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Episode Two Hundred Fifty Six: Donald Heart Vladimir · The Death Of Journalism

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Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and fifty six of the
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Speaker 1: Death of Journalism Podcasts. My name is John Zigler. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host on today's show. Trump slobbers all over Putin,
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Speaker 1: but there is no peace deal in sight. The FBI
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Speaker 1: rage John Bolton's home. Trump is acting like anything but
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Speaker 1: a conservative. Gallaine Maxwell's prison interview becomes public. Crocker Barrel's
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Speaker 1: rebrand causes right wing outrage and a retreat. College football
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Speaker 1: season gets underway, and Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift have
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Speaker 1: clearly taken my advice by getting engaged. Actually not really.
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Speaker 1: We begin this episode of the podcast with an update
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Speaker 1: on a topic that we led with in episode two
0:50
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five, and that, of course, is the
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Speaker 1: aftermath of the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
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Speaker 1: And I'm a big believer that oftentimes a lack of
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Speaker 1: news is in fact news in itself, and oftentimes is
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Speaker 1: vastly underrated and not treated that way. And I think
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Speaker 1: what we're currently witnessing as of this taping is a
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Speaker 1: classic example of that, because nothing has happened. There's been
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Speaker 1: no peace deal, no ceasefire, no indications of an imminent
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Speaker 1: ceasefire or a peace deal. And it appears as if
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Speaker 1: that summit as of right now was a big nothing
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Speaker 1: burger and effectively a pr win for Vladimir Putin. Now
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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that that's going to be the ultimate result.
1:39
Speaker 1: It is still possible that Trump pulls a rabbit out
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Speaker 1: of his hat. But I want to play a clip that,
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Speaker 1: frankly to me, is extraordinary even by Trump's standards. And
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Speaker 1: this is from a press event that occurred in the
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Speaker 1: Oval Office where Trump was promoting the upcome World Cup
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Speaker 1: soccer tournament here in the United States next year. And
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Speaker 1: the guy who runs the World Cup is there by
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Speaker 1: the way, trying to keep the trophy out of Trump's hands,
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Speaker 1: and Trump, out of nowhere, out of nowhere, starts into
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Speaker 1: what can only be described as the equivalent of a
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Speaker 1: middle school girl doing a show and tell with an
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Speaker 1: autograph picture she got from Taylor Swift. I think that's
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Speaker 1: a pretty fair analogy or comparison to what you're about
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Speaker 1: to hear Donald Trump do. He takes out a photo
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Speaker 1: that he was apparently sent by Vladimir Putin of Putin
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Speaker 1: and himself from the summit and basically slobbers all over Putin,
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Speaker 1: who to this moment has done absolutely nothing to move
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Speaker 1: towards a viol peace deal to end the Ukraine War,
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Speaker 1: a war that Trump claims he was going to be
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Speaker 1: able to end on his first day in office. And
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Speaker 1: what transpires was frankly, completely and totally embarrassing, not just
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Speaker 1: for the United States, but frankly for humanity. And here's
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Speaker 1: what it sounded like.
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Speaker 2: And I just sent a picture from somebody that wants
3:23
Speaker 2: to be there very badly. He's been very respectful of
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Speaker 2: me and of our country, but not so respectful of others.
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Speaker 2: But he'll I'm going to sign this for him. But
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Speaker 2: I was sent to one and I thought you'd would
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Speaker 2: like to see it. Guess a man named Ledimir Putin,
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Speaker 2: who I believe will be coming depending on what happens.
3:43
Speaker 2: He may be coming and he may not, depending on
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Speaker 2: what happens. We have a lot of things happening over
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Speaker 2: there next couple of weeks. But I thought it was
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Speaker 2: a nice picture of him. Okay of me, but nice
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Speaker 2: of him. So that was very nice it was sent
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Speaker 2: to me. I think over the next two weeks we're
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Speaker 2: going to find out which way it's going to go.
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Speaker 1: And I better be very happy now. In addition to
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Speaker 1: the slobbery that Trump did all over putin there, treating
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Speaker 1: him very much like a middle school girl. Mike Taylor Swift.
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Speaker 1: He threw in the two weeks time frame there. He
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Speaker 1: kind of caught himself or you were listening carefully, like
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Speaker 1: I think even he realized, I'm going a little too
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Speaker 1: far here, you know, is he going to come to
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Speaker 1: the World Cup? Oh, that would be so awesome if
4:32
Speaker 1: you know, my crush came to the World Cup. And
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Speaker 1: then he tried to put some caveats on that, some
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Speaker 1: conditions depending on what's going to happen, like implying that
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Speaker 1: if there's not a piece deal, then putin I guess
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be invited. But he threw. Trump did threw in
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Speaker 1: the two week time frame, which is something that got
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Speaker 1: a lot of attention when it came to the theoretical
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Speaker 1: Iranian airstrike situation where those like myself, we're counting on
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Speaker 1: Trump using the two week timeframe as a way of
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Speaker 1: distracting and chickening out and having, you know, something else
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Speaker 1: filled the news void, so we'll forget about it. That
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Speaker 1: seems to be Trump's m That was not the case
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Speaker 1: with Iran. I'm wondering whether not it'll be the case
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Speaker 1: here with what's happening with Russia. And you know, since
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Speaker 1: this press event, there's been an awful lot going on
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Speaker 1: in the news, as almost always is in Trump two
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Speaker 1: point zero, to distract people away from Hey, whatever the
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Speaker 1: hell happened with Russia and the summit and the peace
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Speaker 1: deal in Ukraine. We've heard absolutely nothing on that front,
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Speaker 1: which again, just to be clear, doesn't mean that that
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Speaker 1: story is anywhere close to over or that Trump can't
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Speaker 1: get a deal done, but it certainly isn't happening in
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Speaker 1: the aftermath of this highly touted summit that seems right
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Speaker 1: now to a bit a big nothing burger and essentially
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Speaker 1: a pr win for Vladimir Putin. We'll see, but that's
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Speaker 1: the way it looks right now. But most importantly, there
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Speaker 1: is something weird between Trump and Vladimir Putin. I mean,
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Speaker 1: that's just unhealthy. That is, there is some sort of
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Speaker 1: mental illness that Trump has when it comes to his
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Speaker 1: adoration for Vladimir Putin, and it is not good. I
6:29
Speaker 1: don't think it's conducive to making a peace deal in
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Speaker 1: the Ukraine War. But most importantly, it's an indication of
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Speaker 1: a flaw, in my opinion, in Donald Trump's mentality, that
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Speaker 1: he could have so much admiration for Vladimir Putin even
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Speaker 1: though he is publicly admitted. This is this most amazing
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Speaker 1: part of this whole situation that Trump has recently admitted
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Speaker 1: that he's pissed off of Putin for lying to him
6:56
Speaker 1: on a consistent basis, and yet still, well he's there.
