Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / To Absurdity and Beyond!

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To Absurdity and Beyond! · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Think about that, So Security you paid for your whole life, Medicare,
0:08
Speaker 1: Medicaid not a joke. Really, ask yourself, how are you
0:14
Speaker 1: going to sleep at night knowing that every five years,
0:17
Speaker 1: Ted Cruise and the other ultramgat Republicans are going to
0:20
Speaker 1: vote on whether you'll have Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. It's
0:24
Speaker 1: unlikely they'll be able to wipe it out, but any
0:26
Speaker 1: one of you doubt for a second they'll find ways
0:30
Speaker 1: to cut benefits and programs in order to keep anything going.
0:34
Speaker 1: That's what this is about. They've always wanted to cut
0:37
Speaker 1: Social Security, They've always wanted to cut Medicare, They've always
0:41
Speaker 1: wanted to cut Medicaid. This episode, A Verdict with Ted
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0:53
Speaker 1: the new inflation numbers are out, and I think we
0:55
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0:57
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1:00
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4:29
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles no longer able to sleep
4:33
Speaker 1: at night because the co host of this show is
4:37
Speaker 1: going to take away everybody's social security, so says the
4:41
Speaker 1: leader of the formerly free World. Senator What say you? Well,
4:46
Speaker 1: you know, I will say the White House this week
4:48
Speaker 1: noted and designated it as Elder Abuse Day, and I
4:54
Speaker 1: guess I do have to apologize because apparently I'm interfering
4:57
Speaker 1: with Joe Biden's naptime. You know, it really is amazing
5:03
Speaker 1: that the kind of fearmongering that the White House does.
5:07
Speaker 1: You remember years ago the Democrats ran ads of Paul
5:10
Speaker 1: Ryan literally pushing Granny off the cliff. So now he's
5:13
Speaker 1: standing at the aflcio saying Cruise wants to end the
5:17
Speaker 1: social security I mean, look, let's be honest. Who has
5:22
Speaker 1: hurt seniors more in the past twenty years than Joseph
5:29
Speaker 1: Robinette Biden Junior. You got nine percent inflation, food prices skyrocketing,
5:36
Speaker 1: healthcare skyrocketing, electricity skyrocketing, gas skyrocketing. Seniors are getting screwed.
5:42
Speaker 1: The only one who can compete with Joe Biden for
5:44
Speaker 1: screwing seniors is Jimmy Carter. And so what does he do?
5:49
Speaker 1: He fearmongers, He suggests, Look, so security is a bedrock
5:54
Speaker 1: of our country. Ain't nobody messing with it? He knows that,
5:59
Speaker 1: but he can't run on his record, so he's got
6:01
Speaker 1: to scare people. And I'm sorry that that that that
6:06
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is finding it hard to sleep at night.
6:08
Speaker 1: Someone once told me in politics many years ago that
6:11
Speaker 1: the only thing worse than being talked about is not
6:14
Speaker 1: being talked about. And I assume that principle is in
6:17
Speaker 1: play here. It's interesting that Biden, while he's making this
6:21
Speaker 1: desperate plea in what seems to be a very unfavorable
6:24
Speaker 1: year for Democrats, he's going after you. Yeah, I will say,
6:28
Speaker 1: I guess I'm kind of flattered that that. Apparently I'm
6:31
Speaker 1: not just maga, I am ultraumaga like and just to
6:35
Speaker 1: say that's a point of clarification, your Senator, you worked
6:38
Speaker 1: very well with Donald Trump. Obviously, you guys worked very
6:41
Speaker 1: well together during the administration. But I seem to recall
6:45
Speaker 1: that you were the man's chief primary rival. If I've
6:49
Speaker 1: already going to describe someone as ultraumaga, doesn't that seem
6:52
Speaker 1: a little bit strange to describe the guy's primary rival
6:55
Speaker 1: that way. So look, Biden gets confused sometimes, and I'm
6:59
Speaker 1: not sure he knows what any of these words mean.
7:02
Speaker 1: I mean Biden literally he was elected to the Senate
7:05
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two. When Joe Biden was first elected
7:10
Speaker 1: to the Senate, I was one and a half years old. Yeah,
7:13
Speaker 1: so I understand how he remembers back to the false
7:18
Speaker 1: campaigns Democrats of ron way back when you know what
7:22
Speaker 1: Biden said, Ronald Reagan was going to take away so Security.
7:24
Speaker 1: I mean, Biden has been saying that line for a
7:28
Speaker 1: long time, for literally the entirety of my life and
7:32
Speaker 1: for about double the entirety of years. That's a good,
7:35
Speaker 1: good point, actually, and Reagan had two terms didn't take
7:38
Speaker 1: away social Security. It did strike me when he said
7:41
Speaker 1: that as just a kind of tired old line. Maybe
7:44
Speaker 1: it would have worked in twenty ten or twenty twelve.
7:46
Speaker 1: But you know, even his talking points they seemed to
7:49
Speaker 1: be a little dated at this point, but it wasn't
7:52
Speaker 1: just a Biden senator. You know I do not speak Spanish.
7:56
Speaker 1: You know this. You have spoken Spanish to me. I
7:58
Speaker 1: have responded by asking you where the library is. That
8:02
Speaker 1: is the extent of my Spanish. But from what I
8:04
Speaker 1: could make out, it sounds as though the President of Mexico,
8:08
Speaker 1: mister Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, does not like you very much.
