Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Touchdowns, Taxes and a Tone‑Deaf Spanish Speaking Halftime

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Touchdowns, Taxes and a Tone‑Deaf Spanish Speaking Halftime · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: So the super Bowl happened, and we decided we were
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: going to talk about it center. Cruz and I were
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deciding how we were going to talk about bad Bunny.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And if you didn't understand a word he was saying
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl, yeah, that was on purpose. It's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: part of his anti America, hate us all agenda. Now
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that's just the reality of the situation. But how angry
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: should you be? And also there was an alternative, which
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: is what I love about this country. We're going to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: break all that down for you as Senator Cruse and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I talk about that and much more. Welcome in his
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: verdical center. Ted Cruz post Super Bowl show. Nice to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: have you with us, Senator, I know you were just
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: really excited about the halftime show. You didn't watch any
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of the game, though, but that part you were there
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for I'm assuming right.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday. I will say I had
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the great joy of being on an airplane during a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: lot of the Super Bowl, so I caught part of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the third quarter and that was about it. So I
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: didn't watch much. I got a field goal that that
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that that was about it. I did not see the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: halftime show, although I did pull it up on my
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: phone and watch part of it afterwards. But you know, look,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I mean the super Bowl. A lot of times I'll
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: go to a super Bowl party. In this case, I
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: was just just flying and landing in Texas. So got
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: got on the got home midway through. You know, I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: got to say a lot of the noise about the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: halftime show. Yeah, I just found myself not caring. But like,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I know that there were a lot of folks all
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: worked up and on the right. You're supposed to be
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: outraged that that that, you know, bad bunny.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: There was like no English spoken I could have The
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: guy was saying yeah, yeah, yeah, So I'm not bilingual
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: like you are those center There's a difference. See you
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: understood it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't know, Benjamin. Look we Latino was a little
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: bit of Spanish. Won't kill you like I I just
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't like the guy's politics. At the Grammys.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I thought he made an ass of himself, like like
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: saying ice out that I don't like. And I don't
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: really like when celebrities try to force their politics on us.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: But you know, I watched him like in the sugarcane
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and dancing around. I think most of the halftime shows
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: are kind of silly, so like this didn't strike me
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: as particularly unusual in more or less silliness. You know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the guy falls through a roof and lands in someone's apartment.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: That was just kind of strange, But I you know,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it was I found myself.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: We at the level now where you just say, if
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you're like a singer and this is what you do,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you just don't give a crap.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean I my girls like that bunny. I
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: have to admit he's not on my playlist, but I
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: have a fifteen and seventeen year old daughter and they
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: listen to him some. Most of the halftime shows don't
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: do much for me. I mean it's they're fine. They're
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: typically typically like pop singer and and you know I
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: tend to listen to more more country music or or
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: or classic rock anyway. So look, it was We've already
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: talked more in the last four minutes about it that
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I've probably thought about the whole thing.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I love and I love it. By the way, did
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: you see that turning point? I had like five million
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: live watching on YouTube.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, kid Rock, you know, I mean Kid
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Rock testified before the Senate uh, this past week, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: so I got to visit with Kid Rock. He came
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: by my office. He was a nice guy. I liked him.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: But to be honest, I I was on a plane
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: for Kid Rocks too, so I didn't didn't watch either
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: one of them. You know it it uh, I will say. Also,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: you know, as we talked about last week on the pod,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: on Friday, I was at at my tia Sonya's funeral
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: and and that was up in Dallas, and uh, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I spoke at the funeral, and my sister spoke at
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the funeral, and and my cousin Biebie spoke, and my
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: dad spoke, and both my niece and nephew spoke, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: you know, it was it was a real celebration of
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: my theos Oni. And actually played a lot of Spanish
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: music because my theoso Onia liked it. So you know,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed that more than the snippet I saw a
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: bad bunny, but you know that's fine. But I have
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to say I was just kind of like it was
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: a beautiful funeral.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: She was eighty two. As as folks know, we put
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: out last week the interview that we did, we had
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: my theos on Onya on on Verdict and interviewed her
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: and and she was she was a freedom fighter, you know,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: she fought against Fidel Castro in Cuba. She was thrown
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: in prison, she was tortured. Actually she was along with
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: my Ta Medium and my Tamela. Neither of them were
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: my aunts, but just in and culture, you just kind
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of collect ds. By the way, if your kid, every
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: one of the theas will spank every one of the kids.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's literally just kind of like if.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: That's that's law in order, that's just how it yes
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to go.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: If there's a kid misbehaving, anyone will do that. You
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: whack the kid. And I got a lot of uh.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: That you had a lot of those that in your
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: life when you were a kid.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Well, and their weapon of choice was the chankleta, which
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: which is this.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: This translate this for me? What does that mean?
