Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - Timcast IRL - Pelosi Trip To Taiwan Sparks World War Three Fears w- Rick Santorum & Mark Meckler

00:00:00.000 you you

00:00:57.000 I know everybody I heard that I see the chat people are saying Tim you promised

00:01:13.000 as a civil war, not World War Three.

00:01:15.000 What's going on with this Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan stuff?

00:01:17.000 So the trip is confirmed.

00:01:19.000 We've got U.S.

00:01:20.000 officials and Taiwanese officials confirming Nancy Pelosi at least is expected to be visiting Taiwan.

00:01:24.000 China has been posturing rather intensely, putting out a video showing their military capabilities.

00:01:30.000 And we even had a Chinese state propagandist saying outright they would shoot down or could shoot down Pelosi's plane, particularly if she had a fighter jet escort.

00:01:39.000 So we'll see how much of that is bluster.

00:01:41.000 Many people are wondering why she's even doing this.

00:01:44.000 What's the purpose?

00:01:45.000 Well, we'll talk all about that.

00:01:47.000 We've got a couple other stories, too, that are rather interesting, of course.

00:01:50.000 We've got just chaos as it pertains to the economy, and I'm sure that'll come up.

00:01:54.000 But we've got a discussion about the Convention of States.

00:01:56.000 A new article has come out showing conservatives are 15 states away from calling a Convention of States So I know when you say, where's the Civil War, Tim?

00:02:06.000 I know the big news is Pelosi, but the convention of states thing is here.

00:02:10.000 You know, maybe they'll lose their minds over that.

00:02:11.000 And then at the same time, I think what's also equally interesting as well, the corporate press is freaking out that conservatives might actually get a convention of states.

00:02:19.000 The Democrats are actually rather close to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact coming into play, which would effectively create a popular vote for the presidency.

00:02:28.000 So, uh, Should be interesting nonetheless.

00:02:30.000 Before we get started, my friends, head over to TimCast.com.

00:02:34.000 Become a member if you'd like to support our work, and you'll get access to the exclusive members-only show tonight at 11 p.m.

00:02:41.000 That's usually when they go up.

00:02:42.000 We record them a little bit earlier, and this is the uncensored after-hours show.

00:02:46.000 But we also have a couple other shows up on the website.

00:02:47.000 Tales from the Inverted World Episode 5 has come out, and Shane says it is the best one yet.

00:02:51.000 So if you're a fan and you like the exploration into the lost Confederate gold, sign up at TimCast.com.

00:02:56.000 Don't forget to smash that like button.

00:02:58.000 Subscribe to this channel, share the show if you really do like it.

00:03:01.000 Joining us today to talk about all of this and more is Senator Rick Santorum.

00:03:06.000 Hello, how are you?

00:03:07.000 Would you like to introduce yourself?

00:03:09.000 I'd be happy to.

00:03:10.000 I'm Rick Santorum.

00:03:11.000 The most important thing in my life is I'm a father of seven kids, and I have one grandchild and two on the way, which is really exciting for me.

00:03:20.000 I am a former United States Senator, served the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 12 years, four years in the House before that, and Ran for president twice.

00:03:30.000 I always say you should run for president.

00:03:32.000 Seriously.

00:03:33.000 You're saying I should or they should?

00:03:38.000 It's one of the great experiences.

00:03:41.000 Anybody that's ever run for president, it's a tremendous experience of learning this country and understanding how the political process works. And for me, as somebody

00:03:51.000 who came out of it, who went in there and basically had no money and was not given any chance and

00:03:55.000 ended up winning 11 states and almost winning the nomination, it should, if you put your best

00:04:02.000 into it, should renew your faith in American politics. But even as far as you got, not everybody could

00:04:08.000 get anywhere near that. You don't know.

00:04:09.000 You don't know.

00:04:11.000 I mean, look, I mean, you got a guy who's the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, almost became, you know, and now is the number one person for president.

00:04:19.000 Look, you have no idea how America, no one would have predicted Donald Trump doing what he did.

00:04:26.000 And so don't.

00:04:28.000 People say, oh, it's only for the privileged.

00:04:30.000 It's just not.

00:04:32.000 You have all sorts of opportunities.

00:04:34.000 And you can have a billionaire like Michael Bloomberg and get nowhere.

00:04:37.000 And you can have someone who didn't even, who didn't even spend a million dollars on his campaign and won the Iowa caucuses.

00:04:42.000 A lot of that.

00:04:43.000 So it can happen.

00:04:43.000 A lot of that Bloomberg money went to me, actually, because he was buying YouTube ads.

00:04:47.000 And so all of a sudden, everyone on YouTube was talking politics, was seeing these Bloomberg ads pop up, and they're getting paid for it.

00:04:53.000 So I definitely want to talk to you about your time, you know, in the Senate and all that stuff, too.

00:04:58.000 So thanks for joining us.

00:04:59.000 We also have Mark Meckler.

00:05:01.000 Good to be with you.

00:05:02.000 So my background is legal.

00:05:04.000 I was a lawyer for most of my professional career.

00:05:06.000 Ended up stumbling into politics during the days of the Tea Party.

00:05:10.000 Founded the largest Tea Party organization in the nation.

00:05:13.000 Ultimately 23 million people.

00:05:15.000 Sort of changed the political landscape.

00:05:17.000 And then I bailed on it because it became part of Washington DC.

00:05:22.000 I watched it get co-opted.

00:05:23.000 You have the biggest swing election in the history of America since 1938, takes place in 2010.

00:05:28.000 Literally by 2012, most of the folks that were elected had been eaten by the swamp.

00:05:33.000 I was getting ready to leave and I had a friend who said, you can't quit politics.

00:05:38.000 I said, yes, I can.

00:05:39.000 I can go back to my chickens.

00:05:40.000 I'm a chicken guy too.

00:05:41.000 So we're living out in the country.

00:05:43.000 And he said, look, we can't give up.

00:05:46.000 The problem in politics really isn't the people that we're electing or not electing.

00:05:49.000 The problem is we broke the structure of government.

00:05:52.000 And if you want to repair the structure, there's a constitutional method for doing so found in article five.

00:05:57.000 That's what we're doing.

00:05:58.000 Trying to call a convention of states to propose amendments to take power away from DC and give it back to the people.

00:06:03.000 That's what I spend my time doing now.

00:06:05.000 I've been in 48 states in the last couple of years.

00:06:08.000 I'm just on the ground with grassroots all over the country like Senator Santorum.

00:06:12.000 I love the American people.

00:06:13.000 I have faith in the people, just not in the government anymore.

00:06:15.000 I dig it.

00:06:16.000 I like the idea.

00:06:17.000 There's some pros and there's cons to it, but we'll get into all that stuff.

00:06:19.000 We're also hanging out with Hannah Clare.

00:06:21.000 Hi, I'm a writer for TimCast.com.

00:06:23.000 My name's Hannah-Claire Brimlow.

00:06:24.000 I'm filling in for Ian, who is away.

00:06:26.000 I have no facts about gems for you.

00:06:28.000 I wish I did.

00:06:29.000 Yeah, or graphene.

00:06:31.000 Yeah, Tim had to explain to me what graphene was.

00:06:33.000 I really feel like somewhere along the line, the American science education has let me down.

00:06:38.000 You have a bottle of graphene sitting right there though, so it's very impressive.

00:06:41.000 Yes, a patent pending product is sitting next to me.

00:06:43.000 It makes me nervous.

00:06:44.000 I don't know if it's going to catch on fire.

00:06:46.000 And Lydia's on vacation. 1.00

00:06:47.000 So joining us handling all of the camera work is Chris.

00:06:52.000 Yep.

00:06:53.000 There you go.

00:06:53.000 All right, let's jump into this first story.

00:06:55.000 We got this from Politico.

00:06:57.000 Pelosi Taiwan trip overrides Chinese military threats.

00:07:01.000 Military and diplomatic efforts limit Beijing to angry bluster.

00:07:05.000 I mean, simply put, we only need the first opening paragraph here.

00:07:07.000 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan on Tuesday, decisively ending weeks of wrangling between the United States and China about whether she should make the trip.

00:07:15.000 Pelosi's controversial stop in Taipei, which would make her the highest-ranking U.S.

00:07:19.000 official to visit the self-governing island in decades, indicates the Pentagon has downgraded its assessment of a potential credible Chinese military threat to the Speaker's safety.

00:07:28.000 Beijing has strongly protested Pelosi's Taiwan visit and issued lurid warnings of a stern Chinese response.

00:07:35.000 A visit to Taiwan by her would constitute a gross interference in China's internal affairs and lead to a very serious situation and grave consequences, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday.

00:07:47.000 I'm assuming you guys saw as well.

00:07:49.000 You had that guy from Global Times basically say, we'll shoot her plane down.

00:07:53.000 So I'm wondering, I got a couple of questions.

00:07:55.000 Why do you think she's going?

00:07:57.000 Is the threat really, is there really a threat?

00:08:01.000 Or is the World War III stuff just people posting it because it gets clicks?

00:08:05.000 Well, once she announced she was going, she had to go.

00:08:07.000 Because when China reacted the way they did, the speaker, the third-ranking person in our government, the speaker in the United States, can't be bullied to going to an allied country because of China.

00:08:19.000 China is the big threat to our country. 1.00

00:08:23.000 It will be for For my lifetime and probably a lifetime of everybody listening to this podcast.

00:08:31.000 China is a serious player.

00:08:32.000 We don't take them as seriously as we should.

00:08:35.000 And I'm very happy.

00:08:39.000 I don't agree with Nancy Pelosi on anything, but I agree that she should go to Taiwan.

00:08:44.000 I'm glad she's going to Taiwan. 1.00

00:08:45.000 Why?

00:08:45.000 I don't know why she's going, but I'm glad she is.

00:08:48.000 And I'm glad she stood up to the Chinese and is going tomorrow. 1.00

00:08:52.000 Yeah.

00:08:52.000 What do you think, Mark?

00:08:53.000 You know, I get a lot of fundraising texts from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

00:08:57.000 It's a great fundraising ploy for Nancy Pelosi.

00:08:59.000 I mean, really, you're going to see texts about this, about how she's saving the free world.

00:09:04.000 And so I think part of it is a political play and she's trying to set herself aside from the Biden administration. 1.00

00:09:08.000 They're going to get their backsides handed to them in this election. 0.97

00:09:12.000 And I think she wants to be able to blame Biden and separate herself from that.

00:09:15.000 Really?

00:09:16.000 She's running for re-election? 1.00

00:09:18.000 She's going to keep going? 0.99

00:09:19.000 How old is she? 0.98

00:09:19.000 She's 83? 0.98

00:09:21.000 She's already been embalmed already, so she can go for a long time.

00:09:24.000 She's older than I thought she was.

00:09:25.000 I thought she was just shy of 80.

00:09:27.000 She's 83?

00:09:27.000 I think.

00:09:27.000 I could be wrong.

00:09:28.000 Yeah, I think that's correct.

00:09:29.000 I think that's right.

00:09:30.000 Yeah, I mean, crazy old.

00:09:31.000 I think there's a problem we have in our government in general that people just serve literally until they pass away, and it's never the way it was intended to be.

00:09:39.000 I think this is one of the fundamental problems in our country.

00:09:41.000 I'm worried about military conflict, especially with China.

00:09:44.000 And I wonder why it is, because, you know, Rick, you mentioned China's the big threat, I think.

00:09:49.000 I agree.

00:09:50.000 Absolutely.

00:09:50.000 Why is it Russia 24-7 on corporate press, mainstream media, Democrats, even a bunch of Republicans just scream Russia all day?

00:09:58.000 Well, because Russia attacked Ukraine.

00:09:59.000 I mean, no one was screaming Russia.

00:10:01.000 I mean, Trump and Russia and the Russian collusion.

00:10:04.000 Well, everyone was screaming Russia because of Russian collusion, but they weren't concerned about Russia as a great threat to the country.

00:10:11.000 China is the great threat. 1.00

00:10:13.000 And candidly, we made China the great threat. 0.99

00:10:15.000 We had a policy, which, by the way, I was supportive of and thought at the time it was a viable policy, which was to try to engage China, Trying to bring China into the 21st century and build up capitalism within China and markets and that that would move China toward a more peaceful and free world.

00:10:37.000 All we've done is armed them with many more resources than they would have ever had if they stuck in there.

00:10:44.000 old pre-market days and made them a real threat.

00:10:49.000 We have to start acting differently.

00:10:51.000 That's a whole nother discussion, but we're not doing enough to confront China right now.

00:10:55.000 Do you regret your position on China?

00:10:57.000 Well, do I regret it?

00:10:58.000 Was it a good idea?

00:11:02.000 Was it a viable option?

00:11:04.000 It hadn't been tried before, and you can say, well, we tried it, it didn't work.

00:11:09.000 I hate going back and saying, well, you know, it was a bad idea.

00:11:13.000 Well, no, it was actually an interesting idea.

00:11:16.000 Could it have worked?

00:11:17.000 Maybe with a different leader in China, maybe with different, I don't know, but it didn't work.

00:11:21.000 You know, I think we just have to recognize it didn't work.

00:11:24.000 There's a long term misunderstanding of Americans of culture internationally, I think we're very ethnocentric, with a Western cultural view, the idea that you are going to take a country with a 3000 year history, and change their view of themselves in the world, you know, they call themselves the one sun, there's only one sun in the galaxy.

00:11:43.000 And that's China.

00:11:44.000 They've always believed that.

00:11:46.000 And so I think it's just, and I think we do this, I'm not pointing at you in particular, but I think we do this as a nation that we look at other countries and we think, oh, they have the same aspirations as we do.

00:11:56.000 You know, they want to be part of the world community.

00:11:58.000 It was never China's aspiration.

00:12:00.000 I'm not saying I understood this back then.

00:12:01.000 I'm saying in hindsight, and I think we need to look at the world more realistically, where are they actually coming from?

00:12:06.000 What's their history?

00:12:07.000 What do they really want?

00:12:08.000 Now, not what can we do?

00:12:09.000 What will they do if we're nice to them?

00:12:11.000 Which tends to be our foreign policy.

00:12:12.000 The only thing I would say is we have to look at it in the context of when this happened.

00:12:16.000 This was basically the late 80s and 90s.

00:12:20.000 And the Soviet Union had fallen.

00:12:22.000 The Iron Curtain had fallen.

00:12:24.000 And so we were feeling our oats that, in fact, we can affect the course of geopolitics.

00:12:32.000 If you remember, books were written, the end of history, right?

00:12:35.000 Democracy and capitalism, that was going to be it.

00:12:38.000 And that was humorous, but If you look at how things had gone, thanks to Reagan and others who stood up against the Soviets and did infiltrate them with a lot of information about free speech and capitalism, you can make the argument it sort of worked.

00:12:53.000 Now, what's happened since then has been a cluster, but it was not an irrational thing to contemplate at the time.

00:13:01.000 I think it's the inverse.

00:13:02.000 I think you had a lot of special interests in the United States that thought, you know, we could democratize China, we could, you know, bring capitalism there.

00:13:08.000 Instead, what's ended up happening is the weird authoritarian, communist, woke stuff has been seeping into our side of things.

00:13:14.000 Our movies are being edited to placate China, not the other way around.

00:13:18.000 Yeah, and I think, look, there's a military power, raw military power, what they do in South China Sea.

00:13:24.000 The economic power and their understanding of economic leverage has been extraordinary.

00:13:29.000 The amount of Chinese money that's flowed into this country, it's not that hard to buy most people.

00:13:35.000 I hate to say that, but when you go to somebody and it's, here's a few million dollars, and people never been able to imagine that kind of money, and all you have to do is be nice about China, censor some stuff about China, people do it.

00:13:47.000 Do you know the stories about how the Chinese would manipulate POWs? 0.78

00:13:51.000 Or, you know, in war?

00:13:52.000 No.

00:13:52.000 What they would do is, they would say something like, if you want to eat today, you need to tell us one thing that you think is wrong with America.

00:13:59.000 Or something to that effect, like whatever country they were from.

00:14:01.000 And they would say something like, we've got a homelessness problem.

00:14:06.000 Right?

00:14:06.000 Of course America's not perfect.

00:14:07.000 But it's one small step at a time.

00:14:09.000 That's the psychological manipulation.

00:14:11.000 And I feel like we're experiencing that on a grand scale.

00:14:14.000 I don't know, you know, we've had guests here who are researchers on China who tell us that we know about what they call the 50 cent army.

00:14:21.000 Are you guys familiar with that?

00:14:22.000 No.

00:14:23.000 That citizens of China or people who work in propaganda get paid 50 cents every time they post something pro-China or disparaging about its enemies.

00:14:31.000 So you go on social media and what happens?

00:14:33.000 You go on Twitter, you go on YouTube, for instance.

00:14:35.000 And you say bad things, they flag you, they mass flag you, they report you.

00:14:39.000 You go on Twitter, all of a sudden you're being inundated, ratioed with people being like, you're wrong and you don't understand.

00:14:44.000 They have these people attempting to manipulate public opinion.

00:14:48.000 I think we had a lot of politicians who really, really underestimated the future of what warfare was going to be like.

00:14:54.000 Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth.

00:14:58.000 We are at war with China. 0.70

00:14:59.000 And I know that people say, oh, you're a warmonger and warmonger.

00:15:03.000 No, no, I'm not saying that we are.

00:15:05.000 In fact, the problem is we're not at war with China.

00:15:07.000 We're not treating China the way they're treating us. 0.99

00:15:11.000 The espionage that goes on here, the stealing of technology, I mean, it's just it is incredible how much of American-created ingenuity has been expropriated to China, and yet we allow thousands, maybe millions, I don't know, of Chinese to come here, to go and get educated here in our countries, and bring all that technology back. 0.91

00:15:35.000 Buy farmland here?

00:15:36.000 Yeah.

00:15:37.000 Oh man.

00:15:39.000 We have to sort of take a step back and say, Why are we letting people come into this country who are here to steal technology, to be educated, to come turn around and then use it against us? 0.99

00:15:50.000 So again, we aren't on a war footing when it comes to China.

00:15:54.000 We would never during, pick another period of history when someone was attacking us, we would never allow them to come and To have positions of power and authority and education and use it to hurt us, and we do with China. 0.89

00:16:09.000 And I think, again, you hit the point.

