Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / SuperBowl, CA Taxes, Follow the DEI Money & VA Assault on Democracy
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdical center. Ted Cruiz post super Bowl show,
- 0:03Speaker 1: Nice to have you with us center. I know you
- 0:06Speaker 1: were just really excited about the halftime show. You didn't
- 0:09Speaker 1: watch any of the game, though, but that part you
- 0:10Speaker 1: were there for, I'm assuming.
- 0:12Speaker 2: Right, well, it's Super Bowl Sunday. I will say I
- 0:15Speaker 2: had the great joy of being on an airplane during
- 0:17Speaker 2: a lot of the Super Bowl. So I caught part
- 0:20Speaker 2: of the third quarter and and that was about it.
- 0:23Speaker 2: So I didn't watch much. I got a field goal
- 0:28Speaker 2: that that that was about it. I did not see
- 0:31Speaker 2: the halftime show, although I did pull it up on
- 0:33Speaker 2: my phone and watch part of it afterwards. But you know, look,
- 0:37Speaker 2: I mean the Super Bowl. A lot of times, I'll
- 0:38Speaker 2: go to a Super Bowl party. In this case, I
- 0:40Speaker 2: was just just flying and landing in Texas, so got
- 0:43Speaker 2: on the got home midway through. You know, I got
- 0:49Speaker 2: to say a lot of the noise about the halftime show. Yeah,
- 0:54Speaker 2: I just found myself not caring. But like I know
- 0:57Speaker 2: that there were a lot of folks all all worked
- 1:00Speaker 2: up and on the right. You're supposed to be outraged
- 1:03Speaker 2: that that that, you know, bad bunny.
- 1:06Speaker 1: There was like no English spoken. I could have said,
- 1:08Speaker 1: where the guy was saying yeah, yeah, yeah, So I'm
- 1:11Speaker 1: not bilingual like you are those center there's a difference.
- 1:14Speaker 3: See you understood it.
- 1:15Speaker 2: I did know, Benjamin. Look we Latino was a little
- 1:18Speaker 2: bit of Spanish. Won't kill you like I. I just
- 1:21Speaker 2: you know, I don't like the guy's politics. At the Grammys.
- 1:24Speaker 2: I thought he made an ass of himself, like like
- 1:26Speaker 2: saying ice out that I that I don't like. And
- 1:29Speaker 2: I don't really like when celebrities try to force their
- 1:33Speaker 2: politics on us. But you know, I watched him like
- 1:37Speaker 2: it in the sugar Cane and dancing around. I think
- 1:40Speaker 2: most of the halftime shows are kind of silly, so
- 1:42Speaker 2: like that, this didn't strike me as particularly unusual in
- 1:46Speaker 2: more or less silliness. You know, the guy falls through
- 1:50Speaker 2: a roof and lands in someone's apartment. That was just
- 1:52Speaker 2: kind of strange, But I, you know, it was.
- 1:56Speaker 4: I found myself.
- 1:58Speaker 1: We at the level now where you just say, if
- 2:00Speaker 1: if you're like a singer and this is what you do,
- 2:01Speaker 1: you just don't give a crap.
- 2:04Speaker 4: Oh look, I mean I my girls like that bunny.
- 2:09Speaker 2: I have to admit he's not on my playlist, but
- 2:14Speaker 2: I have a fifteen and seventeen year old daughter, and
- 2:17Speaker 2: they listen to him some. Most of the halftime shows
- 2:22Speaker 2: don't do much for me. I mean it's it's they're fine.
- 2:24Speaker 2: They're typically typically like pop singers, and you know, I
- 2:29Speaker 2: tend to listen to more more country music or classic
- 2:32Speaker 2: rock anyway.
- 2:34Speaker 4: So look, it was.
- 2:37Speaker 2: We've already talked more in the last four minutes about
- 2:40Speaker 2: it that I've probably thought about the whole thing.
- 2:43Speaker 1: I love and I love it. By the way, did
- 2:45Speaker 1: you see that turning point? I had like five million
- 2:47Speaker 1: live watching on YouTube.
- 2:49Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 2:49Speaker 2: And look, Kid Rock, you know, I mean Kid Rock
- 2:52Speaker 2: testified before the Senate this past week, and so I
- 2:56Speaker 2: got to visit with Kid Rock. He came by my office.
- 2:58Speaker 2: He was a nice guy. I like him. But to
- 3:02Speaker 2: be honest, I was on a plane for Kid Rocks too,
- 3:04Speaker 2: so I didn't didn't watch either one of them.
- 3:08Speaker 4: You know it it uh, I will say.
- 3:11Speaker 2: Also, you know, as we talked about last week on
- 3:13Speaker 2: the pod, on Friday, I was at at my theos
- 3:19Speaker 2: Sonya's funeral, and and that was up in Dallas, and uh,
- 3:24Speaker 2: and I spoke at the funeral, and my sister spoke
- 3:28Speaker 2: at the funeral, and and my cousin Bibie spoke, and
- 3:31Speaker 2: my dad spoke, and and uh, both my niece and
- 3:34Speaker 2: nephew spoke, and you know it was it was a
- 3:39Speaker 2: real celebration of my theos On and actually played a
- 3:41Speaker 2: lot of Spanish music because my theoso Onia liked it.
