We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode Hour 2 - Why the NYC Primary Matters

Hour 2 - Why the NYC Primary Matters

2025/6/24
logo of podcast The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
A
Announcer
B
Brett (listener)
B
Buck Sexton
C
Clay Travis
J
Jacqueline
M
Mark Simone
Topics
Buck Sexton: 我认为纽约市长选举对全国民主党人来说是一个指标,特别是考虑到社会主义候选人Mamdani的崛起以及前州长库莫的潜在复出。我担心Mamdani的政策可能会导致更多富人离开纽约市,从而影响城市的税收收入。 Mark Simone: 我认为Mamdani的崛起反映了民主党整体的疯狂。库莫虽然试图把自己描绘成一个理性的选择,但他过去作为州长的记录,包括无保释金政策和对养老院的处理,都表明他不是一个好的选择。我预测库莫可能会以独立候选人的身份参选,这将使选情更加复杂。我非常反对马姆达尼,但库莫也不是什么好货。 Jacqueline: 我认为排名选择投票是有史以来发生在纽约的最糟糕的事情。我认为所有民主党候选人中没有一个可行的候选人,除了亚当斯。我认为柯蒂斯·莱瓦是唯一可行的候选人。我认为他真正关心纽约市的人民。

Deep Dive

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

This is an iHeart Podcast.

and America's comeback depends on American energy. President Trump, keep what works. Don't repeal energy tax credits. Learn more at BuiltForAmerica.us. Paid for by Built for America. Hey, Buck, one of my kids called me an unk the other day. An unk?

Yep, slaying evidently for not being hip, being an old dude. So how do we un-unk you? Get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me. That's simple enough. Just search the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show and hit the subscribe button. Takes less than five seconds to help un-unk me. Do it for Clay, do it for freedom, and get great content while you're there. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show YouTube channel.

Our two of Clay and Buck kicks off now. We're joined by our friend, Mr. New York, Mark Simone, on at 10 a.m. Eastern on 710 WOR in NYC. Mark, you know, you and I have known each other a while, and you've been saying to me, just give it time, you'll eventually go back to New York. And I gotta say, sometimes I start to miss the food options, and obviously I got family still there. New York still has its allure, no question about it.

But this wacky socialist guy, after what the city's been through with de Blasio and then with Mayor Adams and now, can this guy really win? I mean, bring us into what's going on here because a lot of people are looking at this saying, how could someone who's so far left-wing be possibly the next mayor of America's largest city? Well, you could also be talking about Andrew Cuomo, who governed as the most left-wing kook in the world. But you're talking about this Mamdani, who's an actual socialist leader.

And Cuomo was pretty bad. So this is the first election where we have to pray nobody wins this election today. So, yeah, this Mamdani apparently did very well in the early voting. They allow people to vote for two weeks before the election day. And that was about 38 percent of the vote. And he seems to be leading that by 10 percent now.

He's turned off some immigrants, believe it or not, Russians, Cuban immigrants, because he's talking about having government-run grocery stores open.

And they say we grew up with socialist government grocery stores. They're a nightmare. We don't want to see them again. He's very slick. He's very smooth talking. He's charming. Great campaigner. Problem with Cuomo, he's running a campaign from like 1986, you know, with these old endorsements. Senator Clyburn, he had Bill Clinton making robocalls, you know, to voters in their 30s.

Bill Clinton is way in the past. It's like getting a call from Harry Truman. You know, you know, it doesn't mean anything to you. He was bragging about the daily news, New York daily news newspaper endorsed him. Most people don't even know they still print that thing. So, uh, and he's an old tired looking guy, Cuomo. Uh, so it was pretty easy for mom Dami to get ahead of him. And mom Dami is doing all these shows. He was on Colbert last night and,

Cuomo has had to hide from reporters because of the terrible things he's done in the past, the baggage he has to cover up. So he runs from reporters. He's actually gotten something like 10 speeding tickets in the last few weeks, and three or four of them were getting away from reporters who were trying to ask him a question. I'm very...

Anti-Mamdami, but Cuomo is no bargain either. Wait, can you remind everybody why Cuomo is... Because Cuomo is sort of positioning himself, Mark, as the, you know, I'm not the insane candidate. The other guy is... There's some stuff that Cuomo did at the state level that affected New York, affected all of New York State that I think people need to be reminded of. Yeah, he ran for governor as a moderate, but...