7:02
Speaker 1: I keep saying slobbering because it's by far the best
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Speaker 1: way to describe what Trump did when it came to
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Speaker 1: a photograph send by Putin to Trump of the two
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Speaker 1: of them together in Alaska. Now, not completely unrelated, I
7:18
Speaker 1: don't think to this situation is something that happened with
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Speaker 1: Trump's former National security advisor, John Bolton, where John Bolton
7:27
Speaker 1: had his home raided by the FBI. Now, this was
7:33
Speaker 1: extraordinary to see the reaction to it online because seemingly universally,
7:42
Speaker 1: especially among MAGA influencers, they were super excited about this.
7:48
Speaker 1: Boy did they love them Some FBI raid on the
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Speaker 1: home of John Bolton. And to me, this exposed an
7:55
Speaker 1: awful lot about what MAGA world is all about. It's
7:58
Speaker 1: really much about retribution and feeling good about attacking your
8:03
Speaker 1: enemies rather than any sort of consistency or any sort
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Speaker 1: of principles at work here, and certainly not the rule
8:10
Speaker 1: of law. And it was very obvious that part of
8:14
Speaker 1: a large part of this equation was that there's so
8:17
Speaker 1: much anger over the raid on mar A Lago against
8:21
Speaker 1: Trump when he was out of office, and understandably so,
8:25
Speaker 1: that I guess turned about his fair play. And the
8:29
Speaker 1: only real evidence that the public has at this point
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Speaker 1: that MAGA has at this point that John Bolton did
8:38
Speaker 1: anything wrong is that John Bolton, in their minds, betrayed
8:41
Speaker 1: Donald Trump by being part of his administration and then,
8:45
Speaker 1: after getting fired, being a critic of Donald Trump. That
8:49
Speaker 1: seems to be, at least in the public consciousness in Magaworld,
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Speaker 1: john Bolton's only known crime. Now, that doesn't mean he
8:58
Speaker 1: may not have done something wrong when it came to
9:01
Speaker 1: apparently the use of classified documents. I have no way
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Speaker 1: of knowing, but guess who else doesn't have any way
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Speaker 1: of knowing. MAGA world and online influencers no way of knowing.
9:14
Speaker 1: They know nothing, but they're positive that this FBI raid
9:17
Speaker 1: must be legitimate, because this FBI would never do something
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Speaker 1: purely at a retribution on behalf of President Trump. And oh,
9:26
Speaker 1: by the way, a judge had to sign off for
9:29
Speaker 1: a warrant, so therefore it must be legally grounded. Well
9:34
Speaker 1: my reaction as well, what about the raid of mar Alco?
9:38
Speaker 1: They needed a warrant for that too, What I mean,
9:42
Speaker 1: come on, people, can we be at least a little
9:44
Speaker 1: bit consistent? So I have no idea whether not the
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Speaker 1: FBI raid on John Bolton was legitimate from a legal perspective,
9:53
Speaker 1: I am suspicious that it was not because of the
9:57
Speaker 1: totality of evidence here, with the guard to Trump's m
10:02
Speaker 1: and the mo of those around him who are extremely
10:05
Speaker 1: eager to please him. See this is where you have
10:09
Speaker 1: to take a look at these situations in their full context.
10:13
Speaker 1: I don't know whether or not this is illegally legitimate
10:16
Speaker 1: raid on John Bolton. It might be, but I have
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Speaker 1: reason to be suspicious because it fits very much with
10:26
Speaker 1: the way people around Trump act because they know what
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Speaker 1: he wants, and a raid on someone that they know
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Speaker 1: he doesn't like is always going to be good for them,
10:39
Speaker 1: even if it turns out in the end to result
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Speaker 1: in nothing from a legal perspective, no actual indictments or arrests,
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Speaker 1: or a sort of criminal resolution. It doesn't matter because
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Speaker 1: it gave the Magabase something to cheer, and it may
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Speaker 1: the boss happy because they know the boss doesn't like
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Speaker 1: John Bolton. Now that doesn't one more time, doesn't prove
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Speaker 1: that the raid was illegitimate. But when you look, this
11:11
Speaker 1: is the price that Trump must pay for his mo
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Speaker 1: He has made it exceedingly clear through all sorts of
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Speaker 1: different methods that the message to people around him is
11:27
Speaker 1: I like to be pleased. I mean, my god, look
11:30
Speaker 1: at his cabinet meetings. They're just ridiculous. They're a parody
11:35
Speaker 1: where everyone has to preface their remarks by licking his balls,
11:39
Speaker 1: almost literally. I mean, it's disgusting. And we've seen with
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Speaker 1: him with people who get fired, whether it's the person
11:47
Speaker 1: who provides the labor statistics or the member of the
11:51
Speaker 1: military who provided the intelligence that maybe the damage done
11:55
Speaker 1: to the Iranian nuclear facilities wasn't as great as we
11:59
Speaker 1: had hoped, they get fired. So it's it's everywhere within
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Speaker 1: the mentality that Trump has created in those around him.