- 3:45Speaker 2: So you know, I enjoyed that more than the snippet.
- 3:49Speaker 2: I saw a bad buddy, but you know that's fine,
- 3:53Speaker 2: But I have to say I was just kind of
- 3:56Speaker 2: like it was a beautiful funeral.
- 3:58Speaker 4: Uh, she eighty two.
- 4:01Speaker 2: As as folks know, we we put out last week
- 4:05Speaker 2: the interview that we did. We we had my thea
- 4:07Speaker 2: sonya On on verdict and interviewed her and and she
- 4:13Speaker 2: was she was a freedom fighter. You know, she fought
- 4:16Speaker 2: against Fidel Castro in Cuba. She was thrown in prison,
- 4:20Speaker 2: she was tortured. Actually she was along with my ta
- 4:23Speaker 2: Medium and my my Diamela. Neither of them are my aunts.
- 4:26Speaker 2: But just in Latin culture, you just kind of collect ds.
- 4:31Speaker 2: By the way, if your kid, every one of the
- 4:33Speaker 2: dias will spank every one of the kids.
- 4:35Speaker 4: I mean it's literally just kind of like if.
- 4:37Speaker 3: That's that's law and order, that's just how it has
- 4:40Speaker 3: to go.
- 4:41Speaker 2: If there's a kid misbehaving, anyone will do that, you
- 4:44Speaker 2: whack the kid.
- 4:45Speaker 4: And I got a lot of uh.
- 4:47Speaker 3: Said, you had a lot of those that in your
- 4:49Speaker 3: life when you were a kid.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Well, and their weapon of choice was the chankletta, which
- 4:54Speaker 2: which is this this bad?
- 4:56Speaker 3: Translate this for me? What does that mean?
- 4:58Speaker 4: Okay?
- 4:59Speaker 2: Schankletta was this like heavy rubber sandal she would wear
- 5:04Speaker 2: and my the a Sonya could pull off the shank
- 5:06Speaker 2: land to offer her foot, throw it and she'd whack
- 5:09Speaker 2: you in the back of the head and it was
- 5:11Speaker 2: like this you know, boomerang fou and you'd be.
- 5:14Speaker 4: Like, wow, that hurt.
- 5:16Speaker 2: She was very good at it. But you know, look
- 5:19Speaker 2: what I liked about the funeral is it captured her spirit.
- 5:24Speaker 4: She was loud, she was fiery. She was a warrior
- 5:28Speaker 4: for liberty.
- 5:29Speaker 2: Listen, when you've been thrown in, prisoned, and tortured by communists, yeah,
- 5:35Speaker 2: freedom matters a.
- 5:36Speaker 4: Lot to you. You know.
- 5:39Speaker 2: I told the story at the funeral about how when
- 5:43Speaker 2: when I first ran for Senate back in twenty twelve,
- 5:48Speaker 2: and I was running against the lieutenant governor who was
- 5:51Speaker 2: worth a couple of hundred million dollars and so put
- 5:53Speaker 2: thirty five million dollars of his own money in the
- 5:55Speaker 2: race and just ran saturation attack ads and Sonya she
- 6:00Speaker 2: was furious and she she she cursed like a sailor,
- 6:05Speaker 2: and she was like, I will blake any black geek
- 6:09Speaker 2: his ass. And I'm like, yeah, Golement, that just means
- 6:13Speaker 2: calm down. It's not good politically for you to be
- 6:17Speaker 2: beating up my opponents. And by the way, you would
- 6:20Speaker 2: not want to fight my theos Onya. She she would,
- 6:24Speaker 2: she was ferocious. I did have a rule. My theos
- 6:29Speaker 2: Sonya was not allowed uh to talk to reporters, and
- 6:33Speaker 2: she'd be like why not, And I'm I'm like, Thea,
- 6:36Speaker 2: because I know you, and you're liable to say anything.
- 6:39Speaker 2: You're liable to curse them out. It's from the heart.
- 6:42Speaker 2: But but let's just let's just figure keep those sentiments
- 6:46Speaker 2: within the family. There's a reason I called her my
- 6:48Speaker 2: Thea looka my crazy aunt. But I got to tell
- 6:53Speaker 2: the story about just a couple of weeks ago when
- 6:59Speaker 2: I went up to to see her and she was
- 7:01Speaker 2: she was in the hospital and she was fading fast.
- 7:03Speaker 2: She was kind of coming in and out of consciousness,
- 7:06Speaker 2: and she wasn't entirely able to to understand everything that
- 7:10Speaker 2: was happening. Yeah, and you could tell it was we
- 7:14Speaker 2: were in the last days. But but I had the
- 7:17Speaker 2: chance to tell her. I said thea they got Maduro,
- 7:22Speaker 2: they arrested Maduro and I and I told her, Tia,
- 7:26Speaker 2: the Cuban Communist government is going to fall soon. And
- 7:30Speaker 2: she just beamed the smile on her face. Wow it was.
