My fellow Americans, it's sometimes said that if you put three economists together in a room and ask them a question, you're liable to get more than three answers. It's true, economists don't often agree, but there is one issue in which almost all responsible economists, whatever their political persuasion, are unanimous. They agree that free and fair trade brings growth and opportunity and creates jobs, and they all warn that high trade barriers, what is often called protectionism, undermines economic growth and destroys jobs.  That's why our motto is free and fair trade with free and fair traders. Now we've seen that governments sometimes don't play by the rules. They keep exports out of subsidy or subsidize, I should say, industries, giving them an unfair advantage. Well, our patience with unfair trade isn't endless, and we're taking action to bring other nations back in line to ensure that free trade remains fair trade. We're aggressively using existing trade laws to pry open foreign markets and force others to play by the rules. This week, for instance, we signed a breakthrough trade agreement that will open up Japanese markets to U.S. semiconductors and prevent the Japanese from dumping semiconductors in our markets. And last month, after intensive negotiations in response to a deadline I set, the European community agreed to keep its market open to U.S. farm exports. These agreements are examples of positive result-oriented trade action. Instead of closing markets at home, we've opened markets to U.S. products abroad, thus helping to create more American jobs. Instead of erecting destructionist import barriers, we're tearing down foreign barriers to make trade freer and fairer for all. Because believe me, when Americans are competing on a level playing field, they can outproduce and outsell anyone anywhere in the world. We've been tough with those nations who've been unfair in their trading practices, and that toughness has produced results. And with hard-pressed industries like textiles and apparel that have gone through difficult times, we've taken strong action to help. We renegotiated agreements with Taiwan and Hong Kong over a year early to expand product coverage and tighten controls of imports from those countries. We are pursuing negotiations with Korea to tighten restraints on their exports to us and improve opportunities for our producers in their market. And just this week, we completed a tough new multi-fiber arrangement with our trading partners that will include products not previously covered and which gives us tools to prevent damaging import surges. This is result-oriented action. What doesn't bring results is the sort of destructionist legislation now before the House of Representatives. Next week, the House will vote on whether to override my veto of a textile trade bill, and I'm hopeful this won't happen. My Council of Economic Advisers estimates this bill would cost you, the consumer, $44 billion over the next five years, $70,000 for every job saved, jobs that pay about $13,000 on average. Even worse, these temporarily protected jobs would be more than offset by the loss of thousands of other jobs, jobs in retail, marketing and finance, jobs directly related to importing such as dock workers and transportation workers. And then there are all those who would be thrown out of work as we began to feel the effects of foreign retaliation, and you can bet there would be retaliation. I'm thinking especially of our struggling agricultural sector and its many connected industries. At a time when we're trying to increase agricultural exports, let's remember that some of the first victims of retaliation would be our farmers, kicking them when they're already down. So our trade policy remains a positive one that will not play off one region against another or one American worker against another, doing grievous damage to the industries involved. In trying to help workers in ailing industries, we must be careful that the cure is not worse than the disease, like the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariffs that deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. The best way to help is with pro-growth policies of free and fair trade that have created more than 10 million new jobs in the last three and a half years. In the last seven months, 1,650,000 people have found jobs in the United States. There's more than Europe and Japan combined in the last 10 years. And by the way, recently released figures show the leading economic indicators are up, and unemployment has dropped to 6.8 percent. You know, the Europeans talk about the American miracle of economic growth and job creation. Well, I'm going to do everything I can to keep that miracle of hope alive, creating jobs and opportunities for all Americans. Until next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you. That was one second old. That's one second old. That's not bad. That's pretty good. That seemed like it was a long speech. It was a long speech. It was the first time we went over it for a page or something. OK. Thank you. All right. So after that? After that, if the weather has gotten better.


Hey everyone, Shaber1000 here. Today we're going to talk about this FM transmitter that I had a suggestion on that video about running off the boat battery or I could get one of these. So it was Brian, I told Brian, I said well that's a great idea too. Now I got to thinking I have one of these but if I remember right I had a cooler plugged into this right. I plugged it into a cooler it worked alright for like a day and I unplugged it and then when I plugged it back in something popped in here and then if I remember right it quit working. Now if it's what I think it is it's it's probably a voltage regulator but we're gonna plug this in check the output it should be 12 volts so if it's not it's probably a voltage regulator but we're going to crack this open. I ran a razor knife down the sides of it on this crack here and it seems like it's going to come apart pretty easy because there's no screws. This is a Coleman so we're going to see if we can fix this if not I have another fix that we can do and for the same cooler I was talking about the end of it is broke off so let's check this out first if it if it needs a voltage regulator I'm not going to have one and I'm probably not going to buy one for this so I got monkey's little thing out here so we can look at it and see what we can see so anyway thanks Brian let's see if we can get this fixed I doubt it but if not we're gonna try to fix the cooler stick around I'll get you pointed down here we'll get into it okay I'm probably gonna have to change the lighting because I've got this light over here and there's a lot of shadowing but here's here's the device like I said it's a Coleman it's a center pin is positive for indoor use only blah blah blah it is a input 120 volts 60 Hertz at 1.2 amps output is 12 volt at 5 amps so what we're gonna do and this does it powers on there's a light there's a little light down here on the bottom that will power on so I'm going to this was her dad so I don't know how long it's been used if ever it's been used I might have had it for his boat or camper or something so what we're gonna do is we're gonna plug it in I'll show you you know that it does have power if I can get it in there we go all right now let me get you down here so you can see we do have power we're at lights on okay so we do have power but do we have enough power I doubt it now earlier I was checking it out with this and when I would plug this in it would turn blue for a second and go off I don't know if it'll do it again or not but when I would do that I cleaned this up in here with a piece of sandpaper now it's not doing it man this light let me turn this light off guys it's really I know it's not the greatest now but I mean I got it as high as it'll go high up as it'll go but okay anyway I can try let me let me get my light for this camera and put on top okay guys so sorry we're gonna have to deal with that big light sorry about the shadows but anyway my other light the battery is dead so yeah it's not earlier when I plug it in it would flash blue and then off so what we're gonna do first let's check out I didn't check the output but like I said it was getting something it would kick it on blue and off so got my it's an automator it does all kinds of neat stuff if you guys are in the cars and stuff you know I got a two cylinder three cylinder four cylinder five cylinder six cylinder and eight cylinder I can do the tack and dwell I can do our pms I can do all kinds of stuff with it but right now we're just going for voltage center pin is positive I did clean this up with a piece of sandpaper though looks like 1.3 volts so yeah my guess is that this thing is gonna it's gonna have an issue with the voltage regulator there's a little tiny chip in here that's a voltage regulator now I'm just gonna go down this side here well focus it's a little crack right along here all the way around I'll speed you up alright so we're in so I'm just trying to see if I can see anything because I know I remember this thing made a pop and I'm not seeing I'm not seeing anything right off the bat looks like it's blown the capacitors look good I'm sure how this comes out because I need to look at the bottom yeah I'm trying to find is maybe a little fuse in here and I'm not sure that might be the voltage regulator there I'm not sure I've never had one of these parts so I don't know and I'm getting power into it so I don't need to check them but I need to find out where they go if I remember right I think I did hear a pop so what I'm gonna do I'll shut you guys off I'm gonna look through this magnifying glass here and I'm gonna see