what he had done and saved. And Shane is, you know, riding off there and he got no credit for saving the entire. There was nobody welcome, you know, giving him a parade to leave. And when Gary Cooper leaves Hadleyville, you know, he takes a badge and throws it down. And the Magnificent Seven, that great scene between, you know, Yul Brenner and Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen. And he said, well, they're happy now. And he said, they're going to be happy when we leave. And so that's what is facing Trump. What I mean is, given what he did the first term and given his accomplishments which will happen this second term, when he is gone in heaven, let's hope he's healthy. And when he is gone, for all of the disruption people, when you are raiding presidents, he should be canonized and he will not be canonized. The presidential historian, the media, all of these people will hate him because of the methods he used for the country. And they're, they were not unethical or unlawful. They were just socially unacceptable to an elite class. That famous sign, you remember Jack and the Shane were, they're talking about this guy Jack Palance Wilson, remember the gunslinger? And one person said, you know, there's this, this guy there and who is he? And then Shane, who is he? And he said, well, it could be Jack Wilson. And he's pretty fast. And they say, well, I'm kind of. Anyway, I can't quote him verbatim, but one of the sod busters says, I'm a little disturbed that you would know that. You know what I mean? How would you know that? Well, are you a little disturbed when he's going to go in there and kill all these people that are Killing you. No, you're not going to be disturbed as long as he leaves. But now you can virtue signal to your other people that you're shocked at the methods that he might use and the people he might comport with. And that's the tragic. That's why all these brilliant. Homer had that and Sophocles and it's throughout Western literature in tragic heroes. And Trump really is, he really is.
Victor Davis Hanson
Also the Alpha Iest alpha dog you can meet. And so is Musk. And the fact that the two of them maintain this non ferociousness for so long in each other's immediate company. Constantly.
Jack Fowler
Yes. And especially when the media, the media was fueling that. Remember that Time Is It Time cover where they showed Musk at the executive desk of Trump as president and they were egging this on and the left was begging and begging and you know, it's, it's, it's so rich to see that while this is going on, we're learning now that the media and the White House are blaming each other. But one thing they have in common is, is they both know that they lied to the American people and that Joe Biden was vegetative and really hurt the country and almost destroyed the country. And then to hear these people attack Musk, these mediocrities in Congress, you know what I mean? They're just Jasmine Crockett, Jeremy Raskin. If you sat them down and said, would you please design anything or would you come up with anything that they couldn't do that they couldn't do one thing that Musk has done. Yeah. And so it's, it's kind of give.
Victor Davis Hanson
It to Pete Buttigieg to handle.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. So he's going to show us how we can all save money by riding a bike, by getting a big black limo and then wedding to the cameras and then get on his bike with that ridiculous helmet and then ride what, a mile to work.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. After he had seven months of paternity.
Jack Fowler
Buttigieg, the most sanctimonious self righteous bore in America.
Victor Davis Hanson
Maybe, maybe Anthony Fauci was. Hey, Victor, maybe we'll get to. On the next show we record the Fauci and his phones. But I think something to get your take on are the, the LA ICE raids and the reaction of the California Democrat leadership. Governor, Mayor Bass. And we will get your thoughts on that, Victor, when we come back from these important messages. Let's face it, our healthcare system is no longer serving the people it was designed to help. Appointments take weeks only to end in a rushed five minute consultation. Prescriptions are delayed, bureaucratic red tape gets in the way, and treatment options are limited to what some agency deems acceptable. It's inefficient, impersonal and increasingly untrustworthy. That's why All Family pharmacy is different. They believe in medical freedom. Your right to choose what works best for your health alongside a doctor who respects that choice. No interference from government regulators or insurance companies. Ordering a simple and direct Skip the waiting rooms and the long pharmacy lines. Just go online, place your order and your medications are shipped right to your door. They carry over 200 medications and including trusted names like Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, mepenzadol, antibiotics and other essential treatments your family may need. You can also order emergency kits, customize your supply or buy in bulk to be fully prepared. Over 100,000Americans have already made the switch to All Family pharmacy. Perhaps now is the time for you to do the same. Visit allfamilypharmacy.com Victor and use the promo code Victor10 to get 10% off your first order. That's all familypharmacy.com Victor take back control of your health on your terms I'd.
C
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Victor Davis Hanson
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. We are recording on Saturday, June 7th, and this particular episode will be up on Tuesday, June 10th. That's Victor's surgery. Eve. Victor has a website, the blade of Perseus. Victorhanson.com is the address. There's so many new listeners and viewers of this show. Why don't you go and check it out and you will see links galore. You can actually sign up for a weekly email that Victor sends out. But then you'll see links to other appearances and podcasts, etc. The archives of these podcasts.
Jack Fowler
I had a couple of notes about that. Somebody said, what is your overhead? You need neon. And we don't have a. We don't have an overhead, really. A sophisticated studio. This is I'm speaking from a 150-year-old horse manger. And the reason that the ceiling slopes down over here is this. When I was a little boy, the horses put their head there and people had straw here. That was what was designed for. And so I am obviously speaking from my studio bedroom and my Fox studio is, quote, unquote, is is a 150 bar y old barn propped up by eucalyptus poles. But anyway, people are I like these questions and comments where they give me ideas, L.A. so ICE comes in and about 20,000 people a year in Los Angeles are the victims of hit and run accidents. And that's believed to be largely people who are here illegally. Did you say 20,000? Yes, 20,000 hit and run.