- 7:36Speaker 2: It was beautiful and and and it was a celebration
- 7:39Speaker 2: of life. Look, I'm sad, We're all sad that she's gone.
- 7:44Speaker 2: But she led a full life. Every minute she loved
- 7:48Speaker 2: living and and and she brought joy, She brought unconditional support.
- 7:56Speaker 2: She was ferociously loyal. So yeah, I was thinking much
- 8:02Speaker 2: more about that than than.
- 8:04Speaker 3: Than some guy named bad Buddy.
- 8:07Speaker 2: And by the way, I was glad at least, you know,
- 8:09Speaker 2: the early promos said bad Bunny Bunny was going to
- 8:12Speaker 2: wear a dress. He didn't wear a dress, at least
- 8:15Speaker 2: not that I saw, so so I was glad of
- 8:16Speaker 2: that at least that, you know, small victory.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Yeah, he leaves that in like you know, the burning
- 8:21Speaker 1: of flags other places. Right, Yeah, you're not doing the
- 8:23Speaker 1: Super Bowl, you know, I'm just saying.
- 8:27Speaker 2: I am curious though, how much Bad Bunny is going
- 8:31Speaker 2: to be taxed for having gone to the Super Bowl.
- 8:34Speaker 1: So, by the way, this is the story that I
- 8:37Speaker 1: think everyone should be outraged over right if I if
- 8:41Speaker 1: if Bad Bunny didn't get you going. Here is the story,
- 8:45Speaker 1: and we've got the tax hours. If you want to
- 8:47Speaker 1: know why California is fading fast and why so many
- 8:52Speaker 1: people that when they start making money are out there
- 8:54Speaker 1: and so many people in the in the crypto world
- 8:57Speaker 1: and the IT world and all the other world are
- 8:59Speaker 1: like the getting out of there, like they're leaving fast
- 9:02Speaker 1: as they can.
- 9:04Speaker 3: Let's just break down.
- 9:05Speaker 1: We've got some data for people of how much money
- 9:08Speaker 1: California made off the Super Bowl, of those that were
- 9:12Speaker 1: actually making money at the Super Bowl.
- 9:14Speaker 3: It really is incredible data.
- 9:16Speaker 4: Well it is.
- 9:19Speaker 2: If you look at Sam Darnold going into the game,
- 9:22Speaker 2: here's what his incentives were.
- 9:25Speaker 4: If he wins.
- 9:27Speaker 2: Yeah, he's going to receive one hundred and seventy eight
- 9:29Speaker 2: thousand dollars as a bonus, yep, and he will pay
- 9:33Speaker 2: two hundred and forty nine thousand in taxes to California
- 9:36Speaker 2: for his time here, meaning he will lose seventy one
- 9:40Speaker 2: thousand dollars.
- 9:41Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what ended up happening.
- 9:44Speaker 2: If he had lost, then he would have gotten one
- 9:48Speaker 2: hundred and three thousand dollars in bonus, but he would
- 9:51Speaker 2: still owe two hundred and thirty five thousand in taxes,
- 9:55Speaker 2: meaning he would have lost one hundred and thirty five
- 9:58Speaker 2: thousand dollars. So I guess Sam can gratulations. Yeah, you
- 10:01Speaker 2: only lost seventy one thousand dollars for stepping foot in
- 10:05Speaker 2: the Commonwealth of California. Uh, instead of losing one hundred
- 10:10Speaker 2: and thirty five thousand dollars. And what kind of insanity
- 10:13Speaker 2: is it that that's how the California tax system is.
- 10:17Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, and it's and I mean this is
- 10:18Speaker 1: you you fly in there and you just do a
- 10:20Speaker 1: day's work and you're a performer. They are going to
- 10:23Speaker 1: take as much money as they can and they don't care.
- 10:25Speaker 1: Like there now there's there's there was inching articles reading
- 10:28Speaker 1: online about it.
- 10:29Speaker 2: Look, look, I think but I think Bad Bunny changed
- 10:31Speaker 2: his name. He's now Sad Bunny because Sad California took
- 10:34Speaker 2: all his money.
- 10:35Speaker 1: See is that You're not wrong on that one. But
- 10:37Speaker 1: they were talking about bands and and.
- 10:40Speaker 2: You know, you know if you, if you let California
- 10:43Speaker 2: keep going, he may soon be like fatal attraction, bunny.
- 10:46Speaker 4: I mean there's a whole like like a.
- 10:48Speaker 1: Rabbit, there's a whole rabbit hole you can go down on.
- 10:50Speaker 1: This one is out right now.
- 10:52Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all right, I went there than you you
- 10:55Speaker 2: at worst.
- 10:55Speaker 3: Okay, you're welcome, You're welcome. I'm here all night.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Folks, No comedians, though, are of avoid in California for
- 11:01Speaker 1: the tax reasons you just said.
- 11:04Speaker 3: I mean it's real.
