The Ricochet Podcast - Trudeau Trucks Canada

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

We got a convoy and are headed North this week! First we meet the man who plans to restore sanity to James’s home state, Kendall Qualls. He hopes to combat the juvenile delinquents trapped in grown-up bodies who’ve been running the Gopher State into the ground. Then we head beyond the border to chat with Ezra Levant of Rebel News, who gives us the 411 on the Canadian truckers who’ve got Justin... Source

Looking for reliable IT solutions for your business? At Innovate, we are the IT solutions people for businesses across Ireland. From network security to cloud productivity, we handle it all. Installing, managing, supporting and reporting on your entire IT and telecoms environment, so you can focus on what really matters, growing your business. Whether it's communications or security, Innovate has you covered. Visit Innovate today. Innovate, the IT solutions people. It's just a marvelous, marvelous, marvelous Americana, bit of Americana. I have a dream this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. But these protests, these protests are not the way to get through it. With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey. I've said it before and I'll say it again,

democracy simply doesn't work. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast with Rob Long and Peter Robinson. I'm James Lalex, and today we talk to Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls and Ezra Levant in Canada. They'll tell us what's going on, so let's have ourselves a podcast. I can hear you! Welcome, everybody. It's the Ricochet Podcast, number 580.

Join us, won't you, at Ricochet.com. Be part of the most stimulating conversation and community as well on the web. I'm James Lalix in Minnesota, where if you want to know what it feels like, just strip naked, cover yourself with rubbing alcohol, and go into a meat locker. It's like that. Peter Robinson, of course, in beautiful California. And Rob Long, I'm sure. Nolans, New York. No, I'm in New York.

I'm back in New York. Good. Although I did have great choices. So we are three different places. And I assume that everything's back to normal now because the science changed. Right? back to normal now because the science changed right the science that was the science of you know a while ago is has been superseded by better science newer science trust the science etc so how are we uh looking at this is this the democrats looking at their polling numbers and

saying we have to get in front of this covet thing or is it as i suspect a pure rational empirical judgment made on the latest data that's completely unrelated whatsoever to how people may be feeling about ongoing COVID restrictions. I don't know what they're thinking, but I know the science hasn't changed. The science has not changed. There was never any evidence that masking did any good at all unless you used a kind of heavy duty medical mask and even then the evidence was mixed. That has been known for months and months and months. We have here Dr. Leanna Wen of CNN and she says, I quote her, I don't think we should be looking at case counts at all at this point.

We should never have been looking at case counts. The number of people who were totally asymptomatic or who had very mild, the case counts didn't matter. What mattered was who was becoming seriously ill. Hospitalizations and visits to the physician's office from people who were seriously ill was all that ever mattered. Nothing has, no science has changed at all. And I know this because I'm channeling Jay Bhattacharya. I think your passing off the masks is a little ridiculous. If you look at the Bangladesh

study, you know, the people who wore the Bain-style mask and sealed it along the edges with a little thin bead of epoxy had a slightly less chance of getting it. But no, I think you're right. Rob, New York. By the way, so I was in Texas last week. I missed, I missed.

All right. I just, anecdote time here. I'll be very quick. Flight from SFO to Texas and we're all wearing our masks, and the guy next to me says to the stewardess, what's the correct term these days? Stewardess is feminist. Flight attendant. Flight attendant, thank you very much, says to the flight attendant, I'd like a beer, or one of those little wines. Right. And she said, I'm sorry, we're not serving alcohol in coach. Was that person you, by the way?

It was not me, actually. But that was only because she hadn't gotten to me yet. And she stopped and explained that attacks on flight attendants were up 300% since 2019, and all the higher-ups in the organization, in the airline. The attendants were all being told to remain on high alert. And on the theory that people in first class were so rich they'd be generally content, they were continuing to serve booze in first class. But back in steerage, where of course I always sit, they were not even serving alcohol. And she said, I'm no expert, but I think the masks make people crazy. I thought nothing of it

particularly. Until I got to Texas, nobody is wearing a mask in Texas. I check into the hotel, which was a gigantic, vast hotel. And the man who checked me in has a very loose-fitting mask. And I said, by the way, what are the rules? And he said, those of us who are hotel employees are required to wear masks, and the guests are strongly encouraged to wear masks. And I turned around at this gigantic lobby, 100 people in the lobby milling around at least, not one mask. And I said, I don't think I'll wear a mask. And he said, fine by me. And so it went for two and a half days in Texas. Then I get back on the plane and of course everybody's masked up. And I realized I felt

angry because I just spent two and a half days living in a place where you could see people's faces, where it was perfectly clear the masks were all a charade. And I thought I didn't feel angry enough to take a pop at a flight attendant, I'm happy to say, but I thought, I can see this. I can see this. If you live in Florida or Texas, which are after all, what, the second and third most populous states in the nation, and you get on a flight for California or New York where they're still masking, yeah, I'd feel, okay, the science hasn't changed. That's the point. I'm falling silent now, James to your your experience in texas is uh you know experiment in in mass death i think it was atlantic called georgia at one point is interesting anecdotal and the whole thing about the plane is well at least we're not living in a

society where there's a growing disaffection between the rich and the others the idea that the first class can quaff it up but those people back there can't because they're going to go nuts. Yeah, I think you're right. It's the masks, not the booze. Rob, you were going to say. Yeah, I was going to say, first of all, I really feel like you need to stop saying the word science. At this point, political science, which isn't a science at all, is much more scientific than what we're calling science. Look, it's research, right?

It's statistical research. That's what we're calling science. Look, it's research, right? It's statistical research. That's what we do. And the more statistical research we have, the better we are at sort of predicting this virus and how it's going to change. But it seems to me that the statistics have been in. Well, the science says, well, it isn't really the science, it's just the numbers, right?

And the numbers say a thing, but they've been saying pretty much the same thing since two years ago. But the idea that there's guys in lab coats with test tubes, it's not. a thing but they've been saying the same pretty much the same thing since two years ago um but the idea that there's guys in lab coats with with test tubes is not it's people looking at data and what we know now especially from so a lot of today's reports that i read this morning i think one is washington post which is sort of infuriating this um um doesn't surprise anybody probably listening to this podcast but apparently the cdc is antiquated

ossified and sclerotic in its method of finding and collecting and crunching data so that the breaking news but the only other thing i'd say is that um here's what's changed is that a very promising to them national figure, Democrat, this week, ended her political career, I think, for the time being, ended her, essentially destroyed her candidacy, I think. Stacey Abrams, in what is now a photograph that I think crystallizes everything you love or hate about covid and covid restrictions she is smiling at a classroom filled with toddlers and you know this is like these are elementary school young elementary school kids i don't know how old they were they didn't look there's not one over seven

right second grade second grades they are all masked behind her she is sitting in the foreground smiling someone took that picture somebody approved that picture you know running a campaign there's lots of photo approval steps somebody released that picture it never occurred to anybody in the organization of stacy abrams and stacy abrams herself that there was a problem with that picture. The problem with every other, many, many political disasters and political gaffes, the problem with the picture is that it told the truth. They do not care about masks. They care about power.

If she cared about a mask, if she thought a mask would make her safe, she'd be wearing one because of all the people in the photograph, only Stacey Abrams is in a risk group of at least one that you can tell. She's a larger person. I don't say that to be insulting. I say that simply because I'm following the science. And if she believes masks are important, she should have been wearing one. And if she believes they are not important, she should not have been wearing one, but neither should those children behind her. And people inorgia i guarantee you who were thinking to themselves you know what maybe maybe it's time or have changed

their mind that has made them very very angry it made me angry and i'm not even a voter in georgia but if you're a democratic politician and you look at that picture and i'm a republican uh the campaign consultant coming up in the in the in the midterms, I'm going to say, this is every Democrat. Every Democrat wants to saunter into your kid's classroom, put them in masks, and do whatever she wants to do. They have rules. The Democrats don't. I would go to town. Put it this way.

