The Ben Shapiro Show - So Many Turkeys, So Little Time | Ep. 423

00:00:00.000 So, a feminist just made the worst argument of all time. 1.00

00:00:02.000 President Donald Trump is back at war with LeVar Ball, and he finally has comments on Roy Moore.

00:00:07.000 Plus, Thanksgiving is coming up, and we'll go through the Thanksgiving mailbag.

00:00:11.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:11.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:17.000 So because it is a shortened week, we will have the opportunity to do the mailbag for you.

00:00:21.000 So that's why you need to be a subscriber right now, because that means you get to be part of the live mailbag today.

00:00:25.000 But before we get to any of the myriad news items that are on the table on this, the day before Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

00:00:32.000 I mean, Hillary Clinton isn't the president. 0.88

00:00:34.000 Judge Gorsuch.

00:00:36.000 Donald Trump continues to tweet, like lots of things for us here at The Ben Shapiro Show to be thankful for.

00:00:40.000 But before we get to any of those things, first I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Dollar Shave Club.

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00:02:05.000 Okay, so.

00:02:06.000 A lot of news to get to today.

00:02:08.000 I feel like starting on an up note because, come on, vacation is about to start in Los Angeles.

00:02:12.000 We're never going to escape.

00:02:13.000 It's basically the zombie apocalypse out there.

00:02:14.000 You get on the freeways, and it looks like the road out of Atlanta in the poster from The Walking Dead.

00:02:21.000 It's just a bunch of people who have their desiccated corpses kind of hung over their steering wheels because no one can get out of the city.

00:02:28.000 But everyone is happy because it's Thanksgiving Day, and in that mode, I think that it is time for us to bring back our newest

00:02:33.000 And for the moment, our favorite segment of the Ben Shapiro Show, of course, I refer to none other than Eloquent Trump.

00:02:40.000 Ah, yes.

00:02:41.000 Eloquent Trump.

00:02:42.000 Yeah, we used to have Good Trump and Bad Trump.

00:02:44.000 Now we just have Eloquent Trump, because some things are beyond good and evil, as Nietzsche would say.

00:02:48.000 And therefore, in the mode of Nietzsche, we look at the rhetoric.

00:02:52.000 Is it Apollonia's or Dionysian?

00:02:54.000 President Trump, familiar with all of these terms, of course.

00:02:56.000 So today, he tweeted out at LeVar Ball. 0.98

00:02:59.000 And LeVar Ball, as you know, is a dummy.

00:03:01.000 So LeVar Ball, as we have said, is the father of LiAngelo Ball, who's a UCLA basketball player who was arrested in China for shoplifting.

00:03:08.000 And LeVar Ball has said he will not say thank you to President Trump because he's an adult.

00:03:11.000 President Trump feels that it is absolutely of necessity that he tweet back at LeVar Ball so we can have this clash of the intellectual titans.

00:03:19.000 So here is what he tweeted today.

00:03:20.000 He's not gonna let this thing go.

00:03:21.000 I gotta tell you, you know, when I was a kid and I had my bar mitzvah,

00:03:27.000 Got lots of money.

00:03:28.000 Got lots of presents.

00:03:30.000 And one of the things that my mother said is that you have to write thank you notes to every person who gave you a present.

00:03:36.000 There was nothing I hated in life more than writing those thank you notes.

00:03:39.000 I despised it.

00:03:40.000 It was terrible.

00:03:40.000 Because she insisted that I handwrite every one of them.

00:03:43.000 I couldn't just send like a group email.

00:03:45.000 I then had to personalize it and say, thank you so much for this useless gift that I will never use.

00:03:49.000 Signed, Ben.

00:03:50.000 And can't wait to see you.

00:03:52.000 It took me months to write those thank-you notes, so I have a particular place in my heart that despises people who sit around at their mailbox and wait for the thank-you note.

00:04:00.000 And there were those people, okay?

00:04:01.000 There were people who legitimately would call up my grandmother, and they'd be like, you know, I gave the gift, and I never received a thank-you note.

00:04:08.000 It's like, the hell's wrong with you?

00:04:09.000 Like, who cares whether you received a thank-you note or not? 0.98

00:04:11.000 I thought that the joy of giving was actually the giving, not the receipt of the useless thank-you note that will end up in your garbage after I spend money on the postage.

00:04:19.000 President Trump, I have to say, he's got the feel of a guy who gives a gift and then sits around for three months waiting for the thank you note and then calls my grandmother because here is what he just tweeted.

00:04:28.000 Quote, it's so eloquent.

00:04:30.000 It wasn't the White House.

00:04:31.000 It wasn't the State Department.

00:04:32.000 It wasn't Father LeVar's so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of long-term prison sentence.

00:04:37.000 It was me.

00:04:40.000 Too bad.

00:04:40.000 LeVar is just a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair.

00:04:43.000 Yeah, it's a funny line.

00:04:47.000 Just think.

00:04:48.000 And then he continues.

00:04:50.000 Along these lines, LaVar, you could have spent the next five to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you.

00:04:56.000 But remember, LaVar, shoplifting is not a little thing.

00:04:59.000 It's really a big deal, especially in China. 1.00

00:05:01.000 Ungrateful fool! 1.00

00:05:02.000 I pity the fool! 1.00

00:05:04.000 So President Trump really going full out this morning at 2.33 a.m. 1.00

00:05:09.000 Pacific time.

00:05:10.000 So he was up early on the East Coast, and something about that not receiving the thank you note from LaVar Ball has really bothered him.

00:05:17.000 Now, two things hit me short at once.

00:05:18.000 LaVar Ball can be Don King without the hair.

00:05:20.000 And also, the President of the United States probably has better things to do, I would think, than tweeting about LaVar Ball.

00:05:27.000 But no, I do have to say, there's something really hilarious about the fact that he called him Don King without hair.

00:05:31.000 You know who campaigned for Donald Trump, right?

00:05:33.000 Don King.

00:05:35.000 You remember that?

00:05:35.000 Like, it happened during the campaign.

00:05:37.000 And it was a big deal, because people were saying Don King is like a convicted murderer, which he is.

00:05:41.000 So it was like a big deal during the campaign, but now LaVar Ball is Don King.

00:05:46.000 You gotta love it.

00:05:47.000 This is America now, man.

00:05:48.000 It's a reality TV show.

00:05:50.000 And the eloquence is just spectacular.

00:05:52.000 So, this has been Eloquent Trump.

00:05:55.000 Thank you for that just spectacular job, Mr. President.

00:05:58.000 Okay, so in other news, sometimes you have to start with the fun stuff.

00:06:03.000 In other news, President Trump has finally commented on Roy Moore.

00:06:06.000 So after weeks of basically keeping silent on Roy Moore, the Senate Republican Alabama candidate who has been credibly accused of child molestation or of ephebophilia.

00:06:16.000 He was trying to hit on and have sex with 14 and 16 year old girls when he was in his 30s.

00:06:24.000 The allegations are credible.

00:06:25.000 I keep getting mail from people saying, how do you know the allegations are credible?