00:16:11.000 A lot of it is money.

00:16:12.000 I mean, the fact is these universities.

00:16:15.000 need these students and want these students because they pay cash.

00:16:18.000 It's also true of private independent boarding schools.

00:16:21.000 If you look at the ratio of international students, when a school is about to go under, they start really opening the doors to international specifically, usually China and Korea, because their families have the money to pay tuition.

00:16:33.000 They don't have to offer scholarships.

00:16:35.000 I feel like in my lifetime, we've always had sort of been on our back foot with China. 1.00

00:16:39.000 And I increasingly I agree.

00:16:41.000 It's definitely the economic Chokehold that they have on us.

00:16:44.000 I mean, when the White House announced they were going to boycott the Olympics this year, it was like, well, we're going to diplomatically boycott.

00:16:51.000 What's going on with the Uyghurs is really bad. 1.00

00:16:52.000 So we're not going to send Biden.

00:16:55.000 But also, athletes, don't take your phones because they will be hacking them.

00:16:59.000 It's just routine.

00:17:00.000 Like, we took this very strange, like, just boycott.

00:17:02.000 Just don't go.

00:17:03.000 Don't send anyone.

00:17:04.000 And that is definitely a tragedy for a lot of athletes who've worked really hard for that.

00:17:07.000 But We just always placate China. 0.96

00:17:10.000 We don't take this cohesive stance.

00:17:13.000 We always sort of say, well, we're sort of against that.

00:17:16.000 We don't know.

00:17:17.000 And I think it's just, it's so strange.

00:17:19.000 It's the worst part of American foreign policy for me.

00:17:21.000 Because we're economically dependent upon them.

00:17:23.000 That's just the reality.

00:17:25.000 I just got to say it.

00:17:26.000 I mean, this is a lot of what we're talking about is indicative of some kind of Western or US cultural or governmental collapse.

00:17:33.000 Absolutely.

00:17:33.000 That's why I think a convention of states, we've already got people who are chatting saying like they think it's a bad idea for a variety of reasons, which we'll definitely get into in a bit.

00:17:41.000 But what I want to say is, when you take a look at what's going on with China, what do they have? 0.53

00:17:45.000 They have a strong authoritarian structure, a monoculture.

00:17:50.000 That is, the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party.

00:17:53.000 People like to often point out, like, we're not talking about the Chinese people, we're talking about their government.

00:17:56.000 And I'm like, yeah, look, I think colloquially it's understood.

00:18:00.000 We're talking about their government, the stranglehold the government has, the suppression of information they have.

00:18:07.000 We don't have that in the United States.

00:18:08.000 To a certain degree we do, obviously.

00:18:10.000 Big tech censorship, the corporate propaganda press will run lies.

00:18:14.000 But this show exists, so we're clearly better than China, but that's also, as much as it is a strength, it's something they exploit. 0.98

00:18:23.000 They know there are people in this country that they can pay who will say whatever needs to be said because we don't have a cohesive shared culture anymore.

00:18:31.000 It used to be, we were talking about this last week with the fall of empires, I think Zuby was bringing this up.

00:18:36.000 That when you no longer have the idea of, like, God and country.

00:18:40.000 I don't mean that literally, God and country.

00:18:41.000 I mean, like, this idea of, like, this is our country, this is what we believe, this is what we share, this is our experience.

00:18:46.000 When you don't have that anymore, your country can be gutted, ripped apart, and that precipitates the collapse.

00:18:52.000 So now I see what's happening with China.

00:18:54.000 They're absolutely exploiting our political divisions.

00:18:56.000 How much longer can we last when you have the Thousand Talents program?

00:19:00.000 China goes in and they pay professors to give up our research. 0.92

00:19:04.000 Or you've got stories about Chinese nationals ferrying viruses and vials, getting caught and arrested. 0.89

00:19:11.000 There's no respect for this country.

00:19:14.000 And the problem is we don't have a unified culture.

00:19:16.000 We have a culture war, which means they can keep just chipping away at the crack until the rock splits. 0.68

00:19:22.000 Well, that's the intent.

00:19:23.000 The culture war is at least partially being fostered by the Chinese. 0.95

00:19:26.000 It's part of the reason they censor our culture.

00:19:29.000 I have a young friend who's on the UC Berkeley campus, one of the most liberal campuses in the country.

00:19:34.000 She's half ethnic Chinese.

00:19:36.000 Her mom was ethnic Chinese.

00:19:38.000 She was raised in her family to hate America.

00:19:41.000 She was raised to believe that this is a vile, terrible place, that Americans are not to be trusted, and that eventually China would prevail.

00:19:50.000 And China specifically meaning the CCP.

00:19:52.000 That's on a mainstream college campus.

00:19:55.000 That culture, that idea is supported.

00:19:57.000 She said the majority of the Chinese that she knew on campus believed this.

00:20:01.000 You know, she's welcome to walk in those communities because of her partial ethnic Chinese background.

00:20:07.000 And she said, it's just horrendous.

00:20:08.000 It's totally anti-American and it is at the forefront of culture on our college campuses all across the country.

00:20:15.000 How long can something like this go on for?

00:20:17.000 Especially, you know, when I look at Pelosi going to Taiwan, my question is, you know, for what purpose does it serve?

00:20:22.000 Like you were saying just a moment ago, that's a lot of what people are asking.

00:20:25.000 Is it a distraction?

00:20:26.000 Is it the Democrats are failing so miserably that she's like, well, this will shake up the news cycle and get us off the recession?

00:20:33.000 Maybe the idea is like, wartime presidents do well.

00:20:36.000 Maybe if I go there and confront China on something, it'll be good for the Democratic Party. 1.00

00:20:41.000 Yeah, to me it seems like a distraction.

00:20:43.000 I mean, it's an excellent political distraction.

00:20:46.000 They've got no good news that the Democratic Party can run on, right?

00:20:49.000 The economy is a shamble.

00:20:51.000 Our industries are falling apart.

00:20:52.000 Our standing in the international community is at an all-time low.

00:20:56.000 Their own base despises them, basically, at this point.

00:21:00.000 If you look at the numbers among Hispanics, we've never seen anything like this in the modern history of the country. 1.00

00:21:07.000 24% approval rating for Biden among Hispanics, lower than among whites.

00:21:10.000 I mean, it's really extraordinary.

00:21:11.000 So she needs to do something.

00:21:12.000 She needs to roll some kind of political hand grenade in the room to try to distract. 1.00

00:21:17.000 I have taken the approach throughout my time in politics.

00:21:20.000 When someone does something that I think is good for the country, Even though they may be doing it for the wrong reason, I commend them for doing it.

00:21:27.000 And so I'm not going to say anything negative about Nancy Pelosi going there, because I think it's the right thing to do.

00:21:33.000 I agree.

00:21:33.000 The fact that the Biden administration did not want her to go, and it was very clear they didn't want her to go, because they were afraid of China's reaction.

00:21:40.000 And she stood up to them and obviously said she was going.

00:21:44.000 Again, there may be politics behind it.

00:21:47.000 Everybody does everything for a reason.

00:21:48.000 What's your theory on why she did that?

00:21:50.000 I have, I don't know.

00:21:51.000 I have no idea.

00:21:52.000 It makes no sense to me why she's doing it other than she under, maybe she understands.

00:21:59.000 I don't, I can't understand how people don't understand how big a threat China is and how important this conflict is. 0.95

00:22:06.000 And look, we tend to think of everybody on the other side is just horrible, terrible on everything.

00:22:13.000 And they don't care about America anyway.

00:22:18.000 Look, I serve with these people and I think 90% of the time that's true.

00:22:22.000 But there are people that do care about the security of our country and understand that China is a threat on the other side of the aisle. 0.87

00:22:29.000 Maybe she's one of them. 0.74

00:22:30.000 Again, I may be giving her more credit than she deserves, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because she's doing the right thing.

00:22:37.000 I respect her going to Taiwan, but I question it, obviously.

00:22:41.000 And it's like, I really don't like her as a person, everything she represents, the elitism of politics.

00:22:49.000 I think she's a bad person. 0.86

00:22:50.000 I think she's manipulative. 0.96

00:22:51.000 I think she's overly emotional.

00:22:53.000 I think she and her cohorts created untold problems in the United States during the Trump years with the obsession over Russia and the lies they espoused.

00:23:02.000 And I think it's it's all that's true.

00:23:04.000 Right.

00:23:05.000 But I do, you know, respect to going to Taiwan, I guess.

00:23:08.000 But I look, I know her.

00:23:09.000 I served with her.

00:23:10.000 I spent I spent time.

00:23:11.000 I know Nancy.

00:23:12.000 I mean, we're not buddies.

00:23:13.000 But and so this is a real head scratcher for me.

00:23:17.000 But Yeah, you know, look, thinking about the current state of the culture war, and you know, I'm thinking about, we've got the, you know, the first time into the show, we're like, World War Three, China, what's happening?

00:23:28.000 And now it's like a civil war.

00:23:31.000 Are we heading in that direction?

00:23:32.000 Can people trust the politicians?

00:23:34.000 We've got people in the chat who are saying you're a rhino.

00:23:37.000 That's me.

00:23:40.000 And I bet you they've been involved in politics and have worked on conservative causes for 40 years just like I have.

00:23:47.000 I bet I'm a rhino, right?

00:23:51.000 If so many people come up to me who have been a conservative for 20 minutes And they say, oh, this guy's a rhino.

00:23:58.000 Yeah, this guy's a rhino who, if you Google my name, you see what kind of rhino I am, that I've been ostracized for the last 20 years for standing up for cultural truths and for standing up for free markets.

00:24:11.000 And look, I respect everybody can have their opinion on things.

00:24:16.000 And one of the things that I realized is you just go do the right thing and don't worry about what other people say about you.

00:24:22.000 And so I'm out here right now where I'm Teaming up with another guy is called a rhino on occasion, right?

00:24:28.000 Oh, yeah, because among other things among other things for For standing up for the the ultimate in our constitutional freedoms, which is federalism the idea that America will end up Candidly, in a civil war, if we don't begin to respect that people in some areas of the states are going to live their lives differently than people in other areas of the states.

00:24:53.000 And by the way, that was the case from the very beginning.

00:24:55.000 That's what our founders understood could hold a country together as big and diverse even at that point.

00:25:01.000 We were talking about 13 colonies, but they saw the vastness of what could be the United States and they realized, over a country of this size, you're going to have people who are going to behave and want different lifestyles.

00:25:13.000 People who are going to live in the mountains are not going to be the same as people who are going to live in the cities.

00:25:17.000 And the idea that we're going to have a central government that's powerful, that's going to make everybody have the same ideas and philosophies, and not give local control and freedom to states and

00:25:28.000 communities and families to live their lives the way they want, they realized that that was a loser. And

00:25:34.000 so federalism was the approach, and that's what we're trying to restore through this

00:25:38.000 process. Rhode Island. Rogue Island.

00:25:41.000 It's basically a city that has two senators. 0.56

00:25:45.000 That should have lost a seat in Congress during the last census, but they messed up their data.

00:25:49.000 Oh, wow, really?

00:25:50.000 Yeah.

00:25:50.000 Wow.

00:25:51.000 I just think it's funny when the Democrats come out and they're like, why does Wyoming get two senators?

00:25:55.000 I'm like, why does Rhode Island?

00:25:56.000 It's like, I understand there's a million people there.

00:25:58.000 Delaware.

00:25:58.000 Yeah, right.

00:25:59.000 Delaware is only a tiny bit bigger.

00:26:02.000 You know, so I gotta tell you, man, I don't envy, you know, you being in politics.

00:26:07.000 People are always mentioning, like, will you ever consider politics?

00:26:09.000 And I'm like, no, never.

00:26:11.000 There's no way to represent everybody.

00:26:12.000 And that's exactly what the Founding Fathers understood.

00:26:14.000 Look, I think that it's a ridiculous idea that you're going to represent everybody. 1.00

00:26:20.000 You have to be mentally ill to be able to represent everybody. 1.00

00:26:24.000 There's such diversity in this country. 0.99

00:26:27.000 I've always, people have always said, you know, how did you do it?

00:26:29.000 How did you, how did you, you know, go to Washington?

00:26:31.000 And because I always felt like my duty was to do what, gather as much information as I could, look at the context of which everything was done, and make the best decision.

00:26:41.000 And then, Make your case as to why it's right for America, and not worry about the electoral consequence, because you can't just go out and jump from whatever the poll says from one time to another.

00:26:53.000 Look, there's truth, I believe in it, I believe there is a truth, and I believe that our founders put together a process in our Constitution that works, and you just follow those two things, the truth and aligning with the Constitution, and you'll be fine.

00:27:08.000 Yeah, you know, I look at, we often will talk about here, who's right in the culture war?

00:27:15.000 The left or the right?

00:27:16.000 What does left and right even mean, right?

00:27:17.000 I grew up liberal and here I am being called right-wing because one simple reason, I know what's going on in the media.

00:27:23.000 So a really great example, I know what's going on in politics.

00:27:26.000 A really good example is we had a guest on the show who claimed, I said, Joe Biden said, if you want the billion dollars, you got to fire the prosecutor.

00:27:34.000 And he looked at me, smirked and said, that never happened.

00:27:37.000 And then I pulled up the video and played it for him and he was shocked.

00:27:40.000 This is what makes you right-wing these days.

00:27:42.000 That if you show a video in the news that people are talking about, they don't know.

00:27:46.000 Why?

00:27:46.000 Because CNN's lying.

00:27:48.000 Because MSNBC is lying.

00:27:49.000 On occasion, Fox News even.

00:27:51.000 So when you've got... Here's what I see.

00:27:53.000 It's the rule for the Democrats that they are misleading you.

00:27:57.000 It is the exception with Republicans that they're misleading you.

00:27:59.000 There are a lot of bad Republicans.

00:28:00.000 They're often misleading you.

00:28:02.000 But there's a handful of really good ones On the Democrat side, we had Tulsi Gabbard, I thought, was being honest.

00:28:08.000 I didn't agree with some of her political positions.

00:28:10.000 Look what happened to her. 1.00

00:28:10.000 Now she's going on Fox News. 1.00

00:28:11.000 Now she's- She's alt-right now.

00:28:13.000 I know!

00:28:14.000 Because when you talk about what's true, that clearly makes you right-wing, even if you're political positions.

00:28:21.000 How do we salvage, I hate to say it, this country?

00:28:25.000 How do we save it?

00:28:27.000 When you've got people who believe media lies, that the media can just make something up, Claim you're the one making it up!

00:28:36.000 And the example I always give, these are the people who believe Jesse Smollett.

00:28:39.000 These are the people who chase after the Russiagate narrative for years and spent tens of millions of dollars.

00:28:44.000 These are the people who smeared the Covenant in Catholic kids. 0.99

00:28:46.000 Clearly they got a track record of being wrong.

00:28:50.000 But there are people who just never break out of those lies.

00:28:53.000 How do you do it?

00:28:54.000 Especially when we're talking about for you, you know, or anyone else who's in office, you're showing up and you're like, okay, that's not true, Nancy.

00:29:02.000 The thing you're saying about Trump didn't happen.

00:29:04.000 Why do you believe that?

00:29:05.000 And then she votes on something based on a fabrication.

00:29:07.000 They vote because Jussie Smollett said something.

00:29:10.000 The only thing you can do is continue to fight and tell the truth.

00:29:15.000 I mean, that's all you have.

00:29:17.000 And I would make the argument, I mean, look at this show as an example.

00:29:22.000 I got involved in politics a lifetime ago.

00:29:25.000 I was first elected to Congress in 1990.

00:29:27.000 I was 32 years old.

00:29:29.000 And the only way I could ever get the truth out was to buy an ad.

00:29:37.000 Talk radio didn't even exist.

00:29:39.000 Rush Limbaugh was just getting started back then.

00:29:43.000 Everything was whatever the newspaper or the television said and there weren't cable news networks even back then.

00:29:51.000 So all you had was the national media and then your local media and if you had a dissenting voice You either had to run a campaign and buy ads, or you had to knock on as many doors as you could.

00:30:05.000 So the idea that we are powerless to fight against these lies, you're at a case in point where that simply isn't true.

00:30:14.000 The reality is, we have more opportunity to get our point across today than we've ever had.

00:30:20.000 Now, they have more opportunities to get there because there's more media generally.

00:30:25.000 The bigger problem we have is not that we can't get our message out.

00:30:29.000 It's how do you talk to people that don't agree with you?

00:30:32.000 That's the problem.

00:30:33.000 The problem is we're siloed.

00:30:36.000 Everybody just gets, you know, information that agrees with their point of view and they discount to the point of not believing anything that comes from people that they don't agree with.

00:30:48.000 It's true, but it is the rule on the left and the exception on the right.

00:30:52.000 There's a decent amount of people on the right who believe fake things and they just look for tribal answers.

00:30:57.000 But on the left, it is the rule.

00:30:58.000 It's a way of life.

00:30:59.000 Yeah, so for instance... Because they don't believe in truth.

00:31:03.000 Correct.

00:31:03.000 I mean, let's just get to the bottom line.

00:31:05.000 I completely agree.

00:31:06.000 They believe in... They have a relativism point of view.

00:31:12.000 My truth.

00:31:13.000 It's my truth.

00:31:14.000 And whatever they think is the truth.

00:31:18.000 And conservatives by and large, not all, because we have some iTruth folks on our side too, but overall I think you're right.

00:31:24.000 It's the exception.

00:31:25.000 We believe there is a truth, there is a right and wrong, there is reason, and through reason you can come to a conclusion.

00:31:33.000 They don't believe that anymore.

00:31:34.000 It's how I feel.

00:31:36.000 Exactly.

00:31:36.000 Go ahead.

00:31:37.000 I was going to say they don't believe in truth, they believe there is no truth but power.

00:31:42.000 Correct.

00:31:42.000 That's it.

00:31:43.000 Which actually, the roots of it, even in our modern culture today, come from Marxism.

00:31:47.000 I mean, that is the core ideal of Marxism.

00:31:51.000 And ultimately, one of the things that Marxists do, and they've always done throughout history, is if you can control what people say, you can control what they think.

