← Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
VDH on Iran, Xi Summit, Clarence Thomas vs. Progressivism & the Left’s Double Standards
01:26:45
Iran’s fractured leadership can’t be trusted and President Donald Trump’s sequencing—destroying air defenses and nuclear/military infrastructure, then negotiating while imposing a costly blockade—puts time against Tehran and enables U.S. dictation rather than an Obama-style deal, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”
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- [00:00]
Jack Fowler
Well, you mentioned the war, Victor. So the Straits of Hormuz are. The Iranians say they're in control. Donald Trump's saying we are now in control. Anyway, what's your take?
- [00:09]
Victor Davis Hanson
Nothing that the Iranians say can be taken at face value because there is no Iranian government.
- [00:16]
Jack Fowler
Maine, I know it was the last week or two, passed a law for homeless. A cop in Maine can now not arrest a homeless person for public urination, illegal entry, public drunkenness. If you or I did it, Victor, we'd be in handcuffs.
- [00:30]
Victor Davis Hanson
But if you're homeless, the Obama people are all on TV saying people don't understand. He's just reinstituting the Obama. You know, the comprehensive plan, joint plan about.
- [00:41]
Jack Fowler
Are we sending pallets of cash over?
- [00:43]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, exactly. We're not. It's nothing. The same. Obama was rearming a ascendant Iran that was scary and indomitable. So people thought, we are dealing with a prostrate, weakened and feeble corpse of Iran. And we're dictating. We're not negotiating, we're dictating to it.
- [01:01]
Jack Fowler
Hanson seems more interested to impart his ideas without inflaming passion or outrage. This is funny. He isn't sexy, but he's thoughtful.
- [01:11]
Victor Davis Hanson
Okay, not sexy. Yeah, I am not sexy, but I haven't heard that since. That didn't sting me. What did sting me was the guy who I think I told you four years ago said I looked like Skeletor.
- [01:25]
Jack Fowler
Skeletor? Yeah. That's just foreign. Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen, and welcome to Victor Davis Hansen in His Own Words. We are recording on Sunday, April 19th, 2026. This episode will be up on Tuesday the 21st. I'm Jack Fowler. Lucky man. I get to ask my friend Victor Davis Hansen questions I think you would like him to answer. And Victor, who is Victor? Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Wayne and Marcia Buskey Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. He's a senior contributor at the Daily Signal, which is the happy home of this podcast, where he also does Victor Davis Hansen, in a few words, four days a week. And fina lamente. He's a man with a website, the blade of Perseus. Victorhansen.com More about that later. Victor, as ever, tons, tons, tons of topics to get your take on. We will, since every two days or three days is another 180 or something going on in Iran. So we'll get your take on the most recent updates. We'd love to get your take also on the forthcoming how do you think United States and Donald Trump position for the forthcoming visit with Chairman Xi of China? Clarence Thomas has given us, given a very important speech on progressivism. Like to get your take on that and maybe we'll talk about taxes in New York. We'll see. We got lots of lots to get your take on and we'll do that when we come back from these initial important messages.
- [03:13]
Victor Davis Hanson
Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed, but some things never do. The commitment of husband and wife, the importance of passing along our values to our children. The faithfulness of God. Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive as long as we keep first things first. We've only just begun. America the Beautiful.
- [03:43]
Jack Fowler
We are back with Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Victor, I'm just back myself. I was down in Tampa. It's about, I think, what time is it here? It's 1:19 in the afternoon in Connecticut. I was down at the Philadelphia Society meeting. And let me tell you, There were about 450 people there and there are 450 fans of Victor Davis Hansen there. So everybody, everybody loves you. How's he doing? Et cetera. So there's a huge cheering section. And these are the elite scholars, conservative scholars in America.
- [04:16]
Victor Davis Hanson
That's very good to hear that. I gave a talk on Zoom to the Heritage Spring meeting and it went, you know how. You don't know how it went? Yeah, I mean, my interlocutor, my friend and your friend, Rob Bluey, thought it went well, but it's a different medium when you're talking to a screen. But given that I can't really fly now, given this unpredictability of when my heart's gonna go crazy, probably for another month or two at least. And then I have to get the, you know, the 120 day biopsy scan to see if the thing got out, the monster broke out of his cage. But anyway, I've been doing a lot of zooms and trying to get back to normal.
- [05:06]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, well, as I told some people. Let me get to this. Victor does four podcasts a week. He does four of the In a Few Words with the Daily Signal, weekly essay for American Greatness, weekly column. You do two pieces for the Blade of Perseus. You do a video for the Blade of Perseus. And this is you part time, Victor.
- [05:28]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. And I did this the last three weeks. I did a 4,500 word essay for the New Criterion and I did a 2,000 word essay for a Swiss paper.
- [05:42]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, Fox three nights a week again, right? Something like that.
- [05:45]
Victor Davis Hanson
And I still do Fox or Newsmax three, three nights a week. So I haven't changed. And I have now 170,000 word manuscript that's in galleys. And because the pub date was, it's been altered, it was originally envisioned as being out. So I stopped everything on January 1, last minute and now there's a debate I have to do tomorrow whether I have to update the galley proofs, which is very hard to alter. And that's a lot of work. And then the war and everything. So anyway, it's.
- [06:24]
Jack Fowler
Well, people should still go on Amazon and pre order the book, pre publication. Counter Revolution.
- [06:32]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, Counter Revolution. The fall and rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.
- [06:38]
Jack Fowler
Well, you mentioned the war, Victor. So the Straits of Hormuz are. The Iranians say they're in control. This is from two days ago where clearly Donald Trump saying we are now in control. Anyway, what's your take on the latest headlines? Victor?
- [06:54]
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, nothing that the Iranians say can be taken at face value because there is no Iranian government. The first and second echelon of that apparatus gone. So you have the people in the military, that's one click. You've got the theocracy that Khamenei, you know, surrogates, that's another. You've got the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that's probably the most dominant. And then you've got these elected politicians and they have two driving concerns. One, they are terrified that one of the other three groups will think they're weak and are negotiating with the Americans and either kill them or marginalize them or cut off their revenue, such as it is. So they always want to outdo each other. At the same time, they want to outdo each other by saying, you know, we're winning and all this crazy stuff. They are also afraid of an uprising because if there's an uprising, any of their hardline stuff that protects them from each other is going to put a noose around their neck in a Nuremberg like trial, given they've killed 30 to 40,000 people. So you got the schizophrenia that on one day they want to be moderate and signal the Iranian people that maybe we might transition someday with me as a figure. And the other day it's hardliner, please don't kill me if you're in the Guard Corps. So it's almost impossible. The other thing that's going on is they did it. And everybody says, well, why didn't he blockade Iran and open this? He had a sequence that makes sense he destroyed their air capital, Navy air defenses, most of their military industrial nuclear complex. And then he said, let's talk. And he had negotiations and now he started a blockade that reportedly is costing them $430 million a day in revenue. Now this is on top of losing probably a 50 year investment of a half a trillion dollars in a missile arsenal, barracks, military apparatus, vehicles, planes, drones, nuclear factories, you name it, it's wiped out. I just make a little footnote of that, Jack, because Ben Rhodes and the Obama people are all on TV saying, oh, Trump, he's just, people don't understand. He's just reinstituting the Obama joint plan of. Joint, you know, the comprehensive plan, joint plan of action.
- [09:37]
Jack Fowler
Are we sending pallets of cash?
