The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 522 - The Rent Is Too Damn High

00:00:00.000 Rents are due, but no one is working, and that's just one of the practical challenges

00:00:04.740 that comes with shutting down the global economy. 0.97

00:00:07.020 Fortunately, socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has the solution,

00:00:13.020 if you can figure out what she's saying.

00:00:15.660 Then, speaking of not speaking well, Joe Biden proposes postponing the Democratic National Convention

00:00:21.060 despite widespread fears that time is not exactly on Joe's side.

00:00:25.620 We will examine what the move would mean for the Democratic Party, all that and more

00:00:29.640 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:39.220 The rent is too damn high, and it's come due.

00:00:43.180 It's the start of the month, yet unfortunately, people have not been working for weeks.

00:00:49.200 The New York Times is reporting, so take it with a grain of salt, but here I think they're

00:00:52.900 probably close to accurate, that in New York City, upwards of 40% of people,

00:00:59.460 might not be able to pay their rent this month.

00:01:02.440 I believe that.

00:01:03.580 New York housing, I've lived in it for a while, is very, very expensive, and nobody makes enough

00:01:10.260 money.

00:01:10.660 Even people who are investment bankers don't make enough money, and nobody's been working

00:01:14.380 for two or three weeks.

00:01:15.360 So, probably a good chance that a lot of New Yorkers can't pay their rent.

00:01:18.980 This is very stressful.

00:01:20.500 This is very confusing.

00:01:21.480 Luckily, AOC is here to clear it all up.

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00:02:45.180 So money is getting really tight.

00:02:47.640 And now, now really the rubber meets the road because landlords are expecting their rents

00:02:52.880 and you got to live.

00:02:54.040 So what are we going to do?

00:02:56.140 We're, of course, we're going to turn to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

00:02:59.480 What else would we do?

00:03:00.700 She is here to clear up the whole situation for us.

00:03:03.880 Has organized a rent strike.

00:03:05.440 That is, okay, you just refusing to pay your rent is not necessarily a rent strike.

00:03:12.140 A rent strike is an organized action, which, you know, I encourage you to research or whatever

00:03:21.200 if you're curious about that.

00:03:23.120 But know that it's an organized action.

00:03:25.800 It's not just like, I'm a rent strike.

00:03:28.040 It is a disciplined, organized action with concrete demands.

00:03:37.500 It often requires organizing.

00:03:39.920 So make sure you, you know, do that.

00:03:44.100 But, you know, research and read about that if that's something that you find, you know,

00:03:50.220 curious.

00:03:50.620 Okay, I think, I'm not sure I'm getting this totally right, but I think, and bear with me

00:03:58.400 here, I think it has something to do with organizing and action.

00:04:02.920 It's, and so if you're, if you're curious and you want to organize action, like you want

00:04:07.320 to take an action, but right now you're a little disorganized, what you should do is organize,

00:04:12.100 organize your action and that way the action that you enact will be organized.

00:04:16.800 That's, that's how you're going to pay your rent, I guess.

00:04:20.620 You know, if you're going to be a radical, at least understand the radical ideas you're

00:04:29.440 proposing.

00:04:30.560 I go after Bernie Sanders all the time.

00:04:33.600 Bernie Sanders is wrong about everything.

00:04:36.300 What he wants to do would breed nothing but misery everywhere.

00:04:40.480 His ideas, the ideas that he's espassing have only bred misery everywhere that they have

00:04:46.660 been tried.

00:04:47.060 However, Bernie Sanders at least knows what the radical ideas are that he's proposing.

00:04:54.060 AOC can't even explain what the rent strike is as she's proposing a rent strike or at least 1.00

00:05:01.140 encouraging a rent strike.

00:05:03.100 So she doesn't get very far with this.

00:05:06.580 She's incredibly making Joe Biden look lucid and articulate, which is a rare occurrence.

00:05:12.380 She, she doesn't know what she's talking about and compounding the problem. 0.99

00:05:17.020 Her ideology doesn't make any sense in the first place.

00:05:19.700 There is actually a moment though, in this very long live stream where AOC drops the ideology

00:05:25.540 for a second and actually addresses the question, which is how are people going to pay their rents

00:05:30.000 when they don't have any money coming in?

00:05:31.860 All in all, just have the honest conversation with your landlord.

00:05:34.580 If you need just a break, if you need $500, if you need a thousand dollars, if you can't

00:05:38.740 pay at all, have that conversation.

00:05:40.280 But know that in the state of New York, uh, Cuomo was called for a mortgage moratorium.

00:05:44.440 They can talk to their bank, um, and have that discussion with them.

00:05:48.300 Hey, that was actually not a terrible idea.

00:05:51.980 This might be breaking news.

00:05:54.360 I think it's the first time I've ever suggested that something AOC said is not a terrible idea,

00:05:59.460 but it's true.

00:06:00.380 What she's saying, you don't have enough money to pay your rent this month.

00:06:03.280 Something like 6 million people are about to be unemployed if they're not unemployed already,

00:06:07.040 right?

00:06:07.220 So there are a lot of people who can't pay their rent this month.

00:06:10.120 Landlords understand that they're in the same tanked economy that we all are because of this 0.99

00:06:13.840 damned Chinese pandemic. 0.99

00:06:15.820 So what are you going to do? 1.00

00:06:17.020 You don't have the cash.

00:06:18.700 So I guess you just talk to your landlord, say, Hey landlord,

00:06:21.880 I'm really sorry, but we're all in this global pandemic and economic collapse.

00:06:25.520 So I don't have the money.

00:06:27.460 That's your best shot of figuring out a solution.

00:06:30.260 Probably your landlord is going to be somewhat understanding, but by the way, in your landlord's

00:06:34.100 defense, it's not like they're just all flush with cash, swimming in, you know, $100 bills

00:06:38.860 in their swimming pools.

00:06:40.100 They need money too, because they've got to pay the bank.

00:06:43.040 So what she's saying is, well, talk to the banks because the government, state government,

00:06:46.900 the federal government are working with banks to try to ease this problem.

00:06:50.200 Actually not a bad idea.

00:06:52.080 Now, you know, that was about six seconds out of the whole video started to make sense.

00:06:57.900 Then, unfortunately, AOC stops making sense again.

00:07:02.140 But also I think it's part of a larger conversation about capitalism, because a lot of people's

00:07:11.000 main income has to do with just owning property, which, you know, there are some elements of

00:07:18.400 it where, like, if you are doing repairs and all these other things, it's a nuanced conversation.

00:07:25.040 But it's, you know, it's an area that exposes a lot of income and socioeconomic inequity.

00:07:40.000 So, you know, there's so much there there, but I'm going to move on to the next question.

00:07:47.500 But that doesn't mean it's not an unimportant conversation.

