Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s “Ends Justify The Means” Presidency + A Texas-Sized Showdown In The Lone Star State

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Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s “Ends Justify The Means” Presidency + A Texas-Sized Showdown In The Lone Star State · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: day returns quints dot com slash chuck. Well, hello there,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Happy Monday, Happy March. We made it to March. Not
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: not everybody can say that, so I you know, it's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: one day at a time, right, So happy March. We
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: are here here at the podcast. I'm always in this
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: month looking around for my eyes. We're always looking for
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the eyes. I'm half teasing. Well, I guess it was
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: an impactful weekend. Obviously, I already checked in with an
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  Speaker 1: initial response on Iran and what's happening. I've got to
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  Speaker 1: a bit more to say and try to put it
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  Speaker 1: in context. Look at this is less this is going
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  Speaker 1: to do. This is a monologue that is less about
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  Speaker 1: my opinion on what we did, more about my analysis
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  Speaker 1: on where I think this is headed, what is the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: unintended consequences? Where are they hearing? And basically I want
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to leave you with a lot of questions to think about, because,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, we don't have definitive answers on what
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the fallout from this is going to be. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: one of the things I think I've learned in my
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  Speaker 1: fifty three years on this earth, and certainly my thirty
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  Speaker 1: plus years professionally, is that when it comes to things
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: like kinetic action, whether it's a piece of a war, airstrikes, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: you want to talk about these things, the initial response
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  Speaker 1: and where eventually this lands politically often change and change
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  Speaker 1: in ways that you don't expect. So the point is
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  Speaker 1: is that you know, we're going down a road that
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  Speaker 1: may seem familiar to those of us, to those of
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  Speaker 1: you that were around during Iraq and Afghanistan. But just
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  Speaker 1: because it looks familiar doesn't mean we're going to be
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  Speaker 1: traveling the exact same road politically. So I do want
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  Speaker 1: to get into that, I'll be honest. There were a
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  Speaker 1: couple other stories I was going to get deeper into
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  Speaker 1: that we're not going to get into specifically. I think
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  Speaker 1: you know, and I still think this is something I
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  Speaker 1: want to tackle a little bit later. But there is
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  Speaker 1: something about the fact that Anthropic and Netflix, we had
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  Speaker 1: our first two major companies say no to the president,
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  Speaker 1: say no to coersion efforts by the government. Clearly, Netflix
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  Speaker 1: walked away deciding that the coersion that the that the
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  Speaker 1: government was using, whether it was forcing them to fire
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  Speaker 1: board members or whatever it was, it was a bridge
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  Speaker 1: too far. Ditto with Anthropic, whatever deal it is it is.
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  Speaker 1: And I think our friends over at open Ai are
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  Speaker 1: probably having a bit of a staffer revolt over the
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  Speaker 1: decision by them to essentially take the same contract that
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  Speaker 1: Anthropic couldn't sign and then claiming that they have the
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  Speaker 1: same red lines that Anthropic did. So the point being is,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's a significant step that you've seen some
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  Speaker 1: companies for the first time publicly traded that not ever
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  Speaker 1: to say no to the government in government coercion. We
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  Speaker 1: have seen pretty much every other major publicly traded company
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: essentially cave in. We are not seeing that there, but
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  Speaker 1: that is not my focus for this episode. By the way,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: let me give you a quick rundown all of the
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  Speaker 1: Iran fallout is coming up here in a minute. My
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: time machine today. Let's just say it couldn't be more timely. Obviously,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: in twenty four hours, the midterm election season kicks off.
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  Speaker 1: I spent a lot of my Thursday podcast sort of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: previewing that I'm going to have a lot more on Wednesday,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: And of course I want to alert you we're going
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to do in a live stream in partnership with my
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: pow Crystaliicit Decision Desk HQ, we are going to be
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the first place you can see results in Texas, North Carolina,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: and Arkansas. The Decision Desk folks are the best in
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the business when it comes to calling elections and projecting
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: which way things are going. They are faster than everybody
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: out there, including all of the legacy media. And so
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: you know where to turn. And we'll be everywhere. I'll
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: be on my live streams, We'll be on the Decision
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Desk live streams, We'll be in Crystalizis live streams, that
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: includes Twitter, that includes substec, that includes YouTube. I should
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: say X instead of Twitter, so algorithm doesn't screw us
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: up there, right, But you'll be able to find us
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in a ton of places. And as you know, this
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: is everything's bigger in Texas right, and this is a
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  Speaker 1: big one, and these two primaries aren't something else. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to get to a little bit of fallout
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  Speaker 1: from that. But my time machine, let's just say, is
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  Speaker 1: well timed. History aligned really well when it comes to
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the state of Texas and my preview there. But all
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  Speaker 1: that aside, there's your quick preview. Let's dive in. I
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  Speaker 1: would say the title for this monologue that I would
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  Speaker 1: put in here is ends, means and the precedent. So
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about Iran, but this isn't just about Iran.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about credibility, executive power, and something
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  Speaker 1: bigger than a single strike. Because if you zoom out
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  Speaker 1: from the battlefield details, from the political spin, from all
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  Speaker 1: the media framing of this, whether on cable news or
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  Speaker 1: other legacy media, or even here in the independent space,
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  Speaker 1: there's a pattern. And the pattern can be summed up
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  Speaker 1: in one phrase, The ends justify the means. In many ways,
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  Speaker 1: this is the mantra of the Trump presidency, of the
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  Speaker 1: Trump era. Everything Donald Trump seems to do involves an
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  Speaker 1: outcome first and not caring about the process. In Iran
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  Speaker 1: maybe the clearest test yet for that premise. So let's
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  Speaker 1: start with the basics according to the administration, And look,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put this up here up top. This
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  Speaker 1: administration's credibility with telling honest information to the public is
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  Speaker 1: quite low. They do not always tell the truth. We
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  Speaker 1: know it. They lie a lot, They lie regularly. I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: think the Pentagon lies less than other aspects of the administration.
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  Speaker 1: We know. If you see a White House spokesperson speaking,
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  Speaker 1: that is the lowest level of credibility. I don't mean
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  Speaker 1: to rag on this, but it's really problematic when you're
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  Speaker 1: dealing with war and peace. Okay, but all we have
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  Speaker 1: is the administration on this, and in this case, I
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  Speaker 1: think military and intelligence sources are less likely to lie
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  Speaker 1: to reporters and lie to us than some not saying
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  Speaker 1: that they're not capable of it. I'm not naive, but
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  Speaker 1: the ones without political skin in the game are usually
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  Speaker 1: the ones that lie the least. So it is it
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  Speaker 1: is important. So here's what we think we know the strike.
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  Speaker 1: The US parts of the strikes targeted three categories of assets.
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  Speaker 1: The nuclear enrichment facilities, related infrastructure, more missile and weapons
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  Speaker 1: production sites, select Islamic Revolutionary Guard, core command and control nodes,
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  Speaker 1: and then of course Israel we know struck many of
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  Speaker 1: the regime and may have been the ones that actually
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  Speaker 1: took out the Ayatola. Now what was the stated objective?