- [09:39]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, exactly. It's nothing. The same Obama was rearming a ascendant Iran that was scary and indomitable. So people thought we are dealing with a prostrate, weakened, enfeebled corpse of Iran and we're dictating. We're not negotiating, we're dictating to it. So if these negotiations break down and Iran thinks it's going to send some missiles into Saudi Arabia or storm a tanker, Donald Trump will take out their bridges the first day, probably he will take out their power plants. And the only. What is Iran thinking? Well, Iran is thinking that we're going to go into the traditional rug. I don't think that's an ethnic stereotype. I've been in the Middle East, I bought a rug in Turkey once and one in Greece. And it's you barter. But that's what they think. They're going to go to the bazaar and barter and yesterday, today and tomorrow, whatever they say doesn't matter, and draw out the negotiations hoping that a, the left will win the midterms, the midterms will be lost, Trump will be impeached and the Republican Congress people will put pressure on him before the midterms to get out. The Europeans will put pressure, Japan, everybody, they think time is on their side and he will fold and then they can reconstruct and they probably feel they have some fissionable material they can fish out. Okay, Time is not on their side, not when you're losing 400 million plus a day. All he has to do is not give in for the next five to six, 10 days and he still has plenty of time for the midterms. Just don't put the boot off their neck. Make sure they suffer 400, $450 million in lost revenue. And that'll mean finally these people who are living lavishly and sending their children and their friends all over Europe. United States money, it'll cut off and then they will negotiate. If you want to accelerate a little bit. If they start to do crazy things, then, yeah, take out their bridges or something. If anybody complains from the left and says that you're going to impeach them, just remind everybody that Bill Clinton took out every bridge on the Danube in 1999 when he bombed. And he also bombed all the electrical facilities in Belgrade. So don't fall for that hysteria. So I think we're in a pretty good place. I think a lot of people are getting nervous that it's going on too long, but he's got another week or two to put. He's right on the verge. If he can hold out against all this European and domestic pressure and Asian pressure and the Gulf pressure. The Gulf pressure is either cut a deal with them or destroy them, but don't leave them.
- [12:41]
Jack Fowler
How do you kind of deal with liars, though, Victor?
- [12:43]
Victor Davis Hanson
You can't. You can't. You can't. You have to dictate. It's like talking to the Japanese after World War II. We learned that they bombed Pearl harbor while they were telling us that they wanted to have peace. And they were right in the middle of negotiations with Cordell Hull. Did they plan. And that fleet was already. You know, it was already on its way to Pearl harbor when the negotiations started. So they knew that. And so when we saw them on September 2nd in Tokyo Bay, MacArthur handed them a list of unconditional surrender. Free use of your country by the United States military. The United States military will be the occupying power and the military government to reform. And they looked around and they thought, we do not want another atomic. We didn't have another atomic bomb for months. But they didn't know that. We don't want crazy Curtis LeMay bombing us back to the Stone Age again. And they agreed. Same thing with Hitler. They thought as soon as Hitler killed himself, all these people came out of the woodwork. Donitz, Goering, even Himmler. Oh, we're the government. Deal with us, will you not? No, no, no. You were defeated. And here's what's going to happen. You're going to be occupied. You're going to be zones of occupation. You're going to have no military, nothing. And this time you're not going to cheat like you did after World War I. And that's what they did. They don't have any cards to play. They have none. The only card they have is the dream house of the democratic media nexus. It thinks that this is a disaster. And by the way, not to get off topic, did you see Tim Waltz, Jack, in Spain?
- [14:26]
Jack Fowler
No, what happened?
- [14:27]
Victor Davis Hanson
He went over to Spain to this international Socialist conference at a time.
- [14:33]
Jack Fowler
To a socialist conference?
- [14:35]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, in Madrid.
- [14:36]
Jack Fowler
What?
- [14:37]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. And he goes over there and he's one of the keynotes. Now he's now being hosted by this anti American government that's utterly corrupt and stolen money and is very unpopular and knows the next election it has, it'll be thrown out. But it has just denied the United States at the time of war the use of its airspaces and its joint NATO base, in large part paid for by the United States. And he gets up in front of this foreign audience at a time when Americans are risking their life in the Gulf and he says that this is a fascistic agenda enterprise. This is fascism back. What we're doing is fascism. In other words, you go into a foreign country and you basically say to the soldiers out risking their lives, you're engaged in a fascist enterprise and I'm going to trash you to your enemies, which are our enemies. The socialist government of Spain is an enemy. And I've never seen anything quite like that. I never have.
- [15:42]
Jack Fowler
Maybe he was trained well when he was in China. Communist China. How many times did he go there?
- [15:47]
Victor Davis Hanson
17. You know what's funny about all these. Have you noticed all of these left wing icons, they all had these flaws that they covered up. Now, we knew that guy was a pathological liar. He had gone to China and they rebooted him as working man that changed his own oil coach Coach Tim. And now he's just a complete. And they did the same thing with Juicy Smollett. They said he was this. This is. They did the same. And he was. You know, everybody knew that guy was a faker. Unless you believe the laws of chemistry don't apply when you throw bleach out at minus cold 40 degrees and it doesn't freeze. Yeah. And you can. You can kickbox holding your sandwich in one hand and your cell phone and the other against two huge attackers and your diminutive bustle. Yeah, you believe all that. And Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden did believe that. And then there was Jeffrey Epstein who was kind. Well, you know Jeffrey, he's got some girl. He's kind of a. He always wants to be an intellectual. He wants an office at Harvard. And then there was Swalwell. Well, you know, he's a little randy. He has this little tendency to get a little drunk and get a little handsy. But he's our guy. And they do that with all the, you know, George Floyd. Well, yeah, George Floyd put a gun to a woman's stomach. He had a home invasion. He was a. Four years in prison. He was a career felon. When he was arrested. He was high on fentanyl. He was resisting arrest. He was passing counterfeit currency. And you know. But he was a martyr. And he has angel wings on. That's what they do. They take all of these people and they manufacture them into something they never were. And it ends up just the opposite. I mean, they end up as just. They implode and then they go to the next one. Another one is that lawyer for Stormy Daniels. Oh, yeah, Michael Avenatti. Yeah, that guy was a complete crook. And remember he was on CNN and they said he's so handsome, he's dynamic.
- [17:56]
Jack Fowler
He was gonna run for president.
- [17:58]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, he was gonna run for president. Then he stole Stormy's. By the way, another one was Stormy Daniel. Well, she was put out. She had to put out in this. She had to go into this. She put out a sordid career because she was a working mom. All this stuff. Oh, yeah. And she had. And then, you know, she never paid the fine. The court ordered her to pay Trump for violation of the non disclosure. I think it was the attorney fees. 400,000 and her failed. She never paid. But they had a picture of her the other day. It was very sad. Did you see her in the.
- [18:30]
Jack Fowler
I did, yeah.
- [18:32]
Victor Davis Hanson
Kind of covered with tattoos and obese, smoking a cigarette.
- [18:35]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, A lot of city miles on that lady.
- [18:38]
Victor Davis Hanson
Where are all her leftist champions now? Why don't. Why doesn't any of them that had her on TV every night call her up and say, stormy, I'm really sad that you're destitute. Here's 10,000 bucks. I'll never do that. She was a useful idiot. And then one final thing I want to say, I just looked at something. Did you see that Tucker had on Russell Brown the other day?
- [19:00]
Jack Fowler
Yes. And selling some kind of religious book. Yeah, Russell Brand's Bible. I don't know, something crazy.
- [19:07]
Victor Davis Hanson
He read this long passage, you know, about the. You know, it's in even I know it. And I don't know the Old Testament very well. The Book of Daniel about the Antichrist and the king will come and he will sweep his invasions. He will take the gold of Egypt. He will do all this and then finally, you know, he's going to meet his maker. And Tucker was saying it's. And he will insult. Tucker was trying to have Russell Brand read that and then correlate it with Trump. But now Tucker sees Trump as the satanic antichrist and the war in Iran. Mirror images, this biblical prophecy or narrative, which it doesn't. When you look at all the details, it doesn't fit at all. But. And then his son has just resigned from J.D. vance's. Good.
- [20:06]
Jack Fowler
So I defictor. I don't know if that's crazy like a fox or just crazy. I mean, mix Tucker.
- [20:14]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. Yeah. Candace Owens is completely. She's trying to destroy Erica.
- [20:20]
Jack Fowler
Yeah. She put out some just atrocious attack on her.
- [20:24]
Victor Davis Hanson
Oh, it's just crazy.
- [20:25]
Jack Fowler
Mocking her crying. I mean.
- [20:28]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. Mocking her crying. And then you've got Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that Donald Trump wasn't really. The assassination was fixed, it was a ruse. He really wasn't in danger and that he cooked this up. Marjorie Taylor Greene. There is one thing people got to realize about Donald Trump. Anybody who gets in the ring with him, literally he's been in a ring, a wrestling ring, but anybody gets in there and wants to go toe to toe and trade insults, including the pop. Kind of backed down today and he said I'm not interested in trying to get in a fight with Donald Trump. Which is good, but they don't win. Kathy Griffin with holding her head. Her career was destroyed after that. And all of these. Where is Liz Cheney today? She was number three in the House. She was destined to be a vice presidential candidate.
- [21:23]
Jack Fowler
Very soon the full force of the Justice Department went after him.
- [21:27]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes.
- [21:27]
Jack Fowler
And concocted evidence. And the New York State Justice Department. Same thing.
- [21:32]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, same thing. It's the, it's, you know, it is the Wiley. Wiley E. Coyote. Wiley Wile E. Coyote. Roadrunner Phenomenon syndrome. Obsessive compulsive. They get obsessed and they get compulsive and they can't get on any other topic. And then they keep driving it to the look at the bulwark. Same thing. They do this. They do this and do this. Where is the careers now? Bill Kristol or David Frum or Charles Sykes or Max Boot. They were all very gifted writers and they were staunchly conservative and tried to convince America through their speaking and writing and marquee television appearances that they should all embrace the conservative agenda. That was their life's work. And now they're basically saying Mona Charon, our former colleague.
- [22:25]
Jack Fowler
I know, I like her too.
- [22:28]
Victor Davis Hanson
But now they're spending the same energy with two different. With Two qualifications. Now they're on the other side saying basically everything I told you and wrote about and tried to advocate and ask money for. Just forget it. It's Trotsky eyes. It's gone. Now. I want the exact opposite messages to. I want you to believe the exact opposite of what I told you for 30 years. And I want money. Right.
- [22:55]
Jack Fowler
Well, they're getting it from some leftist money bag. They're driven by Donald Trump.
- [23:00]
Victor Davis Hanson
He caused that. Donald Trump was the source. I don't mean he caused it, but he was the source of their derangement. He's raging in their brain all the time. They, and apparently the Jews, because they can't say 70% of the stuff. Tucker, he used to have a wide variety of interests, but now it's just the Jews and Netanyahu in Israel nonstop.
- [23:22]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Bill Kristol. And as you know, Victor, you and I were on many cruises, National Review cruises together. It's an interesting point, is that. And on some of these trips with you and Bernard Lewis and Bill Buckley, Milton Friedman, I mean, great, great, great people. But when the Weekly Standard did cruises, they never had anybody, they never had some like Victor on it because Bill Kristol never wanted anybody who might outshine Bill Kristol. Where a Milton Friedman would outshine, practically Bob Bork would outshine Michael Novak. These are the type of people on our cruises. I hate to make cruise politics here, but it was really indication of his immense ego.
- [24:06]
Victor Davis Hanson
You know, I would say whatever one thinks of Max Boot politics, he wrote some very good books.
- [24:14]
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
- [24:17]
Victor Davis Hanson
And he was very prolific. I don't think. I think after he pivoted 180, the biography of Reagan was received well. It reflected his new agendas and his wife's problems and all that. But he has talent and he wrote some good books. But Bill Kristol never did. He was all hype. He never, he never. I mean, whatever people disagree with George Will, he was very productive. He wrote books and they were good books. And the same thing. You can disagree with David Frome, but he wrote a good book on immigration. They were very productive. But Bill Kristol wasn't. He was the armchair intellectual that appeared non stop on television. And he was the hard. And the irony was he was the hardest conservative of all of them.
- [25:14]
Jack Fowler
There's a big schemer gene in his DNA. Well, Victor, do you know what, Victor? Every day Americans make choices that shape our country's future, right down to which cell phone provider we support. And here's what Most people don't realize Patriot Mobile isn't just a wireless provider. They're an activist organization funded by selling top tier cell phone service. They've been on the front lines our freedoms long before it was cool. Standing in the gap where others wouldn't. And the best part is they deliver prioritized premium service on all three major US networks, giving you the same or even better coverage backed by 100% US based customer support. Get unlimited data plans, mobile hotspots, international roaming and more. And when you switch to Patriot Mobile, you'll help grow a movement that fuels the conservative Christian cause. Every bill you pay helps advance the values of faith, family and freedom. Switching is easier than ever. Activate in minutes. Keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade. Take a stand today. Go to patriotmobile.com VDH or call 972 Patriot and use the promo code VDH for a free month of service. A free month of service. That's patriotmobile.com VDH or call 972 Patriot and make the switch. Today we thank the good people Patriot Mobile for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. And Victor, we have another Patriot Ed to read a little later, but it's interesting. Today is April 19th when you and I are talking. This is the 251st anniversary of the battles. Three battles we all know, Lexington and Concord, but also monotony. And there were 50Americans, 50 Minutemen killed today, 251 years ago today. The oldest, this is I really nobody knows who these people are. The first person killed in the battle for our freedom was Ensign Robert Monroe. He was 63 years old. And then there were two. Josiah Haynes was 80 and Deacon Haynes was 78. And they died today. Again, Henry Putnam was 70. I mean it's striking how, how committed to liberty the colonists were. And boy, oh boy, we have to take them, revere them more and live up to their legacy. So anyway, little April 19th, tip of the hat to those who helped found this country. Victor, one other thing you mentioned. We're talking about fraud and the Spanish government. Fraud, any leftist government, there's fraud. And on our own turf, where we know fraud is rampant in Tim Walz's Minnesota, Gavin Newsom's California. We'll talk more about him later. Here's a little headline. It's something I picked off. X. The Democrat governor of Maine, Janet Mills, just filed to give back any taxpayer dollars to fraudsters if the Trump administration defunded them during this ongoing crackdown, they have fraud. She is literally using taxpayers to fund admitted Fraudsters. This is from Eric Daugherty on X. There is a, they are bald about the demand and of money. They just, it's theirs, they're going to use it and they're going to take, they're going to use our money.
- [28:53]
Victor Davis Hanson
I don't understand that. There was something similar where Gavin Newsom was trumpeting that he was going to pay for the sex change operations of people that were here illegally with our money. And this is on top of right now where Chris Ruffo and others have suggested that the amount of theft from California's handling of Federal money is $250 billion billion dollars. Could be a quarter of a trillion dollars. And all Newsom said was well, it's federal money, they should have. In other words, federal money is passed through the states to administer and then states stole it. And then they said, well it's your fault for giving us the money. That's essentially Newsom's position. I don't know where it is that this sense of atonement for criminality that, you know, we saw that whole thing with Abrego Garcia that this guy came into our country uninvited, he was a gang member, he was driven out of his own country, he came here, he was in gang activity, he was a human trafficker, he abused his live in girlfriend, spouse, he broke computers, he was violent, he had drugs, he was pulled over without a license, speeding. And we're supposed to feel like we owe him something now that we deported him and some left wing judge said that we owe him recompense or something. And it's just, I don't know what it is. It's like the same thing in Europe right now where Spain is giving 500,000 illegal immigrants not just legality but permanent residence and pathways of citizenship and they're going to be able to go to any UEU country with a passport
- [30:52]
Jack Fowler
or
- [30:52]
Victor Davis Hanson
passport or some type of exempt certification. It really is suicidal. If you think about the progressive impulse, it is a suicidal. You get to a point where people become so affluent and so free to say whatever they want without any documentation or consideration that they end up just bored. And they hate the system that enriched them. They're bored, they have no purpose. They're atheists, they're agnostics, they're secularists, they're globalists and then they try to destroy everybody around them.
