Eric Church's Commencement Address at UNC

Thanks for listening to Chicago's Morning Answer podcast sponsored by Signature, a division of Esquire Bank. Signature takes pride in helping customers grow their business and provide unmatched banking expertise, custom financial solutions, and the industry's best technology. So whether your business is looking for a deposit relationship or needs a ready source of financing, Signature has the solutions for you. Call today at 773-467, 5600 to hear how signature can help your business grow and thrive. Esquire Bank, member FDIC. equal housing lenders. Join Dan Proft, Sean Thompson, and Alex Marlow, editor of Breitbart News. For Cigar Night on Tuesday, May 19th, tickets are on sell now at 560.com slash cigar. This is Chicago's morning answer with Dan Proft on AM 560, The Answer. Top of the morning, Dan Proft here. If you didn't know it was springtime in Chicago, all you have to do is look at some of the local headlines. Like this one, for example. CPS plans to cut teacher positions, raise class sizes, and bid to shrink $732 million deficit. Oh, the Chicago public school system has a big gaping budget deficit. And that's despite the fact that, and these are generous estimates, probably estimates that are tantamount to the crime stats emanating out of D.C. CPS enrollment dropped 45,000 students during the past seven years. Yet its budget has gone way up. The new CEO there, a doctor, not a doctor, Macklin King. The relief funding has gone, oh, the glory days of COVID when the federal government was printing money and drop shipping pallets of cash to cities like Chicago and disintegrating institutions like CPS. It's difficult for the district to support and sustain that same level of staffing. Yeah, why would you want to support and sustain the same level of staffing if you have so many fewer students? Just asking. 312-642-2-5600 is the alpha wealth group.com answer line and text line. Civic Fed President Joe Ferguson, there's no rabbits to pull out of the habits this time, no big pools of money. This time, yeah. If you went back a decade, two decades, the same lines being recited by basically the same. type of person in charge of an institution that is impervious to change, regardless of changing marking conditions. And I'm, by the way, talking about the civic federation as much as I'm talking about CPS, all of these high-minded elite, uh, oriented, civic oriented organizations that are there to provide guidance, the village elders of Chicago, please. They've been party to this catastrophe. $732 million deficit. Where are we going to get at? 45,000 kids. Sometimes, WBEZ, SunTimes. Why do you have a slash? You're the same thing. The AFL-CIO radio station and newspaper. State-funded media.

Synonymous. Analysis estimates it could cost more than 700 positions. Oh, heavens. 700 positions. What's the headcounted CPS? North of 25,000. CPS plans to also cut some assistant principal positions. Oh, no. Not the 14 assistant principals to the principal. Please don't cut any of the 14 assistant superintendents to the superintendent. Meanwhile, this additional layer. Speaking of high-minded civic institutions, honestly. A $10 million investment is being made to reduce chronic absenteeism in CPS schools. A non-profit aims to make a dent in absenteeism, chronic absenteeism on the south and west side. More than 40% of CPS students were chronically absent during the 24-25 school year. 40%. So you have them hemorrhaging. Student population, 45,000 in the last seven years, so they say, I suspect the number's bigger. And 130,000 of the people they say still are there that aren't there. Chronically absent. And this study that was done by a better Chicago.

is the basis for a better Chicago to kick in $10 million to address chronic absenteeism. And what does that look like? A recently released State of the Youth Report by A Better Chicago finds that... While a vast majority of Chicago youth say they feel optimistic about their futures while they're not attending school and while only roughly a quarter of them can do math, can read at grade level and one in five can do math at grade level, less than. They're very optimistic about their future because they've told to be about their futures because they've been told to be. Okay. At the same time, students point real challenges that make attending school difficult. 95% of youth say mental health is a serious issue affecting their peers, and the struggles are the most common reason students say their classmates miss school. Really? 40% of CPS students have mental health issues so severe they can't attend school. That's what's happening.

anxiety and stress, instability outside the classroom. It's just so much harder. And so we're going to throw $10 million at it. Here's an idea. These deep thinkers and self-starved philanthropists. And boy, this is a better Chicago. Went to look at their website. Not really familiar with their work, but I'm familiar with the approach. You know, it's a veritable who's who. A lot of staff you've, you know, been in and out of city government. Beth Swanson is the CEO. She was previously at the Joyce Foundation. You know, these goo-goo left foundations, not to mention city governments. And the board are... billionaires and sions of billionaires that want to feel like they're doing something. So we're going to throw $10 million at this. Who do I see here? Yeah, you know, the organization you figure be represented. Chris Keough from Goldman Sachs and Liam Creeble is the sign of a billionaire. Oh, former CPS. CEO Janice Jackson, who's now at the Aspen Institute. Of course she is. Madison Dearborn represented. Chicago Blackhawks, Danny Wirtz is on the board. It's all wonderful. Wonderful. Meanwhile, running concurrent to this is Kathy Hochul just announced that she is opting New York in to President Trump's school choice program. Something J.B. Pritzker. Well, first of all, killed. And all but said, he will not do because he needs to rally the support of the teachers' unions for his presidential bid, you see. These high-minded, well-heeled individuals from all the right companies and all the right foundations would do well to, rather than to burn, to light that $10 million on fire. Provide $10 million in scholarships to kids in CPS and get them out. When a ship is sinking, do you say the first thing we need to do is make sure the ship doesn't sink? We're going to fix the ship in real time so that nobody drowns. Or do you get people off the sinking ship as fast as you can? and save, hopefully everybody, but save as many as you can, as fast as you can. Well, of course, the approach that's been taken, we have to protect the institution, protect the institutions, prop up the institutions, keep the Potemkin Village standing. And it's going how? This $10, $11 billion enterprise, hemorrhaging students and 40% they say are there, and I'm skeptical of that number, are chronically absent. Fewer kids, bigger staff, bigger budget deficits, bigger scam. Jim and the Grange on Chicago's morning answer. Hey, Dan, so $10 million goes to somebody's uncle's brother's sister and they all go on a nice vacation. And then the answer is, Midnight basketball again, Dan. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Thanks, Jim. Craig and Mount Greenwood.

Oh, hey, Dan. Thanks for taking my call. You got to look at this, our system with the, you know, in the U.S. here in Illinois and Chicago and the leftist places like the living centers in the Somali pilot area. Nobody's showing up there. The kids are better off than our kids because our kids did show up. They're getting rat poison in the system and getting ruined. So maybe the kids are on to something with the parents and they're not showing up because they're basically not taking the poison. But our school system is worth zero. It's basically they ought to shut down the whole damn thing and everything and have all the money go to basically just private kind of enterprises and privatize it all. Thanks for the call, Craig. Text from 815. CPS is worried they won't have enough students for the next organized protests. Yeah, exactly. You know, I'm concerned that they won't have the numbers they need for Mayday 2027. It's a good point. This is the morning show. More Chicago radio listeners are choosing. This is Chicago's morning answer on AM 560. The answer. Signature, a division of Esquire Bank, offers Chicago businesses relationship first banking. Signature knows your name and your story because personalized banking still matters. I'm Dan Proft, and I know this because Signature is where I do my business banking. Hi, I'm Phil Silverman, CFO of Chicago Atlantic, and a client of Signature. We provide capital solutions in markets where risk is often fundamentally mispriced and traditional financing can be limited. In Chicago Atlantic, success depends on experience, responsiveness, attention to detail, and an entrepreneurial mindset. That's exactly what we found with Signature. Their team understands how we operate, supports our growth, and delivers the kind of personal service that's increasingly rare in banking today. And that's exactly why we bank with Signature. Signature helps local businesses succeed. Want to learn how Signature can help turn your business vision into reality? Call Signature, a division of Esquire Bank, at 773-467-5600, or visit Signature.orgate.com. Esquire Bank, member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. Only the biggest stories. Only the biggest guests. And only the biggest opinions. This is AM-560, the answer.

Good morning. Dan Prop's here. So the new, relatively new last year, Chief Judge Cook County Circuit Court, Charles Beach, provides some information on the state of electronic monitoring, feeling pressure to do so after the murder of Chicago police officer John Bartholomew and the critical injuring of his partner, to be sure. Now we're going to get some transparency, he says. So here's the data from the Chief Judge's office. 8% of people on Chief Judge Beach's electronic monitoring program are missing. 8%. 8% of 3,048 individuals currently on electronic monitoring are missing. That's 244 people. With pending criminal cases, most likely felony charges who are unaccounted for. 8% is that a successful failure rate for you? Fine. Well, I focus on the 8%. How about the 92% of people on electronic monitoring who know who the Cook County Chief Judge's office knows where they are? Oh, by the way, knowing where they are or complying with the electronic monitoring program doesn't mean that tomorrow some of those individuals will also commit additional crimes as CWB Chicago has documented over the last going on seven years now. The people on pretrial release for a violent felony, violent felony charge. who then commit a violent felony, who attempt to kill or kill someone while on electronic monitoring for an unrelated felony case. And I'll get to those stats in a second. But is that good enough? 8% AWOL out of 3,048 individuals. 312-4-2-5600, AlphaWealthgroup.com, answer line and text line. Transparency is not optional. It's a core obligation of this office, Judge Beach. The public has a right to know how this program operates. What the data shows and what we are doing every day to make it stronger. Well, what are you doing? You just described the objective, but you didn't tell us much about how you're going about attempting to achieve it. Uh-huh. So again, the chief judge in Cook County assumed all electronic monitoring responsibility for all people on electronic monitoring in April of last year following Tom Dart walking away from the program. He didn't want the responsibility. Certainly not in the Safety Act era. And I don't think Beach is real keen on it as well, but doesn't have an option at this point.

His big change, redefining a quote-unquote major violation as an unimproved absence of three hours or more down from the previous threshold of 48 hours. Uh-huh. And that sounds great. No, it actually doesn't. It's sort of saying, you know, we're going to prosecute retail thefts of more than $600, where it used to be only more than $1,000. I don't think you're really getting the point here. That does not represent a paradigm shift. That is not going to instigate culture change. You're conceding too much. But even that major reform, it sounds great on paper. Not really. It sounds marginally better on paper. But it really doesn't matter because court records show that Beech's staff has failed to follow these new protocols, including in the case of the officer, John Bartholomew, murdered by a repeat violent offender. who was missing for more than 17 hours on March 8th. And less than an hour after he returned home, his ankle monitor died because he didn't charge it, according to court filings. It remained dead, and the system stopped tracking him, according to a report filed by the court's pretrial office. Under the new rules, what should have happened, it should have been brought to the attention of the judge handling his case. John Like, within 24 hours. But court files and hearing transcript show the matter was not brought before Judge Like until after 1 p.m. three days later. And then, of course, what did John like do? Nothing.