00:06:27.000 Because I have a simple rule of thumb.

00:06:29.000 If these same allegations, with supporting evidence, were made about a Democrat, I would be very upset.

00:06:33.000 If they were made about a Republican, I am similarly upset.

00:06:36.000 This is what it's like to have a simple standard.

00:06:39.000 Okay?

00:06:39.000 It's not that I would have let Bill Clinton off the hook with this stuff.

00:06:41.000 I wouldn't have let him off the hook.

00:06:43.000 That's the point.

00:06:44.000 Now, as to how you vote in the Alabama Senate race, as I have said, I would stay home.

00:06:48.000 I would not vote for an alleged, a credibly alleged child molester.

00:06:52.000 But I would certainly not vote for Doug Jones's opponent, because Doug Jones's opponent...

00:06:55.000 I can tell you one thing for sure.

00:06:57.000 We don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat,

00:07:24.000 Jones, I've looked at his record.

00:07:25.000 It's terrible on crime.

00:07:27.000 It's terrible on the border.

00:07:28.000 It's terrible in the military.

00:07:30.000 I can tell you for a fact, we do not need somebody that's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad with the military, bad for the Second Amendment.

00:07:40.000 Is an accused child molester better than a Democrat?

00:07:43.000 Is an accused child molester better than a Democrat?

00:07:45.000 Well, he denies it.

00:07:46.000 Look, he denies it.

00:07:48.000 I mean, if you look at what is really going on, and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it.

00:07:57.000 He says it didn't happen.

00:07:59.000 And, you know, you have to listen to him also.

00:08:01.000 You're talking about, he said 40 years ago this did not happen.

00:08:06.000 Okay, so he's making two arguments here.

00:08:09.000 Okay, argument number one is an argument that, as we would say in law school, is an argument that proves too much.

00:08:14.000 It's too broad.

00:08:15.000 So he basically says that Doug Jones is a liberal Democrat.

00:08:18.000 We don't need a liberal Democrat in the Senate. 0.99

00:08:20.000 I, of course, completely agree.

00:08:21.000 I do not want more liberal Democrats in the Senate.

00:08:23.000 I don't want people like Doug Jones in the Senate.

00:08:25.000 Here is Doug Jones talking yesterday about his perspective on abortion.

00:08:29.000 He is a radical on abortion.

00:08:30.000 This would be clip three, if we can grab that.

00:08:33.000 Here is Doug Jones being asked on national television about his perspective on abortion.

00:08:36.000 Not a particularly impressive candidate.

00:08:38.000 Here he is.

00:08:39.000 I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body.

00:08:45.000 And I'm going to stand up for that, and I'm going to make sure that that continues to happen.

00:08:49.000 I want to make sure that as we go forward, people have access to contraception, they have access to the abortion that they might need, if that's what they choose to do.

00:08:59.000 I think that that's going to be an issue that we can work with and talk to people about from both sides of the aisle.

00:09:04.000 It's one of those issues that I see.

00:09:05.000 But you wouldn't legislate, so you wouldn't be in favor of legislation that said ban abortion after 20 weeks or something like that?

00:09:11.000 Now I'm not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman's right and her freedom to choose. 0.89

00:09:17.000 That's just the position that I've had for many years.

00:09:20.000 It's the position I continue to have.

00:09:22.000 But when those people, I want to make sure people understand that once a baby is born, I'm going to be there for that child.

00:09:29.000 That's where I become a right to life.

00:09:31.000 Okay, so he becomes a right-to-life for after they're born, but before they're born, he's a right-to-death-er.

00:09:36.000 So that's exciting.

00:09:37.000 So Doug Jones is indeed very, very radical on this.

00:09:39.000 He's way too radical for the state of Alabama.

00:09:42.000 Now, here's the problem.

00:09:44.000 President Trump makes an argument, and he says, we don't need people like Doug Jones in the Senate.

00:09:47.000 Therefore, he should vote for Roy Moore.

00:09:49.000 Here's my problem with this argument.

00:09:50.000 This is an argument, as we say, that proves too much, because

00:09:53.000 You know, you could presumably have an actual murderer running for Senate against Doug Jones, and Trump would then say, okay, so he's a genocidal murderer.

00:10:02.000 Hitler is running against Doug Jones, but at least Hitler has the right votes on tax cuts. 0.64

00:10:07.000 At some point, you gotta draw the line, I would imagine.

00:10:10.000 And that's why President Trump is actually hesitant to just say, well, make the full David Horowitz argument.

00:10:14.000 I've mentioned the David Horowitz argument before.

00:10:16.000 David's very extreme on this, and he basically makes the argument that I just stated.

00:10:20.000 It's fine if it's Stalin, so long as Stalin votes my way. 0.81

00:10:23.000 You know, Trump shies away from that.

00:10:27.000 Trump says, well, he denies it.

00:10:28.000 He denies it.

00:10:29.000 That's a convenient way of escaping this particular debacle, that he denies it.

00:10:34.000 I do have to say, there's a bit of hypocrisy to how President Trump uses the he denies it line.

00:10:40.000 Trump says the same thing about Vladimir Putin, you know, being involved in the hacking of the DNC.

00:10:44.000 He says he denies it.

00:10:45.000 He denies it.

00:10:46.000 So, on the stuff where Trump is credulous, the stuff that he believes, it's always the stuff that he personally agrees with.

00:10:51.000 So, Rafael Cruz shot JFK, right?

00:10:54.000 Ted Cruz's dad shot JFK.

00:10:55.000 The National Enquirer is a perfectly believable publication.

00:10:58.000 They should win Pulitzers. 0.84

00:10:59.000 A lot of people are saying, a lot of people, a lot.

00:11:02.000 Right, a lot of people are saying stuff.

00:11:04.000 And then all of a sudden we're supposed to give a credence, right?

00:11:06.000 A lot of people, I have been told by sources, the birth certificate is a fraud.

00:11:11.000 A fraud!

00:11:11.000 Right?

00:11:13.000 On that stuff, President Trump is incredibly credulous, but when it comes to the allegations against Roy Moore, then it's, Moore denies it, so what are we supposed to do?

00:11:21.000 I think that that is Trump attempting to avoid the horns of a dilemma.

00:11:24.000 The reason that Trump is doing this is, number one, because I think that he has a gut-level response to the media piling on anybody that he perceives on his side of the aisle.

00:11:34.000 He thinks that those pylons are politically motivated, as they very much are.

00:11:39.000 So he's not wrong about that.

00:11:40.000 The other thing is that Trump benefits politically from backing Roy Moore.

00:11:43.000 If he were to throw Roy Moore over, people are saying it's an act of bravery for him to stand by Roy Moore.

00:11:48.000 No, it's actually an act of political cowardice for a couple of reasons.

00:11:51.000 Number one, the real benefit for Trump is if he stands by Moore.

00:11:55.000 Why?

00:11:56.000 Because he already lost to Roy Moore in the primary.

00:11:58.000 He backed Luther Strange and then Roy Moore won.

