What Iran, Putin and China Really Want | Victor Davis Hanson

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1:00Be 21. Putin said the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet Union. What he meant by that was that we Russians ran the whole world almost except for the United States. And we want to get back that way. He's an opportunistic person and he thinks anytime I see a weak Europe. Let's get the North some pipeline. Let's get them hooked on our natural gas. Let's get Germany so anti-American that they're basically on our side. Let's resurrect Cuba. Whatever we're for, he is against. Hello and welcome. This is Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. And this is our weekend edition. So thank you for joining us. Victor is the Martin and Neal Anderson senior fellow military history and classics at the Hoover Institution and the way name Marsha Busky. Distinguished fellow in history at Hillsdale College.

2:01He can find him at his website, Victor Hansen.com. The name of the website is the belated Perseus. And we hope everybody joins us there. The weekend edition is often very different. This whole week is different and we're asking our viewers questions of Victor. So we have on the docket, Jacksonian policy and legitimate critique of it. Balfour decoration and what are around religious leaders thinking? Stay with us for those questions and we'll be right back. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. I have a new book out on September 8th of this year. I think you're going to enjoy it. It's called Counter Revolution. The fall and rise of Donald Trump and the Maga movement. It starts right after January 6th and it details the lack of popularity of Donald Trump, the invective that he endured. The five civil and criminal trials, the effort to get him off the ballot, the raid on Marlago, the two impeachments earlier,

3:02one in which he was tried as a private citizen and yet he came back. How did he come back and why did he come back? I explain in the book how he defeated his primary opponents, how he was outspent. He had a hostile media and he defeated the Democratic machine and Camilla Harris. It starts on January 6th. It ends pretty much now in May of 2026. What's the title about? Donald Trump is not a revolutionary. He's not a revisionist. He's a counter-revolutionary. This time around he is not addressing just the symptoms of the progressive project of the last 50 years. He's talking about the causes, not just an open border but how to stop illegal immigration entirely. Not just crime but sending the National Garden to make sure cities are safe. Not just an Iranian nuclear threat but ending that threat that seven other presidents had identified but did not act on.

4:02Not just addressing the transgender issue or the Green New Deal and all of those issues that are so dear to the Democratic Party but ending them. Defunding NPR and PBS. So it is a counter-revolution to unwind and to roll back the entire progressive project of the last 50 years. I think you're going to like it. It's pretty interesting. It's the qualmacles the greatest political comeback in our recent political history. Thank you very much. I'm Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Sigm. Welcome back. Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. So Victor let's go ahead and get right to it. James C has a question for you. He says if you believe Trump's foreign policy is neither neo-conservative interventionism nor isolationism but Jacksonian. What objective principle distinguishes legitimate conservative dissent on the Iran War from the extremism often attributed to the anti-interventionist right?

5:11The Trump administration's Jacksonian policy was predicated on America first but that is defined by a lot of cliches if you will. There's a don't tread on me revolutionary warning that we don't look for trouble but we strike back when somebody gets nearest. There's that famous quote from the first console console sola and dictator. He said no better friend no worse enemy. It's in Poo Talk's life of sola but I think the general notion is it's cost-benefit analysis. So if we intervene in Afghanistan for 20 years was that in our interest or were we trying to establish a gender studies program with University Cable have a pride flag on the embassy and turn them into Berkeley Heights?

6:12No it's a waste of time. You can argue that it was in our interest to get rid of Sedolman same was that our interest to spend a trillion dollars to try to convince a fundamentalist. Daesh, Bathast, Iraqi regime no was it in our interest to bomb the Qaddafi family out of business and then create chaos in Libya? No. Was it in our interest to Bob Serbia? Maybe, maybe not depending on the degree to which they were slaughtering Albanians but that was an age old mess in the Balkans that we got into the middle of. On the invitation of Europe, I want to make us point here Europe always criticizes us. Oh you're intervening. Every time we get in something almost there's a European basis. We got into Libya because of French and the British said we need help. This is a coalition of NATO partners of the willine.

7:12We went into Serbia because they wanted help. We got involved with the Faulklands because the British wanted help. We get involved with Chad and the French because they wanted help. In Iraq, we felt that after 9-11 we were going to go in alone and we got you in but we said Saddam Hussein is going to try to take over the entire Persian Gulf. He invaded Saudi Arabia for a second and he invaded Kuwait. That's a universal concern. Afghanistan is more debatable. The UN sanctioned that but the Taliban were international terrorists. So it's mega-Jaxonian policy is before we insert force, is it in our interest? Is it in our interest to remove the Maduro government? If he's sending drugs through third parties into the United States, if he's green lighting criminals and emptying his mental institutions and criminals to send them to the United States, I don't know how many people we read every day or from Venezuela that are involved in horrific crimes.

8:19Is he trying to undermine our allies? Yes. Where you get tricky, so when you look at Iran, is it in our interest to remove a bomb when all seven presidents have said you have to do that and now they were on the verge of getting one and was it in our interest? And the answer is cost to benefit analysis. So is there interest to invade Iran? No. Is it our interest to say we have created an alternate government and we're going to send advisors in there and we're going to overthrow and then we want a government to look like us, not necessarily. It's not worth the cost. Is it our interest to spend $100 billion and bomb that horrific regime into submission and to boycott it and to embargo it and to sanction it and to freeze it in just today. Scott DeSant announced a whole new levy of secondary boycott punishments for those countries that are dealing with Iran under the radar. Yes.

9:22If you can weaken or destroy that regime without invading it and without killing a lot of people, then remember they just kill 40. It's in our interest to do that. Is it our interest to do it all long time? No. For five months and within tolerable blood and treasure limits. Yes. So you have to be very careful. But in general, when we use force abroad, the Jacksonians say if everybody just leaves us alone and remember Iran is killed more Americans and even al Qaeda over 47 years. It killed thousands of Americans in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in our embassies, in our barracks. Or they subsidized people like Hezbollah entities, USS Cole, African embassies, you name it Jordan. So it's in our interest to get rid of them, but only in a cost of benefit analysis. All right. So the criticism that can be made by a Jacksonian of the Jacksonian policy is it wasn't in our interest and so far Trump's been.

