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Sammy Wink
Hello and welcome to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. This is the Friday News Roundup where we're looking at the news of the week. We've got lots on Russia and on appointments by Trump and also Lake and Riley's killer has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So we'll get to those stories and others when we come right back.
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Sammy Wink
Welcome back to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor's the Martin and Ilya Anderson Senior Fellow in Military History and Classics at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marshebosky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. You can find him at his website, VictorHanson.com come join us there for $5 a month or $50 a year and have access to the Victor Davis Hansen Ultra articles. So more on that later. But Victor, we've got a lot of news out on Russia that Ukraine has used American long range missiles to attack Russia, that Russia has says it will retaliate with full scale nuclear war. According to the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Hezbollah has been provided by Russia with weapons against Israel. That news came out this week as well. So what are your thoughts on the current events going on in the Ukraine and Russia?
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, you know, I wrote this week I wrote an article about is there going to be an end to the endless war? And I just, I didn't, you know, I didn't take a particular position in that particular article, although I have one. I just said if you, I surveyed the political spectrum, I could do that very quickly. The ultra maga says these people are corrupt. The Ukrainians, they have a long history with Russia. The Donbass and the Crimea had been part of Russia for in the case of Crimea, centuries. In the case of the Donbass, Khrushchev gave it to the Ukrainians, but it was basically indistinguishable from Russia. Western Ukraine, as we've mentioned before, until 1939 was Roman Catholic and Polish speaking. So it was all a mess. And the Europeans have, I'm now not voicing my own, but I'm trying to encapsulate fairly what the ultra mega or the mobile megabases. And then they say, and we don't really know much about that part of the world. We promised Russia, not Putin, but earlier Russian leaders, Yeltsin after the revolution that we wouldn't bring NATO to the doorstep. We get into the whole narrative of Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland, maybe or maybe not staging this revolution to get rid of a pro Russian but elected leader and to give wink and nod assurances that ultimately Ukraine would be in NATO, which may or may not have prompted the 2014 invasion. I think it was prompted mostly by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's loud reset, saying George Bush was too mean after Georgia Nosatia. And you put sanctions and we're going to live with the Russians and what do they do? What they call living with the Russians and resetting them. And the new detente was something like the following. You people are murderers. You're horrible, you're anti democratic, you're assassins. And you've got to listen to us because we're humanitarian. We know what's best for you autocratic Russians. So the point I'm making is that was for special effects, by the way, when I was yelling coffee, I had to use the. Rush Limbaugh wrinkled the paper, but I used a coffee cup. Anyway, the point I'm making is they think that we should not get involved, cut them off. Zelensky suspended habeas corpus, he outlawed political parties, he's canceled election. In direct contrast with what we forced Netanyahu to do, who has a wartime cabinet. There's regular scheduled elections coming up, et cetera, et cetera. And then there's the ultimate, on the other end of the spectrum, there is the ultimate left wing, right wing, uniparty, neo, whatever term you use. And I would call that the on to Russia. They say, look, Ukraine is an independent country and it's right on the doorstep of Europe and they have a perfectly right to defend themselves. They were attacked and we're giving the wherewithal. The problem with Biden is he put restrictions on landmines and missiles and everything. And so we've got to start doing what Biden just did, and that is let them go. And they will hit targets in the Kremlin. And after they do that, or bases or oil depots, after they do that, Russia will back off. And as far as people like you, Victor, that say, oh, well, you only have 30 million people left in Ukraine, they have 140. They have 30 times the area. They have 10 times the GD. It doesn't matter. We have the combined will, economic clout, munitions of the EU and the United States and a billion people. That's the argument. And you can beat Russia. And then there's the people in between. And I think that's where I am. And most of our listeners are, yes, Putin is a scoundrel and yes, we gave them javelins. Trump did. But this is highly ironic because all the people who are yelling at Trump that he's going to sell out or Russia, these were the same people who would not sell the Ukrainians javelins and impeach Donald Trump for suspending a sale that Obama was opposed to. And which he approved and which came in very handy when they tried to take Kiev in 2022. But more importantly, it's a humanitarian question. There is a million point five dead, wounded, missing Ukrainians and Russians combined, and it's getting out of hand now. It is worse than the Somme. It is worse than Verdun, and it's now more casualties than Stalingrad. This is the most deadly battle in the European history. Not a campaign, if you call it one battle, the battle for Ukraine. Nobody cares. They want to die. They want to be right to the last Ukrainian. Half the Ukrainian people want some kind of settlement. And I think they should have a coalition government. Zelensky should do what Churchill did in World War II, what FDR did by bringing in a Republican. Two people from the Republican Party into his cabinet. And. And Netanyahu was forced to by us. And we're not doing that with Haney. Should open, allow political parties, restore habeas corpus and let the press be honest and then get people behind him by the force of his argument. But this administration, Biden's, their attitude was we're going to give them just enough not to win and just enough not to lose. And we don't really care. We're just going to. This is a great proxy because we are weakening Russia. We've killed about a million Russians. Ha ha. And they rejoice in that. Which I understand that they're supposedly our enemy, but there's a lot of sophisticated diplomatic, strategic, geostrategic issues. They're completely missing. And do we really want a. Do you think that the Russian people, given the history, are going to get rid of Putin? And then they're going to say the United States is really helpful. We're going to have a. I don't know, a democracy. We're going to have transgendered issues, and we're going to get a pride flag like you had in Kabul. They're not going to do that. And that's what they're thinking. They're going to be like us. They're