Victor Davis Hanson
Holy macro.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. And about 8% of the accidents, 8 to 10% that are fatal are hit and run. So you've got and then you have enormous overhead on we're broke. And during COVID he Gavin Newsom said he was going to give half a billion dollars to illegal aliens for medical Medi Cal. Right now, cover 40% of the entire state is on Medi Cal and 50% of every birth is on Medi Cal. And when you look at some of the enormous problems the state has, such as it went from the top 10% in schools 50 years ago in test scores to the bottom 10%. And it has a highest per capita crime rate in terms of property crimes in San Francisco, its infrastructure has got a diminishing share of the budget as Medi Cal crowds it out. And we went from a we invented the cloverleaf. We had some of the most sophisticated airports and road System and the 101, the i5 and the 99 and aggregate are probably the most dangerous highways, if I could use that term, freeways in the country, the 99 is surely by miles driven. There's areas where it's only four lanes and it's a death trap. And yet we have a $15 billion boondoggle, 20 billion high speed rail that will never be finished. And we have 27% of the population was not born in the United States. So my point is that you would have this if you're going to bring in so many people and they're going to be largely without English fluency or a high school diploma, you have an enormous problem of assimilation and integration. And we don't teach anymore civic education. And the melting pot is in disrepute even though it's worked brilliantly. And this Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass are exemplary of California's problems. So she's now saying to the federal government, we're going to resist you. And even Caruso, this opportunistic bootskin, that's a word from Greek tragedy that means that you wear a shoe that has points on both ends and you can go either way. As far as your political sympathies. He chimed in, attacking ice.
Victor Davis Hanson
Can you just say who Caruso is?
Jack Fowler
Yes, he was a multi billionaire developer. For a while. They had appointed him czar of the Pacific Palisades rebuild, but that faded very quickly. He ran for mayor. I think he was either a Republican or independent. Then he re registered as Democrat. He lost in a close race to Karen Bass. He wants to be maybe again he probably would be an improvement over her. But he feels that the immigrant population is so large, the illegal immigrant, that it's politically suicidal to even question it. But what he doesn't understand is if you look at the Hispanic community, this illegal alien population of 11 to 12 million, first of all, half of them were not from Mexico. And so the Mexican American population, many of whom parents came illegally, are split on the issue. And they're split because when you look at social services that they depend on, from dialysis to emergency health, they're flooded now with people from all over the world that are an EBT card. Just go to any place, as I do in southwestern Fresno County, Tulare County, Kings county, and go into a food market and just stand in line and you'll see Mexican American middle class professionals that are appalled that these people are bringing out four or five or six EBT cards. So my point of all of this is there is no big this is not Hispanic issue as they think they're going to demagogue at Karen Bass. I didn't even get into the question that the black community, although it's shrinking in California, is overwhelmingly not the black elite, but the black rank and file are overwhelmingly angry at illegal immigration. So the politicians are out. So here you had this Orwellian situation where ICE people were trying to carry out deportations. Many of them were not just rank and file illegal aliens, but they had criminal records or they were involved in illicit activity and they had a violent confrontation. It's a felony to hit an ICE officer. Watch those videos. They were all assaulted. And here you had Caruso, the would be next mayor. And then you had Karen Bass, the mayor, siding with them. And then you had Gavin Newsom coming in and attacking Trump. And very quickly, if you went down the list, Jack. So you had Caruso, who was a failure as rebuilding the Pacific Palisades. It's not being rebuilt. Then you had Karen Bass, who was junketing of all places in Ghana at the height of fire season in a county which would not allow people, individually or collectively to clean the hillsides and stop the fuel for such a fire. And then you had the deputy mayor who has just been arrested for phoning in a bomb threat and was under house detention. Then you had the water and power czar who came from PGE with a checkered record and getting $700,000 while she had idled a key life saving reservoir that had not even been fixed for months. Then you had the DEI fire chief who couldn't finish a sentence without talking about all the LGBTQ women that she'd hire. Why there were hydrants all over the mountainsides of LA's communities that were not functional. And then you had that crazy deputy of hers that said if she went in and she saw a man and she couldn't lift him, the man was, it was his fault. And given all of that, Karen Bass has the audacity to blame Donald Trump and ice, she says. And then Gavin Newsom weighed in and he used adjectives like this is cruel, this is reckless, this is just a quota. Gavin. Gavin. 10,000. 8 to 10,000 people entered every single day of the last four years. Do the math. 10 to 12 million illegal entries. It's either 3 million, 3 million every year or two and a half million every year. It's either 200,000amonth or quarter million a month. It's either 8, I don't know, 7,500 a day, 8,000 at a good day. If they do everything right, ICE can deport somewhere between 800 and 2,000. So in other words, you're saying that under your president that you didn't say a word about. They let in 8,000 people a day and they were on audited and we kicked out 8,500 brave patriotic soldiers because they didn't want to experiment with the MRNA vaccination. And you let in the same number every single day without even asking if they had Covid or were subject to inoculation. Anybody tried to get a real id, you need a passport or a birth certificate and proof of residence, plus your driver's license and you. The last four years, people from all over the world were coming into the United States on nocturnal flights with no such id. So that is what we and I could not believe. Davin Newsom said this was reckless and cruel and then he attacked Trump for trying to rectify in a small way, this is going to be with us, Jack, for generations. We're never going to find out all the 10 to 12 million that are