← Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
The Democrats’ October Surprises: Government Shutdowns and Abysmal Debate Performances | Victor Davis Hanson
01:25:05
Loading summary
Transcript121 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:11]
B
Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler. You're here to listen to the wise man Victor Davis Hansen, who is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellowship history at Hillsdale College. We've been little off little on the last couple of weeks. Victor's taking a little break. We have changed platforms. And I'm happy to announce today this, by the way, we are recording on Saturday, October 11th. This episode will be up on Tuesday the 14th. And this will be the inaugural edition of this podcast on a new platform of the Daily Signal where Victor also does.
- [00:54]
A
And where's the best way everybody can reconnect with us on audio? Just they can go to my ex account. They can go to victorhansen.com they can go to the Daily Signal.
- [01:06]
B
Right.
- [01:07]
A
And get, and I think we had a, I, we were going to have to take a break we were going to have to take a break anyway because I had some tests I had to get done. And now we're back and I think everything, it'll be, it'll be even smoother. Yeah, I'm very happy about this transition.
- [01:26]
B
If Victor's happy, that means less Eeyore.
- [01:28]
A
More happy Victor happy than everybody should be happy.
- [01:32]
B
Okay, well, the Daily Signal is also where Victor does. I think it's gonna be four, it's five times a week or four times a week he does.
- [01:39]
A
Yeah, it's gonna be four times a week. This coming from now on. And just because Victor 72 and we're gonna have it consolidated. So I think that's really good. So, okay, the Daily Signal, you can get the four podcasts a week and get the four daily videos and you can go to my website, victorhanson.com and get access and then VD Hansen on X. And then we're going to have the regular by Tuesday we'll have the regular outlets that we had before to get on. Terrific.
- [02:15]
B
So folks who have been deprived of Victor. He's back, baby. He's back. Now we are going to, we are going to talk about a few headlines on today's episode. One is Donald Trump and the Nobel Prize. Katie Porter, the Virginia governor's race. A calamitous debate it seems for the Democrat candidate Benny Johnson has been targeted for assassination. Pam Bondi is prosecuting the would be assassin. Barry Weiss takes over cbs. Those are the topics. Maybe we'll find one or two more to discuss. And we'll begin with all that when we Come back from these important messages. We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. This episode again is up on Tuesday, October 14th. By the way, Victor, you know what Monday, October 13th was?
- [03:10]
A
Monday, October 13th.
- [03:11]
B
Yeah, it was Columbus Day, a great day.
- [03:14]
A
Wondering why you were asking me was because I didn't factor in the fact people see this. It was. And now it's going to be right.
- [03:23]
B
Well, I just want.
- [03:24]
A
You mean Settler Colonialist Day. I do.
- [03:28]
B
I just wanted to inject a little Italian Americanism into, into this pocket. I, I know you would have preferred it be Leif Eriksen Day, but we'll.
- [03:38]
A
Yes. Leif Erickson beat you guys a long time earlier. Yeah. But being Swedes, Danes with our brains blown out, we didn't colonize. Or maybe it was because we saw this beautiful Vinland and we said, you know, we're Swedes and we don't believe in oppression, so we're not going to stake out this Native American territory and we're, we're going to let people, indigenous people, live without being polluted by Western civilization. We're not that Western yet anyway. We're Christian, but we've got some rough edges. So we'll see you. Swedish migration. I interviewed a Swedish professor that's coming to the Hoover Institute was one of the most delightful interviews I had.
- [04:23]
B
Really.
- [04:24]
A
I don't want to say his name because we don't know whether he's going to come or not. But I reconnected with my evaporating Swedish roots.
- [04:33]
B
Did Swedes take pride or claim or cousinhood at all with the Vikings? Is there any Swedes?
- [04:39]
A
Yes, we were a variant. We were more the Rus. We, the Norwegians and the Danes supposedly went a little bit more west and we went into the Mediterranean. There were Vikings up on the Dipna River, I think, and they go into the North Sea and. Yeah, yes, yes, yes. You know, Nile saga, all of those Icelandic sagas. So, okay, Greenland, as Donald Trump has reminded us, was actually green for a while during. And I know this is going to get a lot of people very angry, but there was a global warming period from the 9th to the 12th century and it was natural, unless you are leftist and believe that, that these Europeans had secret coal burning plants that caused the first global warming, which was more severe than what we have now.
- [05:33]
B
You know, it was interesting watching you. You interviewed Senator John Kennedy the other day and something popped up. I've seen it once before, an interview. He had some Biden Energy Department person in front of him and he was interrogating him about in his way. In his terrific way. You want US to spend $50 trillion between now and 2050 to reduce global temperature. If we spend all that, how much is temperature going to be reduced? And of course, the guy couldn't answer it. Wouldn't answer it. Couldn't answer it, is probably more appropriate. So all this expenditure. Victor, that. Yeah.
- [06:13]
A
And the guys in Fresno and Bakersfield and Dayton, they're not going to. They're not going to get any benefits. And they're going to be the people who pay the price. Why John Kerry flies on. He and Leonard DiCaprio and the whole bunch of them will fly in their private jets and use more in one flight of carbon than the average family will for a year. Yeah, it's an elite boutique issue. It really is. And Donald Trump is. I don't think there is any Green New Deal anymore. I think he squashed that. And I think he's put to bed DEI for a while. And I think he's put to bed critical race theory and critical legal theory. I mean, not successing that vampire like, you know, somebody will take the stake out and they'll come back. But for now, these Draculas are. Are in their coffin sleeping, not to use such metaphors.
- [07:09]
B
Well, we'll veer off into Catholicism here for a second. But our Pope put out some new document. You saw a picture of him blessing an ice cube a week ago and then a new document where he's. He's bought into the Green New Deal, but where there is no energy, which is what the Green New Deal is about, suppressing energy. Where there is no energy, that is where you have poverty and it's, It's.
- [07:34]
A
They don't. They don't care about people. They care about humanity. Humanity in the abstract, but people are just noisy, dirty, bothersome creatures for them. They don't care about what people have to farm, people have to cut timber. They don't care about any of those people. I just got back from Palo Alto and I think I saw three stations and gas was over $6 a gallon. So they got rid of all of the oil refineries. They have all their special blends. They have the highest gas taxes in the nation, but they don't care about somebody in Sanger, Reedley or Dinuba that's trying to afford gas. They could care less. Gavin Newsom doesn't care. He's got his plump Jack or whatever it is, his little inherited business or the capital from the Gettys, and he's got his, you know, his wine, this and his boutique, that he doesn't. They don't care about people. They really don't.
- [08:31]
B
Well, another noise, noisy. What did you say? Noisy, bothersome person, I will say is Donald Trump in the eyes of some people. And this noisy, bothersome person did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It's portrayed as a couple of ways. Portrayed as a snub, portrayed in some Eric circles as who cares? And then the person who did receive it, Venezuelan freedom, freedom fighter Maria Corina Machado, she dedicated the Peace Prize to Donald Trump. So, Victor, would you want to talk about.
