RadixJournal - Flaming Red Pantsuit

00:00:00.000 We all know who the real winner of last night's debate was, Evan McMullin.

00:00:07.720 That's right. By not being at the debate, he managed to not look shittier than he already does.

00:00:16.820 Well, he was busy. He was out courting Meghan McCain. And you know how many waffles that actually takes. We all know. And he racked up the coveted Meghan McCain endorsement. So it's just like, boom, this train's going all the way to the White House.

00:00:43.300 That's right. Ex-CIA, Wall Street insider, neocon Mormon. He's going all the way. 0.96

00:00:51.760 Yeah, it's like, Goldman Sachs employee. Check. Is a Mormon. Check. Former CIA operative. Checkmate. 0.90

00:01:04.400 Yeah. But seriously, I would say this just to give my general impression. For the first 15 minutes, I was elated. I thought Trump just totally won, totally took her to town.

00:01:27.260 It was the the topics are right in his wheelhouse. And, you know, it's I think it's very interesting because it's she was just reacting to him.

00:01:38.000 She was she was like wonkishly incoherent. She was just saying all this stuff.

00:01:43.260 You know, I didn't even know what her position on any of these things were.

00:01:46.440 You know, she'll we knew we need free trade and NAFTA was great, but TPT is not and NAFTA wasn't great.

00:01:52.660 I mean, I don't even know what her position was. And Trump, a had numbers at his fingertips, but also he was expressing real sympathy for working people.

00:02:03.240 And, you know, you see it in his language, like our jobs, our factories.

00:02:08.020 We need to keep these here. You know, it was I thought it was real and great.

00:02:11.920 So I was elated. I thought he was totally in control.

00:02:16.060 And most people total, you know, normie types, people who haven't been following will maybe just watch the first 15 minutes and then tune out.

00:02:27.400 Hopefully, because I don't think the second that the last two thirds of the debate went that great for Trump.

00:02:35.860 Yeah, the my thoughts going into the debate were that Trump just had to not have any major gaffes and he would have ultimately came out ahead in the debate.

00:02:51.640 And I think that's exactly what happened.

00:02:56.220 The first, like you said, the first third of the debate, he was very impassioned.

00:03:02.020 He definitely tore her apart about on trade, which was a big thing.

00:03:07.320 Yeah.

00:03:07.440 And, yeah, it was like she is taking she was like taking credit for her husband's successes, but then saying, oh, you know, but I had nothing to do with NAFTA.

00:03:19.700 And it's it was kind of strange.

00:03:22.340 Like she can't play both sides.

00:03:25.260 She can't do that.

00:03:26.460 No one, no one, no one, no one, I think, is going to allow her to get away with that, that she can claim all the successes of her husband, but none of the failures.

00:03:39.300 So Trump looked good in the first third of the debate.

00:03:44.840 He and he didn't really have any major gaffes or anything.

00:03:49.900 The last two thirds of the debate were relatively uneventful.

00:03:58.540 Neither of them looked particularly good.

00:04:02.880 I don't know.

00:04:04.540 This is my personal feeling that whenever Hillary Clinton talks, it's like she's really trying to do her best human impression.

00:04:14.320 Why aren't I up by 50 points right now?

00:04:17.780 Well, it's just like she speaks in these, you know, these empty platitudes that we've all heard every politician ever speak in.

00:04:28.940 And I don't know.

00:04:29.580 I'm personally sick of it.

00:04:31.820 And so I don't really find it that appealing.

00:04:34.020 But, you know, the low information voter types, who they generally aren't paying attention anyways, they may view that as, oh, she comes off as like presidential.

00:04:49.060 Whereas Trump, but Trump didn't look unpresidential.

00:04:52.700 He did look impassioned when he was talking about the trade issue because he was pretty fired up about that.

00:05:01.760 But other than that, he was on the defensive a lot.

00:05:08.400 He was interrupting her a lot.

00:05:10.340 And then also he was under attack a lot, particularly on the Iraq, whether or not he supported Iraq and also, you know, the birther issue and the bankruptcies of his business and the taxes and whatnot.

00:05:24.420 Well, this is where I thought he went off because I don't think in this in this election, I don't think Hillary can really knock out Trump in a debate.

00:05:38.580 I think actually only Trump can knock himself out. 0.97

00:05:41.160 Like if he just, you know, if he became the like Trump parody or he started, he did one of his like talking about his dick on stage, you know, like he did previously in a debate. 0.98

00:05:55.420 You know, I think that would, he can only knock himself out. 1.00

00:05:58.720 She can't knock him out because she is a goddamn horrible candidate. 1.00

00:06:02.600 I mean, I still can't believe that she is the candidate. 1.00

00:06:07.360 I mean, it's like it just shows the triumph of her just indomitable will to power and insider connections and just ruthlessness that she is the candidate.

00:06:18.100 It's like in 2008, we had this, you know, cool black guy who was, you know, apparently anti-war and was a new start and so on and so forth.

00:06:30.200 And then we just went back, you know, it's like the horrible people are gone.

00:06:33.480 It's, you know, we're going to start new and it's now it's like, let's bring back like the most horrible woman anyone can imagine. 0.94

00:06:39.780 I mean, I still don't understand it.

00:06:41.920 She was just a terrible candidate. 0.99

00:06:43.840 So I don't think she can knock Trump out.

00:06:46.460 I think Trump, even if he just stood there and mowed off a few talking points, I think, you know, he might have lost, but it would not have been, you know, a total, total destruction.

00:06:57.800 Uh, but I don't, Trump just didn't help himself enough.