So there's the rules as laid out on paper, and then there's the competence or inclinations of staff to execute them, isn't there? And it seems like we've got a problem on both of those fronts. 312-4-2-5600 AlphaWealthgroup.com. Call on text line, Rogers, Southside. Hey, Dan. I think I've contender for years. You've agreed it. Our problem is a county problem. It's a county problem here. And it fortunately starts at the top with Tony, Tony, Tony, you know, what they've done in Springfield with, you know, decriminalizing the entire criminal code. But, yeah, back to what you're specifically talking there. It's like it's a fake ride for criminals over there between the sheriffs and the courts. The courts, I know, does not have enough officers to be covering the amount of people that Evans and now Beach and a sloth of these fake judges that are in there that are putting. people on electronic monitoring they do not have the officers for it that's why dart was covering it for the longest time it is no longer anymore because yet i'm sure he wants to run from the fire yeah it's got it's got to stop well it doesn't it doesn't have to stop actually people always say that that it has to stop no it doesn't and it won't it's not stopping it doesn't have to stop it can absolutely keep going Last one in Cook County, please shut the light off. We're not paying the bill anyway. Have a good day, Dan. Thanks, Roger. So the Not Terrible series that CWB Chicago has been running for the last almost seven years. This is a riff off of a statement that previous Chief Judge Tim Evans made about his implementation effectively of no cash bail before the Safety Act was state law. And, you know, nothing terrible has happened, really. So, see, that was the impetus for CWB Chicago to track these sorts of cases where people, including and most usually repeat violent offenders, are given a walk, pre-trial release on a violent felony charge, and then they commit another violent felony. Since 2020, this was at the time of Beach's election over Evans last year. Since 2020, those reports have documented more than 400 victims of shootings, murder, and attempted murder carried out by people on felony bail, meaning pretrial release, including more than 100 homicides. 400 victims of shootings, murder, and attempted murder, including more than 100 homicides. That was the fall of last year. Preventable deaths. preventable serious injuries, preventable crime. We talk about all the time. And to my point about it's got to stop. No, it doesn't. Nope. Not going to stop.

A Chicago man who told investigators he works as a security guard for prostitutes, which is great work if you can get it. Chained a customer to a metal pole in a basement apartment for a week, forced him to liquidate his stock portfolio and withdraw more than $32,000 in cash from two banks, then beat him so severely he suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, according to prosecutors. While the victim was confined in the apartment, one of the assailants' sex workers, prostitutes. who was allegedly beaten with a two by four. One of the assailants sex workers allegedly beaten with a two by four while locked in the basement assured the victim he would get used to the attacks. This individual carried out those attacks and a third beating with a two by four while on felony pretrial release, making him the sixth person accused of killing or trying to kill someone in Chicago this year while awaiting trial for a felony. And you won't be surprised to learn that... Even those two cases do not represent the exhaustive body of criminal activity of this security guard for prostitutes. One other thought, rather than talking about this from a resource perspective, of course, is the conversation we had a bit yesterday in the context of that case out in New York. where a repeat violent offender was turned out time and time and time and time again. And the last time, an hour after he was, he pushed a 76-year-old man down the subway steps, killing him. Now he's in custody. But a 76-year-old man, retired teacher, works with special needs kids, had to die to affect his detention.

Roy and Glen Ellen. Hey, good morning, Dan. You just did two stories in your first two segments, CPS Cook County Court, showing how incompetence and wasteful everything is. So in the next segment, are you going to do Chicago and then state of Illinois and blah, blah, blah, keeps going. Thanks for the call, Roy. Well, I mean, these are sort of important systems. You know, the criminal justice system is sort of an important system if you want to live in a civilized society. You know, in a county or in a city of, what, 2.6 million now and declining. In a county of, what, 5 million now and declining. You know, the criminal justice system is kind of important. I feel like it's worth pointing out what is happening versus what could be. Since we don't have any sort of sustained intellectual and policy opposition in a public way, I mean, I feel like I can at least contribute a little bit something to the cause so people have some information to share to inform. The vast swaths of ignoramuses that populate Chicago and Cook County. And Chicago land, generally. Please, I'm certainly not excluding the Collar counties. Joe in Naperville. You know, criminals could sue the police department for not crossing T's and Daten Ice. These two police officers, You know, they should be able to sue the city and the county for billions of dollars for not following their own policies in the cause of their death and injury. What do you think about that? Thanks for the call, Joe. I mean, yeah, I mean, the failure to follow your own stated protocols could provide an avenue for a civil suit. I mean, the sovereign immunity piece. I mean, it's interesting. Maybe you could work around the sovereign immunity because it wasn't a decision. It was a failure to implement a stated policy. That was the proximate cause of Officer Bartholomew's death and Officer Crespo's injuries. Worth to try. Text from 312, the verbiage in the... CWB report seems seems like he's actually proud of those dismal stats. It does come across that way. You're right. Look, our AWOL rate is only 8%. In other words, our failure rate's only 8%. But hey, we're not stopping there. I know that's great, but we're not stopping there. We're going to keep working to approve it every day. That's not great.

And, of course, the other thing that Judge Beach might want to say is I am going to provide leadership as the chief judge of Cook County to encourage our judges to be more aggressive when it comes to pretrial detention for people that. reasonably pose public safety threats. I don't care if the authors of the Safety Act like it or not. He could say something like that. He could put a marker down. And he could provide some leadership to the other judges in Cook County. But he has declined to do that. Oh, and by the way, so has Eileen O'Malley O'Halloran, Madigan, Cullerton, Daly, O'Neill, Burke. She's done the same. In fact, she posted on X a few days ago that she supports the Safety Act. But this has got to stop. No, it doesn't. Glenn and Orlando. Yeah, hi, Dan. I was wondering, are they going to have special seating for the people on ankle monitoring at the Obama Center Library dedication? That's a good question. I'm not sure about that. I don't know what the arrangements are. You would think they would be part of the dignitary set. Yeah. George in Naperville. Yes, and they should expand the use of electronic monitoring and use it into CPS schools to get on that absentee problem. You know, that's the root cause. Thanks for the call, George. And it's funny, you know, there's no opposition here like there is, say, with Spencer Pratt in L.A. But they always have an answer for that. Pramila Jayapal, the former band manager for the Socialist Spice Girls in the house. Now, remember, you had the mayor of Seattle was the one who coined the term summer of love during the George Floyd riots during the summer that mainly featured George Floyd oriented riots in big cities, including Seattle. Autonomous owns the Chaz in Seattle. And... Seattle was so chastened by the experience that they now have a dim-witted, self-avowed socialist mayor named Katie Wilson, who is happy if people that make money leave the city and the state. Pramila Jayapal posted, Seattle has one of the worst housing crises in the country. I see it every time I'm home in my district. People working full-time jobs who can't afford rent, teachers, nurses, transit workers who can't live in the city. They serve. Families on housing assistance waiting lists that have been frozen for years. That's a policy failure, not an inevitability. We can choose differently. Housing is a human right. We fight like it. We need to fight for it like one.

Seattle hasn't elected a Republican mayor in 50 years. Of course, in Chicago, it's 100 years. And now they have a self-avowed socialist. So whatever the failures are to not be socialist enough, there are failures at the hands of you and your fellow travelers, but they assume no responsibility. They do the innocent bystander routine. So that's what you'll see in Chicago. That's what you get to some extent from J.B. Pritzker when he doesn't just outright lie about the true dynamics in Illinois. Oh, we're growing population even as we're losing congressional seats. Ah, people won't connect the dots. I'll get away with it. And he's right. Dan Proff, Chicago's Morning Answer. There's only one radio show in Chicago talking about today's biggest stories and telling you what they really mean. That show is this one. Chicago's Morning Answer, an AM 560, The Answer. Signature, a division of Esquire Bank, offers Chicago businesses' relationship-first banking. Signature knows your name and your story because personalized banking still matters. I'm Dan Proft, and I know this because Signature is where I do my business banking. Hi, I'm Phil Silverman, CFO of Chicago Atlantic, and a client of Signature. We provide capital solutions in markets where risk is often fundamentally mispriced and traditional financing can be limited. In Chicago Atlantic, success depends on experience, responsiveness, attention to detail, and an entrepreneurial mindset. That's exactly what we found with Signature. Their team understands how we operate, supports our growth, and delivers the kind of personal service that's increasingly rare in banking today. And that's exactly why we bank with Signature. Signature helps local businesses succeed. Want to learn how Signature can help turn your business vision into reality? Call Signature, a division of Esquire Bank, at 773-467-5600, or visit Signature.com. Esquire Bank, member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. This is Chicago's Morning Answer with Dan Proft on AM 560, The Answer.

Yeah, it's a commencement season on college campuses. Well, on high school campuses as well, graduation, I guess. And I don't know if this rises to the level of David Foster Wallace's commencement to Kenyon College in 2005, or Steve Jobs is at Stanford also in 2005, two of the great commencements feature same year. But country music star Eric Church, he went to University of North Carolina. And he gave the commencement address a few days ago in Chapel Hill. And I'll tell you what, I thought it was pretty good. And it was off the cuff. I mean, he spoke extemporaneously because it was both a commencement speech and a guitar lesson. It's actually really interesting. I love the use of... his guitar as a metaphor. So let's get right to it and why I was so intrigued by it. Life is like the six strings, well, the way you should approach life, I guess, is the way you should understand the six strings of a guitar. If you'll indulge me, I want to start with a sound. You know this sound. It's a guitar that's out of tune. Something that almost gets there that tries, but doesn't. And some ancient, honest part of your brain knows it immediately. You don't need training to hear it. You just know. That sound is the sound of something beautiful that has not been tended to.

Six strings. When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold. Carry a broken person through the worst night of their life or make a room full of strangers feel for three minutes like they've known each other forever. But if even one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, not politely. The moment you strike it, you know. I believe your life runs on this principle. And I'm going to break it down for you right now and tell you about your strings, okay? String one, the low E, that is your foundation. The low E is the thickest string. It is the heaviest. Every chord a guitar can make rests on this string being in tune. Your faith is the low E of your life. The thing that sits at the very bottom of you, Your belief about what this life is for, what you owe, what holds the universe together when science reaches the edge of its own explanation and shrugs. The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones. They still hurt. They still sit in hospital waiting rooms asking unanswerable questions at three in the morning, but they have a foundation to return to. The world will try to untune this string. Through busyness, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, a full inbox, a full life. Listen to me. Tend to your faith. Not just when you're broken, but when you're whole. I mean, that riff alone would have made a pretty good commencement speech, but he went on string by string. The low E, that's the foundation. That's your faith. String two. String two is family, okay? Look out at these bleachers. Look around. Somewhere in that crowd is someone who has loved you longer than you've been easy to love. It's true. Someone who saw you at your actual worst, not your public facing worst, and didn't leave you. Someone who worked a job, they didn't love, to put a book in your hands, you sometimes didn't open. Someone who sat along in a quiet house and cried the weekend you moved into dorms and wondered, have I done enough? That is family. And the A string is where the music starts to get warm.

It gives a chord its body, its richness. It's a string that makes you feel like you're not alone in a room. I want to warn you about something. You're about to get busy in ways that feel important and many are. professionally ambitious, creatively alive, building the life you've been pointed toward for four years, and family, because they love you with a grace you will spend most of your life trying to deserve, will rarely demand your time. They'll tell you they understand, and they'll mean it. Do not take them up on it. Call your people. Not when there's news, not when there's nothing. Show up when it cost you something. Let them see you when things are hard. The A string is not a holiday string. It's an everyday string. Protected. Next up, the D string. The D string. The heart of a chord. On a guitar, the D string sits right at the heart of the instrument. In the middle of the low and high strings, giving the chord its body and its soul.

