00:16:51.580It is the lead story right now on both CNN and MSNBC as we prepare for that.1.00
00:16:58.400Next week is the Texas primary, where many delectably good-looking women are going to be going to go vote, many of them in the Republican primary.0.99
00:17:08.080They're deciding between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn just in the last hour.0.98
00:17:12.580Ken Paxton has been endorsed by President Trump effectively I believe ending that primary as
00:17:20.840Paxton I believe Buck was already likely to win and he had won in the uh Cornyn won by a little
00:17:28.960bit I think in the initial uh primary back in March and now in the runoff I am betting that
00:17:35.880the Paxton people were able to show to President Trump and his polling likely reflected as well
00:17:41.880that paxton was going to win this president trump now cementing and i think effectively
00:17:48.480ending the texas primary this is significant in the context buck john cornyn uh is likely to lose
00:17:56.680as an incumbent in his primary and we already have seen cassidy of louisiana lose in his primary
00:18:05.260This will be the first time that a Senate Republican has lost a primary since 2012.
00:18:12.440It is likely, I believe, that both of those men are going to be out.
00:18:17.420But again, next week, everybody go vote in the Texas primary, as well as Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Idaho, and Oregon.
00:19:07.200And so everybody can look forward to that.
00:19:11.060Again, with the primaries underway, six of them today, everybody go vote.
00:19:16.980Buck, on top of this, there are a couple of other stories that you and I were going to get into.
00:19:23.480again we'll go and see if there's any news that is going to come out of this primary that is in
00:19:29.280short order going to sorry this press conference that in short order is going to begin uh but you
00:19:36.040were talking about i want to come back to something that you were talking about at the time that the
00:19:41.740news came down about the ken paxton endorsement and it is a democrat attempt and i do think this
00:19:47.960is significant and we should address it and we should make you aware of the fact that it is
00:19:52.460coming. Democrats have made a calculated decision that they are going to try and call it racist
00:19:59.720if there is any black Democrat who loses his or her seat. And and I do think did we play this0.59
00:20:09.540this redistricting cut 28 from a South Carolina Democrat state rep? I don't think we played this
00:20:17.580when you were starting your conversation correct me if i'm uh if i'm wrong we did or we did not
00:20:23.540yeah cut 28 south carolina is the latest state let me kind of fill you in so tennessee has
00:20:30.900eliminated the uh blue congressional seat in memphis so far courts have upheld that
00:20:36.720alabama is going to eliminate at least one racially gerrymandered seat louisiana is going
00:20:43.160eliminate at least one gerrymandered seat georgia and mississippi have both said they're going to
00:20:49.640wait till after the midterms and then readdress their maps uh florida has already added four
00:20:55.860republican seats texas has added five that was before uh kind of at the same time for florida
00:21:02.980but before the decision came down in texas race doesn't really involve it doesn't appear at least
00:21:08.720black and white hispanic uh voters are a big part of the texas redistricting i believe i am correct
00:21:15.140south carolina is the last state that still has to decide are they going to eliminate the one
00:21:21.840minority majority district which is actually held by james clyburn this is the argument that you are
00:21:28.840hearing everywhere all of a sudden cut 28 jim clyburn accuses republicans of creating jim crow
00:21:36.6602.0. Is he right? Absolutely. We in South Carolina and South Carolina House of Representatives are
00:21:43.080fighting regressive policies, and we've been doing that for the last couple of days, and we will
00:21:47.940continue to do that as well throughout the day and well into the night. What we see today and
00:21:52.980what we've been seeing throughout the South is an attempt to take us backwards. I have a quote that
00:21:58.380I often like to say, and that is that it's starting to feel more like 1966 and not 2026.
00:22:05.320We are fighting against voter disenfranchisement, and it's going to be really important that we stand up and that we make our voices heard and say that we're not going back.
00:22:15.280Can I play the rhetoric here, the rhetoric that is being used?
00:22:19.940This goes back to the Jeffrey's conversation, Jeffrey's quote or soundbite of last hour.
00:22:26.280They won't say what they're really trying to say, or rather they won't explain what is the objection here.