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  Speaker 1: This has been a moving target to degrade around nuclear
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  Speaker 1: breakout capability, re establish de terrence, and prevent what officials
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  Speaker 1: describe as a narrowing window before we across the threshold.
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  Speaker 1: That was the rationale for those July strikes, right, and
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  Speaker 1: so we don't know what the real rationale is. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it changed a bit. Right at the State of the Union,
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  Speaker 1: we got a rationale. First we completely obliterated their nuclear program.
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  Speaker 1: Then of course they've said we're fearing them trying to
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  Speaker 1: still re establishment and they had some red lines in negotiations.
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  Speaker 1: Second we added Marco Rubio did this added fear of
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  Speaker 1: ballistic missiles reaching the United States. Now, the intelligence assessment
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  Speaker 1: says that was probably ten years away from being true.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly was true that Iran ballistic missiles could hit Europe.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe we do care about the security of Europe
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  Speaker 1: at the moment. But the bottom line is, in this
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  Speaker 1: decision to go, there was really no smoking gun, right,
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  Speaker 1: There was no drone strike on US soil, There was
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  Speaker 1: no Pearl Harbor moment. There was no dramatic insighting incident
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  Speaker 1: laid before the American people. Instead, in some ways, officials
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  Speaker 1: described it as a strategic clock that ran out. And
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  Speaker 1: this matters because when a president who ran for three
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  Speaker 1: different presidential cycles, as a quote peacemaker launches preemptive strikes,
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  Speaker 1: preemptive strikes, this was not retaliation preemptive strikes. The first
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  Speaker 1: question voters are asking, and all of us are asking,
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  Speaker 1: is why now, why this moment? Now? The answer officially
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  Speaker 1: was urgency having to do with their military program and
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  Speaker 1: the bad faith negotiations. You know, this was sort of
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  Speaker 1: Iran was on the clock. They didn't they The Americans
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  Speaker 1: have said that they think the Iranians were negotiating and
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  Speaker 1: bad faith in Geneva. I'm going to get to that
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  Speaker 1: more in a minute. It's interesting the skepticism that Steve
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Whitdcuff has for the Iranians versus his lack of skepticism
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: that he has for the Russians. But again, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to get to that. But here's the thing. When you
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  Speaker 1: strike both the nuclear spine and parts of the security apparatus,
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  Speaker 1: you are operating in a gray zone between non proliferation
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  Speaker 1: and destabilization, and that's where the bigger questions begin. Right
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  Speaker 1: there was always you were always going to get bipartisan
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  Speaker 1: support to get rid of the nuclear ambition, and you
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  Speaker 1: could have gotten vote in Congress for that regime change
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  Speaker 1: that was a taller order. And if this is now
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  Speaker 1: the stated goal, this likely means we have a lot
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  Speaker 1: more responsibility. So let's talk about the uncomfortable truth that
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: history teaches us. Airpower can remove leaders. We just did
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  Speaker 1: it with Kamani, but it almost never by itself produces
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  Speaker 1: stable regime change. Toppling is the easy part. The vacuum
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  Speaker 1: is the hard part. We learned that in Iraq the
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  Speaker 1: hard way. Remember the celebrations getting Saddam Hussein felt like
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  Speaker 1: a big moment, and it was a temporary, big moment,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it led to mission accomplished. Man, the vacuum
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  Speaker 1: was the hard part, and in some ways we're still
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: dealing with it. It's still not resolved, it's still unstable. Okay,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that vacuum is a is still not filled in Iraq,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and here we are with a new one in Iraq.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, one of the mistakes we now say that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: we learned from Iraq was was not about removing Saddam,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: it was failing to anticipate the fragmentation that followed. So
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: now when you listen to the President's rhetoric, he at
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: least at least rhetorically understands that lesson from Iraq because
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  Speaker 1: he's called on the Iranian military forces to lay down
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  Speaker 1: their weapons and surrender and in some ways help help
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  Speaker 1: with help the keep the peace, help defend the people.
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  Speaker 1: But who are they supposed to surrender to? To whom?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: The civil what's the civil society activists? By the way,
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  Speaker 1: we've done, we've we we've stripped away all funding from
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  Speaker 1: our US media agency that was designed to essentially support
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the civil society activist community in Iran. Right, we got
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  Speaker 1: rid of Voice of America in Iran and all of
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  Speaker 1: these things. So we've done we have sort of less
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  Speaker 1: resources for a moment like this. Right, if you knew,
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  Speaker 1: if Donald Trump knew a year ago that he was
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  Speaker 1: going to do this, then it makes the cuts of
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the US agency when it comes to that runs information
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: agency that essentially oversees Voice of America, that this was
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: an incredibly shortsighted and terrible mistake. So who are they
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: supposed to surrender to? It's not clear who the civil society, activist,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Kurdish or the Balucci autonomy movements that are sitting there.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: How about the monarchists that are loyal to raise a Pahlavi.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: He wants to sort of be reinstall the Iranian monarchy,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: breakaway factions of the Iranian Guard. And here's what complicates
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: all of this. Iran is not politically frozen. The protests
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in twenty two and twenty twenty three showed genuine popular
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: dissatisfaction with the regime. Right, the economy austrained, The regime
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: had plenty of fissures, so there was real pressure inside
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of Iran. There was this idea that Iran could crumble
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: with maybe without the system of the military. But given
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: what the Iranian regime did to the protesters, there was
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a humanitarian case to make to help those protesters. But
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: should we have done that a month ago? But I digress.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: That said, all of these protest movements are fragmented in
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: their leaderless right. Unlike Venezuela, who actually had an opposition
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: movement we could have that was elected. There was an
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: actual opposition elected in that we believe was elected far
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and square in an election that Maduro claimed went another way.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: But there is no unified opposition structure waiting in the wings.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So what? What? What's going to happen next? The question
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of whether anger can consolidate into governance. Right, that's what
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: makes this what comes next so unpredictable. Who are we
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: working with? There's been some talk that the current president
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: of Iran he thinks he sees him my tit a
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: source tell me, and he he may see himself as
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: sort of the Gorbachev of Iran, helping to transition from
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a theocracy to to some form of a democracy. Right,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: we don't know quite what it's going to look like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: but that he can be a transitional figure. Does Trump
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: find his own delce Rodriguez? Right, the vice president of
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Maduro who basically has agreed to be a leader in
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: name only of Venezuela as long as she pays pays
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: uh pays the boss in this case Donald Trump, a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: certain amount of money and or control of the oil assets.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: And then suddenly he's okay. So is there that person
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and that exists? That's unclear. Now let's talk about the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Israeli factor. Was the United States tagon a law? Was
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Israel leading this or was this the United States decision.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I think that's up in the air. The administration's briefing
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: reportedly suggested Israel was going to strike regardless, and the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: only question was whether the United States would go along,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: would go alongside them or wait till Iran retaliated and
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: then jump in. So it raises a deeper issue. Did
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the United States get boxed in by net Yahu's timetable
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: or did the White House use Israel's momentum as the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: convenient means to achieve its own end. That's the difference
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: between tag and a law and providing the shield, the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: deterurn umbrella that allows Israel to strike harder. So was
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the tail wagon the dog? It's an open question. I
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: know some people believe they know the answer, but they
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: don't know the answer for sure. Did wash to decide
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: that aligning publicly with Israel strengthen deterrence and projected strength.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: That distinction also matters because this was a provocative strategic choice.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: This is a war of choice, not a war of necessity.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Famous Tim Russer question to George W. Bush back in
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four. I believe it was was a
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: rack of war of choice or a war of necessity.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: That answer is infamous in presidential rhetoric war because if
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: this was a proactive strategic choice, that's one debate. If
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: it was reactive to Israeli action, that's a different war
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: powers debate. Entirely, this episode of the Chuck Toddcast is
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  Speaker 2: to admit I was surprised by how good I felt
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the next morning. Disable the pop right out of bed,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: get a workout in, have a great day of work.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: So pre Alcoholic gets my stamp of approval.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So there you go. You ready to try it, Go
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to zebiotics dot com slash chuck podcast right now. You'll
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: get fifteen percent off your first order when you use
• 20:08
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  Speaker 1: are also available for maximum consistency. Remember to a head
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to zebiotics dot com slash Chuck podcast and use the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: code Chuck podcast at checkout for the fifteen percent discount. Again,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: use the code Chuck Podcast. Now let's lean into something
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: even more uncomfortable. So we went back and I went
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: back and looked at the tape for three election cycles
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, and twenty twenty four, Donald Trump
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and his surrogates warned that Democrats were going to drag
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: America into war with Iran, and Trump regularly said it
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: would lead to World War three. He used the phrase
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: repeated and it goes way back, folks. Twenty eleven, Trump
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: predicted Obama would start a war with Iran to get
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: re elected. Project much Donnie. In twenty twelve, he warned
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: against playing the Iran card again. One thing that Donald
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Trump does is that he reveals his own thinking with
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: his criticisms, doesn't he In twenty twenty four, he said
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris would cause World War three, and on inauguration
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Day twenty twenty five, he said, my proudest legacy will
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: be that of a peacemaker. He has now killed two
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: world leaders in a little over a year in office
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: in a second term. Excuse me one world leader, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: he's put one in captivity. J. D. Van said the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Democrats were sleep walking us into war. Tulci Gabbard warned
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of regime change war. By the way, has she resigned yet?