They have the list right here. This is the guy that gave us no bail, no jail. He pushed that like crazy. There's video of him pushing it. He closed prisons, let the prisoners out, and there's video of him bragging about it. He changed the parole board, put a bunch of left-wing kooks on there that let all the prisoners out. They've let out 43 cop killers. He took away the qualified immunity for policemen. That's the protection from being sued. That's why we can't hire any more cops.

He's the guy that gave us congestion pricing. He was going to ban ice from New York State. He threatened to sue them. He called them thugs. He closed Indian Point. That's the nuclear plant. That's 25% of our electricity, drove everybody's electricity up. He raised taxes. We lost four congressional seats under Cuomo because so many people moved out of the state. So, yeah.

If anybody loves him, it's Florida. He really did more for Florida than New York. I didn't even get to killing 10,000 senior citizens in the nursing homes in the dumbest decision ever made by an elected official.

people with the virus into nursing homes. Okay. All of that, uh, Mark, and we appreciate you hanging out with us. W O R listeners. This is the first major election since Trump. And so people are looking and saying, okay, what's going to be the outcome here. Trump made a pretty significant improvement in the state of New York. There are lots of people obviously that feel like New Jersey could flip, uh,

I mean, Trump only lost New Jersey by about five points. When you look at this decision that the Democrats are making such that Andrew friggin Cuomo can look like the reasonable, rational choice for Democrats.

What does this tell us about the party as a whole? And also, is this primary happening today? Is this it? Or let's say that Mamdani wins. Could Cuomo run as an independent? Like, what could happen going forward? Is there already scuttlebutt?

about the larger race this fall and what might happen if Mamdani is the Democrat nominee. Well, Mamdani has, in the real polls, the internal polls, pulled ahead of Cuomo, which is why Cuomo has registered as an independent. He will be on the ticket.

as an independent the current mayor eric adams is also on the independent ticket so you're going to have it let's say mom donnie wins you're going to have i'm donnie cuomo adams and curtis sliwa as the republican and there's another guy uh on some party so it'll be the first five-way race last time that happened was john lindsey which was like early 70s and lindsey ran as an independent and won as an independent so it is possible to win that way

Okay, so rank choice voting also factors in here. And look, I know Alaskans have had major issues with this. There are relatively few places that do rank choice voting. It's actually complicated. There's talk that it's going to take a week or 10 days to even figure out what the totals are. What can you tell us about how the tallying will work and how rank choice voting factors in here? Well, it's a great system. Democrats came up with this system so that at the end of the night tonight, 9 o'clock when we see

Who voted for who? It doesn't count anymore. So under ranked choice voting, no matter what the voters decided, they can go into these charts and graphs. You could have this ranked choice explained to you a thousand times and still not figure it out. It goes many, many rounds. In fact, in this polling, it shows nobody could win the first seven rounds, which is absolutely ridiculous. It's the way Mamdani will probably win. He's been more clever understanding it.

teaming up with other candidates. It's, it's kind of like on survivor when you form teams and the secret plots. Cause basically they're telling people, if you hate Cuomo, just don't rank him in any way and try to get him in the second, third, fourth, or as you just mentioned, seventh round of the rank choice. Yeah. So with this rank choice, uh, Cuomo could lose and then he would run as an independent. Uh,

I just don't see Mamdani winning. Curtis Sliwa is the Republican candidate. There is nobody else. And he's nobody better on the subject of crime fighting. How is crime going in New York City? Mayor Eric Adams, former cop, right, that we were all told was supposed to handle this, doesn't sound like it's been handled. No, and it's been bad for three years. But...

Great improvement by Eric Adams this year. He brought in a police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

I used to work with Jessie. I know Jessie, yeah. Yeah, and you know, she's absolutely incorruptible. Very wealthy woman, so she's totally incorruptible. And there were some bad elements in the NYPD. She fired them all, fired a lot of people the first week. It needed to be done. She's put in some of the best people on, she's created task forces to go after this stuff. So that's a big improvement. Adams also brought in Randy Mastro, who was the top Giuliani deputy mayor recently.

Under Rudy Giuliani. So he's in City Hall now running things. So great improvement. And I know Adams is going to start campaigning. He's been very quiet. The current mayor will start campaigning like crazy tomorrow. And who knows, may rise up as an independent, might even beat Cuomo on the independent line.