8:17
Speaker 1: It's a senior endo game insist la protejo qua nicaraguezuela
8:48
Speaker 1: restaurants amarco no lo covin us for Florida Republican and
9:05
Speaker 1: see peror no solos. His sister senior Roo view Albertido Republican,
9:19
Speaker 1: it ta Cruz Chamberti Republican t curus, while the Crusado
9:32
Speaker 1: solo protejo dictadas see Okay permidi an arcotrafico que Domina
9:49
Speaker 1: territorial de Mexicogo senior the Cruz Marco MBI. Also, I
10:05
Speaker 1: could make out about one phrase their senator. The phrase
10:09
Speaker 1: was ted Cruz. Ted Cruz kept coming coming up, So
10:13
Speaker 1: if you wouldn't mind I know you're a little more
10:15
Speaker 1: fluent than I am. What did the president of Mexico
10:17
Speaker 1: say about you? And why is he so angry with you?
10:21
Speaker 1: So I will say that that is one of the
10:22
Speaker 1: most bizarre press conferences I've ever seen, because you've got
10:25
Speaker 1: a Mexican reporter who asked him a question about Marco
10:29
Speaker 1: Rubio and and am Low says, I'm sorry, who is
10:33
Speaker 1: this Rubio guy? I don't know who he is and
10:34
Speaker 1: and and the reporter says, oh, he's the senator from Florida.
10:39
Speaker 1: And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're three of them,
10:41
Speaker 1: three of the Cubans but ted Cruz. And it's the
10:44
Speaker 1: most bizarre thing because the reporter asked about Rubio, and
10:47
Speaker 1: am Low responds by attacking me, and I mean, going
10:51
Speaker 1: off on a screed, attacking me. And it's really bizarre.
10:57
Speaker 1: So the reason am Loo is is so worked up
11:00
Speaker 1: is that a a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, I
11:02
Speaker 1: pointed out that Mexico has had a horrific record under
11:06
Speaker 1: AMLO's presidency of allowing journalists to be murdered, and we're
11:11
Speaker 1: seeing historic levels of the drug cartels murdering journalists. If
11:15
Speaker 1: a journalist darres Cover the drug cartels and cover their
11:19
Speaker 1: murdering and murder and extortion and crimes. They're killing them
11:23
Speaker 1: and AMLO's turning a blind eye. And what's fascinating about
11:26
Speaker 1: this exchange. So Rubio had tweeted about AMLO's support for Cuba,
11:32
Speaker 1: Nicaragua and Venezuela and dictators, and actually Amlo doesn't mind that.
11:35
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, yeah, forget about the dictators. Cruz is
11:38
Speaker 1: saying I'm turning a blind eye to the drug cartels.
11:42
Speaker 1: And what he says there is show me the proof.
11:45
Speaker 1: And he actually goes on later in that press conference
11:47
Speaker 1: to say I have the proof. I have the proof
11:51
Speaker 1: that Cruise is on the take from the supporters of
11:55
Speaker 1: gun rights. And so he goes on this whole thing about,
11:58
Speaker 1: you know, Cruz refuses to ban guns. You know what,
12:01
Speaker 1: am low damned straight, I refuse to ban guns. We
12:04
Speaker 1: have this thing in the United States called the Second Amendment,
12:07
Speaker 1: the right to keep in bear arms. You don't want
12:10
Speaker 1: your citizens to be able to defend themselves from the
12:13
Speaker 1: drug cartels that that are terrorizing innocent Mexican citizens. And
12:19
Speaker 1: instead of responding to the substance, instead of having a
12:22
Speaker 1: government that actually takes steps to protect freedom of the press,
12:27
Speaker 1: to protect journalists, to stand up to the criminals. Instead,
12:32
Speaker 1: you know, Amlow seems very very dismayed it uh, you know,
12:36
Speaker 1: to quote Shakespeare mean thinks she doth protest too much.
12:39
Speaker 1: I just love that he has that nickname am Low.
12:42
Speaker 1: He's sort of like j Low with the Andreas Manuel
12:45
Speaker 1: Lopez overdo. That's very impressive. And when you've got two
12:48
Speaker 1: world leaders, both in North America attacking you. You've got
12:54
Speaker 1: Biden going after you and then the speckless guy down
12:56
Speaker 1: in Mexico, I suppose that means you're probably doing something right. Look,
13:00
Speaker 1: I'm just waiting for Justin Trudeau. I want the trifecta.
13:03
Speaker 1: Come on, man, the Canadian truckers were right. Let's see
13:08
Speaker 1: if Trudeau rises to the occasion. Now, Justin Trudeau knows
13:12
Speaker 1: a thing or two about Cuba and Cubans, according to rumors,
13:16
Speaker 1: but who knows. Maybe we can discuss that on a
13:19
Speaker 1: future podcast. I do have to talk about one of Michael.
13:22
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask you who's your daddy. That's true,
13:27
Speaker 1: as Telemachus says, it's a wise man knows his own father,
13:30
Speaker 1: and certainly that's true. Up in America's hat as well.
