Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB | A 250-Year Fever Dream: Trump's USA Birthday Takeover Backfires with 'Trump Bucks' & White House Cage Matches

Transcript

610 CKTB | A 250-Year Fever Dream: Trump's USA Birthday Takeover Backfires with 'Trump Bucks' & White House Cage Matches · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right now, our pal John Litkey is joining us. Good
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: morning John, Good morning Jeane. You know, when I was
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: living and working legally in the United States, I always
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: would take the week on Canada Day and the Fourth
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of July off. It was the neatest thing to do.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I would fly home to Canada, enjoy Canada Day, fly
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: back to California where he is living, and enjoy the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: fourth of July. It was just so cool. So the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: fourth of July just around the corner. And boy, what
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: they're doing in the United States is really weird. They've
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: actually come up with an idea of a prototype to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: put Donald Trump's face on a two hundred and fifty
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: dollars bill because it's the United States is two hundred
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and fiftieth birthday. And at the same time, at the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: White House. I've seen this on CNN. They're building a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: UFC cage to have a cage match at the White House. Now,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know, is this a populous birthday party or
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is it just the corporate takeover of a America.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: You know, Gene, I was watching CNN as well, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I saw the cage fully erected, and it's just surreal.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It's like living in a fever dream right now. But
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, this is a corporate hostile takeover and
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: how Trump operates for watching the complete descent of total
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: narcissistic behavior, fully enabled and subsidized by the executive branch.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: And it's really concerning for you know, their democracy, but
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the fact that we're living so close to them. When
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: a Foundational Nations anniversary stops being a shared civic milestone
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and becomes a private marketing engine for a single man's ego, man,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the public square has been liquidated.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: No kidding, Well, don't they have a firewall against this
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: sort of narcissism or are the guardrails effectively gone?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Now? I think you know. Fortunately, the judiciary still works
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: over there right now, and it remains the last lonely
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: line of defense trying to hold the line on the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: rule of law as a whole. But the legislative branch,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: whether it be Republicans in the House or the Senate,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: has been co opted entirely. They've completely rolled over. Congress
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: is supposed to be a coequal branch, for gosh sake,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: but they're not acting like that whatsoever. They are just
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: operating out of the trunk of the MAGA campaign bus.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I've been watching this thing about the money. Now,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: legally a one hundred and sixty year old law bans
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: living people from being on the currency. I don't know why,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: but that's the way it is. But are the Republicans
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill going to bypass that and sneak in
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: this two hundred and fifty dollars bill in some shape
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: or form, because guess who wants this more than anybody else?
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Of course Donald Trump.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Oh. I mean, he'll say though that he doesn't want it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It was someone else's great idea, but of course now
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: he wants it, and they're going to absolutely try to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: jam it through. I think though, you know, the old
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: institutional guard of the GOP will probably oppose it behind
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: closed doors and wring their hands in the media. But
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I think at the end of the day, this thing
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: will be put into a massive must pass omnibus funding
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: bill at some point, setting a toxic trap for the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Democrats either shut down the federal government on the literal
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: eve of the nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary birthday,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: or rollover and put Donald Trump's face in everyone's wallets.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Now, the Treasury Department in the US takes care of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the money. Are you telling me, like, is this real?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: The head of the Treasury Department has been reassigned.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: This is gene. We're watching an entire the world's largest government,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the world's largest military, the world's greatest fighting force, completely
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: succumbed to the whims and the needs of one man's
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: narcissistic ego. It's a really big issue, and this is
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: an administrative purge. We've seen this happening regularly. When people
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: oppose what Donald Trump wants. It sends chilling messages to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: every civil servant in Washington. It means there is no
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: expertise anymore. Appliance is mandatory, and the entire federal bureaucracy
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: has been hollowed out.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: You know, forty percent of Americans can't even handle a
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: surprise four hundred dollars emergency health bill right now. So
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: who's this two hundred and fifty dollars banknote for?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: This is the absolute joke of it all. Right now,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: The average American is currently lying awake at night wondering
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: how they're going to pay for unexpected medical bills, or
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: fix that flat tire or an unexpected education expense. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the President is playing literal monopoly with the Treasury to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: try to print a boutique collector's edition of its two
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty note. But who in that country can
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: actually afford to just have two fifties sitting around in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: their wallet right now? This is not currency for regular
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: citizens to buy grocery. It's just high end campaign merch again.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, So there's also been a celebrity mass exodus. Trump
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: is planning this big party on the National Mall in Washington,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: which is really quite something to see. I highly recommend
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: people go visit Washington anyway. The celebration is there on
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the National Mall. It's like every musicians every day you
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: hear two or three more saying no, I'm not doing it. Yeah.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And you know, some of the names are like really
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: big ones, some of them are more obscure. And the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: ones that have agreed to perform are you know, your
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: MAGA diehard loyalists. But they shouldn't be surprising to anyone
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: who understands basic brand preservation gene. These artists signed up
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to sing God Bless America at a non partisan birthday party,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: not to act as the opening act for Donald Trump's
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: big day. So When the country stars and the classic
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: rock icons and even some of the mo sound groups
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: look at the event and realize they're being used as
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: political props to legitimize what is a would be autocrat's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: birthday party, They're going to pack up their gear and
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: run for the hills.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So with the musical acts gone, we're almost all gone.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: So what has Trump officially announced that he's headlining the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: marquee himself?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: That is what it looks like right now, Gene. I mean,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to be like the
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: complete headliner, but it's supposed to be that he's on stage.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And this is a guy who would regularly claim that
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: he can draw a bigger crowd than Elvis Presley without
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a guitar. But this isn't about America's two hundred and
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: fiftieth birthday anymore. This is a multi week state sponsored
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: MAGA Trump rally paid for by every American taxpayer. When
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the talent is fleeing and the President is putting himself
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: on the marquee or on the bills, the merger of
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: MAGA and the state has been completed. The shared civic
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: fabric of that country has been fully devoured by one
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: singular campaign brand and that should terrify every listener tuning
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: in right now.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll still go down for the fireworks.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't want to miss out on
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: anything fun. I mean, listen, a big UFC fight on
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: the White House. That is a spectacle made for Donald Trump.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: And you know, we can take it for what it is.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I don't think it says a very good thing about
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: the state of the civic institutions or the state of
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: their democracy. But hey, Geene, you and I talked about
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: that regularly. He's great for broadcast, He's just not good
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: for America.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Okay. And on that bombshell, I'm gonna say, great job. Well, Jean,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: We'll be talking to you on Tuesday, Okay, looking forward
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: to Okay, there he goes Jan led Keith and a
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: text coming in your guest has a touch of Trump
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: derangement syndrome from Alex. I think you have to read
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: between the lines with John