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Schank Cletta was this like heavy rubber sandal she would wear. Yeah,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: and my thea Sonya could pull off the shank gletta
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: off of her foot, throw it and she'd whack you
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: in the back of the head and it was like
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: this you know, boomerang wow, and you'd be like wow,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that hurt. She was very good at it. But you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: look what I liked about the funeral is it captured
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: her spirit. She was loud, she was fiery. She was
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a warrior for liberty. Listen, when you've been thrown in, prisoned,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: and tortured by communists, freedom matters a lot to you.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: You know. I told the story at the funeral about
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: how when when I first ran for Senate back in
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: twenty twelve, and I was running against the lieutenant governor
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: who was worth a couple of hundred million dollars and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: so put thirty five million dollars of his own money
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: in the race and just ran saturation attack ads and
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: my Theos Sonya. She was furious, and she she she
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: cursed like a sailor, and she was like, I will
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: black any black geek his ass. And I'm like it, yeah, Golement,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: that just means calm down. It's not good politically for
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you to be beating up my opponents. And by the way,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: you would not want to fight my Theos Sonya. She
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: she would, I believe you, she was ferocious. I did
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: have a rule. My Theo Sonya was not allowed uh
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to talk to reporters, and she'd be like, why not,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: And I'm I'm like THEA because I know you, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: you're liable to say anything, You're liable to curse them out.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It's from the heart. But but let's just let's just
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: figure those sentiments within the family. There's a reason I
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: called her my Ta looka my crazy aunt. But I
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: got to tell the story about just a couple of
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: weeks ago when I went up to see her and
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: she was she was in the hospital, and she was
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: fading fast. She was kind of coming in and out
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of consciousness, and she wasn't entirely able to to understand
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: everything that was happening. Yeah, and you could tell it
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: was we were in the last days. But but I
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: had the chance to tell her, I said THEA, they
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: got Maduro, they arrested Maduro and I and I told her, Tia,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the Cuban Communist government is going to fall soon. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: she just beamed the smile on her face.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Wow, it was.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: It was beautiful and and and it was a celebration
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: of life. Look, I'm sad, we're all sad that she's gone.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: But she led a full life. Every minute she loved
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: living and and and she brought joy.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: She brought.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Unconditional support. She was ferociously loyal. So yeah, I I
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: was thinking much more about that than than than some guy.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: And and by the way, I was glad at least,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: you know, the early promo said bad Bummy Buddy was
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: gonna wear a dress. He didn't wear a dress at
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: least not that I saw, so, so I was glad
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: of that at least that, you know, small victory.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you know, the burning of flags other places, right, Yeah,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you're not doing the Super Bowl.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Just I'm just saying, I am curious though, how much
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Bad Bunny is going to be taxed for having gone
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So, by the way, this is the story that I
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: think everyone should be outraged over, right, if if Bad
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Bunny didn't get you going, here is the story, and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: we've got the tax hours. If you want to know
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: why California is fading fast and why so many people
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: that when they start making money are out of there,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and so many people in the crypto world and the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: IT world and all the other worlds are like they're
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: getting out of there, like they're leaving fast as they can.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Let's just break down. We've got some data for people
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: of how much money California made off the Super Bowl,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of those that were actually making money at the Super Bowl.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: It really is incredible data. Well it is.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: If you look at Sam Darnold going into the game,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: here's what his incentives were. If he wins. Yeah, he's
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: going to receive one hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: as a bonus, yep, and he will pay two hundred
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: and forty nine thousand in taxes to California for his
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: time here, meaning he will lose seventy one thousand dollars. Yeah,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: that's what ended up happening. If if he had lost,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: then he would have gotten one hundred and three thousand
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: dollars in bonus, but he would still owe two hundred
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and thirty five thousand in taxes, meaning he would have
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: lost one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars. So I
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: guess Sam, congratulations, Yeah, you only lost seventy one thousand
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: dollars for stepping foot in the Commonwealth of California instead
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: of losing one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars. And
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: what kind of insanity is it that that's how the
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: California tax system is.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is and it's and I mean this is
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: you you fly in there and you just do a
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: day's work and you're a performer. They are going to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: take as much money as they can and they don't care.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Like there now there's there's there was inch article I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: was reading online about it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Look, look, I think but I think bad Bunny changed
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: his name. He's now Sad Bunny because Sad California took
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: all his money.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: See that. You're not wrong on that one. But they
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: were talking about bands and.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And you know, you know, if you if you let
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: California keep going, he may soon be like fatal attraction bunny.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, and there's a whole like like there's.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: A rabbit there's a whole rabbit hole you can go
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: down on this one?