00:32:00.000 If you can control what they think, you control reality, essentially.

00:32:04.000 And you're in total control then.

00:32:05.000 This is the ultimate aim of totalitarianism and ultimately that is the aim of the modern democratic party.

00:32:11.000 That's why you see a complete effort to redefine everything.

00:32:15.000 To make words mean nothing.

00:32:17.000 Didn't they redefine the word definition?

00:32:19.000 That may have been a meme.

00:32:21.000 Do you know what the people's mic is?

00:32:23.000 That there's a reference to?

00:32:24.000 No.

00:32:25.000 During Occupy Wall Street, this probably predates Occupy, but this is when I first encountered it.

00:32:30.000 Absolutely.

00:32:30.000 You're not allowed to use electronic voice amplification in New York.

00:32:33.000 So what we're going to do is when I say something, everyone repeat it back at me so that everyone

00:32:37.000 can hear.

00:32:39.000 Then the speaker stands up and says, mic check.

00:32:43.000 Everyone yells, mic check.

00:32:44.000 And then they'll say something that the entire crowd repeats.

00:32:47.000 Now anybody who knows anything about cults knows that that's a cult and cult indoctrination

00:32:51.000 technique.

00:32:52.000 I remember their videos.

00:32:53.000 And the videos are insanely creepy.

00:32:54.000 There's one where I posted on Instagram where everyone's sitting with their hands up and there's someone chanting like, you know, Black Lives Matter is good and everyone just repeats it after the speaker.

00:33:06.000 It's like they've... and this is with amplification.

00:33:09.000 So we're no longer in the space where we need to lie and claim.

00:33:12.000 We're just trying to make people sound louder so you can hear what they had to say.

00:33:15.000 Now they have the speakers and they're still doing the same thing because Making you say something over and over again and drives it, drills it into your brain.

00:33:23.000 I think we're dealing with a cult and their counter is projection.

00:33:27.000 They say the right is projecting on us.

00:33:29.000 And then it's like, bro, you, you believe Jesse Smollett.

00:33:32.000 Spare me.

00:33:33.000 Okay.

00:33:33.000 Well, the Trump people are in the Q cult.

00:33:35.000 And I'm like, that's like 10 people.

00:33:37.000 Okay.

00:33:37.000 In all seriousness, there's maybe a few thousand, maybe tens of thousand, but we're talking about 74 million people who voted for Trump.

00:33:43.000 They don't believe that stuff.

00:33:45.000 These are people who work in, you know, union steel mills or whatever. 0.53

00:33:48.000 They don't believe all that crazy nonsense.

00:33:50.000 Some of them do. 0.60

00:33:51.000 And those are the ones that Comedy Central puts on TV.

00:33:54.000 But when you go to the left, these are the prominent million subscriber channels pumping out nonsense, misinformation and lies.

00:34:01.000 Rachel Maddow nearly crying when the revelations that Trump didn't collude with Russia came out.

00:34:06.000 I mean, did you see the video?

00:34:07.000 Oh, yeah.

00:34:07.000 And I do think that's the fundamental difference.

00:34:09.000 You just nailed it, which is they'll pick the fringe on the right and try to make them mainstream.

00:34:16.000 But the fringe on the left are the mainstream politicians, the mainstream media figures, the Hollywood figures.

00:34:22.000 They're saying completely insane stuff that if anybody in the right ever said anything equivalent to that, if a Senator Santorum said something equivalent to that, it would be a 24-7 news meltdown.

00:34:32.000 Yeah, the difference is that when our French people say French things, we condemn our French people and we walk away from them. 0.97

00:34:38.000 And when their French people say French things, well actually, their mainstream people say French things.

00:34:43.000 I was going to say, I've learned more about Q from NPR than I have from any right-wing person I've ever met in my life.

00:34:49.000 I had no idea the details until I heard NPR give me a thorough explanation.

00:34:54.000 I learned it from CNN, not NPR, but yeah, same thing.

00:34:56.000 Let's talk about the Convention of States.

00:34:58.000 So, you know, we've been talking about, first, the potential for international conflict, but that leads us into internal conflict, people believing fake news.

00:35:08.000 We've got a problem in the federal government.

00:35:10.000 People aren't feeling like they're being represented.

00:35:12.000 There's a lot of people who wonder if a Convention of States, what is it, Article 5 Convention of States to amend the Constitution, I think?

00:35:18.000 Yep, that's exactly right.

00:35:19.000 Let me pull up this story from Business Insider.

00:35:21.000 This is Business Insider.

00:35:23.000 Trump-tied conservatives are 15 states away from an unprecedented rewrite of the Constitution.

00:35:28.000 Is that you or me?

00:35:29.000 I don't know if Trump would call me a tied conservative.

00:35:31.000 I thought you guys were Rhinos. 1.00

00:35:32.000 I mean, I'm surprised to hear that you're base guys.

00:35:35.000 Now we're Trump conservatives, so there you go.

00:35:37.000 So, 15 states away from an unprecedented constitutional convention.

00:35:42.000 Now, I bring up this article simply because they're shocked.

00:35:45.000 They're worried.

00:35:46.000 There may be constitutional amendments at the state level.

00:35:48.000 I think it's fantastic.

00:35:51.000 So, what is this?

00:35:54.000 They're freaked out.

00:35:55.000 They think it's a bad thing.

00:35:57.000 We've had people already saying they're concerned that if you get uniparty establishment types to have the power of a convention of states, it's going to be gutting the Constitution.

00:36:07.000 My view on that one, my counter before I throw it to you guys, is the state-level guys aren't the federal-level establishment rhinos.

00:36:14.000 People working at the state level are voted in by much smaller amounts of people.

00:36:20.000 So when it comes to a convention of states, you've got state reps, state legislators.

00:36:25.000 So these are local guys.

00:36:27.000 Why is it that you guys want this?

00:36:28.000 What are your thoughts on it?

00:36:29.000 on as a good or bad obviously.

00:36:30.000 Well I think first of all one of the most telling things about that Business Insider

00:36:33.000 article there's a statement of absolute horror that Congress couldn't control it, the President

00:36:40.000 couldn't control it, and the courts couldn't control it.

00:36:42.000 You mean the central government could not act?

00:36:44.000 Oh my god.

00:36:45.000 What are we gonna do?

00:36:46.000 Horror, absolute horror, right?

00:36:48.000 So I literally saw that article, it's a hit piece against us, and I thought, this is fantastic.

00:36:52.000 It's against you, it's a hit piece against you guys specifically.

00:36:54.000 Yeah, against Convention Estates.

00:36:56.000 A group with ties to Trump's orbit, and corporate America is leading the push.

00:37:01.000 Meanwhile, Trump is like, get out of here you guys, I don't even want you here.

00:37:05.000 I love it.

00:37:05.000 Corporate America.

00:37:06.000 I do occasionally go to grocery stores owned by corporations and I mean that's my tie to my tie to corporate America.

00:37:12.000 I drive a car that was produced by, that's about it really.

00:37:15.000 This is a grassroots group.

00:37:17.000 There are over 5.2 million people involved, just regular folks all over the country.

00:37:21.000 They're actually in every single state legislative district in the United States of America.

00:37:25.000 And I understand why the establishment is terrified of this.

00:37:29.000 And by the way, there's plenty of establishment on the right that is terrified of this too.

00:37:32.000 They don't want us taking their power away and giving it back to the people.

00:37:36.000 That's the entire purpose of this.

00:37:37.000 The founders intended it for right now.

00:37:40.000 This gets in the constitution in 1787.

00:37:43.000 Colonel George Mason from Virginia stands up Two days before the end of convention, he says, this is terrible.

00:37:48.000 We drafted a document, doesn't give the power to the people to propose amendments, but we gave that power to Congress.

00:37:54.000 And he asks, are we so naive that we believe that a government that becomes a tyranny will restrain its own tyranny?

00:38:00.000 Wow.

00:38:01.000 Got to give the power to the people, right?

00:38:03.000 And in fact, it's really weird.

00:38:04.000 In Madison's notes, that's where we know everything that happened from the convention.

00:38:07.000 All it says right there is NINCOM, Latin abbreviation for no comment. 1.00

00:38:11.000 Not one guy in that room said, George, that's such a stupid idea. 0.99

00:38:15.000 Everybody was a forehead slap. 1.00

00:38:17.000 I think they probably laughed in that moment.

00:38:20.000 So they put in the second clause of article five saying someday federal government's going to get out of control.

00:38:25.000 We're going to count on you folks in the States to handle it.

00:38:27.000 Are they gonna?

00:38:28.000 Yeah, well, let me just a little further that if you read anything about the founding, the founders were fixated on checks and balances.

00:38:37.000 They wanted to have each branch of government check each other.

00:38:41.000 They wanted have the states to be a check.

00:38:44.000 They were concerned about the aggregation of power into a central government or particularly because they came from Places where there are kings and emperors.

00:38:54.000 They didn't want that power to all be in one place because they knew eventually tyranny would be taken over and the president or leader at the time would do that.

00:39:04.000 And so they put in the United States Senate as a check and the biggest check was that the United States Senate was going to be appointed by the state legislatures.

00:39:15.000 And people forget that for the first 140 years of the Republic, Washington, D.C.

00:39:20.000 was a backwater town with no power.

00:39:24.000 It was.

00:39:24.000 Yeah, it wasn't important.

00:39:25.000 Do you know what the largest source of revenue for the federal government was before the 17th Amendment, which changed the way senators were elected?

00:39:32.000 Like selling booze or something?

00:39:33.000 Exactly.

00:39:33.000 It was the tax on alcohol.

00:39:35.000 The reason we got the income tax is because of the temperance movement.

00:39:40.000 Because the temperance movement could never pass in Washington.

00:39:44.000 Prohibition couldn't pass in Washington because they couldn't give up the tax on alcohol.

00:39:48.000 So the conservatives traded their vote for the income tax in exchange for prohibition.

00:39:54.000 So we got the worst of both worlds, in my opinion.

00:39:56.000 But anyway, they also passed a constitutional amendment to change the way senators were elected, to instead of having the states checking Washington from doing things to take the power away from them and the people, now it's the people that elected the Senate.

00:40:13.000 So they took away the biggest check on power of Washington, D.C.

00:40:17.000 And so this is the only other piece of the Constitution left.

00:40:21.000 To check power from the states is Article 5 and a convention of states.

00:40:26.000 I think it was Ben Sasse who said, maybe like a year ago, that we should repeal the 17th.

00:40:31.000 Oh, absolutely.

00:40:32.000 Return the Senate to the— I would—before that, it has no chance of ever happening.

00:40:36.000 Yeah, I agree.

00:40:36.000 I completely agree.

00:40:37.000 People need to understand, there's a lot of people who look at single-layer issues, the surface.

00:40:42.000 The people choose the senators.

00:40:43.000 It's way better.

00:40:44.000 Oh, it sounds way better.

00:40:45.000 And they say the idea that only the legislators would be able to appoint their friends.

00:40:49.000 No, no, listen.

00:40:50.000 People have lost their connection with their local politics because there's no skin in the game anymore.

00:40:55.000 And not only did the 17th gut state power to that regard, it weakened Article 5 as well, because people aren't paying attention to their local races anymore.

00:41:06.000 And the most important, too.

00:41:07.000 So I'll throw it to, you know, for one, when I first heard him say that, I was like, what?

00:41:13.000 Why would you want that?

00:41:14.000 I mean, the initial idea was that better men would appoint senators, and that sounds pretentious and elitist.

00:41:20.000 And then you think about the math of it, the logic, and you're like, People need to be focused on their states.

00:41:27.000 We hear it all the time from members of Congress.

00:41:29.000 They're running for election and they're like, in our town, crime is up X percent.

00:41:33.000 When I get to Washington, I'm going to clean this town up.

00:41:35.000 And it's like, no, you're not.

00:41:35.000 You're going to the federal government to vote on federal policy.

00:41:38.000 Our local elected representatives are going to fix that problem.

00:41:40.000 But people lost that connection.

00:41:43.000 So, I would be for that.

00:41:45.000 I love the idea of a convention of states.

00:41:47.000 My one fear is it utopian.

00:41:50.000 Like, you know, because I'll tell you this, you know what I'd love to see?

00:41:52.000 I'd love to see a convention of states happens.

00:41:55.000 The states are all predominantly conservative, which means there's a bunch of things I like, probably a lot of things I wouldn't agree with being more moderate, but gun rights, for instance.

00:42:03.000 I'd love to just see them be like, hey, you know what we're gonna do?

00:42:06.000 We're gonna issue an amendment that says, to reaffirm the second amendment, citizens of this country can keep and bear arms of any type, or accessory, or otherwise, there you go, we've spelled it out, and then just like, stamp.

00:42:21.000 Here's one of the important things.

00:42:23.000 Well, there's several important things.

00:42:23.000 that really happened, my fear is you'll get, they'll go in and say, we're going to compromise

00:42:28.000 on the second amendment and say, okay, we're going to restrict these things and make sure

00:42:31.000 it's codified now.

00:42:33.000 The here's the, the, one of the important things, well, there's several important things.

00:42:37.000 Number one is that the convention is being called pursuant to a resolution that has to

00:42:42.000 be adopted as you see on that map by, by 34 states.

00:42:46.000 And the resolution calling the convention is the governing document of the convention.

00:42:53.000 And that resolution, and Mark can go through it because he knows it inside out better than I do, but that resolution is a is a resolution that says three types of amendments are eligible.

00:43:04.000 All three types of amendments are limiting Amendments that limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government or spending of the federal government.

00:43:15.000 So an amendment offered at that convention that compromises, as you say, on the Second Amendment and weakens the Second Amendment would thereby strengthen the federal government and would be out of order at the convention.

00:43:29.000 What if they argued that the Constitution as a facet of government is being limited by taking out some of its protections?

00:43:36.000 The application, the resolutions themselves specifically say that they're intended to limit the scope, the power, and the jurisdiction of the federal government.

00:43:44.000 So if it's not taking power away from the federal government and returning to the people, it would be what's called non-germane in legal terms.

00:43:52.000 And I want to address something much more practical than that.

00:43:56.000 It's important that people understand.

00:43:57.000 I hear that people are afraid of convention.

00:43:59.000 Convention is a place to get together, have a debate and make some suggestions.

00:44:03.000 Now I can tell you in my entire adult life, I've never had anybody say, Hey, I'd like you to go to a meeting.

00:44:08.000 We're going to sit around a table.

00:44:09.000 We're going to make some suggestions.

00:44:10.000 And my response was, Oh my God, that's so terrifying.

00:44:13.000 Please don't have a discussion because when it comes out of convention has to be ratified by 38 states.

00:44:18.000 And I'd throw this out to your people who are watching the podcast right now that might be worried about this.

00:44:24.000 I've said this to literally millions of people in the air.

00:44:26.000 My personal email address, mmechler at cosaction.com.

00:44:31.000 If you're concerned about this, then just in layman's terms, send me the amendment you're worried about, and on the bottom of that, list the 38 states that'll ratify it.

00:44:39.000 And the answer is, I've offered that to millions of people.

00:44:42.000 I've not received an email because it's impossible.

00:44:45.000 We're talking about the Second Amendment.

00:44:47.000 Today, there are actually 24 states in which you can carry your handgun in the Capitol.

00:44:52.000 I know I've done it in most of them.

00:44:54.000 There are 14 states where you can take a loaded AR, sling it across your back, and sit in the gallery and watch the proceedings.

00:45:01.000 It takes only 13 states to stop any amendment.

00:45:03.000 Are you telling me we can't get 13 states to limit or to stop an amendment to do anything to the second?

00:45:10.000 It makes no sense.

00:45:11.000 I'm for convention of states for one simple reason.

00:45:15.000 This ain't working.

00:45:16.000 Exactly.

00:45:17.000 We think we're going to elect these people.

00:45:19.000 Nancy Pelosi, she can't lose.

00:45:21.000 She even said, she held up a glass of water and said, you put a glass of water in my or AOC's district, you put a D on it, it's going to get elected. 0.56

00:45:29.000 That's true.

00:45:29.000 Something's got to change.

00:45:30.000 Something.

00:45:31.000 The reality is that we know where America's headed, and it is in a pretty place.

00:45:36.000 We are seeing more and more centralization of power.

00:45:38.000 We are seeing our freedoms being violated.

00:45:41.000 We've seen our culture becoming more and more woke.

00:45:44.000 And the reality is, and let's just, even the more, the biggest reality, we're $31 trillion in debt.

00:45:52.000 I mean just a few years ago we were like six and all of a sudden we're like 30 trillion dollars and and by the way we're looking at 40 50 at some point this this house of cards falls apart and we're sitting here saying well we'll trust Washington to fix that.

00:46:08.000 Does anyone actually believe they will fix it?

00:46:11.000 No, no one does.

00:46:12.000 So what are you afraid of?

00:46:14.000 Are you afraid of a group of legislators getting together and offering up proposals?

00:46:20.000 Because again, you read the constitutional language, the convention can propose amendments.

00:46:25.000 That's it.

00:46:26.000 Shall call a convention for proposing amendments.

00:46:29.000 That's the quote from Article 5.

00:46:30.000 So they don't ratify anything.

00:46:32.000 They simply offer up suggestions that go to the states for ratification.

00:46:37.000 And Do I think we'll have dramatic changes at this convention or proposals that will fundamentally change the Constitution?

00:46:46.000 Probably not.

00:46:47.000 Because it's going to be really hard to get 38 states to ratify anything.

00:46:51.000 But the fact that we would actually call a convention of states and have a national discussion.

00:46:58.000 I mean, imagine, imagine if next week or next month a convention was being called to by and having all 50 states send delegates to propose amendments to the Constitution.

00:47:10.000 Everybody would be talking about it.

00:47:11.000 It'd be amazing.

00:47:12.000 It'd be on the front page of every paper for months.

00:47:15.000 We would have groups arguing and forming to propose amendments and get behind amendments.

00:47:21.000 We'd have actually civics taught in our schools about what the Constitution is, what rights actually are federal rights, what rights are state rights, where are they better situated.

00:47:31.000 At a time when we are so divided and so broken, having a national conversation about Who we are and how we'd like to go forward as a country is really needed.

