The Treasonous John Brennan

Summary

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: Episode Summary – "The Treasonous John Brennan"

Release Date: July 15, 2025

In this compelling episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, hosts Victor Davis Hanson and Sammy Wink delve into a series of pressing political and social issues, drawing historical parallels to provide deeper insights. This long-form summary captures the essence of their discussions, enriched with notable quotes and organized into clear sections for ease of understanding.

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1. Economic Warning: China’s Treasury Bond Sell-Off

[00:00] Victor Davis Hanson

Victor opens the discussion by highlighting a significant economic development: China’s recent disposal of $8.2 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, reducing its position to the third-largest foreign holder for the first time since 2008. He draws historical comparisons to past empires that faced monetary collapse due to unsustainable debt practices.

Victor Davis Hanson: “China just dumped another $8.2 billion in US treasury bonds... the pattern remained consistent. Foreign powers abandoned the currency, recognizing mathematical realities before domestic populations.” [00:00]

He warns that America’s staggering $38 trillion debt could lead to a similar downfall, emphasizing the impending clash between former President Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as a critical battle over the nation's financial future.

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2. The Indictment of John Brennan: A Deep Dive

[07:02] Sammy Wink & Victor Davis Hanson

The hosts shift focus to John Brennan, the former CIA Director, who is now facing an indictment. Victor provides a scathing critique of Brennan’s career, accusing him of deceit and undermining national security.

Victor Davis Hanson: “He is a scoundrel... he was knee deep in the Guantanamo detention center, waterboarding. He was not just a liar, he was an emphatic liar.” [07:02]

He recounts Brennan’s involvement in the infamous Steele dossier and his role in the Russian collusion narrative, painting him as a figure who manipulated intelligence to serve political ends.

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3. Judicial Overreach: Blocking Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Ban

[16:12] Sammy Wink & Victor Davis Hanson

Sammy introduces a recent judicial decision where a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked Donald Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship. Victor criticizes the judiciary for overstepping its bounds, aligning with a broader critique of what he terms “insurrectionary judges” who threaten the nation’s stability.

Victor Davis Hanson: “They’re so arrogant. They think that they can run the country. It’s going to be scary.” [17:07]

He underscores the dangers of judicial interference in executive actions, linking it to rising domestic unrest and anti-authority sentiments.

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4. The Decline of American Cities: Historical Perspectives

[27:21] Sammy Wink & Victor Davis Hanson

In response to a listener’s inquiry, Victor explores the factors leading to the decline of modern cities like Seattle, Portland, and New York, drawing parallels with historical civilizations such as Rome and Athens. He attributes urban decline to a combination of security failures, financial mismanagement, and demographic shifts.

Victor Davis Hanson: “The first thing is they can’t offer security... relative security of the state shifts and life is not safe inside the walls.” [43:13]

He discusses how overextension of infrastructure, coupled with declining fertility rates in blue states, exacerbates the deterioration of urban centers, leading to economic and social instability.

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5. Immigration and National Security: A Critical Analysis

[58:01] Sammy Wink & Victor Davis Hanson

A listener named Vivek poses a thought-provoking question comparing the open borders policy to historical atrocities like the Atlantic slave trade. Victor responds by referencing Enoch Powell’s "Rivers of Blood" speech, highlighting the long-term consequences of unchecked immigration on national cohesion and security.

Victor Davis Hanson: “If you let everybody have a right of return... you’re going to destroy Britain in 50 years.” [58:01]

He argues that open borders facilitate cartel incursions, strain public resources, and erode national identity, emphasizing the urgent need for stringent immigration controls to preserve societal stability.

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6. Educational Reform: Advocating for Classical Curriculum

[65:26] Sammy Wink & Victor Davis Hanson

Kathy, a listener involved in establishing a classical charter school, urges the hosts to emphasize the importance of classical education. Victor passionately supports the classical curriculum, underscoring its role in fostering critical thinking, historical awareness, and linguistic mastery.

Victor Davis Hanson: “A centerpiece of classical K12 would be to know Latin. And that would give you a mastery of English grammar and vocabulary.” [65:26]

He praises institutions like Hillsdale College for their successful implementation of classical education principles, advocating for widespread adoption to combat the decline in educational standards.

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7. Listener Engagement and Personal Anecdotes

Throughout the episode, Victor and Sammy engage with various listener comments, sharing personal stories and reflections. They discuss the importance of classical education, the challenges of maintaining security, and the impact of historical awareness on contemporary issues.

Sammy Wink: “I have a wonder if that was more of a Greek thing than it was for Italians or others to have come to America, worked, save and then go back home...” [32:21]

Victor Davis Hanson: “History’s not melodrama when you go back and pick winners and losers. It’s tragedy.” [64:36]

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8. Conclusion: Final Thoughts and Well-Wishes

In the closing segments, the hosts address personal health updates from Victor, express gratitude towards listeners, and briefly touch upon upcoming topics. The episode wraps up with a heartfelt farewell, leaving listeners with food for thought on the discussed issues.

Sammy Wink: “Victor, you've been terrific and I hope you keep progressing there with the recovery.” [73:53]

Victor Davis Hanson: “Thank you everybody for listening.” [74:45]

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Key Takeaways:

• Economic Instability: China’s sell-off of U.S. Treasury bonds is a red flag for America's financial sustainability.
• Political Corruption: John Brennan is portrayed as a deceitful figure whose actions have significantly impacted national security and political integrity.
• Judicial Overreach: The blockage of Trump’s birthright citizenship ban exemplifies perceived judicial overreach threatening executive authority.
• Urban Decline: Modern American cities face decline due to security lapses, financial mismanagement, and demographic changes, mirroring historical collapses.
• Immigration Concerns: Open borders are linked to national security threats and societal instability, drawing comparisons to historical atrocities.
• Educational Reforms: Classical education is advocated as a solution to declining educational standards, emphasizing the importance of language and historical knowledge.

This episode offers a blend of historical analysis and contemporary political critique, urging listeners to draw lessons from the past to navigate present challenges effectively.

Transcript

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Before we dive into today's show, there's a new development that's caught my attention. China just dumped another $8.2 billion in US treasury bonds, dropping to third place amongst foreign holders for the first time since 2008. This isn't merely economic policy. It's a signal that repeats throughout history. When the Athenian empire debased its silver, when Rome clipped its coins, when Weimar Germany printed endlessly, the pattern remained consistent. Foreign powers abandoned the currency, recognizing mathematical realities before domestic populations. Today's $38 trillion debt creates the same impossible arithmetic that destroyed previous monetary systems. The coming battle between Trump and Fed Chairman Powell represents more than politics. It's about whether America can escape the historical trajectory of great powers who spent beyond their means. Our friends at American Alternative Assets understand these historical parallels. Their their new guide, Fed vs. The Coming Battle for America's Financial Future, connects these dots for concerned Americans. To download your free guide, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com that's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com.