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Speaker 1: It provides a motivation for a raid of John Bolton's
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Speaker 1: house that may not have been legally justified. Eventually, I
12:19
Speaker 1: think we're going to find out. My guess is that
12:22
Speaker 1: that's probably going to be the case. I don't think
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Speaker 1: John Bolton's ever going to be convicted of anything significant
12:27
Speaker 1: because of this. Now, I will acknowledge I have a
12:30
Speaker 1: bias here. I tend to like John Bolton. Not because
12:35
Speaker 1: he's right all the time. He's wrong a lot, But
12:39
Speaker 1: having interacted with him a little bit and watched him
12:41
Speaker 1: closely for many years, I think he's a smart guy,
12:44
Speaker 1: and I think he's sincere, and you know, frankly, that
12:48
Speaker 1: puts him ahead of most people in government these days.
12:51
Speaker 1: But he is wrong a lot. And is it possibly
12:53
Speaker 1: made a mostly innocent mistake when it came to the
12:57
Speaker 1: handling of classified documents. Sure that is certainly possible. And
13:03
Speaker 1: is it also possible that the FBI decided to raid
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Speaker 1: his house because it would make the boss feel good
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Speaker 1: and give the Magabase something to cheer about, especially for
13:14
Speaker 1: an FBI that's much maligned because they really haven't done
13:18
Speaker 1: many of the things that they promised that they were
13:19
Speaker 1: going to do for the MAGA base. Sure that's also possible.
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Speaker 1: So we don't know yet, we don't know, We have
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Speaker 1: no idea. But that didn't stop at all the bloodthirst
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Speaker 1: among MAGA world for cheering this FBI raid on John
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Speaker 1: Bolton's home. Now, as far as Trump's reaction to it,
13:39
Speaker 1: he claimed that he had no idea it was happening. Now,
13:45
Speaker 1: I guess that's theoretically possible. I guess it's theoretically possible
13:50
Speaker 1: that Trump did not know anything about the Bolton raid.
13:54
Speaker 1: But he also then acknowledges that he doesn't like John Bolton,
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Speaker 1: but he does something What I found to be interesting
14:02
Speaker 1: that John Bolton did serve at least one purpose when
14:06
Speaker 1: he was Trump's National security advisor, and that is that
14:10
Speaker 1: he essentially scared the enemy. Now, it's not difficult at
14:15
Speaker 1: all to be able to imagine a set of circumstances
14:20
Speaker 1: where Trump, if Bolton had never become a critic of Trump,
14:25
Speaker 1: would be using the exact same set of circumstances to
14:29
Speaker 1: praise the hell out of Bolton, because generally that's the
14:32
Speaker 1: kind of thing that Trump likes. But not when you
14:36
Speaker 1: have committed the ultimate sin in Trump world, which is
14:40
Speaker 1: to become a critic of Donald Trump, especially one that
14:44
Speaker 1: really gets under his skin and goes on television a
14:47
Speaker 1: lot like John Bolton has. And here's what President Trump
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Speaker 1: had to say about the FBI raid on John Bolton's home.
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Speaker 3: No, I don't know about it.
14:56
Speaker 4: I saw it on television this morning.
14:58
Speaker 3: I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real
15:03
Speaker 3: sort of a low life. When I hired him, he
15:07
Speaker 3: served a good purpose because, as you know, he was
15:10
Speaker 3: one of the people that forced Push to do the
15:12
Speaker 3: ridiculous bombings in the Middle East. The Bolton, you know,
15:15
Speaker 3: he wants to always kill people, and he's very bad
15:19
Speaker 3: at what he does. But he worked out great for
15:21
Speaker 3: me because every time he doesn't talk.
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Speaker 4: He's like a very quiet person, except on television that
15:27
Speaker 4: you could say something bad about Trump pel always do that,
15:29
Speaker 4: but he really doesn't talk.
15:31
Speaker 3: He's quiet.
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Speaker 4: And I'd walk into a room with him with a
15:34
Speaker 4: foreign country, and the foreign country would give me everything
15:36
Speaker 4: because they said, oh know, they're going to get blown
15:38
Speaker 4: up because John Bolton is there. He's not a smart guy,
15:43
Speaker 4: but he could be a very unpatriotic I mean, we're
15:46
Speaker 4: going to find out. I know nothing about it. I
15:48
Speaker 4: just saw it this morning.
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Speaker 1: They did a rid I found that very very interesting
15:52
Speaker 1: at the end where Trump is praising Bolton for essentially
15:56
Speaker 1: scaring the enemy, because you know, that, to me is
16:00
Speaker 1: something that Trump would ordinarily, under most circumstances, find to
16:05
Speaker 1: be a very appealing attribute. I mean, Trump loves strength,
16:09
Speaker 1: and he certainly loves trying to intimidate the enemy. And
16:13
Speaker 1: if John Bolton really did that, it's just I found
16:16
Speaker 1: it fascinating that Trump decided to mention that in this
16:19
Speaker 1: set of circumstances. But once Bolton has committed the ultimate
16:23
Speaker 1: sin in Maga world, there's really no going back, and
16:26
Speaker 1: that is being critical of Donald Trump. We'll see what
16:30
Speaker 1: the reality is of the Bolton raid. I am very,
16:34
Speaker 1: very skeptical that this is going to result in anything legitimate,
16:38
Speaker 1: but I am certainly open minded and waiting for actual
16:41
Speaker 1: evidence and not willing to decide what my opinion is
16:45
Speaker 1: based upon what I want the reality to be now.
