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Hello ladies. Hello gentlemen. Welcome to the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marshabusky Distinguished hello Fellow in History. Someday I'll learn to speak Victor at Hillsdale College and he also has a website, the Blade of Perseus. The web address there is victorhansen.com and he also does a daily video for the Daily Signal. We are recording on Monday, September 8th and this particular episode will be out on the following day, Tuesday, September 9th. We've got plenty to get Victor's wisdom on and I think Victor a good place to lead off might be the Department of War. And then we have a number of individuals, Malcolm Gladwell, Tim Kaine, the Phillies, Karen Conor McGregor wanting to run for President of Ireland. So it'll be an individual heavy agenda today, but we'll get to all these things when we come back from these important messages.
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Foreign.
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Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the man lucky to be the host friend of Victor. I've been friend for 20 something years and get to ask him the questions I think you would since like us. Yeah, yeah. Which is the anniversary of course later this later this week, Victor Donald Trump has renamed the Defense Department the Department of War. And Pete Hegseth is now the Secretary of War. As a military historian, as an American, what are your thoughts on this?
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I mean that's what it's for is to conduct war, if that definition is broadened, to maintain deterrence by being so strong that nobody would want to commit war against you. It was the Department of War until after World War II. And then Truman decided on complaints from the various branches of the military. They said the Navy doesn't know what the army is doing. The Marines don't even within the Navy know what they're doing. There's an Army Air Force. We need to make it an independent air force. Why don't we consolidate all of these things into military operations? Then they decided they needed a new name. And so because of nuclear weapons, they felt war would be very provocative. And they did not want to say we're going to go to war because at that early nascent stage of nuclear acquisition, they weren't sure that you could distinguish nuclear weapons from conventional warfare. What I'm getting at is if you go back in the 1940s, there were a lot of people and that's why we did. One of the reasons it wasn't just costs were we disarmed after World War II to the extent that when we went into Korea, we didn't have anything on land, for example, we had to get tanks out of storage and our airplanes were the F80 was way inferior to the MiG15. But the reason that was is that we felt that with nuclear weapons there would be no more war. But we didn't really appreciate that if both sides have nuclear weapons, or if you can't use nuclear weapons because they're too destructive or your own constituencies would not allow it, then you're going to use conventional weapons. So in that climate, they learned that you want, don't you know that you want to not say war? Because they felt any war would inevitably escalate to nuclear exchanges. And that's why they got rid of the term. And then this was the great age of the social science of psychology, sociology, community studies, and it thought that language, words matter, it would be too provocative or it would reflect a prior Neanderthalism on our part rather than that war is innate to the human species. So right now it's just a question that I see it as how much is it going to cost to rename everything? We knew that just renaming two or three of these Southern General's bases was 40 or $50 million. So then we get into this discussion, how do you enact that change by executive order? And if that's how it happens, will the next president just go back and I can guarantee you, if it's the next Democratic president, they will go back and rename it. If you want to do it, it has to be institutionalized by legislation. It seems to me, I think my problem, Jack, with all of this is eye on the prize that they're heading into the midterms in about 14 months. It's going to be predicated on the economy, what are going to be the interest rates, what's the Supreme Court going to do with the tariffs, etc. And it's going to be predicated on bragging, justifiably so, on the border and ICE and making sure that ICE gets its message out so it's not demonized in the way it's happening and crime and these social issues, transgenderism, men, sports. So you want to keep your eye on the prize, but when you get into these other things, such as, just to give you an example, bringing in 600,000 Chinese students, which is very unpopular with your base, or, or saying placing tariffs on countries like Australia or Israel or the UK that are strong allies and run deficits with us, with us, that hurts the argument for tariffs. So what I'm getting at is that I don't think they need the distraction because Heath is doing a great job within the Department of Defense right now. He, he's getting rid of these crazy DEI programs. He's re examining how we're going to procure weapons. He's got recruitment back up to normal levels when people said that would be impossible, 45 or 50,000 people. So I don't know why you need the distraction, that's all.
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Yeah, well, maybe there are other distractions or maybe there's actual news. Victor, look at this. Daily Mail several times every day in the last few weeks. Disturbing headlines. About a third of the nation is already in recession or the cost of housing. Housing market looks like it's going to collapse here or there. So I'm not asking to necessarily comment on the economy. We weren't planning on that today. Maybe we should on the next episode. But yeah, it's the economy, stupid. And if that's, that's what matters for the midterms. Right.
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What if you use all the barometers that Powell used in 2021 when Biden inaugurated what would be $7 trillion in borrowing? And you heard economists like Larry Summers say if you do this, you're going to get the worst inflation in 40 years. Essentially. He said that hyperinflation and you were coming out of a COVID lockdown with pent up consumer demand and disrupted supply chains and not enough goods and too much free money floating. You knew you were going to get 9%. And what did he do? He didn't do anything. He didn't raise rates like he did. And then he tried to lower them three months before the 2024 election. And when you look at the whole record, the whole record of Lisa Cook as an example who's on the Federal Reserve Board, she's a hardcore leftist, she's called Trump a Nazi, she's violated federal law by claiming primary residence in two different states to get favorable tax and mortgage. So that's going to hurt him unless he, and I don't blame Trump for jawboning the Federal Reserve. He gets trashed by the Wall Street Journal. But as long as interest rates are this high, where you have to pay 6, 7 or over on a home mortgage, that whole. Because the economy is in a period of reboot. Were getting rid of a million and a half illegal aliens and some of them were working and that's necessary. And the long term effects that you're getting rid of a lot of people who were on social services, I just went to a local hospital whose name will not be mentioned and I just looked at the heroic staff there dealing with new immigrants and it was flooded with new immigrants and they were over taxed, overworked, they were doing a great job. They were trying their best. But that's happening all over the United States in particular areas. And that Savings will not be felt for a while. So what I'm getting at is that we're in a period of rebooting and the Biden spend money, print money, let in everybody. There was a logic to it of just mass this, mass that, that artificially hyped some of the statistics, even though it wasn't a very good economic record in terms of real income to people. The first Trump administration was far better. But to rein all that craziness in is going to take months. And that's the rub. Right now. We need lower interest rates. We need to get more attention to what the good things that Trump's done on the border, the fentanyl, trying to address that, trying to address crime. But I'm not sure he should even go into Chicago. The Chicago Barack Obama, Mayor Johnson, Rahm Emanuel. It's a Democratic stronghold. To me, it's kind of like going into Fallujah. I don't mean to demonize the people of Chicago, but as a simile, it's an area where Trump's strengths will not be immediately appreciated. Washington will be because he has a federal statute to save the Capitol. And he's what I would like to see him do. Just to get on another topic, very briefly, I would like him to look at Washington as a model city and put all of his resources and then hold it up and say, see, this is what you can all do. I'm here to help you. I want to help you. I care about inner city people, but I don't really want to go into your cities unless the people express a desire, whether that's expressed in a referendum or city councils or mayor, I don't know. And I think he would be, then they would be shamed as Washington calms down and becomes normalized and they get out of hand. But as soon as he goes in there, people are going to forget crime. They're going to be all of these white professionals, yuppies, metrosexuals are all going to protest. There won't be very many inner city people because they're afraid to protest because they're mostly for it, for the intervention. And it's going to be the media hysteria. And it's going to get back to the left wing strategy, which is I'm going to lay on the ground, put my hands over my ears, scream and yell, kick in a fetal position and scream, scream, scream and hope that everybody is like that and wants it all to go away. I'm going to create so much chaos and hysteria that the, the voter will just Say, make it all go away, Uncle.