00:07:02.740 And he's just got to think about this stuff because he, he, he talked about himself a little too much and he was always explaining.

00:07:10.940 And, you know, when, when you're explaining, you're losing.

00:07:14.160 And so, you know, we, we had the situation like with the Iraq war, you know, he was talking about like, you know, call Sean Hannity or, you know, I, I talked to this guy and, and, you know, I, look, I, I've listened to that Howard Stern interview and I, I can link to that in the, in the show notes.

00:07:30.880 I can tell in his voice that Trump did not support the war.

00:07:35.220 And then he was basically just trying to be patriotic.

00:07:37.960 So, you know, Howard Stern said, do you, it was in 2002.

00:07:41.040 Do you want, do you want to go in Iraq?

00:07:42.140 And he said, uh, I guess so.

00:07:44.300 Like it was not a Trumpian answer.

00:07:46.600 Like this is going to be huge.

00:07:48.140 It was, I clearly don't want to do this.

00:07:50.660 Probably a ton of people were, were like Trump at the time.

00:07:55.200 Um, and, uh, and then clearly like immediately afterward, he was, he was clearly against the war.

00:08:01.180 I'm, I have no doubt that behind the scenes he was against the war, but all you have to say is, listen, I went along with this because I didn't want to rock the boat.

00:08:11.320 You, Hillary Clinton voted for it.

00:08:13.460 You are directly responsible for the war. 0.80

00:08:16.540 You need to own it.

00:08:17.860 Not me.

00:08:18.860 Like he, he should have just flipped the script.

00:08:21.880 Um, you know, similar thing with, um,

00:08:25.200 the birther thing, just, just stop, like change the subject.

00:08:30.080 Like you don't need to pat yourself on the back for forcing Obama to do the birth certificate thing.

00:08:36.020 Just be like, this is a very serious issue.

00:08:38.720 And Barack Obama, uh, answered my question and I have dropped it and moved on.

00:08:45.520 And, uh, let's talk about the real issues.

00:08:47.680 Like it's, I, he could just handle it with three sentences, but instead he handled it with 30 sentences.

00:08:53.780 It's just, it was just not good.

00:08:57.800 He didn't kill himself, but it just was not good.

00:09:01.760 Oh yeah.

00:09:02.460 When you look, when you're on the defensive, it, it rarely looks good.

00:09:08.400 You, you don't look good when you're being attacked.

00:09:10.680 And to be fair, the moderator, Leslie Holt, uh, definitely had a lot more questions directed.

00:09:19.300 His name is Lester.

00:09:20.760 Oh, Lester.

00:09:23.380 Lester.

00:09:24.220 He, uh, directed a lot of questions at Donald Trump, like in an attempt to kind of attack him.

00:09:31.140 And one of them was the birther thing.

00:09:33.840 Also, why haven't you released your tax returns? 0.99

00:09:37.720 I think the tax returns things is a stupid non-issue. 0.99

00:09:41.560 If Donald Trump weren't paying his taxes, he'd be in jail. 1.00

00:09:45.880 Okay.

00:09:46.640 You can't get away at being a billionaire and not paying your taxes.

00:09:50.460 So she just, and they want to, probably because he's not as charitable or he doesn't make as much money as he says.

00:09:57.820 That's probably the real reason.

00:09:59.420 He has, it's not that he's doing something illegal and he's trying to hide it.

00:10:03.020 Or she tried to imply that he's like indebted to foreign oligarchs or banks so that he's like bought, paid for by, I don't know, Russia.

00:10:14.200 That's her big boogeyman is the Russians. 1.00

00:10:16.340 But it's like, yeah, businessmen go into debt and in this environment, you're actually crazy not to go into debt.

00:10:24.980 Like the, one of the reasons why houses cost what they cost is because no one uses cash.

00:10:31.120 And that's maybe a very bad thing.

00:10:33.940 I would probably agree with, you know, hard money type people.

00:10:38.860 It's not probably not a good thing that there's like this much credit just everywhere, but that's the reason things cost what they cost.

00:10:46.340 You know, it's like why health, like why healthcare is so expensive is because there is like all of this insurance and Medicare and so on.

00:10:53.180 So, you know, we don't, we're not like paying out of pocket for anything.

00:10:57.760 You know, if that were the case, I'm sorry.

00:10:59.740 I'm like, wow, I'm, I'm going all libertarian.

00:11:03.300 Please just stop me.

00:11:04.640 I thought I got over this stuff.

00:11:05.920 Uh, yeah, but it's right.

00:11:07.580 If you're paying out of pocket for a broken leg, the cost would probably be like $200.

00:11:12.760 But, you know, they would figure out a way to do it like really, you know, easily and quickly.

00:11:17.300 But because we have all this insurance and no one sees it and thinks about it, everything's expensive.

00:11:22.640 So where was I going with this?

00:11:24.080 If you're a businessman, you're using debt. 0.99

00:11:26.520 You're using a ton of fucking debt. 0.98

00:11:29.140 That's how you make money in real estate is that you buy property with debt. 0.99

00:11:34.600 Then you rent it to people for cash and you pay the mortgage on the property with cash and with the cash that comes in and you profit from it.

00:11:44.100 This is like, it's very simple and this is how real estate people make money.

00:11:50.120 So like, yeah, he has 600 million in debt.

00:11:52.860 Yeah.

00:11:52.980 It's probably, he probably has a billion in debt to be honest, but yeah, he's a businessman.

00:11:57.400 This is what he does. 1.00

00:11:59.100 Uh, who gives a shit? 0.99

00:12:00.940 Uh, you know, it's like this idea of unpaid bills or whatever, you know, like why? 0.99

00:12:06.520 So is he just not paying anyone?

