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This is The Other Side of Midnight.
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They're running a strange program, y'all.
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With Walter Sterling.
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There's this new trend now on X and probably some
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of the other social media platforms where we're getting these
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AI-generated stories. And they're not necessarily real. And there was
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one that I really, really liked. I was aware it
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probably wasn't a true story. But it was just a
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beautiful depiction of a kindness that a particular woman who
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was a barber hairdresser had done for a man coming
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into her shop. And I just said it was beautiful
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because it is beautiful, even if it is an AI-generated story.
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And here and there, there's people who just had to
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be really nasty about it. It's like if you're the
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kind of person who needs to be nasty, who needs
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to be contrary... You know, in the face of beauty,
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even if it's computer generated, what does it matter? It
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was a beautiful story of kindness. It doesn't matter if
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it's real or not.
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It doesn't.
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It would matter if I reported it as a real story.
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I said, you know, that's different. But I'm just talking
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about it was a beautiful thing. And, you know, four
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or five people just couldn't help but say, this isn't real.
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You're an idiot. It's like, wow. You know, it's like
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the rejection of a kindness, rejection of beauty, rejection of
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something that touches people is, man, I just hope I
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never get that reflex. I hope I'm never that guy.
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That's all I can say. We're talking war movies now,
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which is interesting. We've morphed from bagels to war movies,
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which is really appropriate. This is Veterans Day. And there
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are so many great war movies. Sometimes, you know, there
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was a time when Hollywood really helped America get a
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good perspective about itself, really respected our true heroes. I
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think now, Hollywood acts as so much of an enemy
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of the people. And a lot of it has to
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do with, let's face it, a lot of it has
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to do with the Chinese investment and the Chinese money
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in Hollywood, Hollywood's desire to please the Chinese market. You know,
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the reason why they keep making these superhero movies is
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because you really don't need to understand the language to
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sort of follow them. You don't really have to have subtitles.
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And you can dub in dialogue when the when you're
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not seeing the actual characters they're flying and i can
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see their mouth moves so it doesn't look odd like
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the old the old kung fu movies in the 70s
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that used to get dubbed and it was just so
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obviously you know not not matching the movement of the
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lips it was hilarious um right now i just see
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hollywood as being a real enemy of the american the
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american society just really do i'm sorry I can go
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into a lot of reasons why I think that, but again,
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there have been some exceptions to the rule. Oppenheimer was
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a fantastic film. We're hearing that this Jimmy Stewart movie
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was great. Thank God. I hope it is. I've been
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very worried about it because it's a topic near and
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dear to my heart, so I'm hoping that. Mary in Chicago,
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you want to talk about Band of Brothers, which is
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also something that came out of a Stephen Ambrose book.
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Go ahead.
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You know what?
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I do want to.
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That other caller reminded me of another.
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Movie that is.
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Anybody who's looking for a new, fresh movie about World
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War II would like this. I did not think it
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was going to be anything. It was called Pressure, and
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it was starring Brandon Fraser, who I'm thinking, come on,
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it's George of the Jungle. But it turned out to be...
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It was the sidekick who really stole the show. I
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would recommend it. It was like old school... and really
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well done. And it did not disappoint.
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Well, Brendan Fraser was also in
Load full transcript
school ties though, which
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is a great movie. Still holds up with, with Matt
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Damon and, and unknown Matt Damon at the time, unknown
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Ben Affleck. Uh, that's a great man.
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Uh, yeah, yeah.
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I mean, he's been in some goofy films. That's for sure.
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No, it was okay, but it was the other guy
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who really paid off.
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Anybody would like this movie, but getting back to band
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of brothers, I would say I, um, I got the
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part where they had the real guys.
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They interspersed.
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Oh, yeah.
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And they almost all, a lot of them said.
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The same thing. Like, we looked at.
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Those 18-year-old soldiers that died. They were our fellow Americans.
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And we almost all said they were the lucky ones
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because here they.
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Were, like, frostbitten, freezing.
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Starving and they just had to keep going on.
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So they were never relieved. I mean, they, you know,
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there was never like this moment where they realized that
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the Pentagon, Oh, these guys have been in contiguous duty,
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continuous duty for all these months and years. Like it's
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time to rotate them out. And they never did. They
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never did.
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Well, there's nothing stronger than an 18 year old man,
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but come on.
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I just, it's really, it's a beautiful thing.
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Yeah, it's important. Again, all the Stephen Ambrose books, I
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had a chance to interview him. Stephen Ambrose, his amount
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of his work was unbelievable. He did three books on
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Richard Nixon. He did many books on Eisenhower. He did
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many books on both the Pacific and the European theaters
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in the war. Just an amazing, amazing person who was
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very astute. And I had a chance to interview him
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her radio story once back in 1994, after the Republicans
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shockingly took control of Congress that year. And we talked
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about how Eisenhower felt in 54 when the Republicans lost
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Congress and how he was secretly happy because now he
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felt like he could get stuff done. But anyway, thank you, Mary.
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Jimmy in Panama City, you also want to talk about
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war movies.
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Yes.
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Uh, first thing I would like to say is, uh,
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I'm wearing a dog tag around my neck and I
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never knew my grandfather on my father's side of the
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family was in world war one. And, uh, I didn't
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even know my cousin found them. His name was Robert
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Lee par and, uh, it's round. Nobody knows what it is,
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but I wear that. And I also knew another incredible man.
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His name was Dick Hostetler. I knew him from Mesquite, Nevada.
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And we called him German Dick. His parents, his mother
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lived in Germany when Hitler started taking over. And him
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and his brother wound up being Hitler Youth. And his
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brother took quite to it. And Dick didn't. His mother
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didn't like it at all. And she got him out
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of there. He came over here. And he served 20
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years in Coast Guard. But the movie I was calling
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about was, I remember the movie. It was black and white.
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The B-17 to me. It's the prettiest airplane ever made.
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I got to take a tour of the Spiritus. No,
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that was Charles. Sentimental Journey. Okay. All polished aluminum and
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a beautiful B-17. And this movie, that was the plane
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they flew, and it was 12 o'clock high.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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That's a great film. That's a great film too. So
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many great ones.
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Yeah.
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So many great ones.
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I don't remember who starred in it or anything. I
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just remember the movie and that I enjoyed it and
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being in a sentimental journey and they took all the
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armament out of it so they can carry more ammunition
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in the airplane.
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That's right.
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That's right. But they put the, they put the crew
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at risk in that way and they, So many of
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them died in those planes.
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It was a beer can, really. I mean, the bullets
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had to come through there and rip. And when you're
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standing there and they had, I guess they were actual guns,
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like a door gunner would use and stuff. But of course,
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they didn't work. But I can't imagine being 18, 19
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years 44, 35, 65, and be standing there and just
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having to pick it out. And then the belly gutter,
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that little door they had to go through to get
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into there, and if it took a wrong shot, it
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was over. They were stuck in that airplane.
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But we had a lot of them and we had
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so many of them that, you know, we could overcome
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the structural defects or the many. And the same thing
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was true of the Sherman tank, which, by the way,
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Stephen Ambrose talks about the Sherman tank in this regard
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in that, you know, they broke down. But at that time,
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most American boys knew how to tinker with an engine,
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whereas the Panzer was so sophisticated and hard to figure out.
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that the German boys couldn't figure out how to get
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under the hood there. And that was a major part
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of it. Thank you, Jimmy, in Florida. Robert in Manhattan.