00:22:34.060the MAGA extremists, all this stuff, what the claim now has become is that even though
00:22:41.700the Supreme Court has come down and said, sorry, no more, there is a belief among Democrat
00:22:48.220black members of Congress that there should be special privileges given to concentrations
00:22:56.960of black voters in states so that they have special power to have the member of congress
00:23:04.480generally not always you point out what steve cohen right in nashville but that they will be
00:23:09.640in a position to determine who goes to congress based on the fact that there is a concentration
00:23:15.020of people who are black in in that specific district i just think this is very when people
00:23:20.180hear it that way they go wait why is that the case and also if you're a latino why shouldn't
00:23:25.460you know why shouldn't you say you know what i want my own i want a latino district where the
00:23:30.060latino community gets to pick their own now you kind of have that in miami but it's not drawn by
00:23:34.520you know it's not drawn by uh some voting rights act mandate that's just the way that people happen
00:23:41.920to live and they they the state of florida has drawn drawn the maps as they have race should
00:23:47.520not be and cannot be the primary consideration in drawing congressional districts that are
00:23:52.340specifically intended to advantage black voters that's it yeah it's really not that complicated
00:23:57.880and when you put it in a straightforward but notice the language they use clay it's not even
00:24:01.840clear what they're talking about oh they're taking us back oh it's back to racism it's back to jim
00:24:06.840crow it's back it's what is what is this they never tell you yeah i would actually argue and
00:24:13.600and i think it's an interesting case so there are examples tim scott who is a senator representing
00:24:19.960uh south carolina who happens to be black i've said before i think byron donalds is going to be
00:24:25.720the next governor of florida he happens to be black these guys wesley hunt who uh had a great
00:24:32.940senate campaign but has represented a majority white district in texas to me in order to win
00:24:40.020a statewide race it is oftentimes a very different skill set than what is required to represent a
00:24:49.240majority black district and let me use barack obama as an example do you remember what happened
00:24:55.620when barack obama ran in chicago and tried to win a majority black district buck he got smoked
00:25:02.100he a lot of people forget about this because they think about obama and they recognize that he won
00:25:08.100the senate race in illinois and then he won the presidency obviously in 2008 and 2012 but i
00:25:14.720actually think the racial politics of barack obama is more interesting he got smoked when he
00:25:20.060tried to win a majority black district in illinois chicago area just crushed and it was because he
00:25:27.380wasn't considered black enough and that's in quotation marks to represent an inner city
00:25:33.020majority black district in chicago so what did he do he ran statewide and he actually won in illinois
00:25:41.220Now, I don't know exactly how it would have gone if he had won that majority black district, but I think there is an argument that what it takes to win a majority black district actually makes it harder for you to win statewide.
00:25:56.120And I would be curious to look at the data on this because you have to run further left, you have to be a black representative, you have to join the Congressional Black Caucus, and you are defined then as a member of that party that is basically responding to black-related issues, as opposed to black, white, Asian, and Hispanic-related issues, which is what allows you to win statewide.
00:26:23.580and so maybe we get Tim Scott on to talk about this Byron Donalds I would be curious Wesley Hunt
00:26:29.960and maybe some of those guys listening or their staffs listening as they drive around right now
00:26:33.760I actually think that to have substantial black leadership you might be better off trying to
00:26:41.640represent a state and appeal to people of all different backgrounds in terms of having political
00:26:47.840power than to just try to win a majority black district again as barack obama could not do
00:26:54.480uh in his beginning of his political career and i do think that's an interesting angle to think
00:27:01.900about um as we go forward i'm not even sure that i buy the thesis underlying what is basically just
00:27:08.960an attempt to play the race card one time after another by the way a lot of people weighing in
00:27:13.880variety of topics we'll get to some of those i believe we only have one guest doug brunt
00:27:17.920in the third hour of this program jd vance has not yet held that white house press briefing
00:27:24.020amid war in iran that is the headline right now on fox news we will see if there is any additional
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00:49:26.060And that was two years before Lincoln freed the slaves in America.