00:12:09.220 Like he's, he's employees are slaves or they're like deluded, like, you know, no, like he's clearly, you can't, you can't have a business and not pay people.

00:12:20.840 I mean, it's just, this is just insane.

00:12:24.220 Uh, so I don't know. 1.00

00:12:25.660 I thought all of that was totally stupid. 0.97

00:12:27.800 He should have just talked about it for two sentences and just moved on. 0.99

00:12:30.900 And like, this is one thing that typical Normie politicians are good at is changing the subject.

00:12:36.300 You know, they'll answer something for a question and be like, ah, this is what, you know, Ted Cruz would have done that.

00:12:44.120 Yeah.

00:12:44.880 Well, you know, Trump's not as much of a polished politician.

00:12:49.000 Uh, one thing that I thought looks terrible or, uh, was at the very end, the whole talk about the stamina thing.

00:12:58.240 And then Hillary Clinton made a joke about standing in front of Congress during a congressional hearing for 11 hours. 0.94

00:13:07.500 And that is like, uh, to prove her stamina. 1.00

00:13:11.360 And I'm just thinking to myself, no one thinks what you did is cute or funny.

00:13:16.840 And in fact, that's like one of the big negatives is that you're quite possibly one of the most openly corrupt people running for president of the United States.

00:13:25.960 And you're making jokes about how you got off, you beat the system.

00:13:30.940 You got off the hook because you're this huge political insider.

00:13:34.420 I don't know if she thinks like her little jokes playing down her, her scandals are cute or funny. 0.95

00:13:40.600 But I don't think they are cute or funny at all.

00:13:43.540 And I'm sure lots of normal people don't think it's cute or funny either.

00:13:48.080 No, I, I totally agree.

00:13:50.740 I, I, I, I survived a congressional inquest.

00:13:55.520 You know, it's like, yeah, uh, okay.

00:13:58.540 Yeah.

00:13:59.000 In jail.

00:14:00.420 Right.

00:14:02.140 Um, yeah, that, that was bad.

00:14:05.480 I, I did, you know, it's funny, these like subliminal aspects of the campaign, or excuse me, of the debate.

00:14:13.500 Um, one of my favorites was when, you know, cause, cause he, Trump was basically being Nixonian.

00:14:21.140 He was setting up this, I'm the law and order candidate, which is basically a proxy for race.

00:14:26.520 We all know that everyone, the left is willing to admit it.

00:14:29.840 Conservatives will be like, Oh no.

00:14:31.520 Uh, but you know, he, he basically was setting this up.

00:14:35.800 He's like, I'm the law and order candidate.

00:14:37.300 And he actually showed, and, and, and probably some genuine sympathy for, for blacks who were living in these neighborhoods.

00:14:43.880 And he was like, you know, they're just, they're out there getting shot.

00:14:46.300 It's like, you know, Chicago is a war zone.

00:14:48.180 It's like a third world country. 0.73

00:14:49.460 He said another point.

00:14:50.180 I thought that stuff was really good.

00:14:51.700 Really totally implicit.

00:14:54.020 Yeah.

00:14:54.480 The, uh, well he did a, it was a, a pinch of a DR three.

00:14:58.720 Dems are real racist when he's like, they've been voting Democrat in this city for almost a hundred years.

00:15:03.740 And they just keep doing it and getting shot up over there because of what you guys are doing over there. 1.00

00:15:08.660 We think it's goofy and ridiculous, but the cucks eat that shit up. 1.00

00:15:13.060 They love DR three. 1.00

00:15:14.560 They think that gives them some type of moral high ground.

00:15:17.420 Yeah.

00:15:18.080 It's like mayor Daley just has like a Gatling gun. 0.99

00:15:21.220 He's just like mowing down blacks, you know? 1.00

00:15:24.620 In fact, he's like probably the, the, the like democratic machine is probably like the only thing keeping that city from descending into like a fourth world country is that you actually are like employing all these people in that city government. 0.95

00:15:38.800 You know what I mean?

00:15:40.280 Yeah.

00:15:40.560 It's like the exact office.

00:15:41.440 They're not like full blown anarcho capitalists or else it'd be like Somalia. 0.90

00:15:46.200 Right.

00:15:46.720 But anyway, but so at the same time, like it, it was subliminal implicit when he says like, it's like a third fold country or whatever.

00:15:56.980 And then, um, and then Hillary takes the tactic of like, you know, you're insulting my people. 1.00

00:16:02.880 And so she was like, Donald Trump doesn't see the vibrancy.

00:16:06.780 And he goes, oh, I thought that, I mean, maybe I'm, I hope that gets replayed. 0.99

00:16:16.260 Maybe I'm overestimating it, but I hope that gets replayed because that, that is like a subliminal message towards white America that I think they will receive and, and just be like, you know, Hillary, what the fuck are you talking about? 0.98

00:16:30.300 You can see, you can see Trump through a few eye rolls. 0.99

00:16:36.540 Vibrancy.

00:16:37.020 Ugh.

00:16:37.440 Uh, I, I thought it was kind of like just time about subliminal, uh, messaging. 0.85

00:16:46.700 Uh, also what in the hell was Hillary wearing? 1.00

00:16:51.400 It was like a flaming red pantsuit.

00:16:55.360 Wasn't that kind of strange?

00:16:57.400 Was that televisual?

00:16:58.680 Maybe she, it made her feel empowered.

00:17:01.980 Like when Megyn Kelly got herself that butch dyke haircut so she could go up against the Donald in a debate. 1.00

00:17:10.140 Yeah.