Who do you think is going to win this mayor's race when all is said and done, Mark? Curtis Sliwa. I think in the end, if he gets a fair debate, boy, they really rigged the debates last time. I mean, I love Mark's optimism, Clay. I love optimism via Mark here.

Okay, so Mark, let's say that you are listening to us, and obviously WOR, this is going to factor in a big way, New York City area listeners. If you are nationwide, let's say you're listening in Phoenix or Salt Lake City or Houston, one of these cities that...

doesn't really have a deep connection to New York City. Why should people tonight be paying attention to what happens in New York City in this race in your mind, not only for what it means to New York City itself, but for the larger American political universe? Well, because the problem is the Democratic Party has gone nuts in

instead of the old Bill Clinton, Democrats, JFK, they've gone completely crazy. And New York City is the barometer where you see how crazy they're going to go. We gave you AOC, all the real crazy. So if they go this crazy here, actually voting in a socialist,

then you know the party's going to go even more nuts, which will kill them in the midterms next year. Do you agree with Clay? Our buddy here, Clay, likes to make the long-term predictions. He likes to point to the upper deck and then switch sides and bat left-handed. It's never enough of a crazy call for Clay. He thinks Cuomo wins the... If

Cuomo wins the mayor's race, I should say, which I believe you believe he will, right, Clay, still? I'm going to stick to that prediction, although I may end up being wrong on that. Cuomo wins the mayor's race. Next stop for him is running as a Democrat nominee. Do you see that, too? Because that would obviously affect everybody listening across the country if that happened. No, zero chance. One thing about Cuomo, he's a very New York urban

guy from Queens. I know you could say that about Trump, but Trump had incredible talent as a campaigner, which Cuomo does not have. Not to win, but to run as a candidate in 2028. Like, I think this is about setting the foundation for him to be able to argue he has a comeback and throw his hat in the Democrat ring. Yeah, he was a total outcast here. You know, I forgot to mention, he left office in disgrace. There was also, besides the sex scandal, ethics committee ruled against him for profiting off the pandemic, but he

By running for mayor, he's made himself legitimate again, at least that he's a legitimate candidate. I don't think he could ever get the nomination in 2018. I don't think anybody who does would put him on the ticket because they figure they're winning New York. They don't need him for that. They'd have to pick another state. And he's got a lot of baggage. Okay, Mamdani wins.

Let's say that happens. You got people like Buck Sexton with money who were like, New York, I'm done. I'm going to Florida. Ron DeSantis made a joke. He said the best thing that could happen for Palm Beach property values is Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral race.

Do you hear because you've been doing New York City radio for a long time? You know, a lot of people. Do you hear wealthy New Yorkers say if Mamdani wins, this is it like they're just fed up and done? Do you buy that that will have a major tax revenue, for lack of a better way to describe it, impact because the number of rich guys and gals bailing on New York City? I mean, they're the ones who are failing, who are funding to a large extent what they see as a failed city.

Oh, yeah. A lot of them have said they'll leave. In fact, one went public. John Katsimatidis owns 100 supermarkets in New York. He said, I will close them. He said, I'll move my business to New Jersey. Wait, Kats said that he would bounce on New York City if Mamdani wins? I didn't know that. That's wild. Yeah. He owns a lot of supermarkets. He said, I'm not going to compete with... Yeah, Katsimatidis. Yeah, I will not compete with the government. And he's not the only one. He just went public and said it, but a lot of others have said it privately. And again, about 3 million people left under Cuomo as governor. In fact...

We had a crisis. You couldn't get a moving van for almost a year. There was a shortage of moving vans under Cuomo, and we did lose four congressional seats because of it. Oh, man. Well, let's hope Curtis Sliwa pulls off the greatest Trump-level political come-from-behind victory here, the greatest comeback of all time. Otherwise, New York could be in for some rough stuff. 710WOR, 10 a.m. Eastern, Mark Simone, Mr. New York, sir, appreciate you. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks. Love listening to you guys.

Same. Same. Mark also, have you ever listened to Mark's? Mark's callers, by the way, represent, when they call into his show, all the different accents of all the different boroughs and counties around New York perfectly. You get the Long Island guys calling in, the Staten Island guys. When I did my last book, I went into our New York, because he's in the same building, for people who don't know, where we can use in New York City if we happen to be there. I think this is a big...

I mean, I understand people say, oh, New York City mayor, why do I care? I think if Mom Donnie wins, it's a holy crap moment for the Democrats. It's an indicator for Democrats nationwide. All right. Thanks, Mark. Thank you so much. All right. Rapid Radios makes modern-day walkie-talkies. It's such a uniquely created communication device and so easy to use.