Strike a full chord and a D string is what you feel in the center of your chest. That is not an accident. That is exactly what the right spouse and partner will do for your life. The person you choose to share your life with is the most important decision you will ever make outside of your faith. They will either amplify every other string you're playing or slowly pull the whole instrument into an out-of-tune mess. Not that I know that. I love you, honey. Find your best friend, someone you want to talk to at the end of a long day. Look for shared values over shared interest. You don't need to love the same food or music. You need the same compass, though it would be a benefit if you both hated NC State. That wasn't in the speech I added. I'm throwing it in there. The right partner is the string that makes the whole chord ring fuller and warmer and truer than anything you could ever play alone. Choose them wisely and then love them fiercely. Okay, so we got faith, family. We got the spouse covered. Three down, three to go.

The G string. That's what it's called. Sorry. I didn't name the damn thing. That's just what it is. The G string drifts faster than the others on a guitar. I can promise you that is true. I have dealt with it my whole life. It's because ambition and resilience both live on this string, and they pull in opposite directions. I want you to want things. You should want things. The world has more than enough people standing at the edge of their own potential, waiting for a permission slip that was never going to arrive. Want the thing. Say it out loud. Build toward it with everything you have. And when you fail and you will fail, Hemingway wrote it plainly right in the sternum. The world breaks everyone. Afterward, the best of us are stronger at the broken places. Get back up. Tune the string. Keep playing. The B string.

The B-string is about community. Your generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced. The temptation to perform for everyone and belong to no one. To be globally visible and locally invisible. To have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live. Resist this. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs, even if the internet will never see it. Generosity. generosity is not something you do after you make it it's how you make it and if you get lost and at some point i promise you you will you have a place you belong now come back walk through the quad on a fall day or sit on Franklin street on a game day and remember these are my people because i am a tar hill

And the high E. And finally, the high E string. This is the thinnest string. It's the highest note. The one that carries the melody, that single line above the chord that everyone in this room recognizes and takes with them on the way home. It's also the one bent most easily by outside pressure. Social media is going to show you a thousand versions of a life that looks better than yours. The comparison will be relentless, curated, and a lie dressed up in really good lighting. Someone's comments, someone's criticism, someone's cold opinion is going to try to convince you to retune yourself to match what they think you should sound like. Do not let them touch your string. You were made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly. There's a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again. A contribution only you can bring, a way of seeing that belongs to only you. The world does not need another cover song. It needs an original. Very Lincoln-esque, right? Most men are born originals and die copies. Paraphrasing. Eric Church, pretty deep, a lot deeper than I gave him credit for. This was excellent. And, of course, to close it out, when all those strings, those six strings are in tune.

Six strings, six strings of life and willingness to keep them in tune. Six principles, six pillars. When all six are in tune with each other, the cord your life makes is full and resonant and truth. All six will drift, not one or two, all six in their own time, in their own season. Your faith will go quiet when you need it loud. Your family will get complicated in a way only the people who love you most can complicate things. You will go through hard seasons with your spouse. Your ambition will hollow out and your resilience will wear thin. Your community will start to feel like an obligation and your world will try to sand down the edges of exactly who you are. This is not failure. This is not weakness. It's the inevitable, universal experience of living in an imperfect world that doesn't stop to let us tune up. And the difference between a life that sounds like music, And a life that sounds like noise is whether you stop and listen. Whether you're honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune and humble enough to make the adjustment instead of just turning up the volume and hoping nobody notices. Because you will notice. The part of you that knows what the chord should sound like will always notice. It will not let you go. Life won't be right until it is tuned. Trust what your heart hears. and is telling you about your song. So graduates, now I encourage you to take your six strings, make it something worth hearing, and play your song as I leave you with mine. And then he played a little ditty. Pretty good stuff there from church. You know, after listening to it, through it again, at least the pertinent parts. Maybe it does belong with the David Foster Wallace's and the Steve Jobs' and the pantheon of great commencement speeches. Life is like a guitar. Interestingly, since he was at North Carolina, that North Carolina is one of the schools that move to try to represent a commitment to preserving Western civilization. That's an outlier on the campus these days. But they stood up this school for civic life and leadership, and it's gaining steam. Wall Street Journal observes one path to reforming higher education is to develop alternatives to current institutions. And an option gaining steam is for universities to do that within their own Bill Gates. That's what's happening at Chapel Hill, which announced this week that the School of Civic Life and Leadership is becoming an independent school within the university. When the Board of Trustees, supported by the North Carolina State Legislature, created the program three years ago amid faculty protests, of course. Western civilization, the horrors. The founders, of course, now have been vindicated, and the program has since been in high student demand with nearly 1,000 students taking classes at the School of Civic Life, which is up from just 85 in the fall of 2024. So it took time to get rolling, but once it got rolling, it's rolling downhill.

The school has 30 faculty members, this independent school now within the school, and is developing a major a master's program and a Ph.D. program on American political thought and constitutionalism to supplement the growing work with undergrads. Yeah. Reimagining itself as actually an institution of higher learning and an American one at that. I wonder if some of the same enlightened people that... helped to start the school of civic life. And by the way, that's what philanthropists who are interested in preserving the American experiment and imparting wisdom and critical thought, intellectual curiosity into future generations. This is what they should consider, not throwing millions of dollars trying to, to make themselves feel good like they're doing something about chronic absenteeism in the Chicago public schools, as we were discussing earlier, by contrast. But I wonder if the people that stood up this program, now independent school at the University of North Carolina last year, were instrumental in getting Eric Church to do the commencement. And especially now that it's becoming independent school, I wonder if there's a tie there. I wonder if they knew what Eric Church was going to say, or at least the... place from where he was going to come in terms of the message he delivered to students. Because that commencement speech was very much in the American tradition. The kind of stuff protested by most faculty on campuses. Dan Proff, Chicago's Morning Answer. More Chicago radio listeners are choosing. This is Chicago's Morning Answer. An AM 560, The Answer.

By the way, I will post the Eric Church commencement address at North Carolina, University of North Carolina. I'll post that on X for your perusal and sharing if you're so inclined. Some sad news. I just got wind of this yesterday, actually, and somebody texted about it, so I wanted to mention it. Thanks for the text from 219, Rich. Rich from Indian Head Park. who was a regular caller on this show. He died May 10th at the age of 75. Rich served six years in the Army during Vietnam, and apparently he passed, according to this texter, who I think knows him, from a rare disease affecting the macular system. But anyway, Rich was always a wonderful guy to talk to, and so I appreciate his listenership and his service to our country, more importantly. and his life. And so we're going to misreach from Indian Head Park. And I wanted to recognize him. And thanks to those who remembered and passed us along to us so that we were aware. You've made the switch. And it feels so good. You've switched to Chicago's morning answer on AM 560. The answer. If you're looking for the latest news, insight into what it means, and the sharpest opinion. There's only one station at Chicago where you can turn, and it's this one. We're AM 560. The answer. Top of the morning, Dan Proff, here. So President Trump is en route to Beijing for his sit-down with President Xi Jinping, major U.S. business leaders in tow with him. Apple and Bidia. Elon Musk, an entity unto himself. This is what Trump had to say, previewing it, to sit down with Xi Jinping and how he thought it would go. You know, he and I have gotten along well. Other than with COVID, you know, I was not... I was just not accepting of what happened with COVID. But other than that, he and I have had a great gentleman. I find him to be an amazing man. And when I say that, the press always says, oh, that's terrible that he called him. He runs 1.4 billion people with a pretty iron fist. He loves his country, I can tell you. President Xi Jinping, I look forward to being there. And if he felt anything, we wouldn't be doing it. But a lot of good things can happen. We'll be talking about, I mean, he'll bring up Taiwan, I think more than I will. Well, you know, I mean, I do not like the way that Trump talks about murderous dictators like she. He loves his country. He loves lording over his country. I wish he loved the people of his country a little bit more. He's a bad guy. Vladimir Putin's a bad guy. But this is Trump's approach. And I understand it. And I learned to live with it. And the results are what's important. And he's produced, generally speaking. For more on...

Trump's visit and what we can expect and what tact he should take. Please be joined by Gordon Chang. He's the author of Plan Red China's Project to Destroy America and the great China U.S. China Tech War. And again, you can follow Gordon Chang on X at Gordon G. Chang, C-H-A-N-G. Gordon G. Chang is how you follow him on X. Gordon Chang, thanks for being with us again. Appreciate it. Cool. Thank you so much, Dan. Let's start with something domestic, if you don't mind. And that's this mayor out in California who is pleading guilty to being a Chinese agent. We've had a few of these incidents that were actually unrelated to Eric Swalwell in addition to that one. And I just wonder if the... This is something I suppose it's just part of the spy game, the gamesmanship, the espionage between adversaries who have to be collaborators of mutual convenience. So I wonder if something like this, the spy balloon, these instances of... of Chinese agents embedded in public office, embedded in universities. I wonder if that's something that Trump is likely to raise or should raise, in your opinion. Yeah, I don't know whether he will. I suspect he won't because there's not much that he can say to Xi Jinping on this, except don't do it. The one thing the president could do if he had the will is to say, if you don't stop this, I'm going to impose X percent tariffs additionally on Chinese goods. I don't think he would do that. But the point here is it's not so much as what the Chinese are doing. It's us. We know of Chinese infiltration into all of our political units. We know in our institutions all across our society. This has been going on for a decade. So this is on us to do something about. And we've got to be a little bit less squeamish. We got to understand the Communist Party targets Chinese people of Chinese descent, whether they're Chinese nationals or American citizens. We get squeamish about race. But they've weaponized the Chinese. And so we've got to take that into account in our law enforcement focus. And with respect to Taiwan, you know, you heard the president say that, you know, he's likely to bring up Taiwan. He'll probably want to talk about it more than I do. You know, what is there to talk about? We both know each other's positions. We were talking about this last week. The Chinese Communist Party recently revised their designs on Taiwan back a few years. So you're going to say...