here or we're never going to get rid of all 500,000 with criminal records. And this was on top of 10 to 15 to 20 million previous illegal aliens. And so they created this problem that was cruel and reckless. And here you have Gavin from his mansion sounding off about Trump being cruel and reckless and going after quotes. Gavin, can I just finish this rant with what's cruel? What is cruel is coming. I wish you would fly down in your private jet to Fresno airport and I will drive you around to certain gas stations and you will see poor, largely Mexican American working people and they will line up because gas at a cut right place will be about 8 to 10 cents cheaper and it will be packed and they will be going in and giving 20 or $30 in cash, which is almost, it's over $5. And some places on the coast it's 6, but here it's 5, 25, 30, and that gives them about 4 gallons. And if you fill them up their trucks, it's about $140 and they don't have any money. They don't have any money to pay your insurance. You drove out your regulations, drove out refiners. We're down to two or three of them. People can't afford gas, they can't afford housing, they can't afford insurance, they can't afford electricity. When it gets to be 108 here, it will very shortly. You go to Target, you go to Walmart, and you'll see poor people in there all day long, all afternoon long for the free air conditioning. One quarter of this state cannot pay their power bills. That's incredible. That came under your tenure, you're not completely responsible. But you know who is responsible, Gavin? People like you. And who are people like you? These are wealthy, wealthy insider children of privilege and insider government contacts and influence peddlers. And they were a select class. They have a pedigree of being multi generational wealthy and multi generational in politics. And who are they? They're Jerry Brown, your predecessor. And where is he? He's in retirement, up in Grass Valley, off the grid in a beautiful ranch. Where's Barbara Boxer? The liberal who harangued about everything? She's down in what, Rancho Mirage. Dianne Feinstein was a nice person, but she had a huge Lake Tahoe sale estate, a huge Presidio Heights home. And then we go to Camilla Harris, another architect of this insane state. She's wearing Brentwood with her husband in a beautiful home. And where are you, Gavin? Nine million dollar new home. So, and we get to the locus classicus, Jack, the Pelosi family. How did Nancy Pelosi go into politics? And now she's leaving politics with her wheeler dealer real estate husband. And their net worth is over $200 million supposedly. And they have a huge palatial estate up in Napa and you saw the house where he was unfortunately, unfairly and tragically attacked in San Francisco. So they are wealthy. So basically what I'm getting at is we have about eight to 10 and I didn't even get all of them. Multimillionaires, left wing, children of privilege, coastal denizens, all within a 50 mile radius, drawing on every little perk and leverage that their office could handle and then retiring into opulence while the rest of the state is medieval and the middle class fled. Two to three hundred thousand a year. And the poor, it's a state of the subsidized poor and the affluent coastal elite. And they did that. And he has the gumption to say that Donald Trump is cruel because he wants to put back in their own country 10 million people who cut in the front of the line, broke the law, took advantage of that open border, made fools out of the people who were law abiding and waiting in line for legal entrance. And he says Donald Trump is reckless. And you, Gavin, are reckless and you're cruel. And what you did to the state is beyond description. Talk to the people in Pacific Palisades. Talk to people who can't get into a doctor's office. Talk to people who can't afford to pay their power bill. A quarter of the population. Talk to the people who can't afford to fill up their gas tank and then talk about being cruel.
Victor Davis Hanson
I have to talk about your the gas tank little more, Victor. But first, I want our viewers and listeners to know that the dollar reset that currency experts have warned about for decades just shifted into overdrive. And the warning signs are impossible to ignore. Central banks are hoarding gold at unprecedented rates. This isn't temporary market volatility. History shows that when global powers coordinate to replace a reserve currency, a massive reset inevitably follows. Isn't overpriced at record highs. It's the dollar that's rapidly losing its 80 year global dominance. Meanwhile, central banks have purchased over 1000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years. This isn't just economic policy. It could be the early stages of complete monetary restructuring. And that's why American Alternative Assets created the Dollar Restructuring Set Survival Kit that shows you exactly how to position your retirement savings before this historic transition accelerates and potentially receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To jumpstart your protection strategy, call 8332- USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 833-287-2465 or six more victorlovesgold.com Protect your wealth before it's too late. And we thank the good people from American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Hey, a couple things quick. Victor cut me off before. How dare you. Victor ON I had to mention on his website the Blade of Perseus. You should subscribe 65 a year or stick your toe in the water 650amonth. And then when, when you do that, you'll be able to read the two weekly exclusive pieces Victor does for the Blade of Perseus and the weekly exclusive.
Jack Fowler
And we haven't missed one. I'm really proud of the fact that the people who paid that price, we didn't miss one column. I think one time there was a mix up and one of the people didn't post it. But otherwise everything has always been there. Two essays a week and now we've converted the third to a video and I promise even I'm working on them right now for this next week I'll be out of commission for a week or two but there will be no hiatus, I can promise you that.
Victor Davis Hanson
No gaps. So Victor, you I didn't send this to you in advance, but I'm sure you saw this. There was a fight in the California. Gosh, what was the fight? Well, end result is some damn commission there. There's so many California this or that.
Jack Fowler
They'Ve so many of them. They're all created for retail retired officials to get sinecures at about 150,000 for the rest of their life.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, one of them ruled that there will be an added. I can't believe the 65 cents a gallon tax being added in California.