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Just asking because she was adamant that there is no.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: One of the worst military decisions that any president could
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: make would be launching an attack on a run. So
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: we're waiting for her resignation. Pete Eggseth argue, a democratic
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: weakness created endless wars. So the message was clear, They'll
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: meaning the Democrats, they'll start wars. We the Republicans won't.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Now the same movement must reconcile, combat strikes and regime
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: change rhetoric to what they told the American people. And
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: this is where they've created themselves a massive political problem here.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: This is not a small one. This is why I
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: am very skeptical this has any domestic political benefit to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. It may help his legacy, and I'll get
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to that, and it may be all he cares about anymore.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: He may have written off his domestic political career, and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: this discip he is no longer interested in helping rebuild
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: America domestically. He is almost solely focused on playing this
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: rudimentary game of risk and just going forward here. And
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: you know a man who's gone through so many bankruptcies,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: who seems to you know, be willing to live on
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: a credit card for a while to keep up appearances
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in order to find more suckers to essentially do business
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: with him where he just extracts the cash and leaves
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: them holding the bag. He's pretty This is a guy
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: who's you know, thinks he can't lose at the moment,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and that should be of a small concern to a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: lot of people. So is this going to be a pivot?
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I've always said Donald Trump was you know.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: One of the things somebody once said to me is
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's the least mega person in any room of
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: maga people. I think that was a more polite way
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: of saying he has no core beliefs. He is a unilateralist,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: meaning what's in his gut in the moment, he acts unilaterally.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: He does not think about consequences beyond what's good for him.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Is this a legacy defining moment for him? Is this
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a political help in the moment? That's about the only
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: two things he debates. It appears when he makes these decisions.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: But this was a unilateral decision. Is this going to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: turn into an identic crisis for the America First coalition?
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear Donald Trump's no America First
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: guy anymore. I don't think he ever was. But has
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he left an opening for your Rand Pauls of the world,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: who are genuine in their belief of isolationism on this,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: who are very skeptical of trying to dictate outcomes in
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: other countries. The anti Neocon wing of the Republican Party
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: has to justify what looks structurally like simple intervention, no
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: different than anything the Bush Chainey administration advocated. That's not
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: just a rhetorical agen jusman. That's ideological gymnastics, and it
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't automamatically make the strike wrong, but it's a credibility issue,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and that's going to be the political fallout here. This
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: may turn out to be one of the best things
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to ever happen in the Middle East. I'm not ruling
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: that out getting rid of Komene's I mean just the
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: quick aside here. There's still an open question about whether
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Iran greenlit the Hamas attack on Israel in October seventh. Supposedly,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the Iranians were skeptical of the idea and Hamas pushed it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Iran could have stopped it if they wanted to, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: they chose not to. That I think we know it
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: is the greatest strategic blunder that they made because at
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that point, there was no more There was no more
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: restraining Israel. When it came to Hesbelo, they've essentially decapitated Hesbelow.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: When it came to the Hoodies, they're in a slightly
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: stronger position than Husbla, but not much. And then of
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: course Amas is basically mostly demilitarized, and that is why
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Iran is so vulnerable and weak at the moment, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: that's why a Bibi nan Yahu and the IDF is saying, hey, there,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: let's not let them reconstitute this theocracy. They're a scourge,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: frankly for the entire region, and looks like the Sunni
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: States all agree with this. And in fact, you want
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to talk about a huge strategic mistake that the Iranians
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: made launching attacks on all these Gulf state countries that
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: happened to house either US or other Western military bases,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: because they just whatever neutrality the Gulf States might have
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: republicly wanted to have, they don't have any anymore. And
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: now we're learning via the Washington Post that in fact
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it was the Saudis that were the it was MBS
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: that was could working Trump the hardest, on making on
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: doing this, on not backing down. Not Israel that talked
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Trump into this, but the Saudis. And we know how
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: much business you know how important the business relationships that
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Trump has with the Gulf States, which means they're going
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to have a lot more influence than your average world leader.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But one one will just to button up this little
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: aside here on Israel and Iran. So Iran makes that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: strategic mistake. I think what we've learned about Iran is
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: they're conventional military as a joke, and they've been humiliated
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: easily whenever, I mean they were a paid they've been
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: a paper tiger. What gave them perceived strength was there
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: asymmetrical terrorist sort of contractors. Right, Hezbollah and Hamas and
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the Hutis were much more effective as a military arm
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of the Iranians than the actual Iranian military itself. And
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: when October seventh happens, what Israel essentially systematically taking out
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: all of these proxy organizations that the Iranians were funding.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: It left the Iranians exposed, which is why they're now
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in the position that they're in now. And also, make
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: no mistake, Israel is now the military power of the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Middle East without question. There was always this idea that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Iran had some hidden military strength. This is clearly not
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: it's it's let's just say it's a huge mismatch with
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: or without the United States, but with the United States,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it's a massive mismatch. And the biggest development over the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: last twenty five years since the Iraq War is the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: alignment of all the sunniest dates with Israel and against Iran.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: And that is why Iran is in the situation that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: they're in today. But let's not you know, there's still
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: an economic gamble to all this, and we have to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: be aware of Strikes on Iran traditionally send oil prices higher,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: which of course has all sorts of economic impact. You know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: if gas it's five dollars a gallon, that doesn't make
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: it an abstract issue on geopolitics. It makes it a
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: domestic issue. Creates inflation, hurts consumer confidence, impacts re election
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: politics for everybody on the ballot in twenty twenty six. Now, look,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: we are, I think at a situation where first of all,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: we're not as dependent on foreign oil as we used
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: to be. Yes, it's going to have some impact, but
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: may not have as much impact as it would have, say,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: even ten years ago, fifteen years ago or twenty years ago.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: In fact, some of the biggest reasons not to do
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: not to attack Iran, say fifteen years ago, twenty years ago,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: was the economic fallout that could come from it. And
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: we're I think the entire energy industry is in a
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: more diversified situation where knocking Iran out isn't going to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: have the same impact as it would have had a
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: while ago. But it's still a gamble. Now Here's something
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: that I think has gotten lost a little bit in
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the and we're getting all sorts of tiktoks and all
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: sorts of stuff coming out. But one of the rationales