- [31:35]
Jack Fowler
They make a virtue of criminality.
- [31:37]
Victor Davis Hanson
They do. They love the criminal from a safe distance, albeit they love the criminal. They think, you know what, he's in touch with nature. He's in touch with raw emotion. And I'm kind of in a feat now, but I want to look at him like he's. I'm in a zoo. And I like looking at these strange species especially. And I want to open the door once in a while and see what they do and then their natural habitat.
- [32:01]
Jack Fowler
Along those lines. Back still in Maine. I just saw this before we started talking Maine, I know it was the last week or two passed a law for homeless if you cannot. A cop in Maine can now not arrest a homeless person for public urination, illegal entry, public drunkenness. There were two other. There were two other things that if you or I did it, Victor, we'd be in handcuffs. But if you're homeless, you're, you're. It is. It is against the law for you to be.
- [32:33]
Victor Davis Hanson
And that is, it's crazy that that's because this psychological phenomenon that the bureaucrat, they want to feel that they're doing something and they can't even contemplate the felony. They don't know what to do with 12 million illegal aliens. They don't know what to do with 2 million homeless people. They don't know what to do with people on their street that are defecating, fornicating, urinating, you name it. But they do know what to do with a guy who has a nice home and he put his mailbox in and it's six inches below the required code. So they'll go over to his house and scream and yell at him because he will listen and he will pay the fine and enrich the coffers of the city, county, state government and he will make the inspector, officer, bureaucrat feel good about himself. But if he goes on the subway and somebody sees a guy with a 15 inch open blade, that's illegal. He's not going to say anything because he stared stiff of that guy or if he's going to go into some of the neighborhoods very close to where I live and go in there. And as I've said numerous times, I got this verbatim from a county inspector when I suggested that rather than worrying about what year the shed that had solar panels was built because it was after he admitted it was in perfect compliance with the code. But he wanted to see the structural diagram of something that was built and basically 70 years ago, I just said go down the road and go into there and you will see 30 or 40 people living in hovels, winnebagos, lean tos with animals that don't have proper protection from wind or cold or sun. You know, horses, donkeys, mules, cow and dogs that are online. You, you'll have a field day with your little red book of red tickets. Oh, I'm not going to go down there, Mr. Hanson. I am not getting near. I know all about those places. You said those are dangerous places to go. So I said you would rather spend your time harassing me because I. If you give me a red ticket, I will pay. Well, something like that, I guess. So that's what happens. The existential problem they cannot deal with. So they fixate on either the non existent misdemeanor or the law abiding citizen to go after him. And it's just incredible the way that they do it. You know, I even see it when, you know, when people send me these. Sometimes I look at, you know, these YouTube videos of cops pulling people over. Yes.
- [35:22]
Jack Fowler
And so I want to see your supervisor.
- [35:24]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. Yeah, these people are violent and every. And the cops, I've been pulled over by a lot of cops in my life and they've. Four or five of them have been very. Please, I said, could I ask. No, you cannot ask. What you show me your license, your proof of insurance and immediately. I said, yes sir. Don't move. Do you have any contraband? Do you have any. No. Could I ask what. I'm not done yet. So they know that I'm really polite. I'm going to do what he wants. And then he says you were going nine miles over the speed limit. Okay, thank you. And then when they see somebody that I'm not going to listen to you. And just the cop just goes now, now, wait a minute. Now we're trying to resolve this. Whereas you would think that he would just say that's it. The way that they treat the law body. And I don't blame them because it's a matter of their survival. When they pull somebody over and they go full forma and get a little tough and they know that person's a law abiding citizen, of course they're going to be workmanlike. But when they see somebody, and that's increasingly. I think the majority of the people they pull over are crazy and they have to be very careful, but they bend backwards to accommodate them.
- [36:43]
Jack Fowler
I wonder, Victor, if I, you know, because I see these videos too, I've seen a ton of them and I wonder, am I an algorithm? Is this why I'm seeing them?
- [36:52]
Victor Davis Hanson
Probably.
- [36:52]
Jack Fowler
But is this really as widespread as I think it is? Just from the sheer volume of things that I, that I've seen so I don't think these. These are all. Everything's an anecdote. But I think this is really a trend.
- [37:07]
Victor Davis Hanson
What you're. What you're. Well, I know it is. I. But I have in the past, and I will resume when I feel I have breakfast about every two or three months with highway patrol and law enforcement in this area. Almost all of them are Hispanic. They're wonderful people and they will tell me exactly what you just said. It's not that they profile people, but they have to stay alive, but by the type of car and certain things. One of them was once telling me, when I see a car and I see a license plate jiggling around, or I see a bunch of dents in it, or I see a headlight missing or a tail light, I know something. The odds go up. Not that they're stereotyping anybody, but the odds go up and they get tense because they know that this has a greater potential from somebody who's driving a Honda Civic, well dressed, you know, So I don't blame them. But from what they tell me, especially with truck drivers now that are not here legally, it's an epidemic. It is. It's more dangerous to be. And I say I don't blame them because they encounter some people who are really scary. And when you add the DEI element into it, if that particular person feels that because of their race or whatever particular category they find themselves on the oppressed side of the binary, that they have legitimate complaints against the majority, then they're going to say immediately to that officer, you're just harassing me. Don't touch me. I don't have to do this. I want to see your supervisor. They'll say all that stuff because they feel that the society will let them out if they use violence or there's no deterrence because of these prosecutors and the general left wing progressivism in the country.
- [39:07]
Jack Fowler
When is the next Daniel Patrick Moynihan gonna come along and do a study on. I don't mean to get us in trouble here, but many of these videos are about black, younger black women in America. And I can see them, a segment of black women being abandoned by men and just, you know, effect of affected by the social problems we have. But it's not.
- [39:35]
Victor Davis Hanson
Fanny Willis's testimony confirmed what you said.
- [39:38]
Jack Fowler
There's a real violence aspect to this.
- [39:41]
Victor Davis Hanson
Fanny Willis basically told the court, the judge, I'm not going to even talk. I'm not going to deal with you people. I'm a proud black woman. And if I say to you That I don't have any receipts for all the money that Nathan and I Wade, that I spent when we junketed. I'm gonna tell you that, you know, black people in general have a tendency to use cash. I thought that was very racist myself, but she just refused to do that. When Lakita James, she just got out on the campaign trail and said, if you elect me, I'm gonna go after Donald Trump. And so there was a sense of anger there. And, you know, Michelle Obama kind of played on that when she said, I'm not the angry black woman. But really? Yeah. I mean, when Michelle said no, I
- [40:32]
Jack Fowler
know she said it.
- [40:33]
Victor Davis Hanson
She took offense while she was first lady when a woman at Target, she said, ask her to reach. She's like five, nine. This was a short woman just said, could you help me get this package? And then Michelle took offense at that. People can take offense because other people let them do it, and they take that seriously. It won't stop until somebody says, race means nothing, nothing to me. I don't care what color you are. I don't give advantages. I don't give it disadvantages I don't have. It's just oblivious. It's incidental to my view of you. But until you get to that point. And when you saw Al Sharpton host all of these pathetic Democratic grandees traipsing to his convention and begging him for some type of endorsement or something, and then he announces, spits in their face and says he's not even going to celebrate the 250th anniversary. It's there. It's their holiday. That is an exact result that he got away with. Tax fraud, back taxes. They gave him a pardon during the Obama administration. And he. He defiled and tried to ruin the career of a New York man. Remember the prosecutor?