Jack Fowler
Yeah, the point everybody should remember about California is that they don't care about the poor or middle class. What they do care is that when they live in communities like Lahore or Carmel or Montecito or Nob Hill or Brentwood or Atherton and they're left wing for the majority. Not that there's not good conservatives that are normal there, but for the most part they're left wing. They don't care because they have so much money. They're the wealthiest zip codes in the basically the world. And for them it's just all utopian dreaming. I've got everything I have. I can't possibly spend all the money I have, all the beautiful homes I have. But I can't live to be a hundred. Why, that's so unfair. Maybe the world needs my brilliance. So let's go to, you know, net zero and all those stupid deplorables and irredeemables and clingers and dregs and garbage and chumps that Biden and Obama and Hillary called. Maybe we can use them as lab rats, little white mice that we'll put in cages and we'll try these experiments and that's what they do on us. And how. I don't know. I guess what I'm getting at, Jack, is they don't want people to drive. They do not want people to drive. They would rather open the borders, let people in and then just say, wouldn't want to be you guys. And you can really see it when this left wing arrogance and racism. Because remember when Nancy Pelosi said who was going to pick our crops? I think she thought Mexican people would. But I deal with Mexican American people and I deal with professionals. When I go to a doctor's office, I see elected officials, I see highway patrolmen. They're mostly Mexican American in this area. The idea that they're all farm workers is crazy. They have the same upward mobility as the Italian American experience. And if we would shut the border and make legal only immigration, we wouldn't even talk about Hispanic, white or anything. It would just be all assimilation and integration, intermarriage. But when Nancy Pelosi said that, I was reminded. Jack, did you see that Democratic legislator that said that we have to have illegal immigration because she said, who would wipe our blank blank.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, right.
Jack Fowler
And that, that shows you this liberal idea about people of color, it goes back to put you all in chains and Joe Biden's use of boy and the corn pop saga stories which were vilely racist. There's something about the left wing ideology that serves a psychological need. And a lot of left wing elites, they are not comfortable with people that are not like them. And they create a facade of abstract caring and radical DEI support as a mechanism from squaring the circle that they do not like. Most working white people enjoy people of different colors. They don't care. And they do care. And yet they hark and call other people racist in this weird psychological compensation. And so I don't know what to tell you.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, well, let me, let me throw out a little more California horror. Are you okay with that, Victor?
Jack Fowler
Yeah, I am. I'm getting depressed. I hope my leader, my readers, I know I'm going to get another 10 emails today saying, Victor, why don't you leave that godforsaken place.
Victor Davis Hanson
You can't get a U Haul truck.
Jack Fowler
They're not available. I did that experiment and wrote about it once. You cannot get a. You can get one if you're in Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, Idaho. Back here.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah.
Jack Fowler
So nobody wants to go to paradise anymore.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, you mentioned before you know who's going to pick the crops and I wonder if there. Will there be crops to pick. We've, you've talked before about the dam, the Klamath Dam. There's a great website called Unwon U n W O n and they're so on top of rural things. Ranch. What. How people in the ranching community and. But they've been on top of the dam stuff. And this blowing up of this dam for the. As you've told many times, Victor, for the sake of salmon, when it released the sediment that had been stored up, that sediment is polluted. That is going to harm farmlands A and B.
Jack Fowler
It killed. Killed deer. Killed deer that might.
Victor Davis Hanson
Kill salmon.
Jack Fowler
Well, I mean it just released decades of silt and minerals and guck into this river. These rivers that were monitored from flood control. And then of course they created clean energy. The four dams did. They created recreation, they created irrigation, they created flood control. The weird thing about Gavin Newsom, which I didn't even get into is he took money from a bond that had lotted 7 billion, $7 billion to build dams and water conservation and he didn't use one dime to build the Temperance Flat Dam or the Sites Reservoir. Or the Los Banos grant, we would have had about 6 to 7 million acre feet. In a good year of extra water, it would have solved our water problems. Instead, he used half a billion dollars of money allotted to build damage to blow them up. That's what he did. And then he had the shamelessness to brag about how he solved this problem and gave indigenous people back the river virtue signaling again from the safety of his nine million dollar abode. It just gets you so angry that when you. And I guess I'm angry because I have had this 50 year schizophrenic existence where actually, Jack, I'm getting older. It's 55 years where I went to University of California Santa Cruz at the ninth level of the liberal inferno. And then I went to Stanford, the eighth rung of the liberal inferno. And then I was two years as a visiting professor and fellow on the Stanford campus. And now I've been there 21 years. But in the meantime I go back home every other week or I have my home here. So I've always lived in apartments over in the coast. But my point is, you see that juxtaposition, I don't know where it starts, somewhere along Casa de Fruta on 152, but you start to feel it as you go there. And when you get to the Nexus in Palo Alto up to San Francisco and you talk to those people and it's really weird when I walk at night in Palo Alto on the Stanford campus and I pass people that are walking, they grimace, they're angry, they're all left wing. 94% of the Stanford campus voted against Trump. But when I see these people, but when I see people out here, they're happy. Go lucky. And there's something about this elite liberalism. It makes people really angry and frustrated and professional. And you saw that with the poll on mental health versus liberal and conservative. And we've talked about that. So anyway, that gets you very frustrated, especially when I go across the Stanford campus and they say something like open border. I talk to people who are economists and they say these were really great things to have open borders. And I thought, how would you like to compete against somebody from Oaxaca who's been starving and comes here and has to have subsidized food, subsidized housing, subsidized education, subsidized legal help, health care, and your wages have been static. Why? Inflation in California has been 3 to 5% every year. That's hard to do if you're a working person and they don't care. They really don't care. Every time I talk about illegal immigration to somebody in the boat, you know what they always say? They talk in terms of their housekeeper or their landscaper and they say that they just gave them their used car jack. Did you know that we had a whole closet of really nice clothes and we gave it to what's her name.
Victor Davis Hanson
Now I can go straight to heaven, past purgatory.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. It reminds me of the Lord leaves, you know, gets down his stallion and he rides out of the medieval keep. And then outside the walls there's all these people with lean tos against the majestic stone. And he says to him here and he throws a loaf of bread out.