16:49
Speaker 1: I found it also interesting and somewhat related that just
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Speaker 1: a couple of days ago, this very same Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: who got elected promising to end all wars, including the
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Speaker 1: Russia Ukraine conflict, and did not get us involved in
17:05
Speaker 1: any new wars, and the same guy who you know
17:08
Speaker 1: seems to still have some affinity for John Bolton's ability
17:12
Speaker 1: to scare potential enemies, has suddenly decided that the Department
17:18
Speaker 1: of Defense should no longer be called the Department of Defense,
17:24
Speaker 1: and instead he is suggesting, although he wants Pete Hegstath
17:29
Speaker 1: to make the final call. Gee, I wonder what Pete
17:30
Speaker 1: Hexsech's going to do to change the name. And he
17:36
Speaker 1: has suggested the Ministry of War or the War Department,
17:40
Speaker 1: which is what it used to be called back in
17:43
Speaker 1: the days of World War One, I believe world War
17:46
Speaker 1: Two before it became the Department of Defense, which is
17:50
Speaker 1: much more PC. But you know, Trump has it to
17:56
Speaker 1: me is very very odd. It's a very odd change
18:00
Speaker 1: rage of branding from Trump, who has gotten elected in
18:06
Speaker 1: part because a large part of his MAGA base. I
18:09
Speaker 1: have called them, you know, essentially pacifists. Maybe that's too
18:15
Speaker 1: strong of a word. Steve Cortes, my friend Trump's supporter,
18:19
Speaker 1: does not like it when I use the word pacifist.
18:21
Speaker 1: But for all intensive purposes, MAGA world doesn't want to
18:25
Speaker 1: get involved in any wars. And now you're going to
18:28
Speaker 1: change the Department of Defense to maybe the Ministry of War.
18:32
Speaker 1: Not to mention just the way that it sounds. And
18:35
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it theoretically, but it just seems to
18:38
Speaker 1: be contradictory to what Trump's entire philosophy was when it
18:43
Speaker 1: came to the issue of war and what the US
18:47
Speaker 1: military should be used for. And Trump, when he suggested
18:52
Speaker 1: the name change, even said that Department of Defense sounds
18:56
Speaker 1: literally too defensive and he wants something that sounds more offensive. Well,
19:02
Speaker 1: offensive means you're proactively, at least to me, it means
19:06
Speaker 1: you're proactively getting into wars, which I'm not against if
19:11
Speaker 1: it's properly justified. But it seems to be in contradiction
19:15
Speaker 1: with one of the basic Trump philosophies, which I think
19:19
Speaker 1: gets to the larger issue of there is no Trump philosophy.
19:24
Speaker 1: There is no set of Trump principles. They don't exist.
19:30
Speaker 1: They're reimagined on almost a daily basis, and not to
19:34
Speaker 1: me is one of the most bothersome things about the
19:37
Speaker 1: Trump presidency. If Trump had a set of actual principles
19:43
Speaker 1: or guidelines or standards that he uses for determining what
19:47
Speaker 1: to do in any particular situation, I might disagree with
19:51
Speaker 1: some or a lot of them, but I would at
19:53
Speaker 1: least know what the rules were, what to expect. But
19:59
Speaker 1: those don't exist, and it changes almost constantly, and we're
20:04
Speaker 1: seeing that in the realm of economics. I mean, Trump
20:08
Speaker 1: has been a consistent critic of socialism and communism, which
20:14
Speaker 1: of course I am as well as a real conservative.
20:17
Speaker 1: And yet Trump has done something in the past week
20:21
Speaker 1: that even some of his most ardent supporters are wondering
20:26
Speaker 1: whether or not this is a huge jump towards a
20:31
Speaker 1: form of socialism or even communism. And what I'm referring
20:35
Speaker 1: to is that the United States government has taken control
20:39
Speaker 1: ownership of ten percent of Intel. Now, this is a classic,
20:47
Speaker 1: in my view, Trump situation where in a very isolated circumstance,
20:53
Speaker 1: if you were able in a magical world to build
20:57
Speaker 1: a massive firewall or a mote or a force field
21:02
Speaker 1: around it, and it was completely and totally isolated, that
21:07
Speaker 1: you could argue that this is a slightly better deal
21:12
Speaker 1: for the US taxpayer or the United States government then
21:18
Speaker 1: was previously in existence, that Intel survives, the United States
21:23
Speaker 1: government gets ten percent ownership, and if the government plays
21:28
Speaker 1: no role in the running of Intel, and it doesn't
21:32
Speaker 1: set up a precedent for other set of circumstances and
21:35
Speaker 1: other companies publicly held companies, that you could argue in
21:40
Speaker 1: a very very isolated set of circumstances that this isn't
21:45
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. It might even be in
21:47
Speaker 1: the short run a net positive. However, because Trump doesn't
21:52
Speaker 1: seem to give a crap about precedence, he doesn't seem
21:55
Speaker 1: to give a damn about the future. This is one
21:57
Speaker 1: of the problems of a guy who is almost eighty
22:02
Speaker 1: and has a mentality of survive today, worry about tomorrow Tomorrow.
22:08
Speaker 1: They end up setting a lot of bad precedents, especially
22:11
Speaker 1: when they don't really give a shit about precedents because
22:13
Speaker 1: they don't give a damn about principle. So Trump does
22:16
Speaker 1: this in a lot of different areas, and I think
22:18
Speaker 1: this is a really really significant example of this problem
22:25
Speaker 1: because if you do care about principle, if you do
22:28
Speaker 1: care about the slippery slope, which I talk about on
22:31
Speaker 1: a consistent basis, then you can certainly see where this
22:35
Speaker 1: could head and where the problem lies. And in creating
22:40
Speaker 1: this precedent and starting the slide down the slippery slope,
22:45
Speaker 1: where does it end? Where is the firewall, where is
22:50
Speaker 1: the force field? It may not exist, And there's already
22:55
Speaker 1: rumblings that Trump may do this with other public companies,
23:00
Speaker 1: which is extremely anti capitalistic and anti American Now, it's
23:06
Speaker 1: exceedingly difficult, especially in this day and age, to find
23:11
Speaker 1: someone with credibility in maga world, with an expertise in
23:17
Speaker 1: the subject, who is willing to publicly come out and
23:21
Speaker 1: be very critical of a Trump policy. Generally, people like
23:25
Speaker 1: that don't exist because there's too afraid of pissing off Trump.