00:07:50.780 So there is a lot of there there when we're talking about the role of ownership and renting

00:07:56.400 in an economy.

00:07:57.460 There is not a lot of there there in AOC's answer, obviously, because she just kind of

00:08:02.560 runs out of steam.

00:08:03.680 Actually, this is another comparison to Joe Biden.

00:08:05.800 Joe Biden and his debate performances.

00:08:07.400 He'll start talking and then he'll just lose his train of thought and say, well, okay, never

00:08:11.180 mind.

00:08:11.520 Anyway, my time's up.

00:08:12.660 That's kind of what AOC did here.

00:08:13.900 And anyway, it's the rent and this inequality and capitalism and economics and big conversation,

00:08:23.640 but she can't get into the conversation because she doesn't know what she's talking about.

00:08:27.020 It would appear from this stream that she is against rent in general, right?

00:08:35.060 I mean, that's what she's saying.

00:08:36.100 It's a big conversation, inequalities, and you can't, we got to talk about how bad this

00:08:40.900 is in general.

00:08:41.580 Well, if you're against rent just in principle, then what do you say to people who don't have

00:08:49.780 enough money to afford their own home or to afford their own land that they own, which

00:08:55.580 is most people, right?

00:08:56.540 Most people can't just go out and buy a nice house on a random Tuesday afternoon.

00:09:00.740 You have to rent for some time at least.

00:09:03.880 How's that going to work?

00:09:04.720 What are those people going to do?

00:09:06.160 The reason we have rent in the first place is for people who don't have all the cash to

00:09:10.360 go buy a home or to go buy land, but they need somewhere to stay.

00:09:13.000 Is her suggestion then that people should not be landowners or building owners?

00:09:19.640 You know, she says it's terrible that, or she insinuates at least, that it's terrible that

00:09:23.440 some people make money by renting out property.

00:09:26.460 So if we've established that people need to rent property, right?

00:09:30.940 They need, not everyone can afford it.

00:09:32.240 Is the government just supposed to own all the property?

00:09:36.100 Actually, as part of AOC's Green New Deal, the government does take a much greater interest

00:09:40.260 in property because they force every single building in America to be redone according

00:09:44.040 to their new standards.

00:09:45.060 So in essence, the federal government is taking over a lot of property.

00:09:48.800 But even in that case, even if the government owns all the property and they're renting it

00:09:52.900 to all the rest of us, there's still rent, right?

00:09:55.020 There's still the government making money on everybody else's labor, which is the problem 0.95

00:09:59.400 that she's identifying in rent, but I guess the government exclusively makes money on 0.93

00:10:03.060 everybody else's labor.

00:10:04.280 I see some flaws in her ideology.

00:10:07.840 AOC doesn't understand the problem she's trying to solve.

00:10:12.320 She just looks at rent.

00:10:14.000 She says, oh, those people are paying money to that guy, the landowner, but he's not doing

00:10:19.720 anything that I can see.

00:10:21.760 And they are all going to their jobs every day.

00:10:23.400 So that's bad.

00:10:24.560 Not recognizing that the guy who owns the property has to keep up the property.

00:10:29.400 He has to pay property taxes, probably has some other properties too.

00:10:32.360 Maybe he's a little bit levered up.

00:10:33.540 Maybe he's making a lot of housing available to people, but he doesn't have a ton of money

00:10:37.240 himself.

00:10:37.920 Maybe the people he's renting to have a higher income than he does.

00:10:41.200 She knows that she wants to destroy this idea of renting.

00:10:45.160 It's kind of like Chesterton's fence.

00:10:46.500 You know, you see the fence in the middle of the road.

00:10:48.540 The radical reformer just wants to get rid of it because he can't see the point of it.

00:10:51.560 And the wise reformer says, no, no, no, you've got to understand what it's for before

00:10:56.980 I'll even consider letting you destroy it.

00:10:59.980 She, uh, she just, she doesn't understand even the question, much less the answer.

00:11:06.520 The whole exchange reminded me of the greatest rent focused politician and candidate ever

00:11:13.040 in American history.

00:11:13.940 That would be Jimmy McMillan of the rent is too damn high party.

00:11:18.520 Jimmy who ran for governor of New York against Andy Cuomo, the current governor of New York

00:11:23.480 all the way back.

00:11:24.480 I think this was 2010 and he made a whole lot more sense on the subject of rent than AOC.

00:11:30.940 People working eight hours a day and 40 hours a week to some, a third job.

00:11:34.760 Women can't afford to take care of their children, feed their children breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 1.00

00:11:38.080 My main job is to provide a roof over your head, food on the table, the money in your pocket.

00:11:43.480 This is politics as usual. 0.83

00:11:45.400 Playing a silly game. 0.88

00:11:46.340 It is not going to happen. 0.96

00:11:47.060 The rent too damn high movement, the people I'm here to represent can't afford to pay their rent.

00:11:50.700 They're being laid off right now as I speak.

00:11:52.800 They can't eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

00:11:54.280 Listen, someone's stomach, child's stomach just growled.

00:11:57.140 Did you hear it?

00:11:58.160 You've got to listen like me.

00:11:59.340 Okay, Mr. McCullen.

00:11:59.820 Let's talk about the issue.

00:12:01.000 People can't afford to pay their rent.

00:12:02.260 Mr. Cuomo, 30 seconds for you, sir.

00:12:03.440 Rent is too damn high.

00:12:04.940 As a karate expert, I will not talk about anyone up here.

00:12:08.820 Because our children can't afford to live anywhere.

00:12:13.260 Nowhere.

00:12:14.260 There's nowhere to go.

00:12:15.960 Once again, why?

00:12:18.680 You said it.

00:12:19.680 The rent is too damn high.

00:12:22.420 The rent is too damn high.

00:12:24.900 AOC should take notes from Jimmy, who I should note is a very longtime friend of mine.

00:12:31.300 I've known Jimmy for probably 10 years now.

00:12:35.040 And we've done different campaign things together.

00:12:37.340 And there's actually one video on the internet of, I was over at Jimmy's apartment and I was there with Sweet Little Lisa back when we were still dating.

00:12:45.520 And it's a video of Sweet Little Lisa on Jimmy's couch and Jimmy playing a guitar with a silhouette of his face on it.

00:12:52.440 And he's singing a song about a homeless guy and how you react to homeless guys.

00:12:57.100 It's actually a profound, profound song.

00:12:59.960 There's a, there's a lot of profundity and entertainment, obviously, to what Jimmy has to say.

00:13:06.020 Unfortunately, that kind of profundity, it's just not there for dear old AOC. 0.75

00:13:10.500 And speaking of inarticulate Democratic candidates, AOC is vying for the top spot with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

00:13:22.600 Joe Biden made some news yesterday.

