Unfiltered Perspectives with Kimberley Strassel and Ross Douthat

In this week's episode of we kick off with a dynamic duo. Join us as we sit down with Kimberley Strassel from The Wall Street Journal and Ross Douthat from The New York Times. Together, they'll provide unique insights into the ever-evolving landscape of media, as well as, share their perspectives on the Republican Party, Joe Biden and more.

Later in the show, Chuck and Sam take the microphone to delve into some pressing current news, including VP Kamala Harris, Larry Sinclair’s appearance on Tucker Carlson and New York’s migrant “crisis.”

In a brand-new segment, we introduce "Kiley's Corner," hosted by the irrepressible Kiley Kipper. Kiley delves into current news stories, offering her unique perspective on the headlines. This week, she takes a deep dive into the Ruby Franke case, a shocking incident involving a Utah mother and YouTuber from "8 Passengers." Join Kiley as she unravels the story and discusses its implications, all from her corner of the studio.

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Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.

Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London. She moved to New York in 1999 and soon thereafter joined the Journal's editorial page, working as a features editor, and then as an editorial writer. She assumed her current position in 2005.

Ms. Strassel, a 2014 Bradley Prize recipient, is a regular contributor to Sunday political shows, including CBS's "Face the Nation," Fox News Sunday, and NBC's "Meet the Press." She is the author of "The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech," which chronicles recent attacks on conservative nonprofits, businesses and donors.

An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University. She lives in Alaska with her three children.

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Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. His column appears every Tuesday and Sunday. He is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast “Matter of Opinion.” Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website.

He is the author of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery,” which was published in October 2021. His other books include "To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism,” published in 2018; “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” (2012); “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (2005); “The Decadent Society” (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review.

He lives with his wife and four children in New Haven, Conn.

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Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. First up today, folks, we have to apologize a little bit. We had two longer interviews that were supposed to frame this show with Ross Douthat. Douthat of The New York Times. I'm so bad at last names, folks. My apologies there. And Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal. Chuck interviewed both of them last night at an event here in Arizona was fantastic. We were going to open and close the interview with that. We had a technical difficulty in the last half of each interview basically got wiped out by the electronic gods. Chuck. And so we're kind of scrambling a little bit. We pasted the two of them together. You're going to hear them in this segment. And then we're going to continue on with just Chuck and I talking about some of the issues of the day and some about this.

Chuck Warren: Yeah, the event last night was Center for American Institutions of ASU. And the the whole the whole point was to have them in a forum. And they're about the responsibilities of the media and the age of polarization. The one thing Ross said that was really interesting to me is it conservatives really want to go and change the media. They need to start getting some conservative foundations that start financing journalism, that start buying some papers and making them nonprofits.

Sam Stone: This is what you and I have talked about forever.

Chuck Warren: And he was very specific about it last night, saying you've got to be serious about it. And you and I talked about this, about the Koch brothers, how much difference they would have made if they had gone by 5 or 6 major daily newspapers. And so he brought that up. I was it was I was like listening to you and I talk. I found that very interesting. And then Kimberly was wonderful. She started as a reporter in Europe for The Wall Street Journal, now the editorial page. So folks, you'll find this interesting. We're going to get them both on here within the next month to talk more about it. And we hope you'll enjoy this clip. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds Today, this segment we are honored to have with us Kimberly Strassel. She is a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal. You can also catch her on her podcast with Potomac. Potomac. Potomac. I can't pronounce Potomac. Watch.

Kimberly Strassel: Watch Potomac Watch.

Chuck Warren: And she has written a new book called The Biden Malaise.

Kimberly Strassel: Well, it's so great to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah.

Chuck Warren: So is Joe.

Chuck Warren: Biden worse than Jimmy Carter? About the same?

Kimberly Strassel: No, I think he's worse. And here's why. And because I think the comparison is utterly unfair to Jimmy Carter. And that's why I ended up writing the book. Right. That's fantastic.

Chuck Warren: And.

Kimberly Strassel: Timely. Yes. And that's that is exactly why I did it, because, you know, we had all these comparisons the minute inflation popped up, the minute we had the horrible Afghanistan withdrawal, the minute that we had an energy problem. But the difference is Jimmy Carter, he was he was not a great president, but he inherited a lot of his problems. Right? Yes. We were already in the 70s in the middle of the great inflation, OPEC, all that OPEC oil shocks, you know, Cold War turmoil. Et cetera. Joe Biden created all of his problems. And that's a really important for spite, for spite or just because he lacked the backbone to push back against progressives in his party.

Chuck Warren: The ActBlue segment of his party. That's right. That's really what it is.

Kimberly Strassel: You know, And if you and that's the other thing. If you go and look at Jimmy Carter, he was an unpopular fellow, in part because he pushed back on parts of his party and didn't always do what they wanted him to do.

