The Bill Walton Show

Some of society's problems are just so upsetting that it's hard to imagine that they continue to exist, or in fact, are spreading. Well, this episode explores one of the worst: Internet child pornography and sex trafficking. Internet pornography been called the largest unregulated social experiment in history. Ushered it into the cultural mainstream, it enjoys increasingly widespread acceptance. But while it's well known that the internet has been hijacked by the sex industry, what's less understood is that it provides children free and easy access to all types of pornography, and sexual predators' easy and anonymous access to children. "Much of the content that is out there is hardcore, it's extreme. Kids under 10 years old are getting hooked on it, addicted to it. And it's free. It's mostly prosecutable under U.S. law. But it's not being prosecuted. Then you've got sex trafficking, which is one of the largest organized crime businesses in the United States," says Donna Rice Hughes, CEO of Enough Is Enough. The New York Times reports that last year, tech companies reported over 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused — more than double what they found the previous year. Smartphone cameras, social media and cloud storage have allowed the images to multiply at an alarming rate. "It's a profound problem for society. Yet, it's such a difficult topic. No one really wants to talk about it," explains Colby May, Senior Counsel and Director of the Washington Office of the American Center for Law and Justice. Dedicated to promoting child dignity in the digital world, Enough is Enough, raises public awareness about the harms of Internet pornography, sexual predators, cyberbullying, sex trafficking and other dangers. Join me as Donna and Colby describe this very troubling world.

A must see and wide ranging conversation about all things economic with Donald Boudreaux, best-selling author, professor of economics at George Mason University who writes the popular blog Cafe Hayek and John Tamny, editor of Real Clear Markets, an editor for Forbes Magazine and the author of "The End of Work" and "They're Both Wrong." Even if, or maybe especially, you think economics is too abstract or arcane or harsh, this is a fresh and engaging take that everyone can learn from. I did. Some excerpts: "Politicians are never very good about taking economic considerations into account when they make policy. They are especially bad at it now, with people frantic over COVID-19, so politicians who don't know much economics, have taken the easy way out, basically putting us all into house arrest, shutting down an incredibly complex system and set of processes for producing goods and services." "One of my favorite economists Thomas Sowell said that one of the first laws of economics is that reality is not optional, and the first law of politics is to deny the first law of economics." "When politicians declare this job or that job non-essential, they deny the dignity of work, the non-economic and spiritual value of work." "One of the beautiful things about the economy is that we all contribute our little small inputs into the larger output." "To understand financial markets, the essential thing to know is that capital has to be allocated from people who save it to places where it's productive." And my favorite: "CEOs are like Michael Jordan. We haven't been taught to think of them that way, but when they can bring that kind of value, the advance they can bring to society more broadly is just stunning." There's a lot more in this fascinating and, I'm sure to some, controversial conversation and I hope you'll find the time to watch or listen.

Medical studies show that excessive stress and anxiety are among the most debilitating and deadly of all health hazards in the world. Beyond their obvious effects like suicide and substance abuse—these mental stressors are strongly related to and may trigger and inflame a host of ailments like high blood pressure, digestive disorders, heart conditions, infectious diseases, cancer, and pregnancy complications. Based on a broad array of scientific studies, my guest Jim Agresti and his organization Just Facts, have calculated that the health risks created by reactions to Covid-19—such as stay-at-home orders, business shutdowns, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus—will destroy at least seven times more years of human life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns to control the spread of the disease. This figure is a bare minimum. The total years of life that it will rob from all people is likely more than 90 times greater. So when a politician like Andrew Cuomo declares that he will take every draconian measure to "save just one life" from Covid 19 he's ignorant to or simply ignoring the massive human costs he's imposing. Moreover, there's growing evidence that's there not much relationship between the severity of government imposed lockdowns and excess deaths. Are we looking at one of the most massive leadership blunders in history? Join me as I explore all this with Jim Agresti.

