Victor Davis Hanson: John Brennan’s ‘Rendezvous’ With Accountability Couldn’t Come Sooner

Summary

Podcast Summary: Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words — John Brennan’s ‘Rendezvous’ With Accountability Couldn’t Come Sooner (April 23, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) delivers incisive commentary on the most pressing political and cultural developments, emphasizing their historical relevance. He and host Jack Fowler tackle issues ranging from the accountability of former CIA Director John Brennan, anti-Semitism in progressive politics, the state of immigration and education policy, shifting party dynamics, economic outlooks, foreign affairs (notably Iran and Cuba), and threats to the scientific community, all while maintaining a candid, thoughtful, and occasionally personal tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. John Brennan and Government Accountability

• VDH on Brennan’s Culpability
  • Brennan lied under oath about CIA spying on U.S. Senators and suffered no serious repercussions.
  • He was involved in misleading the public on the Hunter Biden laptop story, helping orchestrate a false “Russian disinformation” narrative to affect the 2020 election.
  • [39:10] VDH:
    “There's so much culpability, we got to remember that this is a man that went before Congress under oath as head of the CIA and had the CIA under his direction spying on US Senators...that was a complete abject lie and he had to apologize. But that was under oath. He should have been charged immediately with perjury.”
  • Delays by Senate Republicans (specifically John Thune) are stalling grand jury investigations into Brennan.
  • The lack of accountability for officials like Brennan, Clapper, and Comey is eroding trust in government institutions.

2. Anti-Semitism and Radical Shifts in the Democratic Party

• Michigan Democratic Party’s Radical Choice
  • [11:58] A radical pro-Hezbollah candidate defeats an establishment contender for a regent position at the University of Michigan, following anti-Semitic vandalism against the incumbent.
  • VDH:
    “I don't know what's happened to the Democratic Party, but one of the worst things historically that happens to a party or group or a nation when they spiral down into suicidal hatred. Tribalism is anti-Semitism is one of the first...when you see these random attacks on Jews and you have nothing happening, you get the impression that either the majority of the Democratic Party agree or they're afraid to express opposition.” [12:53]
• Historical and Contemporary Parallels
  • VDH draws a parallel between the current wave of anti-Semitism and warning signs of societal decay, advocating individuals speak up against hatred.

3. Immigration: Responsibilities and System Abuse

• Changing Attitudes Among Immigrants
  • VDH notes the transformation from immigrants like Max Nikias, who express gratitude and contribute positively, to an emerging class that sees themselves as above criticism, enabled by DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) dogma.
  • VDH:
    “The immigrant has a special onus on him, that his host was generous and allowed him to come in just like a guest into somebody's home, and that you have to behave extraordinarily well.” [20:35]
• Fraud and Exploitation
  • Discussion of massive welfare fraud and abuse by naturalized citizens/immigrants, suggesting such abuses should result in deportation after due process.

4. Education Policy and Teachers’ Unions

• Senator Mark Kelly’s Opposition to School Choice
  • [23:43] Mark Kelly leads Democrats in seeking to repeal a scholarship tax credit, illustrating the party’s alignment with teachers unions.
  • VDH:
    “It's these state and national teachers unions who don't want any examination that all the rest of us have...Once you give a person a lifetime tenure, it's very hard to remove them. And the result is complacency.”
• Impact on Public and Charter Schools
  • Charter/voucher systems create competition—public schools improve when threatened by losing students to better alternatives.

5. Radical Candidates and Politics of Identity

• The Graham Platner Controversy in Maine
  • Platner leads despite crude anti-Christian, anti-Semitic comments and a Nazi-themed tattoo, which he excuses, blames on “toxic hypermasculinity,” or denies in shifting narratives.
  • VDH:
    “Nobody wants somebody as a US Senator who at any time in his life thought it was cool to be a Nazi, brainwashed or not. But he's basically admitted that that's what the state of his mind was...And he's leading.” [29:28]
• Republican Response Needed
  • VDH urges the GOP to be highly coordinated and error-free given the stakes of the upcoming election.

6. Foreign Affairs: Iran, Economic Leverage, and Cuba

• Strangling Adversaries by Economic Means
  • VDH outlines a strategy of economic pressure over direct military conflict with Iran:
    “Phase one was to get rid of their ability to make war done. Phase two was to be magnanimous...Phase three is you are going to have no national income and we're going to persist until you decide that you want to renounce your war making intentions abilities in every aspect.” [35:45]
• On Cuba and Trump’s Rhetoric
  • Trump signals ambitions for Cuba’s liberation, but VDH counsels restraint and behind-the-scenes efforts over braggadocio, warning public threats may backfire.
    “You don't want to threaten military force openly and publicly. You just want to say to them there are forces in motion and we are going to accelerate them by a blockade or a cutoff of oil because we are on the side of the long suffering Cuban people.” [48:10]

7. Mysterious Deaths of Scientists

• Unexplained Deaths Raising Alarm
  • [54:13] Eleven high-level U.S. scientists dead or missing—VDH says clear analysis is needed to identify patterns and if these are aberrant, which could then suggest malign foreign involvement (Russia, China, North Korea, Iran).
  • Mentions the enigmatic “Havana Syndrome” as an example of state-sponsored covert operations.

8. Integrity in Census and Political Power

• Manipulation of the 2020 Census
  • [59:56] Evidence emerges that census errors disproportionately benefited blue states, shifting congressional representation.
    “The integrity of our census is...It comes on top of all these other stories...It's reengineer the system because the system does not give you the intended result.”
  • VDH sees this and other voting procedural changes (like mail-in ballots) as intentional efforts to secure Democratic gains by undermining election integrity.

9. DEI, Meritocracy, and Political Influence in Academia

• Systemic Discrimination
  • VDH reflects on decades of anti-meritocratic, anti-white-male bias in academia, recounting personal anecdotes of lost opportunities due to racial/gender preferences.
  • VDH:
    “White women said that they were privileged when they had no privilege. And they used them as sort of a shield to protect their own position from the DI Frankenstein monsters they created.” [65:40]

10. Social Unhappiness, Family Structure, and the Left

• Demographic Realignment and Societal Consequences
  • New research shows disproportionate numbers of unmarried Democrat women, linking this demographic to left-wing activism and broader political/cultural unhappiness.
  • VDH and Fowler discuss the breakdown of the nuclear family and its links to social unrest and crime, especially in the context of urban Black communities.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On John Brennan’s Perjury:
  “He should have been charged immediately with perjury...He has a destiny. He has a rendezvous with accountability.” (VDH, [39:10], [42:58])

• On Contemporary Anti-Semitism:
  “Anti-Semitism is one of the first...like a sore throat when you know you’re getting very ill...and I see it everywhere, and it has so many manifestations.” (VDH, [12:53])

• On Immigration Responsibility:
  “If you do come over here and then when you arrive and you go full Ilhan Omar, and you call it a trashy country...then that allows people who have been living here to say...we’re not going to take it." (VDH, [17:16])

• On Teachers’ Unions:
  “It doesn't take a brain to know who's behind it. It's these state and national teachers unions who don't want any examination that all the rest of us have.” (VDH, [23:43])

• On Economic Leverage vs. War:
  “We're not going to start the war again. We're just going to say you do, it's your choice...At some point...you're going to be losing...a billion...a week.” (VDH, [34:10])

• On Braggadocio in Foreign Policy:
  “But Trump should not say, you know, I took over Venezuela, I took over Iran, now I've took him over....That’s not what the MAGA base necessarily wants to hear.” (VDH, [48:10])

• On Systemic Discrimination in Academia:
  “If they applied on an even playing field, white males...were completely eliminated from all of these government, government fellowships, positions, universities, everything.” (VDH, [65:40])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:38] – First comments on John Brennan and perjury
• [11:58] – Michigan Democrat convention and anti-Semitism
• [23:43] – Senator Mark Kelly and teacher union influence
• [29:28] – The Maine “Nazi tattoo” candidate, Graham Platner
• [35:45] – Iran, blockade strategy, and economic warfare
• [39:10] – In-depth analysis: John Brennan’s history and culpability
• [48:10] – Trump on Cuba: Advice on rhetoric and policy
• [54:13] – Deaths of high-level scientists: Possible foreign plots
• [59:56] – 2020 Census manipulation and political consequences
• [65:40] – Academic discrimination, DEI, and political double standards
• [72:00+] – Discussion on family breakdown, demographics, and leftist activism

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Tone and Style

• Reflective, historical, and often personal: VDH recounts his own career, family wisdom, and experiences.
• Blunt, critical analysis: Does not shy from indicting parties and individuals across the spectrum.
• Urgently cautionary: Warns of the consequences of current political trends for American society and its institutions.
• Engaged and occasionally humorous: Personal anecdotes, witty exchanges with Jack Fowler, and listener shout-outs.