Chuck Warren: I also think Jimmy Carter was just a better person. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, I'm stunned with the past or the press has tried. I mean, so tonight I was watching NBC Nightly News and we were talking earlier about the number one story in NBC Nightly News was the migrant problem in New York. And, you know, a lot of people in the Republican governors did it. Abbott as an example. It was a stunt, right? And now it's put a focus on it where Mayor Adams is saying, where's the federal government, which Texas and Arizona have been saying forever? Yeah, sure. Right, right, right, right. But I noticed tonight the third or fourth story was about Hunter Biden and Biden's connection, finally. So finally, they're starting to do it. I'm interested when it becomes number one. But the fact that it was in the segment number 3 or 4, the first third, I found that interesting, which you would not would have had a month ago.

Kimberly Strassel: No. And I think the only reason they're doing it, though, I mean, let's not give anyone too much credit. They're doing it because when you have a US federal prosecutor, special counsel, as it is now, David Weiss saying that he has an intention to file indictment prior to the end of September. That's kind of news. And so we're going to see. But that's a really good point. I mean, Jimmy Carter, again, a lot of faults, but could you imagine him? And I mean, this is not a man who would engage in graft. He was deeply religious. He had great respect for the office of the presidency. Correct. It just there's no comparison with Joe Biden.

Chuck Warren: No, none whatsoever. So what are the three takeaways for our audience who we're recommending they get the book? Yes. What are the three takeaways? And let me let me start first this. What surprised you when writing the book?

Kimberly Strassel: Well, just how bad Biden is. Worse. Worse than you thought. Yeah. No, just you know, again, because people on the surface make these comparisons, you know, it's like, oh, my God, the worst president since Jimmy Carter. And I always say, like, that's not fair. Jimmy Carter Because you you realize when you go through the stories of what happened to Carter and what happened to Biden, the many and deliberate efforts that were taken to end us up in the situation that we are now. I mean, let's just be really clear. We shouldn't have any inflation at the moment. No, it's entirely the purpose, both of the fault of both the extraordinary overspending, but also the pressure the Biden administration and progressives in Congress put on Jerome Powell to keep interest rates low for too long. And, you know, we wouldn't be dealing with rising gas prices right now. I mean, look what just happened this week.

Chuck Warren: 3 million acres wasn't a 40 million acres. So they out of a federal lease is gone.

Kimberly Strassel: And by the way, can I just point out that a number of those millions of acres are on something called the National Petroleum Reserve, which when Alaska, they were setting up all these different areas, it was a specific agreement and deal that was made is that the federal government would lock up some of this in national parks, but this would be remained to do drilling on. And they're reneging on that. They're reneging on the leases that were duly issued at the very moment that OPEC is squeezing our necks. So, you know, by the way, Jimmy Carter would have killed to have had a domestic energy industry. Oh, 100%. He didn't have it, but he did good work. He started to deregulate the natural gas industry. He did everything he could to support oil and coal. You know, he really wanted us to be independent. And Joe Biden just wants other people to drill oil and send it here.

Chuck Warren: Welcome to breaking battlegrounds. Today, we are honored to have with us New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. Douthat. Douthat.

Ross Douthat: It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

Chuck Warren: So did you get in today.

Ross Douthat: Just two hours ago? Oh, my gosh. Take off tomorrow and I take off tomorrow. Yes, we have I have four kids at home and one of them is starting middle school and one of them is starting pre-K. So I can't be gone too long. I can't take any camping trips into the desert or anything like that. It seems like the right weather for it, but maybe next time.

Chuck Warren: That's fantastic. So you've been in New York Times columnist for four years now.

Ross Douthat: No, for I've been in New York Times columnist since, amazingly, 2009. So I started in Barack Obama's. Oh, my goodness. Very first year. Yes.

Chuck Warren: So how do you how do you get along with your colleagues? I know there's a lot of independent thinkers there. Probably many of them sort of lean left to a degree.

Ross Douthat: I think that's fair. That's probably fair to say. Yes.

Chuck Warren: How has that been for you intellectually and as a work environment? And how have they accepted you?