Join me as go behind the scenes with writer, director and producer Michael Pack about the making of his extraordinary film about Justice Clarence Thomas. Distilled from over 30 hours of interviews during a six-month period with Justice Thomas and his wonderful wife Ginni, for the first time, he tells his entire life's story, looking directly at the camera, speaking frankly to the audience. This first-person account is accompanied by a rich array of historical archive material, period and original music, personal photos, and evocative recreations. Unscripted and without narration, the documentary takes the viewer through this complex and often painful life, dealing with race, faith, power, jurisprudence, and personal resilience. The film is a must see. In part two, I talk with Michael about what it's like to be a conservative filmmaker in today's America and how documentaries have become almost the exclusive playground of the left. Michael Pack is also an extraordinary man. President and co-founder of Manifold Productions, he has produced and directed over 15 documentaries, broadcast on PBS and has had an incredible career moving back and forth between making documentaries and also working in public television and information agency non-profits. He has been President and CEO of the Claremont Institute, head of Worldnet then part of the US Information Agency, and senior vice president for TV programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is President Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Join me as go behind the scenes with writer, director and producer Michael Pack about the making of his extraordinary film about Justice Clarence Thomas. Distilled from over 30 hours of interviews during a six-month period with Justice Thomas and his wonderful wife Ginni, for the first time, he tells his entire life's story, looking directly at the camera, speaking frankly to the audience. This first-person account is accompanied by a rich array of historical archive material, period and original music, personal photos, and evocative recreations. Unscripted and without narration, the documentary takes the viewer through this complex and often painful life, dealing with race, faith, power, jurisprudence, and personal resilience. The film is a must see. In part two, I talk with Michael about what it's like to be a conservative filmmaker in today's America and how documentaries have become almost the exclusive playground of the left. Michael Pack is also an extraordinary man. President and co-founder of Manifold Productions, he has produced and directed over 15 documentaries, broadcast on PBS and has had an incredible career moving back and forth between making documentaries and also working in public television and information agency non-profits. He has been President and CEO of the Claremont Institute, head of Worldnet then part of the US Information Agency, and senior vice president for TV programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is President Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

"There is more to life than economic freedom. And there is more to economic freedom than economic freedom. A society that attempts to maximize everyone's freedom at every moment will fail miserably in preserving individual liberty and limiting government over time." What is missing from our policy debates is a distinctively conservative approach to economics. So argues my guest Oren Cass, founder and executive director of American Compass, whose mission is to restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation's liberty and prosperity. Also joining me is Wells King, the research director of American Compass. www.americancompass.org Cass points out that the libertarian right and the progressive left have dominated our political debate, with one side favoring fewer government programs and less regulation, while the other advocating more, and that there is a more attractive middle course. "Neither prioritizes the traditional structures of family and community that provide the foundations of a flourishing society, or the capacities that a nation must nurture and sustain to remain strong. Consensus views across the political, business, and academic elite have enormous blind spots, from the dangers of globalization, to the costs of a college-for-all education system, to the value of belonging to a particular place. At home, the data on collapsing families, shuttering communities, stagnating wages, and declining life expectancy are well known. Abroad, America's capacity to protect and advance its national interests is likewise waning." Making these our priorities would form the bedrock of a return to what Henry Clay called the "American System" and a distinctively conservative guide to statesmanship and economics. This is a fascinating take on today's policy debates. Well worth a listen. And well worth taking a hard look at.

China presents a vastly different challenge from anything America has confronted before. The United States economy has never been as deeply dependent on an oppositional government the way we are with China. We have outsourced significant portions of virtually every important supply chain to China. America has even lost its manufacturing capabilities to make aspirin, penicillin and a lot of essential antibiotics. Chinese Communist Party leaders are fundamentally similar to its old emperors. In 5,000 years of Chinese history, it has never seen the development of democracy, or the development of an independent judiciary. China is not a "rule of law" society and views the law as an instrument for keeping the Chinese Communist Party in power. It has neither a civil society or an independent press. And today, they are leaning heavily on their technology sector as a tool to enable a type of "techno-totalitarianism." So explain Dean Cheng Senior Research Fellow, Asian Studies at Heritage Foundation, where he oversees Chinese security and economic issues and, Klon Kitchen who leads technology policy at Heritage Foundation as Senior Research Fellow for Technology, National Security and Foreign Policy. We are learning that we have big problems with China. Join me as I talk with Klon and Dean about how we work our way through this mess. We will, but as they say, "it's going to be complicated."

What comes next when we emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown? What is "normal" is going to be like? Well in the case of America's K-12 schools we should not want a return to normal, where "normal" means a nation where fewer than 30% of students - and fewer than 15% in poor communities - read, write, spell, do math or know history, science, or civics on grade level. "With the doors to most of K-12 schools shut for the rest of the academic year and beyond, it's time to implement a dramatically different way of educating our nation's youth, and make it stick," explains my guest Jeanne Allen. Major policy decisions about our schools must be made in the coming months, and because schools are most families' main source of childcare, this will be critical to restarting the economy. What lies ahead is a serious rethinking of the fundamental organization of the school day and school year. K-12 Education is ripe for change and the opportunities to make it better are abundant. "Let's start by accepting that education needn't be "place-based," or dependent on a specific classroom, with a set number of students in order to be learning,. Let's also accept the obvious from this crisis - that helping a student master a grade-appropriate level of competency in a subject is more important than whether they're in a classroom for a certain period of time." Because the federal government has waived spending discrimination based on zip code, no longer must states distribute federal funds according to traditional, fixed categories and formulas. This is a moment to waive these location-based assignment entirely. Conditions are ripe for innovation and improvement. For almost three decades, Jeanne Allen has led the Center for Education Reform fighting to create the conditions for innovation and opportunity for every American child to learn. Join me as she lays out the exciting possibilities for change.

The outbreak of the CoronaVirus has created a health crisis. But federal, state and local governments' reactions to this challenge - however well intentioned - have created an economic crisis that will linger past any recovery from or stabilization of the spread of the disease. The economy's been broken and government action cannot bring it back, only alleviate some of the pain. It's the private sector that will provide lasting solutions to restoring a vibrant America. Of course businesses will play a significant role, but often overlooked is how our civil society non-profit institutions will also be making a big difference. Joining me to talk about this are Lawson Bader CEO of DonorsTrust which directs donor dollars to highly promising conservative and libertarian nonprofit groups throughout the country and Tracie Sharp CEO of The State Policy Network which works with public policy and activist groups in all 50 states. They are leaders of the newly formed Growth and Resilience Project [email protected], which is bringing together donors to fund civil society solutions to the problems brought about by the CoronaVirus. Tracie and Lawson have some of the best windows into what's working and what isn't working throughout the United States. One surprising conclusion that we reached is that are actually good reasons for optimism. As Tracie points out, "after the Black Plague, a renaissance occurred" and a silver lining to this pandemic may be that we rethink a lot of our institutions, the way we do things. For example, schools have been shut down, and it's forced a lot of people into either homeschooling in the case of K-12 or computer-based, Zoom-based classes in the case of colleges. There's over 100 of these kind of solution ideas on the State Policy Network website spn.org/coronavirus of private, voluntary action that really show America at its best. "We're seeing neighbor helping neighbor." This is where philanthropy can step up and help really alleviate the suffering that's going on, get our economy going again, and getting people back to work.

What do you think about the following statements? Small businesses are overwhelmingly responsible for job creation, innovation and American prosperity. Small businesses are more productive than big companies. And small business owners are the core of democracy in America. Yet Washington, controlled by big business and engaged in "crony capitalism," systemically discriminates against small business. We all know this is true, right? Well, no, these things are not true. Or at least, mostly not true. Joining me to explain why is Robert Atkinson, author of "Big is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business" and Ron Nicol who led Boston Consulting Group's Americas Practice and was global leader of its Media, Technology and Communications Group. Rob, founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, is one of the country's foremost thinkers on innovation economics. Ron has developed strategies for dozens of Fortune 100 Companies is considered one of the top 25 business consultants in the world.

"Millions of Americans are taking prescription and over-the-counter drugs made in China and don't know it and neither do their doctors. These are prescription drugs in the legal supply chain that are distributed to U.S. hospitals, sold in corner drug stores and grocery store pharmacies, and distributed to military hospitals and clinics around the world," explains Rosemary Gibson. We cannot make aspirin in the United States. We cannot make penicillin in the United States. Nor can we make generic antibiotics. China's aim is to become the pharmacy to the world, and it is on track to achieve it. Join me as I talk with Rosemary Gibson, author of "China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America's Dependence on China for Medicine" and Frank Gaffney Vice Chairman of the Committee for the Present Danger: China about the existential risks posed by the United States' dependence on China for drugs and essential healthcare supplies. "And I'm sure you may have seen the statement from the Chinese government media actually threatening to withhold drugs and to throw the United States into the ocean of hell of coronavirus. And there were threats before, but this the most brazen." "So, here we have a situation where you have a global pandemic and the whole world depends on a single country for those core chemicals to make critical drugs." If China shut the door on exports of medicines and their key ingredients and raw materials, U.S. hospitals and military hospitals and clinics would cease to function within months, if not days. China produces 10% of our generic drugs but more critically, almost 90% of the core chemicals and drug ingredients are controlled by China. The Global Pandemic is bringing home many unpleasant truths and this is one of the harshest. Learn more here.

This week I sought out Arnold Kling to learn more about some of his innovative ideas to deal with the health, economic and social fallout from the Covid-19 crisis. Arnold, who blogs at arnoldkling.com/blog, author of "Specialization and Trade" and "The Three Languages of Politics" and with a PhD in Economics from MIT is one of America's more original and penetrating thinkers. Some of what we talk about: "Masks and Scarves" How do we know that we are getting the right data and smart science from our health authorities? We're relying on computer models, not real world experiments. The best evidence we have of what slows/halts the virus spread, is what's happened in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Rather than lockdowns, they have limited the disease's spread by allowing people to go to work and school wearing surgical masks that help prevent sick people from infecting others. If the purpose of social distancing is to keep sick people from infecting others, you could accomplish the same thing by mandating that everyone wear a mask and stop killing the economy with the blunt instrument of lockdowns. "Less Fiscal Stimulus, Instead Overdraft Protection" Mandated stay at home lockdowns have shuttered the U.S. economy creating personal and business liquidity problems. We're not in a typical business-cycle recession that requires fiscal or monetary stimulus. The solution: every bank account in the U.S., personal or business, would have added to it a line of credit, at low interest, backed by the federal government. "It would work like government-backed overdraft protection. It's administratively about as simple as you could get and gets relief directly to those who most need it." "Normal is not an option" "We have to resist the temptation to benchmark the future economic outlook against "normal," where normal means what would have happened had the virus never appeared. Pre-crisis, our patterns of specialization and trade were optimized for efficiency at the expense of fragility. Expect supply chains, especially in our trade with China, to have a lot more redundancy and to be less driven by cost minimization. So do we end up with a smaller new "normal" economy or a different economy? "I think a different economy. I like to use the analogy of the Second World War as an example of what's the economic precedent for this? So the Second World War we had to reallocate a lot of resources very quickly, both getting into the war and then at the end of the war as these millions of troops, the GIs come home and the factories no longer need to produce tanks. It was amazing how rapid and how relatively painless that readjustment was. That aspect makes me fairly optimistic."

Join me as I talk with economist Steve Moore and Dr. Jay Richards about the health and economic crisis created by the coronavirus. And how to respond without all of our freedoms and civil liberties being trampled. Yes we need to move decisively to address the virus. But by focusing too narrowly on just disease control, we risk losing much or most of what makes America great. As always, I learn a lot from Jay and Steve. For example, I had thought the coronavirus death rate comparable to that of the seasonal flu, but Jay explains it's more complicated than that. And as Steve explains, the tradeoffs are much more complicated than simply "kill your grandma or boost the Dow Jones Industrial Average." We explore the many policy proposals driven by partisan politics, China's role, the World Health Organization, the Left's agenda, and what this crisis mean for President Trump's re-election prospects. This is a fast moving issue with a lot of moving parts. Steve and Jay do a great job putting this all into perspective.

"The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." George Orwell According to the New York Times, the true founding of the United States of America did not begin with the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Rather, the Times informs us, it occurred in 1619, the year 20 or so African Slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia and the American Revolution occurred primarily because of the American's desire to keep their slaves. Consequently, "America is irrevocably and forever rooted in injustice and racism." My guests Robert Woodson and Kenneth Blackwell emphatically do not agree, and Mr. Woodson has launched the "1776 Project" to refute the Times claims. "I was particularly outraged that the New York Times would exploit America's birth defect of slavery and weaponize race and use the conditions of the black community as a bludgeon against this country's character, almost defining it as if it's a criminal organization," says Mr. Woodson. "What they are doing is insulting by implying that all blacks are victims and should be pitied." Ken Blackwell goes on, "the 1619 project is nothing but a group of apologists for the expansion of the welfare state. What we should be doing, and what Bob's "1776 Project" is about, is the creation of opportunities and individual empowerment in society. As Frederick Douglass said, we all have to be agents of our own well-being." Join me as we dig into the competing narratives of the 1619 vs 1776 projects. As Bob and Ken make clear, the side who wins this debate will likely steer the future course of America.

Last week I interviewed economist Steve Moore at a conference with conservative leaders. While the capital markets selloff and bad coronavirus news had not yet had hit galeforce levels, as it has this week, they were looming. I'm posting this to remind us that even in the face of fierce headwinds, the United States has entered this troubling time riding on top of a booming economy. Steve details the Trump administration's progress in improving the U.S tax system, regulatory regime, household income, job creation, energy independence and productivity growth. As Steve adds, "The amazing thing is we've been growing at a time when the rest of the world isn't … Europe is growing at less than 1% … Japan is practically in a recession. So is Germany. China's economy has been declining even before this virus erupted." In my view, the coronavirus is shutting down too much economic activity to avoid a mild recession. But it's useful to remind ourselves about the strong base from which we have to rebound. And we will. And as always, it's worth listening to Steve on America's economic prospects.

Nancy Stafford, known to millions as Andy Griffith's law partner on TV's "Matlock" and Nina May, an award winning independent film maker, join me to talk about their new film "First Lady" a romantic comedy feature film premiering Valentine's Day 2020. Nancy's been a series regular on many TV shows and as an author, has written two best-selling books. Nina, the founder of Renaissance Women Productions, has also written and directed the awards winning "Daily Bread" and "Life Fine Tuned". Among the many things we talk about: Nancy's start in life as Miss Florida, being a Ford model, and as a star in over 300 commercials before starting her career in TV. What life is like for Christian women artists in the TV and film business. How independent films get made. The "Me Too" movement. How their strong Christian faith has helped both Nina and Nancy succeed in life and their careers. Advice for young women venturing into the entertainment business. Join me in learning from these smart and charming women.

"The anti-Trump conspiracy is not about Democrats versus Republicans. It's not about the ebb and flow of political power lawfully and peacefully transferred. It is about globalists versus nationalists, and they're locked in the old and continuous Communist versus anti-Communist struggle, and fighting to the end whether we, the anti-Communists, recognize it or not." So writes, Diana West, the award-winning author of "The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy" one of my guests on this week's show. It's a stark claim. And it demands that we look at the Trump impeachment in a whole new light, as part of a century long conflict to take America away from its constitutional roots, and towards globalism. Donald Trump is an enormous threat to this agenda. In this sense, he's a counter-revolutionary, seeking to protect the American nation from its globalist enemies, enemies not just from without, but from within. As Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, and my other guest explains, "What I'm basically saying is that whichever of the isms we decide to label to this particular phase, we're dealing with basically totalitarianism, and the totalitarians have as part of their trade craft operating subversively." What's astonishing today is that this agenda is now operating right out in the open with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the "squad", and most of the Democratic Party's Presidential candidates. This war didn't start with Donald Trump. Diana and Frank share incredible stories of a century long struggle with our "enemy within." Some samples: How William Wirt was the first American to be essentially destroyed by the media, for trying to tell the country about the revolutionary nature of the New Dealers. What was behind the recognition of the USSR in 1933. How the culture wars began in Hollywood in the 30s where stories of Soviet atrocities were kept off the silver screen. How Harry Hopkins engineered the covert sale of uranium to the Soviets Why Joe McCarthy had to be destroyed. How "two foundations of globalism, the United Nations and the IMF, these were actually brought into existence by two Soviet agents working inside, covertly, the United States government, Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss." Bringing this all up to today (starting at minute 38:45 through 45:30), is the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr, the man that James Comey, "to this day, honors as his deepest influence on his own theory of justice." We learn that Niebuhr's notion of justice included "no right and no wrong. There are no moral absolutes." Comey has written, paraphrasing Niebuhr, that "the Christian in politics must be willing to transgress any purely Christian ethic. He must be willing to sin in the name of justice." These are chilling stories. What we're seeing now is not about "the ebb and flow of political power lawfully and peacefully transferred." Instead, it's about a coup, a coup being staged all around Washington in various venues, and now in the Congress. Our century long struggle continues.

Join me on The Bill Walton Show as Diana West and Frank Gaffney tell a vivid and chilling story about the machinations to end the Trump Presidency. It's quite a story, a work of fiction, if it weren't playing out in real life. Shakespeare's Henry VIII, his most crowded play, had a cast of 71 characters. This story has 100s in the headlines, with 1,000s of other actors behind the scenes and more emerging every day. Although the U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Trump against impeachment charges, expect this drama to continue, a story whose end has yet to be written. And as Diana says, "the plot is very thick." "There's a timeline here, a narrative that starts about the time the Democrats became aware the Democratic National Committee servers were compromised, and that launched a whole series of coverups." And then came the Big Lie: Russia hacked the DNC to help Donald Trump into the White House. "Let's see if we can get people thinking that not only is Russia involved, but that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians, and then subsequently with the Ukrainians, to try to somehow influence our elections " (The "big lie" technique goes back a long way to Soviet Russia in the 1930s. Robert Conquest, the great historian, coined the term "big lie" for Stalin's claim that he was not starving millions of people to death in the Ukraine. Ukraine, again!) The cast of characters and plots include Debbie Wasserman Schulz, Pakistanis nationals working for the DNC, Glenn Simpson, Hillary Clinton, Carter Page, James Comey, Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele and his Dossier, Julian Assange, the murder of Seth Rich, John Brennan, the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, CrowdStrike and on and on and on… "I mean, this, the connections here are so braided. It's like they're all walking around linked, and no one notices. They've all got their arms linked." Diana says. Now that FBI Director Christopher Wray has admitted that the FISA Warrants and the surveillance of the Trump campaign were illegal, everyone should be asking: what's really happening in this country, who are behind these events, and what are the drivers? How deeply is the American intelligence community involved? And especially, who benefits? We have had "Russia." "Mueller." "Ukraine." Now with impeachment temporarily over, what is the next "Big Lie" going to be? As Diana says, "when you start realizing that domestic political opposition is now coming under surveillance by these powerful, powerful entities, and, given what we know about every American coming under surveillance in terms of our electronic communications being preserved, logged, it's horrifying." Join me as Diana and Frank tell the story.

What do you do with a good friend who has had a successful career in many fields, who seems to be good at everything, and is interesting on a wide range of topics? Well, in my case, I bring him on my show. Richard S. Bodman, founder of AT&T Ventures, joins me with John Tamny, editor of Real Clear Markets, an Editor for Forbes Magazine and the author of "The End of Work" and "They're Both Wrong." Among the many things John and I learn from Dick are: His "eleven different careers." Why "whatever I do, it's going to start in California." How he helped start "something called Mastercard" at age 24. Sparked AT&T's acquisition of McCaw Cellular. His three rules for success. And what "orthogonal" has to do with it. How he launched AT&T ventures. And why he sold it before the dot-com bubble burst. What he learned about the American legal system from his experience as a Director of Tyco. His views about the impact of artificial intelligence growing at a thousand times a year. Also, "for dyslexics like me, I listen to 160 or 70 books a year on Audible on my iPhone." My favorite: "I've never been confident that I know I can do something. I just do things. But one thing I did know, I had a lot of curiosity. And I knew that you couldn't ever get anything done if you didn't sell it. So that was what got me started."

Cyber warfare is raging around the world, with China as the leading state actor. But unlike Russia, and unlike Iran, and unlike North Korea, China is deeply integrated into the US economy and many aspects of our national strength. This is one reason why Congress wanted to learn from my guest Klon Kitchen about the Chinese app TikTok. By now, Chinese global ambitions are well known, but less understood is how they have penetrated the US. The Chinese understand their nation to extend to every individual Chinese around the world whose loyalty and responsibilities are to the Chinese nation and its aims. "Any counter-intelligence professional will tell you that China is exceedingly active in the United States." Within China's borders, there's a new Chinese cyber security law that requires all foreign companies to give the Chinese government nearly unfettered digital access to all their communications and trade secrets data. Learn much more about China's strategies in this episode's conversation with Klon Kitchen. Also, Global cyber-crime is expected to reach $6 trillion annually. And the problem is growing because "we're innovating faster than we can secure our networks."

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp give us a behind-the-scenes look at the conservative movement. Mercedes is the current Communications Director of the Trump/Pence re-election campaign and Matt is the Chairman of the American Conservative Union (CPAC).

Jenny Beth Martin discusses politics, the Trump impeachment and why she co-funded the Tea Party Patriots.

Dr. Robert Epstein and Reggie Littlejohn describe how a leaked internal Google video describes their goal of impacting the beliefs, attitudes, purchases, and votes of 2.5 billion people around the world.

Star Parker and Winsome Sears discuss race, religion, poverty, and our addiction to government.

John Tamny and Arnold Kling discuss the problems of political parties in the US - and why are political elites still buying oceanfront property if the world climate crisis is so dire.

Robert D. Atkinson, founder and president of ITIF, describes the United States role in the war for influence and control.

Dr. Robert Epstein and Reggie Littlejohn describe how a leaked internal Google video describes their goal of impacting the beliefs, attitudes, purchases, and votes of 2.5 billion people around the world.

Myron Ebell gives input on the EPA Endangerment Finding, subsidizing of wind and solar, and The Green New Deal. "If the Green New Deal were implemented, which is very similar to the idea that we're going to get off of coal, oil, and natural gas in 10 years, it would take an area comparable to the size of California, which is our third largest state. The environmental consequences of taking up all that land with windmills and solar panels is outrageous."

C.D. Dickerson III, Curator, and Head of the Sculpture Department at the National Gallery of Art, comments on issues around art ownership and repatriation - including art that was taken from Africa in the colonial era that now resides in museums all over the world.

C.D. Dickerson III, Curator, and Head of the Sculpture Department at the National Gallery of Art, comments on issues around art ownership and repatriation - including art that was taken from Africa in the colonial era that now resides in museums all over the world.

Our military has a disturbing tendency to keep fighting the last wars, not the likely future ones. Now a visionary general is being forced into retirement because he's advocating a very different approach to counter Chinese aims to achieve dominance in space. By employing technologies from space like lasers and robotic systems, China could severely compromise our national security and our economy. Take out our GPS system, and banking comes to a grinding halt. On another front, China's massive surveillance state and social credit scores send a chill down the spines of free people everywhere. Worse, China also aims to "export" these systems throughout the world. It's already happening in Venezuela and wherever they build their "Belt and Road". And with Huawei 5G they could have capabilities to monitor the entire world. Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy and Kevin Freeman, host of the Economic War Room, explain on the Bill Walton Show.

Has Facebook corporate become a parody? They banned a Prager University video on the "Ten Commandments." Their explanation? "Well, it mentioned murder." Maybe next time Prager should do a video on the "Nine Commandments." There's much to learn about "social media speech police" on The Bill Walton Show with Brent Bozell and Dan Gainor. For example: What are the rules used to "de-platform" someone from social media? What's the difference between a "European model" of speech and the U.S. Constitution's. Why should you care about the Communications Decency Act and its Section 230? Some people call it the 26 words that created the internet. And new research shows that Google's search engine could sway up to 20 million voters in the 2020 elections. Really?! Learn the answers to these questions, and more, on this latest edition of The Bill Walton Show.

For decades, the U.S. has given China preferred trade & economic status. In a long overdue effort, President Trump is now negotiating new and more balanced trade deals with China, but however effective new trade deals will prove to be, they cannot address the many other dangers posed by China's Communist Party. After seeing astounding economic growth, the Chinese leaders now show how little they value the liberal world order by threatening unrestricted economic, cultural and kinetic warfare. Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy and Kevin Freeman, host of the Economic War Room, explain on the Bill Walton Show

Economics as a discipline suffers from "physics envy" when it tries and fails to build mathematical models of the economy and society. Instead, it should be studying human behavior and focus on the intersection of health, morality, philosophy, wealth creation and how to bring people out of poverty, Jay Richards says on The Bill Walton Show. In particular, economics and culture can't be viewed separately. While some people care most about economic agendas, and others focus on social issues, you can't really separate them. A vibrant market economy, vibrant economic growth requires a solid foundation in family, civil society, rule of law and religion.

We know from history and evidence all around us, which economic system works, and which one makes people the happiest. It's the economic system of free enterprise. But is it the most moral? Bill Walton explores the question with Jay Richards, author of the newly reissued book "Money, Greed and God." He explains, "you need to ask: compared to what?" The question isn't, well, is it moral and as good as say nirvana or the kingdom of God or whatever the kind of utopian idea that we can imagine? The relevant question is, how good is this system compared to the other ones that we have some capacity to realize in this world. When people claiming to be socialists have actually tried to implement it in history, what has resulted? They can't simply wish away the 40 or 50 or 60 actual failed socialist experiments. Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez likes conjuring scenarios of a Scandinavian village, a little fishing village in Norway where everybody has a Volvo in their garage and plenty of fish to eat and they're able to sing together at the morning at the library, things like that, right? Delusional. Find out why here.

If the Fed brought home a report card reflecting its performance since its creation in 1914, its parents would not be pleased. Its record for stability is among the worst in the developed world, and it has done little to fix the problems it was invented to address. Moreover, the Federal Reserve is far from the only way to assure stability in banking. As George Selgin of the Cato Institute and Norbert Michel of the Heritage Foundation persuasive argue on the Bill Walton Show, it may not even be the best way. More provocative views on the Fed from George and Norbert: How the Fed contributed to, then botched its response to, the 2008 recession. Forget the idea that it was only about "greedy bankers." If you want to learn what really happened, their explanation is lucid. Why an "independent" Fed has never been a reality and probably should not be the goal. We need our money to be politically accountable, but how to do this is a thorny issue. If America could print all the money we needed, we would never have financial problems, right? That's Modern Economic Theory in a nutshell, and George and Norbert explain why this very seductive idea is such a dangerous one. George and Nobert explain "quantitative easing" to me and how it's painted the Fed into a corner. I sort of get it. See what you think, here on the Bill Walton Show.

There are right ways for states to manage their economies - and some very wrong ones. So if you wanted to make your state more prosperous, wouldn't it be helpful to have the tools to determine how it will perform years into the future? They exist. Developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), "Rich States, Poor States" is an annual economic forecast for all 50 states based on their ranking in 15 policy variables, each one directly influenced by state lawmakers through the laws they pass. What the survey shows is that at the state policy level a lot can be accomplished, both good and bad. Jonathan Williams, Chief Economist of the American Legislature Exchange Council and Seth Grove, chairman of two committees in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, explain how on a recent Bill Walton Show. Bad economic policies drove nearly 800,000 people out of California last year which means that after the 2020 census it may lose a congressional seat for the first time in its history. On the flip side, Utah has been No.1 in the "Rich States, Poor States" rankings for 12 years because of its flat tax, a truth-in-taxation law and transitioning pensions to a defined-contribution model. Want to make your state prosperous? Learn about how on our show and urge your state legislature to take ALEC's 15 tried-and-true steps on tax policy, labor laws and regulation.

Americans' theory that more trade with China would open up the country to more democracy has been proven wrong. In fact, say Reggie Littlejohn, Huchen Zhang and Chen Guancheng on The Bill Walton Show, they have backfired. "You cannot tolerate evil. You cannot treat evil with kindness," Zhang said. The Chinese consider Western countries to be naive and easily manipulated, but if the US will stand up to them in trade deals, it will earn the support of the Chinese people and deprive the government of the money to control the country's social structure, Chen Guancheng said on The Bill Walton Show.

Ken Fisher on: coastal redwoods, dikes, efficient markets, quantitative easing, the limits of our knowledge, climate change, the fed, interest rates, why $10 billion isn't that much money, money flows around the world like water downhill, tree science, behavioral science, why philanthropy is immoral and bad for humans, optimization of scarce resources, Bastiat, financial system intermediation and why inequality is a good thing.

Species and habitat protection are issues that can be separated from polarizing disagreements about climate change. Everyone - on both the left and the right - ought to be able to come together to protect endangered species and their habitats. It's a problem that humans have created and one that humans can solve. But first, we must understand the enormous scope of the problem. Skipper Darlington and Ron Maxwell, on a recent visit to The Bill Walton Show, describe some of the places where habitat destruction is at its worst. We also get into the many ways both private citizens and governments can work to stop it. It's a bipartisan issue where there is a lot of common ground for people to work together towards solutions.

We had the good fortune to have Ron Nicol and Edwin Meese on The Bill Walton Show the day the Mueller report was released. Meese, a former U.S. Attorney General, says Robert Mueller should have made a decision on obstruction of justice by the president and that at least one of his attorneys was a "totally irresponsible, unprofessional, unscrupulous lawyer" whom "should not be in any part of the Department of Justice." There's much more in this penetrating analysis by one of our foremost Constitutional authorities."

The population of humans has almost tripled since 1950, and the impact on other species has been profound. Humans have absorbed vast amounts of habitat for living space and farmland, leading to the extinction of hundreds of species and threats to countless others. Ron Maxwell and Skipper Darlington join Bill Walton to talk about a radical but oddly simple and doable solution.

"The economy of Venezuela has collapsed as a result of gross socialist mismanagement. Their currency is essentially worthless. To start over, the next government of Venezuela must re-establish the rule of law, protect private property rights and create a new currency." So writes Richard Rahn, one of America's most brilliant economists. With socialism now stunningly in fashion in the United States, we need to be better teachers about its dangers. For example, Dr. Rahn has a great way in a classroom setting to convey to students the problem with socialism. He asks how many favor free college or medical care. Almost everyone's hand goes up. But then he asks them to assume that the 30 people in the classroom are an entire nation's population and asks "Which one of you should pay for the "free" medical care for everyone else?" Awkward silence. Socialism depends on coercion and takings from the productive members of a society. That means those who can create wealth will usually either leave, or if they stay and refuse to cooperate, be killed. Exaggerated? Look no further than to the Soviet Union where Josef Stalin famously said, "A person, a problem. No person; no problem." The result? Deaths of 63 million of his people. Join me on The Bill Walton Show as Richard and I discuss this and other provocative issues. Like why the word democracy appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, why we may see half of America colleges close their doors in the next couple of decades or why with the right to vote should come with a responsibility to have a rudimentary understanding of American history and its political system.

In China, the U.S. confronts an adversary that saw itself as the Middle Kingdom –the center of the universe –for 3,000 years, then endured a century of humiliation and now seeks to return to what it sees as its rightful place in the world. Join Bill Walton as he and veteran Washington foreign policy experts Dr. Stefan Halper and Adm. James Stark discuss China's comprehensive program to dominate its region and to challenge the U.S for cultural, economic and military superiority. The Trump administration has a new approach to China, and it could bear fruit. But the Chinese remain active in cyber warfare, restrict our access to their domestic markets and force companies that are allowed to do business there to hand over their technology, and none of that will change unless we force them to change. But a war is not inevitable. Instead, it's critical that the U.S. think in terms of managing our relationship with China. It is our largest trading partner and there are many lines of action to pursue that stop short of "kinetic action." Dr. Stefan Halper and Adm. James Stark explain how on The Bill Walton Show.

An entire industry – mostly government-funded – has sprung up around the idea of creating entrepreneurs. Don't buy any of it. Don't buy college. Don't buy business incubators. Don't buy mentors – you probably know more about what it takes to succeed in your business than they do. Start the business. As Carl Schramm and I discussed on "The Bill Walton Show," get your education at the School of Hard Knocks. Observe your competitors. Work somewhere first so you can understand the choreography of business. There's a right way to do it, but there are no short-cuts and no gimmicks to get there. Entrepreneurship is about lines of action. The best way to learn how to start businesses is to start a business.

"Technology is creating unprecedented wealth the world over, and venture capitalists find themselves in the midst of the best opportunities. It's an exciting time. There are about $60 billion invested per year in US firms by venture capitalists, and my guests Dan Mindus and Brett Gibson, founders of NextGen, say another $100 billion or more is sitting on the sidelines ready to jump in. At the same time, there is so much progress going on, so few barriers to entry, that opportunities are exploding as well. Professional venture capital investors are on the cutting edge of bold new innovations - like the hyper loop trains, drone delivery services, and more. Or, we all hate waiting to see a doctor. Soon, you might not have to. Telehealth would allow you to take routine tests at home and consult with your doctor from your sofa. And it will make doctors and hospitals more financially stable. On "The Bill Walton Show," we discuss many of these exciting ideas and the power of venture capital to help make them a reality. In the old days, venture capitalists sought to identify winners. These days, they seek to help create them."