23:31
Speaker 1: But in this particular case, there's one notable exception, and
23:35
Speaker 1: that is Kevin O'Leary. Kevin O'Leary is known as Mister
23:39
Speaker 1: Wonderful from the ABC television show Shark Tank. He has
23:42
Speaker 1: become a rather strong Trump supporter, but he hates this idea,
23:49
Speaker 1: and he was willing to go on CNBC and basically
23:54
Speaker 1: eviscerate the entire policy. And here's what that sounded like.
23:59
Speaker 5: I am so curious what your opinion is of the government,
24:04
Speaker 5: US government taking a stake in Intel on Friday. Do
24:06
Speaker 5: you have a take on this, sir? I bet you do.
24:08
Speaker 6: Yes, I abhor this idea, I really do. What has
24:12
Speaker 6: made America so great for two hundred years is the
24:16
Speaker 6: government stays in its lane and the private sector does
24:20
Speaker 6: what it does so successful and attracts fifty two cents
24:23
Speaker 6: of every dollar from around the world into its capital markets.
24:27
Speaker 6: We let dead old companies die in our version of
24:31
Speaker 6: capital markets. Intel should have been sold for car parts
24:35
Speaker 6: three years ago. I do not want to invest in
24:38
Speaker 6: it as an investor, and I have no interest in
24:41
Speaker 6: taking my tax dollars and giving it to a company
24:43
Speaker 6: that has performed so miserably. Why would anybody want to
24:47
Speaker 6: own this thing? Take it behind the barn and shoot it.
24:50
Speaker 6: That's what should be happening to Intel.
24:52
Speaker 5: Kevin O'Leary, tell us what you really think. We appreciate
24:54
Speaker 5: you calling in today.
24:56
Speaker 1: Now, not being an expert in this area, I am
24:59
Speaker 1: very willing to seede to Kevin O'Leary on this situation,
25:03
Speaker 1: and again because he is speaking against his own perceived
25:08
Speaker 1: self interest, although to his credit, Kevin O'Leary doesn't really
25:12
Speaker 1: seem to give a damn, at least not in comparison
25:14
Speaker 1: to most of the cowards that are on cable news
25:19
Speaker 1: television and are terrified of pissing off Donald Trump. So
25:22
Speaker 1: kudos to Kevin O'Leary there, but I am very willing
25:26
Speaker 1: to accept his analysis. And I think the biggest problem
25:30
Speaker 1: here is the precedent. Okay, in this isolated circumstance, this
25:35
Speaker 1: is not an emergency, you know, as O'Leary says, Intel
25:38
Speaker 1: probably should die on its own. And this is not
25:42
Speaker 1: a circumstance where the economy is going to collapse if
25:46
Speaker 1: Intel does, and so there's It's not a circumstance like,
25:51
Speaker 1: for instance, the economic collapse of two thousand and seven,
25:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, where we
25:58
Speaker 1: had to do all sorts of extraordinary things, the whole
26:00
Speaker 1: too big to fail concept. So I tend to agree
26:04
Speaker 1: with O'Leary, and this is a classic Trump set of
26:07
Speaker 1: circumstances where in order to cut what he feels like
26:12
Speaker 1: is a good deal in the short run, he has
26:15
Speaker 1: set up a set of circumstances that are very dangerous
26:19
Speaker 1: in the long run because of the precedent they said,
26:23
Speaker 1: and because of the slippery slope. Not to mention, it
26:26
Speaker 1: goes very much against his entire philosophy, somewhat like the
26:30
Speaker 1: Ministry of War, where he is supposed to be anti socialist,
26:35
Speaker 1: anti communist, and yet he's engaging in actions. And this
26:40
Speaker 1: is a concept that I probably don't mention enough on
26:43
Speaker 1: the Death of Journalism podcast. I do occasionally, but this
26:47
Speaker 1: and other stories similar to it over the past week
26:51
Speaker 1: or so are classic examples of where if a democratic
26:55
Speaker 1: president did what Trump was doing, the right wing would
27:01
Speaker 1: go bananas bananas, with the Intel situation probably being at
27:08
Speaker 1: the top of the list, but certainly not the only
27:12
Speaker 1: situation where that would be the case. There have been several,
27:15
Speaker 1: some of which have already mentioned in the last week,
27:18
Speaker 1: where if a democratic president did them rightfully, the right
27:23
Speaker 1: wing media would be screaming bloody murder. Instead, they're silent,
27:28
Speaker 1: with rare exceptions like Kevin O'Leary, and that to me
27:32
Speaker 1: is a damning indictment of what has happened to the
27:34
Speaker 1: so called conservative now right wing or maga media. And
27:39
Speaker 1: there's a couple of other examples of this that I
27:43
Speaker 1: want to mention. Trump signed an executive order, and you know,
27:48
Speaker 1: I hate executive orders. I hate the fact that Trump
27:51
Speaker 1: is governing by executive order one because when they're good ideas,
27:55
Speaker 1: they're essentially sand castles on the beach that are going
27:58
Speaker 1: to get washed away if they're ever even enforced, because
28:03
Speaker 1: the Blue states basically ignore the executive orders. I'm very
28:08
Speaker 1: much in favor, especially when you have both Houses of
28:10
Speaker 1: Congress currently and may not have them for that much
28:13
Speaker 1: longer with the midterm elections looming to pass actual laws
28:19
Speaker 1: that will make a difference. But that's too much work
28:21
Speaker 1: for Trump, so he just decides to govern by executive order.