00:17:10.760 I don't know. 1.00

00:17:11.700 She has a pretty stupid looking wardrobe. 1.00

00:17:16.240 Generally speaking, she has, you know, all these pantsuits that make her look like Chairman Mao. 1.00

00:17:23.580 It's kind of, or, you know, Kim Jong-il or something.

00:17:27.900 It's, they're pretty terrible.

00:17:30.480 It's like, but it was like half Chairman Mao or Bond villain.

00:17:35.220 And then, but then the color scheme was just bizarre.

00:17:40.000 I, I, yeah, it is, I don't understand what, and it was red, which is kind of interesting.

00:17:45.760 Um, I don't know if that, you know, cause it's funny how we call them red states when red,

00:17:50.280 red has been the color of the left, uh, for many, many generations.

00:17:56.160 Um, I don't know.

00:17:58.280 Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

00:17:59.520 It's just, you know, he was wearing a blue tie, which is kind of interesting.

00:18:03.100 You know, maybe it was like, I've got a blue heart and.

00:18:07.080 Well, blue, I believe, uh, is a very disarming color.

00:18:10.820 They say if you go to a job interview, you should wear a blue or yellow tie.

00:18:15.580 Really?

00:18:16.300 Cause it's disarming and I've, I'm curious.

00:18:18.800 Yeah.

00:18:19.260 Whereas if you wear something red, you're like more viewed as more like fiery or independent

00:18:25.600 or something like that.

00:18:27.400 I shouldn't have worn that red pantsuit to my, uh, job interview at national review.

00:18:34.160 Yeah.

00:18:34.600 Yeah.

00:18:35.220 That was a big mistake.

00:18:36.760 Uh, that's interesting.

00:18:37.920 Like if they, people must know this stuff, they must go.

00:18:40.840 I mean, when you think about like McDonald's or Wendy's or Burger King, even I, you know,

00:18:46.080 it's all like red and yellow, it's exciting you.

00:18:49.000 It's kind of making you hungry.

00:18:51.040 Um, but it seems like that's something you wouldn't wear in her position.

00:18:56.460 I don't know.

00:18:57.420 No, she would probably be better if she, you know, wore a gray suit and just went with the 1.00

00:19:04.580 whole soulless, empty, uh, uh, politician look.

00:19:09.680 Cause that's generally what people think about her anyways. 1.00

00:19:12.640 Right.

00:19:12.980 Maybe that's why she wore red. 1.00

00:19:14.520 Some people think that there's actually something to her.

00:19:17.580 Well, I know, but at the same time, people find her very annoying and, and grating and 0.99

00:19:24.380 shrill.

00:19:24.980 I would say if you, if you asked a hundred people to describe Hillary Clinton, you would

00:19:29.820 probably, the, the, the word shrill would probably be the most, the most repeated word.

00:19:35.380 So it, it, it's funny that we're dwelling on this.

00:19:38.080 It seems I would have worn like white or I don't know, but again, I'm not a consultant.

00:19:44.440 Uh, well, speaking of, well, here we'll, we'll get off the, the clothing, but, uh, but riff

00:19:52.480 off what you said about her being shrill.

00:19:54.540 Uh, this made her look good last night was that she wasn't shrill.

00:20:00.040 She could have easily, I don't know, Donald Trump could have got under her skin and she 1.00

00:20:04.600 could have started literally shrieking and coming off like nails on a chalkboard.

00:20:10.080 She really was, both candidates were composed. 1.00

00:20:15.160 Donald Trump didn't come off as like a crazy person or even like, like a, an asshole, even 0.99

00:20:23.820 though he was interrupting her, his, the points he was making to make interruptions, I felt 0.99

00:20:29.820 were, they were good.

00:20:31.120 Um, so she didn't look like a shrill, shrieking banshee and he didn't look like a maniacal 0.99

00:20:38.640 asshole during the bait. 0.99

00:20:40.040 So they both kind of looked good in that regard. 0.96

00:20:43.760 Yeah, I, I think, I think that is true.

00:20:46.940 She did not, she did not die on stage, but then she also didn't, she, you know, she, she

00:20:52.920 did keep her composure.

00:20:54.440 She had a, she had a, a number of there he goes again, like statements, um, which were

00:21:01.200 probably, yeah, I, I think that's probably the right, from her perspective, that's probably

00:21:04.940 the right, uh, tone.

00:21:06.820 Also, that's another good point.

00:21:08.660 She didn't die.

00:21:09.740 She didn't get into a coughing fit.

00:21:12.020 She didn't faint.

00:21:12.980 She didn't, like, cough up a fur ball or a ball of phlegm or anything. 0.99

00:21:18.440 She was probably very heavily medicated and they put her up there and she, uh, she didn't

00:21:24.920 look like she was unhealthy.

00:21:26.120 She actually looked, she looked better, uh, you know, in this debate than generally speaking 0.97

00:21:32.760 how she looks, which is ugly and old. 0.94

00:21:36.560 Yeah, definitely. 0.97

00:21:37.840 Uh, yes.

00:21:39.600 She, her hair was unmovable, an unmovable object.

00:21:43.220 It's funny that we're, I'm paying attention to these things, but, you know, I think these

00:21:47.120 things are probably more important than any kind of wonkish aspects, you know?

00:21:52.480 That's probably true.

00:21:53.680 The hoi police don't actually care about policy.

00:21:56.820 They just want to know that like someone's sticking up for them and, you know, and they,

00:22:01.880 they kind of respond to things.

00:22:04.060 Um, you know, I mean, most famously there was the Nixon Kennedy debate, although there is

00:22:08.580 research that that was overrated.