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that the administration is hanging its hat on is that
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the Iranians during these negotiations with wit Coffin Kushner in
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Geneva over the last two weeks, and I'm I'm going
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to I accept the premise that had the Iranians completely
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: capitulated to every demand the United States had, that Trump
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: would have cut the deal. I do believe that. And
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: why do we know this, because look, he's kept Delsi
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Rodriguez in power as long as she gives him everything
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: he asks for. So I think there's something to that
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: still They're hanging their hat on the idea that the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Iranians were negotiating in bad faith. Remember these are the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: same two gentlemen negotiating with the Russians with Guffin and Kushner.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: But here's some questions. Why is the skepticism that's applied
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to Iran not applied equally to Russia. Russia is repeatedly
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: lied in negotiations with the Ukraine, more so than the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Iranians have lied. The Iranians are actually up front that
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: they had some civil nuclear ambition. Russia lies with all
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the time in these negotiations. What's interesting here is the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: way Trump is bullying any country that is smaller than
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: US Venezuela, Cuba, Iran. But he's certainly nervous about alienating Russia,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: so he accepts the lies from them in negotiations, and
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: he just he is pausing the aggressionally approved sales of
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: billions of dollars the new weapons to Taiwan because he
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to mess up his meeting in China with
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: She next month. So he will capitulate to big powers.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: We're going to get to that in a minute. Maybe
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: this is about strategic calculus, but the idea that we
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: accept the lies of Russia, but we slam the door
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: in the Iranians as something else. Now, maybe Iran is
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: weak enough to strike decisively, Russia's obviously too dangerous, China
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: is too economically entangled. In other words, the fights chosen
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: by the president are the ones where visible dominance is
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: achievable rules of the jungle, and it fits the ends
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: justifies the means framework, which seems to be essentially what
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I would probably make the title of his presidential memoirs,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: because it's the only positive case you can make first
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: presidency being a success is if the ends justify all
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: the terrible means that he went about. Battles you can win,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: use the win to validate expanded executive power. It's not
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: moral commentary, it's just pattern recognition. So here's where Congress
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: only has itself to blame. So in twenty Zho two,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Congress voted on Iraq. You can argue it was mistaken,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: but there was at least a vote here. There wasn't
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: even an attempt. And if Congress does not try to
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: reassert its authority over war powers in general, this is
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: going to become precedent, not just for Trump but for
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the next president. Power rarely contracts voluntarily. It simply accumulates.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And I have no idea why this Congress has any
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: It doesn't see this, but you know this is now.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I will argue this is nearly seventy years of congressional
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: dysfunction of shitty speakers of the House, every one of them,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: who are more worried about protecting their majority than protecting
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the Constitution. So I'm going to close it this. Here's
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: a real question if the outcome in Iran, is it tolerable?
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: It's not perfect, it's not democratic, but tolerable. Right, we
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: get rid of the theocracy, There is more freedom in Iran,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: women have rights. Will Americans decide that the process itself
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: never really mattered? This is the scariest moment of all
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: for US constitutionalists. Well, we decide that Congress is optional,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that persuasion is unnecessary. This president did not persuade the
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: American public. This was an action that we had to take.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Nor did he ask Congress for permission. Are we gonna
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: decide that campaign lies? Campaign rhetoric is all disposable, so
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: we're not supposed to believe anything they say anymore. So
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: long as the strike worked, and justifies the means, because
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: let's be honest here, you cannot spend a decade warning
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: voters about World War III under your opponents and then
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: initiate military action yourself without that contradiction meaning something. It
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't automatically make the policy decision wrong, but it makes
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the credibility part of the story. And this administration's credibility
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: was already near the bottom. My goodness, I don't know
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: how far much lower you can get on credibility, but
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: they have very, very little. And of course, once you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: spend your credibility, you don't get a chance. You don't
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: replenish it very easily. Now, maybe voters will decide consistency
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter anymore. Ends justify the means. They may decide
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: constitutional guardrails or secondary to results, ends justify the means.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Then they're not just validating though one decision. They're going
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: to be validating a new method to governing this country.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: It's how you become an authoritarian state. Let's be honest.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Once that method becomes precedent, and that's the word here, precedent,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the next president inherits it, and the one after that.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: So it's not just the strikes it's the precedent because
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: of executive action first and congressional consult consultation later becomes normal.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Then we've just made a change in our own constitutional republic.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Not quite regime change, but it's a constitutional change, and
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: that one won't be confined to Iran and that, unfortunately,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: that's the debate we should be having. We're not going
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: to have it. And I'll say this, I am I am,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I am skeptical that this is going to you know,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: not those sideways in some form. That doesn't means it's
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: not recoverable. But we have so many unknowns here, and
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: we now have a president who's essentially agreed to rebuild Venezuela.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: He's openly said he's ready to go rebuild Cuba, he's
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: trying to put together a coalition to rebuild Gaza, and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: now we've helped break I mean, my goodness, we've got
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: to if we're gonna regime changer, we're not going to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: be there to help rebuild them. Roun. What's the American
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: voter here? In Those are all places that are not
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: in the United States of America. And you don't have
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: to be a well credentialed political scientist to know that
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: foreign affairs success overseas rarely translates to votes at the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: ballot box. The only time overseas incidents matter is when
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: they're negatives. The positives go away quickly, just as George H. W.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Bush that stuff rarely matters in domestic politics. And if anything,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: what may matter more here and why this is possibly
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a big, a much bigger political problem than this White
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: House fully realizes yet, is that they may feel good
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: in the moment they've got all sorts of allies, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: it's exciting for Iranians in the diaspora who might get
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: their freedom and get their country back. I don't know
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: if that's going to translate into any new votes for
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Republicans in twenty twenty six, especially if the price of
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: electricity keeps going on the price of grocery keeps going up.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: So this is much riskier politically than I think he
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: fully realizes, even as if it may turn out to
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: be much less riskier in geopolitical strategy. That said, we
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: got a long way to go. Iraq is still a mess.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Afghanistan is still a mess. We intervened more than twenty
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: years ago. Iran is going to be suddenly now it's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: if you believe in the pottery barn rule. If you
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: break it, you own it. Iran is now going to
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: be an issue that we're going to be dealing with
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: in the near term for some time. The question is
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: how much patience with the American public half for that?