28:26
Speaker 1: And in this particular case, this executive order that really
28:29
Speaker 1: got under my skin dealt with the issue of flag burning,
28:33
Speaker 1: where Trump assigned an executive order declaring flag burning illegal
28:38
Speaker 1: punishable by a mandatory one year prison sentence. Now, flag
28:45
Speaker 1: burning is a really interesting example, and I think one
28:50
Speaker 1: that shows how much imperil our free speech and First
28:54
Speaker 1: Amendment rights really are and why it is that I
28:58
Speaker 1: think eventually we will lose our First Amendment free speech
29:02
Speaker 1: rights because in order to defend the First Amendment and
29:07
Speaker 1: make sure it never erodes, and to make sure that
29:10
Speaker 1: there is no slippery slope, it must be defended by
29:14
Speaker 1: taking unpopular positions inherently, because if unpopular speech is not protected,
29:24
Speaker 1: then eventually no speech will be protected, because who gets
29:30
Speaker 1: to determine what's unpopular? Who gets to determine what's good
29:34
Speaker 1: speech or bad speech. Later on in this episode, I'm
29:39
Speaker 1: going to talk about the Say No to Hate program
29:42
Speaker 1: in my children's school here in California, which is basically
29:46
Speaker 1: the state actor the public schools determining what's good speech
29:50
Speaker 1: and what's bad speech, oftentimes without any rationality, and at
29:55
Speaker 1: least subconsciously, if not consciously, it erodes the belief in
30:02
Speaker 1: free speech, and it erodes the First Amendment. Well, flag
30:06
Speaker 1: burning is maybe the ultimate example of this. And Trump
30:11
Speaker 1: is against flag burning because he is patriotic and he
30:15
Speaker 1: is in favor of the flag. I get it. I
30:18
Speaker 1: don't know anybody, at least not in my world, that
30:21
Speaker 1: is in favor or thinks that flag burning is a
30:25
Speaker 1: good idea or whatever, engage in flag burning under any
30:29
Speaker 1: rational circumstances. I certainly wouldn't, I abhorred in the vast
30:35
Speaker 1: majority of circumstances. However, the US Supreme Court has very
30:42
Speaker 1: clearly determined that flag burning is inherently speech, including the
30:47
Speaker 1: great conservative antonin Scalia. So legally, philosophically, flag burning has
30:55
Speaker 1: been determined, and I think rationally so as speech. And
31:00
Speaker 1: it's abhorrent speech to a lot of people, but it
31:03
Speaker 1: is speech. So if you attach an act of speech
31:09
Speaker 1: to a mandatory one year prison sentence, the executive order
31:14
Speaker 1: acting like a king, that is for a true conservative,
31:20
Speaker 1: extremely problematic. Extremely Now this is where with Trump everything
31:27
Speaker 1: is complicated. Everything you know is in the minds of
31:31
Speaker 1: his supporters at least nuanced. If you want to be
31:36
Speaker 1: supportive of Trump on this, you say, well, he's just trolling,
31:39
Speaker 1: he doesn't really mean it, he's or he's baiting Democrats.
31:43
Speaker 1: I love this one. He's baiting Democrats into supporting flag
31:48
Speaker 1: burning because you know, Hillary Clinton once came out in
31:51
Speaker 1: favor of the same concept of banning or making it
31:56
Speaker 1: illegal to burn the American flag back when she was
32:00
Speaker 1: to show what a moderate she is. So wait a minute,
32:03
Speaker 1: are you telling me that because he's duplicating something that
32:07
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton wasn't once in favor of, that this makes
32:10
Speaker 1: it a good thing. How does that work? I don't
32:13
Speaker 1: understand that at all, especially given how much MAGA world
32:17
Speaker 1: hates Hillary Clinton. But more importantly than that, the true
32:22
Speaker 1: conservative position, if you believe in the Constitution and you
32:27
Speaker 1: truly believe in free speech in the first Amendment, is
32:30
Speaker 1: that you must be against criminalizing any form of speech.
32:37
Speaker 1: But the other part of this that makes it complicated,
32:40
Speaker 1: And this is where the executive order is really substantively
32:45
Speaker 1: different than the comments that Trump made about it. And
32:48
Speaker 1: I never know is Trump doing this on purpose or
32:52
Speaker 1: is he just ignorant or somewhere in between. I don't know.
32:56
Speaker 1: But Trump's comments about it made it sound like he's
33:00
Speaker 1: literally making it illegal to burn the flag. You burn
33:04
Speaker 1: the flag, you're going to spend one year in prison,
33:09
Speaker 1: a mandatory sentence. That's what he made it sound like.
33:12
Speaker 1: But the actual executive order is actually not all that
33:17
Speaker 1: much different than the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court
33:21
Speaker 1: decision does not really open a loophole, but there is
33:25
Speaker 1: there's an aspect of it that it could be punishable
33:29
Speaker 1: if it creates a violent set of circumstances by provoking
33:33
Speaker 1: rioting or things like that. So in other words, it
33:35
Speaker 1: doesn't get you off the hook. If your flag burning
33:39
Speaker 1: results in a massive public riot, disturbance, violence, what have you.
33:45
Speaker 1: Of course, the problem there is what's the standard, right
33:49
Speaker 1: I mean, and what's and how are you evaluating the
33:53
Speaker 1: connection between the flag burning and the rioting. That can
33:58
Speaker 1: be very tenuous, that can be very very difficult, But
34:01
Speaker 1: that is part of the US Supreme Court decision, and
34:04
Speaker 1: in the executive order it does indicate. Basically, the way
34:10
Speaker 1: I interpret the executive order is that it kind of
34:12
Speaker 1: takes where the US Supreme Court decision was, and it
34:15
Speaker 1: moves it backwards a few yards on the football field.