Ross Douthat: I mean, I think the you know, the work environment has always been good. I mean, I was you know, I was a conservative when I was hired. I don't think there's sort of any secret that I'm there to sort of represent views that are not shared by all of the New York Times readership, to put it mildly. Right. Our audience tends to be more more liberal leaning. But I think there's a lot of support for that work institutionally in the paper. You know, I think that the challenge is like everything in American politics, everything has become more challenging over the last 5 or 10 years than it was when I started. You know, in hindsight, the Obama Romney race in 2010, 2012. Right. Was a relatively low key presidential election. Very much so. Well, it didn't I mean, it didn't necessarily feel that way at the time, but compared to the Trump era. Right. And so everything has been sort of higher stakes in the last in the last 6 or 7 years. And obviously Covid wokeness, everything else has, you know, it's sort of made the job of writing for an audience that disagrees with you, somewhat challenging in new ways. But at the same time, I consider myself very lucky because we live in a very polarized media environment where it's not just that most readers are reading people they agree with. Most writers are sort of writing almost exclusively for people who agree with them. And, you know, at least in theory, the point of arguing in public is to convince at least some people, correct, push them a little bit in your direction. And I'm not sure whether I succeed at that or not, but just getting the opportunity to try on a consistent basis is, you know, it's a it's a dream job with with all of the challenges that dream jobs entail.

Chuck Warren: I do know with my college educated Republican friends that your articles probably get forwarded the most.

Ross Douthat: That's good to hear.

Chuck Warren: That's good. They enjoy your writing. It doesn't mean they always agree, but they enjoy your writings. It brings me a point. So Mike Pence gave a speech today about conservatism. Yes. What are your thoughts on that? Is he talking about an era that's gone or is an era that needs a new champion?

Ross Douthat: I think he's mostly talking about an era that's gone. I think that, you know, there's always continuity as well as change in American politics. And there are ways in which, you know, you can go back to the Reagan era and see some surprising. Commonalities with the Trump era. Donald Trump, for instance, was not the first Republican president to use tariffs and fight trade wars and these kinds of things. Right. He was not the first Republican president to try and get America out of foreign wars. So there is there is more continuity sometimes than you would think. But the broad vision that Pence stands for, I really think belongs to an era when Republicans and conservatives were just fundamentally a lot more optimistic about the condition of the country. There was a moment at the first Republican debate that where Vivek Ramos sorry. Vivek Ramaswamy was talking about sort of depression and malaise and mental illness in America. And Pence broke in and said, no, no, there's you know, the only thing wrong with America is that we need leaders who are worthy of our country. Right? And this is a sort of long running, sort of old school conservative view that the country is in great shape. The problem is just liberals in Washington, D.C. And I think Trump's election was itself a sign that Republicans didn't really believe that anymore, that they were willing to, you know, elect someone who who would sort of, you know, break things, for want of a better term, because because the country was going in such, from their perspective, a dire direction. And I think that's still where Republican voters are now. The you know, I don't think it's clear where the party goes from here, but I think the sort of the the basic optimism that the country is all right and just the leadership needs to change that Pence embodies. That's not where I think most Republican voters are anymore. They think things are more dire than that.

Chuck Warren: Generally, we're not happy warriors anymore.

Ross Douthat: No. And I mean, we're just warriors.

Chuck Warren: We're not.

Ross Douthat: Yeah, exactly. The mentality is, you know, there's a battle for the future of the country and we need to win it. But it's not, you know, it's a tough battle and things are not necessarily going our way. I think that that's the sense Republicans have.

Sam Stone: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. This is Sam Stone with your host, Chuck Warren and Kylie Kipper. Thank you to Chuck and Kip for the fantastic interviews that are leading and finishing this program today. But in the meantime, folks, how is your portfolio doing? How's your. How's your finances doing? If you have not gone to check out our friends at Invest Yrefy.com, you really need to do that. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right. 10.25 fixed. You can turn your monthly income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There's no loss of principle if you need your money back at any time. It's a fantastic opportunity. We've talked about it quite a bit. It's time for you to go there and take a look. Invest. y Refy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.

Chuck Warren: Well, first of all, we have a clip I want to talk about. There's been some conservative media has gone hypersonic that Kamala Harris says she's ready to take over the presidency. Jeremy, go ahead and play this clip, please.

unknown: Question about the president's age often go hand in hand with questions about how he would step into the role if necessary. Do you feel prepared for that possibility and serving as vice president prepared you for for that job?

Kamala Harris: Yes.

unknown: And how would you describe that, that process?

Kamala Harris: Well, first of all, let's. I'm answering your hypothetical, but Joe Biden's going to be fine. So that is not going to come to fruition. But let us also understand that every vice president, every vice president understands that when they take the oath, that they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president. I am no different.

Chuck Warren: Sam.

Sam Stone: Well, first off, she had to say that. Well, first of all.

Chuck Warren: She had to say it. And no vice president would not say it, Of course. I don't want this job. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is dear conservative listeners. Sam and I are conservative. We have been in the trenches. We have skin in this movement. You cannot cry wolf about everything for a statement that, frankly, I don't know what she could say differently than what she said If she's vice president of the United States. And we seem to go on to keep we have a conservative journalistic sphere. That wants clickbait, for example. So Tucker Carlson interviewed this guy this week, Larry Sinclair, that had smoked crack and had sex with Obama. Right.