00:13:24.280 This was not a flub.

00:13:25.860 The only time he's ever in the newspapers these days is because he said something that just makes no sense at all and, and shows signs of his cognitive decline.

00:13:33.400 Joe Biden was on MSNBC, he was on a show with Brian Williams, and he suggested, after a lot of pushback from the Democratic Party, he suggested that the Democrats postpone their national convention for coronavirus.

00:13:48.300 And you really envision every prominent Democrat in this country from all 50 states inside a hot arena 104 days from now?

00:13:59.760 It's hard to envision that.

00:14:01.280 Again, we should listen to the scientists.

00:14:03.480 And, you know, one of the reasons why the Democratic convention was going to be held early was the Olympics were coming after the Republican convention.

00:14:10.780 There is more time now.

00:14:12.180 I think we're going to, again, we have, we ought to be able to, we were able to, in the middle of the Civil War all the way through to World War II, have, have Democratic and Republican conventions and primaries and elections and still have public safety.

00:14:26.980 There it is.

00:14:27.680 And you can trust Joe Biden's opinion on this because Joe Biden was around during the Civil War, okay?

00:14:34.920 He was around during World War II.

00:14:37.460 He remembers what it was like to have those conventions.

00:14:39.820 So he's got a lot of credibility on this issue.

00:14:42.880 Party leaders were pushing back against this very strongly up until Joe Biden came out and said it.

00:14:49.020 But now the Democrats are starting to get on board.

00:14:52.640 But it's no small decision to move the Democratic National Convention.

00:14:55.660 It actually is a microcosm or just a good example of the problems in the economy generally.

00:15:04.260 The Democratic National Convention right now is supposed to run July 13th to 16th.

00:15:08.720 So you're asking, you're telling me we're not going to be done with coronavirus by mid-July?

00:15:12.500 I got plans, man.

00:15:13.820 I got stuff to do.

00:15:15.000 Well, that's what Biden and the Democrats seem to be saying.

00:15:18.400 It's supposed to be held to accommodate 4,750 delegates plus thousands of other party officials and reporters and activists and corporate sponsors.

00:15:32.920 So it's a lot of people in one place.

00:15:34.520 You remember at the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, that happened to coincide with CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where I was speaking and a lot of other conservatives were speaking.

00:15:45.900 And one guy had coronavirus.

00:15:48.500 And that one guy happened to be backstage when I was there with Senator Cruz and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Kellyanne Conway and the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, and just a ton of people in the government.

00:16:04.520 And all of a sudden, like, everybody's got to go quarantine because there was this one guy.

00:16:08.460 There were probably 10,000, 20,000 people at the whole conference.

00:16:11.760 Fortunately, by the way, I don't think a lot of people from CPAC got it.

00:16:14.560 You only heard about that one guy.

00:16:15.820 But still, everybody got so nervous.

00:16:18.500 Senator Cruz quarantined.

00:16:19.800 Ronna McDaniel quarantined.

00:16:21.040 A lot of people were nervous because they met a guy who met a guy who had the coronavirus.

00:16:27.840 Can you imagine what that would be like at the Democratic National Convention?

00:16:32.080 That would be not great, especially when your presumptive nominee is right in the target group of people who can be vulnerable to coronavirus.

00:16:42.060 So this could cost millions of dollars.

00:16:45.500 You know, speaking of the rent is too damn high.

00:16:46.900 If you were to cancel this convention, which, you know, just to compare it to 2016, 2016's Democratic Convention generated $231 million for Philadelphia.

00:17:00.160 So who knows how much this one would generate.

00:17:03.800 That could lead to millions and millions of dollars of lost revenue.

00:17:08.720 What does this show?

00:17:10.400 It shows, one, that our economy is just extremely vulnerable right now because we ground the thing to a halt for now, what, three weeks?

00:17:17.600 It's going to be a month and a half at least by the time this is over.

00:17:20.260 It also shows that Joe Biden is being treated as the de facto head of the Democratic Party.

00:17:26.360 For some time, you had the DNC chairman, Tom Perez, saying that AOC is the future of the party.

00:17:32.000 This young, radical.

00:17:34.060 But now it's right back to old Joe Biden.

00:17:36.720 Okay, Joe Biden, who's been around forever, who's been in, he was in the Senate in the 70s, in the early 70s.

00:17:42.940 And he was vice president.

00:17:44.260 We've just known him forever.

00:17:45.380 That guy is in charge now.

00:17:46.760 He's calling the shots.

00:17:47.720 The party's against moving the convention.

00:17:49.420 He's for it.

00:17:50.160 Guess what they're going to do?

00:17:50.940 They're going to move the convention.

00:17:52.480 Very unclear what this means for the party, though, in 2020.

00:17:55.340 You know, if you had asked three weeks ago what this means, that Joe Biden is now the head of the Democratic Party,

00:18:01.760 I would say that it means that Democrats have their best shot at beating Trump.

00:18:06.160 All of the polls were showing, and I think including the Trump internal polling,

00:18:10.140 that Bernie Sanders was a bigger threat to Donald Trump than Joe Biden.

00:18:16.340 Or rather, vice versa.

00:18:17.780 I just pulled a Biden.

00:18:19.100 Um, that Joe Biden is a bigger threat than Bernie Sanders.

00:18:24.720 Now, I don't know.

00:18:26.420 I just don't know.

00:18:27.420 Who do you want in a time of crisis?

00:18:29.140 Do you want a guy who can't remember his own name?

00:18:31.380 Do you want a guy who's been in politics for so long and totally ineffective?

00:18:35.040 A guy who lost in 1988?

00:18:36.300 A guy who lost in 2008?

00:18:37.800 A guy who never really accomplished much except, except for the 1994 crime bill, which he's now running away from?

00:18:43.520 Do you want that guy or do you want someone who's vigorous, energetic, clearly lucid, holding hours long daily press conferences where he's answering reporters' questions on everything from military action in, you know, in China or in the Middle East or wherever to this pandemic response to the stimulus bill, to infrastructure.

00:19:04.760 We'll, we'll get to the presser in a moment because this one actually was probably even more newsworthy than yesterday's.

00:19:11.300 Who do you want? 0.96

00:19:11.900 Obviously, you'll, you'll want to go with Trump and yet can a president get reelected if there's 20% unemployment?

00:19:18.220 I don't think we've ever seen that before.

00:19:19.960 So it's just totally up in the air.

00:19:23.660 I mean, we are now in uncharted territory.

00:19:26.740 Trump, by the way, is no longer playing defense.

00:19:29.540 And I think this is very important.

00:19:31.200 Initially, I was worried that the Democrats were using coronavirus yet again as a way to put Trump on defense.