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You want to talk World War II stuff. Go ahead, Robert.
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Good morning, Jake. You know, the best tank in the world,
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and most military will tell you what it was, it
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wasn't the Panzer and it wasn't the Sherman. It was
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the T-34.
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The Russian one.
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And if you don't believe that, just watch anything on
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the Battle of Kursk. July 1943, a tank battle, which
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is the greatest tank battle in history, 6,000 tanks on
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both sides. Anyway, you mentioned the Civil War. The one
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movie that I recommend to people, but it is not.
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not an easy movie to watch, Andersonville.
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Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Yeah,
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great movie about the prisoner of war camp.
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Yes. Now, I'll give you quickly, before I tell you
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why I called you, my favorite movies were World War II.
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Not in this order, but just midway. Midway is one.
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That's a good one.
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Guadalcanal Diary, based on Richard Trigaskis' book, Guns of Navarone,
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and its sequel, Force 10. And one of the reasons
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is I taught World War II to high school students.
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I'm a World War II aficionado, and I remember all
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the great World War II television programs from the 50s.
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The greatest was Victory at Sea, with the great musical
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score by Robert Russell and Richard Rogers, Leonard Gray, based
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on Samuel Elliott Mars and his incredible naval history. And
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the musical score is wonderful. The 26 episodes, if you
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can ever find them, Jake, are wonderful. Let me ask
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you a question. How familiar are you with the war
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on the Eastern Front? And I have two reasons for
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asking you that question. You know, Eisenhower... wanted to coordinate D-Day,
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and he actually did. June 6, 1944, when we landed
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on Omaha in Utah, the Russians opened up a campaign
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called Operation Bagration to clear the Germans from Belarus and
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the Ukraine at the very time that we were invading.
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You know that the Russians were the first ones to discover,
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you know, the murder camps were not in Germany. There
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were terrible camps in Germany, but the six murder camps
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were in Poland. And one of them was Majdanek. And
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the Russians discovered Majdanek in the summer of 1944. And
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when they let the news out to the West, sadly enough, Jake,
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very few believed it. They thought it was Russian propaganda.
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Yeah, you know, anyone who was in the death camps
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will tell you that the death camps that were liberated
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by the Russians, there was no messing around. The Russians
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took all the officers, and there weren't a lot of Germans.
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There were a lot of Ukrainians who were Nazis. They
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lined them up and shot them. They didn't waste any time.
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The Americans got to the death camps, Bergen-Belsen most notably,
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and were like, what's going on here? And then to
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his credit, when Eisenhower got there, he marched the local
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citizens through the place so they could never say they
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didn't know what was going on.
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And you know the funny thing about that? They showed
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the troops. Now, a lot of those people, you know,
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went home and they did themselves in. They couldn't understand. Oh,
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we didn't know what was going on, but they made
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them dig graves.
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Yeah.
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It was amazing. Jake, this is a great, great show.
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As a World War II aficionado, you and I could
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discuss a lot of World War II movies and a
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lot of things in World War II, like the diaper
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rebellion in Belgrade, which may have changed what happened in Russia,
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which may have saved Moscow. So I'm very glad that
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we did what we did in World War II. It
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was the war, the right war, and it's emotional. And
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I did not, and you know, I will say one thing.
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One of the things that I love about World War
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II is Do you even know that even cartoons, animated shorts,
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you want to see something very interesting. You want to
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see the cartoon where Popeye tries to convince his nephews
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to start a victory garden. It is hilarious.
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I think I've seen some of that. Yeah, it's good stuff. Anyway,
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thank you so much, Robert, and thank you for all
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your work and your teaching of young people about World
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War II. So very important, and you know it's not
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in the curriculum anymore. In too many schools, that's for sure.
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Jim in Chicago, you want to talk some war stories?
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Go ahead, Jim.
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Yeah, good show. A couple things real fast. My favorite
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movie wasn't really a movie. It was a documentary that
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we got from the Japanese that filmed the bombing of
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Pearl Harbor. They filmed the whole thing. And on this documentary,
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And there were things that we weren't aware of, like
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there was a mini-sub that was in the harbor. How
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did that get in? We didn't even weren't aware of
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it until we watched, you know, they watched the documentary
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that they filmed the whole thing, and it's phenomenal. But
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my story is my neighbor across the street from me says, Hey,
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DJ's on, so are you going to watch that stuff?
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He looks at me, he goes... I don't watch any
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of that crap. I don't have to. I was there.
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You got a minute? And I says, yeah, why? I says,
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come into my house. I come up in his house.
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He comes down with a briefcase, opens it up. He's
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got four bronze stars. Wow. A letter of valor, a
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letter from the president. He also had the gun that
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misfired that would have killed him. He's got that as
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a keepsake. He's held on to that. And for him
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to tell the story, you know, they had landed on
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D-Day and that. And it's like, wow, no way. Unbelievable.
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You know, so many of the World War II veterans
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are dying out. We're really getting to that last stage
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now where anyone who was really an active, soldier or
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sailor in world war ii you know we're really i
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think every day some ridiculously high number of them pass
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away and that's a dangerous moment for us as a
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country where we have no more firsthand people to talk
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about it anyway jim thank you so much for your
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for your stories and uh we'll have more this on
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this veterans day edition of the other side of midnight
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i'm jake novak in for walter sterling we'll be.
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Right back the other side of midnight with walter sterling
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It's The Other Side of Midnight with Walter Sterling.
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We have gotten around during these few hours of this program,
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haven't we? On this edition of The Other Side of Midnight,
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we were talking about bagels,
we've got war movies, we've
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got all kinds of stuff. I'm Jake Novak. In for
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my friend Walter Sterling this evening. By the way, in
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my book, the two best Beach Boys songs are I
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Get Around and Good Vibrations. And talking about movies, I
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highly recommend the movie Love and Mercy with John Cusack.
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And I forgot the name of the actor who played
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the younger Brian Wilson. It is an incredible movie because
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it delves into the mental anguish of Brian Wilson, but
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also a lot of the music. And there's a very
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good segment of the movie where they look at the
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recording and production of good vibrations. Uh, and it's just a, although,
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you know, I know we're playing get around right now,
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but great movie and a good example of how that
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in some cases, the line between genius and mental illness
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is very thin. And sometimes people cross over back and forth,
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really good film, uh, highly recommended. Uh, you know, I,
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I think about how best to honor veterans and parades
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are great. And talking about their stories are great. You know,
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even if they weren't in a war and certainly even
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if they weren't wounded or anything else like that, what
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did it mean, you know, to work in a military,
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in the military, in one way or the other, whether
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you were a desk jockey or out in the middle
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of a battlefield, there's something to be learned from it.
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And so many of our great Americans were veterans and
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use that experience in their careers. You know, I can
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think of so many people, especially in the entertainment industry,
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People like Rod Serling, who really got his inspiration for
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so many of the Twilight Zone stories from his time
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in the service. Again, it was such a molder of creativity,
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a forger of creativity. And you wish that it didn't
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have to come along with the millions of lives who
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died in that conflict. But yeah. at least we get
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some things out of it that we may not otherwise know.
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And that includes some of the technological discoveries as well.
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I mean, for all the horror that nuclear weapons are,
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and thank God we've only had two instances of them
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ever being used, nuclear power and some of the other
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technological breakthroughs from the discoveries that were the result of
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a race to a weapon that have led to good things.