- 11:05Speaker 1: Why would you spend the night there if you know
- 11:08Speaker 1: you're not gonna make near as much money and you
- 11:09Speaker 1: can choose to go somewhere else, like go to Nevada,
- 11:12Speaker 1: go to New Mexico. I mean, there's a lot of
- 11:14Speaker 1: other place you can go to perform. And there's a
- 11:17Speaker 1: lot of people that the are now sitting. They're actually avoiding
- 11:19Speaker 1: it for the reasons you just described with those bonuses
- 11:21Speaker 1: and taxes.
- 11:22Speaker 2: So, California has the highest marginal income tax of any state.
- 11:26Speaker 2: Its top marginal rate is thirteen point three percent on
- 11:29Speaker 2: wage income and on capital gains that exceed one million
- 11:32Speaker 2: dollars a year. The top rate for waging crome come
- 11:36Speaker 2: climbs to fourteen point six percent when you include the
- 11:41Speaker 2: state disability insurance rate, which has no wage cap, and
- 11:45Speaker 2: that's on top of federal taxes. So federal taxes at
- 11:48Speaker 2: the top of the tax bracket, you're paying thirty seven
- 11:51Speaker 2: percent plus fourteen point six percent. So the reason Darnald
- 11:56Speaker 2: owes that money is because he is tallied with eight
- 12:01Speaker 2: duty days in California. While they were they get there
- 12:04Speaker 2: getting ready for the super Bowl, he got popped with it.
- 12:07Speaker 2: Welcome to California, congratulations on the super Bowl. And by
- 12:10Speaker 2: the way, when you play the super Bowl in Texas,
- 12:13Speaker 2: we don't text you a penny and you get great
- 12:14Speaker 2: text mes.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. There's a reason why. By the way, golfers
- 12:18Speaker 1: hate playing and winning at Pebble Beach. They get mad
- 12:21Speaker 1: because when they win there or when there was the
- 12:23Speaker 1: La Country Club at the US Open, they were like
- 12:25Speaker 1: you basically think you're getting this big paycheck and then
- 12:28Speaker 1: you call you' like what happened? Like, dude, you want
- 12:31Speaker 1: in California. I can't help you there. If you're gonna
- 12:33Speaker 1: win your first time on tour, you don't want it
- 12:36Speaker 1: to be in California. For that reason. For the next
- 12:38Speaker 1: sixty seconds, can you hit pause on your life and
- 12:41Speaker 1: just think about this. Every day, millions of children face
- 12:45Speaker 1: a crushing reality, a constant defeating message echoes and their
- 12:49Speaker 1: empty stomachs and their desperate eyes. It is that you
- 12:52Speaker 1: don't matter. Poverty doesn't just steal food and shelter. It
- 12:56Speaker 1: steals hope, dignity, and the fundamental belief that they But
- 13:00Speaker 1: there's another message, one of boundless love and hope. Through
- 13:04Speaker 1: Compassion International, you can change the child's story forever. You
- 13:08Speaker 1: can sponsor child just like I do. You can introduce
- 13:11Speaker 1: them to a loving, heavenly father. You can equip them
- 13:14Speaker 1: with education, healthcare, and the support to overcome poverty. This
- 13:18Speaker 1: isn't just about one child. It's about transforming families, revitalizing communities,
- 13:24Speaker 1: and changing nations. It's about proving that every child truly matters.
- 13:29Speaker 1: So help give a child a future, give them hope.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Visit Compassion dot com today. That's Compassion dot com. All right,
- 13:38Speaker 1: let's move on to some other big stuff here center
- 13:40Speaker 1: that I want to deal with. And there's something you
- 13:42Speaker 1: want to talk about which I really like this subject
- 13:44Speaker 1: and it deals with left wing funders that are being exposed.
- 13:48Speaker 1: I actually think this is going to be a trend
- 13:50Speaker 1: with what we're witnessing with with with all the attacks
- 13:52Speaker 1: on ice around the country.
- 13:54Speaker 3: I think we're going to more of this. Follow the money.
- 13:57Speaker 1: You've been saying that on the show for a while,
- 13:59Speaker 1: Follow the money, tholl the money, follow the money. And
- 14:01Speaker 1: we have a new example of that that we're going
- 14:03Speaker 1: to expose here. So I hope everyone listening or watching
- 14:06Speaker 1: will make sure you hit that chare button share this
- 14:09Speaker 1: episode on social media, because we're going to be a
- 14:10Speaker 1: part of that in a very big way and explain
- 14:13Speaker 1: what we've now found.
- 14:15Speaker 2: Well, there was a very interesting column in the Wall
- 14:17Speaker 2: Street Journal about the Mellon Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation
- 14:22Speaker 2: is America's biggest funder of the humanities, and it is
- 14:26Speaker 2: a radical leftist foundation. And let me read from this column.
- 14:31Speaker 2: The University of Virginia launched a hiring spree in twenty
- 14:34Speaker 2: twenty as it pledged to become a racial equity focused university.
- 14:39Speaker 2: A special initiative promised to recruit thirty doctoral fellows and
- 14:44Speaker 2: quote opened the gateway for them to fill tenure tech jobs.
- 14:48Speaker 2: One current fellow specialties include transfeminisms and gender queer life writing.