10:33Well, let's just start very quickly. I'll review very quickly. You can't believe anything. The left says anymore. It's a completely bankrupt entity. Why? Because Barack Obama killed 500 people. People he conducted 500 missions on the Afghanistan Pakistan border killed three citizens without any congressional authorization. I don't know if that was an interest or not, but these people who are so critical didn't say word. He bombed Libya for seven months. He hit ports. He hit TV stations. He tried to to wipe out the Qaddafi family. He did all of that. He never went to Congress for one second and asked for Congress. He bombed Serbia for 77 days. He never asked for congressional authority. So I don't listen to anything they say because it's political. If Donald Trump removes Iran, the Iranian theocracy and there is a people pour out into the streets and they form a new government. And for the first time in 47 years Iran is pro-American.

11:37The largest country in area and as far as populations, I think it's second only to Egypt. That would be a coup you couldn't imagine. And the left will still criticize it. But on the right, do I believe Tucker Carlson? Well, he said we were going to start World War III when we bombed for 25 hours. Do I believe Marjorie Taylor green? Do I believe no? Do I believe that Namal Sad and Netna who got us into this? No. Yes. So I think he was asking for the legitimate criticism coming from somebody who is a Jackson. Yes, a Jackson. And it was a Jackson. You just say you didn't it wasn't in our interest. The Jackson. I would say it. It is a regime that has threatened us for 47 years. I get that. The regime has killed probably three or four thousand Americans. A regime that is the world's largest sponsor of terror. A regime that uses the whole Middle East against us. It's not worth 17 American dead and say 70 billion dollars to remove it.

12:43All right. And again, thank you. James C. He didn't put his last name. So we just go with C Paul Ward says, would you do 10 minutes on the Balfour Declaration of 1917 origin origin, original intent, the outcome, pros and cons? Well, get a member. It was it was a letter. It wasn't a formal document. It was a letter from Balfour who was a foreign wartime minister of Britain in 1917. So he wrote a short, I don't know 60 words, just a short little note to Baron Rothschild who was the unofficial spokesman of the Jewish population of Great Britain. And by extension, the Jewish population in France built the allies of World War I. And Britain was trying to check the Ottoman Empire. And they had said they were going to get the Ottomans out of the Arab Middle East. And one of the so he went, the Jewish community had started in the late 19th century saying we want a home for the Jews and we want our ancestral home where the Jews originally settled before anybody else.

14:04And over the years after the destruction of the second temple and the diaspora of Jews under the Roman Empire, etc. etc. And then the crusade, etc. That population in which is now the West Bank Gaza and Israel was multi-religious. There were Christians. There were Arabs. And there was a small, the smallest of the three people were the Jews. And so they said we will give a two states one for Arabs, one for Jews. But the Arabs said no. The League of Nations took that wartime letter promise and they used that as the base to ratify that. After World War II, when the League of Nations had gone out of business and was replaced by the UN, the UN went back and looked at that League of Nations charter and the Balfour Declaration and said, we are going to recognize the state of Israel. The state of Israel was in borders that were the 1947. It did not have the golden heights. It did not have the West Bank. It did not have Gaza. It didn't have any of those disputed areas. It was quite small. And the Arabs refused to recognize it. And they invaded. And they lost the war in 1947, 1948. They lost the war in 1956. They lost the war in 1967. They lost the war in 1947.

15:27In 1973, they lost the war in 1982. They lost the war in 2003. I think they have. So they haven't had a good record. And Bill Clinton was just in the news not too long ago. And of all people, Bill Clinton, a left-wing Democrat said, when I was president, we all were, you know, we just said, we're going to get Israel's 96% of Israel. We're going to get them 4% of Israel. And we're going to get them back all that land. And all they have to do, and we're going to give them Jerusalem. They're going to have two secures of Jerusalem. They're going to have Gaza. They're going to have the West Bank. And Israel is going to be basically back to 1940. And they didn't do it. They earned the war. Because they didn't do it because they wanted to kill Israelis and Jews. That's what he said. He was right. So if you look at history very quickly and you ask, what happens when you invade our start a war as far as your territory goes? Do I hear Germans today saying, well, we had the Al-Skaze terrain. And we had the Sudan land. And where's East Prussia? East Prussia was German for $12. And now there's a bunch of poles in it.

16:42They took Danzig and they renamed it Gdansk. And they took Konigsburg, the capital of East Prussia. And now it's Kellengrad. The Russians, they took our land. Yes. And you invaded. And the Japanese said, well, the Marianas, we took control of the... Yes. And you invaded. And you lost them. And that's what happens. And they said, we had Somalia, we had Libya, and you invaded. And you lost them. And that's what happens. And so don't do that. And so they don't get that. get that. They think that they had two chances, 47, and then they had the Carter piece of chords with Sadat and Began, and then they had the Clinton initiative. Each time they said no. Each time they said no, and they turned to violence, they lost. Now they're never

17:43going to get back. They're never going to get back the golden heights. They're not going to get back all, they're never going to get back all of Jerusalem. They're going to get the West Bank, I think, if they had free and open elections, but they've got a corrupt of boss who's been in there for years, and everybody hates him on the West Bank. And then they've got Sharon said, we don't want anything to do with Gaza. We're sick of Gaza. And so he took the army in there and expelled thousands of Jewish settlers in 2006 and said, get out of Gaza. It's a death trap. And then he built a wall, not a very good wall, not like the one that the Israelis have with the West Bank. And guess what? Hamas came in and they said, we're going to have an election. The Bush administration, we're going to have an election. The UN said we're going to have an election. Yeah. And then Hamas has Bernardo Lewis, the late expert on Islam said in the Middle East, there's election one time. And that's it. One election, one time. And then Hamas never held another election and ruled

18:47as a totalitarian, fascistic regime and became the heartthrob of all the Middle East and shook down people for $40 billion. And what do they do with it? They built it. I think the only engineering thing that they surely didn't do it Dubai or a UAE. They had the choices real estate in the Mediterranean. Anybody looked at that area from Gaza all the way up to Alec. It's beautiful. And they were corrupt and competent. And they used all that money to build a subterranean terrorist zone underneath it. And then they used all of their training to indoctrinate whole generations to kill Jews. That's what they did. And they ended up doing exactly that on October 7. And then guess what? The Israelis said, okay, it's been 21 days. Take a deep breath. We haven't done anything yet. Would you please give back all of our hostages? And would you please give us the perpetrators, the people who conducted