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a comprehensive, erudite take on the issues dominating the national conversation, clarifying complex political and cultural dynamics with the unique blend of historical perspective and sharp reasoning characteristic of Victor Davis Hanson. The detailed reflections and critiques equip listeners with valuable context, whether or not they are up to date on the news.

Transcript

[Bradley Devlin]

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[Jack Fowler]

Some follow the noise.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line.

[Bradley Devlin]

Whether it's the funds fueling AI or

[Victor Davis Hanson]

crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe [e-mail]

[Jack Fowler]

here's their poster boy in Maine to headline. Maine Democrat, Graham Platner, who we've talked about before. He's called Jesus a zombie and the Virgin Mary a skank. This was from Skank. He's the Nazi tattoo guy, by the way. All bestsellers.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they were all bestsellers.

[Jack Fowler]

So I think you've been good to them. More so than I've tried to be.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I've always tried the Golden Rule, Jack. Do unto others as others, but do unto you. Or my mother's rule. Be careful, Victor. If you have any success, be careful as you ascend to be nice to people. Because as sure as the sun rises, you will descend in a cycle.

[Jack Fowler]

I don't know if you've ever given us an opinion about John Brennan, but

[Victor Davis Hanson]

please, there's so much culpability. We got to remember that this is a man that went before Congress under oath as head of the CIA and had the CIA under his direction spying on US Senators. And he said, no, we wouldn't do that. That was a complete abject and he had to apologize. But that was under oath. He should have been charged immediately with perjury.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, hello, ladies and hello, gentlemen, and welcome to Victor Davis Hansen in his own words on the Daily Signal Network. Victor's not the only one around here that gets to wear a Daily Signal hat. Victor, you're showing me up all the time. And I. I felt the obligation of the.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Gonna have to ask our sponsors for more of them because I only have one and I keep misplacing it.

[Jack Fowler]

I'm sure Rob can.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Rob can do that for me. Rob, if you're listening.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, yeah. Well, we are talking on Monday, April 20, 2026, and this episode will be up on Thursday, April 23. If you're a New listener or watcher viewer. Victor is the Martin and Eli Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marcia Buskey Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College, senior contributor at the Daily Signal.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And I'm going to add, I just had a meeting with Basic Books and the author of the forthcoming the Counter Revolution, the Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, which entails starts with January 6th and when Trump hit rock bottom. And it determines. It goes over his dismal prospects and then it talks about his miraculously successful war against the lawfare that was waged against him. Mar a Lago, get him off the ballot. And second, impeachment. And then it goes to the campaign with a lot on Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. And then it finishes the third part with the first year of his administration that came up today. It's in Galilee. It's all done. And the question some of them said is, everything is so volatile. You could say something right now. I mean, if I said the left is attacking Trump as Hitlerian on Monday, on Tuesday, they were saying he was Chamberlain tacko, chickened out by having negotiations. So it's all volatile. But I don't know how that's going to happen. My friend, longtime friend Glenn Hartley of 35 Years, who represents me, always has done a wonderful job, a wonderful person. He wants me to update it. And I think the basic team feels that it's in galleys now. It's really good. It covers the whole. And you. And if you keep updating it, it would be endless, you know, So I don't know what'll happen, but I'm willing to do whatever they want. They've been very nice to me, the Basic books. Laura Heimert, the editor in chief, who is now retiring, she's edited this will be the fifth book, and I think it's ten years.

[Jack Fowler]

All bestsellers.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they were all bestsellers.

[Jack Fowler]

So I think you've been good to them, more so than I've tried to be. Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I've always tried the golden Rule, Jack. Do unto others as others, but do unto you.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You do. You do do that or my mother's rule. Be careful, Victor. If you have any success, be careful as you ascend to be nice to people, because as sure as the sun rises, you will descend in a cycle.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, you told me, and I don't know if this is fair to reveal, but when you had one of your traumatic surgeries, specifically in Libya, you got a sense that I did. That was reinforced, that golden Rule was

[Victor Davis Hanson]

a Pakistani nurse who was interpreting for the Egyptian surgeon and he was all by himself. There were no nurse attendants. She was just there watching the ether cable and making sure the Iranian didn't, the Iranian tech didn't smoke, step on it. And I woke up three times during the ruptured appendix surgery. But she said, if you pray right now, you look at the minarets and pray and Allah. And I said, it came out of my mouth. I'm not an overtly, demonstrably pious person. But I said nothing will happen to someone who's been good and I trust my soul into the hands of Jesus Christ and I'm ready for anything. And she said, yes, he was a prophet. I wanted to argue with her and say, well yeah, you say he was a prophet, but then your apocalyptic religion at the end of the world, he's not there. But I thought this wouldn't be wise.

[Jack Fowler]

Yes. When somebody had a scalpel in there.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Somebody had a scalpel and I had a gangrene colon and a ruptured appendix in Libya.

[Jack Fowler]

Maybe that, maybe the surgeon was Coptic. You never know, Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But I woke up, it was completely dark. I didn't know where I was. And all of a sudden I thought, oh my gosh, I'm in Dante's Inferno. I'm sorry for my sins. And then they turned on the light.

[Jack Fowler]

Let there be light. Well, any. Well, my friend has the aforementioned talking here. Victor Davis Hanson also has a website, the Blade of Perseus. If you go there, you'll find the book Victor's talking about, Counter Revolution. It's on the homepage. Click on it and you can order it now pre publication and it comes

[Victor Davis Hanson]

out sometime in August, I think September, September 8, 2026. And I plan to be healthy, cured and ready to answer questions about it, even from the anti Trump people.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, we'll have David French on the show.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Send what copy to the Bulwark. I'm sure they'll be interested. Oh yeah, that'll be a book burning.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, we've got as we recorded an episode yesterday for Tuesday. Yesterday was Sunday. When we're talking today we're talking on and of course there's just a ton of stuff happening including on Iran. But maybe it's best to wait for further commentary on that when Victor and the great Sammy Wink talk next. But we've got a bunch of stories here. Hopefully Victor will dispense his wisdom. Mark Kelly, senator from Arizona, is leading an effort to kill this really important tax credit that is going to come into effect in 2027. We'll get Victor's take on that. We analyses of the 2020 census as a disaster. Trump on Cuba, the John Brennan prosecution. Non prosecution. What the heck's going on with that? We have these missing scientists also. That's really troubling.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

John Brennan should remember the commandment thou shall not lie, especially under oath before Senate.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, he's a commie. You know, he went to. I went to Fordham for one year, Victor. And he was so. He went to. I went to Florida.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Can I ask you an embarrassing question? Why is it that all these disreputable people all end up being trained at Fordham? Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Or Holy Cross, you know, Regis High School. Well, anyway, let's get to all these topics, Victor, when we come back from these important messages.

[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.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think they forgot the 1982 Falklands War.