[Sammy Wink]

Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Duane and Marsha Busky, Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College, owner of a website, the Blade of Perseus. Its address is victorhansen.com you should go there. You should visit regularly. Someday I'm going to pronounce that word right and you regularly regularity. And you should subscribe now. Today's show, a little odd. We are recording on Thursday the 10th. This episode will be out on the 15th. Tuesday the 15th. Victor's going to be away. So this is a little mix of some current news that he and the great Sammy Wink did not get to when they recorded their podcasts. And then I have some holdover listener questions from a few weeks back. So Victor's going to give some opinion. What are we going to talk about? John Brennan, facing an indictment, Biden's Dr. Kevin O', Connor, and a few listener questions. So we'll get to all of this when we come back from these important messages.

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[Sammy Wink]

We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Come on Victor, look alive here.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Now.

[Sammy Wink]

You know, I don't know if Victor's praying or if he's just thinking big thoughts there.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But that's okay.

[Sammy Wink]

He's entitled.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

One of the things I've had all it's one month. Yesterday I had this operation and I've had some problems. Afterwards I had to go have a procedure and I haven't slept so I was actually sleeping on the job for a second. That's not because you were.

[Sammy Wink]

It sounds like you're. No. Well, I think Victor, I See you as three steps forward, two steps back. And that's got to be a painful process to get to the finish line.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. I get one good day and then I kind of do stuff. And then the next thing I get this raw feeling and feels like I'm infected, but I'm not. I've taken so many antibiotics. I'm tired of it. I gotta. It's the sleep. If I can just sleep three nights in a row, I have to sit up and it shouldn't be this long after a month just to bore out. But I did look at the video and there's a huge scar where they broke the bone off.

[Sammy Wink]

Sleep is the. Sleep is the enemy. Or lack of sleep is the enemy. Yeah, well, Victor, let's. But let's just go, you know, say it quickly. John Brennan is facing an indictment. I don't know why this ex commie is still in the public eye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Remember, he said he had to redefine jihadism for us. It was a liberation and it wasn't violent at all.

[Sammy Wink]

And he wanted. And he recently said that he wanted Iran to have nuclear access to nuclear.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He is a scoundrel. I mean, that's. I don't mean it just gratuitously. He was an assistant chief of staff during the Bush years to George Tenet, and he was knee deep in the Guantanamo detention center, waterboarding. I guess we called it enhanced interrogation. Okay. So then Obama comes in and he changes his spots and he starts criticizing George Bush for the things that he did. And then he tries to ingratiate himself as a liberal. I guess he was, with a wink and nod, saying he was familiar with Islam. I think he said only that he did all of that so he can ingratiate himself with Obama's perceived affections for Muslims, whatever it was. He then weaseled his way in to the CIA. They had trouble confirming him because he was a pathological liar. I mean, in 2011, he said under oath that predators had not killed one innocent civilian along the Pakistani Afghan corridor. And it wasn't within a nanosecond that people started pointing out that there were at least 50 people, maybe 70 over 70, that had been killed accidentally. He never really retracted it. And then he came back in 2000, I'm reciting this by memory, 2014. And he was hacking the Senate staffer computers. Remember that? And Diane, they. They got him up there and Dianne Feinstein was the head of the committee. Have you ever. The CIA ever hacked? Why would I do that? That's just inconceivable. That I would ever do that. So he wasn't just a liar, he was an emphatic liar. And then, of course, they presented the evidence. Oh, this is terrible. I had no, please, please don't fire me. So then his piece of resistance was the Russian collusion hoax. And he was instrumental in getting that fake Steele dossier content into the daily intelligence briefing, along with Comey and Clapper to Obama. And he knew that Obama was reading a dossier that was unsubstantiated and had been paid by three paywalls to hide Hillary's fingerprints. We know that because he approached Harry Reid. Remember Harry Reid? He said, basically, harry, you got to get the FBI in on this. You got to get the FBI. They're not. And that's what really introduced James Comey to Christopher Steele, Saul say, whom he then hired as a FBI contractor, I suppose. So he was feeding Obama dossier materials and then he was running with the Russian collusion hoax. And then he was one of the four or five architects. Remember the 51 intelligence authorities, former authorities. Some of them weren't former. That was a lie. They were still working stealthily as contractors for the CIA. But he helped with Clapper and Mike Morale and Anthony Blinken cook up that. And they had that little fishy wishy. It has all the hallmarks of Russian information. That is, when we find out they ever catch us for line, we're going to say hallmarks, not certain. And then we're going to say Russian information, not disinformation. And then if you remember, Biden said, ah, you're right. That laptop in that last debate when Trump brought it up, you know, nobody believe that 50, 50 former Italians, it's a restaurant. There's information. Only you and Rudy Giuliani believe that that's. And then, and then the FBI worked with Twitter and Facebook, remember, to suppress the New York Post and other venues. What am I getting out? Everybody. If you look at the three great electoral scandals of the last 50 years, you could say one was the Russian collusion hoax that almost lost Trump the election and you could argue led to $40 million and 22 months of his lost administration. Number two, you could make the argument is that technometrica, that conservative polar, that if they had told the truth and if the public had known that all those pornographic pictures that mentioned to Mr. 10%, the Big Gu, Tony Bobulinsky, all of that stuff was true. They said that people wouldn't have voted for Biden. I think that poll was taken in 2022. So he did his best to affect the last debate in October and arm and fortify Joe Biden. He had a twofer. One was to exempt the Biden family from any truth, that all that pornographic literature, drug use, Mr. Big Guy, corruption, was all fake. So that's why they assured us, and then they assured us that Donald Trump did it. Donald Trump did it with Vladimir Putin. That was the second best thing that affected, I think, the election, the 51 authorities, the Russian collusion. And then he went on television, Jack, as an MSNBC analyst, and remember, he said that Donald Trump was a Russian traitor. He was treasonous. He had gone to Helsinki and he said he was a traitor. I thought when I heard that, well, he killed the Wagner group. They didn't invade during his tenure, unlike the Bush, George Bush and Obama and Biden. He got out of that asymmetrical missile deal. He told the Germans not to buy the gas on the Nord Stream, too. He sanctioned oligarchs, and he did everything. How could he be a puppet? So he's a very nasty person. And now he says, I have no idea why they're investigating you because you lie like 10,000 dogs, as my friend said. You lie. You lie. I don't know what the statute of limitations is, but you have not told the truth and you have monetized your security clearance to get on MMC and lie.