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You know, it's just, again, you have to, You have
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to try your best to balance the good with the bad,
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and it's important. David in the Bronx wants to disagree
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with me about something. I'm used to that. I had
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teenage daughters once. Go ahead, David.
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Oh, hey. Thank you, Jake.
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You had mentioned about the film industry being controlled by
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the Chinese. I don't disagree that the film industry is
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marketing in a very Chinese-friendly way, but I don't think
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it's political.
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Okay.
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I think what you're doing is that you're assuming that
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you've got people in Hollywood who are making these decisions
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based on political.
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No, no, no, no. That's by the way, you're right.
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I meant to say, I think they're doing it for
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financial reasons. I don't think they're doing it for political.
349
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Exactly.
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Yeah. No, no, no, no.
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I meant, I meant financial change. You're right. All right.
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Because something that's changed a lot over the years is
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that– because I used to watch classic movies. I lost
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my vision 14 years ago. But before that, I used
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to watch a lot of black and white movies. And
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you notice that movies were made specifically for the American audience,
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and that's where they were making their money. Now the
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audience is all over the world, so movies can't be
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made the way that people like you and I might
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have been used to. And I think it looks– like
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it's anti-American or whatever, but it's actually just
pro-money. I
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don't think someone in Hollywood is saying, we want to
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make this.
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Movie to be anti-American. 100%. By that, and the film,
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for example, they did that movie First Man, which of
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all the really good movies about the early space program,
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it was the worst. It's not a good movie. But
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there was a huge controversy, remember, because as they land
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on the surface of the moon, they took out the scene...
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Where they planted the American flag because they didn't want
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it to be, you know, to offend the Chinese audience
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and wanted to make just incredible stupidity like that. You know,
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to me, the greatest film by far, and it's not
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even close, about the space program is The Right Stuff.
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It's one of the most incredible films of all time.
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And I say that even though. And I don't say
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that just because the director was a classmate of my
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dad's at the University of Chicago, Philip Kaufman. It's an
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incredible movie. It must be seen by so many people.
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No way that movie gets made today. Not even close.
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And it wasn't a rah-rah, everything is perfect kind of movie.
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There were a lot of problems with the space program,
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a lot of corruption and other issues going on there.
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So it wasn't, it's not that it's just would never
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be made today. Too American, too long, uh, too many,
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too many difficult concepts to, to put in a film,
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but it, I can't recommend it enough. And I remember
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one of the real happy moments of, uh, of me,
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of my life as a dad was when I showed
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the right stuff. We watched my, my, at my then
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13 year old older daughter and I watched it and
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she just absolutely loved it. And she wasn't that kind
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of a kid who liked those kinds of movies, but
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I thought to myself, that's a good sign. But yeah,
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you make a lot of good friends.
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Can I just mention one more thing before I go?
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Go ahead.
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I think this is a good example of this. And
399
00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:17.579
this was actually the last movie I saw before I
400
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.220
lost my vision. Do you remember a movie.
401
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Called World War Z?
402
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Yes.
403
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It was a zombie movie.
404
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All right.
405
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The book that that movie was based on, the virus
406
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that caused the whole thing, was started in China. They
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removed all of that from the film, hoping they were
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going to get it approved. And in China, they don't
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allow movies about zombies or ghosts or anything else. So
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they catered to the Chinese. And they still didn't get
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the movie market there. So this catering to China doesn't
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even really pay off a lot of times.
413
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But it's a big reason why we keep having all
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these superhero movies. And I used to be a big
415
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fan of those movies a long time ago. But now
416
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it's just ridiculous. And China is a huge reason why,
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because they're very easy to dub. They're very easy to
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make without subtitles. And that's a huge reason why they're
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making these movies over and over and over again. You know,
420
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it's it's it's yet. No, it's about money. I do
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believe that there are some anti-American sentiments in Hollywood, but
422
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not not in the movies that they're marketing to China.
423
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It's not because of that. You're you're you're exactly right.
424
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And I'm sorry I didn't make that clear because I
425
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agree with that. Mike in South Carolina, you want to
426
00:23:21.819 --> 00:23:23.180
talk about Veterans Day, please do.
427
00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:28.950
Hey, Jake, man, I'll tell you what. I tuned into
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your show an hour ago. Fantastic. I'm listening 30 some
429
00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:34.640
odd years to WABC radio.
430
00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:35.599
Okay.
431
00:23:35.980 --> 00:23:38.000
I'm 72 years old. I have a son and daughter.
432
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Doing well up north. My father's best friend growing up,
433
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Uncle Paul, he died two years ago. He was 98.
434
00:23:46.170 --> 00:23:51.069
And 82nd Airborne Battle of the Balls he was in.
435
00:23:51.250 --> 00:23:51.490
Yeah.
436
00:23:52.210 --> 00:23:54.529
And Pierce, you know.
437
00:23:54.930 --> 00:23:58.940
It was a tough one. And totally unnecessary, too. You know,
438
00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:00.660
I mean, I don't want to take your time. I mean,
439
00:24:00.859 --> 00:24:01.430
you'll get time to.
440
00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:02.759
No, go ahead.
441
00:24:02.819 --> 00:24:04.680
The Battle of the Bulge was something that we had
442
00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:08.500
already taken and cracked the Enigma machine well before the
443
00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:13.420
Battle of the Bulge. The Pentagon had many communiques that
444
00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:17.119
we had decoded because the Enigma machine and at Bletchley Park,
445
00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:19.440
the British were helping us with this. And we knew
446
00:24:19.509 --> 00:24:22.529
that this was coming. And the Pentagon kept saying, I
447
00:24:22.589 --> 00:24:26.009
don't care what these messages say. Our assessment from here
448
00:24:26.049 --> 00:24:29.210
in Washington is that the Germans don't have enough manpower
449
00:24:29.509 --> 00:24:32.470
to launch this counterattack at Bastogne. But I mean, it
450
00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:35.700
was totally avoidable. And it just goes to show that
451
00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.319
you can have all the intel in the world, all
452
00:24:38.339 --> 00:24:41.259
the technology in the world. If you have buffoons and
453
00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.660
arrogant people running an operation, whether it's a business or
454
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a war, Lots of luck, because you've got to have
455
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a certain amount of humility to fight a war, and
456
00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.299
the Battle of the Bulge is an inexcusable error on
457
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behalf of the United States and the Allies. We should
458
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never have been caught in that situation. Go ahead. Sorry,
459
00:25:02.460 --> 00:25:04.380
I had to pontificate for a second about that. Go ahead.
460
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:07.369
No, that's okay, man. I can listen. That's okay. You know,
461
00:25:07.390 --> 00:25:11.470
my mother passed away four years ago. She was 90. Okay,
462
00:25:11.490 --> 00:25:14.230
about 20 years ago, she gave Uncle Paul the only
463
00:25:14.309 --> 00:25:17.420
book on the 82nd Airborne. And my uncle Paul had
464
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to leave the table. He was crying. But I worked
465
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with a lot of guys when I worked Metro North
466
00:25:27.619 --> 00:25:31.049
Vietnam vets. I just miss Vietnam. I'm 72. And they
467
00:25:31.089 --> 00:25:35.910
never spoke about it. Every time I see somebody wear
468
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a shirt down here or a hat, a veteran, I'll
469
00:25:39.230 --> 00:25:40.750
always acknowledge him. Always. Always.
470
00:25:41.750 --> 00:25:42.430
You know, yeah.