00:19:39.520 You know, that's, that's what they've been doing.

00:19:40.540 Trump has been trying to plow through his agenda.

00:19:42.800 And so the Democrats are just trying to impede that first with the Russia hoax.

00:19:47.200 So they impede him from doing anything.

00:19:49.180 Even if the Russia hoax comes to nothing, even though Mueller finds absolutely nothing, it impedes him in a way from completing his agenda in the first couple of years.

00:19:57.540 Then they try to impeach him.

00:19:59.060 They know that he's never going to be removed from office, but they just do it to slow him down.

00:20:03.280 They just do it to put him on defense.

00:20:04.880 So they're answering, so that he's answering their questions.

00:20:07.740 It's kind of like if you ask a guy, hey, when did you stop beating your wife?

00:20:12.080 It will stop him in his tracks because there's no correct answer to that.

00:20:15.240 If you say, oh, I, I, I, I haven't done that.

00:20:20.360 You'll say, you haven't stopped beating your wife? 0.99

00:20:21.760 No, no, no.

00:20:22.100 I, I don't, I'm not doing that.

00:20:24.180 Well, when did you stop?

00:20:25.300 When obviously you did it in the first place.

00:20:26.980 They've been trying to do this for his whole presidency, but now Trump is proactively working to affect his agenda, even in the face of the virus.

00:20:36.920 So yesterday, during the press briefing, he moves on just from the strict questions of the pandemic and the spread and social distancing to get to something he's a lot more interested in.

00:20:48.480 And that is stopping Mexican drug cartels from crossing the border.

00:20:52.780 Here's President Trump.

00:20:53.500 As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there's a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain.

00:21:06.300 And we must not let that happen.

00:21:10.380 We will never let that happen.

00:21:12.800 Today, the United States is launching enhanced counter narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to protect the American people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics.

00:21:26.680 We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives in cooperation with the 22 partner nations.

00:21:39.140 U.S. Southern Command will increase surveillance, disruption and seizures of drug shipments and provide additional support for eradication efforts, which are going on right now at a record pace.

00:21:51.680 We're deploying additional Navy destroyers, combat ships, aircraft and helicopters, Coast Guard cutters and Air Force surveillance aircraft, doubling our capabilities in the region.

00:22:04.240 I love this answer and he goes on.

00:22:07.800 It's actually worth watching at least that portion of the press conference.

00:22:11.940 The left has been making the coronavirus narrative work for them.

00:22:15.680 OK, the left has been using the coronavirus in many cases, alarmism and hysteria to work for them to try to institute massive government regulations, massive government spending.

00:22:27.720 UBI, for goodness sakes, direct checks to the American people, at least in a limited way.

00:22:31.940 They're trying to push for Medicare for all through this virus.

00:22:36.280 They're using the coronavirus to push their their agenda, sometimes more successfully than other times.

00:22:43.160 Sometimes you can tie it directly to the virus, like in questions of health care.

00:22:47.780 And sometimes you can't do that, like in trying to reduce airplane emissions.

00:22:53.120 That doesn't make a lot of sense, but there's still they're trying to use the narrative to push their agenda.

00:22:57.200 Now, President Trump is playing that game on his own.

00:23:01.420 He is also using the coronavirus narrative to push his agenda.

00:23:06.760 But at least when Trump is doing it, it does have a direct connection to stopping the pandemic.

00:23:13.600 Frankly, even if it didn't, I would cheer him on because at least he's he's getting something through as the Democrats have impeded him now for four years.

00:23:21.480 But it is tied directly to it.

00:23:23.440 What are we talking about?

00:23:24.220 We're talking about open borders.

00:23:25.560 You know, right now there is a chance that the state of New York will have to close its border and not be able to come in and infect the rest of the country.

00:23:34.220 So surely we should close our border with foreign countries. 1.00

00:23:37.980 You know, the left wing press even has been reporting that they're nervous about cases of coronavirus in Mexico.

00:23:42.920 Now, they're reporting it because they're simply nervous about it in Mexico per se.

00:23:46.800 But if we have a completely porous border with Mexico, then obviously people who have coronavirus could get over here into the United States.

00:23:55.540 You cannot simultaneously say that the coronavirus is so serious that we need to border off, wall off New York state, but we don't need to wall off Mexico.

00:24:04.880 Okay, that that does not work.

00:24:07.320 So Trump is is making that argument.

00:24:09.560 Next part of this is because there's economic collapse.

00:24:12.080 Always drug use goes through the roof during recessions, during economic crisis.

00:24:16.380 We're already seeing 70,000 people per year dying from drug overdoses because of the opioid epidemic.

00:24:23.320 Most people on the left don't want to talk about that.

00:24:25.780 That number can only get worse during an economic downturn.

00:24:28.820 And so Trump is saying it is vital to the public health that we stop these drug cartels from using our porous border to bring poison into our country as the left is pushing for legalization of drugs almost across the board, certainly at the low level.

00:24:43.680 And some people are pushing for it generally.

00:24:47.180 Some Democratic presidential candidates were pushing for the legalization of all drugs. 0.98

00:24:51.840 Trump is saying, are you crazy?

00:24:52.940 You can't that that would be such a threat would so exacerbate these public health challenges if we did that right now as the opioid problem is only poised to get worse. 0.99

00:25:02.180 He's tying it into the military because as we are weakened, as we're hunkering down, bad actors around the world, including the jerks who gave us the damn disease, China are and who covered it up and who are solely responsible for the things spreading around the world are going to be looking around and seeing if they can take advantage of us militarily. 0.86

00:25:21.060 Unfortunately, our secretary of defense, Mark Esper, is on the case and he's not going to let that happen. 0.95

00:25:26.600 Last year alone, United States Southern Command's operations resulted in the seizure of over 280 metric tons of drugs, much of which was designated for shipment to America.

00:25:37.080 While this was an incredible achievement, there is much more work to be done.

00:25:41.240 Transnational criminal organizations continue to threaten our security by smuggling cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamines and other narcotics across our borders.

00:25:49.600 These drug traffickers put our communities, communities at risk and destroy lives.

00:25:55.140 Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die from drug overdose and thousands more suffer the harmful effects of addiction.

00:26:03.220 You see this, this is the secretary of defense.

00:26:05.700 So he does touch on later in the show, other foreign policy threats that we've got, but he keeps focusing in on these international criminal organizations, the cartels and the drugs.

00:26:15.720 He's going back to the 70,000 people per year die from drugs.

00:26:19.360 General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed this same point.

00:26:23.540 Explicitly mentioned 70,000 people per year dying from drugs in the U.S.

00:26:27.220 Attorney General Bill Barr comes up there, echoes the same point.

00:26:31.280 70,000 people per year dying from drugs in the United States.