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: All Right, Like I said, I have, it's a hugely
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: consequential week in campaign politics. I've gone a huge deep dive.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I just want to give you a quick little thing
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: of what I'm hearing in this final weekend in Texas one.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: It looks like Tallarico has a little bit of momentum.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: All the internal polling I'm hearing about seems to have
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: him with a little more mea than Crockett. We shall see.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Cornyn's folks are already trying to pre spin the idea
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: they're not going to be the leading vote getter. Donald
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Trump once again did an event right before he launched
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: the strike officially launched the strikes against Iran, where he
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: seemed to say I love all of you, and he
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: refused to endorse. Let's see if we are in two runoffs,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Let's see who the Democratic nominee is. All of that
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: could have some impact on Trump there's a few other
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: primaries worth watching. Tony Gonzalez, who's got the who had
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the affair with the woman who killed herself by lighting
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: herself on fire. He seems to be in a very
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: precarious position. Somebody pretty far to his right challenging him
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: in a primary, but he appears to be in trouble
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: no matter what. Either he survives his primary or he doesn't,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and that seat becomes, i think, pretty vulnerable because you'll have,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: either way somebody who will be hard who have a
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: hard time winning a general election. The underrated primary of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the of the weekend is Dan Crenshaw. He is the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: only sitting incumbent Republican member of Congress in the Texas
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: delegation who does not have Donald Trump support. That's going
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to be interesting one of the first tests, right we
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: know Massey and his primary is coming up in may Or,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: We're going to get an early taste of what does
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: it mean when you're when you're when you're fairly well
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: known to be a conservative, which Dan Crenshaw is pretty
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: consistent conservative, just not a Trump SECA fan. Is that now?
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Is that enough to survive or is that a bridge
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: too far for the Magabase are they going to show up?
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: How intense? And here's one more thing to watch in Texas.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I've had numerous strategists left and right say the same
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: thing to me, there could be more Democratic voters because
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: in Texas, the biggest number to watch if you're trying
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: to understand who's got momentum going into the general election
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: in November, is total turnout in a primary in Texas. Right,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: will the Republicans have more voters and their statewide primaries
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: or will the Democrats? In Texas you get to pick
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: which ballot when you go in there, any vote registered voter,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: they get told you pick a ballot. So it's my
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: understanding that there are a lot of what I would
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: call Cornin tall Rico voters. If you and if you're
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a Cornin supporter who doesn't believe corn can win, and
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: you don't want to vote for Paxton or Crockett, then
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: you may pick a Democratic ballot and vote for Taller Rico.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: So it is we've seen this phenomenon before New Hampshire
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: presidential primaries in two thousand. I remember it was McCain
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: and the Republican primary, Bradley and the Democratic primary. They
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: were both fighting for the same voters, and these independ
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: voters which ballot were they going to pick? It was
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: independent voters who could pick either ballot, and more of
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: them picked the Republican ballot, and McCain wins. Had a
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: chunk of more of them picked the Democratic ballot, Bradley
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: would have won that primary. So Cornin is in competition
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: not just with Paxton anymore, but with taller Ico. For
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: those that don't like Crocket or Paxton, right, does it
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: motivate them to jump into the Democratic primary to pick
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Tallarico or does it motivate them to go in the
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Republican primary to pick Cornyn. It's just one of the
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: various ways and one of the sort of under the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: radar ways to look at this race, and certainly one
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: that you know when you're following us in live on
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: election night, and we're going to be going starting before
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the polls close, going all the way till we've called
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: all the major races in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: That's going to be among the things to follow because
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: if more democratic, if more more voters pick a Democratic
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: ballot than a Republican ballot, then I think it's fair
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to say Texas is in play in November, so it's
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the under the radar stat to watch on Tuesday. At
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: this point, not a lot of not enough people are
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: talking about all right, So there you have it. Like
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: I said, a lot of stuff going on. Would have
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: more to say about Anthropic and more to say about,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: you know, legacy media of the future of CNN. I'll
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: save that if you have some questions, but I'll probably
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: save most of this for my podcast on next Wednesday.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: From there, though, we've got a busy next twenty four
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: to forty eight hours. You got this podcast, you got
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: our live election I covered. So I hope you're not
• 44:44
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• 44:46
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• 47:52
  Speaker 1: especially if you've got a growing family. All Right, it
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: is time to travel into the time machine and guess
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: what it is if you're listening to this on March second,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: rather than having delayed listening to this podcast, Shame on
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: you if you couldn't get to it on March second.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: But today, March second is the anniversary of a very
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: important revolution in American history, March second, eighteen thirty six,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Texas Revolution and the story it still tells. So we
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: know Texans head to the polls or at least finish
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: going to the polls on March third. And it makes
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: this week in history especially resident because on March second,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, delegates meeting at Washington on the Brazos
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence. Texas formally declared independence
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: from Mexico March second, eighteen thirty six. It's a foundational
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: date in Texas political culture. But if we're going to
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: talk about what that moment meant and what it still means,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: we have to tell the story in full, not just
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: the Alamo, not just the Anglo settlers, and not just defiance,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: the entire thing. So let's start with Washington on the Brazos.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: The declaration was signed at Washington on the Brazos. This
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: was a small settlement alongside the Brazos River in what
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: is now east central Texas, near modern Brenham. Obviously named
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: for George Washington, it was a modest frontier town. Texas
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: independence was not proclaimed in a capital city. It was
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: declared in a wooden settlement at the edge of competing sovereignties.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: The setting matters here a little bit. The colonization project
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: that led to the revolution began with a gentleman by
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: the name of Moses Austin, who secured Spanish permission at
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty to bring settlers to the territory called Texas.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Now Moses died shortly thereafter getting that permission, and his son,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Stephen F. Austin renegotiated the agreement with Mexico after independence
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty one, and he became the central organizing
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and it became the Central impresario organizing Anglo settlement. So
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: this was not an invasion, It was a government authorized
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: settlement program Texas. From Mexico's perspective, it was practical stagecraft.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: They wanted to populate and stabilize essentially their northern frontier,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and from the settler's perspective, independence was an opportunity. But
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Texas in eighteen thirty six was not just Anglo settlers
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: versus Mexico. There was a substantial Mexican origin population called
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Tahanas already rooted in the region, essentially native to Texas.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Some Teanos supported the revolution and fought alongside Anglo Texans.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Lorenzo da Zavalla actually signed the Texas Declaration of Independence
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: and he became the first vice president of the Republic
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: of Texas. Juan Segeen fought at San Jacinto, helped organized resistance,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: and later served as mayor of San Antonio. In fact,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: Segouine eulogized the dead at the Alamo, and then after
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: independence he was driven out of Texas by Anglo settlers
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: who accused him of disloyalty. That arc tells you something.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: The revolution was not a simple Anglo liberation story. It
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: was multi ethnic, layered, and a bit uneven in its aftermath.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Many Tehanos who supported independence later lost land, political influence,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: and security. And you can't omit the Tehanos from this
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: story because then you flatten Texas history. Now let's talk
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: about slavery. Mexico abolished slavery in eighteen twenty nine, though
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Texas initially received exemptions and workarounds allowed which allowed slavery
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: to persist under indentured structures. But there was tension that
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: the Texas territory was allowed to have slavery. So and
