Progress in Ukraine, Border Crisis Deepens, California's Crazy Truck Rules

Join Jim and Greg as they cautiously welcome news of Ukrainian progress against Russians at a key spot along the war front. They also groan as the number of families with children apprehended at the border surged in August - yet another sign that the Biden administration's policies are nothing but a giant magnet for people to come to the U.S. illegally. Finally, they unload on California for thoroughly implausible new regulations banning diesel-powered big rigs travelling between ports starting next year in favor of electric trucks. From the length of charging time to weight restrictions to the toll on the electrical grid, the impact on trucking - and the prices you pay for goods, the expectations are completely unrealistic. Oh, and they have a few choice words for new members of Transportation Secretary's Pete Buttigieg's Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity who think all cars are bad and that they "perpetuate systemic racism."

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of
Radio America and Jim Garrity of NationalReview. Three Martini's coming up. Very
glad to have you with us forthe Friday edition of the Three Martini Lunch.
We have good, bad, andcrazy martinis for conservatives to close out
the week, and Jim, thegood Martini connects a lot with what you've

(00:24):
been covering for the past two weeks, and that comes to us from Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal with this particularexplanation of the story Ukrainian troops piercing
of Russian lines this week marks asmall move with big potential. The Ukrainians
are trying to gradually force their waythrough the main Russian defense line in the
southeast under heavy fire to expand fishersthey open and achieve a larger scale breach.

(00:48):
This is a critical moment and keepsthree month counter offensive because a full
scale penetration would allow Ukraine to pourarmored vehicles through and rec havoc among Russian
forces advancing a few miles through thedefenses around Verba. Hopefully I'm saying that
correctly. A settlement in the country'ssoutheast, unknown even to most Ukrainians,
would amount to a modest gain comparedto the roughly twenty percent of the country
that the Russians controlled, or comparedwith the greater gains that Ukrainian and Western

(01:12):
nations had hoped earlier this year tohave achieved by now. So, Jim,
you're just back from Ukraine. Youknow the geography, you know the
critical nature of this particular part ofthe battle, and we've certainly seen a
lot of political debate about the successor lack there of the Ukrainian Spring Offensive.
So how critical is this and whathappens if it is successful? Well,

(01:34):
I think it is a I don'twant to oversell this. This is
a small step, but an importantstep. There had been a pretty complete
and indisputably daunting Russian line of defenseall across kind of the Southern Front,
and you know, one of theways you want to fight against that sort
of thing, and it had layersof land mines and trenches. It really

(01:57):
looks like some of these pictures looksWorld War One and the images we associate
with that war, and layers ofdefenses, and it's tough. I did
hear some folks while I was outthere saying that the Russians had pushed a
lot of their defenses up towards thefront lines, and that if you could
break through past them, there wouldnot be a lot behind them to defend
that. Again, not to overstateit, there's still an enormous amount of

(02:21):
fighting, but this does appear tobe an important piercing of that line.
I would also point out when Iwas over there, the Ukrainian people,
and I again I was in placeslike la Vov and koval A, Kiev
and then down to Odessa, theyknow about as much as how things are
going to the front as anybody elsein the West, which is just I

(02:42):
mean, they you know, theyhear things. Almost everybody knows somebody who's
fighting somewhere along the front or stationsomewhere along the front, but they don't
know the stuff is, you know, changing day by day. It looked
like it was being a long,slow grind. This is an important step.
It's not it's by no means meanthe war is over or the war
is one or something like that,but it does demonstrate that the Russian defenses
can be penetrated, and if youcan widen that enough, you can get

(03:05):
a lot more forces in through thereand really, you know, start punching
through and start acquiring territory. Ialso would note that one of the things
that has made these counter offensive verychallenging, a war of attrition does not
work to the favor of the Ukrainians. They have They're a smaller country,
they have a fewer people in theirarmed forces. They've mobilized, maybe not

(03:27):
every last man that they can,but like a great deal of those who
are available. And when you're thesmaller side, you know, every casualty
means more. You can't afford tolose that many guys. We've heard about
the Russians just you know, throwingconscripts towards the front and you know,
losing them in mass numbers, butfeeling like they're going to be okay because
they have more numbers. Anyway,an important step. We will see if
this builds momentum or has some sortof follow on effect. But for a

(03:52):
counter offensive that has been a long, hard, difficult slog it is good
to see at least one significant breakthroughAt the point in the war. What's
the general sense of the Russian morale. It's obviously hard for Ukraineus to know
that they're on the opposite side.But given how easy they were sold that
this would be and obviously hasn't been, what do we now, especially given
the casualty figures. We talked abit about the Pogosan you know, mini