not. What we should be doing is. Listen, you SOBs. You don't like us. We don't like you. We don't trust you. You don't trust us. But China is much bigger than both of us and they hate both of us. So we want to triangulate with you and stop supplying Iran and stop importing from Iran. And if you do that, we will have a grand deal. And the grand deal is you can go back and tell everybody you got Donbass institutionalized and you got Crimea institutionalized. And that's what Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people in the past have been willing to do. But you're not going to take any more. You're going to have a DMZ and we're going to keep arming them. They're not going to be in NATO, but they'll probably be in the eu. And I wrote that because that's what everybody. It's not my idea. It's what everybody's talking about both here and in Europe. And I got the worst reaction. It was so funny from people, oh, how dare you do that. That's stupid. You're just an appeaser. No, I'm not an appeaser. But I'm not sure that Ukrainians strategic and political goals are identical to ourselves. I'm not sure that what is. The government in Ukraine is democratic. I'm getting tired of us telling Netanyahu he has to be proportionate, he has to have a ceasefire, he has to have a bipartisan wartime cabinet. And he doesn't. We do not do that to Mr. Zelensky. I'm getting tired of Mr. Zelensky paying politics. Flying into Pennsylvania the day the mail voting began, a swing state that he thought, and he was correct, would determine the fate of the 2024 election. And what did he do? He was met by left wing politicians, he went to a munitions factory. He basically was telling America, this is good business. You guys are buying arms and it keeps you employed and you give it to us and you're all liberal Democrats and this is great. And he was interfering in our electoral process. So I just think that it's. I wish that Ukraine would win. I wish they would expel the Russians and the Russians would say, we really screwed up, we shouldn't have tried to do this. We lost a million people and we're not going to do it again. And we want to call up Victoria Nuland and Bob Kagan and, and say, you guys were right, Ukraine could beat us. That's not going to happen. And so if you think that, and if you think that you're going to hit targets all over Russia with missiles and drones. Mother Russia. Somebody wrote me, who I had a great deal of admiration and said, well, you should look at the Winter War, the Finland war, where the Finns beat them. No, they didn't. I wrote an article about that. They didn't. The Finns were absolutely heroic in November and December of January 1939. And the Russians sent a million people and the Mannerheim line held them and then guess what? They wore them down. Russia had. The Soviet Union had over 200 million people, and Finland had about 5 million, 4 million. And they wore them down. And then in April, you know what they March and April, they made a deal. And what was the deal? They lost 10% of their territory. And it was a lot worse than the original deal the SOB Stalin forced upon them. And they said, no, we'd rather fight. They fought heroically. They lost about 300,000 casualties. They inflicted a million casualties. They kicked Russia out of the League of Nations for that. We found ourselves in a weird situation where we were helping the Finns who were getting help from Hitler, who had started World War II, and Finland ended up losing. And that's pretty good example, but in the opposite way that these people intend. So we're going to have to have a settlement, whether you like it or not. And that's not treason. That's not Russian collusion. And, you know, I'm getting so tired of this Russian collusion stuff. On the night that msnbc, Rachel Maddow were completely humiliated, what was her first statement? Russian collusion.
Sammy Wink
Oh, that's right. She said, yeah, Donald Trump and.
Victor Davis Hansen
Donald Trump and Russian. And what is John Bolton's first commentary about Tulsi Gabbard? Russian collusion?
Sammy Wink
Didn't Nikki Haley also.
Victor Davis Hansen
Nikki Haley, she should be ashamed of herself. People say a lot of stupid things. I mean, Nikki Haley said that I think Warnock should be deported. You know, she went down to campaign against him 2020. So politicians say a lot of dumb stuff. So she. Tulsi Gabbard's a woman on the left and she's attacked Trump over the Iran deal and all of this stuff. But I don't. I think she's not the same person that she was five years ago. But the idea that she's pro Russian, or.
Sammy Wink
It was more than that. She said she's an Iranian and Syrian and Chinese sympathizer.
Victor Davis Hansen
Part of these people, they think they're so smart because they tune into Russian media. So Dimitri Symes, he used to run the Nixon center, and he's got a Russian. He's not pro Putin, but he's pro Russian. So he's had guests on Putin's brain, that intellectual guy, and they've had them all on there, and they've mentioned Tulsi Gabber. They said she's the only reason people. That doesn't mean she's an asset.
Sammy Wink
No.
Victor Davis Hansen
Every foreign government looks at people in an administration and say, are they pro Turkish or anti Turkish? Are they pro Greek? Anti Greek? Are they pro Europe? And that doesn't mean that just because they're pro your country that you're an asset of that country, as Clapper has claimed.
Sammy Wink
Do we should expect more from our politicians than these hyperbolic states?
Victor Davis Hansen
You know, just. And that would get us to something we could talk about.
Sammy Wink
Can I just add one more thing of news that Russia has cut off gas to Hungary. I believe it was Austria. No, sorry, Austria. And the British Labor New labor government is cutting back on their military.
Victor Davis Hansen
Five ships. Is that what. Five ships? And a Chinese boat, a ship that Russia operated. Cut the. Apparently they cut some of the communication cables on the bottom of the ocean across the Baltic Sea from Finland and the Scandinavian countries to Germany.
Sammy Wink
So Russia is escalating.
Victor Davis Hansen
So this is escalating. And for all these people, Putin is on. He's just bluffing. I get so sick of that. You don't know if he's bluffing. Was Khrushchev bluffing in 1962? I want to make a statement that people, they don't understand there is a rule about proxies, that when two major powers are locked in a hegemonic rivalry or they're in a war, or they're about to get in war and they use a third party, whether it's Korea or Vietnam or what, you don't use that proxy to attack the homeland of your rival. And when you do do that, you get into a war almost. So in 1917, Sammy, you're a history professor. You know that Alfred Zimmerman was the foreign minister of Germany, and he sent a telegram and British intelligence intercepted it, and they gave it to Woodrow Wilson, and it said, you, the Mexican government should start to pressure the United States and the south, because if you do and we win the war and we defeat the United States, we will arm you, and then you can recapture southwest United States. And by the way, you should also use your influence to get Japan to join us.
Sammy Wink
Yes.