00:22:10.600 Um, you know, people who listened to the debate on radio claim that Nixon won and then people

00:22:16.360 who watched it on television claim that Kennedy won, although that has been challenged just

00:22:20.900 because, you know, different types of people, uh, have televisions in 1960 than, than listen

00:22:26.120 to radio.

00:22:26.560 You know, a lot of farmers are listening to it on radio.

00:22:29.160 They're more likely to be right wing, so on.

00:22:31.900 But, uh, nevertheless, it really is those like little things that change debates.

00:22:36.900 There's that, you know, I think it was in 2000 where, um, they had this weird, like standing

00:22:42.480 up debate kind of town hall with George W. Bush and, and Al Gore and Al Gore kind of stood

00:22:49.680 up and walked up to Bush and Bush gave him this kind of funny nod.

00:22:52.600 Um, you know, um, you know, that, that might've tipped the scales much more than anything either

00:22:58.600 of those men said.

00:23:00.140 Hmm.

00:23:01.080 Yeah.

00:23:01.560 I mean, that's, that's ultimately true is that people aren't going to necessarily remember

00:23:07.220 anything that's said unless it was something ridiculous or like a gaffe.

00:23:12.700 If there were no gaffes on either candidate's part, generally speaking, people are going

00:23:19.280 to talk or remember like, how did this event make me feel about either candidate?

00:23:28.900 And so in that regard, I think Trump won because the one, well, that he won on that section because

00:23:36.140 his goal was ultimately to not come off as crazy or a loose cannon.

00:23:44.480 You know, he has to, you know, be presidential now. 0.89

00:23:47.340 And he, he, he did not look like, you know, like a crazy loose cannon.

00:23:53.360 So he definitely won some points in the hearts and minds of American people last night because

00:24:00.700 he, he was composed.

00:24:03.360 So, I mean, that's good on him.

00:24:05.380 Uh, though the negatives for Trump were that he was constantly on the defensive and that

00:24:12.680 in part had to do with the moderators questioning about, you know, things like birtherism and

00:24:18.520 stuff.

00:24:19.540 So, and I don't know how people will perceive, he did interrupt her a lot, actually, how people

00:24:27.180 will think if they'll view that as being rude or if his interruptions were warranted or

00:24:33.640 not.

00:24:34.000 So it could be bad, potentially the, all the interruptions, but definitely, you know, looking

00:24:40.700 like you're on the defensive at times is not a good thing, though.

00:24:45.840 He had a very strong, um, showing at the point when they were talking about trade, he was very

00:24:52.660 aggressive and pushed Clinton on the issue. 0.99

00:24:54.640 And she looked kind of like a dumb, foolish politician who didn't really have much to 1.00

00:25:01.460 say. 1.00

00:25:02.340 Yeah.

00:25:03.340 Yeah.

00:25:03.780 I think Trump, uh, she did. 0.99

00:25:07.360 She looks like a smart, foolish politician who, who was just, you know, talking in a wonky 0.99

00:25:14.220 manner. 0.99

00:25:14.560 I would say that, that Trump did seem a bit incoherent when he was talking about nuclear

00:25:21.600 policy and NATO.

00:25:23.400 Uh, I, I think in a, in a way, I think that explains something important about what's happening

00:25:29.960 on the right.

00:25:30.600 Um, I mean, the, the, all right really is disrupting business as usual.

00:25:37.380 It's disrupting the right.

00:25:38.940 And one of the outcomes of that is that we don't like, we haven't given him the talking

00:25:47.200 points yet.

00:25:47.900 I mean, the, the heritage foundation and the AEI and all these horrible places, you know, 0.98

00:25:53.920 they've been producing content and, you know, writing legislation for decades.

00:26:00.460 And so there's this, you know, they, they've created a certain policy hegemony, a way of

00:26:05.780 thinking.

00:26:06.620 And we haven't.

00:26:07.960 Um, we've done very little of that actually.

00:26:10.980 Um, although we have, we've done, you know, a lot of cultural work and critique and I know

00:26:16.620 that's very important, but we, we haven't done that because we've been, you know, alienated

00:26:21.240 from the, uh, uh, from politics for so long.

00:26:24.700 And so I, I, I think in a way like he doesn't have, you know, the alt right foreign policy to

00:26:31.080 look at.

00:26:32.200 And, uh, so, you know, I guess to, to a degree.

00:26:37.960 To a degree that's on us, to a degree that's on him, to a larger degree, it's on him.

00:26:42.560 Uh, but you know, again, some of the NATO things he was saying, I wish he would have

00:26:46.100 just actually stuck to his guns.

00:26:47.560 I, I guess perhaps someone is telling him that you can't say that NATO is outmoded, but

00:26:52.860 NATO is clearly outmoded.

00:26:54.140 NATO is not about fighting terrorism.

00:26:56.720 I mean, it's about, uh, confronting the Soviet union, you know, it's, it's completely outmoded. 0.97

00:27:02.880 I, I thought Trump's instincts were, uh, were right on for the beginning about that.

00:27:07.860 Um, I, I, I don't know how anyone can be that offended by his, uh, views on, on nuclear

00:27:15.180 weapons.

00:27:15.620 I mean, you know, there he's, well, what he's doing when talking about nuclear weapons is

00:27:21.800 he's being honest.

00:27:22.900 He's like, you know, if someone used a nuclear weapon against the United States, we're going

00:27:27.660 to nuke them.

00:27:28.720 Okay. 0.91

00:27:29.180 Yeah.

00:27:29.660 People just don't want to talk about that.

00:27:31.760 That's, that's how a nuclear weapon works.

