The Big Weekend Pod

Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at q for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and even Great America. Welcome to the Big Weekend Pod. I'm Hugh Hewett. Thank you

That having been said, other people have different points of view on it. So we turned to The Big Weekend Pod with our regulars Matt Continetti and Ben Dominic and Eli Lake and of course just a little apertif actually non aperteef what do we call it? Dessert douglah Marie, a little warm up on Indiana's a likely crushing defeat in Miami on Monday Night. All that and more coming up on this The Big Weekend Pod. Thank you for tuning in. Quarner Back America.

No Weekend in Review show would be complete without Matt Continetti. You can follow him on ex at Continetti, you can read him at the Wall Street Journal. He is the senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Domestic Policy Studies. And I do three segments a week with Matt and if I were a Jeopardy game, this would be the

Well, I think where we are is the Iranian regime is severely weakened, Hugh. It's lost the legitimacy whatever it had left among the Iranian people. The Iranian people no longer fear the regime, and as the Stanford scholar of bas Milan pointed out in The New York Times this morning in a very perceptive piece, repressive regimes need fear. Once the people lose fear, the regime is in severe trouble.

And so what we're at.

Right now is President Trump has said that he's not going to attack because of what he's.

Heard from other of our allies, and.

Also because of actions that the Iranian government has taken in delaying or not engaging in public execution and slightly pulling back on some of the most violent repression it seems. But that doesn't mean that the Iranian regime is out of the woods.

Far from it.

In fact, I think one reason Trump has delayed any action is we don't have all the assets in place necessary for a strike that would truly help the protesters, truly punish the Iranian government in such a.

Way that it would both.

Lack the capacity to suppres its own people and to retaliate against the United States in our allies. But those assets are moving. We have an aircraft carrier group moving to the region. Now we are getting other armaments and platforms in place. So I think we're at the one stage of the crisis, but that Iran will continue to dominate American foreign policy in the months ahead.

I keep saying mac Conna that this is the end of the beginning of the Trump policy towards Iran. The beginning was Operation Midnight Hammer. Then he's had eight days of ramped up threats beginning on this program eight days ago, and then he kept it up sort of Sean Hannity through the weekend. Then he began to dial it back. I have no idea what he's going to do. Nothing

You never want to draw a red line and then back down from it, because that erodes American deterrence. And Donald Trump has built up American deterrence over the course of his two presidencies, and most spectacularly with Operation Midnight Hammer against the Iranian nuclear program, and then just two weeks ago with Aberration Absolute Resolve extracting and arresting Nicholas Madureau from Venezuela.

He's built up our deterrence.

So if ultimately that red line is not enforced, that would erode American deterrence, and our enemies throughout the globe would notice it and be prepared to act and exploit it.

But I don't think we're there yet.

I think what Trump has said is he's laid kind of the predicate that, Okay, he's changed some of the regime's behavior. He has coerced the regime into delaying these executions, into backing off some of the worst, most egregious killing, and therefore he doesn't need to enforce the red line. But I think he's going to face another crisis down the road where he'll be tasked again. Are you going to enforce the red line. The question who is what

So thirty seconds do we go to break matt and turn to Minnesota. Well do you think Prime Minister and at Yahoo asked of him or didn't ask of him.

It's hard to say, but every time you draw a red line, you have to be prepared for all the secondary consequences. And a strike on Iran by the United States would mean that the Iranians would retaliate, and that retaliation would be most likely directed to the Little Satan

Stay tuned in America. I'm going to talk with Matt Off.

They are put it on the podcast and he'll be back on the other side of the break. Follow him on at CONTINENTI stay tuned. I'm back with Matt CONTINENTI Matt. I'm on special Report tonight, and if Minnesota comes up, I'm going to make the obvious point, which I don't know if any many people know. Minnesota is a wash in privately held handguns. It's an open carry state. It's a consailed carry state. The permits are shall issue permits.

But Boyle boy Is.

It's already one dead, and I think it's going to be justified force. But how dangerous a moment is this for the people in the Twin Cities and for Donald Trump.

Well, it's an incredibly dangerous moment for the people in the Twin Cities, and for America's federal law enforcement Agency ICE, which is there to enforce the law, to enforce the law against illegal immigration and in particular against the legal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. You know, amidst all this debate, Hugh, you have to step back and ask

I think it'll be an issue in their governor's race this year.

But I have heard that Florida has had forty thousand apprehensions by ICE without an incident, and that is because Florida assists ICE in doing their job, and I just wish that point were made more often. I do think it's a political net negative for Donald Trump.

Do you agree with me, Matt?

I think that you've definitely seen an uptick in people who are leery of some of ICE tactics, and you'd see people.

