The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 191 - Silly Season

00:00:00.000 We're in the throes of silly season, those delightful summer months when the mainstream media focus on frivolous news stories while everybody vacations.

00:00:08.620 Here in the United States, where there's no difference between the mainstream media and the Democrat Party,

00:00:13.080 it's lefty politicians and activists leading the silly season. 0.98

00:00:16.640 A gay male congressman rants about tampons, a transgender left-wing activist calls the American flag racist, 0.98

00:00:22.880 and so not to be outdone, CNN runs the shock story of that one time President Trump politely asked for a Coca-Cola. 0.94

00:00:31.260 They've got him now. Oh, they've got him now.

00:00:34.320 Unreported as Democrats fizz over silly season, President Trump successfully negotiates a better trade deal with the EU.

00:00:40.840 He averts a trade war, he compels NATO allies to pay their fair share for security,

00:00:44.940 and demonstrably he begins to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons.

00:00:49.600 But tampons and Coca-Cola, that's the real story, isn't it?

00:00:52.600 Tampons and Coca-Cola.

00:00:54.220 Then, Ali Stuckey drops by to discuss her nefarious fake news satire of batty socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 0.88

00:01:02.460 And finally, the mailbag.

00:01:04.180 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:13.040 So much to get to today. 0.97

00:01:14.900 And actually, of the gay male congressman who is focused almost exclusively on tampons, 0.97

00:01:21.100 something that probably shouldn't involve him too much. 0.97

00:01:23.960 That guy, I actually know him.

00:01:25.360 I know him very well.

00:01:27.440 I've known him for a long time.

00:01:28.780 We'll get to that all in a second.

00:01:30.640 This is, there's a lot of very important stuff to cover today.

00:01:33.520 Before that, let's talk about your security.

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00:02:54.000 Okay, back to the great issue of the century, tampons. 0.61

00:02:59.080 Before we load this, we're talking about Sean Patrick Maloney.

00:03:03.460 He's from my home district of New York's 18th Congressional District.

00:03:07.740 I have worked on campaigns against this guy.

00:03:10.120 My company, my political company that I founded, regularly advises candidates who run against this guy.

00:03:15.740 I'm intimately involved with him.

00:03:16.940 Without further ado, Sean Patrick Maloney.

00:03:19.020 My office recently got smacked down by the powers that be in the house because we had the temerity to offer feminine hygiene products to the women who work for me. 1.00

00:03:34.160 By the way, a majority of my staff is female, and we have a million people come through our office, and we provide things like paper towels or tissues or first aid, like Band-Aids, supplies that people need.

00:03:44.920 And those are paid for by an office budget, pretty normal stuff.

00:03:48.560 But we were informed a couple days ago that we couldn't buy tampons, and we thought that was crazy.

00:03:54.520 But I was supposed to write a $37.16 check to reimburse the house for those purchases because they were considered inappropriate.

00:04:03.280 And now the House Administration Committee, which makes all these rules and is controlled by the Republicans, is lying about it and saying, that's not their policy, and I'm making it up.

00:04:14.520 Sean Patrick Maloney, ladies and gentlemen, tampons.

00:04:17.320 That's the big issue.

00:04:18.180 It's a big issue because there's nothing else that the Democrats can criticize right now.

00:04:22.480 Everything is going too well on domestic affairs, foreign affairs, so they have to make this stuff up.

00:04:27.020 And I bring this up because I have known Sean Maloney since I was, I don't know, 21, 22.

00:04:33.120 When he first ran for Congress, I was working on the campaign of the incumbent congresswoman, and so I got to see him on the campaign trail all of the time.

00:04:41.460 And I got to tell you, I have never seen a slicker politician than this guy.

00:04:45.780 Have you ever seen, just from that little video clip, have you seen a smarmier person in Congress?

00:04:50.860 I don't think so.

00:04:51.880 This guy, talk about slick, oily, unctuous New York politics.

00:04:56.900 This guy was staff secretary to Bill Clinton, guarding the Oval Office door well.

00:05:01.300 The interns were flitting about, coming and going.

00:05:04.160 Then he worked, as if not to be outdone, he worked for the most corrupt politicians in the country,

00:05:09.160 Eliot Spitzer, that creepy-looking former attorney general who was governor of New York 0.89

00:05:14.620 and got caught doing really weird things with hookers for just tens of thousands of dollars a night. 1.00

00:05:19.460 Really, really bizarre and sick stuff.

00:05:23.200 He worked for him. 0.67

00:05:24.080 Then he worked for another corrupt politician, David Patterson.

00:05:26.680 Then, at one point, his company, I think he was advising Enron.

00:05:30.200 That didn't work out very well.

00:05:31.540 Then he goes down, he's in Congress, and now he's in Congress.

00:05:34.520 He's at New York's 18th Congressional District, and he, this year, is simultaneously running for two offices at the same time.

00:05:41.280 You know, this is this guy's career.

00:05:43.320 He's running for New York Attorney General at the same time that he's running for Congress in New York,

00:05:48.280 New York's 18th Congressional District.

00:05:50.040 And he's just, he's just slick.

00:05:51.800 It's just all smarm and slickness.

00:05:54.260 He's focusing on tampons now because he thinks this is going to endear him to the women voters

00:05:59.640 and to the left side of the Democrat Party.

00:06:02.000 He's running against a few women for Attorney General in New York before he runs for Congress again.

00:06:07.820 And so he thinks this is going to endear him to them.

00:06:12.000 Tampons are not an office product, right?

00:06:14.200 You don't, pens are an office product.

00:06:16.420 Pencils are an office product.

00:06:17.700 Maybe you need a tissue every now and again.

00:06:19.400 Okay, I can sort of see that.

00:06:20.560 Tampons are not.

00:06:21.440 And he's making it out that tampons are some extraordinarily expensive thing.

00:06:26.160 People can't afford tampons. 0.90

00:06:27.580 Tampons cost, on average, 19 cents per unit.

00:06:31.360 It is 19 cents a unit to have tampons.

00:06:33.580 You know, if the argument here is that people should have access to tampons,

00:06:39.100 they do have access to tampons.

00:06:40.420 If the argument here is that people should have tampons, okay, sure. 0.66

00:06:43.840 People should also have lunch.

00:06:46.240 Are you going to buy everybody lunch?

00:06:47.440 People should have dinner.

00:06:48.260 Are you going to buy everybody dinner?

00:06:49.320 People should have a house. 0.99

00:06:50.420 Are you going to buy everybody a house?

00:06:51.560 No, you can, we have a free country.

00:06:53.580 Luckily, people are so prosperous in this country.

00:06:56.880 Unemployment is at record lows.

00:06:58.380 Prosperity is at record highs.

00:07:01.140 Wages are increasing.

00:07:02.200 Things are going very, very well.

00:07:03.260 You can afford the 19 cents for your personal products.

00:07:06.440 There are a lot of personal products that I use that Sean Maloney doesn't pay for.

00:07:10.540 But he's just demagoguing on this because it's silly season.

00:07:13.460 And this guy is desperate for attention just like all congressmen are.

00:07:17.440 I just had a congressman try to jump up in my Twitter mentions,

00:07:21.340 start a little Twitter fight because they're all desperate for attention.

00:07:24.640 There are so many of them that they need to distinguish themselves somehow.

00:07:28.040 The reason I bring up Maloney too, though, is because unlike virtually all the other congressmen,

00:07:32.460 Sean Maloney is pretty smart. 1.00

00:07:35.000 Most congressmen I've met are just vacuous imbeciles. 1.00

00:07:38.260 But Maloney is smart. 1.00

00:07:39.600 He's not a stupid guy. 1.00

00:07:40.720 He is a craven, crass politician. 1.00

00:07:43.200 All that he's interested in is his own ambition. 0.96

00:07:46.020 You know, I don't remember him raising the tampon issue when Democrats controlled the House.