C
Yeah, Well, I wonder what the indications are from the, as you've just pointed out, the people that say Chicago. Because if there was a true unrest among the populace, even though it's a generally democratic populace, I mean, they're the ones living in a city that this, I think this past weekend there were seven murders and, you know, 15 shootings. The previous weekend, weren't there something like 54 shootings? And many of them were murdered. And why are they electing the mayor? They're elect. They.
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Yes. How can you force a horse to go to water? How can you force people, the inner city, not to elect these black officials who are elites in league with these white professional yuppie metrosexuals? And they have all of these utopian bromides, you know, green new, green New Deal and diversity, equity, inclusion, but they don't deliver to make life better for people in the inner city. And yet the inner city people buy into white people are racist. These people care about us. And how can you go in there, as Trump intends to do, unless you have a grassroots movement of people who are affected by this crime and say, Mr. President, we are the majority, and then they go out and protest. So if you have a protest, as we saw in Washington recently and we see in Chicago, at places where you have white affluent people, predominantly from secure neighborhoods, with even security, private security, in the most posh areas of Chicago, and they're out demonstrating and there's no counter demonstration, that's grassroots, then who's the constituency for Trump to be able politically to do this, other than he's going to take heat and media, as we know, and then the long term effects might be, you know, two, three months. And whereas if he just sticks to Washington, he has statutory authority, there's no question it's already worked. He can show it up, hold it up as a model to Baltimore, Detroit, etc. The irony is, if you go back in 2015, 16, 17, and you see the murders in Chicago or Detroit and look who was calling for Joe Biden or even earlier, Barack Obama. It was the left. The left wing white professional class said, why don't we bring in federal troops? A lot of them just said that, but it was not Trump. Right.
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Well, Victor, more on this. But first, you often discuss how great civilizations fall when they debase the their currency. Well, Donald Trump's warning about economic turbulence ahead sounds remarkably similar to your historical analyses. And our friends at American Alternative Assets have discovered something fascinating. Donald Trump's been using a specific IRS strategy to protect wealth during times of upheaval. It's the same approach the Romans wish they had had when their denarius collapsed. When nations accumulate $36 trillion in debt, currency crises follow. And that's why so many of the world's successful investors are advocating for gold. The 2025 Wealth Protection Guide reveals how ordinary Americans can use Trump's IRS strategy to safeguard their retirements before these patterns play out again. Call 888-615-8047 or visit victorlovesgold.com for your free guide. That's 888-615-8047. As you always say, Victor, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. And we thank the good people from American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, before we get on to some of the individuals who will be, you know, topics on this program, which we again, we're recording on on Monday, September 8th. Since we're talking about cities, how about let's get your thoughts here on the murder of Aryna zarutska, who was 23. And we've all seen, thanks to X, the footage of her being slain by Decarlos Brown, 35. This happened in Charlotte on their light rail system. The two things, Victoria, the news this happened October 23rd, I believe, and the broader public news of this did not happen until just a few days ago. And then the mayor of the of Charlotte, I don't have the name in front of me, praising those who did not draw attention to the video, but there's so much in this particular terrible, horrible, savage incident. Victor, any thoughts on that?
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Every modern pathology in our society was evidence in this. And I'm so sick of the word tragedy. Tragedy means there's no culpability that just the forces of nature, divine forces, conspire to have a bad thing happen. This was not a tragedy. This was an act of pure, unadulterated evil, of a social predator who had been let out for serious crimes 14 times. And when he committed this act, he was out on bail from a previous violent crime. And that video was the most spooky, creepy, evil thing I think I've ever seen when you see him. And then this poor young girl immigrant sits there and she believes she's safe in the United States. And she's looking at her father and this guy right behind her. And by the way, she didn't stereotype anybody. She didn't say, I'm not sitting to black males because statistically they have a higher crime incidence in this age group than Other people. She was just, she sat right in front of him, she looked at her phone. And then as soon as she did, his criminal instincts were alerted. And then he closely looks carefully at her. He looks who she is, he whips out a knife. And then he goes and prays on her. And then he quietly walks out dripping with blood. No one stops him. And he goes out. And then two things happen in this sick society of ours. One, the mayor immediately says, too late, because the police are a lot savvier than she is, that we're not going to release a video because it will inflame people and turn public opinion against the homeless and it will not be fair, you know, to this victim. And then, of course, social media rallies to his support and opens a GoFundMe and people start to fund in Luigi Mangione style, a killer. A killer. And then GoFundMe belatedly stops and says, oh, we can't continue this. Why did they ever let it start in the first place? And so I was thinking of Daniel Penny. So think of this. That here is a ex military person sitting, minding his own business, and he sees somebody like Carlos Brown harassing people and threatening them. So then he intervenes and stops him. And in the process, mistakenly, the guy dies and he is a criminal and charged with, I don't know, manslaughter and has to go, or second degree murder. And we have Alvin Bragg grandson. And then there's silence about this. No main media, not the New York Times, not the cbs, NBC, npr, nobody. And to the degree that it's finally filtering in the news, it's Republicans pounce. Republicans pounce. The right pounces and uses this. But they don't even give you the details. And the details is that this was a career African American male criminal and she was a young blonde white. And we have the Sweeney, I would call it the Sweeney effect. That because she was white and blonde and pretty and because he was an African American male, all of the pathologies of this repertory society start to go into autopilot. Well, he was homeless. He is a victim of social circumstances. He has not been treated fairly. We have to shield his feelings. We have to. No, we don't. This is going to go on until people say, you know what, I'm going to be honest with you, I don't care anymore. And we're not going to allow this to happen. So when Donald Trump says he's going into Washington or he's going to go into Chicago and everybody gets mad and all the white Professionals in Washington start to demonstrate there's these subtexts. One, oh man, I can go out to dinner again in Washington. This is kind of great, but I can't say it. Two, the vast majority of crimes are committed by African American males between about 414 to 40 in that city. They're not proportionate to the demographic and nationwide about 6% of the population, it's smaller than that actually. Of African American males, 15 to 40 commit about half of the violent crimes, murder and violent assault. Now you can argue, as we've said before in this program, you can argue that it's not their fault, it's endemic racism, it's the history of slavery, Jim