00:26:35.000 This is a key point here because one reason that some people have overreacted to the coronavirus epidemic or who have become panicked or who have just really worried themselves to death is because we don't remember that people die in the United States.

00:26:51.320 Most people don't know that between 30,000 and 70,000 people die from the flu each year.

00:26:55.360 Most people don't know that 38,000 people die in car accidents.

00:26:58.580 Certainly people don't know that 70,000 people die from drug overdoses.

00:27:01.920 And so when we hear numbers like maybe 50,000 or 100,000 people will die from coronavirus or more, 200,000 people will die from coronavirus, then we get shocked by that.

00:27:12.400 We say that's such a shocking number.

00:27:13.900 It's unprecedented.

00:27:15.460 And so what they're driving home is actually, guys, we see these numbers all the time and we're not taking any action to stop them.

00:27:22.240 So I think it's a great use of resources right now.

00:27:26.300 One, because if we stop these drugs from coming over, that actually will help the public health specifically with regard to coronavirus, but it will make the broader point as well.

00:27:35.720 So speaking of our open border, a reporter asked President Trump in this briefing why he isn't giving any stimulus money to illegal aliens.

00:27:44.740 And you might expect that Trump would use this opportunity to just slam dunk on the reporter, but he doesn't.

00:27:50.780 His answer was a lot more measured and a lot wiser than that.

00:27:54.700 Over 5 million immigrants in this country do pay taxes through their IT numbers, yet they will not receive any money in their stimulus package.

00:28:04.180 And no undocumented immigrant will receive any aid from the government during this crisis.

00:28:09.220 How do you suppose they survive during the COVID-19?

00:28:12.540 Well, you know, you're saying undocumented, meaning they came in illegally and a lot of people would say we have a lot of citizens right now that won't be working.

00:28:23.220 So what are you going to do?

00:28:25.560 It's a tough thing.

00:28:26.440 It's a very terrible.

00:28:27.580 It's a very sad question.

00:28:30.260 I must be honest with you, but they came in illegally and we have a lot of people that are citizens of our country that won't be able to have jobs. 0.57

00:28:38.420 Now, I do think once we get rid of the virus, I think we're going to have a boom economy.

00:28:41.780 I think it's going to go up rather quickly, maybe very quickly and maybe slowly, but it's going to go up and it'll all come back.

00:28:50.780 And I think it's actually going to come back stronger than what it was because of the stimulus.

00:28:55.320 But it's a really sad situation and we are working on it.

00:29:00.860 I will tell you, I'm not going to give you a hard and fast answer because I just want to tell you, it's something I think about and it's something we're working on.

00:29:08.260 I really liked this answer because the premise is absurd.

00:29:11.700 You know, the premise is, hey, when 6 million Americans are out of work, why aren't we giving more handouts to illegal aliens who flout our laws and cross over into our country and use our resources, right? 0.99

00:29:21.860 So it's a crazy question.

00:29:23.480 It'd be so easy to slam dunk on it.

00:29:25.360 But Trump doesn't slammer because the simple fact is everything about coronavirus is sad.

00:29:31.380 That's it.

00:29:33.340 The effect on people's health is sad.

00:29:35.060 The effect on the economy is sad.

00:29:36.880 The effect on our rights is sad.

00:29:39.520 And the effect on the illegal aliens is sad.

00:29:42.040 You know, most people, the vast majority of people who cross into this country illegally do so so that they can make money.

00:29:48.400 They want to advance themselves economically.

00:29:50.800 They want to have a better life.

00:29:51.920 It is not, in the vast majority of cases, it is not because they're fleeing political or religious persecution as refugees.

00:29:59.320 It's simply because they're economic migrants who want to make more money. 0.99

00:30:02.600 Fair enough.

00:30:03.200 I get it.

00:30:03.700 If I came from a terrible country, I would want to go somewhere else and make some more money too.

00:30:09.940 Now, of course, we can't do that.

00:30:11.180 We can't just open our boards and take everybody in.

00:30:13.520 On the one hand, it's illegal.

00:30:15.300 You know, we the people have a right to govern our country and decide who comes in and who doesn't.

00:30:20.020 And we have the most generous immigration system in the world.

00:30:23.280 But also, it's just impossible.

00:30:24.580 You cannot take everybody from the entire world and put them in the United States. 0.99

00:30:28.700 Still, it's very sad.

00:30:32.060 You know, it's sad that people with very little who have come here now have even less because of China.

00:30:38.220 Because China unleashed this plague onto the entire world. 0.92

00:30:42.280 And it's sad that they'll have fewer resources than American citizens.

00:30:46.240 Sad for them.

00:30:46.800 You know, it doesn't mean that we need to open our borders and give them a ton of resources when 6 million Americans are going to be out of work.

00:30:54.320 They committed the crime.

00:30:55.560 They have to deal with the consequences.

00:30:57.540 But I like that Trump is showing sympathy here because it undercuts the leftist argument that he's heartless.

00:31:02.780 And it shows the pernicious effects of illegal immigration.

00:31:06.360 This is what happens.

00:31:07.420 Democrats created that particular problem.

00:31:10.060 And some open borders Republicans created that problem. 0.97

00:31:13.240 And it's still showing strong leadership.

00:31:15.480 You know, we cannot tolerate the open border.

00:31:17.820 Then, before we get to mailbag, there was one pretty telling exchange here.

00:31:22.280 And the exchange has to do with the exchanges.

00:31:24.720 The exchange has to do with the Obamacare exchanges.

00:31:27.000 A reporter asks Vice President Mike Pence,

00:31:29.180 Why don't you just reopen the Obamacare exchanges to deal with people who don't have health insurance right now?

00:31:36.440 There are a lot of people who are worried about getting sick.

00:31:39.200 And do they end up in a hospital?

00:31:40.640 People who are uninsured?

00:31:42.240 And will they be crushed by medical bills?

00:31:44.040 You were considering last month, it's last month already in March,

00:31:47.640 reopening the healthcare.gov exchanges.

00:31:50.300 There has been a determination not to do that.

00:31:52.280 Could you tell us what the rationale was behind that decision and what you have as an alternative?

00:31:57.840 Okay, they took that up under the task force.

00:31:59.920 And maybe, Mike, do you want to say a few words about that?

00:32:03.920 Well, thank you, Mr. President.

00:32:05.560 And what I can tell you is that the President has made a priority from the outset of our task force work

00:32:13.680 to make sure every American knows that they can have a coronavirus

00:32:19.360 and they don't have to worry about the cost.