13:33
Speaker 1: But closer to home, there is another group that's going
13:36
Speaker 1: after you. That would be, of course, the media and
13:40
Speaker 1: the Congressional Democrats. And really, I suppose I'm repeating myself
13:44
Speaker 1: in the January sixth committee because you have been such
13:48
Speaker 1: a target of this whole thing. What is your take
13:52
Speaker 1: on the January sixth hearings? You know, Pelosi really gave
13:56
Speaker 1: up the game when the committee was being four And
14:01
Speaker 1: typically in a committee you have a roughly equal number
14:04
Speaker 1: of Democrats and Republicans. The majority party typically has one
14:07
Speaker 1: or two more, but it's about equal, and the majority
14:11
Speaker 1: party doesn't get to pick the other parties members that
14:15
Speaker 1: are on it. And so Kevin McCarthy selected several people,
14:21
Speaker 1: including Jim Jordan and Nancy Pelosi said no, no, we
14:25
Speaker 1: don't want real Republicans, we don't want actually people who
14:28
Speaker 1: will ask questions. Instead, she picked she picked Liz Cheney
14:34
Speaker 1: and Adam Kinzinger because they both decided they're not Republicans
14:37
Speaker 1: anymore and their agenda is the same, which is to
14:39
Speaker 1: attack all the Republicans just like Pelosi's is right, and
14:44
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta say so as you walk down
14:46
Speaker 1: the hall, this is the only question that reporters want
14:48
Speaker 1: to ask, and they're they're asking it constantly, and I
14:51
Speaker 1: just laughed. They're like, are you going to watch it?
14:52
Speaker 1: I'm like, why would I watch this? I don't watch
14:55
Speaker 1: the Democratic National Conventions convention every four years. That is
15:01
Speaker 1: a multi day political campaign ad. It is designed to
15:06
Speaker 1: be propaganda, and I get it. They can have their
15:07
Speaker 1: campaign ads, but it's not actual factual inquiry. And if
15:13
Speaker 1: it were, look if you want to ascertain what's going on,
15:17
Speaker 1: if you look at congressional hearings that go somewhere, you
15:20
Speaker 1: have cross examination, you have scrutiny. You have if a
15:24
Speaker 1: particular witness comes in and makes a charge, there's all
15:27
Speaker 1: these allegations that are made. You actually have someone challenge
15:32
Speaker 1: the credibility of the witness. Press on engage. Cross examination
15:37
Speaker 1: is a powerful tool for ferreting out truth. But for example,
15:42
Speaker 1: this kangaroo chord has zero interest in Nancy Pelosi's culpability
15:48
Speaker 1: on January sixth with stopping a sufficient law enforcement presence,
15:53
Speaker 1: stopping a sufficient effort to stop the riot that happened
15:58
Speaker 1: because she said, in her words, was bad optics. They
16:01
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about that because that's inconsistent with
16:04
Speaker 1: their political narrative. I think it makes a lot of
16:07
Speaker 1: reporters really excited, but but I don't think it's going
16:10
Speaker 1: to change any voters mind anywhere in America. And by
16:14
Speaker 1: the way, the New York Times, there's an old line
16:19
Speaker 1: that a gaff is when someone in Washington accidentally tells
16:22
Speaker 1: the truth. All right, The New York Times let the
16:25
Speaker 1: cat out of the bag when they ran as a
16:27
Speaker 1: headline January sixth Committee hearings present opportunity for Democrats to
16:33
Speaker 1: change the mid term narrative. Well, that's obviously what they
16:38
Speaker 1: want to do. I think it has failed badly so far,
16:43
Speaker 1: and I think it's going to continue to fail. Do
16:45
Speaker 1: you think Pelosi made a mistake kicking Jordan and Banks
16:50
Speaker 1: and the real Republicans off the committee? That is, if
16:54
Speaker 1: you do think, because if they were on the committee,
16:56
Speaker 1: presumably the Republicans would be more engaged, you'd have the relling,
17:00
Speaker 1: there would be a reason to tune in. I think
17:03
Speaker 1: it was stupid to kick off the real Republicans. It
17:07
Speaker 1: look even from a perspective of of TV. Let's say
17:12
Speaker 1: you let's say you're a Nancy Pelosi and you're not
17:15
Speaker 1: interested in truth you are interested in nyeballs and frankly,
17:20
Speaker 1: the clash of seeing Jordan R. Banks go at it
17:24
Speaker 1: with with with the witnesses makes good TV. That conflict
17:32
Speaker 1: would cause some people possibly to give a flip about
17:35
Speaker 1: what's going on. This is right now, a bunch of
17:38
Speaker 1: Democrats talking to a bunch of Democrats. It's it's MSNBC.
17:42
Speaker 1: This is like a panel of MSNBC talking heads sitting
17:45
Speaker 1: down and going Trump is terrible. Yes, Trump is terrible,
17:47
Speaker 1: though I agree, Oh definitely, uh huh, and like that's
17:52
Speaker 1: boring and not news, like we know you think that.