Victor Davis Hanson
Good King Wenceslas. Yes.
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
Hey Victor, let's stay in the Central Valley Readley near you a site of a animal infamous Chinese depravity. We have some other agro agroterrorism. And we'll round out the show today with your thoughts on on that. Also related to that, Gordon Chang has a very interesting piece that's worthy of your reflection. So we'll do that Victor, when we come back from these final messages. We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Hey Victor, I just forgot. I wanted to tell you talking about the residue that the permanence of the illegal immigration. There was a study done on anchor babies by the Kaiser Family foundation found that nearly a fifth of school going children.
Jack Fowler
Wait, wait, wait. Did you say Anchorage?
Victor Davis Hanson
I did say that.
Jack Fowler
That.
Victor Davis Hanson
Is that a bad term?
Jack Fowler
That is verboten. You cannot use that word. Not anchors. You think they're. When people say they're illegal aliens, they're not from other planets. And when you say anchors they don't belong on a ship's chain. Jack, come on.
Victor Davis Hanson
I'll go to confession later. Anyway, the Kaiser Family foundation found that nearly a fifth 17% of school going children are 9 million kids total are anchor babies whose parents are illegal immigrants or temporary residents. However, only 80% of the children attend traditional schools. Blah blah. There's one other point here of the of the about 50 million school going children, 40, 80% of them attend public schools. And when you, when you take the you know the anchor baby percentage into that it means that neither nearly a quarter of school going children in America are the children of illegal immigrants. Yes.
Jack Fowler
And they are all going to school with the grandchildren or children of Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Kamala Harris stepkids. We all know that that these kids were all in the LA or San Francisco public school system. Not so Again, school is for hoi polloi. They don't care about these statistics at all. They don't care about the social trauma of bringing, you know, 11 or 12 million of the poorest people in the world and just dropping them right in the middle of a community without any explanation why or how long or what the reason nobody's really explained why. Why did Joe Biden dynamite the border? Why did he do this? Was he incompetent? Was it the auto pen conspirators who did it? Was it to create immediate constituents who could vote during voter fraud with mail in or early balloting laxity? Was it to grow the welfare state so you had to punish the middle class by raising their taxes? Was it kind of some DEI great replacement that the left always talks about, that we're going to have demography as destiny or the new Democratic majority? The only thing that will stop illegal immigration is the Hispanic vote. Because I mentioned these racial proclivities of the wealthy, white engineering, the architects of all this, that they have deep seated ambiguities about people who don't look and act like themselves on the left. But once the Hispanic vote went 48, 52 and Hispanic males 55% to Trump, you started to see things on social media, that anger, like how dare these people do this to us after all what we did. And when they see that that vote is they've lost that vote. And you know, everybody has that kind of wrong, Jack. Everybody thinks it's because the Hispanic community is very religious, Catholic and they're atheist or agnostic maybe, or the Hispanic is a family orientated culture and they're childless or one child maybe. Or maybe the Hispanics don't believe as much in unlimited abortion, partial birth abortion as the left wing elite professional white neurotic class. Maybe. But the other unspoken resentment is they are they meaning the middle classes of all different persuasions, races. They sense an arrogance in that left wing liberal elite, that condescending, sanctimonious Pete Buttigieg. It's not just white aoc, the same idea. They talk down to people and people don't like that. And I think they've lost those. They've lost the white working class, they've lost the Hispanic working class. They're on the verge of losing black males. And when they do that, they will close the border because they will say all we're doing is bringing in MAGA supporters because in five years they'll be MAGA supporters. So let's close the border because they have no principles, really, it's all about power and the acquisition of control. And so it'll be interesting to watch. But I would just as soon as that those information on the 2024 election came out by ethnic background, I started to look at social media and read that. I was looking. I would Google things about anger at the Hispanic community. And it was very prevalent in the aftermath.
Victor Davis Hanson
But it wasn't the Hispanic community that opened the border. Maybe we can save the China.
Jack Fowler
No, no.
Victor Davis Hanson
Next show. But Victor, it is a. I don't know how fine a line this is. We're going to let 12 million in in our Biden administration. Is it because I want to change America? I. Whoever Biden Inc. Yeah. Or because I hate America?
Jack Fowler
Because if you do the other thing or it's. I didn't mention those two other elephants in the room. And one of them is they hate America and they're nihilists and they'd like to destroy it. And the other is they're incompetent. So they don't even know what they're doing. They're just out of. And it depends on your view of the left. It's a conniving, very competent, serious, professional group of nihilists. Or they're just a motley group of incompetence. It's a mixture of both, I guess. But there's no rhyme and reason to it. Especially when you looked at the mechanics. When you looked at the border patrol and you saw maybe 4, 40% were Mexican American or Hispanics and they were out there in the hot sun trying to deal with this border problem. At the same time, these Mexican American elites and white elites were deprecating them. When I looked at the Louisiana and East Coast Boston interactions between ice, it wasn't just a bunch of white 6 foot 5 ice people. It was a lot of people who were minorities. And a lot of the people protesting were either elite minorities or they were elite white. There was a class dimension to it all. And Karen Bass is a good example. She can attack those people. All the worst of all, I know I'm getting away with myself. But the worst I have seen commentary was Hikem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader. Did you hear what he said? He said he was going to reveal the identities of all the ICE people because they wore masks. Think of that. The left wing idea is if you're a pro terrorist, pro Hamas, you have a constitutional right to wear a mask to disguise your illegality. But if you are a law enforcement officer and you know the cartels will find your family or that people will dox you so you wear a mask so you can better implement the law. The minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives will find your name and release you release that information for the express purpose of hurting you so that. That will be a deterrent so you will not do what he doesn't like, even though what he likes is illegal and what you like is legal enforcement. Something is wrong with Hikem Jeffries. You know, when I watch him speak. Have you ever listened to him when he. When he's asked to speak? It's like he's doing this. Jack. We're going to have a podcast, and this podcast, it's going to go an hour. In other words, he doesn't know what to say. He's not quite a word seller like Kamala Harris, that he just laughs. She uses the laugh, you know, to fill. But he. He has to fill things up because he can't think of what to say or he doesn't know what to say.