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Is that?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: All right, I went there than you at worst.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're welcome. You're welcome. I'm here all night, folks.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: No comedians, though, are avoiding California for the tax reasons
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you just said that. I mean, it's it's real. Why
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: would you spend the night there if you know you're
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: not gonna make near as much money and you can
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: choose to go somewhere else, like go to Nevada, go
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to New Mexico. I mean, there's there's a lot of
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: other place you can go to perform, and there's a
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: lot of people there now sitting. They're actually avoiding it
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: for the reasons you just described with those bonuses and taxes.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: So, California has the highest marginal income tax of any state.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Its top marginal rate is thirteen point three percent on
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: wage income and on capital gains that exceed one million
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: dollars a year. The top rate for waging come climbs
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: to fourteen point six percent when you include the state
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: disability insurance rate, which has no wage cap. And that's
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: on top of federal taxes. So federal taxes at the
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: top of the tax bracket, you're paying thirty seven percent
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: plus fourteen point six percent. So the reason Darnald owes
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: that money is because he is tallied with with eight
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: duty days in California. While they were they get there
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: getting ready for the super Bowl, he got popped with it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Welcome to California, Congratulations on the super Bowl. And by
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: the way, when you play the super Bowl in Texas,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: we don't tax you a penny and you get great
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: text becks.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to some other big stuff
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: here center that I want to deal with. And there's
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: something you want to talk about which I really like
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: this subject, and it deals with left wing funders that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: are being exposed. I actually think this is going to
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: be a trend with what we're witnessing with all the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: attacks on ice around the country. I think we're going
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to more of this. Follow the money. You've been saying
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that on this show for a while. Follow the money,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: follow the money, follow the money. And we have a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: new example of that that we're going to expose here.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So I hope everyone listening or watching will make sure
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you hit that chare button share this episode on social media,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: because we're going to be a part of that in
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a very big way and explain what we've now found.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Well, there was a very interesting column in the Wall
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Street Journal about the Mellon Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: is America's biggest funder of the humanities, and it is
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: a radical leftist foundation. And let me read from this column.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: The University of Virginia launched a hiring spree in twenty
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: twenty as it pledged to become a racial equity focused university.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: A special initiative promised to recruit thirty doctoral fellows and
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: quote open the gateway for them to fill tenure tech jobs.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: One current fellows specialties include transfeminisms and gender queer life,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: writing on other researches how Filipino nurses resist racial capitalism.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: The program owes its existence to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: which funded it to the tune of five million dollars.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: With a seven point seven billion dollar endowment, the Mellon
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Foundation is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Its annual giving has long dwarfed that of the National
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Endowment for the Humanities. In recent years, it has been
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: refashioned as a tool for advancing an identitarian vision of
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: social justice for academia. The consequences are far reaching. Through
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: public record requests, I've acquired dozens of proposals and progress
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: reports for MELON funded projects show how the foundation has
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: lavishly promoted progressive scholar activism. At the University of Utah,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: the Transformative Intersectional Collective created workshops on transgender and queer
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: of color critique and quote environmental anti racism, supported by
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: a half million dollar MELON grant. At the University of California,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Santa Cruz. The Visualizing Abolition Project promotes research and art
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: that calls for the elimination of prisons, with the support
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: of eight million dollars from MELON. For much of its existence,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: the Mellon Foundation narrowly supported the arts and humanities. One
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: signature product project was the creation of jstor, the widely
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: used online database of academic research. The foundation avoided controversy
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: that changed with the dawn of the social justice era.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: As early as twenty fourteen, then president Earl Lewis told
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: The Chronicle of Higher Education that the Foundation would take
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: a more activist approach, especially around issues of race. On
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: taking over in twenty eighteen, the current president, Nutjob Nutjob