if I can find anything that looks strange and if I do I'll be back with you guys and I'll let you know if I found something but yeah something's not right I'm betting it's in here there is numbers on that thing but in order to I got to get this out of here in order to check this out first look you know what let's just go ahead I mean it don't work now right so it's not like we can break it I don't know if that's supposed to be hooved up like that I got to be careful because there's a number on here that I'm gonna try to look up here in a minute see what that is right now I'm just checking to see if I can find anything blown I'd like to really irritating me it's alright for just straight-on shots of filming or something but something like this it's not whenever that is I just screwed it up we'll just put that back MTRZ alright let me get my phone and look this up okay guys what I came up with is I went on to a couple sites and everybody's having trouble with this on these these things here nine times out of ten this is what goes bad I was hoping to just be a capacitor or something I do have a couple of these laying around I don't have any of these you can still get these but I mean with shipping and everything it would be more than this whole unit so what I'm thinking like I said it's broke right why can't we take this input 120 volts AC 60 Hertz 24 watts the output is 12 volt DC 500 milliamp let's check this see if this is any good had it plugged in but I wanted to show it to you I don't know if you guys can see this or not put it on volts the white when I believe power negative should be the all-black one can't get shocked it's DC I just don't want because this thing is so sensitive if I hold it with my fingers it might not read right may have to I know that's not right I know it's not 60 volts that's for sure let's just hold it on here I know it's not 65 volts there is no way that's 72 volts it's impossible it don't have the components in it to make it that much there's no way maybe my meters not working right could be better I haven't put a battery in a long time there's no way that's 93 volts all right let me see what's going on there's no way that's 93 volts hi here we go I don't know if you guys can see that is reading 12 volts okay so I think what we should do now I know which one's positive which one's negative so let's hope we don't blow this thing up let me turn this light off here and positive on here negative on here I think it should light up and it's not let me see if I got another one of these it's not lighting up see that so let me see if I got another one of these that's 12 volts I think I do somewhere I just gotta look for it okay guys I found this one it is output 12 volt 500 milliamps this should work because this came out of one of those jumper boxes so I know you're not gonna be able to see this real well but I'll plug it in set this on the volts and how much do we have here says 19.9 volts this thing sit right okay so let's try something here I'll turn you over this way might blow something up but let's see here let's see this will light up trying to get it where you guys can see it searching for Bluetooth okay all right well so now what we're gonna do is this thing doesn't work I did check it off camera and out of here down inside there where these wires come from I did check it off camera and one time I checked it read 6.3 volts another time it read 11.6 volts and then seven point something so this is bad like I said I'm not gonna replace that part so what we're gonna do we're just gonna cut this off I'm gonna shorten this up a little bit about right there we're using these kind of bigger wires here we'll solder these together because that is for this so I could use a a charger for laptop but I really don't like cutting them up if I don't have to so in case you know we have several laptops so these are awful small wires here really small wires going into bigger wire so that shouldn't it shouldn't mess with me too much whoa now I gotta go find that our monkey will step on and go what the hell's this and I gotta find that all right so now if I remember right these have lines on them one will have lines on them and one will have numbers on them okay see that and this one has I don't know if you can see that lighting sucks there is see the lines this one has numbers I believe the one with lines is is the positive so let's check to make sure let's go on to continuity should beep okay so if I go on to the one with lines and put it in the center pin down in here should beep did once so the one with lines is the positive one which will go on here and I checked this one to off-camera did I not check that other one off-camera but the other one the one with the white stripe on it was positive so my guess is so this one so what I got to do now is get my soldering stuff out here and we'll solder this up bring out a little bit got some of this stuff let me get this plugged in so many times I can burn myself on I need a new tip for that thing I need one of those soldering stations and things are like a hundred bucks but I would use it a lot okay so what I'm going to do is we're going to find some of these so I want to find one that's going to fit over top of both of these okay that should work move it down here and I'm going to find one for each size of this on here and that looks like it long enough to cover it just throwing these things everywhere on it well that'd be nice if I could get that all the way up on there I don't think it'll work if I once I get the solder on it might be a little too big but so we'll do one at a time this is positive what I like to do is open these up so I don't know why twist these together and I just stick them in there together like that and then twist them together and then I'll solder them I gotta tend this up first if it'll tend look at that that's bad and it gets like this is my fault because I don't have a sponge should have a sponge and it keeps that from happening so I have another one in there but it's not where I thought it was it won't take much to get down in there and get that little wire okay so that one scoot this up here I don't like doing this but my lighter is not very cooperative I showed that down too far and I did there we go alright I need to see if we well let's go ahead and we'll we'll sort of this one too and then they're pretty nice I did well now let's slide this over here you know what let me get my torch I decided against the torch we're in the house so I'm just gonna use matches there we go yeah that'll be alright it's not quite all the way down there on that bottom one but it's fairly close pull this up here I don't know how well that'll work either but let's try it I know it'll be fine on this thing but I can always put some tape around it tape just looks tacky but it works fine now let's let this cool down and we'll plug it in we'll plug this in let me shut this off I don't want to get a false reading you know go wow that's too hot you know what I mean go oh that's really hot shouldn't be all right let me unplug the curly iron whatever I'm in plug the soldering iron there I set my soldering down iron down on a lighter one time it said poof no big deal so I got some matches did the same damn thing except I had the matches you know sent by the box or by the iron and I walked away just for a minute and I heard let that whole box of matches on fire that was a my dad was there he thought that was pretty funny I I didn't think it was very funny yeah this cool enough now I know all right nothing blew up yet now let's okay so we're getting nothing wonder why it was working earlier maybe the wires are too big let's check and see what we got here voltage wise okay well I think I got the wires mixed up I do I gotta do that again off-camera this time all right here we go again I'm gonna roll it back and I want to know which one you guys saw me do that didn't stop me here we go all right just looking for Bluetooth I think I found my phone but anyway there it is so that's what I'll use instead of that battery just just a little deal right here there's nothing out of here that I can use other than them capacitors but I've got some of those and I'm gonna get more since I get the extra money there's I've got a an old Windows I think it's a 98 in there I don't it's monkeys and she's got the original keyboard the original mouse she's got the original think her parents bought it for back when that was updated you know I mean it was in date whatever but she's got the original monitor that's awesome so yeah what I'm what I want to do is rebuild that it's got a whole bunch of balloon capacitors sometimes you can get it to kick on but you know it's really slow of course but it's just it would just be neat you know that she bought that new that's from what the 90s I think I'd have to look at it but she got a brand new so that's pretty cool I don't think I'm going to do the other project tonight that's already 1250 and I'm running along a battery here I have another battery I've got three good working batteries but I can only find two I don't know what happened to the other one but anyway so yeah that should be that support I don't have a radio in here or we will try it but still on 89 3 I don't I don't think I've got a radio let me see okay guys on 89 3cs look for Bluetooth but I'm gonna put a card in here there's reading so let's go out to the car and I don't know how what's gonna pick up being that this is in the house but let's find out it should be playing jolly old st. Nicholas hang on a second guys she may have something all right 9 what was it 98.3 or 89.3 I think okay it is picking it up let me go in the house and change you know what let's bring it out here plug it in right there how's that let's do that okay let's plug this in oh I heard it there it is and changed all right so that's gonna work thanks Brian Brian gave me that idea okay guys well that's better add to take my head off it's hot in there and if I turn air on you guys can't hear you guys can't hear me so there that's better all right guys so again thanks Brian for that was a great idea and you inspired me so it'll be a lot easier just to plug that thing in and hooking it up to the battery I knew I had something I knew I could come up with something so I got enough electrical stuff around so thanks again Brian I appreciate that his channel will be linked down below and without being a say guys tomorrow night I got a cooler we're gonna try to fix it I think all's wrong with it is the end but I don't know it sat out back and got a bunch of water in it so it might not work we just have to see all right guys thanks for watching she barely met the man alleged I'm gone for now and we'll see you guys in the next one hopefully y'all have a good Thanksgiving is coming up so something over in them woods we'll see you in the next one bye bye guys and take care