00:47:42.000 If you guys could propose, in your minds, the amendments that should be proposed, what do you think?

00:47:48.000 Yeah, I mean, I think some of them are obvious that most people talk about.

00:47:51.000 One you hear all the time is some form of balanced budget amendment.

00:47:54.000 And I would say that's got to be, it's got to have spending caps and taxation caps tied to it.

00:48:00.000 I mean, this is critical.

00:48:01.000 The folks in Washington, D.C., they're never going to make the hard decisions.

00:48:03.000 Why would they?

00:48:04.000 They get punished for making those decisions.

00:48:06.000 What?

00:48:07.000 Oh, you want to cut off money to children and widows and that's how it's always presented.

00:48:12.000 So you put in a structure that forces them to make the hard decisions.

00:48:15.000 I think that's a no-brainer.

00:48:17.000 Term limits for civil servants.

00:48:19.000 So this is one of my favorites.

00:48:20.000 And if you look at our resolution, this is really important.

00:48:23.000 It does talk about term limits, but it says term limits for members of Congress and federal officials.

00:48:30.000 And it's exactly because of what you said, because you don't want to empower the bureaucracy.

00:48:34.000 You don't want to empower the staffers.

00:48:36.000 If you're going to turn Congress, you better turn federal officials.

00:48:39.000 And by the way, now we know of this as the deep state, right?

00:48:42.000 That was conspiracy theory stuff a couple of years ago.

00:48:45.000 But so you can turn out the deep state when these people are in DC for 30 years, 35 years, they have the power and they have more power than the politicians and they're unaccountable and unelected.

00:48:54.000 Yeah.

00:48:54.000 I'll throw a couple at you.

00:48:55.000 One, I think actually could pass.

00:48:57.000 And I know there are people who might question that, which is to limit the Supreme court to nine members.

00:49:03.000 Uh, and certainly every Republican would vote for it. 0.90

00:49:06.000 Every Republican.

00:49:07.000 But I look, there are some fringe people on the Democratic side who are for court packing.

00:49:13.000 But the vast majority of Democrats out there across the country realize that if we start this game of the Democrats adding four and then the Republicans adding, it's a zoo.

00:49:25.000 And so putting that in the Constitution would be, if that's the only thing that comes out of the convention, and there's no question that will come out of the convention, if that's the only thing that happens, that would actually be a good thing and a stabilizing thing, something we can all sort of agree on.

00:49:42.000 By the way, having something that we can all agree on that's a big deal is good for a country every now and then.

00:49:47.000 You don't see it happen very much.

00:49:48.000 The other thing I think, too, the point you guys made about the 38 states is that these are conservative states that are gearing up towards this.

00:49:55.000 It's not like New York.

00:49:56.000 31 of the 50 states right now, the legislatures are controlled by Republicans.

00:50:03.000 That's going to go to at least 32 or 33 this year and maybe more.

00:50:07.000 And with Virginia, which is one one house is controlled by Republicans, one is one short in

00:50:12.000 the Senate.

00:50:16.000 You could have 34 states controlled by Republicans, and if that happens, we need 34 states to

00:50:22.000 get to a resolution passed to have this convention called.

00:50:27.000 We could have this convention called in a year or two.

00:50:30.000 But you'll need 38 to ratify it.

00:50:32.000 But again, I'd love to see, like I said, I'd love to see the court packing thing.

00:50:37.000 And I'd love to see, for example, the federal government should play no role in primary and secondary education.

00:50:42.000 And you'd say, well, that I have no chance of passing.

00:50:44.000 I don't know if I'm Connecticut or California.

00:50:48.000 I don't want Donald Trump or Rick Santorum coming into Washington, D.C., telling me how to run my schools any more than if I'm in Alabama.

00:50:54.000 I want Joe Biden tell me how to run my school.

00:50:56.000 So you'd be surprised.

00:50:57.000 Remember, these are state legislators, not congressmen and senators.

00:51:01.000 You'd be surprised how many legislators would say, you know what, we don't want the federal government telling us what to do.

00:51:07.000 So don't be surprised that there will be more things that could limit the power of the federal government that actually could be adopted, even when you need 38 states to do it.

00:51:15.000 Let me give you a real easy one that most people don't talk about.

00:51:18.000 It's called a single subject amendment.

00:51:19.000 A lot of states have this and people are furious.

00:51:22.000 You get these omnibus bills.

00:51:23.000 They're 2000 pages that no one has read.

00:51:26.000 No one, no one could read them to be realistic.

00:51:29.000 And honestly, if you've ever tried what you would find is there's so many references to other statutes and portions of the, you can't, nobody can understand them.

00:51:36.000 Right.

00:51:36.000 So a single subject amendment says one thing per bill and the American people, if you ask them, it's 99% of the American people would say, yeah, absolutely.

00:51:45.000 We can ratify that easily.

00:51:48.000 I wonder, how is it that we get this omnibus spending bill?

00:51:52.000 It's like 5,000 pages.

00:51:53.000 Who writes that, and why do people vote on it?

00:51:55.000 I mean, you've got experience there.

00:51:58.000 Well, every year the Congress is supposed to pass 13 bills to spend the money, and what happens is that takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of time on the floor of the House and Senate, and they don't want to spend all the time talking about those things, so in the end they put it up all into one bill.

00:52:15.000 It's called an omnibus bill because they didn't pass all the 13.

00:52:18.000 They may pass two or three of them.

00:52:20.000 But there's like random weird stuff thrown in these things.

00:52:24.000 Look, it is a process by which you have to get 218 votes in the House and 51 votes in the Senate and or, or more in some cases, 60 votes in the Senate.

00:52:34.000 So what do you do?

00:52:36.000 You horse trade and you say, you want, you know, I don't want to vote for this.

00:52:40.000 Well, how about if I give you this?

00:52:41.000 Okay.

00:52:41.000 I'll vote for it.

00:52:42.000 Wow.

00:52:42.000 I mean, that's the way things get done.

00:52:45.000 It's sort of, I don't know if either of you are married, but sometimes you gotta have to, you know, give and take a little bit if you're going to get things done.

00:52:51.000 And that's, that's how the process works.

00:52:53.000 We like to talk about guns as a really good example of how different people live different lives in different terrains, right?

00:52:58.000 So if you live in the mountains, for instance, well, we got bears out here.

00:53:02.000 You know, you certainly want to have some kind of protection for yourself.

00:53:04.000 I don't know how you deal with an actual bear because you don't need a big giant pinocchio.

00:53:08.000 But a raccoon or a fox, right?

00:53:11.000 Maybe we've had raccoons out here and you know, you don't want to be chased by one.

00:53:16.000 Should it be ravenous or whatever you you know, coyotes, coyotes, for

00:53:19.000 instance, the chickens, you live in New York City, I get it, you

00:53:22.000 don't want a gun, you know, and then people are shooting each

00:53:24.000 other. Fine. I think the Second Amendment, you know, is for the

00:53:28.000 entire country, including New York and the people who live 0.94

00:53:30.000 there have the right to defend themselves. Yeah, but the idea

00:53:32.000 we have to bring up is that the people in New York City who

00:53:34.000 don't like guns vote for people in West Virginia, which makes

00:53:36.000 no sense. I'll give you a better example is air conditioning. You

00:53:40.000 got the people in the blue areas who are like, you know, we don't

00:53:43.000 need air conditioning. It's a luxury. It's bad for the climate

00:53:45.000 and the people in Miami are like How dare you?

00:53:47.000 Because they got to say.

00:53:49.000 You couldn't live in Miami.

00:53:50.000 They got a statue of the guy who invented air conditioning down there.

00:53:52.000 Texas just secedes.

00:53:54.000 They're like, we're out.

00:53:55.000 We're out.

00:53:56.000 We need it.

00:53:57.000 We can't live without it.

00:53:58.000 So, you know, that's, that's, that's not the same as a weapon, but that shows you that if you live in a cooler climate with less hot days, you're probably thinking to yourself, who needs this stuff?

00:54:08.000 That's fine.

00:54:08.000 Well, that's fine.

00:54:09.000 If we're going to get rid of air conditioning in the South, we'll get rid of heat in the North.

00:54:13.000 Oh, yeah, exactly.

00:54:15.000 Heat burns as much energy as air conditioning, right?

00:54:17.000 Same process.

00:54:18.000 It sounds like that's the problem with compromise, because you're in office and someone says, I want to spend X amount of dollars in this place for this reason.

00:54:27.000 You're like, well, that doesn't matter that much to me.

00:54:28.000 Give me this and I'll do it.

00:54:30.000 You basically start getting these weird policies that That's why you have to take the jurisdiction away from the government.

00:54:36.000 You're never going to... Look, that's happened since the beginning of the republic.

00:54:42.000 They've always been horse trading.

00:54:45.000 It has to be that way.

00:54:46.000 And you can make the argument that it actually reflects the needs of the different parts of the country because you horse trade for something that I want in Alabama, that you need in New York.

00:54:55.000 There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

00:54:57.000 What's wrong is that they shouldn't have the jurisdiction to do things that are not within the federal government's purview.

00:55:05.000 Yeah, the question is how much power do they have, right?

00:55:08.000 If you take the power away, then you limit the amount of horse trading that goes on to the things that are more fundamental to the federal government.

00:55:14.000 And honestly, most people then wouldn't care about what goes on in Washington, D.C., which is really how it was always intended to be.

00:55:21.000 What you were supposed to care about were your local politics.

00:55:24.000 What was the local school board doing?

00:55:25.000 What's your city council or township doing?

00:55:27.000 Those were the things that were supposed to affect you as a citizen.

00:55:31.000 The founders would be stunned that we allow so much stuff to happen in Washington.

00:55:35.000 The federal government was supposed to take care of making sure that we were safe from foreign threats, that there was interstate commerce that could flow between the two, and that we had some trade policy to make sure that we were able to trade goods and services back and forth.

00:55:49.000 And we've gone way beyond, and the answer is to pull it back.

00:55:54.000 I want to talk about the other side of this.

00:55:56.000 So we're reading a story from Business Insider.

00:55:59.000 It's very critical of this convention of states, where you basically have conservative-leaning states are slowly getting closer and closer to calling an Article 5 convention.

00:56:07.000 So just for those who missed the segment.

00:56:09.000 But on the other side of this, you have the more liberal-leaning states getting closer and closer to a national popular vote coalition, which would undermine the Electoral College, and in my opinion, literally just be telling the world, like the moment that happens, Hey, we want to do a civil war here, is basically what you're saying if you do this.

00:56:26.000 I think it's a terrible idea.

00:56:27.000 A convention of states is like, well, they'll propose some amendments, maybe they can happen.

00:56:33.000 But, I mean, if you need 38 states to ratify anyway, that could happen through the Congress anyway, I'd imagine.

00:56:40.000 A convention of states being called opens a conversation.

00:56:43.000 Undermining the Electoral College through states agreeing with each other just instantly ends the Republic electoral process for the president.

00:56:53.000 It fundamentally changes how we elect a president and makes the flyover states Real flyover states.

00:57:01.000 They become ignored because that's not where the votes are.

00:57:07.000 The presidential campaigns will be run in California, Texas, Florida, and New York.

00:57:13.000 That's where it will be decided.

00:57:14.000 And it's not just that, though.

00:57:16.000 And that's, by the way, every president will be beholding to those big blue population centers because that's where the people live.

00:57:24.000 Yes!

00:57:24.000 even in red states.

00:57:26.000 Yes.

00:57:27.000 You realize this.

00:57:28.000 Yeah.

00:57:29.000 So West Virginia, for instance.

00:57:30.000 Yeah.

00:57:31.000 When you go to the cities in West Virginia, they're still more liberal leaning.

00:57:34.000 And the surprising thing is to me, you know, in the second most Trump supporting state,

00:57:38.000 you can go to a city and see the rainbow flags.

00:57:41.000 There's a areas of Virginia, rural Virginia as well.

00:57:45.000 When you're out in the farmland, when you're out in the rural areas and the houses are

00:57:48.000 few and far between, what do you see?

00:57:49.000 You see Trump signs everywhere.

00:57:51.000 We got one big sign over here.

00:57:52.000 It's a gigantic sign.

00:57:53.000 It says the swamp is 40 miles that way.

00:57:55.000 It's hilarious.

00:57:56.000 And then you go into a town of 20, 30,000 people, still the city, and you see the BLM flags.

00:58:01.000 So what's going to happen then is, you got a politician with only so much money.

00:58:05.000 We go national popular vote, it's going to be, even in West Virginia, the politicians are going to be saying things to pander to liberals.

00:58:13.000 Because you got 20,000 votes, I can go here, do a rally, get all of them, or I can go to farms?

00:58:20.000 Come on, that's too difficult.

00:58:21.000 It's too far away.

00:58:22.000 So this is just, I think this is the inversion of it.

00:58:26.000 Of, you know, what we see at the Convention of States.

00:58:27.000 This is a move being made by the Democrat-Liberal-leaning states.

00:58:31.000 Which I think.

00:58:32.000 To centralize power.

00:58:33.000 Right.

00:58:34.000 Yeah.

00:58:34.000 As Mark said, I mean, all you have to understand about the left, it's all about power.

00:58:39.000 Everything they want to do.

00:58:41.000 Everything.

00:58:42.000 The motive behind it is to accumulate power and centralize it into the elites who they believe best know how to run everything.

00:58:52.000 So what do you do, man?

00:58:53.000 I mean, if you've got half the country moving towards this, half the country moving towards a convention of states, you've got it pulling away in opposite directions.

00:59:02.000 The culture is already fractured.

00:59:03.000 People have already been talking about civil war long before I ever brought it up.

00:59:06.000 I think the Convention of States is actually the antidote to a civil war.

00:59:11.000 I think you're right.

00:59:11.000 I think this country is increasingly divided, increasingly distrustful of the other side.

00:59:16.000 Not just distrustful, about right hatred of the other side.

00:59:20.000 They believe that they have bad motives and want to hurt them and harm them.

00:59:25.000 That is a Headed toward very ugly things.

00:59:31.000 And what Mark has been able to do is take a lot of people who maybe feel that way, not maybe, they do feel that way, and channel them into something that the founders provided as the emergency escape clause.

00:59:47.000 You know, the problem with national popular vote, from a marketing perspective, you said like the easy thing sells, right?

00:59:54.000 Take away your vote to vote for your senator.

00:59:56.000 That sounds bad.

00:59:57.000 You're not going to repeal the 17th amendment. 0.85

00:59:59.000 National popular vote, when you say to people, what's ridiculous?

01:00:02.000 Somebody wins the popular vote for president and then they're not president?

01:00:05.000 That's a pretty good marketing tool, in my opinion.

01:00:08.000 Much harder to counter to explain to people why that doesn't work.

01:00:11.000 So I think it's a very dangerous movement.

01:00:13.000 I agree with Rick.

01:00:14.000 I agree with you.

01:00:15.000 I think we are headed towards a civil war.

01:00:17.000 I think the country is decoupling.

01:00:19.000 Where I differ with a lot of people is I think it's awesome.

01:00:22.000 And the reason I think it's awesome is because this is how our country has always been.

01:00:27.000 We have some fantasy that we've been some unified country.

01:00:30.000 Like, right before the American Revolution, when the colonies hated each other and called each other blasphemers and were ready to go to war.

01:00:37.000 No, it was that way.

01:00:38.000 After the revolution, we get together and we decide we're going to form a government.

01:00:42.000 We hate each other so much.

01:00:43.000 We form the Articles of Confederation.

01:00:45.000 Gives the federal government no power because the colonies and then the states don't trust each other.

01:00:50.000 We come out of that.

01:00:50.000 There's a fantasy.

01:00:51.000 We all love each other.

01:00:52.000 Yeah, so much so in the 1860s, we have a civil war and we force a union.

01:00:56.000 80 years later.

01:00:57.000 Right.

01:00:57.000 But after the civil war, we really Yeah, exactly.

01:00:59.000 That's when things were calm and peaceful.

01:01:01.000 It's crazy.

01:01:03.000 It's not true.

01:01:04.000 Was it 1876?

01:01:05.000 Was it the election was decided by a committee?

01:01:07.000 Yes.

01:01:08.000 So we've never actually, as a country, liked each other very much.

01:01:12.000 Except.

01:01:13.000 And this is what we forget.

01:01:15.000 It was really after World War II.

01:01:17.000 Correct.

01:01:17.000 That's the only time, if you look at America, where there was a consensus.

01:01:22.000 And it's because we had just gone through two world wars and a Great Depression.

01:01:26.000 And people were just tired of fighting and wanted to be at home with their family and raise children and not work.

01:01:36.000 I mean, it was an idyllic time, but everyone thinks, oh, that was America.

01:01:41.000 No, no.

01:01:42.000 America was never like this.

01:01:44.000 Was it a beautiful time?

01:01:45.000 It was a great time.

01:01:46.000 You can say a lot of great things about about about the 50s and 60s, but it didn't take long for us to say, well, you know, look, there's Agitating against injustice.

01:01:58.000 That's always been the American way.

01:01:59.000 And by the way, in many cases, certainly in the case of the 60s and civil rights movement, it was a great movement.

01:02:05.000 We've always been a country that never just wanted everybody get along because we're always agitating for something better.

01:02:15.000 And unfortunately, the ideology behind what's better since the 1960s, since after the Civil Rights Movement, has been destructive.

01:02:22.000 Because it's been based on relativism, socialism, Marxism, and trying to bring that to this country.

01:02:29.000 And now it's up to us to fight back this culture war, and the founders gave us the opportunity to do it.

01:02:38.000 It's about truth.

01:02:40.000 So, Critical Race Theory, for instance.

01:02:43.000 It's a lie.

01:02:45.000 Well, it's an ideology, right?

01:02:47.000 It's also a lie.

01:02:48.000 It's twisted.

01:02:49.000 And, you know, I love when I get challenged by, you know, I'll be on Facebook because I waste time on Facebook periodically.

01:02:55.000 I have multiple monitors and I'm reading the news. 0.94

01:02:57.000 And I had someone post about critical race theory and saying Republicans, you know, they're crazy and they don't want you to, you know, learn history about racism or whatever.