Who are like, what's going on, but they don't like the chaos.

They get into the kind of that cocoon, that crouch, that defensive crouch.

Make it stop right, yep. But look, you think of twenty twenty.

In the summer of twenty twenty, amidst all the rioting, people thought, oh, Trump might be hurt by all this chaos. What happened in the twenty twenty election. Republicans overperformed. Why Because at the end of the day, voters want law and order. They don't want anarchy and violence. And the anarchy and violence that we're seeing in Minnesota right now. Yeah, it might hurt Donald Trump and some of these polls

Your word, from your lips to the ears of every voter. Stay tuned. I'll be right back with Matt Kottenetty.

Well with it.

To see Data has been dealing with us on Greenland. We need Greenland for national security very badly. If we don't have it, we have a big hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we're doing.

In terms of the Golden Dome and all.

Of the other things. We have a lot of a lot of investments in the military. We have got the strongest military in the world that is only getting stronger. And you saw that with Venezuela. You saw that with the attack on a run, with the knocking out their nuclear capabilities potentially. So yeah, we're talking to Data.

We're welcome back America, President Trump on the White House lawn today, Matt Continetty is still with me from AEI and the Wall Street Journal. Matt Greenland, I made a big case for taking Greenland. On America's Newsroom with Dana Brino Bill Hemry yesterday Golden Dome aside, and that's a big deal on Golden Dome because hypersonics can come over

Hard to say, you know, it's hard to go out there and see who is in favor of Donald Trump's policy toward Greenland other than President Trump.

And I mean I would like Greenland as well.

I think it's extremely important geopolitically, economically, as you say, in terms of the resources, where we think about building up our stockpile of rare earth minerals, they are plentiful in Greenland.

It's important.

But the type of approach Trump is taking the Greenland I don't see much public support for in the polls are in Congress. Even what I do see is this a parallel between Donald Trump's approach to Greenland and the

Donald Trump against our allies? What was the net result? They're paying, They're paying the five percent. And it was a you know, it was a difficult process. It was a contested process.

But at the end of the day, NATO was stronger for the Donald Trump's intervention than it was before. I wouldn't be surprised that if the end of Donald Trump's second term, NATO is committed to Greenland's defense. There's a much larger American presence here. America has a greater role in Greenland's economy and has a.

Secure foothold in it geopolitically. And that will be the result.

Despite all of the battling and negotiations and crying just like we saw in the first term over defense spending overall.

Now, by the time we talk again, Matt Conney, we'll be past the one year anniversary of Donald Trump's second term, so he's got first year done next Tuesday. Who's the best communicator after the President and the Vice President and Secretary of Rubio, they're one, two and three and whatever worder you want to go, Who communicates well on behalf of this administration?

Well, I think Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt is a fantastic Press Secretary and an excellent communicator. I think you're looking at other cabinet members who I think Secretary Duffy at Transportation has been very good, very effective, and Secretary Hegseth has definitely achieved the goal that Donald Trump gave him at the outset of his second term, which is reinvigorate

Of his own.

And the way in which they've introduced some of these dietary reforms I think has been well received in all quarters. So there's definitely a lot of communicators in this administration.

But some of them have been sent to the witness Protection program. Peter Navarro comes to mind. Yes, he's been, and he puts out a column every now and then. And I've known Peter for forty years, so it's I can see him, I'm aware of him. Are there others who ought to go into the witness protection program who don't do help, don't do good by the administration's messaging?

Now on the cabinet side, I mean, in addition to the individual you mentioned, of course, the d NI Chelsea Gabbard, seems to be you're right, absent from many crucial decisions. And I heard the joke in Washington that d and I now stands for do not invite, So that might that might reflect the President's view of that of that personality within the cabinet. Well, I think I think the biggest challenge facing the administration as it goes into its second term is focus.

Donald Trump called himself the upgrader.

In his interview with The New York Times, and I think it's a great way to think about what he's trying to do in his second term. He's trying to upgrade America, and that is not going to be easy.

Now not there yet.

Some controversies are self selected with that. One of those is Senator Kelly and Secretary hag Seth. If I have I had twenty minutes with the President. They didn't ask for my advice. But if they ever did ask for my advice, I said, take everything off the table except the economy. And when you smash somebody up like Iran, don't talk about Senator Kelly, don't talk about Democrats, and get the job done.

With ice without talking about it. What would your advice be.

I think that's I think that's right.

I think that the government can really only accomplish one thing at a time. But Donald Trumps personality is everywhere, all the time.

He doesn't stop.