Victor Davis Hansen
And Wilson said, along with the earlier Lusitania sinking, this is why we're going to go to war. In 1962, Nikita Khrushchev took Cuba and he put. And he said, well, you know what? The United States tried to overthrow the Castro government with Bay of Pigs, so we're going to pay them back. So we're going to bring in nuclear weapons and put them under Castro's control. Whether the Soviets had the last word, I don't know. But they were going. They were building the actual missiles. They were on the ships. And Kennedy said, you're not Going to use a proxy to sit there with a sword of Damocles over our head. I'm sorry, it's not going to happen. And we went to DEFCON too. And so the idea that we have a proxy, and that's what we're saying we're open about, we want Ukraine to hurt Russia and bleed it out. And now we are giving them missiles that have already hit, they've already hit a depot and they're planning to hit a lot more targets. Strategically, it makes sense. Morally, it makes sense. They started it geopolitically. No, because you will get into a situation where you're going to tell Putin you're going to lose a war completely be humiliated and probably shot. And you can say, well, Victor, don't you think he deserves that? Yeah, I do. But is that going to mean that he's not going to do something stupid? No. And do you, all you people on the left who are pushing this war, have you said the last 10 years, wow, that iron dome really works? And the arrow backup system, and when you add the patriots, it's a tripartite missile defense and we could do the same thing here. So I would like to spend about a half a trillion dollars and protect the United States. No, you never did that. So you want to get into a nuclear standoff with Russia when you have zero capability of knocking anything to protect the homeland and they've got 6,500 nukes and just because they threaten all the time, you say they've threatened so much, it's proof they're not going to use them. No, it's a threat. They threaten because they're getting more and more desperate and desperate people do stupid things. One of the things I tried to point out in the end of everything, when I looked at the utter destruction of Thebes and Carthage and Constantinople and Tenochtitlan is they told people we were going to destroy your city. And people said, nobody. Thebes has been here for a thousand years. Carthage has been here for. We went through two Punic wars. You're not going to destroy Carthage and you won't be able to. Constantinople has been here as a capital of Rome for 1100 years. I don't think some 2 bit sultan in 1453 is going to do what a thousand years of conquerors cannot do. Tenochtitlan, we are impregnable. We have an island fortress. We have an empire of 4 million people. I don't think these white skinned devils who came in this weird ship with their centaur, you know, horse and man, whatever they are, are going to destroy us. So it happens. Not frequently, but it can happen. So we should start to take a little bit more seriously the fact that there may be 10,000 North Korean troops there with promises to be 100,000, that we are now hitting the mainland of Russia. We're using anti personnel landmines. I thought the left thought they were a war crime. That's what we were told. And so we're getting in dangerous territory.
Sammy Wink
Well, Victor, let's go ahead and take a break and come back and talk about Lake and Riley's killer and his sentence to life in prison. Stay with us and we'll be right back.
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Sammy Wink
Welcome back to the Victor Davis Hansen show. I know Victor mentioned cities that disappeared. He has a book out called the End of Everything and it is about those cities thieves, Carthage and the Aztec Tenochtitlan who disappeared under foreign invasion. So Victor Lakin Riley's killer was sentenced to life in prison. He looked really unaffected in the jail, I mean in the jail, in the courtroom when he was being sentenced and when he was being tried. So I don't think he has any remorse whatsoever that he killed her in the brutal manner that he did. But I thought what was equally interesting in that case was that the prosecutor decided not to seek the death penalty because, and this is her words, collateral consequences to undocumented defendants. And that was. She didn't.
Victor Davis Hansen
That was just obscene. This whole thing is an obscenity. So all these people and 15 to 0, the LA City Council said they would not obey an ice order. So we have. We import 12 million people from all over the world. We have no health checks, no background checks, no criminal checks. The left brings them all in. And then when they're so embarrassed and you're getting near the election, they cook up this bipartisan and they get two or three naive Republican senators to buy into amnesty for what, 5 million people? And to allow 4 to 5,000 people to come across illegally. And you call that a bill. And these stupid people sign onto it so that they would have a talking point. So Kamala Harris, who opened the border, could say during her 100 year disastrous campaign, we had a bipartisan. And this is link. Now they're saying that this Ybera murder is the fault of Republicans because they didn't sign the bipartisan. It shows you how desperate they are. They not only let him in, they flew him to Georgia after he had committed a crime. And they had. I couldn't watch it. I was sitting here writing an essay and I was listening to the television and I heard the 911 call and you could hear sounds on it.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, I know, that's.
Victor Davis Hansen
She fought, she shot for 15 minutes. And then I juxtaposed this, that they are worried about giving him the death penalty for torturing, killing, abusing a young girl when he's an illegal alien with a criminal past. And we flew him. We allowed him to get here. We flew him at government expense. We don't fly our own citizens. Have you ever been flown at government expense? I haven't, no. So I don't think our listeners say, hey, do you want to go to Georgia? You can go to Atlanta. We'll fly you there. No. Oh, you don't have a real id. Doesn't matter. You don't need any ID at all. So you're illegal. That makes you more privileged than a citizen. This is insane and it's an obscenity. And yet these leftists are now saying he's going to deport people. It's horrible. Well, what was so good about importing people? You imported 12 million people. What do you want to do? Just say, well, we imported. We broke the law, we made a mockery of the law, and now you don't dare enforce it. And you know what, if Lincoln Rileys now get tortured, brutally raped, killed, whatever, that's happening a lot. That's just collateral damage. Those are the little broken eggs were a beautiful illegal immigration omelet. It's insane. And that's what lost them the election. And they're doubling down on it. If she was so worried about other illegal aliens, she would have said, I think if you have a criminal record, you should not stay in this country. Please voluntarily deport yourself. Please, please. There's a million and a half people that have deportation orders right now. Everybody said, well, Trump is going to use the military. Rand Paul said something really stupid. And I like Rand Paul. He said, I don't want the military used. Well, if you don't want the military used, Rand Paul, why don't you just say something before you say don't use it? Why didn't he say this? We have a million and a half people. They're under deportation orders. I think the US Government should say any time any one of those people comes in contact with a US Government agency, and I would mean get a traffic ticket, cash a check from the government, go to the welfare office, anything, you will be deported. So I ask you, please go back to your country immediately. Immediately. Otherwise. And then he should say, all you jurisdictions, all 600 of them, you cannot be neo confederates. The Civil War is over with. There's no such thing as federal nullification. You do not have the right as a state to nullify law. So you people in Los Angeles who just voted not to obey federal immigration law, there's no reason then that you should get federal funds and we're not going to give you any until you start to obey the law. And he should say that. And then he wouldn't have to talk about the military because they wouldn't need the military if you would just follow federal. If every police, I mean thousands of illegal aliens a day in America are pulled over for no license in Fresno county, half of all of the traffic accidents are suspected to be from illegal aliens who leave the scene of an accident. Every time you apprehend one, you have a quick hearing. You see if there's a detainer or. And you get him to the airport or the bus station and you build the wall and they can't come in.