The midterms are going to be basically two gigantic arguments. One on the left from the Democrats is going to be January 6th, it would just be, she's not wearing a mask, and the children are wearing masks. That's who they are. You got to choose. I think that'd be very effective. Could I, one last little, this is a news story. This is a news story I love, and I would have talked about it last week if I hadn't been busy in Texas because our audience deserves to hear this. Rob will know exactly what to make of this. It may require some translation and I'll let Rob translate. Rob Garner Greenwich, Connecticut Late last year in Greenwich, there was an election to the Greenwich Town Council. Now, the Greenwich Town Council of all the Greenwich Town Council, of all the town councils in America, is a particularly storied town council. It's where Preston Bush

began his political career, got elected to the Greenwich Town Council, and then went on and got elected to the Senate, and then started the Bushes in Motion. And Republicans wiped out the Democrats in the election to the Greenwich Town Council. And I had a friend who ran for the Greenwich Town Council and he sent me the, this is the kind of thing where if you get 64 votes, you're elected. It's people voting for their neighbors. And the Republicans who chose to run are Republicans who've just had it up to here. They're paying high taxes for public schools at which teachers have now refused to teach for going on two years.

And I just thought to myself, oh my goodness, if there's a revolution in Gold Coast, Connecticut, the whole country is just simmering so the question is like that's i think that is what's inspiring since that was the question james asks the sudden hey no more let's get back to no hey it's nothing here about us libertarians or whatever um that's what's guiding it i think it's the sense that there's that that there's a real problem here and i think the same thing sort of it's sort of a version of what's happening in Canada. Oh, we'll get to that in a bit. Yeah, you have a bunch of rules that are now impossible to enforce.

And the one thing the government never wants to do is to have a bunch of rules they can't enforce. That just leads to anarchy. And this is one of them. And they have to back down. They've committed a terrible, terrible mistake. We're all going to see exactly how much of the remnant COVID neurotics, to be frank, are going to drive policy on the left.

Because here in Minnesota, we did Minneapolis, we just dropped our vax mandate for the restaurants, which is not doing the local restaurants any good whatsoever. And if you look at the responses to this, there's a substantial people who are going back to their usual position of panic, that this is just going to make things worse. Haven't we learned this before? There is a faith in the ability of just the simple masking to stop this thing dead and

distract, or at least to keep the hospitals from overflowing and for every 30% of the population to be intubated. It is remarkable to hear people say again and again, because it comes down to this, that you don't understand that when you go out and you don't wear a mask, you can give it to somebody who will give it to somebody who's immunocompromised.

So this side, their argument at this point in the pandemic is that all of human public social society should be determined on its impact on the theoretical impact of the most vulnerable. Now, you can make the argument that that's what a humane society does, but it's an argument for eternal masking and eternal restrictions and never going back to work. I mean, the intersection between people who want to stay at home now and never go back to the office and the same people who are sort of new urbanists who believe in density just amuses me to no end. They're two circles that are virtually completely the same. We should have dense cities, walkable cities, should get rid of the car, but everybody should work at home. Okay, well, then what do we do with these magnificent urban core structures that we spent the last 10, 15 years polishing and perfecting and making them that, I mean, we got

so used to beautiful downtowns full of people and thriving with commerce that were safe. And then in a stroke, we killed the entire culture. So getting back to that involves people getting out of the house, which means that the people who are the most nervous about venturing back into human society for reasons that probably were somewhere in their personality before COVID hit, convincing that these are the people who are going to be screaming and shouting and saying, no, we can't go back to normal. We can't go back to normal because they... Looking for reliable IT solutions for your business? At Innovate, we are the IT solutions people for businesses across Ireland. From network security to cloud productivity, we handle it all.

Installing, managing, supporting, and reporting on your entire it and telecoms environment so you can focus on what really matters growing your business whether it's communications or security innovate has you covered visit innovate today innovate the it solutions people didn't like normal for a variety of reasons and how much of that is going to drive politics on the other side? I don't know. But I mean, from the places on the internet, I know, I know that I'm hanging out, there is still the same amount of panic and the same amount of fear that there was in March 2020. And I find that extraordinary. We have a pill. Now, don't we? Gentlemen, you know this, right? We've got a couple of pills that you can use to treat it, antivirals. Am I correct?

The news was released. The trials were good. Does anybody talk about the fact that we have a treatment, which is really good? No, it never factors into the conversations these people have. We're still back at that point of panic. No, I think you're right. But I also feel like the air is going out of that balloon and it's going out fast um people just aren't playing anymore um they did the thing it was okay you told me to do this thing i did it and now i'm done

and um right but here but here's my point robin and don't tell me if i'm wrong just as the you know the squad and the you know the air quotes the wokeness and the online radicalization and pushing the party to the left, that's a small part of the Democratic Party, but it seems to have become their thematic constant, right? Yeah, I mean, they're in trouble. small element driving the democratic party now how much of the covid fear is which is sort of a emotional health version of those policies how much of that is going to shape their politics as well can in other words can they just say to these people here are our middle fingers proudly unfurled to thou and move back to a centrist position because i don't see that maybe not but i mean that that is the glory of america is that we have punishing punishing elections um more punishing now i think they've ever been in the past right

we have the most volatile political um the past 30 years have been incredibly volatile politically uh and that's either a bad thing if you like stability or a good thing if you like the fact that these guys are terrified i like it i don't mind that the volatility we've been experiencing but i mean whatever you're what what's the governor the governor of new york rob i feel me i just remember glancing the governor of new york she lifted in new york i mean the mask mandates i think it's i think it was effective yesterday um but no one knows what that means does that mean that i don't have to wear a mask in the store does that mean i don't need to wear a mask what does that mean like she what what

and what it means is really what it means is that she's a democratic yes she's scared she's a she's i will know what that means um wednesday afternoon we can talk about this on Friday. Wednesday afternoon, I got to go re-register my car in New York State. Oh, okay. And I will go to the DMV where I have an appointment. And I will have a mask with me and I will see. Because it seems to me if the governor of New York State has said no mask mandates, that would seem to encompass, at the very least, the state office

building, the Department of Motor Vehicles. We will see. Do you re-register in Manhattan, or do you have to drive out sometimes? It's actually super efficient, because you just make an appointment online and do it. I have to say, they're a little extremely

specific about the documents they needed, which took me some time to get together. But in fact, it's a pretty efficient system. But when I got my driver's license, I was wearing a mask. And so was everybody else. We shall see. That's the only test I think. Around here, a UPS store, they want you to wear a mask for some reason um i don't know like it seems to me like uh completely ad hoc people are looking at each

other and saying can we do this now can we take these things off yeah there's a lot of that there's a lot of eyes going back and forth and you see uh people and just on you know taking it off and free-facing it i remember the dmv the dmv in washington dc was uh you spent you put a whole day aside if you're going there it was like going into the lower the the lair of the minotaur you would you bring a string behind you drop breadcrumb so you could find your way out do not miss that about dc the only thing that i miss about those days in dc is strange i last time i was there it's been years since i've seen this. There used to be guys standing on the street corner who would sell you three ties for $10.