471
00:25:42.549 --> 00:25:44.990
You know, we just need to acknowledge them. You
know,
472
00:25:45.009 --> 00:25:46.970
we need to understand that this is I mean, there
473
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are just too many generations now of Americans since the
474
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end of the draft who don't know anyone who ever
475
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:54.980
served anywhere, war or not war. And that's not good.
476
00:25:55.500 --> 00:25:58.099
I'm sorry. We have to be they need to be
477
00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.279
front facing in our society. And they're not. And that,
478
00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:03.160
you know, there's a lot of people to blame for that.
479
00:26:03.779 --> 00:26:05.440
But all I can say is that if you do
480
00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:09.349
know a veteran, talk to them. find out their stories,
481
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and just acknowledge them. Acknowledge them. That's what this day
482
00:26:12.430 --> 00:26:15.099
is about. It's not about mourning. This is not Memorial Day.
483
00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:17.920
This is about acknowledgement, and I think there's a big difference.
484
00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:19.420
So I thank you.
485
00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:20.480
Well said.
486
00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:20.960
Thank you, Mike.
487
00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:21.220
Sorry.
488
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:26.410
Well, that's okay. Well said. And, you know, I sing
489
00:26:26.430 --> 00:26:28.569
with a guy, some of my senior buddies in the
490
00:26:28.589 --> 00:26:31.930
morning at Mickey D's for senior coffee. And Bill is
491
00:26:32.069 --> 00:26:33.890
two years older than me. He looks like Santa Claus.
492
00:26:34.690 --> 00:26:40.359
And he never, never, never speaks about his time in Vietnam. Never. And,
493
00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:44.480
you know, so anytime, like I said, today, I'm going
494
00:26:44.500 --> 00:26:47.299
to go to a ceremony. I believe it's 12 o'clock.
495
00:26:47.900 --> 00:26:49.740
in North Myrtle Beach. I'm going to go to that
496
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:53.599
ceremony just to acknowledge, you know, just to acknowledge. Yeah.
497
00:26:53.700 --> 00:26:53.900
Yeah.
498
00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:56.599
Good for you. That's really necessary. All right. Gary in
499
00:26:56.640 --> 00:26:58.140
New Jersey, you want to talk Veterans Day?
500
00:26:58.160 --> 00:26:58.779
Go ahead, Gary.
501
00:26:59.869 --> 00:27:00.220
Yes.
502
00:27:00.420 --> 00:27:03.809
Good morning, Jake. I just wanted to quickly call and
503
00:27:03.890 --> 00:27:11.809
acknowledge my father, William Freeman from Jersey, originally Scranton, married
504
00:27:11.849 --> 00:27:16.630
my mom this week in November of 49. And a
505
00:27:16.670 --> 00:27:20.130
few months later, went to Korea to the front lines.
506
00:27:21.410 --> 00:27:24.309
And I want to acknowledge my mom, Marilyn, because she
507
00:27:24.369 --> 00:27:27.109
lived on pins and needles the whole time he was there.
508
00:27:27.930 --> 00:27:30.349
And they gave me my life. I mean, my dad
509
00:27:30.410 --> 00:27:36.319
came back
from the war and they adopted me in 59.
510
00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:39.519
And so I've been blessed to have them as parents
511
00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:45.359
and my father served proudly. Like the recent gentleman has said,
512
00:27:45.910 --> 00:27:49.329
They never talk about it. I mean, you know, what
513
00:27:49.390 --> 00:27:52.839
they did and what they did, especially World War II,
514
00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:56.799
you were speaking recently with amazing callers that have been
515
00:27:56.819 --> 00:28:00.869
calling in tonight. They didn't talk about it because they
516
00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:02.940
didn't have to. They lived through it.
517
00:28:03.089 --> 00:28:03.250
Yes.
518
00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.619
And I just wanted to acknowledge my dad on Veterans
519
00:28:06.670 --> 00:28:10.240
Day and all the people who have, you know, been
520
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:14.799
veterans in our country. And especially in World War I
521
00:28:14.839 --> 00:28:19.160
and II, we saved the world. And we need to
522
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:21.970
do that more and more in today's time.
523
00:28:22.269 --> 00:28:27.210
Yeah. And, you know, the good news is, as again,
524
00:28:27.450 --> 00:28:30.329
and the expert on this was Stephen Ambrose, the late
525
00:28:30.410 --> 00:28:34.579
great writer, the good news is As bad as things
526
00:28:34.700 --> 00:28:38.640
are now, as poorly educated as our children are about
527
00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:42.640
the history of this country and patriotism and respect for
528
00:28:42.660 --> 00:28:46.849
the armed forces, we've had periods like that in our history. Again,
529
00:28:46.890 --> 00:28:49.130
that period between World War I and World War II,
530
00:28:49.589 --> 00:28:53.130
the military was very, very much denigrated in our society
531
00:28:53.930 --> 00:28:56.849
to an extent that people really can't even fathom today.
532
00:28:57.549 --> 00:28:59.970
And yet those young men who grew up in that
533
00:29:00.250 --> 00:29:04.059
culture saved the world. And And it's important to understand
534
00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:06.809
it was them. Well, you know, the generals were older.
535
00:29:06.829 --> 00:29:13.009
It was the captains, lieutenants, and sergeants in World War
536
00:29:13.130 --> 00:29:15.789
II who made the difference. They usually make the difference.
537
00:29:15.809 --> 00:29:19.190
The junior officers and the older, and the more senior
538
00:29:19.250 --> 00:29:21.950
non-commissioned officers. In most wars, that's the case. But in
539
00:29:21.990 --> 00:29:27.289
World War II, it was really the case. Captains, lieutenants, sergeants,
540
00:29:27.670 --> 00:29:31.150
they were young. They were young and they saved the world.
541
00:29:31.210 --> 00:29:34.329
And Just to throw in another very personal thing I'll
542
00:29:34.369 --> 00:29:36.759
say about this. You know, I'm a sixth generation American.
543
00:29:38.420 --> 00:29:42.819
But I'm also very much a traditional Jewish American. I
544
00:29:42.859 --> 00:29:47.779
was very religiously educated and also educated in American history.
545
00:29:48.619 --> 00:29:50.660
And I often say this when I'm speaking in front
546
00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:53.670
of a large audience, especially a non-Jewish audience, is that
547
00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:56.750
no matter what the history of this country is or not,
548
00:29:57.440 --> 00:30:01.680
I wake up every morning in a country where Christian
549
00:30:01.759 --> 00:30:05.220
boys saved the Jewish people. It's not why they went
550
00:30:05.259 --> 00:30:07.839
to war, but the truth is that's the case. And,
551
00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:10.900
you know, you go to Normandy, and obviously there are
552
00:30:10.940 --> 00:30:12.920
some Jewish stars there in the cemetery there.
553
00:30:13.299 --> 00:30:13.619
A few.