[Sammy Wink]

I don't think St. Peter.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He's not a Russian puppet. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

I don't think St. Peter has a statute of limitations for John. John Brennan, by the way, Victor, I don't know if I ever told you that from before. I went to the infamous Anthony Fauci College of Holy Cross for one year. I went to Fordham University, freshman year, and I have to admit, John. John Brennan is a graduate of Fordham University. So I. Yeah, I. I just. I track some of these lovely, lovely Americans. Kind of interested, Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't know. I'm going to have to reevaluate my friendship with you once, right? And I met a Patrick Fitzgerald.

[Sammy Wink]

I was my high school classmate.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

Four years.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Patrick Fitzgerald. Was James Comey there, too?

[Sammy Wink]

No, no, no. But James was Comey. Was.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Is he Catholic? Iri.

[Sammy Wink]

Oh, of course.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, my gosh. So you got Comey, you got Fitzgerald. Yeah. Brandon, you've got Fauci. Yeah. You've got Brennan.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, my gosh.

[Sammy Wink]

I re.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Associate.

[Sammy Wink]

You inoculate me. Hey, Victor, just a thought before we move on. The more you have talked about this over the last couple of years, I wonder if, in a weird way, were we better off for Trump not having one in 2020 than we are having.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think it was better because first of all, everybody got to see what the progressive project. They did a lot of damage.

[Sammy Wink]

They did.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But more important, in the wilderness years Trump met, put it this way, there is no Rex Tillerson. There is no Alexander Vindman on the nsc. There's no Omarosa. There's no, I mean, I like. There's no Jim Mattis as defense secretary. There's no John Bolton. Everybody's on the same page. And he's not addressing symptoms, he's addressing causes. Now, it's not just, oh, close the border, but why is the border open? It's not just we've got anti Semitism, we've got pro. Why is that? Oh, it's because the universities are indoctrinating people. Let's take a look at them. Oh, it's because the media print lies. Let's sue them. Oh, it's because PBS and NPR are not fair. Let's look. Take a look at them. So he's looking at the causation of progressive power and that's why they hate him.

[Sammy Wink]

I don't know if you and the great Sammy Wink discussed a judge ruling that came out today about birthright. Do you know about this?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, I did not.

[Sammy Wink]

Let me spring it on you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

We did not discuss it.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, here's a headline. Just. I'm looking now. Fox News federal judge. Didn't we talk about last week how the Supreme Court reined in these local federal judge. Federal judge blocks Trump's birthright Citizenship Ban for all infants Testing lower court powers. This is a judge In New Hampshire, U.S. district Judge Joseph LaPlante. He blocked Donald Trump's executive order banning birthright citizenship and granted nationwide class certification status to all infants impacted by the order on Thursday. I see this as defiance of what the Supreme Court just said.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They're so arrogant. They tried to nullify a congressional act, you know, about defunding Planned Parenthood. They'd always said they were only going after executive orders. These judges are really egomaniac, narcissistic people. They think that they can run the country. I don't know. I think we're going to get to the point, though, where we're going to get some insurrectionary judges. They're going to try to get Blue State. I don't know how they would enforce it. They're not federal law enforcement. But we're getting to a point when you're shooting ICE agents and you have people egging them on, or you have Hikem Jeffries posing with a bat. Or you have Democrats saying that our constituents want us to take a bullet and get violent. Or you got Jasmine Crocker every day spouting off about white people. I think you're getting to a point. If we're not careful, it's going to be scary. Yeah, it is scary now.

[Sammy Wink]

Totally agree. And big law is a part of this is central to all this.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they've gone after big law. Not to good effect, but it's big law, big media, big academia, big K12, big corporate boardroom, big professional sports, popular culture. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

He took the fifth. Oh, I would have loved to testify but Donald Trump's DOJ is looking at me so I can't be in double jeopardy. So I'm not going to testify. If they, if they, if all the people who are being looked at by the DOJ who were asked to to address Congress said that they would. We'd have no Congress inquiry or checks and balances. He knows what he did. He knows what he did. I have a little bit of sympathy. I think his defense is, yeah, I lied. Of course I lied. I said Joe Biden was, you know, hail. But you must have lied too, because it was so obvious that my lie was detectable. You went along with it half the country. So, you know, I had a lot of people in 2017 really reprimand me because I said he was reptilian and he was obviously non compos mentive. I got so many letters your ageist, you're discriminatory. Think about Joe Biden. He came to clarity on occasion, but it was only when he was angry and hated Trump. So if he in the State of the Union or his Phantom of the Opera speech, remember that with that eerie set, ultra maga and smack. Fascinating. Then he was saved. He could, you know, he was for a while, he only hate drove him.

[Sammy Wink]

Picture of Dorian Gray reversal. Yeah, that was the real him. Came out with him.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's funny about him is I saw those pictures when he was Joe Biden with the aviator glasses and the stingray and he had that tan, you know, and he wore polo shirts. I thought those were like 2000, but they were 2015. He went, he just quickly reptilized. Very quickly. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

Shed his skin.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

With the, with this doctor, with this Dr. O' Connor and the 25th Amendment. I mean, there's got to be some, I don't know, lack of privacy for this particular citizen of the United States, the president. Do we have not, do we not have the right to know? And I, I, I think the case is there to make that we do.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's what the White House doctor is supposed to report. But, you know, I don't want, I don't know everybody. I'm not saying we should have a medical czar who has an autonomous office to adjudicate whether the president can continue or not, because that would be polluted and corrupt in two seconds.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah, well, true enough.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, Victor, we, Anthony Fauci can do that from prison.

[Sammy Wink]

We have a lot of questions that came in several weeks back from our listeners and viewers, and we are going to, I'm going to ask some of them to you first. One, I, I'm going to, I'm going to ask about Greece in World War II.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Good.

[Sammy Wink]

And we'll get to that when we come back from these important messages.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

We'll return to our discussion in just a moment. But I want to address something that's important for every American. China has been systematically reducing its Treasury holdings, selling 8.2 billion just last month. For students of history, this represents a familiar warning signal. The Roman Senate continued debating while barbarian tribes accumulated gold. Today, while Washington argues foreign central banks are stockpiling precious metals at unprecedented rates. The mathematical reality we face $36 trillion in debt with no feasible repayment plan mirrors the the fiscal impossibilities that preceded every major currency collapse in recorded history. The approaching confrontation between Trump and Jerome Powell isn't just politics. It's the latest chapter in the eternal struggle between sound money and monetary manipulation that has played out from ancient Athens to modern America. Our friends at American Alternative Assets have prepared a guide explaining these historical parallels. Fed versus Trump the Coming Battle for America's Financial Future. To download your free guide, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com that's 833-287-2465. Now back to our discussion. If you're running a business, you know that every time you miss a call, you're leaving money on the table. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that keeps up and helps you stay connected 24 7. And that's why you need OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer, so no more carrying two phones or using a landline. With OpenPhone, your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. Plus, say goodbye to voicemail. Their AI agent can be set up in minutes to handle calls after hours, answer questions and capture leads so you never miss a customer. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts, or having a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Openphone is a no brainer. See why over 60,000 businesses trust Openphone. Openphone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months at 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, Open Phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone no missed calls, no missed customers.