Sammy Wink
Yeah. So Tom Holman sounds like he's ready to go.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, they're demonizing him already. He was Obama's creation. Obama was so happy with Tom Holman, he promoted him because he thought you Know what? I lost. The Tea Party killed me in the 2010 midterm because of my spending and the border. And I need a guy who's a tough nut that can control it. And then he started bragging that he enforced and then he got reelected and flipped back to his true nature as an open borders, sanctuary city person. But this immigration is one of the things people don't understand. California has had 10 million people who are undocumented at their. I don't know if we still do, but that was almost a quarter of the population. 27% of the state was not born of residents in the United States. And so when they talk about California's $70 billion on the. How did they do it? There's $70 billion on the whole. They have a 13.3 income tax rate. They have one of the highest sales aggregate taxes in the world. They have the highest gas tax. They just raised it by 62 cents. They have the highest power. They're just extracting so much revenue, but they've got the highest annual deficit and they've got over half a trillion dollars in unfunded pensions that are coming due. How do they do it? Don't they have $9 trillion of market capitalization in Silicon Valley? Well, I can tell you how they did it. They imported poverty, they imported about 10 million people and they brought them in here the last 20 years. Some of them are wonderful people, some of them are very hardworking. But when you bring in people who need healthcare, housing, food subsidies, education subsidies, law enforcement problems, legal problems, and you start with the diversity, equity, inclusion, automatic parity, and that translates. Everybody is. If you come from Michel Khan or Oaxaca and you walk one foot across the border, you become in the left wing mindset, a statistic. I don't have as much as he does. I don't, I don't, you know, I don't have English facilities, so I need to get a translator. Everything has to be translated for me. I have, I don't have a new car like this guy does. I see these people in LA with Mercedes. Well, then we'll provide you with public transportation, right to this and this and this. And you know what, if you are in a car and it's not registered and you don't have a license and you are in front, we won't tow it away, we'll just give you a citation. So it's automatic parity in the left wing. Anybody who is not absolutely equal with the mean or the median American is a victim of racism. Even if he just went one inch inside the United States one second ago. And that's not going to continue. I don't think it's sustainable, no. And so they don't understand. The first million and a half people are people who are already ordered to go back and half a million of them are criminals with felony records. And so basically these people on the left who are going to stop this first deportation, do they think that's not one of the issues they lost in the election? So you're saying to America that you bear a guy and people like him, they should not be deported? No, no, no, no, no. They should not be deported. So let's say life. Does everybody think that everybody who gets a life sentence stays in prison for life? I don't.
Sammy Wink
No.
Victor Davis Hansen
So 10 years from now, let's say that we've got three or four liberal administrations and people he's of sympathetic like, kind of like the Sarnoff brothers. Remember they were on, was it Vogue magazine or. He was so handsome. And after he blew up and killed. So they will make a rock star out of this guy and then he will go furlough and then somebody will want to deport him. They said no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's in a sanctuary city. Do you really think that's going to work? That people want that? No, I don't. I think people are. This election again is people who lecture and people get lectured to and they're tired. They're tired of people flashing their pronouns. They're tired of tearing down statues. They're tired of reading, renaming buildings and streets. They're tired of trashing the dead Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton. They're tired of all of the lies. They're tired of calling people Russian agents or collaborationists. They're tired of the law fare. They're tired of removing people from the ballots. They're tired of this election denialist. When we're watching Senator Casey and his minions that are on the election boards in Pennsylvania that just flagrantly say I don't care if the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania says that we do have to honor the law as it is written and reject ballots that have improper or inaccurate or non existent signatures and addresses, we're not going to do it because it's Roe versus Wade and we don't have any, we don't have any respect for Supreme Court. That's what basically she said.
Sammy Wink
That registrar, that was Jasmine Crockett.
Victor Davis Hansen
No, that wasn't Jasmine.
Sammy Wink
Jasmine Crockett was, was the U.S. senate congressman.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yes, that was a woman in Pennsylvania. And she was on and that she got a horrific response from the average person at that asked her questions. But I just think everybody's tired of that. That was what the election's about. And they just. They don't want to be this election, if you really think about it, substituted racial essentialism and got rid of it and put in class solidarity. And we said that a lot during this campaign, but it was a referendum on that. You mentioned Rachel.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, I was. Jasmine Crockett. Yeah, I was. Sorry people. Jasmine Crockett was testifying before the Congress and she was talking about how African Americans and their ancestors were stolen from Africa. And so they've suffered a lot and they're oppressed people and white men do not understand that. And that was part of her.
Victor Davis Hansen
First of all, her argument was that they were stolen. Yeah, they were. But they were stolen from earlier thieves that enslaved them and shackled them and put them to porch so European slave creepy people could send them over here. And they were not. The word slave isn't. She thinks that the slaves were black. They were. Some of them were. But the word slave comes from Slav. It has a long etymology. The Ottomans had about a million Balkan Greek, southern Russian, Black Sea area. So called white slaves in antiquity. Who do you think that people like Aesop were? They were slaves and they were not. I mean they were indistinguishable racially from anyone else. In fact, you can make the argument that the abolitionist movement did not take place in antiquity because there was no particular racial differentiation between one particular people who were slaves and not Julius Caesar. When he conquered Gaul by 59 BC, Plutarch tells us he took in 1 million slaves. These are blue eyed blond haired Gauls that came into tan Italians. Right. And he shipped them in. They were slaves. And Thracians were most. That was a joke that Cappadocians and Thracians were also slaves where they were what we would call as white as can be. So slavery is not synonymous with any particular race. It exists today in parts of Africa and the Muslim world. So when she says that and then it was 150 years ago and does she have any understanding that 700,000 people were killed over the question of slavery and half of them or more. More. Because the north lofts more than the south were fighting as white people to free black people. So it's not just all these evil white people. There was a big argument about slavery from the moment the Constitution was ratified. And the basic argument was the northern states said we're not going to have this, we're going to get rid of it. And they said, no you're not. And then they said, you know what, we just barely beat the British. We'll end up destroying this experiment. So let's just put it off. So they had a series of doom compromises. So that was so. But it introduces a larger question. What's happening in the black and Latino communities right now post election is exactly what's happening in the white communities. So what has happened in the white community? You have these people melting down on the View. You have these people like the Scarboroughs, you have all of them. And they are, they have told us all during the campaign, you have to vote this way. You're voting for a Nazi. He's Hitler. I'm going to leave the country. In other words, the bicoastal elite with letters after their name or titles, before their name or particular zip code or income. Think, think, I say think that they're an elite. It's not deserved to be an elite, but that's what they think. And they talk down to people and they have completely lost those people. These people in those swing states that determine the election, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, they're saying to them, we don't want you anymore. We're sick of you. So when you see that cadre come into Madison Square Garden, they talk about diversity. That is the most ideologically diverse thing I'd ever seen. Dana White, Joe Rogan, rfk, Hulk Hogan, Speaker Johnson, Tulsi. I mean my gosh, that is a statement that each one of those people is a maverick who has rejected the traditional educational resumes, educational certificates, right?