00:49:30.060And Alexander II, who was the grandfather of the last czar, Nicholas II, he tried many liberalizing reforms at increasing, you know, the economy to be more Western and more business friendly, allowing freedom of assembly, freedom of the press.
00:49:45.500And then the Russian people would, they started to sort of organize in these subversive groups following Marxist doctrine, then attempted to assassinate him.
00:49:54.600And, you know, it's one of these crazy things. There was advice that Nicholas I, the czar in the 1830s, 40s, gave to his son Alexander II.0.71
00:50:02.540And he was describing Napoleon. And he said, look, Napoleon, he's this sort of versatile leader.
00:50:06.200He knows when to be soft. And then he also knows when to be only the lion.
00:50:10.700And he said, but in Russia, you can be only the lion.
00:50:14.000And you get these cycles when they have tried to liberalize and reform it, like Gorbachev, you know, made all these reforms.
00:50:20.960And then it blows up and then you get Putin and it's repressive again.
00:50:24.920They've been through that cycle throughout history.
00:50:27.620And while they were moving toward more of a constitutional monarchy and a more Western style of government, it shattered with the Bolshevik Revolution and went into yet another repressive cycle.
00:50:38.420We're speaking to Douglas Brunt, The Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel.
00:50:42.320I've got my copy right here, which you guys should all go get out today.
00:50:46.600It's going to be another huge bestseller, I can assure you.
00:50:48.980um doug talk to me about something i find really interesting i'm a big fan of uh not to bring up a
00:50:55.520different book but you know i'm sure you like it too daniel juergen's the prize about the history
00:50:59.020of oil uh it's just sort of a good overview history of the the oil you know the discovery
00:51:04.520of it the use of it and then and then where it um people don't really get much about or rather
00:51:09.840i should say we don't hear much about the early days of russia figuring out that it's a call it
00:51:17.620a hydrocarbon right an oil and natural gas superpower which it is just because it's it's
00:51:22.260absolutely huge and it has very considerable reserves of those two things what were the
00:51:26.980early days like you know what what was the equivalent of the saudi sheikhs who had almost
00:51:33.460no paved roads but were buying up rolls royces as fast as possible in the early days of the
00:51:38.440saudi kingdom like what were the early days of the russian oil boom like it's amazing the nobel
00:51:44.140family was mostly in the north, and they were building rifles and bombs and engines, building
00:51:48.420diesel engines, which is actually how I found the Nobel story with Rudolf Essel. And they get an
00:51:52.560order from the czar for 100,000 rifles, and they need wood for the shoulder stocks of the rifles.
00:51:57.120So they go down to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, where there are these walnut trees,
00:52:01.600where they're going to get the wood. And while they're down there, it's this ancient land of
00:52:05.640the eternal flame, you know, natural gas seeping from rocks that ignites and has the eternal flame.
00:52:09.900And there was also so much petroleum in the ground, it was bubbling to the surface. So they
00:52:13.660go down there and they see pools of oil on the surface, but there's no technology. It still looks
00:52:18.420like an ancient land and people are just skimming it from the surface and using it as a lubricant
00:52:23.140and other things. No drilling. The most they do is use shovels. So the Nobels are down there to
00:52:27.540buy wood. The one guy says, I'm not using these 20,000 rubles on wood. I'm buying land. And so
00:52:33.280they buy a bunch of land and they set up a refining facility and they use all their technology
00:52:38.120expertise and capital to build an oil company. And they're, with the sort of Nobel expertise
00:52:44.280and background in manufacturing, they're very quickly one of the large oil companies in the
00:52:49.460world. And by 1888, the czar has decided like, wow, we've been shipping grain around the world
00:53:00.200all these years, but now oil is becoming one of our main commodities that we have in the Russian
00:53:04.400Empire, and they recognize it's yet another major natural resource that Russia possesses.
00:53:10.780When you did your research, I'm curious, and this book sounds fascinating.
00:53:15.820There's a lot of talk about the Ukraine war and the desire of Vladimir Putin to reclaim
00:53:22.260the lost glory of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Empire.
00:53:27.540Do you get a sense for what his ambition is or where it comes from and how it connects