[Sammy Wink]

We're back with Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm talking to Victor on the 10th of July and this episode is up on on the 15th. Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus. Do check it out links galore to everything Victor writes, does appearances, and every week there are three things you need. You can read or watch two articles and one video. If you're a subscriber, subscription is, I think, pretty darn cheap. It's $6.50 a month, discounted $65 a year. Victor writes two exclusive articles and does one exclusive video for the Blade of Perseus every week. So go to victorhansen.com and find out. Victor, you and Sammy, the great Sammy Wink, had terrific discussions on World War II recently. And I was curious about post World War II, actually. You had a special episode on post World War II. How close was Greece, a place you love? How close was it to becoming a communist state? Was it that close a call?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, yeah. And when I lived there, my first year, I lived there 73 and 74. There were the KKE and there were three. Two communist parties, an Albanian Chinese Communist and a Soviet puppet. The problem was that during the occupation, the guerrillas were either monarchist or reformers or communists. And the communists were being supplied by the Soviet Union. And they were. They tended to be operating up in the north. And they had close ties with Tito and that communist movement. And the royalists, they were the conservatives. And they were being supplied in most cases by the British. And the problem was that because of the Nazi retaliations, very quickly if you blew up a car, a command car, or you blew up a bridge, the Nazis went to the. The nearest village and shot everybody. So the conservative loyalist forces decided to pull back on that. Well, the communists operated up in the hill, the Maquis. And they continued to do that. So then there was. And the Germans played on that. The Italians were the occupiers, but they were considered too lax. So the Germans came in and clamped down and they wanted to get. Of course, they sent all 150,000 Jews from Thessaloniki, Crete, to Treblinka, kill them, Wipe them out. It was Judah and fried by the end of the war. But my point is there was a big dissension because the townspeople, the villagers would say, if you blow up, these Germans are going to kill us, not you. And the communists went ahead. And then at the Yalta and later at the Potsdam Treaty, it was never decided the fate of Greece and Turkey. And as I said with Sami, there was an informal agreement that Churchill would not intervene in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia are the Baltic states. And in exchange, Stalin would not intervene in Greece and Turkey. And then Finland and Austria would be demilitarized. Of course, he broke his Word. And before the war was over, Churchill went to Athens to make sure that the communist groups kept. Kept away from loyalists. He was almost blown up. There was a communist plot to blow him up at the Grand Battania Hotel in Syntagma Square. In any case, this thing. Then after the war was over, there was a war for the future of Greece. And the CIA and the Americans and the British backed the loyalists and the monarchists and the Soviet Union and its. And its Eastern European surrogates back the communists. And it was kind of like the Spanish Civil war. It's probably two or 300,000 soldiers killed, probably as many civilians. And it went on from, well, right after the Germans left in 45 all the way to 49. And when I was there, it had only been over, you know, 23 years. And there was so much bitterness on both sides about the terrorism that was used. And they were accusing the loyalists of being pro German. They were accusing KKK of being arms of the Soviet Union. And they hated the Americans because the Americans backed the dictatorship of 67, which the colonel said they had been too soft on commerce. So that schism of the Greek Civil War, it was very bloody. There was kidnapping of children they took back to Yugoslavia. Communists did. They would go across the border in Yugoslavia. Finally, they made Yugoslavians close the border in Greece. It's regional. It's kind of like red and blue state America. So the islands are very liberal. Mike Dukakis was from Leslie, his family. And then the farther up to the north is very. Of course Athens is liberal in the center of Attica, but rural Greece, Thessaly, Boeotia, especially the Peloponnese, is very conservative. I once went to Sparta in 1974 and there was a table there and there were eight men about 75. We were watching the Waltons that night.

[Sammy Wink]

Why not?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And they were all playing backgammon. And all of them were from Detroit, Chicago or New York. Oh, and they had big fat Social Security checks and they were living like kings in Greece. Yeah. And they were very anti communist, very conservative.

[Sammy Wink]

I wonder if that was more of a Greek thing than it was for Italians or others to have come to America, worked save and then go back home, you know, to that home.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The kids stayed, but they, they went back home. Every village, every village I would meet somebody. It was the weirdest thing in the world. You would meet 20 people didn't speak English or you considered had never seen a foreigner. And then you'd turn a corner in the middle of nowhere in Arcadia and there'd be Some Greek shepherd say, hi. You'd always say, iste yermana. Cos even 23 years after the war, if you had. I had, believe it or not, thick blonde hair. And they thought that I was a German. And they would say, Germanos. And I said, no, no, you may imi americano. They'd say, oh, not bad. Etsy kits. But they hated the Germans and with good reasons. What the Germans did to them, it came out when the EU started to dissipate, remember, 10 years ago, and they would talk about Athens leaving, and they sent some German inspectors and they found out that their Google map, Google earth maps, found 20,000 swimming pools in Attica, and they were only reporting for Taxation Purposes, 2000. And then the Germans said, we're not going to lend you any more money. You have the most Mercedes per capita of any city in Europe. And then they all called them Hitler. And there was all these pictures in the Greek newspapers of Merkel with a stormtrooper and a mustache and everything.

[Sammy Wink]

We hear these stories of the Greek men with their pitchforks while the Nazis are coming down and their paratroopers coming down.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That was the battle.