- 14:55Speaker 2: Another researches how Filipino nurses resist racial Capitalism. The program
- 15:02Speaker 2: owes its existence to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which
- 15:07Speaker 2: funded it to the tune of five million dollars. With
- 15:11Speaker 2: a seven point seven billion dollar endowment, the Mellon Foundation
- 15:15Speaker 2: is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Its annual giving has long dwarfed that of the National
- 15:23Speaker 2: Endowment for the Humanities. In recent years, it has been
- 15:27Speaker 2: refashioned as a tool for advancing an identitarian vision of
- 15:32Speaker 2: social justice for academia. The consequences are far reaching. Through
- 15:40Speaker 2: public record requests, I've acquired dozens of proposals and progress
- 15:45Speaker 2: reports for Mellon funded projects. The records show how the
- 15:50Speaker 2: foundation has lavishly promoted progressive scholar activism. At the University
- 15:55Speaker 2: of Utah, the Transformative Intersection Collective created workshops on transgender
- 16:03Speaker 2: and queer of color critique and quote environmental anti racism,
- 16:10Speaker 2: supported by a half million dollar MELON grant. At the
- 16:14Speaker 2: University of California, Santa Cruz, the Visualizing Abolition Project promotes
- 16:21Speaker 2: research and art that calls for the elimination of prisons.
- 16:27Speaker 2: With the support of eight million dollars from MELON for
- 16:31Speaker 2: much of its existence, the Mellon Foundation narrowly supported the
- 16:35Speaker 2: arts and humanities. One signature product project was the creation
- 16:39Speaker 2: of jstor, the widely used online database of academic research.
- 16:45Speaker 2: The foundation avoided controversy that changed with the dawn of
- 16:50Speaker 2: the social justice era. As early as twenty fourteen, then
- 16:53Speaker 2: President Earl Lewis told The Chronicle of Higher Education that
- 16:57Speaker 2: the Foundation would take a more activist approach, especially around
- 17:01Speaker 2: issues of race. On taking over in twenty eighteen, the
- 17:06Speaker 2: current president, nutjob nutjob is me editorializing Nutjob, Elizabeth Alexander,
- 17:13Speaker 2: announced that Melon would view all of its giving through
- 17:18Speaker 2: the lens of social justice. This new ideological mission is
- 17:23Speaker 2: notable because of Mellon's great influence within the academy, especially
- 17:28Speaker 2: in hiring and promoting faculty. As jobs in the humanities
- 17:32Speaker 2: have become ever more scarce, Melon has poured millions of
- 17:35Speaker 2: dollars into career building, fellowships, and faculty hiring schemes, putting
- 17:41Speaker 2: its stamp on professors around the country. Melon money appears
- 17:46Speaker 2: up and down the academic career ladder. The Melon Mays
- 17:50Speaker 2: Undergraduate Fellowship, which has received thirty eight point three million
- 17:54Speaker 2: dollars since twenty twenty. Steers college students towards an academic career.
- 18:00Speaker 2: The Mellon Funded Dissertation Innovation Fellowship, supported by eight point
- 18:05Speaker 2: nine million dollars since twenty twenty two, gives a living
- 18:08Speaker 2: stipend to forty five graduate students annually. Mellon has given
- 18:13Speaker 2: six million dollars to Wayne State University, four point six
- 18:18Speaker 2: million to Texas A and M University, and fifteen million
- 18:23Speaker 2: dollars to the University of California system, all to hire
- 18:27Speaker 2: faculty with the MELON emerging faculty leaders in other programs.
- 18:32Speaker 2: Mellon's support continues well into a professor's career. MELON grantees
- 18:37Speaker 2: often signal their discriminatory intent. A University of Virginia grant
- 18:42Speaker 2: proposal notes that Mellon's five million dollar gift would go
- 18:46Speaker 2: towards quote advancing our goal of doubling the number of
- 18:51Speaker 2: faculty of color at UVA by twenty thirty. A University
- 18:55Speaker 2: of Oregon proposal promises a special postdoctoral fellowship to establish
- 19:01Speaker 2: a pipeline for quote Black, Indigenous and people of color
- 19:06Speaker 2: bipock in the Professoriate. Its progress report notes that quote
- 19:12Speaker 2: all interviewees identified as black, Indigenous, and people of color.
- 19:18Speaker 2: In other words, we are only looking at people if
- 19:21Speaker 2: we can racially discriminate. Perhaps most significantly, Melon funded personnel
- 19:27Speaker 2: building programs almost uniformly espouse a distinctly identitarian brand of progressivism.
- 19:34Speaker 2: At Emery University, you're going to like this. Melon May's
- 19:37Speaker 2: fellows study eco womanism, whatever the hell that is. They
- 19:43Speaker 2: study black trans studies and racial colonial capitalism. Students who
- 19:52Speaker 2: specialize in intersectional neologisms will be well prepared for Melon
- 20:00Speaker 2: funded faculty jobs. In twenty twenty three, Ohio State put
- 20:04Speaker 2: out a job ad. So, this is Ohio State. What
- 20:07Speaker 2: are they looking for? A quote assistant professor of Black Sexualities,
- 20:15Speaker 2: noting a recent two million dollar Mellon Foundation gift that
- 20:20Speaker 2: was that funded ten new faculty positions.
