Ep. 394 - Red Flags All Around
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Summary
In the wake of two mass shootings that would not have been prevented by any of the gun control legislation proposed in recent years, Republicans and Democrats are coming together to endorse, you guessed it, more gun control that will not stop any future shootings. But hey, at least the laws will infringe on our constitutional rights. We will analyze the many red flags in red flag laws, then the mainstream left keeps up its defamatory temper tantrum. We ll look at a few examples of that, what it means for 2020, and what it Means for our political future. Finally, conservative environmentalist Benji Backer stops by to try to turn me green.
Transcript
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In the wake of two mass shootings that would not have been prevented by any of the gun control
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legislation proposed in recent years, Republicans and Democrats are coming together to endorse,
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you guessed it, more gun control legislation that will not stop any future shootings.
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But hey, at least the laws will infringe on our constitutional rights.
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We will analyze the many red flags in red flag laws.
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Then the mainstream left keeps up its defamatory temper tantrum.
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We'll look at a few examples of that, what it means for 2020, what it means for our political future.
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Finally, conservative environmentalist Benji Backer stops by to try to turn me green.
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I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
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We've got a whole slew, the whole rainbow of politics today.
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I want to start with red flag laws because, unfortunately, it seems the president,
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conservatives in Congress, and obviously the entirety of the far left did not watch my show yesterday.
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I hate to say I told you so, particularly on this topic, but I pointed out yesterday that
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all of the reaction, particularly on the left, to these two awful shootings over the weekend
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has been emotivist. It has been grounded in raw emotion.
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The slander, the temper tantrums, the political attacks that have come out of it have not been
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grounded in reality, have not been grounded in crime statistics, have not been grounded in
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legislation that actually would change anything.
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And I feared, as I have seen my fears vindicated, that conservatives, in the desire to be seen
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as doing something, would allow their emotions to run away with them and embrace gun control laws
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that would not have stopped the attacks and will not stop future attacks.
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Turns out I was right. You know, after the last few mass shootings, the conservatives did a pretty
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good job of thinking with their heads and not just thinking with their overheated emotions.
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This one was different. I guess it, I don't know why, but for some reason, this one has
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conservatives backing gun control. So what are the gun control laws that get proposed when there
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are mass shootings? They always talk about banning assault weapons. And obviously there's no such thing
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as an assault weapon. All weapons are assault weapons. The term was made up in the 1980s to
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confuse people who don't understand the difference between an automatic, fully automatic assault rifle,
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which have been banned in this country for decades, and regular old guns where you pull the trigger
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once and one bullet comes out, which is true of pistols. It's true of revolvers. It's true of the AR-15
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and every other rifle in between that you can get in the open market. So they talk about banning
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assault weapons. I don't think that's really going to go anywhere. I don't think there's an appetite
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for that. We know that the so-called assault weapons are involved in very, very few shootings
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per year, very, very few homicides. The vast, vast majority of homicide and suicide of gun deaths per
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year come from handguns, 22 times, more than 22 times the number of deaths that include rifles of any
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sort, including the so-called assault weapons. So I think the assault weapons ban is dead on arrival.
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Then there's the question of banning handguns, which are obviously involved in the vast majority
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of gun-related deaths per year. That isn't going to happen. Why? Because it's unconstitutional.
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They tried to ban handguns in DC. That was overturned in the Heller decision. You have a second
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amendment right to a gun. And if they're not going to ban handguns, then they're not going to address
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the problem, the problem of gun-related deaths. So then you get to the question of a constitutional
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amendment, which is what the left really wants. What the left really wants to do is just gut the
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second amendment, take away your individual right to keep and bear arms, which we've had in this
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country since the very beginning and since we, which we inherited from English law. I don't think
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they're going to do that. I don't think there's any support for that, even among many Democrats who
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represent red states ain't going to happen. So then we get to this legislation, which everybody
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is endorsing, and that is red flag laws. Why are red flag laws popular? Right now you've got
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Donald Trump saying that he supports red flag laws. You've got Lindsey Graham saying he supports
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red flag laws. He's working with Democrat Dick Blumenthal, the guy who lied about his Vietnam
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war service to endorse red flag laws. Why is this gaining support? It's gaining support because people
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don't know what it is. It's kind of sounds good. Like all of these pieces of gun control
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legislation, it sounds good in theory. Yeah, if there are red flags, we don't want that guy to
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have a gun. And so they're getting behind it also because it hasn't been in the public view for a long
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time. So people don't know why they're so bad. Right now, 17 states have approved some version of a
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red flag law. That includes Florida, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, and California. Before the
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Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting last year in Broward County at that high school, there were
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only five states that had these laws. So red flag laws are gaining steam over the past year and they
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don't work is the trouble. So one of the earliest states to pass a red flag law was Connecticut. They
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passed red flag laws in 1999. And obviously one of the deadliest mass shootings at a school
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happened 13 years later at Sandy Hook. Now, what do red flag laws do? They say that if there are red
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flags in a person's history, you know, their behavior, what they're writing, they're getting
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in trouble at school, they're posting things on the internet, it's pretty nebulous. Then you can bring
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that kid before a judge and the judge can deem him incapable of holding a gun and take away his
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constitutional right to own a gun. In certain states, the parents can haul their kids or family
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members can haul their crazy uncle, you know, before the judge and say, he shouldn't have his
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constitutional right to own a gun. And the judge can say, okay, that's fine. And then this is regularly
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brought back up and this lack of a constitutional right can be extended basically in perpetuity.