Crow, it's social programs. Or you can argue from the right. What do you expect when you pour money into a community without $20 trillion in the last 60 years in the Great Society without having mandates about work and no criticism of a dysfunctional one, you know, where African American males are not being, are not staying married or participating in fatherhood to the same degree as other groups. You can do any of that. But those are the facts and they are exactly entirely exempt. You cannot discuss them. In fact what I just said, I guarantee you I'll get a hundred emails calling me all sorts of names just because I related facts and it's not going to change. We saw the young intern who was walking in Washington D.C. very late at night and he got caught in a crossfire between two African American males and they shot him, killed him and we were told well it was an accident. Then we saw so called the vernacular big ball what happened to him? He beaten to a pulp. I think the perpetrators are out. We saw what happened in Cincinnati and immediately victimhood came in and the mayor equivocated and we said this was, it's just not going to stop unless people say I'm not a tribalist. I don't identify by my superficial appearance. I'll condemn anybody of any race or gender or sexual orientation. But I'm not going to be a tribalist. I'm not going to be a pre civilizational person who identifies mostly with my group. This is especially important because we historically now have 1716 something percent of the population that's foreign born. It's getting up to about 50 to 55 million people. And when you look at what Rashid Tlaib just said in this pro Hamas demonstration about how horrible the country is that her parents have immigrated to from Palestine, which I don't think is utopia, settler colonial and then you look at Delia Ramirez the Guatemalan American who goes down to Mexico and in Spanish says her first loyalty is to Guatemala. Then you see Ilhan Omar in the past and current say that this country is trashy and the dictatorship in Somalia wasn't as bad as Trump. You got a problem that you have people from these, I'll be frank, from God forsaken places, Guatemala, Somalia, the West bank who immigrate here because they know quietly that it is consensual government, freedom, better, prosperity, security. But the moment they get here, they put their antenna up and they realize that the moment they set foot in the United States, they qualify as dei, exempt, we don't have to worry about what we say. We don't have to assimilate fully or integrate. We can trash our host all we want because we are protected categories from this evil white majority that created this country on principles of what she called settler colonialism. And I don't know how you break that until everybody says enough is enough. Yeah, well, I don't either.
C
It sounds like violence is going to be needed even on a global scale. But we'll talk a little more about the crime, Victor and then some of these figures who are in the news like the Phillies, Karen Lady, Tim Kaine and others when we come back from these important messages.
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We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show Victor folks. Victor's website the Blade of Perseus. Go to VictorHansen.com and subscribe. $65 a year or you just want to stick your toe in the water for a month or 2. It's 650amonth and Victor writes two pieces exclusively every week for the Blade of Perseus does an exclusive video every week also, so it's a significant amount of content over the year. There's plenty of free stuff there. Also links galore to various appearances by Victor and his writings for American greatness. Syndicated column so blade of Perseus victorhanson.com Victor maybe we'll just round out the criminal stuff by here's Stephen Miller put up some statement on X making this partisan the Democrat Party at every level, judges, politicians, academics, nonprofits is organized around the defense and protection of the criminal and monstrous and the depraved. The more vile the threat, the more vociferously the Democrat Party works to protect and enable.
D
It.
C
Pretty much sums it up I guess. Anything you might want to say about.
D
That or we everybody demonizes Stephen Miller, but the question is, is he empirical or not? So let's take a few examples. How about Luigi Mangione, the contract basically killer who made a self contract to murder the I think Brian Thompson, the United Health executive lie in wait. They're going to make an opera out in San Francisco. He's a heartthrob. That Taylor Lorenz, ex Washington Post columnist, was giddy over his looks and charisma and we saw what they did with the Saranoff brother who was on the COVID of Rolling Stone. He was a mass murderer killer. And then we look at Obrego Garcia. He is a purveyor of child porn allegedly. He is an alleged gang member. He is a known wife beater and he is a known human trafficker and he had several deportation orders out and we had a US Senator fly all the way down to Salvador to be photographed drinking with him with a cocktail so I could go on. But this pantheon of people and we just talked about De Carlos Brown, the murderer that immediately a GoFundMe page and a mayor starts to equivocate and contextualize what he did. And that's what they're doing. So I don't know anybody who votes for this. If you want an open border and you want 10 million people coming in like Obrego Garcia, then go ahead and vote for it in the midterms because that's what we're going to get. And if you want more Chicago's and Detroit crime with less intervention and nothing like what was going on in Washington, then vote for it. And if you want this mandatory new green deal, no more fracking, no more horizontal drilling, no more natural gas stoves, go ahead and vote for it and we'll see what happens in the midterms. But yeah, well Victor, he's got a point.
C
Yeah, we're allegedly a country of e pluribus unum, but some of our leading politicians, including one man who came close to being Vice President, Tim Kaine, don't seem to understand the basic concepts and principles of America. So I have to believe most of our listeners and viewers have seen Keynes statement before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. It was not an offhand comment either, Victor, where he essentially said that the rights of citizens come from government and come from law. They do not come, as our declaration says, these self evident truths, we're endowed with them by our Creator. He equates that with Iranian theocracy. And it's really to me shocking that.
D
I think he did us a disservice. I have a little bit of empathy. He had long Covid. I've had long Covid twice, so I think it creates brain fog and delusions. I hope I don't sound delusionary when I had the first six month and four month bout. But he said he's been an advocate for long Covid and he said that it's affected his judgment, but I don't think it affects his ignorance. I guess the left just can't accept the fact that until their generation, this therapeutic generation of the 60s onward, most people in the west believe they were born into a natural desire for freedom, a natural desire for safety and prosperity, and that each individual had inalienable rights. And where did that come from? It was imprinted on their brains by God at birth. And that was a traditional Western exegesis. And that's why our country works. It wasn't because Rousseau or Montesquieu said it. They might have articulated it and they might not have wanted to say God for a variety of reasons, but basically people believe that and that it was divinely endowed. But to have a senator directly contradict the message of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, it's hard to see how ignorant he could be. What's even weirder is does he really believe that that's going to help him with his constituency? Is there that many metrosexual and yuppies and Karens in his district that that resonates with or Just people don't care. They don't want to defend their own traditions and culture until you do. You know, I mean, the left. Did you see anybody on the left that criticized that?