17:57
Speaker 1: It was not lost on us that you don't have
18:00
Speaker 1: the Donald Trump swimsuit calendar up on your wall. We
18:02
Speaker 1: got that. I think it was a bad strategic and
18:07
Speaker 1: tactical mistake for Pelosi to throw the Republicans selected by
18:14
Speaker 1: the Republicans off the committee because, just like The New
18:17
Speaker 1: York Times, it said the quiet part out loud. It
18:22
Speaker 1: made it obvious we are telling a story complete with
18:26
Speaker 1: our Hollywood producer, and we don't want anyone telling any
18:29
Speaker 1: different stories than the story we want to tell. And
18:32
Speaker 1: just look at the coverage. I think the Times example
18:35
Speaker 1: is a great, great point here. The New York Times
18:38
Speaker 1: is covering the coverage. The New York Times is covering
18:41
Speaker 1: the way they want to shift the narrative. But there's
18:43
Speaker 1: there's no actual news happening, and so it just doesn't
18:46
Speaker 1: seem politically urgent. Well, and Michael, an easy way to
18:51
Speaker 1: understand how ludicrous it is what the Democrats are doing
18:54
Speaker 1: is just to flip the premise. Imagine if Donald Trump
18:58
Speaker 1: held an inquiry onto what happened on January sixth, and
19:03
Speaker 1: it was just Trump. To be honest, would the press
19:07
Speaker 1: give it any credibility? Of course not, But to be honest,
19:11
Speaker 1: if you wanted to have something, you would want to
19:13
Speaker 1: have both parties. You would want to have free speech,
19:15
Speaker 1: you would want to have conflict, you would want to
19:17
Speaker 1: have debate. That's the method for ascertaining truth. Nobody in
19:23
Speaker 1: the press would give any credibility to a purely republican
19:27
Speaker 1: assessment of January sixth or anything else. I mean, I mean,
19:31
Speaker 1: whatever you talk about. A purely republican assessment gets no credibility.
19:37
Speaker 1: And that's not crazy because we have a partisan system.
19:40
Speaker 1: Both parties want to advance their narrative. And if you're
19:45
Speaker 1: an intelligent voter, look as a consumer of news. I
19:49
Speaker 1: don't just read right wing news right I read left
19:52
Speaker 1: wing news too, and I try to figure out the
19:54
Speaker 1: truth somewhere in the middle. When the Democrats and the
19:59
Speaker 1: corporate media are only spewing their propaganda. You know, it's
20:06
Speaker 1: transparent to everyone. Now, speaking of Nancy Pelosi's missteps and
20:12
Speaker 1: transparency and other trans issues, Nancy Pelosi made a claim
20:17
Speaker 1: this past week on a television show that I will
20:21
Speaker 1: admit I don't regularly watch. She gave her theory on
20:26
Speaker 1: what America is all about. I'll give it to you
20:30
Speaker 1: in her own words. Please give a warm drag race.
20:34
Speaker 1: Welcome Nancy Pelosi, Welcome back, my honor to be here.
20:41
Speaker 1: Your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what
20:44
Speaker 1: America is all about. Senator, I'm not a graduate of
20:50
Speaker 1: Harvard Law School. I've never clerked for the Supreme Court.
20:52
Speaker 1: I'm not a member of the United States Senate. In
20:55
Speaker 1: your estimation, is transvestiism what America is all about? You know,
21:02
Speaker 1: I kind of think Nancy may have missed some days
21:04
Speaker 1: in American history, Like, look, you you got a right
21:08
Speaker 1: to dress up anyway you want. That's great to knock
21:11
Speaker 1: yourself out, but the idea, yeah, the last pod we did,
21:16
Speaker 1: we talked about the drag show for kids in Dallas. Yeah,
21:23
Speaker 1: this is another example of the Democratic Party going so extreme. Like, look,
21:30
Speaker 1: if people want to dress in drag, that's fine. I'm
21:33
Speaker 1: quite libertarian about do what you want to do. But
21:37
Speaker 1: to claim that's what America is all about. I look,
21:39
Speaker 1: I get it. The founding fathers did wear wigs, so
21:42
Speaker 1: she does have a point there they were wearing wigs.
21:45
Speaker 1: But but I'm not sure that's what Washington and Jefferson
21:48
Speaker 1: were doing. But but it's it is such the dominant
21:55
Speaker 1: the the left wing culture war is the Democrat Party.
22:03
Speaker 1: You know, there was a It's just it is who
22:07
Speaker 1: they are and what they're driven by, and they keep going.
22:12
Speaker 1: It's not accurate to say that's what America is all about,
22:14
Speaker 1: but it is accurate to say that's what today's Democrat
22:17
Speaker 1: Party is all about. I at least understand that the
22:20
Speaker 1: Democrats are making this philosophical claim that this is at
22:24
Speaker 1: least what the country should be all about. What I
22:26
Speaker 1: don't understand is how can Pelosi with a straight face
22:31
Speaker 1: make the historical claim that transvestiism, which was illegal, by
22:36
Speaker 1: the way, in lots of America throughout parts of the
22:38
Speaker 1: nineteenth century in San Francisco, of all places, which has
22:42
Speaker 1: not exactly been promoted. I don't think it was part
22:44
Speaker 1: of the Shining City on a Hill speech. I don't
22:47
Speaker 1: think Governor Bradford was writing about his you know, great
22:50
Speaker 1: passion for cross dressing. How do you make the historic
22:54
Speaker 1: claim that actually, America, it's not about apple pie or
22:57
Speaker 1: freedom or going west young man. No, No, it's about
23:00
Speaker 1: dressing up like a lady. Well, and there's a richer irony.