Right, a familiar face is back on the channel. By popular demand, I have to say. I'm not so sure. There's another fella in the background there. Just come on, away you go. Is it Bill or Ben? Beautiful, that is. We're out in Carlsbad. We've been doing a lot of club testing for 2023 products. Yeah. But just recently released is a new P-series. Yeah. We've just done three holes on your channel. We have. I am one-up, which I'm pleased with. I'm not sure how. I'm not playing that great right now. It doesn't say much for me, does it? I've scrambled a one-up. Yeah. But tell us what you're doing in terms of the irons, because you played with these things on that tree. I did. I played P7MB, P7C, MC. MC and MB. I'm going to go 770.  I want to have a little bit of extra distance. Actually, we were on the range next to you earlier at the kingdom and I hit some of the MBs and I hit them really well. Like, they were close together. Dispersion was good. 7-iron was about 160. Yeah. And then Chris passed me the 770. Yeah. Ten yards further. Really? Like, in a good ten yards as well. So ultimately, you feel there's more forgiveness in the P770s. 100%. 100%, yeah. And I'm going to do the vice versa because I played P770s on that first three-olds. So I'm going to switch up into the MBs and the MC. Might be a tall order. We're kicking off with a par three. Wonderful. And it's on me, isn't it? Good luck.  It's playing 160 uphill. Yeah. All of a sudden, I've got a thin five-iron in hand and... Well, is this MB or MC? I'm going with MB, mate. I'm all in. All in. Oh, he's absolutely ripped it. Oh, that's short as well, you know. That is short. You know, I think with P770, you'd have either carried that. Probably got it, yeah, but what a difference that is. But I said it on your channel. I almost don't mind because the feel out of these things is so good. This is the thing. So for me, and I've just done a couple of hit-ups with this, you can kind of tell it is that hollow body. You do notice it. But it's kind of best of both worlds, probably. So I've got a seven-iron. Well, the door's open. Yeah. No shots here now. I don't know. We'll say no. Immediately, that blade length looks more appetising. It's more comfortable. Yeah, nice swing as well. Yeah, that looks good. It might be long, you know. No, I don't think so, you know. I think that's pen-eye. Perfect. Advantage, Mr. Robinson. Explain, mate. Yeah, he's sat great, to be honest. I think... No, he's not great. 100% of the ball is under the surface of the sand, so difficult. It's not good, is it? Anywhere on that dance floor, and... It's a good shot, mate. It's a really good shot out of there. Just stay up there. It will. Yeah, do you know what we're going to have to take? Oh, Andy! Andy! I hope you're still recording, man. Oh, my word. That's going past you, Chris. That's a better fear, though. Yeah, is that a positive? He was, like, sat a lot more positive. Better on the green. Oh, my word. Life's not fair. Golf certainly isn't. He says, stay. It's way there. Jump to market. As quick as you can. Oh, my God. Do you know what? It was a half-decent iron shot. And now we're struggling. Very unfair. Yeah, well. So that has gone long. Andy said it didn't, but... And that's two well-struck shots, so I ate seven and ate five. And a lot of difference in that is the clubs, I think. Let's see if we can get down in two. I was petrified that that would end up like Andy's bunker shot. So, well, I've... So I've got to make this, really, haven't I? Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to lie, I was petrified, because as soon as that gets past the hole, it could have been... Yeah, you're away. Yeah. It looked a straightforward hole on the T-box, but, er... Yeah. That green, it was right on. This would be a miraculous bogey.   It didn't move. That stayed dead straight. Right, so on 45 down. Yeah, have a quick roll, but... Yeah, well done. So, back to all square. That lead didn't last long. My game has literally driven me to drink, so I think I'm just going on the beer. Interesting enough, the reason I stopped you there was the fact that you hit a long iron on your video, which really made your mind up to switching to P770. So what's that now? So this is the four iron in the 770, and this is what I was meaning on the last tee about the feel of them. So they're not bad, but... That sound, obviously, it's an X as well. You know, it's a little bit tinier. Some people might like that, though, as well. I think, obviously, even your ping fans might think, actually, I prefer that feel than the softer clubs. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, let's see how you go anyway, so... Yeah, I mean, the last year's P770, for me, were really good as well. Like, Chris used them for a long time and didn't play horrendous, terrible, awful golf, which, for him, he's, like, never been heard of, so... No comment, he said. No. But yeah, let's see if I can play a nice low one with this, as well, because the key is I still want that versatility, even though I've got forgiveness, which, I know, it's not asking for a lot, but... Yeah. Do you know what's interesting for me? Is your, like, whole rhythm and swing and timing and everything, tempo, just seems a lot better. Yeah, and that's because I just feel more at ease. That's what I thought I was gonna say, is it a confidence thing, or what? Yeah, 100%. Like, even that was a little bit bottomed. And the story that kind of we've been told about these is that CG's lower, isn't it? And, I mean, we saw that launch fairly high to say it was a low strike. No, it's impressive. I'm going with the big dog.    This is your driver. Right, come on, and we need to find something. This has been... Yeah, not great. We are level. We're level, yeah, but I'm not sure how. Nice. Bunkered again, though. No, it's not the worst shot in the world, but... No? Sit down. Yeah, perfect. Thing is pulled up? Perfect. That's okay, we'll take that. It's clearly the beer. Gotta be. So, shorter... Well, what have we got? We've got 125. We've got 130. Okay. And my thing here, this is where the 770 for me becomes a bit of an issue. I know what you're going to say, then. Yeah, I'm going to hit with the blade. Yeah, but what I thought you were going to say is the idea of blending the set is perfect, isn't it? I think this is where if you went, if feel is your thing, then this is where you could go with the 7MB or the 7MC's in those shorter lines until you're not comfortable. Yeah. You played that to a 7I or something. Yeah, and that's where... So, they've brought the lofts in line with the P7MB and P7MC to be the same, haven't they? Yes. So, you can kind of do that, whether or not you might struggle with the 770 blending in. I think that might be... You'd have to bend them a bit. Yeah, absolutely. But I think once you've got that fitted, you're fine, haven't you? Yeah. More importantly, mate, it's crunch time. Yeah, and there's not a lot of green to work with there, is there? Oh, this could be good. This could be good. Be the number. He's all over it. Oh! And you know, this is exactly where... I did a video on this. When you blend sets, and I've hit a good pitching wedge there, short into the bunker, struck well like I enjoyed it. We both thought it was there. I'm not gonna have that with this. I'm not gonna have it with probably the... You'd have got there, wouldn't you? Yeah, and that's where, if you think about blending a set, think twice because I feel silly now. It's got me a little bit worried your shot as well because I've come with the same club. Yeah? In the MC. Would you like the 770? I don't know. No, I don't want the 770. I'm worried this is gonna be long. Okay. But you had that, that was... So you were playing... You were playing ground 125. I was playing, yeah, I was thinking a 130 shot in my head downhill.  I certainly went bailed out. Safe. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you put in, that's, I think... Yeah, I mean, look, it was always going straight at the flag was always a bit of a risky one. I wanted to get on that dance floor. I'm on it, but oh my God, there's no, there's no guarantee of a two-pointer from anything over 20 feet. And you're really... Bunker's not safe, is it? Yeah. Yeah.  