Sam Stone: Allegedly. Who says he did? Allegedly.

Chuck Warren: Right. Allegedly.

Sam Stone: So part of the backstory about this, by the way, and I'm not sure why Tucker had this guy on, he is a a known fraudster. I mean, you know, he's got a long.

Chuck Warren: Rap sheet, a long rap sheet. He's been he served jail. He filed an affidavit 20 years ago saying he couldn't stand trial because he was terminally ill. He's still alive. Right? Right. Colorado records him having 13 aliases. He has failed polygraphs over this claim. Tucker did about matter of fact, Barstool sports founder Dave Portnoy said.

Sam Stone: I'm a huge fan of said.

Chuck Warren: I met Larry Sinclair when I was doing my Tucker thing a couple of weeks ago. I would trust Anna Delvey before I trusted anything, Larry Sinclair said top to bottom may be the least trustworthy human I ever laid my eyes on. So my point is, here's the thing.

Sam Stone: Dave Portnoy has a very good b you know what detector? Yes, he does. He really does. He does.

Chuck Warren: He does. Very much so. Very much so and so, folks. We have a responsibility, what you share on social media, what we give clicks to a vice president of United States that neither Sam and I in a million years would vote for. I think she is not the brightest bulb in town. I think she's ill prepared for the job. I think she does not represent any views whatsoever I represent or want in my country to have.

Sam Stone: And you can make that judgment. The majority of the country agrees with you.

Chuck Warren: She's the lowest. She has lower approvals than Biden and Biden's are horrible. Yeah, but when you're asked a question by a foreign correspondent where she did this interview at about are you ready to of course she's supposed to say it the rural news would be if she said, oh my God, no, I don't want this. Right. That's the news. That would be the news.

Sam Stone: Right? Then the question is, when is your resignation coming, Madam Vice President? Exactly. And you know, look, at the end of the day, too, and not that, you know, dear God, I would be terrified for this country with Kamala Harris as our 100%, 100%. But on a foreign international stage, if you're if you're the vice president and you don't say that you have just weakened and made this country more vulnerable, if you don't come out and just say, yes, of course I'm prepared.

Chuck Warren: So what we're doing on the right is we're be clowning ourselves. We have to start being more serious about what we put out there in the social media sphere, what we think is actually worthwhile. Larry Sinclair is not worthwhile. Even if it's true, Obama is not current occupant of the Oval Office. It would happen 30 years ago. I don't care.

Sam Stone: Well, and let me expand on that, Chuck. I do not care at all about a politician's sex life. No, it does not make any difference or interest to me whatsoever.

Chuck Warren: No, not me. Once over. So, folks, let's start being a little more serious about what we look at. Jeremy's gonna play another clip here from Mayor Adams. Folks, as you know, before we play it, Governor Abbott, Governor DeSantis bussed migrants to New York City and other areas.

Sam Stone: Governor Ducey, Let's give him some credit to do. He got in on the act. Yep.

Chuck Warren: And all the press said this was a stunt and folks, it was a stunt. But the stunt purpose was knowing the hypocrisy of these mayors, of these sanctuary cities, the ones that go and claimed all of these border state governors are racists. And so they said, fine, you're a sanctuary city. You have promised these social services, therefore you take care of the problem. So what they did is they shipped them to New York City, a city where Mayor Adams says was a sanctuary city. Jeremy, go ahead and play this clip.

Mayor Adams: I'll support. And let me tell you something, New York is never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an end to. I don't see an end to this. I don't see an end to this this issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City. We're getting 10,000 migrants a month. One time we were just in Venezuela. Now we're getting Ecuador. Now we're getting Russian speaking coming through Mexico. Now we're getting Western Africa. Now we're getting people from all over the globe have made their minds up that they're going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City. And everyone is saying it's New York City's problem. Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We got a $12 billion deficit that we're going to have to cut. Every service in this city is going to be impacted, all of us. And so I say to you as I turn it over to you, this is some of the most educated, some of the most knowledgeable, probably more of my commissioners and deputy commissioners and chiefs live in this community. So as you ask me a question about migrants, tell me what role you played, how many of you organized to stop what they're doing to us? How many of you were part of the movement to say, we're seeing what this mayor is trying to do and they're destroying New York City? It's going to come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. And I'm telling you now, with 110,000 the city we knew.

Sam Stone: So obviously, we're going to break right now. We're going to be coming back with more in just a moment here. But, you know, look, 10,000 people, he's complaining about 10,000 people. 10,000 people is a slow day on the border. Biden's been president for two and a half years. So you're talking about something like eight, nine, almost 900 days he's been. An office. So now let's multiply that 10,000 by all those days. And now ask yourself how people are dealing with the rest of them and the rest of this country.