Sammy Wink
Yes.
Victor Davis Hansen
And that's what these appointments we can get into. That's what they're about. So there is a revolution. And the same thing is happening in the black community. 20% of black voters voted for someone the left told us was the most racist Republican ever. That was the highest number since, I don't know when, 1950s or something for Eisenhower. And it looks like about 30% of black males voted for Donald Trump even though he was told they were told not to by Barack Obama, by Oprah, by Beyonce, by Cardi B. Every iconic celebrity and political figure not only told them that, they lectured them and said you will be sexist or racist or you're a traitor to your race or you're suffering from Marxist self denial or false consciousness, all of that stuff. And it didn't work. Well, I mean it really, it backfired. And then when you see them, the elite of the black community, on the left, just like the white community on the left. Representative Claiborne after the election said that Donald Trump was Hitler. And they said Neil Cavuto said, excuse me, do you mean Hitler? Yes, he's Hitler. Hitler. And you saw what Joy Reed said. She was basically still saying that these evil white people are doing this. And Sonny Hostin was on there and said that Matt Gaetz was a sex criminal. And how long did that take? For the correction, it was minutes, three minutes. So somebody, a producer must have been listening, said, oh my God, she just accused him of being a sexual abuser. When the DOJ dropped the charges, hey, type something into the teleprompter and tell that loose cannon that we're losing all our viewers as it is and Comcast may drop us and we may fire you. So you read this and she was so humiliated. Yeah, and she had to read it. And then you had the Scarboroughs, they called him Hitler. Hitler. Hitler. Fascist. Fascist. And then they looked at their, I don't know, election night commentaries and the next day their ratings and reviews and they saw what msnbc, the trajectory and they thought, oh my God, they are going to fire us. Nobody wants us and nobody wants our multimillion dollar salaries. And given our homes and our private jets, how are we going to, we better go see Hitler. And then they called up Mar a Lago and says, Adolf around, or is it Benito? Who's in charge? Eichmann? We want to get over here. And then they come back and they say, well, you're going to ask why we did it. Well, we answer, why not? The subtext is nobody listens to us anymore. So we want to go back to being pseudo moderates and neutrals for a while to get back our ratings so we're not fired. So everything we said about Trump was a lie because we really didn't believe he was Hitler. Because if we believed as Hitler, we would never go in the same room as Hitler because he put us in a gas kill us.
Sammy Wink
Or maybe they would go in a room with Hitler. That's the other side. They can't win on that. They either lied because the election or they would go into a room with somebody they can see.
Victor Davis Hansen
Maybe they thank their Ukrainian hit squads about eisen Group around 1943 and Hitler, we better join him because he's winning. We like that dictatorship that we warned about. So we want to go to Berlin, Florida and enlist. I don't know whatever it is. But the minority communities are starting to have the same split where an elite and by the way, if this black elite is so influential in the black community, in the way that Joe Scarborough is so influential in the white community, then why do you have to pay Al Sharpton $500,000 to interview? Why do you have to pay Cardi B? Why do you have to pay a rapper? Why do you have to pay beyond? Why do you have to pay the multibillionaire Oprah money to endorse an elite? Why wouldn't they just say, she's going to win, she's representing the people? Because they all knew this is a hopeless cause and I'm going to do it because I'm a celebrity and this is my brand. And what they didn't think about was this person. And demented Joe Biden have been terrible for the black. They gave hyperinflation to the black community. They brought in 12 million illegal aliens and dumped them. Not in Martha's Vineyard. No, no, no, no. Not in Presidio Heights, not in Malibu. They dumped them in inner city New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Fresno, where people of color live. In other words, they were saying, well, they, you know, they don't mind. You know, probably New York has called up and said, they just called up Mayor Johnson in Chicago and said, you know, we're going to dump some illegal aliens among your people and you're a left wing elite black leader and you have residence and support. And they don't anymore. So there's a big shift. The same thing with the Hispanic community. All of the left wing Democratic Hispanic leaders before the election were saying, you know, they were doing the same thing. The trans thing, the pronouns thing, the abortion on demand thing, the open borders thing, the whole thing. And that was a straight doctrinaire leftism. And it had no resonance with people, but especially people who identify as Mexican American or Hispanic. And they're saying, what are they talking about? I can't afford a house. I cannot if I live in Los Angeles. I can't pay $5 a gallon for my truck. You know what I mean? My Ram that takes, you know, 18 miles a gallon has got all of my pool cleaning equipment in it. I can't do it. I can't just give up my diesel pickup. I want to get rid of my natural gas stove. Who are these people? Don't they understand? I don't know. We have advanced placement in our school. I don't want to go back to bilingual education. My child speaks perfect English. He's a straight A student. I don't want somebody from Guatemala coming up and calling him a gringo. And threatening to kill him in school, an illegal gang member from Central America. But they didn't hear that, they didn't care. So what Trump basically did is he got this, I don't know what you call it, assorted crew of weirdos, maybe you could say that a Dana White or Joe Rogan or all of a sudden America woke up and it's nobody's no white liberal, no black activist, no Latino activist is sitting on their knee when the Star Spangled Banner is playing or the national whatever song it is, or the Pledge of Allegiance. They're doing the Trump YMCA trot with a little golf swing at it. I don't know what happened to America, but it reminds me so much of the 60s. It doesn't mean the 60s didn't influence us, but somewhere around 1971 or 72, when the guy with the long hair and I was a senior in College in 74, and there were still these vestigial ossified anachronisms, you know, they were kind of like dinosaurs or maybe your appendix, you don't need a vestigial organ. And you'd see them on the Santa Cruz campus, they had long hair. And you would be walking into your dorm and there'd be a guy with wire rimmed glasses, barefooted tie, dye shirt, and he'd be smoking weed and he'd say, hey man, you want to have a talk? Hey man, it's really neat, man. And you think this is the wrong decade. Clean up your act. You got to get work. It's not peace and love. We're not in Vietnam. This is over. And you know, I'm not saying they didn't affect the culture negatively, but they were over. And I think this whole MeToo hysteria and the post George Floyd hysteria and the die, it will have pernicious ripples for decades. But the idea that it's going to continue, it's over because it was based on a lie. This is not a systemically racist country. We know that because there's 12 million mostly non white people from all over the world who are dying to come in here. And we know that the people who are committing hate crimes, according to the FBI statistics, are overwhelmingly not white. And their victims are mostly Jews. Jews, they're the largest group, 2% of the population, 2 to 3%. And they make up 40 to 50% of the targets of hate crimes. And it's not Joe, Joe Bob, Billy Smith from Montana with a blonde ponytail and a Nazi talk to was going to New York and chasing them and trying to kill them on campus. So it's all a lie. And lies cannot exist. And this whole DEI thing, it's not going to go out with a bang, it's going to go out with a whimper. And it's already starting. And that's why people are so paranoid and screaming and yelling. I just noticed that I have not seen an administrator. All of us on the Stanford campus get emails or statements from our administrators and it's usually about not on our name or this is a, this campus is a, is a community of da da da da da, you know, enlightened people. And we don't do these things. And we've heard this well after the election, I never got one. I wasn't directed to go to the cookie, the chocolate chip cookies and milk table. I wasn't directed to go to the furry animal table, the kitten table, the little pet rooster or whatever it is. They said you don't have to. I didn't get anything. And then I did not get Administrator X. It's come to my. This is the administrator who is the assistant provost or the provost and they want to be president and they were dean and they always have to get ahead of the curve. So they try to be as radical as possible and they'll say it's come to our attention we found some graffiti and we're investigating. Usually these are people who do the graffiti to perpetuate victimization but they always then take that and they don't talk about all the incidents of vandalism on the Stanford campus or stolen catalytic converters or salt. And they try to tweak the federal law that says you have to report a very exact description of a suspect on a campus so that people can be aware of that. They try to say the victim could not identify the suspect or something, but if it is a so called hate crime. And then they give this lecture, but they usually attend the end said he, him, she. I don't know what Z was. I saw.
Sammy Wink
I have no idea. I've never looked into that.
Victor Davis Hansen
I haven't seen one of those.
Sammy Wink
Useless words are not used, are not.
Victor Davis Hansen
Good to look into. I've seen two things I haven't seen coming from the central command and one of them is not in my name. Outrage at the right wing maga. Conspiratorial monsters who threatened liberty and safety. I haven't seen one of those. And the second, I have never seen an administrator in the last six months send a memo with the pronouns underneath. Yeah, they've stopped. Who said that? Was there some like central command that sent out and said pronouns no longer operative, not effective anymore. Narrative changes.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, actually it probably came from AI and in fact those administrator notes probably came for me.
Victor Davis Hansen
They're probably a mix between, you know, Trotsky, Trotsky, de Trotsky eyes, everything a racist picture or well, in memory hole, little tube, you just take all the memos, put it in the tube and that's the memory hole. It's done. So I think the pronouns are just about AOC dropped hers too.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, so and I think maybe even reading administrator letters is about over with because nobody wants to read what the computer has to say on whatever subject the administrator thinks it wants to talk on. Well, Victor, let's go to some messages and then we'll come back and talk a little bit about Trump's picks for some of the offices that he's trying to fill. Stay with us and we'll be back.
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Sammy Wink
Welcome back to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. You can find Victor at X. His handle is Ed Hansen and you can find him at Facebook on Hansen's morning cup. He also, and I said earlier, has a website, Victor Hansen, it's called the Blade of Perseus. And he has VDH Ultra material that you subscribe for at $5 a month or $50 a year. And he has a current article on a few of Trump's controversial cabinet and agency picks. And I know that we read comments at the end of the show usually, but I wanted to read this comment because it'll lead into talking about the current picks from this week. He says, I think, and this is Bob Meyer, I think that by now most of us are sick and tired of those in government with quote, expertise and so called, quote, experience. Experience in what? Graft, corruption, lying? No thanks. How about the experts? The quote experts who gave us the disastrous and authoritarian Covid response. Bah humbug. So Trump's picks for his cabinet and the other high positions in government are hopefully going to be very different and are and I was wondering about your views. I know the first one here for the national nih, National Institute of Health. Jay Bhattacharya is a colleague.
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't think that's been formalized yet.
Sammy Wink
Oh, it hasn't.
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't think so. But I think he's a leading contender. I know him. I like him and respect him a great deal. I also said that Scott Atlas, who was also a colleague at Hoover, would be wonderful. And I was hoping that RFK would be a roving health advisor so he wouldn't be put in the bureaucratic spot. And Scott, who has run all sorts, he's run departments, he's run boards. He's probably the best known neuroradiologist in the world. He's the author of the authoritative handbook on neuroradiology, and that is how to spot tumors of the brain and vessel irregularities through MRIs and CAT scans and such. But my point is that, Jay, either one of them would have been. It would be excellent. Remember Everybody, that the NIH is not like the CDC or the FDA. Those are regulatory. FDA is more regulatory. It's about $7 billion. And the CDC is, you know, public policy on diseases. The NIH is where Fauci was. He was in the Institute of Allergies, Infectious Diseases. That was bundled in. It has a. Not a 7 or 8 billion like those two other 50, $50 billion. And it mostly doles out money to universities, to particular nonprofit groups, and mostly to individual researchers. And it has been corrupted because when you look at what people are draining the treasury for, it's mostly these new grants are heavily influenced by dei. In other words, it's not so much. We're looking at a cellular phenomenon that might trigger a mutant cancer response. We want to know what this particular underserved community can do if it had better transportation to go to it. You know what I mean?