19:51this mass murder of 1200 women and children and elderly? And would you give us the architects who organized it? And we won't go in. And they said, oh, come on in. See what happened. It was basically we're in a subterranean billion dollar labyrinth and the entries and exits are in hospitals, mosques and schools. And you can't do anything. Think of the logic. I'll just end this round by the logic. Think of it for a second, everybody. Hamas says, if you want to get into our tunnels or out, you've got to go through the hospital or mosque. And that means it is real far from the genocidal nation is a humane nation and won't kill you. Now we all kill you because we'll put you in harm's way because we don't care about our own people. But Israel cares more about our people than we do because they won't bomb the hospital, the mosque and the school. And we're going to use that to go out to facilitate attacks against Israel. And then people say, Victor,

20:55there was collateral damage. Yes. And that was by intent. But I challenge anybody, our listeners, tell me one place in the Middle East when Syria fights, Hezbollah fights, Syrians are Jordanians had problems with Iraqis are Iraq when in Kuwait. You name any intra Arab where the power said, all you people in that apartment building, they're the enemy headquarters. We're going to bomb it in 15 minutes. So we text you get out. Does any of them do that? No, only Israel does that. That's not what genocidal nations do. When Gaza became quote unquote independent, there was about, I don't know, 800,000 people genocidal people don't see the population sorrow over two million. In 1947, the Arab population of when the Israel was finally declared independent was 10%.

22:02It's 20% now. This is a genocidal nation. I can prove it because over the last 70 years, the percentage of Jews has gone down by 10% and the percentage of Arabs living inside Israel has gone up by 10%. That's proof it's genocidal. And I can show you another proof. They have gone into Gaza and they have vaccinated and they have brought food and they supplied all of the water, all of the electricity, all of the diesel, all of the natural gas, all of the gasoline, that proves their genocidal. That's the level of argument we hear from El Zayed and all of these people, Husang Piker, who by the way the other day got on stage and sang a song celebrating the gruesome assassination of Charlie Kirk, why this left wing socialist audience applauded this clown in a Mausuit. It made perfect sense because he was wearing a Mausuit, Mauset Dong, and killed 70 million people. So he's bragging about killing somebody and these demanded people who listened to

23:04him were cheering him on. That's what the left is. And I think people should wake up during the midterm. If you're a independent or conservative, if you're a Wall Street Journal conservative and every day you hear a horrible Trump is, today there was an op-ed about Trump's getting an unnecessary war against Canada. That's all on one issue, just one issue. Canada is trying to triangulate with China and us. So we are saying do not bring in cheap Chinese parts and interest and then repackage them in real simulum and send them here and try to undermine us. And by the way, you have a 50 billion dollar and don't tell us it's all because of oil like the Wall Street Journal. That is thick tar oil right near the border of Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. And the idea that we that they're doing us a big favor by unloading this tarry oil that we have refineries that can refine and pay top dollar

24:06and they're saying that was why we have a surplus. No, we're your best customer. If you cut us off from that oil, try piping it all the way to Vancouver and sending it to the Chinese with your ecological populations. See how they like that. Well, Victor, we have a sponsor returning Pure Health Research, one of our great sponsors that is really helping the show. If you want to drop extra pounds, boost energy levels or reduce swelling in your legs and feet, then this message is for you. Pure Health Research is on a mission to make America healthy again. And two of their best selling health supplements are on the way. First is liver health formula over 100 million Americans have a sluggish liver riddled with fatty deposits. This can kill your metabolism, pile on the pounds and make you feel tired. Liver health formula takes care of all that. It supports thriving liver health with special nutrients like artichoke extract and milk thistle. This is one of the easiest ways to slim down

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26:17describing homos in there very much as Iran is for they are for Israel very much as Iran is for us. They're very mentality. So Johnny D'Alap-S, I would like to know what you think the Iranian religious leaders want to accomplish is it a jihad holy war to foster a second coming of Muhammad? If so, why don't I hear much mention of it? Is there some strategic benefit we enjoy when the religious motivation is not circulated much? Well, they say there are a mystical apocalyptic branch of Shia Islam, which was always the minority. And they're not Arabs, they're Persian. So there's natural fault lines between 93 million Persians who have this illustrious history of dominating the Arab world. And they have a different religion for the most part. Although I

27:19should say that only 60% of Iran is Persian. There are Kurds and Assyrians and there's all sorts of other people in it. But they believe that they are the purist of Muslims. And this theocracy believes that because they are the purist of Muslims and they have a superior Islamic creed to their neighbors. And because they as Persian, Chauvinist or superior to Arabs that they deserve it should inherit the crown, not the Saudi, the guard, the Saudi is a guardian of Mecca and Masina. But they should be the spokesperson for Middle East, all of the Middle East. And so they have been trying since the Islamic Revolution of 1980 to create what they call a Islamic crescent, a Shia crescent. And that means we're going to get Iran. And then we're going to get the alawaits in Syria that are

28:24an offshoot that are closer to Shia than Sunni. And then we'll have all of Iran. And then we'll have all of Syria. And then we'll get Hezbollah to infiltrate in de facto takeover Lebanon, which it has. And then we'll get the Houthis, which are an offshoot, not in Orthodox in Yemen. And then we're going to get the West Bank and Gaza to Hamas, which is Sunni Arab but pro-Arania. And to once we have, and they almost have it until Assad came cattumbling down and until Israel destroyed that so-called ring of fire, and until we both emasculated it. And then the idea was that we're going to be the ones that take the hit and destroy Israel. That's what Rafa and Johnny said, the former supreme, I mean, the president. He said that he was reportedly, he denies it, but he said that Israel was a one bomb

29:29state. He liked all the Jews being in one place because you could kill him with one bomb. So then they were going to broadcast that in apocalyptic terms, we destroyed Israel. And Israel has 200 nuclear weapons. So anytime they see that a nuclear weapons on their way, they're going to destroy it. And they were willing to accept that. They felt that they were such a big country and such a big population. It was a small price to pay for being the one power who destroyed the Jews in Israel and reclaimed the Middle East. And therefore out of that reclamation, all of the Shia minority in Iraq, in Kuwait, in the UAE, all through the Gulf, they would flock to their banner. And that's how they feel. And they feel that they're morally and intellectually and religiously superior to anybody in the Islamic world, but also in the West and they're fanatic. And the only thing that people should remember about them, that's what they say they are.