01:03:06.000 And so I quoted, I posted saying, the meme was like, it was a picture of the people getting the milkshakes pouring on them.

01:03:14.000 And then I just said something like, you know, you using these people for your political ideology, blah, blah, blah.

01:03:20.000 And then someone said, what is critical race theory to me?

01:03:23.000 So I said, oh, you'd love to know.

01:03:24.000 Let me tell you, because I do know.

01:03:27.000 Critical race theory is a derivative of critical theory, Marxist ideology.

01:03:31.000 The idea that there is an oppressor and oppressed class.

01:03:34.000 Kimberlé Crenshaw wrote in her book, because I read the chapter outlining the thesis, the basis, that Marx did not understand the racial tensions that exist in the United States.

01:03:47.000 Therefore, the idea of class oppression didn't work, and you needed racial understanding, thus a critical race theory.

01:03:54.000 And then I went on to quote Derrick Bell, who argued for segregation.

01:03:58.000 I think he, what is it?

01:04:00.000 Plessy versus Ferguson was a separate but equal.

01:04:02.000 He argued in favor of it, saying the overturning of this and Brown v. Board of Education were mistakes.

01:04:09.000 And I'm like, don't come to me trying to use the civil rights movement to justify your ideology when your ideology is rooted in overturning the civil rights movement.

01:04:18.000 But these people don't know that.

01:04:19.000 They don't read these things.

01:04:21.000 They never actually read where critical race theory comes from.

01:04:23.000 They follow the lies from the corporate press.

01:04:26.000 So we're not up against any, you know, there's the truth.

01:04:30.000 The truth will set you free.

01:04:32.000 But these people don't want to hear it.

01:04:33.000 They're in tribes.

01:04:34.000 They get their marching orders from whatever the TV tells them to do.

01:04:37.000 And they claim that's not them.

01:04:38.000 They claim it's the other side.

01:04:40.000 And that's why it's important for you to speak that's why important for all of us to go out and not be afraid what what's happening in America until recently I give Donald Trump a lot of credit for this because he exposed the national media for the partisans that they were and he did so by just Punching them in the nose and getting them ticked off enough that they dropped any pretense of being fair and wanting to be journalists and they revealed who they really are.

01:05:11.000 All of us have seen it and we've, look, I was in politics for, you know, been in politics for 40 years and for 30 of those years Republican politicians would stand up to the media on occasion, but we didn't.

01:05:27.000 We didn't call them out for who they were.

01:05:28.000 We knew who they were.

01:05:29.000 We understood that 97% of the Washington press corps voted for Democrats, but we always tried to The idea was, well, you don't get into an argument with someone who prints, buys ink by the barrel.

01:05:43.000 And so that was the credo of the Republican conservative movement, which is, don't fight against the media because they'll crush you.

01:05:51.000 And for one who did and got crushed, I was used as an example.

01:05:55.000 Look, don't stand up and speak the truth because the left will crush you.

01:06:02.000 Now they can't crush us as much anymore because of avenues like this and other avenues.

01:06:07.000 And we have an obligation to use these avenues in spite of the limitations that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube put on those to continue to fight that battle and do it smartly.

01:06:17.000 Well, you were on CNN for a short while.

01:06:19.000 I was, five years.

01:06:21.000 Oh, so a little bit now.

01:06:22.000 Not a short while.

01:06:23.000 In my life, not a short while, no.

01:06:24.000 So what happened with, I mean, to be critical of the media, but to be in the machine, I mean, I'll put it this way.

01:06:33.000 He's like, I don't know what I can talk about.

01:06:36.000 I can talk about it.

01:06:37.000 CNN was an interesting.

01:06:39.000 I loved working in CNN because I was, generally speaking, the only person on a show or on a panel that had my point of view.

01:06:48.000 And I knew that the vast majority of Almost all of the CNN audience didn't agree with me.

01:06:54.000 And so I saw an opportunity to talk to people about what conservatism was because they didn't hear it.

01:07:01.000 And so I felt like I had to be better than everybody else on the panel.

01:07:09.000 They could scream at me but if I scream back at them then I'm going to lose that audience out there because I'm what they portray me as.

01:07:17.000 So it made me be, my wife said, calmer and more thoughtful.

01:07:24.000 No, I didn't back away from anything I believed, but I tried to make sure that I was communicating.

01:07:31.000 It's not what you say, it's what people hear.

01:07:33.000 And so I was trying to say it in a way that people—so for me it was a great opportunity to make arguments to people.

01:07:42.000 When they put me on, gave me the opportunity to say whatever I want.

01:07:45.000 So I have no complaints about it.

01:07:46.000 I can complain that they didn't put me on the shows as much as I would have liked to have been.

01:07:51.000 But that's that's that's the way it goes.

01:07:53.000 Having said that, I got fired, canceled because I made a comment that the United States of America, I was I was giving a speech to a group of young conservatives about the founding of a country.

01:08:07.000 And I made the comment that we were blessed in this country to Uh, have founding documents where we really didn't have a country before this country that unlike France, which had multiple governments and Kings and the history here in America, this was a brand new country.

01:08:23.000 We started from a clean slate.

01:08:25.000 And I said, the native Americans were, uh, you know, we're here, but there was no country and that they had no, they had no impact on the, on the, uh, on the, uh, on the constitution and the culture.

01:08:36.000 And that got me fired.

01:08:37.000 They canceled me.

01:08:38.000 I saw a meme.

01:08:39.000 It's been going around and it's, uh, You ever see the meme where it's like, what women would do with a time machine, what men would do with a time machine?

01:08:45.000 So, there's a bunch of them where it's like, one of my favorites is, it's like, what a woman would do with a time machine, and the young woman says, I'm your granddaughter, and the other young woman says, wow, from the future.

01:08:56.000 Then it says what men would do and there's one of my favorite is there's a guy with full tactical gear and he's got guns and there's like a World War I soldier and he says, grandfather come with me we're going to Jekyll Island trust me.

01:09:06.000 Just the formation of the Fed.

01:09:08.000 So there was one I saw where it's uh they're handing guns to Native Americans and they're saying take these because they're coming and they'll destroy you and destroy your lands.

01:09:17.000 And then all these, you know, leftists are like, you're like, yeah, hooting, and I just might respond to them.

01:09:21.000 My question is, do you know anything about the Native American tribes and what it was like here?

01:09:25.000 Because I'm not in any way justifying the history of colonialism, but I think you need to point out if you went to a Native American tribe and handed them, you know, M-16s, they would just go and massacre their warring tribes. 0.87

01:09:36.000 This idea that all of the Native Americans were like unified and it's like, oh, the evil white settlers are coming to kill us. 0.97

01:09:41.000 We'll stop them. 0.96

01:09:41.000 It's just not the case. 0.96

01:09:43.000 It would be like if you said if we went to Europe and gave them laser guns and fighter jets.

01:09:46.000 It's like, yeah, they go to war and they kill each other.

01:09:49.000 Whenever you give weapons to, you know, advanced weaponry to a society that doesn't have it, they will use it to empower themselves.

01:09:58.000 That's called human nature.

01:09:59.000 That is truth and reality.

01:10:01.000 So when you talk about the history of the Americas, you had nomadic tribes, you had some tribal governments.

01:10:08.000 We did learn from and adopt some of their principles.

01:10:10.000 It's really amazing history, quite in fact.

01:10:12.000 And then you look at like the Aztec Empire and the brutal human sacrifices and how they oppressed and enslaved local tribes.

01:10:17.000 And it's like, it's not some utopian world.

01:10:20.000 But these people believe in this woke psychotic narrative where it's just like whiteness.

01:10:26.000 Literally from Europe or whatever they want to call it is bad and wrong and that means anyone else is good. 1.00

01:10:31.000 Where in human history have there not been warring people trying to control territory?

01:10:37.000 Different groups of people who have read the Bible.

01:10:40.000 I mean you look at the Hebrews and the Philistines and the Moabites and it's throughout the course of human history there have been wars conquering for land and the idea that that that is somehow should not have happened in this

01:10:59.000 country, that somehow that America is, again, it's not, for me, it's a dystopian view of how the

01:11:06.000 world and throughout history has worked.

01:11:10.000 Well, so you said a moment ago that you were, correct me if I'm wrong, you were saying you

01:11:13.000 think Civil War, you were excited for it? No, I'm excited for the division. 0.97

01:11:18.000 And the reason I'm excited for it is because if you go back to the Constitutional Convention, the men in that convention are screaming and yelling at each other.

01:11:26.000 They're accusing each other of all kinds of horrible stuff.

01:11:29.000 It's the North versus the South. 0.96

01:11:31.000 Big states versus small states.

01:11:32.000 There are commercial interests that are fighting against each other in convention.

01:11:36.000 We look back and we've got some weird fantasy that these old guys sat around had a couple of pints of ale and came up with this beautiful document.

01:11:42.000 The document is a result of that distrust, that dislike, that hatred.

01:11:49.000 This is where federalism is born because it's a system designed for people who say, look, I don't really like you.

01:11:54.000 I don't trust you.

01:11:55.000 You're going to infringe on my interest.

01:11:57.000 So what we're going to do is we know there's an existential threat.

01:12:00.000 You've got England.

01:12:01.000 You've got Spain.

01:12:02.000 France is actually an erstwhile ally.

01:12:04.000 They're a threat.

01:12:05.000 So we got to band together for a few limited things.

01:12:08.000 I still don't like you, but I'm going to band together in a federal government with you.

01:12:12.000 That's the solution for right now.

01:12:15.000 Because the reality is, look, people in the South, if you're in Alabama, you don't really like people in New York, generally speaking.

01:12:21.000 Yeah, you could travel to those places, you'll still hear all the same regional prejudices.

01:12:26.000 They have always existed, they always will.

01:12:28.000 So this is a chance for us to say, well, how could we live together?

01:12:31.000 Is there any way we can live together?

01:12:33.000 And the answer is, yeah.

01:12:35.000 The founders, the framers, told us, have a federal system where I say, you know what, you can do what you want to do.

01:12:40.000 If I don't like it, I'm going to go live in New York.

01:12:42.000 I think the challenge is, I don't think, when we talk about the left and the right, the left having the rule and not the exception, the right is the exception, not the rule.

01:12:51.000 I don't know if there's an acceptable compromise.

01:12:54.000 I mean, these are people who cost I mean, Kamala Harris was funding their bail.

01:13:00.000 property damage, rioting and murderous acts in 2020.

01:13:04.000 And the politicians supported them outright.

01:13:06.000 I mean, Kamala Harris was funding their bail.

01:13:08.000 13 Joe Biden staffers, I believe it was 13, contributed to the bail of these individuals

01:13:13.000 who were committing these crimes.

01:13:14.000 I mean, I don't know if there's a solution, even through a convention of states.

01:13:18.000 Because I feel like even if you get the convention of states, you do limit the power of the federal government.

01:13:22.000 These people still exist.

01:13:23.000 They still have their tribal culture and bloodlust or whatever you want to call it. 1.00

01:13:28.000 So I feel like A convention of states is good to address the problems of the federal government, but I feel like it would be a catalyst for a lot of these far-left extremists and their cohorts in government who are going to lose power because of it, and then it just triggers conflict.

01:13:44.000 It just ignites it.

01:13:44.000 Well, I would say two things.

01:13:45.000 Number one, the most important reason for convention of states is to limit the power of the federal government to force cultural Marxism and economic Marxism on the entire country.

01:13:59.000 So if we can stop them from imposing, trying to generally increase the power of the federal government to the point where they can impose that on the rest of the country, which will cause, I believe, if it continues on, there will be conflict.

01:14:17.000 There's no question there'll be conflict.

01:14:20.000 The alternative is a convention of states to propose amendments that will limit the power of the federal government or even just having the convention.

01:14:29.000 Think about having the convention and the states rising up and saying, you know, we're going to check you.

01:14:34.000 That in and of itself may limit some of what the federal government attempts to do or the left tries to do because they know now there's a viable option for the states to push back, right?

01:14:46.000 And that it happened, nothing horrible happened, maybe a couple of amendments passed, but now that it's happened once, it's a lot easier to have again.

01:14:53.000 The idea that We're going to eliminate the left and their grab for power.

01:15:02.000 That's not going to happen, but it's going to be isolated in the states of California and others.

01:15:07.000 And we'll see the destruction that is wrought in those states as we're seeing it now.

01:15:11.000 And so what's happening?

01:15:12.000 People are leaving those states.

01:15:14.000 I want to pull up this story from the post-millennial.

01:15:17.000 60% of abortion clinics shut down in red states with pro-life laws after Roe was overturned.

01:15:23.000 So, for those that are just tuning in, we've been talking a bit about the convention of states.

01:15:26.000 A couple things that I think are interesting here is, for one, I definitely want to get into your guys' thoughts on abortion.

01:15:32.000 But I was thinking about this.

01:15:34.000 For one, this story actually was a meme.

01:15:37.000 It's a meme because people were saying if Planned Parenthood claims that most of the services they provide are unrelated to abortion, why would they shut down when Roe v. Wade was overturned?

01:15:47.000 And maybe there's some like political point they make.

01:15:49.000 But the mainstream press came out and said, the corporate press, I shouldn't call it mainstream, said that it's actually not true.

01:15:54.000 They're not shutting down.

01:15:55.000 It was just Planned Parenthood was like moving funds around.

01:15:57.000 Well, now we see that a large portion actually did shut down when abortions became illegal.

01:16:03.000 So I'm curious in this regard, one, obviously we'll discuss your thoughts on this stuff, but I was also thinking in terms of convention of states, is it considered limiting of the federal government to codify a restriction on abortion or the inverse?

01:16:16.000 To codify the restriction on banning abortions, right?

01:16:19.000 Because that's what the left has been arguing for.

01:16:21.000 I suppose the argument from the left is, The government was restricting its ability to ban this.

01:16:27.000 The argument from the right is the government was giving itself the authority over it.

01:16:30.000 You see how there's kind of like both sides are arguing it's an overreach.

01:16:34.000 Both sides would be arguing that their move is a limitation.

01:16:37.000 I'm curious of your thoughts on that or it's let's just say it's a it's a hard segue into the abortion topic but you know.

01:16:44.000 Yeah, I mean, I would say, generally speaking, if you were to give the federal government the power to regulate or allow abortion, I mean, that's essentially what Dobbs said.

01:16:54.000 It's like, this is not the federal government's business.

01:16:56.000 This is a true federalist decision.

01:16:58.000 It said the Constitution doesn't say anything about this.

01:17:01.000 It belongs to the states.

01:17:02.000 So I think that is the correct constitutional position, and I think Anytime, if under our convention, you said we're going to give the federal government more power to ban abortions, I think you're now expanding federal power.

01:17:15.000 I think either way it goes, whether it's pro-life or pro-choice, it would not be eligible under our rubric.

01:17:24.000 And to be clear, I want to give my personal bias, I'm completely anti-abortion.

01:17:29.000 Me too.

01:17:29.000 So here I am, a guy from the right, anti-abortion, and I just don't think that that's in the constitution for the federal government to deal with.

01:17:37.000 And you know what?

01:17:39.000 I agree.

01:17:40.000 I like the idea.

01:17:41.000 The problem is, I should say the challenges that you've got a side that's willing to have the Constitution be amended to enforce their ideals.

01:17:51.000 Absolutely.

01:17:51.000 Whereas you are willing to compromise and say, we don't like abortion, but let the states decide.

01:17:56.000 I've mentioned this quite a bit.

01:17:57.000 This is conservatives compromising on the issue of pro-life versus pro-choice.

01:18:01.000 Whereas the left is arguing every state should have to allow it.

01:18:05.000 The right saying, let some decide for themselves, so it's split.

01:18:10.000 This is a real example of why a Convention of the States, having the discussion of Convention of the States is important to America because I think as what I'm seeing polls go on and people realize that the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs didn't ban abortion as the left said it did and that this is a decision that the people at the local level and state level can make More and more people, even folks who are for abortion being legal, are saying, well, OK, I'm comfortable with that.

01:18:46.000 I'm comfortable with me having to say and what these decisions are.

01:18:50.000 And that's really the argument we're making with Convention of the States is, look, let's just let's not just abortion.

01:18:55.000 But a whole host of other issues that are really local issues.

01:18:59.000 Education is a good example.

01:19:01.000 Really, do we need the federal government telling us how parents should educate and local schools should?

01:19:07.000 No!

01:19:07.000 Let the community be able to make these decisions themselves.

01:19:11.000 So we can get an amendment that says no more Department of Education?

01:19:15.000 Yeah, we could.

01:19:16.000 Absolutely.

01:19:17.000 I mean, that's at the very top of my list, and the majority of the American public agrees with that.

01:19:21.000 Not just on the right.

01:19:22.000 There's plenty of people on the left that are like, hey, we want to educate our own kids our own way.

01:19:26.000 If you live in Texas, which is where I'm from, and people think of it as a red state, well, I live just outside of Austin.

01:19:33.000 That's about as blue as it gets.

01:19:35.000 People in Austin want to decide how to educate their own kids.

01:19:38.000 They don't want the federal government telling them how to do that.

01:19:41.000 Yes, I absolutely agree.

01:19:42.000 I think, you know, to keep in line with this, one of the things we talk about every so often is that, to put it rather, I guess, crudely, the left is removing themselves from the future of America through the sterilization of their children, through abortion.

01:19:58.000 And so when you look at education, it's the one venue they have.

01:20:01.000 Absolutely.

01:20:02.000 I say this all the time, that the left... I wrote a book 15 years ago now called It Takes a Family.

01:20:10.000 It was in response to Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes a Village.

01:20:13.000 And one of the things I realized was everyone said, oh, it takes a village.

01:20:17.000 It's an African proverb.

01:20:19.000 And I said, no, it's a Marxist plan because the left, through their sterilization, abortion, they're not having children.

01:20:28.000 People on the left are not having kids.

01:20:30.000 So if they're going to win elections in the future, they have to corrupt your kids.

01:20:35.000 And the way they do that is the village and the village being Why do you think they want to expand daycare?

01:20:41.000 Why do you think they want to expand preschool and kindergarten and send everybody to government schools for all these things?

01:20:48.000 They want to separate you from your kids.