00:27:34.020 That's what it's designed for.

00:27:35.340 This is just the honest way of talking about it. 0.97

00:27:38.020 That if a person uses nuclear weapons and you, you're going to nuke the shit out of them. 0.88

00:27:42.440 And then it's pretty much going to mean all out nuclear war. 0.93

00:27:45.680 That's going to destroy the entire planet.

00:27:47.860 Right.

00:27:48.560 So, but that's why they, that's why we have nuclear weapons is so to prevent like these

00:27:55.440 massive large scale wars because of mutually assured destruction.

00:27:59.720 He's just being honest about it. 0.98

00:28:01.780 And I think everyone understands that, but she just wants to be like, oh, he's a crazy 0.99

00:28:06.520 person. 0.96

00:28:07.380 Listen to how he talks. 0.97

00:28:08.720 He's going to nuke somebody. 0.88

00:28:10.820 Right.

00:28:11.340 And the other thing about it is that like people, other countries are going to eventually

00:28:16.560 have nuclear weapons.

00:28:17.980 Like that is a, basically a, an inevitability, you know, I mean, advanced countries are going

00:28:24.520 to get their hands on this stuff.

00:28:26.680 Especially as American hegemony declines, we are going to be less likely to prevent foreign 0.99

00:28:33.760 powers from getting nuclear weapons.

00:28:36.140 And in fact, lots of people that we potentially really don't like could get nuclear weapons.

00:28:43.600 So what then?

00:28:44.500 I mean, we can't just, we can't be the world police forever.

00:28:48.120 And that's something Donald Trump said, you know, uh, we can't be the world police.

00:28:52.200 And it's so obvious that America, the American global empire is in decline and you aren't

00:29:01.340 going to be able to stop, uh, say Iran from getting a nuclear weapon at some point in the

00:29:07.740 future.

00:29:08.140 They're going to get one if they want to get one, you know, what are you going to do about

00:29:13.300 it?

00:29:13.420 It's an advanced country.

00:29:15.120 I mean, that, that's the other image of, you know, the middle East it's Iran is one 0.98

00:29:19.180 of the more civilized parts of that region.

00:29:22.420 Uh, you know, downtown Tehran is, is fairly European and, and, and culturally speaking.

00:29:28.460 And, uh, yeah, it, it, eventually they are going to have a nuclear weapon and we're going

00:29:32.620 to have to live with this terrible reality.

00:29:35.560 And, uh, yeah, it just seems like Trump is just a lot more, uh, more down to earth about

00:29:40.480 that.

00:29:40.740 Um, I think there is something worth talking about here and, and that is that, um, you

00:29:47.120 know, a lot of conservatives will say this and I think they're, they're correct.

00:29:52.280 And that is that, that Trump is actually a response to, to American decline, imperial

00:29:58.660 decline.

00:30:00.060 Uh, just the, the, the, the talk about NATO, I mean, people like Victoria Nuland and Hillary

00:30:06.620 Clinton and probably less so Barack Obama, but definitely Hillary Clinton, like they 0.97

00:30:11.860 want American imperial, you know, increase.

00:30:15.080 I mean, they, they want, uh, they want to push NATO closer and closer to Russia's borders.

00:30:22.120 Uh, they might very well want a regime change in Russia itself.

00:30:25.760 Uh, and I think, you know, they, they want more debt.

00:30:30.020 You know, this, this was another thing that he mentioned that Hillary said, like, he's

00:30:34.660 talked about writing down America's debt.

00:30:37.120 And it's like, Oh, you know, heavens to Betsy that you write down a massive debt that you

00:30:43.280 can't pay.

00:30:43.920 I mean, that's like, it's the most, it's like the most reasonable thing you can do.

00:30:48.420 But, but anyway, they, they want to keep expanding it.

00:30:50.780 They want to sell people more debt, get them, you know, it's like a junkie, like get these

00:30:54.880 people gooped up on American bonds.

00:30:57.800 And then they want to, you know, push NATO into Russia, maybe regime change in Russia,

00:31:02.840 bring gay marriage to Moscow, you know, whoop-dee-doo where they want to be global, global hegemons. 0.99

00:31:08.260 I think Trump, uh, is, is probably, is kind of a symptom of this other reality, which is

00:31:14.900 that it just, by, by just the nature of the world, America is declining in power.

00:31:20.480 He even mentioned that during the debate and he was being criticized for it when he was

00:31:25.540 saying, he's like, you know, Germany is getting a free ride, North or South Korea is getting

00:31:30.300 a free ride.

00:31:30.960 Japan, it needs, you know, these people need to pay their fair share. 0.95

00:31:34.240 We provide them this great service, uh, and they're getting it for free.

00:31:38.820 They need to pay us.

00:31:40.020 Japan needs to pay us.

00:31:41.100 Germany needs to pay us or else we're going to take our troops out.

00:31:43.640 Yeah.

00:31:44.080 And that's that, and that is what a lot of people feel is reasonable.

00:31:49.500 Like, yeah, this American military, global military empire, it costs too much money.

00:31:54.760 These people are taking advantage of us, but also it is because, you know, we are an empire

00:32:01.480 that is declining.

00:32:03.180 If you would have said, you know, 30 years ago, like, you know, the South Koreans need 0.54

00:32:08.680 to start paying their fair share, uh, people would not have been comfortable with that.

00:32:14.660 Now, you know, the cold war is over and, um, our enemies, though the neocons or, and neoliberals,

00:32:23.940 I guess, they want to keep Russia as the enemy so they can have a second cold war. 0.74

00:32:30.160 It seems Donald Trump has a more realistic view or, uh, definitely a viewpoint that a

00:32:37.480 lot of Americans hold that we can't do this anymore.