(04:15):
coup that he tried about a monthago or maybe six weeks ago, and
then Pegozan's death. Look, Russianmorales terrible, but they're used to it
being terrible. Russians, you know, you look at their history, have
been willing to suffer in the nameof the state a great deal because they
partially out of pride, partially becauseout of someone telling them I'll shoot you
if you don't. The morale ofthe Russian army being terrible may not be

(04:41):
as damaging to its ability to fightas some people in the West may think
that. Having been said, youwould rather have your morale be high and
to have your folks be fired upand determined that they can definitely win than
to be in the state that theRussians are, where it's like, the
only reason we're fighting is because we'llget killed if we don't know. The
right should have had horrific casualty figuresbecause they don't value the lives of their

(05:02):
own people. You go back toWorld War Two as even the numbers,
you know, a little bit fudgie, but it's somewhere between twenty and thirty
million between military and civilians. Sothat's not a concern for their leadership ever.
All Right, Jim, let's talkabout our bad martini now, and
as we get to the start ofa new month, we get more reports
about what happened in the previous month. Today, we'd be talking about the

(05:25):
immigration report, with the government reportingthat record numbers of migrant families streamed across
the US Mexico border in August,according to preliminary data obtained by the Post.
We'll get the official numbers in alittle bit later in September. In
influx that has upended Biden administration effortsto discourage parents from entering illegally with children
and could once again place immigration inthe spotlight during a presidential race, the

(05:48):
US border patrol arrested at least ninetyone thousand migrants who crossed as part of
a family group in August, exceedingthe prior one month record of eighty four
four hundred and eighty six set inMay twenty nineteen. Families were the single
largest demographic group crossing the border inAugust, or passing single adults for the
first time since Biden took office,which is a major shift. Over All,

(06:10):
the data shows border apprehensions have risenmore than thirty percent for two consecutive
months. And so the administration,you know, they made some cosmetic changes
there, Jim, some would saythey were more substantive than that, but
the numbers are creeping back up again, and now we're seeing we're going to
have families more than before in thisdire situation because of the policies of this
country completely inviting people to make thejourney. Yeah. Shockingly, Greg,

(06:34):
when Kamala Harris went down to CentralAmerica and said do not come, Shockingly,
they didn't listen, They did nothave the I really thought that was
going to do it, but nowit turns out. Let's also note,
you know, the overall arrests onehundred seventy seven thousand in among the Mexico
border in August. That's up fromone hundred thirty two thousand July, ninety
nine thousand in June. You mayalso remember, like we've had coverage of

(06:58):
an enormous heat wave over much ofthe American West in the past month,
and I you know, pretty muchthe entire summer. Summers are always hot,
and it's always a particularly hot partof the country. But you know,
even in that scorching heat, peoplewere making the journey, and they
were making that journey with their childrentrying to indicates that all of the efforts
to you know, reduce the peoplefrom leaving in the first place. You

(07:24):
know, some of them come fromMexico, but a lot of them are
coming from Central America. We've gotAmala, El Salvador, Honduras. It's
not working. It is not reducingpeople's willingness to take enormous risks to get
to the United States and apparently bringtheir children, which is doubly troubling because
obviously, you know, this kindof journey is uh, you know,
it has a certain amount of riskto life and limb attempt to cross the

(07:46):
Rio grand and places like that.But also, like you know, your
this is no place for a child, and yet residents of these countries continue
to keep doing this. The Bidenadministration loves to run around and saying the
border is secure. It is notthe case, and they have done very
little to mitigate the rate of peoplecoming over here. I guess the Biden
administration's plan is to simply wait untilCentral America runs out of people. Yeah,

(08:07):
apparently so. And we just hadthe story that Peter Doocey finally brought
up at the briefing about an ISISfigure moving people from Uzbekistan across the border.
Trying to figure out who these peopleare, where they're going, and
whether they pose a direct threat tothis country. Curn Jean Pierre at the
briefing podium says that this has allbeen interdicted and nobody's got anything to worry

(08:28):
about. I'm not so sure aboutthat. I also thought her biggest whopper
of the week, Jim, wasgoing to be that nobody can keep up
with Joe Biden. His energy isjust off the charts, so we're scrambling
every day to try and match hisenergy. And then yesterday she comes out
with the President has done more tosecure the border and to deal with this
issue of immigration than anybody else.He really has unquote no, no,

(08:50):
he really hasn't. That's an intensecompetition between those two statements, because she
said something earlier about Biden's got somuch energy. I can't even keep up
with him right now. She isin her forties. As far as we
can tell, she seems to bein fine health. If you are in
your mid to late forties and youcan't keep up with eighty year old Joe

(09:11):
Biden with his shuffling feet, youshould see a doctor and you probably should
be checked out, because you shouldbe keeping up with Joe Biden quite fine.
Most of us can keep up withJoe Biden, you know, with
no problem. This is not aplausible line of explanation here. But the
argument that the border is a Bidenadministration success story, that things have turned

(09:31):
out great, the border is secure, none of that is plausible. The
American will know it is plausible.You know. Instead of trying to spin
people into believing things are great,what have you actually like, did stuff
to try to actually improve the situation, Like I'm just I'm just spitballing here.
You know that rather than an absolutelycrazy spin heading into an election year,
what if you actually try to dostuff, work with the other side,

(09:52):
try to put it more fencing,try to you know, repair fencing
that has been worn down, youknow, helped the border patrol will have
fewer places they need to put topatrol and protect and you know, watch
for migrants attempted to cross, andmaybe you get somewhere. But hey,
what do I know, No exactly. I mean, the messages, the
gates are open. Regardless of whatKamala sun in Central America a while back,

(10:15):
Hardly anybody's getting sent back. They'removing people where wherever they want to
go here in the United States,although sometimes the governors are sending them to
sanctuary cities in the cases of NewYork and some other places. But there's
no disincentive for people to make thetrip right now. And that's a big
problem. All right, let's moveon to our double fisted crazy Martining Jim

(10:35):
and back to the Wall Street Journalfor this one. Unfortunately, climate policy
for most Democrats originates in California,where they're always so rational and even handed
and moderate and balanced, and thenthe national Democrats decide, hey, these
are great, who really cares ifthey're realistic. Well, now there's an
assault on trucks. According to theWall Street Journal, truckers are raising alarms

(10:56):
about a new mandate proposed by theCalifornia Air Resources Board to electrify their fleets
starting next year. Dryage operators thattransport goods between state sports and distribution centers
would be prohibited from registering new dieseltrucks by twenty thirty five. Almost all
package delivery, dreage and box truckswould have to be zero emission, but
electrifying trucks will be even more costlyand difficult. A mere two hundred and

(11:20):
seventy two electric trucks were registered inCalifornia as of last year, and under
these new mandates, if they're finalized, some five hundred ten thousand trucks would
have to be zero emission by twentythirty five. But it's just completely impractical.
First of all, electric heavy dutytrucks are about three times more expensive
than new diesel big rigs, sothat's a huge problem. Installing chargers can

(11:43):
cost millions of dollars and they gobbleup a tremendous amount of energy. The
story here says one trucking company wantedto install charging stations for thirty trucks at
a terminal and Joliet, Illinois,only to be told by local officials that
they would draw more power than theentire city. And turns out that if
we did all this with trucks.They'd only be able to charge at night,
which is when everybody's electric vehicle wouldalso be plugged in, and so

(12:07):
stiff. As you go through thisstory, I could, I could read
it all, but it's the rangeon these huge trucks is a big problem.
They would need two batteries that eachway eight thousand pounds, and so
then you could only haul light stufflike potato chips. You couldn't even hault
soda. The left is so farout in front of its skis here that
it would be laughable if it wasn'tso serious about making these things law.

(12:30):
You know, California is really goingto give federalism a bad name because usually,
you know, the attitude of youand I and a whole bunch of
folks on the right is the governmentthat is, you know, closest to
the people, generally governs best oris most responsive to its concerns. And
we love the idea of the statesbeing fifty laboratories of democracy, and each
state, you know what, goout and you try it. Colorado,

(12:52):
you wanted to try legalizing marijuana,you go ahead and be the guinea pig
and see how that works out.If other states like the results, they
can emulate it. If they don'tlike it, they can resist that.
California, there are a couple ofstates that are kind of becomes so big
and influential into the economies of therest of the country that they kind of
get very disproportionate influence on national decisionmaking. And an enormous amount of what

(13:16):
you buy, even if you liveon the East Coast, comes through some
of those massive ports on the WestCoast, Long Beach in particular, but
really up up and down the coast. You think about like when California said,
and of course a lot of itgets you loaded office ships, and
then it goes to your stores,oftentimes on trains and sometimes on trucks.
So when California says we're going tomake these kinds of requirements for a truck,

(13:37):
even though you might be thinking,ah, I like California, do
it. Well, a lot ofthe stuff you buy it comes through trucking
companies and have to comply with that. And if it says, oh,
you can't use diesel anymore, andoh we expect you to be zero emissions
and all that kind of stuff,well, the cost of everything you buy
is going to end up becoming considerablyexpensive. Now, is it conceivable the
companies will say, oh, thisis an absolute pain. Can we ship
it through Washington or are there otherports that we can use? Guess you

(14:00):
know this possibility. But it's stillgoing to make things more expensive. It's
not like there's a reason California hasbecome a massive trade and shipping center for
so many other places in the restof the country. Those of us who
don't live in California and think thatits leadership is completely off its rocker and
as completely disassociated, like it's livingwith the consequences of you know, these
kinds of heavy economic regulations. It'salso living with the consequences of chron regulations.

(14:22):
It's living with the consequences of uh, you know, housing restrictions that
make the cost of housing skyrocket alla million weights. Like Gavin Newsom's California
is this progressive laboratory for every badidea, and people are living with the
consequences, and when they can affordto, they're getting out. But that
having been said, there's no signthat California is going to change course.

(14:43):
Unfortunately, it appears that everybody whothinks differently has chosen to move out of
the state. They're voting with theirfeet effectively, and the problem is that
means there's no one there to stopbad policies like this one that could make
the costs of you know, godknows how many goods much more expensive in
other states because California wants to pushthree changes like this. Yeah, it's
insane and says, uh, youknow, batteries can power trucks for one

(15:05):
hundred and fifty to three hundred andthirty miles between charging, which can take
five to eight hours. Jim,you and I both like to spend time
in Hilton Had It's about five betweenfive hundred six hundred miles away. Usually
takes us about nine hours make astop or two along the way. So
if you had to stop for fiveto eight hours, probably twice as a

(15:28):
trucker, that journey wouldn't be toofun and it would take longer and a
lot of people have been paying alot more money. Yeah, you know,
look, if you you and Ihave talked about electric cars on this
podcast a lot of times, sowe're not you know, we don't.
I try not to poopoo it completely, but we're skeptical. It just isn't
If you're living in a city andyou just tool around and you have easy
access to a charger, and youhave the time. You know, if

(15:50):
you if you'd ever go on along road trip and you're okay charging it
overnight, Okay, that could workfor you. Now, we've also noted
that many people who drive these electriccars buy them they feel they think they're
gonna be great, and it takeslonger to charge, and the battery dreams
down faster than they expect. Sometimesit just isn't quite as good as advertised.
Now, this isn't saying, youknow, nobody should ever buy an
electric car, but it just doesn'twork. Maybe it doesn't work if you

(16:11):
need you know, you're a bigfamily, you need that suv, you
need that station wagon, you needa minivan. You get a lot of
people, you gotta bring a lotof groceries, all that kind of stuff.
You know, Little tiny cars arejust not who work for everybody.
And the idea of using electric batteriesto take hours to recharge is just not
a realistic option for America's struckers.No, no, not the truckers,
not people who visit family that arethat are fairly far away. It's not

(16:33):
plausible at all right now, butwe have more free beacon with this story.
Related, Transportation Secretary Pete Buddha Judgeis appointing a group of leading experts
JIM to advise him on transportation equity, including several who argue that cars cause
climate change and promote racism and thereforeshould be phased out. Buddha Judge earlier
this month appointed twenty four new membersto his Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity and

(16:59):
ama Era, body that Buddha Judgeis reviving after the Trump administration scrapped it.
Included on the committee is Andrea MarpierroColomina, a spatial policy scholar who
says, in all caps quote,all cars are bad given that they cause
a myriad of environmental issues and conditions. Another Buddha Judge of pointees, self
described transportation nerd, Veronica Davis,argued in an August essay that cars perpetuate

(17:23):
systemic racism and are therefore the problemin America's transportation system. So, you
know, for people who think thatthey're going after your cars is a conspiracy
theory, they're not doing a lotto dissuade you. Greg Among other things,
I'd like to know about this iswhen the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity
meets. Will they be meeting inperson? And if so, how did

(17:45):
they get to the meeting? Didthey walk there? I guess is no.
My guess is these people are scoutedall across the country. They're gonna
have to get there somehow. AndI don't think they're biking there. I
don't think they're biking from you know, California to the way to the Washington
or something like that. What theymean is you your cars are bad.
Ours are just fine. Yes,we're special, Yes, exactly exactly.

(18:06):
They're just always so disappointed in us. Jim, have a great weekend,
and just a reminder to our listenersthat on Monday, we will have a
special edition The Three Martini Lunch focusingon Jim's more than a week in Ukraine.
What do you learned there? Thegood, the bad, and yes
even some crazy, So make sureyou stay tuned for that. But Jim,
before then, have a great weekend, see Monday, actually see a
Tuesday. Greg Jim Gartty National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.

(18:30):
Thanks so much for being with ustoday. Do subscribe to the podcast if
you don't already, and please tellsome friends about us as well. We'd
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All you have to say is playThree Martini Lunch podcast, follow us
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(18:51):
a terrific Labor Day weekend. Dojoin us on Monday and we'll be back
with our regular fair on Tuesday onthe Three Martini Lunch