[Sammy Wink]

Oh, is that Crete? Oh, okay, yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And they could have won that battle. Unfortunately, they had poor. The British were very poor commanders. The Greeks fought very valiantly. They were very tough fighters. Remember Oki day when Italy invaded Greece after it conquered Albania? Mussolini thought he was going to walk through three Greek divisions, stopped the entire Italian army. They were ferocious warriors. And the Megalodea and, you know, they went all the way almost to Constantinople after World War I, tried to reclaim ancient Ionia. I think they would have done it, even though they were vastly outnumbered, because if the British and the French hadn't cut off their supplies. But they had a great dream. It was called the Megala idea. The great idea after World War I. And Eleutherus penizelos, the prime minister, had promised the Greek people that he would unify Greek speakers everywhere in the world into a new Byzantine Empire. So they thought they got the Dodecans, Dodecanese islands were Italian. I mean, they got Corfu, they got the islands, and they got from Bulgaria, the northern Thracial, Thrace province. Then they got Crete back. And the next step was the Ionian coast, all the way from Bodrum up to Constantinople. They thought they could take it. They had over a million and a half Greeks living there, had been repatriated with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. And they almost did it. And then they were all butchered ethnically Cleans every one of them. I lived on Mikros Osios street, where all the refugees had settled in the 1920s. And I talked to these people about what they suffered, and they even had an idea, you know, to make a lake. Plato said the Mediterranean was like frogs along a pond. And they had this idea that there's going to be a big Greek city of Alexandria, which was a Greek city. And then you would have Halicarnassus, and then you'd have big capital of the whole thing. Was it Smyrna? Now it's Izmir. And then Constantinople, and then you would have Thessaloniki, Athens, and then Chania and Heracleon, and it would complete the circle, and inside would be a Greek lake. And they were going to do this with what, 10 million people? That was it. Well, 300 Spartans, unfortunately. Tragically so. Athens has, I think, the highest abortion rate in Europe, and Greece in General is about 1.1.4. Yeah. Too bad. It used to be, you know, six kids, a family. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

Before we move on to another question from a listener, Victor, it's been a long time. It's been over 35 years since I saw Eleni, the. The movie with Kate Nelligan and John Malkovich, which Ronald Reagan said was his famous favorite movie. Did you ever.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Did you ever see that? I did, yeah. That was based on a book and a true story. Story, yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

True story. Yeah. I. I gotta go watch it.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Watch it again.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, hey, Victor, here's a question from Bill. Bill from New Jersey is. Calls himself a huge fan of Victor. I listen to all his podcasts and. And also his other appearances. I would like a list of books or a single book that would give the. Would best explain the military and political parts of the Civil War.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

We've talked about that before. James McPherson wrote a good book, the.

[Sammy Wink]

Battle Cry of Freedom. Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Shelby Steel, Shelby Foote wrote a very readable biography without footnotes. And Alan Guelzo has written a lot about the moral imperative of Lincoln in the Civil War. One of my favorites here. It's out of date and it's. It's trash. Have you ever looked at Lee's Lieutenants by Douglas South Southall Freeman?

[Sammy Wink]

No, never heard of it even, but go ahead.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, it's. It's beautifully written. It's written in the present tense. And he's got a famous biography of Robert E. Lee that Alan Guelzo. I. I reviewed Alan Guelzo's recent biography of Robert E. Lee. But anyway, it's got all of the people like. It's a Comparative analyses of Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Jane Longstreet. Who were the best generals, who not. And I think he comes to the conclusion that where the south faltered was at the supreme level. There was nobody in the south with the talent of Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh, Sherman Howard, especially George Thomas, Rocco Chickamauga, and, you know, people like that. But at the subordinate level, the 1 star, 2 star, the south was really good, but they had ignoramuses like Braxton Bragg, you know, and Hardy, and people like that that were not good generals.

[Sammy Wink]

Longstreet was a great general.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was always hated because he took a job in the north after the war as a postmaster, and they thought he was a sellout.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, and he became a Republican.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. Yes. And there's that famous scene in literature and the long movie Gettysburg where Lee tells him, there's a weak spot up there, and you take your division and you'll go right through it. And Longstreet said, you know, if we just leave these people be and get behind, we're almost behind them now, and there's a downhill march, and there's nobody in Washington, D.C. and we take this magnificent army, we don't get it bloody. We keep it intact. We ravage the countryside. We go in and sweep through and take off, take out Washington. They'll never catch us. That would have been a good idea.

[Sammy Wink]

Sounds like a plan.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was at Clausewitz, you know. You have to hit him head on. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, Victor, I want to make a little announcement to our listeners. Students of history recognize the pattern unfolding before us. China just offloaded another $8.2 billion in U.S. treasuries, falling to third place among foreign holders for the first time since the financial crisis. This mirrors the inevitable decline that follows when great powers debase their currency and accumulate unsustainable wealth. Rome faced the same mathematical impossible impossibility we face today with our $36 trillion debt burden. The coming collision between President Donald Trump and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell represents more than political theater. It's a fundamental struggle of America's monetary future. While Washington fiddles, foreign central banks are quietly positioning themselves, buying gold at record levels. They understand what history teaches about currency transitions. Well, our friends at American Alternative Assets have created an essential guide, Fed versus the Coming Battle for America's Financial Future. It reveals how this historic confrontation could impact your retirement and what prudent Americans are doing to prepare. The parallels to past civilizational shifts are unmistakable. So get out your pencil, paper, write this down, call 8-332-USA-GOLD. Or visit victorlovesgold.com to download your guide now. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com learn from history before it repeats. And we thank the good people from American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Hey, I have a bit of a long question here, but let's get to it. This is from Mark and he wrote in switching gears from the recent mayoral results in New York City and what looks like another city about to descend into chaos. That's New York City. I haven't been to San Francisco for years. I'm wondering if Victor would add some historical perspective to how cities die. We've heard of the fall of civilizations and empires, but unless a student of history, we we don't hear the causes and cascading of events, the gradually and then suddenly phase. Mark says, as someone who cares for two parents as they went through the end stages of their lives, I was always cognizant of an underlying disease. And then he writes, I see cities such as Seattle, Portland, et cetera going through the end stages of life. And I'm curious if Victor could cite if such detail is recorded and exactly how and what steps led to the final death of certain civilizations. I know you wrote a book on that, Victor. I have to imagine it becomes a case of declining revenue, which leads to a lack of quality of life and services and infrastructure crumble and the loop continues until it ends. This wouldn't be to fear Monger. This is why he's asking the question, not to fear Monger, but to educate. And perhaps it wakes up the populace. Say, do you see see what is before your eyes moment. So this is from Mark. Any, any thoughts on that? Victor?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I think there's two or three reasons. One of them is the city can't offer security. So Rome by 100 AD was a million people. By the time Belisarius, the Byzantine came there to reclaim it in 530, it was probably no more than 50,000. Constantinople Under Constantinople, Justinian in the 500 and 40s was over a million people, probably the biggest city in the world. And when it fell On Black Tuesday, May 29, 1453, I don't think it had more than 50,000 people in it. So what happened? The first thing is they can't.