00:32:41.100 This country is going bankrupt.

00:32:42.760 We need to start taking care of ourselves and what was perhaps a luxury at one time that

00:32:51.380 we could have this global military empire?

00:32:54.360 Well, it's not anymore.

00:32:56.180 And in fact, some ways it's a liability, especially after 9-11.

00:33:00.220 I mean, we all, I definitely, I came out of the Ron Paul movement and that was like the

00:33:05.240 big thing that, uh, they, the reason that these countries hate us, particularly why 9-11

00:33:13.260 happened.

00:33:13.640 One of the reasons they said it was because we had military bases in Saudi Arabia.

00:33:17.860 Yeah.

00:33:18.740 It's a liability now.

00:33:20.200 And what do we get by protecting Japan?

00:33:23.640 Like, oh, we're on, we're almost on the verge of war with North Korea or China or Russia because

00:33:29.540 we have military troops in the, like, in the, the, in the, the Asian theater.

00:33:36.580 That's, it seems like it's more of a liability than it's worth.

00:33:41.040 Yeah.

00:33:41.960 Yeah.

00:33:42.340 I mean, and it is a kind of contradiction where, you know, the Japanese, um, uh, you

00:33:48.080 know, I mean, much less so now, I mean, Japan is definitely a society decline. 0.97

00:33:52.520 Actually, when I was there, it was remarkable just how old, uh, everyone was around you.

00:33:57.600 But nevertheless, uh, it is like you're, you're protecting, you're, you're basically subsidizing

00:34:02.360 a country that is beating you in trade, you know, to use Trump-like terms.

00:34:08.440 And yeah, it just, you know, stop doing that.

00:34:12.160 You know, there, Japan is going to have to deal with its own geopolitical situation.

00:34:16.240 It's going to have to make some kind of arrangement with China.

00:34:19.480 Who's obviously this big, you know, big, big boy over there.

00:34:24.180 And it might very well not be to their liking, but you know, that's how life goes.

00:34:31.460 Yeah.

00:34:32.380 I mean, it's just, uh, you know, I don't know.

00:34:35.120 I mean, it's just, I, but I, I think it is interesting to think about this.

00:34:37.720 That's the, that's this, um, you know, deep contradiction at the heart of make America

00:34:42.600 great again is that, um, at some level, it's a, it's a symptom of American imperial decline.

00:34:50.720 It is.

00:34:52.440 It is.

00:34:53.260 That's why Donald Trump exists.

00:34:55.020 Yeah.

00:34:56.440 Yeah.

00:34:56.640 One of the reasons, yeah, is because everyone feels that this is an empire in decline and

00:35:03.580 we're losing on trade, Richard, we're losing it on the foreign policy.

00:35:08.660 We're losing at our borders.

00:35:10.520 We need to make America great again.

00:35:11.860 And that's what a lot of people feel.

00:35:13.100 And it's true that the demographic changes this country is going through, the national debt

00:35:19.560 situation, the fact that our foreign policy has been just highly disruptive and not really

00:35:28.580 provided any benefit to us.

00:35:31.340 It has provided benefit to certain other people, but it's, it's a foreign policy that is not

00:35:39.580 good for us.

00:35:40.460 Mm-hmm.

00:35:41.340 Yeah, absolutely.

00:35:43.200 Absolutely.

00:35:44.120 I, I'm, I, I'm really sick of the Poles just, uh, doing everything on Poland's behalf in 1.00

00:35:51.460 terms of foreign policy, you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, uh, Syria, you know, Poles. 0.98

00:35:59.700 And, uh, you know, we've just got to stop doing, using our military might on behalf of this

00:36:07.780 Catholic people.

00:36:10.340 Yeah. 0.99

00:36:11.220 The Poles, the greedy Polacks. 1.00

00:36:16.260 Yeah. 0.89

00:36:16.740 I mean, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's got to end.

00:36:18.820 I mean, the, the PQ, I mean, if you're not right on the PQ, I'm going to fucking purge 0.90

00:36:24.220 you from this movement. 0.95

00:36:30.620 Let's leave it at that.

00:36:33.840 Well, we're going to wrap it up.

00:36:35.880 Like, who do you think won and what are going forward to wrap it up that way?

00:36:42.140 The Polish question.

00:36:46.400 Um, I, I think, I think Trump won on points precisely just to go back to what I said before

00:36:54.440 in the sense that he, Hillary can't really win. 0.94

00:36:58.760 Like Trump can only lose because Hillary at the end of the day is just toxic and awful. 1.00

00:37:04.840 And the only way that she can win is if Trump knocks himself out by doing something really

00:37:10.760 terrible.

00:37:11.320 I don't think Trump did that.

00:37:12.900 And I think he totally won the first 15 to 30 minutes.

00:37:18.160 Uh, so I, I think it was probably good and maybe it was just good in the sense that he

00:37:24.320 got the first one out of the way and he can, he can learn from it and, and, and get better.

00:37:30.520 Uh, so I, I think he won on points, but it, it, you know, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't

00:37:36.940 disappointed at the end of the night.

00:37:39.040 You know, I was really psyched at the beginning, but after the debate, I was kind of, I went

00:37:45.540 up and poured a glass of whiskey and it was kind of like, ah, that's my impression.

00:37:53.560 A lot of people wanted him to like give, give her the Jeb Bush treatment and totally

00:37:59.620 BTFO or I, I don't, I don't, that I don't think we're going to see that because

00:38:06.860 that's part of his, you know, people think he, uh, he looks like a maniac, but ultimately

00:38:13.560 at the end of the night, uh, Clinton did, she didn't do anything to make herself look

00:38:20.060 good or bad per se.