23:04
Speaker 1: So she did. She has a tiny leg to stand
23:11
Speaker 1: on in that she starts off by saying freedom of expression.
23:15
Speaker 1: And you can make an argument that freedom of expression
23:17
Speaker 1: is what America is all about. But the irony is
23:21
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi doesn't believe in freedom of expression, like today's
23:24
Speaker 1: Democrat Party has abandoned free speech. So she literally means
23:28
Speaker 1: only if you want to dress up as a woman,
23:32
Speaker 1: he's what America is all about. But if you want
23:34
Speaker 1: to make a movie asking what is a woman? That
23:36
Speaker 1: is not what America is all about. So so she
23:40
Speaker 1: it is quite amazing. You know, Nancy Pelosi leads a
23:44
Speaker 1: Democrat party that wants big tech to censor that that
23:48
Speaker 1: that wants views that they disagree with. Silence that's wants
23:52
Speaker 1: to ban conservative speakers from campus. So I'm glad she's
23:57
Speaker 1: acknowledging freedom of expression is important. But you know, I
24:00
Speaker 1: wish there were Democrats in Congress that still believe that. Oh,
24:04
Speaker 1: of course, because when Pelosi uses the phrase freedom of expression,
24:08
Speaker 1: and really it's it's true of democrats broadly. All they
24:11
Speaker 1: really seem to mean is replacing our taboos with their taboos,
24:15
Speaker 1: and replacing our standards with their standards. There's this major
24:19
Speaker 1: Supreme Court case of a high school football coach who
24:22
Speaker 1: just said a prayer on his knee by himself alone
24:27
Speaker 1: on the football field after the games, and the school
24:31
Speaker 1: fired him for it. They were they were so angry
24:33
Speaker 1: at this individual act of expression. So I don't think
24:36
Speaker 1: Pelosi is defending that. But but to your point, they're
24:40
Speaker 1: only defending this sort of thing. And actually it ties
24:43
Speaker 1: right in with the big story out of Hollywood, which
24:45
Speaker 1: is that there's a new movie. It's a new toy
24:47
Speaker 1: story movie about Buzz light Year, and for some reason,
24:51
Speaker 1: Disney felt it was very very important to include lesbian
24:55
Speaker 1: toys kissing in the Buzz Lightyear movie. Meanwhile, they fire
25:01
Speaker 1: Tim Allen, who originated the role of buzz Lightyear. They
25:04
Speaker 1: replace him with Frankly, probably a more expensive actor. What
25:08
Speaker 1: is going on? Do our kids? Is it so important
25:11
Speaker 1: that our kids see lesbian toys? Smooch? Well, I gotta say, Michael,
25:14
Speaker 1: I think it is remarkable that the Verdict podcast seems
25:19
Speaker 1: to be driving Hollywood's agenda. Um. You and I sat
25:24
Speaker 1: at the University of Alabama for our live campus tour
25:27
Speaker 1: and we were talking about woke Disney, and I observed,
25:32
Speaker 1: I said, look, these these lunatics. They want to see
25:35
Speaker 1: Mickey and Pluto going at it and and and the
25:39
Speaker 1: press lost their mind. And then what do they do?
25:42
Speaker 1: Boom the next movie they come out buzz Lightyear. What
25:45
Speaker 1: do we need? We need lesbian toys? Now? Never mind
25:49
Speaker 1: that the last time I checked, most toys are kind
25:53
Speaker 1: of androgynous. They're usually without genitalia unless little shopping in
25:57
Speaker 1: the Yeah. Yeah, like it's just but it is the
26:02
Speaker 1: commitment to culture, it is. And you know, this movie
26:08
Speaker 1: has now been banned I think in fourteen countries. The
26:11
Speaker 1: UAE has banned it, their countries in the Middle East,
26:13
Speaker 1: their countries in Asia. There's significant discussion that China is
26:17
Speaker 1: not going to allow the movie in because of this scene.
26:21
Speaker 1: And I got to say, it's it's it's a wild
26:24
Speaker 1: twist where Hollywood has been willing to grovel to China,
26:29
Speaker 1: to let China censor its movies, to embrace anti Americanism,
26:33
Speaker 1: to avoid any criticism of China because they want to
26:36
Speaker 1: get access to the Chinese Chinese movie market. But when
26:40
Speaker 1: it comes to their culture agenda, apparently now suddenly they've discovered,
26:46
Speaker 1: all right, give up the money because lesbian toys are
26:51
Speaker 1: more important. And I must say it brings a whole
26:56
Speaker 1: new meaning to the phrase to infinity and beyond. Yeah,
27:01
Speaker 1: that's that's sort of like the slippery slope, Senator. You know,
27:05
Speaker 1: it seems that we never get to the bottom of
27:07
Speaker 1: the slippery slope. Maybe that's because the slippery slope goes
27:10
Speaker 1: to infinity and beyond. Why do toys have to go
27:16
Speaker 1: at it like like like it just you could do without.