- 20:23Speaker 3: Right by the way, I'm just thinking about that.
- 20:24Speaker 1: They're like, if you get that job and you're like,
- 20:26Speaker 1: do you call mom and are you like proud of that?
- 20:29Speaker 3: Or are you more like, yeah, I got the new job.
- 20:32Speaker 2: Well, the person who got it, Zalika Ibba or Remi.
- 20:38Speaker 2: The professor hired for the job, lists black porn and
- 20:43Speaker 2: black sexual logics among her areas of expertise.
- 20:49Speaker 3: Oh there you okay, there you go.
- 20:51Speaker 2: Melon has bankrolled many professors notorious for their activism. At
- 20:55Speaker 2: the Socialism twenty twenty five conference, assistant professor e Mn
- 21:01Speaker 2: abdel Hadi referred to her employer, the University of Chicago,
- 21:06Speaker 2: as evil and a colonial landlord. By the way, if
- 21:09Speaker 2: you call your employer evil, you should be fired. That's
- 21:12Speaker 2: just very simple, but not hard. Conceded that working there
- 21:18Speaker 2: was useful for political organizing. Ms abdel Hadi came up
- 21:23Speaker 2: through the University of Chicago's provost post Doctoral Fellowship program,
- 21:29Speaker 2: a longstanding Melon funded hiring program. A few months after
- 21:33Speaker 2: the conference, she was arrested at wait for it, an
- 21:38Speaker 2: anti ice protest, and charged and charged two counts of
- 21:45Speaker 2: aggravated battery of a police officer.
- 21:48Speaker 1: Yah.
- 21:48Speaker 3: You know that's the money well spent, right.
- 21:51Speaker 2: She has pleaded not guilty. Mellon's funding has amplified a
- 21:56Speaker 2: bleak trajectory for the academy today. A young and drawn
- 22:00Speaker 2: to traditional fields like military history or classics should think
- 22:04Speaker 2: twice before entering the academy. A young scholar who quote
- 22:09Speaker 2: advances an anti capitalist, prison abolitionist agenda, as one Ohio
- 22:15Speaker 2: State professor put it, can find abundance support, especially from
- 22:20Speaker 2: the Mellon Foundation. Higher education reform will only succeed when
- 22:26Speaker 2: this unfortunate trend is reversed. And this was written by
- 22:30Speaker 2: mister Saylor, who's the director of the Higher Education Policy
- 22:33Speaker 2: at the Manhattan Institute. This is the kind of poison.
- 22:36Speaker 2: If you look at our universities and say why have
- 22:39Speaker 2: they gotten so bad? Why have they gone so far
- 22:43Speaker 2: off track? You have radicals who are controlling, as you
- 22:47Speaker 2: mentioned and over.
- 22:49Speaker 1: Saying well, give you faculty, we get to pick them out,
- 22:51Speaker 1: and this is what you've got to hire, but we'll
- 22:53Speaker 1: give you the money to hire them. And then you
- 22:55Speaker 1: can radicalize university just by paying and in poying the
- 22:59Speaker 1: people and putting them in, placing them at the universities.
- 23:02Speaker 1: This is paid to play and it's in its simplest form.
- 23:05Speaker 2: Look it's it's follow the money, and you have radicals
- 23:09Speaker 2: who are taking over. And by the way, Andrew Mellon
- 23:11Speaker 2: was not a socialist, was not a transgender like porn
- 23:16Speaker 2: officioato that we know of that we know of, to
- 23:19Speaker 2: be fair, But you look at and this is one
- 23:22Speaker 2: of the real challenges. The great capitalists of a prior era.
- 23:28Speaker 2: They gave much of their money to foundations and they
- 23:31Speaker 2: initially appointed people to run the foundations, and then time
- 23:34Speaker 2: passes and those foundations over and over and over again
- 23:38Speaker 2: have been captured by radical leftists. The Ford Foundation. Henry
- 23:42Speaker 2: Ford would would roll over in his grave if he
- 23:45Speaker 2: knew the garbage the Ford Foundation funds. And it's one
- 23:49Speaker 2: of the things people on the right need to think
- 23:51Speaker 2: much more carefully about if if they are engaged in philanthropy,
- 23:56Speaker 2: making sure that it's not captured, because that's been one
- 24:01Speaker 2: of the real sources of a propaganda and a perversion
- 24:04Speaker 2: of these institutions is capturing the money flow that goes
- 24:09Speaker 2: into colleges and universities.
- 24:11Speaker 3: Yeah, it is.
- 24:11Speaker 1: It's incredible, and you go back to find the money
- 24:14Speaker 1: and let's go back to ICE protests real quick. This
- 24:16Speaker 1: is very much going to be the same playbook. It's
- 24:18Speaker 1: part of the reason why you say follow the money
- 24:20Speaker 1: and see who's bringing it in, because they're paying these activists.