00:12:00.000 And so if Trump loses again, if he does not back Roy Moore, let's say he doesn't back Roy Moore and Roy Moore wins.

00:12:07.000 Then it's Trump has no impact on these races, right? 0.99

00:12:09.000 Trump is useless. 0.89

00:12:10.000 And if he doesn't back Roy Moore and Roy Moore loses, then a lot of his base, led by people like Steve Bannon, are going to blame Trump and say that he's been co-opted by McConnell. 0.99

00:12:16.000 So Trump isn't going to play that game.

00:12:18.000 He's going to back Roy Moore. 0.92

00:12:19.000 If Roy Moore loses, then Trump is going to say, well, he lost because he was a child molester.

00:12:22.000 And if Roy Moore wins, Trump is going to say, well, he won because I stood up for him.

00:12:26.000 against Doug Jones.

00:12:27.000 So politically speaking, that's why Trump is doing what he's doing.

00:12:30.000 As far as the payoff here, you know, let's put aside the moral argument.

00:12:35.000 I guess the moral argument is relevant here.

00:12:37.000 So there are a lot of people who are saying, okay, you back Roy Moore because Doug Jones is an abortion fanatic.

00:12:42.000 Right?

00:12:42.000 We're about the policy.

00:12:44.000 We don't want another vote for abortion.

00:12:45.000 We don't want another vote against a good Supreme Court candidate.

00:12:48.000 So you've got to back Roy Moore no matter how bad Roy Moore is.

00:12:50.000 This is a moral argument that the ends justify the means.

00:12:53.000 Here's the problem.

00:12:54.000 I don't think that in the long run the ends are going to justify the means.

00:12:57.000 I don't think you're going to reach your ends.

00:12:59.000 Here's my evidence.

00:13:00.000 Back in 2006, the Republican Party was running well behind the Democrats in the Congressional Generic Ballot.

00:13:05.000 They were running anywhere from 8 to 10 points behind the Democrats in the Congressional Generic Ballot.

00:13:09.000 Then come late September, there was, September 2006, there was a scandal that broke. 0.77

00:13:13.000 Mark Foley was a Republican congressperson from Florida who'd been closeted, he was gay, and he'd been having sex with one of the Congressional pages.

00:13:21.000 And this congressional page revealed that information, and it turned out that the Republican leadership in the House had known about this for a couple of months and had basically kept it quiet.

00:13:30.000 And when this broke, suddenly that D plus 8 jumped up to D plus 20.

00:13:34.000 You can go back and look at the polls.

00:13:36.000 And the Republicans ended up getting wiped out.

00:13:38.000 Completely wiped out.

00:13:39.000 Republicans in the 2006 congressional election lost not only the majority, they lost it by an enormous number of seats.

00:13:48.000 The Democrats took a 233 to 202

00:13:51.000 We're good to go.

00:14:01.000 On net, on net, the Democrats won 31 seats, the Republicans lost 30 seats.

00:14:07.000 The Republicans went from a 30-seat House majority to a 31-seat minority in the House.

00:14:10.000 It was a 61-seat swing in 2006.

00:14:14.000 That wasn't entirely due to the Mark Foley scandal, but the Mark Foley scandal certainly did not help.

00:14:20.000 Certainly did not help.

00:14:23.000 Here's the problem.

00:14:24.000 If you are perceived as the party that greenlights child molestation because you're attempting to avoid a vote for abortion, then you are going to be labeled as the party of evil.

00:14:33.000 This is just what you're going to do.

00:14:34.000 And this is the attack the media are taking.

00:14:35.000 They're not going to acknowledge the moral complexity of the means versus ends discussion.

00:14:40.000 They're going to say, you just can't vote for a child molester, which is something with which I basically agree.

00:14:46.000 And then they are also going to say,

00:14:47.000 That even the people who vote for Roy Moore in order to stop Doug Jones, those people are basically letting child molestation go.

00:14:53.000 So Katie Turr over at MSNBC is already making this case. 1.00

00:14:56.000 Roy Moore is going to be an albatross around the neck of every Republican who doesn't vote to expel him in the Senate.

00:15:00.000 Going to be an albatross around the neck of every Republican who doesn't answer questions about Roy Moore from now until the 2018 election.

00:15:06.000 Here's Katie Turr making this case. 1.00

00:15:09.000 It is a brutal question, but one that requires asking in this political environment under this president.

00:15:16.000 Which does this White House view as worse? 0.66

00:15:20.000 An accused pedophile or a Democrat?

00:15:23.000 Okay, so there are a couple of problems with the way that she's putting this.

00:15:26.000 Number one, you're assuming the guilt of Roy Moore.

00:15:29.000 Okay, so I think he's guilty, but the other thing that you have to ask is,

00:15:33.000 You know, what people will say is there are political dimensions to this, obviously.

00:15:36.000 We're not just voting for an accused Democrat versus an alleged shot molester.

00:15:39.000 We're voting for the person and how he votes.

00:15:41.000 You know, we're voting for his vote, basically.

00:15:44.000 Again, the problem that I have is that the backlash against the Republicans is going to be so strong for this nationally.

00:15:48.000 Forget about Alabama for a second.

00:15:50.000 Nationally.

00:15:50.000 Okay, the backlash is strong enough that Roy Moore right now is running neck and neck in an Alabama Senate race where he should be winning by 20 points.

00:15:57.000 Instead, there's a possibility, I don't think it's high, but I think there's a possibility he loses this race to Doug Jones, a hardcore Democrat in one of the reddest states in America.

00:16:05.000 How do you think that's going to play across the country?

00:16:07.000 You think the Democrats aren't going to put every Republican on television who won't say that they back, who won't say that they distance themselves from an alleged child molester?

00:16:17.000 John Heilemann is doing this routine too.

00:16:18.000 This is the drum the media is going to beat.

00:16:21.000 Yeah, I'm going to play this and then I'm going to explain why I think that the Republican perspective on this, which is to kind of get their backs up, may be wrong here.

00:16:27.000 So here he is. 0.86

00:16:28.000 What's worse, a child predator or a neo-Nazi? 0.99

00:16:31.000 I'm not going to make a call on that. 0.86

00:16:32.000 They're both pretty bad, but Donald Trump does not seem to find a problem with being on the side of the neo-Nazis, and apparently he doesn't find a problem in being on the side of the accused child predators either.

00:16:41.000 So this is the line that the Democrats are going to use.

00:16:44.000 A lot of people are saying, well, Trump will stand up to them, right?

00:16:46.000 Trump is standing up to them because he's saying that Moore is innocent.

00:16:49.000 It doesn't matter whether he thinks Moore is innocent.

00:16:51.000 It matters whether the public thinks Moore is innocent.

00:16:52.000 The public overall does not think that Moore is innocent.

00:16:55.000 Beyond that, Republicans are saying, well, if we don't stand and fight, what, are we just going to back down every time there's an allegation?

00:16:59.000 No.

00:17:00.000 You're going to back down when there are credible allegations.