And they had a lot of them. And a lot of them were ugly, but a lot of them were really great. They were cheap. But I, to this day, still have some of my early 90s three for $10 ties. They really did pop up my wardrobe. And frankly,

whether it's finding a good tie or a signature color or wearing a more flattering cut of your clothing or getting a new statement, the right detail can take your wardrobe up a notch. It did, intentionally so. As I said, the right detail like that can take your wardrobe up a notch. This year, let Indochino take care of your 2022 style edit. You can customize everything from your suits to your shirts to your chinos, bomber jackets at prices more affordable than you might expect. It's time to get a wardrobe personalized to your style and taste without spending a fortune. And if you're going to be going back to the office, we hope that if you

want to, you will. You want to look sharp, right? Well, that's why Indochino is great because every piece is made to your exact measurements and you can customize every detail. Like I say, it's like having one of those guys who comes out from the back with a tape measure around his draped around his shoulders and a piece of chalk in his hand. You go online and you figure out precisely what your measurements are. It's just not like saying, maybe that 2830 will fit. No, you'll know. This includes when you choose the fabric, the lapel, the monograms, statement linings. You can create a suit that fits you and your style perfectly. The best part, Indochino suits start from just $429 and the shirts from $79 with all customizations included.

Talk about style. Well, like I say, when I went online, I thought, I'm kind of used to just going to Amazon and ticking a box and saying, I hope it fits. This was detailed. So by the time I put in all of my measurements, and I frankly had to check to make sure that I was doing the right thing, I knew that what I got was going to fit, unlike the other stuff I get online, which doesn't. So give yourself a style edit that sets the tone for the rest of your year with Indochino. Get $50 off any purchase of $3.99 or more by using the promo code RICOCHET at Indochino.com. That's $50 off a purchase of $399 or more at I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O.com, promo code RICOCHET. And we thank Indochino for sponsoring this,

the Ricochet podcast. And now we welcome to the podcast, Kendall Qualls, U.S. Army vet, former healthcare executive, the founder of Take Charge Minnesota. It's a nonprofit committed to educating black Americans of the rights and privileges granted by the Constitution. He's here with us today as a candidate hoping to become the next governor of Minnesota. And as a Minnesotan, you want to be the boss of me. OK, so that's great. I'm more than happy to hear your case. Before we get to the specifics of this great state, and it is, let's go to a line on your campaign site where you say, quote, I'm not an exceptional person. I live in exceptional

country and I serve an exceptional God. How do you come to be such a champion of American individualism and exceptionalism and the rest of it? What's your story? Well, the reason I'm a champion of it is because I came from really the probably the lowest rung of a ladder that you can get. You know, I remember going back to the George Bush years, actually, when he was governor of Texas. And and Richard says, you know what, George Bush, you know, he he he's excited because he hits a home run, but he doesn't realize he was born on third base and uh you know for me i was born in the parking lot of that stadium and uh literally i was born in harlem new york my my when my parents divorced i lived in harlem in the late 1960s and early 70s when it was the epicenter for drugs

gangs and violence and everything and i was there from first grade to fifth grade and it was horrific it was you know trauma literally every day i mean constant sounds of sirens and fighting and guns and uh it was interesting we we didn't live like that initially because my parents were married we there was five of us kids but after after the divorce it was obviously had changed quite a bit now my father when i was in fifth grade comes and picks me up and my younger brother to live with him because my mother is having just a hard time with all the kids my older siblings get absorbed into the street culture of harlem and when he comes and picks me up he's living in the trailer in a small trailer park

because that's all he could afford. He's paying alimony and child support. He's a drill sergeant. So I tell people that's how I got my start in life. I've been called a ghetto kid, trailer trash, and a lot worse. But what I've learned is in this country, where you start in life is not where you have to stay in life. There is a pathway out. That's a message for the state of minnesota it's one's going to resonate but as you know this is a state that's sort of bifurcated we've got the core city which is extremely liberal then we have outstate which is of a different political caliber and and and uh and you know ingredients to that so appealing

to both of those is different right now the out state is probably looking at anybody who comes from minneapolis and wants to govern the entire state as being completely out of touch with their needs and concerns in the city itself we are finding ourselves arguing over what you described of harlem we have in parts of this city, really bad, bad, bad social conditions and crime and the rest of it. And we have a governor who just said that he does not want to put the juvenile carjackers in jail because he doesn't think that's a point where the rehabilitation is necessary. So you have to craft a message that both speaks to the Minneapolis and the Twin Cities and the people who are worried about social disintegration and the people in the

outstate who are talking about agriculture policy and getting the mines open, getting the permitting so that we can get the pipelines and the jobs and the rest of it. What do you say? You've got a room full of 100 people and you don't know how many of them are outstate and how many of them are from the cities. What do you say to them that Minnesota wants to hear? Well, Jim, here's the cities. What do you say to them that Minnesota wants to hear? Well, Jim, here's the scenario. I'll probably get 75 to 80 percent of the out-of-state vote for sure. I've already been out there. I've been doing it for a year. They've been calling me

to help them. Literally, the grandparents and parents from the out-of-state helping to address this critical race theory that was pushed in schools last year. And so from the Iron Range to Albert Lee, I've been out there 16,000 miles in six months. So what I would say to this group is that this promise of America works for anyone, regardless of race, regardless of social standing, and we can actually do this. But here's where it starts. We have to have a we have to feel safe in our communities that's number one uh law and order is the issue and for

black americans i say this look you know god did not intend for women to raise children alone in my lifetime we've gone from 80 two-parent families in the Black community to 80% fatherless homes because we trusted and relied on politicians and what they were telling us. And we've lost the core roots of who we were in the Black community. And those three things were faith, family, and education. We had that. And by the time that Martin Luther King was assassinated, we lost our core because that's who we were as a culture it's time to get back to basics and that get back to basic is rooted in everyone as far as those american values and principles faith family education those principles

those were really are universal regardless of race that has helped perpetuate this country would be one the greatest country in the world. Hey, Kendall, Peter Robinson here. Good to see you. We met in Dallas a week ago. Right. So, I don't live in Minnesota. I live in California, and there are plenty of days

when I wished I lived in Minnesota. I'm pretty sure, though, that if I were living in Minnesota, one of the things I'd want to know about you is George Floyd. Right. He's killed. Right. He dies. He's killed.

Derek Chauvin is convicted of murder. And Minneapolis erupts in riots. Excuse me, that's not the sequence. Derek Chauvin is convicted months later. Right. George Floyd dies. There in riots. Excuse me, that's not the sequence. Derek Chauvin is convicted months later. Right. George Floyd dies, there are riots. One of the police precincts, there was so much attention and threat of danger of violence that the police cleared out of, I think it's the third precinct, James would know. And the rioters actually took over the station and burned it. So, you're a black man. George Floyd was a black man.

The protests were protesting. At least this was the claim. The mistreatment of African Americans through American history and even to this day, police brutality. So, what do you make of all this? Where do you stand on defund the police? Where do you stand on the place of African Americans in society? What do you make of what happened during those days? So there's two incidents that happened on that day. The tragic death of George Floyd. To watch that from a humanity standpoint was horrific. And there were people that were protesting peacefully in that community. The second

incident that happened, totally separate from George Floyd, was it became political with Black Lives Matter, defund the police, Keith Ellison, Ilhan omar they radically politicized it and then when law and order got out of control what happened when in in in that second incident so the first one was tragic the second one political ilhan omar keith ellison and our governor keith waltz allowed this to happen the rioting the looting the defund the police the burning down of the the third precinct and then now two and a half years of the worst lawlessness that we've ever seen in this state and i can tell you minnesotans forget politics for a minute minnesotans across the state are just um you know it is not just horrific.

