Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB - Art of the Shakedown: Trump's "Corleone" Presidency

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610 CKTB - Art of the Shakedown: Trump's "Corleone" Presidency · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right now, though, we are joined by another regular voice
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: here on the show, a great storyteller, John Lidkey. Good morning, John,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Good morning Gene. Well, first of all, I'm wishing you
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a sweet passover. How was say Her Dinner number one
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: last night?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Oh? It was lovely with family. It was exactly what
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: was needed.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: All right. You know what, I got to tell you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: a story. It's going to shock you. I've mentioned this
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a couple of times this morning, but especially for my
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Jewish friends, when they hear this, they you'll do a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: big oi. I guarantee Alex, our producer has never had
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Matza ball soup.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Oh not good. I'll have to package some up and
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: get it up the four one towards you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Guys, absolutely Well. The great thing about you coming on
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the show, You're not just a voice. You're a great
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: storyteller and you always seem to take an idea and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: compare it to a movie. So I can't wait for today.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: You're talking about Donald Trump and you and you're an
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: old newspaper guy, so he always pitch me ideas, which
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I love. And today we're talking about the art of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the shakedown. Welcome to the Corleone presidency. Okay, Explain.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Explain, Lucy, it's the only label that fits gene. I mean,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: look here down in Windsor, we've got the Gordy how Bridge.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: It's supposed to be opening up, but we've got a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: shakedown going on with it. It connects Windsor to Detroit.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's completely built, it's been paid for entirely by Canadian
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: taxpayers at six and a half billion dollars, and it's
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: being held hostage because a private bridge dynasty in Detroit
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: whispered in the right ear at the White House, from
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the toll booths at the border to the corporate boardrooms,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the squeezes on. We're validating lighting systems right now on
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the bridge. The thing is ready to go. It's bleeding
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: seven million dollars every week that it's not open. This
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: is mob work one oh one. Take a legitimate business,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: max out the credit lines and leave the husk to burn.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Think Goodfellas, but instead of doing the restaurant, they torch
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the most economically vital mile of pavement on the planet.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding. Now you're talking about the pincer maneuver
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of border fees. You're gonna have to explain that one.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look We used to have a peaceful,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: predictable border, but it's morphed into a classic shakedown, and
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: it's a pincer because people are being squeezed from both ends.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: On the US side, there's a security surcharge, and it's
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: not just a fee, that's a gate tax. As of
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, the I ninety four land border fee
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: jumped from six dollars to a staggering thirty dollars. That's
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: a four hundred percent freedom to enter hike that hits
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: every occasional traveler. And that's not US here in Canada specifically,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: but those are the ones who are outside of our
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: continental entry zone. But on the other half of it
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: is the pincer that's coming from our own government in Ottawa.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: In response to the Trump steel and auto duties and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: other tariffs, we have hit with twenty five percent retaliatory
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: tariffs on US made goods. So we're not just paying,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: you know, more at the border or waiting for the border.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: We're also getting hit with a retaliatory tax on the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: very groceries and car parts that people are used to
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: crossing the border to get. What used to be a
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: free flowing economic artery is now a pay to play
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: gauntlet where the average car that crosses is hit by
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: collateral damage.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: This is probably the most important bridge in all of Canada. Now,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: what you were talking about is just the government side.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So what about the existing bridge.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the other side of this penci that exists too, Gene.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: While the White House isn't technically setting the tolls of
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: any of the old bridges, they have mastered the chaos
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of the monopoly. And while we're watching this Gordy Howe
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Bridge being treated like a poker trip and being threatened
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: to not be open unless we potentially hand over more
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: than fifty percent the US we are now just watching
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: this be hit by national security reviews in the administration
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: is handing the private monopoly Ambassador Bridge right now, a
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: monopoly still to a license to print money. This is
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: a classic protection racket. They're keeping the new public bridge
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: as a parking lot, so they're donors who have been
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: hitting lobbyists can keep squeezing every commuter and trucker in
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: the Windsor Detroit Corridor with impunity. Well, the politicians are
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: playing Corleoni. It's the guy drive in the F one
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: fifty who's actually footing the bill here with this shakedown.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, this reminds me of like a scene
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in The Godfather. You know, hey, nice bridge, you got there.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Canada's shame if nobody ever gets to drive it.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Precisely, Jane, and it scales up to look at the
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: fifteen percent vig that's being squeezed out of the tech sector.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: The administration isn't just asking for export licenses. They're demanding
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: a fifteen percent cut of top line revenue or percentage
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: of the company from like Nvidia or AMD, just for
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the privilege of doing business. This is the poly Cicero
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: philosophy business dad, Fu pay me. Oh you had a
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: record quarter. Fu pay me. Oh the business burned down?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Fu pay me. But here's the kicker. This isn't just
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: numbers on balance sheets, Gene. This is the tax on
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: the brains at the next generation auto industry. When the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: cost of the chips for the edy platforms at the
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: next Star Plant or Stilantis or any of the new
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: auto plants that still exist here in the country increase
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: because of a white house shakedown, that big is being
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: paid by every worker on the line and all of
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: the ancillary businesses and the families buying the cars. It's
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: a global racket with a local invoice being sent and
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: we're all being stuck with foot in the bill.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: So how is Trump getting away with this?