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: it's notable that in the Texas Declaration of Independence, it
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: explicitly cited Mexico's emancipation policies as a grievance. This is
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: not an interpretation of the declaration. It was written into
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: this founding document. Slavery was not incidental. It was central
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: to the decision to declare independence from Mexico. Now, the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: story of the Alamo and how it became a symbol.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: The Siege of the Alamo began February twenty third, eighteen
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: thirty six. The Mexican forces generally estimated at the time
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: between fifteen hundred and two thousand soldiers. There were fewer
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: than two hundred defenders that held this mission, and among
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: them were two nationally known famous people, Davy Crockett and
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Jim Bwett, and their presence at this fight helped nationalize
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: the story, which in turn would help create the myth
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the Alamo was a military defeat. Traditionally, historians argue it
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: delayed the Mexican forces and gave Sam Houston, who was
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: in charge of the of the Texas forces, time to regroup. Now,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: there is a debate about whether that was a strategic
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: delay or just sort of happenstance, But what is undeniable
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: is the symbolic impact. Remember, the Alamo was important as
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: a rallying cry, and it did help rally troops. And
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: yet there was an even larger massacre that took place
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: at Goliad, where roughly three hundred and forty Texas prisoners
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: were executed after surrendering. In fact, remember the Alamo, and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: remember Goliad was all part of the original cry. But
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: Goliad faded in the mythology, Alamo endured, and you have
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: to ask yourself why, Oh, Davy Crockett is really why
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: right identity? He chooses the cleaner narrative. A heroic last
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: stand with Davy Crockett travels better than the grim reality
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: of a mass execution of already captured soldiers. The selection
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: of symbols is always itself part of political storytelling. Then
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: there's Sam Houston, who was of course in charge of
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the troops during the independence after the Alamo and goalie
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: at Sam Houston did retreat ees, he trained forces, he
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: resisted calls for premature battle, and ultimately defeated the Mexican
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: forces at San Jacinto. But Houston's story is a bit complicated,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: and it complicates Texas identity further because it's worth noting
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: that in eighteen sixty one, when Texas voted to secede
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: from the Union, Houston, then the governor of Texas, refused
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. He was removed from office.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: The man who led Texas independence from Mexico refused texas
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: secession from the United State. It's just a reminder that
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Texas has always contained internal argument, so Texas was an
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: independent republic from eighteen thirty six to eighteen forty five.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Anneccesation into the United States was controversial, especially because Texas
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: was a slaveholding republic. President John Tyler signed the annexation
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: resolution on March first, eighteen forty five, just before he
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: was leaving office. President James Polk followed through annexation, though
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: did set the table for the war with Mexico. But
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: here's the fuller picture. Mexico claimed the border at the
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: Noosis River, which runs through what is now South Texas
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: near Corpus Christi. Texas and the United States claimed the
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Rio Grande as the border roughly one hundred and fifty
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: miles farther south. Well. The disputed land that one hundred and
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: fifty miles between those rivers became the flashpoint for war.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: So when US troops entered the contested zone, skirmishes broke
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: out or followed. But it's also true that President Polk
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: was expansionist and he prepared to use the conflict to
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: secure territorial goals. Let's just say the disputed border was
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: pretext right. It provided the immediate trigger and then, of
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: course the expansionist ambition provided the context. Both things can
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: be true. At the same time, It's worth noting that
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Texas actually entered the Union differently. Texas retained control over
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: its own public lands, they didn't hand that over to
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: the federal government. And the annexation resolution included language allowing Texas,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: with its own consent and Congress's consent, to divide itself
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: into as many as five states. That still exists, by
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the way, that's still on the books. Now Texas can't
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: unilaterally subdivide itself, but it's already there. They just have
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: to go to Congress to agree to. But the provision
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: reinforced a sense of negotiated entry, and it wasn't a
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: simple absorption. Right. Add nine years of independent nationhood, and
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: now you understand the durable identity that is rooted in
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: sovnardanty that gives Texas this lone star identity. Right, It
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: is different than every other state in that respect. So
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: March second, eighteen thirty six was not just a declaration
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: of independence. It was the beginning of a layered identity,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: multi ethnic and contested, entangled with slavery mythologized through the Alamo,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: complicated by goliad reinforced by annexation, challenged again when their
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: own governor refused to pledge loyalty the Confederacy in eighteen
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: sixty one, and it's all still being debated today. How
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I frame this conversation in this podcast, time Machine will
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: have partisans on both sides of the argument in Texas
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: disputing certain things I said. So, look, Texas doesn't just
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: have an origin story. It has an argument with its
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: own past, and that argument still shapes how Texans see power,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: sovereignty and union. Right, they have their own power grid.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: They're off the grid compared to everybody else. Right, everything
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: is bigger in Texas, but everything is also different, and
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: there's a reason for it. It's part of their origin story.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: So there you go. There's my history lesson for the week.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Ask Chuck, all right. The first question for the day
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: comes from Jay in New York. Jay with an initial
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: not JY, and he writes, I'm seeing a lot of
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: comparisons between Iraq and Iran, but one major difference is
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that after nine to eleven, there was an eighteen month
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: campaign to convince Americans that regime change in Iraq was necessary.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Fact checked true. Despite the fear mongering and dishonesty of
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: that campaign. The Bush administration made a strategic pr decison,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: and I believe it bought them time with the American
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: people long after Iraq turned into a quagmire. What is
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the political risk for Trump in doing none of the
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: same prep work or are we simply in a different
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: era where that kind of thing no longer matters? No? Look,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: I mean this is to me among the open questions.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: I think it here's a tangible way, and it's just
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: in hardcore politics. I think he did have a there's
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: a coalition of Trump's right. You know, just because you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: voted for Trump doesn't mean you're a member of MAGA. Right,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: there is a deep MAGA group. But look, the fact
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: is Trump got controlled the Republican Party by making common
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: cause with the isolationist wing. I don't think he ever
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: was a true isolationist. He was always you know the
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: I think he was attracted more to the nationalism translation xenophobia.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: That is why he made such common cause. I think
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: it was less engaged in the in the isolation and
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: isolationist aspect of things. Though he does like the binary
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: way of having relationships with other countries and it's using
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: tariffs and having bilateral trade deals. Right, he's really a
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: unilateralist in that sense. But you know, you're you're embedded
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: in your question. Is what I think the risk is
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: just for this November, He's already got to turn out
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: problem among his base. Right, they're already kind of demoralized
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: by the lies about Epstein. They're demoralized by the fact
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: that these tariffs have raised prices, not lowered them. They're
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: demoralized by the electric prices with his AI buddies that
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: he's gotten with. And if you really were concerned about
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: democrats like Hunter Biden using his father to make money
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: off of politics, then you're probably really grossed out by
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: what the Trump family is doing. And now let's say
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: you're a Marjorie Taylor Green or you are an ally
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of Tolsey Gabbard who was drawn to them because of
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: the no more wars, you know, no more military interventions.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: How motivated are you going to be to go to
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: the polls? So thin you I think this is the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: political risk that he is now so consumed with his
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: own legacy. I'm the one that saved Iran, I'm the
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: one that saved Venezuela. I'm the one that saved Cuba.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: That he is forgetting about why he was elected and
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: what he campaigned on. I think that stuff matters, and
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: I think voters voters. Again, I go back to what