I don't want to say they're at their limit as far as, you know, how this is allowed to happen, how the economy has been allowed to happen. And we have two, I call them two juvenile. Looking for reliable IT solutions for your business? At Innovate, we are the it solutions people for businesses across ireland from network security to cloud productivity we handle it all installing managing supporting and reporting on your entire it and telecoms environment so you can focus on what really matters growing your business whether it's communications or security innovate has you

covered visit innovate today innovate the IT solutions people. Delinquents that are mayors of the Twin Cities that are trapped in human adult bodies, that their focus is on mask mandates and vaccine passports to go into restaurants while the cities are just literally, this reminds me of living in Harlem. We have women that are being beaten in suburban parking lots

and their cars taken on a daily basis. We have young kids that are being shot in their neighborhoods in the inner cities. And this is happening on a routine basis. And the governor is allowing this to happen. What Minnesotans are looking for is someone that can speak to this, address it without being called racist and everything else, like an adult and a leader. So my background and why I come through this is that I not only came out of this and from the inner city and everything. And I worked my way through college, worked full time through college. I college i was in the army reserves i got commissioned as an officer in the army

i served five years in the army as a cat and then left as a captain i served on the dmz i went into the private sector the first in my family i was told kendall don't go out there my father and my father-in-law were men of the of the uh jim crow south so their last memory in the civilian world because they're both military men was how the horrific systemic racism that we had i started from the ground up with johnson and johnson with these fortune 100 companies i grew up 27 years later i'm a global vice president with an $850 million business unit. So one of the things that I bring to the Republican Party that I can unify the party, I can reunify the corporate business side and I can unify the far right. I can unify the conservative side because I am a Christian.

I became a Christian when I was 27 years old. I raised my family i've been married for 36 years we have five kids i adopted one of them i can't remember which one i love them all the same um because what i'm doing now as governor is an extension of what i've been doing all my life i've been swimming upstream my entire life. Hey, thanks for joining us. I'm Rob in New York. So I'm just going to be a little blunt here. Minnesota is a predominantly white state.

Its black population is about half the national average. That's right. So does it bug you that people just want to talk about black stuff? Not at all. Look, half the time I talk. In fact, it's not even half the time when we speak. Maybe it's about a third. You know, Rob, do you think that you're I guess what I'd say is that there's been this gigantic cloud.

I mean, a cloud, but like one single topic for the past two years, essentially, we've talking about uh and has morphed into started with law enforcement and now it has morphed at least for new york city where i am into law and order enforcement right um is that an issue right now for minnesotans is that is that something that people i'm just thinking of eric adams the new mayor here in new york city who ran successfully i mean he's a democrat of course he you know he's pretty much going in but he um he built a coalition of parents essentially who were concerned about crime is that is that part of what you're going to be talking about oh so absolutely so let me give you my let me give you my three points number one that's one of the reasons i got into this race is that we need to fix our crime we can't have business we can't have commerce we can't have civil society if people

can't feel comfortable in their communities and across the state and it affects commerce and everything number two is this whole thing around our finances we're we're at the top tier in and business and personal taxes in this state literally and we people have been moving out of the state because of that and it's not just because of retirees right we're on the handful of states that actually still uh actually tax social security retirees the third reason is empowering parents on education these these these three things are really universal things it's not necessarily political right the left has made them political yeah i want to respond to this one thing about race the third one is has to be a little bit not just critical race theory but just fighting back about

this being bullied on everything and from race to equity that this you know i think americans are getting fatigued by this whole race thing and here's here's what i do and i like this and i poke back this is the least racist period in our country's history okay now you understand when you say that we're not i mean i'm nodding my head i peter and james are nodding our head but that's going to be a hard i mean it's not a hard stuff you don't think it is absolutely not and here's why you don't think i can find white progressive journalists in in minneapolis who are just gonna dig into i can't wait okay i can't wait i can't wait and here's why the white progressive term they're a minority

of the viewpoint of our country and the only only reason why that permeates is that they don't get pushed back with reality and facts. Now, here's a scenario. The disparity that we have in fatherless homes in the United States, in fact, I have an op-ed that's going to be coming out soon on this thing. It is, I call it a cultural genocide. It is probably the worst scandal unreported in our lifetime. That you have a culture that finally gets civil rights and they go from 80 percent to parent families, 80 percent fatherless homes and our life and no one's written. And there's been no attempt to reverse it. And I'm going to tell you, my congressman, when I was a kid in Harlem, I used to go back and visit my mother every year and look at the friends I had in Harlem.

Charlie Rangel was there 47 years. And you know what? He got wealthier and wealthier. His families were taken. And everyone there remained in poverty and got worse. You know what that is? That's 13th century Europe yeah okay so so i mean i know you got to run so i i just want to who is the describe to me the voter in min in minnesota

who who you really need to get not the republican not the conservative who's the voter who goes in and votes for the democrat or kind of skeptical sees sees you and thinks, I don't know if I trust that. Who are you trying to get? Where's the where's the where's the tipping point for you? I can give you the profile because I just I just met this guy. So I just met this guy. You know, it's his brother. This is Irish, Irish Catholic family. His brother is 84 years old conservative public his younger brother 60 year old uh democrat who went to the clinton national convention in the democratic party okay you know what he went to go he went to caucus for me and to replace this kindle this is a big deal but this crime thing it is told this is not what we signed up for. This is not who we are. We need to, I'm scared living here. We have progressive people that I call JFK Democrats, Clinton Democrats.

This, what's happening in the Democratic Party is not, it's not even the Democratic Party of my parents' era. It's not the Democratic Party of the Clinton era. These people are going to be voting for me. And I'm going to tell them, just like I told my you know junior high when i was a junior high look we can be boyfriend and girlfriend sometimes this girl said to me she said yeah we can be boyfriend you can be my boyfriend but just don't tell anybody so when you go in the vote when you go in the vote you get i'm a comfortable vote but you. You don't have to tell your friends you voted. Kendall, I don't have a question.

I just have a comment. You're running for the right office, but in the wrong state. Will you please come here to California and run for governor? Will you please? No, no, we need the man. No, no, no. We need the man here. We need the man here. We need the man here.

Here's what I feel. If we can do this in Minnesota, I think it'll spark an enthusiasm around the country. Well, you know how crazy our gubernatorial politics can be. So, I mean, all sorts of all manner of things are possible. But now the people, the good liberal people of Minnesota are seeing the consequences of the ideology for which they voted. And they're getting it good and hard. I mean, they're seeing the social disorder. I mean, I drove up 35W the other day. And if you know, we've just finished this magnificent project of rebuilding the freeway.

And there's all these walls. And they're spattered with graffiti. They are covered for a mile with ugly graffiti that nobody takes away. And it used to be that we paid high taxes. We got used to it, but we got good services for it. We got good roads and good schools and it was a clean and civil, safe, sane place. And now when you see this sort of disorder, you think it's all for naught. And so, yes, what you're talking about, I think, is going to be a message that's going to resonate. And a lot of people on the DFL side are going to say that they did vote for you because the current administration seems to be a bit feckless and fey. Hey, this is

great. And we'd love to have you back again after your inauguration. You'll probably be busy, but we've got some stuff that we can argue about. The important matters in life, like the problem with New York pizza style, which, frankly, I knew we were going to get into, but we'd probably best not this time. Let's concentrate on the goal. It's eyes on the prize. Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Qualls. We hope to speak with you again. Well, thank you so much for having me.