C
No. And nowadays I would think the only one who may step forward and criticize any of the lunacy is possibly Fetterman on occasion.
D
And other than he's the only. I mean, when a Republican says something, I mean, just take J.D. vance said he was glad that we destroyed these smugglers on the ship. And then Rand Paul immediately criticized him and said, you know, they needed a trial and this was a target of the South. Whatever you, whoever you, whichever side you are, there was at least discussion of it. You couldn't do that on the left. And I don't think anybody said that the people in the boat who were traffickers were American citizens. And the fact that Obama did a predator takeout of Mr. Al Wae no Saint and killed his teenage son, both of whom were US citizens, no one seemed to object. On the left, they don't object if it's. They have enormous party control. It really is solidarity or mindset speak. You know what I mean? Once somebody in the DNC cooks up the narrative, then it just repeated verbatim, you know, if you say that Donald Trump is guilty of Russian collusion, then walls are closing in. Walls are closing in. Walls are closing. And that just comes to every radio and TV station, every politician.
C
Yeah, well, let's look at another kind of crazy headline. I don't know. It's crazy, Victor, but this Phillies Karen story. So we're again, we're recording on. It's 1 o', clock, 2 o' clock Eastern Time on Monday when we're talking no news yet of who is this lady, but I can't recall outside of some really massive like war event or disaster, a news story so quickly engrossing the nation. Over what? Over. Over someone grabbing a ball.
D
Oh, there was Jack, I have to interrupt. You remember, was he Polish entrepreneur that grabbed the.
C
Well, was. Yes, similar in a way, although.
D
But this was worse because he didn't get in an argument. I watched that thing four times.
C
And.
D
He didn't take it out of her hand. He was just quicker and slyer. That, yes, it bounced closer to her, but it took a weird bounce where it bounced into his hand or rolled into his hand and then he just triumphantly walked over and the first thing he did is hand it to her son. But I have to ask you, Jack, when you use the word Karen, because I have talked about demographics recently about the tragic. I shouldn't say tragic. I just oppose that term. The evil work of De Carlos Brown cutting the throat of this innocent young woman. But Karen, what does that mean? Does that mean a left wing, neurotic, mostly white, middle aged, professional woman in a big city who feels that she's smarter, more moral than the MAGA or the average people, and therefore she takes it upon herself to exercise influence and rights that shouldn't accrue to her.
C
If she has a lawn, there will be a sign in it. And if she sees you with a Make America Great Again hat, she will confront you.
D
So she's the one that one out of every 20 people who. One of the reasons I don't want to fly anymore is going to the airport. But one out of every 20 people you see at a distance and they start looking at you and they walk closer and then they're about 45 to 70 and they're white and usually they're sort of hip, fashionably dressed. And then they say you, you're doing. And they always say the same thing. You're doing a lot of damage. A lot of damage. You don't know who you are, you don't know what you're doing, you're doing. You're just a. And then they storm off. And then if you say anything like, please, you know, I was pleasantly sitting down until you barged in. Yes, yes, yes. And that happens about 5% of the people I've met. So, yeah, I think I told you I have a disabled granddaughter when she was walking in Santa Cruz with my daughter and she has Smith McGinnis, a genetic defect where she's missing two jeans and she can't have any stimulus, light, noise or anything on her face. And during the COVID she was wearing a mask outside near an open space and they were walking and Karen came out of her house and started yelling at my daughter to put this mask on this disabled child. I mean, she was in the house and looked out the window in the bright atmosphere next to a park and there was no houses around. And she jumped out in her house and tried to intervene. And yeah, there is that group of people, isn't it? Where did they come from? I don't know. I think that we. Somewhere in the last 40 years we said people who have bachelor's or Masters or MBAs or JDs or PhDs or live in particular zip codes or have particular influences or titles after their name, they deserve greater influence on society than the rest of us, especially if they're utopian. And they feel that they're more moral on questions of race and gender. And all the green. All these signature. They really took. They really took hold during the Obama administration because they were affluent. And I think globalization really enriched these bicoastal corridors where they prefer to live, from La Jolla to Berkeley and from Maine all the way down to Charlotte. And they feel that they've created heaven on earth.
C
Yeah, they all have black belts in HR also. And Chris Caldwell did a terrific essay a few years back for Claremont Review of Books on this. How the Primacy of HR and the warriors of HR have really harmed America. But this incident, Victor, we can wrap this up. And then I thought it was just truly interesting for a number of reasons. One was, I mean, it's a home run ball. How many people have their cameras out recording? Just like everything that happens in public, There was. There were different angles, actually. Remember the lady said, you took the ball out of my hands. Well, somebody had a cat, had a video of what actually happened.
D
What was weird, wasn't it like the Roman Arena? Thumbs up, thumbs down. Because everybody started booing her, right?
C
Yeah.
D
Up in the bleachers above her, there was two white guys and a young black guy. And they were really great. They were yelling and screaming at her, boo hoo. And. And then she finally. Her husband got up first, or her partner and stormed out. And then she followed. And then she tried to explain. She went over to somebody and tried. I like the way she did this school mom thing where she was just like that, you know, lecturing the father. And his attitude was, okay, take it. I have enough things to worry about with my son and my wife at this thing without you bugging me if you want your little ball. It's so typical. Because, you know, Karens are so affluent and they deride material acquisition and consumer culture. And yet she was so fixated on getting a little baseball and saying that she had it and she couldn't stand the. And she was so territorial. That's another thing. This woman that I mentioned in the house, she felt that the whole area outside her yard and house were her territory. And this woman felt that. I guess she had some bizarre notion when you go to a sports event, especially a baseball game, that you have territory. And if anything lands in your territory, you have proprietary rights to it, and nobody can enter your sacred space.
C
There's no written law. But I worked at Yankee Stadium. I was a vendor there. And sorry, if it's in someone's hand, that's theirs. Otherwise, a scrum. I used to go to San Francisco.
D
Giants game and I would say it was Luce Libre. I can remember being as a kid there and I went there in college a couple of times too and a ball was in my coming 00ing in on my general vicinity and about seven guys came in in front of me and they had mitts and everything and they stood up and I didn't care. That was part of the fun of it.