00:17:02.000 You're going to back down when there are credible allegations.

00:17:05.000 Because it is not moral to stand by these people.

00:17:07.000 Now, there is a school of thought that says, on the right, well, the left does it too, so we'll be able to fight them to a draw.

00:17:14.000 Sort of how there were allegations of sexual harassment against Trump during 2016, as Trump wheeled and hit the Clintons, and so it all ended up coming out in the wash.

00:17:21.000 Maybe we'll be able to do the same thing with the Democrats.

00:17:23.000 There's a possibility here.

00:17:25.000 If you look at how the Democrats are treating

00:17:26.000 Do you think he should resign?

00:17:43.000 I think that that is a distraction to be talking about resignation, because what's really at the bottom of this whole issue of sexual harassment is that it is pervasive in our culture, and Al will be going through the ethics probe.

00:17:58.000 He'll be cooperating, and that's appropriate, because people who— So it's a distraction, right?

00:18:02.000 So a lot of Republicans are saying, listen, if the Democrats are going to play this off as a distraction, why can't the Republicans do the same thing?

00:18:08.000 The Republicans can't do the same thing for two reasons.

00:18:10.000 One, the media.

00:18:12.000 The real reason is that the allegations against Franken are bad.

00:18:15.000 The allegations against Roy Moore are a lot worse.

00:18:18.000 Okay, they are a lot worse. 0.70

00:18:19.000 Attempted sexual molestation of a 14-year-old girl is a lot worse than groping an adult woman's breast while she is sleeping.

00:18:28.000 I'm sorry.

00:18:30.000 Two things can be bad and one can be much worse.

00:18:32.000 And the ramifications for the Roy Moore thing are going to be worse for the Republicans, particularly because the Republicans hold themselves out as having a higher moral standard.

00:18:39.000 This is the benefit of being a Democrat.

00:18:40.000 When you say you have no moral standards, no one expects you to have moral standards.

00:18:43.000 When you say as a Republican you have moral standards and that you stand for character in office, then people expect you to do that.

00:18:49.000 I do think that there is a reckoning that's going to happen here, and I think that Republicans don't really expect it coming.

00:18:53.000 When it comes, it's going to be very ugly.

00:18:56.000 And so, Republicans just better be aware that this could happen.

00:18:58.000 Before I go any further, I want to say a quick thank you to our friends over at the U.S.

00:19:02.000 Concealed Carry Association.

00:19:03.000 So, if you're a gun owner, can you say with 100% confidence that your family and your home are safe?

00:19:08.000 What if you're forced to pull the trigger?

00:19:09.000 You don't know what's going to happen next.

00:19:10.000 The police are going to show up at your house.

00:19:12.000 They will arrest you if you have to pull the trigger.

00:19:15.000 And then you need to know what to say, when to call a lawyer, and all the rest of it.

00:19:17.000 Well, you're going to find all the answers in the USCCA's Complete Concealed Carry and Family Defense Guide.

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00:19:36.000 But they're only offering this to my listeners for a few more days.

00:19:39.000 If you want your free copy, you have to hurry.

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00:19:44.000 Make sure that you stay safe.

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00:19:48.000 Get yours before it's gone.

00:19:49.000 DefendMyFamilyNow.com.

00:19:51.000 Again, that's DefendMyFamilyNow.com.

00:19:54.000 So, back to the hypocrisy on both sides here.

00:19:57.000 The Democrats are either shying away from saying Franken has to go.

00:20:00.000 Franken will end up staying.

00:20:01.000 I think Roy Moore will end up winning his race.

00:20:03.000 I think Roy Moore will end up taking his seat.

00:20:05.000 I think the Republicans don't have the stomach to actually expel Roy Moore from the Senate.

00:20:10.000 I think they're afraid of taking off their own base, even though there would be very little risk to expelling more at that point, because then he would be, his seat would be filled by a Republican governor in Alabama.

00:20:19.000 But they'll just say, listen, you guys won't expel Franken, we're not going to expel more, and everybody gets to sit.

00:20:23.000 I think that's the most likely outcome here.

00:20:25.000 Democrats are willing to get rid of, the hypocrisy is on full display, Democrats are fully willing to get rid of people they no longer find valuable.

00:20:31.000 So John Conyers, we talked about yesterday, the representative from Michigan, a Democrat,

00:20:35.000 He has now been, it's now come out that there are sexual harassment settlements that were put into place because he was sexually harassing the help and sexually abusing the help.

00:20:44.000 Jeffrey Toobin over on CNN, who's on the left, he says Kanye should go.

00:20:47.000 Why?

00:20:47.000 Because he's old.

00:20:47.000 Not because he's guilty, because he's old.

00:20:50.000 He's 88 years old, and anybody who has spent five minutes in Congress watching him in action knows he's out of it.

00:20:59.000 He is too old to be in Congress.

00:21:01.000 He is not up to the job.

00:21:04.000 He is a walking advertisement for term limits.

00:21:06.000 I know the Supreme Court has said they are unconstitutional, but it is absolutely outrageous that that man, in that condition, is getting a salary from the taxpayers to do this job.

00:21:17.000 It's not because he's guilty, you see.

00:21:19.000 It's not because he is guilty.

00:21:21.000 It is simply because he is old.

00:21:23.000 Right? 0.99

00:21:23.000 Because he's useless to us. 0.99

00:21:24.000 And this is the reality, unfortunately, of the situation. 0.99

00:21:26.000 If Roy Moore were useless, the Republican Party would dump him over in a heartbeat. 0.98

00:21:29.000 If Al Franken were useless, the Democrats would dump him over in a heartbeat. 0.99

00:21:32.000 Conyers is useless, so they're dumping him over in a heartbeat. 0.99

00:21:35.000 Nobody actually has a moral standard with regard to these things. 0.93

00:21:37.000 But, in terms of who is going to pay, the Republicans always end up paying a larger price for this sort of misconduct than Democrats do.

00:21:44.000 They always do.

00:21:45.000 That's just the way it goes.

00:21:46.000 Why?

00:21:47.000 For the same reason the Catholic Church paid a higher price for sexual misconduct than public school teachers do.

00:21:51.000 Because when you hold yourself to a higher standard, then you are going to be held to that standard.

00:21:57.000 I don't like that that's the way the world works, but that is the way the world of politics works. 0.97

00:22:01.000 Now, the dumbest comment of yesterday was reserved for a woman named Emily Linden. 0.97

00:22:06.000 I need to talk about this for a moment. 0.98

00:22:07.000 Emily Linden is the founder of what's called the Unslut Project.

00:22:10.000 So, Emily Linden's Unslut Project is a quote, movement against slut-shaming and sexual bullying. 0.50

00:22:15.000 It's international.

00:22:16.000 It involves all genders, all races, all ages, from all walks of life.

00:22:20.000 So here's what she tweeted yesterday about all the sexual harassment, sexual abuse stuff coming out.

00:22:24.000 One of the things that we've been talking about on the show is how we can protect innocent men.

00:22:28.000 Who are accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault?