00:38:22.800 She didn't really, you know, change her perception in the minds of voters.

00:38:27.580 I don't think, whereas Donald Trump, where he may not have performed the best that he

00:38:34.620 could in the debate, ultimately he came away looking a lot better.

00:38:40.680 He, he, he accomplished the one thing he needed to accomplish.

00:38:44.360 And that was to, you know, look presidential, look like, uh, the guy that could be running 0.99

00:38:52.200 the country, uh, instead of like, you know, this kind of crazy asshole figure that even though 1.00

00:38:59.800 we love the crazy asshole part of him, you know, your president can't be just this crazy, 1.00

00:39:06.420 ridiculous person. 1.00

00:39:07.440 They has to have some to at least show us that you can compose yourself. 0.99

00:39:11.800 Yeah.

00:39:12.440 And he did that.

00:39:13.600 And so I think in that regard, Trump will walk away from this debate looking better than

00:39:20.460 he did.

00:39:20.900 And thus, by that virtue alone, he wins, even though his performance was not as good as

00:39:27.400 it could have been.

00:39:28.520 And in some ways you could even say that maybe even Clinton won the debate, but because she

00:39:34.840 wasn't on the defensive, the moderator wasn't like attacking her.

00:39:40.660 Um, but he looked better or he accomplished his mission.

00:39:47.060 Hillary Clinton didn't accomplish anything. 1.00

00:39:48.980 She didn't look better.

00:39:50.320 She didn't look worse.

00:39:51.600 She looked the same.

00:39:52.780 Yeah.

00:39:53.720 I think we're both, I think everyone's on the same page.

00:39:56.080 I think this is what happened.

00:39:57.460 And you, you know, it's, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to, um, uh, what's the right

00:40:03.160 word?

00:40:04.220 Disaggregate causes.

00:40:05.260 So we, we don't, you know, we're in this, the, we're in this good upward momentum swing

00:40:11.960 for Trump.

00:40:13.220 And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen.

00:40:16.240 Even if it, even if it does turn around, that doesn't necessarily mean that the debate

00:40:20.100 did it.

00:40:20.660 It could be another factor in these things, you know, but, uh, I, I, I think we're in

00:40:26.400 a general upward momentum swing and I don't think the debate is going to reverse that at

00:40:32.360 all, um, in my, my, that's my just gut feeling.

00:40:36.580 So, yeah, I think that as well, his, uh, his mission was to look less scary and he did

00:40:42.660 it.

00:40:42.900 And so he can still continue to ride this, uh, wave of momentum that has been slowly but

00:40:49.000 surely pushing him over top.

00:40:52.600 Exactly.

00:40:53.380 And, uh, yeah, it's just, and we've got a, I think also he can learn.

00:40:57.800 I mean, again, it's like Mitt Romney won 59% of the white vote.

00:41:02.720 Uh, the, the way, and we've had four years of demographic change, the way to win the presidency

00:41:08.580 is to get even more of that.

00:41:10.400 He's got to get 60, you know, I, I don't know what it is, but he's, he's got to hit like 62%

00:41:16.540 of the white vote.

00:41:17.200 It's gotta be big.

00:41:19.320 And, um, I think he just needs to think about like where, what he was doing right last night.

00:41:23.840 I think it was his, when he was genuinely showing genuine, authentic concern for working

00:41:31.220 people that that's when he was really good.

00:41:34.860 You know, when he was like, well, you know, we're, you know, we're, they're taking our

00:41:38.820 jobs. 0.99

00:41:39.640 It's kind of stupid, but that's, I think that's what works. 0.99

00:41:45.380 Yeah. 0.99

00:41:46.080 And, uh, that, that trade, uh, that trade spat was probably the best part of the entire

00:41:51.720 debate and Trump, by virtue of holding the positions that he holds, uh, one, yeah, he

00:41:58.380 did seem more compassionate towards the American working class. 0.98

00:42:01.900 And two, no one gives a shit about free trade except economists. 0.99

00:42:07.520 I mean, no middle-class and lower-class Americans are not, you know, they don't give a shit about 0.99

00:42:13.860 free trade. 0.98

00:42:15.260 No, no.

00:42:16.700 It's just libertarians and economists.

00:42:19.060 And so he, he won over the hearts and minds of working class people with that little piece.

00:42:26.020 Yeah.

00:42:26.680 Yeah.

00:42:27.120 I agree.

00:42:27.580 I think that's what he's got to double down on and, uh, and just cut out the, maybe this

00:42:33.180 is good.

00:42:33.640 We've gotten, we've, we've already talked about the birther thing.

00:42:37.280 And so if it comes up again, ditto the tax returns, if it comes up again, he should be

00:42:43.300 like, we've already covered this.

00:42:44.980 This is what I care about.

00:42:45.880 Just change the subject.

00:42:47.820 Just, just do it.

00:42:49.540 Don't answer the question.

00:42:51.500 And so that I, someone told me this, I rarely do this cause I don't think of myself as a

00:42:55.780 politician.

00:42:56.120 It's like, answer the question you want to have been asked.

00:42:58.920 Don't necessarily answer the one that was asked.

00:43:02.240 Yeah.

00:43:04.160 That's a, the way a politician does it.

00:43:06.260 Yeah.

00:43:07.280 All right.

00:43:09.100 Bookmark.

00:43:10.940 Good deal.

RadixJournal - September 29, 2016

Flaming Red Pantsuit

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