34:19
Speaker 1: It changes the standard of rioting or creating a disturbance
34:25
Speaker 1: to a place where the US Supreme Court did not
34:28
Speaker 1: put it. The US Supreme Court had an extremely high
34:30
Speaker 1: standard for that evaluation. The executive Order, in my opinion,
34:35
Speaker 1: does not. I don't think it's the biggest deal in
34:38
Speaker 1: the world. It's not as bad. The executive Order isn't
34:42
Speaker 1: as bad as the comments that Trump made about it.
34:45
Speaker 1: And in reality, it's not going to change anybody's life
34:49
Speaker 1: in the short run in all likelihood. But to me,
34:54
Speaker 1: as you know, I'm a big believer the slippery slope,
34:58
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to speech, and if you're not
35:02
Speaker 1: willing and able to protect speech from any erosion, no
35:06
Speaker 1: matter how unpopular, eventually we are toast. Eventually it will
35:12
Speaker 1: go away, and maybe quite quickly, maybe quite quickly, because
35:18
Speaker 1: you don't know what kind of a leader we're going
35:20
Speaker 1: to have in the future. If we have a dictator
35:23
Speaker 1: or a tyrant, a true dictator or a tyrant, then
35:27
Speaker 1: they could be using the Trump precedent to dramatically erode
35:32
Speaker 1: our free speech in ways that actually matter. And so
35:38
Speaker 1: the bottom line to me is I'm sorry. Based upon
35:42
Speaker 1: Supreme Court rulings and basic common sense and principle, you
35:46
Speaker 1: have to be willing to defend quote unquote flag burning
35:51
Speaker 1: as free speech, otherwise it all eventually collapses. That is
35:57
Speaker 1: something that Trump clearly doesn't believe, doesn't understand, doesn't give
36:01
Speaker 1: a shit about, because he'll be dead by the time
36:04
Speaker 1: that matters. He just wants, I guess, to be able
36:08
Speaker 1: to say that he's defending the flag, and his supporters
36:11
Speaker 1: get to say, Aha, we trick democrats into being in
36:15
Speaker 1: favor of flag burning. No, no, you're being a hypocrite
36:19
Speaker 1: on the issue of free speech. Because if you don't
36:22
Speaker 1: believe in protecting flag burning a speech, then you don't
36:27
Speaker 1: really believe in the First Amendment. And that's part of
36:31
Speaker 1: why I've always believed the First Amendment is doomed in reality,
36:36
Speaker 1: because we're just not willing, especially this day and age,
36:38
Speaker 1: to take unpopular and seemingly contradictory positions or positions that
36:44
Speaker 1: are against what our feelings are in order to uphold principles,
36:48
Speaker 1: especially with a president that has no principles. And this
36:53
Speaker 1: is a really unfortunate but I think important example of
36:58
Speaker 1: why the Trump residency is so dangerous to basic conservative
37:03
Speaker 1: principles like upholding the Constitution and the First Amendment. One
37:08
Speaker 1: last example of this, and then I'm actually gonna get
37:12
Speaker 1: to something where I thought Trump had a really good
37:14
Speaker 1: response to a reporter on another controversy that he's involved in.
37:19
Speaker 1: But Trump made a very stupid statement and it was
37:23
Speaker 1: taken at least a little bit out of context when
37:27
Speaker 1: it came to this issue of the nationalization of the
37:30
Speaker 1: federalization of the DC police force, which, by the way,
37:35
Speaker 1: just as I predicted, so far seems to be a
37:39
Speaker 1: political win for Donald Trump, because by all accounts, it
37:44
Speaker 1: appears as if crime in Washington, d C. Has gone
37:48
Speaker 1: down significantly since he did this, and it does appear
37:53
Speaker 1: that the policy is increasing in popularity. It's hard to
37:57
Speaker 1: tell for sure, but at least early return are that
38:00
Speaker 1: this is working both practically and politically. But Trump, in
38:06
Speaker 1: justifying the policy in a press event, made the statement
38:11
Speaker 1: that he's not a dictator, but that a lot of
38:14
Speaker 1: people actually want him to be a dictator. And again
38:20
Speaker 1: that statement was taken out of context by a lot
38:22
Speaker 1: of liberal media outlets. I said so on social media,
38:25
Speaker 1: but I'm sorry, a president of the United States, even
38:31
Speaker 1: if they're joking, and by the way, Trump was clearly
38:33
Speaker 1: not joking. In this set of circumstances, no president of
38:38
Speaker 1: the United States should ever have the words many people
38:43
Speaker 1: want me to become a dictator come out of their mouth.
38:46
Speaker 1: That should never happen ever, not just because it's easily
38:51
Speaker 1: taken out of context by a media that's against you,
38:54
Speaker 1: but because it's wrong. I mean, it's in our mission statement.
39:00
Speaker 1: No kings, no dictators, no tyrants. That's why we exist.
39:05
Speaker 1: And so for the President United States to just basically
39:08
Speaker 1: casually say, yeah, a lot of people would like me
39:10
Speaker 1: to become a dictator, that's a problem, especially when you
39:15
Speaker 1: are being accused of trying to become a dictator and
39:20
Speaker 1: you know, potentially canceling future elections in which I don't believe,
39:24
Speaker 1: and all sorts of other crazy things. So that's a
39:27
Speaker 1: you know, that's a whole series of circumstances where I
39:31
Speaker 1: thought Trump was wrong in the last week. I want
39:35
Speaker 1: to counter that with at least one situation where I
39:38
Speaker 1: really like Trump's response to a reporter. This came within
39:43
Speaker 1: the controversy involving the firing of Lisa Cook, a governor
39:46
Speaker 1: of the Federal Reserve. This apparently is unprecedented, and I
39:50
Speaker 1: get why people are concerned about Trump's attacks on the
39:54
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve. But it occurred apparently because Lisa Cook was
39:59
Speaker 1: involved in a scandal related to her mortgage records, and
40:04
Speaker 1: Trump got a question from a reporter during a press
40:10
Speaker 1: conference that to me was a classic situation of where
40:14
Speaker 1: the liberal media just honestly doesn't get it and frankly
40:19
Speaker 1: believes their role is something totally different than what it is.
40:23
Speaker 1: They believe their role is to attack Trump almost no
40:28
Speaker 1: matter what the circumstances are. And Trump's response to this question,
40:33
Speaker 1: I thought was fantastic because it goes to the heart
40:37
Speaker 1: of the issue of the death of journalism, which is
40:40
Speaker 1: that these reporters don't even think of themselves as people
40:46
Speaker 1: who are supposed to hold everybody to account. They think
40:50
Speaker 1: of themselves as somebody who's only supposed to be trying
40:54
Speaker 1: to hold Trump to account. And I thought Trump, regardless
40:59
Speaker 1: of whether or he's a writer or wrong about Lisa
41:01
Speaker 1: Cook and the Federal Reserve, knocked it out of the
41:03
Speaker 1: park when it came to his response to this question
41:06
Speaker 1: from a reporter. And here's what that sounded like.
41:09
Speaker 7: No by digging into the mortgage records. Officials don't know
41:14
Speaker 7: they're public. I mean, you can find out those records.
41:16
Speaker 7: You can go check out the records yourself. And you
41:18
Speaker 7: should be doing that job. Actually, you wouldn't do that
41:21
Speaker 7: because that's not the kind of reporter you are. But
41:23
Speaker 7: you should be doing that job. I shouldn't have to
41:25
Speaker 7: be doing it. If you did your job properly, we
41:28
Speaker 7: wouldn't have problems. Like Lisa Cook, go ahead, you're going
41:31
Speaker 7: to say something.
41:36
Speaker 1: That, to me, is the way it should be done.
41:39
Speaker 1: That is the good Trump right there. That is where
41:43
Speaker 1: Trump is at his best, and he understands of the
41:47
Speaker 1: problems in the mainstream news media. He has done an
41:51
Speaker 1: amazing job of destroying the credibility, for better or for worse,
41:55
Speaker 1: of the mainstream news media. And and that to me
41:59
Speaker 1: was an apt, absolutely fire response that, regardless of whether
42:03
Speaker 1: or not he's right or wrong on the Federal Reserve, was
42:07
Speaker 1: dead on when it comes to one of the major
42:09
Speaker 1: problems when it comes to the way that the legacy
42:12
Speaker 1: media reports on Donald Trump in particular and news stories
42:17
Speaker 1: in general. They don't even think of themselves as people
42:20
Speaker 1: who are supposed to be engaging in that kind of reporting.
42:24
Speaker 1: If it doesn't fit their agenda, they won't even bother
42:27
Speaker 1: to do it. Won't even bother one because they're lazy,
42:30
Speaker 1: in two because they clearly are very liberally biased. Thanks
42:34
Speaker 1: for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
42:37
Speaker 1: If you're interested in listening to the entire show, you
42:41
Speaker 1: must become a patron. Please go to Patreon. That's p
42:45
Speaker 1: A T R e O N dot com. Patreon dot
42:50
Speaker 1: com slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. My
42:56
Speaker 1: name is John z I E G L E R.
42:59
Speaker 1: That's patreon dot com slash the Death of Journalism with
43:06
Speaker 1: John Ziegler. Good luck to you on that, But that's
43:09
Speaker 1: how you can subscribe. I want to transition now to
45:13
Speaker 1: a subject that we've talked an awful lot about from
45:15
Speaker 1: a contrarian position, and that is the latest in the
45:17
Speaker 1: so called Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy or controversy or scandal or
45:23
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. And I have said
45:26
Speaker 1: many times that I believe that Epstein's alleged accomplice a
45:31
Speaker 1: woman who is in prison, federal prison, maybe for the
45:35
Speaker 1: rest of her life, a woman by the name of
45:37
Speaker 1: Jelaine Gallaine. I guess that's how you said, Giselaine Gallaine.
45:40
Speaker 1: I'm going to call her Glaine from now on. Gallaine Maxwell.
45:45
Speaker 1: I believe got railroaded. Now, I've been very very clear
45:49
Speaker 1: that I don't know whether or not she was guilty
45:52
Speaker 1: of enabling Epstein. I don't know why not. She was
45:55
Speaker 1: guilty of some technical crimes when it came to the
45:59
Speaker 1: things Thatstein was clearly guilty of, It's certainly possible. But
46:03
Speaker 1: I'm talking about from a purely due process perspective. I
46:08
Speaker 1: believe that Glaine Maxwell did not get a fair trial.
46:12
Speaker 1: That she was put on trial in the midst of
46:15
Speaker 1: a moral panic, a classic moral panic where everyone needed
46:21
Speaker 1: somebody to pay for Epstein's crimes after he committed suicide
46:27
Speaker 1: in a federal prison. And so because there was this
46:31
Speaker 1: great desire to punish somebody, and you can't punish Epstein
46:36
Speaker 1: anymore because he's dead because he committed suicide in a
46:40
Speaker 1: federal prison, Glainne Maxwell was in a horrible position. And
46:45
Speaker 1: then you add into that the issue of the fact
46:48
Speaker 1: that her trial ended up happening in the middle of COVID,
46:51
Speaker 1: the COVID panic, So you had one panic and then
46:53
Speaker 1: another panic. And you know, I've done a decent amount
46:58
Speaker 1: of research on this. I've watched some documentaries about the situation,
47:02
Speaker 1: even from the perspective of her allegedly being fully guilty,
47:06
Speaker 1: and I just never saw the evidence, and I saw
47:09
Speaker 1: the set of circumstances