[Bradley Devlin]

And in the age of clickbait and rage bait. That's a really good feeling. Right.

[Jack Fowler]

The media. Thank you. You can leave now.

[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 policymaking 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 Hanssen or there too. And drop me a follow on X@BradleyDevlin to stay updated with what's happening on the Signal. Sit down.

[Jack Fowler]

And we are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor's website. I didn't mention this. The Blade of Perseus.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Go to.

[Jack Fowler]

I did say that, but you should subscribe at $65 a year, 650amonth. Victorhanson.com is the address. Victor, before we get to Mark Kelly, I did want to mention this news. There's too many names here, but Michigan had a Democrat convention yesterday, Sunday, and then Amir Maled, who was a lawyer, a Guy from Dearborn, Nehezbollah Praiser. He defeated for the Democrats have a. Have the right to appoint a regent to the University of Michigan board. And the incumbent was Jordan Acke, who's I'm assuming Jewish because his house and his car were vandalized with anti Semitic graffiti. But the Democrats of Michigan nominated this radical guy to sit on the board of the University of Michigan. So this party that was the party of Dan Rostenkowski and Tip o' Neill and even Bill Clinton, this is dead and over.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I think they're captive of a very small but apparently very influential group of people who are Islamic and they vote a straight ticket, apparently. Because I say that. Because, said the candidate in the same state for the Senate, he had a hot mic on where he said that he had to be careful about expressing any opinion about the. The death of Khamenei, this cruel, horrible dictator in Iran who had butchered 40,000 of his own people because it might not go well with his constituency. Meaning they were pro Hezbollah. And we had that person that rammed, tried to run the synagogue and he was an active. His family were active Hezbollah terrorists. So I don't know what's happened to the Democratic Party, but one of the worst things historically that happens to a party or group or a nation when they spiral down into suicidal hatred. Tribalism is anti. Semitism is one of the first. It's kind of like, you know, a sore throat when you know you're getting very ill. And when you see it everywhere, and I see it everywhere, and it has so many manifestations. In Tucker's case, it's just the sheer volume. If he were to do one show every five or every ten on Bibi or one in every eight on Israel, and then you could argue that he's just critical of Israel and the support that it garners. But it's about 70% of his shows and they're all negative and he had never done that before. And when you see these random attacks on Jews and you have nothing happening, you get the impression that either the majority of the Democratic Party agree or they're afraid to express opposition or objection because they're going to be themselves targeted. So they wanted to cut off aid. Most of the Democrats, with few exceptions, wanted to cut off aid to Israel. Right. When it's in its existential war with Iran. I think that Europe is pro Hezbollah. It's pretty clear they are. France was until they lost a French soldier. And now all of a sudden they're worried. But if this doesn't Stop this momentum. And I never thought I would say that about the United States. You're going to see Jews that are targeted, just everyday Jews, and they're going to be, it's going to be like at the elite level, it'll be like gentleman's agreement. You know, the Gregory Peck mo about that. You politely don't hire Jews or you don't recruit them. Yes. And given Jewish meritocracy that dominated the Ivy League, 30 or 40% in some years after the anti Semitic restrictions were removed and we went to the sat merocratic equality of opportunity admissions, it's down to about, I think the Jewish numbers are way, way down by almost. They've decreased by two thirds. And so I just don't, I don't see a new young generation of Jews emerging from this country without having to be targeted by mostly people who are Islamic and the people who aid and abet them. And it's going to be, I predict, unless somebody comes out and stops it, it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And each, all we can do as people is each person, according to your station, is to demand that you treat people as an individual, not a collective. And you don't pander and you don't criticize, but when you hear people attacking Jews, you speak up against it. If you don't, then you're part of the problem.

[Jack Fowler]

There's a great piece on that. If I just may make a note, Victor, to our viewers and listeners who are very intelligent people, there's a great magazine called online magazine called Tablet magazine.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It is, it's excellent. I saw that article. Are you referring to the woman who was a PhD?

[Jack Fowler]

I am.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She's a veteran.

[Jack Fowler]

And yes. Megan Mobs what to Die for, the Things Worth Dying For. Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That was a wonderful article. It was so rare to see somebody that was so brave and so persuasive. Right.

[Jack Fowler]

So. And she's also a Catholic. And it was an interesting thing about this journal. You know, they're. I don't say eclectic. It's. But it's that they allow these other kind of voices to write for them.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I think that's one I remember. I think I told you once I was at my graduation and there was a person, I had won this award and the awardees were at the table with the provost and this woman was attacking the United States in World War II. And she kept going, going, going and saying we were war criminals. And my father, my mom watched him drink. One glass, two glasses, three glasses. And then I said, to my mom, hey, Mom, I think the fuse is lit. And then he got up and said, I didn't fly 40 missions over Tokyo and my first cousin didn't get killed in Okinawa for me to sit and hear this. Now you're going to hear something. And then he let loose. So I feel that way about all the people who fought. That's what her point was in the article. They didn't fight and die and risk everything so the University of Michigan could select somebody who principal qualification was that he hated Jews and he was pro ISIS and Hezbollah and the whole bunch and was not shy about it. And so why I always think that given our ethos, that a person who comes from a different country, if he qualifies for citizenship, he or she. And he's a citizen, then they have as much right as somebody, you know, that I've been here on my mother's side from the 18, I don't know, 20s. My father's from 1870. But my point is, they are just as much American. That being said, if you do come over here and then when you arrive and you go full Ilian Omar, and you call it a trashy country and a dictatorship, then that allows people who have been living here to say to them, we didn't die on Iwo Jima. We didn't die at Belleau Wood. We didn't die at Gettysburg. For you to come over here and tell us that we're no good, we're not going to take it. I'm sorry. And we need that attitude a lot more. So the immigrant has really changed. When we had Max at Nikias, he was the ideal immigrant. He's the ideal immigrant. He loves the country. He contributed so much to it, and yet he's an isa. That profile that he and millions had once represented is under attack now. I think it's because of the indoctrination in the university and the DEI component that if you're a DEI qualifier, you feel that you're exempt from criticism and you have a right or duty to trash your host country as white, racist, heterosexual, a whole bit, you know, And I think it will continue until people say, you know what? You're absurd. We're not going to listen to you anymore. If everybody would say that, no matter what your particular background is, I think it would stop very quickly.

[Jack Fowler]

Someone was mentioning at the Philadelphia Society meeting, which I was at in Tampa this past weekend, about Peter Schramm, who I think you must have known.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I knew him a lot. I spoke in Ohio. Is it Ohio? He was at.

[Jack Fowler]