Chuck Warren: Exactly. This is breaking battlegrounds. We'll be right back to talk more about Mayor Adams, New York and Biden's lousy border crisis.

Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, folks. Check out our friends and invest. Why refy.com. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right, 10.25% fixed. This operates a lot like a CD, folks. So if you need your principal back at any time, 100%, you can get it. This is a secure collateralized portfolio with an extremely high rate of return. And by doing well for yourself, you're actually doing good. Helping college students get their lives back on track by refinancing their their private student loans. This is a fantastic opportunity. Check it out. Invest. y Refy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.

Chuck Warren: Sam, you. You've worked a lot on the border crisis here in Arizona. You've done a lot of policy. You've done a lot of research. Talk more about it. So Mayor Adams is complaining now. Now, part of the problem for Mayor Adams is being a sanctuary city. They have promised so many social services. My understanding what's interesting about this is last night NBC Nightly News led with this story. It was the first day of school and 20,000 new migrants were going to school. And they were explaining this, the cost of this. But again, this would not have happened without Ducey, DeSantis and leadership on this by Abbott. This never would be a front page story. And now it is.

Sam Stone: It is. And that was the intent all along. It was the right move. Look, the first major race I worked on was a congressional race in southern Arizona on the border. So we had about 140 miles of the border in that congressional district. We went down there. We met with the farmers and ranchers. I'll never forget the story I got from one of them who he was getting older. His kids had moved out of the house, gone off to college. So it was just him and his wife there. And his house had been broken into 16 times that year. 16 times. Now, what he had actually done was go ahead and put out food and drinks and all this stuff, put refrigerators so they wouldn't break in.

Chuck Warren: So go take some water, take some food and get on your way.

Sam Stone: And so then they did stop actually breaking in. Right. But but that's the impact on one person. You're talking about an issue where we have millions of these folks coming here. And what Adams has done and what New York and some of these other cities are doing by by treating them the way, quite frankly, they treat the black population, which is we're going to keep you in a very minimal living. Right. And not expect you to actually do any work or any sort of thing like that. They are exacerbating the costs of this dramatically. They're increasing the number of dependent type people who are coming here for this. You know, look, this is there are so many elements of this. Nobody comes across the border without the permission of the cartels. So these people are all being trafficked in one sense or another. They've either paid directly or now they're here as indentured servants or sex trafficked. This is a problem that thank God for those governors who stood up and did this. It might have been grandstanding. The news might have might have thrown a little hissy over it at the time. But you know what?

Chuck Warren: It worked. They were throwing a hissy as of six weeks ago. Right. I mean, I will say this. God bless Mayor Adams for Elise being blunt about it, not caring. He offends the administration and saying this is a problem. It's a problem in Chicago now they're complaining about it.

Sam Stone: As long as the problem was in Phoenix and Dallas and in places like.

Chuck Warren: Tucson, who cares? Who cares?

Sam Stone: Yeah, but now that it's affecting these big national Democrats in the coastal cities where there's real Democrat media there that has to now be forced to cover this story. The the the sense of indignation coming from the left that this is a story now is just entertaining as hell.

Chuck Warren: Well, I think one thing to for our listeners to understand, this is not going to slow down. The world is in chaos. So there's not it's not folks it's not like ten years ago, 20 years ago, where they came from, Central America, Mexico. These are folks coming from Russia, Ukraine. They're coming from the Middle East. They're coming from Africa. They're coming from Cuba, They're coming from Venezuela. This is not slowing down. So you got to get a border policy that actually works done.

Sam Stone: What was the Pew study a couple of years ago that said something like 60% of the world's population would move to America if they.

Chuck Warren: Could, and I would, too. I mean, that's why that's why you always see these moronic progressives saying what a horrible country. Hey, jackass, over 5 billion people in the world would come to America if just given the chance right now, right this very minute. You want to.

Sam Stone: You want to talk about housing crisis. I mean, gosh. So that's the other thing. So the lowest estimate out there is that there are two plus million people who have come here illegally or claimed asylum status under the Biden administration. I think it's quite a bit more than probably double. It's probably more than double. It's probably double. But let's say it's 2 million. We have not built 2 million new housing units in the last two and a half years. We probably not built 200,000 new. Housing unit.

Chuck Warren: We're behind several years of housing just to.

Sam Stone: Catch up behind by more than a decade. So, I mean, so and you look at the issues with schools, you're complaining about Democrats always complaining about school funding. Well, you're bringing kids here who require a vastly higher rate of spending to to get them caught up. You are stressing every level of your social service system. You have a lot of kids who are coming here who are kids in our definition because they're 13, 14, 15, but they're not in Mexico. Right. Absolutely. And so then we're taking them in under a system, folks. We're going to go to the next interview here. Chuck, I didn't even catch which order we're doing them in, do we?