[Sammy Wink]

The.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Relative security of the state shifts and life is not safe inside the walls even. And that happened in the case of Rome with people crossing their the Danube and the Rhine and then sacking Rome. Another thing is of course he mentioned it. Finance, that they have so much entitlements, you know, bread and circuses at Rome, that they can't afford it. And then people start to drift away as the money runs out or it's inflated to worthlessness. The other is there's rival cities. You could make the argument by the third 350 AD, if you wanted to see a vibrant city where there were philosophers and scientists and. And robust populations, you would be going to Alexandria, Antioch or Ephesus, and not. And maybe Novo Carthago, New Carthage, but you wouldn't. And you wouldn't be going to Rome anymore. But it's a wax and wane because most of these cities are selected because they had intrinsic advantages. They're in a central location in the state like Rome. They're on a river, they're near to a port, they're near agricultural products. So even though as they waste away, they tend to be reborn. So Athens, if we went to Athens around 1820, I don't think there was more than 100,000 people there. It was not the capital of Greece when it was liberated. It was Napoleon. But, you know, by 2000, I bet Athens was three and a half million people and the same thing as Rome now. Rome's about 6 million. But there have been periods in Roman history where there's almost nobody living there in the medieval period compared to other places.

[Sammy Wink]

So Oakland is going to have a rebirth, Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Someday Oakland's in a bad place because whatever Oakland can do, San Francisco can do better. And it was always a cheaper place to live. And it was connected to San Francisco, but. And it had a lot of wealthy people up in the Piedmont hills. It's beautiful. It's a little warmer up in those hills. There's some advantages. You have better access to the interior of the state quickly. You can go right into Livermore, but it's not safe and there's too much unfunded pensions and entitlement. It's broke and it's dying. It's simply dying. As a general rule, fertility makes a difference. I was looking at this the other day, that if you look at the top 10 states as fertility, I think South Dakota is the highest two it used to be. Everybody was two and 40 years ago. But the top 10 fertility are all red states, and the bottom 10, the most infertile, are all blue states, and then there's some in between. But generally speaking, a red state has about 1.8 and a blue state about 1.4. That has enormous ramifications for congressional Districts and vitality. With this blue state model collapsing, you're going to have an elderly aging population and you're going to need a lot of people take care of them. And the red states are just more robust. The formula is there's not as much deregulation, taxes, entitlements. So blue state cities, Milwaukee's dying, Seattle's dying, Portland's dying, Los Angeles is dying, Chicago is dead. Washington D.C. and New York are dying.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, Mark thinks there's possibly some come to Jesus moment that shakes people to their core. But I don't see that happening. And even if it did shake people, what could they do? They have to essentially form vigilante gangs to, you know.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I think I'm worried about that. I think people are going to. When the state can't protect them, they're going to protect themselves. It is. He's mentioned the reader, the questioner mentioned awareness. I'm very. I wrote something to today's ultra drive through the ruins about. I'm not trying to be nostalgic for the past. I tried to use data. So to take one example, California had 21 million people in 1970 and 5 million cars. Now it has 40 million people and 40 million cars. Eight times the number of cars, double the population. But the infrastructure is exactly the same. There's been no expansion really to speak of on the i5 101. Some parts of 99 have three lanes but they did then too. There's been no new reservoirs. There's. The refineries are leaving. They haven't added oil refineries. There's just still one aqueduct. What we try to do, it's very funny, we make fun of all these old white guys. I mentioned that the engineers, the designers, the architects. But they built the aqueduct. That was amazing achievement. They built it in five years. And when you look at all the Big Creek Hydro Electric, Henry Huntington's project, it's just genius. 19:12 and I try to calibrate things like. Well, you've had nine operations. Would you be alive today if you had been born not in 1953 but in 1900? No. But was life better for you in 1970 than is now? Well, everybody was poor, but I didn't. We didn't have a key. We never found any. My grandfather would come knock on the door once. Boys, I got a question for you. I'm not saying anything. I was out pruning the. The peach orchard. You know what I found? No, I don't. Grandpa, I found a Coors beer. I found a Coors Yes, I did. I found a Coors beer can in Nevaeh. Would you. Any of you know anything about it? Can you imagine that on our property, somebody was drinking a Coors beer and left a can. Not me. So I went down my walk today. I was looking at all the things. A whole sack of dirty diapers, freezers, appliances, car seats, food that looks like McDonald leftovers from a year ago. Coyotes rummaging all through it. And you know people when in those days, if you saw somebody walk on your plate. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just going over to my farm. I cut. Just temporary. Oh, don't let it happen again. Now, you see somebody about three nights ago, I was walking and the guy was walking on the property. And I said, do I know you? And he says, do I know you? And I said, I hope you do. I own this. Oh, well, I'm just walking through it. And he took off. You know, I'm walking through it. So they. There's no such thing as property. Right. Anyway, you could I. You should all read it. I think it's a pretty good essay. It's in the Ultra. About driving through the ruins of California and what you see coupled with all of the disparagement. I wouldn't mind it if they didn't disparage that generation and say, ah, you know, Jasmine Crockett the other day, they only voted for Biden because he's an old white guy. Well, I used to know a lot of old white guys when I was a kid. And they were very smart. And they built the state. Not saying they alone built it, but they were the people who dreamed of it.

[Sammy Wink]

And what are the young white guy, lefty white guys doing? They're trying to blow up the dams. So not only not creating, but they're.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Into the structure of the would be assassins that was published that tried to kill the ice agents. Did you see their pictures?

[Sammy Wink]

No, no, I didn't. No. Were they.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think there were three trans. And they just. They just looked.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah. Mental patients.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Bewildered mental patients. Crazy. And gosh, they look like the Cymbelines Liberation Army.

[Sammy Wink]

Okay, well, Victor, we have two more rooms reader questions to get your take on. And we'll do that when we come back from these final important messages.

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Sammy Wink]