Taiwan belongs to us. We're going to say that's not our view. I mean, what is there to talk about? Yes, and I don't think we should be talking about weapons sales. Now, President Trump has not said anything about that, but a lot of people have said the deal will be that the U.S. will cut down weapon sales. U.S. policy is not to talk to Beijing about the defense of Taiwan. I hope President Trump adheres to that. Of course, as Commander-in-Chief, he makes policy, and he can change that policy. But this policy has been decades existing. Presidents have violated it, but they shouldn't because it shows weakness. And whenever we show weakness, the Chinese pounce. Just because there's been so many. op-ed writers of the Atlantic Foreign Affairs set that have suggested that Trump comes to this meeting in Beijing with a weekend. I wanted to get your view on Trump's relative and America's relative position vis-a-vis she and China at this juncture with, of course, what's happening in Iran as the backdrop. Overall, the United States is a far more powerful society than China. We have a resurgent economy, for instance, and their economy is failing. So Trump has the high cards, especially because China needs oil. President Trump has been taking China's proxies off the board. We see U.S. policy being very effective and Chinese policy not being effective. But it is true that in terms of the setting, the Chinese have the advantage. So, for instance, we are going to China, and they've got home court advantage there. Also, Xi Jinping right now is very arrogant. I think that he misunderstands the relative strength of the United States and China, but nonetheless, that's the way he thinks. And the other thing is that the war still is ongoing. Remember, President Trump did not go to Beijing for the summit that was supposed to start March 31 because the war was continuing. Well, the war is continuing now. And at least from optics point of view, it makes it look like China is in the catbird seat. But as I said, overall, we're a far stronger society. So President Trump overall has the stronger hand. Well, you mentioned Trump taking out China's proxies, as well as their allies, straight up allies, even if they're transactional in nature. Iran won, and whatever happens in Iran, that country has been diminished substantially in terms of its industrial capacity and military might. And number two, Russia, the pronouncement from Vladimir Putin over the weekend, that the war in Ukraine could be coming to an end soon, although he didn't provide any more detail. and the suggestion that, you know, Russia has really been, you know, in the context of the objective, all but defeated and their economy is in shambles. They've lost north of a million people as a result of this and have diminished their military might as well. So China, it seems to me, is increasingly...

I don't want if if not isolated then is requiring is is going to be required to do more of the lifting because its allies and proxies are in no position to do it yeah Before this year, before January 1st, the general narrative around the world, and there was some support for it, was that China and Russia and their friends were resurgent and were making life difficult for the democracies. But from January 3, when President Trump extracted Maduro and his wife from Caracas, things have changed, and you can see the momentum. President Trump has taken Venezuela off the board. Venezuela being an important friend for China. We're pressuring Cuba. Iran, as you talked about, has been diminished. And we're seeing China in retreat. So especially because the Chinese economy has obviously had problems that became much more evident this year. The democracies right now are the ones advancing and the ones with momentum. And that's because of President Trump. What about the topic of AI? I mentioned the business leaders that are accompanying Trump, including Elon Musk and Cook and Jensen Huang. I mean, these are all AI parties to the AI revolution. What is the nature of any conversation about AI between the two heads of state likely to be? There are a couple of things. First of all, there's going to be a general discussion of AI development. Senator Bernie Sanders really started this about a week and a half ago when he held that event in Washington, suggesting that there be cooperation with China on AI. Remember, President Biden tried to talk to Xi Jinping about AI guidelines when Xi Jinping went to Woodside, California in November 2023. Afterwards, the Chinese blew us off on this. I don't know if Xi Jinping is any more willing to talk to us, but we've got to remember that we have the lead in AI, and we should not be talking to China to surrender it. There are really important issues involving AI, but none of them can be solved with conversations with China. Jensen Huang joined the President Trump in Anchorage. And he will be in Beijing. I don't think the U.S. should be selling any invidia chips to China because that helps them to compete with us on AI. And I just think that we should be protecting our lead, not surrendering it. We've talked before, and in previous conversations you had suggested, the dynamics may have changed, that's why I'm asking, that President Xi Jinping's grip on the party and by extension, the country. was slipping. And you mentioned earlier in our conversation that she is feeling particularly arrogant these days. What is your impression of his stability as the head of state in China?

I think that if you go back a year, Xi Jinping is stronger with his civilian officials because he was in trouble. But with the military, the situation is still eroding for Xi Jinping. The purges are continuing. They're intensifying. And a lot of people will say, oh, you know, because Xi Jinping was able to remove one officer or another, that he has absolute control of the military. Well, that's obviously wrong. And the reason is... Xi Jinping has been removing officers because he doesn't control the military. He wouldn't have to remove them if he were in command. And we see now that he has for a decade been removing people that he himself put in place, which means he doesn't control the military. And this is still a fluid situation. Do you think it would be judicious for President Trump to bring up Jimmy Lye and request that he be released? I would say more demand that Jimmy Lai be released. And we got to remember that it's in China's interest to release Jimmy Lai because if he were to die in jail, he'd become even more of a martyr than he is already. So the Chinese have an interest in offloading him. And I hope, you know, President Trump has said a couple days ago that he would raise the issue with Jimmy Lai. He has said publicly that he has, in fact, talked to Xi Jinping about Jimmy Lai. I'm sure that that will be a topic of conversation in the next couple days. So what does she want to get out of this with Trump? Does he want some, does he want to find a path to detente with Iran so the oil can get back, Iranian oil can get back to China? What is he trying to extract from this sit down? The most important thing he wants to extract is an appearance that China is in control the world and that President Trump is a supplicant. That's the narrative that Chinese leaders always have when visiting foreigners arrive in the Chinese capital. And so that's when I talked about in terms of the setting of this summit. The Chinese obviously have the advantage. But, you know, in terms of specifics, they want the Strait of Hormuz open. They want President Trump to lift all restrictions on American transfers of technology to China. They want the tariffs removed. They want everything. And President Trump pretty much wants the opposite. Yeah, I mean, if I'm Trump and I'm sitting across Xi Jinping and he's saying, we need the straight reopen, we need our oil, we need the tariffs lifted, you know, we're an export economy. So, well, so you're feeling the squeeze, are you she? So here's what I want, right? I mean, isn't that if he, if he really presents those things as must haves for him, then we're in a position to extract. we're in a pretty strong position. Whatever the optics are, the substances, we're in a strong position, and he's essentially conceding we are as it pertains to the economic vitality of China.

Yes, and it's very important for President Trump to make it clear that he's the one in command, that he's laying down the law, that he's dictating to Xi Jinping. Because if President Trump can do that, then the Chinese can't maintain what they always try to maintain, and that is that the East is rising and the West has fallen. Xi Jinping for about a decade has been maintaining that the United States is in terminal decline. And President Trump... Because he's chosen, President Trump has chosen a setting that puts the Chinese optically in control, he needs to do something to disabuse Xi Jinping and the rest of the world of that notion. Because if he doesn't do that, life is going to become pretty hard for the United States because a lot of countries are going to say to Trump on anything going forward, well, you know, China's now the world's hegement, you know, you're in second place. So why do I listen to you, President Trump? So that's the stakes meeting China on China's turf. Yeah, well, I mean, that would be a real opportunity for Trump to have his bane moment from Batman, right? Oh, really? She, you think you're in charge? Do you really feel like you're in charge, given where your economy is, like I said before, what your needs are and where your allies and proxies are? I don't think so. So you're right. That would be an interesting moment if that was a part of the postmortem. Gordon Chang is author of Plan Red China's Project to Destroy America as well as the great U.S. China Tech War. And you can follow him on X at Gordon G. Chang, C-H-A-N-G, Gordon G. Chang on X. Gordon Chang, thank you as always. Appreciate it. Oh, well, thank you so much, Dan. And I do believe President Trump will have a great summit. All right. Gordon Chang joined us on the AlphaWealth Group.com, answerline. This is Chicago's morning answer. Your show keeps me alive during the week. There's nobody I'd rather listen to between 5 and 9 in the morning than you guys. On AM 560, the answer. Top of the morning, Dan Prop here. This is a fun little thing going around the interweb social media. People filming their friends who are education majors in college and asking them, you know, basic questions about American history, for example. It doesn't go great for the education majors. That's sort of the point of these videos, for example. How many letters are in the alphabet? Forty-10. Nope. No. 27. No. How many planets are in the solar system? 17. Yes. Who is this? Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. That's George Washington. Who shot Abraham Lincoln? I'm being honest, I didn't know he was shot. Didn't know he was shot. Who's this? Those are so far. Be in our history. Anne Franklin. She is Drew. Helen Keller. What two parts of Congress is there? Legislative and justice? No. Who's the first president of the United States? Come on. Thomas Jefferson. George Washington. Yeah, suffice it to say, well, as I said, it's...

Not going great. And, you know, the date on education majors, I don't want to insult any teachers. Hopefully, most of you are not, we're not education majors, the worst performing students at the collegiate level. Lowest test score is getting in, too. I'm just saying. Part of the issue. This is the morning show. More Chicago radio listeners are choosing. This is Chicago's morning answer. An AM 560. The answer. This is Chicago's morning answer with Dan Proft, an AM 560. The answer. Top of the morning, Dan Proft here, and before he left for Beijing, and perhaps a little bit of foreshadowing for Xi Jinping on what he was going to say about Iran, President Trump said this. And they'll either do the right thing or we'll finish the job. They're either going to do the right thing or we're just going to finish the job. We're going to do the right thing or we're going to finish the job. And what is finishing the job look like? Well, our friend Glenn Reynolds of Instapundant, we talked to last week about his new book, Seductive AI, had an interesting piece in New York Post, making a historical comparison of Donald Trump to General Winfield Scott, the architect of victory in the Mexican-American War and also Civil War General. As the Civil War loomed, he reminds us, Winfield Scott developed a plan to defeat the Confederacy with the smallest number of casualties possible. It was the Anaconda Plan. It was about applying a squeeze and then squeezing hard until its object was squeezed to death. Rather than winning a single decisive battle or series of major confrontations, Scott wanted to cut the Confederacy in two by season control of the Mississippi River while choking off the South's foreign trade with a naval blockade of its Atlantic and Gulf ports. He didn't get takers at the outset, but when the enthusiasts for battlefield success did not find that bringing a swift end to the war, Scott's plan was adopted.

And the South's laws came in no small part because it was economically squeezed on all sides, as Scott had outlined. Now, maybe Trump is not a student of Winfield Scott, but you can be sure the lessons in the military history of Winfield Scott and the Civil War are not lost on the military advisors around Donald Trump. And so the comparison. To the present, Glenn Reynolds writes, the U.S. blockade of the strait means Iran's oil exports are stock and piling up with little room to store, the accumulating product, shutting down the wells could do permanent damage. Iran's alternative trade routes with Russia via the Caspian Sea and with China via road and rail are meager in comparison. By keeping Iranian oil from reaching its destination, chiefly China, Iran's former customers now must pay market price and dollars for the oil they need. Meanwhile, Trump has also cut deals giving the U.S. control of vital maritime chokeholds in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. All of them essential for going anaconda on China, if you will, should that become necessary. Interesting. Let's see if our next guest agrees with that potential strategy. Ted Snyder is a contributing editor for the American Conservative. He is also a frequent contributor to responsible statecraft and anti-war.com. Ted, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Hey, Dan. Thanks for all right. What do you think about Trump putting the squeeze on both China and Iran simultaneously and the latter to move the former? Well, I'm not an economic expert, but I don't think that the data supports the idea that Trump's putting the squeeze on Iran. The way you plan, the latest data is showing that the latest publications, even public publications are showing that U.S. intelligence analysis of the situation around that they can hold out for a very long time economically several, several months. And, you know, not only can they hold out for that time several, several months, but Iran views this as an existential crisis, so they're prepared to absorb an enormous amount of suffering. So even if they can hold out successfully for a number of months, they're going to hold out even with suffering far beyond that. So I think the idea of squeezing Iran is just a continuation of this idea in the Trump administration that if you find the hard enough threat for Iran, they'll back down. And they're just ignoring the evidence that Iran hasn't backed down. You can put a huge armad around Iran and Trump's frustrated they don't back down. You can bomb them like crazy and Iran doesn't back down. And I think what the states just doesn't get is when a country perceives the threat against it as actually being existential, no other threat matters because no other threat is as big as an existential threat. They're not going to back down. Yeah, that may be the case, but you can take an approach that is more comprehensive than the piecemeal approach that's been taken thus far. If whether they want to state it or not, the ultimate goal really is regime change. And, I mean, substantial regime change, not just different names with the same program. I mean, because, and the whole thing is they're not backing down. You know, I keep hearing that they're not backing down. It's not working.