27:24
Speaker 1: We don't need to see. It's the sexualization of kids
27:29
Speaker 1: that Hollywood embraces, and it is a political agenda that
27:33
Speaker 1: that is all consuming. And look, they fired Tim Allen,
27:38
Speaker 1: they replace him with Chris Evans Captain America. So so
27:41
Speaker 1: I mean it is American icons driving an agenda that that,
27:54
Speaker 1: astonishingly enough for the first time, matters more to Hollywood
27:57
Speaker 1: than money. Oh. I think that this is why it's
28:00
Speaker 1: important that Allen's getting dropped for Chris Evans. Is you
28:03
Speaker 1: might say, well, maybe Tim Allen was just asking for
28:06
Speaker 1: too much money, and so it's they're moving on to
28:09
Speaker 1: a cheaper actor. I suspect Chris Evans is demanding a
28:13
Speaker 1: higher contract right now than Tim Allen is. He's a major,
28:16
Speaker 1: major movie star, young and write in the prime of
28:19
Speaker 1: his career, and so the only explanation I can think
28:22
Speaker 1: of is that Tim Allen is an outspoken conservative. Chris
28:25
Speaker 1: Evans is a huge lib from everything that I can tell,
28:28
Speaker 1: and so even more to your point that the studios
28:31
Speaker 1: are willing to lose money if it advances their cultural agenda.
28:35
Speaker 1: And speaking of people losing money, Senator, it's not just
28:38
Speaker 1: Hollywood losing money. You and I and all the rest
28:41
Speaker 1: of America is losing money right now because inflation is
28:44
Speaker 1: through the roof and our president is blaming Republicans. You know,
28:51
Speaker 1: the White House has one talking point, I didn't do it,
28:55
Speaker 1: not my fault, it's Republicans fault. It's Putin's fault. It's
29:00
Speaker 1: anybody's fault, but Joe Biden. There's a reason Biden's approval
29:06
Speaker 1: rating is in the thirties because people recognize that that's
29:11
Speaker 1: just that's just not credible to watch this White House
29:16
Speaker 1: try to blame everything. You know, watching Biden's energy secretary
29:21
Speaker 1: go on TV and saying, you know, Biden's trying to
29:23
Speaker 1: do everything he can to lower gas prices. Won't yeah,
29:26
Speaker 1: except allow people to drill for oil and gas like
29:29
Speaker 1: like Other than that, I mean, you'd literally have had
29:33
Speaker 1: for a year and a half an unrelenting war on
29:36
Speaker 1: oil and gas production in the United States. They keep
29:38
Speaker 1: doubling down, they keep Bizarrely, Biden is going to be
29:41
Speaker 1: flying to Saudi Arabia to kiss Saudi Arabia is behind,
29:44
Speaker 1: after he's been attacking Saudi Arabia for a year and
29:47
Speaker 1: a half and alienating them because he wants the Saudis
29:50
Speaker 1: to produce more oil. He wants Venezuela to produce more oil,
29:54
Speaker 1: he wants it Ran to produce more oil. He wants
29:56
Speaker 1: everyone to produce more oil except Americans. Yeah, and it is.
30:03
Speaker 1: He believes that he can just convince the American people
30:07
Speaker 1: it's everybody else's fault. It seems like they're deflecting a
30:11
Speaker 1: little bit, Senator, And it's actually a type of deflection
30:15
Speaker 1: that you first called my attention to right in the
30:17
Speaker 1: earliest days of this podcast when we were in the
30:20
Speaker 1: middle of the night and the bunker in the middle
30:22
Speaker 1: of Washington, DC, which is the Democrats line here is
30:27
Speaker 1: inflation is not entirely Joe Biden's fault, which, of course,
30:31
Speaker 1: inflation is not entirely Joe Biden's fault, but that doesn't
30:34
Speaker 1: mean that it's not at all his fault, or even
30:37
Speaker 1: largely his fault. And you can point to the reasons
30:40
Speaker 1: that he's driving inflation the ones that you've named. One.
30:43
Speaker 1: He's not allowing us to produce energy too. He in
30:46
Speaker 1: many ways caused the war in Ukraine, at least according
30:50
Speaker 1: to President Zelenski's take on things three. He's continued to
30:56
Speaker 1: lock down the economy in many ways that I don't
30:58
Speaker 1: think is very conducive to economic growth. You know, the
31:02
Speaker 1: list goes, he keeps spending a crap ton of money,
31:05
Speaker 1: like in the end of the day, trillions and trillions
31:08
Speaker 1: of dollars. You're right, it's not entirely Joe Biden's fault.
31:11
Speaker 1: It's also Nancy Pelosi's and Chuck Schumer's and every damn
31:13
Speaker 1: Democrat that votes for a trillion here and a trillion
31:16
Speaker 1: there and spends and spends and spends and spends. And actually,
31:19
Speaker 1: you know, so one form of inflation they call shrinkflation.
31:22
Speaker 1: You notice you go in and like packages are all
31:24
Speaker 1: smaller in the stores, so you know, you buy de
31:28
Speaker 1: Ritos and you have five fewer chips in the bag.
31:31
Speaker 1: So maybe CNN was right because they might start selling
31:35
Speaker 1: gas by the court, but we're not far away from
31:38
Speaker 1: two dollars a court for gasoline, and so so you know,
31:42
Speaker 1: it just it's it's a smaller unit. Like a good
31:45
Speaker 1: question to ask if you're watching a CNN broadcast. I
31:50
Speaker 1: pick on CNN in particular because they actually used to
31:53
Speaker 1: be something of journalists. They were bad journalists, but they
31:58
Speaker 1: were trying to be journalists. Now they're just shameless shills.