Chuck Warren: Kimberley Strassel was the first one. Ross from The New York Times will be the next.

Sam Stone: Is the next one, folks. Stay tuned for that and then stay tuned for the podcast segment afterwards. We're coming back with.

Chuck Warren: A new segment.

Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, the scramble show where we are making up for our electronic foibles.

Chuck Warren: We had one more. We would have a scramble.

Sam Stone: Well, look, we're Gen-Xers. We do not we should not be expected to be good with technology. I'm just saying, like all the younger generations have an advantage on this front that we are not allowed to have. Exactly. Because we grew up with. Did did you have a computer growing up?

Chuck Warren: No, no, I started college with a typewriter. So I and I remember and I remember my friend Darren Richards, who was the top public defender for Clark County, Nevada. Folks, if you don't know Las Vegas, I remember when the computer came out, he goes, This is a fad. This will never last.

Sam Stone: So I can I can actually top you on that one, Chuck. My father wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal. At that time.

Chuck Warren: They said it was a fad.

Sam Stone: Yeah. That this was never going to this is never going to work in business.

Chuck Warren: It won't stick. He won't.

Sam Stone: Stick. His two most famous articles are the two he was most wrong on. He said the computers would not make it. And then number two, he said Amazon was a fad.

Chuck Warren: Well, you can't be a bold prognosticator unless you're willing to make bold.

Sam Stone: He was right about many, many things in his life. Not those.

Chuck Warren: Not those. Well, it's like my friend who was invited to invest in the first KFC, and he said, no one's ever going to buy chicken going through a fast food. And then his second opportunity was to invite in the storage units. You know, he goes, Oh, yeah, no one's going to take their stuff out of a garage and put it in a storage unit. So those are his two things that he's failed on. Anyway, we.

Sam Stone: Anyway, we have as as always, the irrepressible Kiley Kipper is in studio with us here and we were planning in going forward, it's going to be a new feature on the podcast segment, a new feature program with Kiley's Corner. This is a conspiracy theory based.

Kiley Kipper: Not necessarily conspiracy theory, but more. I wanted to for those that have been around for a while listening to us, it used to be the sunshine moment, but you know, the world's not always sunshine and I like to talk about other topics. So sometimes Kiley.

Chuck Warren: Has gone down the hole of gloom and doom.

Sam Stone: Kiley is. Kiley is the captain of sunshine and murder.

Kiley Kipper: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So this one's not actually a murder case that I'm talking about today. This is a case up in Utah where this this mother was just arrested, I think it was this week or maybe last week. Ruby, Frank, Frankie, there's been pronounced twice, but she's a Utah mom who is a big YouTuber, so she has 2 million followers on YouTube.

Sam Stone: Oh, I saw.

Kiley Kipper: Something about this. Yeah, they're called eight passengers because there's eight of them. Six kids. And she she was basically known for her tough love and putting this in air quotes of why people would watch her. So she was recently just arrested for child abuse. So what had happened was her kid escaped from a window and ran to a neighbor's house and said, I need food, I need water. He was duct taped on his wrist and his arms and had I listened to the 911 call from the guy that whose house he ran up to and he just broke, he was breaking down. Crying was like, this kid's been tied up like there's lacerations on his arms from ropes. Oh, my God. And so I had never even heard of this woman before.

Sam Stone: I do. How many followers did she have on YouTube? 2 million.

Kiley Kipper: 2 million? Yeah. So 2 million people are watching her parenting advice.

Sam Stone: You make really good money when you have that kind of followers. Like that's a that's a significant Well.

Kiley Kipper: They would do meet and greets so people were posting photos of like them actually going to like meet the family which was weird in my mind.

Chuck Warren: Wow. Very weird.

Kiley Kipper: Yeah. Which I'm not. I don't have kids, so there was no need for me to watch a mommy blogger. But 2 million people apparently did think that. So I went back and I watched some of the videos and there were over time, you could see it get worse. So in the beginning, it was just like, I'm a strict parent, no sleepovers, which is I get in this day and age like very normal. Right?

Sam Stone: I you know, there's a line I think it's a little bit like what was the the the justice who said I you know, I can't tell you what pornography is. I know it when I see it. Right. It's the same kind of thing. It's really a judgmental line. Yeah. But in this day and age, it's hard to criticize someone for being a strict parent.

Chuck Warren: Yes. Yes.

Kiley Kipper: So, Chuck, Chuck's looking at me because I just switched to my next note page, but where I saw it, we.

Sam Stone: Have audio issues on this page.