He was at the Ashbrook Center. Yeah, he ran that. And Peter was born in Hungary and his family escaped during the 56 revolution. But he asked his father why here? And essentially the father said, we were always Americans. We just weren't born there. And I do think there are a lot of people that think like that and feel like. But there are many, many more like Ilhan Omar and others who are still Somalians and still Pakistanis and Afghanis and whatever the heck and do not like this place yet. They're a big welfare recipient.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm really upset, though, because I was looking at some of the Steve Hilton now claims, by the way, that the fraud in California has gone up to 400 billion. Billion. I mean, that would almost cut 25% of the deficit. And when you look at that and you look at the names that are coming in, a lot of them are naturalized citizens. Are they're here a green card holder? I don't know. But the reason I mention that is the immigrant has a special onus on him, that his host was generous and allowed him to come in just like a guest into somebody's home, and that you have to behave extraordinarily well. So when these people say, well, he only had a dei, why deport? You shouldn't have any crime. You should be exemplary because this country bent over backwards to allow you to be a guest. And then when you come in here, as the Somali community did in many cases, and you defrauded the country, then you should be deported, get a fair trial, adjudicate the evidence and get out, because you have abused the hospitality and you rewarded our magnanimity with contempt. And so I'm getting really sick of all of this. And, you know, oh, immigrants. Immigration has been the backbone of the country. But there was a demonstration that said immigrants built the country. Well, they did in the sense that we only had a small population and we were immigrating here from 1820, 1810, even before. But that's not what the sign meant. It meant that only people who were illegal had built the country. And that's not true. It's not true.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, let's take a look. Victor, get your take on. Two Democrats mentioned Mark Kelly. And then I also want to go to Maine. So Mark Kelly, the senator, Democrat, senator from Arizona, he is leading a group of 31 Democrats to try to repeal this section of the big beautiful bill that created a $1,700 tax credit, doesn't kick in until next year. That you and I and everyone here who pays Their taxes, instead of paying that money to the federal government, can send that to what's called an SGO scholarship granting organization. And the way that works is your state, your governor in your state has to check the box. And about 30 governors have a lot happened. My state, Connecticut, Ned Lamont has yet to say, yeah, we'll let that apply. I'm going to send my 1700 bucks somewhere it should be send and what's the point of it is to supplement scholarships for private schools, charter schools, even some public schools. But Mark Kelly, the sainted Mark Kelly really likes to portray himself as kind of a martyr. Yeah, he's leading this effort to undo this. I don't think it's going to prevail, but a sign of the Democrat party's beholdenness to the teachers unions. Any thoughts about him?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I do. He is kind of iconic of what's happened to the Democratic Party because he was in a conservative state that traditionally had two Republican senators at least for a long time. And he ran as a decorated Navy pilot that had served in the first Gulf War. And then he was an astronaut. And when he came on, he was well below the radar. Nobody married to Gabby Giffords was tragically shot. That was another story. Blaming Sarah Palin because she had an ad with the crosshairs which was nothing compared to what Biden said when he said take them out. But nonetheless, now he has a new stature as a hard leftist. So he knows that the data is there. We have a task force at the Hoover Institution that has looked at vouchers and charter schools and the evidence is overwhelming. They serve, they're so much more effective in teaching children. But more importantly, they have a deterrent effect on the public schools. When you have a successful charter school, then the public schools feel that they have to reform, in other words, to not drain or bleed students. And yet when you see these types of legislation, it doesn't take a brain to know who's behind it. It's these state and national teachers unions who don't want any examination that all the rest of us have. All the rest of us have. Anybody who's in the real world other than the academic world and the teacher can be fired at any moment. They either based on their ratings or their performance. But the teachers, once you give a person a lifetime tenure, it's very hard to remove them. And the result is complacency. And we spend far too much money for the results that we get. California spends, I think it's number 10th in the country on expenditures per student and we're 45th in test scores. So then that. And then he also, remember, Jack, he made that embarrassing video as a veteran, and he was subject to the Article 82 of the Uniform Code of Military justice, where he ordered, not ordered, but he suggested to uniformed military personnel that they should, if they felt that Trump was going to issue an order that was, in their opinion, unconstitutional, then they should resist. Well, you can see how that would work. Obama says, we're going to bomb Libya. And then a pilot in the air over Libya says, well, you know, this is week seven, Mr. President, and I was thinking, you never got the War powers act after 90 days, or a guy's at a consult doing 500 Predator drone missions, and he says, you know, did you have a warrant for that last mission when we killed American citizen? So you can see what would happen. It would read, and those are accurate with cause, but you can see everybody would think that way. And yet he was promoting that. And as a lot of people pointed out, Mark. And then when he said, he reappeared again when Trump said, well, I'm going to take out the bridges and the power plants, and he said this was basically a war crime. And then people pointed out that he had, as a naval pilot, his squadron was tasked with taking out civilian infrastructure in Gulf War One. So should we go back and say, you are a war criminal? He's not a war criminal. He obeyed orders and the orders were logical to get this maniac out of Kuwait and stop the slaughter of the Kurds, etc. So I think he's like Chuck Schumer and all the rest of them. They are an aging group of Democrats that once were partly sane and they're not anymore. They are terrified of the Mondawami wing, the two new governors in Virginia and New Jersey, the Seattle nutty mayor. And they see this Karen Bass type people, and they feel that this is the new Democratic Party. And when they get all together, they think they're a majority. But I want to assure them that they're not a majority. They may win some midterm seats because of anger at a current president, which is historically common. But the idea that the American people are going to vote for that agenda, I don't think so.

[Jack Fowler]

Here's their poster boy in Maine headline, Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who we've talked about before, he's called Jesus a zombie and the Virgin Mary a skank. This was from. Yeah, yeah. He has described. He's the Nazi tattoo guy, by the way. He described himself as crudely atheist. And that he derided Jesus as a zombie marries a skank. This was in an uncovered Reddit post. So Platner responded to a 2008 lawsuit that claimed a soldier was denied a promotion for not embracing fundamentalist Christianity. Platner asked, what units is this blank in? And stated that while quote, I've spent eight years in the infantry, I've been about as crudely atheist as one can be for the entire time. Platner cited zombie Jesus jokes and Mary sucking it, covering up being a skank as example of what he found humorous during his years in the military. And this is the guy who's leading. He's leading the incumbent Democrat in the race for the.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, he's not only leading the incumbent, he's. He's relating in general election polls, should he be nominated. Susan Collins.

[Jack Fowler]

Susan Collins.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So he came to prominence with his Totenkopf death head tattoo, which people have argued was either the 3rd Waffen SS Division or it was the Ice Sansent Groupen that were in charge of the death camps. Either way, it's pretty horrific. So then there was all this pressure and he said he was drunk, he didn't know what it was. So then he removed it. He must have had remorse at removing it because then he changed his narrative. Remember, he said, well, so he must have thought I looked weak, so I'm going to have a new narrative. And my new narrative was, well, I did it because I had been indoctrinated by the military toxic hyper masculinity that is Nazi. And that inflamed my mind. So I went. And he didn't realize what he was saying. He was basically saying to the people of Maine, okay, I wanted, I thought it would be cool to have a Totenkopf death head Nazi symbol on me. And people at the time said that he knew what he was doing. So I decided to run for office. So I lied and said I didn't know what was doing and I changed it. So there, it's over. And then he thought, you know what? Everybody's talking about Trump as a Nazi and Pete Hexa, so I can get some mileage if I change my narrative. So I'm going to change my narrative now and say, well, it was because I really thought I was a Nazi at the time, basically, and therefore I wanted a Nazi symbol. What he doesn't realize is that nobody wants somebody as a US Senator who at any time in his life thought it was cool to be a Nazi, brainwashed or not. But he's basically admitted that that's what the state of his mind was. And nobody likes somebody who lies to the people of Maine as he did, because he just absolutely flipped his story.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And he's leading. And I think the Republicans and Trump and everybody have to get together and they're going to have to have a summit and they're going to say, we have six months left. I think they will wrap up the war within two weeks or three weeks, but we'll see. And they're going to have to say we have no margin of error. No margin of error. We've got to raise, raise money. We've got to hit them on the issues. We've got to get out the vote, if still possible. If they're going to block ID and early mailing, then we're going to have to outdo them. We're going to have to get every single person out, because this is existential. And I think Trump is going to have to be very careful on his true social posts, because the Catholic vote came out, I think it was 53%. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jack, it was almost historic. And it really, in some states made the difference. And what you do not want to do is get into a verbal quarrel with the Pope that is not wise or astute as you're given your success, especially with Hispanic Catholics. So they're gonna have. They have no margin of error, but they can win. They can stop this if they get serious. Because I think the economy, almost every indication now is the stock market's gonna go down, but it went up. Oil's gonna go to 150, but it went down. Unemployment's terrible, but it's not that bad. Inflation is hyper, but it didn't get into hyper. So you can see that, that once the war is over, there's going to be an exuberance and the price of oil is going to crash and the stock market will go very even stronger. It's the highest it's ever been. What I'm getting at is all the things are in place for a good economic recovery in the summer, if we can just talk about it and more importantly, inform the public about it. And then we have the boot on the neck of Iran and we don't have to do anything other than play. I can't hear you. Yo. You want negotiations. I didn't quite hear you. And then just say, you know What? You're losing $430 million a day. We're incurring more damage on you than we did militarily, and you're not going to be around much longer. But you know what? That's your choice. And we're not going to attack you, we're just going to blockade you. And if you want us in your, every ship that tries to interse, we're going to destroy. If you try to hit Saudis for each one, we're going to hit you twice. But we're not going to start the war again. We're just going to say you do, it's your choice. And at some point, very quickly they're going to be losing. Oh my gosh, they're going to be losing 500 million. Oh yeah, yeah. A billion what? Three billion a week. And they don't have a very big GDP now at all. So we're in a very good position. They just have to communicate that. And we don't communicate that. We get all these different tangents. But all the President has to say is phase one was to get rid of their ability to make war done. Phase two was to be magnanimous and show them that we did not want to go to phase three, economic strangulation. We had negotiations but they negotiated in bad faith as they have for 47 years. So now we're in phase three. Phase three is you are going to have no national income and we're going to persist until you decide that you want to renounce your war making intentions abilities in every aspect from conventional to nuclear. And we're not going to start a war with you a new bombing. But I guarantee you we can say that if you start to hit other people or you start to, you're going to get a retaliatory strike five, six times and greater intensity for each one you do. So don't do it because you're broke. And I think you'll start to see the people rise up. I really do. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Well Victor, now I have to let our listeners know about something. Okay. Have a drink while I do this.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Absolutely.