30:32That they're the purist of Muslims. They don't believe they follow Sharia law. They don't drink. They don't smoke. They don't charge interest. But they're also the most corrupt regime. So, Raf and Johnny and all of those people that were in the Theacradiq elite, they own houses in Britain, they own houses in London and Paris. They've got billions of dollars in foreign accounts. Their kids all go to preps school. Their kids are professors and stuff in the United States. And so they're also the most corrupt of all those regimes. And they talk about they wanting to die any minute and be and have them with 72 virgins. But the elite doesn't want to do that. They don't they want to kill people, but they don't want to die themselves. Because they're they're siphoning off all that oil revenue and they're living like kings. That's why everybody says, well, how does Iran sustain itself? Now today, Scott Besson has this new blockade. He's

31:36going to sanction, isolate, not trade, embargo, any country that secretly has been helping Iran financially. Well, how can it exist? Because the people are destitute and the elite doesn't care. And so there's a you know what I what gets me really angry just as a side note, people hate Donald Trump so much that they have endangered their entire reputation. So we tire General McCaffrey. Who served with extinction, although he was in a kind of a controversial position after the first Gulf War when he allegedly kept fighting after the ceasefire. But he was Bill Clinton's drugs are. So he was the one that called Trump. I think he called him Mussolini or a liar. And he came out today and said, this is basically we've lost the war because we're going to have to pull out people out of the Middle East because they hit some of our bait. Well, we have too many

32:38anyway. And if you he doesn't understand one thing for being a general, why are all these bases in Syria and in Iraq and in the Gulf and in Jordan? They're not there to protect against Al Qaeda or ISIS. They're dead. They're gone. They're they've always for one reason Iran. You deal with the Iran problem and you don't need those bases there. You can have a carrier coming out. We don't want to be there anymore than we don't need their oil. And then we had Robert Kagan, whom I knew somewhat. I just worshipped his father, but he came out today and he said, we have to assume that this was the greatest blunder in Donald Trump through in the Middle East. We've lost the Iran war. Iran will now be it's so powerful. It's undefeated. Israel is humiliated and they're taking there will be the dominant power for years and in the Middle East. Is he insane? Does he understand that their nuclear industrial military complex is destroyed. It was 50 years in the making. It was

33:44a half a trillion dollars that they're completely devastated financially that the whole Gulf world doesn't trust them. Doesn't like the only reason that they're telling us to be careful. Is there a way that we won't destroy them and lead them intact? Does he understand that Israel is now more militarily dominant than any period in its entire history? Does he realize that China and Russia have no influence? There is no Assad regime. There is no Iran that's going to welcome Russians and we're bombing the rail links to China and Russia. We're cutting off their air. What is he thinking? In other words, his hatred of Donald Trump is such that he can't in a disinterested fashion. You can criticize the Trump Iran war if you want to call it that. That he should have after 38 days kept bombing and finished it in another three. But he didn't want to kill anymore people. He wanted to destroy the military infrastructure and then squeeze them

34:48economically and hope that people took control. That might well happen. But this hatred of him and it's just he should all these people should take a deep deep breath. I'm talking about Liz Cheney who was the third voted with Trump 90% of the time until she went completely nuts and then Robert Kagan and then George Will and all Bill Christ, 90% of what he's done on the border with crime, with energy production, with strengthening NATO, with building up the... What they called for for 50 years. But his fingerprints are on that and therefore you have to oppose him and his policies. It's the most Pavlovian, nihilistic response I've ever seen. Yeah, sure is crazy. Well, Victor, let's move on to Putin then and what his thoughts were. Your

35:48readers were thinking, were asking questions about how does our enemy think basically? So Tim Kennedy says this. I would like to hear from Mr. Hansen regarding Putin's status, coup possibility, maybe due to the attack on Iran from Ukraine. So he's saying the Ukrainians are really devastating. What's the... Yes, well remember that Putin said the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet Union. He didn't mean that as a communist. He's not a communist. He's a fascist dictator, totalitarian dictator, authoritarian. But what he meant by that was that we Russians ran the whole world almost except for the United States and we want to get back that way. And after the fall of the Soviet Union, the West tricked us, he believes, into allowing all of these republics to become independent and our population went from 250 million to 140 million and were weakened.

36:50So my job as Vladimir Putin, he thinks, is to restore the glory of Zara's Russia as defined by having the same amount of territory and power as communist Russia did without the communism, but with dictators like himself. So he thinks, well, we had all this oil and the West had no oil. And we had Venezuela and we were all over the world trying to oppose the United States. We were partnering now and then with China. And that hasn't worked. So then he said, how do I weaken the United States and reclaim Russian glory? So in 2008, he went into Georgia and he stopped that separation. In Norse what he did, he always goes when a president is weakened, George W. Bush was tied down in Afghanistan Iraq and then he went in on a Barack Obama. We're not exceptional. A lot of apologies for people saying, oh wow, he's apologizing.

37:52We're not exceptional. It's time to go and take Ukraine and Crimea. So he invaded them. And then Donald Trump came at and when Donald Trump said, I have a bigger button than you do to Kim Jong Un and he sounded crazy. He didn't do anything for four years and then he had buy. If he invagies as a minor invasion, it's not a big thing. And he volumetric cut off all that hacking and don't do it or house bottles. And we were going to stop offensive weapons. So he gave him the impression. So he went in and tried to take Kiev. So he's an opportunistic person. And he thinks anytime I see a weak Europe, let's get the North some pipeline. Let's get them hooked on our natural gas. Let's get all shroiter that corrupt obese chancellor and let's pay him off. And

38:54so he's doing the bidding for us, which he did. Let's get Germany and get them so hooked on our energy and so anti-American that they're basically on our side. And he almost did that. Let's get into Shavez. Let's get communist governments. We don't care whether they're communist, but anti-American governments. Let's resurrect Cuba. Let's do anything we can to hurt the United States and regain our influence. And that's what it is. It's an automatically response. Whatever we're for, he is against. And remember, who was the person who went to in 2009 went to Vienna and said, we're going to have a reset and even went to an old, it went to a jacuzzi hotel and installed the got the jacuzzi button and boom, we pushed the reset button and then they mistranslated it. As you know, it wasn't the Russian word. They thought they were going to be cute and say reset in Russian. They even got that. That was their idea to reach out to Putin and then he's an alligator.