00:32:22.640 And we were very inspired as well

00:32:24.540 because of the President's engagement with the leading health insurance companies in the country

00:32:30.180 that now, so far, two of the top health insurance companies in America have announced

00:32:34.900 that they're not only willing to waive co-pays on testing,

00:32:38.240 and now testing is fully covered because of the bill the President signed for every American,

00:32:42.980 but also that these two insurance companies have waived co-pays

00:32:47.380 on all coronavirus treatment.

00:32:50.500 Okay, now Pence has to be careful here because you want to provide relief,

00:32:55.080 but you don't want to vindicate a left-wing policy agenda.

00:32:57.340 The next question that leftists are asking is,

00:32:59.400 okay, well, if free stuff and universal health care is good enough for coronavirus,

00:33:03.680 why can't we have it all the time?

00:33:05.580 Why can't we just get Bernie-style socialist medicine?

00:33:08.620 Now, the answer is that Bernie wants to emulate the political and health care systems of Cuba and Venezuela,

00:33:14.120 and if we do that, then we're going to end up like Cuba and Venezuela,

00:33:16.840 and we won't be able to give health care to anybody anyway.

00:33:19.540 We're not going to, forget global leadership.

00:33:22.320 We won't even be able to provide for our own people.

00:33:24.780 So that's one answer on it.

00:33:27.420 But at the same time, we are giving people relief right now

00:33:30.460 because we happen to be a very rich country, and we're able to afford that.

00:33:35.500 So what is the answer?

00:33:37.080 Okay, what is the answer that we're just going to let poor Americans die in the street? 0.99

00:33:42.900 Of course not.

00:33:43.620 Mike Pence gives an excellent answer on this when he's pressed on it.

00:33:46.560 We will get to that in a second.

00:33:47.420 First, I've got to thank our friends over at U.

00:33:50.100 I've got to thank you.

00:33:51.480 If you have not had a chance to see some of our new content called All Access Live,

00:33:55.980 then you should head on over to dailywire.com and check it out.

00:33:58.340 We're going to keep that going all this week at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific.

00:34:02.120 It's a great show.

00:34:02.820 It's really just we're hanging out with you.

00:34:04.520 This was meant for our All Access members,

00:34:06.540 but during isolation, we are opening it up to all of our members.

00:34:09.780 So if you're not a member yet, head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe,

00:34:14.360 and we'll see you at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific.

00:34:16.720 Don't go anywhere.

00:34:17.340 We've got a lot more, including the mailbag, coming right up.

00:34:32.460 So what are we going to do about this health care problem?

00:34:34.360 Are we going to do, like the left-wing premise always suggests,

00:34:37.920 are we going to let poor people die in the street in America? 0.71

00:34:41.640 No, we're not going to do that.

00:34:43.080 And Mike Pence gives a very good answer, I thought, when he was pressed on it.

00:34:46.640 There will be people who don't have insurance who get sick before any of these mitigation

00:34:50.380 efforts are put into place.

00:34:53.140 And without opening the health care switches, where can they find insurance?

00:34:57.300 People who aren't insured by these companies that are covering the cost of the copay,

00:35:01.160 where can people go now to get health insurance if they get sick, before they get sick?

00:35:06.380 Well, all across America, we have Medicaid for underprivileged Americans.

00:35:12.080 I think that's a great answer.

00:35:14.340 The left forgets this.

00:35:15.740 They say, what are we going to do for people who can't afford health insurance,

00:35:18.940 who are on the lowest end of the income and wealth scale?

00:35:23.980 As if we don't already have an answer to that.

00:35:26.100 That's the point of Medicaid.

00:35:27.460 Medicaid, they, that is, that is what Medicaid is.

00:35:32.800 Now, what the left might say to that is, well, Medicaid is very low quality care.

00:35:36.680 You want to just give them Medicaid.

00:35:38.420 And the correct response to that is, you want to give everybody Medicaid.

00:35:43.400 You're the one, Medicare for all, right?

00:35:45.560 When Medicare for all would just be Medicaid for all, right?

00:35:48.180 It's just saying a government run healthcare system.

00:35:50.480 If the quality is no good, then why on earth would we give that to every single person

00:35:55.440 and force them to have that kind of healthcare?

00:35:58.520 The left always does this.

00:35:59.900 They, they push and they push and say, once and for all, we've got to end the healthcare

00:36:02.580 problem on, for poor people.

00:36:04.380 We've got to end the healthcare problem for this group, for that group, for this group.

00:36:08.960 And then they, they get their bills passed.

00:36:11.340 And then what?

00:36:12.000 You remember what Obamacare was supposed to give us all universal healthcare?

00:36:14.460 That was the point of Obamacare.

00:36:15.780 And now they're complaining as though Obamacare never happened because it, because Obamacare

00:36:19.580 didn't work very well.

00:36:22.180 We got Medicaid, right?

00:36:23.440 It's good to have Medicaid for people who can't afford healthcare.

00:36:26.040 Now they're complaining that Medicaid is no good.

00:36:28.040 Well, okay, then I sure as hell don't want it then.

00:36:31.240 Why would you expand that program to everybody?

00:36:34.100 Now I thought it was a good answer.

00:36:35.340 President Trump disagreed, apparently.

00:36:37.160 He did not think it was a good answer.

00:36:38.520 He actually made fun of Vice President Pence for not directly answering the reporter's question.

00:36:43.180 We'll get through this using the full weight of the federal government and the full strength

00:36:47.920 of the American economy.

00:36:48.660 John, I think this, I think it's a very fair question, though.

00:36:51.460 And it's something we're really going to look at because it doesn't seem fair.

00:36:55.740 If you have it, you have a big advantage.

00:36:57.420 And at a certain income level, you do.

00:36:59.240 I think it's one of the greatest answers I've ever heard.

00:37:01.860 Because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question.

00:37:05.220 No.

00:37:05.760 No, I said, I said, that's what you call a great professional.

00:37:08.520 But let me just tell you, you really are, it's really a fair question.

00:37:12.620 And it's something we're looking at.

00:37:14.160 Absolutely brutal.

00:37:15.800 He just kneecapped the guy right after his answer.

00:37:19.060 Very funny, but certainly brutal.

00:37:20.920 From a traditional political perspective, this would seem to hurt Trump because he's

00:37:25.040 undercutting his own guys and his own administration.

00:37:27.240 But actually, I think this is what makes him charming is he just doesn't care.

00:37:31.700 He doesn't stick to the script.

00:37:32.900 OK, and part of the reason that President Trump not sticking to the script works is that

00:37:39.020 everyone else in his administration does stick to the script.

00:37:43.260 And they rounded out this presser.

00:37:45.100 This is the last point before we get to the mailbag.

00:37:47.100 They rounded out this presser by linking the virus to the key aspect of President Trump's

00:37:53.540 policy agenda.

00:37:55.080 They link it to that big, beautiful wall that Trump has been promising us for five years.

00:38:00.080 Can you talk about how tight that southern border is right now?

00:38:02.660 Absolutely.

00:38:03.340 We have we continue to build miles of the wall every day.

00:38:07.720 We're up to over 150, I believe.

00:38:10.500 We're continuing to build new new miles of wall.

00:38:14.880 And a lot of folks ask about replacement wall or new miles.

00:38:19.060 And it's a new capability on the on our southwest border that we haven't had before.

00:38:23.060 So whether you talk to the agents, the Border Patrol agents, they like that capability, like

00:38:28.200 they like that impedance and denial that it provides them.

00:38:30.860 And it provides the ability for those agents to focus elsewhere on parts of the border that

00:38:36.060 are very difficult to patrol so we can use our resources in a different way.

00:38:40.860 This is key.

00:38:42.020 First, it's important that President Trump can show progress on the wall before his re-election,

00:38:48.900 right?

00:38:49.060 This was a key part of his 2016 campaign.

00:38:51.020 If he can't show progress on it, that's not going to look good to his base.

00:38:54.100 Second, though, it's important that Trump controls the narrative on the virus, OK?

00:39:00.080 And so far, I think they've done a good job on this because the virus has vindicated the

00:39:04.860 Trump policy agenda.

00:39:06.100 It's vindicated Trump on China, on relying on the supply chain from China when everybody,

00:39:11.140 virtually everybody in both parties made fun of him for making such a big deal about having

00:39:14.920 manufacturing in China, not being tough enough on China.

00:39:17.740 Guess what?

00:39:18.240 Turns out he was right.

00:39:18.960 It vindicates him on open borders, again, when many people in the Republican Party, as

00:39:23.580 well as the Democratic Party, were saying open borders is not a big deal.

00:39:26.780 We need amnesty.

00:39:27.920 We need a path to citizenship.

00:39:29.940 We need to create more incentives for people to cross over.

00:39:32.300 Now we're learning open borders are not so great, especially in a global pandemic, OK?

00:39:37.360 And it vindicates him on drugs, on the drug issue that a lot of people were not focusing

00:39:42.500 on.

00:39:43.000 Now we're right in the thick of it.

00:39:44.380 It vindicates so much of this agenda, this globalization generally.

00:39:50.560 They've got to keep focused on that.

00:39:52.320 That's the only way that they can take this crisis, which is really bad and really does

00:39:56.980 back them into a corner.

00:39:58.480 I mean, if the worst part is the economic, you know, even if we're just talking about

00:40:02.160 the economic side of it, really bad for Trump's reelection chances.

00:40:05.200 They've got to take that from backing them into a corner and use it to show that it's actually

00:40:09.460 vindicating what they've been doing the whole time.

00:40:11.020 All right, I'm usually, typically running late, but let's try to get through some mailbag

00:40:14.480 from Nick.

00:40:15.540 Obviously, we're in the middle of a crisis, the crisis of not knowing which show to watch

00:40:19.060 next while quarantined.

00:40:21.040 Any movies, documentaries, or series UNSLA suggest watching?

00:40:24.880 The obvious answer, one of the greatest works of documentary film ever made, Tiger King.

00:40:33.860 Just started watching it last night.

00:40:35.600 It's magnificent.

00:40:36.860 That one's great.

00:40:37.440 I'm watching Succession right now.

00:40:38.860 It's really good, really, really good.

00:40:41.780 The acting is superb.

00:40:42.880 The writing is superb.

00:40:44.280 It's a really great show.

00:40:46.180 And I've been going through some old movies, too.

00:40:48.620 You know, I had actually never seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

00:40:51.960 It's a great Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne movie directed by John Ford.

00:40:55.800 What a magnificent film.

00:40:57.240 You can get it on Amazon Prime for free.

00:40:59.440 Just an amazing film.

00:41:00.780 Profound, subtle, especially for that era of film, which was not always terribly subtle.

00:41:08.000 Really subtle about the end of the West and what that means and the relationship between

00:41:14.760 exploration and settling and the law and civilization.

00:41:19.800 Just, wow, what an amazing movie.

00:41:21.200 I mean, it's considered one of the great classics of film, and I can't believe I didn't see it

00:41:24.800 until now.

00:41:25.120 Just watched Sunset Boulevard a little while ago, another just magnificent film that's

00:41:29.380 pretty old and people don't watch as much anymore.

00:41:32.040 Great movies.

00:41:32.900 So much great stuff to watch once you have finished watching all of the Michael Knowles

00:41:38.380 show, Verdict with Ted Cruz, and the Prager U Book Club show.

00:41:42.040 From Alana.

00:41:44.040 Dear Michael, I'm not a person who takes relationships lightly, and I have been dating this guy for

00:41:48.240 a little while now.

00:41:49.440 Things have been going perfectly.

00:41:50.840 Even though we're in a long-distance relationship and quarantined, I feel so loved and appreciated.

00:41:56.540 The problem lies in our ideological differences.

00:41:58.760 I'm a devout Christian.

00:41:59.900 My boyfriend was raised Mormon.

00:42:01.320 He parted with his church in his teens and is now agnostic, preferring spiritualist ideas

00:42:05.940 such as shared consciousness or Buddhism.

00:42:09.060 Ugh.

00:42:09.900 He knows how important my faith is, and I know that he respects it in me, but when I think

00:42:14.400 about how I want to raise my kids in the future, I know that I need a partner as devout

00:42:18.660 as I am who will instill strong conservative values, which he does not share.

00:42:21.900 My question is, is this worth continuing my relationship with someone I've fallen in

00:42:25.700 love with despite our differences, or am I wasting my time?

00:42:30.720 Love the show.

00:42:31.460 Thanks.

00:42:32.340 Depends how old you are.

00:42:34.980 There are different answers depending on how old you are.

00:42:36.740 If you're, you know, 16, then maybe let it play out for a little bit.

00:42:42.000 If you're 18 or 20, I don't know.

00:42:44.100 If you're 30 or 35, then the timeline gets a little tighter, doesn't it?

00:42:50.280 I mean, it kind of depends where you fall on that scale.

00:42:54.940 I've entertained all sorts of crazy religious ideas in my life.

00:42:58.380 You know, I would have called myself an atheist for probably 10 years.

00:43:02.640 And I might have even fallen into that awful trap that millennials fall into where they say,

00:43:06.880 I'm spiritual but not religious.

00:43:08.500 This is like the most popular religion among millennials right now.

00:43:11.540 And I get it.

00:43:13.720 I probably would have said it myself, except what that really means is I'm not that curious

00:43:17.680 about the objective nature of the world and of God or creator, but I am very interested

00:43:23.780 in myself, you know.

00:43:24.800 I find myself very interesting.

00:43:26.560 So whatever. 0.98

00:43:28.660 That's just a dumb idea that's become very popular. 0.97

00:43:30.760 It's not necessarily his fault with that. 0.97

00:43:32.720 But you've got to see if he can move on over because, you know, if you are going to raise

00:43:38.200 your kids Christian, then he's got to get on board with that.

00:43:42.580 And if he's not going to get on board with that, then you might have to move on no matter

00:43:45.620 how much affection that you have for one another.

00:43:48.580 But if time is on your side and if he's open-minded and you think you can talk through these things

00:43:54.560 and he's curious, then I would maybe consider letting that play out too.

00:43:59.700 I mean, he's already gone from Mormonism to this kind of vague agnosticism, which means

00:44:04.140 he was disenchanted with the Mormon church.

00:44:07.560 But that disenchantment might fall away after a while.

00:44:12.720 He might become curious again and ask these questions.

00:44:15.820 He might be searching and he might find an answer that's more amenable to your point of view.

00:44:19.600 From Michael, hi, Pedro Knowles, why is the panic over Kung flu so much higher than swine

00:44:27.060 flu?

00:44:27.360 Swine flu infected 60 million, yet we did not shut down the economy.

00:44:30.640 Thanks.

00:44:31.380 You know, I think the reason is that we just have no idea what the cure for this would

00:44:35.500 be.

00:44:36.200 Well, part of the reason is because Donald Trump is president and the Democrats don't

00:44:39.600 want him to be reelected.

00:44:40.600 So the media are willing to gin this up and create hysteria and talk about how 2 million Americans

00:44:45.380 are going to die when the models don't really show that.

00:44:47.640 But the other part of the reason is we know what a swine flu is.

00:44:51.840 We knew what a swine flu was.

00:44:52.940 So even though it killed a lot of people, 15,000 people or so, we knew how to handle

00:44:57.760 it.

00:44:57.940 Whereas for this, we don't have a vaccine and we only recently discovered a treatment

00:45:00.760 that looks promising.

00:45:01.800 So to give them, the alarmists, the benefit of the doubt, I think that's part of what it

00:45:06.220 is.

00:45:06.440 But people who are still pushing outdated hysterical numbers, that's clearly just political.

00:45:11.520 From Michael.

00:45:12.280 Hello, Mr. Knowles.

00:45:12.960 I have been tremendously enjoying your new show, The Book Club on PragerU and recently

00:45:16.840 finished reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl after hearing about it in

00:45:22.980 your first episode with Dennis.

00:45:24.280 While reading the book, I was intrigued to hear that Viktor Frankl said we can't pursue

00:45:28.040 happiness, but that must ensue as an unintended side effect of being devoted to a higher cause.

00:45:35.060 Does this contradict the Declaration of Independence, which says that we have a right to pursue

00:45:42.500 happiness?

00:45:43.300 Well, they're talking about different things here.

00:45:45.060 I mean, in the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson is talking about natural rights and he's invoking

00:45:52.300 John Locke here, who says we have a right to life, liberty, and property.

00:45:56.580 And he's saying the pursuit of happiness.

00:45:58.160 You don't want to give people too many wrong impressions about having a right to own property.

00:46:03.260 We don't have a right to be given property by other people, though we have a right to possess

00:46:07.400 the property that we have.

00:46:09.100 And so he uses this phrase, the pursuit of happiness, but I think it's imprecise.

00:46:13.280 And I think probably Viktor Frankl is telling you something more profound there, which is

00:46:20.160 that you can't just say, I really want to be happy.

00:46:22.800 I mean, people do this all the time at holidays.

00:46:25.360 They'll very often say, you know, I just want this Thanksgiving to be really good.

00:46:30.320 And they try so hard to have a good time and they don't.

00:46:32.520 That's why Valentine's Day is almost always miserable.

00:46:34.820 It's people are so invested in making it perfect and just, you know, the ideal day that nothing

00:46:41.320 could live up to that and end up miserable.

00:46:42.780 You can't do that.

00:46:43.560 You have to be pursuing the good and then happiness will come alongside that or joy will

00:46:49.200 come alongside that.

00:46:50.400 But if you're just pursuing this emotion of being happy, you're not going to get it.

00:46:54.380 Last question from Canaan.

00:46:55.460 Hey, I'm currently reading the Divine Comedy and I just finished the Inferno.

00:47:01.100 I was wondering if you think the real hell will have such creative punishments tailored 0.73

00:47:05.100 for specific sins.

00:47:06.220 Thanks.

00:47:06.840 Great question.

00:47:08.260 So one key aspect of Dante, especially in hell, Dante Inferno, is that the punishment fits

00:47:17.020 the crime.

00:47:17.580 So maybe the most famous canto is about Paolo and Francesca, these adulterous lovers who

00:47:24.920 are swept away on the wind.

00:47:27.580 That's their eternal punishment.

00:47:28.840 They're just swept constantly away in the wind.

00:47:31.200 They have no control over where they're going because adulterous lovers are slaves to their 1.00

00:47:36.180 own passions.

00:47:36.900 They can't control where they're going.

00:47:38.100 They're swept away on the winds of lust.

00:47:40.800 The punishment fits the crime.

00:47:42.400 The suicides, people who commit suicide are in hell and their bodies have been transformed

00:47:47.600 into these sort of trees, bodies hanging from branches and they don't have their own body

00:47:52.900 because they threw away their body in their own lives.

00:47:56.920 The punishment fits the crime.

00:47:58.500 This is certainly true of eternal justice.

00:48:03.440 If it's true of our own justice, it's true of eternal justice.

00:48:06.840 And generally, people get what they're after.

00:48:09.780 You know, people get what they want.

00:48:12.500 You know, there is a natural consequence to our actions.

00:48:15.920 And so I think Dante illustrates that beautifully and precisely.

00:48:21.160 All right, that's our show.

00:48:22.120 We got more to get to, but you know, we're already running late.

00:48:24.560 So have a good weekend.

00:48:25.840 We'll have some other fun stuff coming out over the weekend.

00:48:28.340 So stay tuned.

00:48:29.420 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.

00:48:30.860 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:48:32.600 See you at least on Monday.

00:48:39.780 If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe.

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00:48:50.380 We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

00:48:55.420 Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including The Ben Shapiro Show,

00:49:00.380 The Andrew Klavan Show, and The Matt Walsh Show.

00:49:02.520 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Ben Davies and directed by Mike Joyner.

00:49:07.920 Executive producer, Jeremy Boren.

00:49:10.240 Supervising producers, Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling.

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00:49:41.220 We'll get a whole lot of that and much more.

00:49:43.160 See you there.

The Michael Knowles Show - April 02, 2020

Ep. 522 - The Rent Is Too Damn High

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