C
Well, Victor, I want to take a moment for our sponsor Hilton Hillsdale College is offering a brand new free online course called the Federalist. Together, these courses explain how the United States Constitution established a government strong enough to secure the rights of citizen and safe enough to wield that power. Maybe Tim Kaine should watch the Federalist. And today it's our responsibility to pay attention, to be vigilant, they might say, in order to preserve and protect Republican self government. Hillsdale's online course on The Federalist includes 10 lectures, each about 30 minutes long. You can take the course at your own pace and there's no cost to sign up. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll. Let me repeat that. That's Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll for free. Again, no cost. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. And we thank the good people from Hillsdale for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, before we head into the break.
D
I was like I could say very quickly, I was scheduled to give a lecture this Saturday at Hillsdale on Military the Cultural Historical Economic Effects of Vietnam War. And I had a health incident, so I can't fly. But God willing, I'm going to deliver that lecture Saturday afternoon on Zoom, which will be available. And I look forward to that. And I was supposed to be in Hillsdale as we speak, Jack, but something came up and I wasn't expecting it. So I have to get attended to. And so I'll be doing that Saturday. And then the I think it's about 2 o' clock Eastern Time, but I'm not sure. Hillsdale is a wonderful place. I always urge people to donate to it. I've got a wonderful present. Larry Arn. They've got a great faculty. I've had an association with it, I guess since 2004. So it's been 21, 22 years. I've gone every year, Covid notwithstanding. And it deserves everybody's support, especially it's a model now, an antithesis to the pathologies of higher education elsewhere, you know.
C
Need 20 more of them. I saw Larry Arn last Week I was at the natcon conference in Washington and he gave a great talk, but it's hard to beat. Of all the talk, the speeches I saw, I didn't see them all. Tom Holman spoke and Victor, he is so. He is a rock star. He is so powerful, so apologetic.
D
And his desire to. To enforce the law. Everybody calls him a radical, but he's a traditionalist. He's just saying, you made a law. It's a federal law, and why is it moral to break it under Biden and amoral to enforce it under Trump? And I really admire him, the stuff that he takes from people. He's really a virtuous person.
C
I think like Trump, the attacks probably make him stronger. Somehow or other.
D
I think he's my age, isn't he? And some 70s or late 60s.
C
He's getting up there.
D
He looks like a bull. He does. He's just big and he's a force of nature.
C
By the way, I didn't plan this to talk about, but, you know, something you said earlier, and maybe we should talk about this and then we'll end up the show talking about the farmland handovers or desire for handover in California, but the ice. ICE going after factories. And they were in a Hyundai plant, I think, in South Carolina. There were over 300 illegals there. But to me it seemed like if I misread the article, they were all Korean or mostly Korean, and this is what I found. Why are we allowing. It's great. Oh, Hyundai wants to build a plant in South Carolina. Great. Well, then why aren't the jobs there for South Carolina?
D
I don't know. Why is the Wall Street Journal today condemning that and claiming that that's a good way to turn off foreign investment? And these were mine. I think they were trying to suggest that they were model employees or they were teachers or they came over to on visas. And I don't know the details. I think the Wall Street Journal says it was a clerical error. That's what they imply, at least that they were over here to train people on temporary visas, not to. And then they use those visas to work. But my question is this. This is sophisticated ally of the United States and we all welcome their investment in the United States. But is it very hard if you want to bring people over? Japan does it, Germany does it, all these foreign investors do it. You bring over your group and you get a temporary work visa so these people can train Americans what to do. But apparently there must have been people who complained to ICE and said they're bringing over assembly line workers and they're taking our jobs. And this is not right. And I don't think the South Korean government objected to that analysis. Their only point was please don't incarcerate them or hold them. Just give us. I think we did. I think we gave them free transit back, South Korea. And then of course, again, that's an old horse that I've beaten to death. But the Wall Street Journal I was reading today, it's almost, what's the word? Exuberant, almost. Even now the op ed writers are trashing Trump and the articles are all negative and I don't quite understand what they're objecting to. I really don't. I can see that the tariffs bother them because they're free market economists. I understand that they have an argument that I can understand. But don't they understand as well that all of their prognoses in the last nine months have been wrong? They said that we were going to have a stock market crash. He crashed it on March 1. We were going to have recession, hyperinflation. And all they're doing is it's now again, look at the news articles and look at, just touch the link on the name and it will pop up. Former politico, former Washington Post, former New York Times reporter. Do they really believe, why don't they get somebody from the Interior to go to Washington to the Wall Street Journal? Can't they get somebody from Al, Alabama, Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, something that might better reflect their views? But why do they always hire somebody within the Beltway or the New York corridor that has a long history of left wing news coverage in these left wing venues and then expect conservative people to continue to subscribe to. It doesn't make any sense.
C
Well, and as for the editorial page which you mentioned, I, I'm not equating them with Bill Kristol, but we say Bill Kristol does not have a monopoly on hubris. And I think hubris is a great motivator.
D
Don't they understand? You know, I had mentioned before, in the wee hours people were flying into the Fresno Airport on 737 and there were hundreds of people that were coming in under nocturnal auspices illegally. Well, legally. And they had an app but no passport coming into the Fresno airport. And they were dispersed all around the surrounding Fresno county communities. And that's not the end of it. That's the beginning. So if you have an urgent emergency and you want to go to an ER in the area that I am in, you're going to confront the idea that hundreds of people have arrived in the county, thousands who have never seen a doctor. And we're a moral, humane society and we have trained staffers, nurses, doctors. But they're not equipped for these influxes. They're equipped for a sporadic use of an er, not a routine use which people who have never had medical care would expect. And so it's costly and that is a zero sum game. So when I talk to a Mexican American friend of mine and he says, I see at the food market or the post office and he says it's mother can't get into dialysis because of blank, blank. And yet the people who inaugurated these policies and support them are completely exempt from the ramifications. Gavin Newsom would never go to the ER that I went to. Never. Nor would, nor would the Biden family. They all have concierge or special care or federal elite or state elite coverage. But they don't understand that the consequences of their policies affect poor people, middle class people, rural people. And that's really getting to the center of this self hatred in western thought and society. It's these self appointed guardians that have all of these utopian ideas for everybody. Open borders, new green deal, transgendered men. And yet they, their zip codes, their titles, their education, their government affiliations, their influence protect them when these experiments go wrong. So we're the lab rats and they are the clinician with the white coats that are injecting us with all of these so called utopian cure all injections, whether it's, you know, they will eat.