01:20:49.000 Because they want to separate you from your kids.

01:20:51.000 They want to indoctrinate them into their point of view.

01:20:56.000 Why do you think the teachers unions...

01:20:59.000 Roosevelt, when the issue came up about unions for federal workers, was 100% against it.

01:21:07.000 And in fact, ultimately, and still the case today, federal unions cannot negotiate wages and benefits.

01:21:13.000 Why?

01:21:13.000 Because they knew that if you give the the uh the rights of of of workers in a in a government organization the right to to organize and you gave the power to the governor to people in the government to to to enhance to reap benefits on them then the teachers are going to or the or the federal employees are going to

01:21:36.000 Shower money on these folks who make their decision and you're going to have corruption and you're going to have control by the union of the government.

01:21:44.000 Exactly what's happened in the schools, exactly where we are, and so it is absolutely essential for us to fight this battle.

01:21:55.000 There was an Education Weekly poll that came out just after the 2016 election that found that half of teachers had voted for Hillary Clinton, but something like 29-30% had voted for Donald Trump.

01:22:06.000 I mean, the occupation is completely partisan.

01:22:10.000 You aren't sending the same people.

01:22:12.000 And in part, I would argue that the homeschool movement has such legs, especially after the COVID pandemic.

01:22:18.000 You know, if you're interested in education, especially in your own children's education, in your conservative, you're probably willing to try homeschooling.

01:22:24.000 Whereas that's not true for especially women who have been told your career is everything.

01:22:30.000 If you have a kid, you've got to get back to work as soon as possible.

01:22:32.000 Otherwise, you will lose your identity.

01:22:34.000 I mean, the system is biased towards the flexible parents who are willing to stay involved in their kids' lives.

01:22:41.000 Yeah, we have seven children.

01:22:44.000 We homeschooled all of our kids through grade school.

01:22:47.000 It was the best thing.

01:22:48.000 My wife is a neonatal intensive care nurse.

01:22:50.000 She's a lawyer. 0.86

01:22:52.000 And once we started having children, she phased out of that work and She will tell you that it was the best investment she's ever made.

01:23:01.000 She we have amazing kids.

01:23:02.000 We feel very very blessed and I would just challenge anybody Anybody who decided not to do that and and went to the workplace Show me your portfolio of what you accomplished in the last 30 years versus what my wife accomplished in the last 30 years And I would be you'd be hard-pressed to outdo what she did This is the craziest thing is that particularly on the left, they don't understand the value of an investment in creating a human life.

01:23:29.000 And it's a really sad prospect of what their lives are going to be like when they're 70 or 80 years old.

01:23:38.000 I gave a speech in Hungary at CPAC Hungary a few weeks ago.

01:23:41.000 My first thing I said was, can any of you tell me the name of your great great grandparents?

01:23:47.000 Can you tell me the name of your great-great-grandparents?

01:23:50.000 Great-great.

01:23:51.000 Great-great-grandparents.

01:23:52.000 The point was, in a very short period of time, you're going to be lost.

01:23:57.000 My great-grandfather.

01:23:58.000 I'm talking about great-great, okay?

01:24:01.000 So the reality is, in a hundred years or less, no one's going to know your name.

01:24:05.000 You will be gone, and the only thing you will create in your life that lasts forever and goes on is creating a human soul.

01:24:16.000 And those children then creating other human souls.

01:24:19.000 That's your legacy, and so many people just have very misplaced priorities.

01:24:25.000 There's this photo I saw, I can't remember exactly how they did it, but it was like a single grandmother, and then her kids, her grandkids, and her great grandkids, and each of her, she had like five kids, who each had like five kids, who each had like five kids, and it's just insane.

01:24:41.000 how many impact the impact.

01:24:43.000 Remember you you're having these children and you're raising and

01:24:45.000 nurturing and you're preparing them to do the same to the next

01:24:48.000 generation.

01:24:49.000 I mean you and you put yourself into your children and you and

01:24:53.000 and they can then take what you've given them and pour that into their children and their children.

01:24:58.000 I mean, it's got to come out of those schools.

01:25:00.000 Yeah, the key and the point is the left doesn't want you to do

01:25:04.000 that.

01:25:04.000 They want to convince men and women not to educate their children

01:25:08.000 not to fight for the souls of their children to give them to

01:25:11.000 them and they will they will they will rightly educate your What you gotta say to them is, hey, if you have a kid, they could become a child star, and then you're rich!

01:25:22.000 Or they can have a lot of followers on Instagram, and that will make you feel immortal forever, because as you know, when you retire and you need assistance, your Instagram followers will come take care of you.

01:25:33.000 That's what they're known for, I think.

01:25:34.000 Check it out.

01:25:35.000 There is going to be some influencer today.

01:25:38.000 They're going to be childless, they're going to be 80, and they're going to be on Instagram, which no one uses anymore.

01:25:43.000 It's going to be like only old people use. 1.00

01:25:45.000 Everyone's on InstaTalker or something like that.

01:25:48.000 On WeChat.

01:25:49.000 Yeah, on WeChat.

01:25:50.000 And they're going to be like, I use Muciplex prunes!

01:25:55.000 You should get yours today!

01:25:56.000 And then they'll probably get $50,000 per read because of inflation, of course.

01:26:01.000 And then they'll use that to pay— That'll buy them Mucilex.

01:26:04.000 Yeah, I would just say take a step back and recognize that this generation, last few generations who've been sold this bill of goods are the most unhappy, depressed generation, most medicated generation in the history of the country. 0.95

01:26:20.000 And there is a reason for that because what you have been sold is a lie.

01:26:24.000 And you just need to get back to the truth and understand what really makes you happy.

01:26:29.000 I mean, I really do hold social media accountable for a lot of this.

01:26:32.000 I think it gives you a false sense of community.

01:26:35.000 It's not that it can't be a great tool, and it's not that it can't be very powerful.

01:26:38.000 But, you know, Robert Putnam, who wrote Bowling Alone, talks about this.

01:26:42.000 It's just a complete degradation of community.

01:26:44.000 If at the end of the day you don't know your neighbors, you are not going to be able to call your many, many Facebook followers.

01:26:51.000 to help you if you have a crisis with your kids in the middle of the night or if you fall and you need help.

01:26:54.000 You need to know the people that you live near.

01:26:57.000 I mean that's the only way to truly feel fulfilled in life.

01:26:59.000 It's a scary prospect of what the future is going to look like for a lot of people on the left because they're going to vote for government to replace family.

01:27:06.000 They've been doing that.

01:27:07.000 That is what they're doing.

01:27:08.000 But imagine what it's going to be like when these millennials are all older.

01:27:11.000 They're going to be out in a massive voting block saying the government should provide for us a young person to change our diapers or something like that.

01:27:19.000 Well, I think they're already saying that.

01:27:21.000 And when I travel around the country and I talk to young people and they look at people our age, they're like, hey, thanks a lot for the debt.

01:27:28.000 Or what did we get for this?

01:27:29.000 And that's what we've done is we've spent their future.

01:27:32.000 It's pretty outrageous when you think about it.

01:27:34.000 We self-justify that.

01:27:35.000 I say we because of my age, but our generation, we're leaving this incredibly massive debt.

01:27:40.000 It means their taxes are going to go up.

01:27:42.000 Their standard of living is going to go down.

01:27:44.000 And if you ask somebody, hey, are you willing to do that to their kids?

01:27:47.000 You would say, well, of course I'm not.

01:27:49.000 That's outrageous.

01:27:50.000 It's immoral.

01:27:51.000 But that's precisely what we've been doing.

01:27:53.000 And that's precisely what Democrats are selling to us today.

01:27:57.000 Yeah, you know, I don't want to say that it's, you know, you mentioned your age.

01:28:02.000 I'm assuming you guys are both boomers.

01:28:04.000 Is that your boomers?

01:28:05.000 Oh, the boomers. 1.00

01:28:07.000 Boomers and rhinos. 0.99

01:28:08.000 Yeah, we're bad, bad people.

01:28:10.000 No, it's the corruption in government.

01:28:12.000 Yeah.

01:28:13.000 It's like the boomer generation for all this, the flack they get from millennials for like gutting our future. 0.90

01:28:18.000 It's like, yeah.

01:28:19.000 Okay, I'm going to fight back on that.

01:28:22.000 I mean, I was going to as well.

01:28:24.000 That's my point.

01:28:25.000 My point was that you've got corrupt elites in government who are deficit spending and selling you a false bill of goods and then to blame the regular working class American person is absurd.

01:28:38.000 The problem is the elitism that has been selling us out.

01:28:42.000 Before the boomers, there were other people in government. 0.94

01:28:44.000 It wasn't the boomers who started the Federal Reserve. 0.71

01:28:46.000 Okay, I'm going to fight back on this because Those people get elected because they've convinced the American public that government can solve their problems and they believe it.

01:28:56.000 Yeah.

01:28:57.000 And so they're not doing it.

01:29:00.000 These aren't people who came from outer space and are opposing this.

01:29:04.000 These are people that you, listening to this, elected.

01:29:07.000 Because they promised you something and you believed it.

01:29:11.000 That's the problem.

01:29:12.000 So I always say, you can point to Washington and say, oh, it's terrible.

01:29:16.000 It's so divided.

01:29:18.000 Well, now we're seeing, you know what?

01:29:19.000 The country's pretty divided and they're just a reflection of that.

01:29:23.000 And the same thing with this deficit spending.

01:29:26.000 They're a reflection of a country that wants material goods and services and they don't want to pay for them.

01:29:34.000 How many times do you, I mean, how many things do you want?

01:29:37.000 Oh, I don't want to pay that much.

01:29:38.000 So let's just borrow the money.

01:29:40.000 And that's what's going on.

01:29:41.000 So you can blame Washington and I do, but that's why a grassroots movement like this, that awakens America and has a discussion about what the consequences of what we're doing is such an important thing at this time.

01:29:56.000 I wonder if it's just, just a natural ebb and flow, right?

01:30:00.000 You know, strong men make good times, good times make weak men.

01:30:03.000 Are you familiar?

01:30:04.000 Oh yeah, absolutely.

01:30:05.000 And maybe there's, maybe there's no real, it's just something that occurs.

01:30:11.000 When things get good, you don't have enough people who are calloused and hardened to what's going on.

01:30:16.000 You're trying to wake up a ton of people to say support a convention of states.

01:30:19.000 There's a, there's a good argument about, about it, but let the argument happen, I suppose.

01:30:24.000 Why is the greatest generation, the greatest generation?

01:30:26.000 World War II?

01:30:27.000 Yeah.

01:30:28.000 It was hard.

01:30:28.000 Because it was hard.

01:30:29.000 Yeah.

01:30:29.000 I mean, people are made, I mean, everybody wants to avoid suffering, but suffering is part of life.

01:30:35.000 It's whether you want to suffer for something that's great and worthy and last, or something that makes you feel good for the short period of time.

01:30:41.000 I was saying this earlier today that, you know, people often say, like, maybe we're in hell.

01:30:45.000 You've heard that, I imagine, from some people.

01:30:47.000 Like, maybe we're actually in hell.

01:30:49.000 Look how awful things are.

01:30:50.000 And I was like, maybe we're actually in heaven.

01:30:52.000 Because, you know, this world suits us so well, you know, it could just be that we've developed for the world around us or that we were made for the world.

01:31:00.000 But the way I see it is, There is no happiness without sadness.

01:31:06.000 There is no light without dark.

01:31:08.000 The universe is rather perfect in that.

01:31:10.000 It's a great experience.

01:31:13.000 It's about how you choose to see it.

01:31:17.000 I've gone through some really dark days, but I've always just chosen to be like, this is something that I'll remember, and I can always say I've experienced.

01:31:23.000 And learn from.

01:31:23.000 I've had some really bad moments, like standing out in a thunderstorm, shoes getting soaking wet, car broke down, and I'm laughing.

01:31:32.000 Heck of a story, man. You know, it's something in life you get to say you've done, I suppose,

01:31:36.000 and you rack all these things up and it just feels... You know, whenever I would find myself

01:31:41.000 in these really crazy moments, obviously not having my life threatened, like those obviously

01:31:46.000 are truly horrifying, but I'm saying in like all the frustrations of a car dying in the middle of

01:31:52.000 the road, having to get out in the rain. I'm...

01:31:54.000 I'm like those are things that are supposed to be bad I actually think those are the spice of life, you know Like you put you put habanero peppers in your food it burns, but you like doing it That's where character comes from.

01:32:05.000 Yeah, I was gonna say there are Enthusiastic enthusiasts of stoic philosophy who say like you should take a day and fast and just so you know that you can get through it You can be without food You can suffer and recover and it's supposed to be a reminder that you are always able to overcome challenges You have to not be afraid to sort of tackle them It'll work best though if government handles it all for you, right?

01:32:24.000 Well, I would never do anything without the government's consent, as you know.

01:32:28.000 Well, and so there's also there's the the philosophy of the left is that man is perfectible, that you can make it through life with no suffering, and that's government's responsibility.

01:32:38.000 It's flawed to the core.

01:32:39.000 I mean the reality is you've just described some of the best things that we experience in life come from our suffering.

01:32:44.000 We become, if we make it through, we can become better people, we become stronger people, we become more empathetic people because we've experienced difficult times that we see other people experiencing.

01:32:54.000 Frankly, to be blunt, this is just how God designed us, in my opinion.

01:32:57.000 You know, for my career, getting started, I chose to go to places where my life was at risk.

01:33:02.000 You know, like going to the Ferguson riots, going to Baltimore, going to Ukraine, going to Venezuela.

01:33:07.000 Venezuela was probably the scariest.

01:33:08.000 I had to flee the country, actually. 0.95

01:33:09.000 And so, you know, a lot of people think like, you're crazy.

01:33:11.000 Why would you take these risks?

01:33:13.000 Why would you do it?

01:33:13.000 And I'm like, for one, it's like a passion.

01:33:15.000 It's a drive.

01:33:16.000 You want to do it.

01:33:17.000 But I don't want to downplay the experience of the people who have to live it being somebody who just parachutes in.

01:33:23.000 But the idea is like we pursue conflict, not in the sense that we're trying to fight each other.

01:33:28.000 Some people do, and there's some bad people, but that we're driven by overcoming challenges and overcoming conflict, embracing it head on.

01:33:34.000 It gives us passion.

01:33:35.000 It gives us purpose.

01:33:36.000 The human desire is baked in for a quest to go out and chase something and do something good and great.

01:33:44.000 And I think we repress that at our own risk, honestly.

01:33:48.000 And I was one of the things I think you were saying in a quote earlier about one with men with no chest, right?

01:33:53.000 If we have a society that that builds weaklings, that builds in weak character, that we end up with what we have right now is really where we're at.

01:34:03.000 And you know what I want to say?

01:34:06.000 You know, and I want to tie this back to convention of states, which is, and you're going to have people, I'm sure there are people who are texting.

01:34:12.000 It's too dangerous.

01:34:12.000 It's too scary.

01:34:14.000 And I would say, thank God it wasn't you in 1776.

01:34:18.000 Really?

01:34:19.000 Because you would be the ones that are like, you know, it's pretty risky to go against England.

01:34:23.000 This is the greatest empire in the face of the earth.

01:34:25.000 And should we really take that risk?

01:34:27.000 And I just say, Hey, I'm glad it wasn't you.

01:34:29.000 You guys ever watch The Patriot with Mel Gibson?

01:34:31.000 Oh yeah, absolutely.

01:34:32.000 I always reference his movies, they're my favorite movies.

01:34:34.000 Because what was, you know, his character, what was his name, Benjamin, I forgot his last name.

01:34:37.000 I don't remember.

01:34:38.000 He's saying we can't go to war with, he's like, if you're asking me if we should have, you know, if we should be, no taxation without representation, of course.

01:34:45.000 If you're asking me if we should be an independent nation, of course.

01:34:48.000 But if you're asking me to declare war and to go to war with England, then I would say no.

01:34:53.000 And then what happens is kids die.

01:34:54.000 Right. So, you know, then he's forced into the fray. And the reality is sometimes you can't

01:35:01.000 avoid the conflict and trying to just makes it come faster, harder, and worse. So I often like

01:35:06.000 to reference the founding fathers. There's that famous meme or writing about how they swore not

01:35:11.000 only blood and treasure, but the lives of their families and their sacred honor.

01:35:15.000 And there was one of the Founding Fathers signers of the Declaration.

01:35:19.000 His wife was kidnapped and used for a prisoner exchange.

01:35:22.000 One had his son killed.

01:35:24.000 Several of their homes were seized by the British.

01:35:28.000 And so that was them straight up being like, let's do it, man.

01:35:31.000 Screw them.

01:35:32.000 We're standing up for this. 0.62

01:35:34.000 It wasn't as bad as these these memes make it out to be like all of these people like no no a decent amount of them suffered and lost they risked everything and that's the reality of fighting for something good.

01:35:44.000 That was the elites of society these were every founder was a was a person who was accomplished who was wealthy who had.

01:35:52.000 Uh, was actually doing well under British reign and yet they stood for principle.

01:35:58.000 And I just, you know, ask all of those who are out there saying, Oh, well, we can't do this because even though it's what the founders intended, and even though, you know, we could, uh, we could try to do something positive.

01:36:10.000 I, you know, we're, I don't want to risk that.

01:36:12.000 And, uh, the, the reality is that The risk is much greater to allow Washington to continue to head on this inexorable course to control the future of our nation than to fight that battle.

01:36:28.000 And yeah, it might be hard and you might not win, but it's worth the fight.

01:36:32.000 Well, I want to add, and I think it's important for people to look around with open eyes and understand where they stand.

01:36:38.000 And one of the things we were talking about earlier is truth, right?

01:36:41.000 And reality and just an acceptance of reality.

01:36:43.000 So if you're out there and you're thinking well this is way too risky and there could be a runaway convention, that's the only argument we hear against it by the way, then you should know who you're standing with.

01:36:52.000 And who you're standing with literally is George Soros, Common Cause, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, La Raza, MoveOn.org, Daily Cause, Hillary Clinton.

01:37:01.000 All these people actually, all these groups other than Hillary Clinton signed a press release saying the Convention of States is horrible.

01:37:06.000 Over 250 groups have signed this press release.

01:37:09.000 Every bad group on the American left.

01:37:12.000 It's the baby-killing Marxist communist America haters all on one side saying this is bad.

01:37:16.000 You quoted the Business Insider article.

01:37:19.000 This is the left rising up against us.

01:37:21.000 And then you've got a few folks on the right that have bought into this and I would ask people like like if I woke up in the morning and somebody told me hey, you're on the side of Lavraza and Planned Parenthood, etc.

01:37:33.000 I think hmm.

01:37:34.000 I must be on the wrong side on this one.

01:37:36.000 So if you've been sold this bill of goods, you need to step back and look in the mirror and see all these people standing next to you and ask yourself, well, is that really the side that I'm on?

01:37:45.000 Let's go to Super Chats!

01:37:46.000 If you haven't already, would you kindly smash that like button, subscribe to this channel, share the show with your friends, and head over to TimCast.com.

01:37:52.000 Become a member.

01:37:53.000 We're gonna have the uncensored After Hours show coming up later tonight.

01:37:56.000 We post those around 11 p.m.

01:37:57.000 or so.

01:37:58.000 Let's read some Super Chats!

01:38:00.000 All right, there's some superchats.

01:38:03.000 I'm not going to read that.

01:38:03.000 Someone wants me to read a very offensive superchat.

01:38:06.000 But I will read some of the superchats asking questions, some of them rather critical, so I hope you guys are ready.

01:38:13.000 All right, let's see.

01:38:13.000 Wootdoo for you.

01:38:15.000 This one just goes right for it.

01:38:16.000 All right.

01:38:17.000 Santorum was the first political figure I learned about.

01:38:19.000 He tried to outlaw fellatio and sodomy even between married couples, and the last also supported strict gun control in the 2000s.

01:38:26.000 This isn't our guy.

01:38:28.000 Did you support gun control?

01:38:30.000 I don't know about the other one.

01:38:32.000 No, I didn't.

01:38:32.000 I've never supported gun control.

01:38:33.000 I've gotten A ratings from every gun group that's known to man.

01:38:37.000 So, no.

01:38:38.000 I mean, that's first off just inaccurate that I supported gun control because I didn't.

01:38:43.000 Secondly, I stood for a constitutional amendment to put marriage in the Constitution as a union between a man and a woman.

01:38:55.000 That was an effort I tried back in 2004, but I never tried to outlaw sodomy or anything else.

01:39:03.000 In fact, I made it very, very clear that just because something that I consider to be immoral doesn't mean that it should be illegal or the government's role to regulate that.

01:39:12.000 Run on.

01:39:14.000 So Siri Designs asks a question, as if it was present tense, but you're not in office.

01:39:20.000 So I would ask you right now, if you were in office, they asked, would you vote to it?

01:39:24.000 They asked, will you vote to impeach Biden and advocate for hearings into Fauci and Pfizer?

01:39:29.000 My question is, when it comes to Biden and the Ukraine stuff, would you, if you were in office today?

01:39:35.000 I guess, look, I'm concerned that we are headed in a time where every president gets impeached if the other party controls the legislature.

01:39:47.000 Again, that's not to say that the left won't continue to do it.

01:39:52.000 But I'm not a fan of criminalizing politics.

01:39:55.000 Joe Biden has been an awful president.

01:39:58.000 He's made some horrible decisions, and he should be taken out of office.

01:40:04.000 To me, that's the way to get rid of people who are doing bad things.

01:40:07.000 But to put the country through a routine impeachment of a president every two or four years, I condemn the left for doing it.

01:40:17.000 I would condemn the right for doing it.

01:40:19.000 If there is a legitimate reason that there is a threat that this president is not able to do his duty and should be removed, that's to me the principal reason.

01:40:30.000 He can't do his duty and be removed.

01:40:32.000 That's one thing.

01:40:32.000 Sounds like Biden!

01:40:35.000 Well, but we have, but we have elections.

01:40:37.000 That's what we have.

01:40:38.000 We have elections and, and that's why terms are only two years for Congress, four years for a president.

01:40:43.000 And, and if, if, if, uh, if he's done something, uh, again, I think nothing, nothing, nothing he's, nothing he's done to date, I would say are impeachable offenses.

01:40:54.000 They are horribly wrong and policies that have hurt America, but that, that, that should not be the standard for impeachment.

01:41:02.000 So, fair point in that.

01:41:04.000 Well, I believe the quid pro quo stuff with Ukraine was when he was sitting as vice president.

01:41:10.000 Do you think that stuff shouldn't play a role into his presidency?

01:41:12.000 Again, the information is out there and the American public voted for him.

01:41:18.000 We can't continue to go back.

01:41:21.000 And again, criminalized political behavior.

01:41:24.000 There were legitimate reasons for Joe Biden to say what he said from a policy point of view.

01:41:30.000 And you can say, well, there was that connection.

01:41:33.000 Yes, but there was legitimate reasons from a policy point of view for him to say what he said.

01:41:37.000 The Ukraine stuff?

01:41:38.000 Yes, there was.

01:41:39.000 I guess the issue was they impeached Trump for the exact thing, even though he didn't do it.

01:41:43.000 Again, I'm not the left, okay?

01:41:45.000 I'm not going to adopt their power at any cost and destroy the democracy so I can control it.

01:41:53.000 I think we have to stand up and be better than that, and you can say, well, if you don't play their game, you know, they're going to... No!

01:41:59.000 If you play their game, then we lose everything.

01:42:03.000 Man, it's tough.

01:42:04.000 I hear you're saying.

01:42:04.000 I absolutely do.

01:42:06.000 I would say I come down a little bit in between.

01:42:08.000 Not necessarily for impeachment, but I think Republicans have to play much harder hardball.

01:42:13.000 And I think Republicans have been way too soft.

01:42:16.000 And when the power goes back and forth and we're just under constant assault and then the Republicans don't play some hardball in response, it encourages.

01:42:23.000 So here's here's a point I would make, which is I agree we should play hardball.

01:42:28.000 But for example, you have a president who Donald Trump.

01:42:32.000 When Donald Trump was in office, Donald Trump called for the end of the filibuster in the Senate.

01:42:37.000 Right?

01:42:38.000 We just lauded Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for saving the Republic by not overthrowing the filibuster.

01:42:45.000 But four years before, Donald Trump and a lot of Republicans say, yeah, get rid of the filibuster.

01:42:49.000 We can't be like them.

01:42:51.000 I agree.

01:42:52.000 Yeah, you want to play tough, but don't take out weapons. 0.56

01:42:56.000 They're going to end up shooting you in the head.

01:42:58.000 Yeah, yep, yep. 0.87

01:42:59.000 And that's what's being warned of Democrats right now, because what was it, Harry Reid?

01:43:05.000 Oh yeah, getting rid of the filibuster for judicial nominations gave us a court.

01:43:10.000 So be careful what you wish for.

01:43:13.000 We are a rules-based society and if we say we can ignore the rules and do what we want because we have power, that's what the left wants to do.

01:43:22.000 That's not what we do.

01:43:24.000 What we do is we stand by the rules.

01:43:26.000 So the question, I suppose, and we'll move on, is just, you know, irrespective of any actual circumstances, if somebody did something that was either impeachable or illegal in a previous term, Joe Biden as vice president, do you think that should carry into an impeachment into the presidency?

01:43:42.000 No.

01:43:43.000 No.

01:43:43.000 No, I mean, it's supposed to be four things done during the presidency.

01:43:46.000 Right.

01:43:47.000 And the American public, by and large, knew everything that he did.

01:43:51.000 I mean, I get what you're saying, and I think ultimately the problem is more so down to culture, in that we have a corrupt media apparatus that's not informing people, and that there are people who are willing to vote for this man even if they didn't know.

01:44:09.000 But let's move on.

01:44:12.000 Alright, let's see.

01:44:14.000 O.M.G.

01:44:15.000 Puppy says the left doesn't want a convention of states, but if it happens, they will switch gears and take it over.

01:44:19.000 Bye-bye Second Amendment. 0.96

01:44:21.000 I don't think that's possible.

01:44:23.000 No, and that's what I would ask, actually, and I laid it out.

01:44:25.000 How do you do it?

01:44:26.000 It's literally impossible.

01:44:27.000 A convention, all they do is make suggestions.

01:44:30.000 Takes 38 states to ratify.

01:44:31.000 Even if they could, they can't.

01:44:33.000 There are currently 31 states, both houses controlled by Republicans.

01:44:37.000 You're going to be at 33, 34 here in the next cycle or two.

01:44:41.000 It's literally impossible.

01:44:42.000 So when people say something like that, it's a weird kind of fever dream fantasy.

01:44:48.000 And I hear it all the time.

01:44:49.000 It drives me insane because I just want to say reality, show me how that happens.

01:44:53.000 And people say, well, I can't necessarily show you.

01:44:55.000 I just believe that's going to happen.

01:44:57.000 Well, that's called leftism, by the way, that reality is just what you dream.

01:45:01.000 It is that you don't have to justify it.

01:45:02.000 You don't have to demonstrate it.

01:45:04.000 People who oppose Convention of States, it's some weird fever dream that's been put in their heads.

01:45:08.000 And by the way, it's important they know where it comes from.

01:45:10.000 Literally, the idea of a runaway convention comes from Chief Justice Warren Burger.

01:45:15.000 He's the Chief Justice who gave us Roe vs. Wade.

01:45:18.000 He was asked a question about the idea of a convention when states were starting to propose a convention to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

01:45:24.000 And he said, well, that's a terrible idea.

01:45:26.000 We might lose our beloved Constitution in a runaway convention.

01:45:29.000 He was protecting Roe vs. Wade. 0.51

01:45:32.000 I think people need to recognize that the overwhelming majority of this country is pro-gun.

01:45:37.000 Absolutely.

01:45:37.000 As much as the Democrats keep claiming... And remember, at the time of the convention, if this happens, if 34 states pass a resolution to have a convention of states to propose amendments to limit the power of the federal government, that means 34 states will be controlled by Republicans.

01:45:51.000 Why?

01:45:52.000 Because if a state flips and is controlled by Democrats, they'll repeal the resolution that passed.

01:45:57.000 So you'll never get to 34 unless you have 34 at the time of the convention.

01:46:01.000 And so if you're saying that 34 states where Republicans are appointing the delegates to the convention are going to impose, I mean, I just got called an anti-gunner and for what?

01:46:16.000 I've never voted against, I've never voted for gun control in my life, yet people are afraid and we can't let fear govern us.

01:46:23.000 Well, and I would add it, and to be even more blunt, stop being a tool of the left.

01:46:28.000 If you're saying this stuff, you're a tool for the left.

01:46:32.000 And you can know better, you can go to Convention of States, all the arguments are there at conventionofstates.com, pro and con, read them, decide for yourself.

01:46:39.000 Stop saying the things that the left has put in your head.

01:46:42.000 That's where it's coming from.

01:46:43.000 Well, I'll agree with people should do the research and check.

01:46:45.000 Yes.

01:46:45.000 Yeah, you should know that I was not, up until a year and a half ago, I was not for Convention of States.

01:46:50.000 So a year and a half.

01:46:51.000 Why?

01:46:51.000 What changed your mind?

01:46:52.000 I actually read what it did because I was just told by by some folks 10 years ago when this first came up, this is a terrible idea, runaway convention, don't get anywhere near it.

01:47:02.000 And so I just said, OK, fine.

01:47:03.000 Well, I was never because this is a state issue, not a federal issue.

01:47:06.000 So I just said, you know, I'm you know, I'm not I'm not a big fan.

01:47:09.000 I'm worried about it.

01:47:10.000 Things like that.

01:47:11.000 Until Mark finally said, you know, here, read about it.

01:47:15.000 Look at the actual research.

01:47:17.000 Look at the history.

01:47:18.000 Look at the court decisions.

01:47:19.000 And there have been plenty of court decisions involved with conventions of states.

01:47:24.000 And it's the biggest no-brainer.

01:47:26.000 I mean, you just sort of read yourself into the faith.

01:47:29.000 Now I'm a zealot.

01:47:32.000 I'm like a reformed smoker when it comes to this.

01:47:34.000 Do you get pushback for having changed your opinion?

01:47:37.000 I get pushed back not because I've changed my opinion.

01:47:39.000 I get pushed back because people haven't read the information, don't know the truth, and go by what some Supreme Court justice said 20 years ago.

01:47:51.000 Let's read some more.

01:47:52.000 We got a super chat here from The Janks.

01:47:54.000 He says, Hey Tim, been thinking about becoming a member for a bit.

01:47:56.000 Was wondering if you have ever planned to expand out any video game content since you have things like Pop Culture Crisis and Inverted World.

01:48:02.000 We are currently in production on a video game.

01:48:05.000 We've shown it several times.

01:48:06.000 I don't think we've ever said it.

01:48:07.000 It's one of my favorite projects that we have going on right now.

01:48:10.000 It's really fun, but you have to be super offensive.

01:48:11.000 You have to be in the Timcast lore.

01:48:13.000 Like we preview it on the vlog or things like that.

01:48:15.000 Like, yeah, you have to be in the now.

01:48:17.000 So he should become a member.

01:48:18.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:48:19.000 It's something we're doing in conjunction with Freedom Tunes.

01:48:22.000 Seamus Coghlan in the style of Freedom Tunes.

01:48:24.000 Good fun game.

01:48:25.000 So we'll have more when we can have more, but there is a game in development.

01:48:27.000 Maybe we should, you know, announce something about it or something like that.

01:48:30.000 I don't know.

01:48:31.000 Let's grab some more Super Chats.

01:48:33.000 Alright, we got a lot of people talking about China.

01:48:36.000 Wyatt Caldenberg says, Tim, Google this.

01:48:39.000 Chinese buyers snap up U.S. 0.53

01:48:40.000 oil purchases at widest discounts ever.

01:48:43.000 They are buying timber, land, metals, minerals, and every resource Wall Street will sell them.

01:48:48.000 That doesn't sound good.

01:48:50.000 No, and it's true.

01:48:51.000 I mean, it's absolutely going on.

01:48:52.000 Farmland is another thing.

01:48:54.000 Pieces of land near American military installations.

01:48:57.000 The idea that we're even allowing this.

01:48:59.000 And you know, part of the reason we allow it is because people are cowed.

01:49:03.000 Because if you say, well, we shouldn't allow the Chinese to purchase our land. 1.00

01:49:06.000 Oh, well, now you're a racist. 0.99

01:49:08.000 Now you're a xenophobe. 1.00

01:49:10.000 And the Chinese love this.

01:49:11.000 They're using this against us.

01:49:12.000 Our good nature.

01:49:13.000 I'm sure they plant those memes.

01:49:15.000 And they look at it saying, oh, we know exactly what their weakness is.

01:49:18.000 We know exactly where to hit them.

01:49:20.000 They're going to do anything they can to avoid being called the R word.

01:49:25.000 We just can't have this.

01:49:26.000 Yep.

01:49:27.000 All right.

01:49:29.000 Let's see what we got here.

01:49:32.000 What do you think of that?

01:49:33.000 Oh, Illuminati confirms 69 says the Chinese elite are ethnic Han and China is the nation

01:49:38.000 state of the Han.

01:49:39.000 They pursue Chinese interests.

01:49:41.000 Meanwhile, US elite is foreign. 0.99

01:49:44.000 China is at least a real country and an economic zone.

01:49:47.000 Now what do you think of that?

01:49:48.000 Do you agree?

01:49:49.000 Well, first off, America, he is right in this respect that America is not an ethnicity.

01:49:53.000 It is a set of values and ideas.

01:49:55.000 That's what makes us who we are.

01:49:57.000 And that's why the left and the threat that they pose is such a great threat.

01:50:00.000 When Barack Obama said he wants to transform America, that's what he was talking about.

01:50:04.000 Changing the values and principles that America was built upon.

01:50:08.000 And that's why this fight is so important.

01:50:10.000 So he's right that America is not an economic zone, but it is a values and morals zone.

01:50:18.000 And that's why, unlike other countries, this battle for the soul of America is in fact real, because we're not an ethnicity.

01:50:27.000 We don't have a culture that's built on thousands of years of ethnic history.

01:50:32.000 And wouldn't you say that, like, China benefits when we're more divided?

01:50:34.000 I think of, like, the opioid crisis in fentanyl, which is illicitly produced in China, trafficked across the southern border, and just further divides American middle class as well as cultural elites.

01:50:45.000 We're at war with China.

01:50:47.000 Excuse me, they're at war with us.

01:50:48.000 We have not decided we're at war with them yet.

01:50:51.000 All right, we got Ian Smith.

01:50:52.000 He says, Nancy Pelosi likely in Taiwan to secure TSMC contract.

01:50:57.000 TSMC most valuable semiconductor fabricator worldwide moving to Phoenix, Arizona.

01:51:02.000 Semiconductor bill passed by US last Friday.

01:51:05.000 Have you heard that?

01:51:05.000 Is that true?

01:51:06.000 They're moving there?

01:51:07.000 They have a plant that they're building there.

01:51:08.000 Yeah, where's that?

01:51:09.000 Yeah, there's a plant there.

01:51:10.000 But obviously, they just passed the semiconductor or they're potentially I don't know if it's signed yet or whatever.

01:51:16.000 But that's that may be part of it.

01:51:19.000 But again, I don't.

01:51:21.000 Yeah, I think that's important, though, to point out, aside from the geopolitical consequences of what happens in Taiwan, that's where the chips are produced.

01:51:29.000 And the Chinese understand that if they get a stranglehold on Taiwan, they control all technology in the world. 0.98

01:51:34.000 They literally can shut down virtually anything that way.

01:51:38.000 Porkins, hold it, says, great to see Rick and Mark on Timcast.

01:51:42.000 Trumplicans calling them rhinos.

01:51:43.000 Chill the F out.

01:51:45.000 Y'all came to the Grand Ole Party in 2016 and 2020.

01:51:47.000 We're individualists and differ in opinion and policy, not a hive mind like on the left.

01:51:52.000 Man, I think that's so important.

01:51:54.000 I haven't been involved in politics as long as Rick.

01:51:56.000 I go back to 2009, basically.