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: his voters do not reward presidents for incredible foreign policy decisions.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Maybe over time they will, but never in the moment. Again.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Just got to see anybody involved with George H. W.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Bush's campaign in nineteen ninety two. Jake from California rights, Hey,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: longtime listener, reader, and viewer hotline days. All right, old school,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I love it. Tough loss for your canes, yes, but hey,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: as Washington Husky, at least we'll always have nineteen ninety one. Yeah, okay,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I would love the battle of two undefeateds that never
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: happened in nineteen ninety one. We had a split national
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: title basically East coast West coast. Right anyway, But I digress.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: He says this in your emergency pot about the US
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: is reel launching what feels more like a preventive war.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: You rightly noted that Trump may back off if things
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: get messy. So why is the media so quick to
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: echo the administration's framing? Seem little pushback or demand for evidence,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: even on claims like Commane being killed. Thanks for pushing
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: for a more independent, fact based approach to news. Haven't
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: missed the podcast yet, think Look, this is one of
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: the Look we have no there's no press score in
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: the Pentagon, right, there's just the propagandists that have agreed
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: to to the rules of the Pentagon, which indicate that
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: you're not allowed to report news anything that is not
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: pre approved by the by the Pentagon. Im being slightly facetious,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: but not too much. So you have that issue that
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: was not an issue during Iraq, where whatever you want
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: to think of the decision by the Bush Chainey administration,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: they were constantly trying to keep the press as informed
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: as possible. Certainly they were massaging the facts, but they
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: weren't not at all compared to the Trump administration. Everybody's
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: forthcoming these days, right, And you know, I before Trump,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: I'd say every presidential administration you have to drag facts
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: out of. You can't drag facts out of this administration
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: because they don't. They lie so much at times, you
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: don't even they don't even know what the facts are
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: on this front. And I do Look, you you imply correctly.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: You know, I think the biggest thing that that Iranians
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: who want freedom should fear is that Trump's going to
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: walk away. You know, He's going to make a massive
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: walk away. You know, I have this, I have this
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: slightly dystopian fear that come January twenty, twenty twenty nine,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: all Donald Trump's legacy will be is destruction. Right, whether
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: you're in Washington, DC, and like half the White House
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: is still in rubble, You're Kennedy Center is gutted, right,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: and you'll have Venezuela still not a democracy or rebuilt.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: You'll have Cuba in some sort of half being rebuilt,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: half not the rubble of Tehran that will have had
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: a lot to do with. But he'll want to walk
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: away from that, and that it really is just sort
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: of you know that he leaves the country with just
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: a mess everywhere, actual mess at the White House itself, rubble,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the Constitution kind of metaphorically crumbled. I mean it's not,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: as you know, my fear is less him trying to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: get a third term than more just leaving such a
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: giant pot of rubble, both literally and figuratively all over
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the presidency. And you know that's Honestly, I think it's
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: the most likely scenario at this point going into twenty
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: twenty nine. It is. You know, if you were to
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: ask me, you know, there's four or five paths to
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: get to twenty twenty nine that we'll get to. That's
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the one that I think is the most likely. That
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: we're in some sort of that it's not just a
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: presidency unfinished, it's a presidency that's been based on destruction
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: and whether physical destruction of buildings. Right he claims he's
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: a builder, but right now does he seems to knock
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: stuff down a hell of a lot better than he
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: does building anything these days. So I do think you'll
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: see some pushback, but you know, this is what happens
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: when you clear the press out of the Pentagon. So
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: we're going to have very little. You know, we'll probably
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: we get more out of israel I know as a reporter,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: Israeli sources in some cases are going to be more
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: trustworthy and at least on some of the military aspects
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and some of the truth about Iran than what we're
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: going to get out of the Trump administration. Because the
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: Trump administration, even those that want to be truthful to
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: the press fear getting in trouble for being truthful to
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: the press, So it really has created a very questionable
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: atmosphere forgetting the truth particularly. I mean, you know, the
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: truth is usually the first victim, right in war. Well,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: it's been the first victim of the Trump era, that's
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: for sure, all right. Next question comes from Mark and
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: he writes, Hey, can you speak to the scope of
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: President Obama's nuclear deer with Iran? There's been a lot
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: of talk about Trump tearing it up, his failure or
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: unwillingness to secure a deal, and obviously now bombing Iran.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: How strong was the deal that Obama got and how
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: big a mistake was it for Trump to tear it up.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there is nuanced here. Thanks well, Mark. The
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: first thing you need to know is the only person
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: that was advocating for tearing up the nuclear deal in
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: the Trump's first administration was Donald Trump. Mike Pompeo. As
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: much as that he was not in favor, there were
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people in Trump's orbit that were
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: never in favor of doing the agreement in the first place.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: But once the agreement was in, a whole bunch of folks,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: including Mike Pompeo, Uh, it were you know, uh and
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: Jim Mattis and many in positions of influence and power
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: at the time at State, CIA and Defense were like,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: don't get out of it because you it gives it
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: was giving us some insight on their technology. We had
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: more information about what they were up to. It gave
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: some stability to the region. Now, the downside of that
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: deal was was releasing a set of funds that ended
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: up being used for a lot of Iraan's proxy terrorist contractors.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the fairest critique is that it
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: gave the Iranians a bit too much on that front,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: or that we didn't you know, there should have if
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: there should have been a bit more guard rails on
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: how the money. And you remember Trump talking about the
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: pallets of cash and all of that stuff, frozen assets
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: that belonged to the Iranians that were frozen when the
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Theocracy revolution took place in nineteen seventy nine. So look,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: I think the debate, I think we're going to debate
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: the Iran deal for a long time. And this is
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: a case where I don't want it to get lost
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: and an ends justifies the means scenario here where. Okay,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: if Iran isn't a you know, if Iran is able
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: to become a fledgling democracy, say by twenty thirty five,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: maybe by twenty thirty, right, and it's starting to be
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: a flourishing country, Well we say the nuclear deal was
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: a bad idea or not? You know, should we have
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: pursued it earlier? Now one could argue, you know, look around,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: more of a paper tiger than I think anybody feared.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: But how much of that? You know, you didn't fully
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: know they were a paper tiger and took you until
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: you took away their their proxy warriors in Hesbelahamas, and
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: so you know, I think I think there'll be a
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: real debate, and I think there was you know, we
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: didn't know. There was always some hope maybe. And that's
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: the thing, right, if you want to lead a rules
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: based order and you want something to be durable, and
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: you want credibility once it gets once they violate the terms,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: then you can argue having a durable deal. That wasn't
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: just the United States that cut this deal. Remember it
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: was it was Russia, right, they were involved. It was China.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: It was so called the P five plus one. So
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: it was it was. It was it had the potential
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: to be durable, but it was giving Iran an opportunity
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: to become a to prove that its sovereignty should be
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: respected and that you know that they were not the
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: evil incarnate that many of us thought that regime actually was.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: And it's turned out to be on that front. So
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be hard to judge whether
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: tearing up the deal is going to be viewed as
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: a catastrophic mistake because it did lead it, it accelerated