C
Meat, we will eat crickets, you know.
D
Yeah. And then if we say anything, then we're clingers or deplorables, irredeemables or in the parlance of Joe Biden, dregs or garbage or chumps. By the way, just mentioned Biden very quickly, Jack, did you see the article, I think it was in Axios about Jim Biden?
C
I did not.
D
Yes, well, Jim. Jim Biden had sworn under testimony that Mr. Ho, who was the Chinese entrepreneur that he and Hunter were dealing with, wanted to come to the United States. He had paid Hunter a million dollars to be his personal representative and he was worried whether there was an occult warrant for his arrest or detention. And they. He asked the Biden family to use their. This is in 2017, before Biden was president, in his wilderness years, when he was really active, by the way. The Biden family went into full gear after Joe was vice president, but before he was president and used the idea that he would be president to get their greatest Amount of lucre. But in this period, which isn't really, I shouldn't say wilderness, but fertile years, it was very funny because he testified he was brought into Congress and he testified that Jim Biden, they said, did you use any private investigator, anybody with contacts with the Secret Service or any government agency to tip off Mr. Ho that you had inside knowledge of whether he was going to be detained, that is, help him not come to the United States and evade the consequences when he might be culpable? And he said, no, it was just the fact that somebody investigated. I had no idea. Now, they found information where he hired an ex Secret Service personnel to do exactly that, to use his former government ties to find out whether or not Mr. Ho was going to be detained and to communicate that information to the Bidens, who then would communicate it to Mr. Ho, who then came to the United States. But ironically the information was wrong and they were going to indict him or detain him, and they did. But that's all what I'm getting at is that's all just academic, what I just said. Because as we know, after swearing that he would not pardon any of his family, but particularly Hunter Biden, right, When Hunter was convicted, convicted of fraudulent arms acquisition, the revolver they lied about, and IRS problems, which he was guilty of, he pardoned him and he pardoned Jim, he pardoned his sister, he pardoned all of them, said he wouldn't and he did sign them, he didn't do the auto pin. So if you think, well, Vic, that's unfair, it doesn't matter. Well, the ones that were important to him, he used his signature, the ones that were not. And again, I want to go further here, we now have also a story, I think it's from Axios again, but I may be mistaken, where once he pardoned personally his family, to cover that up or to dilute it, his aides then frantically started getting names of almost anybody they thought could be pardoned and ran them through the auto pin. This is an alleged allegation. So then there would be so many pardons, a record number, that people would say, well, Joe Biden is just a generous, forgiving president. It wasn't his family, it was everybody. And that makes sense. Actually.
C
I've been wishing this for a long time that there's some intrepid journalist who will take one case, one part. And I mentioned that scumbag judge from Scranton who was, who was fopping kids off to some prison like foster care system and getting paid, you know, kickbacks for it. And he went, he was convicted, he was in jail, total piece of dirt. Why he would get a pardon is beyond me. Nevermind some of the murderers, but just trace that. How did it get from. How did that get to the auto pen? Who was involved? By the way, Victor, what you just mentioned, if there are thousands, there were thousands of pardons, right?
D
Yes, there was.
C
How many case managers were there for each one?
D
I think they just put out the word and they said 8 or 9 of the people who ran the country just said, call up the doj, call up the Sorrels people, call up all the Tides foundation, call up everybody and just get the names of caused celebs and we're going to pardon. They pardoned under house Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who was convicted of shooting or participating in the shooting. Two FBI agents who were. Who were wounded. Yes. And two of them had coup de grace in the head bullet wounds. Under one of the testimonies at the trial that two people begged for their life and they were executed. And he bragged about it, allegedly, according to an informant. There was no doubt about his guilt and he's now free. He has to stay at home, I guess with an ankle bracelet. But he killed two 20something year old FBI agents and he was pardoned.
C
So that gets back to Stephen Miller's thought. This may have been a matter of convenience for the Bidens, but it is also almost a sacrament now for the left to let there be no jurisprudence.
D
It reminded me once of when I was at Walmart in my rural community and what people used to do who were impoverished, they would put kittens or puppies, you know, in a box and kind of put them in the parking lot somewhere. It was on the freeway. So it's a very impoverished community where I live. And every once in a while people get off the freeway and they don't know that, but they see a Walmart, you know, they want to get supplies or something. So there was this box next to my car of three or four puppies and this Karen parked next to me. Karen, like couple, obviously, with a. It was from a Los Angeles dealership. I looked very carefully at the license plate and they got out and I got out and they said, we should adopt that puppy. Look at those puppies. It's very hot. I said, I know this is terrible, but it happens here. I've seen it a number of times. I said, in fact, my daughter, my late daughter used to come home. Susanna would always come home with a cat. I said, you're an empath you're an empath. All you do is adopt stray cats and now we've got to deal with them. We had tons of them and she was very good with it. So I just said, I don't know what to do. We'll call a psb. Call her that. And finally she started. I said, why don't you adopt it? Just take it and put it in your beautiful car and drive back to Los Angeles and the problem is solved. Take one puppy, but don't give me lectures about what I have to. And I think that's the same thing with the left mentality, all in the abstract. They're going to tell you that how dare you put poor Leonard Peltier in jail for the rest of his life? Or how dare you not understand De Carlos Brown's troubled 14 felony history when he inadvertently slit the throat of an innocent young girl? But then when. Why don't you live next to him when he's let out? Why don't you just adopt him as a cause? And they never do. All of this is predicated on the idea of safety. That's in turn predicated on your status or your money or your zip code. And that's a real existential problem in this country. I think it had a lot to do with globalization, the sheer inequality and volume of money. When we had maybe 100 billionaires, and suddenly we had billionaires worth 50 billion. 100 billion. And when suddenly we had professional classes that were getting 150,000, suddenly they were getting 300, 500, 900,000, which is fine in a capitalist society. I have no complaint. But that created an idea that they had deserved it and they were more moral and smarter. And that's why they were so highly compensated. And that's why they had beautiful homes, and that's why they wouldn't live in a place like Bakersfield. And that created it, really, the last quarter century. That's what spurned the Karen movement, I think. Yeah.
C
Well, we have one more story, Victor, that will make your head explode. Maybe even your head, Victor. But it's maddening once you get to the.
D
Remember, say, Swede, who is nothing more than a Dane with his brains blown out.