I mean, he's renovating the East rebuilding the East Wing, He's thinking of renovating the West Wing. He's repainted the Trump Kennedy Center. He's renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

He closed the Southern borders.

He ended the Iranian nuclear program, which the Iranian foreign minister admitted to our friend Brett Berry this week.

I'm sure you notice that as well. He is the very embodiment of an activist president, just like Teddy Roosevelt.

They need to focus on the economy, but that's just not in Donald Trump's DNAX.

Yeah, if we just got everyone else to focus on the economy and let the president set his on agenda, that would be helpful for Republicans. I think Matt Conney, thank you stay tuned in America or any even Grace in America.

The Big Weekend Pod and the Weekend Show underway, Ben Dominance showing us as we do on most Fridays when he's awake. He's got a newborn, so it's all a question of whether or not he's awake. However, with a newborn, you get to catch.

Up on the late that's deeply unsair you I am. I am typically awake nineteen to twenty hours out of the day.

Don't drop the baby. Don't drop the baby, That's all I would say.

Ben.

That means you're up in the middle of the night, so you're caught up on everything that happened with Iran this week.

I'm starting there and we might we might end there as well. On a half an hour.

What do you think, Well, personally, I think that the President was trying to send the signal and he did. I don't know that it's going to result in the

Open question now, Ben Dominic, I didn't begin the segment as I should by saying, you host the Big Ben Pod every week and I've saved it. I haven't listened to it this week yet because I've saved it for a long trundle tomorrow morning, and I don't know if

What do you think of that charge that is online already about the president?

I covered that extensively and had an interview with Ben and Ben Tellablue, who you may have fought, Oh, yes, very good FDD on this same topic at length. And one of the things that I think is clear is that, you know, the president has used in the past his unpredictability to greater effect. Whether that's going to turn out the same in this situation, I think is a riskier prospect. The other thing to keep in mind is that the president has run up toward something some things like this

We haven't not seen anything like this, Ben, and I use my term not seeing anything since Tannaman Square, which we did not see, right, we know what happened, but we did not see it, And we know what happened here, but we did not see it. I'm not sure America ever responded appropriately to Tianeman or or reacted appropriately to

I want them everywhere.

I completely agree with that, and I think that it's something that is in the American interest to do so, but also in the interest of the world. One thing that we should understand is how much this is a This is a destabilizing element, you know, not just in terms of American interests in the Middle East or the interests of Israel or the interests of our allies. Is

Now, I'm going to talk about decrepit European regime during the break when Denmark and Greenland come up with Ben. But before we go there, we got two minutes.

Ben.

What about simply saying it not the opportunity, not an excuse, but simply saying there are standards which, if you're not a superpower, will evoke a response from the West. And here's the response. Blow up carg Island, blow up IOGC head quarter. If you do this, this will follow a way of training the regime kind of called it regime coercion, not regime change. Regime coercion. I think that would be good hygiene for the world.

I think it would be good hygiene. But I'm not sure the president is willing to roll the dice on that he likes so much, these targeted things where there is a very clear goal point, of very clear progression, and I'm not sure that he's willing to go down this road of picking targets and going after them in such a way. Perhaps he is. That to me would represent a bit of a break with his personality as it relates to these things where he just likes binaries.

Certainly that plays why carg Island comes to mind. Is carg Island sending any oil to the world or not?

I mean, that's that's perhaps if you could be convinced that that it's a binary that would result in the change. Then I think perhaps that argument from Bacon that he could work, don't.

Go anywhere America.

I'm going to talk with Ben during the break about Greenland and Denmark decrepit here in European Regime column, and then we're coming back and talk about Ice and the brave men and women thereof, and the crazy lunatics who are putting into the Twin Cities no matter.

How bold it gets.

Stay here, Ben Dominich. I like Denmark. I like the Little Mermaid statue. I think it's quaint. They were alongside of us in Afghanistan for a long time, eighteen thousand deployed there.

They have twenty ships.

Greenland has got twenty seven thousand miles of coastline, and out from those twenty seven thousand miles of coastline extends an exclusive economic zone of two hundred and thirty miles that they can't protect from even Chinese predatory fishing practices, which are our legend.

Do you think people are taking this seriously.

Enough, because it's beyond hypersonics and Golden Dome, there's a lot of reason to put Greenland under our umbrella.

Well, I think that people don't really understand this and this is a defect of you know, both American education and the way that people, you know, commit absolute crimes when it comes to the depiction of Trumpian ideas as being high falutin and out of out of the realm of possibility. Is absolutely in the American security interest to have Greenland protected and to have it under our security umbrella,

Now when you write for the Transfoer or the Spectator, have you written at length about it? Because I don't know that anyone really has written at length about Greenland from a serious standpoint.