32:02
Speaker 1: But a question that's worth asking if you watch a
32:04
Speaker 1: news broadcast is would a word of this have been
32:08
Speaker 1: different if the Biden White House had written the script?
32:13
Speaker 1: And if the answer is no, it's not journalism, right.
32:19
Speaker 1: This is not a complicated concept, but CNN and MSNBC
32:22
Speaker 1: seemed very confused at the concept well, speaking of perhaps
32:28
Speaker 1: unethical ways to make money, like just having the government
32:31
Speaker 1: print to endless amounts of cash. There was a mail
32:34
Speaker 1: bag question that came in. I mentioned it to you
32:36
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier because I didn't know anything about it,
32:39
Speaker 1: but I would love your take on it, if you
32:42
Speaker 1: have formed one. This is from Chris. I believe Chris
32:45
Speaker 1: is or I'm sorry that the question is from Jonathan,
32:48
Speaker 1: but it's about someone who is one of your constituents.
32:50
Speaker 1: Question is the twitch streamer Asmond Gold said, he reached
32:56
Speaker 1: out to Senator Cruz's office about regulating lootboxes in video games.
33:01
Speaker 1: Where does the Senator stand on lootboxes? I know that
33:05
Speaker 1: those are all words, and I understand they have been
33:07
Speaker 1: strung together in an English sentence, but I don't really
33:11
Speaker 1: understand what it means semantically together. Look, I'm happy to
33:15
Speaker 1: engage in a conversation with him. I'm happy to see
33:18
Speaker 1: what he has to say on it, as I understand
33:21
Speaker 1: if the concern he's raising is a concern about gambling
33:26
Speaker 1: and kids. And I will say it is certainly true
33:30
Speaker 1: that that social media online environments, including video games, are
33:37
Speaker 1: designed to be addictive. Now I'm I'm something of a gamer.
33:40
Speaker 1: I'm not a gamer like like hardcore twitch streamers, and
33:44
Speaker 1: and I don't don't do the massive multiplayer games, not yet, Senator.
33:48
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, I bet you never thought that
33:50
Speaker 1: you were going to be a top podcaster. So who knows.
33:53
Speaker 1: We may have to launch the Verdict twitch stream and
33:55
Speaker 1: start playing pac Man or whatever the kids are playing
33:57
Speaker 1: these days. That that that that could well be. And
34:01
Speaker 1: you remember when you and I did Dave Rubens podcast,
34:04
Speaker 1: We did a twitch stream on playing I think it
34:06
Speaker 1: was a Nintendo that he had, and we did that
34:09
Speaker 1: and if I remember right, I beat his ass. I'm
34:10
Speaker 1: pretty sure that's right, And if not, that's the story
34:13
Speaker 1: I'm going with. But look, they're different components of it.
34:22
Speaker 1: In games, I'll tell you I don't like it when
34:25
Speaker 1: you can buy in game items and sort of make
34:28
Speaker 1: your character stronger or get advantages. Now, I'll confess, when
34:31
Speaker 1: I play some games, I'll sometimes buy it because it
34:33
Speaker 1: is more fun. If suddenly your character has a lot
34:36
Speaker 1: more great stuff that would take you six months or
34:39
Speaker 1: a year to build up. So sometimes I'll okay, I'll
34:42
Speaker 1: spend twenty bucks and buy a you know, a treasure
34:46
Speaker 1: chest full of coins, because then I can spend him
34:48
Speaker 1: to get cool things in the game. You know, I
34:52
Speaker 1: think it is a greater concern when you're dealing with kids,
34:56
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with miners who have a potential number
35:00
Speaker 1: one to spend a whole lot of money. And you know,
35:04
Speaker 1: with some of the loot boxes, there's there's a fair
35:07
Speaker 1: amount of randomness that you could get a lot of
35:09
Speaker 1: great stuff or some lousy stuff. And so I guess
35:12
Speaker 1: that's the argument that it's gambling. I'll confess I haven't.
35:15
Speaker 1: I'm open to hearing arguments on this, but I approach
35:21
Speaker 1: the issue with a pretty strong libertarian bent. So I'd
35:26
Speaker 1: like to not see kids exploited and harmed, and so
35:32
Speaker 1: I'd be interested in his views. But at the same time,
35:37
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that the federal government really has a
35:41
Speaker 1: dog in the fight that if people want to in
35:43
Speaker 1: a video game spend money on stuff in the game,
35:47
Speaker 1: I think my instincts are probably that that may not
35:50
Speaker 1: be a great choice if you're spending massive amounts of
35:53
Speaker 1: money in games, But I'm not sure the federal government
35:57
Speaker 1: has a role preventing you from doing that. Well, we'll
36:00
Speaker 1: have to look into loot boxes more. Maybe I'll brush
36:03
Speaker 1: up on my Donkey Kong or you know whatever's really
36:05
Speaker 1: hip right now. Um, and I hope that we can
36:09
Speaker 1: figure out maybe maybe we'll have to be quite confident
36:12
Speaker 1: it's not Donkey Kong, is it not? Okay, I'm a
36:14
Speaker 1: little behind the curve, but uh, there were there were
36:17
Speaker 1: no lootboxes in Donkey Kong too, So we'll maybe we'll
36:21
Speaker 1: we'll hear from Osman Gold and you know, I will note.
36:24
Speaker 1: So I actually just watched last week watched again Ready
36:28
Speaker 1: Player one. Did you ever see this this movie? No?
36:30
Speaker 1: I heard it was great, but I didn't catch it.
36:32
Speaker 1: I've seen it several times, but I just happen to
36:35
Speaker 1: have rewatched it last week, and it's it's a really
36:37
Speaker 1: good movie about virtual reality and people going into the
36:41
Speaker 1: game and a whole alternative world in the game. But
36:44
Speaker 1: people amass money in virtual reality and it ends up
36:49
Speaker 1: for many people subsuming the world. And look, there are
36:54
Speaker 1: hard challenges. We're we're not we're not yet to the
36:59
Speaker 1: dystopic world of Ready Player one, but we might be.
37:03
Speaker 1: We're on a path towards that, and you know, escapism,
37:09
Speaker 1: there are times when escapism can be valuable, but it
37:12
Speaker 1: also is going to raise all sorts of challenges and
37:16
Speaker 1: challenges that can spill over from the virtual world to
37:20
Speaker 1: the real world. And how those intersections happen, We're going
37:25
Speaker 1: to have to learn more about them, and specifically on
37:28
Speaker 1: this issue of the loot boxes and gaming, a lot
37:31
Speaker 1: of the question involves the role of parents and parental
37:34
Speaker 1: rights is a big topic these days, and I believe
37:37
Speaker 1: parental rights is the topic of your conversation on the
37:41
Speaker 1: Cloakroom with Liz Wheeler. Is that right, Liz, Yeah, this
37:44
Speaker 1: is a great question, right, It's it's a question I
37:46
Speaker 1: think a lot of conservatives are asking our parental rights absolute.
37:50
Speaker 1: Ten parents actually be bad parents and take their kids
37:52
Speaker 1: to a dreg show or ten that? Or should that
37:54
Speaker 1: be illegal? We're going to break this down on the
37:56
Speaker 1: cloak Room. You can join us for this conversation Adverdict
37:59
Speaker 1: with Ted crew dot com slash Plus. If you use
38:01
Speaker 1: my promo code, which intuitively you know this is cloak Room,
38:05
Speaker 1: you can get your first month free on your annual subscription.
38:07
Speaker 1: That's Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus. But
38:10
Speaker 1: before I tossed this back to you, I I want
38:12
Speaker 1: to talk about the Tim Allen thing that you guys
38:13
Speaker 1: were talking about before the New Disney movie. The buzz
38:16
Speaker 1: liked your movie. There was actually a member on our
38:19
Speaker 1: Verdict plus community today that was asking whether you, Senator,
38:24
Speaker 1: are ever going to star in a movie or even
38:26
Speaker 1: make a cameo in a movie. I think they said,
38:28
Speaker 1: are you gonna be a high powered lawyer in one
38:30
Speaker 1: of these one of these crime movies? And I laughed
38:32
Speaker 1: when I saw that. I thought to myself, what could
38:34
Speaker 1: possibly trigger the libs more than conservative Tim Allen being
38:38
Speaker 1: in a movie? And Senator, I think the answer is you.
38:41
Speaker 1: I'll tell you right now. I'm not fighting Sylvester Stallone
38:46
Speaker 1: and Schwartzenegger would break me in half. So but but
38:51
Speaker 1: but I'm game. And and listen, if if Star Trek
38:54
Speaker 1: could have Stacy Abrams as the President of Earth, which
38:59
Speaker 1: which really was Look, I I'm something of a treky.
39:04
Speaker 1: I'm not a hardcore treky, but I like Star Trek
39:06
Speaker 1: and it really is just sad for them to be
39:12
Speaker 1: to be yet another woke mouthpiece. It's one thing to
39:15
Speaker 1: take on issues, it's another thing to be just silly.
39:19
Speaker 1: It reminds me of me, you know, Michael Jordan. Republicans
39:22
Speaker 1: buy sneakers too, you know, Republicans watch Star Trek too,
39:25
Speaker 1: and you start putting Stacy Abrams there, and suddenly I'm
39:28
Speaker 1: gonna have to find something else to watch. I'll go back,
39:31
Speaker 1: I'll go back to original Star trek Um. James T. Kirk,
39:36
Speaker 1: by the way, was the best captain any ever anyway,
39:39
Speaker 1: So so that and you've never seen the Internet get
39:44
Speaker 1: more upset when than when I said that James T.
39:47
Speaker 1: Kirk as a Republican and Admiral Picard was a Democrat.
39:51
Speaker 1: And and apparently lefties don't like it when you comment
39:54
Speaker 1: on their art. They believe they own it well. And now, Senator,
39:56
Speaker 1: not only will you be criticized by the President of
39:59
Speaker 1: the United States, not only will you be criticized by
40:02
Speaker 1: the President of Mexico, but you will be criticized by
40:05
Speaker 1: the president of the world on Star Trek. I have
40:08
Speaker 1: no doubt much more to be covered on the Cloakroom.
40:12
Speaker 1: So do not go anywhere. I will go somewhere though,
40:14
Speaker 1: because that is it for Verdict. I'm Michael Knowles. This
40:17
Speaker 1: is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with
40:28
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom
40:31
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