C
I never. I don't think I heard that one before. But anyway, we're going to get to that when we come back from these final important messages. We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, thanks for hanging in here, despite what you've gone through with the curveballs the gods of health have thrown at you. I'll get in quickly. Jack Fowler writes Civil Thoughts free weekly email newsletter for the center for Civil Society. You can get it too. Comes every Friday. Your inbox 14 recommended readings go to civilthoughts.com sign up there. It's totally free and we are not selling your name civilthoughts.com Victor here's the headline from the Daily Mail. Democratic state plans to take farmland from White owners and redistribute to help rebuild soul and wealth. And here's the first few paragraphs. I know you all know the first word, California. California legislators are set to hear plans to take farmland held by white owners and redistribute it to minorities in and aim to, quote, help rebuild stolen wealth. Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom's Agricultural Equity Advisors are reportedly set to finalize the plans that would redistribute farmland to non white Californians and Native American tribes through land transfers and financial assistance programs. The report will come as part of a two year plan being put forward by the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force to Newsom and the California Legislature by the end of the year.
D
I had a few questions. You said indigenous people and non white people.
C
Did I say that?
D
What is the story? Is it because anybody who's not white is eligible? Because I just asked. Because in my home here, as I look out the window, I'm looking at a parcel that is part of 14,000 acres from a Basque immigrant. I'm turning around and looking northward and I see hundreds of acres by someone from the Punjab. I'm looking south and I notice I got a parcel map not long ago with the names of the parcels. You know, people, and I would say so called white owners are in a distinct minority. So anybody that owns land that's not white is okay. So if you have a white organic farmer outside of Sebastopol that's farming 10 acres, then his land is going to be taken away because some seventh generation Native Americans optometrist believes that that's his. But someone with, I don't know, 5,000 acres who's from India is not going to be touched.
C
Or are you a Native American if you're, if you're focahontas with 1:1,400.
D
So ultimately when you have questions of this kind, you always have to go back to the old confederacy because they had a 1:16 drop rule that made you black. And I think that's the same thing that affirmative action uses to tell the truth. So they're going to have DNA tests and then somebody doesn't have land because they were Hard working and they couldn't get a loan and they were victims of racism or they just didn't want to, or they had other problems or what. And somebody else who worked 20 hours a day and got his five acres up to a thousand acres, he's going to be punished for that. It's not going to work. Because people who own property, especially farmers who live on their property, they're not going to allow that to happen. When I. First thing my grandfather said to me when I was 5 years old that I remember as we walked around, I would follow him. He was irrigating with the concrete valves and he had little metal. We call them twisters, you know, they were about three feet long. You put them into the valve and you turn the crank and it lets the handle and it lets the water go down each row from the pipeline underneath the ground. And he said, victor, we were walking down the alleyway and facing the neighbor, and I walked into there and he said, don't, don't, don't. Do not go into Mr. Siotta's property. Do not go into Mr. Hazelhoffer's property. Do not go into Mister Conceigian's property. Do not go under Mr. Kawano's property. Do not go into mister Israelian's property. Notice the diversity. That was natural, not forced and there. Do not go into Mr. Arndt's property. I do not want you to go into anybody's property unless you ask for permission. It's their territory, they built it. And you just don't go across a property line. I'm saying, I'm sorry. And when I walk today, I don't walk. You know, when I go around my property, I get scared to even go onto somebody else's property, even to go look at something I never do. And I think farmers are all that way. And I just can't imagine you would have a revolution if this task force tried to do that, especially in Napa Valley. Because I know a lot of these very upscale wine growers and they're not what you think. Some of them are Hollywood producers and just investing. But a lot of them are hardcore farmers who worked, sweated, sacrificed to get what they had, are building family dynasties and the idea you would go in and take it. But I have a better idea. Gavin Newsom, with the help of Getty Money, has something called Plump Jack. That's his companies and they have Napa Valleys, I think hospitality, things like wine stores. I think there's even a hotel I stayed at. It kind of was like really upscale that I spoke at. And he has a nine million dollar home. And I bet you in Marin. And I bet you it's built on indigenous territory, as is Stanford University, where I work. So why don't we do this? Why don't we say all the members of the legislature that are considering these recommendations tell us exactly how many square feet they own, where it is so we can do property searches on all of them. And we'll just say that because we want to set an example that the legislature and the governor, Lieutenant Governor will be the first to allow indigenous people to have some other property. And I don't think that's going to happen. And it's just like Stanford University. Every once in a while they change a name. We have to change Junipio Serra Plaza. He whipped indigenous people. And I said to a very prominent left wing, well, why don't you change Boulevard that goes right through the campus? Well, we couldn't do that. Oh, you just want to do a dead end plaza for virtue signaling, but not the major thoroughfare. And why don't we go back and rename the university with an indigenous name? Because according to your own code of ethics. Not mine, yours. Because I take consideration of the time and the circumstance in which people say things. But Leland Stanford wrote about the desirability of, of getting rid of Asian workers as soon as they finish the railroad, come over here, exploit them, use them, bam, you don't want them here. And given that record, why don't you retract that name and get an indigenous name to the original settlers before the settler colonialists came. So what I'm getting at, everybody, is it's just a virtue signaling game. They would have an armed revolution if they try to confiscate land like that. Remember the Bundy family when they were renting federal land and the Obama administration came in and tried to cancel their ancestral rental agreements? Remember that? That was almost violent.
C
Yeah. Well, let's see what our great agricultural secretary, and I think she is.
D
She's wonderful. Yeah, she's wonderful.
C
We'll get her on the show someday.
D
We're gonna get her on the show. Yeah.
C
Well, Victor, we're at the end of our time here and I just want to read two comments of the. Every week now, thousands of comments on Your website, Rumble, YouTube and various other platforms. Apple, thank the folks that do leave the comments. And I know I go through them and try to read them. I stopped crying at the ones that are critical of me, but they're plentiful.
D
Anyway, I Know, Victor, you're my own.
C
By the way, there were so many really thoughtful ones and interesting ones because we've talked about the truck driving, not only that terrible incident, but the broader issues with trucking in America today. There's really quite a lot of thoughtful folks have written about it. And it's one of those things, Victor, that this is what torments Americans on a daily basis. You know, people who drive, they're on the roads. Yeah, you've talked about it many times.