554
00:30:14.279 --> 00:30:16.180
Because, by the way, most of the Jewish soldiers were
555
00:30:16.220 --> 00:30:19.180
sent to the Pacific Theater because the U.S. government had
556
00:30:19.220 --> 00:30:21.240
an inkling of what was going on in Germany, and
557
00:30:21.259 --> 00:30:24.160
they figured, you know, so most Jewish war veterans from
558
00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:26.599
World War II actually served in the Pacific Theater. But yes,
559
00:30:26.630 --> 00:30:28.740
there were a couple of Jewish, there were some Jewish
560
00:30:28.779 --> 00:30:31.880
soldiers who died at Normandy Beach. But honestly, you know,
561
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:35.660
it was a sea of Christian boys. And if they
562
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:38.880
don't win on D-Day, there's no Jewish people anymore. Okay,
563
00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:41.740
it's as simple as that. And that needs to be
564
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:46.099
acknowledged more often from that standpoint. Again, I'm not saying
565
00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:49.900
that's why they went. And who knows, but that was
566
00:30:49.940 --> 00:30:53.220
the result. And that's the important thing. And I say
567
00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:56.630
this a lot of times to Individual, very religious groups
568
00:30:56.730 --> 00:30:59.680
also who think that they're just like an enclave community
569
00:30:59.779 --> 00:31:02.680
in some country that doesn't have anything to do with them.
570
00:31:02.779 --> 00:31:05.839
But it just couldn't be further from the truth. But anyway,
571
00:31:05.859 --> 00:31:07.259
I thank you. Yeah, go ahead.
572
00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:11.180
And Jake, you know, my family is very close with
573
00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:15.670
a lot of Holocaust surviving families who were in the
574
00:31:15.730 --> 00:31:22.849
camps and, you Somehow, and they're very famous people now,
575
00:31:23.609 --> 00:31:27.750
they ended up becoming some of the biggest developers in America.
576
00:31:27.809 --> 00:31:31.430
They came here and they were in the camp together
577
00:31:31.490 --> 00:31:35.799
and how these two seven-year-old boys lost their families there
578
00:31:35.859 --> 00:31:38.660
and survived it and came to New York and then
579
00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:44.519
New Jersey and lived here and then reconnected and became
580
00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:49.160
businessmen starting with nothing. and have gone on to become
581
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:56.170
some of the biggest developers in the world. And it's amazing.
582
00:31:56.569 --> 00:32:01.569
And these were all people who fought for freedom, fought
583
00:32:01.609 --> 00:32:06.940
against this hate. And I won't keep you from any
584
00:32:07.019 --> 00:32:09.700
other calls at this point, but I just wanted to
585
00:32:09.740 --> 00:32:12.500
call to honor my dad and my mom and and
586
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:15.750
all the people who were veterans for our country. And
587
00:32:15.789 --> 00:32:18.250
I thank you for letting me have the time.
588
00:32:18.809 --> 00:32:21.829
It was our pleasure. Tommy, in Staten Island, you want
589
00:32:21.849 --> 00:32:22.750
to talk Veterans Day.
590
00:32:23.769 --> 00:32:24.930
How are you, Jake? I want to tell you a
591
00:32:25.019 --> 00:32:27.380
story about my uncle, but I want to tell you
592
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:31.940
something else. First off, during the war, now I had
593
00:32:32.339 --> 00:32:34.940
four uncles in the service, one in the Navy, three
594
00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:40.420
in Europe. And the three in Europe were involved, you know,
595
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:43.440
with fighting the Germans, of course. But during the battle,
596
00:32:43.569 --> 00:32:46.930
after the Battle of the Bulge, when they executed our soldiers,
597
00:32:47.289 --> 00:32:54.069
the SSS executed unarmed soldiers, after that, a lot of
598
00:32:54.089 --> 00:32:59.369
SS soldiers were, let's say, just, they disappeared. And that's
599
00:32:59.470 --> 00:33:02.710
a true story. You could ask any real veterans that
600
00:33:02.730 --> 00:33:05.660
were there. After that incident, there was a lot of
601
00:33:05.740 --> 00:33:08.700
things that American soldiers did, which they should have, I think.
602
00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:12.119
But anyway, I'll tell you the story about this one uncle.
603
00:33:13.079 --> 00:33:15.680
He was an MP. He was in the Hurricane Forest.
604
00:33:16.220 --> 00:33:19.839
And he told me, he says, we would always look
605
00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:24.920
for booze, anything to drink. So anyway, they got a
606
00:33:24.980 --> 00:33:28.480
bunch of German liquor, and they had a party. And
607
00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:32.380
he got really sick and all, and he had to
608
00:33:32.420 --> 00:33:35.059
relieve himself. And they were in the foxhole, and he
609
00:33:35.099 --> 00:33:37.980
told his buddy, he goes, listen, I have to go.
610
00:33:38.009 --> 00:33:39.930
He says, I'll be right over there. I have to,
611
00:33:40.029 --> 00:33:42.589
you know, go to the bathroom. So he went. He's
612
00:33:42.630 --> 00:33:47.269
doing his business, you know. He's just squatting there. And
613
00:33:47.289 --> 00:33:50.089
he says all of a sudden he looks up, and
614
00:33:50.109 --> 00:33:54.650
there's a German lieutenant, like, just standing there. And old
615
00:33:54.690 --> 00:33:57.390
Denny's looking around. He said there was like 40 other
616
00:33:57.430 --> 00:34:00.710
Germans around just standing with rifles all around them. And
617
00:34:00.730 --> 00:34:02.390
he's like, oh, man, I'm going to die. I'm going
618
00:34:02.410 --> 00:34:06.650
to get shot with my pants down. But they wanted
619
00:34:06.690 --> 00:34:11.900
to surrender. And they were trying. And the German officers
620
00:34:11.980 --> 00:34:15.429
go in to get a saluger out. And my uncle goes, oh,
621
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:17.619
I'm going to be dead. My mom's going to find
622
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:19.840
out how I died. He goes, oh, I can't believe
623
00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.420
this is going to happen. And he hands him his pistol.
624
00:34:23.550 --> 00:34:25.829
And now he tells them, oh, you have to wait now.
625
00:34:25.849 --> 00:34:29.449
I have to finish what I'm doing because, you know.
626
00:34:29.929 --> 00:34:34.699
But he actually brought them all in. It actually was
627
00:34:34.739 --> 00:34:39.079
a whole company. It was over 200 men that surrendered
628
00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:44.900
to him. He wound up getting a medal. He wound up,
629
00:34:45.099 --> 00:34:50.139
it was the whole company. And the dog, there was
630
00:34:50.260 --> 00:34:54.039
one German shepherd named Fritz. It's a true story. The
631
00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:57.860
story is in the Staten Island Advance in the archives.
632
00:34:57.900 --> 00:35:02.920
You can read it. But anyway, he took the officers.
633
00:35:03.059 --> 00:35:05.219
He says, you know, he told the lieutenant, he says,
634
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:07.630
you know, I want your uniform. He's like, why do
635
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:09.719
you want to go take it off? I want your uniform.
636
00:35:10.449 --> 00:35:13.769
He sent his whole uniform home with all his medals, everything,
637
00:35:13.829 --> 00:35:18.110
with the hat, everything. And my cousin has it till
638
00:35:18.159 --> 00:35:22.340
to this day. But he had that in his living
639
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:25.340
room till he passed away. And he would tell us
640
00:35:25.420 --> 00:35:27.380
all the stories. And it was just, we'd have a
641
00:35:27.420 --> 00:35:31.000
lot of laughs. But he has the complete uniform of the,
642
00:35:31.079 --> 00:35:34.760
he was a Wehrmacht soldier. And it was just interesting.
643
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:38.400
But he actually went in when he was 16 years old.
644
00:35:38.900 --> 00:35:41.619
And he was telling me, now this is the mentality
645
00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:45.400
of the people that served in World War II. He
646
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.650
was telling me that you had to serve. You had to.