39:56Yeah, Hillary and Obama. And then he bit their hand off like the alligator he was. And so that's what he is. He's an opportunity. He just sits there and waits and he thinks every day, how can I take advantage of and rebuild Russian power? And now he's got a depopulated country of 140 million. And he's got the largest area, even with the loss of the republics of any country in the world. And it's full of oil and precious metals and rare earths. And he's got China, the Chinese breathing down his neck who are overcrowded. And there's no internal internal descent that would even think to challenge him. He does ask about the kids. Yeah. When that crazy Wagner group I know. Objected he blew him up in a plane. When people object, they fall out of it. They usually just take them up the top floor and throw them out. Or they take a little injector guns and put

40:57plutonium in them in London or whatever they do. And then if it gets really bad and he's afraid of a mass revolt, then they bring in Mongolian. They bring in North Koreans and they use them as cannon fodder and they pay them. Yes. And we just noted in an earlier podcast that the peace party in Russia, the party that would seek a peace agreement with Ukraine was taken off of the ballots. There's never a free election. I don't think there's ever been a free election in Russia. All right, Victor, let's go ahead and take a break and then we'll come back and talk a little bit about the Hutu and Tutsi. Tutsis. Tutsis. Conflict. Not Tutsi Bar, but Tutsi. Tutsi. Okay, did I? Okay. The one Tutsi down. We'll be right back. Every state is home to significant historic sites that tell the American story. But not every site is telling that story honestly and fairly. That's why the Heritage Foundation created the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites. This interactive guide

42:02equips American citizens with the tools they need to enjoy the sites that depict some of the greatest moments in our nation's history, analyzing them for historical accuracy and provides resources for families or educators planning a visit from Mount Vernon to Independence Hall to Gettysburg and more. Americans deserve transparency and sites that steward our history faithfully deserve our gratitude. The Heritage Guide to Historic Sites invites every American to rediscover the places and stories that define our nation, whether it's across the country or in your backyard. Visit historic sites.heritage.org to start your adventure today. Welcome back, Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. We're a subsidiary of the Daily Signal so you can find Victor's work there. These long form podcasts as well as short form podcasts and all of the other material that the Daily Signal puts out that is from the conservative

43:03site of the United States Punditry. All right, Victor. So let's turn to Chris Cofflin's question here. He says, you said the Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda. I talked to my associate pastor who is a Rwandan Hutu refugee who maintained a low profile on his social accounts until he became a U.S. citizen. He acknowledges that Tutsis were killed during the genocide. That's big of a misnate. 800,000 people. Some and they killed two people. The Tutsis in 1994 and any Hutus, Hutus that were what they called moderate. Moderate. So let me finish his question here. But that was by their by their own people. So he thinks the Tutsis were killed by their own people. My question is, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop. He thinks the 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Tutsis.

44:07Yeah, he thinks that the government went out slaughtering people and they slaughtered Tutsis and the government was run by the Tutsis. The government was run before it was overthrown by Tutsis. Yes. The Tutsis go ahead and hold it. Go ahead and then here's his question. So that needs to be corrected. I understand that. My question is this and Chris Cofflin, if the Hutus did the massacring and are the majority, why does Grocks say that the Tutsis are the controlling tribe? Well, it's based on a racist idea of the 19th century. And so the Germans went into the Congo and they had a protectorate or a colony. And what is now Burundi and Rwando? So I had two larger, they had African tribes and the Germans made clear racial distinction.

45:10There were about 85% of the population of these two areas were Hutus. And then the other 15% were Tutsis. They were mostly cattle, grazers and stuff. And then according to their 19th century racial profiles, the Hutus were definitely not European. They were shorter and stockier and they had more in what the Germans called Negroid features. The Tutsis were taller and their facial characteristics were considered more European. So they made a decision that to control this African population, they were going to cultivate an overclass, even though it was only 15% of the population. And they started pouring money into the Hutus, the Tutsis tribes and they gave them more resources, they compensated them higher and they were more likely to be educated.

46:14So during the decolonial movement, there was a natural advantage that even though these 15% were such a small minority of the population, they took over the country. And then at various times to control from 15%, they repressed the Hutus. The Hutus then on various occasions took over. Like they had 15, 59 war. And at one point, they ethnically cleansed all of the Tutsis and kicked them out to neighboring countries. And the Tutsis organized a revolutionary army trained it well and came back in and took control of the country. And then we could go on and on. But then the Hutus decided that they were going to use their majority. And so by 1992, they were

47:18nominally in control. And then there was an effort to say there are no Hutus, there are no Tutsis. So there was a Tutsis, they were in control. But then the Tutsis, as I said, invaded again. The president by 1993-04 was a Tutsi, I think. And so what happened? Excuse me, he was a Huti. They had finally had their majority power. And somebody blew up a presidential plane with the president of Rwanda and Mawanda. And they blamed the Tutsis. And they broadcast on them. These people are cockroaches. Everybody rise up. They did this for weeks. And they're coming back again like they always do. And the only way we're ever going as Hutus have control of our country is to kill them. So everybody go out with machetes. And the first person you see that is a Tutsi killing. And if you see any Huti who's intermarried with them or lives next to them or

48:22facilitates them, kill them. And that's what they did. And then people fled. And then with international help, they killed... I'm trying to remember, she was a... either the foreign minister, she was a high ranking official in the Tutsi government, the Rwanda government. And she had 10 Belgian foreign guards. And they came in and hacked them. I'll kill them all. And so finally, the international community armed the Tutsis. They came in after 94 and they took control. And they run the country now. And they're trying to bring back all. And they are trying to claim. They said they were going to have free elections. But they would never have free elections because the Hutis would win. So they announced there are no Hutis. There are no Tutsis. There is no red

49:23state. There is no blue state. There's only... You remember that from Barack Obama? We must have got that from Rwanda. And then he made the most partisan divide ever between blue and red. Obama did. Well, they did the same thing. So now there has been no election. The Tutsi guy runs a country and he preaches international brotherhood and kindness. And it's going to keep going and going. It's a lesson to us that any time for any reason you identify essentially by your tribal affiliation and not as American, it's not going to work out well for you or the country. So everybody should realize if you're black, if you're white, if you're Asian, if you're Hispanic, that that's incidental, not essential to who you are. And I wish they'd tell the women's basketball association. Yeah, boy, they're starting to break out and all the latest... I just saw the latest

50:25that Turkish player, his changes, named a freedom as last name. And he was there and he was cheering on Sophie Cunningham and that cloud player. She went all the way over there and tried to instigate. And then they had some fouls that you would not believe this last two weeks, tackling people. Caitlin Clark hits a three-pointer and a girl goes by and just hits her. It's pretty much what they don't just to sum it up. It's a basically 65% black and 30% gay. And the owners are pretty all radical. A lot of them gay. And it's completely a money-losing proposition and it would cease to exist if it wasn't for the National Basketball Association. The men subsidized it. And the owners are left-wing and the referees are left-wing.

51:31And it had their own little oyster and they were very happy losing money and flying on commercial and making $80,000 a year. And no one cared. And then Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham and a few white players came in who were really good. And there were tensions because of their race and their sexual orientation being heterosexual. And they started using violent means to vent. They were venting not because they were worse off. They were venting because they were better off. In other words, like Topefield warned us, they would rather all have their little equality with each other and be poor than some people be better off than they are. And so when they saw Caitlin Clark's salary, 20 million, I don't know, and her endorsements and salary combined, she's making 20 million or more a year. They said, that's not fair. We're a black league. We're a

52:31gay league and we have a certain code and we're left-wing. You can't have this person from India coming in Indiana coming in here. Iowa, we don't want that. We're going to rougher up. We're going to rougher out all these people. And then it turned into the most, it's really despicable to watch it now. It's just they go in and they try to punch people in the face. They did it to another girl on the ground the other day. They hit a really hard in the face. They push people. They go out in the stands and start arguing. And then they get the league. If you wear a t-shirt that suggests that you might not support biological men, they get an owner to go shout in your face. And Mr. Freedom, the basketball player, they just ejected him for wearing. So they don't know what I guess what I'm saying is they don't have any rules because they said that men that have biological muscular skeletal frame and have male,

53:32for most of their life male hormones and have not had radical transition surgery, they're women. But when you see these powerful men in the XMBA and they want to say they're women for a while, they say no. And then you ask them, well, what is your definition? They do have a definition. You know what it is? It's a day facto. And they're saying, just like Ward Churchill, you say, well, Ward, if you say you can be Indian and Native American, well, what's done is some other guy just saying for today, I'm applying for assistant professorship of anthropology and I'm Cherokee because you did it. And he said, ah, not so quick. I did the whole rigamarole. I wore Buckskin and I had a headband and I did Tunkatata. I did all these chants. And I married and so that's what he said. And that's how it worked until he was caught. So what they are saying, think about it.

54:32They are saying we will let trans people, but you got to go through the whole thing. So Mr. Freedom, you've got to start wearing a dress and a wig and makeup and breast suppressors and crotch suppressors and maybe some female hormone shots to get that beard off. And if you can act like you're a woman, then we might consider you're. And if you can do that and you look good in a dress and you look good with a ponytail that's then maybe we don't really care if you beat the blank blank out of women because you will be a trans woman. But you don't do that. You don't go through all the trouble. So they rejected his application to be in the draft today? Not today, but they're going to their co-players will boycott if he does. Yeah. And because he's making fun of them. He's saying, I can just if you can declare your sex or gender, I declare that I'm a woman,

55:32but they look at it and they say, oh my gosh, he's going to beat. And the people who are angry about it are the big girls who have been dominating and fouling and hitting people and they see this guy saying, oh my God, he doesn't like us and he'll come in and be the enforcer of the whole league and start slapping us around because. Well, an accidental hit will take him out. Exactly. He'll say, I'm a woman and a woman. If you hit me, woman, I can hit you back. And so that's what they're afraid of. The whole thing is so corrupt. I think you'll see within 24 months, Caitlin Clarks, Sophie, Cunningham, a few other white players and some lot of black players that don't do this. And they're just going to say I quit and either form their own league or because I don't. When the owners are all left wing and trans, faux trans and tolerant. And they look at it as a not as a basketball league, but a way to express their political views.

56:33And they censor who can come in and who can't come in. And then they get out as owners, they go in and scream at fans that they don't like. And then the coaches don't even support the players and then then give that fever coach, give that profanely ridden, outraged, a diatribe when people said she didn't defend Caitlin Clark when she was smashed. It's toxic. And then you see the referees and somebody goes in there and just punches somebody and they say I didn't see it. And it's so corrupt from A to Z. Yeah, it's very unprofessional. And people are going to be like, Caitlin Clarks have pulled the plug. And so you know what? I get beat up and I bring in a billion dollars in revenue and endorsements for the whole league and you're all flying on Gulf Streams now. And you've you've got great salaries. I'm tired of being beaten up and called all these names by you guys.

57:34Just go get your own little league and call it. I don't know what you'd call it. The Transleg or the Gay League or the DEI League or whatever you want to do call it that. But this is outrageous. And I can't believe they're letting them. You're going to see within a couple of years if they don't do that, there's going to be somebody with a spinal injury or a concut. I mean, a real brain injury because what they're doing is just martial, mixed martial arts. Yeah, if you're in their their sucker punches basically, I mean, they're sucker hitting people that are not ready for it. And that's very, very dangerous. And the weird thing about it is this is what is even stranger. So rather than clamp down on all this you would think logically the publicity 90% of Americans hate the women's basketball association. They've been exposed to it. They've watched it for a year or two and they don't like it.

58:34Because it's so violent. It's racist and it's sexist and they don't like anything about it. But they're watching it now because it's like Lucha Libre. Let me turn on that WM Day and see who gets hit and what they do about it. And then the screaming and yelling, it's sort of like world wrestling federation. It is. It's the world basketball wrestling federation. And that's right. And that's got a big it's you know, they get they make millions of dollars. That's what they're doing now. Yeah. They're basically they said, God, we're getting bad publicity. We've got to talk to our accountant. And he said, yes, you've got terrible publicity and everybody hates you people. But I'm looking at the books we're never making more money. And it's just keep it up. Keep the racism up. Keep the shocking people in the back. Keep the clothes lining people in the neck. Stop them on the ground. Put your hand on their juggler and just keep watching world

59:35wrestling federation. Get tips on the best things to do. And show us what the next thing will be. The next thing will be is that all these teams during practice. Yeah. They'll have 50 minutes for basketball practice and then 50 minutes. How to hurt people. How do you dribble down and then elbow somebody or then what what how do you step on a person's head? Yeah. What kind of four letter word should you use? Yeah. They're all foul mouth to right in front of these kids that freedom that Turkish American player was saying. Why is she saying this? She walked that cloud girl went walked over and said to him, you want to you're you're clapping for Sophie because you want to sleep with her. And he said, I don't want to sleep with her. I'm clapping her because I'm a fan what she stands for. And then he got up. And the next thing though, the player starts to screen. I think her name is cloud. She started shouting obscenities at him. And then she had to be restrained and then made this whole cycle drama. And then I kicked him out. And you know, that was

1:00:39all national that was all televised. Yeah. And they did it all. And they kicked him out. They did it all. It's like the World Wrestling Federation. It really is. So WNBA stands for Wrestling National Basketball Association. My love. All right. Let's take a break and come back and talk a little bit about Pearl Harbor and social media. Let's see what this will be right back. We must all hang together. Or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. They knew that this would be regarded by the king and parliament as an act of treason. So the people who signed that were basically saying we're revolting against the most powerful country in the world. The Declaration of Independence reminds Americans who they are.