You know, I've dodged off various things, But you're right, I probably should do something longer. And perhaps I can use that as an excuse for a vacation after the baby is it sticks on, don't take the baby the Greenland.

Don't take your wife to Greenland.

Oh, this would be this would be an entirely cold escapism on my no.

I spent it here in Iceland one weekend. No, don't do that.

I'll be right back with Ben Dobbin at Stay Tuned Minneapolis.

Our own Greenland is next. Welcome back, America.

I'm go Hewett, joined by Ben Dominic, host of the Big Ben podcast, which you got to listen to. I'll be listening to it on my long trundle this weekend. It's Fox Podcast. It's also wherever podcasts are available. Read Ben at the Spectator, where he's an editor at large.

Read him at the Transom on substack. Ben.

Most people listen to the show know that I came to shot twenty five years ago after a decade of being one of the co hosts of the nightly news and public affairs show for the PBS affiliate in LA and Casey et and almost weekly and sometimes almost nightly. We were talking about whether or not the use of force by the police of LA or the Sheriff's Department in the County of Los Angeles was appropriate.

It was.

It was Rodney Kings decade, and so that was every night we went through like police chief after police chief after police chief, Gates and Bernie and Willie, they just they kept coming because no one could get it right.

Now, Chevy, is hev correct me if I'm wrong? Is he the last president who did the Insurrection Act?

I don't know he did do the Insurrection Act for the riots that was my first second month in TV.

Yes, yeah, yeah, I think he did. I believe he's the last one to do it, all right, So forgive me for interrupting.

No, Well, we take that experience.

And now I'm up north where I know Minnesota through the State Fair and radio bits with I am twelve eighty the Patriot Friends and Minnesota and ice is real.

It's real.

It's the different place up there, and now it's got this.

It just doesn't add up that the LA storylines are now suddenly in the Twin Cities. And I put it down to over indexing for buffoonery in leadership.

What do you put it down to?

Well, I think that that is part of it. But I also think, and my friend Ryan Gardeski has pointed out that if you add up, if you tabulate the arrests and deportations from Minnesota over the course of the past year, meaning that the second Trump term, it amounts to approximately, according to estimates, around two percent of the population of illegal immigrants in the state. That may sound

Well, I agree, But here's here's the question that happened.

The little bit of Rodney King tape that we had thirty years ago, thirty five years ago, the little bit now it was bad, it was black and white, it was dark at night, and the beating it.

We compare that with thirty years later. We have every five different angles on everything that happens.

Everybody's different iPhone angle to analyze at links you know, on CNN, et cetera. And that's going to lead inevitably to people having different opinions and different perspectives on things.

Well should they that's the question. Should Ice retreat because what has happened in Minneapolis is now marked as a place for the lunatics to assemble and try to seattle Portland in a new place, and because local government won't help you, you should retreat for a while because it could escalate, it could be become la again.

I don't think you can afford to retreat. I think this is too significant of an issue, and I think that it's incumbent upon you, in fact, as law enforcement, as enforcers of our nation's immigration laws, to continue to do so, even in the face of people who are absolutely nuts, and will that lead to pain and to potential more tragedy in the future. It will, but only if these reactionarias continue to make the choices that they

I'm glad to hear you saying this, but there is a Heckler's vetail that doesn't exist. But this is an open carry state, it's a concealed carry state. The ICE agents are in real danger from the lunatics and what the is.

But I just think I think you that you can't avoid this. This has been a question that has been for time and again. The reason that the left has won on questions like this is because they are willing to be more extreme and to do more violence to people who are just wearing the badge with a flag on their shoulder, just trying to do their jobs. And we can't afford to have that as a nation anymore.

I've been hit. I've been hit by the Boom radiology that.

They got it down.

No, they just want to turn everything into.

No.

It's true, Gosh, you got me, you wing me with the Boomer stuff. It is true that we are all captives of.

The experience that we grow up with and we memorize I memorize Rodney King in the decade thereafter. But if we don't enforce the law, they're just gonna It's like when there was a revival at the Christian College in Kentucky. Every revival attracted person across the country went there, so they had to shut it down, which was okay and easy to do because they were evangelical Christian. Here you've got every lunatic in the country going to the twin seenties.

It is a flare up in the air for everybody to come. And from my perspective, it's like you can't run away from that, you can't dodge that. Because then the lesson that they take is every time we throw up a flare, we can turn this thing around. We can scare the people we are trying to enforce the law, we can scare the politicians involved. And look, we have a president who's in his second term, he's not running again. He is as invested in this as he is in

If what stock on ice is here, we're going to break it up.

Look, I really I really do think, I really do think that this is a situation where, you know, as much as we can harden the target when it comes to ice, we should be doing so. And that's something that you know, I hope that this administration is doing because they should understand that this is uh, this is the beginning of this, not the end, and it's not going to go away in the next couple of years.

Is DHS communicating well, we have forty sevens.

I you know what, here's a here's a good answer to that question. I'm efforting Tricia McLaughlin to come back on the next Big Ben show. We can talk about whether they are whether they are delivering that message effective.

She's everywhere. I don't know that the point she is making are tight enough.

I think I think there there needs to be uh, there needs to be some some support. It's a supporting mechanism because a lot of this she's out there on an island.

That's well she is.

She is out alone survivor. Yeah, but that means you have to do every show every day and it exact wears on you. Ben Dominis, thank you. Follow him at exit b Dominic and go get the Big Ben podcast. Come right back to the You Do It Show, Morning Glory and even Grace America.

What a week of news and what a great place to have John ellis founder and editor in chief of News Items to be at the top of the week in Review because John covers everything that I haven't paid attention to. I've been focused on Iran with like a squirrel over there of Minnesota and a squirrel over there of Greenland And back to Iran John. When I got your show notes for today from news Items, I felt

Turboprop flew over Pennsylvania at five thousand meters in crosswinds of up to seventy nine. It was wonderfully written. Tell people about this the little cessa and could, and why.

It was doing what it did.

There's a company called Overview Energy, and their mission is to beam electricity from moving aircraft down to receivers on the Earth. And there's an engineering journal that published this story that you just read the lead of that told the tale of basically the oval right flight of Overview Energy. It was flying over Pennsylvania. It successfully beamed electricity down

Well, that wasn't obvious to me until I read the story, But now that it's explained to me, if you can get a collector up above the clouds and just take the solar energy direct and beam it down to Earth, that is limitless energy.

Correct.

And you know, my guess would be that Elon Musk would be the leader in this because he already has, however, many tens of thousands of satellites in the orbit, and he keeps sending up tens of thousands more. So Musk is probably the leader. But I'm sure there are other companies Google and others that are that are looking at this, and obviously, with data centers eating up so much power, it's really important that we find new sources of electricity.

I have an overview energy.

My hat is off to you, and I'll keep my eyes on the sky for assessmas so I don't get sunburned. Let's go to the second one which I understood pretty easily because I know about steel dumping from Reagan erad days what the Chinese did. But why don't you explain because I hadn't made the parallel comparison to AI, which of course makes sense to me.

Again, Well, the steel thing, as you know, the China generated massive overcapacity and steel output and then they dumped it onto the market, and the point of that was to put American steel industry and other steel industries out of business, essentially make it prohibitive for them for US steel and others to be successful. And of course, and that they're followed steel plant after steel plant folding in the US. The concerning is that they were going to

I lived with John.

I grew up in Warren, Ohio in the heart of the Steel Valley, and first United Steel went down, and then Republic and then copper Weld, and they kept going until it was a steel desert. They were all closed. All the sites are still there. A couple of special these deals are back. But when it hits, it hits you very very quickly, and all of a sudden, an industry that was driving the whole economy and part of the state and Pennsylvania as well, is gone.

So do the AI barons realize that there's.

A wolf at the door. I think you froze John as the wolf was at the door. It so I can go back and do my NFL voice again while we wait for John to come back, because that really did read like an NFL. You got to remember forty for sixty with Joe Minnesota Vikings. Oh it Shoe's last name, Minnesota Vikings quarterback. When he comes back on We're going to talk about this because I'm going to read it

At the door?

Oh yeah, No, Microsoft, you know, made a big announcement about it this past week.

Uh.

And you know, the fight of the competition, the space race, if you will, between Chinese and US tech companies to you know, develop the best AI. UH makes everyone enormously nervous because so much money is being expended and if that investment is stranded, Uh, the disaster follows.

Well, you know, and you sent me later in the day.

One of the famed UH forecasts put out a pretty good forecast based on AI investment. But that's counterintuitive given what you just told me, and the AI bubble.

Is of concern. Do you think the economists for being factored this into his forecast at four percent plus GDP growth, even with the drags of terrorists and everything else.

I think I think he's assuming that it will work out. So if you do assume that it will work out, and that the US tech companies are clever and adaptive and you know it can figure out a way to avoid the full in well did it again, then then the process is, you know positive. Let's put it that way.

Let's merge the last two together, because I think they explain a lot. One is all time record high of US adults register at independent forty five percent, and the NEA has come out with a crazy identitarian driven grammar book, and I think that's one of the reasons that Democrats can't grow, is that they've gone over the left edge. Not sure about the Republicans. What do you think about those two together? John ellis.

Well my podcast.

My occasional podcast partner Joe Klein wrote a great column this week, and when he talked about the identity politics of Democrats, of the Democrats and how it will always prevent them from being successful. And it goes back to what I think is the most important advertisement of the twenty twenty four campaign, which is the Trump campaign ad that said, Kamala Harris, she's for them, Donald Trump, He's

Did you and Joe get you how the Minnesota story is going to impact, if at all, because I have concerned as hurting Republicans. Those concerns were in the Wall Street Journal today. On the other hand, a lot of Maga Republicans say, no, that's actually Minnesota buffoonery over indexing for blue cities and blue states, and it's going to help us.

What do you think, I think it hurts the Trump you know, Trump White House. I think that the video is you know, for a lot of people, is really really troubling, and it's particularly troubling I think amongst the independent voters. And in order to be successful in the midterm elections, Republicans are going to have to do very very well among independent voters. So I think net net it's a negative or team goop.

So the Independent.

Is it fair to say they were very concerned about an open border and they're also very concerned about over zealous ICE agents.

Is that a fair summary?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I think that the.

Concern about the border was not universal, that the large majorities were concerned about the Biden administration's essentially open border policy, and part of that was the ventinal crisis that had done so much damage. But this ICE action in Minneapolis has been I think detrimental to the Republican comes always.

Good to talk with John Ellis.

News Items is the only newsletter you need every morning Monday through Friday, and once on the weekends. Look up News Items John Ellis, It's on.

Substat Thank you, John. I'll be right back America with Eli La.

I need to hear at show.

Well.

President Trump has been clear he will not, nor should the international community, tolerate innocence being slaughtered in the streets since nineteen seventy nine. For decades, the regime has posed a threat to peace and security in the name of religious ideology. The regime calls for death to America and the annihilation of it.

Welcome back in America.

That was Ambassador Michael Waltz, the Ambassador of the United States the United Nations. I am joined now by Eli Lake. Eli is the host of the Breaking History podcast. He is a contributor to the Free Press. This week he was on a commentary podcast that was very informative, and he is one of a handful of people that I

Well, I keep want to cut back to something, which is that, first of all, I don't know that the regime has days after that there will be a dramatic moment over the weekend or next week, but I do think that we're in the beginning of the end.

It's not entirely.

Applicable as an analogy, but it's important to remember the Islamic Revolution that resulted in the current Islamic Republic of Iran really begins on January Tewod nineteen seventy eight, and it is a full year until the Shah leaves and then Homini comes and returns to Iran sadly, So I would not think about this in terms of the next few days and in our incredibly short attention span right now we have a sort of geopolitical attention deficit disorder.

You can tell that she is on the brink.

She's asking for information to get to the Hague or to have somebody arrest.

Or kill her father.

That is how serious it is.

And then she goes on to describe what they are doing to people who have been caught protesting. She describes what was done to her and her friends when they protested. The last big time you saw these national uprising with the Women Life Freedom Movement, and it's really disturbing because this is obviously a family.

Now, you know, I got to ask you about that because I have to remember that in every one of them, I did see that. I did listen to it the entire subtext. It was in Farsi, and I had to read the subtitle, but I did not repost it because with AI and with expatriot diaspora polemics, I didn't know if I could trust it because it's so disturbing. If it's true, it's the daughter of a IRGC commander who had her beaten and I had to watch people get shot.

If it's true, it's horrific. How did you judge it credible?

I judge it credible because I've heard similar kinds of things really for the last twenty years, which is that these internal families divides that oftentimes the children of particularly elites in the IRGC the Revolutionary Guard Corps have been caught up.

And you've seen versions of this.

I mean, former President's daughters were we're protesting in two thousand and nine, and so it rang true to me in that respect, I felt like you could even though I don't speak fluent, I don't speak Farsi, but her emotional trauma sounded real. It sounded like somebody who had was, you know, kind of experiencing a kind of break and her conscience could no longer allow her. Or really, I mean, it's again, it's tragic. You're rivet to not trust things.

Well, it rings a bill for me that during the Iraq in the Afghan Wars, whenever we would kill someone, the Left would say, if you kill someone, you create four or five new insurgents.

And I always thought not if it was a bad guy.

I do believe if you execute a civilian marching in the streets with a machine gun or a gun to that, I do believe that their family is forever anti regime and that is a cumulative.

Trauma on Iran.

Now, I've been calling this week the end of the beginning, which I thought started in June with Operation mid Night Hammer. Whatever Trump does now will be the exclamation point. And I give him weeks, if not two months, to actually follow through on the threat, because those tens of thousands of people who are arrested, they're still an Irvin prison and everywhere else in Tehran that they imprisoned dissidentce yep.

Well, I mean, if you're going to read the tea leaves that he posted a couple hours ago that he thanked the regime for canceling, what do you say? It's something eight very high number of eight hundred executions have I don't know if that number is correct. It's certainly true that they postponed some executions. At the same time, I would like to see some non kinetic options deployed. We know that the regime is sending their mouthpieces on

Well, what about the medium and make them a conetic.

They've murdered six thousand people if I used the mean right, six thousand people? Ought we not to say every time you do this, we're going to do at least this, and yes the cyber yes, the not gonna and then blow up carg Island or take out some missile.

I know that there's a second or consequence to Israel, which does give me pause. But ought they not to receive some kind of a message from the world that they can't act?

Yeah, savages.

Every province has an i ergy and BESIEG headquarters building top of the list. You could we could wipe them out in a couple hours. What do you think that that would send a huge message?

And every time they do something yet we see what do you do you think Israel is at risk if we do that.

I think that Israel has I think there's a potential again, we could see barrages of ballistic missiles and Israel doesn't have them the air defense to take care of that, and then yes, there could be some risk there. My sense is that the Israelis would take the uncertainty and the damage of a kind of last flail of the Iranian regime if it helped hasten its collapse.

And I hope, I hope we're.

Seeing that, and I do think that we're I think it's a good way to put at the beginning of the end.

I hope that you will continue to show up on commentary and write for the Free Press, Eli and maybe do a new Breaking history on regime collapse.

There's regime change, there's regime evolution, which is.

Venezuela, and then there's regime collapse, which is what we want to see in Iran. Eli Lake can be followed on ex at Eli Lake and at the Breaking History podcast and at the Free Press.

Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh hewittt.

It is the end of the college football season. On Monday night, Doug lay Maries is here for the Friday Football Forecast. Most Fridays during the college football season. Doug, Who's the co host of the Bill and Doug Show. Bill anddougosu dot substack dot com joins me and Doug. I have got my Indiana University tie here, which I'll be wearing on Special Report tonight because I got a root for the Big Ten team.

What do you think what's going to be Monday Night?

So Bill and I did our picks today and we are divergent here. I really think Indiana is going to finish the thing off you. I really think that Indiana is a more complete team and the idea of three straight Big Ten champs Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana, it's a new era in college football. Indiana is favored by eight and a half in this game against Miami.

Right.

Miami's kind of new too. They haven't won a national title since two thousand and one, and we all remember that you once upon a time, they were a dominant force in college football. It's great to have him back, but Indiana's never been in a spot like this, and I like that who's your chances Monday Night?

I read a long take from ESPN that they're the older of the two clubs and that Kurt Signetti has certain metrics that he looks for like the guardrails the Browns use, which haven't really work.

Where's the coaching edge in this matchup, Doug Marie.

Yeah, kurtzigneity is a coaching monster.

Like it.

I don't know that we've seen you. Just look for comparisons on this what he's done. I think you have to give him the edge. But one of the interesting things here is Corey Heatherman, who's the defensive coordinator at Miami, and certainly Mario CHRISTENP. Ball is the head coach of Miami like a loyal hurricane, and to bring them back after two decades does a great job by Mario Christi Ball.

So this is what it's like.

It's like a spy novel. You if you are trying to take down Kurt Signetti, what would you do? You'd want somebody who'd been on the inside. And Miami's defensive coordinator worked for two years for Kurt Signetti, so he knows what Kurt Signetti likes to do. He and the Indiana defensive coordinator right now, Brian Haynes, are very good friends. They're both up for the award for the Best Assistant

Could that matter?

I don't know if anybody can beat Kurt Signetti, but you want to think like him if you're going to try.

To beat him.

Now, Doak?

I got two questions I got to get in a short period of time.

One in the off season.

I hope the Bill and Doug Show is going to continue on as often a basis as it has been because I've become kind of addicted.

Is that going to happen?

Yeah?

Yeah?

But football, come on, Hugh, ball is three sixty five, man, This football never sleeps. We're not going anywhere.

We got plenty to talk about.

Well, that's because the game has changed so much. Which brings me to mister Mendoza. I also read a profile of him. He's a little bit otherworldly. He's almost too perfect. You want your daughter to marry him? Kind of perfect?

Is he for real?

It is?

I think he is for real?

And sometimes you got to be honest. Sometimes when a guy's so nice, it's like, is that what you want from a football player? Football player should have an edge. Football players got to be a little crazy. But like Fernanda Mendoza is this guy, but he also balls out and so sometimes those are my favorite guys that you could have a like a philosophical conversation off the field and then when he gets on the field. He took a hit in the in the first play of the

As a QB.

All right now, Doug is picking Indiana for Monday Night, and I want to ask you the second question. Dante Mori is going back to the Ducks, and that means the Jets are screwed and they get the second pick. And Dane Brugler, Warren Ohio born and Raige and still working out of Warren, Ohio, has projected Arville Reese number two to the Jets.

What do you think about that?

Yeah, yeah, so, I mean there might be four or four or five o'high state guys in the top twenty of this draft. You so like Rvel Reeves. It's sort of this modern era. He's a Micah Parsons potentially type of player, which we know how impactful he was for Dallas, got traded to Green Bay this year. You can be a linebacker, but then you can also rush the passer and get up on the edge. This versatility can really matter. It's hard, Hugh, because again you look at it from

So did Bill Landis pick Miami because of their remarkable defensive line crushing mister Mendoza.

Is that why he went that way in part, but.

Also their offensive line and the way that they have a big thing. They're big and physical on both sides of the line for Miami, and the way that Miami ran the ball against Ohio State four yards, five yards, six yards, like not necessarily explosive, but reliable. They have the really big tackles, all acc guard like they're they're old and big, and so Indiana's defensive front is really good. They do a lot of their best work kind of

What is the over under on the Las Vegas line? Is it that's way about.

That forty five or something. I will say Indiana has scored exactly fifty six four times already this year and they have another one of fifty five, So like we're we're right in that zone eight touchdown. That doesn't seem so hard, right, like you?

Is it good or bad that the two finalists are the two teams that beat the Buck guys?

Do we console ourselves? We Buckeye few, we happy few over the winter with that? Or is it a point of pain.

I've been trying I would I've tried that with Ohio State fans like this is. I think Ohio State probably will finish number three in the final polls, even though they lost in the quarterfinals, because they were number two and the two teams they lost to are planned for the title. But I think for a lot of Ohio State fans, especially because the Indiana and Miami losses were

Thank you, Doug lagh Marie, Bill and Doug Osu dot substack dot com.

We'll check in during the off season.

College football is only six months away. Bill and Doug Osu dot substat dot com. Face here in America.

I'm doing Welcome back to America.

I'm you Hewett, Go Hoosiers on Monday Night.

I'll be wearing my Eyeu tie tonight.

Joe Tarzana, Joe I'm sure is rooting for the Hoosiers on Monday Night and for the University of Sewing dot com that made that tie possible.

It's lovely, lovely, but we have some housekeeping to do. You you know the I want a poem button we've been talking. Yes, well, it was broken for the last two weeks. Oh, like the Chalice from the Palace. The I want a poem button was broken, but my good friends at greenhn Interactive dot com put it back together for me. So if you sent me and I Want a poem in the last two weeks and you haven't heard from me, it's not because I'm on vacation.

It's because I didn't get it, so please send it again.

Thanks, goodness, goodness, and you.

I've written a.

Poem called Eric the red me meets Donald Range. But but you know the story about the shoemaker's wife. She goes barefoot. Yes, well, the the poet's wife. The poet's wife doesn't get enough poetry, okay, and it's tantalizing. Tarzana Johanna's birthday a significant birthday, and so.

If you will indulge me, I've written a love lyric.

I've written a love lyric that maybe some you, you a listener, can set to music and it goes something, but only something like this. You've taught me everything I know about the things that make love grow, and every day your words reveal the precious thing that lovers feel. We've had so much time together, you would think i'd know the way to tell you what your friendship means to me, and to find the words to say. But although I live in language, when you appear, my tongue

I do, I do, I do. Happy Birthday Tarzana Johanna from Tarzana Joe.

And Happy Birthday Tarzana Johanna from Hugh and Generallysimo and Duane and Harley, because we actually know she makes you possible.

Joe was awful, Joe. How is any guy got to compete with that?

I know it's really bad. If you hear that every single married man hates.

You, right, yes, every married man at all.

Now we just now that the I want a poem button is fixed. If you want that, just touch I want a poem and I will.

Write that for you. Okay, you know, Joe.

If it doesn't work again, people are gonna think it's a joke.

So I hope it really is.

You go to Tarzanajoe dot com for that beautiful poem that you know you can't write.

You might be able to pass it off as your own if your wife wasn't listening.

So that's the other Just absolutely rip it off or call Joe if you need a poem for any occasion.

Tarzanajoe dot com.

I want a poem, but thank you, Thank tuning everybody.

Totail dialogue coming up. Thank you Joe,