647
00:35:49.289 --> 00:35:52.710
Some of three of his friends actually killed themselves that
648
00:35:52.809 --> 00:35:55.250
couldn't serve because they had medical issues.
649
00:35:55.269 --> 00:35:57.489
Yeah, the shame was heavy.
650
00:35:58.250 --> 00:36:01.030
Oh, it was terrible. It was a mindset. And what
651
00:36:01.050 --> 00:36:03.489
you were talking about before, I'm sorry I'm going all over,
652
00:36:03.530 --> 00:36:05.030
but you have such a great show.
653
00:36:05.050 --> 00:36:05.659
Thank you.
654
00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:09.980
It's about the Christian boys fighting the Jewish people. It's
655
00:36:10.219 --> 00:36:13.699
absolutely true. They knew what was going on. My uncle, too,
656
00:36:13.719 --> 00:36:17.579
he said after the death camps, things were different, let's say.
657
00:36:17.659 --> 00:36:19.820
I can't, you know, you know what I'm saying.
658
00:36:20.059 --> 00:36:20.219
Yeah.
659
00:36:20.260 --> 00:36:23.659
You know, I wanted to say something. So that scenario
660
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:27.949
you talked about with that soldier who encountered all these
661
00:36:27.989 --> 00:36:30.269
German soldiers who wanted to surrender, you know, we've been
662
00:36:30.289 --> 00:36:34.050
talking about war movies. There was a very late contender
663
00:36:34.250 --> 00:36:37.489
into this whole thing that I enjoyed. I remember it
664
00:36:37.510 --> 00:36:39.349
came out my senior year of college. It was called
665
00:36:39.369 --> 00:36:43.789
The Midnight Clear. Listen to this cast. Ethan Hawke. Gary Sinise,
666
00:36:43.869 --> 00:36:47.699
Kevin Dillon, Aryeh Gross, John C. McGill. Great movie about
667
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.320
just what you were talking about. That period towards the
668
00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:53.059
end of the war in the Hürtgen Forest, in the
669
00:36:53.139 --> 00:36:57.079
cold weather there, where a number of the German soldiers
670
00:36:57.559 --> 00:37:02.260
tried to individually surrender ahead of what Central Command wanted
671
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:04.510
them to do. And it's a good movie. It's a
672
00:37:04.530 --> 00:37:08.449
good movie and an interesting cast. So you might like that,
673
00:37:08.530 --> 00:37:09.670
A Midnight Clear movie.
674
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:12.860
And then i clear that yet get good will you
675
00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:15.440
look at the alternative now what why would you want
676
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:17.599
to surrender to russians after what they did.
677
00:37:17.530 --> 00:37:20.789
That's right that's a big week crazy yet they they.
678
00:37:20.690 --> 00:37:23.070
They had to listen the russians lost twenty million people
679
00:37:23.110 --> 00:37:25.349
in war two and they knew exactly what was going
680
00:37:25.510 --> 00:37:28.610
on and i really like what they were not naive
681
00:37:29.230 --> 00:37:32.130
and they they took care of business especially in auschwitz
682
00:37:32.710 --> 00:37:33.090
and what.
683
00:37:32.989 --> 00:37:35.150
You said about the jewish people want to get back
684
00:37:35.210 -->
00:37:38.590
to it uh... I hate to say it, but this
685
00:37:38.849 --> 00:37:41.289
is starting all up again today, and we have to
686
00:37:41.349 --> 00:37:45.610
stand for the Jewish country, for Israel, for all Jewish people.
687
00:37:46.090 --> 00:37:50.190
I mean, what they did when they were just breaking
688
00:37:50.289 --> 00:37:54.750
all the windows of the Jewish people. I forgot what
689
00:37:54.809 --> 00:37:56.300
state that was. It was the other day.
690
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:57.510
Philadelphia, yeah.
691
00:37:58.219 --> 00:38:02.369
This is horrifying. Now this is our turn to stand up.
692
00:38:03.409 --> 00:38:07.550
I'm a Christian man, and I am a million percent Zionist.
693
00:38:08.269 --> 00:38:11.900
I vote for what's good for Israel my whole life.
694
00:38:11.980 --> 00:38:14.880
Well, I appreciate that. And just for everyone else who
695
00:38:14.920 --> 00:38:18.199
might be a little bit queasy about that, it's not
696
00:38:18.440 --> 00:38:20.860
necessarily to stand up for the Jewish people. Stand up
697
00:38:20.900 --> 00:38:23.610
for law and order. Here's a newsflash. You can't break
698
00:38:23.639 --> 00:38:26.409
a business's windows. You can't graffiti a window. You can't
699
00:38:26.469 --> 00:38:28.530
punch someone in the face because you don't like their
700
00:38:28.570 --> 00:38:31.670
politics or you don't like Israel. If you have a
701
00:38:31.809 --> 00:38:35.949
city or a state where violence and vandalism is punished,
702
00:38:35.969 --> 00:38:39.110
no matter who the victim is or who the perpetrator is,
703
00:38:39.550 --> 00:38:43.110
you won't have anti-Semitism. It's as simple as that. We
704
00:38:43.139 --> 00:38:47.559
don't need hate crime laws. We don't need sensitivity training.
705
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:51.920
We just need a police force and politicians who say,
706
00:38:51.940 --> 00:38:54.840
I don't care what your personal grievance is. You can't
707
00:38:54.880 --> 00:38:58.409
drive a car loaded with explosives into a preschool. How
708
00:38:58.429 --> 00:39:00.539
about that? Doesn't matter. And we're not ever going to,
709
00:39:01.010 --> 00:39:03.960
and everyone's going to get the same really heavy punishment.
710
00:39:04.219 --> 00:39:08.280
That's how you defeat anti-Semitism. Thank you. Thank you, Tommy. Jim,
711
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:12.699
in New York, where are you in New York? Let's see.
712
00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:15.699
I'm in upstate New York.
713
00:39:15.739 --> 00:39:17.400
Go ahead, Jim. You don't want to talk about Veterans Day.
714
00:39:17.420 --> 00:39:17.860
Go ahead.
715
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:19.119
I'm originally from Jersey.
716
00:39:19.139 --> 00:39:24.090
Yeah, Veterans Day. My grandfather was a double Purple Heart recipient,
717
00:39:24.130 --> 00:39:29.599
World War II He was wounded at Iwo Jima. My
718
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:35.340
great-grandfather was in World War I. I'm 62, the last
719
00:39:35.420 --> 00:39:37.920
of the baby boomers. My parents are 45. They're the
720
00:39:38.260 --> 00:39:41.550
first baby boomers, war babies. It's just a country. They
721
00:39:41.570 --> 00:39:45.170
have this visceral hate for baby boomers. We ruined it
722
00:39:45.210 --> 00:39:48.599
for them. It's like, This is the country that I
723
00:39:48.639 --> 00:39:50.780
grew up in versus what it is now. You know,
724
00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:53.400
growing up watching, you know, Bob Hope and the Andrews
725
00:39:53.460 --> 00:39:58.039
sisters and Abbott and Costello, everyone rallied around the country
726
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:01.860
in a time of war. You know, Vietnam War was controversial.
727
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:05.139
My Uncle Danny was, my aunt met him, he was
728
00:40:05.179 --> 00:40:08.659
a full-blown hippie and, you know, long hair, VW bus,
729
00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:13.570
but he was a decorated combat sniper in Vietnam. Didn't
730
00:40:13.590 --> 00:40:14.280
know it, you know.