I mean, food inflation is up, food inflation is up over 115% now in Iran. They've launched more than half, the dollar, the Rial has lost more than half of its value in a year. And. Of course, the industrial production capacity has been diminished substantially. And that's just in two months. So, I mean, I get, you know, people's horizons for this are very different, what they think and what Trump said, five, six weeks. I get all that. But excuse me, the combination of what Treasury is doing. what you're doing with the blockade, what you could do if you restore Project Freedom to escort ships through the strait to at least start moving some maritime traffic, and what you could with military action combined with the Israelis, and now, interestingly, combined with what UAE, the UAE strikes, the Saudis now are striking targets in Iran. So what hasn't... resulted in a complete decapitation in two months doesn't mean two months, two months more, or six months more, of the sort of ratcheting up couldn't get the desired result where you don't have a capitulation because there's nobody else to capitulate. There's nobody left to capitulate. You actually have a change in attitude and a desire to reach peace deal. Or is that polyan, is that all polyanish? You know, I think everything that you're saying is true and deserves, you know, serious consideration, but I think you also have to consider that Iran has born... A lifetime of sanctions and being cut off by the United States without bringing about regime change. That's the current bombing and attack. Not only didn't bring about regime change, if anything, it hardened the regime. There's been no regime change. There's been phenomenal continuity, a transition from one leader to the, you know, to the leader's son. Specifically, a leader that Trump said was unacceptable. So there's been remarkable continuity that the regime is very much in place. There's been no regime change. There's been no, despite the inflation and the strangulation, there has been no uprising and taking to the streets. There hasn't been reading changed. And then the other factors, you look at continuing this for months and months and months and even leave aside the question of what Iranians are willing to bear. There's also the question, and you need to have on someone who's more of a military expert than I am to talk about this more. But there's also the question of whether the states can sustain this for months. We talk about whether Iran can, but can the state sustain us for months?

They have burned through an unbelievable amount of their most precious munitions. Now, when the U.S. says they have enough munitions to deal with the problem with Iran, that's undoubtedly true because they have less expensive munitions they can use. But they're completely depleting the more precious munitions that they need to fight a serious competitor. If they need to, like China or whatever. not only has the space burned through like half of its most important. This is in two months, actually in like 39 days. They burned through like half of their stockpile of their most important emissions. And cost probably, I mean, the Pentagon says it's at like $29 billion, but estimates are showing it's probably cost at least double, maybe two and a half times that, maybe $70, $75 billion. And while they've exerted all this expense, using up half of their most important weapons. The latest research is showing that the damage they've done to Iran is far more minimal than the Defense Department has claimed. I mean, they're talking about Iran having dug out, you know, 20 out of 23 of its... missile bases along the street. We're talking about them having, you know, 70 to 75% of their missiles and missile launchers still. So when you look at this war, this enormous power against a much lesser power, where it's cost the power, maybe $70 billion in half of its most precious munitions. and it's cost the weaker power far less than we thought. They're still totally capable of launching missiles and drones. They have most of their stockpiles. You know, this raises the question of can the state sustain another two or three months of this war? And that becomes a really important question as much of the question of whether Iran can sustain it. And then there's the other question of even if they did, would it lead to regime changed? There's no indication that it would. Well, I mean, just in – I mean, I don't want to – I'm not an expert in this either. But, I mean, Admiral Bradley Cooper has offered – who's, you know, Suncom commander, has offered routine updates and made representations that most of their ballistic missiles have been eliminated as well as the production capacity. It's not true. Yeah, it's not true. I mean, I mean – Well, but I mean – But just let me finish the point. But I mean, if they do maintain most of their ballistic missile capacity and drone capacity, as you suggest, then why aren't they more effective in imposing damage and pain on, well, U.S. ships, for starters? So I'm not a military strategist. You know, I can't answer why or honestly what they're doing. But the amount of damage they've caused. If you look at the U.S. forward bases in the Gulf, and there's no doubt Iran changed their strategy this time around. They didn't focus their attacks on the countries we thought they would focus them on. They focused their attacks on the Gulf states. And the amount of damage done to American bases in the Gulf states before this war was unimaginable.

I mean, these countries thought that not only were they protected by the American defense umbrella, but they thought for sure the American bases were protected by it. But what we're seeing from reporting from really mainstream sources, the New York Times, places like that. What we're seeing is that the damage done to these bases is unprecedented. Billions of dollars are damaged done to radar systems to aircraft. And we know now from the most recent reporting that there were precision strikes on 18 bases across seven different countries that took out, you know, radar systems worth half a billion dollar each that took out planes that killed American soldiers. So when we look at how successful Iran has been, I think the states has been entirely shocked by the degree of precision and success Iran has had using their missiles and especially their drones and hitting U.S. bases across the region. So I can't answer how Iran chose their targets, but it's been shocking to the American military how successful Iran has been in using their weapons against target. I mean, that's not the impression I'm left with from the reporting I've read and the pronouncements that are being made. I mean, I understand we're not always going to get or almost routinely guaranteed not to get the full story. But, I mean, there have not been, there's not, there's not, it hasn't been significant reporting about effective strikes from Iran, at least against American targets. And even in the Gulf State targets. per the Saudis and UAE responding in kind now after waiting this long. Boy, it just doesn't seem like Iran is much more prodigious than we thought. It actually seems like quite the opposite. Well, if you look at even the New York Times headline just this morning, I mean, the New York Times headline just this morning is that the Iranian military is way stronger than they fought and that the amount of damage. that has been inflicted as great that we thought and that the cost of the war has been greater than we thought. And there's been, you know, there's been all kinds of reporting. This is, this is like, I mean, I'm happy to, I'm happy to be, I'm happy to be skeptical of the military, but, but you'll forgive me if I'm also skeptical of the gray lady. Okay. I mean, it's like if you look at the declassified U.S. intelligence on how many missiles they believe Iran still has and how many missile launchers and how fast Iran has dug out the ones that were buried at the rubble, if you look at all this intelligence, this is declassified stuff. There's access to it. You can see that the amount of military hardware that Iran has maintained.

far exceeds the amount that the U.S. was claimed. You know, you had Trump claiming that Iran only had 18 to 23 percent of its missiles left. The U.S. intelligence says it was closer to 70 or 75 percent. And it's actually streaked out the Gulf states, right? The Gulf states thought that they had this sort of... protection and what they found out is that having US bases in their territory actually made them a target. And they're furious not only with Iran, but they're furious with the states because they warned against this war. They said it would be disastrous and the states ignored them. They lobbied hard against the war and the states ignored them when the war started, the Gulf states condemned it. So what you get is you get these Gulf states who are furious with the states for dragging them into war they didn't want and then totally failing to protect them when the war started because the amount of damage has been completely unexpected, not-presented. Well, I mean, but now the Gulf states, whatever their initial opposition were, as I mentioned, now UAE and Saudi Arabia are launching their own strikes inside Iran, correct? So, Dan, I think you have to put that into a perspective. The UAE has been an outlier. I totally agree with you in the UAE. So if you look at the UAE, they were encouraging the Gulf states to join the war. They were saying they would help to open up the strait. They pulled out of OPEC. We know now in a completely unprecedented move that they actually hosted Israeli Iron Dome systems and Israeli forces in the country, you know, using those. And we know now that as Iran claimed all along, that the UAE was involved in at least one military strike. So the UAE is absolutely an outlier. Other countries... less so. When Kuwait said that the U.S. can't use their airspace, and American planes went through their airspace, it looks like Kuwait shot them down. And there is reporting today for the first time that Saudi Arabia may have launched strikes. But that reporting says, and I haven't a chance to look at this carefully yet, because I just saw this for the first time today, that it was a very different nature than the United Arab Emirates, who were actually like... offensively striking Iran, whereas Saudi Arabia was trying to send a message that if you hit us harder, we could hit you harder. But they maintained a line of communication with Iran all the time and was pressuring the U.S. to not restart the war and possibly even closed down, you know, space for operation, you know, freedom in the streets. So I think you're right about the UAE, but I think it would be. And again, I'm not an expert in this, but I think it would be a mistake to take the UAE's approach and generalize it to the Gulf states because they are an outlier. Their relations of Saudi Arabia are not good right now. They've pulled out of OPEC, and they are an outlier. I think everything you're saying about the UAE is true, but I would be careful about generalizing that to the entire.

CCC, all of the Gulf states. Well, I mean, you know, right, everybody is in a little bit of a different position with a slightly different interest and some common interests. No, I get that. And you're right about the intel assessments. I mean, we talked about this actually with Stephen Bucci from the Heritage Foundation. And the intel assessments of what Iran's weapons cashes, how big Iran's weapons cashes were were off initially. And there was a lot of reporting on that. in early to mid-April. But I guess just moving to present and what Iran's capacity seems to be based on what they're actually doing or accomplishing. Are you, do you have any concern if this job isn't finished, if the job isn't finished per Trump? that based on what you're saying about Iran, that they have this wherewithal, that they would immediately restart their nuclear program and they would move with alacrity to try to finish the enriching of uranium to get to a nuclear weapon. I mean, I assume you don't want to see that happen in Tehran. I don't want to see any country have a nuclear weapon. Well, we're a little past post on that. were a lot possible. But I think that it's a mistake to argue that if this war doesn't get finished or wrong, it's going to rush to a nuclear weapon because... I think there's absolutely, well, not I think, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States intelligence, everybody says that there's absolutely no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon. All of the state's most recent intelligence assessments from 2022 to 2025 have reiterated that if the American intelligence position that they do not believe that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Iran has a right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, and there's no indication that that stopped being a red line. There's no indication Iran's prepared to give that up. And I think that when the war ends, hopefully soon, I think that Iran is going to want to continue to have a nuclear enrichment program for civilian purposes. I don't think that Iran has ever wanted to... build a nuclear weapon. I do think that one of the dangers of war is that it's show, well, it's, I mean, it's not, it's not that I think U.S. intelligence clearly states as recently as the defense posture of 2020, which is the consensus opinion of the entire U.S. intelligence community stated that is their opinion that Iraq has not started a nuclear weapons program. They've not made the decision to do so. The National Intelligence, Tilsie Tulsi Gabbard stated herself that they hadn't restated. The International Atomic Energy Association recently restated that they have no evidence around in building a bomb.