1:01:44Its words are ingrained in our memory. Its virtues are etched into our character. Its principles are impressed upon our destiny. Its signers carved out a new nation in the new world. For 250 years, the Declaration of Independence has inspired their descendants to defend their liberties. Liberty doesn't want pass from one generation to the next. Through the bloodstream, it has to be fought for, defended, won with every generation. But there's nothing more important for which we would give our lives. But history has a way of making the unthinkable, seem inevitable. But the Declaration of Independence was never inevitable. The Declaration of Independence is the culmination of one of the greatest political traumas in history. As ideas clashed, as armies gathered, as the fate of a continent hung in the balance, the hopes of millions wanting independence rested with a small group of statesmen willing to risk everything they have,

1:02:45their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor. This is the story behind America's Declaration of Independence. The story of how a Declaration became a nation. Sacred honor, the Declaration that defines a nation, available now on the Daily Signals YouTube channel. Welcome back. Victor is found on social media by the way. At X, he is, his handle is at VD Hansen and on Facebook, he has a page called Hansen's Morning Cup. So join him there for your social media as your outlet. Victor, this is more of a statement than a question, but it was so curious to me. I wondered if you had something to say about it. This is from William Clark. And he says, I would agree with you 100% that the Japanese have never felt defeated after World War II. I had an unpleasant experience with the Japanese mindset. I was stationed in Hawaii and had some time

1:03:47to kill. So I took the water taxi out to the USS Arizona. The boat was driven by a navy E3 female from Pearl Harbor. She and I were the only non-Japanese on the tender. I made sure I was the last to disembark. I asked the navy girl, what was up with all the Japanese? She said they come in droves to pay homage to their finest hour. I was wondering if you had any roof. That's pretty different, scary. Well, that's not surprising. I mean, Japan is a very good ally of ours. I'm driving Toyota products and they're very well built. I appreciate their craftsmanship. It's been a ever since World War II. It's been a positive force in the world. And to a lesser extent, Germany has to. That being said, they were both, they're both, Germany

1:04:47isn't anymore, but they were mult-uniracial, unicultural. Japan has no immigration, so to speak. They won't let people in. And Germany did, and now they've lost, it kind of collapsed after the war. But my point is, they're kind of oblivious to how they regret World War II, and they regret that they killed 20 million people of the 80 million. But they also regret they lost. I can give you two anecdotes. I always try to do anecdotes, but I remember them very vividly. One involves a farmer that I knew of Japanese descent. I liked him a lot. Every once in a while he stopped by when I was on the tractor, and he was in a truck. And he talked out the window, and I turned off the tractor. I was diskinner, some sprain, and he moved me talking. And he said, you got a degree, you know a lot about,

1:05:53I said a little bit, and he said, did you know they put everybody in camp? I said, yeah, my mother helped Japanese farmers with her. She wrote articles with a local paper, how bad that was. And then he would say things like, well, we didn't cause we, we didn't cause World War II. And I'd say, yes, I know we didn't. And he said, no, I mean, Japan didn't. I said, what do you mean you didn't? And he said, well, you embargoed oil. I said, we embargoed oil because you went in to China and massacred two million people. Well, that was our, that was an inter-Asian. So we started arguing. My other story is I, I went to Germany and gave a lecture for a private company at the Reichstag. I mean, he's very as an American company and I was treated very well. But the night before I spoke, I went to dinner by myself. I think it was the four seasons hotel. So I remember,

1:06:59and there was a German group there. At that time, I wasn't really on TV or anything, but somebody said that he read the National Review and he wanted to talk to me. And he was about 85 years old. And he said, I like your columns. He's really nice guy. But then he said, you know, he started talking about World War II. And before I knew it, he was talking about, well, you know, the Falkwip 190 was much, much better than the Spitfire and the Mustang. I must say, I must include the Mustang. And I said, which model does, and you know, who invented the jet? And so, and then my other anecdote with Germany is I was in Crete in 1973 with a couple of guys and we wanted to climb out Ida. And there was the 30th anniversary of a German parachute regiment that had landed

1:08:0030 years ago when they were like 18 or 20. So they were 50. And we went into this hotel hall. Because we heard all this noise on the street. And here was this, it looked like a Munich beer hall. They were all toasty and they were all tan and they were all singing song. I don't think they sang Deutschland Uber Aless. But then they said to us, would you like to hike with us? We're going to go up and show you. And so we height part of the way. And they were pointing out places where they had basically gone up to burn villages and committed atrocities. But they were saying how well they knew Crete better than anybody. So I should just add that there were six carriers that surprised attack Pearl Harbor. The two biggest were the Akagi and the Kaga. And they were later sunk. But Japan is now re-arming and they have a new ship.

1:09:07And what do they name it? The Kaga. You would think they'd say, we don't want to name a ship when we have thousands of names after one that surprised attacked and killed 24, helped kill 24, 100 Americans. But they did. Do you know what I mean? Yes, I do know what you mean. So let's go to Peter Jensen from Denmark's question. He says, do you see an option, an option of lifting social media from a dope level to actual ethical knowledge? And just to back him up, I was watching this weekend on Fox News. They had some long discussion on one of the shows about how people seem to be surprised that the social media knew that they were getting children addicted to their product. That does not surprise me in the least. In fact, I think they had psychologists in their testing how they could possibly do all these things. You know, early on.