Remember those kids' toys we used to have, walkie-talkies? Yeah, imagine that, but with the latest tech and all kinds of bells and whistles that you couldn't have dreamed of when you were a kid. With the push of a button, you can talk with this radio nationwide on an LTE network.

You can connect with somebody. It's like a walkie-talkie, but you can talk to somebody anywhere who is also carrying a rapid radio. No setup required. You just pull them out of the box, press a button, and talk. One-touch connection. Perfect for busy families. Rapid radios combines the simplicity of walkie-talkies with today's technology, and it is something to have as part of your preparation plan. Get some rapid radios and give them to...

your family that you want to be able to stay in contact with, friends, neighbors, anybody, because if things go haywire, you want to be ready with your Rapid Radios. A lot of cell towers can go down. Rapid Radios can be there for you. Go to rapidradios.com, save up to 60% off, get free UPS shipping from Michigan, and use code RADIO for an extra 5% off. Again, the website to go to is rapidradios.com. You'll save up to 60%, use code RADIO, and get an extra 5% off.

Go to rapidradios.com. We get it. There are too many car insurance companies trying to convince you that they have the best car insurance rates. We don't think we need to convince you. We're rude, and we do car insurance differently. We don't think it makes sense to only base your car insurance rate on things that have nothing to do with your driving, like your occupation or education.

When you take the test drive using the Route app, we price your car insurance rate primarily on how you drive. It's that easy. Just download the Route app, drive around like you normally would for a couple of weeks, and get a quote based primarily on how you actually drive.

Good drivers could save up to $900 a year when they switch to Root. We're taking an old industry and making it fair. Root Insurance, because better drivers deserve better rates. Download the app today and see how much you could save. Terms and conditions apply, subject to underwriting review. See Root.com for details.

Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. GCU believes in equal opportunity and the American dream starts with purpose.

GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come. By honoring your career calling, you impact your family, your friends, and your community. You can change the world for good by putting others before yourself to glorify God.

Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU's online, on-campus, and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal, and professional goals. With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams.

The pursuit to serve others is yours. Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Private. Christian. Affordable. Visit gcu.edu.

Now at Verizon, we're locking in low prices for three years guaranteed on MyPlan. And you can get a single line for just $45 a month when you switch and bring your phone. That's our best price ever on unlimited welcome with auto pay plus taxes and fees guaranteed for three years. Because at Verizon, we got you. Visit your local DC Verizon store today. $20 monthly promo credits applied over 36 months with a new line on unlimited welcome. In times of congestion, unlimited 5G and 4G LTE may be temporarily slower than other traffic.

Domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply. So far, the ceasefire is holding in Israel and Iran's conflict in the Middle East after Trump, frankly, does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if this thing holds. He'll never get it, but they gave it to Obama before he had done anything. If a Democrat president had managed to bring peace to the Middle East, we know that he would have gotten it to say nothing

of all of the other things Trump has done. But we were just talking about the... I see this as the first referendum on how the Democrat Party is going to respond to Trump 2.0, this New York City mayoral race. And I think that's the storyline that...

for anybody out there who wants to see this vote. This is the first real vote we've had in the first six months of the Trump presidency. You're going to have Virginia and New Jersey governorship races come November. So that will give you a little bit of an indication, but those are both blue states. So there's not necessarily a major impact there. And we've got a caller who wants to weigh in just listening to us, Jacqueline and Brooklyn. Jacqueline, I

The Democrat primary going on today, it's going to take him a while to count the votes. But as a New Yorker and you're listening to this show on WOR, as you sit back and watch, what are you thinking?

Well, I tell you the truth. I think ranked choice voting, first of all, is the worst thing that ever happened to New York. And as far as the polls are concerned, I actually I was looking for my notes and I couldn't find it. But one of the major newspapers, I don't remember if it was The Times, so don't hold me to that. But the sample.

size when they do these surveys, they take a very small sample size and they weigh it toward the outcome that they want to achieve. So personally, I don't take these polls seriously. I don't care that they showed Cuomo or Mondani leading as far as the Democratic candidates. I don't think there is a viable Democrat candidate among all of them, except possibly for Adams.