Enjoy the show. Good luck on the hostings. All right. Take care. Bye. Thank you so much for having me. Enjoy. Good luck on the good luck on the hostings. All right. Take care. But while breaking through the Adamantine barriers that some Minnesota good liberals have to voting Republican, it might happen, you know, they'll feel strange about it. But then again, perhaps they resolve to do something different intellectually this year. It's always possible. Now, we all know those resolutions that you make can be tricky and you make them and you break them. I get that. But just because you make resolutions and

you don't follow through them doesn't mean you shouldn't still be looking for a way to shake things up, whether it's by switching up your workout routine or going someplace new. I can't wait to get back on a plane. Whatever way you happen to challenge yourself this new year, there's no better way to do it than with a pair of Raycon wireless earbuds in your ears, because whatever you're going to do needs a soundtrack. You can provide it and Raycon can play it well. Raycon wireless earbuds are the best way to bring audio with you because no matter how you shake things up, I mean, literally, no matter how much you shake, you know they won't fall out of your ears. I can testify to this. I was walking to work the other day and slipped on the ice and they stayed in my ears. That is a testament to their

power. Their everyday earbuds look, feel, and sound better than ever. There's also an awareness mode. So when you need to listen to your surroundings, you can take Raycons with you wherever you go. With optimized gel tips for the perfect in-ear fit, these earbuds are so comfortable and they will not budge. Even if you slip, fall on your knee, your coccyx are going to stay in there. So Raycon offer also eight hours. Did I say that? Eight hours of playtime and a 32-hour battery life. And the price just right.

You get quality audio for half the price of the other premium audio brands. It's no wonder that Raycon's everyday earbuds have over 48,000 five-star reviews. So right now, Ricochet listeners, that would be you, It's no wonder that Raycon's everyday earbuds have over 48,000 five-star reviews. So right now, Ricochet listeners, that would be you, can get 15% off their Raycon order at buyraycon.com slash ricochet. That's buyraycon, B-U-Y-R-A-Y-C-O-N.com slash ricochet to save 15% on your Raycons. Buyraycon.com slash ricochet. And we thank raycon for sponsoring this ricochet podcast and now we welcome

the podcast ezra levant canadian media personality political activist writer broadcaster was the founder of the western standard and was columnist for sun media where he hosted a daily program for the sun news network he's the founder owner and main contributor of rebel news and is our inside man on canada's trucking situation he had a great twitter thread the other day about how this is going to end describe that and tell me whether or not you still stand by it. Well, I mean, the truckers are a Canadian phenomenon that I've never seen before in my life. A truly grassroots, authentic, organic movement with no leader. It's not funded by a super PAC. There's no organizer. There was a nice lady who put up a gofundme page that just blew up but

i don't think any of the monies actually float to truckers that's a different subject but this is truly organic and as the convoys and there were several of them it's such a big country it's not just one long train as they snake their way through the roads and towns of this country more and more people came up to cheer them on, to watch them by the side of the road, to gather on overpasses and cheer. And my estimate is that there were up to 100,000 trucks or truckers who participated in some or all of the convoy. And I think it's probably close to a million people who came to cheer them on. And I say again, no political party was behind them. It was a truly grassroots workers' rebellion, to use a left-wing phrase. It was very peaceful. In fact, there has not been a single violent incident other than violence done

to the truckers. For example, in Winnipeg, a pro pro-mask pro-lockdown antifa activist rammed into four of the truckers he's been charged with four crimes 11 counts actually um but it's peaceful it's very canadian it's not a revolution there are acts of civil disobedience like they're brought they're blocking the mighty bridge between detroit andor, over which hundreds of millions of dollars of trade flow. It's actually a quarter of all Canada-U.S. trade, because the auto sector's on both sides of that bridge. So there is some civil disobedience. I will not gloss that over, but it's peaceful. Ezra, can you just tell us Americans, where do matters stand this very morning? Honestly,

I'm confused. I had the impression that the truckers had all gone to Ottawa. But no, you're saying they're down on the border of, they're there in Windsor, blocking the bridge. So where do matters stand? Where are they? How much have they shut down? Well, there's truckers everywhere. Like I say, it's organic. So you have a blockade at the Alberta-Montana border. That's been in place for two weeks now. But that's not a big border crossing. It's in the middle of the Bald Prairie. And Americans are really worried because that could really start to affect jobs and the supply chain for America.

And Joe Biden is one of them. You've got basically the sit-in in Ottawa. They've been ordered by a court to stop their use of big air horns. Fair enough. A lot of people live in the city. But other than that, they're just sort of hunkered down. You have other border protests between Manitoba and North Dakota. But the flashpoint, I say again, is this Ambassador Bridge.

It's a multi-billion dollar bridge, privately owned, actually. It really is. It's like the aorta. It's such an important artery between our two countries. And Justin Trudeau's reaction to the truckers has been to smear them, racist sexism. Yes. He refused to meet with them. But Jen Psaki, she said her concern, but she has not engaged in the same name calling.

And I think that's very wise. Right. Because I think America doesn't have a stake in Trudeau's personal vendetta against these truckers. What do Americans care? In fact, Joe Biden likes to position himself as a friend of the working man. It's not accurate, but that's part of his self-image. He doesn't need to smear these working class truckers. So my theory is, the way this will end, is that Joe Biden will say, oh, good news from the CDC, we have, the science has evolved. We don't need a vaccine mandate for long-haul truckers going back

and forth to america and so justin trudeau will have to reciprocate because it doesn't make sense on a round-trip journey to need a vaccine mandate on one side but not the other side so i think joe biden and i don't know america as well as you guys obviously i'm a canadian but he has not painted himself into a corner he has not put a lot of his moral capital on the line he has not said i will never meet with these people he's i mean he's in his own cloud so i think he's going to end it because he doesn't want america dragged into this as rob right so as i'm rob rob and james want to come in and but I want to ask one more question why has

Justin Trudeau painted himself into a corner? I mean as I understand it the Liberal Party had a scare in the last election the Conservatives who were run by as best I can tell the Conservative leader was feckless and weak

and even at that the Liberals had a close near-run thing of it. He now heads a coalition government. As I recall, the liberals don't hold an outright majority in government. And here he is, I kept waiting, I'm still waiting for some, just notes, just some background music of conciliation or some attempt to find, and none of it, none of it. He has doubled down day by day by day. What does he think? Does he really think he has the country with him?

Well, it's always worked for him before, calling his opponents these names. It's a little bit of projection. He has worn blackface so many times, he said he can't remember the number, but he calls people racist. He basically confessed to sexually assaulting a reporter named Rose Knight in the town of Creston, D.C. He apologized for it at the time, and then more recently he said, well, she experienced it differently. He calls you sexist he at least groped and perhaps assaulted a woman he admits to it he violates your civil liberties through the lockdowns but he claims you're violent he's he's a bit of a manipulator and it's always worked

for him but now it's not working one of the reasons why is like i say a million people see with their own eyes the true nature of this convoy so they're not going to buy it all they see are canadian flags and happy truckers they don't see nazis so it's just laughable another reason is a lot of canadian truckers are ethnically diverse there's a lot of sikh truckers south south asian truckers indigenous canadians like like indians and um it's just, it just doesn't connect. And I think a lot of people are tired of the lockdowns and they're just sick of his, you know, he puts on that dramatic actor voice. I mean, he used to be a substitute drama teacher and he gets into that and he, that sexy move. Like I always, like when he gets into that first date timber of his voice

baby you know when he starts talking like a boyfriend it's gross five six years ago i think a lot of people responded oh he's wonderful i think so many people have fallen out of love with him now it's just gross they say that's who you are it's i mean the mask has fallen but he can't get out of it because how do you meet with Nazis after you call them Nazis? That's where Joe Biden comes in because Joe Biden's not in the corner. Joe Biden doesn't even know where Canada is, what subway stations Canada on. But if his people just say, look, get rid of this. We don't need convoys in America.

We don't need supply chain issues. We don't need these visuals. We don't need this going into the midterms right well um hey so thanks for joining us it's rob long in new york uh so i've uh i'm just going to be revealing about my own psychology part of me is cheering this right it's great because i think trudeau is a moron and i think these mask mandates are stupid or the vaccine all that that stuff is dumb. So I think that the point here, if that's the point, is great. But another part of me is like, well, this is paralyzing an entire country and it is having a really radical economic, causing radical economic damage,

sudden economic damage at the beginning of the green shoots of maybe of a recovery. And as a, you know, as a sort of a law and order conservative myself i'm like well you know there are other ways to do this um am i just missing the point this seems like overwhelmingly approving of this and and applauding it seems like uh i'm gonna regret this you know what i mean i know exactly what you mean and i think of these things myself because a couple years ago we had antifa style blockades of our railways and of course we were against that here's a couple things that i that i think in my mind first all, one of the differences between Canada and the United States is that every single check and balance in our country has failed. There are 10 provinces and the federal government. Every government and every opposition party are in unanimity on the lockdowns.

There's no Ron DeSantis here. There is not one. The second thing is no court has ruled against any of the lockdowns. Not one ruling in the entire country has been knocked down. Your Supreme Court, you have different courts. There's been some pushback. The media, other than independent outlets like us, are unanimous in support of this. Academia, unanimous. The colleges, the physicians, and surgeons suspend anyone. I just just literally before your call this show i got a call from it so it's the entire so facing a monolith you're saying this is it

this is that you can't say to these people this is a peaceful general strike it's a peaceful general strike do i like it no i mean it's gonna have it's gonna it has negative effects right so my other question is this because i'm this is I'm most fascinated by, because it seems, I mean, I don't know if this is the right word. This seems like an incredibly diabolically elegant protest. You get your big thing and you park it. And you can't move the big thing because it's too big. And no one else knows how to move the big thing. Certainly not Justin Trudeau probably couldn't drive an 18-wheeler if you give him a million dollars, right?

The people who would tow the big thing, if you had to get in the tow or you needed people to tow this thing, are more than likely going to be in sympathy with the protesters. So you have this terrible moment where you really can't order a bunch of truck tow truck drivers in because those guys are also driving trucks and probably hate this too so there's a sort of a genius here whose idea was it where did it start the first person i tell you it was it was organic but i mean there's always one like there's always i mean listen i remember in the 70s there was a song called convoy and like we knew a con yeah oh that's yeah so like there's a guy and he thought of it so who's the guy do we know the guy is i want to meet the guy i don't know if i don't know if we'll ever know i don't know if we'll ever know but let me tell you it's gone you're right on the tow truck

drivers i see new stories all the time of uh entire city, not a single tow truck driver. Well, this is what they mean by solidarity forever. This is what they mean by workers of the world unite. This is what the left always talked about. What's so interesting to me is that the left wing parties are the most vicious towards the working class. They hate this workers' rebellion. They support the violation of collective agreements. All of a sudden, big companies and big governments say, we have a collective agreement with 100,000 workers.

We're just foisting this new term on you. You must get vaxxed or you're fired and the unions won't grieve it. Oh, is that how the left plays? What happened to being against big pharma and big corporations? What about personal choice? My body is my right so all so all of a sudden there are there are enormous groups of people who do not see any outlet and what i love about the truckers is that they're honest and law-abiding people this is the only thing they've ever done in their lives that is contrary to the law and And people know that. They know they're not destroyers like the Antifa blockaders from two years ago.

So is this a, are we seeing a new picture of Canada? I mean, you know, Canadians are all like, they're all socialists, and that's our attitude. They're polite socialists up there. They look down at us. They think, oh, you Americans,

all you do is make all this noise. Is this a Canada that we've got to get used to you know i'm 49 years old i've lived in canada my whole life i have never in my life seen such expressions of freedom and i didn't know that it was possible i i've always assumed i was the one conservative in a country of socialists i've seen the word freedom used more in the last two weeks than the last two decades i that is not a canadian idea and and what has felt particularly heartwarming to me i mentioned the ethnic diversity of these truckers so you see new canadians with their accents foreign accents saying i believe in liberty and i don't believe the government has the right to like like to see the eloquent phrasing of liberty by people who are so new to

canada that they still have an accent i didn't know that the roots of freedom were still deep like that and and let me tell you there was an opinion poll which showed that 32 percent of canadians see themselves in their truckers that would immediately be the most popular political party if these truckers were a party oh man yeah hey peter here i just want you to know why rob is asking who the first guy was and that's because he's already working on the school yeah it's got to be the guy you've got to find out that is aaron brockovich i don't know i don't know if we'll ever know who it was um that's great then rob gets to make him up start yeah yeah the lady who started the gofundme is not even a trucker she just said oh i like what's going on let me raise a few bucks and suddenly 10 million dollars was in there and that's another thing they seized

that money but first of all they pressured gofundme to call it off then they set up a go send me or sort of go give send go and And now the government of Ontario has sought and received an ex parte order to freeze those funds. So this is Hugo Chavez stuff, seizing your opponent's bank accounts. That's what you do in Caracas or Havana. That's not what you do in Canada. Let me ask a little bundle quickly. I'll ask them quickly, and you answer at any length you wish. A little bundle of questions about the politics of this, which just fascinates me.

I mean, I hadn't thought of it. You summed it up for us, but that every Dominion government and the federal government and the press and the courts have all been in lockstep on the lockdown and the mandates. Fascinating. Okay. About the truckers, is there a demographic aspect of this? I had assumed, it seemed to me, that the convoy began in the Western provinces. So, I had assumed that these were all Western Canadians and Canada, there's a difference between West and East. Question one of three. Question two of three, where's Quebec in all this? We're so used to thinking in Canada, well, you always have to worry about the Quebecois. Why don't we hear any truckers speaking French? And here's question three of three. The Conservatives just made a bet on a soft, on a wet Conservative

and he lost the election. Why aren't there, maybe there are, maybe I just haven't seen them. Why aren't there some conservative politicians freelancing, saying, I'm with these guys and going right out and taping statements with truckers, getting themselves on the air, trying to position the Conservative Party with these people? Three great questions. So the first one, yes, there is a freer spirit in the West. It's a little bit like Texas. And I think that's where the main convoy did start from, but it was soon echoed throughout the country. I should tell you the good news from Quebec is that there was a disproportionate number of truckers from Quebec. I learned the word trucker in French as camionneur. And the camionneurs

were outstanding. And in fact, the Premier of Quebec, rather than taking the Trudeau denunciation, he said, I'll meet with them. And then finally, your question is about the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party of Canada has had two disastrous leaders in a row. And there was this instinct amongst backbenchers, we call them, backbench Conservative MPs to go out and meet the truckers. And the leader, his name was Aaron O'Toole, just wouldn't and wouldn't and wouldn't. And then 10 days ago, the Conservative Party of Canada kicked out their leader.

They fired Aaron O'Toole. The caucus met and threw him out in one day by a vast majority. He was actually the first casualty of the truckers because these conservative backbench MPs were saying, these are our people. What are you doing? These are our people. And he wouldn't. So they threw him out to the Conservative Party of Canada, now has a new leadership race because the last guy was terrible the new guy that i'm seeing i believe his name starts with a p i saw an interview with him right i saw an interview with him and trudeau and it was it was bracing it was wonderful i mean if trudeau had been wearing

like oh i don't know a castro style beard it would have all been sort of burned off by the rhetoric that he was giving to them so i hope hope that he does. Hey, the only thing that we hear really here in Minnesota, which, you know, very close to Canada, your Winnipeg is like our Minnesota, Minneapolis, is the local radio station, the public radio station at the end of the night plays as it happens. And that's about it. But the CBC, of course, being the dominant voice over there with a lot of funding from the state, would be the dominant house organ of the media. And then there's you. So how has Rebel News done throughout this? Are people turning to you and saying, hey, wait a minute, this is an organization outside of the official government speak. I'm going to see what they've got for the first time. Are you seeing traffic up? Are you legitimacy increased are you seeing what do you how does this look for rebel well very much so and uh we have in the last two years really emphasized on the ground reporting not not just punditry there's a place for punditry and commentary but if you're just a commentator you're punditing on someone else's raw material

get the raw material so for example last weekend we had reporters with cameras in nine different cities at different blockades and and rallies vancouver calgary edmonton milk river coots montreal sorry ottawa etc etc etc so we were pumping out so much raw material we would just put our logo on it and upload it. And I think we probably had more people putting eyes on our work than on the CBC State Broadcast. I could be wrong. They have such an enormous machine. But certainly our motto, telling the other side of the story, has been proven true. And I mean, I haven't looked at our traffic stats, to be honest, but I just know it's in the millions.

I think that we also do an interesting thing because we're demonetized on YouTube and advertisers are very, it's less than 1% of what we do. We crowdfund and we have people, it's a measurement of passion out there and an underserved group. So we just crowdfunded our channel

and people deeply believe in what we're doing so it's allowing and again that shows that the break i listed all the institutions that don't work the courts the academia the college of physicians insurgency opposition etc the media in this country is dominated by the state broadcaster. It's larger than all private media combined. And then that wasn't enough for Trudeau, so he brought in a media bailout for the newspapers. They're all on the take, too. Literally 99% of journalists in Canada are either bought or rented by Trudeau.

We're one of the very few who don't take the dough. And it shows. And I'm not saying we're ever going to be big. We're 52 people. But let me tell you how that story is going to end. Last week, Justin Trudeau introduced Bill C-11 to regulate the Internet. I wonder who he has in mind. Well, I've seen early drafts of that. We have breaking news from Canada.

This is true. While you've been on, Ezra, Manitoba has announced that it's lifting the vaccine mandates. I'm not sure exactly. I don't have the... Manitoba to drop all vaccine requirements, and this is 28 minutes ago. Yeah. So, I am going to say that it was your appearance on the Ricochet podcast that caused the first province in Canada to stand up and do the right thing. Ezra Levant, we thank you.

And even more, we applaud ourselves. Well, listen, thanks for having me on the show today. Back to James. I'm sorry. I was just interrupting. Back to James. No, that's fantastic. Listen, folks, if you want to follow the story, you don't want to get what you know you're going to get from the CBC.

Just Google Ezra Labatt. Just Google Rebel News. Just go to rebelnews.com. Rebelnews.com. And we have a special compilation page just for the truckers. It's called convoyreports.com. Convoyreports.com. And we literally have a guy standing on the ambassador bridge right now, live streaming. We've also crowdfunded lawyers for the truckers because they're going to need a,

my point of view is if college Sheikh Mohammed and Saddam Hussein can get a free lawyer, we can give some lawyers to these men. And I'm not saying that they haven't broken a law here or there. I'm not saying that they are, they're engaged in civil disobedience. So did Gandhi. And his point was he wasn't trying to evade punishment.

He was trying to prove the injustice of the system. And he was counting on the nobility of the Brits to see what they were doing was wrong. Gandhi's approach doesn't work against Stalin or Xi Jinping. It only works against an authority that has a conscience. These truckers would be killed in a different place. They will be punished in Canada, but they're hoping that the injustice and the nobility, they're not violent, they're not cheating anyone, they're not benefiting personally in any way, they're taking a stand because

I believe that history will regard them as heroes. And so Rebel News is crowdfunding, and we have a partner, no relation to the U.S. entity by the same name, in Canada, it's called the Democracy Fund. It's not Piero Meteor's group. We're crowdfunding the legal defense for the lawyers in at least three of these blockades.

Great. Great. Fantastic. Well, good luck thanks very much bye-bye thanks for having me guys good luck down there thank you absolutely fascinating a real journalist somebody who knows stuff and robert you had to mention the convoy song we got ourselves a convoy yes we do cw mccall was that it the whole trucker phase of the 70s i mean here we are it's we've we've got the inflation we've got the problems with iran and now we're and now we're bringing back trucker lingo and the next thing you know we're gonna have big posters of shirtless chris christopherson telling us 10-4 good sure well we have the inflation

so we're already halfway to the 70s that's what i just said you weren't even listening i just i already said that i'm not trying because i'm trying to remember that this i can't because you caused an earworm to jump into both rob's skull and mine well rob was probably waiting for the segue the deal of it is is that there is no segue going to an ad because what we have actually is an in-house ad we have a testimony coming from brother rob who is going to tell you something that you need to know rob uh well i got a bunch of things i want to say one is i want to remind people that if you are a student listening to this or you know a student listening to this you got to go to ricochet uh and join a student

membership that's like a dot edu email right uh and And it's free. And we want you to join because we want your voice. We want you to be part of the club here. Also that, you know, it's free to join, essentially, even if you're not a student. You get two weeks that you can check around, kick the tires, join some conversations, see what you like. And we know that if you try us out, that you will join. Because for all the time we spend online, you'd think that we do nothing but sing the praises of being online. But of course, we all know that the online community, online world is just the worst. Trolls, filth, nasty stuff, etc. And what we're trying to look for, what we're trying to create is a

kookless, jerkless site. That was a description I thought was very apt. Well, jerkless anyway. Jerkless, right. To read and converse, and that is what Ricochet is. Ricochet.com is the place to be, not only if you want to know what's happening in this

eclectic, conservative movement or moment, but if you want to be what's happening in this eclectic conservative movement or moment, but if you want to be a part of it too, and you know what being part of it means, not just listening to podcasts, but joining conversations and maybe starting your own, mixing it up in the comments, mixing it up in the member feed, sharing your own life history. It also means listening to John Gabriel's Call-In. We've teamed with Call-In, which is a new app that allows you to create podcasts and cultivate audio communities. So that's right. If you're tired of podcasters,

like you know who, here's your chance to give us the true story. By the way, John Gabriel does one every weeknight, and it's fantastic. Basically, we're trying to create a community, Colin. And it seems to be working.

I just have to say, Kuklis Jerklis sounds like the name of an Andy Kaufman character. It's a very strange, constrained accent. Go on. Also, the benefits of membership. We've introduced No Dumb Questions, which is our new webcast exclusively for Ricochet members, where you get to ask questions of very, very well-known commentators and people and thinkers. We had one scheduled for this week with Aya and Hersi Ali. She had to postpone it, so it's sometime next week. We'll let you know when that's happening soon.

This is a chance for people just to kind of chat for an hour, hour and a half on a much more casual way. That is, again, it's like you're in a clubhouse. And in one of the rooms, there's a guy sitting there and you've always wanted to have a conversation with him. And now you can't. This is a site where the comment section. I mean, we actually spent a long time, Peter, talking about why we should not call it a comment section because it's really not. I mean, it's where you have a conversation, the conversation section. It cannot be beat here.

Our community is obviously politically aware and smart and articulate. The debates can get heated sometimes, maybe a little too heated, and we sort of step in and we go back to the corner, take a deep breath. That's also part of being in a club. But the debate here is authentic and civil and the people um debating agreeing with you or suggesting something or sharing something are real people and they understand the rules of a club we talk politics of course but not exclusively pop culture literature music family local news we have um we have bureaucratic horror stories from SoCal Nurse. I mean, the youthful adventures

of Wanderer at Yale, who is not me, was not me. Intricate Wonkery from King Rufus, and even the latest progressive cringe from Smarty Trousers Jr. These are actually really funny. Most of them are really funny, so it's kind of a joy to read. But if there's something missing from ricochet it is you um what do you know what do you think what have been your life experiences we want to know so please join ricochet go to ricochet.com join to take part in the best the internet has to offer become a member of the club along with us that's ricochet.com join you know i've done these i've done them successfully these sort of member come you know pitches and i've done them unsuccessfully um the ones when i'm most successful is what i say to you listen you've been listening to this podcast you've been thinking

about it we really do need you and i really mean that we really do need you not only just to keep the ship afloat but also because we need your voice. And we'd love to have you. So we thank our Ricochet members, new and old, for sponsoring this, the Ricochet podcast. And if you've let your membership lapse for whatever reason, we will be letting you know. And if you've been putting it off, today's the day. Please join. And I'll see you there. I mean, I spend a lot of time in the comment section in the conversations i love it i hit it in the morning and then it's in the evening

after all my work is done that's where i go to just dip in here and there and argue or agree or just read the really fine voices that are there and it's fun like every saturday night um there's a an old radio show posting around which some of us gather and admire the the pictures of the radios that are posted and talk about culture 50 60 years ago it's like one percent of ricochet but it's it's that little niche thing that i go for and i guarantee that you'll find something there yourself too yeah so if i'm not just sitting here because we do the podcast and the rest of it i am on ricochet because i love it. And it feels like an internet home in ways that no other place does.

There are sites that I love to read where I, you know, if I get, if I dip into the comments, I might, I might, I, I, I, it's discus and it's madness and it's, you know, you know, it's, it's jerkus it's it's nasty. The comments are so bad. They turned James Lyle looks into Jackie Mason. That's right. That's right. That's what they do. And there are places that I go for news where I just have, you know, I'm looking at a little scant because I know where the slant and the bias is coming.

Then I go to the place that's the guilty pleasure where the guy's really ranting. And sometimes you like that, but it angers out the blood and it's no fun. It's always just ricochet is just that place where you walk in and you don't even have to look where the hook by the door is to take off your hat and hang it because you know where it is it's just it's just that familiar and the chair when you sink into it has your has your contours and the glass with the clinking cubes and the brown stuff has a familiar contour in your hand and everybody looks for a place like that on the internet facebook doesn't do it and twitter doesn't do it nothing does except well maybe for lilacs.com but yeah ricochet that on the internet. Facebook doesn't do it. Twitter doesn't do it. Nothing does, except, well, maybe for lilacs.com.

But yeah, Ricochet, that's the joint. It's been forever since I went. First day I went there, it moved from my weekly bookmarks to my hourly. I suppose we should do Super Bowl picks. I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm just looking forward to it, actually, the last gasp. Looking forward to be disappointed by an endless series of commercials that think they're more clever than they actually are but um do you

guys have super bowl picks i know peter robinson you're keenly watching this right i i actually do pay a little attention to football but i only pay attention to three teams the 49ers green bay and seattle i really i'm going to say the Bengals. I'll say the Bengals. The Bengals have a quarterback who's a star. Maybe he's the next Tom Brady. I don't know. The Bengals. Yeah.

By a field goal. Wow. By a field goal. That's it? Yeah. I think it's got to be close though, hasn't it? I don't know. To be perfect, as you can tell, I honestly haven't followed either of these teams. I don't know. To be perfect, as you can tell, I honestly haven't followed either of these teams.

I don't know. I guess I should, as a former Los Angelino, be for the Rams, but I kind of like the idea of an old football town. You know what I mean? Like Cincinnati. I don't know. When the Steelers are in, I root for the Steelers. I don't know. I just have a, I just, when the Steelers are in, I root for the Steelers when the, I don't know, I'm going to root for Cincinnati, but for no, I would never, I don't, I would never presume to be able to sort of parse the,

the odds and why this or that would work. But to me, it feels like, it feels like this is the year that Cincinnati Bengals win. Well, the Bengals beat the Vikings in overtime by a field goal. And that started on our season to be the disaster that it was. So I want them to go down in flames and pain. No, actually. I want the best team to win. I want the officiating to be good.

I want the hits to be hard. I want to see great explosive plays. I want to see good football because, man, in the playoffs, I saw the greatest football I think I've ever seen in my entire life. So there's that. And it's nice that people are in the stadium again and that there's not this pre-recorded noise and that we're not seeing cardboard figures and 1,500 people scattered amongst. But there is something.

This game will take place in LA. Yeah, I know. And LA is still under the masking mandate. Are these 80,000 spectators really going to be expected to sit there during the Super Bowl wearing masks if they don't move your mask to have a bite of your hot dog and your sip of your beer then how are they gonna that that actually that'll be interesting that'll be interesting it is i think it actually isn't so great that they're having the super bowl in the town where where one of the teams is from

you know i mean that doesn't seem right right doesn't seem fair. Should be neutral territory, right? Yeah. I'd like to thank a variety of people. Our guests, of course. We'd like to thank Indochino. We'd like to thank Raycon. We'd like to thank Ricochet itself. And we'd like to thank

Tori Warreiter, who was one of the people who was insistent on us getting Ezra as a guest. See, that's the kind of influence you can have as a Ricochet member. Say the word and we fulfill your wish. But no, we're not going to have Margaret Thatcher on with a seance or anything

like that. Be reasonable. So support all of those people, including Tori Warwriter for supporting us. Join today as Rob said. He gave you all the good reasons you need to do so. All right, next week we will face our Super Bowl picks and we'll have more guests and more conversation, and you'll be here, and we'll all be fine, and it'll be great, and happy Valentine's Day, guys. We didn't get around to that, probably just as well. Yeah, that's right. Here's what you can get me for Valentine's Day. The people who decided when I was talking, okay, you know what? I will join, who now have just forgotten it because we ended up talking about something else that's blown out of your head. Please join.

Please join. We need you. And with that, we say that we'll see you at Ricochet 4.0 next week, guys. Next week. Next week, fellas. Got my chips, can't stand Keep truckin' Like the doodah man

Together More or less in line Just keep truckin' On and on On and on There's some neon and flashy marquees out on Main Street Chicago, New York, Detroit, and it's all the same street A typical city involving a typical daydream

Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings Dallas has got the soft machine Houston to close to New Orleans. New York has got the way it means, but just won't let you be. Ricochet.

Join the conversation. Most of the cats that you meet on the street speak of true love. Most of the time they're sitting and crying at home. Join the conversation. Life is due, darling man One stone to me, you've got to play your hand Sometimes the cards ain't worth a thing You don't live, yeah, yeah, yeah Sometimes the light's all shining on me Other times I can barely see Lately it occurs to me

Oh no, I'm 50% Oh, no It wasn't the world Ever became a sweet jam She lost her fuck Well, you know she isn't the same Living on red vitamin C and cocaine All a friend can say You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,

you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,

you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,

you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,

you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, Anytime you pick a place to go You just keep truckin' Oh, oh, oh, oh Sittin' and starin' out of the hotel window

Got a tip to kickin' the door in again Like to get some sleep before I travel. You got a warrant, I guess you're gonna come in. I bust it down on the perfect street. I serve like a bowling pin. Knocked down, guess where is the plan? Just won't let you be You're sick of hanging around

And you'd like to travel You're tired of traveling You'd like to settle down I guess the cute revoke You're so portraying Get out of the door Traveling, you'd like to settle down I guess the cute revoke you sold for trying Get out of the door, light out the look all around Sometimes the light's all shining on me Other times I can barely see And that makes me

Lately, I've been losing me Oh no, I'm a-goin' home Whoa, whoa, baby, back where I belong Back home, sit down and have some fun Get back to workin' on our own Come on. Panoply.