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: is me editorializing Nutjob, Elizabeth Alexander, announced that Melon would
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: view all of its giving through the lens of social justice.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: This new ideological mission is notable because of Mellon's great
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: influence within the academy, especially in hiring and promoting faculty.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: As jobs in the humanities have become ever more scarce,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Melon has poured millions of dollars into career building, fellowships,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: and faculty hiring schemes, putting its stamp on professors around
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: the country, Melon money appears up and down the academic
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: career ladder. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which has received
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: thirty eight point three million dollars since twenty twenty, steers
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: college students towards an academic career. The Mellon Funded Dissertation
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Innovation Fellowship, supported by eight point nine million dollars since
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, gives a living stipend to forty five
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: graduate students annually. Mellon has given six million dollars to
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Wayne State University, four point six million to Texas A
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: and M University, and fifteen million dollars to the University
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: of California System, all to hire faculty with the Mellon
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Emerging Faculty leaders in other programs. Mellon's support continues well
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: into a professor's career. Mellon grantees often signal their discriminatory intent.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: A University of Virginia grant proposal notes that Mellon's five
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: million dollar gift would go towards quote advancing our goal
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: of doubling the number of faculty of color at UVA
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: by twenty thirty. A University of Oregon proposal promises a
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: special post doctoral fellowship to establish a pipeline for quote black,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Indigenous and people of color. Bipock in the professoriate its
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: progress report notes that quote all interviewees identified as black, Indigenous,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and people of color. In other words, we are only
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: looking at people if we can racially discriminate. Perhaps most significantly,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Melon funded personnel building programs almost uniformly espouse a distinctly
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: identitarian brand of progressivism. At Emery University, You're going to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: like this. Melon May's fellows study eco womanism, whatever the
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: hell that is. They study black trans studies and racial
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: colonial capitalism. Students who specialize in intersexual neologisms will be
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: well prepared for Melon funded faculty jobs. In twenty twenty three,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Ohio State put out a job ad. So this is
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Ohio State. What are they looking for a quote assistant
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: professor of Black sexualities, noting a recent two million dollar
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Mellon Foundation gift was that funded ten new faculty positions.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Right by the way, I'm just thinking about that. They're like,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: if you get that job, and you're like, do you
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: call mom and are you like proud of that? Or
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: are you more like, yeah, I got the new job.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Well, the person who got it Zalika Ibba or Remi.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: The professor hired for the job, lists black porn and
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: black sexual logics among her areas of expertise.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Oh there you're okay, there you go.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Melon has bankrolled many professors notorious for their activism. At
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: the Socialism twenty twenty five conference, Assistant Professor Emon abdel
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Hadi referred to her employer, the University of Chicago, as
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: evil and a colonial landlord. By the way, if you
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: call your employer evil, you should be fired. That's just
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: very simple, but not hard. Conceded that working there was
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: useful for political organizing. Ms abdel Hadi came up through
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the University of Chicago's Provost post Doctoral Fellowship program, a
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: longstanding Melon funded hiring program. A few months after the conference,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: she was arrested at wait for it, an anti ice protest,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: and charged and charged in two counts of aggravated battery
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: of a police officer.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know, that's money well spent, right.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: She has pleaded not guilty. Mellon's funding has amplified a
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: bleak trajectory for the academy today. A young person drawn
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: to traditional fields like military history or classics should think
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: twice before entering the academy, a young scholar who quote
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: advances an anti capitalist, prison abolitionist agenda, as one Ohio
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: state professor put it, can find abundance support, especially from
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: the Mellon Foundation. Higher education reform will only succeed when
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: this unfortunate trend is reversed. And this was written by
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: mister Saylor, who's the director of the Higher education policy
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: at the Manhattan Institute. This is the kind of poison.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: If you look at our universities and say, why have
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: they gotten so bad? Why have they gone so far
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: off track? You have radicals who are controlling, as you
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: mentioned over.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: And we'll give you faculty. We get to pick them
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: out and this is what you've got to hire. But