[Jack Fowler]

If you've studied enough history, you start to see a pattern. Nations don't lose their way overnight. They drift through debt and division until one day you realize the foundations you thought were permanent were never permanent at all. Today, America is spending at levels once reserved for wartime. We have normalized deficits that would have stunned earlier generations. And policymakers now debate whether the only path forward is more intervention, more printing and more distortion. But here's the political truth. Every society that pushed its currency beyond discipline eventually paid a price. The wise, though they never waited for collapse. They prepared for the correction. And that's why so many thoughtful Americans, especially those nearing retirement or in retirement, like me and Victor from the earring, are reallocating part of their wealth into something that has outlasted every paper experiment in human history. Physical gold not as speculation but as insulation. Our reputation matters here at Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Which is why we're partnering with Allegiance Gold, a company distinguished by integrity, reliability. I added an extra syllable there, reliability and an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. For years they've guided Americans through transparent education, long standing relationships built on trust. And right now, they're extending a special liberty offer for our listeners and viewers to help you get started with real gold, whether your funds are in a retirement account or sitting in the bank. If you believe as we do that the best time to reinforce your position is before the storm becomes obvious, call 8447-909191-84479, 09191 or visit protectwithvictor.com that's 844-790-9191844-7909191 or visit protectwithvictor.com History rewards those who take the long view, and we thank the good people from Allegiance Gold for once again sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor let's we're just talking about senators. Let's keep this in the Senate. John Here's a headline from just the news. John thune, Sen. Senate Has Delayed Weaponization Prosecutors in the John Brennan Probe. So if you bear with me, folks, you've heard my voice a lot here, but I'm just gonna read a clip from this article. Earlier this year, the US Justice Department asked two Senate committees to provide transcripts and records of contacts with former CIA Director John Brennan regarding the now discredited Russia collusion allegations, signaling that there was an active investigation into whether the former spy boss had misled or obstructed Congress. The letters gave a hard deadline of February 23 for compliance, while two months later the body, run by Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has not complied, slowing a key angle of a grand jury investigation based in Fort Pierce, Florida, into whether Obama and Biden era government officials engaged in a conspiracy to weaponize law enforcement and intelligence tools to harm President Donald Trump and his followers. Victor, do you ever, I don't know if you've ever given us an opinion about John Brennan, but please do.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There's so much culpability, we got to remember that this is a man that went before Congress under oath as head of the CIA and had the CIA under his direction spying on US Senators. You should look at the tapes of Dianne Feinstein of all people, who was furious about it. And he said, is the CIA spying, tapping into our staffers computers? And he said no, we wouldn't do that. That was a complete abject lie and he had to apologize. But that was under oath. He should have been charged immediately with perjury. He came in another time and to a federal investigator that were in this testimony, he said, is there collateral damage on CIA targeted drone assassinations on the Afghan border? He said no, there were lots of them. He knowingly lied. He was in the Oval Office when Barack Obama said we have to pursue after the election the lame duck Obama, we have to pursue this Russian collusion. And he and Clapper and Comey gave the impression to Obama that their subordinates couldn't find that. And he said go back and find it. So they fabricated. Fourth, he was very. When Anthony Blinken was working as a henchman for the 2020 campaign and they were very worried that Trump was catching up and they were going. It was on the eve of the second debate and they had a disaster on their hands. The Hunter laptop was under the FBI control, but people had known what was in it and they had exposed it. The FBI had run forensics on it and knew knew that it was genuine and they kept quiet under Christopher Wreath. They did not tell anybody that this was a gen. And they watched as Anthony Blinken working for the Biden campaign called up the ex interim director of the CIA, Mike Morell. As I recall this, I'm doing it by memory. And he said we've got to round up some experts. And they said, well, you can't get CIA people now. We'll get retired. So get Brennan, get old Brennan and Clapper. And they got Leon Panetta, of course, who always appears in these situations. And they lied to the American people that this had all the hallmarks of Russia and they meant disinformation. But they took the dis out of an information campaign. So when they got caught, they can say, well, we didn't say it was Russian disinformation. We considered it Russian information, which is crazy. But. But that according to one albeit conservative poll that affected the way people voted. Because when Trump went in and he raised that, what did Joe Biden do? Just as the script provided 51 former CIA experts, Mr. Trump, that say you're lying, that this was all cooked up by your friends in Russia, it was all cooked up by Hunter Biden. It was true. And that affected an election. And so he has a lot of culpability and he's never been his whole attitude is to go on CNN or Ms. Now and take the offensive and call Trump a liar, a collusion, all that. But he has so much culpability. And the fact that you have a grand jury in Florida might mean that you're not going to have a legal circus, as we saw with Letitia James and the E. Jean Carroll case and Alvin Bragg in left, left, left, left, left wing New York. So I don't know the particulars why Thune is holding that up, but it's something he has a destiny. He has a rendezvous with accountability. Clapper too Comey, I think it was handled poorly. But he, the director of the FBI can't go before the House Oversight Committee and under oath, say 245 times, I don't remember. If I don't pay two supplements for the IRS and the IRS investigator comes to my house and says, Mr. Hansen, why didn't you? I don't remember. I don't recall. That's something that wasn't in my purview. I had no responsibility for that. I'm going to go to jail for that.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, put your hands behind your back so you can.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They've all been treated with kid gloves and they think now they've run out the statute limitations, I don't know. But they should really pursue this because what he did really affected the country and an election.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, we're going to take a little break and when we come back from that, we're going to get your views on Donald Trump's utterances about Cuba. We have something about Nike and if we have time, these missing dead scientists. So that and more when we come back from these important messages.