Victor Davis Hanson
He's no Nancy Pelosi.
Jack Fowler
No, he's no Nancy Pelosi at all.
Victor Davis Hanson
She was a leader, like it or not. She took power.
Jack Fowler
He's just ineffectual and he's not sharp. He's also the nephew of Lionel Jeffries. And remember, Lionel Jeffries was the insane black activist professor at Wesleyan that went after. I think he went after Mary Lefkowitz, the renowned classicist. And he had this theory of ice people and sun people. It was an abjectly racist idea. And I think the young Hakeem was. And I don't. I'm just doing this by memory, but when he was in his 20s, he would write things that tended to dovetail with his deranged uncle, I think, who finally. I think he was either fired or retired. But he really was crazy. I mean, he was absolutely an utter racist. I don't want to blame any. A family member on anybody else, because. Not his responsibility. But how he. He. He is a gift to the Democratic Party in the way that Joe Biden was. I mean, a gift to the Republican Party. Yeah, they both are. Well, everybody's a gift to the Republican Party. And now in this new Democratic Party.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, AOC right now, she has endorsed a socialist for mayor of New York City. You know, people reread the New York Post every day. You read it a lot. I get it every day. Andrew Cuomo is. Is the. I think he's the lead candidate to be. To become the new mayor, although Eric Adams is still running. But there's a socialist state State rep, who AOC is, is backing. And I'm thinking, you know, go to it, lady. More, more. By the way, Victor, back on the hate stuff, you know, 20, 19, 20. The backdrop, the cultural backdrop to this is 1619 and then J. George Floyd, it's okay for our cities to burn. I mean, how can you not hate America if you thought it was okay for our great cities and Seattle was a great city? I mean, okay.
Jack Fowler
How can you vote? How can anybody listening to this vote for Tim Waltz? When his wife said that she kept the windows open so she could smell burnt buildings or rubber come waft through the door and he can't finish a sentence without either telling a lie or using some type of potty mouth word or just some bizarre thing. He's herky jerk. He's just. I think Tyrus said it best. I listened to that. Great. That's one of the greatest lines I've ever heard about Tim Waltz. Tyrus on gut feel said he's a clown in search of a circus.
Victor Davis Hanson
Tyrus is a funny guy. I went to one of his.
Jack Fowler
Iris is very, very smart. Yeah, he really is.
Victor Davis Hanson
I went to his show a few months ago. I think I might have mentioned it. Yeah, he's very good. It was a very. Sharon and I may have been the youngest people in the room, by the.
Jack Fowler
Way, but he's very bright and quick on his feet. Well, Victor, we've kind of I'm Rogan type. Well, I mean he's actually more intellectual than Joe. He's analytical. When I watch gut feel every once in a while and I look at him, it's like 2Ns and he's got a very complex exegesis for a very difficult problem and it's very convincing. He's the antithesis of Hikem Jeffries. Gosh, I'm glad that he's not speaker. I'm glad that Tyrus is not head of the Democratic Party right now. Are we. We'd be in trouble.
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, we're going to take the aforementioned China story, the aforementioned earlier the battle for the presidency of the University of Florida. Not unimportant what's gone there. We'll. We'll talk about them on the next show that we record because we've come to about the end of the time limit. But I do want to read a couple of comments that people have left for Victor on the on Rumble, on his own website, on Apple, on YouTube. I'll read three quick ones. One is one is responding to your just out interview with David Mamet. This is from Sew1. What?
Jack Fowler
So what?
Victor Davis Hanson
Wow. Being able to be part of a conversation. Conversation such as this. One of the best aspects of technology. Mr. Victor and Sir Mamet, thank you for. For your timely wisdom and sharing with our world. Then we have one from Wildman. Steve 5451. I've been getting burned out on pundits talking about issues. I realize I need to. To watch thinkers and great men talk about issues. That is what this is. He's talking about you, Victor. And then what else do we have here?
Jack Fowler
I'm going to.
Victor Davis Hanson
This is a potty mouth.
Jack Fowler
You know, before you go.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, okay.
Jack Fowler
You know how I met David Mamet? I was. Yeah, I was at Shelby steel's house maybe 15, 16 years ago. It was right during the campaign of. I guess I can tell you Exactly. It was 2008 and Obama was running and he had just been in Philadelphia. I don't know if you remember this statement. And he said, you got to get in here. You got to get in their face. You got to go and get in their face. He's talking about his supporters. Get in their face and be sure that you take a gun to a knife fight or don't take a knife to a gunfight. So I was saying to this David Mamet and I walked up to him and I said, wow, did you hear what Obama said? We were talking about politics. And I said. He said, don't take a gun to a knife fight or you're an idiot to take a gun to a knife fight. And he laughed and I said. And he said, sounds familiar. That's an interesting thing. I wrote that line for the Untouchables, but he didn't say it like, I wrote that line. And he just kind of paused. Yeah, I wrote that line for the Untouchables. Like, I've written so many of those lines. I remember now that I wrote it and he expropriated it.