731
00:40:14.730 --> 00:40:17.929
You know, what you said is interesting, and this is
732
00:40:17.949 --> 00:40:19.849
going to sound like a tangent, but it really isn't.
733
00:40:20.630 --> 00:40:26.889
You know, there is this disdain for everything that's old
734
00:40:28.030 --> 00:40:31.239
these days in our culture to the point where it's
735
00:40:31.300 --> 00:40:33.199
gotten to become the theater of the absurds. Some of
736
00:40:33.239 --> 00:40:36.880
my favorite commercials, because they are very funny, are those
737
00:40:36.940 --> 00:40:40.119
progressive ads, don't become like your parents with Dr. Rick
738
00:40:40.780 --> 00:40:43.599
and these people doing stuff because they'll become a homeowner,
739
00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:46.750
they'll turn into their parents. Have you noticed that every
740
00:40:46.829 --> 00:40:49.650
one of the so-called bad habits that these people have
741
00:40:50.309 --> 00:40:54.690
are wonderful habits? Talking to strangers, being encouraging, trying to
742
00:40:54.750 --> 00:40:59.059
help out, being friendly. That's something to be ashamed of?
743
00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:02.139
I mean, they're funny commercials, but.
744
00:41:02.260 --> 00:41:03.360
It's part of the problem.
745
00:41:04.760 --> 00:41:07.679
Today, kids, you talk to somebody in a store, they
746
00:41:07.940 --> 00:41:11.010
act like you've got three heads. Just to be friendly.
747
00:41:11.050 --> 00:41:15.170
They want to be on their phone, texting, everything's the internet.
748
00:41:15.550 --> 00:41:19.610
And today, with the political climate, a lot of these kids, again,
749
00:41:19.630 --> 00:41:22.389
a lot of them don't have the work ethic that
750
00:41:22.429 --> 00:41:25.570
I grew up with. Everything's the internet. And a lot
751
00:41:25.909 --> 00:41:29.500
of them realize AI is going to take take these
752
00:41:29.559 --> 00:41:31.480
jobs they're going to college for, a lot of them.
753
00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:34.230
Well, I think that people with
the real personal touch
754
00:41:34.469 --> 00:41:37.510
will be able to defeat AI as a job killer.
755
00:41:37.590 --> 00:41:41.809
I mean, AI has a lot of positive connotations.
756
00:41:41.969 --> 00:41:44.300
If you're intelligent, you'll find a way to survive.
757
00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:47.239
Yeah, but I mean, honestly, the latest one of these
758
00:41:47.260 --> 00:41:52.039
progressive ads has the guy in the back talking... kindly
759
00:41:52.179 --> 00:41:54.880
and encouragingly to the uber driver like that's a bad
760
00:41:54.940 --> 00:41:57.630
habit he's like listen you're doing a great job like
761
00:41:58.090 --> 00:42:00.590
i mean listen again i i get it it's listen
762
00:42:00.710 --> 00:42:02.429
i laugh i love those commercials and when they have
763
00:42:02.489 --> 00:42:04.250
new ones out i'm like i get excited because i
764
00:42:04.289 --> 00:42:07.230
really like them but have you noticed that every one
765
00:42:07.250 --> 00:42:09.300
of the so-called bad habits you're not supposed to get
766
00:42:09.599 --> 00:42:13.739
is an endearing kindness i i should be that should
767
00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:15.079
be the worst thing that everyone has said about me
768
00:42:15.099 --> 00:42:17.230
like oh yeah You know, dad talked to people in
769
00:42:17.250 --> 00:42:19.170
the waiting room and tried to calm them down or
770
00:42:19.449 --> 00:42:21.969
tried to help them find their Starbucks cup when no one,
771
00:42:22.250 --> 00:42:23.489
you know, what's wrong with that?
772
00:42:24.650 --> 00:42:25.070
Jeez.
773
00:42:25.369 --> 00:42:29.610
Anyway, thank you so much for your call. Let's take
774
00:42:29.650 --> 00:42:32.530
a break. We're almost done with our other side of midnight.
775
00:42:32.550 --> 00:42:33.909
We'll get a chance to talk to one or two
776
00:42:33.929 --> 00:42:35.929
of you when we get back. I'm Jake Novak in
777
00:42:35.949 --> 00:42:37.170
for Walter Sterling. We'll be right back.
778
00:42:39.090 --> 00:42:56.619
The other side of midnight with Walter Sterling. The Other
779
00:42:56.760 --> 00:42:59.260
Side of Midnight with Walter Sterling.
780
00:43:03.159 --> 00:43:06.920
Russ in White Plains. You want to talk about Philadelphia?
781
00:43:06.940 --> 00:43:11.760
Yeah, Jake. The caller just referred to the breaking of
782
00:43:11.820 --> 00:43:15.880
glass in Philadelphia the other day. The anniversary of Crystal Knocker.
783
00:43:15.900 --> 00:43:20.030
There was a dozen bikers in masks. And they picked
784
00:43:20.130 --> 00:43:24.369
Kristallnacht anniversary to do this. Jake, tell me, doesn't this
785
00:43:24.429 --> 00:43:27.409
look a lot like Hasbro that some people decided to
786
00:43:27.489 --> 00:43:28.409
put masks on?
787
00:43:28.449 --> 00:43:31.050
Oh, you think it's like a false flag? Well, no,
788
00:43:31.090 --> 00:43:35.429
because they're doing it again. They're doing it again next week.
789
00:43:35.889 --> 00:43:40.090
You know what? It's, you know, I wish, you know,
790
00:43:40.110 --> 00:43:41.590
that's the thing. You know, a couple of years, I
791
00:43:41.610 --> 00:43:43.530
don't know, about a couple of years ago, maybe like
792
00:43:44.210 --> 00:43:47.429
a gazillion years ago, I would have sought the same thing.
793
00:43:48.199 --> 00:43:51.250
But sadly, you know, I've been on these campuses. You know,
794
00:43:51.530 --> 00:43:54.630
I obviously I'm a long time graduated already from these
795
00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:56.369
kinds of places. But I do go I do a
796
00:43:56.389 --> 00:43:59.210
lot of reporting on stuff going on in the Ivy League.
797
00:43:59.230 --> 00:44:02.809
Some of it is just sports. But sadly, these people
798
00:44:02.909 --> 00:44:05.590
are in abundance. It's real. No one needs to make
799
00:44:05.630 --> 00:44:08.789
them up. And I thought it was a great moment
800
00:44:09.389 --> 00:44:12.619
in the way that people showed up very much outnumbered. And,
801
00:44:12.639 --> 00:44:14.340
you know, you got to be louder than these people.
802
00:44:14.420 --> 00:44:15.920
I keep telling people. I know you want to go
803
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:18.840
to these things and counter-protest with a baseball bat or
804
00:44:18.860 --> 00:44:22.360
your fists or a gun, but bring a bullhorn. Be
805
00:44:22.590 --> 00:44:25.030
louder than these people. You've got to be louder than
806
00:44:25.070 --> 00:44:28.610
them because they're not used to it. They think you're
807
00:44:28.630 --> 00:44:33.130
going to run and cower, and it's not going to happen. Listen,
808
00:44:33.829 --> 00:44:36.460
you talk about the small number of people. That's a
809
00:44:36.500 --> 00:44:41.420
trigger for me because in Hungary, for example— entire neighborhoods
810
00:44:41.739 --> 00:44:43.960
were rounded up by one guy with the rifle. I mean,
811
00:44:44.019 --> 00:44:46.989
Oh my God, the second amendment. If you want to
812
00:44:47.030 --> 00:44:49.170
talk about something that bothers me about the Jewish, my
813
00:44:49.210 --> 00:44:51.849
fellow Jews, when I'm here, when I meet fellow Jews
814
00:44:51.869 --> 00:44:54.190
who have, who are squeamish about guns, I want to
815
00:44:54.289 --> 00:44:56.889
slap them across the face. We live in a country
816
00:44:56.929 --> 00:45:00.880
where we can arm my dead ancestors. I owe them.
817
00:45:01.579 --> 00:45:04.300
I owe them one on this. I owe them one
818
00:45:04.699 --> 00:45:09.139
because honestly, uh, I can arm myself and they can't.
819
00:45:09.280 --> 00:45:11.119
Teddy and Yonkers, you want to talk Veterans Day?
820
00:45:11.980 --> 00:45:14.820
Jake, how you doing? Jake, you are the best host
821
00:45:15.219 --> 00:45:20.360
on WABC Radio. You're perceptive, you're objective, and you criticize
822
00:45:20.460 --> 00:45:23.510
both sides. And I want to praise you for that.
823
00:45:23.800 --> 00:45:25.389
That's the first thing I want to say.
824
00:45:26.449 --> 00:45:26.710
Jake.
825
00:45:27.530 --> 00:45:27.969
I hope.
826
00:45:28.409 --> 00:45:31.269
Trump said recently that there's going to be no more
827
00:45:31.389 --> 00:45:35.849
raids in Iran. No more military action. Well, how the
828
00:45:35.869 --> 00:45:39.239
hell is he going to determine that Iran will not
829
00:45:39.400 --> 00:45:40.980
have a nuclear weapon?
830
00:45:41.400 --> 00:45:43.780
We just got him tonight, though. There were tons of
831
00:45:43.820 --> 00:45:47.400
raids tonight, I'm happy to say. I mean, this has
832
00:45:47.659 --> 00:45:50.840
been funny in a lot of ways. I remember him
833
00:45:50.960 --> 00:45:55.619
very explicitly during the 2016 campaign making fun of the
834
00:45:55.800 --> 00:45:58.579
Obama administration telling everybody when they were going to attack
835
00:45:58.619 --> 00:46:01.420
and when they weren't going to attack. And, you know,
836
00:46:02.239 --> 00:46:05.030
he's already broke, you know, he's already given a lot
837
00:46:05.050 --> 00:46:07.969
of misdirection on this. So I get so I'm encouraged,
838
00:46:08.449 --> 00:46:10.949
you know, looks, actions speak louder than words, even when
839
00:46:10.969 --> 00:46:14.880
you're the president of the United States. And although words
840
00:46:14.920 --> 00:46:17.000
of a president are much more important than other people,
841
00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:20.539
but his actions since He's said a few things that
842
00:46:20.599 --> 00:46:22.440
seem like he's getting a little wishy-washy about the war.
843
00:46:22.699 --> 00:46:25.400
The actions don't back that up, I'm happy to say.
844
00:46:25.860 --> 00:46:29.159
We hit Kesham Island. We've hit a number of other targets,
845
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:31.739
I think, in the last several hours. I mean, it's
846
00:46:31.780 --> 00:46:35.980
not full-out war, but it's certainly not the retreat. You
847
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:39.449
make a very good point, though. We can't, look, you know,
848
00:46:41.449 --> 00:46:43.409
this is an impossible situation in a lot of ways.
849
00:46:43.449 --> 00:46:45.369
We have a regime that will be happy to kill
850
00:46:45.489 --> 00:46:47.730
every one of their own people and maybe even themselves
851
00:46:47.769 --> 00:46:51.179
before they surrender. That's something like we haven't seen since
852
00:46:51.739 --> 00:46:54.219
Nazi Germany. And by the way, there were generals in
853
00:46:54.260 --> 00:46:57.400
Nazi Germany who were ready to surrender. And Admiral Donitz,
854
00:46:57.420 --> 00:47:00.500
for example, was ready to do that, but Hitler wouldn't
855
00:47:00.539 --> 00:47:04.489
allow it. And, you know, there were a lot of
856
00:47:04.550 --> 00:47:08.929
extra deaths unnecessary. What a lot of Americans don't understand
857
00:47:08.989 --> 00:47:11.230
is that these people don't think the way we do.
858
00:47:11.369 --> 00:47:14.190
I'm not making a DNA or racist comment. This is
859
00:47:14.250 --> 00:47:17.110
a cultural thing. And this is a cultural thing. We're
860
00:47:17.150 --> 00:47:19.719
dealing with people who are very happy to burn down
861
00:47:19.739 --> 00:47:23.019
their own lives, their own families, and their own selves.
862
00:47:23.539 --> 00:47:25.699
And they can't be bought. Some of them can, but
863
00:47:25.739 --> 00:47:29.449
they can't be bought, and they can't be convinced. And
864
00:47:29.469 --> 00:47:31.150
I think President Trump knows that. But do you want
865
00:47:31.170 --> 00:47:33.250
to be the politician to tell the American people, hey, look,
866
00:47:33.269 --> 00:47:36.349
we're up against this suicidal regime that can't be ever
867
00:47:36.489 --> 00:47:38.610
negotiated with. We're going to have to go with them.
868
00:47:38.630 --> 00:47:40.409
I mean, you know, I can understand why I wouldn't
869
00:47:40.429 --> 00:47:44.530
want to give that message. I get it. Teddy, thank
870
00:47:44.550 --> 00:47:45.960
you so much for calling, and thank you for your
871
00:47:45.980 --> 00:47:49.500
kind words. This has been an amazing four hours here
872
00:47:49.539 --> 00:47:50.929
on the other side of midnight. Again, I want to
873
00:47:50.969 --> 00:47:54.130
thank my friend, Walter Sterling, who also just always has
874
00:47:54.150 --> 00:47:55.929
the kindest things to say about me. And he's been
875
00:47:55.969 --> 00:47:58.269
very kind. I'm glad I got a chance to fill
876
00:47:58.309 --> 00:48:00.329
in for him this evening. I know it was a
877
00:48:00.329 --> 00:48:02.210
little bit of a different subject matter tonight, but we
878
00:48:02.250 --> 00:48:06.050
had fun. We talked bagel. We talked war movies. We
879
00:48:06.090 --> 00:48:08.409
talked some horrific stuff and we talked some fun stuff.
880
00:48:09.130 --> 00:48:12.329
It's been a lot of fun. Enjoy this Veterans Day.
881
00:48:12.389 --> 00:48:20.949
Acknowledge a veteran. Thanks for listening to The Other Side
882
00:48:20.969 --> 00:48:21.570
of Midnight.
883
00:48:21.809 --> 00:48:24.349
If you like the podcast, share it with your friends
884
00:48:24.630 --> 00:48:30.179
and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the WABC Radio app.
885
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:34.130
Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus,
886
00:48:34.289 --> 00:48:39.360
follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
887
00:48:39.659 --> 00:48:42.099
See you next time for a new episode so you
888
00:48:42.199 --> 00:48:45.179
never have to wonder, what the heck is going on here?