Kiley Kipper: No, no, no. This is all good. So where I saw it going south was when she started using food as her main, like, I guess, punishment. So in many times.

Chuck Warren: It was a carrot and stick situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kiley Kipper: So many times she would say food is a privilege, so you have to earn it. So there would be many like mornings where she'd say her kid would be like, Mom, I'm really hungry. And she's taping all of this and putting it on YouTube for years now. And she's like, Did you do the dishes? She's like, Yeah. Did you do the laundry? Yeah. Her kids six, by the way, in this video, she's like, Yeah, I did. She's like, Did you clean the toilets? She's like, Yes. She goes, Did you mow the lawn yet? And she goes, No, mom, I'm really hungry. And she was like, Well, you can't eat until you mow the lawn. Get out there.

Chuck Warren: Didn't her audience. Excuse me? Didn't her audience feel like they were enabling her?

Kiley Kipper: Yeah. I mean, so some people there was like a very people would report her videos. Neighbors have have said that they've called the cops on this family and they've just they've done nothing, which I don't I think. So They recently joined when I say recently, like five years ago, the oldest daughter, she's 20 now, so she's out of the house. She's going to college. She said that they joined this group called Connections, which is a mental health podcast. It's spelled with an X, and the woman, the host of that was also arrested, Jodie, because the kid when he escaped was in Jodi's house. So not actually the family's house. So it's a little confusing, huh? Um, so this woman has been arrested, too, because it was occurring in her house as well. But the 20 year old daughter, who's now in college said that when they joined Connections, they started getting she didn't use this word, but I'm going to say cult like they were. It was a really strict following. That's when she separated from her family. So the oldest 20, who probably endured some of this abuse when she was younger, but.

Chuck Warren: Not not to the level probably.

Sam Stone: Sounds like it was escalating. Yeah.

Kiley Kipper: So she said since this in 2018 when they joined, it's gotten really bad. The dad used to be a professor at BYU. He's kind of like he's not arrested. He's supposedly they were separated for the past year, so I don't know if maybe that's when it got really bad was this past year. But basically this case is open. One of the daughters was talking about how they have limits of how much food they can eat. So Fridays and Mondays is 1900 calories. Tuesdays and Thursdays is 1700 calories.

Sam Stone: That's not enough for a kid.

Kiley Kipper: And then Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, it's 1500 calories.

Sam Stone: Oh, no, that's no.

Chuck Warren: I mean, not enough.

Sam Stone: At all. No, that's that's not enough.

Chuck Warren: Well, I will tell you, Utah will pounce on this. She will be serving jail, if not prison time on this. And good.

Sam Stone: Yeah. And good.

Chuck Warren: And she should. They will.

Kiley Kipper: But so Alex Murdaugh did the same thing. They have all these calls and then like the calls in jail are still like, you can request them and hear them. So supposedly one of the calls I say supposedly I listened to it. So one of the calls, unless it wasn't Jodi's voice, she was talking to her husband or the who she's been separated with for a while now about there was apparently a flood in their house and they were discussing the. So while she's in jail, they were discussing renovations of the flood that was that happened in their house over like anything else that's more important in their life, which apparently not the kids.

Sam Stone: Wow.

Chuck Warren: The world is really screwed up. Yes, very. And I do feel like this woman. I don't think that's going to be something abnormal. I think as people try to find purpose to a confusing, chaotic world, I think we're going to hear more stories like this over and over and over because people are trying to find meaning. They're trying to find purpose or trying to find structure because it's not out there.

Sam Stone: Well, I think all of that. But I think then it goes to a different and dangerous level with social media because one driver behind behind these social media accounts is you have to keep building. I mean, who's who's watching?

Chuck Warren: Who are the 2 million? I'd love to know the demographics of the 2 million people watching this woman. I mean, me too. I mean, what makes that worth your time?

Sam Stone: Well, I mean, look, in a certain sense, I think you can see it because for parents, the advice they're getting from the official sources appears to have failed in so many ways.

Chuck Warren: It happens all the time, too, right? I mean, it's unique. I mean, that's the hard part. We are in the country that want to protect parental rights. Right. And there is a danger on overboarding that so much. But, you know, so they're always going to take, I think, the parents side on a lot of things, unless you have some real, real proof or evidence.

Sam Stone: Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. And look, one of the things when you're dealing with whatever your state calls Child protective services, one of the things you realize is the situations they routinely see are so beyond the the understanding of the average human being, even far beyond what. Kylie, you're describing in this. I mean, because from working at the city of Phoenix, I know I've seen some of the police reports that are attached to these things. You're talking about, you know, kids this is sick, folks. But kids being kept in cages is not as uncommon as we'd all like to believe. Kids being starved. Yeah. For for really unfathomable reasons is not uncommon.