- [09:06]
A
Yeah, this was a win, win for everybod in a weird way, because Donald Trump had been nominated by Buddhists monks, by everybody. But it wasn't for this particular achievement, which is in progress. So there was a little bit of disconnect there. I think maybe he will get it next year because if it works out, I think it has a 50, 50 or more chance. But it worked out for the best because she, she's on the front lines against this horrific Maduro continuation of Chavez in Venezuela, where they've wrecked the country with the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere. And she no sooner gets it and everybody thinks Trump's going to be mad at her or he's upset, and then she announces that she dedicates it to Donald Trump for his rare, courageous efforts to isolate this horrific regime which Biden and Obama on the days of Chavez had appeased. And then Trump calls her and he, then he praises her. So he looks magnanimous, he gets attention. The other problem is, you know, our colleague Jack wrote a very good book, Jay Norlinger Peace, you say? Wasn't it called? And it was a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. I reviewed it. I don't know if it was for National Review or Commentary, but I reviewed the book. It was very good. If you look at the people who. He did a lot of research and they're obscure names, but not all of them are very nice people is what I'm trying to say. And when you think that Yasser Arafat won it, he had blood on his hands. And then you look at Al Gore, I don't know why. For climate change, almost everything he said in Earth in the Balance proved to be untrue, caused a lot of mayhem.
- [11:10]
B
We should be drowning right now.
- [11:12]
A
Yeah, he's almost a billionaire. He talked all about carbon this, carbon that. Then he sold that bankruptcy cable company to. Was it the Guitaris or the Emirates who make. Who paid him a fantastic amount of money that was derived from carbon sales? If he really had integrity, said, I'm not. I am not going to get enriched by people who traffic in oil. I'm sorry. But he didn't. And now he's, you know, everybody's talked about his mansion, his planes, and then you have Barack Obama. He got it just a few months after he was inaugurated. And they. They couldn't feel. They couldn't figure out what to say because he'd done nothing. He'd done nothing as a state legislator, he'd done nothing as a community activist, nothing as a senator, and nothing as a candidate. But it was basically that he is a black, charismatic left winger and we like him, so we're going to give him the Nobel Prize. And it was after that, I just tuned it out. So Trump shouldn't feel bad that he didn't get it. It doesn't really mean I'm happy. They gave it to. To a dissident that risked her life to oppose Maduro. But it doesn't mean anything. There's so many awards. What does a Pulitzer Prize mean anymore? What does a National Book Award mean anymore? They're all predicated either on DEI or ideological grounds. You know, these are awards that people like HEM Meanwhile or Thomas Wolfe or those types of writers got, or Peace Prize, you know, they were. Yeah, you know, there were some.
- [12:55]
B
There's a literature award, I forget the college in Private College in Virginia that honors John Dos Passos, the great novelist of the 1920s.
- [13:06]
A
USA was a trilogy. It was a great book. Yeah, yeah.
- [13:09]
B
And he became a conservative later. He was. He wrote for National Review in its early years, up through the late.
- [13:14]
A
And they hated him. Right. They turned on him and tried to demonize him and ruin.
- [13:17]
B
Absolutely.
- [13:18]
A
The left.
- [13:19]
B
Yeah. But that prize, the early winners were Thomas, Tom Wolf and a few others. But now you have to be some, you know, lesbian, transsexual, you know, America hater to be considered and to win the prize. So Dos Passos, his name goes to those who are totally undeserving. Do Passonian.
- [13:41]
A
It's the ONM touch. Yeah, the onmit is touch. Everything the radical left touches turns to dross. Everything. They have a unique ability to destroy institutions. Yeah. Especially with dei.
- [13:55]
B
Well, let's. We got so much to talk about. I think. I think we should venture next, Victor, to Leticia James, who was. Who has been charged for her monkey business with. With mortgage applications. And she's hired. I don't know if it's a Blowell or Abby Lowell, but he was.
- [14:20]
A
Yeah, he's everywhere. He was Hunter's Lawyer. Right?
- [14:23]
B
Correct. Yeah. So, hey, what comes around goes around. Maybe your thoughts?
- [14:27]
A
Yeah, I mean, I got kind of irritated reading the Wall Street Journal op ed. It was very unfair for Donald Trump to be targeted by Letitia James. And it's just as unfair. And we gotta stop. No, I, I read the Wall Street Journal during that whole era when she went after Donald Trump. And I can tell you, whether in the news division or some of the op eds, it wasn't that this is a witch hunt against Donald Trump. It was just as many articles suggesting he was sloppy or disingenuous or he was on the edge of legality and he, that's what the tone of the Wall Street Journal was. And so the question is, did. There's two questions. Question A, did she or did she not violate real estate laws? Did she say that her principal residence was outside the state of New York when she is by statute required as a statewide official as Attorney General to live in New York? And the answer is she did. Did she also suggest impugn or state that this home was not a rental? And that seems to be under investigation. We'll see. And did she say that her husband was her father? And we'll find out about that, too, whether that's going to be official part of the indictment. And so then the second question is, did the Trump DOJ target her in a way they would not have targeted, according to the Wall Street Journal, thousands of other people who fudge on their principal residence and like Adam Schiff allegedly claimed to, and we'll see about that. But Wall Street Journal, there's a little thing you forgot to tell us. She is the chief law enforcement officer of New York. She is. She's the Attorney General of the entire state. Every investigative journalist out there should be checking every attorney general to make sure they're above the suspicion of committing a crime. So, yes, she had undue attention. I don't know if it was because she went after Trump or because she was a radical progressive who said crazy things and brought attention onto herself and people then started to investigate her. But either way, it doesn't matter because she's supposed to be the person above legal reproach and she's not. And if you look at the, what do we call it, the metaphorical corpses of this lawfare. So we look at E. Jean Carroll. She has completely disgraced herself. The judge in that case has Kaplan. He has disgraced himself. We had Judge Merchand. He has disgraced himself. Alvin Bragg, everybody knows that that was a bogus, complete Bootstrapping of a federal non violation. Everybody knows he's let criminals out. He doesn't care about the safety on the streets. You look at Jack Smith, a day doesn't go by then we don't find a Jack Smith horror story. Whether it's getting free legal service and not reporting that as income or more. More rate. More. Recently we learned that he ordered the. They don't. They're very careful. He did not tap their phone. No, he didn't tap the actual content, but he did the data search on was it eight or nine U.S. senators. And he was trying to find out after January 6th what time did they call how, who to whom was the call addressed, how long was it, etc. And he had no business doing that. So he's under suspicion. Then we get to Fanny Willis. She's already been cited by the court and forced to pay a fine. She's now in legal problems. Is there a pattern there? Wall Street Journal? I think there is. And so what are we supposed to say? Don't dare investigate Jack Smith. Would you ever investigate a other special prosecutor? Yeah, you would because they're special prosecutors. Don't dare and investigate Fannie Wilson. What are you supposed to do? Let this buffoon just with impunity spout off all this hatred and do all of these things from hiring her boyfriend to paying things supposedly in cash to hide the fact that. That she was on a junket or that she sent Nathan Wade to the White House counsel to coordinate these Lawfare efforts. What are you supposed to do with Letitia James? So, yeah, I think that it's going to have the opposite effect of the Wall Street Journal. They say we're in a spiral now to the bottom. Lawfare. Lawfare. Lawfare. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe we're trying to set this record and say do not use law firm because if you do, everybody don't cast the first stone. Because if you cast the first stone, somebody's going to find out something and don't do it if it's improper. And it's just amazing to watch these.
- [19:59]
B
There's a difference between. In the lawfare fight, Victor, between here with this doc. Alleged documentation of wrongdoing, which would be the same if you or I lied on a tax deduction on our, you know, if we did the same. You've owned a second house. I've owned a second house in my lifetime. I did it right. You know, I don't. I know I put quote marks on there. I did it correctly because I. Because a. You're Supposed to. And B, if, like if I did it, if I said it was my primary residence, I know I might go to jail.
- [20:31]
A
Right.
- [20:31]
B
But they seem to have broken law. I don't know what Donald Trump did to break the law to initiate the lawfare against him. So there's.
- [20:43]
A
He committed a sin. He decided they knew he was going to run for president. Had he said one of the three things, I am not running for president, they wouldn't have had any of those indictments. If he said, number two, I'm not Donald Trump, you got mistaken identity, I'm not Donald Trump, they wouldn't have indicted him. And if he'd said, I'm Donald Trump, but I apologize, and now I'm a hardcore leftist and I'm joining the Never Trump people, they wouldn't have indicted him. Yeah, it was because he was Donald Trump and he was proud of it and he was going to run for president again and he was going to double down what he did on the first term. And that's in their way that with three mortal sin. Yeah.
- [21:23]
B
By the way, on the grand jury front, John Bolton, there's a grand jury in Maryland who's considering a case against him for classified documents.
- [21:39]
A
I think that's very different than these other cases. That's just going to be a clear cut case of did he transmit classified documents to friends or family before he knew he was going to have to leave office so that he would have access to information to write his memoirs? A federal judge who oversaw the case during the 2020 campaign, when he was trying to kind of, sort of, kind of maybe voice things that he was writing a memoir, he had remonstrated with Bolton and said, what you're doing is not in the interest of the United States and if you continue it, you're going to expose yourself to civil and criminal liability. That was a federal judge who warned him and he said, I would like to stop. I can't stop it because it's too late. It's already in publication. So it's just a question, and I have no animus toward John Bolton, but it's just a question. Did you or did you not send information that you knew was classified over email to someone? And if you did, that's a felony. And the reason I mentioned that is because this all came to attention reportedly, allegedly, supposedly because a foreign intelligence agency had access to it. And we'll see if that turns out to be true. Yeah, if it turns out to be true, he's going to be in big trouble. You can't have the National Security advisor of the United States sending classified information to people so he can write a memoir and time the memoir with the re election of his former boss for their sole purpose of embarrassing him and ensuring his defeat. You can do all that but you just can't do it with classified information that you've sent.
- [23:33]
B
Well, if, if Sandy Berger's history is any indication and he said he stole documents in his socks.
- [23:43]
A
Yes. I thought it was in his pants. No, he put my pants too and then he put it in a dumpster for a while I think.
- [23:52]
B
Well he did something jail for it.
- [23:54]
A
So no, he was Sandy Burger so he was protected.
- [23:59]
B
Yeah. Well Victor, a lot's happening politically. There's a federal shutdown which is initiated the beginning of federal layoffs and then we have a on the brink of a trade war with Red China. And we're going to get your thoughts on these and other topics when we come back from these important messages. Foreign we're back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Saturday October 11th. This episode is up on Tuesday the 14th. And we are now at a new happy home of the Daily Signal who's which is run by the great Rob Bluey, a good friend of mine. He's a good man. So hopefully we will this podcast will have an even broader footprint. Victor's wisdom will will go out to many more places. Speaking of Victor's wisdom, the blade of Perseus VictorHanson.com is Victor's official website. Do go there. It's there's so much free stuff. Links to Victor's weekly column for the Daily Signals, weekly syndicated column, as many appearances and the archives of these podcasts. And then twice a week an exclusive article that he writes for the Blade Perseus and once a week he does.
- [25:16]
A
A Someone wrote me and said are these protests anything like you remember in college? So I wrote a 5 point a 5 part this is what I remember about UC Santa Cruz. Whether yeah letting some people trying to let cows out to liberate them as they marched against the war or very wealthy person who was screaming and yelling as if she was in the Students for Democratic Society to my poor dad dropped coming in the dorm wants to find me. He was in the area, he wanted to go to lunch and he walked by a door and it said hash $5 a cube, marijuana lids, LSD silicide. And he said why isn't that man in jail?
- [26:04]
B
Did he use the loo? Did he go in the bathroom?
- [26:06]
A
And there was something yes, he went that was the Day he dropped me off, he said, there's a woman having sex with a man in the shower, and there's no shower curtain. I said, well, why didn't you leave, dad? Well, I was shocked. It was the male restroom. She had no business. This was a half century before the transgender.
- [26:27]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [26:29]
A
So I just was recounting how absurd. And then I ended. I think it's going to come out Tuesday. I was in a class during the Cambodia bombing protests in 73. And we were told it was a moratorium. And anybody who went to class was on his own and was subject to danger. When you saw the UC Santa Cruz people, you didn't get the impression they were dangerous. So there was a guy that I liked. He was on a special program. He had been in prison in South Carolina. Southerner. And so he. And I went, and there was a few other people. And then these guys broke in, spaghetti arms and all. Dad. Fff. This. This is closed. And then they started turning over chairs. And the professor was really nice. I don't want to mention his name. I liked him. It's a classics course. Was not my hero, John Lynch. But it was a very good guy. And he tried to reason with them. You know, hello, I have a duty. I'm getting. He was very. And they just. And he left. And so everybody said, I think, you know, we can't argue with these people. We just stayed. We were at the back, and they kept turning over things. They got to the back, and this guy, he didn't. He kind of slugged him in the stomach a little bit. You know, he just went like this. And the guy went all crumpled up. Oh, you hit me. This guy was doing all this damage. And then. Call security. So they called security, and then they took off. And the security guys in those days didn't. As I remember, they didn't wear uniforms. It was a soft approach. Airbrush. You know, you're gonna wear a sport coat or something. Yeah. So this guy came in and he's. He was trying to go through everything, but he really would sympathize with us. Yeah, he was from, I think Bakersfield. And we were talking, and then he said, you know, I'm gonna check on you. He said it really loud because one of them was still there. And I'll check on and follow up. And then, like, he let us go. He said. Basically, he said, thank you. And he was a Santa Cruz guy. And then he came to my dorm room about a week later. He said, just checking up on you. I said, I Do anything? No, but these people are capable of anything. I want to make sure they haven't been harassing. Then I would talk to him every once in a while. But then you read your Banana Slug alumnus newsletter and the class of 75, 73, 76, and you see what they've been doing. And one out of 10 times, I can match that face with a name. So I see this guy, you know, walking barefooted, spouting the F word, selling dope, you name it, committing violence on campus. And then I see the name. Mr. X has been promoted to west coast manager of Goldman Sachs. Yeah. Ms. Y is now doing. She's the head screenwriter for Netflix. Mr. Z is now a content producer at CBS West. They all click. They all just clicked back in. They plugged back in. This was a little routine of passage. They were all wealthy, most people from LA at that, about 30% of the student body. And they were very bright and they went through the rite of passage and they looked really raunchy and did. Didn't bathe and all that stuff. And then their dad and mom said, look, you. You got your five years. You went through it. We're left wing. Like, we're really proud. We tell everybody you're at the new UC Santa Cruz and you're causing mayhem against the Nixon war machine, but it's time for you to start making money. And that's what they did. A few of them didn't. A few of them got so zonked out, they. They didn't. But most of them plugged back in.
- [30:16]
B
What was the school's mascot is a banana slug.
- [30:19]
A
Yes, a big banana slug. Okay. It was. Whatever, all right?
- [30:25]
B
It is what it is.
- [30:26]
A
The first week I got there, they had a little. Now they haven't. You know, it's 50 years later. So they have very nice facilities. Last time I went up there. But they had one little pool at Cal College. It was like a house, your house pool. And I would. I love to swim. So I thought, I'm gonna go about seven at night. I go out there my first week at UC Santa Cruz, and there's a guy, and he was the filthiest person I've ever seen. He had an army jacket on. He was smoking marijuana. He had hair all over him. He was. Boots. He'd walked up. I don't know if he was homeless or what. And he had a girl who was more filthy. And so I was just. I had my little baggy swimming suit and they took off all their clothes and they jumped in. I swear to the Almighty, that there was a. It was like a little plume, you know.
- [31:19]
B
Slick. Yeah.
- [31:21]
A
So, you know, and then. And here was. I was. I had my baggy little, you know, not little, big old bathing shorts, and I was getting a shower, cold shower, to make sure I was clean. And I go in there and these two people are utterly filthy and they have no clothes. I guess it was all quiet because they were.
- [31:45]
B
The Exxon Valdez of human beings.
- [31:48]
A
Yeah. And I thought it was against the law to take your clothes off at a campus and jump in a swimming pool.
- [31:53]
B
Well, let's truncate. We'll get to the two subjects I mentioned earlier. But since we're talking about campuses, maybe a good time to get your take, Victor, on what. What happened to the. To the campus protesters that so wanted a peace deal or ceasefire in Gaza, Israel, where are. Why aren't they out on the campuses celebrating?
- [32:19]
A
Their problem is that their heroes, Hamas, want to deal. And so now they're thinking, let me see, Hamas are killers and murderers. And it was really neat the last, you know, two years to get on campus and then free Palestine river to see Hamas and wear a Hamas headband. And you were. But wait a minute, how am I going to get to. They want their. Their hostages back, and they're willing to settle and let Israel still guard 50% of Gaza for a while. So they're dumbfounded because they know that that took this, the wind out of their protest sails. They want to protest. Protest. But then they'd have to be to the left. They can't criticize Hamas. So they want it. They don't want it. I think Rashida Tlaib and the squad are just, you know, biting their lip and we know what's going on, that the Hamas people have been decimated. They're subterranean terrorists. Now everybody's starting to get a little angry at them, and they don't have the wherewithal from Iran, the money. And Hezbollah is not going to help them. And the Houthis are, so they're orphaned. The West Bank, Palestinian Authority don't like them. So they're thinking, how do we get back and kill Jews? We'll cut a deal. We'll give up the hostages. And most of them, by the way, we've already killed or starved to death, as they're going to find out. And then we'll get our 1700 terrorists back who have killed, maimed, destroyed people, and that will be the nucleus for the new Hamas. It may take a year or two that we'll fake it like we're, you know, peaceful people and maybe we'll even let the Gulf Arabs come in and lavish money on build it all up and they'll have to pay us a big bribe or we'll cause trouble. That's what they're thinking. But what they're not thinking is I don't think Donald Trump would care one bit if they break the deal and they start killing Jews again to let Netanyahu do what he wants. I don't think. And they don't understand that there is no mothership Iran right now, there is no mothership Hezbollah, there is no mothership Houthis, there's nobody that likes these people. And what was brilliant about this peace deal, he had all these pieces that all of the, the so called sober and judicious diplomats, Jack, they never did, you know, the Clinton, the Clinton people, the Bush people, John Kerry, John Kerry, the Russian plan, the Camp David plan, the UN Plan. And all Trump did was he just went around the Middle east and he didn't do what Biden said and said, oh, you've assassinated the Washington Post guest column and we're never going to talk to you Saudis, you did that. He made personal friendships, he used his tariffs and trade, you know, I may need you in the future and I'll let you come in here without a tariff maybe or I may have a high tariff depending on. And he got Turkey and he got about 10 players in the deal. And then he did a smart thing. He took the one eye Jack of the Middle east gutter where we have a base and it's always a double dealer. And he kind of took it out of the equation, said we're going to be, you're going to have a protectorate now. We're going to train your pilots in the US and we're going to guarantee your safety. And gutter said, wow, everybody hates us. That's good. And then they start thinking now we deal with the US and they're going to guarantee our safety and if we screw up and do what we usually do and have Hamas there, well, maybe they're going to modulate our safety or maybe they're not going to be there in our safety or maybe so it's not such what everybody thinks. It also helped Netanyahu because Netanyahu can, he says to the right, hey Trump, call me up. It's in the papers. He said, BB, that's it, no more. So what am I going to do? This guy did the best thing anybody's ever done in history. He took out the nuclear facilities and ran. I owe him. So I didn't want to make this deal, but I had to. And then the left says, wow, Bibi got the hostages back. How can we attack him? He got the. And there's no more fighting. And the Arabs are all going to be. So if you look at it piece by piece, you can see how it happened. And he got no un. No, no, no, no. You in. No Europeans. The Europeans are just looking at this. They usually, you know, ankle bite. And they're thinking, well, let me think about this. We only have two interests in the Middle East. If you're a European one, is Iran ever going to get a bomb and threaten us? No. And who was responsible for that? Trump. And every time there's a Palestinian killed or there's violence in the Middle east, someone of our unassimilated, huge, growing Muslim population blows up a synagogue, kills somebody, chops somebody's head off, attacks a cartoonist. And if that is quiet over there for a while, then there's less terrorism among our populations that are prone to terrorism. So it has, I think it has a greater chance to last because it's got so many different people that Trump got invested in it. And then you think, well, where was the permanent State Department class? It was Witkoff and Jared Kushner came out of the shadows again. And maybe Marco Rubio a little bit. But it wasn't the institutional, you know, the institutional State, State Department, National Security Council expert this, expert that.
- [38:07]
B
The professionals. Leave it to the professionals. Well, Victor, let's, let's talk. Let's keep on foreign policy. Then Red China trade war. China is going to withhold precious metals from the U.S. whatever withhold means. Trump is replying, responding by threatening to impose, and promising to impose a 100 extra, extra 100% tariff on Chinese products.
- [38:44]
A
This is a self correcting. You know, if you go back in the 1980s, we were, I think, and people listening can correct me because I haven't researched this, but I think we were the leading producer of rare earth minerals and the processor. And then the left said that things like gaudium and lithium, germanium were too toxic and the EPA and all. And so in the 90s, it was over with. But we had this big mine in Mojave that's, I think it's one of our biggest mine, one of the biggest mines in the world. And then we have one in Georgia and now we have a new one, they're just opening in Wyoming, but we produce now only 20% of our rare earth minerals. And we have to not only import raw product, but if we do have raw, even our, I should say our own raw product, we have to export to have it processed. We were the ones that invented the idea of how to use rare earth minerals and how to process them. And then we shut down the entire thing before environmental reasons and we could get it as the Chinese wanted us to, cheaper. So everybody, anybody who warned in the 1990s and said listen, do not trust this new Chinese government, all they're doing is cutting prices and dumping product. And then at the millennium and the 20 and they want to lure your, lure you into a dependency and destroy your domestic production. And then when they have, they will use it around your neck and don't fall for it. And we fell for it. So then the question is, we have enough rare earth minerals. We have a huge amount, Australia has an huge amount. I think Latin America has a huge amount. How quickly can we develop them and new technologies so they can be used? You know, you can go into waste. We can go through all of our old mines, copper mines, zinc, and find the tailings and find we can do this, but we can't do it. If you have a Harris or a Biden or an EPA that says we're going to stop this or we're more interested in windmills off offshore, this is very important that we not have this strategic materials up without which we can't make cars, military aircraft, etc. So how quickly can. And we said, I think it's 29 years to get a permit for a new rare earth mine. But I think Doug Burgum has already said that he's going to fast track that to a year or two and then it's do we have the technology? Can we go back into our research and find out who these guys are that are 90 or 85 now and call them up and say 1986, didn't you create this brilliant extraction process? Can you come out of retirement and teach people? Are you still active? I'm kind of being in jest, but it shows you the decline of this consumption society that allowed something that we were very good at to be outsourced to the Chinese. And we could replicate this in a lot of different areas. But if we want to and we go by merit and we get the government off the backs of capitalists and give them incentives, we can do a lot. And I'm just reminding everybody, when Singapore fell in 1942, in February, people said we would not have enough natural rubber. And there were already had been people who said that we could make synthetic good, rich and good. All that we knew how to do it, we were already doing it. But the idea that you could make thousands of tires for jeeps and rubber treads on, nobody thought you could. And we did it. And the same thing with aircraft. When we started the war, they said, oh my gosh, we don't know what a turbocharger is. We don't know how we can recycle air. We know how to do it with the British Spitfire. Does it pretty well in the germ. And then, you know, we, this P39, P40, and then all of a sudden P47 and the P50, one of the fastest aircraft in the world at that time, yeah, 150 miles an hour, turbocharged, supercharged. And we did it. We did it in about three years with the help of the British in the case of the P51. But we can do it if we just get our minds to it. And there's incentives to it and people who do it are praised in the manner that Henry Ford or Henry Kaiser were and not demonized like a musk type.
- [43:29]
B
Who would be, would be the kind of person.
- [43:32]
A
He just launched another rocket. Was it 26 or 24 satellites that he shot into the world. There's thousands of them all over the world. He's brought cheap Internet, clean this broadcast, which would been impossible. I tried use Internet, I tried another local company, I tried every one out here in the farm. And it was only when Elon offered Starlink, and I have the original Starlink, not the updated ones. And all of a sudden the download and upload just, you know, and what was the insulation? Victor got in a ladder and climbed on top of this old cow manger and put his little antenna and got his phone out and, you know, did the little guidance and then turned it around. It took maybe, I don't know, 30 minutes and then bam, Elon checked in. So, all right, we owe him a lot. If you look at. I'm now looking out the window to Tesla being charged and which my wife uses religiously. It's just he's, he's changed a lot of our lives. And I, I go on X. I never did that before until he took it over. And I know he's eccentric, I know he. People don't like him, but I'm very happy that he has made his peace with Donald Trump and I think he's going to gear up for the midterm elections and become involved.
- [44:57]
B
Well, your lips to God's ears. I hope so let's end this segment, Victor. Then we'll get into some political things at the end of the show.
- [45:07]
A
The.
- [45:09]
B
Government shutdown as we're talking. I think it's day nine or ten. Who knows? By the time this is broadcast, it may be settled, but layoffs of federal workers have begun. I think about 5,000 have been. Have I not laid off, I think maybe even fired. Any, any thoughts on, on this shutdown? Any aspect of it, the politics?
- [45:32]
A
Yeah, I don't understand the shutdown because just months earlier they signed on to the big beautiful bill and they knew about the Obamacare. They knew that the inflation. It was never the Affordable Care act, it was the Unaffordable Care Act. It drove crop prices sky high for a variety of reasons. And so they, they knew all of this and yet they didn't shut the government down. And now they are, and they said they wouldn't shut the government down. And of course, there's kind of a little mind game. You go online and you see all of these people swearing about the worst thing in the world would be to shut the government down. It's during the Clinton, Biden, Obama, 10 years. So I don't know what the strategy is. They've tried filibuster interviews. They've tried little skits. They do, they're using, you know, Kamala Harris came out and said the mother f blank. And then we had Chuck Schumer go f you're that, that, that whole crudity. And then he said that then he really, he's very, he's either senile or stupid. I always thought he was fairly smart. Schumer, although misguided, if that's charitable. But when he said, and people, you know, people know what we're doing and people approve, you know, we're not the ones. And then you think, wow, you just admitted to everybody that you didn't give a cause. You just said that you're still popular. You think, think so you're going to do this. And when you're not popular, you not. Well, you're not popular right now. The polls all show that people are in general against the party that shuts down the government, and particularly this party. So Donald Trump now has said that he's going to not lay off everybody, but he's going to lay off people in things like HUD and yes, Democratic things that he wanted to cut anyway and are not essential. And then we'll see who they blame when they lose their job. What is the subtext of this whole mass. The subtext of this whole mess is we're one year from the midterms and GDP came in higher, above 3%. The inflation rates 2.4. There is a promised 10 or 15 trillion foreign investment. It's probably more like 8 or 9. Even the wall Street Journal and our Financial Times did it. They said, well, Trump is lying, he's bragging, it's not going to be 8 or 9 trillion, but it might be 4. That looks pretty. And 4 would be a new record. And if that happens, this economy could really take off. And so the indicators are very good. And they know eventually for all the success on the border and for all the success overseas, George Bush won the first Gulf War in 1991. Tremendous victory, 92% were for him. As 1992 dawned, he was way ahead in the polls. And then the Clinton people, George Stephanopoulos and the Clinton war room said this is the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they took a little downturn and they turned it into the economy, stupid. And he lost. And so foreign policy, as great as this Gaza thing is, will not determine the midterms. It'll be the economy and they know that and they want to tank it and they want to shut this government down for months, get us into a recession and then blame it on crazy Trump and we'll see if it works.
- [49:20]
B
Well, some of the early indicators of how that party is doing are, will be in a month with these gubernatorial elections particularly.
- [49:29]
A
And they're both in sort of, I would, I wouldn't call them purple. They're blue states, Virginia and New Jersey. Yeah, well, Youngkin was sort of a fluke. That was Terry McCall was one of the worst candidates in Virginia history.
- [49:45]
B
But a lot of, lot of self.
- [49:48]
A
Inflicting, by the way, I don't know if you're going to talk about, did you watch clips from that debate?
- [49:53]
B
Well, we're going to talk about that.
- [49:54]
A
Oh good, I'm glad you are. I know you sent me a warning that you might, but I wasn't sure.
- [49:59]
B
Well, we'll do that when we come back from these final important messages. So we're back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Saturday, October 11th. This episode's up on the 4th, 14th of October. Victor's website again, the Blade of Perseus victorhansen.com $65 a year to subscribe or stick your toe in the water. Test it out, 650amonth and get access to the exclusive things Victor does for the Blade of Perseus. As for me, Jack Fowler, I write civil Thoughts for the center for Civil Society. Go to the center for civil society.org check that out. And hey, we have a conference coming up in early November in Philadelphia to mark America 250. You might want to be to attend, might be interested in that. And then I write civil thoughts for the center. Go to civilthoughts.com sign up for that every Friday comes in your inbox email totally free, not selling your name. 14 recommended readings. I think I got that all in oh at VD Hansen Victor's handle on X and the Victor Davis Hansen Fan Club, which you'll find on Facebook. Wonderful people. Wonderful. So Victor. Yeah, the, the the debate in Virginia gubernatorial race where I think voting's already beginning but the backdrop is Jay Jones, the Democrat attorney general candidate who was who was pro murder and pro infanticide of children. Anyway, we saw some of his heinous political texts. He's still the candidate. He's not backed down. But at the debate this past week on a local Virginia TV station, Abigail Spanberger, the former congresswoman who's a Democrat candidate, three times in debating winsome Earl Sears. She's the lieutenant governor but she's a Republican Republican candidate for governor. Three times she refused at the to disassociate herself from Jay Jones. And it was a very weird looked like if she could have self combusted she would have while she was being pressed on the point. Your thoughts about that, Victor?
- [52:14]
A
Yeah, I mean the, the moderator who was a very well spoken, sophisticated black woman who was very fair just probably as most moderators they're left of center. She just politely said this is what he said. He wanted to kill this then speaker of the Virginia legislature. He wanted to kill his little fascists as he called them children. He wanted his wife to see this or have one of them. And then he doubled down on it and doubled down on it. When she said you don't really mean that he did and all she had to say is I'm not going to endorse him. And she couldn't do that. She said, well these were older texts or they only I didn't know they didn't come to light. Now she gave all of the and then Winsome Sears tried to politely intervene, not in Trumpian fashion, just say would you please answer the question. She would not do do it. She wouldn't do it because this creepy John, what is this? J. Is that his. Yeah, Jones.
- [53:25]
B
J. Jones.
- [53:27]
A
This creepy J. Jones is ahead in the polls. At least he was until the latest escapade. I don't know what the polls are after that debate with the governor, but that probably hurt her cause and by extension his. She's not going to disown him because it's a ticket and she feels that if he gets off and the incumbent attorney general wins, that will hurt the ticket and she might be in a close, closer race than she thinks. And more importantly, the early balloting has already begun. The mail balloting has already began. So in her way of thinking and her party's way of thinking, yeah, it's embarrassing. So we'll say there's no way. I do not condone this. It's not in my name. I didn't. This is just horrific. But it's not in my purview to tell people to deny the people their right to vote. So I don't believe that we should take a person off the ballot. Of course, this is the party that tried. 25 states tried to take Trump off the ballot, but they don't want to take a guy who wants to kill somebody and his kids off the ballot. So she looked really bad and then it was kind of funny. Winsome Sears is a very well spoken, well dressed, really professional retail politician. I don't know why she's behind the polls. It's a purple, purple to blue state. She doesn't have a lot of money behind her, but she won that debate hands down. And what was funny about. There was a. In the local paper. Did you see that cartoon? It was just on spec. It was exactly what we were always talking about, that the left is actually got a strong vestigial, democratic, racist thing about every time they see a conservative, black, gifted person, whether it's a Tom sowell or whether it's a Judge Thomas or Tim Scott, they always play the race card in cartoons or on social media. And they have this attack on her where she's screaming and yelling. I mean, they have little voice boxes coming out of her. You know, I'm, how about abortion? How about this? How about transgender? And then Schellenberger is very. She's much taller, she's blonde. And she's trying to be professional. And then it shows winsome Sears kicking her legs like she's in some kind of menstrual dance. And with big, thick red lips. Negro, so exaggerated Negroid lips. And it's one of the most racist things that I've seen. And they. And then they have a little thing. Well, he's been a cartoonist for 45 years. And some people took offense. Some people, anybody who saw that would see if Anybody did. If Donald Trump or any person did that about Hiker, I mean, Sombrero was. They argued that that was racist, but they put it on everybody. So my point is she got a big hit, and I think he'll probably win because he's ahead in the polls. But the worst thing he did. I shouldn't say the worst. This was the worst thing. But just almost as bad as he was speeding. He didn't speed at 75. He didn't speed at 80. 80 miles an hour. He didn't speed at 85. He did not speed at 90 miles. In my entire life, I have never driven a car over 80 miles an hour. He is the. He wants to be the chief and law enforcement officer of Virginia. He did not go 100. He did not go 105. Everybody listen. He did not go 110. He did not go 115. He went 100. I think 16 miles an hour. Wow. And they caught him and they sentenced him to 500 hours of community service. They should have put him in jail.
- [57:22]
B
Jail for that?
- [57:23]
A
Yeah. Yes.
- [57:24]
B
That's wrecked. Beyond that.
- [57:26]
A
What did he do to serve his community service? He said that he worked for his own pack and that's how he got out of it. He is a scoundrel. And he's going. He's a Letitia James and he thinks he's going to be the chief law enforcement officer of Virginia. But the left, their idea, the whole strategy of the left is it's embarrassing. So the talking points went out. Just say that you outdo the Republicans, that you're shocked. You just. Not in our name. This is just horrific. And then the qualifier. Well, I don't think it's in my. I know him. It's out of character. I've known him from years. I've never seen anything like this. He's shown so much remorse, unlike other people have, I. E. Trump. And then. Then the third talking point, which is not expressed, it's a subtext, is we're going to run this thing out. We've only got a few more. Couple more weeks that ballots are in. People, a lot of people voted before this even came out, and it's too late to get another candidate. And. And if he gets out, and then all the people who said he shouldn't get out and didn't condemn him and then he gets out, what does that make our candidates look like? Oh, well, Winsome Sears say to her opponent, oh, you didn't want to condemn him? You didn't think he should leave. He thinks he should leave. He got out and now you, what do you say? You're going to try to tell him, don't get back out, come back in like you just did in the debate. You didn't. So they're in a lose, lose situation. So the thing is run out the clock and they may be right. They might win.
- [59:05]
B
Well, they have Ralph Northam or whatever the heck his name was, the former black face. I mean, he tucked it out, didn't they?
- [59:13]
A
They fired Megan Kelly, didn't they? NBC for saying whiteface. Yeah, something, something like that. It was, it was just, it was, it was just Megan. That was another, I mean, the subtext was that they hired this very articulate, beautiful, conservative, bright, brighter than they were. And they wanted her. They thought she was leaving fox. So she was going to become a liberal and she didn't want to become a liberal. She's a fierce.
- [59:48]
B
She's fierce and she's having, if there's a less left to be had.
- [59:52]
A
She's got her own company now. Yeah, yeah, she's very successful. But part of her success is I'm not saying it's payback, but it's oh, I did a good job for NBC and you fired me over a DEI technical and you thought you got rid of people like me and now I have a bigger. She probably has a bigger audience in a lot of shows on NBC.
- [60:17]
B
Oh, absolutely.
- [60:18]
A
Or maybe all of NBC.
- [60:20]
B
Yeah.
- [60:20]
A
Combined. Yeah.
- [60:22]
B
Well, Victor, let's end on New Jersey. Here's and I apologize to our listeners and viewers because I have to read a little something here, but here's a headline about a Communist Party member is one of the largest donors to Mikey, Mickey, whatever. Cheryl's she's the Democrat candidate for governor of New Jersey and it's neck and neck that race. So here's the the first few sentences from this story. Chinese auto executive and an active member of the Chinese Communist party donated over 65,000 to New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Representative Mikey Sherrill's campaign. According to state campaign finance disclosures, those donations may very well be illegal. The law bans foreign nationals from donating to US Political campaigns. The executive Pin knee leads the US Subsidiary of Hangzhou, China based automotive and industrial powerhouse Wangjing Group. I'm sorry, my mispronunciations. He wrote two checks in the amount of $30,000 in February and July respectively to the super PAC supporting Sheryl's campaign. In June, NI made a maximum contribution of 5,800 directly to Sheryl's campaign. Victor, she's kind of a sucky candidate. The couple of clips I've seen about.
- [61:43]
A
Her, she's not a very good candidate. She's. She doesn't come across as a forceful personality. She looks whiny. She doesn't look trust. Trusting. You know, I taught it. I was the Shiffrin Visiting professor of Military history at the U.S. naval Academy for a year, 2002 to 2003, right after 9, 11. And I can tell you that when you go there as a civilian visiting professor, you have to go early. I had to go there July 1st. And they give you a little tutorial and they acculturate you into naval protocol. And you are told that if you go into a class and you see someone cheating, you have a responsibility to report that even if you think it was of no value or nobody saw it or you felt bad for the person. And the same thing about people chronically missing class or coming late. You have a honor code. Both the students do, but the faculty did too, that you have to report every absent person who came, every tardy person who came, anybody you felt that was cheating. There was a student that was involved in a disciplinary and he happened to be in my class and they wanted. They called me in and they asked me if I found a pattern of that type of behavior that others had spot I hadn't. But my point is, she, when she was a midshipman, she. When they had that notorious 90s cheating scandal where they had the answers, she was aware of that and she didn't report it. So they tried to calibrate the degree of penalty for her rather than after she'd worked so hard, they didn't want to expel her. So they said, okay, you will graduate, but you will not be able to walk with the class and you will not get your diploma in person in this very prestigious ceremony. And so that came out. Oh, no, excuse me. That was the New Jersey. Right, that's what I'm talking about, the New Jersey governor. And her argument in New Jersey was, well, I didn't want to be a snitch, but that's the whole point of the honor code, that it's very hard to be a snitch if that's the proper term and it's not, but you have to report people. So what I'm trying to get at is in these races in New Jersey and Virginia, these are purple states, the two candidates in New Jersey for governor shouldn't win, and win some Sears shouldn't win because the demography is against them and the money is against them. And they are. You know, these are women, affluent professional women, white women who are very liberal and they've got the entire DNC behind them. But every time they bring up these, these ethical issues, the left. Who puts such a premium on ethics, it's always, well, she's not a snitch. She violated the honor code. She was barred from her graduation ceremony, but that's okay or. Well, yeah, the attorney general of my state involved. Virginia wanted somebody to die and his children to die. And he endangered probably lots of people when he drove 116 miles an hour. And then he violated the terms of his community service by working for a pack in his own interest. But you know what? That's no big deal. Yeah, that's. That's what's.
- [65:34]
B
Applicable to maybe to these things. Two women. I just. I'm behind the curve on, on cool things, Victor. But I just heard this acronym of awful that's being used. An awful stancer, angry white female, urban liberal.
- [65:53]
A
Well, I said that and I got. I got in trouble. I was at a retreat and they say a woman who was very affluent, very well dressed, but kind of conservative came up to me at a retreat yesterday, two days ago, and said, you have said on your podcast that when you see Karen's and you stereotype them. But I am a conservative Karen. But they said, then you're not a Karen. Because I'm talking about liberal, left wing. And I don't mind that they're left wing. I do not make fun of their skin color, their age, their affluence, their civic mindedness. I just make fun of their intrusiveness and their judgmentalism and their feeling is that I am so morally superior, intellectually superior, so affluent, my life is so perfect that I scan the horizon to see who would endanger that. That. And some people have bad views that bother me. Some people don't wear mask. Some people, you know, they have those ugly SUVs or big pickups and they hurt me. And so I'm going to go over there and tell them not to hurt people like me because we're better than you. And that's their attitude. And it's. I was in Soviet. I was at ground zero of the awful people. The last five weeks I've had to go up. I shouldn't say I've had to. I work there, so I'm obligated. I want to go there. But the point is I spent more time than I usually do because I was going to these various scans and blood tests and everything. So I went all around Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Stanford campus and I saw a lot of, I saw a lot of Karens. They have that scowl on their face. It's really weird. They walk by you at night if you're taking a walk. If you see them on campus, if you're walking downtown, Menlo park or Los Altos, it's just, it's, it's such a strange phenomenon. They're so angry and they're. I guess Donald Trump put them over the edge. But yeah, it's, it's, it's. I'm always trying to find the reason for it. I think they're products of the 670s. They were campus radicals, then they plugged back into the system. They're from affluence or they're professional highly educated, their husband's highly educated, they're affluent, they have impeccable taste. They're shielded from the consequences of their own ideology. They are four charters, there are hate charter schools, there are four schools. Unions with their kids are at prep school. They want the new green deal, but they have a natural gas heated pool. They run their air condition. If they're in a hot climate they, they want a higher gas tax but they have a $75,000 Tesla. So it, that's what they are. And it's, it's. I saw a lot of them.
- [69:06]
B
They probably have a heavy dose of being victims too.
- [69:09]
A
You know the left are all, that's their whole binary. The Marxist comes out of Frederick Engel. There's a binary in society and there's no they hate, there's, they hate the construct of the middle class. It is either it's 20% are victimizers and 80% are victim demise. And if you understand that binary, then the law and the government, taxation, entitlements, foreign everything is predicated on what side of the ledger you're on. Yeah, and they are unfortunately because they're white and they're privileged and they're wealthy, they should be on the victim victimizer according to their own brethren in the left movement. But they've have gone over, as you say, to the victimized class that they are being put upon by some guy that has missing teeth and he's sunburned and he's overweight and he's down there in Bakersfield, you know, selling insurance or something or at a bar. That's who they think that has ruined their lives. In the dying citizen. I quoted a Silicon Valley mogul, she wasn't really a mogul, she was Small fry. But she was famous, infamous because right after Trump was elected she, she went crazy on social media and she said, this is terrible. We turn the country over to these ugly people who have no education, no culture. And she just laid out the whole Karen philosophy and I quoted her at length. And then she wrote a posting about me, how cruel I was for that. I didn't impugn anything. I didn't say one thing, she didn't, I just quoted her and you're a.
- [70:52]
B
Mean man, Victor Davis.
- [70:53]
A
Well, I'm writing an angry letter reader today. And this is another thing about the left. So a guy who's a professor writes me and he says, you're a third rate academic. You're a third rate academic from a fifth. You've never been anywhere but a fifth rate university and you've never published with a quality university press. And I'm glad that you're at the end of the road. You're at the end of your road. So I was thinking that rather than when I'm writing this, I'm not going to say anything, I'm just going to say these are the schools I taught at. These are the presses that I, you know, Princeton Press, University of California Press, Alfred Knop, Random House House, all of them. And then I'm going to put his, I'm going to find out who he is and just put his degree where it was. Not that I'm snobby's, but I want to just show what these people are like because it's all projection and you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's.
- [71:56]
B
I can't wait to see this spaghetti armo. So yeah, I'm going to do it.
- [72:03]
A
I have another one, you know, and I saw that your acquaintance, I know you know him, he worked for National View. Benny Johnson was threatened, physically threatened with violence. He had a press conference with Pam Bondi and they're, they've, they arrested the person, I think. They have, haven't they?
- [72:19]
B
They have and she's going to prosecute him. He's threatened murder. I used to be Benny's boss for a little while back. He worked for National Review and he's, I like him. He's, he's his own. There's only one Benny, but he's a tremendous success on social media.
- [72:35]
A
I don't know him, but he's very successful in getting the word out. But my point is it's a new. I have this angry reader. Call him once every couple, six weeks. And some of them in the Past. I mean, I had one guy who said, I know who you are. When you come to, I'm going to get you. And we had people that wrote in after I published that and said, don't worry, I'm a federal attorney. He just committed a felony. You know what I mean? Yeah. And he was very specific of what he was going to do. And I said that earlier. My. My wife and I were in Menlo park about six, about a month ago, and I had to go to this appointment, medical. And we came into the coffee shop and a guy came up and he just, are you Victor Hansen? I said, yes. And he said, well, I read what you do. And we thought he was just, you know. And then he said, but I don't like you. You're a Zionist. And the Jews. And then he. His face got contorted, he started screaming and yelling and he. I said, don't get near me or you're going to regret it. And he just complete. Everybody stopped. Everything in the coffee shop in that area looked at him. And I had the same thing at the Reagan Airport where guy knocked the hat off my head. And he was an antifa. He was all black with a hoodie. A black hoodie. That was when I think I told you this large African American man was following him. And I thought at first they were together, but he was actually a. He was a MAGA person. And he saw that guy chasing me. And he went by. As he ran by, he said, stay here, I'll get him. And then the guy actually almost ran down the escalator. The guy came back, he was very big. And he said I couldn't catch him, but he said, you need to have eyes behind your head.
- [74:18]
B
Yeah, yeah. That's a literal guardian angel there.
- [74:22]
A
Yeah, he was. He was. So it's getting kind of strange that, you know, if I've had my bank account gone through, hacked and we've been swatted, so, and this is minor compared to what's going on, we're getting to a level of acceptable violence that's really scary. It's coming almost all from the left. I'm not saying there's not people on the right that use coarse language and stuff, but this idea, what happened to Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump's assassination or Steve Scalise or killing the two Jewish wonderful couple at the Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. or the Pro Palestinian guy that torched Shapiro's house, or just the daily violence with Tesla dealerships or Tesla drivers or anti ice demonstrations or Luigi Mangione or the it just. It's just getting to the point where. And you see this neo Confederate sessionist movement, basically we're saying in Portland or Chicago that we are autonomous. We're not part of the United States de jure. We're not going to follow federal law. We're going to break federal law and not turn over people who have committed a crime. And we're not going to protect ICE facilities that are federal property. In fact, we're going to coach the people who are attacking them on what the strategy should be to avoid arrest. And when ICE gets in trouble and they're blockaded by these people, we're not going to come to the call. And Mayor Johnson is saying that we're going to have places that I'm going to declare where ICE can't go. And then he is really an ignoramus. He said that we don't want. We're coming out. We're going to replay the Civil War. Mayor Johnson, do you understand what role you would be playing? You're not playing the role of Northern federalists. Yes, you may be black, but you're playing the role of neo confederate nullificationists who say you have a unique culture and in Chicago and you won't. Don't want it tampered with. Your unique culture means you have illegal immigrants and illegal immigration and violence in your streets and, you know, three to 400 people killed a year. And that's your culture and you don't want it to be touched. No, no. Those people are US Citizens, and there's federal property inside Chicago. And you are US Citizens first in Chicago and second and the federal government. And if you don't believe me, ask Barack Obama. He. He sued Mayor Brewer of Arizona because she said, I want to help the federal government and I want to help secure the border. And as a state, I want to contribute to border enforcement. And he said, that's a federal matter. We have the prerogative of not honoring federal law. We don't like federal. Federal law. We may be federal custodians, but we're not going to honor. And they found and they won in court. So if you win in court when you say, I'm a federal official and nobody can tamper with me when I break federal law and won't enforce it, then you surely can when you say, I'm a federal official and I'm a good steward of federal law and I'm going to protect federal law and enforce it for the benefit of US Citizens. So that's what's really scary. That's going on right now in Portland, Chicago.
- [77:52]
B
We should send the mayors and governors of those states pictures of John Calhoun or Jefferson Davis. They can hang them.
- [77:59]
A
Yeah, Hal Cobb, mayor of Virginia, Wade Hampton, all of those. They all either quoted or wrote specifically what their idea was. And you know, it was the post office is ours, the federal armory is ours, the Fort Sumner is ours. And that's what started the Civil War. It wasn't just slavery. I mean, slavery was a reason that it occurred, but the trigger or the blasting cap that set it off was. Lincoln said, these states have succeeded and we don't know whether it's illegal or legal because it's not in the Constitution. However, we do know that they have appropriated union property, federal property, and they are using it. And we're going to, for 90 days, we're going to send troops down there to protect our property. And that set it off. So we're starting to see that in Oregon. It's so weird because the intellectual forebearers of this secessionist neo Confederate nullification move movement on the left is really, you know, Lester Maddox, George Wallace in the recent period that said the federal government can't come into my state and we have a right to have our own culture and customs and protocols. Get out. And then, you know, if it was Eisenhower or JFK or whoever it was, they said, no, you don't, you don't. They're citizens first. In all matters of federal property and federal civil rights legislation, we have the right to enforce it. Eric Holder said that. He said, I don't think the people of Ferguson are going to be fair to Michael Brown. I don't trust them. So I'm saying that I'm going to do a federal civil rights investigation that supersedes it. And then he found no actionable cause, but he interfered, he thought because his argument was he's a U.S. citizen and he has civil rights and maybe they won't be attuned to that. So the left is completely opportunistic in the way that they, they handle that they when it's in their interest. Federal laws supreme. There is a sixth Amendment supremacy clause that all. In matters of federal law, it supersedes all enforcement jurisdiction of states and local entities. But when it's not in their interest, then the 6th, the 6th amendment doesn't. I mean the article 6 doesn't exist. Right.
- [80:27]
B
Just like the 10th amendment. Hey Victor, we've come come to the end here. I just need to read one comment. Thousands and thousands of comments. Thanks folks. Many people written their concern for you. But you see him here now, especially if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble. Look at him. He's, he's getting all pink in the cheeks there, Victor. So.
- [80:47]
A
Yeah, but it's not from lack of oxygen. It's from embarrassment.
- [80:51]
B
Oh, is that why. Okay, well we have a comment here from bj. Never settle. Who watched the episode when you interviewed recent episode where you interviewed Senator John Kennedy. What an honor to listen to VDH and Senator Kennedy opine on national topics. The knowledge they impart is not to be taken lightly. How can we not appreciate and cherish these moments? They are few and far between. Thank you both. I'll read one more from Ryan Hall. 8326. What separates these men from their counterparts in politics and media is not their intelligence, it's their integrity. So thanks to all the folks that write. We try to read them. I do the great Sammy Wink does Richter. Victor just has enough to read the angry emails he gets from.
- [81:40]
A
Yes, I'm going to do that. As soon as we hang up I'm going to address pick two of the angry readers. Just a final thought. I really enjoyed that interview with Senator Kennedy. I didn't know when I was a young classicist I was always told Magdalene College is pronounced Magdalene College. But I'm not sure and I didn't know which is the. I've spoken at Oxford but not at that college and at Cambridge too. But anyway, he got a two year law degree from there and he talked about how rigorous that was. He also had a law, he had a BA and second Oxford BA and he had a law degree from the University of Virginia and he was State treasury for 17 years in Louisiana.
- [82:23]
B
Yeah.
- [82:24]
A
And he's a unique cat. He is, he's, he's, he's right out of the legendary senatorial figures of, you know, know, I mean somebody like Everett Dirksen or somebody. But he's, he's on, he's, he's really a unique person.
- [82:41]
B
Yeah, yeah. Character. And I'm glad, I mean he's got character. He's a character and he has character. So you've been terrific. Thanks so much. Thanks folks for watching. Thanks for listening. Welcome back and thanks for the Daily Signal for being our new home. And we will be back soon with another episode of the video Victor Davis Hansen Show.
- [82:59]
A
Bye Bye. Thank you for so loyally watching and viewing. And we're back. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website@victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features. In addition.