What's, what's, one might say smug, Chris, but that's worse than mine on a pre-result, you know, honestly. These bunkers, the ball just literally buries. I'm thinking penalty shot here to move it back. Wow. I mean, the only, the only good news is if you pop it up, it's going to release to the hole, eh? Cheers, mate, yeah, I'll think of that. Oh, he's done it as well. He's played it, absolute. Oh my word. That is a worldy. Well played. Thank you. Do you know what the, the stroke index? It's not going to be on this, is there? Er, I wouldn't have thought so. I'll have to come and have a look at him. I've literally wasn't expecting that shot. What are you calling? I mean, you know, as much as I said I had a great shot inside, I was not feeling the same. I didn't think about the release until you mentioned it. So I helped you. I was a super shot. But look at this thing. I mean, seriously, if I, it's just no chance. I've come back and had a look at it and it's like. Still no idea. Well, you know as soon as you get to that ridge. Yeah. I'll serve you right for bailing out, don't I? Yeah. Turn, turn, turn. Ah, what? It's a great effort, mate, really. I felt for sure that was going to come in off there. So I'm outside you. Still you, mate, yeah. Yeah. I didn't envisage that one. So we're saying we, we don't know the stroke index, but we're assuming no shock. You mean you may have it. It wasn't a long haul, was it? No, I don't think there will be on that. No. So. Chris, what's the stroke index? Five. Five. Thank you, Chris. Yeah, cheers, Chris. Another modello on the way. Right, so this is a big difference, and all of a sudden, this could pile a little bit of pressure on. Well, this is for the haul, I think, is it? No, no. Oh, no, no. Oh, yeah, it is. Yeah, sorry, it's four, wasn't it? Ha, ha, ha, ha. Well done. That two putt does deserve the haul. That came out of nowhere. Can I borrow your putt, sir? I just want to try and get you, get the up and down, to be honest. Ah, that's a super up and down. Well, we go into the last of one, aren't we? Ha, ha. Five, mate. Is it really five? Of course. It's still five, yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. That's not this next one. No, no. Five, yeah. So what's this one we're playing now? 13. All right, here's your... Yeah, that's that one. Yeah, this is next one, it's 13. Chris, what stroke index was that, previous haul? That one was five, and this one's also five, so... Oh, two fives? Yeah, shot again. It's two fives in a row. Fantastic. It's unbelievable what he did. So it wasn't 13? It was five. About five. See, five, and then five. Yeah. It's funny in America, mate. Every now and again they do this. It's amazing how one of three looks like a five. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the end result is that was stroke index 13, as much as I appreciate their help from Chris, then it's all squabble. It also means that that for a great up and down was for something, so I'm quite happy with that. It's a good job that I, you know, did it for the practice as well, because otherwise we'll be arguing, won't we? I would never argue, mate. Right, okay, so it turns out we're, yeah. It's still my honour. It's still your honour, mate. We're going down the wire. We've got the big dog out. I'm thinking at that white house with a bit of draw. Sounds beautiful, mate. Stay there. It wasn't a draw, but I'll take it. No, it's okay, though. It's a fair way. Yeah. Well done. Cute. What a drive that is, mate. One of the best I've seen you hit in person, that. You need to sit down. Don't hit any of that cart path. Oh, no, that's fine. Great shot. Come on. What a goal fold to finish the match-off is the first thing. It's a real kind of, what are we saying, have I got? You've got 230. I've got 230. To get there. A little bit downhill, but into the breeze, but playing about it's yardage. Yeah. European tour coach said to me, go for it. Yeah. I haven't talked to a blind man in no time. He's just switched off, mate. All right, mate. I thought he was, I thought he was... Can we just, what club are you using, Andy? I'm using a... Very man, you have got a shot here. It's stroke five. I'm using the six iron. Oh, so you are going for it. How does my coach feel about that? That's a great golf shot. That's good, yeah? I can't help but think you tried not to pressure that. Yeah. Like a six iron that's gone. Whoa! That worked well. At least that cancels out your shots if I can go for it. Yeah, yeah. There's a chance. Is that into the middle of the green? Is that the yardage they're giving you? Yeah. So what are you playing? I've got MB four iron. On the proviso that if it doesn't go right, I've got an excuse to lose. Okay. Is that... I don't know. I need a brave shot because I think that needs a decent four iron, doesn't it? You can pure it. Oh, yeah. If I hit three iron, I'm not... Three iron is going to go about 140. Okay. Oh my word, James. You just can eat again that bunker. See how the tech... The whole rhythm went again. The whole rhythm and tempo went. At least I know I'm not going to put these in the bag. It's... Do you know what it is? It's not over yet, is it? It's got to somehow. No. It just gets a little bit more... I'm not taking that pin on. No, you've got to go for the pin. No, I know. He's got to go for the... You've got to. You've got an MB in your hand. I have got an MB. Come on, Andy. Go for the pin. Birdie or nothing. Birdie, I'll buy you a pint. Oh boo. At least a great shot. Oh. Oh, just disappeared. Oh, that's not a bunker. It is. Right. So this playing four... You've got to open down, haven't you? Open down for a five, isn't it? That's a nasty little angle. This is either going to be very good or another lost ball. Yeah, yeah. What was your cart saying? Just give me a sec. So it's 78 to centre. Oh! I thought I was going to bounce back on the green. I would have packed in. Let's go back in again. Oh, nothing. I've got to say, I think we're shaking there. I mean, oh my word. Honestly, if you missed these on the wrong side, I think I'm playing safe, which I am now, but look at that. It's ridiculous. It's turned off the other way now. It's a solid effort. Honestly, I said there's no part on these greens. I mean, I've bailed out.  That's horrendous position to be in. Anyway, let's finish up. James, thanks as ever for coming on the channel. No, I enjoyed it, mate. Thank you. I always enjoy James' company, and I think from the comments, everyone enjoys you being on the channel. So we've got another few days here. I think we're going to play another couple of golf courses where we'll probably do something similar. So make sure you stay tuned in. Yeah, I think I don't quite know how that happened. I mean, I beat him a penalty shoot out last night, so we're about level, but I'll see you in a bit.


It's human nature for us to desire a system by which we can identify things. We always want to take the disorder of nature and put it into a nice, orderly, friendly-looking chart. And stars are no exception to that. This is your space pod for September 18, 2015. Stars in our sky may all look the same, but when we look at them in great detail, we actually find out that they lead completely different lives from each other. Now for the sake of simplicity, we're only going to be looking at generic stars. We won't be looking at exotic objects like neutron stars. That's for a later space pod. There's two classifiers we'll be talking about in this pod. The Harvard System and the Morgan Keenan Keller Classification System. The Harvard System is the one that most people are familiar with. It's a fairly simple system based on the surface temperatures of stars. There are seven classes that a star can be a part of, and they use letters as their designators, O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. There's been a few letters added on since for special objects, but once again, we'll be saving that for a later space pod. O stars have the hottest surface temperatures. M stars the lowest surface temperatures. From lowest to highest surface temperatures, the letters go M, K, G, F, A, B, O. You'll notice that the hotter stars are blue and the cooler stars are red, opposite of what you may find in your water taps. Each individual letter is then subdivided into numerals, with zero being the hottest surface temperature of that letter designation, and nine being the coolest. Using this scale, our sun is a G2 star. The Morgan Keenan Keller Classification System has more to do with spectral lines. Dark lines in the light spectra from a star, caused by elements absorbing those specific wavelengths of light, and also the specific surface gravity of a star, which also affects the total amount of light output of a star in what we scientists like to call luminosity. This system uses Roman numerals to describe the overall character of a star, or what's designated as a luminosity class. There are a plethora of classes, so let's keep it simple by taking a look at the three most commonly used. One for supergiant stars, three for giant stars, and five for main sequence stars. When both the Harvard and Morgan Keenan Keller classification systems are combined, we get a clear and concise understanding of the stellar object that we're looking at. Our sun in the combination of these two systems is now a G25 star. G2 being its surface temperature, and five, meaning it's a main sequence star. Thanks for watching this Space Pod. I'm Jared Head. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to us on social media. And we can't do these Space Pods without the amazing support of our Patreon patrons. And you can be one too, to help us continue to make these awesome Space Pods. So, until the next one, keep exploring.


Hey, Rob. Hey, how you doing? I'm great, I see. That's me. I like it. You might as well have been shot into space.  I think I said that wrong. I'm not really sure, but it was full ball of terminology. My mom got me prepared by smacking that spoon across my body. It's not Chinacoc, all right? It's Chinacoc. Hi, mom, how you doing? Happy Mother's Day. Oh, here we go again. Here we go again.


One of my favorite phrases from Mises in his writings was he referred to some socialist writers as muddle-headed babblers I run across that all the time in Mises writing muddle-headed babblers, and maybe that's the title for next book That'd be a good good book title What I'm gonna talk about today is why why basically is why it's more important than ever To support the Mises Institute and the work of the Mises Institute And I'm gonna I'm gonna make this point in the context of a concept that Mises wrote about in his great book Socialism first published in German in 1922 and the last couple of chapters he talks about something called destructionism and And so I'm gonna talk about destructionism in Mises time and our time and it is this Phenomenon which is why like I said it is more urgent than ever to support the work of the Mises Institute And before I start I'll give you one hint as to why I think it's more important now than ever is that I've been teaching at the university level a long time and I got my PhD in 1979 when I was 24 and One of the big the probably the biggest difference I've seen in the students who come in to the university is Today they're already thoroughly brainwashed in cultural Marxism and socialism and political correctness Whereas 15 or 20 years ago. That was not true at least in my experience And then there'd be some percentage of them that would get all they'd be sort of Corraled by the the leftists on the campus who would pretty much waste their education years and turn them into sort of You know muddle-headed babblers basically and but today I've noticed that they're all very well Programmed what right when they get there and and that's the success of 25 or 30 years of K through 12 and beyond Propagandizing by what we call the cultural Marxist and so in but in Mises day these when he talks about Destructionism let me give you an idea what he had to talk about what he was talking about He said I'm gonna read just a few quotes from the book socialism first published in English in 1936 Socialism is not the pioneer of a better and finer world But the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created it does not build it destroys for destruction is the essence of it It produces nothing it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created Each step leading towards socialism must must exhaust itself in the destruction of what already exists That was also there's always a two-pronged strategy by the socialist one destroy the existing Institutions of society and then build their utopia step to whatever the utopia might be Then he said something that reminded me a lot of Sweden in Venezuela He said this progressive capital formation is the only means by which the position of the great masses can be permanently improved Socialism and destructionism proposed to use up capital so as to achieve present wealth at the expense of the future The policy of destructionism is the policy of the spin spin thrift who dissipates his inheritance regardless of the future And I know the story of Sweden is that there was a great high economic liberty Society in the late 19th early 20th century They had all these great entrepreneurs that created Volvo You know automobiles and in all companies like that sob and many others And then when they adopted their version of socialism in the 1950s They basically started eating up their capital and living off the efforts of previous generations until by the 1980s They had 500% interest rates and they've been trying to escape from that ever since and of course Venezuela the exact same Thing one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America for a long long time They adopted socialism basically in the 50s also and Each president that they elected since then they adopted democracy in 1958 I think of as a bigger Castro loving communists than the last guy and look at what has happened to them So they lived off the capital of the previous generation a Third quote from Mises. He said for Karl Marx quote all politics was only the continuation of war by other means The socialist parties who have taken the Marxist parties for their model have elaborated the technique of agitation the caging for votes and for souls the stirring up of electoral excitement the street demonstrations and the terrorism and This reminds me of I wrote notes here antifa black lives matter democratic socialists of America The the the muddle-headed babbling students who set buildings on fire and scream in the faces of Conservatives or libertarians who show up at places like Berkeley to give an invited lecture that that's Nothing new nothing new Mises observed that he made a comment also on the fake news of his day He said this the the literati are recruiting agents for socialism Since socialism must destroy society and they are paving the way for destructionism the literati He also made a comment that I put in the politically correct category of commentary He said this People's which have hailed with great enthusiasm The writings which call for the destruction of all cultural values are Themselves on the verge of a great social catastrophe. So he was criticizing what today we would call political correctness And then he sort of concludes that our whole life is so given over to destructionism That one can name hardly a field into which it is not penetrated Social art quite he put quotation marks over social social art preaches it schools teach it the church is disseminated And so that's destructionism And of course he talks about the methods. He says I want to have a brief discussion of some of the methods of Destructionism this is 1922 labor legislation compulsory social insurance Unemployment insurance nationalization Taxation and inflation is what he writes about and of course in his day He was also commenting on if you look at the communist manifesto Which I use in a cloud I have a class I teach called capitalism and its critics And I have had students read the communist manifesto and and then the works by social of socialism the book Socialism and go back and forth the good guys and the bad guys Read this and one of my students told me, you know, this is the fourth time I've been assigned the communist manifesto, but but this is the first time it wasn't looked at as a road map to the future True story Absolutely true and the same student once told me I didn't know there were I had no idea There were different schools of thought and economics. I thought it was all a system of equations mathematical equation This is a junior economics major told me that And of course if you look at the commie manifesto, it's a manifesto for how to destroy the existing capitalist society a Plank number one abolition of private property Plank number two. There's a direct quote a heavy progressive or graduated income tax Number three abolition of all rights of inheritance. That's another attack on private property number four is Confiscates confiscation of land of those who speak out against the government. That's a direct quote from the commie manifesto So that's a that's a twofer That's a destruction of private property and a destruction of free speech at the same time Number five centralization of credit in the hands of the state So, you know, I put I have a little picture. It says green span Bernanke and I Gave a talk The Kato Institute many years ago on the 100th anniversary of the Sherman antitrust act and I for some reason Alan Greenspan came up and a member mentioning that I read one of Greenspan's old articles on antitrust from one of his I and Randays and And I commented that well, that's before he became a central planner and Some of the people at Kato had a big sour puss looks on their face when I sit there I didn't want people to think of the Fed as a central planning agency of God for God's sake Centralization of communication and transportation Nationalization of all land and capital and my favorite free education in government schools So that was that was the recipe for destruction is a necessity and destruction is in the communist manifesto Which he was talking about and of course in our day. It's a little different The the methods of destructionism we you know, we've we've adopted all these things It's all you know in the United States. We've got every one of these things To some extent we've adopted them, but we're going even further today. We're much further today and You know that today's Marxist the ones are most influential go by the name of cultural Marxist a little different different variety of Marxism and As I said before well after the worldwide collapse of socialism in the late 80s and early 90s There was a conundrum among the Marxists. What are we going to do now? Some of them became what I call watermelons green on the outside red on the inside environmentalists Decided to try to destroy capitalism in the name of the worms and the bugs and the snakes and in the mother nature and all that sort of thing and The old-class conflict theory didn't fly because the working class never wanted to engage in a bloody revolution And take over the factories they just wanted to pay raise and better working conditions And so the Marxists of the day were very upset that the working class never bought into this So what do we do? Well, they set up a different type of class struggle It's no longer the capitalist class in the in the working class now It's the oppressor class and the oppressed class and basically the oppressors are white heterosexual males and the oppressed is everybody else And the goal So because the failure of the working class to to overthrow capitalism The goal now is the destruction of Western culture because some of the theorists people like Antonio Gromsky the Italian Marxist and George Lukacz. His real name is Georgie, but I'll call him George Lukacz They needed a change of strategy and their theory was that the reason why the working class did not embrace Marxist revolutions was that Western culture and Christianity blinded them to the Marxist truth They claim that the combination of Western culture, which of course would include classical liberalism the philosophy of classical liberalism and the institutions of capitalism themselves and Christianity created what Lukacz called a hegemonic power which maintains the Consent to the capitalist order So he said the the working class was too attached to Western culture and too attached to Christianity To to be able to be convinced into destroying the capitalist order Therefore, we must destroy Western culture and destroy Christianity and otherwise. We will never be able to be able to have our cultural revolution and One good thing that Mussolini did is he imprisoned Gromsky I Haptip to Benito Mussolini for for doing that After he started saying things like this, you know, and of course Gromsky is known for You know Western culture and Christianity must be destroyed by a long march through the institutions of schools media churches entertainment industry Etc. And you know, I mean I began noticing this the rules success that the Gromsky I'd send the cultural Marxists were having in the 1980s when that great intellectual giant Jesse Jackson let a Let a group of chanting 500 or so chanting students at Stanford They were chanting. Hey, hey ho ho Western cultures Western Civ has got to go at the time Stanford University was teaching a course in Western Civilization and they wanted to get rid of it, which they did Which they did they got rid of it and they replaced it with a course called race class and gender studies And so they succeeded in that around the same time There's a wealthy oil family from Texas the Bass family gave 20 million 20 million dollars to Yale University Which was sort of the family alma mater? There and to endow some Professorships and teaching various aspects of Western Civilization at Yale and the faculty not all not every single faculty member But a big proportion big portion of the faculty Revoltaed against this and ended up they had to give the money back They gave 20 million dollars back and at the time it was the biggest donation ever in the history of Yale University Biggest private donation. So so if there are any members of the Bass family watching I'm looking at the they're on the internet Send the money to the Mises We will have we will have a Degree granting program in all aspects of Western Civilization if you like we could do that with 20 million dollars Okay, so Stanford replaced that they gave the money back at Yale that the Yale faculty commend Condemned this proposal as it was quote dead white European male academic agenda And so they called for more multi we need what we need is more multicultural studies they said and for those of you who are not familiar too familiar with Multiculturalism in the academic context it doesn't mean what you think it means it means hiring Socialists of different cultures Asian socialists and African socialists in different culture at Indian socialists so long as the faculty are all socialists We want them to be from different cultures. That's what basically what multiculturalism means in the academic academic world now one of the heroes of the like I said of the today's cultural Marxist who run the entire educational system in America is the Hungarian Communist George Lukacs and he introduced he got a job in 1918 as Commissar of culture in Hungary and he introduced sex education There and his purpose was to destroy the traditional sexual morals as a part of their plan to destroy Christianity You know the project was to destroy Christianity so that the the great Marxist revolution of the working class could take place Hungarians didn't really go for it. So they kicked out the communists They totally kicked them out of government Didn't quite work out that way and of course This is all a part of you know what this became was the Frankfurt school Basically a gang of Marxist misfits and psychopaths mostly from Germany and a few Italians in there And they they came to America and they went of all places and many of them ended up in Santa Monica, California in the 1950s and in the 1950s Santa Monica must have been such a beautiful place And but they were just angry and hateful and disgusted They just hated everything so they write they wrote articles and books about how horrible American society was especially because it was it was the Most capitalist society around at the time and they were just they're just miserable And they wanted everybody else to be miserable at the same time about this and so it was originally called the Institute for Marxism But they decided that Marxism had kind of a bad name So they so they didn't quite you know, they eventually called it progressivism or you know, whatever That's what they called it when they decided let's just call us ourselves the Frankfurt school because who the heck knows what that is But the Institute for Marxism is a little different Okay, and so the you know the goal of the of the Frankfurt school is that they said that will people live under repression in Western culture and must be liberated from this repression and so they use such techniques as lionizing people like Bruce Jenner in a miniskirt in high heels. That's supposed to be That's sort of things mostly liberate us from our cultural repression. That's our new hero new role model for society people like that Okay, the role of education This is they said is not to educate but to instill the right values Okay, the right values and of course when you see these things these scenes on college campuses now when You know Charles Murray showed up at Middlebury College at the invitation of a philosophy professor there they had these these Muddle-headed little students showed up screaming in his face calling him a fascist and a Nazi and all these things and The woman the female Professor who and who invited him one of them grabbed her by the hair and jerked her so hard She injured her neck and had to go to the hospital an emergency room And they fled the campus Charles Murray and this professor fled the campus and these students chased them by car So it's a where they were the where they're going because they've been taught since grade school That these people are not only wrong, but they're evil and that's always been the Marxist method of argumentation They don't they wouldn't they would rarely argue with us They would just accuse us of being capitalist tools case closed You know, you don't really believe what you're saying.  That's that's good advice for teenagers I guess good good career advice This is part of his that just attack on the whole idea of working, you know That's what makes the capitalist economy work doesn't it work You know when you desire and so demonizing work, you can and he advocated what was called polymorphous perversity Because remember the goal was always to destroy Western culture and Christianity and it was Marcuse who wrote an Essay that has been taken to heart by this movement in which he talked about liberating tolerance He made the case for for the abolition of free speech Among people who would advocate Western civilization the values of Western civilization including classical liberal ideas free market economy and so forth and Because these are the ideas of the oppressor class The oppressor class created these ideas and promulgates these ideas And so therefore on college campuses, especially he said it's only the oppressed who deserve free speech So when you see these little terrorists Doing things like you did at Middlebury College or Berkeley The they they think they're taking the moral high road by censoring alternative viewpoints They don't think they're being they're being fascist by by destroying freedom of speech and academic freedom They think they they'll tell you they're doing they're taking the moral high road because after all If you believe in such things as free speech Constitutionalism and all your you're a you're a fascist you're taught to be a fascist and and they did equate Christianity with fascism to Traditional morality just traditional morality is called fascist in this literature.   They're never spontaneous like like Ron Paul's and the Fed Thing was and so so that's that's the the destructionism of our time That is there's festered for the past 30 years In the American educational system and even it's even worse in other places like England And so that's what I meant when I said it is more important now than ever to support the work of the Mises Institute Because you know, we're one of the groups that are still doing everything we can To to educate these ideas of the Austrian school, which of course are a very important part of Western civilization And if you read Rothbard, of course, he wasn't just an economist He was he was a great scholar in all sorts of fields and of course classical liberalism I'm teaching a course right now where I put Mises book liberalism is on the second week's class in the in the reading and these students have never heard of any of this They're all sophomore junior economics students and and they've never heard of any of this when I brought Walter Williams to my university as one of my guest speakers he gave he gave his Can speech on the Constitution based based sort of the economics and politics of the cost to why Limited constitutional government is a good idea and I had student after student That's just the economics students come up to me and said I never heard any of this Thanks for thanks for bringing this guy to campus. I never heard this argument and these are these are all Young people who are 20 21 years old and and their parents are paying 60,000 a year for them to go to school and Never the first time they ever heard these arguments and so that again is why I think our work is is urgent Today that we do around here. Thank you very much


So, in summary, my presentation today was really finding the voice for our waterways. In developing our water future, the role of waterways are very critical. And how do we get their voice? We need to monitor them. We need to understand them. We need to measure what is critical. And then we need to use those techniques to track how effective our solutions have been on our waterways. We need to listen to them a bit more in developing solutions. It's a very critical role of communication, science communication, in how we package the results of our monitoring results of our waterways. As one of the panelists have indicated, David, for example, politicians tend to like looking at visuals. So the challenge for us there as researchers is to make our research palatable to the politicians. The way we do that is by innovative visualisation techniques that would hit the soft spot of the politicians. So they're able to invest in making sure our waterways are protected and or restored. I probably would have three key messages. The first one is we have to recognise that our waterways and our rivers are complex systems. We need to have a whole of system approach. So when we do a solution downstream, we need to consider the upstream. So the upstream downstream correlation is critical. We've heard today about transboundary, how critical it is. So when we look at plans, we need to have plans that really are holistic in a way that they will address the whole system, but at the same time will have local aspects. The second message I have is we need to listen to our waterways. And the way we do that is we need to monitor. Monitoring waterways is usually put in as a very expensive process, especially when we do the biophysical monitoring side. But it is very important for us to monitor our waterways, otherwise they will be deteriorating in front of us and we would never have even noticed that. The third one is probably more an appeal to it's not enough to monitor. We really have to do something. So accelerate the integrated water resource management. As one of the panellists have said, it's already happening. We just need to fast track it, fast track it in such a way that it's actually faster. The solutions are faster than the problems, than the deterioration of our waterways. It's not enough to monitor our waterways, we need to have actions on the ground. We need to have solutions and we have to accelerate our solutions so that these solutions will be in place faster than our waterways are deteriorating. I would do the final appeal that in whatever we do, our waterways do need a voice. And all we need to do is listen to it a bit more. It is also the voice of the community that actually live along the waterways and they are very critical for us to listen to because they are the ones that will be affected by any interventions we put in place.


Ackerman, host of Journeys of the Mind, and I am very happy that we have Scott Kikaui here who's going to discuss his novel Red Dirt in the context of Hawaii during the Red Scare. So, you know, this is a novel, a mystery novel about a, you know, murderer, and we have our lead character, you know, being a detective who uncovers the murder through the pages, but there's a lot more about, that one learns about Hawaii in the post-World War II period. And of course, Scott, this book follows his wonderful book, Kona Wins. So, the first question I have for you, Scott, is, you know, both in Kona Wins you mentioned Dante and Dante's Inferno and the Trilogy, and then your book, this book begins with a medieval twist and the Sword of the Stone, you know, Sir Thomas Mallory. And I'm wondering, what in your background made you in these, you know, 20th century novels refer to medieval history? And by the way, I think it's wonderful. Well, thank you. Thanks, Carl, for having me back, too. I had a lot of fun the last time, and it's great to have a second opportunity to do this. I was a medieval and Renaissance study minor in college. I majored in Islamic studies, and the minor came about because I could double up on a lot of those credits, because a lot of Islamic history and theology were during the same period. NYU gave me credit for a medieval Renaissance study minor, and I filled up classes with medieval literature, with early Christian theology, with architecture, with art history, and things like that, that helped me cobble together a minor in medieval and Renaissance studies. So Dante's Divina Commedia was the work that I referenced in the first book, and I thought it might be fun to use Mallory, which is kind of like a side work that we kind of picked up in the mysticism class. We only touched on it a little, but I was fascinated by kind of the disjointed narrative of Mallory's work, where some of the stories tend to repeat themselves, but they overlap, and they give you a different interpretation. And the fascinating thing I think about Le Morte d'Artours is that it is an allegory. Just as Dante's Divina Commedia is a satire, I think that Mallory's work is an allegory for good government in a way. When he talks about the king and the land being one, it's really kind of cautionary, all the way up until the conflict at the end with Mordred. So I thought it was appropriate to use it as a backdrop for this story, which examines a lot of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations here in Hawaii and culminating with the so-called Hawaii 7 trial in 1953. So I thought that was a work that I could superimpose over the historic reality here.  In this book, you also mentioned the historical setting of World War II in Hawaii, where we had Marshall Wallet Law and barbed wire everywhere to quote your book. And why is this setting? Because you discussed HUAC in a lot of detail, and one of its members coming out to Hawaii and trying to influence our wonderful detective. So what is it about World War II and then Marshall Law and then sort of going into the HUAC era that fascinated you the most? Well, I think that World War II was a pivotal point in territorial history. I think that it's one of those events that gets a big mention in Hawaii history in popular culture, where almost nothing else during the territorial period does in a way. We have an awareness, generally speaking, about the end of the monarchy, the overthrow, the annexation, and then really no mention of anything in those intervening years between that time and our time today except for World War II. And one might make the argument that the World War II in the context of American history was probably the most important thing that happened in Hawaii during the territorial period. Locally, it was also a period where we saw a lot of change and that was due to the influx of labor and the influx of money to the islands or I should maybe say the island to Oahu for the war effort. So it was a military yes, but with the military came a lot of civilian labor from the mainland as well, shipyard and logistics to fuel the war in the Pacific. But the effect it had here was it kind of changed the economy forever. It at one point, neighbor islands used to be on equal economic and political footing and the war kind of just propelled Oahu into the forefront and kind of made it the center of everything. And it almost really kind of remains that way today. And that was because of World War II. World War II also had a consequence too of changing I think the mindset of a lot of local people who were previously existing under really colonial conditions, especially on the plantations where the war effort brought about a lot of employment opportunity and almost in an urgent force sense for those that were on the plantations and those that had been in the prior system from the beginning of the last century until about the point of World War II where suddenly they were off the plantations, they were working in the shipyard, they were driving trucks of supplies and food for the military and they knew a different employment reality and economic reality and even after the war it wasn't the same. And I think that that's what precipitated a lot of the successful labor movements, the strikes in particular the late 1940s, the dock worker strike, the sugar worker strike that weren't, you know, there were strikes before World War II but they weren't really that successful. They picked up a lot of steam after the war because we've now had a larger populace that was involved in labor that was off the plantations and exposed to new ideas. So in that sense World War II was pivotal and I think that the economy that followed that and precipitated statehood may have been a direct result of the war effort and how it changed this island in particular for good. And you mentioned the labor and labor unions greatly in this book and you also mentioned labor leaders and I was really fascinated by Koji Ariyoshi and can you tell us a little bit about Koji Ariyoshi because that was a real person wasn't it? I mean wasn't he a real life historical person? Yes Koji Ariyoshi was a real life person and he's almost a larger than life individual you know. He went overseas during the war. It must have been the MIS or because he was an interpreter and he found himself in the Asian theater I think in places like Southeast Asia and China of all places and really touched history out there came home and he founded the Honolulu Record which was a weekly newspaper which was supposed to be a political answer source to the established Honolulu Star Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser at the time, Haulio Newspapers with a more right-wing bent and communism became the new threat after World War II after the Axis powers were put down the new national security threat became communism. The nation turned its attention to communism and this was the start of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and Koji Ariyoshi's record became actually the sole iconoclastic voice in the press and he became one of the Hawaii Seven along with Jack Hall, Dwight Freeman, John Reineke and others Charles Fujimoto and his wife Eileen. To be put on trial for Smith Act charges fighting the violent overthrow of the US government as it were by the House and American activities, committees, investigators and Koji for his defense you know when he would spend time in Asia during the war he actually befriended a lot of folks in the Allied effort who actually came to his defense after the war when he was on trial for Smith Act violations or alleged Smith Act violations. I believe it was Madame Chen Kaishik who put up one of her dresses for auction in order to raise funds for his legal defense. This is a fascinating guy who touched history and one of my characters, Jido Machida who's a main character in the book, is modeled on Koji Ariyoshi but this is this is one of those devices I employ where I don't like James Elroy and others like to bring in actual real-life historic figures into their work because Elroy as famously said you can write anything about anyone you want as long as they are dead and that's kind of a legal truism but here in Hawaii we're a smaller place. Now here in Hawaii it's in poor taste I think to write about folks when they still have family left alive or friends left alive who remember these people and I always say you know it's in poor taste because even if you don't disparage these individuals in your work and you portray them in a very good light you always run the risk of getting something about them wrong because there's always somebody that's going to know these people better than you ever will so my device for doing this is to make a character that's based on them a fictitious character based on them and mention the real-life person in the work so that they exist side by side with their real-life inspiration and everybody knows it's not really Koji Ariyoshi but it's somebody that whose life is really similar to his and his character is based on his so yeah that he was a really fascinating individual and the research I did at the UH West Oahu's Center for Labor Education and Research or CLEAR Dr. Bill Pughett opened up a whole world of information on Koji Ariyoshi and and the others in the Hawaii Southern that are referenced in this book so I was really lucky that way. Well and you know some people if you talk to labor union guys today and you know a lot of the great benefits that we have in Hawaii whatever field you're in if you're if you're a working person it's because of those days and the big struggles there but I was really struck by the stories that you had built about Francis Yoshikawa's work to Columbia and you know I want to know how you feel the story of Professor Levinsky and his daughter Rachel who Francis had dated fit into your story about Huok and I you know that's it's very poignant because one of your lead characters who's you know you admire this character you know he's such a good detective and he's honest and he's forthright and his sister is a hard-caring member of the Communist Party according to you and in Pololo and and yet you know he's kind of ashamed about his role that he played with Huok in Columbia and I just want to get more from you about that because I I found that a very poignant part of the book. Well thank you and it was something that kind of came out of a little research I did about Huok investigations on college campuses and they weren't very specific and the information that I uncovered was not case specific either they just talked about FBI agents and Huok investigators going on to college campuses questioning students questioning professors but I thought I would like something about this detective's past that dovetails nicely into the overall theme and it's noir after all I think that even good guys are not a hundred percent good and bad guys are not a hundred percent bad that's one of the hallmarks of the noir genre but it was I wanted to create an interesting conflict that here was a veteran who served the country that through the rest of his kind behind barbed wire that did it maybe not for the most patriotic motives and that's what my research we revealed too that a lot of them had enlisted maybe out of pure fear that the rest of their family will be taken for internment if they didn't do something of the sort which is what this guy falls into into that category but you know it makes war an individual who is not a caricature of service to country because sometimes that country's lines get blurred in terms of what happens and what their definition of service to country is and that was a dialogue in his dorm room with this with this huac investigator about serve your country one more time and he begins to wonder what is that service and and of course this was an interesting way to bring in that Japanese value of Gidi which he's taught by his his late father of obligation and it's and it's obligation which is not necessarily loyalty per se it's not that simple and he has to make a choice what is obligation was Gidi especially if it's your obligation to your country whom do you serve and whom do you sell out is it your country or is it your friends and he made a really painful choice to go with his country over his friends to sell his friends to the huac to the government to save himself which is why he you know and that's the way he views it which is why he has lived with a lot of guilt and shame over the years and when we come to that same head later on in the story he has to make another decision that's similar and you know this is all this all happened in the process of writing it I did not plan it out and I thought oh this works very nicely but and part of the personalities of these folks and at least the atmosphere came out of my college years in New York although they were decades after the events that take place in this book but the weather you know the groups I interacted I had so many friends from New York City who are Jewish so many friends were Italian Irish Black and you know and all from the various neighborhoods all with various backgrounds and but but all uniquely New Yorkers and I thought this is a chance to kind of show what a local boy's exposures like to things like that and and it was a window of opportunity that I that I took advantage of that's really that's really wonderful and what you did when you're explaining the word Giddy was I noticed that you then you started talking about the 47 Ronin and I thought that was a very nice way to explain that term and the other thing that you do besides really exposing the history of of Hueck is there's a cultural part of your book that I found very interesting and you know in chapter three and in other places throughout the book you make pains to be to show that your lead character Detective Yoshikawa is polite I mean he opens the door for his girlfriend he lays down his coat and so my question to you is this your nostalgia for a better time when when people were a little bit more civil to one another because and and let me let me spill the beans a little bit here you know I'm an old-fashioned guy and I like to do that I like to know when my wife gets in the car I open the door for and you know when I when when we get back in the car I open the door for and close the door and that sort of thing and you know a lot of people think I'm being very old-fashioned so I just wanted to ask you could that caught my eye well good for you for doing that yes it is a longing for a different time and the practices of that time I have what you might call an aesthetic obsession with that period with the 1950s with what I call pre rock and roll America I think that my longing though I think is for the the form of that period not for its essence in other words not for the not for the politics of the time not for the the social realities of the time but for the form of the time when when both men and women still wore hats outdoors and they would remove them when they came indoors it was a time where manners counted you know I was in Japan earlier this year and it kind of inspired me to write an article of sorts with the Kyoto journal they accepted a proposal of mine to do this but I was fairly an American undercover in Kyoto because Americans are the worst dressed individuals overseas I have to just come out and say that today they are the worst dressed individuals and when they visit a temple like humus Udera they're going in camouflage shorts and an NBA jersey and shouting at the top of their lungs and taking pictures of everything and I'm thinking well would they do this in Notre Dame de Paris or would they do this in the Sultan Ahmed mosque and the sad answer is yes probably in those sacred spaces Americans also trample everything in favor of of social media fame or whatever I long for a more gentile time when people treat each other with respect and and yes I'm a bit old fashioned that way I think dressing well shows respect for the person that you're interacting with that you appreciate that person enough to have your to have your appearance be presentable I think we've lost a lot of that and I think that the pandemic has sped that on quite a bit as we lost touch with each other in a real sense and now that we are trying to feel our way back into things we have an opportunity here I think to rebuild better the way we interact with each other but I I don't know that it's going to happen but but I'm I'm I'm happy though that I have allies like you and in my corner and trying to bring this back well you know when the senate was discussing whether they should have a tie rule and the time code rule one of the one of the broadcasters on one of the you know major stations said well if you watched how people dress on planes you know and when they've been traveling over the past 20 years this is really something that you know I've often traveled by by plane and you know back when there are no when there are prop planes and my father was a pilot for pan-american and so you know I used to get you know I used to use the bottom line dress would be slacks and you know a button down shirt and now people and I still dress that way when I get on a plane but it's I'm you know I'm the best dressed person there for by far and so I'm always amazed with people come on with slippers and shorts and t-shirts and I'm thinking to myself really did you just come from the beach but I you know it's because of old-fashioned you know I was saying you know you're getting old or Carl that's now like in Conan wins and I think it may have played a bigger role in Conan wins but you really discuss you know there's there's you know class differences and in one section you talk about the Camelot Club you know and that of course that could be easily replaced by other names of clubs here in Hawaii and you link it to Punahou school Manoa and the and its fear of this club sphere of the yellow yellow horde quote unquote and so what did you mean by that and what do you think were the major class divisions economic class divisions and probably social divisions during this period that you love so much well I think that we had a unique situation here where even for Asian Americans if you just take a single group like Japanese Americans at the time they made a 40 percent of the territory's population and this was a this was a political reality which is on the verge of happening in the night in 1954 there were pivotal elections here which changed the power structure forever and this is due in large part of the fact that Nisei voters came of age they were American citizens by birth and they could finally exercise their right to vote and what that did was it it removed and some would say almost for good the Republican party as the dominant political party in Hawaii politics and replaced it with the Democratic party with very few exceptions over the years this has turned out to be a truism and this all started in 1954 and this this was part of my reason for choosing 53 at least to initially set the books that I wrote in that year because we are on the eve of a drastic political change and there was a patrician society here it was largely howly but it was it was partly native Hawaiian too but you know that upper echelon of a native Hawaiian society those with land those with wealth that they could trace that back to the monarchy to the great mahele and their power structure was on the verge of well maybe not collapse but a replacement and I wanted to convey that there was a palpable feeling that a lot of this was soon going to be passed and that was relatable I think to one of the themes in the Mallory's Lamorte d'Arture where Camelot had its day in the sun and that's all going to be a memory soon right with whether or not Mordred's coup is successful it's going to change the structure of of how England or the or the mythical England of Mallory's work was run and there's a there are a lot of poignant stanzas about that and I thought this for for those that were kind of in that in those circles the sugar and shipping money circles that that's about to change and it was about to change not just politically but economically because agriculture would soon be replaced with with tourism as our our main the main driver of our economy and today if you drive out to Eva you won't see that sea of green cane that that you used to see decades ago it's all developed it's all turned into housing it's all brown and this was a result of the replacement of those crops with other things because because our economy had changed and you can you can trace us back to the same era so that's why I think it was really interesting era it's it's why on the verge of change and in my later books it becomes why during change this is that you know you concluded we've run out of time but Scott Kikawa this is so wonderful because you've given us not just you know a discussion of your wonderful novel which I suggest everyone reads red dirt and his previous novel cona wins um please everyone in our audience do pick up those novels but also a once that one kind recommendation for you since you're so involved with the medieval and renaissance period there's a renaissance series that is available that was run and jay fidel the wonderful mensch and I interviewed jennifer mcnaab who does this as a professor of renaissance studies that she's she's quite a droid and probably the leader as randy starne was I think at berkeley for many years she's in northern iowa but she's really a you know the renaissance woman about the renaissance that's what I could say but I'm going to leave the last word to you um Scott kikawa master novelist and master historian I'm going to leave the last word to you well thanks Carl I'm not sure I deserve those titles but you know my work was never meant to be a lesson in history but it's kind of turned out that way because I was the first student of that lesson in my research I had uncovered a lot of things that were not discussed by people who lived through the era including my own parents including people that I knew and my parents knew very well because it was all current events it was it was something that they didn't think was worth mentioning but manifested itself in a lot of their attitudes and a lot of their personal prejudices and preferences and the more I read the more I came to the realization that there was a reason for for all of that that that there were things that were suddenly explained to me that were never explained to me growing up and I think that everybody can have that same epiphany if they would just look into the past here look into their own past wherever that is and and I think that you will learn more about yourself and about your your surroundings than you than you ever would have if you had never gone back and done the homework on it I had an impetus for doing it I wrote books but I think that that I think everybody should be compelled to take a look at it what had come before especially in your own history and I'm I'm glad that a few people have taken up my books and read them and if they had learned anything then then all my effort was worth it that's really wonderful this is Carl Ackerman host of journeys of the mind and we're glad to have experienced Scott Kikawa's journey of the mind with his two wonderful books once again Kona Wins and Red Dirt Ahui Ho