It has been a consistent position of the national intelligence estimates in the U.S. intelligence community that Iran's not building a bomb. They have a nuclear enrichment program, which they have every right to have, and the nuclear nonproliferation treaty failed to protect Iran. when the U.S. spawned their nuclear program. Well, if they have no interest in a nuclear weapon, which runs afoul of a lot of expert opinion on the topic to say, to be understated about it. It doesn't run afoul of any of the expert opinion who's read the actual intelligence assessments and the IA assessments. Well, the... I think we were just talking about intelligence assessments that underestimated the size of the weapons caches that Iran has. But I guess I would just go back to more of a logic. Let me finish you that. Go ahead. I would just go back to more logic questions in terms of logic, like Marco Rubio routinely makes the point. Yeah, you can have a civilian nuclear program for the purposes of providing energy to your. You're a countryman, okay. But then why do you do it in such a way that we need to, you know, try to ascertain what's going on in Pickax Mountain? Why don't you do it in a transparent way so that it is there for everybody to see and it's clearly being used for civilian purposes? Why are you burying and hiding and playing games with IAE inspectors and so forth? You're burying and hiding your program when you know that if you don't bury or hide it, it's going to get bombed exactly like it just did. And Iran has declared its nuclear programs to the International Atomic Energy Agency on time whenever they have started when you don't have to declare certain points. They've always declared they've been subject to the most stringent inspection system in the history of nuclear nonproliferation. And during the JCPOA agreement that Trump pulled out of, They were subject to even stricter inspections, which consistently showed, I believe it was 11 consecutive times that they were in complete compliance with the agreement. So the reason that you go underground to do something that's legal is if you know that somebody is illegally going to bomb what you're legally doing. Do you, I mean, do you, I just want to get an understanding of what your view on Iran is, generally speaking. Do you think Iran is a malign actor, like a state sponsor of terrorism? Or do you think it's just another country? Trying to get by. Well, I mean, I don't, I don't think that that's a fair. Disjunct. Okay. I think that if you want to look at Iran's sort of domestic policy, no, I don't think anybody would argue that Iran's a completely benign state. If you want to know whether Iran is, as the U.S. often claims, the leading state sponsor of terror, again, nobody in the American intelligence community believes that. They've always known that Saudi Arabian countries like that.

have fostered far more terrorism, that more often than not, when you look at things like al-Qaeda or ISIS, Iran has been on our side against terrorism, and that when Trump gives the litany of terrorist actions that Iran's been involved in, you know, the bombing of the USS Cole and barracks and Lebanon and improvising explosive devices that killed Americans, not one of those bears out. Even if you look at the FBI website, you'll find that not one of those bears any kind of scrutiny. They're not true. So do I think Iran is a completely benign actor within its own borders? No. Do I think that Iran is the leading sponsor of malign activity outside of its own borders? No. Ted Snyder, we're going to have to leave it there. Ted Snyder's contributing editor for the American Conservative. He's also a frequent contributor to responsible state craft, that is, and anti-war.com. Ted, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks so much, Dan. It's good talking to you. And Ted joined us on the alphawealthgroup.com answer line. Before you see it on TV, share it on Facebook or read about it in the paper. Hear it here first. This is Chicago's morning answer. On AM 560, The Answer. Only the biggest stories. Only the biggest guests. And only the biggest opinions. This is AM 560, The Answer.

Top of the morning, Dan Proft here. Trump has said he aims to suspend the federal gas tax for a period of time. Some other states are moving in that direction at the state level. Illinois, not one of them. Interesting jellybellies saying, no, no, can't suspend the state gas tax because we need it to finance infrastructure improvements. By the way, Illinois State Gas Tax is the second highest in the nation. California just edged us out. Come on, people. 66 cents a gallon. That's just the state tax. And don't forget, we have a sales tax on the tax. We double tax gasoline, which most states don't do, which is why outside of California having to import their fossil fuels from... Iran or at least traveling through the strait, one country, one state in the country, as Doug Burgum mentioned earlier in the week. Illinois has routinely the highest Chicago land in particular, the highest gas prices of the nation behind California. It's taxes, not those greedy oil companies, as the power structure in Illinois would have you believe. But not this time. You remember not so long ago, I guess it was a different time. There was a different person in the Oval Office. J.B. Pritzker did suspend the gas tax. the state gas tax for a period of time, like Trump is proposing right now. And remember, he required gas stations to post signs saying it was suspended to try to provide political help to Biden when gas prices were spiraling up. But now, no, not so much. Can't do it. Yeah. You get it. Speaking of Illinois and vis-a-vis California. since it's the most interesting race so far this cycle and probably will be for this cycle, assuming Spencer Pratt at least makes the runoff on June 2nd. Spencer Pratt has a new ad out, and they've been so entertaining. We might as well keep sharing them with you. What does dangerous Spencer Pratt have in mind for Los Angeles? I make a living, giving drug needles to unhoused individuals, and Spencer wants to put me out of the job. Spencer wants to force me to get treatment and turn my life around instead of dying on the streets. What kind of bully forces people to do things? As a busy mom, running away from the crazy drug addicts in our park is the only exercise I get. Spencer wants to get rid of them. Does he want me to be fat? A vote for Spencer is a vote for change. Why would you vote for change when everything is fine? Stay the course with Karen Bass. Smile, damn it! Don't take the bait. Stay the course with Bass. I love ridicule.

You have to, or at least you have to try. It's difficult, though. It is difficult to parody the left, as we've been saying for some time. And Karen Bass is right up there among the most difficult people to parody. This was her latest policy innovation. How many people who are unhoused that you meet have no teeth at all? They don't have teeth. Why? Because meth rots your teeth. You can't succeed without teeth. So there needs to be comprehensive health care provided to people. Free body parts for people who want to trans, including people in the country illegally residing in California. Now free teeth for meth addicts. Okay. That was not a parody ad. That was Karen Bass being Karen Bass. Oh, excuse me. Karen Bussura. For more on all this. Stephen Moore joins us, Economist, author of the Trump Economic Miracle and the plan to unleash prosperity again, co-authored with Art Laffer. Steve, thanks for being with us. Well, good morning, Dan. And by the way, I always listen to your show and was very, I didn't realize that you have a tax on the tax on gasoline. I knew. Yeah. We double taxed. How devious and backhanded is that? Yeah. But I saw an unleash prosperity. You guys were making the point there. You're a posse. Yeah. Now's a good time to suspend the state gas tax. Maybe permanently. That would be even better. But states not moving to do so with the same energy they did when Biden was present. Certain states, you know, like Illinois. A bunch of the red states are doing that. But the blue states, of course, with the highest gas. By the way, the ones with the highest gas tax, you're correct. Correct. California is it about 70 cents. You're at, what, about 60? 66. In Illinois, so 56. 66 and going up. New York. New York is way up there. Gee, what do all those states have in common? They have a war. They hate gas, right? They hate fossil fuels, so they keep taxing it and taxing it so you can't drive your car. Look, I'm in favor of a temporary reduction or suspension of the federal income gas tax, and states should follow suit. And then, you know, in a couple months when gas prices start to fall again, which they will, then you could reinstate the gas taxes. And by the way, your story about J.B. Pritzker being all in for cutting the gas tax when Biden was president, but not now. That tells a big story, too. Yes. And by the way, I mean, I just, I like going back to the way back machine too. And I noticed another item in one of your newsletters that was fun. And because this is being debated in real time still always in Chicago and in Illinois, which is, you know, the tip minimum wage, the minimum wage, should we freeze it, should we raise it, always a push to raise it. And.

You recall a simpler time when the New York Times was not an incubator for crazy people, an editorial that New York Times wrote 40 years ago. Yeah, which was the, and the title of that editorial, which is sort of famous or infamous, depending on your political position, was the correct. Minimum wage is 0.00. And look, the point, I don't have a problem with a modest minimum wage. You know, I don't know a problem. But when the Democrats are talking about a $25 an hour minimum wage, are they trying to destroy jobs? By some estimates, that would destroy 5 to 10 million jobs in America. Gee, that's going to help low-income people in the less skilled people that you're going to just price all the, you know, low-income Hispanics out of their jobs because... They can't, you can't produce $25 an hour. But this is, this is the idea that just keeps coming back. And that's the sponsor of that, of course, is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House and Bernie Sanders in the Senate. So, but they have a louder, have you noticed, their voice is real. The voice of the Democratic Party today is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. Yeah, she's a leading candidate for president in 2028. Absolutely. What happened to that party? And then, you know, if Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or the presidential candidate, then I think J.B. Pritzker would be a great VP. So do I. Anything to get him out of Illinois? Yeah, although it's midterm, so that's not going to be enough to do it, assuming that ticket wouldn't win, and that's what I am assuming. In California, we've got a couple of interesting races going on, both the governor and the race for mayor valet, of course, which, you know, as an economist. Which program is more attractive to you? Karen Bass's program to give free teeth to meth addicts or Gavin Newsom's free diapers at the three times the retail cost. $20 million worth of free diapers. Yeah, I've always liked Karen Bass because of her let it burn, baby. You know, let it burn. You know, she really, there's more and more mounting evidence that those, that those houses that burn down. tragic, you know, thousands of houses that burned down in the Pacific Calcates. It was an act of terrorism. This was the reason that they didn't act is because those are rich people. We don't care of rich people. These are millionaires. We let their houses burn down. I see what you're saying. There's more. That's what happened. You mean, you mean, in addition to the arson, it wasn't general incompetence or that was a part of it, but it was also just a, a lack of interest in saving people's houses because they were rich. Yes. Yeah, they're rich. They can afford to have their house burned down. I mean, and it's true, I have a couple friends whose houses burned down. It would have been easy to, easy to, how do you run out of water when you're right next to the damn Pacific Ocean? Water, water everywhere and not a drop to put out of fire. Yes. Yeah.

But I think that this might be, L.A. is almost as liberal as Chicago is, but I think people are so fed up with the basic incompetence of these leaders, like Man and Johnson, like Karen Bass, like Zambas. And really, these are the people who have become the symbol of what the Democratic Party stands for. You saw that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said no one can earn a billion dollars. And so, you're not legitimately. Fred Smith, who built that X, I guess, you know, he's a villain because he became a billionaire, even though he created one of the greatest transportation companies of all times. So this, it's actually kind of scary, actually. It's like the Batman movie, you know. It's like Bain, you know, kill all the rich people. The inflation number that came out yesterday was a bit concerning, no? Yeah, yeah, it was. So what's going on now is, you know, obviously when you have a higher oil and gas price, that's going to not only affect what you pay at the pump, but it's going to affect, like, airline tickets are more expensive now. Why? Because the airlines have to pay more for fuel. And the hundreds of products made with, made, and the hundreds of products made with petroleum, yeah. Yes, of course. Everything is derivative of energy. So when the energy price rises, just about everything else does. Yeah, Trump is right now. He just landed in China and Beijing. And he's got that high stakes meeting with President Xi Jinping. I want him to be very tough with the Chinese. They're cheating. They're lying. They're stealing. And they're not lifting a finger to get the straight of Hormuz open. Even though, by the way, Dan, they're more dependent on Middle East oil than we are. But we got to get the straight open. And, you know, people have different opinions about. Iran, but, you know, I'm not a big interventionist myself, but we're there. Let's get this thing over with and let's get out of there so we can get back with being number one. Are you concerned or supportive of Trump using the threat, again, of tariffs to try to institute some discipline with Xi Jinping to try to affect what he wants from Xi Jinping? You know, I mean, Trump is the master of negotiator. He does understand the out of the deal. Yeah, I'm in favor of him being very tough with China. I think China is an enemy in the United States. We're dealing with a country that is not, you know, a cooperative. So, yeah, we should use every possible area of leverage we have over China. I mean, they are not only a threat economically, but they're becoming an increasing threat militarily as well. So, yeah, I don't know how you feel about it. And look, I'm a free trade guy. I do believe in free trade. But when you're dealing with an enemy like China, you've got to use every tool in your chest. Steve Moore, economist, author of the Trump Academic Miracle on the plan to unleash prosperity again. Steve, thank you as always. Okay, don't forget. Let it burn, baby. Let it burn. Yeah, I forgot about that, that Karen Bass classic. Very good. And Steve joined us on the AlphaWealthgroup.com answer. Hear about the big stories of the day. Then talk about them right here on Chicago's morning answer on AM 560. The answer. This is Chicago's morning answer with Dan Proft on AM 560. The answer.