01:52:00.000 One of the things that's always driven me crazy about the conservative movement, when we started the Tea Party movement, all kinds of people in the Tea Party movement thought, we're the first conservatives ever to walk the face of the earth.

01:52:10.000 And they gave no credence to, no respect to those who came before them.

01:52:15.000 The conservative movement's been around for a long time.

01:52:18.000 There are a lot of flavors inside of it.

01:52:20.000 And I think we need to respect all of it.

01:52:22.000 I was part of the Republican Revolution in 1994.

01:52:24.000 People don't even remember.

01:52:27.000 The first time they got the Congress... The Contract with America!

01:52:30.000 I mean, I was part of a group called the Gang of Seven back in 1991 and 92 and we exposed corruption in the House Bank and we threw out the Speaker of the House.

01:52:41.000 I mean, I was the original bomb thrower back in the day and, you know, now I'm a rhino, right?

01:52:47.000 Because some guys, like I said, some guy's been a conservative for 20 minutes.

01:52:51.000 All right, let's, uh, let's get this from Wagner.

01:52:53.000 Oliviera says, Tim, since you liked the Freedom Caucus, I discovered recently that Ron DeSantis is one of the founding members of the caucus.

01:52:59.000 Is that true?

01:53:00.000 Yeah, that is true.

01:53:02.000 And, and I love Ron DeSantis.

01:53:04.000 He's actually an endorser of the Convention of States Project.

01:53:06.000 He's actually one of the few politicians I've ever endorsed.

01:53:09.000 I generally don't endorse politicians because they just betray you and crush your heart.

01:53:14.000 Trump or DeSantis 2024?

01:53:15.000 Me, I would say DeSantis.

01:53:16.000 What do you think?

01:53:18.000 Well, number one, I endorsed Ron DeSantis when he first ran for Congress.

01:53:21.000 I went down to Florida and did a rally for him and he was in a competitive primary and I endorsed him when he ran and I thought he was a strong candidate then and I think he's been as good a governor as I've ever seen in my time in America.

01:53:36.000 And he's, to me, he's the right blend of having the right policy prescriptions.

01:53:41.000 He is a MAGA nationalist, conservative, populist.

01:53:47.000 I wrote a book back in 2014 called Blue Collar Conservative, which Donald Trump would even tell you is what he used as a template for his MAGA movement and did it better than I did when I ran in 12.

01:54:02.000 And I think DeSantis believes the same philosophy, has the guts to stand up to the national media.

01:54:11.000 He's shown that repeatedly in Florida and is not as abrasive or as radioactive as Donald Trump.

01:54:17.000 I want to add a nuance to that, which is, you know, if I were DeSantis or advising him and I don't know him, I don't

01:54:24.000 talk to him.

01:54:24.000 But what I would say is if you're end up running against Trump, you don't go after Trump.

01:54:28.000 He should say, look, Trump was a great president.

01:54:30.000 I admire Donald Trump.

01:54:32.000 Trump endorsed me when I ran for governor.

01:54:34.000 We need eight years.

01:54:36.000 We need eight years of a good, solid, conservative president.

01:54:39.000 But what if you got Trump, DeSantis, then DeSantis, then DeSantis?

01:54:43.000 I don't think it's realistic.

01:54:44.000 That's not generally the way political cycles work.

01:54:47.000 That's a, that's a powerful, you know, it's hot though because no, I mean like you, you're really hoping like to get, yeah, the idea that you're going to get three consecutive terms just generally doesn't happen.

01:54:59.000 And I also think, especially because of how Trump is, it's just going to pump up the radioactivity in four years.

01:55:04.000 It's going to make it much harder for whoever, whoever follows in his footsteps.

01:55:09.000 Yeah, but the reality is Trump had it for him to lose and he lost.

01:55:17.000 And you can say, well, they were after him.

01:55:19.000 They did all these things.

01:55:21.000 Yeah, but obviously he didn't handle them well because he had handled them well.

01:55:26.000 It's not like The media didn't go after Republicans.

01:55:29.000 I mean, go back, I always encourage people if they're in California, go to the Reagan library.

01:55:34.000 There's a whole display there of how the media just beat the tar out of Ronald Reagan.

01:55:41.000 They tried to destroy him and he was able to handle it and win.

01:55:47.000 And Trump fought, I agree, but he didn't handle it and win.

01:55:50.000 And I want someone who can handle it and win.

01:55:54.000 All right, let's see.

01:55:56.000 So Moen, I think I'm pronouncing that right, says, Tim only goes hard on the left guests.

01:56:01.000 Reason why he can't get any more left guests.

01:56:02.000 You need to gatekeep your people more hard than those you disagree with.

01:56:06.000 One of the things Moen's been asking is that, arguing, what are your thoughts on Iraq having WMDs?

01:56:13.000 Would you support war?

01:56:15.000 And if there was war with China, how would you respond to it?

01:56:18.000 I would support Israel doing what I think Israel will have to do, and Saudi Arabia will have to do, which is take out Iran's nuclear capability at some point. 0.78

01:56:25.000 Because Iran with a nuclear weapon is an existential threat to the state of Israel. 0.52

01:56:30.000 It's one of those things where you hear the leaders of a country say, we're going to eliminate you, we're going to make sure that Israel doesn't...

01:56:38.000 And then you can't sit there as a small country like Israel and say, well, they didn't really mean it.

01:56:43.000 If they have a nuclear weapon that they can drop a bomb and do it, then they'll probably drop a bomb and do it and they'll survive.

01:56:49.000 Iran will survive it. 0.97

01:56:50.000 And so you have to stop it from happening.

01:56:52.000 Well, how do you do that?

01:56:53.000 I suppose the issue is... The Israelis can do it. 0.58

01:56:56.000 I have no doubt about that.

01:56:58.000 Would this not spiral out into a greater international... Not if the international community, as they should, stands behind them and says that they're going to support their ability to maintain their own existence.

01:57:11.000 And that's what this is about.

01:57:12.000 Yeah, going back to Iraq, Iraq was a mistake.

01:57:15.000 Absolutely.

01:57:16.000 Obviously a huge mistake.

01:57:17.000 We flipped the balance of power in the Middle East in a way that's been very deleterious to just general world order. 1.00

01:57:24.000 And I agree with Rick.

01:57:25.000 I mean, I think the biggest problem in the Middle East right now is that we throttle Israel and that we do our best to keep them from doing the things that they need to do for their own security. 0.94

01:57:34.000 And I would argue for the security of the world.

01:57:37.000 And it's not just the Israelis.

01:57:44.000 It's the Saudis. 0.97

01:57:46.000 It's basically the Arab world. 0.85

01:57:48.000 Remember, Iran is not an Arab country.

01:57:50.000 It's a Persian country.

01:57:52.000 It's a Sunni, it's a Sufi, excuse me.

01:57:55.000 I'm all of a sudden Shia country.

01:57:59.000 It's a Shia Shia Muslim as opposed to Sunni Muslim there.

01:58:02.000 There are it's not just Israel that wants that does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

01:58:07.000 It is is the entire most of the Middle East and it will not be I said, I suspect it will not be just Israel that will will in the end stop Iran from getting there. 0.94

01:58:18.000 What are your views on entering into a conflict with China?

01:58:21.000 My attitude is, and I'll tell you this too, my attitude on Ukraine, for instance, is I don't think we should be involved at all.

01:58:26.000 I certainly understand the history of the region.

01:58:28.000 I went over there and I met a lot of people talking about, you know, Ukraine's desires for entering the EU or potentially NATO.

01:58:36.000 That came up less.

01:58:37.000 But I'm wondering, you know, thoughts on Ukraine-Russia conflict and then potential conflict with Taiwan.

01:58:42.000 Should the U.S.

01:58:43.000 be involved in either of those?

01:58:44.000 So in regard to Ukraine, a little strangely, both sides of my family from Ukraine never felt any particular connection to Ukraine.

01:58:53.000 If I got to draw the line though, and first of all, no boots on the ground, absolutely no American blood should be spilled over there.

01:59:00.000 If I can use money as a proxy and we can be killing the Russian military on the ground without putting American lives at risk, to some extent I'm in favor of that. 0.95

01:59:13.000 We're weakening a geopolitical foe.

01:59:16.000 We're weakening a NATO foe by spending money, not by spending our lives.

01:59:22.000 With limitations.

01:59:23.000 And part of it for me also is, are we actually there to win?

01:59:27.000 Are we actually playing a game where we intend to let the Ukrainians or help the Ukrainians win?

01:59:32.000 If we're not there to win, and this is one of my problems with conflict in general, man, when you go into a war, when you're fighting a conflict, the only reason to go into conflict is to win.

01:59:41.000 So what's the exit strategy?

01:59:43.000 What's the end of this thing?

01:59:44.000 I've not heard anything like that.

01:59:46.000 And so I think what we've got is an interminable conflict that's draining the coffers of the United States.

01:59:51.000 And I think that's bad in a general sense.

01:59:53.000 In regard to China, from my perspective, and Rick said this a bunch of times, we are at war with China. 0.98

01:59:59.000 We're in a conflict with China.

02:00:01.000 Are we looking for a hot war?

02:00:02.000 No, I mean, and I don't think that's modern history.

02:00:05.000 The Cold War is really the model, but that was actually a war.

02:00:08.000 We were actually at war with Russia in technological ways, in espionage ways.

02:00:13.000 We're not treating China as that kind of a foe and that needs to be our footing.

02:00:18.000 All right.

02:00:19.000 Here's a here's a hard one.

02:00:20.000 Anarcho Booth says, classic Republican impotence.

02:00:23.000 When the shoe drops and there's a power grab, they make concessions while the left rallies and mobilizes.

02:00:28.000 Yeah, I'm not sure what concessions we're making.

02:00:31.000 I'm not aware of any... What is he talking about?

02:00:33.000 It's probably in reference to, like, impeaching Biden, for instance.

02:00:36.000 So I know you made your point on this.

02:00:40.000 I voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, by the way, just so you know.

02:00:44.000 But we're interested in Biden now.

02:00:46.000 But I'll put it this way.

02:00:48.000 For a lot of people who are probably not... There's probably a lot of longtime, really staunch conservatives who saw Trump and they were like, to battle!

02:00:57.000 And there's a lot of people that are probably more in a similar space to me that were like neutral to liberal, moderate.

02:01:02.000 And then we see the Democrats just trample over everything, take what they want while claiming it's the Republicans doing it.

02:01:10.000 And then what happens with Trump is you have people begging someone to please just stand up and say no.

02:01:18.000 And he did.

02:01:20.000 And DeSantis does it too.

02:01:21.000 DeSantis.

02:01:23.000 I think DeSantis does it better in some ways.

02:01:25.000 I can't remember, he was at a press conference and then the press asks him something and he just laughs at him and insults him.

02:01:34.000 It was a while ago.

02:01:34.000 I think the difference is though, what he does is he destroys their underlying premise.

02:01:39.000 He's actually using logic.

02:01:41.000 So instead of just saying, you're fake news and I hate you.

02:01:45.000 And DeSantis, I just saw his press secretary do this two days ago.

02:01:49.000 Somebody was complaining from Politico saying DeSantis won't deal with any press that's opposed to him because he's scared of negative media.

02:01:56.000 And he said, we're not scared of negative media.

02:01:58.000 Everything you do is negative.

02:01:59.000 It's just, you're not relevant.

02:02:01.000 We don't care what you think.

02:02:03.000 And I actually think not caring is a better approach than simply doing combat with them.

02:02:08.000 The reality is, and this is becoming more and more true every day because of people like you, the New York Times doesn't matter like they used to matter.

02:02:16.000 Going back to the question, the problem is you can't pick every fight.

02:02:20.000 You can't fight every fight.

02:02:21.000 I mean, if you're out there and that's what that's what Trump wasn't able to do.

02:02:25.000 He couldn't back down from everything was a fight.

02:02:29.000 And he just every single day was a fight every day.

02:02:32.000 I mean, there wasn't a day that went by that he wasn't fighting about something that somebody said and and you need to pick your battles.

02:02:40.000 And so going after a demented guy who's not going to run for re-election and spend two years going after a guy in an impeachment of Joe Biden when he's not going to run for re-election, he's going to be gone.

02:02:53.000 Why are you wasting your time doing that?

02:02:55.000 That's fair.

02:02:56.000 Pick a battle that matters more to the American people.

02:02:59.000 So, generally speaking, the battle that I would pick is we need to go after all of these offenders inside these administrative agencies.

02:03:06.000 We need to start investigating the agencies, gutting the agencies.

02:03:10.000 I'd call foul play.

02:03:12.000 Tony Fauci.

02:03:13.000 Investigate the heck out of him.

02:03:14.000 Fauci should be hauled before Congress.

02:03:16.000 And I think to be muscular, which is what the commenter is talking about, we ought to hamstring the entire federal government.

02:03:25.000 That ought to be Congress's approach.

02:03:26.000 If the Republicans take power, which I believe they're going to, they need to do everything they can to hamstring the operations of the administrative state.

02:03:35.000 Let's grab one more super chat here.

02:03:37.000 We got Brian Lee who says, I love Rick Santorum.

02:03:39.000 His book, It Takes a Family, was the first political book I ever bought and read.

02:03:43.000 He's a sincere Christian and an honest man.

02:03:45.000 I wanted Rick to become president.

02:03:47.000 Are you going to announce your presidency right now?

02:03:52.000 Thank you.

02:03:53.000 I don't think he's related to me.

02:03:57.000 Everybody, if you haven't already, would you kindly smash that like button, subscribe to this channel, and share the show with your friends.

02:04:01.000 We're going to be heading over to that Members Only Uncensored After Hours show, which will go up about 11.

02:04:06.000 You can follow the show at TimCast IRL.

02:04:08.000 You can follow me at TimCast.

02:04:10.000 Rick, do you want to shout anything out?

02:04:13.000 Join Convention of States.

02:04:14.000 I mean, just go to that website and learn about this.

02:04:19.000 If you oppose it, I plead with you.

02:04:23.000 Do what I did.

02:04:24.000 Go read the material.

02:04:26.000 And if you still feel the same way, fine.

02:04:28.000 But don't just take some meme that you saw that this is a runaway convention or a gun run.

02:04:35.000 Read the facts.

02:04:37.000 And then I think the vast majority of you will end up joining us.

02:04:42.000 Yeah, two things I would say.

02:04:43.000 Number one, pick a side.

02:04:44.000 I mean, we're at war here in our own country for the country.

02:04:48.000 And frankly, you're either with the Marxists and the leftists who are destroying the country, and you're willing to accede to that or be a tool for that.

02:04:56.000 Or fight with the patriots, the people who are standing.

02:04:58.000 And you mentioned the movie, The Patriots.

02:04:59.000 Stand up, fight, because they're coming for you.

02:05:02.000 They're coming for your family.

02:05:03.000 And then last, I want to say to the grassroots that are out there, I know a lot of them are your fans.

02:05:07.000 I've literally received more texts and emails about being on your show Than anything I've ever done in 12 years of politics.

02:05:14.000 I got a lot of advice like you're going in to see Tim.

02:05:16.000 This is like going into the heart of it.

02:05:18.000 It's so awesome.

02:05:20.000 I would say to those people, God bless you guys.

02:05:22.000 I mean, I love you.

02:05:23.000 Rick and I get to travel the country.

02:05:24.000 We meet Americans have hope.

02:05:26.000 There are great patriots out there all over the country.

02:05:29.000 There are a lot of people who are like, you know, Tim, why aren't you challenging them on Iraq and all of these things?

02:05:34.000 And I'm just like, for one, I think the important thing is if you guys have a difference of opinion on foreign policy, it's like there's only so much I can say when I'm like, I disagree.

02:05:43.000 And then you say I disagree or like the Biden thing.

02:05:45.000 What are we going to do?

02:05:45.000 Just keep talking back and forth where you say no.

02:05:47.000 And I say yes.

02:05:48.000 And like, we're not getting anywhere.

02:05:49.000 When it comes to the people we've had on from the left, it's like they'll say something factually incorrect.

02:05:53.000 And then I'll be like, that's not true, that's not a real thing.

02:05:56.000 Your opinion can be something on policy.

02:05:58.000 I argue with Seamus about, you know, pro-life and pro-choice and stuff, because I lean more towards traditional, old-school pro-choice.

02:06:05.000 But so we can have an argument about policy positions, but if you have an opinion, I don't agree with, I don't know what else I'm going to say to you guys, right?

02:06:11.000 It's like, we disagree.

02:06:12.000 Let's let's, what else do you think?

02:06:13.000 And look, I think you're good.

02:06:14.000 You've been challenging us.

02:06:15.000 You've been putting out the questions where people challenge us.

02:06:17.000 Yeah.

02:06:18.000 You even said people said he was a rhino and all these weird bills that he sponsors.

02:06:22.000 So to me to get, I mean, how do you get much harder than that?

02:06:24.000 Those are the fun ones.

02:06:25.000 I mean, give you a chance to, you know, and I think those are important.

02:06:28.000 I want to entertain those questions always.

02:06:30.000 So we need the good ones too.

02:06:31.000 Like people saying your book really helped them and things like that.

02:06:33.000 We need to, you know, We'll move on.

02:06:35.000 Hannah-Claire, do you want to shout anything out?

02:06:37.000 Yeah!

02:06:38.000 I'm a writer for TimCast.com, so I encourage you to go over there and click on the read tab.

02:06:42.000 I'm there five times a day.

02:06:43.000 I'm also on Pop Culture Crisis Tomorrow with Brett and Mary at 3 p.m.

02:06:48.000 Eastern Standard Time.

02:06:50.000 You can follow me on Instagram at hannahclaire.b.

02:06:53.000 I just want to say, if anyone has been following the stuff that's going on in Kentucky with the flooding, I really encourage all of you to take action and find ways to donate to those communities, because it's pretty devastating.

02:07:02.000 Right, absolutely.

02:07:03.000 And a special thanks to Chris for running the show today while ladies on vacation.

02:07:07.000 Thanks for watching.

02:07:09.000 Alright, we're gonna head over to TimCast.com.

Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - August 01, 2022

Timcast IRL - Pelosi Trip To Taiwan Sparks World War Three Fears w- Rick Santorum & Mark Meckler

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript