Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - A Daring Rescue Can’t Distract From Disastrous Iran War + Trump’s Profanity Laced Easter Morning Message

Transcript

Chuck’s Commentary - A Daring Rescue Can’t Distract From Disastrous Iran War + Trump’s Profanity Laced Easter Morning Message · The Chuck ToddCast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: by Ethos and what Ethos does is it helps you
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: find life insurance. Let me tell you why life insurance
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: bailed me out. My father died when I was sixteen.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We didn't have a lot of money when it happened,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and we were in a pretty tough financial spot after
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: it happened. I'm an only child. Suddenly my mother's single,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: single mother. She had a job, suddenly lost a job,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: looking for another job, and we were struggling. You know,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: my dad didn't leave us in the best financial situation,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: but he did make one purchase. He bought a life
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: insurance policy. Wasn't a huge chunk of change, but it
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: was enough when we found it. And when I say
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we found it, meaning we went through his desk and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: we found, oh, look at this, let's see if there's
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: anything here. And it helped us out at a time
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that we really needed it. And that's why I think
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: it's important that if you can, especially if you have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: young children, if you can get life insurance, you should
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: get it. Life is full of unexpected emergencies, unexpected things happen.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: It is an extra bit of security, something you can
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: leave and help out at a time when you're not
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: you're not there to help. So what does Ethos do well?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy, and it's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent online. You can get a quote in seconds,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: you can apply in minutes, and you can get same
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: day coverage. They will find you the right fit. There's
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: questions online. You can get up to three million dollars
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: in coverage and some policies are as low as thirty
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: dollars a month, and you'll get your lowest rate from
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: their network of trusted carriers. So take ten minutes to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: free quote at ethos dot com slash chuck That is
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: e t hos dot com slash chuck. Application times may
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: vary and rates may vary. Hello, They're happy Monday. Happy
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Easter Monday for those of you'd celebrate. It is Easter
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: egg roll Day here in Washington. Normally in a tremendous event,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: with half the White House destroyed right with the East wing,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's a construction zone. I am a little curious how
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it goes today, whether they ended up limiting tickets. They
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: didn't say, but it will be something that I am
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: curious about a little bit for you know, never mind
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: who's in the White House. The tradition itself is something
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that many particularly locally. There's many people who love to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: go every year, who find a way to go every year.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm sorry that politics gets from the way of
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: some fun traditions that people have, but there's no doubt
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: politics is going to get in the way of that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: So that is what it is. I want to give
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you a few things that I'm doing this week. Yes
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it's called promotion, before we get to the meet and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the heart of what I've got today, because boy do
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I have a lot today on the Iran War and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: where things are headed in a variety of methods here.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: But before we get to that. Number one, you know
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: about my new sports history podcast. With my partner Jaaatdande,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: both formerly a ESPN and The La Times, we launched
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a new sports history podcast called Dynastic where we look
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: at the dynasties some of the all time sports dynasties,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: both in pro and college. Our first deep dive is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is up now. Yes, we
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: have snuck it into my audio feed. But you can
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: subscribe directly wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to the Dynastic d y n A SDIC. Just look
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: up Dynastic, follow us on Dynastic on socials. Because I'm
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: trying very hard, I am going to try to create
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a bright line. You will not see political commentary on
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the dynastics stuff, which you might see some sports commentary
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: on this feed, but that's neither here nor there. But
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: we also so once a month we do a deep
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: dive and then at the two week mark of the month,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: we do a deep dive interview with some iconic member
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of that franchise. Well, the iconic member of the franchise
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of the Dodgers, Jimi Hereen. Jimy Herene is the Hall
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: of Fame Spanish language broadcaster of the La Dodgers. He
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: basically was the Dodgers decided to have a Spanish language
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: broadcast when they moved to La in nineteen fifty nine,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and Jimi Herene was the voice of the Dodgers for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: many Spanish language fans for decades. So I mean, imagine
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you have Vince Scully and Jimi Heren. I mean it
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: was literally two Hall of Famers that the Dodgers had.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: He is tremendous. It's a tremendous interview. He's a JA
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: has known him a long time and he's in his nineties,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: but you would think he was in his sixties. He
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: is just as excited about a baseball game today as
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I think he was back in the late fifties, early sixties.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: His stories are terrific. But we also feature greatest games,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. So anyway, that is hitting the feed
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday, this interview with himI aren So, I want
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you to take a look at that. Also, as you know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the Chuck toodcasts been a big supporter of Local News Day. Well,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: guess what happens this Thursday. Thursday is the day, April ninth,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Local news Day. I will have another interview later this
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: week in my feed featuring another prominent news organization that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: has gone the independent route. It's a legacy media company
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that is going new, going independent. It's about the Salt
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Lake Tribune. So we will you will hear that later
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: this week, but again be aware of Local News Day.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I hope at this point I've gotten many of you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to find out who's doing local news in your neck
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: of the woods, and hopefully you've signed up and taken
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a look at least if it's a quality product. But
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: take a look at the news organizations at the local
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: news day website of who's participating, because it's a great
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: way to find out if somebody in your neighborhood is participating,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: which also means they've been kind of vetted and we
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: know that they're truly independent and they truly are with
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: journalistic standards. And then finally, on Thursday night, I'm going
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to be in Chicago at the University of Chicago or
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be moderating a debate between Chris Christi
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and New York Times columnists David French. And the issue
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: is on gambling. Has it become the new pornography? So
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Chris Christy is going to be essentially on the supportive side,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: David French is going to be on the skeptical side.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I am moderating with my own biases about it having
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: to do I enjoy betting. I enjoyed lots of aspects
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of this. I have also expressed my reservations on certain
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: aspects of how fast we've legalized and how we do it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Should we have more friction. So it's going to be
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a nuanced conversation. Because this is the University of Chicago.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: They don't expect a sort of he said, he said
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: food fight, even though both Chris Christi David French are
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: certainly capable of participating in that kind of conversation. But
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that's not what they want to have. It's not what
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I want to have, it's not what the University of
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Chicago wants to have. But it's going to be. You'll
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: be able to see it, I hope eventually, courtesy of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the University of Chicago. So if you want to check
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that out, we'll be doing that. I'll be doing that
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: on Thursday. So I thought i'd let you know all
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: of the various things we've got cooking here at the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: world headquarters of the Chuck Podcast. And so, without further ado,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: let's get into the precarious moment we continue to live
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: in in this Trump era. We're going to start today
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: though with what is a sigh of relief that has
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: turned pretty quickly into a cold sweat, because over the weekend, obviously,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: when most of you were getting ready if you celebrate Easter,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: preparing for Easter, the White House was in something close
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to paralysis. In fact, the lack of commentary by the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: President himself led to all sorts of Twitter rumors and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: social media rumors because it was strange not to hear
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: from the President. But there was a reason for this,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: because we had pilots that were shot down in Iran,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and this was a potential nightmare for the United States.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: An American F fifteen E Strike Eagle, one of the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: most advanced aircraft we have, was knocked out of the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: sky over Isfahan, Iran, and for a stretch of hours,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: perhaps it was longer, the scenario everyone feared was the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: one nobody wanted to say out loud, and American pilot
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: captured and paraded through perhaps even paraded through the streets
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of Turan. I don't know if they would have parrated
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: this person through the st the streets of Tehran, but
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: it would have been a huge psychological blow to the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: United States and a huge psychological help to the regime.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So that is why I think you had a paralyzed
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: White House where even the President knew how much he
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: had at stake. But thankfully that didn't happen. Thank goodness
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: for our special forces, how good they are, and they
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: were able to extract both the pilot and the weapons
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: expert eventually out, and the stories were hearing. I hope
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: they're true. I'm sorry I have to say that, but
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you and I both know that that's the case. You
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have to always take the stories you're getting directly from
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: this administration with a grain of salt. But the heroism obviously,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: these special forces going in harm's way. Clearly this is
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: not a safe place to be, despite all of the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: bluster from Pete Haikseth earlier in the month, and I'm
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: going to get to that, but we got a rescue,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and it's extraordinary what the special ops folks did, and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the President is celebrating it, and I think it's celebrating
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: out of relief because this would have been a huge below.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: But here's the problem. We are now in a moment
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: where the success of the rescue is being used to
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: obscure the failure of the premise itself and in fact
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: be on the lookout. I'm not going to prejue. You
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: never know what Trump's going to say at a one
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: pm news conference, but he's going to have one later today.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: My guess is he wants to bask in the glow
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: of this rescue mission and hope that it obfuscates the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: fact that did we mislead these pilots, let alone the public,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: into how safe the skies were. But let's be very
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: clear here, because if you have to rescue a pilot
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: from Isfahan, then you were never operating in what Pete
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Haikseth boasted a couple of weeks ago, uncontested airspace. That's
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: not interpretation, it's simply geography. Isfahan is deep inside Iran.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: This isn't a coastal town, which means one of two
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: things is true. Either the battlefield is far more contested
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: than the military leaders have told you the American taxpayers,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: or we put American pilots in harm's way based on
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: assumptions that weren't true. Is either outcome good. Either your
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: government was lying to you or they were lying to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: themselves and put our pilots in harms way. This should
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: be a huge concern, and we've seen this pattern before.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: We are very good at celebrating the moment of heroism,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the rescue, the extraction, the comeback. We don't leave people
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: behind for and this is good, this is who we are.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But we are much worse at asking a harder question.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: When these things happen, why did we need the rescue
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in the first place? Right, And a lot of times
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you will get it presidential administrations. When you start asking
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: these questions, they will question your patriotism, They will question
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: things like that. These are important questions we have to ask,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: because remember, it wasn't just the F fifteen that was
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: struck down and a black clowk that was hit. Iran
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: also down an A ten attack aircraft on Friday, undercutting
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: all of these claims by Trump and Hegseth and other
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: officials that the US had unchecked dominance of this guise
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: from over Iran. Now, the good news was the pilot
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: of the A ten attack aircraft was able to essentially
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: extract himself in friendly territory and ejected safely. So that's
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the good news. But let's not pretend that things are
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: going well in this war, because they're not. And that
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: brings us to this man, to the man at the podium,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, pretty much the propaganda
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Pete as I've tried to nickname him, and I know
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that sounds snarky, but the guy doesn't appear to ever
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: tell us the truth, and he has been caught with
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: his pants down with this one. For the last month,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: we've been getting a very consistent message from heg Seth certainty.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Let me just walk through in a March fourth, Pete
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: hagg Seth, the Secretary of Defense, complete control uncontested airspace
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: March tenth, the Iranian Air Force is no more. We
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: control their faith. Last week iron as toast, it's not
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: even a fair fight. And as for the radar systems,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent annihilated. Okay, so let's ask the obvious question.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: If the airspace is uncontested, how do you lose a
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: strike ego over Isfahan? If the radar is gone, how
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: do they get a lock on one of our advanced
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: fighter jets. If it isn't a fair fight, why are
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: we running rescue missions in the middle of Iran? Look,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: this isn't about rhetoric and for its own sake, this
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: is about credibility in wartime. These guys are not telling
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: us the truth. We just don't know what they're not
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: telling us. But if they were telling us the truth,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: then we wouldn't have had what we had happen over
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the weekend. Okay, they're not telling us the truth. Are
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: they lying or are they withholding information that's something that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: an inspector general. We used to have this entity called
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the US Congress that would do things like this. I'm
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: not sure. I think they've been totally castrated or neutered.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I'm being a little obviously sarcastic here, but this is
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: what their job should be in a moment like this,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: because if we don't have credibility in wartime, how the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: hell are we going to win this thing? Because there's
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: a huge credibility gap. Either the Secretary is being given
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: overly optimistic battle field assessments, or they're lying to the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: president to mislead him, or they're withholding obviously bad information
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: from the president, which is also possible, or he's simply
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: presenting him that way to the public intentionally lying. Either way,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the story we're being told no longer matches the reality
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: we're seeing, and historically that's when things start to drift.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So while the Pentagon is trying to explain all this
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and wrap it up in heroism, and there is heroism
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: to go around for the special forces that had to
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: be called in to do this, but it's nothing to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: celebrate that we put our pilots in harms way like this. Then,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of course you had the president on social media on
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Easter morning. Easter Sunday morning, people are getting ready to go.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: You know, imagine some of the president's more religious supporters
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: who just love the man, and they open up and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: they see that they see him say the following again,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Easter Sunday morning, Tuesday will be power plant Day and
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: bridge Day all wrapped up in one. In Iran, there
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: will be nothing like it. Three exclamation points. Then in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: living in hell. Just watch Praise be to Allah. The
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: American President of the United States uttered the following. Let
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: me repeat what the American President of the United States
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: set open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: be living in hell. Just watch Praise be to Allah.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Is he mocking Islam with that last comment. I'm not Muslim.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I will let others speak if they're offended or not.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I know I have if I were saying that, I
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: don't in that context. I don't think I would be
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: honoring the Islamic any sort of Islamic traditions like this.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know whether he thought it was funny. Perhaps
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he thought it was funny again, all of this on
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Easter morning, a very religious holiday to Christians, extraordinary important holiday. Look,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: as I taught my kids when they were young, they
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: were like, so, asking me about Easter, and I said, well,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I said, the easiest way is it's where Jews and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Christians diverge. That's usually the polite way I say it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: But all of this on Easter morning? Are there evangelicals
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: left with any sort of moral or ethical code that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you can defend this? But hey, you can just do
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: whatever you want with them, right, you just grab them
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: by the huh oh right, same guy. Nothing's changed. One
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: thing about Donald Trump is he's consistent. So he's threatening
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: what he called a power plant day, a bridge day
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: now on its own. That kind of language is familiar.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: It's Trump, right, We've heard it before. But here's what's changed.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: It's no longer landing as leverage. He thinks it's leverage
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: because after three weeks of similar threats, the Strait of
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Hormuz is still constrained, the conflict is still extraordinarily active,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and the underlying strategic position has not shifted one bit,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: which raises a more fundamental question what happens when escalation
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: becomes repetitive, and repetition becomes background noise, because it's kind
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of already there, right, We're kind of used to him
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: these weirdly weakly escalations. By the way, he also he
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: also claimed to Axios that there were talks going on
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: with some with some key folks in the Iranian of
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: who's alive in this Iranian government, of which Axios his
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: own sources said, there's no, there's nothing that serious going on.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: But hey, it's Sunday that he said that. And what
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: does he do on Sundays during the start of this war,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: tries to jaw bone down the price of oil in
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: time for the markets. I'm not sure the markets are
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: listening to Donald Trump these days, but we shall see.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: But I don't think he's increasing the pressure he thinks
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: he's doing. He's actually revealing the limits that we have
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: right now. We have very few limits, I mean, the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: only thing that can be done. And he's very frustrated
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: by this, which is why he used the F word.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: He's frustrated because he has no choice if he wants
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: this war to ever be seen as successful, if he
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: wants to at all get his strategic goals, because if
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: he walks away with the Iranians using the Straight of
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Hormuz as a toll road, then he actually set the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: entire world back with his decision and did nothing in return,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: did not help the Iranian people nothing. So he knows
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: he's probably going to have to order ground troops in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: order to secure the Straight of Horror moves to have
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: any leverage over this over the Iranians, because right now
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: he is none, and that's the problem. Now, this is
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: where I want to tell you about an interview I
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: did for Newsphere. Now, those of you, I hope that
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: those of you, if you've liked what you've seen on
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: what I've done with Newsphere. It's a standalone news app
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of independent journalists from around the world. Every Sunday I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: have a new interview on there with a newsmaker or expert,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and this week I sat down with Daniel Jurgen, sort
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of probably the world's foremost expert on energy markets. He's
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: author the Pulitzer Prize win the Prize. I think I
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: promoted it before, but here it is. I know it's
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a very familiar book on my bookshelves's been there a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: long time, and I wanted to share with you some
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: of the things he told me because I think it
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: are important points here and why the president, why the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: straight of Horne moves is the whole ballgame. So I
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: asked him how big is this? And he didn't hedge.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: He called it the biggest disruption in the history of
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: world energy. Hardstop. This is bigger than nineteen seventy three,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: bigger than nineteen seventy nine. So just let that sink
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in for a second. And if you know Daniel Jurgen,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he is not He's not a guy who likes to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: live in likes to use hyperbolic vocabulary. It's just not him.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But those two crises were huge. They were the crises
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that reshaped the global economy, reshaped the American economy. It
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: triggered recessions, stagflation, reowned and an American forum policy for generation.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: And what is Jurgen saying right now is all ready bigger.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And here's the part that should make you really uneasy.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: This isn't some black Swan event that nobody saw coming.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: This is the scenario, the one policymakers have been gaming
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: out for forty years. The nightmare scenario centered on the
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: strait of horror moves. It has always been about this.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Daniel will tell you this, the narrow passageway that a
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: huge percentage of the world's energypply has to pass through.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And now it's not theoretical anymore. It's happening because what's
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: changed isn't just conflict, it's control. There used to be
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a kind of uneasy system Iran oman the UAE managing traffic,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: keeping things moving, preventing catastrophe. Now you have Iran effectively
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: saying we're in charge here. It's almost more important than
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: them developing a nuclear weapon. And once that becomes real,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: once that becomes the operating assumption of global markets, you're
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: not dealing with the temporary disruption. You're dealing with a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: new reality and reversing that. Even Jurgen very carefully makes
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: clear there it's not something you do easily, not without escalation.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And here's where the story gets even bigger than oil,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: because we learned something during COVID and then again they're
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in the Ukraine War. The global economy is far more
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: interconnected than we like to admit, and it's far more
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: interconnected than it was during those crises in the seventies,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: which is why this is worse. You don't just get
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: oil from the golf. You get fertilizer, You get helium,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: which is essential for semiconductors, for mir machines, for advanced manufacturing.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: How about Taiwan's chip industry. It depends on inputs coming
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: through where that same region, right through the strait. So
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: when that system gets disrupted, you don't just feel it
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: at the gas pot. You're going to feel it everywhere.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And even if this stopped tomorrow, even if it froze
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: right now, you're gonna says, you're still looking at the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: better part of a year just to get supply chains
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: back to normal. So this is why I have been
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: very declarative. These midterms are over. For the reports, books
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and Trump, they are over. There is no recovering from this. Economically,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a crappy economy for the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: rest of the year at best. If he manages this
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and gets the straight open, maybe we don't get into
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a full fledged recession, but it is not going to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: be a popular economy. Inflation. Inflation. Inflation is coming. Let's soap,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: it does not stagflation. This episode of the Chuck Podcast
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the first bake from frozen subscription box for sour dough breads,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: arteisonal pastries and fresh pastas, plus all the items conveniently
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: baked in twenty five minutes or less. Unlike many store
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: brought options, Wild Grain uses some simple ingredients you can
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: pronounce and a slow fermentation process that can be a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: lot easier on your belly, little gut health there right,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and richer in nutrients and oxidants. There's also no preservatives
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and no shortcuts. The Wild Grain boxes are fully customizable.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: In addition to their variety box, they have a gluten
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: free box, a vegan box, and a new protein box.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I will tell you I have done the gluten free box.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I have done it a second time. I have also
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: used the code, the todcast code. If you use the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: promo code podcast at check out, you get thirty dollars off.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I've already used it as a gift to somebody else
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: who loves this bread. It is hard to find good
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: gluten free bread. It is fantastic. They give you step
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: by step instructions. I really dig this. There is nothing
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: like having an artesian bakery in your freezer to chase
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: away the winter chill. Now is the best time to
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: stay in and enjoy some comforting homemade meals with Wildgrain.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I obviously highly recommend it. It is worth giving Wildgreen
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to try. Right now, Wildgrain is offering my listeners thirty
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: dollars off your first box plus free croissants for life.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Come on when you go to wildgrain dot com slash
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: podcast to start your subscription today. That's thirty dollars off
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: your first box and free croissants for life when you
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: visit wildgrain dot com slash podcast, or simply use the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: promo code toodcast at checkout. This is a sponsor I
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: absolutely embrace, so use that code. But sadly, back here
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: in Washington, we have yet had a real public hearing
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: about this war, not one, not one. No full accounting
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to the American people, no sustained debate, just classified briefings
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in a skiff, and leadership basically saying trust us, and again,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: who when have they told the truth? They have no
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: track record of telling the truth, rankly about anything, including
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the president's wait and to height remember that it's not
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: but Congress is doing nothing here and they're going to
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: pay a price. There's no oversight. It's just pure avoidance
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: because they're afraid of the questions that are going to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: get asked. And it's basically the Constitution the is streaming
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: at them to do their effing job. Since we're dropping
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the F word, we might as well say it. It's
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a dangerous mismatch that we're in right now, because the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: global system is already adjusting to this crisis, even if
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: our political system isn't. And that brings me to another
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: story that got overlooked over the weekend, And it's going
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to get really serious, and I think it shows the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: beginning of what is going to be more erosion of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: support for this war from the Republican side of the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: app Do you have a member of the president's own
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: party stepping in not to critique the messaging, but to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: challenge the structure of the war itself. Senator John Curtis,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: he's the Republican that replaced Mett Romney from Utah. Hit
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: an obed in the Deseret News over the weekend and
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it is absolutely must read. Desert News is the news
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: organization that is owned by the Church Litterday Saints and
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: many Utah politicians. When they've got something to say to
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the public, they choose the Desert News to say it,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: especially if they themselves are also Latter Day Saints. So
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Curtis starts with something very straightforward, right he talks about
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the numbers that are being asked. We got one point
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: five trillion ask for the Pentagon budget, and we've heard
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that ask. Now, remember any when the initial budget asks
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: are made by administrations are always laughed at by Congress.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: So one point five is a goal, is a target number.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: But there is also a very specific ass of two
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: hundred billion for a supplemental request in order to essentially
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: replenish the cost of this war, because we've been averaging
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: somewhere around a billion to two billion dollars a day
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: somewhere in there. So we've already spent some thirty to
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: thirty five billion dollars in this war. And that's probably
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: a conservative estimate. And it's going to force a question
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that Washington tries to avoid, what are we committing to
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: with all this money? Because Curtis in his op ed,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: is invoking the War Powers Resolution Act of nineteen seventy three,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: which includes a sixty day clock. So this war, let's
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: call the start February twenty eighth. We've had thirty one
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: days of March. Today is April sixth. Let's give one
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: day in the twenty eighth. That's thirty two. We'll add
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the six or in day thirty eight, so we had
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: twenty two days left on the sixty day clock. If
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: this is a real war, then John Curtis is saying
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: he's not voting for any supplemental until there's a vote
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: on this war, and it requires a real vote. It's
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: an important number there. You subtract Curtis, you're already losing
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Rand Paul, you may lose Lisa Murkowski, you could lose
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Tom Tillis, you may gain Fetterman. There may be a
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: couple of other Democrats on there. So's we'll see. But
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: there's a lesson here from Vietnam, and that's what Curtis
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: is trying to warn folks about. This is where Curtis
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: is being more historically grounded than most lawmakers in Washington.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And I have to tell you I appreciate it. John
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Curtis might be the only Republican outside of Rand Paul,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: expressing the constitutional responsibility that Congress has here. Because Curtis
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: is looking at Vietnam, not as an analogy, but as
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: a warning. Vietnam didn't begin as a declared war. It
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: began as a limited commitment advisors support containment, and then
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: it expanded, not because there was a single decisive vote,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: but because there was never a forcing mechanism to stop
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and ask do we want to keep going? So that's
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: what this sixty day clock, right, that's seventy three. The
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: War Powers Resolution Act was about avoiding another Vietnam, and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: that's what this sixty day clock is supposed to be.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: A forcing mechanism. And what Curtis is saying, I'm not
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: supporting any supplemental without a vote on this. But Curtis
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: isn't just focused on authority, He's focused on conduct because
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: while Congress is being asked to fund this war, the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: legal framework for how it's being fought is shifting in
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: real time. The administration is leaning on the idea of
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: dual use infrastructure, basically attacking power plants and bridges and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: water systems. Many would say, isn't that a war crime
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: because you're targeting civilians essentially, And what the Trump administration
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: is looking for is lawyers to give them cover by saying, well,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: those systems also support military, so you can make them targets.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: But even under that theory, the law still requires proportionality.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: So to send them back to the quote Stone Age,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it's probably not proportionality. You don't destroy a civilian water
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: system to eliminate a marginal military advantage. And that's where
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: strategy crosses into something else. And then you layer on
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: top of that the rhetoric from Secretary Hegset who has
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: also said lethality over legality not just a sound bite,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: it's a doctrine. He does not care about human rights,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: nor the rules, nor the Geneva courts. And it carries
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: consequences because once legality becomes secondary, you're no longer just
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: fighting a war. You're redefining the rules of it. And
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: this is why Curtis matters, because he's connecting all of it,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the cost, the authority, and the conduct, and he understands
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: something Washington often forgets in real time. When you move
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: outside the rules, you don't just change the war, you
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: change your position in the world. And we've done it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I see some on the right who are angry that
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: our NATO allies haven't stepped up for us, that some
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of them have gone as far as to say, hey,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: you can't land your planes at the bases that are
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in our countries. Well, if you're angry about the behavior
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: of our NATO allies, you should be angry at the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: President of the United States, not at those allies. President
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the United States has treated them like shit. And apparently
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I need to use four letter words for people to
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: understand what I'm saying. He's treated our allies terribly. He's
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: berated them with tariffs, he has all done all of
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: these things, and he says and then he wants just
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: to help. By the way, the United States has been
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: not been a good partner for Ukraine, has done everything
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: they can to help Russia in the war, everything they
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: can to make Europe less safe, and he wonders why
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: they're not standing by us in this those look I get.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Some of my friends in the right are so focused
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: on getting rid of this Iranian regime that they're angry
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: that others don't see the threat the way they see it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: And I understand that, I understand your frustration. I'm not
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: going to sit here and dismiss that frustration, but stop
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: lashing out of our allies. You know who did this this,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: You're our commander in chief has been a terrible ally
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: to Israel, has been a terrible ally to Europe, has
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: been a terrible ally to the Golf State. He is
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: not a reliable ally to anybody, not to America's closest
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: allies in Europe, not to Israel. He's doing Israel no
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: favors here. He's doing the Golf States no favors here.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: He's potentially chasing them into China's arms. So realize why
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: we're here. We're here because of his diplomatic mismanagement, his
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: ridiculous rhetoric, and his appointment of some of the most
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: unqualified people in the national security positions that we've ever had.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: That's why we're in this position. One person did this,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: one individual put us in this position. Seventy five years
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: of American leadership, popular and unpopular presidents, liberal and conservative presidents,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: moderates and non moderates have all made sure not to
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: alienate American allies the way this man has, and he
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: has put us all more. We are less safe today.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: And then they're lying to you all the time. They
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: are not telling you the truth. So here we are.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: We had a rescue that we should absolutely celebrate, But
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: it exposed a reality we haven't fully reckoned with. We
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: have a credibility gap between what we've been told and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: what's actually happening on the ground. We have rhetoric escalating
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: without clear evidence that it's changing the outcome. And now
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: we have a constitutional clock that's ticking because of that
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: sixty day clock. It's not there radical it should be
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: a forcing mechanism. Congress needs to get off its ass
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and do its fucking job. There. There's some presidential rhetoric
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: for you. And if the president wants to continue this war,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: he has to going to have to go to Congress
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: ask for permission if he wants all of this money,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: which he says he wants to take away from the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: social safety net. By the way, talk about more political
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: problems for his party. He explicitly said last week that
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the Pentagon budget is priority over social security and medicare
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: good luck. Anybody want to go to the campaign trail
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and back up that statement, Try it, trust me, just
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: try it so we'll see. But he lost this as
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a huge look John Curtis right, he's not He's I'm
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: not a household name, but he's an independent Republican. He's
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: an independent conservative. He's no Maga guy, and he's no
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Sicka fan, and apparently he's read the Constitution. Amidst all
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: this crisis that President Trump is introduced on himself and
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the world in our political system, he he issued a
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: new executive order in college sports, and I kind of
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: wanted to just quickly go through it. You know, I'm
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: an obsessive college sports fan. I care about this issue
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a lot. And you know, the president his role in
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: this has been unhelpful. I think probably you know, yes,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: he's got the power convene, but he really wasted the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: time of that meeting a couple of weeks ago, where
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it was just there to you know, essentially, you know,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: puff up his ego. Look at all the cool and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: famous people I got here, rather than actually trying to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: solve the problem or come up. But I thought I
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: would go through it for those of you that care
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: about this issue. Look, guess what, I know some of
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you if you don't care about college sports, you can
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: you can fast forward through. But I just wanted to
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: get into this for a few minutes. So the core
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: thesis was this this executive order that he wrote over
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the weekend. It has there are some things that have
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: there is like that resemble teeth into this not quite teeth,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: but they resemble teeth. I'm going to get into it.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: So it's written to sound very muscular, but it is
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: architecturally incredibly weak. And it kind of knows that the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: White House knows Congress is the only entity that can
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: actually fix college sports, and they actually say so. It's
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: buried in the preamble of this executive order. Everything else
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: in the executive Order is either delegation to agencies with
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: limited authority, suggestions to the NCAA, or legal theories that
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: may not even survive a court challenge. So, and he
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: even says it right there in the document itself, the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Congress is strongly encouraged to expeditiously pass legislation. Translation, I'm
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: issuing a press release, but I'm not going to call
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: it a press release. I'm going to call it an
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: executive order. So even in the order itself, the White
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Hoess is admitting it's simply a placeholder. It's just a
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: list of suggestions. But here's the one thing to understand
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: about how this order is constructed. All Right, It's a
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: classic use of the bully pulpit plus federal procurement power
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: two levers. A president actually does control layered over a
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: sector where the president has almost no direct legislative authority.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: So once you see the architecture, then the whole document
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: reads differently. So let me quickly follow through it. So
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: here's what it actually does. There's a federal contractor leverage
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: that he is using as his authority. But it's extraordinary limited,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: and it's the orders. Really, it's the only credible threat
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: in this executive order. And the mechanism actually has a
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: specific name, suspension and disbarment, And it directs federal agencies
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to evaluate whether NCAA rule violations are serious enough to
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: affect a university's status as a responsible contractor or grantee. Translation,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: if they think you're abusing the NIL system and you're
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: somehow taking money away from programs that might be giving
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: getting government funding in order to pay for your football program,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: they could theoretically ban that university from receiving any federal
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: research grants at all. Now would they actually do it?
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Would it up even survive court challenges if they attempted it,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: But it is a this would really be a nuclear option, right,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: this is the one power this order technically has that
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: one would be shocked if he actually enacted it, because
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: you'd be attacking a lot of state universities. And we
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: know this. Nuclear options usually don't get used casually. But
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: ask yourself, this is the Department of Energy going to
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: shut down a billion dollar physics project because a booster
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: overpaid for a quarterback. The threat of an audit or
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: a funding suspension is a real deterrent. Right universities hate it,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: but actual disbarment is so disruptive to federal research relationships
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: that it functions more as a sword to waive than
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: a sword to swim. There's also a technical problem. The
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: trigger requires violations of NCAA rules that are applicable, lawful,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: and operative. Well, given the courts, it basically struck down
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: every NCAA rule there's ever been into football, then there's
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: really nothing for it. The universe of operative rules may
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: be legally thin by the way this order technically becomes
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: functional August first, twenty twenty six, So the government is
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: threatening to enforce rules that are simultaneously being a litigated
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: into oblivion. And that's the one part of this order
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: that had teeth okay. Also in here, the twenty million
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: dollar threshold definition. Quietly important buried in the definition section
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: is a provision that actually focuses the order's enforcement universe
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: by limiting its scope to schools generating at least twenty
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: million dollars annually in athletics revenue. So that means the
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: order is targeting somewhere between one hundred and thirty and
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty programs. Essentially the Power four plus
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the group of it's the Power four plus the group
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: of five schools. It you know, some not all group
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: of five schools. But I put Gonzaga in there. Their
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: own a football program, but they would qualify on the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: athletic side. Right, But it's schools like that, So it
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: exempts basically every D two and D three program. It's
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: meaningfully narrow, and it tells you where the White House
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: actually intends to apply pressure. Right, it's on the big schools. Now,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: there is another directive with the Federal Trade Commission, and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: it directs the FTC to enforce exect existing statutes against
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: bad actor agents. Now this look, I think everybody wants
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: to see agents held to account, make sure they're following
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: the law. The FTC already has its authority. They don't
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: need a law to do it. It just redirects existing
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: enforcement priority. So this is actionable, but it addresses agents
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: at the margins. It's not about the systemic NIL and
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: revenue sharing problem. So if agents are taking too big
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: a chunk of change from the NIL, that's bad, but
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: it doesn't actually deal with the system itself. Then there's
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the Department of Justice challenge to state laws, and I
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: think that directing the Attorney General to pursue actions against
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: these state NIL laws using the commerce clause and contracts clause.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: It's a legitimate theory of law. But some state laws,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: particularly those that apply only to insade schools or discriminate
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: against out of state transfer competition, may be genuinely vulnerable.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: But it's expensive litigation. Federal govern has not been winning
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: these cases very easily. They'd be suing Florida, Republican states, Florida, Texas, Tennessee,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: and they'll fight this will do We really think this
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: administration is going to go after the state of Florida,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the state of Texas. Ken Paxton still the Attorney General
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: last time I check. So look reporting acquirements this matter.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Education shall consider requiring reporting on roster spots
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: and athletic aid by gender. This is helpful if it
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: allows Title nine enforcement to be used, and it could.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: It's important data to gather so that in itself, Look,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: more data is better than no data. But everything else
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: is wish casting zero enforcement. Right, This is the biggest
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: tell in the document. Section four B is essentially a
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: wish list sent to the nc DOUBLE at it should,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: in its discretion, adopt rules of eligibility, transfers, revenue sharing,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: nil and Moore. While the NCUBA is a private organization,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the White House can control anything it does. Every single
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: item is aspirational that they list, and there's aspirational, it's
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: not mandatory. The word should appears where shell would appear
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: if this had actual force. Right, should versus shell. That's
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: a keyword there. If you see shell, that's enforceable. If
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you see should, it's just a suggestion. Now, this is
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: handing the NCAA some political cover, right. The White House
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: is handing the NCAA a document it can point to
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: when implementing unpopular rules. Hey, we're not doing this because
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: we want to. The federal government directed us to do it,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: so that's the functional purpose. But this administration and the
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: government is so unpopular. Do we think that this gives
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: the NCAA the cover that the White House thinks it's
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: giving them. There's a fraudulent nil definition. It's legally untested.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: It almost certainly will be challenged in court. The order
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: tries to define paying above fair market value for NIL
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: services as fraud Well, who the hell decides what fair
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: market value is the market? Who's deciding the market? Right?
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: This is It's a novel legal theory, but we don't
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: really have any sort of enforcement mechanism here. Trust me,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: it would be litigated to death, and to its death.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: The revenue sharing prohibition legally circular. The order calls for
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: prohibiting federal funds from being used for nil revenue sharing payments.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: But schools aren't currently using federal funds for that. But again,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to try to use fungible money.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: And this where this is where I guess if he
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: really wanted to be the college sports are and just
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: start punishing certain schools, the problem is he would look
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: like he's trying to essentially go back to the old system,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: which was actually more unfair to the players, more unfair
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: to the schools, and only allowed about fifteen or twenty
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: schools to do it. So, bottom line, this executive order
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: is a press release with an August first state stand.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: It has three legally credible mechanisms, federal contractor leverage FDC,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: agent enforcement, and a DG challenge to certain state laws.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: But all three face meaningful legal and practical obstacles. None
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: of them address the core structural problem. College football generates billions,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: the courts have said players deserve a share, and Congress
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: has not passed a framework to govern any of it.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: What this order does most effectively is give the White
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: House a political talking point on college sports. That's it
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: hands the NCAA a document to hide behind if they
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: want to implement unpopular parts of this. But the order
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: cannot restore the NCAA's enforcement authority, It cannot gran anti
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: trust immunity, it cannot settle the employee question. Only Congress
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: can do those things, and the order admits it right
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: there at the top, if you know where to look.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: So that's your president trying to insert himself in a
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: situation of which he has no controlling legal authority what
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: so ever. But we always kind of knew that. Speaking
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: of no controlling legal authority, The real question is does
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: even have one to conduct the war he's doing in Iran?
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: That in twenty two days technically expires. All right with that,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: let's sneak in the break and my conversation with my
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: friend Mike Pascot. This episode of the Chuck Podcast is
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Soul. So if you love that
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: end of the day unwined, but hate the hangover, Soul's
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: out of Office is for you. These sparkling THCHC drinks
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and gummies give you the same relaxed social feeling without
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: the alcohol, without the calories, and without the crash. Soul
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: is a wellness brand that believes feeling good should be
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: fun and easy. Soul specializes in delicious hemp derived THCHC
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and CBD products designed to boost your mood and help
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: you unwind. Their best selling out of Office Gummies were
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: designed to provide a mild, relaxing buzz, boost your mood
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: and enhance creativity and relaxation. With five different strengths, you
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: can tailor the dose to fit your vibe. So also
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: has a variety of products specifically designed to help you
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: get a better night's rest, including their top selling Sleepy Gummies,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: A fan favorite for deep, restorous sleep. Look, I have
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: made no secret I am a believer in this stuff,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: in cannabis and hemp derived. I do not partake alcohol.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: For the most part. I think this stuff is a
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: lot safer than alcohol, a lot less addictive than alcohol.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: And yes, I have to say I love these drinks.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: It is the glass of wine and you know, after
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: work that's what this is. So no hangover and no
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: excess calories like this. I'm a big fan. So bring
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: on the good vibes and treat yourself to sold today.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Right now, Soul is offering my audience thirty percent off
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: your entire order. Go to getsoul dot com and use
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the word podcast. That's getsol dot com promo code podcast
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: for thirty percent off. And yes, I too, am a customer.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: So let me tell you this week was a doozy right.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: This week in history, with the anniversaries they have in
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: this coming seven day period, is one of those weeks
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: that simply stops you when you actually look at it.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: April twelfth, eighteen sixty one, the Battle of Fort Sumter
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: the Civil War begins. April ninth, eighteen sixty five, of
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: appomatics at the Appomatics Courthouse. The Civil War ends April sixth,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. US entry into World War One, the United
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: States enters its first global war. Just sit with that
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: a second, right. This week alone two wars one week.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: One of those wars this week has both its beginning
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: and its end both fall within the same seven days,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: fifty four years apart. That's not something historian engineers. It's
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: just the calendar being strange and almost poetic at the
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: same time. But you know, history geeks and history in
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: general loves weeks like this. They're clean markers, their dates,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: we can teach their moments, we can point to and
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: say they're that's when it started, that's when it ended.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: But here's what I keep coming back to. When I
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: looked at this week and I thought about what should
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: I do the deep dive on, what should I make
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the history lesson? And I thought, you know, we kind
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: of knew there may be something deeper here. We're really
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: good at marking the beginning of conflicts, and we're also
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: good at marking the end of them. What we are
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: almost never good at is resolving the argument that caused them.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: We stop fighting the actual war, but we don't resolve
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the argument itself, not slowing it down, not changing its shape,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: actually resolving the argument. And this week makes that uncomfortable
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: truth almost impossible to ignore. Because these two wars, in particular,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: World War One and the Civil War, they both have
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: end dates, but neither were resolved. Let's start with the
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Civil War, because if you're looking for a clean ending
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: in American history, it doesn't get any cleaner than appomatics. Right,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you just have to say it. Sometimes people will
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: reference or we're going to have an appomatics moment. Right,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: that's how that's how important this moment is in American history.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: April ninth, eighteen sixty five, Roberty Lee surrenders to Ulysses s.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Grant's terms are notably generous. Lee's officers keep their side arms,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: his soldiers keep their horses. There's no triumphalism, there's almost
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: a deliberate effort to make it feel like a closing.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: The fighting stops, and almost immediately the country begins telling
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: itself a story. The war is over the nations whole.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Let's move forward. But what exactly was resolved? Slavery, yes,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: formally abolished, but the argument underneath the war, the one
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: that made the war necessary in the first place. Who
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: belongs in the country on what terms, with what rights?
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Who gets to be an American? That did not end
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five. We did not resolve that argument.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Three years later, the fourteenth Amendment of the United States
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Constitution put birthright citizenship directly into the Constitution, settles it supposedly,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: if you're born here, you're an American, full stop. Except
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: it wasn't full stop. Even with that language in the Constitution, Citizenship,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: its meaning, its application, its daily lived reality, has remained
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: bitterly contested. On paper, black Americans were citizens. In practice,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: they were systematically denied what citizenship was supposed to guarantee
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: for nearly a century, through law, through violence, through deliberate exclusion.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: And here's the part that should give us some pause,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: that argument, who gets to be an American? What birthright
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: citizenship actually means? Who qualifies? It's not a historical debate,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: It's an active one right now. Just last week, right
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: in front of it was argued in front of the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court. We didn't resolve the question at appomatics. We
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: didn't resolve it with the Fourteenth Amendment. We didn't resolve
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: it with the court case that settled birthright citizenship. We
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: continue to relitigate it in different forms ever since. So
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: the Civil War ended, the argument that caused it did not.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: We just keep finding new occasions to happen. Guess what,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: that's not just an American problem. Now take that same
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: pattern and scale it globally. On April sixth, nineteen seventeen,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: the US formally enters World War One, the Great War
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: it was called at the time. Frame me is explicit
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: make the world safe for democracy, hard stop. This was
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: supposed to be the war to end all wars. November eleventh,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, the war ends. Armistice Day, Remember that celebration
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: relief another clear clean marker, another date we can point to.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: We've now changed into Veterans Day, because it's not like
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: that was a real peace day, was it. I actually
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: think it's wrong to try to celebrate Armisses Day if
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: you ended up with another World war, essentially some twenty
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: years later, because the peace that followed was at resolution,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: it was rearrangement. The Treaty of Versailles punishes Germany without
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: stabilizing Europe, and across the broader conflict, Empires collapsed most consequentially,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire, which had controlled much of the Middle
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: East for centuries, and into that vacuum, some outsized powers,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: outside powers, primarily Britain and France, drew new borders. They
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: created new states, assigned new rulers. You get a kingdom,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: you get a kingdom. Hey, we've decided this straight line
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: is a border. Let's paper over ethnic, religious, and national
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: claims that had never actually been resolved. Well, guess what.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Their maps didn't settle anything. They didn't settle those competing claims.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: They just drew lines through them and moved on. And
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: this is what I want you to think about. We
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: talk about the modern Middle East as though it's a
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: series of separate crises, as though each conflict is its
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: own thing, But it's not much of what we're navigating
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: in that region today. The instability, the competing claims, the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: borders that don't match the people living inside them. That
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: is the direct, unresolved consequence of a map drawn in
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: the aftermath of World War One. As I used to
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: joke by a couple of drunk Frenchmen and Brits. Maybe
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: they weren't drunk, but I hope they were, because they
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: made so many mistakes that I'd like to chalk it
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: up to their brains not fully functioning. But they were
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: drawn by people who weren't from there, settling claims they
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: didn't fully understand, and for interest that often had very
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: little to do with the people actually living inside those
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: manufactured lines. That's not ancient history, that's the architecture virtually
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: every conflict the United States has been involved in over
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: there for the last half century. We ended World War
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: One in nineteen eighteen, we declared another World War in
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, and more than a century later, we
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: are still dealing with what was left unresolved when the
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: first one ended. The fighting stopped, the argument did not.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: This is the pattern I keep coming back to, not
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: just in these two wars cross history again and again.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: We treat wars like chapters, beginning, middle, and an end.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: We close the book, we build the monuments, we name
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: the holidays. But most wars aren't chapters. They're arguments. And
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: arguments don't end when the shooting stops. They end if
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: they end when you actually attempt to resolve the thing
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: that made people willing to fight in the first place. Identity,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: power belonging, who controls what who counts as whom. That's
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a lot harder than winning. That requires the real diplomacy.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: It requires more than a surrender ceremony. In generous terms,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: it requires a willingness to actually finish what you started
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: that just keeps, not just stop fighting about it. And
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: that willingness is historically speaking, is pretty rare. So that
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: brings us back to this week. Fort Sumner appomatics America
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: entering World War One some of the cleanest markers in history. Dates,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: we teach, moments, we commemorate stories with supposedly a satisfying
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: shape of a beginning and an end. But what those
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: dates don't tell you is that arguments underneath them are
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: still running. Who gets to be an American is still
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: being litigated, The consequences of the post World War One
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: map still being lived today. We marked the endings, we
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: celebrated them, we built monuments to them. What we didn't do,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and what we almost never do, is finish the argument.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: And unfinished arguments don't disappear. They don't respect the calendar.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: They don't care about anniversaries. They just wait for the
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: next occasion, for the next generation to pick up where
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: the last one left off. History gives us dates to remember,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: It almost never gives us the resolution we thought we
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: are and we've still got a lot to learn about
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: World War One if we're still in the middle of
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: fighting another war there today, Ask Chuck, all right. This
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: first question comes from Tom l and he goes first time, writing,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I was introduced to you by watching me the press
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: as you help keep my wife and I stay sane
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: during the chaos of Trump one point Oh, well, thank
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: you for saying that finding your podcast now is again
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: helping me through the next level of chaos and Trump
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: two point zero and your level headed analysis of current events.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Loving the time machine too. What are your thoughts on
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: ranked choice voting? You've mentioned that electing independence could help
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: our dysfunctional Congress. To me, voting for an independent risks
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: throwing away your vote and allowing a candidate you oppose win.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Ranked choice seems to be a way to safely take
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: a chance on an independent you prefer by choosing a
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: traditional party candidate as a backup, And then he adds
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: go dodgers, Well, Tom, the theory of ranked choice voting
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: I like a lot, And why do I say it's
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: a theory? Because of this idea of, hey, when you're voting,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: rank them, and I accept the premise that maybe if
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: we implemented it within ten years, everybody would get comfortable
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: and then we'd be like, what's the big deal? That's
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: also true. But getting from there to you know, basically
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: from pointing to point B, I think's extraordinarily difficult. I
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: think the challenge is, Look, what we're trying to do
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: is solve for a problem, right, and problem one is
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: primaries have way too much impact on our politics. It
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: sort of independence don't really have much, say, they're kind
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: of underrepresented, they don't get to participate in these primaries,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: they don't get to have much choice into actually who
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: shows up on the ballot. So, you know, ranked choice
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: voting is a way to try to fix, to try
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: to improve. Essentially, we're not dealing with the core problem,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: which is primaries themselves, and instead rank choice voting sort
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: of papers over it. My issue with ranked choice voting
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: is I think you have a hard time. I think
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: it's too easy to exploit. It's too easy to make
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: people think that you're messing around with the numbers, right.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: It's hard to follow the ballot all the way. Like
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: I just think about what I did for over a
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: decade on NBC almost two decades, right, basically explaining returns
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: as they came in, and you could explain the first
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: count and you're like, all right, but it is hard
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: to cleanly audit for the average American to consume cleanly
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: audit that second choice, third choice, and all of that.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: It's doable. It's just you've got to rely on the
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: government giving us more access to these ballots. You're going
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: to show a lot of the ballot itself. It's very difficult. Ideally,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: I'd like the what ranked choice vot voting gives us,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: but to just do it in stages. So I think
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the ideal system is a combination of California, Washington, and Louisiana.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: All three states have had jungle primaries. What do I
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: mean by that? Everybody appears in the same primary ballot
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: now they each resolve how and now Alaska is that
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: way too, but with the rank choice voting. So the
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: idea is everybody votes. It's just round one of the
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: general election, rather than call it a prime, but it's
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: sort of round one. It's the first round and the
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: top four advance. Right now, California has a top two
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: Washington has a top two and one, the top from
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: each party meets Louisiana. It was just top two generally,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: kind of like California, but some form of that. I
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: think Alaska is top four and then they go to
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: rank choice voting. So, however you want to look at it,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's I'd like to say, I think we
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: are I think the American electorate is better divvied up
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: in four than by two. I think we're not cleanly
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: left right. I think there really is. There's plenty of
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: degrees there on the spectrum. But I think having progressive
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: center left, center right, and pop and sort of nationalists
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: is probably a better populist right nationalist kind of the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: same thing. So sort of nationalists, progressive right on and
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: so those four flavors if you're looking for avatars, so
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Sanders on the left, Trump on the right, and then
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: some combination of oh, let's say jos Shapiro, Glenn Younkin,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: all right, or maybe it's maybe a better version of
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: it is Josh Shapiro, Nikki Haley, all right, how's that
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: right sort of occupy. So there's your sort of avatars
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: for the four and then top two. You know, if
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: somebody gets fifty out of that top they don't have
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: to go to a runoff. But you sort of hold
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: it right, we might have April, you know, sort of
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: regional primaries throughout the month of April. Each week is
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: a different region that votes, Say October, you'd have the
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: all four and if somebody got over fifty. This is
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the way Louisiana used to work. Somebody got over fifty,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: they didn't have to go to a runoff, they got
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: they won the election right there. But if you know,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: nobody got fifty, then the top two ended up in
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: a runoff that was held on the November election day.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: So that, to me is my ideal. So what rank
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: choice voting is trying to accomplish I agree with. I
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: think the execution of it though, papers over the larger
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: problem of the primaries themselves and the fact that all
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: voters don't have a say it who gets to be
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: who gets to represent you know, team A, Team B,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: TEMC and TMD in that sense, and all part putting
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: and giving independence. Right now, the state sank a primary,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: but then excluding certain residents because they've chosen not to
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: become members of a private club feels like a violation
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: of your constitutional rights, and I think, frankly some of
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: these taxpayer funded primaries can be attacked on those grounds
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: lack of equal protection, and I think you're seeing my
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: friends over at the open primaries are trying to do.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: So that's where I come down on ranked choice voting.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: It's a solution to the primary problem if you're not
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: going to fix the primary system. But if we can
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: attack the root cause, which is how we do this
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: primary system, then maybe ranked choice voting would be less necessary.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Just my two cents, I think we're disagreeing on how
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: to implement, not on the larger solution that we're looking for.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Next question comes from George Rsi's Chuck Lovy show. Is
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: a proud Stetson grad. I have to correct you. I
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: appreciate that Stetson's main campus is into Land, which I
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: did get correct, But the law school is in Gulfport,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: which is a small sitting next to Saint Petersburg. And
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: since BONDI went to Stetson, they also have another law
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: school campus in Tampa, so go hatters there and literally yes,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: Stetson hats, so they adopted the hatters on that front.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: I did not know that I probably should have known.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: It's like George Mason's law school is in Arlington. It's not,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: in fair fact, so I should know better on that.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: A lot of lot Georgetown's law school is not on
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: the campus of Georgetown. It's actually in your Capitol Hill.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: So that is an error on me, and I wish
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: I do it. I appreciate the correction, so thanks George.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Next question comes from Patrick C. With your end of
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: round snake draft picks. I employ you to take. To
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: take two questions from Patrick in Los Angeles, I'd enter
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the Chuck Tad two Timers Club and three Way Club. One.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: What current player or manager in the big three sports
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: leagues would best transition into politics? Two? Convince me otherwise
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: China swoops in to secure the Strait in exchange to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: pay oil to the Ewen, ending the Petro dollar and
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: tanking the US economy. Interesting, all right, so I gotta take.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: I see you're quite all right the first quote. Which
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: current player or manager in the big three sports leagues
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: for NHL? Right, you're assuming doing MLB? I have to say,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: I think right now, I think right now, i'd probably
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: go Steve Kerr. I think he's become fairly active on
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the left a little bit. I think he's I think
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: if you told me in four years, he's being recruited
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: to run for governor of California or something like that,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: because their last it's been a debacle and the party's infighting.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Right like, I could see him transitioning to it. I
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: saw a nice story about him writing a handwritten note
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: to the manager of the Ronald Blue Jays just after
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: they lost Game seven, John Snyder. Schnyder shared the note.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: Kurt didn't right. Snyder shared the note. It was just
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: a handwritten note from courgasing how much he admired Schneider
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: and how prepared his team was, and how just he
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: knows it's painful that he'd been there, and it was
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: just the type of thing that just to you know,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: he didn't that's something he didn't have to do. He
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: didn't know, John Snyder. He might have been, as he admitted,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: he was rooting for the Dodgers, but he admired how
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: well Schneider was managing that game. Clearly he sort of
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: was on top of things, had sort of gotten there
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: was you know, look, let's be realistic. The Dodgers. The
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Dodgers won the World series by a cleat if those
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: of you that recalled that game seven, but it was
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: interesting the athletic story on that sain. Kerr was asked
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: about how he got how, oh what inspired him to
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: do this? And he's done this six or seven times,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: not very often, and he didn't say which coaches he's
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: sent it to, but because he said he got a
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: note out of the blue from Sean Payton after his
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: first NBA Finals appearance, and he says he didn't know
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Sean Payton. This was now the coach of the Broncos,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: then was the coach of the Saints, and just sort
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: of a similar message, just like merely impressed with you know,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: how you've transitioned to coaching, et cetera. And you know,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: I'm always I always admire people when they get when
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: when they're doing something that they didn't they didn't do
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: for public praise. They just did it because they wanted
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: to make somebody. They did un They literally followed the
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: golden doing to others that you hope someone does unto
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: you or maybe you passed it, you paid it forward
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: because someone did it for you. So I'd probably put
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Steve Kerr in that in that first category I'm trying
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: to think of a few others. Look, Bruce Parrow may
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: end up running for office, and you know, I think
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: he you know, I'm not I'm not sure Alabama is
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: an odd place for him. I don't know if if
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: I know he's he wouldn't be the first former Auburn
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: coach to try to win state white office. But I
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: do wonder if you have to have this Southern accent
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: to win state wide office in Alabama. That would be
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: that That's my my strong curiosity there. But you already
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: have a guy like Bruce Parl's thinking about it. And
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: by the way, I know, like I said, if you
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: follow Bruce Parl on Twitter and you follow him for basketball,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: but you get his political stuff, you might say, oh,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: he seems to be ondecidedly on one side of the aisle.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: And I know it makes some people, you know, judge
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: him just based on his politics. But I tell you,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed his commentary, you know, regardless of what
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: his politics are on this front. And he's pretty pretty
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: defensive of the state of Israel in general. But he
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: clearly I think has the I think he's got the ambition.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: So I think he's somebody else I would throw into there,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: and I think they would both manage politics better than
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: Tommy Tuperville. Put it this way, I've never had Tommy
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Tupperville on my calendar, and I still don't think he
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: makes a really good politician. I think he's burbing that
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: every day. And while I dope, well, I assume he
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: does become governor, I have a feeling that ain't gonna
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: go well. You know, he's not known as a hard worker,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: and I don't think he realizes big governors actually work.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Being a senator ain't a real job. Being a governor
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: is a real job. So I'll be let's just say
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm I've set the bar pretty low for
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: him there, and he's facing a pretty tough candidate for
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the Democrats and Doug Jones and who of course won
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: that senate's special Senate election a few years back against
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Roy Moore. Tupperville's no Roy Moore as far as the
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: morality stuff is concerned. But I think I have a
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: feeling that's going to be a close rightce. I think
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are going to be aware that
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Tommy ain't up to this. Up. He probably wins because
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: that state's pretty conservative. But this is the whiff of
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: one four year term and I'll just leave it at that.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: As for your second one, Look, that's the conversation I
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: had with Thyke Friman. I mean in well, that's an
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: And as far as China, you're taking advantage of this
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: Trump term to get what they want. In my interview
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: with Daniel Jurgen, I asked him if not the United
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: States to secure the Strait. He basically said, there's only
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: one other country that can, and that's China. And he says, look,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: he says, going back to Jimmy Carter, we basically have
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: made a deal with the Golf States that we had them.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: We were their defense umbrella. And if we're not there
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: to open up the straight and we don't do it,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: they will turn to China. And China would love to
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: have those Golf States as their number one ally rather
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: than right now, those Golf States they play us their
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: eyes with bo but we're in the number one camp.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: China's decidedly number two. We do not want that to flip,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: and you're right, that is the price that would be,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: but they don't want to tank. Remember it's actually not
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: in China's interest to tank the American economy. The Chinese
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: economy would tank if they tanked the American economy, so
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: that actually is something they wouldn't want to do. But
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: do they want more influence in the golf? Yes, they
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: would want that. Next question comes from Johnny Goes. Hello
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: from a two timer working towards five. Thanks for the
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: mat Man interview. He will have my vote for governor.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Much has been made about Congress since Operation Desert Storm
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: relinquishing its authority to commit the country to foreign wars
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: is required by the Constitution. Has their inaction produced a
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: precedent that would be difficult to overcome? What would be
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: required for Congress to take this power back from the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: executive branch? John, it's sitting right there, hold a vote.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: I think they have. You know, the Constitution is pretty clear.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: But if they fail to the precedent they set is
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: that they if they fail to attempt to use their power,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: then yes, what the what the executive does? They can't
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: They don't do anything about unless they deny him money.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the point of John Curtis's op
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: ed saying, Hey, the clock is ticking and we're twenty
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: two days away from the expiration of the sixty day clock.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: But this administration has a unitary unit, you know, a
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: unitary view of the executive and every administration has, Every
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: president since the passage of the War Powers Act has
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: at least abided by its rules. But most anybody that
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: there there are a lot of constitutional lawyers who believe
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: that the War Powers Act does is not that does
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: not have the constraints that the Act thinks it does. Ultimately,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: the real power Congress has is the purse. That's the
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: power hard stop period and that they can use any
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: time they want. None of this has been precedent per se,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: because it's not as if. But I do think if
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: Congress essentially went to the courts and claimed that the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: President was violating the War Powers Act, I don't think
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: they'd lose that court fight. I don't think the administration
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: would want that court fight. But it may not be
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: a slam dunk, and and it would be something that
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: might get litigated for months while the administration just continues
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: to to to conduct this war. All right. Last question
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: comes from Natalie or Natalie an expatent not in Skien, Norway.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: He says, hey, Chuck, big Nuggets fan here and While
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: this was one of the best times to be a
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: basketball fan, the Joker Wemby matchup the other night was
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: a masterclass. Hey, I caught the last five minutes. I
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: will thank Bill Simmonson a tweet who said, I hope
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: you're catching this match up here at the end, I
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: was like, first of all, it took me three apps
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: to go find the game. I first went to YouTube TV,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: not there. Then I went and to my NBA app, Nope, Prime.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Then I finally found it on Prime and caught the
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: last minute and a half plus the overtime. I mean,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: just amazing, And it was a reminder the Nuggets can
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: that was it's Wemby's league. Now we're just it's Wemby's world.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: We're just lucky to be want to be a part
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: of it. So anyway, but I but I digress. Let
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: me continue with your question. The stain in the NBA
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: right now is tanking. So here's my question. Is relegation
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: structurally possible in the NBA. The idea of being the
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: three lowest ranked teams dropped to the G League and
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: I have to earn promotion back, it would make tanking
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: so sidle overnight. But the G league isn't an independent
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: division like the Championship the way the Championship League works
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: over in Europe, it's a network of franchise owned affiliates,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: and relegated teams would likely hemorrhage broadcast revenue in ways
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: that could make major market valuations impossible to sustin. Has
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: anyone actually modeled this or does the franchise ownership structure
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: make it a non starter? By definition? You just essentially
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: in asking your question also made the essentially the rest
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: of your question explains why it's never going to happen.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: There's a chance that if you told me in thirty
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: years that the European League and the North American NBA
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: League were in the sort of original NBA in the
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: European NBA were sort of on par leagues, could we
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: see something that way where the punishment for tanking in
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the United States would be Now you're stuck with an overseas,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: You're gonna be stuck with overseas. You're still playing professionally.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe the revenues are somewhat equal, but you know your
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: fan base isn't happy because you're playing all these European
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: teams that nobody knows like as the NBA develops a
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: league in Africa, a league in Europe, plus expansion of
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the North American situation. I think you could eventually see
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: a structure that does this, but not with the G
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: League at the moment because of all the reasons. You
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: just stay right now. But this taking things is a
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: gigantic problem. You know, do you expand rosters? You know?
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: Is that an answer that would help I. You know, look,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: Pasca and I went through a whole bunch of this
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: or in earlier in this in this full episode. If
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: you're listening to these questions after you've heard my past interview,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: we go through a bunch of things, like I'd like
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: to see a best of five in the first round
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: of the playoffs. I wonder if you add them a
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: little bit of randomness the way Baseball is a little
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: bit of randomness in its playoffs because of their best
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: of fives. Because look at the Dodgers, the big Great
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: evil Empire. The Dodgers have been denied the World Series
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: essentially because of losing in the five game. They don't know.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: They haven't lost in the seven games very often. But
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: the Nats won the title in nineteen because they beat
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers in a five game. Could they have beaten
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: them in a seventh game a seven game series? I
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: don't know. The Diamondbacks when they got to the World Series,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: they did it. They beat the Dodgers in a five game.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: When the Phillies got to the World Series they beat
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: the Padres, who beat the Dodgers in a five game.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: You get the thing. So I kind of I wonder
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: if you had the five game, if more teams would think, hey,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: I could win a round in the playoffs and get
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: to the second round. Would that discourage something? So anyway,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: I think there's a few things to try first on
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: this tanking thing. But it's embarrassing, it's terrible. And again,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: I know we go through this. We beat up the NBA,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: and it's always right around NC doublea time because those
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: college players always try that. We know, all right, I
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: got a few odds and ends in the sport world
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: real quick. I went to the Nats home opener. Everything
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: looked great except the makeup of the of the Nats bullpen,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: and then some I am already lamenting the idea that
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: we're going to trade C. J. Abrams. I worry about that.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: I think that if you're If you believe you're going
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: to be a winner in the next two to three years,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: you should keep C J. Abrams. If you've decided you're
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: not going to be a winner for five years, then
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: sure be my guest, trade them. So a trade of
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: C J. Abrams will be more another reminder that this
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: team is not serious about trying to put a competitor
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: on the field sooner rather than later, because I don't
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: think you're going to get from Abrams what you think. Look,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: if you get a haul that looks like the Hall
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: you got for Sodo, sure do it. But that ain't
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: gonna happen. And if you don't, don't trade them. Unless
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: it's for that kind of Hall, just don't do it.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: I think Abrams, I think there's a I think he
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: and Wood are collectively could be an interesting foundation. Speaking
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: of what he's got a problem with his swing, he's
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: clearly either the word is out on it. I noticed it.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: When he swings at the first pitch, he has better
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: luck than when he takes pitches. The minute he starts
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: taking pitches, it's almost inevitable that he's going to get
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: strike out. Looking but he seems to have an issue.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: We need. There needs to be some coaching there. There
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: needs to be somebody there. Something's off there. Basically, he's
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: not been the same since the home run, since participating
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: in the home run derby in the All Star Break.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, you look at it, it's a definitive line.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: And he's beginning the season the way he ended the season.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit of cause for concern. I'd like
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: to know what the Nets are doing to help him
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: and fix that. But I want to be mindful of
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: another thing. The Dodgers are just like right the top.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: First of all, right, there's nothing like the Nats home
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: opener to be the elixir for the supposedly struggling top
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: of the order of the Nats. Right, I was at
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: the game that the number one guy in the batting
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: order show Aotani Homer, the number two guy in the
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: batting order Kyle Tucker Homer, the number three guy in
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: the batting order Mookie Betts Hobart, and the number four
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: guy Freddie Freeman said, hey, I want a part of this.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: Just no. Will Smith seemed the only one that didn't
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: get to go to the home run party. Andy Pie
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: is wow. Right. The point is the Dodgers have such
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: depth in that lineup. Task for Fernandez is in the
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: seventh hole. So I don't want to crush the Gnats
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: too much here. The Dodgers are essentially they're the number
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: one team. There is no number two, right, I think
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: that's it. There's nobody close to them. That doesn't mean
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: they can't lose a series. That doesn't mean they didn't
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: come a cleat away from losing to the Blue Jays,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: but on paper, there's nobody close to them. Now. They've
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: got some starting pitching issues, but they had last year,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: and they will figure out how to you know, they'll
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: just buy themselves another picture that I'm convinced of. We
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: brought up the Wemby stuff that was unbelievable. Just it
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: really was worth and I am looking forward. These NBA
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: playoffs could be great, particularly in the West. It's sad
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: about what's happened to the Lakers, that a healthy Lakers
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: inserted into this sort of three team juggernaut that is
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: the Thunder, the Spurs, and the Nuggets. It's a bummer,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: but those hamstring strains are tough. Are tough, so enjoy
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: Lebron in the playoffs. Kind of by himself. I have
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: a feeling we might see a game or two where
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: Lebron just has a game one more reminder, forty one
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: year old Lebron, and he'll will them to a sixth,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: you know, to probably sneaking out a first round win,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: and then probably inevitably running into one of the top
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: three Juggernauts and then it's over. But that's a bummer,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: and the only other people more bummed are the TV
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: rights holders on that losing both Luca and Austin Reeves.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: That's that's that's a tough situation, all right. It was
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: a long Monday episode. We got through a lot. There's
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: a little something for everybody in here. I will see
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: you in forty eight hours.