Top of the morning, Dan Profft here. A seminar work by our next guest turned 25. I didn't even realize it's been 25 years since Theodore Dalryple wrote, Life at the Bottom, the World View That Makes the Underclass. And a piece in City Journal by Robert Henderson about said book and said author. Dale Ripple is indispensable because he refuses to romanticize the poor or celebrate intellectual rebellion. He writes about people who trade stability for fleeting pleasures and a culture that cheers them on. Without pity or platitude, he cuts to the fog of jargon, reminding us that stability is fragile, that tradition is wisdom still through trial, and that humans are capable of virtue only when we believe we should be. As life at the bottom turns 25, its warnings feel more urgent than ever, writes Henderson. Indeed, they do. So let's get right to it. Theater of Del Ripple is a retired physician and psychiatrist who worked in a general hospital in prison in England, currently a contributing editor at City Journal. His new books, the one I just mentioned, Life at the Bottom, the World View that makes the Underclass 25th Anniversary Edition, which is available now. And this is intriguing. There's a good... Write up on it by Dalryple, New Criterion. The book is Agatha Chris Christie and the Metaphysics of Murder, which is available in June. Theodore Dalryple, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Well, thank you for asking me. So the indulgence of the view that makes the underclass, we just discussed this briefly. Last hour, but you probably missed it. So let me give you this clip. Karen Bass, you know, she's the mayor of Los Angeles. And she has, yeah, she's taking this approach to dealing with meth addicts. Because, you know, you can't be successful if you don't have a pearly white smile. Take a listen. How many people who are unhoused that you meet have no teeth at all? They don't have teeth. Why? Because meth rots your teeth. You can't succeed without teeth. So there needs to be comprehensive health care provided to people. Teeth is, you know, pearly white's God-given right, Theodore. Well, George Washington didn't have any teeth either, actually. Yes, they wouldn't, yes. He had false teeth. Yes. Yeah. Times have changed. Yes. I mean, you know, but, I mean, but that's that approach to something like homelessness and drug addiction. I mean, it speaks to a larger worldview that you tackle in. The 25th anniversary. Yeah, of course. What it implies is the people who have done this to themselves are actually the victim. And what we must always do is disguise from them their own part in their situation. And it is up to us to save them.

And that's a worldview that really punctuates so much of Western policy towards that population. Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's actually rather dehumanizing because what you're saying is that they played no part in their situation. It's also a sign of a lack of compassion, actually, because they believe that if you say to someone, you are partly responsible for your own situation or even largely responsible for your own situation, which is the case. then what you're doing is saying, depart my sight, I will have nothing further to do with you. I won't try to help you or do anything for you. So either you must be totally innocent or totally guilty. But, of course, there is something, as most of us know, there are intermediate stages between total guilt and total innocence. So it's a very, very unsubtle view of life. Well, and it seems to me, I mean, it's not exclusive, but it's been imposed on society writ large, not by the homeless meth addict in L.A., but by the Karen Bass of the world and her financiers. It's very much along the lines of what Charles Murray observed in his book, coming apart, which is that these elite leftists don't believe in theory what they do in practice. Yeah. becomes a large vested interest in that particular view of the world. So that, for example, if you take the National Institute on drug abuse, it used, I don't know how far it still does, I haven't looked recently, but it used to say that heroin addiction is a chronic relaxing brain disease, and that's all. Nothing else. In other words, it's a bit like Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis. And there's a difference between these conditions, which is a lie. It's ineffective. It's meaning to heroin addict, because, of course, if you say you're just a victim of a chronic relapsing brain disorder, well, of course, he expects the doctor to cure him of it. And he knows perfectly well that is not possible. Right. But the elite view, too. I mean, it's the sort of noblesse oblige of. It's really an arrogant view. As you say, it's it's phony empathy. It's phony compassion. And one aspect of it is, you know, particularly...

galling, which is essentially to believe that, well, the person who is not doing as well as I am is not doing as well as I am just because they're not me. So how could you expect somebody to have all the talent another person or other people to have all the talent and ability that me and my friends have? It's just not possible. Yes. Well, I mean, what you're saying is that there are a different kind of being from me. In fact, no one actually can think of himself as he thinks of these people. No one believes that he has no control over his own life. But he thinks that somebody else has no control over his own life. Of course, there are situations in which people have very little control of their hands, that that actually exists. Yes. That's not the typical position of most people in our society. And so, I mean, just thinking about life at the bottom when you wrote it 25 years ago or you're proceeding its publication from a couple years prior to that, I'm sure. And where we are today in the West, what sort of reflections do you have? Well, of course, I'm slightly out of the world that I was writing about. So I had a very intimate contact, of course, with the kind of people I was describing. dealing with drug addicts and prisoners and people who have very degraded, actually, lives. And I no longer do because I'm retired. But from what I read, from what I see, things are certainly no better. Whether they're worse or not, I can't actually say. But they were catastrophically horrible 25 years ago. I should rather doubt. I can't see why they should have got very much better. I wanted to get to your other book, too, just because it's... So it's such an interesting area of inquiry and observation. Agatha Chris Christie and the metaphysics of murder. Why did you decide to do something akin to a meta-analysis of Agatha Chris Christie's work? Well, what I did actually was to take a book, more or less at random from her. and show that she was a highly informed, very intelligent person who had ideas about society and psychology that were remarkably sophisticated. So, of course, it's easy to skate over them by just trying to find out who done it.

In fact, she was an extremely clever, well-informed woman. She knew a great deal about psychology and psychiatry. She was very knowledgeable about psychology and medication. And I enjoy reading her book. So, as I said, I just took one at random, and it turned out to be a good choice as it happens, and analysed all the philosophical, sociological, psychological, psychological ideas that there were in it. And I was... I was very impressed by the degree of her knowledge and the degree of her sophistication. And also, of course, she was very funny. She was a social satirist. So she was more than just a writer of who done it. And the book you're referred to as the murder of Roger Ackroyd? No, I chose one that is not well-known, not particularly well-known. They do it with mirrors. And as I said, I chose it at random. I had a copy. I'd never read it. And I chose it at random to illustrate how sophisticated a woman, how knowledgeable she was. I took it, and I was rewarded because it was actually a very good choice. Although it's not her best book. I don't claim it as a best book, and it's not one of her best books either. Oh, yeah, no, I conflated the two. I was just referring to your new criterion piece. But you mentioned the murder of Roger Eckroy, just to give a concrete example, one of the things that you write about is, and just to give people like a sense of like her psychological insight and, you know, how it gets you to think beyond the whodunit part. You write about her. description in the murder of Roger Eckhart, when Caroline says to her brother that Mrs. Farrar's must have taken a suicidal dose of a drug, it's odd when you have a secret belief of your own, which you do not want to acknowledge. The voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial. And it's like that is really a keen insight into the human psyche. Yes. Oh, yes. I mean, it's not ever than anything in Freud, actually. And also, it's complicated because the man who says that, who utters that truth, is actually lying at the same time. So there are layers within layers of this psychology. Because, of course, he turns out to be the murderer. So, in other words, her view of the human mind is a highly sophisticated and very realistic one. And, you know, especially since you were a practitioner as a prison psychiatrist, you know, how did, you know, reviewing Agatha Chris Christie's fiction, you know, call to mind your own professional experience?

Well, I... She was very skeptical about psychiatric explanations of behavior. In the other book that I was talking about in the metaphysics of murder, she satirizes the psychiatry of the time, which was the early 1950s, which claimed to explain all human behavior. when actually it explained very little or nothing, and departed completely from common sense. So she was a common-sense psychologist and was a highly intelligent and sophisticated one. So she reflected on her own psychology, and she didn't accept absurd theories. And the deformation of psychiatry and psychology is that they accepted large theories which... actually push a lens between people's thoughts and themselves. So people, as a result of psychology, people became objects of themselves rather than subjects. So they started talking about themselves as if they were someone else. Right. And it's funny because, as you observed, that she considered herself her own work middle brow, but when you start digging into it and pulling out some of the passages that you pulled out and you see, as you said, there are layers upon layers. Yeah. So she didn't make exaggerations for herself, unlike most psychologists.

Before I let you go, just in Mary Old England, since that's where you spent your career, Keir Starmer has responded to the beating his Labor Party took at the polls and local elections the other week by proposing to re-nationalize British Steel. and address people's, you know, and save jobs, quote-unquote, and address people's economic concerns in that way. How do you think that's going to go? Well, of course, it's going to lead to further impoverishment, as it always does, but I'm afraid bad ideas never die. And what is your sort of current best outlook for Western Europe's near future? Well, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not very optimistic. I'm, I'm, I'm most pessimistic about Britain, actually. I think Britain is in the, Britain is the most corrupt country in Europe. I don't mean it's corrupt in the sense that if you're taking brides. and so on. It's much, much worse than that. It's corrupted intellect, morally and psychologically. And what I fear is that a very large proportion of the population wants actually the other part of the population to subsidize it, and they regard that as justice. Theodore Dalrypo, a retired physician and psychiatrist who worked in a general hospital in prison in England, currently contributing to city journal. The new book, Akka the Chris Christie and the Metaphysics of Murder, that's available June 9th. The 25th edition of Life at the Bottom is available now, Life at the Bottom, the World View That Makes the Underclass. Dear Daddal, Paul, thank you for joining us, as always, appreciate your time. Thank you very much, indeed. And he joined us on the AlphaWealthgroup.com, answerline. It's news, opinion, insight. This is Chicago's morning answer. An AM-560, The Answer. If you're looking for the latest news, insight into what it means, and the sharpest opinion, there's only one station in Chicago where you can turn, and it's this one. We're AM-560, The Answer. At the top of the morning, Dan Prop here, let's talk a little bit about remapping with an eye towards the midterms, given there's so much action in this space right now. The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional map that a lower court had blocked as violative of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting even as it was suborning racial discrimination. And that was the opinion, the majority opinion and the CalA decision that Samuel Alito penned. Apparently, Sonia Sotomayor didn't read that opinion. She dissented from Monday's decision saying that allowing this map to go forward that had been blocked by lower court.