00:22:31.000 What kind of evidentiary standard do we need?

00:22:33.000 Here's what Emily Linden says, and I think this is sort of the opposite of the David Horowitz approach, and in some ways similar to it.

00:22:40.000 It's so extreme that it passes the bounds of rationality.

00:22:43.000 Emily says,

00:22:52.000 Really?

00:22:52.000 You're not concerned at all?

00:22:55.000 There's a reason that that's an unpopular opinion.

00:22:56.000 I mean, Jake Tapper went after Emily Linden.

00:22:58.000 He said, did you fail your 7th grade book report on To Kill a Mockingbird?

00:23:02.000 I'm actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault, harassment, allegations, and she went on to say that, you know, if a few innocent men get caught up in the proceedings, then I guess that's just the way that it's going to go.

00:23:14.000 This sort of insanity is going to become more and more common as we become more and more polarized as a society.

00:23:21.000 If we don't have any rules, then whatever is beneficial to your side is what you're going to do.

00:23:24.000 If your side is the side of, quote-unquote, anti-sexual harassment, sexual assault, then there's going to be a group of people

00:23:31.000 who decide that it is important for even innocent people to go away in order to fight that battle.

00:23:36.000 As soon as we start letting ends justify means, folks, the definition of morality is trying to balance the ends and the means.

00:23:41.000 Suggesting that the ends always justify the means leads you to the logic of Emily Linden or David Horowitz.

00:23:46.000 It leads you down some pretty dark paths with regard to what you are willing to do in order to get to an end point.

00:23:52.000 And here's the thing, you rarely arrive at that end point.

00:23:54.000 You rarely arrive at that end point anyway.

00:23:56.000 So the idea that you can use any means to achieve your end

00:24:00.000 It usually doesn't work that way in real life.

00:24:03.000 Okay, so, I am going to do some things I like, things I hate, and then we're going to do the mailbag.

00:24:07.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Birch Gold.

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00:24:15.000 What if we don't pass a tax cut in the House and Senate?

00:24:17.000 What if there is no continuing economic boom?

00:24:20.000 Or, maybe you're just thinking that a lot of this is artificial inflation in terms of the real estate market, for example.

00:24:25.000 Whatever you think the economy is going to do, you owe it to yourself to at least hedge your bets a little bit with some precious metals.

00:24:30.000 That's why I work with the folks over at Birch Gold Group.

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00:24:39.000 It's perfect for people who want to ensure their hard-earned retirement savings are protected from the ravages of inflation and any more stock market crashes.

00:24:46.000 Okay, so, things I like.

00:24:46.000 So this is a very dark film.

00:25:15.000 Nicholas Coster-Waldon.

00:25:30.000 Thank you.

00:25:47.000 And the DUI ends in manslaughter, so he ends up getting somebody killed in a DUI.

00:25:52.000 DUI manslaughter comes with some hard time, and it's basically about how this guy gets sucked into the maw of the prison culture, and how prisons, especially in places like California, because it's in California, how prisons are essentially run by the gangs.

00:26:05.000 What guards often say is that they control the locks and they control the doors, but the gangs control the actual prison.

00:26:10.000 And so it's about this guy's evolution from stockbroker into a hardcore prison inmate, essentially.

00:26:17.000 You know, just the sort of uplifting, cheery thing that you'd want right before Thanksgiving.

00:26:21.000 And here's a little bit of the preview.

00:26:22.000 It is a well-made film.

00:26:23.000 I honestly don't think that baseball constitutes a date night.

00:26:26.000 But there are dugout clubs and stuff like that.

00:26:28.000 There are dates, it's romantic, and they're free.

00:26:31.000 Right?

00:26:32.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:26:34.000 I need the light! 0.99

00:26:43.000 I killed Tom. 0.76

00:26:44.000 It's an accident.

00:26:45.000 People don't go away for accidents.

00:26:48.000 Look, man, I know you're scared.

00:26:51.000 But you need to know this.

00:26:52.000 You'll be with the big boys.

00:26:54.000 So you gotta stand up for yourself.

00:26:57.000 Because once you're marked in there... Move!

00:27:02.000 ...it will never end.

00:27:08.000 So it's the people who made Drive and Nightcrawler.

00:27:10.000 I'm not looking for trouble.

00:27:12.000 The fact is, a place like this forces us to become warriors or victims.

00:27:19.000 It's got a bunch of big actors who are well-known for other parts.

00:27:23.000 So the Punisher is in it.

00:27:27.000 The film is well-made.

00:27:28.000 It's very creepy.

00:27:29.000 It's pretty scary.

00:27:30.000 And it does give you a good idea of what goes on in these prisons.

00:27:34.000 It's pretty frightening stuff.

00:27:35.000 Anyway, the movie's called Shotcaller.

00:27:38.000 Not exactly family-friendly, but you can check it out on Netflix.

00:27:41.000 I believe it's available.

00:27:42.000 Okay, or Amazon Prime.

00:27:44.000 It's on Amazon Prime.

00:27:45.000 Okay, other things that I like.

00:27:46.000 This is the single best, I have to show you this, this is the single best political segue in history.

00:27:52.000 It is spectacular.

00:27:53.000 This happened on Australian News, and there is a guy who's asked about same-sex marriage, and he's anti-same-sex marriage, and so what he says is, we have higher priorities.

00:28:01.000 Watch the segue here, it is magnificent.

00:28:04.000 Final observation on the same-sex marriage debate from Bob Katter.

00:28:10.000 You know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. 0.97

00:28:14.000 I mean, let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I'm concerned.

00:28:21.000 But I ain't spending any time on it, because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland.

00:28:31.000 So we should put the whole country on hold until we sort out that particular problem.

00:28:37.000 That is a spectacular segue.

00:28:38.000 No matter where you stand on same-sex marriage, there's nothing better than people let a thousand flowers bloom, do whatever you want to do in your bedroom.

00:28:44.000 But I'm not going to spend time on it because every three months one person is mauled by a crocodile.

00:28:49.000 Just spectacular stuff.

00:28:50.000 Well done, random guy from Australia.

00:28:53.000 That's a strong argument.

00:28:54.000 Okay, time for a thing that I hate.

00:29:01.000 So today's thing that I hate, Elizabeth Warren is going around making the rounds. 1.00

00:29:06.000 She wants to run for president. 1.00

00:29:08.000 She is one of the least likable human beings on planet Earth. 1.00

00:29:10.000 I know this because I know Elizabeth Warren.

00:29:12.000 My first experience with Elizabeth Warren, she's a professor at Harvard Law School at the time. 0.97

00:29:15.000 I met her at the top of the W Hotel for a reception for incoming Harvard Law students.

00:29:19.000 They're trying to recruit people.

00:29:21.000 And she immediately asked me a nasty question about Rush Limbaugh.

00:29:25.000 That's who Elizabeth Warren is.

00:29:26.000 So now she's very upset because Donald Trump calls her Pocahontas.

00:29:30.000 The reason he calls her Pocahontas is because apparently she got her job at Harvard Law, at least in part, by claiming Native American ancestry.

00:29:35.000 There is no evidence whatsoever she has any Native American ancestry.

00:29:38.000 When asked the evidence for this, she presented a cookbook that she'd written a recipe for called Pow Wow Chow.

00:29:44.000 I'm not joking about this.

00:29:46.000 And in that cookbook, she gave a recipe for crab bisque.

00:29:51.000 He tweeted this.

00:29:51.000 He said,

00:30:17.000 Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, led by the legendary crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the primaries. 0.95

00:30:24.000 Let's go FBI and Justice Department. 0.78

00:30:27.000 That must have felt good, the President and you agreed on something.

00:30:31.000 Because Jake Tapper did ask you in an interview, do you think that the primaries were rigged?

00:30:36.000 And you said yes.

00:30:38.000 So let's do both hands. 0.74

00:30:39.000 The first half, Donald Trump thinks if he's going to start every one of these tweets to me with some kind of racist slur here, that he's going to shut me up.

00:30:49.000 It didn't work in the past, it's not going to work in the future.

00:30:52.000 Yeah!

00:30:52.000 She's standing up!

00:30:53.000 Whoa, bravery!

00:30:54.000 Look at that bravery!

00:30:55.000 I mean, she's brave to wear that jacket, but look at the bravery there!

00:30:59.000 Wow.

00:30:59.000 The redcoats are coming, man.

00:31:01.000 Okay, the level of bravery required to say that somebody is, uh, that's a racist slur.

00:31:06.000 It's not a racist slur.

00:31:08.000 He's making fun of you for being a racist, for saying that you're Native American when you are not.

00:31:12.000 Elizabeth Warren. 0.58

00:31:14.000 Ah, so tiresome.

00:31:14.000 Okay, so we're going to do the mailbag.

00:31:15.000 But if you want to be part of the mailbag, then you need to subscribe right now.

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00:32:02.000 Also, if you just want to listen later, please subscribe over at YouTube or SoundCloud or iTunes.

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00:32:13.000 We are the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast in the nation.

00:32:21.000 Okay, it's time for a mailbag-tacular.

00:32:23.000 Let's do it.

00:32:24.000 Thanksgiving mailbag.

00:32:25.000 So guys, if you have live questions, please, no more questions about, like, pudding or such.

00:32:30.000 Like, try to ask good questions so that I can answer them live.

00:32:32.000 Okay, so here are some of our subscribers.

00:32:34.000 Eric says, Dear Ben.

00:32:36.000 A lot of my friends in graduate school are complaining about the new GOP tax plan.

00:32:40.000 Supposedly under the new plan, their waived tuition would be counted as personal income and taxed as such.

00:32:44.000 What are your thoughts regarding this provision?

00:32:46.000 So, this is correct.

00:32:48.000 People in graduate school who are receiving waived tuition or who are receiving a salary, that is now part of their income.

00:32:54.000 That's taxed as taxable income.

00:32:56.000 What are my thoughts regarding this provision?

00:32:57.000 My thoughts are basically that if we're going to get rid of all the tax loopholes,

00:33:01.000 Well,

00:33:27.000 That's good.

00:33:29.000 We need corporate tax cuts.

00:33:30.000 Our corporate tax rates are the highest in the industrialized world.

00:33:32.000 Bring them down to 25-20%.

00:33:33.000 That's a good thing.

00:33:35.000 It'll be good for business.

00:33:36.000 It should happen immediately.

00:33:37.000 If it's delayed, then you're going to see the stock market take a little bit of a hit.

00:33:40.000 But, with all of that said,

00:33:42.000 The Republicans are trying to make up ground with the individual tax rates by getting rid of a lot of deductions.

00:33:47.000 They're actually creating a new income tax bracket for the highest income earners.

00:33:51.000 All of that is designed to make sure that the Republicans can sneak in under the wire.

00:33:55.000 Because remember, they're using a process called reconciliation in order to only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass something.

00:34:01.000 The CBO has to score your bill as revenue neutral, right?

00:34:04.000 It can't lose money to the quote-unquote, it can't quote-unquote lose money to the federal government and so in some ways they're clawing back a bunch of money from individual tax returns in order to pay for the corporate tax returns.

00:34:18.000 The Democrats, of course, are misclassifying this and suggesting that this is attempting to hurt the middle class.

00:34:22.000 The vast majority of people in the middle class will see their taxes go down.

00:34:25.000 The people it hurts are people like me, people who are at the upper end of the bracket in places like California.

00:34:29.000 Those are the people who are going to get absolutely screwed.

00:34:31.000 I'm going to get hammered on taxes under the GOP tax plan. 0.52

00:34:34.000 But that's what's happening here.

00:34:35.000 If you're going to get rid of deductions, I think the income taxes need to come down.

00:34:38.000 But let's be real about this.

00:34:40.000 What Republicans really should be focusing on right now is reining in spending, not even tax cuts.

00:34:44.000 Tax cuts, I think, are really important, but I used to believe in the notion that you could sort of grow your way out of debt.

00:34:51.000 I think that we are beyond that now.

00:34:52.000 We need some significant cuts, and that's not going to happen because it's too politically unpalatable.

00:34:57.000 Tyler says, Dear Ben, if you could stop three bands or films in history from having ever been created, who or what would they be?

00:35:03.000 You know, this is a difficult one because I don't like to censor.

00:35:06.000 And so I am, you know, not in favor of shutting down people's art and saying that they can't actually make it.

00:35:13.000 But here are a few things that I wish had never been made.

00:35:16.000 Let's put it that way.

00:35:17.000 Birth of a Nation, the original Birth of a Nation, which is a really well done movie by D.W.

00:35:22.000 Griffith, but it is also horrifically racist, justifying the KKK and leading to an upswing of the KKK from basically 1916 all the way through the civil rights movement.

00:35:32.000 The Birth of a Nation was a really damaging film.

00:35:34.000 As far as bans, I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this.

00:35:37.000 I don't care.

00:35:38.000 The Beatles.

00:35:39.000 I think the Beatles did tremendous damage to the society.

00:35:41.000 I think the Beatles brought and mainstreamed the drug culture.

00:35:44.000 They mainstreamed the promiscuity culture.

00:35:46.000 They put out tripe like Imagine.

00:35:48.000 Or at least John Lennon did.

00:35:50.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:36:09.000 Adults should live like teenagers, without responsibility, and they should all be in their 30s, single, without any children, and this is the epitome of happiness.

00:36:17.000 It's a shallow lifestyle.

00:36:20.000 The text here is backwards, by the way.

00:36:21.000 Okay, Amy says, Hi Ben, my husband and I are huge fans, as well as our three-month-old baby, Roman.

00:36:27.000 Your voice has been known to hush his crying, and mine too, in this dumpster fire of a culture.

00:36:30.000 Well, I appreciate it.

00:36:31.000 I'm glad that it's useful for something.

00:36:33.000 What one piece of advice would you give to raise him to be an intelligent child who loves to learn?