00:07:50.380 I don't.

00:07:50.640 Maybe his office got free tampons then.

00:07:53.660 Maybe they didn't.

00:07:54.180 Who knows?

00:07:54.540 But he's just so crass and opportunistic.

00:07:59.660 I really, you've got to watch this guy.

00:08:01.980 And it's really fun to watch his race right now because when politicians' ambition gets the better of them,

00:08:06.820 they run for two offices at the same time.

00:08:09.200 You know, this happens sometimes for president.

00:08:11.280 You'll have a sitting governor or a sitting congressman or a sitting senator, rather.

00:08:14.540 And you kind of understand that the president, you know, it's the most important position.

00:08:18.740 But when these career guys are just jockeying for positions, all they care about is the next move.

00:08:24.220 Because Sean Maloney thinks if he goes from Congress to attorney general,

00:08:27.220 then he can go from attorney general to governor and then governor to president.

00:08:30.120 I promise you that's the thinking in his mind. 0.99

00:08:32.120 But it's just so slick and pathetic. 0.99

00:08:34.160 I can't imagine that it works. 0.99

00:08:35.900 Except we're in silly season, so it is going to work.

00:08:38.300 That brings us to our next story, which is the transgender left-wing activist Huffington Post blogger 0.82

00:08:44.600 who thinks that the American flag is now racist. 0.99

00:08:47.740 Racist, racist, white supremacist. 0.99

00:08:50.000 This is what he said. 0.99

00:08:50.840 So Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has come out finally.

00:08:55.880 The owner of a football team, he said,

00:08:58.520 players have to stand for the national anthem.

00:09:01.400 They don't get to take a knee.

00:09:02.860 They don't get to sit it out.

00:09:04.280 They don't get to go do jumping jacks down the street.

00:09:06.900 They don't get to go buy a sandwich.

00:09:08.340 They stand toes on the line for the national anthem.

00:09:11.900 This is enough to make me a Cowboys fan.

00:09:13.920 I'm going to become like Chris Christie, you know, a native New Yorker,

00:09:17.600 New Jersey, you know, kind of going over and becoming a Cowboys fan because this is American.

00:09:22.280 This is a wonderful thing.

00:09:23.980 You should have to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance when you're playing football.

00:09:27.840 Simple as that.

00:09:28.940 So this guy, Charles Clymer, who's now, he's transgender, so now he goes by Charlotte Clymer,

00:09:34.300 radical left-wing activist, blogger on the Huffington Post.

00:09:37.820 He responds to this.

00:09:39.840 He says, quote,

00:09:41.300 I was raised in Texas.

00:09:43.140 I've always loved football.

00:09:44.700 I've been a lifelong Cowboys fan. 0.97

00:09:47.000 And I will never again watch a Cowboys game so long as Jerry Jones' racist, white supremacist, 0.82

00:09:54.680 pandering, took us, is the owner of the team. 1.00

00:09:58.220 His conduct is hateful, cowardly, and embarrassing. 1.00

00:10:01.980 Whoa! 0.99

00:10:02.600 And what is that conduct?

00:10:04.080 Respecting the flag.

00:10:05.680 That's what's hateful now. 0.91

00:10:07.020 That's hateful, racist. 0.96

00:10:08.460 It's like Cory Booker. 0.68

00:10:09.500 This reminds me of Cory Booker who says,

00:10:11.240 if you put a regular, normal judge on the court,

00:10:15.960 you're complicit in evil and you're Satan and it's evil.

00:10:19.240 It's a moral moment.

00:10:21.160 How exhausting it must be to be on the left.

00:10:25.280 How utterly exhausting it must be to have everything.

00:10:29.400 Because you can't just stop.

00:10:30.620 You can't stay at your regular, normal, stasis level of outrage.

00:10:34.440 You have to get progressively more outraged. 0.88

00:10:37.700 So now, the suggestion is that respecting the flag is racism, white supremacism, hateful, cowardice, blah, blah, blah.

00:10:44.980 That voting for a judge, which our elected representatives have done for the whole history of the country, 0.90

00:10:51.920 that's complicity and evil and Satan and blah, blah, blah.

00:10:56.980 Oh, how exhausting.

00:10:58.080 I will point out, though, because some conservatives get this wrong,

00:11:02.060 this free speech issue on the flag protests at the national anthem.

00:11:06.820 They say, well, if we make the players in the NFL stand for the American flag,

00:11:11.380 then we're just like the anti-free speech people.

00:11:14.040 They should have their free speech and free speech.

00:11:16.120 Okay, right, right, right.

00:11:18.620 NFL players, professional athletes, do not have the right to do whatever they want on national television.

00:11:24.980 They don't have the right to break the rules.

00:11:27.280 Athletes play a game that has rules.

00:11:29.320 One of the rules of the NFL is to stand and respect the national anthem and to respect the flag.

00:11:34.700 One of the rules at the Dallas Cowboys is that you don't get to disrespect the flag.

00:11:38.980 That's the rules.

00:11:40.240 The NFL players don't have the right to go onto the field and play baseball.

00:11:44.940 That would be, but it's their free speech.

00:11:46.560 What if they want to play baseball?

00:11:47.720 It's a free country.

00:11:48.480 No, they don't get to play baseball.

00:11:49.880 They have to do.

00:11:50.560 And by the way, sports are an entertainment event.

00:11:54.320 It's a TV show.

00:11:55.880 The NFL, at its core, is a TV show, right?

00:11:59.580 That's where virtually everybody who watches football watches it.

00:12:02.640 It's on TV.

00:12:03.860 A TV actor does not have his free speech rights trampled on because the director makes him read from a script.

00:12:11.100 That's not, but I want to say what I want to say.

00:12:13.140 You're not respecting my free speech.

00:12:14.900 No, there's a script because it's a TV show.

00:12:16.740 You don't, you can't, that's not what free speech is.

00:12:19.100 Uh, so I think conservatives get this wrong a little bit.

00:12:22.740 You have to respect the flag.

00:12:23.760 The other reason you have to respect the flag is that it's the, the flag is the symbol of the country and the country gives you your right to free speech.

00:12:31.840 It's an, it undercuts itself.

00:12:33.920 If you protest the country, you're protesting your right to free speech.

00:12:37.220 It's a house divided against itself.

00:12:39.360 As Chesterton said, there's a thought that stops thought and that's the only thought that ought to be stopped.

00:12:44.460 I've got to move on, but there's a lot more you could say on that topic.

00:12:47.780 Maybe we'll get to it a little bit in the mailbag.

00:12:49.760 Now we've got to get to the most important news story.

00:12:52.040 They finally, CNN, the Washington Post, Mashable.

00:12:56.640 Then we've got the big scoop, which is that one time, a couple years ago, get ready for, I hope you're sitting, are you sitting down?

00:13:05.320 If you're, if you're driving, pull over, please.

00:13:08.000 A couple years ago, one time, President Trump politely asked for a Coca-Cola.

00:13:13.420 He did. He did it.

00:13:15.660 And I'm, you know that I'm a defender of the president.

00:13:17.720 I, he asked for a Coca-Cola politely, folks.

00:13:20.440 That's what he did.

00:13:21.000 CNN, here's the headline.

00:13:22.780 Trump caught on tape.

00:13:24.720 Get me a Coke, please.

00:13:26.500 I kid you not.

00:13:27.220 That's a CNN headline.

00:13:28.260 That's a real headline on their website.

00:13:29.880 Mashable.

00:13:30.620 Get me a Coke, please.

00:13:31.960 People are losing it over this moment in the leaked Trump tape.

00:13:37.640 No, they're not.

00:13:38.420 I didn't read the whole article.

00:13:41.460 They're not.

00:13:42.400 I'm willing to bet anything.

00:13:44.700 They're not.

00:13:45.700 Newsweek.

00:13:46.420 Get me a Coke, please.

00:13:47.740 People are losing it over this moment in the trailer.

00:13:50.920 It seems repeated, doesn't it?

00:13:52.380 It seems like a similar story.

00:13:53.940 No, that nobody's losing it.

00:13:55.180 He asked for a Coke politely.

00:13:56.740 This is, this is really how you know they're desperate.

00:14:01.220 They can't hit him on anything.

00:14:02.900 They tried to hit him on tariffs.

00:14:03.960 That's over.

00:14:04.440 We'll get to that in one second.

00:14:05.360 On the Coke, in, in the tape, in the big, crazy bombshell tape, at one point, he's talking

00:14:11.120 to Colin, and then he says, can you get me a Coke, please?

00:14:15.320 Assuming, I assume it's his assistant outside.

00:14:18.400 This is, this is a good example, because what the media do is they take little jokes.

00:14:22.140 We'll talk to Ali Stuckey about this.

00:14:23.400 They take little jokes, and they create, take it seriously.

00:14:26.320 They bring it into a scandal, or they take an offhanded comment, which is nothing like

00:14:29.720 asking for a Coke.

00:14:30.420 They try to make that into a story, because if you see a news headline, you assume there's a

00:14:35.020 story.

00:14:35.800 You would just assume so.

00:14:36.680 It's a, if it's in a news headline, you'd think that there's a news story, but there

00:14:39.180 isn't.

00:14:39.920 And, and the, the most obvious, the most absurd version of this I've seen in the last week,

00:14:43.480 at least, is get me a Coke, please.

00:14:46.200 The, the other thing, by the way, I, I meant to point this out yesterday.

00:14:48.940 When you listen to that Trump-Cohen tape, it, it sounds like a David Mamet play.

00:14:53.860 I didn't realize how good a playwright David Mamet is.

00:14:56.260 He's the guy who wrote Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, until I heard that tape.

00:14:59.040 But it does sound like, it goes, oh, well, we're not talking.

00:15:01.540 Are we talking, Mike?

00:15:02.820 No, we're not.

00:15:03.420 We, we're speaking.

00:15:04.320 We're, is it, hey, and get the, and the check, and write, and this is, get me a Coke, please.

00:15:08.800 It's one of these just throw off things.

00:15:10.320 They're trying to make it into a crazy story.

00:15:12.660 Meanwhile, meanwhile, while all of this is going on, the tampons, and the, and the Coke, and

00:15:18.400 the flag is racist, or whatever.

00:15:20.260 Meanwhile, uh, here's President Trump and, uh, the commissioner of the EU.

00:15:24.320 Here he is.

00:15:25.760 So we had a big day.

00:15:27.320 Very big.

00:15:28.640 We met right here at the White House to launch a new phase in the relationship between the

00:15:34.820 United States and the European Union, a phase of close friendship, of strong trade relations

00:15:42.040 in which both of us will win.

00:15:43.620 This is why we agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff

00:15:51.580 barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.

00:15:58.760 Thank you.

00:16:00.020 Thank you.

00:16:03.960 Thank you.

00:16:05.620 We will also work to reduce barriers and increase trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals,

00:16:12.700 medical products, as well as soybeans.

00:16:15.720 Soybeans, soybeans is a big deal, and the European Union is going to start almost immediately

00:16:22.360 to buy a lot of soybeans.

00:16:24.860 They're a tremendous market.

00:16:26.880 Buy a lot of soybeans from our farmers in the Midwest, primarily.

00:16:32.760 So I thank you for that, John Claude.

00:16:35.920 He goes on, by the way.

00:16:37.600 There are also, the European Union is going to buy more liquefied natural gas, possibly oil.

00:16:42.160 This is a big hit to Russia. 0.97

00:16:44.360 This is what Trump had been signaling for the last few weeks now.

00:16:47.180 He says, why does Europe buy their oil and their gas from Russia?

00:16:49.960 They should do it from us.

00:16:51.000 And you're seeing the culmination of that in this conference today.

00:16:53.380 This is a huge win.

00:16:54.340 We have been told now for weeks and weeks and months and months from all the smart set,

00:16:58.360 from Trump's detractors on the left and the right, that President Trump, he doesn't

00:17:01.600 know what he's doing. 1.00

00:17:02.320 He's a crazy person. 1.00

00:17:03.600 Only a crazy person would threaten tariffs on Europe. 0.99

00:17:07.060 Only a crazy person would threaten our allies in NATO, you know, and criticize them and 0.60

00:17:12.960 say they should pay more money. 0.95

00:17:14.320 Only a crazy person would negotiate with Kim Jong-un and go over and have a summit with

00:17:21.180 the leader of North Korea. 1.00

00:17:21.940 Only a crazy person. 0.98

00:17:23.020 And yet, what have we seen in the past week?

00:17:26.840 Trade war's averted.

00:17:28.260 They've come to an agreement.

00:17:29.400 They said they're just finalizing, putting the finishing touches, but they've come to

00:17:32.900 an agreement.

00:17:33.420 No further tariffs.

00:17:34.960 They're going to work to eliminate all of the non-auto tariffs that there currently are.

00:17:40.540 And the EU is going to buy more soybeans.

00:17:42.280 That's good politically and it's good for America's farmers.

00:17:44.520 And they're going to buy more natural gas and possibly oil.

00:17:47.840 That's strategically quite important and another big win politically and for American producers.

00:17:52.820 So we've been told that.

00:17:53.940 What else have we been told?

00:17:54.780 We've heard from the Secretary General of NATO that whereas four years ago, only three

00:17:59.600 allies, NATO allies, were actually paying their fair share, what they said they were going

00:18:03.540 to pay for defense spending.

00:18:04.820 They're looking forward this year.

00:18:06.080 They expect eight allies to do that.

00:18:07.680 I wonder why.

00:18:08.400 Probably, perhaps, let's say, it's because President Trump had the courage to say, hey

00:18:13.580 guys, you're not paying what you're supposed to pay and you have to pay.

00:18:16.080 How about in North Korea?

00:18:17.800 Looking over the Pacific right now, you've got Kim Jong-un.

00:18:21.040 We have satellite images demonstrating that Kim Jong-un is dismantling his nuclear program.

00:18:27.640 Now, we've been told, oh, he's not going to do it.

00:18:29.480 He's faking, don't believe Kim, it's the worst thing ever to have the American president

00:18:33.660 meet with Kim Jong-un.

00:18:35.660 It's terrible.

00:18:36.560 It's a huge mistake.

00:18:37.760 Looks like it's working.

00:18:38.860 There are analysts now, international intelligence analysts saying that the sites that are being

00:18:43.520 dismantled right now, launch sites, factories, bomb factories, production facilities for

00:18:49.460 space launchers, they're being dismantled.

00:18:51.560 We can see them being ripped apart right now.

00:18:53.480 This is at least a gesture of goodwill and it's a step in the right direction.

00:18:56.120 I told you last time at the summit that we were in inning one, now maybe we're in inning

00:18:59.820 two, moving in the right direction. 0.96

00:19:01.520 All of President Trump's critics who said he's a crazy person, only a crazy person would 0.91

00:19:04.720 do this, they were proven wrong. 0.93

00:19:07.280 They've been proven wrong on every front this week.

00:19:09.660 And so I might just suggest that this madman strategy of President Trump seems to be working.

00:19:15.920 You know, this isn't some crazy conspiracy theory.

00:19:18.500 Richard Nixon used the madman strategy.

00:19:20.080 It's to appear volatile, unpredictable, and reckless, willing to, you know, have a credible

00:19:26.080 threat of violence, both economic violence, military violence, political violence.

00:19:31.040 And he has that credible threat and it's worked.

00:19:33.900 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about this pretty credibly in the discourses on Livy 500 years

00:19:40.120 ago, 501 years ago.

00:19:41.720 He said it, I'm paraphrasing, but at times it's quite helpful.

00:19:45.560 It's quite useful to appear mad, to appear reckless or insane.

00:19:50.880 And we're seeing this work out with President Trump.

00:19:52.940 I wonder when his detractors are going to get the message because it's just working so consistently

00:19:59.040 and on such a large scale.

00:20:01.400 You would think they'd get the message soon, but they probably won't.

00:20:04.080 Okay, we've got to bring on, speaking of the culmination of silly season, we've got to

00:20:07.980 bring on our very good friend, Allie Stuckey, who is being accused of spreading fake news.

00:20:14.500 Yes, she created the satire video.

00:20:16.840 We played it on the show a couple days ago.

00:20:18.600 Obvious satire, making fun of a widely seen clip of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Margaret

00:20:23.840 Hoover's program.

00:20:24.960 And the left has pummeled Allie.

00:20:26.760 They've said, you're spreading fake news. 1.00

00:20:28.640 You're making Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez look like a fool. 1.00

00:20:33.740 Allie, what do you have to say for yourself, young lady? 0.99

00:20:36.980 I have to say, I am so sorry, and I've learned my lesson.

00:20:41.900 I am never, ever, ever going to tell a joke ever again.

00:20:46.140 And what I realized is that that practice is really only exclusively reserved to comedic

00:20:51.340 geniuses like Michelle Wolf, like Samantha Bee, like Stephen Colbert.

00:20:55.980 All of those people that are so original and compelling in their comedy.

00:21:00.140 I just don't have what it takes.

00:21:01.740 I've realized that.

00:21:02.620 I've learned my lesson.

00:21:03.640 And it's only serious commentary from now on.

00:21:05.920 I'm really glad to hear that because, as you know, only left-wingers are allowed to

00:21:10.500 make jokes.

00:21:11.440 Conservatives are not allowed to make jokes.

00:21:13.140 And when you make jokes, I've been watching a lot of Jimmy Kimmel recently and Michael

00:21:17.220 Ian Black.

00:21:18.220 And you have to, you're supposed to not make people laugh.

00:21:20.460 You're supposed to cry.

00:21:21.380 You're supposed to just sit into the camera and cry.

00:21:23.300 And so you clearly got it all wrong.

00:21:25.120 I got to tell you, this blow up from your video is my favorite news story of the week.

00:21:31.580 My real question on this, because the video is obvious satire.

00:21:35.540 You posted it with a little winky face.

00:21:37.920 It's in, you know, you're in different clothing.

00:21:39.460 It's on a different set.

00:21:40.380 I mean, it is no offense to the production.

00:21:43.340 I think this is part of its charm.

00:21:44.780 It's a little low production quality.

00:21:46.700 This is not, you know, some great selective editing.

00:21:49.720 And uniformly, the press attacked you.

00:21:52.400 They said, this is an unfair attack on Cortez.

00:21:55.980 My question is, are the press and the Democrats being obtuse here, intentionally misrepresenting 1.00

00:22:02.060 the video, or are they really that stupid? 0.98

00:22:05.260 No, I think that, I think that you're right, that they're misrepresenting the, the inner, 0.99

00:22:09.940 or the satire of the video.

00:22:12.280 And you made a comment earlier that they take something that they know is a joke and they

00:22:16.240 blow it up into this national scandal in order to discredit any legitimate humor that's

00:22:20.900 in it.

00:22:21.180 Because one, number one, a conservative is not allowed to be funny.

00:22:25.020 If a conservative is being funny, then it's mean.

00:22:26.980 But if Sacha Baron Cohen is funny, or if he makes fun of someone on the right, then it's

00:22:31.320 hilarious.

00:22:31.900 It's comedic genius.

00:22:32.900 But if a conservative does it, then it's bigoted.

00:22:35.320 And number two, I also think it hit a little bit too close to home for them.

00:22:39.360 Because I think it was a little bit, now that I look back, difficult to distinguish Alexandria

00:22:45.200 actually making a fool of herself in the PBS interview, and us making her make a fool of 0.99

00:22:51.400 herself in a satirical interview. 0.65

00:22:53.340 So I think the left has tried really hard for the past week to make us forget about that

00:22:57.820 firing line interview, to cover up the fact that Alexandria really has no earthly idea what 0.95

00:23:02.900 her own agenda is. 0.81

00:23:04.440 And this just hit a little bit too close to home.

00:23:06.660 It was too soon for them.

00:23:08.360 And I think that's why they didn't take this joke very well.

00:23:10.720 That's exactly what I think.

00:23:11.980 I think I'm not being a conspiracy theorist when I observe that the left and the Democrats

00:23:18.480 had this real problem, which is that their superstar girl, who won this big surprise election 1.00

00:23:23.240 in Queens, looked like an absolute idiot. 1.00

00:23:26.660 I mean, not only did she not know anything, but she was proudly ignorant. 1.00

00:23:30.740 She said, oh, hee, hee, hee, I'm not the expert on this simple thing. 0.91

00:23:34.000 You know, she's got a degree in international relations from Boston University.

00:23:38.820 She said, oh, I think people aren't comfortable with politicians who don't know everything.

00:23:44.500 It's not that she doesn't know everything.

00:23:45.700 She doesn't know anything.

00:23:46.880 And I think the left and the media honed in on this and they said, shoot, how are we going

00:23:51.460 to get out of this?

00:23:52.680 And say, oh, we're going to, we found the satire video.

00:23:55.380 We're going to say it's her fault. 1.00

00:23:57.120 It's Ali Stuckey's fault that Ocasio-Cortez looks like an idiot on the video. 1.00

00:24:03.060 They're basically using you as the scapegoat for why their own candidate looks foolish. 1.00

00:24:07.160 Am I crazy? 0.99

00:24:07.620 I think that that's a really good point to make.

00:24:10.760 And what they don't realize is that I have gotten multiple emails from Democrats, from

00:24:15.340 people saying, look, I don't like you.

00:24:17.160 I don't follow you.

00:24:18.480 I don't agree with anything you say.

00:24:20.340 But thank you for doing that because this is not going to be the future of my party.

00:24:24.060 We have a lot of people backing away from the socialist label and backing away from her

00:24:28.440 specifically because not only is she a far left socialist, which I think a lot of Democrats 1.00

00:24:32.260 actually oppose whether they say it or not, but she's a stupid socialist. 1.00

00:24:36.000 It would be one thing if she was smart, if she was able to back up what her beliefs are, 1.00

00:24:40.520 if she was able to say, well, here's why I think Israel is occupying Palestine, then

00:24:46.520 okay, we can deal with that.

00:24:48.200 But she's not even able to do that. 1.00

00:24:50.040 So I've actually seen a lot of people from the left come forward and say, thank you so

00:24:53.620 much for doing that.

00:24:54.220 But what we see is the front runners for this, particularly the millennials on the left,

00:24:58.400 they just don't want to play that game.

00:25:00.200 This is their sacred cow.

00:25:02.120 This is the so-called future of their party.

00:25:05.000 And it's not a joking matter, Michael.

00:25:07.860 Yeah, no, that's absolutely right.

00:25:09.800 And I do want to ask about the topic of the satire video itself.

00:25:14.500 This girl doesn't know anything, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 0.98

00:25:18.100 She's also a liar. 1.00

00:25:19.120 She misrepresents where she comes from. 0.96

00:25:20.600 I know this because I come from almost exactly the same places that she comes from at almost

00:25:25.340 exactly the same time. 0.99

00:25:26.660 So I just, I know for a fact that she's a liar. 0.88

00:25:29.300 And I do wonder, how are Democrats going to react here? 1.00

00:25:34.560 You know, socialists have relied on useful idiots for the entire history of socialism. 0.99

00:25:40.740 Lenin did, Stalin did, all the way right up to little Miss Ocasio-Cortez. 0.99

00:25:45.640 Is the party going to embrace this leftward lurch, double down on their base,

00:25:50.600 try to bring out the base for the midterms and move it, you know, left of Lenin?

00:25:54.620 Or are they going, or is that going to be unsuccessful?

00:25:57.560 Are they going to have to go back to the center and, you know,

00:26:00.980 nominate Joe Manchin in 2020 or something like that?

00:26:03.680 Where is the party actually headed?

00:26:06.400 Well, I think that the party doesn't really have a choice.

00:26:11.420 It's where the people say the party is going to go.

00:26:13.980 So millennials are going to be the biggest voting bloc if they do vote once more baby boomers die. 0.99

00:26:20.240 Sorry to be morbid.

00:26:21.440 But I think that they're looking at millennials and saying, OK, these are going to be the voters.

00:26:26.340 What do they care about?

00:26:27.360 What do they think?

00:26:28.200 And unfortunately, we know that a lot of millennials do lean to the left.

00:26:31.440 And a lot of young people in general advocate for things like free health care coverage and free college.

00:26:35.920 We know that the Democrats are trying to pass a bill right now that demands free two-year community college.

00:26:42.360 And we know that's just a stepping stone into the whole free four-year college direction.

00:26:46.720 So I think if that's any indication, it looks like, even though it seems like it's on the fringe,

00:26:53.620 it looks like the entirety of the Democratic Party is going where I think it has to go in order to attract young voters.

00:27:00.220 And I think that is in the direction of socialism.

00:27:02.360 Yeah, they don't have the choice, do they?

00:27:04.220 I always wondered why Pelosi and Schumer didn't try to work with President Trump when he came into office.

00:27:10.120 President Trump is relatively un-ideological for a Republican president.

00:27:14.680 I felt they could have maybe worked with him, but their base wouldn't let them.

00:27:18.160 I mean, their voters simply had them in a corner.

00:27:20.540 They couldn't work with President Trump.

00:27:22.080 And this question I have, and then I'll let you go.

00:27:25.640 Is it wise for conservatives to cheer on the Ocasio-Cortezes, say,

00:27:30.840 yeah, guys, nominate the craziest communists you can so we can win the next election?

00:27:35.100 Or is there a danger there? 0.95

00:27:36.800 Should we watch out?

00:27:37.960 Because the more they nominate these people,

00:27:40.340 there are 42 Democratic Socialists of America endorsed candidates running in this cycle.

00:27:47.320 You know, the more that they run these candidates, the more mainstream socialist ideas get.

00:27:51.480 And in the long term, it might hurt us.

00:27:53.440 Which is it? 0.97

00:27:53.880 Should we be happy when they nominate these crazy lefties, or should we warn against them? 0.96

00:27:59.860 Well, so I think that there is a danger here. 0.90

00:28:02.040 You have people like Conor Lamb from Pennsylvania, for example, who came across as a moderate,

00:28:06.520 who said, you know, I'm going to be middle of the aisle.

00:28:08.660 We kind of praise this as saying, okay, this is good.

00:28:11.140 Maybe there are Democrats who actually want a moderate candidate.

00:28:14.160 But I think what we're going to see is that these people that are running moderately

00:28:17.960 are actually going to rule or legislate to the left.

00:28:21.860 And so I would almost rather someone like Ocasio-Cortez at least come out and say,

00:28:26.580 no, I am far left.

00:28:27.880 No, I am a socialist. 1.00

00:28:29.060 So we can call out the stupidity beforehand. 0.99

00:28:33.040 I just don't think that there is a moderate direction for the Democratic Party. 1.00

00:28:37.260 So it's almost like whatever opportunity that we can take to show the stupidity of socialism, 0.99

00:28:42.280 the better it is. 1.00

00:28:42.900 But you're right.

00:28:43.620 It is going to require us fighting that much harder if we are going to actually show the 0.99

00:28:50.120 stupidity of it, or else, you know, we'll just be overcome by totalitarianism like every 0.99

00:28:55.120 other generation around the world. 1.00

00:28:57.440 That's such a good point.

00:28:58.840 The question might not be here for the Democrats between the far left and the centrists.

00:29:03.540 That ship has sailed.

00:29:04.960 The question is between people who are honest about their ideological points of view and

00:29:09.320 people who hide it.

00:29:10.260 You know, Ocasio-Cortez, she might lie about her background, but she's at least honest about

00:29:14.900 her ideology, whereas someone like Conor Lamb is hiding it.

00:29:17.660 That's a really good point.

00:29:18.780 Kind of depressing, but you like to at least see the things clearly.

00:29:22.180 Maybe I'm wrong.

00:29:22.680 I could be wrong.

00:29:23.540 I also think there's a generational difference.

00:29:25.500 You did, I heard Maxine Waters, I think it was yesterday or the day before yesterday. 0.91

00:29:29.640 We know how crazy she is. 1.00

00:29:31.240 But she said, look, we are not the socialist party. 0.95

00:29:34.240 We're not the socialist party.

00:29:35.420 We are not socialists.

00:29:36.740 So I do think that you have baby boomers that do fear that word, not just for braiding

00:29:41.200 purposes, but because you've got a lot of people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Hillary

00:29:45.360 Clinton that are capitalists.

00:29:46.740 They like capitalism.

00:29:48.400 Capitalism has done very well by them, hasn't it?

00:29:51.040 Exactly.

00:29:51.600 So I do think there's a generational difference there.

00:29:53.740 And it's just a matter of whether Democrats are going to say, okay, we have no choice but

00:29:56.940 to head in the direction of millennials or no, we're going to take our party back.

00:30:01.720 We'll see.

00:30:02.380 Yeah.

00:30:02.660 Good, good point.

00:30:03.440 All right, Ali, I got to let you go.

00:30:04.520 I'm very pleased though that you have finally, you know, self-flagellated mea culpa, mea culpa

00:30:10.240 for that awful, deceptive, deceitful, fake news.

00:30:16.480 All right, my dear.

00:30:16.900 Well, thank you for forgiving me, Michael, and still having mea culpa.

00:30:19.720 Yeah.

00:30:20.160 That's, you know, grace abounds.

00:30:22.300 I will talk to you later, Ali.

00:30:23.660 Good to see you.

00:30:24.880 Thanks.

00:30:25.600 All right.

00:30:25.960 We've got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube.

00:30:27.900 Then we have a whole mailbag to get to.

00:30:29.900 So let's hurry up through that.

00:30:31.480 I'm always late on the mailbag, aren't I?

00:30:33.100 We'll try to run through them today.

00:30:34.680 If you are on dailywire.com, thank you very much.

00:30:36.820 You help keep the lights on.

00:30:37.840 You keep leftist tears bubbling up through my cup.

00:30:40.560 And there are a lot of them these days.

00:30:41.820 I've got the Sean Maloney female hygienic product vintage.

00:30:47.340 It's not great.

00:30:49.260 Frankly, I'd go back and, you know, use the James Gunn vintage or some other one from this

00:30:53.300 week.

00:30:53.640 But you get the leftist tears tumbler.

00:30:55.300 That is the most important thing.

00:30:56.520 And sure, you get my show, Drew's show, the Ben Shapiro show.

00:30:59.780 You get to ask questions in the mailbag, which is coming up.

00:31:02.380 You get to ask questions in the conversation.

00:31:04.580 This is what you want.

00:31:05.880 This is the thing, baby.

00:31:07.360 Go to dailywire.com.

00:31:08.320 We'll be right back with a mailbag.

00:31:20.200 Let's burn through them.

00:31:21.480 We're getting to all these questions today.

00:31:23.100 Starting with Emmanuel.

00:31:26.120 Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel.

00:31:27.360 Hi, Michael.

00:31:28.520 I was wondering if you could clarify the definition of ideology for me.

00:31:33.120 What is the difference between a system of beliefs and ideology?

00:31:36.560 For example, I'm a conservative and a Catholic.

00:31:40.100 Why are or aren't they considered ideology?

00:31:43.280 Does it just constitute the amount of passion one has?

00:31:45.920 If so, where's the line?

00:31:46.860 Thanks so much.

00:31:47.580 Love the show.

00:31:48.100 Okay, this is really a tough question.

00:31:51.560 Actually, I pulled some notes out for this one because people misunderstand this one a lot.

00:31:56.360 I've been reading a lot of Michael Oakeshott.

00:31:57.900 He's a great political philosopher from Britain in the 20th century, and very few people read him,

00:32:02.500 but they should read him because he's very good.

00:32:04.120 I'll use his definitions.

00:32:05.720 I'm stealing freely from him.

00:32:07.380 The conservative thought and the Catholic Church and these things are not ideologies.

00:32:14.360 They should not be ideologies.

00:32:16.280 We can lean into ideology sometimes.

00:32:19.040 We can fall into ideology, but we should resist it as much as we can.

00:32:22.980 What is the definition of ideology?

00:32:24.620 In a great essay called Rationalism and Politics, Oakeshott defines ideology as the formalized abridgment

00:32:29.780 of the supposed substratum of rational truth contained in the tradition, which is a mouthful,

00:32:36.280 but I think it's a pretty good approximation.

00:32:38.800 It's very formalized.

00:32:40.800 It's rationalized.

00:32:42.400 You can write it down in a book.

00:32:44.520 Another definition he gives in a different essay is ideology is a vocabulary of beliefs

00:32:49.300 in terms of which to conduct political discourse.

00:32:53.240 So you can know an ideology by its vocabulary.

00:32:55.500 You know, the left, they say, yes, slay, folks, be an ally, and then we can go adulting together.

00:33:04.140 And you can tell that there's an ideological point of view there.

00:33:07.800 You know, ideology gives the appearance of a complete system.

00:33:12.920 You use the word system.

00:33:13.820 That's a good place to begin.

00:33:15.000 It's a system.

00:33:16.000 You can fit it all in a book.

00:33:17.500 You can put an ideology in a book or a manifesto or a doctrine.

00:33:21.100 And they say, this is our ideology now.

00:33:23.140 But you can never fit the totality of knowledge into a book.

00:33:26.440 Of course not.

00:33:27.480 You always hear, there's some guy, you know, so-and-so is street smart, but he's not book

00:33:30.920 smart.

00:33:31.360 Or he's book smart, but he's not street smart.

00:33:33.480 Someone can be very book smart and have no idea how to get along in the world.

00:33:36.700 Why is that?

00:33:37.360 Because there are two kinds of knowledge.

00:33:38.920 There's technical knowledge, which you can write down in a book, and there's practical

00:33:42.460 knowledge.

00:33:43.180 The knowledge that is just, it comes from your gut.

00:33:45.340 It comes from the rituals that you do.

00:33:46.960 It comes from the traditions that you're a part of, the institutions that you're a part of.

00:33:50.620 If you're born into it, and it grows through you as if it's in the air.

00:33:55.720 You can never put that into a book.

00:33:58.600 You know, a good example of this, I guess, is a cookbook.

00:34:01.500 And this is an example Oakshot gives.

00:34:03.740 I can hand you a cookbook.

00:34:05.720 You will not become Mario Batali because I hand you a cookbook.

00:34:08.880 You will have some technical knowledge in there.

00:34:12.640 Turn the thing on to this.

00:34:14.040 You know, use these ingredients.

00:34:15.980 This is what constitutes this dish or whatever.

00:34:19.260 But that won't make you a great cook because there's a practical knowledge that's required

00:34:22.680 too.

00:34:23.520 Ideology in a modern sense also can really be traced back to Machiavelli, the guy who wrote

00:34:27.920 The Prince.

00:34:28.540 You know, The Prince and Discourses on Livy.

00:34:30.980 In The Prince, he says, here is a shortcut.

00:34:34.760 Here's a crib to politics.

00:34:36.300 Here is for the new prince, the prince who doesn't have generations of political education

00:34:40.860 behind him.

00:34:41.620 Here is a cheat sheet.

00:34:42.940 And this will give you some ideological doctrines that you can incorporate in to your political

00:34:47.340 leadership.

00:34:48.120 And, you know, a lot of teenage kids, they read The Prince the first time and they say,

00:34:51.160 oh, great, now I can be the president.

00:34:52.540 You know, now I can be whatever.

00:34:54.160 No.

00:34:54.680 And Machiavelli makes this clear too.

00:34:56.520 He doesn't just offer this book and he says, okay, now you can go govern the principality.

00:35:00.180 He says, here's a book, here's some technical knowledge, but you need me.

00:35:04.380 He offers himself.

00:35:05.420 He writes The Prince in part to get himself a job, right?

00:35:07.860 Because he says, you need someone who has practical knowledge to lead you through it.

00:35:11.660 You know, the teacher can teach from the lecture hall, but that will bring some information

00:35:17.140 over.

00:35:17.660 But you also have internships for a reason, to work alongside a master that he can't tell

00:35:23.100 you, he can't use words or put it into a book, but you just learn by being in the practice

00:35:27.700 with somebody.

00:35:28.320 It's really important.

00:35:29.880 Ideology, this is another bit from Oakeshott, is not the quasi-divine parent of political

00:35:35.560 activity, but the earthly stepchild.

00:35:38.040 The ideology comes after the political activity.

00:35:40.580 It doesn't, we don't, we don't comport ourselves as we do in America.

00:35:44.800 We don't, we, we, you know, love liberty or this or that.

00:35:47.360 We don't behave as we do in America because we read a doctrine somewhere.

00:35:51.360 That's not where it comes from.

00:35:52.340 The doctrine comes out of the political tradition that you have.

00:35:56.040 The left would like to pretend it's all in a book, but when you pretend that all of knowledge

00:35:59.660 can just be fit into a book, you go totally off the charts.

00:36:03.860 When, when the French Revolution is a good example.

00:36:06.360 In the French Revolution, they tried to erase all of tradition.

00:36:09.340 They tried to obliterate everything.

00:36:10.880 Churches are temples of reason now and rip up all the neighborhoods and have new neighborhoods.

00:36:15.200 And what, it leads to the guillotine.

00:36:17.140 It leads to the terror because it's just not human.

00:36:19.900 It's just not where we come from.

00:36:21.020 Another good example of this is institutions and traditions.

00:36:25.800 You'll hear conservatives who say, we don't want to be ideological.

00:36:29.680 They'll say, you know, you've got to look to the tradition.

00:36:32.940 One reason why it's very hard to export democracy around the world, why we can't just lift up

00:36:37.780 American ideas and plant them in Iraq and expect it to take hold overnight is because we think, 0.99

00:36:43.840 the ideologues think, that the, the traditions and the institutions, the Congress and the court and the this and the that

00:36:50.880 are just expressions of our ideas that we wrote down in a book somewhere.

00:36:55.060 But that's not true.

00:36:55.880 Oakeshott puts it very well.

00:36:56.820 He says, we do not first decide that certain behavior is right or desirable and then express our approval of it in an institution.

00:37:05.180 Our knowledge of how to behave well is the institution.

00:37:08.720 In another place, with every step, it has taken away from the true sources of its inspiration.

00:37:15.540 The rationalist or the ideological character has become cruder and more vulgar.

00:37:19.940 What in the 17th century was l'art de pensée, the art of thinking, has now become your mind and how to use it.

00:37:27.200 A plan by world famous experts for developing a trained mind at a fraction of the cost.

00:37:31.920 It's this crude, vulgar rationalism and, and you bring up the Catholic Church. 0.99

00:37:37.980 This does, this is important here because a break, the beginning of rationalism in politics,

00:37:42.880 the beginning of ideology occurred simultaneously with the Protestant Revolution and that's no coincidence.

00:37:48.600 These, these, this idea that you can break away the principles and the doctrines

00:37:52.840 and just have that floating in space without the institution, without the tradition,

00:37:57.060 is an essentially liberal idea.

00:37:58.520 It's, it's a rationalist idea and you, you see a lot of its character in Protestantism to varying degrees.

00:38:03.900 That, that is why there is a coincidence in the American conservative tradition of Catholics taking the lead.

00:38:10.100 Russell Kirk, Bill Buckley, other writers as well.

00:38:14.500 They, they take the lead.

00:38:16.160 All of these justices on the Supreme Court because there is an, an, a conservative disposition to institutions

00:38:23.440 that you don't have when people just pretend that you can have doctrines flying up in the air.

00:38:27.980 It's a long answer.

00:38:29.420 It's a complicated answer, but I hope that clears it up a little bit because people

00:38:32.920 abuse the word ideology and fall into that a lot and conservatives really shouldn't.

00:38:38.380 It's one of the key aspects that separates the left from the right when the right is at its best.

00:38:43.120 Next question.

00:38:43.860 Maybe this one will be a little easier.

00:38:45.520 Oh, it will.

00:38:46.300 From Keegan.

00:38:47.620 Have you ever checked out the Chrome extension Millennial to Snake People?

00:38:52.280 My favorite Chrome extension ever.

00:38:54.440 I install it secretly on every machine I use.

00:38:56.940 I work in IT.

00:38:58.000 You might have fun with it.

00:38:59.360 So I hadn't heard of this until, you know, 20 minutes ago or an hour ago when I read that

00:39:03.620 question briefly in my notes and you have to get it.

00:39:07.660 You have to go get it right now.

00:39:09.820 It's called Millennial to Snake People. 0.81

00:39:12.020 And what the extension does is every time the word millennial shows up in your browser,

00:39:16.920 it replaces it with snake people.

00:39:18.440 So it'll say, you know, like, you know, uh, millennials like to eat avocado toast.

00:39:25.380 And then it'll be like the snake people like to eat avocado toast.

00:39:28.220 You know, 10 ways you know that you're a snake people. 0.81

00:39:30.460 It really is very effective.

00:39:32.120 It brings the truth of online articles and, uh, and treatises really, really well.

00:39:38.680 So I check it out from Jonathan.

00:39:41.300 Dear Michael, I really enjoy your show.

00:39:43.140 You're always very funny.

00:39:44.600 Funny how?

00:39:45.160 Funny like I'm a clown, like I amuse you.

00:39:46.800 I make you laugh, huh?

00:39:48.460 Thank you.

00:39:49.120 Thank you for the compliment.

00:39:50.040 In Wednesday's episode, you discussed in vitro fertilization and how pro-life groups do not

00:39:54.540 actively oppose in vitro fertilization often in spite of the indefinite freezing and selective

00:40:00.900 abortion of many embryos or fetuses involved in it.

00:40:03.620 I'm a grad student in genetics and I'm pro-life.

00:40:05.540 I do not disagree in theory with in vitro fertilization, but I do disagree with the

00:40:09.620 discarding of human embryos that have been produced.

00:40:12.560 For this reason, I view adoption as a better option than in vitro fertilization for couples 0.99

00:40:17.220 who are unable to have children.

00:40:19.240 My question is, do you think that pro-life groups do not actively oppose in vitro fertilization

00:40:24.080 because it would be unpopular among their supporters, because they're focusing on other battles that

00:40:28.220 they feel they're more likely to win, it has to opposing a Planned Parenthood, or because

00:40:32.520 of another reason?

00:40:33.200 Yeah, yes, all of that, and I think certainly the latter.

00:40:37.280 You've got to make choices.

00:40:39.860 This actually ties in with the ideology question.

00:40:42.520 The pro-life movement is about preserving life and stopping unborn babies from being killed,

00:40:47.760 slaughtered en masse, a million a year or more in the United States.

00:40:51.500 And so they're going to try to save as many babies as they can.

00:40:55.740 One way, if the pro-life movement only focused on the first two days of after fertilization,

00:41:03.500 after conception, you know, the morning after pill, if they directed all of their efforts

00:41:07.800 at the morning after pill, some of which are abortion drugs, some are sometimes abortion

00:41:13.260 drugs and not abortion drugs, it's a little less clear.

00:41:15.460 If they focused all of their efforts on that, they'd be much less successful.

00:41:18.060 More babies would die every year.

00:41:19.180 If they focused all of their efforts on IVF, in vitro fertilization, because it discards, 1.00

00:41:24.200 it creates a ton of conceived people, you know, it creates a lot of fertilized embryos,

00:41:30.960 and then it discards them.

00:41:33.140 If it focused only on that, many more babies per year would die.

00:41:37.140 It would be much less effective because people go to IVF because they want to have more children.

00:41:41.620 It's a more confusing issue.

00:41:43.540 It's not as clear.

00:41:44.580 It's not as clear cut.

00:41:46.280 How could I be opposing life when I'm trying to create more life?

00:41:49.500 It's much harder for that.

00:41:51.020 But when you focus on a six-month-old baby, unborn baby in the womb, that is so much clearer.

00:41:56.920 You see its little eyes.

00:41:57.800 You see its little fingers.

00:41:58.960 It's moving around. 0.97

00:42:00.180 And you see villains who are trying to kill that baby.

00:42:05.000 That is a much clearer issue, and it's much easier to win over.

00:42:07.560 So practically speaking, that's where the pro-life movement should focus its efforts.

00:42:11.240 But we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

00:42:13.220 There's nothing about having little fingers that makes your life sacred,

00:42:17.040 and not having little fingers makes your life not sacred.

00:42:20.000 And in vitro fertilization, in practice, all the time, creates so many embryos that are discarded.

00:42:27.220 And adoption might be an answer for this, but, you know, don't forget,

00:42:30.000 if you're going to fertilize eight embryos, if you're going to create eight little sparks of human life,

00:42:35.420 every time you do IVF, that's going to be a lot of kids that you've got to put up for adoption.

00:42:39.240 You've got to find women, surrogates, who would be willing to carry those babies to term. 1.00

00:42:45.100 And I don't know that that's a really workable solution.

00:42:47.920 Conservatives should be, they should focus on the areas they can win,

00:42:51.820 increasingly win on the pro-life movement.

00:42:53.620 But don't pretend that IVF is some simple bioethical problem,

00:42:58.980 or that it doesn't pose bioethical problems.

00:43:00.980 It does.

00:43:01.360 It poses huge bioethical problems.

00:43:03.120 And as we keep advancing the pro-life cause, conservatives should think about that.

00:43:08.020 Good question.

00:43:09.240 I've got time for one or two more.

00:43:10.620 From Josh.

00:43:12.180 Dear Michael, owner of Libs,

00:43:15.060 do you believe Sarah Sanders will do us all a favor and ban sad Jim Acosta from the press pool?

00:43:21.260 And if there was a vacancy and the Daily Wire were invited,

00:43:24.360 who would be the best White House correspondent and why?

00:43:27.320 I must disagree with you, my friend.

00:43:28.780 I would be furious if Sarah Sanders banned Jim Acosta from the press pool.

00:43:33.960 Jim Acosta is one of the best characters in all of politics.

00:43:38.140 He's, I've, by the way, I've never seen him in the same room as Will Ferrell at the same time,

00:43:42.080 which does bring up some questions.

00:43:45.500 It's wonderful.

00:43:46.360 I want Ron Burgundy to be in that press room,

00:43:48.800 and Jim Acosta is there, you know,

00:43:50.420 shouting, Mr. President, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:43:52.480 He's great.

00:43:52.940 If he were kicked out by Sarah Sanders and the Daily Wire were invited to join the press room,

00:43:57.840 I would nominate Jim Acosta to be our correspondent in the White House press pool.

00:44:02.040 The guy is great, and I hope he stays on TV a lot more.

00:44:05.620 Let's see if we can do one or two more.

00:44:07.520 Do we have time?

00:44:08.320 One more, she says.

00:44:09.360 Okay, I'll do one more.

00:44:10.300 Dear Michael, I've heard some Catholics say

00:44:12.480 that Catholicism is incompatible with the American founding.

00:44:15.900 These critics say that because the Constitution does not mention Christ,

00:44:19.120 the founders failed to recognize that all power is given to Christ.

00:44:22.300 This would include power over nations as well as individuals.

00:44:25.240 These critics also point out America's allegedly Masonic roots.

00:44:28.500 How would you respond to these criticisms?

00:44:31.020 Eh, that's how I would respond.

00:44:33.240 Eh, come on.

00:44:34.720 All right.

00:44:35.340 Were some of the founders and framers Freemasons?

00:44:38.600 Yeah.

00:44:39.620 Although there was a big anti-Mason movement too.

00:44:41.920 I think John Quincy Adams led a big anti-Mason movement in the United States.

00:44:45.940 Obviously, the Freemasons don't have a lot of prestige anymore in the U.S.

00:44:50.640 Sure, the nation was founded in 1776 by Protestants,

00:44:56.740 or it was founded in 1620 by quite zealous Protestants in Plymouth.

00:45:02.220 Although, of course, all of America was discovered by a Catholic, 1.00

00:45:05.600 Christopher Columbus, a devout Catholic,

00:45:07.220 who said his book of hours and multiple prayers constantly throughout the day.

00:45:12.040 And he was, you know, always praying.

00:45:14.600 And so he was quite Catholic.

00:45:16.080 I like that the actual American founding,

00:45:18.880 the first moment that we could say this is the origin,

00:45:21.060 is a rather Catholic moment.

00:45:22.960 And, you know, America is named after an Italian,

00:45:25.680 Amerigo Vespucci.

00:45:27.280 The name America is an Italian name.

00:45:29.500 So, okay, you know, that's fine.

00:45:31.220 The Protestants, obviously, were so prominent in the United States.

00:45:36.320 And the, I think it was Arthur Schlesinger said that anti-Catholicism

00:45:40.780 is the oldest and deepest bias in the United States.

00:45:43.360 So I don't deny any of that.

00:45:45.040 But I will say it's, I don't think the United States is opposed to Catholicism

00:45:48.780 in a way that revolutionary France was opposed to Catholicism.

00:45:52.180 Revolutionary France killed priests.

00:45:54.800 You know, revolutionary France knocked down Catholic churches.

00:45:57.920 The U.S. didn't do that.

00:45:59.340 And it gets back to our question of tradition versus ideology.

00:46:02.160 Is there an ideological reflection in the American founding?

00:46:04.800 Of course, we hold these truths to be self-evident.

00:46:08.080 Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

00:46:09.940 Sure, that's ideological.

00:46:11.900 And ideology is fine to reflect on what you're already doing on occasion.

00:46:15.840 It helps you see what's really going on.

00:46:18.100 But America did not reject tradition entirely.

00:46:21.340 We built on tradition.

00:46:22.960 Our revolution, to use the idea of Edmund Burke,

00:46:26.680 was evolution, not really revolution.

00:46:29.360 We didn't kick everything apart and start from scratch with a blank slate.

00:46:33.460 We kept what was good.

00:46:34.640 And we kept, remained connected to those traditions.

00:46:37.500 That inherent traditionalism, I think, and reliance on tradition,

00:46:42.020 makes America perfectly compatible or quite compatible with the Catholic Church.

00:46:46.620 And also the observation of Alexander, Alexander, of de Tocqueville.

00:46:52.120 What's his first name?

00:46:53.000 Alexis de Tocqueville.

00:46:54.100 The observation of de Tocqueville that the United States

00:46:56.640 has these wonderful voluntary civic institutions.

00:46:59.740 People just choose to join them in the civic society, civil society,

00:47:03.420 not just government organizations, but, you know, all these voluntary associations.

00:47:07.900 That's quite compatible with Catholicism.

00:47:10.380 To rely on institutions and traditions, that's quite good.

00:47:13.300 Is America a Catholic country? 0.68

00:47:14.780 I don't think I'd go that far.

00:47:16.940 But is it totally, relentlessly anti-Catholic?

00:47:19.700 No way.

00:47:20.280 If it were, it wouldn't have developed in the wonderful way that it did.

00:47:23.700 Okay.

00:47:24.180 That's all.

00:47:24.880 I've got to say goodbye.

00:47:25.580 We've got great questions, but sad.

00:47:27.160 What a great man, sad.

00:47:28.520 Go over to Daily Wire.

00:47:30.940 And, oh, by the way, check out Another Kingdom,

00:47:32.660 because we're starting work on the second season of Another Kingdom.

00:47:35.720 That's Drew's book that he wrote.

00:47:38.040 It's Drew's story that I perform all the roles in.

00:47:41.240 So you can still listen to all of season one of Another Kingdom.

00:47:44.020 We've got some really cool stuff planned for season two,

00:47:46.220 which is coming up soon.

00:47:47.220 So go binge that, and I'll see you on Monday.

00:47:49.540 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.

00:47:50.600 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:47:52.040 I'll see you soon.

00:47:57.560 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Senia Villareal,

00:48:01.240 executive producer Jeremy Borey,

00:48:03.340 senior producer Jonathan Hay,

00:48:04.800 our supervising producer Mathis Glover,

00:48:07.780 and our technical producer is Austin Stevens,

00:48:10.380 edited by Jim Nickel.

00:48:11.880 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:48:14.180 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:48:16.760 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire

00:48:18.300 forward publishing production.

00:48:19.960 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

The Michael Knowles Show - July 26, 2018

Ep. 191 - Silly Season

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