Victor Davis Hanson
Now, kind of out of the blue, he started for me anyway, out of the blue, he started writing a lot for a period of two years for National Review.
Jack Fowler
I didn't realize that.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, he is really a different kind of thinker and of course, a different kind of writer. And you have to. Have to read it slowly. You can't gloss over it. But he is very funny.
Jack Fowler
When he wrote those plays like American Buffalo and others, he used a lot of expletive language and the left thought that was really racy and good edgy. Some of them were about female organs and stuff like that. And now when now they're going back and they attack him for being misogynist, etc, etc. It's really weird they do that with everybody. That you can go become an iconic savior of the EV industry if you're Elon Musk, and then you can be most wanted poster if you're in about a nanosecond blink of the eye. They tolerate no apostates. They really don't hang them high.
Victor Davis Hanson
Victor, I think. I think I'm done reading these. I. I do want to say I've gotten several emails from folks just yesterday, folks who yesterday was Friday in Real Time and Civil Thoughts arrived in their inboxes. Civil Thoughts is what I write every week for the center for Civil Society. It's a email, obviously. 14 recommended readings in very really interesting articles I've come across the previous week. It's free. We are not selling your name, so sign up and get it yourself. I'm confident you will like it. You go to civil thoughts.com and again, just put in your email address and it's easy peasy. Again, do subscribe to Victor's website. The Blade of Perseus. That's VictorHansen.com if you're on Facebook @VD Victor VDH's Morning cup, it's. Excuse me, that's one of his pages. And we have our great Victor Davis Hansen fan club. Those are friends. And then finally on Xdhan, that is Victor's handle.
Jack Fowler
You know, Jack, just to finish, I had an email about two weeks ago and somebody said, why don't you get a simpler name for your website? Blade of Perseus. And everybody knows that it was coined from Greek mythology that Perseus took his sword and he cut off what, the head of Medusa. So that's what we try to do. We try to metaphorically only decapitate the Medusas of our society and their gnarling snake hair. As you're talking. Remember, the myth is that if you don't do that and Medusa looks at you with her snakes in her hair, you turn into. You're petrified, you're marbleized, you turn into stone. So it's either you or her. Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
So it's staying the Blade of Perseus and that's that. Victor, as ever, you've been terrific. Thanks for all the wisdom and analysis you've shared. Thanks, folks, for listening and watching on Rumble and all these new YouTube. We really appreciate you coming here and hope you're enjoying it. And we will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye Bye.
Jack Fowler
Thank you everybody for listening and watching.
Victor Davis Hanson
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Title: Riots, Musk-Trump, and the Guinea Pigs of California
Hosts: Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler
Release Date: June 10, 2025
The episode commences with Victor Davis Hanson delivering a prelude promoting a financial security message about an impending dollar reset, emphasizing the shift in global currency dynamics. Shortly after, the hosts engage in light-hearted banter about Jack Fowler's upcoming sinus surgery, setting a casual tone for the discussion.
Jack Fowler initiates a critical analysis of recent riots and chaos in Los Angeles, attributing them to California's political leadership. He scrutinizes Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, alleging misinformation and ineffective handling of ICE operations.
Key Points:
Misinformation Allegations: Jack criticizes Mayor Bass for misleading the public about the nature of ICE raids, suggesting that the operations were not peaceful contrary to official statements. He states, "Representative Torres... threatened ICE, telling them to 'get the F out of LA'" ([06:42]).
Governor Newsom's Critique: Fowler targets Newsom's policies, highlighting his administration's perceived incompetence in managing California's infrastructure, taxation, and illegal immigration. He asserts, "Gavin, you're trying to tell all of us that we pay the federal bills and we shouldn't." ([07:26])
Economic Strain: The discussion delves into California's fiscal issues, including high taxes, deficits, poor educational outcomes, and a significant homeless population. Jack emphasizes the disconnect between the wealthy coastal elites and the struggling middle and lower classes, stating, "They don't care about the poor or middle class... it's the rich who thrive." ([56:22])
Law Enforcement Challenges: Fowler highlights the challenges faced by ICE officers, including assaults during raids and the lack of effective support from state leaders. He laments the arrest of key officials, underscoring systemic failures within California's governance ([07:26]).
Notable Quote:
"We're on the verge of a nullification crisis, reminiscent of South Carolina in 1832, where state officials deny the sovereignty of the United States." – Jack Fowler ([07:26])
The conversation shifts to the tumultuous relationship between former President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Elon Musk. The hosts explore the tensions surrounding Musk's departure from Trump's team and the broader implications for political and economic landscapes.
Key Points:
Economic Indicators Under Trump: Viktor highlights positive economic metrics during Trump's presidency, including rising consumer confidence, declining inflation rates, and robust job growth. He notes, "The consumer confidence index went up 12 points in May, and unemployment dropped to 4.2%." ([31:00])
Budget and Deficit Concerns: Discussion revolves around the proposed budget bills, tax cuts, and their potential impact on national debt. Victor acknowledges Musk's criticism of the bill but also points out structural challenges in aligning presidential intentions with Congressional actions ([28:43]).
Musk's Contributions and Challenges: Jack praises Musk's contributions to industries like electric vehicles and space exploration while critiquing his ongoing conflicts with political figures and regulatory bodies. He underscores Musk's resilience, stating, "Elon is a Renaissance man... he has reinvented the car industry." ([38:45])
Notable Quotes:
"Elon is a Renaissance man. The US is preeminent in space and electric vehicles because of him." – Jack Fowler ([38:45])
"The only people that were happy about this was the left. The left is never going to take Elon back." – Jack Fowler ([42:17])
Victor and Jack delve deeper into economic discussions, examining the implications of recent policies, tax structures, and international trade on the U.S. economy.