will cause confusion, but really what she was saying is it will dilute the black vote, which he also said explicitly. Officer of the court and UC Berkeley law professor, John U. offered his dissent with Sotomayor's analysis. The court just came down with the decision in the last two weeks saying that lower federal courts can't order states to create black majority districts unless there is a finding of past discrimination. And here's the important part that responds to Sonia Sotomayor. You have to show, if you're suing the state, there's not some other explanation. For example, Carl just gave that very strange geography created for that district. What if the old districts had been created just to maximize protection of incumbents, which the Supreme Court said is okay, or was doing it? to provide Republicans with a much bigger advantage over Democrats. The Supreme Court said that's okay under the Constitution. And so if the lower court here was saying, no, you have to create this because I think you were really hiding behind Republicans, hiding behind incumbents, to really just protect whites, the Supreme Court said you need to really show that that's true. There has to be a high level of proof. You just can't assume it. And if you did, you have to go back and let the state hold the elections under the old map. In South Carolina, things have become a little bit more complicated than anticipated because the Senate leader, who's a Republican, Shane Thomas Massie, is blocking the proposed remap that had Jim Clybourne exercised even as he was saying, hey, you know, be careful what you wish for. We could actually pick up seats under this proposed map. Well, then what are you complaining about? Probably mostly complaining about his future. Regardless, here's what Senate GOP leader in the South Carolina legislature, Shane Thomas Massie, had to say. I believe that our state is stronger with vibrant parties. I think we as a whole are stronger when we have a clash of ideas. I think that's true at the national level. I think it's true at the state level. We are stronger when we have a clash of ideas and we can discuss those policy goals. I will tell my Republican friends, Republicans are stronger when the Democrat Party is vibrant and viable. We are. Competition makes you better, y'all. We know it in the economic sector. It also happens in the political sector. Yeah, well, a competition into a party also occurs y'all when there are Republicans of different stripes that have different policy goals, but at least are starting from the same foundation, generally speaking, a belief in free minds and free markets of constitutional principles.

The idea that these debates are so great when you have a conservative debating a communist is not completely without merit, but when you're not starting from the same premises, it's actually not that interesting and it's not that competitive. It's pretty black and white. And by the way, just because you are ascendant today doesn't mean you will be ascended tomorrow. It's not just about debating ideas. It's about implementing them and then assessing the consequences. So Shane Thomas Massie, why don't you worry about the Republican Party and let the other party worry about itself, drawing maps that are consistent with... the Supreme Court's decision in Calais and consistent with the norms they had previously promulgated with respect to contiguousness and compactness and respect for municipal boundaries, rather than these racist absurdities that have been drawn to drive a particular outcome that is race-based and actually violative of the Voting Rights Act, as Samuel Alito contended. But instead, he's providing aid in comfort to hysterics like Bakari Sellers, who ironically was a former state legislator in South Carolina. He's also an attorney. And. an inveterate race hustler. This is what he had to say on a CNN panel yesterday. If somebody fell asleep in 1896 and woke up today in 2026, they would simply say the only difference is now Negroes have a TV show and we wear nice suits. They swapped out clan hoods for Brooks Brothers suits. And that is the problem. I mean, Plessy v. Ferguson was 7-1. And it gave birth to 50 years of Jim Crow. What we have with this court right now, what we're seeing is watching people who have fought and died and bled so that we would have access to the ballot box so that we would have access to our voices being heard in Congress being ripped away. And I think that there is a casual laughter from people we believe to be our friends on the right. who are showing us true colors today because the most sacred or one of the most sacred acts you have in the United States of America is the ability to cast a ballot and elect someone and send them to Congress, the State House or mayorial seat that represent your interest. And now black folks throughout the South are being silenced. And I don't find that to be a laughing matter. I mean, and not that I'm surprised to hear. We've been hearing it in various forms from... others of his ilk. By the way, South Carolina redistrict is not dead, even if Shane Thomas Massie continues to be a holdup. As I understand it, if the Senate blocks a redistricting resolution and goes back to the House, the House can simply non-concur to Senate changes and refuse to pass a...

a CNADA resolution that calls for them back for a special session. This would allow the governor to call a special session. And the special session redistricting can pass by a simple majority instead of a two-thirds vote. So not dead yet. But Shane Thomas Massie, I think, is taking the wrong tack there. For more on all this, please be joined by Josh Blackman. He holds the centennial chair of con law at the South Texas College of Law in Houston and is a contributing editor to Civitus Outlook. Professor Blackman, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. So as to... Just the Alabama case and this ongoing argument, despite the holding in the CalA case, that's being advanced by Sotomayor and more hysterically by people like Bacari Sellers. So the Supreme Court did something very important. They said that when you're drawing legislative maps, you're allowed to consider partisanship. You're allowed to consider protect incumbents. You cannot consider race. And this might seem like an obvious thing, but for much the last half century, federal judges would draw maps to ensure that there are these districts that have majority of black people, even if they had nothing in common. You would merge a person in New Orleans, the person in Baton Rouge, the person in all the way up in the northern area. These people had nothing in common other than their skin color. They were just grossly assembled together. And the Supreme Court said, you cannot do this anymore. This rule would apply in Mississippi, will apply to Louisiana, will apply in Alabama. It's going to be the same rule. Right. I mean, and this is why they gloss over those arguments about, again, previous norms that the Supreme Court has promulgated about, as I mentioned, contiguous and compactness, respect for municipal boundaries. And the interesting thing is when you see some of these maps that have been redrawn. You see maps that are much more consistent with those principles, those norms, if you will, than they were the previous iterations per what you were describing as to what has gone on for the last half century. Right. And it became very clear what was happening. In the American South, Democrats had a bonus. As long as they said we have black voters who want their members, you would ensure their representation. But in the north, go look at your state of Illinois, go look at Massachusetts. Republicans are almost wiped out existence. They don't exist. I think Massachusetts has zero Republican members of Congress. Illinois has only a couple. And this is done deliberately. So in the South, you have this guaranteed bonus for Democrats. But then we had no such benefits for Republicans. And the Supreme Court said, we'll do it equal. We will have the same rule north and south.

Don't give minorities a sort of undue benefit. Well, and it also starts from this false premise in 2026 America, which is that, oh, a majority white district won't elect a black person or a majority black district won't elect a non-black person as they have elected Stephen Cohen in Memphis, as we've been pointed out a few times over the last week. I mean, so it's also just rooted in something that is not reflective of reality. It's reflective of a belief that certain people want. voter certain constituencies to have, but it's just belied by reality. Right. I mean, these laws came around for a time when white people in the South would not vote for a black candidate, no matter who they were, Republican or Democrat. And it was simply impossible for black members to get elected to Congress. We've a very different world now. We've had a black president. We've had black mayors, black governors, black senators. To the extent that black candidates aren't winning, my fecalist reviews aren't that popular, because they don't garner a majority of support by the electorate, and that's be the measure. And Clarence Thomas, who I blast my check as what his black said, in fact, that blacks a minority means it can elect it for a candidate, period. It's just like Republican living in Illinois or Massachusetts. If you're not in the majority, you can't elect your people. That's how elections were. Yeah, and it was interesting the initial response in Virginia, which I saw you wrote about at the Volok conspiracy at Reason. After the Virginia State Supreme Court rejected the referendum that redrew the map in Virginia because they didn't follow the state constitution, oh, by the way, there was this idea that they would change the qualifications for Supreme Court justices to basically dump all the Supreme Court justices, impose an age requirement down from 75 to, I think, 54. And then they just passed the map over the objections over, well, over that state Supreme Court justice, over the Constitution. They just, you know, vote their shares, as it were, in the generals in their legislature and have Abigail Spanberger ratify it. It's interesting. The head of the Senate, Democrat, said, no, we're not going to do that. That's too extreme. Even even some Democrats were pumping the break saying, I don't want to be party to that. Yeah, this is wild. I mean, it takes an impeachment vote to remove a judge from the Virginia Supreme Court, but they were just quietly impeached them by dropping the vote, the retirement age to 53. And by the way, everyone in the court's 54 and over. So they would remove even the people who voted in favor of the Democratic map. They get rid of them all. This is wild. I think it shows what happens when people lose power, how desperate they'll get. Thankfully, this idea didn't go forward. But they might try something else. I don't think it is over.

But it's just this obsession with drawing maps based on race. It's this fixation. The use of race now is harmful and dangerous. And I'm glad the Supreme Court put a stop to it. Josh Blackman holds a centennial chair of con law at the South Texas College of Law in Houston and is a contributing editor to Civitus Outlook. Professor Blackman, thanks for joining us. Thank you. And he joined us on the AlphaWelf Group.com answer line. The stories you need to know to start your day. This is Chicago's morning answer. On AM 560, the answer. The top of the morning, Dan Props here. Josh Sater is at it again. These ambush videos he does. Even if they're staged, I'm not sure if they are or not, but even if their stage are really good at illustrating the absurdity of the identitarians. In this installment, he identifies as trans, and so he wants the discount, the half-off discount, for trans people who take this self-defense class. And here's how that exchange goes. Do you work here? I'm looking for the queer people of color self-defense class. Yeah, it's here. Real thing. I saw on the flyer it says trans people fight for half off. Okay, I just wanted to make sure I get the discount. So do I give you the $10? You're not the person. Excuse me, Biggit? I am trans-pigmented. I was assigned white skin at birth by my parents bigoted doctor, but I identify as African American. You can't change your skin. You can't change your gender. Okay, I'm a woman of color. A lesbian. You just said I can change my gender. Whatever you're doing here is going to confuse the kids. Oh, so pretending to be something you're not confuses children? Yep, it does. Oh, don't you find that ironic? If you don't leave, I'm just going to call cops. Because I'm trans? If you don't leave, we're going to call cops. Okay, so you're calling them because I'm trans. because you're not really safe. You don't think that's rich? This whole event is about people who aren't what they say they are. How am I different? Just leave, I don't want problems, I don't want to call the cops, but I will. Just be honest, is it because I'm black?

So people pretending to be something they're not as dumb. Look, man, I'm not thinking. It's not man. It's ma'am. I am a black woman of color. Don't misgender me and don't mispigment me. We're done here. I'm on the phone right now and I'm calling the cops. So you're going to call the cops on a black woman of color because I want to fight at a place for black people. Yeah, whatever you want to say. I'm calling it. I'm dealing with this conversation. All right. Thanks for admitting your fascist. Get out of here. The performative moral indignation is the best part. Excuse me, bigot? It's ma'am, not man. Another wonderful offering from Josh Shader. Some good stuff. You can check him out on Instagram. This is the morning show. More Chicago radio listeners are choosing. This is Chicago's Morning Answer. An AM 560, The Answer. Thanks for listening to Chicago's Morning Answer podcast sponsored by Signature, a division of Esquire Bank. Signature takes pride in helping customers grow their business and provide unmatched banking expertise, custom financial solutions, and the industry's best technology. So whether your business is looking for a deposit relationship or needs a ready source of financing, Signature has the solutions for you. Call today at 773-467, 5600 to hear how signature can help your business grow and thrive. Esquire Bank, member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender.