In this episode of The Energy Question with David Blackmon, David Blackmon and Larry Schweikart critically examine the Republican impeachment report on President Biden, questioning its effectiveness and the Republicans' broader political strategy. They also address concerns about potential unrest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, highlighting the role of protest groups funded by Democratic-aligned organizations and the impact of media coverage on public perception.
The discussion broadens to the changing landscape of American media and politics, with a focus on the decline of traditional late-night TV and the rise of new media platforms like TikTok. Schweikart and his colleagues explore the backlash against "woke" content in Hollywood, the potential reset of major franchises, and the current political climate, including the neck-and-neck presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The panel delves into how media biases and voter registration trends might influence the upcoming election, offering a nuanced perspective on the intersection of media and political dynamics.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:25 - Larry's New Book and Upcoming Project
01:23 - Discussion on House Republican Report
02:12 - Republican Tactics and Public Perception
05:14 - Historical Context of the House’s Power
06:21 - Antifa, BLM, and Pro-Hamas Protests in Chicago
12:22 - Funding and Organization of Protest Movements
15:00 - Discussion on Joe Biden’s Political Future
18:12 - Media Coverage and Potential Outcomes of the Protests
24:27 - Demographic Challenges for Media Outlets
28:06 - State of the Presidential Race
32:03 - Polling Manipulations
34:48 - Internal Campaign Data
39:25 - Convention Timing and Its Implications
45:52 - Economic Consequences of Biden’s Legislation
47:19 - Energy Costs and Inflation
49:36 - Challenges of Repealing Legislation
50:55- The Role of Chevron Deference
51:48 - Historical Perspectives on National Debt
55:16 - Closing Remarks
David Blackmon [00:00:00] And we are live with the energy question with David Blackmon. I'm your host, David Blackmon, and we are here talking politics on our weekly political podcast with Larry Schweikert, America's history teacher and author of a series of bestselling books, including A Patriots History of Globalism, which is a terrific new book that I guess it's your most recent book, right, Larry?
Larry Schweikart [00:00:25] It is. I'm currently working on one called America in the 21st century. That will be out sometime next year.
David Blackmon [00:00:32] Oh, boy. Yeah, I'll look forward to that. All right, so just so everyone knows, before we get started, I'm going to be gone for the next two Mondays. Larry will be gone next Monday, so there will be no podcast. And it's due. And Larry will pick it up two weeks from today, and then I'll be back the next time. And, hopefully won't be off on any more vacations before the end of the year. Anyway, let's get started. I it's going to be a fascinating week in Chicago, of course, but before we get to the Democratic National Convention, let's talk about a report Larry sent over this morning. House Republican report Biden engaged in impeachable conduct. I guess it's about time the Republicans released a report on their long running impeachment investigation. What's going to come of that, Larry?
Larry Schweikart [00:01:23] Not a darn thing. We could label this. This goes into the Trey Gowdy file. Yeah. Which is, make a lot of noise. Do a little dance, get down tonight and don't do anything.
David Blackmon [00:01:35] Yeah. Do you think the Republicans understand that that tactics like this, where they make all this noise with an investigation, then they go on vacation for five weeks, 1st of August, and quietly release this report in the midst of that five week vacation with everyone knowing they're not going to do a damn thing about it when they return because it's too late. Do you think they understand that that is, you know, really has a lot to do with what has led them to become the most detested political faction in Washington, DC, among the public.
Larry Schweikart [00:02:12] Yeah, I don't know. Two years ago, just before the 20, 22, races, the election, we had a small event, maybe 20 people with my congressman Andy Biggs. And, I knew he was going to win his reelection, and I was pretty sure the Republicans were going to win. I thought they'd get an extra 20 seats or so, but I knew they were going to win the House. And I said, Congressman, you understand that you're only going to have two powers because the Senate is not going to help you out at all. You can either shut down government or you can impeach, in which case the Senate will not convict. I said, so, are you ready to shut down government? And he kind of looked at me and then he dodged and he said, well, you know, we have some very important other powers, including investigation, right, where we can get this out to the public. Well that's true. The chairmen are very powerful. They can block bills, which they've done very well. And you public doesn't hear a lot about that. But in the end, the only two things that they have left at their disposal are impeachment and shutting down the government. If you don't have the Senate and they're unwilling to do either of those. So even if they were to impeach Biden, it would go nowhere. I think probably they are in their caucus greatly concerned that if they actually do an impeachment vote, it would look like piling on because he's not the nominee anymore and be, it's going nowhere in the Senate. So it's just a political trick. So I understand their political thinking, but it's exactly this kind of stuff that leads people to say, I'm not interested in voting for these guys. And that's why Trump has a 5 or 6 point lead on average over almost every Senate candidate out there.
David Blackmon [00:04:04] Yeah. And it's really it's really threatening to cast them a, you know, pick up of the Senate majority in November. I still think they'll get there. But it's going to be really tight. And it's because of this kind of thing. They're so ineffectual when they're in the majority.
Larry Schweikart [00:04:20] Back in 2017, I wrote a piece in called the, suicide of the House is complete. And, basically I argued that, maybe it was, maybe it was 2019, but at any rate, it was at once, Pelosi engaged in her, her impeachment that that once and for all made the House almost totally irrelevant. It does still have the power of the purse a little bit, a little bit. But to the extent that it won't use that outside of the Senate and say, we're going to shut down the government to come to our side, the House has become it's interesting. In America, our House of Representatives or House of Commons has become what the House of Lords is in England, which is kind of, you know, decorative.
David Blackmon [00:05:14] Yeah. And it's largely because they don't do budget bills anymore. Back when they actually did budget bills, of the 12 appropriation bills that make up a federal budget, which they stopped doing 20 years ago when Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi decided it wasn't good politics for the Democrats. Since then, they no longer have the power to influence the behavior of these appointed political appointees by threatening to withhold their budget dollars. Everything's done honestly are now and and so they have no real oversight authority anymore. And they don't seem especially interested, as far as I can tell, in regaining that.
Larry Schweikart [00:05:52] It's a very bloody fight that will have to take place to get back to that point where the house has real power. And, there's only been a few individuals, not even groups of people, but a few individuals like Ted Cruz or or, Newt Gingrich or a couple of others over the last 30, 40 years who've been willing to say, we need to shut down the government until we restore this balance.
David Blackmon [00:06:18] Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:06:21] I love Ted. Cruz. I love Ted Cruz.
David Blackmon [00:06:24] Yeah, I do too. I do too. He say he, he takes a lot of, unfair criticism. He really does a tremendous job for Texas in the US Senate. I wish we could say that about every member of the Texas delegation, but we can't. Okay, so enough of that. Before I get myself in trouble, let's talk about what's going on in Chicago this week, where supposedly about 120,000 Antifa, BLM, pro Hamas protesters have gathered there. It's it's part of 51 different factions of the Democrat funded protest movement. And they're apparently there to cause havoc with the Democratic National Committee. Make sense of this, somebody.
Stuart Turley [00:07:16] I'll tell you what. I just want to say that I want to give a shout out to, some of the folks that are doing the geofencing and the the actual targeting of the cell phone data. We know who those people are. Yeah. And those people have been, by definition of them, by you saying that number out there. There's one article out here saying there's 88,000 of them have been the three George Floyd riots or more or Antifa. So these are not nice guys. These are guys that I wouldn't want to walk around and make sure I had body armor on. And they already have bricks. And Larry and I, before the show were started, Larry, we were laughing that they got bricks as gift bags instead of cookies. They've got dog crap and and stuff to hand out for right to throw a. And this is the same group that defunds the police. I don't get it.
Larry Schweikart [00:08:19] Well, it's important to understand that in 1968, when the violence got really out of control, there were only 11,000 protesters and there were about 9000 police, Secret Service and FBI agents in Chicago. Well, so now the police are going to be outnumbered at least 10 to 1. And I can't wait for those, Palestinian, protesters to start scaling those walls in mass, sort of that scene out of World War Z where all the zombies are climbing up over the wall. I'm waiting for that.
David Blackmon [00:08:54] Well, that could happen. I mean, you know, the TV reports keep talking about where, you know, the protesters are going to be segregated half a mile away from the arena. I mean, these people are like cockroaches. They find a way through these police barricades during these riot episodes. And so the question just becomes whether what their purpose of being there really is, or are they there just to make noise, which they will no doubt do, or are they there to actually riot and cause a lot of destruction? And if they are, then without calling in the National Guard, I'm not sure. The Chicago Chicago Police Department, with more than 2000 officers already having called in sick as of yesterday. Well, this week. Really have the resources anymore to contain a group that big? I mean, this is a really, really explosive situation if the rioters want it to be.
Larry Schweikart [00:09:58] And that's the question, I guess.
David Blackmon [00:10:01] What is the.
Larry Schweikart [00:10:01] Purpose? What is the purpose of this demonstration? Because if they are just going to stay where they are put, the media will not cover them and they will have no voice. Yes. And I think they understand that the only way they get a voice is to break through those police lines and go after the delegates at the DNC to get inside the convention. And so we're going to find out real quick what their marching orders are, because if they stay put, then they are irrelevant.
David Blackmon [00:10:33] Yeah, that's that's true. And you know, and again, just to go back what I said initially, these groups, these are all groups that were created by interests that support the Democratic Party, the Open society movement, all these George Soros funded organizations, those NGOs that are affiliated with the Democratic Party fund these movements and have funded every protest movement in this country since. Since the Occupy Wall Street protests began during the tail end of the bush, really, even the anti Iraq and Afghanistan protests were part of this NGO funded kind of, free movement. Go, pinko. And it's all astroturfing. None of this is organic. None of it's true grassroots movement. It's all astroturf created by these NGOs and funded by them. So it's it's really a a rather interesting development here. Or it will be if they do try to bust through those police barricades, it, it's it's really an explosive situation in a city that's not known for its civil behavior to begin with, you know, inadequate policing. And they put such limits also. The other thing is when when Richard Daley in 1968 was mayor in Chicago, they were allowed to use tear gas and batons and just any containment tool they had available to them. Chicago police are no longer allowed to use those methods of crowd control, and that thanks again due to policies enacted by Democratic politicians. So if there is a major cruelty in a situation in a city that just all lies at the feet of the Democratic Party.
Stuart Turley [00:12:22] David, I'm just, bringing this up. This is Tony. He is the one. He now says there is, 104, 889.
David Blackmon [00:12:34] 89 year.
Stuart Turley [00:12:35] Of geo fenced mobile devices that are there. These are not nice people in the video that he's got there. They're already started off to what you guys were talking about.
David Blackmon [00:12:50] Yeah.
Larry Schweikart [00:12:51] Well, you know, what was interesting, again, from a historian's perspective, in 1968, you had 2 or 3 people, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman. Yeah. That kind of Democrat click from Michigan that were clearly in charge of of what was going on on the Chicago seven. Right. And, with this movement so far, no real leader has come out where you can say, watch what this guy's saying or watch what this guy's doing, because that will give you an indication of what the whole movement is about. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin said in no uncertain terms, and we quote them in, a Patriots history of the United States that whether it was student takeovers or protests, their goal was never demands. Whatever demands they had were irrelevant, he says. You answer our first set of demands, we're going to give you ten more, right? Because it's not about demands. It's about breaking the system. Well, what is this group about? Is it about breaking the system, starting with the Democrats? Because those are the guys they have to break. They're the ones who aren't responding to their, their, please, or is it about just, collecting a paycheck? Because we know many, many, many of these people are actually on Soros's payroll. They actually get money for showing up here in Arizona. They had a, Harris rally in which they put an ad in the paper asking for 500 paid actors to carry signs. So there you.
David Blackmon [00:14:26] Go. Yeah. And they're paying them. I mean, they're paying people to show up at these Harris rallies. You know, it's it's how the Democrats have operated for 50 years, and people still don't really understand that. What, what do you think, if anything, all of this will mean for the conduct of the convention itself, for example. Biden supposed to speak tonight? Hillary Clinton, I guess, is now been put on the agenda for tonight as well. So they're getting rid of the Deadwood first. Do you think we'll ever hear from Joe Biden after tonight? I mean, will we ever hear from him or see him again?
Larry Schweikart [00:15:00] Only in a courtroom. Yeah. Only if somebody brings him into court. But he's he's finished as any kind of political player. It's. You know, I wanted him to be soundly defeated by Trump for revenge.
David Blackmon [00:15:14] But, yeah. Me, too, actually.
Larry Schweikart [00:15:16] Did you ever watch a series called, The Shield?
David Blackmon [00:15:22] I saw a few episodes of it.
Larry Schweikart [00:15:24] Yeah. Well, The Shield was, I think, one of the best series ever done. And it featured a kind of rogue cop named Vic Mackey, played by Michael Chiklis. Yeah, and they just got into one problem after another by doing a little bit illegal. A little bit illegal, until by the end they were in horrendous problems. And he ended up one guy committed suicide. They killed another guy of their for the third guy. Vic Mackey handed him over rather than himself, go to jail and made a plea deal. And the final scene is one of the greatest in all of series history. Because after he's done all this, Vic Mackey is given a stack from ice, and he's told to go through these folders. And I said, you don't need your gun. And they took away his gun. And he's sitting there looking at a stack of folders at night. And in the background you hear all the police sirens. In other words, he's been denied his chance at action ever again. He's stuck doing nothing. And I think that's the way Biden's going to be, is, is the punishment that's been meted on him, that he's going to be stuck doing nothing for the rest of his life.
David Blackmon [00:16:35] Yeah, well, and they've already executed a coup on him. I mean, he's essentially irrelevant. Anyway, I had to laugh. I laughed out loud this morning. Politico has a story, and in the tweet that they put out about it says Democrats arrive in Chicago as a party lacking drama. This is a party that literally just executed a coup d'état on a sitting president three weeks ago. And created the atmosphere for an attempted assassination of their political rival four weeks ago. But they're the party lacking draw drama as they arrive in Chicago. I mean, it's.
Larry Schweikart [00:17:16] Let's just let the Palestinians go and we'll have some drama.
Stuart Turley [00:17:19] And history. As we just showed a second ago, they're handing bags that that one clip that we just showed. When you take a look at this, those are very well made signs that are pre done. Those are expensive.
David Blackmon [00:17:36] Open society pays for all of that.
Stuart Turley [00:17:38] Yeah. Oh thank you, George Soros and Joan Soros. Good grief.
David Blackmon [00:17:43] And you, you're not showing the piles of bricks and other weapons that mysteriously just appear to get left.
Stuart Turley [00:17:50] And Larry was taken off of that, so we don't need you taking off of that. So.
David Blackmon [00:17:58] But it's all very well organized. I mean, people think this stuff just happens organically and literally none of it does. None of it is organic. None of it's grassroots. And it hasn't been for a long, long time anyway.
Larry Schweikart [00:18:12] Well, it was Maureen Dowd today in the New York Times who, actually said that, she used the coup word and said that Biden was removed with a coup. I think that's important coming from the slimes.
Stuart Turley [00:18:28] I want to bring this one video in here real quick.
Larry Schweikart [00:18:30] And we found nothing is.
Stuart Turley [00:18:33] Sound off. This is from Tony just a few minutes ago. Ten hours ago, saying that the convention security concerns. CBS is reporting that the defense funded decontamination rooms at Chicago to prepare for bio weapons. Now, is that going to be a false flag or, try to get out of having a conference?
Larry Schweikart [00:19:00] Well, you know.
David Blackmon [00:19:01] I.
Larry Schweikart [00:19:02] Believe you.
David Blackmon [00:19:02] Well, I would think that that is probably a fairly routine thing at a big convention like this.
Larry Schweikart [00:19:08] You remember? What are they after? Supposedly. You and you go back to the, demonstrators in 68. They're after the cameras. They're after attention. They're after being able to say to the world, the Democrats don't like Palestine. The Democrats are supporting Israel. And, bio scares don't do anything. You see pictures of a bunch of people walking out of buildings or people being decontaminated. That doesn't do a lot. What you want to see is the World War Z scene of all these people standing on top of each other's shoulders, crawling over these walls. There's the police, like the defenders of the Alamo, are battling back, you know, knocking them off but losing ground because they're overwhelmed by the the number. That's what they want to see.
David Blackmon [00:19:59] Well, I mean, yeah, the visuals are everything at these kinds of events. You know, we don't have the visuals. You really not you really not making much of a difference because that's all TV cares and wonder. You know, the other thing I wonder, frankly, is that other than Fox News and Newsmax, what TV cameras would even show that? Because, I mean, the rest of the media. So in the bad or the Democrat, even if you had scenes like that happening outside the center, I'm not sure ABC or CBS would even bother to go out there and put a camera on it.
Larry Schweikart [00:20:35] You know, you can you can imagine ABC, CBS at the Alamo, and their cameras are all turned around back on Santa Ana's army, just marching nice and peacefully while the walls are this incredible. You right?
David Blackmon [00:20:50] You just with mostly peaceful protest.
Larry Schweikart [00:20:53] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:20:55] Yeah. Mostly peaceful. I mean, of course, that's the other thing is, if these rioters start burning stuff, are we going to see those scenes, too? If they turn this into another George Floyd Floyd summer kind of thing?
Larry Schweikart [00:21:07] Well, the Chicago businesses have already been told to board up and leave for the week. And so isn't that amazing that the the Republicans had a convention in Milwaukee? There was no riot. There was nothing boarded up. There was nobody who lost money. In fact, they made a lot of money off the Republicans. But these guys are going to have to board up because they can't keep their peeps in line.
Stuart Turley [00:21:29] Yeah. And Trump to, Trump's hotel is right across from all the, the whole, all the whole shindig. So they got to sit there and look at a big Trump sign. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:21:40] Yeah. That's an impressive building, by the way. In Chicago it kind of dominates the Center City skyline. It's really pretty cool place, you know, and all that. Just brings me to what was I going to talk about here? Oh, so the visuals being so important and, making the difference in the media. I saw a story today, and I sent it over to you guys about ad revenue being down 41% for the three network late night talk shows, year over year. And I, I just, I wonder what what to make of that in terms of the current political situation, you know, because they all went completely into the anti Trump tank during the first Trump presidency and intentionally and intentionally stopped being funny in favor of delivering political messages. And, you know, it's like every night they, they're interviewing some some talking head from CNN or whatever. I just wonder what to make of the fact that advertisers are no longer wanting to advertise on those shows with this tight race between Trump and Harris, what does that say about what's happening in society at large?
Larry Schweikart [00:23:02] Well, in addition to the political component that half of America doesn't want to see that you have a demographic component, which is that the people who used to watch late night TV comedy or whatnot. I mean, I remember growing up that Johnny Carson was it you had to tune in and see Carson, right? Yeah. But today, the Utes, as my Cousin Vinny would say, the Utes aren't interested in that at all. It's interesting to watch the, internet and social media segregation, because if you're, the oldest generation that can use the internet, you're on Facebook. If you're on the next, generation, you're on Twitter. If you're the next generation, below that, you're on Instagram. And if you're on the generation below that, you're on tick tock, tick tock.
Stuart Turley [00:23:56] I know Moses and I are buddies and I'm on X and I have banned my company from using Facebook. So where does that make me mentally? 12.
David Blackmon [00:24:10] Well, I just, you know, the other thing I wonder is if Trump gets elected, let's say Trump wins the election in November, and these guys suddenly have Trump to talk about every day, day in and day out. Does that save them? And I don't think it does because they already have him to talk about every day.
Larry Schweikart [00:24:27] Yeah, it's like I said, it's part of a larger demographic problem they have. Their structure is not aimed at younger people and they're just not interested. It's like the morning news shows on Sunday morning. Who watches that? Who's under 40? Nobody watches lot watching.
David Blackmon [00:24:47] You know.
Larry Schweikart [00:24:47] I get too.
David Blackmon [00:24:49] So.
Larry Schweikart [00:24:50] Yeah. So these are major, major changes, and you're seeing it really affecting, Hollywood right now. You know, Disney, for example, had three hits in the last two years, and one was inside out, one one was inside out two, and the other was, Deadpool, Wolverine and, Deadpool. Wolverine may be pretty vulgar, but it's a just one after another assault on the history of what has happened in Disney over the last couple of years. I mean, they're they're absolutely destroying Disney within the movie. And, you're seeing that none of these movies now can make money at all. None of the woke series can make money at all. And they're they're like they're shocked and amazed when somebody puts out a series that isn't woke and that makes all sorts of money.
Stuart Turley [00:25:43] It's it's like Mark Hamill being a guest at the DNC, who is actually turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments. You know, he went from way cool in 1977 to Holy smokes, smokes, Batman, you are insignificant. Go away, little man.
David Blackmon [00:26:02] Yeah, he's a tiny little man. He's a brutal.
Larry Schweikart [00:26:05] There is word out and it's yet to be validated but comes from, from fairly reliable sources that at at Lucas Ville, they are going to essentially completely pivot away from what's happened in the Star Wars movies in canon ever since the start of the third trilogy, and that they're going to basically do a total reboot along the lines of the first six movies, which would be huge. Now, very quietly out there, they fired, not in Lucas, but in Marvel. They fired all of the activist directors and producers. Yeah. So there's something going on out there. To quote Buffalo Springfield, there's something something.
David Blackmon [00:26:51] Going on here.
Larry Schweikart [00:26:52] What it is ain't exactly clear. Right.
David Blackmon [00:26:55] The other thing that's happening in pop culture, and I like to, take a look at what's happening with stand up comics, because they're always a leading indicator of what's happening in society. And over the last six months, what has happened among the stand up comedy, industry is that woke comics can't get big gigs anymore. Like nobody wants them to play a stadium show or, you know, any really. Even in the comedy clubs, it's all these comics that are now making fun of wokeness that are getting all the big gigs. And so that's where society's, you know, Chappelle and is just Seinfeld is becoming big again. All of a sudden, the guy that, Bill, what's his name that Saturday Night Live fires from the cast three years ago and then six months ago, brings him back as a host of one of his programs because he's gotten so huge. Right. And they fired him from the cast three years ago because he wasn't woke. So now, you know. So even Saturday Night Live is suddenly realizing they're completely out of step with the times. So, you know, I think that's a positive. That can only be a positive indicator for society.
Larry Schweikart [00:28:04] Correct.
David Blackmon [00:28:06] So back to politics, as if we haven't been talking about that all along. What do you guys think the state of the presidential race really is? I mean, pollsters have been and the media have been trying to make it seem as if Kamala Harris has some significant lead over Trump in the polling data. But then we have this rash of polls this past week came out showing Trump with small leads. And, I'm just kind of lost it where this thing really stands. To me, it seems like it's just basically a neck and neck race.
Larry Schweikart [00:28:44] Well, I would urge people to consider. You've got two tracks. One is the polling track. Yeah. And the polling track is easily manipulated. Double, if that's a word, is because you can, number one, it reflects a natural bias in response. What's called the response bias, which is if one group seems hot or something's happened, like with the nomination of Harris, then white women, college educated and liberals are much more likely to answer the phone and talk about it. Yeah, and our conservatives, no matter how you wait, embarrasses. It's almost impossible to wait for response bias. The other thing that's happening is at several of the polls have just gone back to their 2016 ways, heavily. And I know Rich doesn't like me to use this word, but heavily oversampling. Yeah. Democrats, he has a different word for it, but it basically comes down in your final model. You have more Democrats involved than would be involved in a normal electorate. That's one track. And that's showing Harris either tied up by two or down by two. And I don't think it's that close. But that's what they're they're showing. Right. But the other track that that very few people are paying attention to is the voter registration data, which across the board is overwhelming for Republicans. Where and what's so significant is it doesn't matter if you're talking about California or Maine or Ohio or Florida or Iowa or Arizona or Nevada or Pennsylvania, wherever you can track it. It's only going one way. It's only how fast is it going? One way in some of these states. Now, I just looked at our data in Maricopa County here. They literally update the data daily. And so as of Friday haven't looked today. Republicans just in Maricopa County are up over Democrats 160,000. Now, that number for the whole state in 2020 was 130,000. Wow. Right now, Republicans are up almost 260,000 statewide, a quarter of a million. For a state that Trump lost by 11,000 votes, of which, if they were legit, most or half those votes have already switched back to Trump this time around. So you look at California. California is trending for the first time in years Republican. And when you consider how many people have fled that state, that's that's pretty amazing.
David Blackmon [00:31:16] Yeah. Because those are people leaving aren't Democrats. They're mostly.
Larry Schweikart [00:31:19] No, no, no, no. And Pennsylvania, which, prior to Trump's win in 2016, was around, I think 600,000. A Democrat advantage now it's less than 150,000. North Carolina has been cut in half. And each of these, when I get these reports, they are moving to the Republicans. Every single report, every single day from every single site you can look at. So what that says to me is that whatever the polls are polling, they're not polling enough. Republicans, not even close. And so when you do that, you're not just going to address the Democrat plus six. You can say, well, wait a minute. Actually now it's moved to Republican plus one. So we're going to be off by seven.
David Blackmon [00:32:03] Yeah, yeah, I saw one poll got released last week that had the sample was a D plus 21 in the sample. And of course they claim, well you know, but we have these weighting factors that we applied to it after. Well that, you know, I mean come on, come on. I mean, it's just ridiculous to even publish a poll like that. And their whole sample was like 900 likely voters. So what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything when you see a poll like that. Stu. I'm sorry.
Stuart Turley [00:32:33] Oh, no. I saw a great, thing from, Alex Jones, who, used to be, I thought was a nut job, but now, you know, he's he's been right.
David Blackmon [00:32:47] So he's a.
Larry Schweikart [00:32:48] Voice of reason.
Stuart Turley [00:32:49] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:32:50] Yeah, exactly. That's what he walked into here.
Stuart Turley [00:32:52] Yeah. And his, young, co-host, who I can't remember his name right now, was bringing up path to Trump's to 70s, actually through Nevada. And I thought that was pretty interesting is that, everybody's focused on Pennsylvania. And, Scotty Scott Pressler out there is really making a great job out there. But the weight on that, was really the path to 270. And and it that to me, when you talk about patterns is encouraging that there's enough, people waking up to the, the theft that I think it's going to we may have the ability to get to that 100 million vote that they're going to have a hard time cheating.
Larry Schweikart [00:33:41] Well, Nevada has consistently as one of these states has consistently over the last several years, had more Republican registrations than Democrats. And part of the reason for a lot of this waiting is Hispanics. The Hispanic vote in Nevada, according to Barris, is not quite 5050, but it's almost there, which is a clear win for any Republican. And now Trump with his no tax on tips that Harris stole. You know, and his, crypto endorsement because they have these big crypto meetings out there every year. I think, if Trump wins Nevada, he'll win Arizona by four. Oh, sure. Yeah. If he wins Pennsylvania, he'll win Arizona by 4 or 5. So, I think I think right now that. It was J.D. Vance this morning that said he thought that Harris's, polling had stagnated. And I don't think he's saying that based on the news. I think he's saying that based on what Tony Fabrizio told him in an internal memo.
David Blackmon [00:34:48] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Barrus does see the internals pretty, pretty regularly. You can't always talk about him explicitly, but, but he does make some implications from them. And I actually had a memo last week from a fellow who said he had seen him, too, who probably did because he's in the business. And, he said that, basically Harris is data is showing not much change really in three weeks. And, it's essentially the same race as it was when Biden quit. So, we'll see after the convention, obviously, normally out of a party's convention, there is a polling bump of magnitude or another. Right.
Stuart Turley [00:35:33] I'm sorry for like.
David Blackmon [00:35:35] You know, and and of course, the media will will portray regardless of how Kamala delivers her speech, the media is going to portray it as as the greatest speech ever delivered in the history of American politics. And so I just, you know, but I have to say, I don't expect her to get much, if any, polling bump. I mean, we'll have to wait three weeks afterwards to know because it always takes that long for it to work its way through the system. But I really don't think she's going to get much of any polling increase out of this thing. I think whatever increase she was going to receive, she's probably already gotten. I wonder what y'all think about that.
Larry Schweikart [00:36:15] In my talks, two groups I gave a talk to a big GOP group Saturday, and I say, you know, buckle up. Prepare for 2 to 3 more weeks of Harris news. Harris is, looking good for Harris and prepare for about 2 to 3 more weeks of that from the hoax news media. And they've got to do something, and then it's going to start, fading. And, I don't think they will ever get back to where they're showing the real numbers of Trump. 5 or 6 or, now he was never up ten in Pennsylvania. I'm sorry. Rasmussen. He was never really in there, but he may be up to on a fairly regular basis. But, you know, we'll see somebody that, all of your viewers ought to follow on Substack is Seth Cash or Katey Sagal. He goes by Captain K's corner, Seth Castle, and, he does a lot of voter analysis, registration analysis. And, so he's somebody to follow on all this stuff.
David Blackmon [00:37:17] I'm going to have to remember that. I don't think I'm following him. Stu. What do you think?
Stuart Turley [00:37:26] I personally think, Obama is upset at, Kamala and that they wish they had somebody in there. Larry has convinced me that they may not be able to take her out, but I know he wants to take her out. He hasn't called me yet and let me know that. But if he could, if he could have somebody other than Kamala there, I think they would try to flip her out.
David Blackmon [00:37:52] So you don't you don't think Michelle Obama, when she speaks Wednesday, is going to declare herself the nominee?
Stuart Turley [00:37:58] It would not surprise me that it would not put it past. I would not put it past the CIA to try to do something to remove Kamala. Like something bad. It wouldn't surprise me. Nothing. Surprise.
David Blackmon [00:38:14] Well, nothing would would surprise me that, you know, I've gotten kind of immune to being surprised about anything in, in the US. Just society in general. But, politics especially.
Stuart Turley [00:38:27] I still don't think Kamala will be on the ticket. I think so.
Larry Schweikart [00:38:32] I only have a few days left because North Carolina votes. They start voting on no on September. What is it? Third or sixth and the ballots have to be sent out already. So I don't know how they're going to put another name on a ballot that's already been sent out.
Stuart Turley [00:38:46] Only way to do that, I believe, by their by by rules, is by person leaving because of health reasons or death.
David Blackmon [00:38:56] Yeah, but just because the bylaws say they can do that, that doesn't mean election officials in any of these states have to accommodate them. The states have their own laws.
Larry Schweikart [00:39:06] David, it's a counties. The counties.
David Blackmon [00:39:08] Now.
Larry Schweikart [00:39:09] Right. So so you're looking at thousands and thousands of counties, and they're they don't care who's up there. They're going with what they got because they're bureaucrats, by God, and they've got a schedule to keep. I should say they're bureaucrats and they've got a schedule to be late for.
David Blackmon [00:39:25] How funny do you think that the Obama and other real leaders in the party are regretting scheduling this year's, convention so late in the cycle? I mean, this is about the latest I've ever seen a party convention take place. They'd have been a lot better off if they'd had it sooner. I think early in August, maybe first week.
Larry Schweikart [00:39:47] If they'd had it too much earlier, Biden would be the nominee.
David Blackmon [00:39:51] Well that's true. That's true. They did give him the chance to get rid of Biden.
Larry Schweikart [00:39:55] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:39:56] Yeah. Well, anyway, so the other question I wanted to just bring up today is about JD Vance. JD got slandered and smeared by the media. Of course. You know, in the week or two after, the Republican convention, after he became the nominee, which, of course, is what the Democrats and the media were going to do to any nominee. Republican, Trump chose and he had a pretty rough couple of weeks, but it seems to me. He's he's actually turning into a real asset to the campaign now. And, he's he's given a series of major interviews with these network people that, really have not gone well for the host of those shows. So, I mean, I just to me, I just wonder if you agree. I think Vance is actually, as I expected, he would be turned out to be a pretty excellent pick to be the running mate.
Larry Schweikart [00:40:53] Yes. He's he's adopted that Vivek Ramaswamy. Flip. Yeah. This is a wrestling move. And, and you immediately flip it against the host. And why are you talking about something I said three years ago rather than this about Harris, that about is this about Harris? And, they're going to have trouble with him because a he believes when he says B, he has a life story, that, you know, I grew, I didn't grow up, but I taught for 30 years, just ten, 15 miles outside of Middleton, Ohio, where he wrote about in Hillbilly Elegy. And I had a drive through that many times to to go interview various people. I, I wrote a book, a biography about Reagan's secretary of commerce, Bill Verity, who wanted his biography written. And, I would go through there to interview, him. David, this is a story you'll really like, since you're you guys are talking about Obama so much. Bill and Peggy Verity, when he became, commerce secretary, uni replaced Malcolm Baldrige, who died when a horse fell on him. Yeah. And, Verity was no spring chicken. But anyway, they took over, and after, Reagan was out of office, I think it was 1992 or so. They had the 100th anniversary of the Commerce Department, and Verity had to be there and walk through the receiving line. And Obama or I'm sorry, Clinton. Was it the front of that receiving line? And so, Bill's wife, Peggy, hated Clinton. She just thought he was a hound dog and was just terrible. And she had a full speech prepared to deliver to Bill Clinton. When she got to the top of that front of that receiving line. Right. So they go through and Peggy gets up to Clinton and he takes her hand in both his hands. He goes, I'm Bill Clinton. Hey, you're a real cutey there. Hey, how you doing? And she said, hi, Mr. President, how are you if you walk? She walked away and Bill said, why did you do that? She said, I don't know. He just came over me. Yes. Right. And you Clinton had that personal appeal. It was just really remarkable.
David Blackmon [00:43:09] Yes. I in fact, I, have a story about that, too. We we got a bill passed during the middle of the Clinton administration and went to Jackson Hole for the signing ceremony. A bunch of oil and gas guys, a bunch of old oil and gas guy and ladies were in the room with Bill Clinton, and everybody hated him. Now nobody could stand. Clinton walked in and he owned the room for an hour. I mean, he owned the room. And afterwards, afterwards, one of one of these, old, old men from Montana was talking to a couple of us. He says, you know, I hate that guy's guts, but for an hour, I was a Bill Clinton Republican. Yeah. You just you know, Clinton did have it's just undeniable he had that effect on people. And, and that brings the last thing I want to bring up here. Chris Coons has become one of the spokesmen. He's the Connecticut senator or what? Delaware. Delaware Senator Chris Coons is one of the spokespeople for Kamala Harris Kamala Harris campaign. Excuse me. And, was on on a show yesterday and he, he made the statement that Joe Biden has passed more consequential legislation than any other president. And I immediately thought, this guy's old enough to remember Ronald Reagan. He's old enough to remember the Bill Clinton administration, where all these major, consequential pieces of legislation were put in place. And all Biden's gotten through, as far as I can tell, is the infrastructure law that didn't really fund a lot of infrastructure. And the Inflation Reduction Act, which had the impact of creating massive inflation. Right. I mean, how do people justify saying that about, Joe Biden?
Larry Schweikart [00:44:55] Well, remember, magnitude of accomplishment doesn't mean goodness of accomplishment. Yeah. Hitler had a whole lot of measures to add more measures than any previous German president from, was it? People died with every one of them. So, you know, I would tell Coons, I would just come back and say that, you know, just, activity does not equal excellence.
David Blackmon [00:45:18] No, it doesn't. And the consequences for the country of some of these bills that but the those two major pieces of legislation. And the total price tag $3.3 trillion. And, most of it is pork barrel spending on on energy related projects that are simply not viable and are now in the process of creating dozens and probably ultimately, hundreds of corporate bankruptcies that are killing a lot of jobs. And so, yeah, I mean, it's consequential for sure. He didn't say positively consequential. So I guess we can give him that.
Larry Schweikart [00:45:52] Well, I like when people like Don lemon or as I call him, Blind Lemon Don, when they go out into the street and begin interviewing people.
David Blackmon [00:46:01] That was.
Larry Schweikart [00:46:02] Pressure. And it always backfires because ordinary people say, no, I'm hurt. And it's it's, you know, I can't explain how they get the numbers they get, I don't know. I've been around economists enough in my life to know that they can they can torture the statistics until they scream whatever answer you want.
David Blackmon [00:46:21] Yeah.
Larry Schweikart [00:46:22] But I do know that ordinary people are having trouble making ends meet. That, I would go to Walmart every two weeks with my wife, under under Trump. And if our biweekly shopping would come to between 350 and $400. And without exception. Same amount of stuff every time we go this time it's 550 to $600. So so it's almost doubled. And it just, it doesn't, you know, go to McDonald's. It's $12 for a cheeseburger, fries and a drink. And that's just outrageous.
David Blackmon [00:46:55] No, it's crazy. And yeah, and people are having a hard time making ends meet because the real inflation in groceries has been at least 50% over the last three years, and probably more like 70 to 80%. I do all the grocery shopping in my household, and I can tell you that for the staples like bread, eggs, milk, sugar, those things have all doubled in price. I mean, there's just fraction. That was what you were paying.
Larry Schweikart [00:47:19] How much of that is energy related? How much of the price of a food is related to energy?
Stuart Turley [00:47:25] I disagree, David.
David Blackmon [00:47:26] Well, look. So I mean, there has been an a price increase and gas and diesel. So the transportation factor does factor in. But if you're talking talking a doubling in price transportation is at most 10% of the cost.
Larry Schweikart [00:47:44] What about packaging.
Stuart Turley [00:47:45] You've also got all the generic. You've got packaging. You've got fertilizer costs have shot through the roof. That's the farmers that I've been talking to in average energy prices under, Obama. I mean, excuse me, Biden, have been same guy, same guy, have gone up 35 to 40%. When you take a look at electricity, you have farmers have to have milk. So your milk, the dairy farms are getting slaughtered by their electricity costs. Absolutely. No, it's not just a gas and diesel. So when you sit back and think about it. Yeah, I think energy costs are the number one thing. And that was one of the best things that I heard President Trump just come out with says, we've got to lower our energy costs first in order to tackle inflation. And I applaud that, that if you don't lower your it doesn't matter what finances you do, if you don't lower your energy costs, you don't stand a chance on reducing inflation.
Larry Schweikart [00:48:54] And moreover, that affects everybody across the economic spectrum. So it affects poor people just as much as it does rich people. Poor people are buying food. Poor people are trying to get to work with with high priced gas. Poor people are paying for, higher costs in all of their packaging for anything they buy. And, you know, you got a list of about a million things Trump needs to do first when he's in office. I don't know which one would be first, but one of the first would be to repeal every single energy regulation Biden's administration put out there and lower the cost of energy. And you do that and, and the economy will immediately surge to life.
David Blackmon [00:49:36] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately for for in that regard, regulations can be pretty hard to rescind. They take a lot of time. And the part of it that's in the Inflation Reduction Act is statutory. And that requires Congress to act, which, you know, relying on then Republican majorities in both houses of Congress to actually repeal any of that stuff is is a fool's errand. I mean, so I'm afraid of what Trump is going to be limited to is is rescinding all the executive orders and putting better executive orders in place. And we're just going to continue with this imperial presidency that we've we've had in place for a while, really, since since Obama took office.
Larry Schweikart [00:50:22] But, you know, there is one other thing that. He can do. Nixon tried it, and the courts rebuffed him. But we have different courts now. And that that is that he can refuse to spend that money that Congress has allocated or refuse to enforce various congressional, regulations. Yeah. And sequester things and let the courts fight, put a stop on them right away and, and watch everything come back, while you're fighting it out with the, statutory area.
David Blackmon [00:50:55] And in the long run, by the way, that's where the the repeal, the rescission of the Chevron deference is going to play a major role in restoring our country to the Republican form of government it's supposed to have, because you're not going to have this out-of-control bureaucracy able to do anything it wants anymore, like it did for 40 years. And that's going to be a huge change.
Stuart Turley [00:51:19] I think the only way that we will truly get back to the way it should be is to get rid of the fed, but anybody that has ever said get rid of the fed has.
David Blackmon [00:51:29] You end up dead. So I'm not going to say that.
Stuart Turley [00:51:31] I'm just saying that, you know, because we voted in and they had to go back for balanced budgets every year. Yes. Things would be in line.
David Blackmon [00:51:46] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Larry Schweikart [00:51:48] No. Historically, though, there's been no nation in human history that's gone without a central bank. Not one. Yeah, a bank must exist to lend the government money when nobody else can or will. And all the fed did was replace the Bank of the United States back in the 1830s, essentially. So I think getting rid of the fed is not, at all practicable. One thing that is worth noting, though, is from 1921 to 1927, the U.S. paid off one third of its national debt in about a seven year period. Jackson paid off the entire debt in his term. So we look at 35 trillion go, oh, what are we going to do? Oh, we'll never hear from you. It's absolutely possible. You can do it. You know, it would have taken, 20 years under Coolidge, but they could have gotten that done with a better administration than Roosevelt. So, we can't look at some of these problems as insurmountable. We need to say, we are going to fix and we are going to change them. How are we going to do it now?
David Blackmon [00:52:58] Yeah, yeah. Well, gentlemen, that is all I had on my agenda for today. Yes. Please show that slide.
Stuart Turley [00:53:09] So I thank you for letting me play in your sandbox.
David Blackmon [00:53:14] These are. These are some of Larry's books. You can find them. Where?
Larry Schweikart [00:53:17] Larry wild world of history.com. And remember, I've got a full curriculum for high schoolers, for U.S. history and world history. The US history course tracks with Patriots history of the United States. And I teach every single lesson and in video. Same thing with the world history. Course. From 1775 to the present. Teach every single lesson and video.
David Blackmon [00:53:41] And you also have a site called Wild World of Politics.
Larry Schweikart [00:53:45] Yes. And there you get my political commentary. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If you're a member of The Insider. Also, I post my today's news there five days a week where I cover the the news of today and we will be hosting a live election night, broadcast podcast.
David Blackmon [00:54:03] One will be live streamed on on social media.
Larry Schweikart [00:54:08] Yeah. And I'm not sure where we're going to start it, but it will end up on Rumble and all the other stuff. That's other people's, bailiwick. I just show up and read the cards.
David Blackmon [00:54:22] So you can find me on Substack and find, Stu at Energy News Beat on Substack. And, I invite everyone also just to read the most, current column I have out at the Daily Caller, which gives you a history of the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act and what it has brought to our society. And they were very generous and kind with me to exceed the normal word limit on that one, because there was no way to do that 1 in 700 words. So do what you.
Larry Schweikart [00:54:51] Had a really good column on, on hydrogen and and the biofuels.
David Blackmon [00:54:57] In the biofuels. Yeah.
Larry Schweikart [00:54:59] Urine. Slobs article on the same thing. So I thought her look at Europe and biofuels is pretty good.
David Blackmon [00:55:06] Yeah. Arena's fantastic. I invite everyone to to take a look at her Substack as well. And she's on, or price.com to do I.
Stuart Turley [00:55:16] Hey, it's going to be a busy week, and I can't wait to see what geofencing information brings out.
David Blackmon [00:55:22] So yeah, boy, I'm actually glad I'm going to get on a plane Wednesday and fly to Europe, I think.
Stuart Turley [00:55:32] I hope you come back. Do not use your X account while you're in the EU.
David Blackmon [00:55:37] And by the way, I'm making our reservations. Everyone, I want you to know that my wife, Teri and I, we're very careful to ensure that we're not flying on any planes made by Boeing. I hate to be that way. It's an American company. But, boy.
Stuart Turley [00:55:52] You need to also make sure that you have no one that is cured. Cancer on the plane with you.
David Blackmon [00:55:58] Yeah. No kidding. No one related to you, Howard Hunt either.
Stuart Turley [00:56:02] No.
Larry Schweikart [00:56:03] And make sure your pilot is qualified to land in, like, a company or whatever it is.
David Blackmon [00:56:11] Okay. All right. All right, guys. Thank you. Thanks for everyone for watching. See you all next week. I know I won't see you in three weeks.
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