00:36:36.000 Take all of his questions seriously.

00:36:38.000 That would be the answer.

00:36:39.000 Take all of his questions seriously, and make sure that you actually have logic to support the rules that you are pushing.

00:36:47.000 So, the difference between authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting is that authoritarian parenting says, I'm the boss, I don't have to give you an excuse.

00:36:54.000 Authoritative parenting says, I'm the boss, I don't have to give you a justification, but here's the justification.

00:36:59.000 And I think authoritative parenting is better because, again, I think that your child is going to learn to reason and is going to respect your rules more if they know that there's a logic to them.

00:37:08.000 Well, there is a sentence called life without parole.

00:37:18.000 And if you get life without parole, then you don't get parole.

00:37:20.000 But if you have a life sentence, then they will let you out for good behavior.

00:37:23.000 This does happen pretty frequently after 20, 25 years.

00:37:28.000 So, yes, there's no mention of heaven in the Old Testament.

00:37:32.000 In the Old Testament, meaning the Torah itself, there's no mention of the idea of a heaven or a hell.

00:37:37.000 Everything is very earthbound.

00:37:39.000 In some of the prophets, there's mention of the idea of sort of an afterlife, where God is talking to people after they've died.

00:37:46.000 Judaism does believe in what we call Shemayim, the heavens, and the idea of heaven is that

00:37:54.000 Well, at least the way Maimonides puts it, is reserved for the people who have, on balance, done more good than evil in their lives.

00:38:00.000 Judaism is not completely asimilar from Christianity with regard to what heaven looks like, but it is very different with regard to what hell looks like.

00:38:09.000 Judaism doesn't really believe in the notion of an everlasting hell where you burn in fiery torment.

00:38:13.000 It believes more as hell is sort of a cleansing process.

00:38:16.000 It's sort of more like the Christian purgatory. 0.99

00:38:23.000 Hi Ben, I don't know if you have covered this in your show before, but I am unclear on what exactly are the lawful powers of the judicial branch.

00:38:28.000 Lately it seems that every executive order or law faces an activist judge who declares it illegal.

00:38:33.000 This seems to mean that unelected judges are more powerful than other branches of government and get to veto them.

00:38:36.000 How does all this work?

00:38:37.000 Well, this goes back to Marbury v. Madison.

00:38:39.000 Do courts have the power of judicial review?

00:38:41.000 Meaning, can they look at acts of the legislature and declare that they are in breach with the higher law, the Constitution, and then declare that those laws are no longer applicable?

00:38:49.000 So, the judiciary has the power to interpret.

00:38:52.000 It doesn't have the power to enforce.

00:38:53.000 This is what the Federalists say in the Federalist Papers.

00:38:56.000 We'll get to it, I promise.

00:38:57.000 But what they say about the courts,

00:38:59.000 is that the courts don't have a self-created power of enforcement.

00:39:03.000 The executive has to enforce their orders.

00:39:05.000 If Trump were to just say to the judicial branch, listen, I'm ignoring you and doing what I want, there's not much the judiciary could do about it, except hold them in contempt, and then nobody would be there.

00:39:12.000 It would really be up to Congress to enforce the judiciary's rulings by cutting the power of the purse strings.

00:39:18.000 Well, I think you can really tell in the first 45 seconds.

00:39:28.000 If the person is listening and responding to your point, then the conversation is worthwhile.

00:39:32.000 If it appears the person is mainly sitting there thinking about what they're going to say next, then you're wasting your time.

00:39:37.000 You're gonna have to use your gut a little bit on this, but how do you know if a conversation with your friend is purposeful or not?

00:39:42.000 The only answer is you just know, and I think that, unfortunately, I don't have a better answer than that.

00:39:46.000 Juan says, hey Ben, I love the show, but what is your issue with Knowles?

00:39:49.000 While you were away on vacation, I was forced to listen to his show, and I admit I liked it.

00:39:52.000 Is he really as bad as you say?

00:39:53.000 No, he's not as bad as I say.

00:39:55.000 He is much, much worse. 0.94

00:39:57.000 Much worse.

00:39:58.000 So my issue with Knowles is that Knowles sold literally a hundred thousand copies of an empty book with my blurb on the cover and then I hooked him up with my literary agent who got him another major advance for a blank book.

00:40:13.000 You know, there are some people in life who are just blessed people.

00:40:16.000 And I think Michael Knowles is one of these people.

00:40:18.000 You know, people who don't necessarily put in the hard work, people who don't necessarily slave away, people who can sort of just bob like a cork on the waves of life.

00:40:27.000 And Michael Knowles is one of those, and I really do resent it.

00:40:31.000 I really resent it in a severe way.

00:40:32.000 Michael Knowles.

00:40:34.000 First of all, that would be the greatest show in history.

00:40:40.000 That would be amazing.

00:40:41.000 To Catch a Predator, Congressional Edition?

00:40:43.000 He'd be like, Representative Conyers!

00:40:45.000 What are you—Roy Moore!

00:40:47.000 Welcome here.

00:40:48.000 You thought you were talking to a 14-year-old girl, but really, you were talking to me, Chris Hansen.

00:40:54.000 Okay, I wish.

00:40:55.000 If we're gonna have Hunger Games-type reality shows at the governmental level, let's at least have something like that.

00:40:59.000 That's awesome.

00:40:59.000 Dora says, Hey Ben, I'm a Jewish-Israeli who's currently living in the States with two young boys, two and a half, and four.

00:41:04.000 I wonder how to balance Christmas celebration and Jewish traditions.

00:41:07.000 It bothers me that my kids want Santa and Christmas trees, but I also understand their surroundings.

00:41:11.000 Also, do you give presents to your kids on Hanukkah?

00:41:14.000 I do give presents to my kids on Hanukkah.

00:41:17.000 I love Christmas.

00:41:18.000 I think the Christmas season is just wonderful, and I think that more Christians actually observing the Christmas season is better for the country. 1.00

00:41:24.000 So, what I tell my three-and-a-half-year-old and one-and-a-half-year-old is, look at all the pretty lights.

00:41:27.000 Isn't that beautiful?

00:41:28.000 Because it is.

00:41:29.000 Look at the seasonal stuff.

00:41:31.000 It's really pretty.

00:41:32.000 You know, we have a holiday called Hanukkah that's also really beautiful.

00:41:34.000 The lights from Hanukkah are really beautiful.

00:41:37.000 I think that you can appreciate, from an aesthetic point of view, the beauty of Christmas without necessarily having to imbibe all of the religious messaging inherent in Christmas.

00:41:47.000 As a Jew, I don't believe in the divinity of Christ, so Christmas is not a celebratory time for me, but I can still appreciate the aesthetic joy and wonder, and I do appreciate that there are so many Christians who deepen their relationship with God during this period.

00:42:01.000 Christina says, 0.73

00:42:02.000 Do you think the current flood of sexual assault scandals gives credence to the left's claim that we live in a rape culture of sorts?

00:42:07.000 Have conservatives been too dismissive of this claim?