But really, as a New Yorker, with seeing the crime that has gone on and increased, Curtis Lewa, in my opinion, is really the only viable candidate. I think he's the only one that really cares about the people of the city of New York. You know, Jacqueline, I was a New Yorker for almost 40 years, and what is going on with our people, you know?

Like, how is it? It used to be we could disagree on the national stuff, but everybody wanted cleaner streets and less crime, at least for a while. I think because Giuliani showed people what was possible. What happened? Like, where did these communists just lose their minds? Right.

I think they're just being brainwashed, quite honestly. They're listening to the lamestream media. They are drinking the Kool-Aid, so to speak. They are just buying and swallowing whatever they are being said. They don't have the ability to think critically for themselves. And those that are, I think the recent presidential election where Trump made

made a clean sweep, as he did all across the country, sent a very clear message that the people, not only in cities like New York and New York State, are fed up with what has happened, but people around the country are fed up in their discussion. And I hope that's reflected in the New York City mayoral race.

Jacqueline, great call. Thank you. Some investment opportunities take quite a while to reveal themselves, but having access to information in advance makes all the difference. I want to talk to you about somebody who's working on a huge opportunity. He sees that as a result of history of D.C. and Wall Street. Jim Rickards is his name. He's one of those in-the-know kind of people with incredible insight on forthcoming opportunities that could have huge benefit to our nation and to you as an individual.

Jim Rickards thinks that there's the possibility of a first-ever national sovereign wealth fund under this Trump administration. He says that this could be worth as much as $150 trillion as an asset class, and it has been buried under American soil.

There's some really interesting options and opportunities that Jim wants to present you with. Hear more of his thinking at Birthright2025.com. A lot of this conversation is a result of President Trump's instigation. Go to Birthright2025.com to get the details free of charge, paid for by Paradigm Press. Got a bunch of VIP emails and some calls and talkbacks coming in.

Hearing from all of you, the ongoing conversation, the back and forth, one of the great things about doing this program every day, it's like we all get to hang out for, you

You know, I don't know, 30 minutes, three hours, whatever you got time for. Let's start with Jersey John. Thank you, he writes, for having Mark on as a guest. He's extremely articulate, knows his New York stuff, and Curtis Sliwa has to win New York. Jersey John, appreciate you, buddy. Yeah, Mark's a friend of the program, friend of mine in Clay's, great guy, fantastic radio host, and knows New York backwards and forwards. So I will say...

I think he knows, too. Curtis is a long shot. He's a long shot for New York, but he's the only shot. That's the problem. The other options are the city just gets worse, and we all know that. And Cuomo, I think that's so important for everybody to know, Clay, Cuomo's not a moderate. Cuomo did really bad stuff as governor, and this is the thing in these blue states. People screw everything. These politicians screw everything up.

And then they're, like, promoted by the voters. You know, you see this time and time again. You turn on, you know, they're reelected. You look at Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. You look at Gavin Newsom crushed the recall effort against him. How do you let that snake oil salesman sell more snake oil? I don't know. You know, this is what do people need to see to understand that?

You know, if the people in Florida, Clay, all of a sudden, if we had a governor who was jacking up taxes and crime was out of control and there's all kinds of disorder, they wouldn't they would say, get throw the bum out. Let's get somebody else. I don't know why this corrective mechanism just has just gone completely haywire in Democrat controlled states.

I think it's because and this is like kind of a deep psychological analysis. We've talked about it a little bit, but I just keep coming back to it. It means if they were to change direction, it would mean acknowledging that all of the people that they consider to be the wrong people were right.

It's not just that they were wrong, because if you're wrong and somebody else out there is right that you don't consider to be some awful human being that's a moron compared to you, then I think it's easier to adjust your worldview, right?

It's as if they are willing to light their lives on fire rather than acknowledge, hey, maybe we should have kept schools open and maybe we should have just listened to some of these red states. To understand the Democrat mind, yeah, they're brainwashed sheep and all that. Of course, that's all true. But to really understand the Democrat mindset, it was people who think they are so much smarter than...

quote-unquote red state Billy Bobs or whatever. They're so much more sophisticated, so much smarter than they are, could not bring themselves to look at, again, so-called Billy Bob and say, you were right, I was wrong. You were smarter than me on this. They just won't do it. It doesn't matter what the reality is. They cannot do that. And I think it's partly, when you really dive into the psychology of it, I think it's partly because...

They may not have the income that they hoped. They may not live in the house that they had hoped they lived in. All these other things in their life may not be what they had hoped, but their degree or their graduate degree, it is their self-worth.