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
It's not going to solve cancer. And so that it's probably the most important health agency is the NIH and Robert Kennedy's hhs. They're very angry at him. And who is the hhs? It's Javier Becerra. They said. I just read this. I could not believe it. It said that it was in the Washington Post or New York Times. RFK does not have a health degree or experience. He's got a lot more than Javier Becerra. Javier Becerra was an activist, legislator and attorney general from California. He's known for two things. For the most radical pro abortion legislation on demand. And he went after anybody. Remember the. Was it James O'Keefe? Ambush interview where they interviewed a abortion clinic person about selling body parts from fetuses. And they went after that person. Not the person who was doing it selling body parts of murdered babies, but the person who was interviewing without telling them that was Javier Becerra. And he is also the greatest obstacle to the fair and legal dispensation of water in California, that had legal contracts in the California aqua. He was the one that stopped the Shasta Dam raising, which would have given us a million or two extra feet of water. He's the one that basically ensured that we were going to have $50,000 of fish replants in the San Joaquin river and cut off a lot of the irrigation districts and let it go out to the ocean. So he has no health experience and he's there now. And some of you are going to say, well, they're figureheads, Victor. So they have assistant HHS. Yeah, they do. It's Dr. Rachel Levine. He's a pediatric. That is the person who's supposed to be talking about medical issues. The trans person, who. All they do is talk about trans issues on trans, trans, trans, trans, trans. And they're trying to tell me that Robert Kennedy, he's got basically three agendas. He wants to be very careful about the corruption between medical research in the NIH and Big Pharma. And he thinks that Big Pharma are either pushing untried drugs that are not adequately licensed by the FDA or they have achieved favorable trials and theoretical analyses by researchers who are getting money from them, or they have stock in the company, or they're going to revolve like the General revolving to a defense contractor board. You write a favorable thing about Monsanto or Pfizer and then they hire you. So he wants to do that, and then he just wants to look at adulterated food. There was a very funny New York Times fact check when he said, why can't we have fruit groups like they do in Canada and they don't allow this? And New York Times said this was false. We adjudicate this as false because the only thing is, it's just minor. Yes, the Canada does not yellow dye number this and this, color dye number that and BHT preservative. And somebody wrote, I don't know where it was. He said it was like they said. That is an exaggeration. Now, as far as the fact that they have cyanide and strychnine, it doesn't matter. It was a pun. But that's exactly what RFK said. We don't need the Dyes and the preservatives. Canada doesn't do it. And you're giving us shiny, indestructible food that we buy in the store, we put it in our cupboard and it'll be Priscilla and five years maybe that means it's not good to eat. So it was. They're going after him. My attitude about all these people is the only one that I had reservations about was Matt Gaetz and only for two reasons. I didn't believe this sexual stuff. I knew that that was hanging over his head. I just, I believe that he was promiscuous. But the evidence that says that he hired underage prostitutes was coming from somebody who was completely disreputable and was a known liar. And in prison.
Sammy Wink
Didn't Molly Hemingway write on that?
Victor Davis Hansen
Molly Hemingway demolished that.
Sammy Wink
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
So what were my two reservations about Matt Gaetz? He had never tried a case. He was never a prosecutor, not a single case. If they had have just done this, if they had have just. So who would be a. Let's just look. Who would be a public figure or celebrity with the same big public profile who would be really anti woke, who is indisputably loyal to Donald Trump, who had a congressional career like Matt Gaetz, but it was impeccable and beloved guy. And the, and who had been a federal prosecutor, Sean Duffy, and they made him Transportation. Why didn't they just put Matt Gaetz at Transportation and put Sean Duffy as the ag? Because he was, at least he had gone. He was an actual lawyer and he had been a prosecutor and he was not known as a bomb thrower and he's a pleasant, affable person and he didn't engineer a coup when they only had seven, a seven seat majority. Whatever people think about Kevin McCarthy, that was suicidal to endanger that vote after vote. That said, that's the only one. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard has had a complete. What's the word for it? Reinvention of herself. If you look at what she said five years ago, she said Donald Trump was basically a war criminal. They wanted to start a war with Iran by getting out of the Iran deal.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, but that hasn't, she hasn't changed her own personal position. She doesn't want war. And now she sees Donald Trump as not wanting war.
Victor Davis Hansen
Right. I think what she's. But she also said that we should be very worried about Islamic terrorism. So I think she's now redirected her emphases on that. And. But my point about all of this is twofold. He is the president, he told everybody what he wanted to do. He was criticized severely in the campaign for being too provocative. But the point is, it was unlike Kamala Harris. She said everything that she said emphatically. As a left fracking, of course I'm going to ban it. She went out in demonstrations. No deportation. No deportation. Guns. She didn't just say, I want to comp. I want to buy back guns. Well, how are you going to go? I'll go into their house and get them. She said she was so. And then she flipped. She flipped on all of those. Just for 100 days. She's back to her left wing self right now. I assure you that. And that's kind of. We're going to see that because when Joe Biden is wandering off into the Amazon jungle at the G20 or they say, you know what, we waited 10 minutes and Joe is wandering around somewhere in the jungle and we have a photo op. So we're just going to do it. Forget him. Or if he does come in late, put him up in the right corner somewhere. So there's a big call that he should step down and she should step. And I said that in one of our podcasts.
Sammy Wink
Yeah, you did.
Victor Davis Hansen
Remember, I said that they were going to. They would not stop going after Donald Trump. We heard this week that Alvin Bragg said he wants to have a nice sword of Damocles over Trump's head for four years. And Judge Mershon, who is about as biased as you can get, should have recused himself since his daughter weaponized his duties as Trump's judge into a big money making, multimillion dollar consultantship with the very people who were trying to get rid of Trump. Anyway, my point is, after all of that, I said that they would probably try to put Trump in jail and Joe Biden was deteriorating at a geometric rate and would probably be la la land. And then there would be calls to make her president and then she would be acculturated for 60 days. And then the left would. That would give the left time enough. Like this crazy Representative Raskin or somebody.
Sammy Wink
Wow.
Victor Davis Hansen
The 14. He's like an extra confederate, like a Confederate general. He tried to start a civil war so he can't hold federal office. We're going to go to court and we'll get a judge and we'll stay. I really believe they're going to do that. And I say there's a 30% chance that Joe will be. He might not be able to finish his term the next two months. And anyway, well, with that Victor we're.