Chuck Warren: And the problem is it gets passed down from generation. Yes. Generation to generation, which creates a whole culture of psychopaths.

Sam Stone: It's it is consistent. I mean, you really do see the generational trauma, the effects of it, and a lot of stuff right now tied to the generational poverty that we've created with government programs, which becomes so hopeless that it increases the frequency of those traumas because people are lashing out and even at their own families for things that are affecting their lives.

Chuck Warren: Well, and the three of us in this room, we hit the lucky sperm club by being born into the families.

Kiley Kipper: I was going to say.

Sam Stone: This is Chuck's second statement of the day that I'm not sure won't get bleeped on Christian radio here. But but it's.

Chuck Warren: True. It is true. We, the three of us in the room. And, you know, when I was growing up there until ten years ago, I thought my upbringing was somewhat average American upbringing. I grew up in a middle class home. My parents worked hard, did dinner. You know, there was no abuse. There was nothing like that. They were supportive and, you know, prepare you for the future. The older I get what I was, what was available to me is rare. Yeah. And you wonder why we have problems in this country and throughout the world. It's not it's not unique to America. This happens everywhere. It's one.

Sam Stone: Of the reasons I was disappointed that friend of the show, Larry Elder, was not allowed to go on, you know, to to participate in the debate, to talk.

Chuck Warren: About that, to.

Sam Stone: Talk about that issue specifically.

Chuck Warren: One other item, Kylie from Kiley's Corner. Before we move on to the next subject, what's going on in Idaho? Is he going to get off?

Speaker10: What's going on in Idaho?

Kiley Kipper: You know, if he does, I think there'll be a lot of people that riot. However, if he.

Sam Stone: Does, he's probably got a slam bang.

Speaker10: Lawsuit. Yeah.

Kiley Kipper: Yeah. So he waived his right to a speedy trial. So we will not see this in court for a long time. They say it could be years, years, years, years. During that hearing, though, Kaylee, one of the victims her. One of her family members. They don't show it because they don't show. The audience in the courtroom wrote wore a pro-death penalty shirt to kind of taunt Brian.

Kiley Kipper: Um.

Kiley Kipper: And they also he was so cameras will be allowed in the courtroom. However, I don't think that I think the judge ruled that they they won't report on the case. So there will be cameras. I'm assuming, you know, at the end of it there will be a documentary and whatnot. However, there won't be live reporting. And one one this one's funny. One of Brian's arguments against it was they kept focusing on his crotch. So supposedly I. I haven't seen any of those photos, but the judge agreed.

Kiley Kipper: That.

Kiley Kipper: Something fishy was going on.

Sam Stone: Oh, okay.

Chuck Warren: All right. So let's let's Sam, let's talk about Salman Rushdie. As you know, a fanatical jihadist attacked him on the stage, stabbed him. He lost an eye. Right. Do you have to So I guess you only need one. According to the Biden administration, you only need one eye.

Sam Stone: Now, this is amazing. So Barry Weiss, Free Press reporting today, Salman Rushdie's attacker. I'm just going to read this, folks. Salman Rushdie's attacker getting treated with kid gloves. Sure. A crazy jihadi ran on stage and stabbed Salman Rushdie, who lost an eye. But have you considered that the Biden administration really wants to make a deal with Iran? And so maybe Rushdie is being a little dramatic. Did he really need both eyes? This is a real quote from Jason Schmidt, the district attorney overseeing the case, arguing that some of the prosecution depends on Biden's Iran agenda. Quote, the US attorney's office. I know they are engaged in their own investigation and potential prosecution, and they've been looking at this as well. I do think it does have political considerations and recognizing, for instance, that the Biden government is trying to negotiate with Iran now to bring them back into a nuclear treaty. I understand that there's a lot of considerations here that, you know, that are way outside my pay grade.

Chuck Warren: I'm telling you, this administration, what they decide, needs to receive the punishment of the law and what needs to be handled with kid gloves is a decision they make every day now.

Sam Stone: Well, let's add the fact that this nuclear treaty is literally just a way to hand Iran a nuclear bomb 100%. I mean, nothing more. It's handing them money and a bomb. And that's what you're saying, that Salman Rushdie's attacker should be let off, should be should be allowed to skate on.

Chuck Warren: It's just not a justice system I want in my country.

Sam Stone: It's not a justice system.

Chuck Warren: No, it's not at all. Folks, thank you for spending time with us this weekend. And this is breaking battlegrounds. You can see this clip and more at breaking battlegrounds. Dot vote or pick us up wherever you listen to podcasts and in addition to all our other markets. So check out our website again, Breaking battlegrounds dot vote on behalf of Sam and I and Kiley's Corner. Have a great weekend.

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