And that self-worth is wrapped up in, well, I'm smarter. I'm smarter than all these other people. And they can't acknowledge that they were wrong. Look, one of the great tests of intelligence, and I challenge all of you to do this. I try to do this myself every day. Presume that you might be wrong.

Just be open to the idea because I think the most successful people out there, if you run a business, everybody out there who has ever run a business has done something. You were convinced, hey, this is going to be brilliant. This is going to revolutionize my business. You did it and it failed.

And you looked at the data and you said, you know what? I shouldn't have done that. Maybe I should go back to doing something else. But you're willing to take the chance and you're willing to acknowledge what the data reflects. Otherwise, you just ride off the edge of a cliff and end up bankrupt. And most business people are rational. Be rational in your life. Be willing to adjust.

Well, and this is when people ask me for advice, which happens, you know, we do live events and talk to people or just people come up to me. Also, we're getting older. When you're younger, you don't give as much advice. When you start to get a little bit older, there's younger people coming up that are like, hey, you know, you've got a little bit more wisdom, mister. I start calling you mister a lot more.

I had some American fans of the show in France come up to me, and particularly when my voice was really bad, I felt so badly because it was almost like I was blowing people off. Thank you for... I couldn't really respond. They were trying to be so nice. I was giving them the selfie hand signal. Let's just do selfie because I cannot talk to you. It's not physically possible for me right now.

But it was really, really nice to see some of them over there. And I think that that's just indicative of how widespread the audience has become. Speaking of people weighing in on all this stuff, Clay, we got a listener here, Brett. I haven't heard any discussion about the similarities of the plot of Maverick, Clay's almost favorite movie. He really loves that movie. Yeah, I do. And.

And the Iran bombing mission, naval fighter jets have to bomb an underground bunker for an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant of an evil rogue nation. Potentially a suicide mission, but worth it to save the world from nuclear disaster. No casualties ever involved are now heroes. It is very similar. It is a bit of life imitating art. And I think that's a good call by... I have thought of this myself, I will say. I've thought of this too. Have...

Am I correct, and I may be forgetting, but I think they tried to not really have any nation associated with Maverick. Same thing with the original Top Gun. Everyone argues with me on this, and they're always wrong. They never indicate. It's a red star, which is kind of like roughly a communism thing, I think. But I don't know what country. You don't hear the guys talking in any language. They're just faceless people.

black, you know, plexiglass on the mask.

And so you can't see in. And, you know, you don't know. You don't know who these people are. You have no idea. In a sense, it's kind of brilliant because it gives a little more timelessness to it. You know, I always like the old, I like the Rocky IV, we're fighting the Soviet stuff personally. But I can see arguments for both ways. Well, it's super smart, too, because theoretically it creates a much bigger international box office, right? Because nobody's like, oh, we're the bad guys.

and the bad guy would have to be a decent-sized country in some way. You remember there was a James Bond movie back in the Pierce Brosnan days, who I think is an underrated James Bond. I'm just going to say it. I actually thought Pierce Brosnan was pretty good, even though he's Irish, not English, a whole other thing. But there was one where...

Like China is involved and there's a Chinese agent who, but he teams up with, you know, it's like China actually is the good guy. And it's a British guy who runs a media empire, you know, kind of like a Rupert Murdoch like figure. Yeah. Who's really the Carver media network. I remember who's really the bad guy to start a war between the U S and China. We have had no movies that I'm aware of. Are you aware? Are you aware of a movie where China is our adversary? Yeah.

I can't even think of one. Buck, there is a fantastic book that dives into this, and they did a really great excerpt of it inside of the Wall Street Journal. They remade Red Dawn.

Red Dawn, for those of you, spoiler alert, remember this story? Red Dawn, Eric Stengel, I think team in New York look up the title of this book because I want to give him credit. I read it. It was so good. But it's about the rise of China in a movie-making context. And Red Dawn, the bad guy, is Russia, right? If I'm remembering correctly, like the Russians suddenly land. Oh, yeah. It's the Soviets and the Cubans of all. Soviets and Cubans helping them out.

So it comes out in 1984, and it's in the middle of the Cold War, and they said, okay, we're going to remake it. China has to be the bad guy in the remake. They made the whole movie, Buck. China got so powerful, the movie got held up, wasn't released.

They went back in and digitally altered the movie to make North Korea the bad guy because they were afraid of having China as the bad guy in this movie because of geopolitical tensions relating to what movies even get into Chinese theaters. And making North Korea the bad guy, I might add, is not without consequence of its own because the Sony hack...

Yeah.

about a North Korean dictator interview with Seth. It was like a comedy, but sort of a dark comedy. And it made Kim Jong-un look silly. And so then they hacked. And the North Korean hackers, I know everyone says, do they even have internet over there? First of all, they operate in conjunction with and with the blessing of China. So yeah, they actually have really sophisticated hacking capabilities.

But they hacked into the Sony thing. That was wild. People don't even remember that, that they targeted a private U.S. company for making fun of them and did real PR damage to Sony at the time. I think some people got fired. Oh, yeah. North Korea has some of the most talented hackers in the world. They've actually been some of the top crypto bandits.

One of the ways that they finance the country is by all of the scams that they run on the internet. The North Korean intelligence services such as they are, there are units within it that effectively operate as just global mercenaries to bring hard currency into North Korea. It's kind of fascinating. I thought this would be a great kind of plot line for a show or even if you want to do a documentary or something about it, you could. But yeah, imagine if the CIA, instead of what it is,

which has some cool stuff, but also has some lame stuff. But imagine if the CIA, there was a unit where it's like, hey, you can go sell drugs. You can go overthrow. I know people think this is what the CIA does, but it actually doesn't. Trust me, this stuff, actually, they don't do this certainly anymore. I don't know what they used to do.

But you can sell drugs. You can be involved in overthrowing a country. You can set up private mercenary armies. You can break into national banks or crypto funds. As long as you are making money for us, meaning North Korea, the home country...

You know, you have immunity. Just come back here and we'll never we'll never extradite you. Obviously, that's kind of how they operate. So whatever. Think about that. I mean, they'll they'll do it. Oh, they'll sell. You know, they'll sell military technology. They'll do anything as long as it's making money for the North Korean regime. They're fine with it. It's pretty crazy. No doubt. It's it's really one of the really staggering, staggering stories that hasn't been told. But to your point.

There aren't very many Asian bad guys, and that's a sign of China's growing power. They basically have decided everybody's going to have like a sort of Russian-ish American accent, and that's the bad guys in any movie that actually goes through with the process of having bad guys.

Let me tell you about Sabre. Number one pepper spray brand trusted by law enforcement, spelled S-A-B-R-E, website sabreradio.com. You want products you're comfortable using that your spouse would be too. This is a family-owned business manufacturing self-protection tools for 50 years. We have them all inside of the Travis household, whether it is pepper spray, whether it's the pepper spray projectile launcher, which is a tremendous product.

gift for anybody inside of your family that wants to have a non-lethal protection opportunity in the house. You've also got all different sorts of things that makes it harder to break into your home. Again, if you've got a teenage daughter, somebody going off to college, you want to give them pepper spray, get hooked up right now. You'll be blown away by the quality and quantity of the product at SaberRadio.com.

You'll save 15% there if you go to Sabre Radio. That's S-A-B-R-E radio.com. You can also call 844-824-SAFE. That's 844-824-SAFE. SabreRadio.com for 15% off today.

Hey, good drivers. Yeah, we're talking to you. The ones who don't speed, the ones who avoid those fender benders, and who always use their turn signal. Congratulations, you're a better driver, and that means you could get better rates with Route Insurance. It's time to stop paying for other people's bad driving habits. You know, like the ones who cut you off just to slam on their brakes. Woo!

or the lead foot speeding to work every day. With Root Insurance, you'll get a quote based primarily on your driving. Just download the Root app, drive around like you normally would for a couple of weeks, and boom, you'll get a quote that actually makes sense. It's that easy. Root. Because better drivers deserve better rates. Download the Root app today and see how much you could save. That's Root Insurance. Terms and conditions apply. Subject to underwriting review. See Root.com for details.

Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. GCU believes in equal opportunity and the American dream starts with purpose.

GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come. By honoring your career calling, you impact your family, your friends, and your community. You can change the world for good by putting others before yourself to glorify God.

Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU's online, on-campus, and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal, and professional goals. With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams.

The pursuit to serve others is yours. Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Private, Christian, affordable. Visit gcu.edu. By the way, a book that I was referencing, it's really a good read.

If you are interested in the battle between Hollywood, China, and how movies were made, and it ties in with what we were just talking about. I mean, think about how crazy that is. They remade Red Dawn, and then they completely redid the entirety of the film and replaced China as the villain because they didn't want to offend China.

Red Carpet is the name of that book. Easy to remember. And the author is a guy named Eric Schwartzel. Really, really well done. If you're interested in cultural battles through film, we've made fun of the fact, Buck, that I took Russian and German cinema classes when I was in college back in the day, as one does. By the way, Trump has landed in the Netherlands for the NATO summit.

He is presently headed towards a car shaking hands in a not surprisingly big white USA cap, which is great. You know, I don't know. We talked about the photos that they took inside of the situation room. Trump at the top of the at the top of the table in his red MAGA hat presiding over the over the attack was was pretty fantastic. But he is a landed in a white.

Big, bold USA baseball cap and his suit, as is usually the case, and is in the beast there, the vehicle that he rides in to take him to the NATO meetings. I wish he was wearing a Crockett coffee hat because that would be helpful for Crockett knowledge across the country. I love USA the most. Oh, Clay's wearing his Crockett T-shirt, everybody.

That's what I like to see. Go to CrockettCoffee.com, my friends, and subscribe. It is the best coffee you'll get anywhere. Plus, 10% of the profits goes to Tunnel of the Towers Foundation. You got a great deal with Clay. If you subscribe and use code BOOK, he'll send you a signed copy of American Playbook. Mushroom Coffee. Have you tried Mushroom Coffee?

you should at least try it we've got it's delicious it's up a cracker coffee dot com plus we've got all the usual stuff in the cake cups holding ground being if you're drinking coffee from somewhere else as yourself why are you supporting the communists will it makes no sense put your dollars where your heart is crockett coffee dot com have it sent right to your door please subscribe

And tell a friend about it, you know? Clay's rocking the gear. I rock the gear. In the spirit of Davy Crockett, a great American. You can even get an Overmountain Club mug. Great conversation starter. People go, oh, what's Overmountain? Ooh, ooh, very interesting, isn't it? You know, you'll know when you're an Overmountain Club member. So there you go.

Plus, you should have some money because the stock market is nearing an all-time high. We'll talk about that a bit more when we come back. Let's also dive in. Do we keep buying, Clay? Are you still a believer in this market still, or is things getting a little too frothy for you? I just hate buying anything at the top of the market. This is just me. I understand you should buy and hold, and I'm going to hold all my assets here.

uh until i'm dead uh hopefully my kids get them um but i i do want to talk about that also we come back um as the uh as the ceasefire is continuing to hold in iran and israel that trump has put together um

How about a lot of people so far have been atrociously wrong on what was going to happen? Not this program, but a lot of people tried to convince you World War III was going to happen if we hit Iran. We said, no, that's not going to happen. Let's actually go through and look at some ideas of what was said versus reality. And I would just say for everybody out there listening, if you are constantly saying,

finding yourself being terrified. Sometimes it's the media that you might consume that is convincing you that every day, the next day is going to be the apocalypse. We were joking off air. Sometimes it's the media

Some of these guys and gals out there, it's like they woke up the day after they said the world was going to end, and then they're like, okay, well, let's just move along. Yeah, moving on. The prediction didn't happen. That was a thing. Yeah. And so not that we're flawless on this show. We don't do hysteria on this show. Hysteria is a cheap way to get attention, but it's a bad way to do it. And we do insight analysis. And, Clay, you know what else? We like being right.

And we're having fun. It's a good combo. Made in America means something to us. When you invest $700 billion annually in American companies and the 13 million workers and families they support, you're investing in the success of Main Street. That's money powering growth in manufacturing, tech, energy, and innovation. And

And it starts with private equity backing American ambition. Learn how private equity keeps American businesses growing at investmentcouncil.org. Paid for by the American Investment Council.

Welcome to It Takes Energy, presented by Energy Transfer, where we talk all things oil and natural gas. Oil and gas drive our economy, ensure our country's security, and open pathways to brighter futures. What do you know about oil and natural gas? You likely associate them with running your car or heating your home. But these two natural resources fuel so much more than that. More than 6,000 consumer products that we rely on every day are made using oil and gas.

Before you even step out the door in the morning, you've already used more products made possible because of oil and gas than you realize. From the toothpaste you brush your teeth with, the soap you washed your face with, and the sheets you slept on. Not to mention your makeup, contact lenses, clothes, and shoes. Oil and gas are vital parts of all these products and so many more.

This is an iHeart Podcast.