D
Just since I talked to it. I go back and to be on a three lane, a two lane freeway, freeway, quote, unquote, and to see both lanes with truck drivers going 70 miles an hour or the right lane going 65 and the limit is 55 and the. The left trucker going 70 and you're ahead of him going 72 and a 70 mile and he gets right up to your bumper and you look and you say, if a dog comes across, if somebody, I'm dead because he can't stop that. Or you're going down the Pacheco Pass on a hairpin turn at a 30% grade and you're in the left lane going in a 65 mile an hour zone. You're going 63 because it's very dangerous. There's a wall on your left and on your right you see this maniac in a truck and he's going faster and passing you in the right lane. And as he starts to pass you, you see as he breaks to make the hairpin turn going downhill, 30% grade, his semi starts to go like this, like a snake's tail or something, dog's tail. And before you know it, he's six inches in your lane. And then you drive by and you want to honk and he's got, against the law, a completely shaded window. You know, there's all sorts of gradations that you can have shade in California, you know, for your, for the driver's window. And you can't, it's pure black. You can't see who it is. Sometimes you can, but a lot of the times you can't unless you see them coming opposite. And, and it's a nightmare. And I predict there's going to be catastrophe after catastrophe. It's getting worse. And as we said during that story, it was very tragic that 3 million people wrote a letter in defense of that truck driver. However, you calibrate defense, whether to let him go or to mitigate him or not charge him. And a number of them were from the Punjabi community, which really shocked Me, because I know lot of Punjabi Americans are wonderful people and I can't believe that they would rally to the cause of an illegal alien who killed three people and showed no emotion whatsoever, according to its own cab cam.
C
Yeah, well, Victor, we're going to close out the show today. Can you hear me? I think something went a little hinky.
D
Yeah, I can hear you. I think it's me.
C
Okay, well, I just want to read one.
D
This thing has been buzzing phone. It's supposed to be on silent and it buzzed. That's all.
C
It's all right. We'll forgive it. One quick comment from Norman Emanuel, 4975. I just turned 60. I've lost all my family. I listen to you and it calms me so I hear your voice of reason and it reminds me of home and confident voices reassured during turbulent times. Thank you. Thank you, Norma Emanuel. Thank you everyone else who's taken the time.
D
Thank you, Norma. I really appreciate. That's a very unique letter. I've had a couple of health issues and I've been staring at the ceiling. You know what's weird? Just as a final thought, have you noticed this, Jack? When you get into your 70s, it's kind of bad. Your memory's kind of short. They jump back to periods in your youth when your parents were alive, all your siblings, all your nuclear extended family. And you kind of skip over the things that you thought at the time were very important that led to your workaholic ways traveling. I did this. I wrote this book. It all becomes meaningless. Not meaningless, but you don't remember it with the same degree of detail and affection. And you get this nostalgia for when you were 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, and you had all these uncles and grandparents and everybody was together. It's really shocking. I hope it's not a sign of what you're giving up the rat race. Because I think you have to fight. Fight fighters don't reminded us to the very end. But it is weird that the memory plays tricks on you. I find myself, especially these last couple of months when I've been fighting a couple of things that you really look back at those periods in a way that you really miss, is what I'm trying to say.
C
Yeah, I had the great benefit of, from college on probably about seven years, living with my grandmother, her sister, my great aunt, her husband. And it was one of these Italian homes where everybody came all the time. And it was a beautiful, beautiful thing to have extended family and loving extended family. So I feel for folks who don't have. Didn't have that experience.
D
I am, too. I think it was wonderful.
C
Yeah. So. Well, Victor, we got to ride this out now. So thanks very much. You were terrific. I hope you continue to improve, not your mental, because you couldn't improve on that, but your health. And, folks, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. We'll be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye. Bye.
D
Thank you, everybody, for listening and watching.
Episode: Trump Resurrects the Department of War, ‘Phillies Karen’, and the Murder of Irina Zarutska
Date: September 9, 2025
Hosts: Victor Davis Hanson & Jack Fowler
In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler tackle a packed agenda shaped by both current events and enduring issues. They cover the symbolic and strategic implications of Donald Trump renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the murder of Aryna Zarutska on public transit and broader crime policy failures, Tim Kaine’s controversial remarks about the origin of citizens' rights, the social media frenzy around the so-called "Phillies Karen", and a proposal in California to redistribute farmland. The discussion is colored by Hanson's historical perspective, sharp cultural analysis, and often unsparing critique of America's elite and policy establishment.
"I don't think they need the distraction... Heath is doing a great job within the Department of Defense right now." — Hanson, [11:31]
"You want to keep your eye on the prize. ...I would like him to look at Washington as a model city and put all of his resources and then hold it up and say, see, this is what you can all do." — Hanson, [16:00]
"This was an act of pure, unadulterated evil, of a social predator who had been let out for serious crimes 14 times..." — Hanson, [23:24]
"This pantheon of people... GoFundMe page and a mayor starts to equivocate and contextualize what he did. That's what they're doing." — Hanson, [35:15]
"To have a senator directly contradict the message of the Declaration of Independence... it's hard to see how ignorant he could be." — Hanson, [38:11]
"Does that mean a left wing, neurotic, mostly white, middle aged, professional woman in a big city who feels that she's smarter, more moral than the MAGA or the average people..." — Hanson, [42:12]
"You would have a revolution if this task force tried to do that, especially in Napa Valley." — Hanson, [72:47]
"We're the lab rats and they are the clinician with the white coats..." — Hanson, [58:28]
"When you get into your 70s... you get this nostalgia for when you were 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, and you had all these uncles and grandparents and everybody was together. It's really shocking." — Hanson, [81:36]
On renaming the Department of War:
"I mean, that's what it's for is to conduct war... It was the Department of War until after World War II." — Victor Davis Hanson, [08:07]
On the distraction from core issues:
"You want to keep your eye on the prize... I don't think they need the distraction, that's all." — Hanson, [11:31]
On the Aryna Zarutska murder:
"This was not a tragedy. This was an act of pure, unadulterated evil, of a social predator who had been let out for serious crimes 14 times..." — Hanson, [23:24]
On the "Karen" phenomenon:
"Karen, what does that mean? Does that mean a left wing, neurotic, mostly white, middle aged, professional woman in a big city who feels that she's smarter, more moral than the MAGA or the average people..." — Hanson, [42:12]
On elites and inequality:
"We're the lab rats and they are the clinician with the white coats that are injecting us with all of these so called utopian cure all injections..." — Hanson, [58:28]
On nostalgia and family:
"When you get into your 70s... you get this nostalgia for when you were 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, and you had all these uncles and grandparents and everybody was together. It's really shocking." — Hanson, [81:36]
Hanson remains unsparing but measured, weaving historical context with sharp social commentary. Fowler provides structure and brings both humor and empathy to the conversation, enabling listeners to connect with complicated and sometimes distressing material.
This summary is designed for listeners wanting a comprehensive, timestamped breakdown of all major points, insights, and the episode’s distinctive flavor.