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: we'll give you the money to hire them. And then
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: you can radicalize university just by paying and in ploying
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the people and putting them in placing them at the universities.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: This is paid a play and it's in its simplest form.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Look, it's it's follow the money, and you have radicals
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: who are taking over. And by the way, Andrew Mellon
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: was not a socialist, was not a transgender like porn
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: officiodato that we know of that we know of, to
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: be fair, but you look at and this is one
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: of the real challenges. They're the great capitalists of a
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: prior era. They gave much of their money to foundations,
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: and they initially appointed people to run the foundations, and
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: then time passes and those foundations over and over and
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: over again have been captured by radical leftists. The Ford Foundation.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Henry Ford would would roll over in his grave if
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: he knew the garbage the Ford Foundation funds, and and
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: and it's one of the things people on the right
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: need to think much more carefully about if they are
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: engaged in philanthropy, making sure that it's not captured, because
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: that's been one of the real sources of a propaganda
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: and a perversion of these institutions is capturing the money
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: flow that goes into colleges and universities.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's incredible, and you go back to find the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: money and let's go back to ice protests real quick.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: This is very much going to be the same playbook.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: It's part of the reason why you say follow the
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: money and see who's bringing it in, because they're paying
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: these activists. There was a video that went viral of
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: them practicing their chances and chance anti ice chants before
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: one of their protests. It looked like in a church
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and getting all of the protesters there to then teach
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: them their chance, and the video went viral over the weekend.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: That's all being funded by somebody. This is not organic.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, Laura Ingram was talking to some of the
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: protesters on the street and you said you should be
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: working at a job. The protest said, I am, I'm
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: getting paid like it's there is real money that is
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: fomenting violence, and that is quite literally fomenting revolution. That's
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: what they're trying to do.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I want to make it Virginia real quick as well.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And this is another big story that is happening very
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: quickly post election day. And it's an important story because
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I do think this could be a real moment of
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: clarity of Hey, the midterms are coming out. Pay attention.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Democrats are ready and inspired, but they are working at
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: light speed to enact their radical agenda. You could also
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: argue that they've learned this from Donald Trump. Donald Trump
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: came in rocking and rolling day one into this second term.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: He learned a lot from his first term. He learned
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: about how fashion get things done. If you're prepared. And
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: now Democrats seem to be doing that with their radical
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: agenda and Virginia what they're already doing there. It is
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: a warning for the midterms. What can happen if Democrats
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: get paid.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Well and look understand that there is no such thing
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: as a moderate Democrat anymore.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: You're dead.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Abigail Spanburger like Ran, claiming to be a moderate, and
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: only the most gullible believed her. All of the Democrats,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: they've been radicalized, that this is a party that is
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: driven by the open border, uh, abolish police, transgenders, zealos.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: So what has she done in her first few days. Well,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: one of the very first things she did is she
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: cut ties with ICE in federal Immigration Enforcement, which means
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: if Virginia has a criminal illegal alien, if Virginia has
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: an illegal alien who's a murderer or a rapist or
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: or a child bolester, they will let him go and
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: even though they're illegal alien. Virginia is now going to
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: refuse to cooperate with ICE, refuse to handle handle hand
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: murderers over to ICE, and instead, what Abigail Spanburger is
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: saying is the people of Virginia would rather that the
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: murderer has been released into their communities and prey on
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: their children. She's also, quite dramatically this week signed a
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: redistricting bill that is nothing short of radical and unfortunately.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: So let's do the math. Virginia has eleven congressional seats
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: right now. The current delegation is six Democrats five Republicans.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Virginia just had a takeover of Democrats of the state
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: legislature and the governor's mansion. They redrew the map and
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: they went from six Democrats and five Republicans to a