[Bradley Devlin]

If you enjoy Victor Davis Hansen, you might enjoy the Daily Signals flagship show, the Tony Kennett cast, the same common sense perspectives you love. Weekdays at 7pm Eastern. And unlike some of the other evening shows, we work up until showtime to bring you the latest breaking news, analysis and good old American sarcasm. Thom Tillis I'm pretty sure might have been useful at one time as a doorstop. Find the Tony Kinnit cast on YouTube and X Radio TV or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jack Fowler]

We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words on the Daily Signal network. I want to remind you, Victor also does Victor Davis Hansen in a few words, also for the Daily Signal. Go to the Daily Signals website. Check that out again. Go to Victor's website. The blade of Perseus victorhandson.com if you're on X. Victor's handle is Dhanson. Facebook BDH's Morning Cup. And there's also a friendly, very, very good, wonderful people. Victor Davis Hansen fan club on Facebook. So let's talk about Nike first, Victor, because this is Boston Marathon time of year and Nike, here's the headline Nike humiliated for walkers tolerated in quotes ad. It's accused of pace shaming ahead of the Boston Marathon. So Nike yanked a Boston Marathon ad, this was in bost that mocked walkers following accusations of quote, pace shaming, end quote, and excluding athletes with disabilities. The sportswear giant removed the sign stating in all caps, quote, runners welcome walkers tolerated end quote from its flagship on Boston's Newberry street just ahead of Monday's competition, et cetera, et cetera. Victor, you know you have disability in your life. Your granddaughter, my sister, God rest her soul. Same no fan of Nike either. But this like pace shaming, I mean,

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I didn't understand what was the outrage about?

[Jack Fowler]

Well, because if Nike's saying walkers, runners welcome, walkers tolerated. So. Oh, does that mean you're making fun of people who can't run? People?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I mean it was a marathon. I guess what they're saying is that there's able bodied Gawker. That's what I thought it meant. Gawkers, you know, that want to just say I was in the marathon and I want to walk it and they clog up the lanes.

[Jack Fowler]

No, I think they immediately took to saying by there are people in marathons who from all I know, people do it on crutches and you know, I know.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

So they pace shamed. Pace shamed them. Anyway, I just think our knee jerk to become victims. Maybe it couldn't happen to a nicer company than Nike which has been so.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I can say to you that I'm offended by your attitude as a cancer survivor.

[Jack Fowler]

I'm sorry about that, Victor. Did you do your paces today? Victor, I don't want to pay shame you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Somebody in the hospital told me that and they said, well, you can say no that you're a cancer survivor. I said, for how long? So anyway.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, you are. All right. Well, let's to me it was an interesting cultural matter. Donald Trump vows a new dawn for Cuba. So he was in Phoenix last week talking Victor, and he says we're going to, here's what the president said. We're going to help them out with Cuba. He told the crowd we have a lot of great Cuban Americans. Not too many in this audience I don't think. But you can go to Miami. We have people, Cuban Americans, people who were brutally treated, whose families were killed and brutalized. And now watch what happens. Cuba is next, by the way. But pretend I didn't say that, please. I love when Trump does that stuff. Anyway. Yeah. Do you think by the end of the year Cuba is going to be a la Venezuela?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't know. There's a disturbing call in the Wall Street Journal which I take with a grain of salt, given that it's not the old Wall Street Journal that I remember, but that the post Maduro apparat is starting to backslide and they still have political prisoners and they think that Trump might be preoccupied. And the good news is that the oil now is transparent. It's not going at, you know, discounts to China or free to Cuba, and they're making a lot of money and the people are better off. But right now, before the midterms, I would cool the rhetoric and work more behind the scenes because he's right. If you were to get a change of government in Iran followed by a change of government in Cuba, there would be, even though foreign policy doesn't take a major role in a midterm, it would, it would be sort of like the fall of the Warsaw Pact and the fall of the Berlin Wall. And because it's so close to us, the key here, the key warning is you don't want to threaten military force openly and publicly. You just want to say to them there are forces in motion and we are going to accelerate them by a blockade or a cutoff of oil because we are on the side of the long suffering Cuban people and we call on them to take their government back in their own hands. And we call on the ossified Castroite government to understand that your days are over with. It doesn't work. Communism does not work. And we're offering you a way out. And we'll have a reconciliation. We urge. There won't be reprisals for all the thousands that they've killed, killed. And just then, if they opened the door for one month, the Cuban government and said they're going to be, this is a free market and we welcome Cuban Americans to come back, that would be the end of it. Because they would come back with billions, billions of dollars. They're very entrepreneurial, gifted people and they were the middle and upper classes that left. They have all that expertise and they would go back and make the that state, that country, boom. It would be the jewel of the Mediterranean, of the Caribbean in I don't know, 10 years. And they know that. So they're in a very weird position because the poorer and poorer and poorer, they get both people in government and the people themselves. Say 90 miles away, there's a cure, there's a booster shot, and all we have to do is let these people come in and make us rich and it, you know, and we can cut deals while we're still in power before we get overthrown. But the longer we stay and the more unpopular, the odds increase that we're going to be in a Nuremberg trial and broke, because they're going to come sooner or later. And that's the message they have to send. But Trump should not say, you know, I took over Venezuela, I took over Iran, now I've took him over. Because that's not what the MAGA base necessarily wants to hear. It is. What he needs to say is, I stopped seven wars, like he did say the other day. I went in Kosovo and Serbia, India and Pakistan and go through all of them and then say, and I've added to that collection. I've stopped the violence in Venezuela and we basically have helped the people. We've stopped the killing in Iran and we're helping the people. And now we're going to try to help the people and cure Cuba. And that's all he needs to say. But don't do it in a, you know, a braggadocious. I'm going to be taking out the Cubans just like I took out them, you know what I mean? Or Bombots. None of that. It doesn't go well with his base.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, maybe our age, we all have a particular animus to Cuba and its proximity.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Absolutely.

[Jack Fowler]

But also for me, their role in the Hanoi Hilton is torturing Americans on behalf of the Vietnamese government.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They were leaders there absolutely Everywhere in the 60s and 70s, whether it was Vietnam or Angola or Granada. Whenever there was a role for torture and killing, they called in the Cubans. Maduro called them in, Chavez called them into Venezuela, and they need to be held to account. They're really bad people, but they're the. A vast minority of the Cuban people. But they need to be held accountable. It's a chain reaction. That's what's weird about human nature. If Trump can hold out and not do an Obama deal or an Obama 2 and give them 10 years to not enrich, just say, you know what we feel for the Iranian people, but we're going to keep blockading you until you meet these demands. And when you do, all good things will happen, happen but if you don't, you're going to go broke. And if you think you're going to revive your military card, it's not going to go well for you. And that will have a force multiplying effect on Cuba like Venezuela did on Iran. And that will help him at the end.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, we're going to, you know, let me ask you one other topic and I got to talk about a sponsor, but this is this growing story. It used to be 6, 7, 8. Well, now we're at 11. 11 high level scientists in America have, they're dead or they've disappeared. And it seemed like a conspiracy theory at first or just a coincidence, but not when you get to certain numbers. What the hell's going on here?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I didn't know some of them, you know, some of them had warned that they were in danger. Some of them go back many years. I don't think you can adjudicate it until somebody can say they can take all the people that are included in the pool of people that were killed, 11 or 12, and say these are the fields that brought them into danger and then give us a figure, a denominator of how many people were in that field. In other words, is it UFOs, is it, is it NASA type projects, is it military, ballistics, whatever counts as a qualifier of these deaths. And then see how many people were there, 100,000 of them or 50,000. And then see what the annual death rate is in that pool. Is it 12, 15, 20? I mean the death rate by suicide or violence or missing. And if it's aberrant, it shouldn't be very hard to find out if it's aberrant labyrinth. But when somebody says this person killed themselves three years ago or this person got lost, I don't know how often that occurs and I don't know if all of them in that pool had exactly the same type of research interest. Because if you just say it's outer space or military related or ufo, that could be a hundred thousand people working on that. So, and if it is, it does seem that someone might, if, if, if you find out that that is a aberrant statistic, that many people in this particular field dying mysteriously or through violence, then find out what exactly they were working on and what its important import was to national defense. And then you would think that there would be three, be four likely suspects. Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

[Jack Fowler]

And I'll throw Cuba in just for the hell.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, Cuba, Cuba. But Cuba's been, it has, it has the will but it doesn't have the wherewithal of the other four.