- [41:49]
Jack Fowler
Yeah.
- [41:50]
Victor Davis Hanson
Greek American guy up in Albany. Yeah. He tried to destroy his reputation. He got away with that. And he's got away with everything his entire life. He's never had to account for any of the wild charges he made, the damage he did to other people. So why would you expect him to not feel as if he could say or do anything he wanted?
- [42:11]
Jack Fowler
Well, this is the. When you wake up in the morning, you see yourself. The first thing you think is, not what I'm having for breakfast, but I'm a victim. This is what I think flows.
- [42:21]
Victor Davis Hanson
The only time I ever got in trouble In, I guess, 50 years of academic life was I was teaching humanities of the ancient world. And I had a young woman, very bright, but Every time we discussed the Odyssey or Hesiod or Herodotus, she would say, as a Chicana, this does not relate to me as a Chicana. And I said finally to her, you have mentioned the word Chicana 17 times. I counted them. And she was always sitting in the front row and lecturing everybody. I said, what does it matter? You're a reader. You're a person. You're a human being. You're trying to discover what Homer's trying to tell the ages about human nature. Homer doesn't say that the Trojans are only this way or the Greek. He's trying to talk about a human propensity. And we can't explore that if you say it doesn't involve you. And she goes, well, you're not a Chicana. Well, I said, I'm a white male. Would you like to hear it? And she said, yeah, I would. So I said, okay, from now on for the rest. So I said, as a white male scholar, I can't relate to Homer because he was probably Greek, I'm Scandinavian, and I just can't relate to that. But as a white male, I can relate to him more than I could to a black author or a female author. So we're not going to read Sappho. We were reading him. We're not going to read her today. I can't relate to her. She's a woman. As a white male, you should have seen her face. She got so angry, and then she started tearing up. And the next thing I do. One of the nicest people my entire life I've met in academia was Luis Costa. He's a wonderful guy. He was our dean. He calls me up, victor, Victor, Victor, what did you say in class? I have a very angry woman that said, you said as a white male. And I said, she said chicana every single day. And finally she said it 17 times. And she's very bright. She needs the units. I think I have no bias in my grading. I will give her an A if she earns it. But I don't want her to tell everybody every single day that her race and her gender are all that matters. And he says, well, you know that and I don't that. So why are you stating the obvious? Because I said it wasn't obvious to her. And he said, what kind of punishment should I inflict on you, Victor? And then he said, we're going to have to have coffee and discuss this. So then we go to coffee, and he says, oh, by the way. And then we did not discuss it.
- [45:05]
Jack Fowler
But you dodged El Bolito there.
- [45:09]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I did. He was a good guy. He died of a brain tumor, tragically. But he was one of our best deans I ever encountered.
- [45:17]
Jack Fowler
Well, we are going to move on, my friend, because we have to get your take on Donald Trump's forthcoming Ta ta tet with Chairman Xi. And then what else? Oh, Clarence Thomas body slam of progressivism. And we'll get to all that, Victor, when we come back from these important messages.
- [45:41]
Bradley Devlin
Hey, I'm Bradley Devlin and just like you, I'm a huge fan of Victor Davis Hansen, whether it's his long form podcast, Victor Davis Hansen in his own words, or his short form content for the Daily Signal. Victor Davis Hansen in a few words. I always leave an episode learning something new.
- [45:55]
Victor Davis Hanson
I think they forgot the 1982 Falcons war.
- [45:58]
Bradley Devlin
And in the age of climate, clickbait and rage bait. That's a really good feeling right?
- [46:02]
Jack Fowler
The media. Thank you. You can leave now.
- [46:05]
Bradley Devlin
Well, if you agree, you might like my show, the Daily Signals long form interview podcast called the Signal. Sit down. Every week we take you behind the scenes of the biggest battles in Washington D.C. as they happen with some of the biggest names in politics. We explore big ideas and we analyze the policy making process from an unabashedly and unapologetically conservative perspective. And that's important now more than ever with the Trump administration back in office. Because in 2024, you sent Washington a message it couldn't ignore. It's your government and together we're taking it back. So check us out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you enjoy. Victor Davis Hansen or there too. And drop me a follow on X radleydevlin to stay updated with what's happening on the Signal. Sit down.
- [46:50]
Jack Fowler
We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words on the Daily Signal network. Victor also does Victor Davis Hansen in a few words also for the Daily Signal four days a week. Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus, is VictorHansen.com It's $65 a year to subscribe or 650amonth when you subscribe. You can read the exclusive articles to every week that Victor writes for the site and he does an exclusive video also. Plus there's tons, tons, tons of free stuff there. So check that out, please. And if you're on X, Victor's handle is dhanson and Facebook VDH's Morning Cup. And there's the great friendly group Victor Davis Hanson Fan Club, also on Facebook. Okay, so Victor. Yeah. Donald Trump Chairman XI meeting in mid May is America coming to this meeting? Is Donald Trump coming to this meeting from a position of strength? And if he is, is it stronger today than it was, say, a month or so ago? What's your take on.
- [48:00]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I think it is. Donald Trump said xi is going to hug me. I don't know if that's true, but a couple of things. If China is always as a predator looking at Taiwan, it's 110 miles across the straight South China Sea strait separating the island from the mainland. And what he looked at in Ukraine, this drone war and now the US Air Force drones, Marine drones. We're clearing mines with Marine drones. There's technologies that when a missile is launched within two to three minutes, you know where it was launched for retaliatory strike. My point is the idea that you're going to send three or four or five hundred thousand Chinese amphibious troops across that China Sea and not be met with this new emphasis the United States is doing more is better and just a whole tens of thousands of drones in the air and Marine drones on the surface and under the water, in addition to conventional air power and satellite. All that, I think that has made a big impression on him, the use of American power in such a dynamic way. And then the other thing is China thought its Belt and Road initiative was winning over the Western Hemisphere and Venezuela was its, its test case. It was basically running along with some help with Russia, a little bit of from Iran, the Maduro government, they were getting sanctioned oil cheap and they were getting sanctions and that blew up. And the Panama Canal effort by China to take a gradually. And then suddenly that blew up. And then the Iranian thing blew up. And for the Russians, the Syria thing blew up. So there really isn't any rogue nation now in the Middle east or the west outside rogue nation that has any influence because Donald Trump blew them up. He's about ready to blow Cuba up in the sense of its foreign entanglements. So that's one thing. The other is China wants the strait open and it has contempt. I think everybody should realize that about Iran. Russia and China don't like Iran. Nobody likes Iran. China is terrified of radical Islam. It's got a million Uyghurs that are collect indentured serfs. It doesn't care. It's callous. And Russia, when you had the third Chechen war, it went in and just leveled Grozny, just slaughtered everybody. That's how they treat Muslim people. So the idea that this is a radical Islamic country is only valuable for China and Russia, for Two things. One, it is a nexus to put pressure on the United States and drive it out of the Middle east and then control that strait and the oil and as a collateral benefit to hurt Israel or destroy Israel. That's it. And then two, to use Iran as a useful idiot so it can use it as a proxy to commit terror or to do any other things it orders it to do in exchange for sophisticated weapons. And it will buy its sanctioned oil on the sly for about 70% of the actual cost. But if it's endangered, it's like when Assad was falling apart. Where's the 50 year Russian relationship? They just let him go. And then basically when Maduro was going, they just let him go. And when Iran is now near Armageddon, they're going to let him go so that when he gets over to China, they're not going to say to him, get your hands off Iran. They're going to say, can't you cut a deal with us that we can buy some Iranian oil, we'll pay the full price on the high seas? Or can you make it up to us with your oil? Or can't we work this out? We don't like them any more than you do. They were just useful idiots and that's. I mean, they don't want a representative Westernized government there. So that's what they're going to say to them. One of the weirdest things though, in this whole imbroglio was Stormer, the British Prime Minister, as soon as the United States had blockaded Iran and opened the Gulf, he gets up and basically says, we've got 30 European nations that are now going to open and keep open the strait under French and British leadership. I was asked to comment on Sean the other night. I said, this is shameless. It's funny, but it's shameless. They had the HM HMS Dragon and it took 20 days, Jack. Once they ordered it to go to Akrotiri, Cyprus and protect its interests that had been targeted by the Iranians, the base there. It took them 20 days. If they had the falcons again, I got a little flack, by the way, Jack. I said something on Sean that I think was accurate, but it was insensitive. And I got something from the Times people wants me to elaborate, which I did for the Sunday. I don't know if it came out today or not, but I said a, that they could not go to the Falklands again. They don't have the wherewithal to go all the way over the Atlantic sea with a reputable fleet if somebody contested it with a modicum.
- [53:36]
Jack Fowler
They can't muster a thousand men right now.
- [53:39]
Victor Davis Hanson
No, they can't. They have more admirals than they do ships, number one. Number two, I said, if they said to me, Donald Trump or any American president, as Margaret Thatcher did, can we have logistical intelligence, resupply help, fuel help, which without it they wouldn't have been able to go. They wouldn't say yes, they would say, they would just quote Stormer, this is not our war. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Prime Minister Stormer, this is not your. The third thing I said is most controversial. I think it's correct. I don't want to, to be bombastic or exaggerate, but given the status of free speech in Britain where they're arresting people for almost as bad as Germany and given the exemptions they're giving for the groomer Pakistani rape community and given their radical green ideology that's hamstrung the economy and given their socialism, they said something the other day, a statistic that they're. Most of their annual revenues that come from income tax will go to entitlements to social programs. Yes. You add all that. I would say that Millie's Argentina. And I put this to two AI engines. I said to Grok, I think, and it was either chat PT or the Google one. I said, is free speech more protected in Argentina than in Britain? And they both said Argentina. And then I said, is the economy more open or more government controlled in Argentina or Britain? And they came up with Argentina. So we would probably say if they had to go, if Milley's already said he's not interested in the falcons, but if he went over there, Jack, they would probably say, I think Trump would say something like, well, maybe, maybe Argentina wanted to liberate the Falklands so they could have an open society and a market based economy.
- [55:50]
Jack Fowler
There's no question he'd say that. I don't want to get into the Pope again. But you saw the comment the other day about Iran killing people. And Trump says, why don't you go talk to the Pope? You know, he was something like you're
- [56:07]
Victor Davis Hanson
saying, I think the Pope, I think the Pope is a good man. He's a leftist, he's a hard leftist, he's a political cardinal. We all know that. They know that. That was one of the reasons Trump was onto something when he said they appointed him because of him. But I don't know if he meant it in the correct way. They may have wanted an American pope so that they could understand Trump and to navigate around him or something. But, but all of that said, as we said earlier, Jack, it's unwise for the US President to get into politics and to get an argument with the Pope. And it's unwise for the Pope to comment on US Political policy.
- [56:49]
Jack Fowler
No question.
- [56:50]
Victor Davis Hanson
Immigration.
- [56:50]
Jack Fowler
It was Trump's very snappy answer that he gave on the Iranian question that I was.
- [57:01]
Victor Davis Hanson
It's not a good idea for either one of them.
- [57:03]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, yeah, there may be, you know, actually though, there may be more combat worthy Swiss Guard than there are British soldiers right now. You never know. All right, Victor, Hey. While everyone's focused on the conflict in the Middle east, something else is happening here at home. And if you connect the dots, it's not good. Last month, the US Posted some of the worst job numbers we've seen in years. Nearly 10th of 100,000, excuse me, 100,000 jobs lost. And at the same time, consumer debt delinquencies are climbing to multi year highs, meaning more Americans are falling behind on credit cards, car loans, even mortgages now layer on top of that, gas pushing past $4 a gallon, diesel nearing 550 a gallon. And economists are warning another wave of inflation could be on the way. So ask yourself, what happens if all of this collides at once? Because you can't control the economy, but you can control how prepared you are for it. That's why we trust my Patriot Supply right now at preparewithvdh.com, when you get a three month emergency food supply, they'll include a free megaprotein Upgrade, an incredible $200 value. It's a simple test you can take right now before these warning signs turn into something more. Go to prepare with VDH.com and get prepared today. That's preparewithvdh.com and we thank the good people from my Patriot Supply for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor Clarence Thomas. I'll tell you a story about him someday. He's a fellow Holy Cross graduate, just like me. And I remember that Anthony Fauci, he gave a talk at the University of Texas in Austin. It was on the Declaration of Independence. The Wall Street Journal op ed page published a selection excerpts of his remarks. And he really went after progressivism as an enemy of the Declaration and the Constitution. And he took Woodrow Wilson to the woodshed. So I know you've seen his remarks, Richter. Anything you'd like to say about them or about Clarence?
- [59:27]
Victor Davis Hanson
Thom well, he's probably, and I blame Joe Biden for that, but he was pilloried and misrepresented and demagogued when his confirmation came up with all of that crazy stuff. And then one of the subtexts the left used was after telling us that affirmative action was essential to the survival of the Republic, then they used that against him and said, oh, he's just an affirmative act. He's a very, very bright, learned, and he always was. And he's probably the most consistently conservative, principled person on the court, along with Alito. Not that I don't. I have nothing. I mean, the other ones that are conservative are fine, but I'm just saying he's singular. So is Alito. And what he was trying to say, and he did it very well. I don't want to say trying. He explained, it was the whole racial obsessions and fixations are contrary to all men are born equal. And for so long in our history, people like Frederick Douglass had been saying to presidents, Lincoln included, honor. We didn't, we didn't write this. Your founders wrote this. Just honor your own white founders and treat people equally. We're equal. And that was a very. And now we've come full circles that the formerly oppressed ten generations later are saying, don't treat us equal. At least some of them, the elite. And so he was. And the other thing is, from what I got out of it, the entire thrust of the US Constitution is based, as the founders had said, it would be easy for a constitutional republic or democracy if we were saints, angels, and not monsters. So it's all based on the simple premise that human nature being what it is, it plays to the ego, it plays to narcissism, it plays to power accumulation, it plays to oppression. So how can we get a document that will resist time? It won't be changed by particular temporary flights of fantasy or fads over the centuries that will reassess the way governments work in the world up to now. And we'll have a legislative, a judicial and executive branch that balance each other and prevent autocracy. And we're going to have a bill of rights that will be internal and they will protect individual liberty. And we will have a federalist system that returns power to the states so that if there is popular unrest or dissatisfaction, you can go to another state with a different premise, things like that. So it was really a talk about the progressives believe that if they get enough money and power, they can change the nature of man. And therefore the Constitution will be irrelevant because they have a new voter, a new official, a new everything. And that's why James Carville to just what Thomas was warning us about was somebody like James Carville who just said the other day, hey, don't tell. I think he was challenged Spamberger in Virginia. He just said, don't tell him what we're going to do. Just keep quiet and then get in there and make D.C. and Puerto Rico states and get four senators and get rid of the 67 year, 50 state union and get in there and get rid of the 167 year old 9 Justice Court and get in there and get rid of the 220 year filibuster. And he went on and just destroy all these traditions because we're going to need power and we're not going to play by their rules anymore. And human nature, they don't apply anyway. They're from an old system that's outdated. And so that's what he was trying to say. The internal applicability and relevance of these foundational documents because they're based on very learned people who understood humans and that, you know, humans, their technology changes, their appearance can change, their health can change, their longevity can change. But they're still humans and therefore they're predictable. And the Constitution assumes that, but progressivism doesn't. It says whatever the new fad of the age, whether it's phrenology or masters in Johnson or transgender, we can change the Constitution to fit us our superior age. That's what he was saying. It was really good talk. It was very good reminder. He has a certain way, his voice, I don't know what it is about him, but I guess it's his voice and manner. He really resonates seriousness, you know what I mean? And respect. I like him a lot.
- [64:28]
Jack Fowler
He's aces. I love the Michael Pack documentary that came out a few years ago. And there was one point he said, you know, and it had a clip from the hearings and Biden, who was chairing the Judiciary Committee, was going on with some convoluted jurisprudential point. And then it cuts to Clarence Thomas commenting on it.
- [64:53]
Victor Davis Hanson
He says, I don't know what he was talking about.
- [64:57]
Jack Fowler
So he was just so funny. Anyway, God bless him. Victor, let's wrap this up with a quick take. I'm going to ask you to talk about Gavin Newsom. So I don't know how quick it's going to be, but Victor, I think you talked about, you have this book coming out, Counter Revolution. What you need is a pack.
- [65:15]
Victor Davis Hanson
I do.
- [65:15]
Jack Fowler
And your pack then could spend like
- [65:17]
Victor Davis Hanson
half a good idea.
- [65:19]
Jack Fowler
Yeah. What is it? Go Ahead.
- [65:20]
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, we have subscribers to the Blade of Perseus, our website, and they pay $6.50 a month. So I guess I could go out and buy a bunch of books and jack up the membership or something and then give them a free complimentary copy. So I could ensure that I would be at least for one or two weeks on the New York bestseller because they calibrate how much books you sold in a week and then I could save for the rest of my life. New bestseller. And then I would get more sales. I would be a complete fraud if I did that. I would never think of it. But then I'm not governor of California.
- [66:02]
Jack Fowler
Too bad.
- [66:03]
Victor Davis Hanson
But people don't want to. It's so funny to watch this guy because he's like, he walks through a minefield and he steps on every. It's like he. There's a minefield and I want to blow myself up every week. So, hey, this would be a good idea. Why don't I buy a bunch of copies and then we can juice the New York Times rating. Hey, I got an idea. I'll speak to black people and say I'm just as dumb as they are on the test. Hey, I'm going to go over and tell the people at the security conference in Munich that they get on their knee pads and commit a sex act on Trump. Hey, I'm going to have my idiotic wife get up and try to tell everybody about, you know, and make everybody turned off. Hey, the state is in complete free fall. It's entirely broke. We have. The gas is now 6 to 8 to $10 a gallon. There is no water. They let it. We're finding out. Ed Ring wrote a great column again, one of his many great columns about letting the water go out, not dredging the canals as had been done. Hey, the Palisades neighborhood is still flattened. We're not gonna give them permits because we want to reintroduce high, you know, kind of a European high density mass affordable housing. Yeah, yeah. Nightmare. Hey, half of all Californians births are on medi Cal. But we're going to pay for sex transit. Hey, we're facing a $250 billion fraud. Hey, we have the most dangerous highways in the country that are decrepit. Hey, the high speed rail $20 billion boondoggle has no apparent funding to continue. He could have. We have half the homeless people. He could have talked about any of these. He never talks about them. He just sits there and he shoots a breeze. I guess his little conservative podcast imploded. Remember Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and stuff that's no longer there. But I don't know what he's trying to do except, I mean, all I can say about him is that the most anemic, feeble Democratic nominee since George McGovern was Kamala Harris. And Kamala Harris now is handily ahead in the polls in the Democratic primaries. That's a commentary on Gavin Newsom. And then he wrote a memoir, this memoir. Its entire emphasis is to create a complete false narrative that he grew up with Appalachian like poverty, like JD Vance and he was neglected and he had to scrounge around and live on Wonder Bread and macaroni.
- [68:56]
Jack Fowler
Why?
- [68:56]
Victor Davis Hanson
He was the adopted proxy of one of the wealthiest families in America, the Getty conglomerate, which subsidized him throughout his business and political career. And he wants us to believe all this and it's a complete lie. And you know, people had their criticisms of Gray Davis and Jerry Brown, but they have never. The Democrats, they look like George Washington compared to him.
- [69:26]
Jack Fowler
Yeah, that's what gets me about Carville before Carville starts in politics. Bob Casey or Harris Wofford, you know, who was a senator and settling for what now? These lunatics. But they're all about the party. That's it. The party matters.
- [69:41]
Victor Davis Hanson
Read Herodotus in the Lydian episode call no man happy until he dies. He had a career reputation as a bar fighting, loudmouth, profane activist who would say anything to anywhere, anywhere, kind of like Trump. But he did understand, like Rahm Emanuel and the Clinton advisors, where the soft spot was in American politics. It was the middle class. And they could push their left wing agenda through the middle class if they worried about the middle class viability. And they had to get politicians who knew that. And now he's thrown that all away because he's taken that paradigm and nobody fits it. And he wants to say that they do. And so he ends up up supporting people that are contrary to everything he's told us.
- [70:37]
Jack Fowler
Well, and I spent 40 years policies destroying the middle class. So there's far fewer of them to
- [70:45]
Victor Davis Hanson
the one result of all this scheme against Newsom and whoever was running the Biden effigy and Kamala Harris, all these crazy Spamberger and all these crazy mayors. They make Bill Clinton look like Socrates. They do. I mean, he was a scoundrel, but he was a smart scoundrel and he did understand American politics far better than any of them. And when he, you know, he raised taxes, he was only successful because of Newt Gingrich and balancing the Budget, but he balanced the budget it. And he, you know, he looks like a right. He looks like Barry Goldwater compared to Montgomery and those people.
- [71:32]
Jack Fowler
Well, if there was a statue of him, they'd feel obligated to tear it down, I guess because of welfare reform or whatever. You know, he was relatively hardcore conservative.
- [71:45]
Victor Davis Hanson
I'm going to write a column today called all the Dream Houses of the Left. One of the dream houses just to finish is now they're going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth. And I thought, what were his sins? Well, he inherited a military that was 45,000 short on enlistment and he exceeded that within recruitment goals within a year. Well, he got rid of racial preferences, sexual orientation, gender preferences and re. Emphasized the quality of our opportunity, meritocracy and battlefield efficacy. And that was very. And that's. Well, he oversaw the summer. The mechanics of the summer bombing that was so successful. 25 hours to take out the nuclear facilities. He oversaw the Maduro extraction. Nobody killed in the first one. Nobody killed. And then he oversaw waging a 60 day war with 13 tragic losses, but 13 and a theater wide war. So everything he's done has been working very well and they want to impeach him for recklessness. Disclosing class. I died when I saw classified documents because of that signal chat. I thought Joe Biden had them for 30 years in four places. And then his Ghost rider had access to them and then destroyed the tapes under subpoena, which is a felony. And they never did a thing.
- [73:21]
Jack Fowler
I'm very fond of Pete, by the way. Again, this is a cruise thing. But he came on one of our cruises as a speaker and on a few of these NR cruises we would have three mornings we call Burke to Buckley and people wanted to get up at 7 o' clock and for an hour and a half talk about Tocqueville and Burke and Buckley, et cetera. Real deep dive into stuff. Stuff. And Pete was there every morning. I mean, he is. People think you can have whatever impression you want about him, but he is no dope and he is a big mind and it's a strong.
- [73:55]
Victor Davis Hanson
He never talks about his Ivy League education except that he burned his diploma, I think. So he's not a name dropper. He's the first to admit he had difficulty in his marriages and with alcohol. But he's now a devout Christian and they're mad about that. More so if you're a leftist and you want to criticize Pete Hexseth, you're much more likely to criticize that he's a devout Christian than he was prone to alcoholic ballots, alcohol ballots. But they say they're going to impeach him. That's a joke. Should give him a medal.
- [74:38]
Jack Fowler
I love them. All right, Victor, we've got to wrap this up today and I have several comments to read. Most of them practically all of them short. And here we go. Ready?
- [74:47]
Victor Davis Hanson
Hold on. Yes.
- [74:48]
Jack Fowler
This is from Virginia Gascon 6089 Ever since the Tucker Kelly fiasco, I tuned out everyone but for Tusi Towsey tv. I never T O S I never heard of it but. But you learn something new every day here. Live Streams from the Mideast it has live streams from the Mideast and the calm voice of Hanson. Hanson seems more interested to impart his ideas without inflaming passion or outrage. This is funny. He isn't sexy, but he's thoughtful.
- [75:21]
Victor Davis Hanson
Okay, I'm not sexy.
- [75:23]
Jack Fowler
Joe Trenchfoot writes please don't crap on the flea market. Sorry to say crap. Lol. I love them and regularly enjoy hunting for treasure amongst the trash. Mark Stewart I think our flea market
- [75:38]
Victor Davis Hanson
that Sammy referenced is a little different.
- [75:40]
Jack Fowler
Yes, you could buy anything and everything there. Mark Stewart 75:27 I greatly respect Victor Davis Hansen. He excuses himself when he uses the word crap. Excuse me. He is a real gentleman. Deborah Levine 2869 I don't know how anyone could not love and respect Victor drum. Also, Walter Berriam 5 says this Hanson guy is a genius. Very sharp, very straightforward. A pleasure to hear him. Two more Victor. Just two more. Robert Graham 5619 again brought to tears listening to VDH. Tears of gratitude for a man whose mind is sharper than most. I know it is a great joy to see him wrap the wisdom of knowing history so intimately around present day events. This makes me sure of my gut reactions to present day events. Unfortunately for me, I am unable to help so many by recalling such pertinent facts so readily at hand for VDH. VDH's dialogue clearly makes me stronger in character. Thank you Victor. You are greatly appreciated. That's really wonderful. And last one, I didn't even have Cetriss. Silversteel893 My apologies for mispronouncing. Often when I'm thinking of how to approach something, I ask myself what would VDH think or recommend? I'm Gen z born I think 2001 and you are my absolute favorite political commenter, commentator and one of the most admired thinkers I know. Thank you for your wisdom and thoughtfulness.
- [77:17]
Victor Davis Hanson
Thank you. Everybody loves Victor Yeah, I am not sexy, but I haven't heard that since. That didn't sting me. What did sting me was the guy who I think I told you four years ago said I looked like Skeletor.
- [77:31]
Jack Fowler
Skeletor? Yeah, that's just.
- [77:33]
Victor Davis Hanson
And then the other thing about. One thing you always worry about if you're losing your mind. So when I woke up, one of the residents who was involved in the surgery said, well, you know, you had your four hour normal operation, then it was three to four hours, we had the follow up. So you were under for eight hours. And I said does that mean I'm happy brain damage? He said no. And I said well. And he said, well, we've taken out a good part of your right lung. I said, does that mean I won't get enough oxygen to my brain? And he was curious. And I kept asking him because the biggest scare I had wasn't even dying or coming back, but being on a podcast and not remembering anything because of too much anesthesia or no oxygen to the brain for critical seconds when I was under or something.
- [78:24]
Jack Fowler
An elephant is jealous of your memory, Victor. But your lungs were already. Had they not accommodated to the.
- [78:34]
Victor Davis Hanson
That's what the pulmologist said that apparently what they call ground glass opacity or consolidation, which can be caused by non malignant factors. In my case it was pretty clear it was at two bouts of long Covid. So this mass, actually I didn't know it, but it had appeared he was a very. The pulmologist is a very good guy and he said go back and look at, go on these websites of hospitals and anywhere you had a kidney stone or whatever, you went in for an ER, see if they took. And I had found one 2016 that said that the right lower lobe had been collapsed, there was a ground glass opacity and most 90% of them are. And then it disappeared on another one. But my point is apparently at least since for the last two or three years, but maybe even earlier I had a propensity when I got the flu or pneumonia or something that that weak spot would collapse. And then after Covid I had two long Covid bouts in 23 and 24 for four and five months each. And apparently that's when it got bad. And at some critical point they gave me a cancer test, the new grail DNA which is not that accurate, I guess, and a CEA test which is more accurate. And in August I did not have cancer according to those tests. But that mass was getting bigger and bigger. So I probably did have it, but it didn't show up. So sometime in the summer, I started getting fevers and coughing on our podcast around June, right? I was getting about 100, 101 in the afternoon every single day, and it would go away. So I think it mutated into cancer six months, eight, nine, ten months ago. But otherwise, and to answer your question, yeah, he said, because I took a lot of. He said, your gut pretty good. Your lower light, your lower right lobe is pretty big. It's about 30% of all your capacity. And he said it's the most difficult to take out. And he said, you've got pretty good capacity. You've already started to make up some of it. So. Well, my problem is when I'm walking or I try to do like yesterday, I tried to putter around the yard and I outdo my. The lung's capacity to keep, you know, to supply oxygen. Then the heart, I'm over afib. But what happens is my resting heart rate's like 58. And then when I'm walking normally, he said, try to keep it between 75 and 85 as you build up before you go, you know, jog again or do something. But it'll just go. I'll start getting burping and I'll start getting dizzy and it'll go from 85 to 110 within 10 seconds. It's not afibbing. And then if I just take a deep breath, stand still, stop walking, stop. I was trying to put together an outdoor table yesterday. Just stop it. Within a minute or two, it'll go back, but it'll keep being volatile for about 10 or 20 minutes especially. I have this mastocytosis problem, so especially if I eat bad foods, you know, that have histamine release. So that's my problem right now is that you do things that you don't have enough oxygen capacity to do and your heart reacts by pumping faster. Okay? And it's the guy. I have a very good cardiologist and I went on Grok the other day and asked and he had given the same answer. The AI gave the same answer as the cardiologist. My echo cardiogram was normal, my EKG was normal, my 2 week monitor was normal. They just said, this is at week 14. It's very common as you start to do more activity, that the heart at certain periods can't supply enough blood that's needed because of the oxygen.
- [82:55]
Jack Fowler
Is that week 14 because of the removal of the lung, or week 14 because of all the transmissions, or both, maybe.
- [83:03]
Victor Davis Hanson
I was told Given the size of the mass, it was very big. It was not all cancers, but the mass itself was big. They just said normally a lobectomy, if it's a smaller tumor and everything goes right, which most of them do, you'll be driving in two months and three months you'll be mostly. And then when this happened and they said we had to take you right back in, 25 minutes later, you ended up almost 3 liters of blood, 5 transfusions, 1 platelet trans, and you're very anemic. You've got afib. It's going to take you double the. So I'm at 14 weeks, three and a half months. And if I hadn't have had that misadventure, I think I would have been on the way unless I. But, you know, it's kind of like an ied. This cancer is very recurrent and it's not treatable by immunotherapy or so I don't know if I'm speaking to you right now. I have it or not, but I'll find out next week I take a blood biopsy test.
- [84:20]
Jack Fowler
Again, we're keeping up our prayers. Victor, you've been terrific. I want to thank people who sign up for Civil Thoughts. That's what I do for the center for Civil Society. It comes out every Friday. 14 recommended readings. Go to civilthoughts.com sign up. You're going to like it. We're not selling your name. And it's just great stuff that I've come across. Blade of Perseus. That's Victor's website, victorhansen.com thank you, the good folks at the Daily Signal, and we will be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hansen in His Own Words.
- [84:56]
Victor Davis Hanson
Thank you everybody for listening and watching. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like share and subscribe to be notified button for more content like this. You can also check out my own website@victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.