- 24:23Speaker 1: There was a video that went viral of them practicing
- 24:26Speaker 1: their chance and chance anti ICE chants before one of
- 24:29Speaker 1: their protests. It looked like in a church and getting
- 24:34Speaker 1: all of the protesters there to then teach them their chance,
- 24:37Speaker 1: and the video went viral over the weekend. That's all
- 24:39Speaker 1: being funded by somebody. This is not organic.
- 24:43Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 24:43Speaker 2: Look, Laura Ingram was talking to some of the protesters
- 24:46Speaker 2: on the street and you said you should be working
- 24:48Speaker 2: at a job, and then the protest said, I am,
- 24:50Speaker 2: I'm getting paid like it's there is real money that
- 24:55Speaker 2: is fomenting violence, and that is quite literally fomenting revolution.
- 25:02Speaker 2: That that's what they're trying to do.
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- 26:16Speaker 1: NOW i want to make To virginia real quick as.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Well and this is another big story that is happening
- 26:22Speaker 1: very quickly post election. Day and it's an important story
- 26:27Speaker 1: BECAUSE i do think this could be a real moment
- 26:30Speaker 1: of clarity Of, hey the midterms are coming, out pay.
- 26:33Speaker 1: Attention democrats are ready and, inspired but they are working
- 26:37Speaker 1: at light speed to enact their radical. Agenda you could
- 26:41Speaker 1: also argue that they've learned this From Donald. Trump Donald
- 26:43Speaker 1: trump came in rocking and rolling day one into this second.
- 26:47Speaker 1: Term he learned a lot from his first. Term he
- 26:49Speaker 1: learned about how fashion get things done if you're. Prepared
- 26:52Speaker 1: and Now democrats seem to be doing that with their
- 26:54Speaker 1: radical agenda In. Virginia what they're already doing, there it
- 26:58Speaker 1: is a warning for the mid. Terms what can happen
- 27:00Speaker 1: If democrats get.
- 27:01Speaker 2: Power well and, look understand that there is no such
- 27:06Speaker 2: thing as a Moderate democrat.
- 27:07Speaker 4: Anymore, no they're.
- 27:08Speaker 2: Dead Abigail spanburger Like ran claiming to be a moderate
- 27:13Speaker 2: and only the Most gullible believed. Her all of The,
- 27:16Speaker 2: democrats they've been. Radicalized this is a party that is
- 27:20Speaker 2: driven by the open, border abolish, police transgenders. Zelos so
- 27:27Speaker 2: what has she done in her first few. Days, well
- 27:30Speaker 2: one of the very first things she did is she
- 27:31Speaker 2: cut ties WITH ice in Federal Immigration, enforcement which means
- 27:36Speaker 2: If virginia has a criminal illegal, Alien If virginia has
- 27:40Speaker 2: an illegal alien who's a murderer or a rapist or
- 27:43Speaker 2: or child, molester they will let him go and even
- 27:46Speaker 2: though they're illegal. Alien virginia is now going to refuse
- 27:50Speaker 2: to cooperate WITH, ice refuse to handle handle hand murderers
- 27:54Speaker 2: over TO, ice and, instead What Abigail spanburger is saying
- 27:58Speaker 2: is the people Of virginia would rather that the murderers
- 28:01Speaker 2: be released into their communities and prey on their. Children she's,
- 28:07Speaker 2: also quite dramatically this week signed a redistricting bill that
- 28:14Speaker 2: is nothing short of radical and. Unfortunately so let's do the.
- 28:22Speaker 2: Math virginia has eleven congressional seats right. Now the current
- 28:26Speaker 2: delegation is Six, democrats Five. Republicans virginia just had a
- 28:32Speaker 2: takeover Of democrats of the state legislature and the governor's.
- 28:35Speaker 2: Mansion they redrew the map and they went from Six
- 28:38Speaker 2: democrats and Five republicans to a map that is designed
- 28:41Speaker 2: to produce Ten democrats and One. Republican, now, now what
- 28:46Speaker 2: does the math? Mean So virginia is a pretty it's
- 28:49Speaker 2: a blue to purple. State in twenty twenty, four forty
- 28:53Speaker 2: seven percent of the state voted For Donald. Trump So
- 28:58Speaker 2: kamala Won, virginia but fifty three forty seven it is
- 29:01Speaker 2: a very, close close. Tight the forty seven percent Of
- 29:04Speaker 2: virginians who voted For, trump they are now going to
- 29:07Speaker 2: get nine percent of the congressional representation in the. State,
- 29:11Speaker 2: wow how about the fifty two percent Of virginia who
- 29:14Speaker 2: voted For? Harris you know how much they?
- 29:17Speaker 3: Get how?