1:10:09It is addictive. It's not just children. I'll be rushed for time writing an article or an essay or giving a lecture and I look at my email and somebody sent me the Quora QU ORA and then have stories about World War II. And it's people write nerds right in about questions. Did the British tempest, did it have a higher climb rate than the Thunderbolt? And it's kind of intriguing. And then a person volunteers to answer it. And then they have comments where the guy was an idiot or genius. But it's kind of, you know, and I should say at the first, if you want to get good things on the internet, you can. If you're interested in history, Tom Holland, he's a great historian. He's got, I think, a website that's really good. You can, you can get podcasts. You can get anything you want. It's all out there. It's just an arena. There's the worst in the best. And you have to be

1:11:13discriminatory. But it turns out that there's certain elements of social media and the internet to include that that encourage the lowest common denominator. So if you want to comment, you don't have to put your name. You can get that funny little picture. You can say, I'm Calhorns and have a little cow smiling. Calhorns says this. We have no idea who that person is. So when he knows he's anonymous, he takes, he says things or writes things he would never do. And to get attention for Calhorn, then he would use the F word or he would threaten people. And then people to reply, because it's all anonymous. There's no consequences. It's not like you go in, and if that guy would go into the local supermarket two miles from here and start talking the way he did, he would be flattened or worse. But that's part of it. And the other part is there's

1:12:15there's money to be made. And the money to be made is clicks. And clicks are through sensationalism or perversities. So there was a story today, I'll give you an example, where a attractive housewife with four children, four children, she and her husband decided they didn't have enough money. So she got back in shape and they have a special room in their house. They tell kids that there's mom's office and they lock it. And then they outfitted it like a sexy chamber. And then she goes in there and in various states of undress and sexual activity either I don't know what they didn't detail it. And then I guess he films it or somebody films it. Then they put it on the internet to titillate people. And then they pay to watch her from the subscriptions and then sick advertisers. And they're making a ton of money.

1:13:18And it's not like she could say, well, I crochet and I'm going to have a crochet class. That would be better, but she's not going to make the money. And the same thing, canna soons has gone up in the ratings. But her way of her, her mindset or her business model is six weeks with the most crazy sensational things I can think until I'm totally discredited and then onto the next. So this six week period, it is Mrs. Macron really has a penis. Excuse the language. I'm trying to be clinical. Even though she claims she's a woman. Here's all the evidence in each day and then after me and they're trying to science next one. Charlie Kirk was killed by the Mossad and with the help of his wife and all those people. And let's go. And then that's wrong. And then Donald Trump, and that's how they operate. And Tucker's story you do the same thing. Try to be more clicks.

1:14:26Yeah. Yeah. I put your finger in the air. There's a big anti-Semitic crowd. Let me get a guy on. Let me think. I can get a guy on. He thinks that Churchill was the greatest terrorist of World War 2. And basically it was awarded for the Jews. I'll put him on. And I'll say he is the most knowledgeable historian today, even though he's never written one single published article, our book on World War 2. He wrote a book on about Twitter. And that's how it works. So yeah, there's and it's and then when you can communicate with anybody and you can send your picture, you can tweet. It's instant. You can just say, I'm going to get up in the morning. Hi, Bill. I'm brushing my teeth now and in five minutes, I'll have breakfast. What are you doing? 10 minutes later. I'm driving and I saw this. Now I'm putting my socks on. That's how it's all benignity.

1:15:30But it's a way of interacting without interacting. It's a way of small talk chat with the danger of it is. You're still solitary. And so it's all extraneous and it's a fake reality. And that's why Silicon Valley is so dangerous. And that's regard because they try to find ways to enhance that false world, whether it's your new glasses or your helmet you wear, alternate virtual reality. And you have people who are disassociated with and they're not. It's funny. We live in the most promiscuous age in America, but the young males today are not having what we would call promiscuous acts anymore to a level they did in the 60s because they don't want to pay for dates. They don't want to take the trouble to meet women. They don't they just want it. You can get you can do two things. You can get the most raw sick porn with no cost. And second, you can create alternative AI partners.

1:16:39You can name them. They can talk to you. You can make them look any way you want. It's sick. And it's we don't know where it's heading, but it does sound it's headed to about a .5 fertility rate in at least in the new states. Well, since you're we'll just finish with this. I was going to finish with that, but since she talked about Silicon Valley, Dave Schof wrote, and he basically said, I have lots of property in Palo Alto, but I'm not really happy that I moved here and I'm not happy with California. So he says, if you were in my shoes, where would you move to out of California? Well, Bill, it depends on why you're not happy. Are you not happy because if you go on University Avenue and Palo Alto people are you're in 18 on the street and there's homeless? Are you not happy that you're working really hard in your pain? Basically 38% of your income to the federal government and probably 3% Obama and another 7% of a lot large part of

1:17:42your income for payroll taxes. And then you're paying Gavin Newsom 13.3%. Are you angry that you get on the 101 and you can't move because it hasn't changed much since we had 17 million people. Now we have 40 million people. Are you mad when you get a power bill? And it's 40 cents a kilo. I think it's all those things. So he wants to get out. Where would he go? That's a good question. Well, I could just quote the figures of where you're like minded people go. Because I haven't gone yet, but I know where people go. The three biggest four, there's two criteria. One is what state in a cost of benefit analysis gives you the best return on your taxes. And that seems to be Florida and Tennessee to a lesser extent, Texas.

1:18:43Next criteria is what state gives you sort of the best return on your investment as much as as much as can happen in close proximity to California. So that would mean and is not a harsh climate like Alaska or something. So you that people looking at those criteria, I would like to go to Florida. I would like to go to Tennessee. I would like to go to Texas, but I have family in California and I kind of miss the climate and I miss the outdoors. So I'm going to move to Arizona, not New Mexico, Arizona, not Colorado, Arizona. And I'm going to move to Nevada, no state income tax. And I'm going to move to Idaho, Southern Idaho, Boise, maybe in some cases Utah. So that's what they do. And then you're going to be audited for three years. And Bill, if you try to leave, make sure that if your businesses in

1:19:49Powell, although your property is and you need to come back to California, I can tell you as I talk to all of these people who do it, the state franchise board will go after you because they don't want to lose people like you because you are part of the one or five percent that pays for the 95 percent and the 50 percent of don't pay income tax in California. So don't go to an ATM and get $2,000 next time you go out of state back to California. When you leave and you're going to be in California for two or three months, keep your power bill going on in Nevada. I mean, put it at 60 degrees because they'll they'll they will subpoena them. Don't use a credit card because they'll see where you filled out. I only say this not because I've ever done this, but I hear from people how they how they got caught for spending too much time in California. And then they're being subject to California income tax. Yeah. Well, Victor, that is it for today. Thank you so much for all of your

1:20:51reflections for our listeners and our viewers. And thanks to the audience for joining us on this weekend. Thanks everybody for listening and viewing. We'll be back next week with the usual news and presidential assessments for our Saturday show. Thank you very much. This is Sammy Wink and Victor Davis Hanson and we're signing off. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhanson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.