00:42:09.000 So, I don't know that we... You know, I've said we don't live in a rape culture. 0.90

00:42:14.000 The reason I say we don't live in a rape culture is because when a rape is actually brought to light, there are very few people who are defending the rape.

00:42:21.000 Like, do you see anybody going, ah, big deal.

00:42:23.000 Say I raped somebody.

00:42:25.000 What I will say is that, and I think to me that's the definition of rape culture. 0.73

00:42:29.000 If you're asking, do a lot of men sexually harass women, I have been a bit astonished by the level to which this has been a thing.

00:42:38.000 As a person who has never sexually assaulted or harassed a woman, it has been astonishing to me to see just how many men have.

00:42:45.000 And I guess that, I will admit that that has surprised me.

00:42:49.000 But again, when you say rape culture, it's the culture part that bothers me.

00:42:53.000 The idea that rape is okayed by the culture, I don't see that.

00:42:56.000 But the permissiveness of a society that has basically allowed this to go on for years, or at least turned its eyes the other way, that I do find sort of astonishing.

00:43:08.000 But when it's brought to light, I'm not seeing a lot of people defending it.

00:43:11.000 Brad says, Ben, who is your all-time favorite White Sox offensive player and pitcher?

00:43:14.000 So my favorite offensive player of all time, not the best, but my favorite player of all time was Ozzie Guillen.

00:43:20.000 He was then the coach of the team.

00:43:22.000 He was my favorite player going all the way back to the 90s.

00:43:25.000 That's because when I was a little kid, I've been looking for this picture everywhere.

00:43:27.000 We were at a Sox game at Comiskey Park.

00:43:29.000 And the players used to do this thing where they would actually go into the stadium and actually take pictures with people, and Ozzy was taking pictures.

00:43:37.000 I was way back in line, the game was about to start, and he came up to me, and he picked me up, I must have been three, and he brought me to the front of the line and took a picture with me, so that was always a cool thing.

00:43:45.000 And I always liked how he played the game.

00:43:47.000 So Ozzy Guillen was my favorite White Sox player, and this brings me back to my childhood.

00:43:51.000 As far as my favorite White Sox pitcher,

00:43:55.000 And so, I really liked Mark Bierle when Bierle was pitching for the White Sox.

00:44:00.000 I loved that he pitched quickly, that he pitched to spots.

00:44:04.000 He was more like Greg Maddux than he was like a power pitcher.

00:44:06.000 The most fun pitcher that I saw in all my years watching the White Sox was Bobby Jenks.

00:44:11.000 Bobby Jenks was the closer for the team for like a year and a half.

00:44:13.000 And he came in as a rookie the year they won the World Series and he was throwing like 101 and it was just amazing to watch.

00:44:20.000 Bradley says, I've had a few friends say things like, I'd be willing to pay another 4% in taxes to pay for health care for everybody.

00:44:25.000 There's a laughably low estimate on what universal health care would cost.

00:44:27.000 What is a realistic estimate of how much taxes would actually need to fund universal national health care?

00:44:33.000 Well, you'd have to look at the tax rates in places like Denmark, where it is 60%, not just on the upper class, but on the middle class as well.

00:44:39.000 When people say, I'd be willing to increase my taxes by 4%, absolute horsepucky.

00:44:44.000 In order to pay for all of the things we've been paying for, I mean, we're $20 trillion in debt now.

00:44:49.000 In order for us to pay for all the things that we have been spending, we'd have to raise our taxes up to 60, 65% across the board.

00:44:55.000 It's pretty astonishing.

00:44:56.000 Daniel says, hey Ben, what do you think of South Park?

00:44:58.000 I think South Park is hilarious.

00:45:00.000 I think South Park, I didn't used to like it, but then I actually started watching it, and it is just hysterically funny.

00:45:07.000 It's hysterically funny.

00:45:08.000 You don't have to love the animation style to know how clever the writing is.

00:45:10.000 Really, really funny stuff.

00:45:12.000 Connor says, Hey Ben, I'm currently a law and public policy student at Indiana University planning on pursuing a career in police work and later in politics.

00:45:19.000 Additionally, I have Asperger's, which is recently a part of the autism spectrum.

00:45:22.000 I'm a strong believer in transparency and that people should know what they're voting for.

00:45:25.000 At the same time, I believe that as long as someone is able to do the job, should it really matter to the voters?

00:45:29.000 No.

00:45:29.000 So here's my question.

00:45:30.000 Should I tell the voters that I have such a condition so they know what they're voting for?

00:45:33.000 Should I just keep it to myself so long as I feel it won't impact my job performance or something in between?

00:45:37.000 Well, in voting, I think that transparency is always the best tactic, because people are going to find out anyway, and they'll use it against you.

00:45:43.000 And that shouldn't be something that's used against you, that you have Asperger's.

00:45:46.000 That doesn't seem to me like that's... I think that, honestly, there are a lot of people who will vote for you for saying, honestly, what you are.

00:45:54.000 Transparency in politics, authenticity in politics, is the key quality that people are missing.

00:45:57.000 It's the reason Trump won.

00:45:58.000 Because, no matter what you think of Trump, Trump is definitely authentic Trump.

00:46:01.000 I mean, you're not getting the fake.

00:46:02.000 With Hillary Clinton, there's no such thing as authenticity. 0.99

00:46:04.000 You can drill down into Hillary Clinton and never hit authentic bedrock.

00:46:08.000 Ever.

00:46:08.000 Well...

00:46:18.000 Yeah, I think that some of the parallels are true.

00:46:22.000 You know, the idea that the Roman Republic caved in, made way for the Roman Empire, that eventually gave way to basically weakening from within.

00:46:31.000 I think there are parallels there.

00:46:32.000 I don't think it's going to happen quite over as long a period.

00:46:35.000 I mean, the Roman Empire was around for a very, very long time.

00:46:37.000 But as you see the growth of executive government,

00:46:39.000 I'd like to see a return to checks and balances as opposed to if we just elect the right person president, everything will be better.

00:46:44.000 I don't think that that's correct.

00:46:58.000 Okay, so that brings us to the end of the mailbag.

00:46:59.000 So, I hope that you've enjoyed this entire year with us, because we've enjoyed this entire year with you.

00:47:05.000 And I have to say that, of all the things that I am thankful for this year, aside from, you know, God and my family, the thing that I'm most thankful for is that there are so many people who engage with the show, who really enjoy the show, who listen, who are thinking on a daily basis and sending challenging questions, people who disagree with me and who listen.

00:47:19.000 We are so grateful for your listenership, and on Thanksgiving, I think that we should thank you for that.

00:47:24.000 Also grateful to the staff who put up with me every day, and grateful to myself for putting up

00:47:28.000 So there's all of that.

00:47:29.000 Okay.

00:47:30.000 We will be back here on Monday.

00:47:31.000 We'll see you then.

00:47:32.000 Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

00:47:34.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:47:34.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro Show - November 22, 2017

So Many Turkeys, So Little Time | Ep. 423

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