- 29:18Speaker 2: Much ninety one? Percent there you, go fifty two percent
- 29:23Speaker 2: of the. State The democrats get ninety one percent of
- 29:27Speaker 2: the congressional. Representation now On, twitter you could hear the
- 29:33Speaker 2: left he, saying ah, ah But texas did. It this
- 29:36Speaker 2: is all About. Texas, okay let's look at the. Math,
- 29:39Speaker 2: texas fifty six percent Of texans voted For Donald. Trump
- 29:47Speaker 2: in the new map That texas, drew that fifty six
- 29:51Speaker 2: will get seventy nine percent of the. Seat so, look
- 29:54Speaker 2: it is drawn to favor the party in, power but
- 29:57Speaker 2: it is not remotely as. Brazen by the, way cal
- 30:00Speaker 2: foreign their new map also is designed to give The
- 30:03Speaker 2: democrats more than ninety percent of the congressional. Delegation and
- 30:08Speaker 2: you know, what The northeast is even. Worse you look
- 30:12Speaker 2: at at at at states Like, maine states Like New,
- 30:15Speaker 2: hampshire states Like, vermont states Like Rhode, island states Like,
- 30:19Speaker 2: connecticut where states Like, Massachusetts. Massachusetts do you know how
- 30:23Speaker 2: Many republican members Of congress are Elected?
- 30:26Speaker 3: MASSACHUSETTS i want to say it's one or zero.
- 30:28Speaker 2: Zero all Of New, england all Of New. England they're
- 30:32Speaker 2: just Like republicans don't. Exist we will erase.
- 30:35Speaker 1: You and by the, way by the, way what happens
- 30:40Speaker 1: with this is this going to be a back and
- 30:41Speaker 1: forth tit for tat when you see this type of
- 30:43Speaker 1: egregious so then other states are gonna have to counter.
- 30:45Speaker 3: It is that just how we're going to.
- 30:46Speaker 4: Go so there was a left wing.
- 30:48Speaker 2: DEMOCRAT i responded to this AND i tweeted out a
- 30:52Speaker 2: brazen abuse of power and an insult to. Democracy AND
- 30:55Speaker 2: i went through the numbers you just talked about and
- 30:58Speaker 2: this left Wing democrat state senator came, back Who i'd
- 31:01Speaker 2: never heard of and actually didn't even know about this
- 31:04Speaker 2: until someone of my staff told me told me about.
- 31:06Speaker 2: It but she responded by, saying you all started, it
- 31:10Speaker 2: and we effing finished. It and by the, way she
- 31:12Speaker 2: did not abbreviate. Efing so she's a charming and lovely. Person, clearly,
- 31:17Speaker 2: Yes and you know there's something richly ironic about, it
- 31:22Speaker 2: because Every democrat loves to preen about how much they love,
- 31:27Speaker 2: democracy and yet it's quite evident that they don't care
- 31:32Speaker 2: at all about. Democracy what they care about is keeping
- 31:35Speaker 2: democrats in. Power that is practically the only thing they care.
- 31:39Speaker 2: ABOUT i want you to listen To Abigail spanberger talking
- 31:43Speaker 2: about jerry, mandering what she thinks about.
- 31:46Speaker 4: It give a, listen.
- 31:46Speaker 1: Because republicans have to depend on redistricting and stealing votes
- 31:51Speaker 1: and taking seats like they did In North carolina in
- 31:53Speaker 1: order to actually be able to win. Elections so, well
- 31:58Speaker 1: we're just going to steal them right, back by golly.
- 32:00Speaker 1: Right there's your liberal logic one on, one.
- 32:02Speaker 2: But it is also the degree it is far more.
- 32:06Speaker 2: Brazen AS i, Mentioned, texas fifty six percent of the
- 32:09Speaker 2: state voted For Donald.
- 32:10Speaker 4: Trump the new.
- 32:12Speaker 2: Map If republicans win in the seats that were, drawn
- 32:15Speaker 2: the new map will produce seventy nine percent of the
- 32:17Speaker 2: congressional delegation to Be. Republican that is a difference of
- 32:23Speaker 2: twenty three. Percent so that's an additional twenty three. Percent
- 32:26Speaker 2: what Did virginia. Do they went from fifty two percent
- 32:30Speaker 2: voting For Kamala harris to getting ninety one. Percent that
- 32:35Speaker 2: is thirty nine points. Higher that is a massive and
- 32:39Speaker 2: it's a grotesque gary. Matter and by the, Way i'm
- 32:42Speaker 2: quite confident if they could have drawn at eleven zero
- 32:44Speaker 2: they would. Have you know that there are five districts
- 32:49Speaker 2: that slice through Northern virginia to get all the liberals
- 32:53Speaker 2: that work in the federal, government and they basically like
- 32:56Speaker 2: take a slice of liberals from Northern virginia and then
- 32:58Speaker 2: stick it with Rural virginia is to rob the votes
- 33:02Speaker 2: of the rest of the state that is.
- 33:05Speaker 3: Rendered, yeah and this is going to be their game
- 33:08Speaker 3: plan moving.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Forward it's state after state after state, now all because
- 33:11Speaker 1: they say they're doing it in reaction To. Texas, no
- 33:14Speaker 1: they've been doing it for a very long time. Now
- 33:16Speaker 1: they're just telling you we're doing it on. Purpose at
- 33:18Speaker 1: least they're being honest about. IT i got to give them.
- 33:20Speaker 3: That don't.
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- 33:38Speaker 3: Morning