Sammy Wink
At a hard break to end the show here, but we'll come back to continue this discussion in our weekend episode on the Trump Picks for Office. So stay tuned in this weekend for more on current news. And also tune into Jack Fowler and Victor's Tuesday and Thursday programs. They were excellent this week, and I highly recommend them. So thank you to the audience and thank you, Victor, for all of your work during the week and this pleasant show on the weekend News Roundup.
Victor Davis Hansen
Thank you, everybody, for listening. Much appreciate it.
Sammy Wink
Yeah. This is Sammy Wink and Victor Davis Hansen, and we're signing off.
Podcast Summary: The Victor Davis Hanson Show
Episode: War in Russia, a Murderer in Prison, and Needed Change in D.C.
Release Date: November 22, 2024
In this episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, co-hosts Victor Davis Hanson and Sammy Wink delve into pressing geopolitical issues, domestic political controversies, and significant criminal justice developments. The discussion primarily focuses on the ongoing war in Russia, the sentencing of a notorious murderer, and the urgent need for systemic changes in Washington D.C.
Timestamp: [03:08]
Victor Davis Hanson opens the conversation by addressing the intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He references his recent article questioning whether the seemingly endless war will find a resolution, presenting various political perspectives without initially declaring his stance.
Key Points:
Historical Context: Hanson underscores the complex history between Ukraine and Russia, highlighting regions like Donbass and Crimea, which have deep historical ties to Russia.
Western Promises and NATO Expansion: He criticizes Western leaders, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, for commitments and assurances that may have fueled Russia's aggressive actions, particularly the 2014 invasion.
Military Aid and Strategy: Hanson argues that the U.S. and EU possess the combined will and resources to ultimately defeat Russia, emphasizing the importance of unrestrained military support to Ukraine, including the use of advanced missiles to target strategic Russian assets.
Notable Quote:
"Ukraine has 30 million people and 30 times the area, 10 times the GDP. We have the combined will, economic clout, munitions of the EU and the United States and a billion people. That's the argument. And you can beat Russia."
— Victor Davis Hanson [04:10]
Timestamp: [24:04]
The discussion shifts to domestic issues, particularly focusing on immigration policies and their implications for law enforcement and public safety.
Key Points:
Sanctuary Cities and ICE Orders: Hanson criticizes LA City Council's refusal to comply with ICE orders, highlighting the challenges of managing illegal immigration without proper background checks.
Legal Consequences for Undocumented Immigrants: He expresses outrage over the prosecutor's decision not to seek the death penalty for a gruesome murder committed by an undocumented individual, attributing this leniency to broader anti-immigration sentiments.
Economic and Social Impact: Hanson links California's fiscal struggles, including high taxes and large deficits, to the influx of undocumented immigrants, arguing that the lack of enforcement exacerbates economic strain and public services demand.
Notable Quote:
"We import 12 million people from all over the world. We have no health checks, no background checks, no criminal checks. The left brings them all in."
— Victor Davis Hanson [25:01]
Timestamp: [15:01]
Hanson and Wink explore the deepening political divides in the United States, emphasizing the role of media and elite influence in shaping public opinion.
Key Points:
Demonization of Political Figures: Hanson discusses how media personalities and political figures label opponents with extreme terms, such as comparing Donald Trump to Hitler, which he finds both unfounded and damaging.
Impact on Minority Communities: He examines the shifting allegiances within Black and Latino communities, attributing changes to elite influence and dissatisfaction with current political leadership.
Media Accountability: Hanson criticizes mainstream media for sensationalism and for not taking accountability for the perpetuation of misinformation and hyperbolic narratives.
Notable Quote:
"When you see Representative Casey and his minions on the election boards in Pennsylvania saying we don't care if the Supreme Court says we have to honor the law, it shows a complete disregard for established legal frameworks."
— Victor Davis Hanson [35:29]
Timestamp: [55:53]
Shifting focus to federal appointments, Hanson evaluates President Trump's selections for key government positions, expressing both hope and skepticism.
Key Points:
National Institute of Health (NIH): Hanson discusses potential candidates like Jay Bhattacharya and Scott Atlas, praising their credentials and integrity.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): He critiques current HHS Secretary Javier Becerra for lacking relevant health experience and accuses him of prioritizing radical agendas over practical health policies.
Matt Gaetz and Law Enforcement Appointments: While initially skeptical about Matt Gaetz's suitability due to past allegations, Hanson clarifies his concerns are more about Gaetz's prosecutorial experience rather than personal misconduct.
Notable Quote:
"The NIH is not like the CDC or the FDA. It mostly doles out money to universities and individual researchers, and it's been corrupted by DEI agendas rather than focusing on genuine medical advancements."
— Victor Davis Hanson [58:05]
Timestamp: [40:38]
Hanson delves into the complexities of race relations in America, critiquing both historical and contemporary narratives.
Key Points:
Slavery and Historical Context: He challenges the commonly held perceptions of slavery, emphasizing its non-racial origins and the diverse backgrounds of enslaved individuals throughout history.
Current Racial Narratives: Hanson argues that modern racial discourse is manipulated by elite agendas, leading to disenchantment among minority communities who feel their real-world concerns are neglected.
Impact of DEI Policies: He criticizes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives for diverting focus from substantive issues to performative acts, thereby alienating the very communities they aim to support.
Notable Quote:
"Slavery is not synonymous with any particular race. It exists today in parts of Africa and the Muslim world, and conflating it solely with race is a distortion of historical facts."
— Victor Davis Hanson [36:28]
In wrapping up the episode, Hanson and Wink underscore the urgent need for meaningful policy reforms both internationally and domestically. They call for a balanced approach to foreign intervention, stricter immigration enforcement, and a reevaluation of current political and social narratives to bridge the deep-seated divisions within American society.
Notable Quote:
"We've got to start doing what Biden just did, and that is let them go, and they will hit targets in the Kremlin. After they do that, Russia will back off."
— Victor Davis Hanson [04:10]
This episode provides a comprehensive analysis of pressing international conflicts and domestic issues, offering listeners a perspective that challenges mainstream narratives and calls for substantial policy reforms.