[Jack Fowler]

I still don't know what the hell they were doing with the.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The Sonic. Yeah, yeah, that was real. I mean they, they had terrible damaged. I think that was a Russian Cuban project. I really do. And they were trying to do that, but that happened under Obama at first and they should have taken reprisals right away.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, everything we carry today is broadcasting a signal. Your phone, your laptop, even your car key fob. And most people don't realize it, but these devices are constantly sharing location data identifiers and wireless handshakes. With networks all around you, that signal can be tracked, collected, intercepted, making you and your data vulnerable. And that's just the reality of the world we live in now. And that's why you should start using Silent. You don't want big tech, the government or anyone else knowing your every move. You want control over when you're connected and when what you share. And when you place your phone, laptop or key fob in a silent Faraday bag, the signal instantly stops. No cellular, no WiFi, no Bluetooth, no GPS. Your device is disconnected from the grid. And here's the part that really got our attention. Silent has been awarded nine military contracts. This is the same type of signal blocking gear used to help protect our soldiers from GPS detection and electronic threats. Now that same technology is available for everyday protection people like you and me and Victor and the great Sammy Wink. So if you want to check it out, go to silent.comvdh and let me spell that for you. Silent. That's s l n t.com Victor. I'll do that one more time. S l n t.comvdh to save 15% plus free shipping on qualifying orders. Again, slnt.comvdh and we thank the good people from Silent for sponsoring Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Another topic here, Victor, if I find my paperwork. Yeah, the 2000 some reports are coming out. I think we knew this already with Chronicles. The publication has a piece by Benjamin Osborne. I want to recommend it to folks. How the 2020 United States census Defrauded the American People. And if you just tolerate me here a second, the Census Bureau, this is midway through this article later admitted major counting errors across multiple states. Interestingly, the errors were not neutral. They resulted in a net shift of congressional representation. Florida and Texas, fast growing more conservative, were undercounted and lost seats they otherwise would have gained. Meanwhile, blue states like Minnesota and Rhode island held onto seats they should have lost and Colorado gained one. It didn't deserve. This is a reallocation of political power at the national level. And it didn't stop there. Differential privacy created something even more insidious. Plausible deniability. Before 2020, if a locality identified a census error, it could challenge it through established processes called count question resolutions. After 2020, that became impossible. No one could tell whether a bad number was a real mistake or an algorithmic noise and the data was intentionally obscured. It's Victor, this is, you know, the integrity of our census is.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It comes on top of all these other stories. I mean, if you had mentioned people after January 6th were mentioning this and they were being tarred and feathered just to mention it because the Democrats had mastered the narrative. But remember, there were those tens of thousands of mail in ballots, I think in Georgia that weren't properly signed. And then they said, well, this was pro forma. It happens all the time. But a general rule is if you have two parties and one party wants no ID to be presented whatsoever, anybody can just vote. And one party wants early voting as long as possible. And one party wants not absentee ballots, but mail in ballots. And one party has engineered this new process to such a degree that the final tally will not come out in California for weeks. And when that tally comes out, usually the Democratic candidate wins. At least here, then you just should expect that result. What is the intent behind all of that? The intent behind all of that is a we don't have confidence that the trans agenda, open border mass amnesty, radical Green New Deal will appeal to 51%. So we have to bring in people who will not be audited or we have to use machinations to get more people to vote than actually exist. People in quotation marks. It's kind of what James Carville said the other day. He said Spamberger was kind of a model, that she ran like a moderate and then she turned out to be a good radical. He's very schizophrenic. He complains about the Democratic Party, that it's too radical. But he doesn't mean that he disagrees with their radicalism. He just means that they're too overtly like Mondami, radical. But if they would just shut up about it and delude the electorate as Biden did in 2020 when he was as good old Joe Biden from Scranton and then let the Obama puppeteers run the country into the ground, that's his model. And so he said to a private group, albeit that got out, that we should pack the court. And that's 167 years at nine justices. We should let in New Jersey and Washington D.C. as states. That's 67 years, years, 50 states. And we shouldn't eliminate the filibuster. That's depending on how you adjudicate. That's 220 years and destroy all those traditions because it'll be useful for us when we're in power. And of course you think well why are you saying that now? Because the Republicans control the Senate and they could destroy this filibuster if you're going to do it anyway, they might as well get some enjoyment. And then you think, well, Republicans play by the rules and that tradition and they're not going to do it. That's what he's saying, thinking and he's right about that. But again, it's re engineer the system because the system does not give you the intended result. The balloting symptom system does not. They're almost got this awful national voter compact, you know, where the state legislatures in blue states are voting that they, when their electors shall represent the national vote and not the state vote, basically overturn the Constitution without an amendment. I think it's absolutely unconstitutional. But they're getting up to the crucial majority that if they all I think there are only 70 electoral votes away, maybe 50 that you could see blue states picking their electors on the national vote. And those states that did so would be the majority of the electors and they could throw in of a lot election. So again, it all shows a lack of confidence in the message. And so you have to do all of these shady things and untoward things because you don't have confidence that the American people, if they had full knowledge of who you are and what you were doing, they would support you. And they know that. That's why they always cheat.

[Jack Fowler]

Yes, well, win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat is a comment by somebody I know. Not you. Victor. One last quick thing I want to recommend since I've been recommending certain articles today. Again, the last one was by Benjamin Osborne in Chronicles. There's some Matt Lab who's at the College Fix and he's been an editor there. Not the editor Jen Cabani is, but our friend John Miller is the founder of the College Fix. But he has a piece on the Truman Scholarships and this is a federal scholarship and they have these boards and we're used to it. We're not going to win the Academy Awards, we're not going to win the Tonys, we're not going to get MacArthur grants, etceter but these scholarships should be a little more 50. 50. Well, Matt's story is Democrats dominate their scholarship. 17 regional review panels, long story, there are 60 Democrats on these panels and only 10 Republicans. And the vast majority over the years of these scholarships have gone to discernible Democrats, very few to discernible Republicans. And this is the kind of thing John Thune and others should put their foot down and the administration also have more say.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So been going on for a half century and this is what when all these people shriek and cry about DEI Affirmative Act. People have gone on it for 50 years. I can remember 1980, I was at the American Philological. There was about 150 applicants for 17 jobs. And the best one I thought was the U.S. naval Academy. And I was about the only person who applied that was a military historian, one other person. And I had a wonderful interview. And this very kind person said, would you come over to me, I want to talk to you. And he said, you're not going to get this job. You did the best interview, but you're not going to get this job. We can't afford to hire a white male. That same year I had applied to go. Two years earlier I had applied to go to the American School of Classical Studies for Fulbright. And I had a project which became a book, Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece. And I outlined it. That was my Fulbright proposal. And it had every little catch in it. You know, you're going to be out in the countryside, you'll meet the people of Greece. Ethnographic, historical, linguistic, philological. And I was leaving and I got into the elevator and a person was in there and he said, I left early because you're not going to get this Fulbright, you're just not going to get it. And it's not right for me to tell you we're not going to give it to white male. And there was a whole generation of white males. And people will say, well, yeah, you're crying because you guys had privilege. No, they didn't have privilege. They didn't. And they were completely eliminated from all of these government, government fellowships, positions, universities, everything. And it was very unfair. And when Trump did that and eliminated DEI along with help with the Supreme Court, don't think it's going to end. They were very insidious. And the final wrinkle to all this, Jack, is that you would think that so called liberal white women and liberal men would not want to be discriminating against their own children. But the people who enact these policies find ways to navigate around it their attitude is, this is going to affect some stupid idiot in Fresno or Bakersfield. But my kids, I know the dean, I know the fellowship officer, I know a guy in the White House. So they all feel that they can finagle around it, and they do. If you look at the progeny of a senator, Barbara Boxer or Diane, you know any of these Bay Area politicians, they always have privilege, always. They get around it. And it's really disturbing what they've done to the country because then they make fun of these people. The white male is a dance, a clinger, a deplorable. But part of the anger of the white male is that for over a half century, if they applied on an even playing field, white males who may or may not have had privilege in the past, and white women said that they were privileged when they had no privilege. And they used them as sort of a shield to protect their own position from the DI Frankenstein monsters they created. And so I saw that one of the things I pledged to do if I ever got a tenure track job, and I did, finally at Cal State Fresno, I said, every single single qualified white male who's turned down, I will try to help. And I helped two people, one in philosophy, one in foreign languages, one in history, to get a job. And I complained and complained that these people were very, very good. And they were. And they all ended up very good. But it was. So the biggest problem were these white males from the 60s that were hired sight on scene when the universities were expanding ABDs without thesis. And they were worried about their position and they wanted to ingratiate themselves with women and minorities. And they were mediocre and they used a new generation of white males as their sacrificial plan. Final thing, Jack, did you see that poll about. I'm trying to remember who did it about marriage and political outlook. They polled how many men have children or married and how that are Republican, Democratic men, Democratic women and Democratic men. It was very interesting. The men were about half were married over the age of 18, Democrat and Republican, there wasn't a wide difference. Where the difference was was women. It was just astounding that 63% of women who identified as Democrats were unmarried and Republican women were way up there in the 58%. I mean, it wasn't even. It was just like an outlier. And when I saw that, I thought, wow, I'm looking at the people on the barricades in Minnesota or Minneapolis or Los Angeles, it's nine to five. And what are they doing? They're out there and they're very unhappy people. We know that people who are not married. I'm not saying that everybody should get married or stay married. There's reasons not to. But we know that they're less happy. And I think a lot of it, what I'm getting at is I think the Democratic Party's moved to the left, that we need to have new exegesis for why they are so crazy. And I think a lot of it is having to do that. They're inordinately represented at these left wing universities that get brainwashed. They've been sold a bill of goods that you shouldn't have children, as AOC said, because the planet's too hot. That your whole fulfillment in life there is no transcendence. There is no hereafter, there's no nothing. Is your career and your status and your appetites being gratified and you have to be powerful and you have to adopt the customs and attitudes of competitive men. And you define your own sexuality in the way that Da da. And it doesn't make them happy, but their own prescription for happiness is a prescription for unhappiness. Right.