We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I wonder, Victor, don't answer the question, but you're walking around that property. I. I hope there's some protection on you besides your dogs. You know, I hope every, every time.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'd ask my son to stay here. When I went, I was embedded in Iraq twice. And one a Jewish group gave me a bulletproof vest even though when I got over there they had, you know, ceramic plate you had to wear. But this was kind of easier to wear. But I've noticed that when he stayed here, he always put On a bullet when he walked around the ranch at night. Yeah, yeah, I always. I always think of that. It's almost every night some guy was stocked by the side of the road. About two weeks ago, I walked by the side of the road he's taking. I don't know what he was doing. He was just taking everything out of his car. I mean, everything. Tires, but trap. And I said, don't leave the trash here. Oh, you know, it's just everything is a confrontation and you don't want to. And then the other thing is if you were to carry a handgun and they. In California, if somebody tried to attack you and you defended yourself with a gun, you'd be all through. So I answer to it. There's no. There is no security out here at all. It's kind of scary. It really is.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, I have a question here from Vivek, who has written this a long time ago. He's a huge fan of the show. And this is a. I don't think it's that complicated, but let me read this. Be complicated for me to read. Just read. I'm trying to think back as to whether Victor has recently suggested historical analogies that might help us explain just how huge, huge a human rights atrocity and crime against humanity that a large open border really constitutes. Victor often explains in very real terms how the border created so many problems for so many people. And that's obviously incredibly useful. But it occurs to me that to really understand and to make sense of an open border and the horrible consequences of having one, you can only compare it to things like the Atlantic slave trade of from 16 to 1800s, our border was an access route for what is effectively a 21st century slave trade. The other examples I can think of is that our open border is a front for cartel incursions into the United States. Much like Slavic Eastern Europe was an entry point that invading Mongols used to attack Central Europe. If you understand an open border this way, that is with terms that harken back to the Enlightenment. And even before then, the depths of evil become much clearer. I would love to know what Victor thinks about this.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Remember, there was the great 60s and early 70s politicians, Enoch Powell in Britain, and he was slated to be the Conservative prime minister in the next election. And he gave a speech called the Rivers of Blood speech in which he quoted a line from. From Virgil's Aeneid. Because this was happening in Rome. A trip tribal. All the tribes coming. He said, all of them are coming like streams into the Tiber and they're not, they're not being mixed up and it's going to be a river of blood. So that's what he quoted. It was a. He was a very. He wasn't a racist. He was just. And he was through. That was the end of his career. He was a classicist. He had been in World War II in North Africa. He wrote the lexicon de Herodotus histories. But he was all through after that. Done, kaput. And now I see that he's being quoted chapter and verse by mainstream politicians because he said essentially if you let everybody have a right of return that's in the empire and you don't assimilate them, you're going to destroy Britain in 50 years. And pretty much you could argue that a lot of that has happened.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah, I saw something on that point, Victor, that there were I think 30 groups, sub cultural groups, whatever you want, with at least 100,000 people each and they form. That's essentially a city of some, you know, a group in Britain that's from Somalia or you know, other places and it's a. It will be half the population.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It was a Labor Party that did that for the same reason the Democratic Party. It's the self loathing of your own culture. It's a hatred of your own country. It's look in the mirror and it disgusts you, I suppose. But people. Well, I get really angry. The Wall Street Journal had an article today saying that the closure of the border is going to cost us billions of dollars. And I thought, I read in your own paper that it said there was a million less foreign workers. However, there were 2 million more American workers after we deported forcibly 100,000 criminals and self deported 950,000. Then you think of all the entitlements, does anybody ever say, well, when they go back home, there's no entitlements. When a million people go back home, they're not sending, I don't know, two or three hundred dollars a week home. That's an enormous savings when you don't have all those remittances. 63 billion. It's gone up by 5 to 10 billion every year. So there's so many insidious. Then you have, you know, 40% of the state is on Medi Cal. Medi cal was about 12% of the population. In budget terms, it was about 10%. It's about 50, almost 50% of the budget. And 50% of all the births in California are on Medi Cal. So that's a lot of money. And you're not. And that money is coming from bridges, highways, roads, etc. So I don't see. I can see the advantage. If you're a corporate person, you want cheap labor. But the problem there is that when you bring people from, say, Oaxaca, who are some of the hardest working people in the world, and they only have about a 20 year work span, and then to be a kind and decent nation, you have to give them work, workers compensation, you've got disability, the whole thing, because they're not going to make a wage that's going to allow them to buy a house or anything or become financially independent. So, I mean, the idea of farm work was always that. It was periodic and it was a rite of passage. That's what we were told. We were all told that you don't start school after Labor Day. All of you kids in school, fifth grade, eighth grade, high school, everybody I knew pitch watermelon, or they worked with mallets to club almond trees, or they picked grapes, or they picked up raisins. That was the idea that was good for you. It was never the idea that you're going to be a permanent agricultural worker because it would be too hard on your body and you wouldn't make enough money. But he's right that the cost, the downsides, I think, vastly outweigh it. It's not good for a country to have la cost Coliseum full of fans and they are booing the American soccer team and rooting for the Mexican national team. It's not good to burn the American flag and wave the flag of the country you don't want to go back to. It's not good to encourage people to shoot ICE agents. So the whole thing, cartels, remittances, trade imbalances, immigration, and it's not good. And there's a lot of ignorance. A lot of ignorance. Every. You know, I once had a student said, I'm not a part of the settler colonial project, Professor Hansen. And I said, I think you are. And she said, why? I said, you speak Spanish. What do you think? The Spaniards were not colonial imperialists. Oh, but I'm an indigenous person. I said, well, we're to going and speak nahu tool, but you can't, can you? So you're a direct product of the Spanish occupation. And when I started to explain to her, she got very happy. That was very funny because she said, well, I. I understand that you're telling me that I'm a European. I said, I guess you are.

[Sammy Wink]

Deal with it.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But it's so fraught with contradictions and mindfulness. Feels even talking about it. But when so called white people came to California, I think there were 6,000 Mexican nationals here and there was about somewhere between 500,000amillion indigenous people. And they had not been treated all that great by the Mexican government in California. And the Mexican government stole it from the Spanish government. The Spanish government stole it from the Indians. The Indians stole it from the other. Kind of like the Sioux nation. You know that everybody talks about the Sioux nation, the Lakota Sioux, and that they were victims of Imperial. They were the most imperialistic tribe in North America. I mean, they just butchered the Crows, just drove them off their land and raped their women and killed them. Yeah, no, no one ever talks about that. Well, it's just a question. People are people. They're not. Right, right. They're not.

[Sammy Wink]

There's no halos around certain.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. History's not melodrama when you go back and pick winners. And he's good, he's bad. Right. It's tragedy. He's kind of bad, he's kind of good, but it's not so clear cut.

[Sammy Wink]

The movie Black Robe about the French Jesuits and the Mohawks were like sadists, you know, not like sadists. They were sadists. I have one more question, Victor, as we head into the home stretch here. And this is from Kathy who writes, I sure wish VDH would speak about the importance of classical curriculum. I'm K12 schools. I'm part of a group working to bring classical charter, hopefully Hillsdale member school, to our community. It has been a long and difficult road. Greater public awareness of. Of how different classical education is would be helpful, not only to our effort, but those in other communities. Victor, I think, I assume you're a little aware of what Hillsdale and others are doing. Any classification?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, Hillsdale, I think there's a lot of them doing it, but I think Hillsdale, Larry Arndt's daughter is, I think, the head of it. And it's a very successful program. It's got hundreds of adherent schools. I take that in the broadest term. I mean, a centerpiece of classical K12 would be to know Latin. And that would give you a mastery of English grammar and vocabulary and syntax and grammar. I never really learned English grammar or syntax or even vocabulary until I learned Latin. And then you get this great literature. So all literature in the west is based on Homer, Virgil, Horace, Thucydides, Herodotus, and you can introduce some of those authors. Some are very difficult at a very early age and that's good. And then there's the whole periphery of reference points that an educated person classically develops. And that is they know the difference between Ionic and Doric and Corinthian. They know the difference between the Parthenon and what it represents in the Pantheon in Rome. And they understand the basic geography of the Mediterranean where civilization developed. And these people don't know. I watch Jesse Waters sometimes when he interviews people. Do you ever see him interview people on the beach?