Key Points:
Tax Cuts and Economic Growth: Victor analyzes the impact of significant tax cuts, suggesting that they could stimulate economic growth and stabilize deficits through increased federal revenues. He posits, "With foreign investment honoring their word, the economy could grow at 4 to 5%." ([38:45])
Federal vs. State Responsibilities: The hosts debate the balance between state obligations and federal responsibilities, critiquing California's reliance on federal funds despite imposing high taxes on its residents. Jack asserts, "You're trying to tell all of us that we pay the federal bills and we shouldn't." ([07:26])
Future of Trump and Musk Relationship: They contemplate the sustainability of the Trump-Musk alliance, considering both personalities' strengths and the challenges posed by political opposition and media scrutiny. Victor suggests, "They should set aside public feuds and collaborate for mutual advantage." ([50:20])
Notable Quotes:
"The economy could grow at an annualized rate of 4 to 5%, and federal revenues could stabilize the deficits." – Victor Davis Hanson ([28:43])
"Trump is a historic figure... a tragic hero." – Jack Fowler ([43:44])
The discussion intensifies as the hosts address California's systemic issues, focusing on infrastructure decay, high-speed rail projects, and the challenges of integrating a large immigrant population.
Key Points:
Infrastructure Decline: Jack criticizes California's neglect of critical infrastructure, highlighting the unsafe conditions of highways like the I-5 and the stalled high-speed rail projects. He contends, "We have some of the most dangerous freeways in the country." ([56:22])
Immigration and Social Services: The hosts argue that California's open border policies have strained social services, education, and public safety. Jack emphasizes the lack of assimilation efforts, stating, "There is an enormous problem of assimilation and integration." ([58:49])
Political Elitism: They accuse California's political leaders of being out of touch with the average citizen, living in opulent areas while neglecting the state's broader population. Jack criticizes figures like Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi for their perceived detachment and excessive wealth ([71:23]).
Notable Quotes:
"California's leadership is composed of wealthy elites who live in insulated communities, indifferent to the struggles of the middle and lower classes." – Jack Fowler ([71:23])
"The melting pot is in disrepute, and civic education is lacking, exacerbating integration challenges." – Jack Fowler ([56:22])
The conversation broadens to address cultural issues, including the influence of liberal ideology, the role of the media, and societal attitudes towards race and immigration.
Key Points:
Liberals and Social Policy: Jack and Victor critique the liberal establishment's stance on social policies, arguing that it fosters division and undermines national cohesion. They discuss the impact of initiatives like DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) on societal attitudes and integration ([74:18]).
Media Influence: The hosts express skepticism towards mainstream media narratives, suggesting that the media exacerbates tensions and misrepresents political figures. They emphasize the importance of independent thought over punditry ([89:00]).
Future Political Landscape: They speculate on the political ramifications of current policies, including potential shifts in voting patterns among Hispanic and black communities, which could influence future elections and immigration policies ([75:09]).
Notable Quotes:
"The left-wing arrogance and racism create a facade of caring while undermining true integration and assimilation." – Jack Fowler ([74:18])
"As long as the elite maintain their insulated existence, policy failures will continue to plague the broader population." – Jack Fowler ([75:09])
Towards the end of the episode, the hosts share personal stories and reflections on influential individuals like David Mamet, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful dialogue and intellectual discourse.
Key Points:
David Mamet Interview: Victor recounts his interaction with playwright David Mamet, highlighting Mamet's contributions to literature and shared insights on political discourse ([93:15]).
Listener Feedback: They read and respond to listener comments praising the show's focus on meaningful conversations over sensational punditry, reinforcing the show's commitment to intellectual engagement ([93:15]).
Final Thoughts: The hosts conclude with a metaphor comparing modern political figures to tragic heroes from literature, underscoring the cyclical nature of political struggles and leadership challenges ([97:49]).
Notable Quotes:
"It's either you or Medusa. The Blade of Perseus stays sharp, cutting through societal venom." – Jack Fowler ([97:49])
"Engaging with great thinkers like Mamet enriches our understanding and counters the burnout we see in mainstream punditry." – Jack Fowler ([93:15])
Victor and Jack wrap up the episode by acknowledging their upcoming surgeries and the recording schedule, assuring listeners of continued content delivery. They encourage engagement through various platforms and express gratitude towards their audience.
Jack Fowler on California's Leadership:
"We're on the verge of a nullification crisis, reminiscent of South Carolina in 1832, where state officials deny the sovereignty of the United States."
[07:26]
Jack Fowler Praising Elon Musk:
"Elon is a Renaissance man. The US is preeminent in space and electric vehicles because of him."
[38:45]
Victor Davis Hanson on Economic Growth:
"The economy could grow at an annualized rate of 4 to 5%, and federal revenues could stabilize the deficits."
[28:43]
Jack Fowler on Social Policy and Integration:
"The melting pot is in disrepute, and civic education is lacking, exacerbating integration challenges."
[56:22]
Jack Fowler on Media and Political Leaders:
"As long as the elite maintain their insulated existence, policy failures will continue to plague the broader population."
[75:09]
In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler provide a critical examination of California's political landscape, the intricate relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and broader economic and social issues facing the United States. Their discourse is marked by a blend of political analysis, economic insight, and cultural critique, underscored by a call for informed and engaged citizenship. Through notable quotations and a structured dialogue, the hosts offer listeners a comprehensive perspective on the challenges and dynamics shaping contemporary American society.