[Jack Fowler]

And by the way, you can have children, but as long as you're not married. So I mean, it's the absence of a nuclear family that's, I don't know

[Victor Davis Hanson]

what's going to happen if some people, finally these truths are going to be so self evident that there's going to be a collective shrug and people are going to really address it. Right now there are particular groups, groups that are trying to enlighten the public. Another problem is nobody since Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as you said, has addressed the fact that inner city African Americans demographically, in terms of number of arrests, hate crimes, interracial disparities between crimes are way overrepresented. Everybody knows it. Nobody will talk about it. Nobody wants to deal with it. The, the extent we deal with it is it's all a result of victimization. But nobody wants to talk about education, two parent families, the problem with inner city schools, the lack of police enforcement. But that issue is so egregious now that I think people are going to really say, you know what, call me all the names you want, but this is when you have foreign countries that list particular areas in the United States as no go zone zones. Did you see the Chinese have identified particular airports and places they don't want their citizens to come through?

[Jack Fowler]

No. Really?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. They're too dangerous. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, we talked the other day. There's a slice A segment of black women in America who are unmarried and with children. And they seem crazed, just crazed. I don't know if it's drugs, maybe drugs, part of it, maybe it's growing up abandoned by men, or dad wasn't there, who knows? But there's.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think I told you when I was deeply disturbed when I was a professor, there was two very bright African American. They were a married couple, and they had three children that were all convicted of murder and gangs, and they were in prison, and they both. She was HIV positive, and I think he was. This was the early years of aids, and they needed a independent. They needed a class. Class. A history class that was no longer or. And they came to me and said, would you teach a graduate independent study, which is very hard to do, a graduate course, independent study. And I talked to the chairman. He said, nobody wants to talk to these people. They're crazy. But I did. And even though I didn't know much about aids, and she said, you know, you can't catch aids. And I didn't care, really. And so they came to my office for 15 weeks, for two hours a week. And, you know, I tutored them on, you know, Persian War, Peloponnesian War, Thucydides and everything, and they did fine. Finally, they left and became very. They became truck driving team, a truck driver team. But anyway, she would talk about this topic about black women. She had been a civil rights leader at SAC State, and she and her husband had drugs and it all went downhill. And. And I said, why are you so angry? And she said, well, I'm not angry like a lot of people, because of dependency on the government or I'm unmarried, I'm married. But she said, I hadn't thought of this. And she gave a long excursus on it. She said, when black men are very successful and well compensated, they marry white women. And that is a form of racism because then they assume that black men that are not successful or have criminal records. And I think at one point, black males between the ages of 18 and 60, what, 40% had been arrested one time. So she was saying, and then they expect those people to marry black women, and that's an insult to black women. I had never thought about that seriously. I'd heard that, but never seriously. And she was very angry. And then she. It was right during the OJ Trial. That's how it came out that OJ Was wealthy and handsome and young, and so he didn't want his first wife around anymore. He married this exotic white woman. That was basically telling me to be frank with you. I don't want to say it was a great story is why she deserved to be murdered.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, I mean, that's. I think a lot of the animus towards Clarence Thomas was, you know, same thing.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, same thing, thing. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, I have a few comments to read as we're here towards the end of our. Of this episode. So we have Caronian Canuck. Canuck. Excuse me. 482. I can listen to VDH for hours and still want more. Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Come to Vancouver, Canada, one day. I don't know if you want to

[Victor Davis Hanson]

go up there, but I've been to Vancouver. It's a very beautiful place.

[Jack Fowler]

Oh, sure, yeah. But who knows, you may have said something.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Canadian Canadians, conservative Canadians are like conservative Frenchmen. They're very rare. But when you see one, to survive, they have to be especially capable and they're unafraid and courageous. So every time I see a conservative. Well, Australians more so now because they seem to be more. Getting more liberal. But Australian Conservatives, Canadian Conservatives, French Conservatives, some of the best conservatives in the world.

[Jack Fowler]

Central Valley Conservatives also.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, there's a lot of us here. There's a lot of us here.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. Cheryl Wood, 2690, writes awake at 5am to enjoy VDH's empirical logic. Live. VDH live. Continuing to pray. That was an order, Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

If it's up to me, I will live. I have, believe me, till my last breath. I will say I want to live.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, I'm very happy.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Life's been very kind. Kind of me.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, you've. Man, you've got. You've got battle scars. Peter Wolak, 585, says, I can't believe what a brilliant man Professor Victor Davis Hansen is. Thank you for your sanity and your gift of wisdom. And that represents so many comments we see on YouTube. And last one here from Jennifer Jones, 11:28. Jennifer Jones.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She was a favorite actress. Oh, she was.

[Jack Fowler]

It's song Bernadette. She won an Oscar for that. So the blessed, very beautiful a woman. Oh my gosh, she's gorgeous. I love Victor Davis Hansen. We need more people like Victor. I've learned so much by listening to him. He's the best at explaining the entirety of issues, especially love when he talks about certain periods of history and how he adds the nuances of all sides, like various ideologies of people involved in our economic policies of the time, et cetera. So, Jennifer, Peter and others, thanks for all your comments.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you, everybody. Kind of comments and as for me,

[Jack Fowler]

Jack Fowler, Civil Thoughts. I write that for the center for Civil Society. It comes out every Friday and you should get it. It's free. It's got 15 recommended readings. I know you're going to like it, so go to civilthoughts.com sign up there. Easy peasy. We're not selling your name. Trust me, you'll like it. Victor thanks for all the wisdom you dispensed and shared.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you everybody for watching and viewing again, and we'll see you next time. Time. 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 [e-mail] and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.