[Sammy Wink]

Sometimes.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Bikini. His. Johnny, Johnny. I like Johnny. I don't know. But he interviews young women in bikinis usually. And the more attractive it seems he finds them, the less they know. Yeah.

[Sammy Wink]

When was the War of 1812, you know, 1907.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

What was the Cold War? We, we were fighting Germany in the Cold War. Yeah. Who was the first president? Bill Clinton. I mean, it's just incredible how.

[Sammy Wink]

Yeah. As much as we complain about higher ed, that is the, that's the real problem is that the, the ding dongs coming into higher ed.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And why wouldn't it be? When they're not. What are they? They're all learning. Di. Don't judge anybody who. Be careful about your pronoun. I am a hyphenated this or a hyphenated. That's what they're teaching them. And they don't know anything. That's just ignorance. And it's. I, I said this once to a very well known person, I won't mention his name. He's a writer. And he said, victor, Victor, Victor, we have 300, and at that time, 300 million people. And he said, 250 don't know anything. 50 million. 50 million. They're geniuses. They run the country. They're technicians, they're architects. They're the brilliant doctors. 50 million. That's the size of a whole country like France or, you know, Britain. That's what the United States is.

[Sammy Wink]

Well, so maybe there's some truth on that, but I'm not sure. Yeah. Well, Victor, we've got a couple of comments from rumble and YouTube that I'd like to share. Thanks, folks. Who sent in the questions, by the way, here's from Tracy Durant, 1919. I really enjoyed hearing why you decided to use your middle name. How wonderful to honor your mother with adding David to your signature. VDH is so much better. So that's good, Victor. Such a good.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It's not just that you inherited buck teeth from your Welsh grandfather.

[Sammy Wink]

You know, somebody on the Victor Davis Hansen fan club found a picture of your high school yearbook freshman year and you were president, by the way, Victor, of as, you know, of your freshman class. And you look, you look like you do not. You look like a nice young man. I'll just leave it.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I was a very nice young man. I was very lawful, law abiding.

[Sammy Wink]

But you're a good looking young man too. So, you know, don't, don't.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I had my share of girlfriend, but in those days a girlfriend was.

[Sammy Wink]

Like.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Have a good night. Yes, that's what it was. And especially when you had parents. When they said you went over to Melanie Donabiedian's house, your girlfriend. But when you left the house, what time was it? I said it was 9:45. Were Mr. And Mrs. Donabedian asleep or were they awake? I think that you think. Okay. When you went out to the car, did you shake their hand before you left? No. If it wasn't so late, you would go back in there and shake both of their hands and thank them for their hospitality. I said, I think they think I'm crazy. And they said, no, they would respect you. And when I did it, they did respect me. Oh, I thought that was my first real girlfriend.

[Sammy Wink]

I thought Mr. Donabedian would be on the front porch with a shotgun.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, he wasn't. He was always arguing with me about. I had crazy ideas about, you know, for like six months. I read all these books on socialism. Yeah. And I was arguing about. He was really a hard worker man. He sold cars, he developed this brilliant dealership. And I'd say to him, Mr. Donovan, you're working like 20 hours. What if the state owned the thing and they allotted you like two cars a month to sell? You could stay out by your pool. And he'd say, I wouldn't have a.

[Sammy Wink]

Poll that, that Victor, if he lived in New York City now, would be voting for Mammoudi.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So he really, he really instructed me and I got out of that six week phase pretty quickly.

[Sammy Wink]

I have three more quick daughter though.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She was absolutely beautiful.

[Sammy Wink]

Of course.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Cactus heads girl passed away tragically. Very young, very sad.

[Sammy Wink]

All right, well, here's 10 laws to live by, rights. It's just the opportunity of my lifetime to be able to listen to a man like you. I'm 85, missed out on an education due to family breakup. So now I'm getting caught up on real history. Thank you, Victor. And your lovely wife. I don't know what he thinks is going on, but that's, that's his, that's his perception. So then Cyclist 68 writes, I've introduced Victor's show to my brother and three friends, they have all come back to thank me being so enamored with his work. And then the Last comment by adn19 Victor, Victor, you should just call Trump and give him your advice. I mean, he's awesome, but, you know, everybody needs a little direction in communicating. Also, my mama always taught me that two wrongs don't make a right. And I told her, I know that, but it sure the heck makes me feel better when you're here to be mean. You're my favorite next pet. I'm going to name it Victor Davis, maybe nicknamed Davey. So it's nice of Victor, people out there naming their pets after you. Oh, good.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I have a. It doesn't work very well. I had a. I'll have to be very careful. There was a former student who was very conservative, wonderful guy, Hispanic, and he named his son after me. And I had tutored him. I must have given him eight independent studies in Latin and Greek. And I lobbied very hard and got him into Stanford. He was very bright, but he went Stanford eyes and got very, very left wing. And now he's stuck with this name that is a reminder of a Trump supporter. So it's very embarrassing. I suppose he turned as far left as possible and it's funny about that. My. No, I don't know. I named my children after my parents. I thought that everybody said William and Pauline. Why'd you do that? I said, that was my mom and dad's name. Kunjagara, Swedish. My brother named his son Leif Leif Hansan. And all my siblings had unique names for their children. But I was very staid.

[Sammy Wink]

My eldest son is named after his grandfather, James Thomas, but I added Henry Hyde on the birth certificate. So my oldest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the last time I got to write fill in the birth certificate. Anyway, Victor, you've been terrific and I hope you keep progressing there with the recovery.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think what happened to me today, they allowed me to take Flonase finally, even though I have glaucoma. And I took that and what do you call it? Afrin. And I took another one and I'm. I OD'd on, so I sound a little punchy.

[Sammy Wink]

That's on top of the, like, 30 supplements you take every day, so. Well, whatever. Hey, thanks, folks who write me about Civil thoughts. Go to civilthoughts.com sign up and you'll get my free weekly email newsletter every Friday. I said free and we don't sell your name. And it's 14 recommended readings. I know you're going to like it. Sybil. Victor, you've been terrific. Thanks for everything, folks. Check out Victor's website. The Blade of Perseus. We will see you soon again with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye Bye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you everybody for listening.

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