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Why is this so bad? I'm not against taking guns away from crazy people. I don't think crazy people
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should be able to get guns. And we do have a problem in this country of crazy people getting
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guns, but it should be very, very, very difficult to take away someone's right to have a gun. Why?
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Because the right to own a gun is not the same as the right to drive a car. Driving a car is a
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privilege. Owning a gun is your civil right. It is your second amendment right. It is right there in
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the constitution. So how should we make it such that you can take away guns from crazy people? We'll get
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Go check it out right now. So I think we should be able to take guns away from crazy people.
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Totally believe that. Red flag laws are not the way to do it. It should not be the same as taking
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away someone's right to drive a car. You know, if you get too many speeding tickets, they can take
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away your driver's license because you don't have a civil right to a driver's license. You don't have a
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constitutional right to drive a car. So it's easier to take away that right. Guns are different. You
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have a civil right to a gun. So if we're going to take away people's civil rights, you got to go for
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it. You got to really go for it. You should basically not be able to take away someone's right to own a
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gun unless you are willing to throw them in a padded room and lock the door, put them in a straight
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jacket, take away their right to vote, take away their right to live on their own, take away their right
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to work and be a part of polite society on their own. I'm fine. I think we should be able to do
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that. This ties in with the mental health aspect of all of these mass shootings. We don't have a
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system in this country anymore to lock up crazy people who are a danger to themselves and a danger
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to others. We should have that. It was very well-intentioned when we got rid of the insane
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asylums. We got rid of them in large part because of the development of psychiatric drugs whereby people
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would take them and they would stop being crazy. They would get even. They would be able to behave
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in normal society. Trouble is that once they got out of the asylums, they stopped taking the drugs.
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They wind up on the street. They wind up a danger to themselves and to others. We went way too far in
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that direction. Many of the pioneers of closing down the asylums now regret it because we let way
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too many people out. We need to make it easier in this country to involuntarily commit people.
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When you involuntarily commit people, you are taking away their civil rights. But this is not an
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infringement on their liberty because when you are insane, you are not capable of liberty.
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You need to be sane in order to access your freedom. Otherwise, you become a slave to passions
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and into lunacy. What the left wants to do though, they don't want to go all that way. They don't want
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to follow those ideas to their logical conclusions because they don't really view guns as a civil right.
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They don't really view your Second Amendment rights as a core civil right. They view it as this
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unfortunate vestigial part of the constitution and they want to get rid of it. And so they're going
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to chip away at it slowly and consistently. Don't let them do that. And conservatives shouldn't fall
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for this. Whether it's the president, whether it's senators, whether it's your rank and file
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conservative. Fine. You want to do something? That's the quote. You know, do something. Do something to fix
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the shootings. Do something, even if it won't stop the shootings. Do something like pass red flag laws,
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which did not stop the shootings in the states where those laws were passed. Fine. Don't stop
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halfway though. Don't let them have their cake and eat it too. If you want to take away people's civil
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rights, take away their civil rights. But don't lie to me and only take away the civil rights you want
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to take away, but not all of the others. That doesn't make any sense. It's pretty dangerous. It's
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unconstitutional. If you want to take away people's civil rights, make a serious argument for it.
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They're not going to do it though, because there aren't serious arguments to be made here. The left
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is not making serious arguments. They're having a temper tantrum. You saw this over the past few
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days. We talked about it yesterday. It's still going on. Here on MSNBC is MSNBC host Nicole
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Wallace making her big, this is her big argument about white supremacy and the threat it poses to the
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country. Her big argument is that president Trump is talking about exterminating Latinos. Here she
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is. Certainly the last Republican president fought for, sought, and, and, and it's not ideal,
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but had 44% of the Latino vote. It was so politically powerful inside the last Republican
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administration. President Obama used the power of the presidency to try to pass comprehensive
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immigration reform with the Latino community, Latino leaders at the table. You don't have a
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president, as you said, talking about exterminating Latinos. Do you have that president? Is that the
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president you've got? I, could you show me that clip? Hey, control room, show me that clip where
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Trump talks about exterminating Latinos. Do we have it? Oh, we don't have it because obviously that's
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never happened. That is a fever dream inside the ridiculous fantasies of this MSNBC host. So she had
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to walk this back. Even MSNBC has a certain level of shame, I guess. And this is her walking it back
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quote, I misspoke about Trump calling for an extermination of Latinos. My mistake was unintentional
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and I'm sorry. Trump's constant assault on people of color and his use of the word invasion to describe
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the flow of immigrants is intentional and constant. Okay. So it's obviously not, not an apology at all.
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She, in the second part says Trump is a really bad guy and he uses the term invasion to describe an
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invasion of people. Uh, not people of color, by the way, we're talking about illegal aliens who
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actually are invading the country because they're foreign nationals. But I love this first part. I
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misspoke about Trump calling for an extermination of Latinos. My mistake was unintentional and I'm
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sorry. How many times have you accidentally accused someone of genocide? Does that, is that a
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regular thing that people do? Sorry. I, you know, it's like a Freudian slip where you say one thing,
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but you mean your mother and then you accuse her of genocide. No, that's not, that's not how it works.
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She knew exactly what she was doing. She's not sorry for it. And she's not apologizing for it.
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That's MSNBC for you. But maybe we should expect that of MSNBC. I mean, that is an hysterical channel
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where the furthest left numbskulls go on to spread their lies. We should not be able to expect that
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from presidential candidates and U.S. senators. And yet that's what we got. So Cory Booker,
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Senator Spartacus, spewing tears of rage, needs to try to get his poll numbers up. And so he's
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accusing the president of being a white supremacist, a white nationalist, a white bigot,
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or whatever, you know, whatever the term du jour is to, to malign your political opponents.
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Now, a while ago, Cory Booker was asked on CNN about this white supremacy question. He said,
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President Trump needs to call out white supremacy. He needs to condemn white supremacy. So what does
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President Trump do? He condemns white supremacy. They asked Cory Booker about this. Is that good
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enough? Of course it is not good enough. Senator Spartacus himself. And for him to fail even to
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condemn Nazis or even to talk about white supremacy as a problem in this country, to me, that is being
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complicit in the violence that is happening. Senator, another thing that the president said
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in his remarks today, I'll read it to you. He said,
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in one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. Do you welcome
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that acknowledgement? No. No, of course I don't. Because what Cory Booker wants is for President
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Trump to be a Nazi. Because that's his narrative. That's the story he's telling. And it doesn't matter
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that President Trump consistently, it seems like every few weeks for the past three years,
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says, I condemn racism. Racism is evil. Hatred warps the soul. It gnaws away at the soul.
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It's awful. We're Americans. We share the same blood of patriotism. Where are you going? On and
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on and on. I mean, we could spend a whole show playing those clips. But in Cory Booker's mind,
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Trump is a neo-Nazi. So that when Trump says things that contradict that narrative, he hates it. He
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doesn't welcome that. He doesn't really want Trump to condemn it at all. Pretty pathetic. But, you know,
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look, Cory Booker is a desperate presidential candidate who is going nowhere. He's not going to be
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president. We have the brother of another presidential candidate, Joaquin Castro, who's the
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brother of Julian Castro. Joaquin Castro is a sitting congressman. And he took it a step further. He's not
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just running his mouth with these stupid fantasies and these stupid smears. He's actually going out and
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nearly doxing his own constituents. This was a tweet. Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019
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maximum donors to Donald Trump. The owner of Bill Miller Barbecue, the owner of Historic Pearl,
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realtor Phyllis Browning, etc. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic
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immigrants as invaders. Where to begin? First of all, it just is not true what he said. They're not
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labeling Hispanic immigrants as invaders. They're labeling foreign nationals who illegally cross into
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our country as invaders, which they are just by definition. Not Hispanic immigrants. They're not
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immigrants. They're foreign nationals. They're illegal aliens. They are invaders. But look at what he's
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doing. Because this is really ramping it up. It's not just defaming the president. It's not just
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hurling a totally vile, unfair attack. It's not just being a hypocrite. On the one hand, calling for
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the president to condemn white supremacy. Then the next minute saying you don't welcome his condemning
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white supremacy. What this is doing now is threatening regular old American citizens, threatening your own
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constituents. What Joaquin Castro is saying is, hey, it's a nice political donation you got there.
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Sure would be a shame if I called you a white supremacist for it from my platform, from my
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taxpayer-funded platform here in the U.S. Congress. He's intimidating people into not donating to
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Republicans by threatening to not quite dox them. He doesn't quite release their personal information.
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I mean, just by revealing their identities from that massive national platform, surely their personal
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information is now going to get out. This is the age of the internet. Everybody's personal
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information is everywhere. So if you just call attention to somebody from such a big stage as
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that, that information is going to get out. Functionally, it is the same as doxing. But what
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a vile, disgusting thing to do. And the Democrats are not backing down. He's, Joaquin Castro is actually
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doubling down when called out about this on MSNBC.
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My post was actually a lament. If you look at my language, I said that it's sad that these folks, many of whom
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are prominent business owners in San Antonio, a city that's about 65 percent Hispanic, their customers, the people
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that have made them wealthy, their employees, the people that have worked for them for years, many of those folks are
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Hispanic. And they're giving their money to a guy who's running ads talking about Hispanics invading
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this country. So it was a lament about all of us go to the restaurants these people own, the businesses
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that they own. We patronize these places and they're giving this money, their money to this guy who's taking
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their money and using it to buy Facebook ads, talking about how Hispanics are invading this country
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and that there is a cost to that. We saw the cost to that in El Paso over the weekend that people
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died. It's so disgusting what he's doing. You see, he, the left always does this. This guy doxed his
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own constituents effectively. He at least exposed to them, shamed them and threatened them, his own
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constituents. And then when he gets called out on this, he portrays himself as the victim. Oh no,
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I wasn't shaming them. I wasn't threatening them. I wasn't threatening all the other people who are
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going to donate to Republicans. I was lamenting. I was just lamenting. It's so sad. Gosh, I hope,
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I hope no one laments Joaquin Castro's home address. They'd be lamenting it. They'd be lamenting where
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Joaquin Castro, I hope no one laments like Maxine Waters and says we should go to our political
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opponents where they live. We should mob them in the streets. We should go where their children sleep.
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It's a lament. Okay. You're crying, Joaquin. It's a lament. Okay. And to lie about it, to lie. He's
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saying that Republicans are calling Hispanics invaders. Not true. He's calling people who
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invade our country invaders, which they are. So disgusting. What a disgusting man he is.
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What a, what a really vile, awful person. You know, for the other clips, for the other guys,
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uh, you know, Nicole Wallace or, or even Cory Booker, those attacks are dishonest. They're corrupt
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and they're creepy and they're wrong. But, but that attack from Joaquin Castro is so direct because
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it's, it's on civilians. It's on his own constituents. It's such a, it's like what the mob does. It's what
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the gangsters do. It's, it's really awful. It, it demands a response from Republicans. It demands that
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we get, that, that we engage in some, in some of these dirty tactics too. Hate to do it, but,
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but it demands that response. What he's doing is a vile attack on his own constituents. He should be,
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should be censured for it. He should be removed from Congress. He should be ashamed of himself.
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Other attacks though, have been even more esoteric. And this is where you go from the realm of tragedy
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to the realm of force. You had the, the former FBI director of counterintelligence
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come onto MSNBC and he wasn't talking about, he wasn't just totally making up these normal lies of
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calling Hispanics invaders and, and calling Trump a white supremacist. He found the hidden esoteric
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message. So you thought, here's what you thought. You thought that President Trump was condemning white
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nationalism and white supremacy. You thought that he said, we're going to lower the flag to half-mast
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because of these tragedies. But what this guy saw, what this MSNBC, former counterintelligence FBI
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guy saw was the secret, hidden, esoteric Nazism in President Trump's remarks. Take a listen.
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We have to understand the adversary and the threat we're dealing with. And if we don't understand how
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they think, we'll never understand how to counter them. So it's a little things and language and
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messaging that matters. The president said that we will fly our flags at half-mast
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until August 8th. That's 8-8. Now, I'm not going to imply that he did this deliberately,
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but I am using it as an example of the ignorance of the adversary that's being demonstrated by the
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White House. The numbers 8-8 are very significant in neo-Nazi and white supremacy movement.
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Why? Because the letter H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. And to them, the numbers 8-8 together
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stand for Heil Hitler. So we're going to be raising the flag back up at dusk on 8-8. No one's thinking
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about this. The only true statement he said there is no one's thinking about this. It's the only
00:23:28.640
relevant statement he made. See, President Trump, he's lowering the flags to half-mast, but only
00:23:34.640
to put forward his secret, hidden, esoteric Hitler message. Nowhere, by the way, in this coverage,
00:23:42.260
you'll notice, do people talk about the other mass shooting. So there was one mass shooting in El
00:23:46.480
Paso that was undertaken by an eco-fascist, a radical environmentalist who also was a racial bigot,
00:23:51.980
and they've pinned that one on the right. They're not talking about the shooter in Ohio who was an
00:23:57.140
avowed Elizabeth Warren supporter. How about Joaquin Castro publishes all the names of Elizabeth
00:24:02.600
Warren's donors? Why didn't he do that? Those people are donating to the same person endorsed
00:24:08.560
by the mass shooter in Ohio. Those people are donating to someone who inspired a mass shooter
00:24:14.580
in Ohio. How about they published the list of the names of Media Matters supporters? Look,
00:24:20.360
the guy was reposting a ton of Media Matters tweets. So Media Matters is inspiring mass shooters,
00:24:26.340
right? Let's publish their supporters. Let's publish the people who have ever said anything
00:24:32.040
positive about Antifa. No, they don't talk about that because that's not politically convenient
00:24:35.900
to them. They need to pretend that white supremacy, white supremacist terrorism is the biggest,
00:24:40.700
biggest problem in the whole country. There were two shootings over the weekend. Half of those
00:24:45.920
shootings were from radical leftists. That's not part of the conversation. Tucker Carlson came out and,
00:24:51.140
and he unambiguously in his typical Tucker way, came out against the hysteria in blunt terms. He
00:24:57.360
pointed out, there are two attacks. One of them was from leftists. No one's talking about that.
00:25:01.740
He observed that this whole issue of white supremacist terror is being totally singularly
00:25:07.480
harped on by the media to exploit dead Americans for political ends. And he called BS.
00:25:12.400
But the whole thing is a lie. If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns,
00:25:19.820
of problems this country faces, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia,
00:25:24.420
probably. It's actually not a real problem in America. The combined membership of every white
00:25:29.780
supremacist organization in this country, would they be able to fit inside a college football stadium?
00:25:34.840
I mean, seriously. This is a country where the average person is getting poorer,
00:25:39.700
where the suicide rate is spiking. White supremacy, that's the problem. This is a hoax,
00:25:45.280
just like the Russia hoax. It's a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a
00:25:50.780
hold on power. That's exactly what's going on. Now the left, the typical people on the left like
00:25:55.440
Media Matters, who you'll remember is an organization regularly posted about by the mass
00:26:00.520
shooter in Ohio, Media Matters, just reminding you of that. Media Matters is going after Tucker trying
00:26:05.300
to take away his show for saying that the singular focus on white supremacy is the biggest problem
00:26:10.940
in America is a hoax. Well, just look at the numbers. The Guardian out of the UK published an article
00:26:16.380
just a few days ago showing the number of how many people have been killed worldwide over the last eight
00:26:21.120
years in white nationalist linked attacks. Worldwide, not just in the United States. Last eight years.
00:26:28.800
How many people do you think? Give you one guess. Like what are you going to say? 10,000? 5,000? 3,000?
00:26:35.580
2,000? 175 people. Awful. Every one of those deaths is a tragedy. But that's the number. Those are the
00:26:45.120
data. 175 people, less than 22 people per year worldwide killed in white nationalist linked
00:26:50.400
attacks, according to the Guardian. In 2016, there were 45,000 suicides in the United States alone.
00:26:58.800
On average, 22 per year people killed in white nationalist linked attacks worldwide.
00:27:05.260
Just one year, 45,000 people killed themselves in the United States alone. 33,000 annual deaths
00:27:11.140
related to guns in the United States. Each year, between 8,000 and 9,000 gang-related homicides just
00:27:17.220
in the United States. Obviously, what Tucker is saying is empirically true. But the mainstream media
00:27:25.940
are only focusing on that one thing. Media Matters, which I'll remind you, was posted regularly by the
00:27:30.780
Ohio Mass Shooter. Just wanted to remind you of that. Media Matters going after Tucker Carlson. Why?
00:27:36.140
Because Tucker's a white supremacist? Of course not. He's not a white supremacist. Going after Tucker
00:27:40.460
because he's a white nationalist? Of course not. He's not a white nationalist. They're going after
00:27:45.160
Tucker because Tucker has a big show. And Tucker's got a big platform and a lot of people listen to him.
00:27:49.940
They're going to go after all of us. They already are going after us. They go after Ben Shapiro and call him
00:27:53.620
a neo-Nazi. The guy wears a yarmulke every day. Orthodox Jew. Doesn't matter to them.
00:27:59.780
They use this absolutely outrageous, unfair attack to lump in all right-wingers with an eco-fascist
00:28:07.420
who shot up a mall in El Paso, Texas because he had some political positions that might fall in the
00:28:16.920
right-wing camp. He also had some that certainly fall in the left-wing camp. The El Paso shooter said
00:28:22.040
explicitly, I was not inspired to do this by Donald Trump. I held these views long before
00:28:26.040
Donald Trump. The same group, they lump all of us in. They don't acknowledge that they
00:28:32.360
were retweeted by the shooter in Ohio. The same people. So despicable. So shameless. That's the
00:28:40.580
present left. The future left gets even more farcical. We'll take a little visit down to the
00:28:44.820
Democratic Socialists of America convention in just a little bit. But first, we're going to bring on
00:28:48.760
our pal, the conservative environmentalist Benji Backer. We are going to talk about trade and
00:28:54.540
channel. We got a whole lot to do. We got to take a break though. You are almost out of time
00:28:58.880
to purchase tickets to our backstage live show on August 21st at the incredible Terrace Theater
00:29:03.720
in Long Beach, California. Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire God King, Jeremy Boring, Andrew Klavan, and myself
00:29:08.900
will be chopping up the winners and losers of politics and pop culture. Best of all, we'll be
00:29:13.620
answering your questions from the audience. Tickets are available at dailywire.com slash
00:29:19.060
backstage. And there are still a few VIP tickets available. Not many though. They are really
00:29:24.700
running out. So make sure if you want to get that VIP ticket package, you got to go do it ASAP.
00:29:28.320
That includes premium seating, photos, and meet and greets with each of us and a special gift
00:29:32.020
from Ben, among other things. They are selling fast. Head over to dailywire.com slash backstage.
00:29:37.260
Get yours today. Go to dailywire.com. We'll be right back with a whole lot more.
00:29:43.620
All right. We are joined now by our pal Benji Backer, president of the American Conservation
00:29:56.160
Coalition. We talked about red flag laws at the top of the show. We are going to talk about green
00:30:01.260
conservatives at the bottom of the show, and maybe Benji will turn me into an environmentalist. I
00:30:06.020
don't think it's going to happen, but hope springs eternal in the human breast. Benji,
00:30:10.480
thank you so much for being here. Hey, it's great to be here. Benji,
00:30:14.060
you are that rare breed of individual. You are the environmentalist conservative.
00:30:19.400
How many of there are you? You're like the only one.
00:30:22.560
That's just not true. I think I would say most conservatives are environmentalists.
00:30:26.960
It's actually really interesting. I go and I speak to conservative groups all the time and what
00:30:31.240
they say, well, I always ask before the, before I get into the speech, who here considers himself
00:30:36.960
an environmentalist? And almost every single person raises their hands. And then I say,
00:30:41.820
who considers themselves an environmentalist in today's terms? Not a single one raises their
00:30:47.920
hands. That's the problem here. The environmental movement has become so politicized that every
00:30:53.380
conservative doesn't feel like they can be a part of the discussion, even though they care about the
00:30:57.520
environment just as much or even more than their leftist counterparts. And I think it's a problem for
00:31:02.160
two reasons. One, you have one side dominating the conversation as a result. And on the flip side,
00:31:08.300
you have conservatives that don't propose policy solutions that aren't engaged as much as the left,
00:31:12.620
even though they care just as much. Right. I think that's a totally fair distinction. And
00:31:16.520
do conservatives care about the environment? Of course we should. It's right there in the word
00:31:20.500
conserve. And I've always considered myself at least a supporter of conservation or concert. But I now
00:31:27.200
think with this modern environmentalist movement, there is a difference between the environmentalists
00:31:32.240
and the conservationists. The conservationists wanting to preserve nature and its beauty for us
00:31:37.480
because we love it so much. And environmentalists who, you know, they hug trees. They think that
00:31:42.420
animals have rights. They seem almost to want to serve the environment rather than to conserve it so
00:31:48.460
that it can serve us. But what is the relationship? Because I think we can all get on board with
00:31:53.620
conservation. What is the relationship between that and global warming, which you see everybody
00:32:00.080
talking about around the world. We're told that we're either all going to die in 14 months or 35
00:32:04.800
years or a hundred months or two years ago. And there seems to be so much alarmism around it that
00:32:09.940
conservatives reflexively pull away from, from that E word environmentalism.
00:32:15.480
Yeah, that's so true. And I actually, uh, as a millennial and, uh, actually I think I'm Gen Z
00:32:19.620
technically, uh, I started wearing a watch recently because I'm like, if we only have 14 months to live,
00:32:24.860
I might as well start counting down the days. Right. Um, but, uh, no, that is the problem is
00:32:30.260
that it's become so politicized because of climate change. And we're told that we have to change our
00:32:35.260
entire lives to fix the problem of global warming or climate change. But what's funny about that is
00:32:41.340
that the science doesn't even say that. If you look at what the UN and every other kind of
00:32:46.680
organization, nonprofit or government agency that's put together climate data says,
00:32:50.760
none of them say that we only have 12 months, 12 years, 15 years to fix this problem. They say
00:32:57.000
that it's a global problem, that we have time to fix it. And it's not going to ruin our lives
00:33:00.820
overnight. Does that mean that we should ignore it? No, but that also doesn't mean that we have to like
00:33:05.020
basically walk to school every day and walk to work every day. Like we are told we have to do.
00:33:10.960
And it, but it's been used as a tool of the left. What we work on is it doesn't really matter if you
00:33:18.660
believe in climate change or not, because at the end of the day, reduced emissions are good for
00:33:23.000
everybody. No one wants pollutants in the air clogging up the atmosphere with smog or whatever
00:33:28.960
the pollutants are. So it's good for everyone to reduce emissions. So no matter if you're a climate
00:33:33.600
skeptic or climate alarmist or anything in between, there is an incentive to reduce emissions. And so I
00:33:39.760
personally believe in climate change. I don't believe that it's going to, you know, end the
00:33:43.060
world in 12 years or that we have only 12 years to fix it. But regardless of where you are on the
00:33:47.820
issue, there is an incentive to reduce emissions. But isn't there a cost to it? I mean, we're,
00:33:51.900
we're constantly told we need, we have these sweeping laws to reduce emissions from automobiles
00:33:58.920
that put new regulations on cars. That's why we get all these like kind of light, modern cars that,
00:34:04.960
you know, aren't gas guzzlers, aren't those cool cars from the seventies. This is a little bit of a
00:34:09.400
hobby horse of mine. And, you know, there's obviously a cost to the economy. There are a lot
00:34:13.600
of proposals like cap and trade for, for example, and others to, that would weigh on business, would
00:34:18.680
weigh on the economy. So if we're not certain that it's going to kill us all, if we're not certain
00:34:22.720
what the effect of these policies is going to be, if the majority of, of pollution is coming out of
00:34:30.400
emerging economies, like in China, for instance, if, even if the United States radically transformed
00:34:35.940
its economy, wouldn't do a whole lot on the global scale. I mean, you saw those reports out of the
00:34:41.160
Paris climate accord that, that even if everyone signed on, it would only reduce global, the global
00:34:46.440
mean temperature at a fraction of a degree over a hundred years. Then what is the end goal? Because
00:34:53.280
this, this, the whole issue just seems so blurry to me. No one can tell me what it's going to look
00:34:57.400
like if we do nothing. No one can tell me what the cost of the emissions is going to be.
00:35:02.700
Specifically, what do we want? So on the, on the first part of that, it is not impossible to reduce
00:35:09.900
emissions, uh, without, or it's not impossible to reduce emissions without growing the size of
00:35:14.600
government because you, you even look at clean energy today and like Texas is number two in wind
00:35:21.240
power in the country, which most people don't know because they think Texas is just the devil state if
00:35:25.340
they're an environmentalist probably. But at the end of the day, it's becoming cheaper and more cost
00:35:30.160
efficient to use nuclear wind, uh, you know, hydro and, and, and solar, which are clean energy
00:35:37.400
sources. And so that's taking emissions out of the air and it's actually more cost effective.
00:35:41.380
So you've got companies across the country that are switching to a hundred percent clean energy
00:35:45.160
and they're reducing their emissions as a company because it's cheaper and because it helps the
00:35:50.340
environment at the same time. So those two things don't have to, the economy, the environment
00:35:54.300
don't have to conflict, despite what the left says, they definitely do not have to. But at the
00:36:00.080
same time, what we need to do is in the United States, we lead the globe on pretty much every
00:36:05.440
issue, um, within history. And so if you look at what we can do on climate change and reducing
00:36:10.840
emissions, we can use an all the above energy approach and figure out new technology and
00:36:16.080
innovation. There's this thing called carbon capture, which takes carbon out of the atmosphere
00:36:20.060
and reuses it for products, uh, which is really, really cool. And those are the types of things
00:36:24.500
that we can give to other nations like China and India. If we switch to wind and solar overnight,
00:36:29.820
like the green new deal wants us to do, none of those countries would be able to do that.
00:36:33.860
And you're right. It would just be a shot in the dark. But if we do something in the United States,
00:36:38.220
like we're already doing leading the world in emissions reductions, if we continue doing that
00:36:42.780
and we're able to transfer our technology and our innovation to other countries who are still
00:36:47.980
using traditional energy sources, that's the way to curb climate change. And that's the way that
00:36:52.560
the left won't talk about it. Well, fortunately, China already steals all of our technology. So
00:36:56.760
they've, they've probably already stolen our carbon capture, whether or not they'll implement
00:37:00.260
it. I'm, I'm a little skeptical because there's this other side of it, which is we do lead the world
00:37:06.120
and we, we also lead the world in protecting the environment. You know, we pulled out of that
00:37:10.080
Paris climate accord. And then the report came out that in 2017, we actually led those signatories
00:37:17.260
in reducing carbon emissions. Well, the signatories to it, not only didn't lower their emissions,
00:37:21.820
they actually increased their carbon emissions. So do we need these big multinational, you know,
00:37:29.220
virtue signaling accords to fix the environment? Or is this more of a local thing starting with the
00:37:35.420
man in the mirror, just saying, we're going to implement this technology because we want to
00:37:39.340
protect our lovely, beautiful environment. I think, I think the latter and what people don't
00:37:44.320
understand in the, in oftentimes within this community is that every country is in a different
00:37:49.100
place. China's in a different place than we are. Europe is in a different place than we are. You
00:37:53.140
can't create a multinational agreement and just put everybody into the same box. It's like common core
00:37:57.980
on steroids. So what it comes down to is the opportunity for us as a country to show what we can
00:38:05.240
do with what we have and, and showcase that to other countries. And we're already doing that.
00:38:09.620
Like you mentioned, seven out of the last 10 years, we have led the world in emissions reduction. We
00:38:15.760
haven't done that because of a Paris Accords. We haven't done that because of a carbon tax. We
00:38:19.040
haven't done that because of cap and trade. We've done that because of innovation and technology. Does
00:38:23.460
that mean we're done? And that we should stop caring about the environment that we don't have
00:38:26.500
work to do? No, it doesn't mean any of that. But it shows that we're on the right track. And it also
00:38:31.360
shows that when you take an approach where you're looking at your own government and your own
00:38:36.560
economy first, and you're looking at how you can improve that, that is the best way to go forward
00:38:41.340
on every environmental protection. And that's why state parks, for example, are way more, way better
00:38:46.380
managed than national parks. When you get it lower down, as we know, as limited government
00:38:51.100
conservatives, it oftentimes is a lot better. And that's the same thing on the environment. A
00:38:55.600
multinational agreement is way less effective than the United States doing its own actions. State actions
00:39:00.500
are even more efficient. That's just how it goes within the environmental community. But again,
00:39:04.860
that's just something that's not talked about. Yeah, that's an absolutely correct point. Speaking
00:39:09.340
of that issue being talked about, where can people find you? Yeah, so we are a nonprofit focused on
00:39:14.920
these issues, trying to build the grassroots of the environmental community within the conservative
00:39:19.480
community. It's acc.eco. So instead of .com, it's .eco, acc.eco. And if you're conservative or
00:39:26.580
libertarian or moderate who cares about the environment, we're the home for you. I like that, acc.eco.
00:39:31.800
I want a .eco website. That seems very cool. Michaelknolls.eco. Michaelknolls.eco. I wanted
00:39:36.940
to stand for economics though, baby. Give me all that sweet, sweet money. You can make it whatever
00:39:41.300
you want. And then I guess I could be a green Republican too. Benji, thank you so much for
00:39:47.540
being here, man. We got to let you go. But check it out, acc.eco. I also follow you on Twitter.
00:39:52.420
Always love your tweets. So check them out there, Benji Backer. Benji, we'll talk to you soon.
00:39:58.340
All right. Speaking of China, by the way, before we get to these wacky socialists in America,
00:40:03.120
I do want to point out, we mentioned the escalating trade war with China yesterday.
00:40:08.960
CNN has a headline today, which shockingly is correct. And I know, you know, look, a broken
00:40:14.960
clock twice a day is right. CNN points out today that China has a $1.1 trillion weapon in trade right
00:40:21.340
now that they may or may not use. I hope they don't use it, but they very well might. And that $1.1
00:40:27.000
trillion weapon is, they buy up our debt. And so they buy up all of our debt. They are America's
00:40:35.100
biggest creditor. So in theory, if China wanted to, they could trigger a panic in bond markets
00:40:41.420
by dumping some of their US treasuries that they have.
00:40:44.140
I've mentioned this just to remind people that trade is a much bigger issue than partisans and
00:40:51.940
ideologues on both sides are trying to make it out to be. There's some people who say free trade
00:40:56.000
all the time, no argument for tariffs, no argument to keep manufacturing in your own country. And then
00:41:01.320
there are some, uh, some people on the other side who are, who have been saying for years and years,
00:41:07.120
we need, we only need economic protection. We got to keep our jobs here. We got to,
00:41:10.680
we don't need to trade with the rest of the world. We, you know, I think unfortunately the camp in,
00:41:15.640
in the primary camp is the larger one, but it's much more complicated than that.
00:41:20.720
You know, if tariffs are always evil, why does everybody have them?
00:41:24.480
If a trade war with China is just invariably terrible, are there other costs? Are there,
00:41:32.420
you know, why would China buy up all of our debt? Why does China want all of this manufacturing?
00:41:36.440
Why does China devalue its currency to increase their trade deficit or their trade surplus rather?
00:41:42.700
If trade deficits and trade surpluses don't matter, why has China made such a concerted effort
00:41:47.260
to exacerbate that trade deficit? Obviously this is much more complicated and involves a lot more
00:41:54.280
than cheap Chinese goods. We all want cheap goods. We all as consumers want cheap goods,
00:41:59.200
but there is more to life. There is more to the economy. There is more to politics than consumerism.
00:42:04.660
So I don't think, I mean, just to remind you a little bit of the timeline here,
00:42:11.280
China has been, since 2001, since it entered the World Trade Organization,
00:42:15.800
they have been breaking the law. They have been illegally subsidizing their steel and aluminum.
00:42:19.860
They've been stealing our intellectual property. They've been levying hidden taxes on U.S. companies
00:42:24.500
by forcing those companies to work with local banks there that add no value. They just simply
00:42:30.120
take money. It's just an extortion racket. They have been spying on us, putting spyware in our
00:42:36.700
technology, and they've been illegally manipulating their currency to exacerbate that trade deficit and
00:42:41.900
to keep the exports flowing out of China. We now responded to that under President Trump,
00:42:47.680
first time we've gotten serious on it in a long time, by levying tariffs and then just this week by the
00:42:54.500
Treasury Department labeling China a currency manipulator. Now we're going to see what China
00:42:59.180
is going to do for that. Are they going to back down or are they going to go really hard? Are they
00:43:02.800
going to, say, sell off their U.S. Treasuries? A sell off of their, I don't think the sell off of
00:43:06.940
U.S. Treasuries is going to happen because it would undermine China's desire to attract foreign
00:43:11.240
investment. But all of this is to say, we are in a trade war that has been a long time coming.
00:43:17.720
It is not avoidable. It is not just the stupidity of President Trump or the inability of President
00:43:24.260
Trump to understand the wonders of free trade. We don't currently have a legal free trade
00:43:29.920
relationship with China. This has been building for almost two decades. Trump is finally doing
00:43:34.920
something about it. We should gear up. We should buckle up because it has to happen for the long-term
00:43:39.100
health of the United States. Speaking of crazy socialists, not just in China, but in the United
00:43:43.640
States, you know, you look around at the present left, the candidates running for president and the
00:43:49.520
people on television and you think, gosh, this is pretty bad. Because I am both an optimist and a
00:43:56.840
pessimist, I want to tell everybody who thinks things couldn't get any worse, oh yes, they can.
00:44:04.080
Looking at our universities, looking at the young activists, looking at the democratic socialists of
00:44:09.040
America, things are going to get a whole lot wackier. Just take a little glimpse at the grievances that
00:44:15.460
the DSA is having at their national convention. Quick point of privilege once again. Hi, James
00:44:20.820
Jackson, Sacramento DSA, he, him. I have already asked people to be mindful of the chatter of their
00:44:27.020
comrades who are sensitive to sensory overload. And that goes double for the heckling and the hissing.
00:44:32.840
It is also triggering to my anxiety. Like the be comradely doesn't just, isn't just for like,
00:44:38.940
you know, let's keep things civil or whatever. It's so that people aren't going to get triggered
00:44:42.600
and so that it doesn't affect their performance as a delegate. Okay. Your need to express yourself
00:44:47.680
is important, but your need to express yourself should not Trump or over like, I can't wait until
00:44:54.460
that guy's a Congressman. Congressman trigger the Democrat representing, I don't know, probably AOC's
00:44:59.900
district in about 10 or 20 years. There are going to be a lot of rules too. I mean, they could barely
00:45:04.860
even get started with all the triggering comments because of all the rules. Just let, just a little
00:45:09.260
glimpse of some of the regulations the DSA imposes on their own conference. We have quiet rooms that
00:45:14.880
are available. There's a range of options of these, right? One thing to note there, please don't go into
00:45:19.280
that space with anything that's like an aggressive scent, for instance, right? First and foremost,
00:45:24.560
use the proper doors. Don't try and exit through these or any other sort of like fun shortcuts you
00:45:31.520
see. Um, you have to have your credentials at all times. There are, um, right-wing infiltrators who are
00:45:36.560
trying to get in here. Um, and generally, uh, try to be chill, right? Take a deep breath.
00:45:44.480
Can I feel better? Before you say anything. Please don't tweet photos of your credentials. If you have
00:45:50.700
friends here that you would like to be here and they don't have credentials, don't let them in.
00:45:54.700
Don't make exceptions for those people. Don't really talk to anybody who doesn't have a pretend
00:46:00.120
credential, especially if they claim to be from the press. Please do not talk to anybody who identifies
00:46:04.840
themselves as a member of the press. Don't talk to cops. Don't talk to MAGA. Don't talk to cops if
00:46:12.300
there are cops there for any reason at all, right? If you do see someone talking to cops, uh, let the
00:46:18.720
marshals know. Okay. I, did you get all that? Did you get all the things you, you cannot do?
00:46:27.020
You can't do it. That's going to be the democratic socialists of America. You can't do that. That's
00:46:32.260
going to be their campaign slogan. Get used to it, folks. I mean, we should enjoy the glory days of
00:46:35.800
right now when they're just trying to take away our, our cars and our airplanes and our cows and our
00:46:40.620
houses, because these guys, AOC is moderate compared to the future democratic socialists of America.
00:46:46.580
Gear up for the end of our politics. Okay. That's our show. We got a lot more to get to,
00:46:51.520
but we'll do it tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles
00:46:55.460
The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz, director Mike Joyner, executive producer
00:47:06.520
Jeremy Boring. Our senior producer is Jonathan Hay, supervising producer Mathis Glover, technical
00:47:12.660
producer Austin Stevens, editor Danny D'Amico. Our audio mixer is Mike Coromina, hair and makeup by
00:47:19.280
Jesua Olvera, production assistant Nick Sheehan. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production,
00:47:26.360
Hey guys, over on the Matt Wall Show today, as we rush headlong into social unrest and, and worse,
00:47:31.560
there are people who seem to be trying to speed up the process. We'll discuss that. Also,
00:47:35.680
a white supremacist attacked me for opposing white supremacy. And so I will respond to that stupid
00:47:41.500
bigot today. And feminists are concerned that women don't talk enough. Is that really a problem
00:47:47.400
in this culture of ours? I don't think so, but we'll try to get to the bottom of that today too,