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Because he didn't learn politics from a civics book. He
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: learned it at the feet of Roy Cohne, the legendary consigliarity,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the Genovizi and Agambino crime families of New York. That's
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the Cone curriculum. Never admit, never settle, bury the truth
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: under a mountain of frivolous motions. This is the same
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: tactic Trump used to gut contractors in Atlantic City decades ago,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: and now he's scaling it up to the United States
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: government and the Constitution. But he's not just stalling in court.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: He's using a emergency declarations to bydepass budgets entirely. He's
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: essentially turning the Oval Office into a shell company. Lawyers
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: are arguing over precedents in DC, but the big is
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: being collected in real time. This isn't a legal strategy.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: It's a hostile takeover.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Now, why do you say the Secret Service isn't even safe.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Because they're in it as well. We're seeing invoices for
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: like twelve hundred dollars a night per room, just so
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: his security detail can sleep under a roof that he owns.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: If you think that like the double dip chocolate at
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: tim Hortons is something, this is a double dip. It's
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: a double double. The taxpayer pays the salary and then
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the taxpayer pays the mortgage. And look at the tough
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: guy act. This is a guy who says he had
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: bone spurs to get out of the draft, makes fun
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: of real war heroes like John McCain for getting captured.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: He's getting into wars right now. He acts tough, but
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: he hides behind walls of NBA's high priced consigliaries and
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: now he's got secret service agent he charges rent to.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: This isn't strength, it's a predatory grift.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Yikes. You know, I can't stress enough the importance of
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: this bridge. I mean, so much trade goes, you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: both ways on this bridge. We really need the new
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: one open because it may be down in Windsor, Ontario,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but it affects everybody here in the Niagara region as well.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So just coming to the conclusion before I have to go,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: what's the endgame here?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Well, this is a survival play Jean for Trump. He's
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: trying to stay out of a jumpsuit. This is a
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: man who knows that when the Epstein files get fully out,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: he's going to be dealing with this from the House
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: and the Senate and investigations and trials and impeachment. And
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: so the realization here for us in Canada is that
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: this is a bully and he's not going to stop
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: because we're being civil or we're going to find a
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: win win trade deal. What we need to do is
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: punch the bully right in the face. That's how you
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: deal with things. It's time to stop treating the Oval
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Office like it's a branch of government. Start treating it
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: like it's a criminal enterprise. Start pushing back now at
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the border, in the barrooms. If you have American friends,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: tell them to do so at the ballot box, because
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: we're not talking about just losing a friendship here or
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: losing a bridge here. This is a global shakedown. We're
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: talking about a complete change of how we know geopolitics,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: and I don't want to see where we're going to.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Another great story, John, Sure do appreciate you have a
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: sweet passover and Joyce sat our dinner number two tonight
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and we'll be talking to you next Tuesday.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you, and happy Easter to you and yours.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: There you go, John Litkey. We love his storytelling abilities.