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: map that is designed to produce ten Democrats and one Republican. Now,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: now what does the math mean? So Virginia is is
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: a pretty it's a blue to purple state. In twenty
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: twenty four, forty seven percent of the state voted for
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. So Kamala won Virginia. But but fifty three
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: to forty seven. It was a very close cl tight.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: The forty seven percent of Virginians who voted for Trump,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: they are now going to get nine percent of the
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: congressional representation in the state. Wow, how about the fifty
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: two percent of Virginia who voted for Harris You know
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: how much they get? How much ninety one percent. There
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: you go, fifty two percent of the state. The Democrats
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: get ninety one percent of the congressional representation. Now on Twitter,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: you could hear the left he saying, ah ah, but
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Texas did it. This is all about Texas. Okay, let's
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: look at the math. Texas, fifty six percent of Texans
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: voted for Donald Trump. In the new map that Texas drew,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: that fifty six will get seventy nine percent of the seat.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: So look, it is drawn to favor the party in power,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: but it is not remotely as brazen. By the way, California,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: their new map all so is designed to give the
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Democrats more than ninety percent of the congressional delegation. And
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: you know what, the Northeast is even worse. You look
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: at at at states like Maine, states like New Hampshire,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: states like Vermont, states like Rhode Island, states like Connecticut,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: where states like Massachusetts, Massachusetts. Do you know how many
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Republican members of Congress elected Massachusetts.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I want to say it's one or zero zero, all of.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: New England, all of New England. They're just like Republicans
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: don't exist. We will erase you.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: And by the way, by what happens with this? Is
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: this going to be a back and forth tit for
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: tat when you see this type of egregious so then
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: other states are going to have to counter it. Is
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that just how we're going to go?
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: So there was a left wing democrat. I responded to this,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: and I tweeted out a brazen abuse of power and
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: an insult to democracy. And I went through the numbers
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: you just talked about. And this left winging Democrat state
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: senator came back, who never heard of and actually didn't
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: even know about this until someone of my staff told
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: me told me about it. But she responded by saying,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: you all started it and we efing finished it. And
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: by the way, she did not abbreviate efing.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: No.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: So she's a charming and lovely person.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Clearly, yes.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: And you know, there's something richly ironic about it, because
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: every Democrat loves to preen about how much they love democracy,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and yet it's quite evident that they don't care at
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: all about democracy. What they care about is keeping democrats
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: in power. That is practically the only thing they care about.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: I want you to listen to Abigail Spanberger talking about
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: jerry mandering. What she thinks about it, give a.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Listen, because Republicans have to depend on redistricting and stealing
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: votes and taking seats like they did in North Carolina
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: in order to actually be able to win elections.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: So well, we're just going to steal them right back,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: by golly right, there's your liberal logic one on one.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: But it is also the degree it is far more brazen.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: As I mentioned Texas, fifty six percent of the state
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: voted for Donald Trump. The new map, if Republicans win
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: in the seats that were drawn, the new map will
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: produce seventy nine percent of the congressional delegation to be Republican.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: That is a difference of twenty three percent. So that's
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: an additional twenty three percent. What did Virginia do. They
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: went from fifty two percent voting for Kamala Harris to
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: getting ninety one percent. That is thirty nine points higher.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: That is a massive and it's a grotesque jery matter.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: And by the way, I'm quite confident if they could
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: have drawn at eleven zero, they would have. You know
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: that there are five districts that slice through northern Virginia
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: to get all the liberals that work in the federal government,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: and they basically like take a slice of liberals from
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: northern Virginia and then stick it with rural Virginia's to
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: rob them votes of the rest of the state. That
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: that is ridder.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to share this podcast, by the way, with
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: your family and your friends on social media wherever you
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: can hit that subscribe or auto download button and I'll
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: talk to you again tomorrow