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: this moment. Right, If this moment leads to a better Iran,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: then I think you know where the debate's going to settle.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: If this moment leads to a vacuum that looks more
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: like a rock over the next twenty years, I think
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: that that debate about getting out of of the deal
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: will be will be still a pretty highly relevant debate.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: Michael T. From Chicago, Right, Hey, I enjoyed your thoughts
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: on who exactly should be considered a founding father, but
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help but notice you completely ignored the Articles
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: of Confederation. I don't mean to ignore it, but yes
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: I did. While that constitution didn't last terribly long, it
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: was still the governing document of our nation, and everyone
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: seems to forget it existed. What say you should we
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: work harder not to forget its accomplishments as well as
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: its failures. Look, it's a fair critique that I haven't
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: delved into it, and I think it's a reminder it
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: is why, you know, I think I've shared with you before.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite Founding father scholars is her name's
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Schervinsky over it. She runs the George Washington Library
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: at Mount Vernon here in Virginia. And when I've always
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: asked her this question, you know, how would the founders,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: you know, what would what would they say today, you know,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: coming back in the constitution? What would surprise them? And
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: one of the first things she says is, well, it
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: was surprised them that this constitution is still is still intact.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Right that the lesson that the lesson they took away
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: from the failure of the Articles of Confederation was that,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: you know, hey, if this constitution can last twenty five years,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: that's a success that there was, you know. And by
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: the way, other countries have rewritten their constitutions, have had
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: different constitutions over the years. The fact that we've had
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: the same one for as long as we have is
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: actually quite impressive. But no, I think, look, there's still
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: lessons from the Articles in Confederation. Right, This goes to
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: how strong of a republic did we want to be? Right,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: how strong of a federal government, of a centralized government
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: that we want to be? And I think the importance
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: of and you're right, why you know why we can't
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: forget on the Articles of Federation. The importance of its
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: existence in our history is that it's a reminder that
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: we've always had this tension between rights to the states
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: and rights to the central government. How centralized a government, dude,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: we want Our founders always feared too strong of a
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: central government. And that's why when you've fast forward and
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: you realize what the hell are we doing with this
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: imperial presidency that we've basically created over the last fifty
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: years and you know, like fifty seventy years, I mean,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: we can you know, I do this? This is one
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: of those you want to talk about an undertended consequence
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: and sort of I'm going to age myself here. But
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite old SNL skits was coffee Talk,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't really a skit, but it was just
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: sort of it was basically the best part of Coffee
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: Talk where Michael Mike Myers played played I forget her name.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: But it was like it was like coffee talk. You know,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: It's like you'd throw out like a silly topic and
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, and discuss and then that would be
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: the end of the segment. But it would be you know,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: television killed the Constitution discuss. Right, That's sort of the
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: most provocative, simplified headline I could do. But ever since
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: the era, right TV made the presidency and the president
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: a singular celebrity in American society, and in some ways
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: that celebrity seemed to help over time garner the position
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: of the presidency more and more power, and you serve
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: more and more power from Congress. So let's say thesis.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's a fact, but that's a thesis
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: that you could potentially defend or not. But Michael, what
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: you really is, I'm going to find an excuse to
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: do a deeper dive on the Articles of Confederation when
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: I can soon. Nick from Michigan Rights, Hey, Chuck, thanks.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: I find it regrettable to entertain such thoughts but do
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: you surmise that a component of Trump's strategic considerations for
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: military intervention in Iran is to elicit a rally around
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: the flag phenomenon that might favorably influence the midterm elections. Look,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: I I understand you asking. I mean, you know it's
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't if he was thinking about that, he wouldn't
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: be the first president to think about that. We've had
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: a movie called Wag the Dog that is of some infamy,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: and it's about twenty odd years old these days, but
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a movie that's worth your
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: time with Dustin Hoffman. By the way, if you've never
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: seen it, if you're in your forties and this that
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: that film's new to you, go check it out. It's
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think it'll feel too dated. But we manufacture
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: a war with Albania, which, of course, if you're my age,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: when you hear the words Albania, you think of the
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: TV show Cheers, because Albania Albania, it borders on the
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: adri Attic. It's an old it's from the first season.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to digress here. The first season
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: of Cheers was so impactful because I think Coach was
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: only on it for one season, and yet Coach is
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: the guy who played Coach. You know, he died after
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: the season one, but he was the sort of the
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: the old pal of Ted Danson's there ted Danson's character,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: but he was the His one liners were the best
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: Woody hears. It was good, but nobody could top Coach.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: And what was amazing was like how Coach sort of
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: that show was on forever and Coach was only on
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: it one season, and yet it felt like he always
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: was sort of hovering over the show and it gave
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: it part of its DNA. So yes, so wag the dog, Albania,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: see how my mind works. It got me to cheers
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: Coach and all of that. This is I think why
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: you subscribe, or maybe why you were about to unsubscribe
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: right now. But but I tease, I just don't see
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: how this helps his base. You know, I sort of
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: would say, if you've listened this far, you probably heard
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: a version of the answer I'm about to give now.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: I think he put together a coalition that's suspect of this.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: And again, my goodness, you know how short attention spanner.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: This is March the elections are how many I mean,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: just look at this last week of things that happened
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: from the Clinton's being deposed, you know, for the Epstein situation,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: to Anthropic and Netflix and that sort of government intervention
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: into the business community. We had the tariff ruling last week.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, you see where I'm going here, right, So
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: I just think this is that's another the more more,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: you know, more likely to me, Iran is probably a
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: neutral at best politically and only negative. Like I do
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: not see a positive political impact here for Trump at all,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: because again I go back to George H. W. Bush
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: couldn't have had a better outcome in liberating Kuwait. The
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: man almost finished in third place for the presidency within
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: within a year and a half. So I think we know,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: you know it is in that sense, as American voters,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: we never look backwards. We only look in our wallet
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: and a tiny bit forward. Corey from Southern California Rights, Hey,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: I hope you picked this question because I haven't heard
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: anyone talking about this. Well I've picked this question. Well,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: my producer Lisa helped pick this question. But what's to
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: stop Trump from reinstating the tariffs every one hundred and
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: fifty days. It's the same tactic he used for Halligan's
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: appointment before she was removed by the courts. Are there
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: any guardrails? And do you think this is something he
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: will consider? Thanks Roy, you do much respect from South California.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: The answers. Of course, he's going to either do it
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: within the same statute or use the other ones. There's
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: all about five or six different emergency authorities that he
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: can do. And one of the things that Stephen Miller
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: has taught him is essentially, don't just because you think
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: the courts may stop you, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Make the courts stop you make them meaning even if
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: you know you're gonna lose, you may be able to
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: force your way through. I mean, everybody knew he was
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: going to lose this teriff argument, but they proceeded anyway.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: And what did they do? They bought so much time
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: right that now it's gonna, i think, take a new
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: court fight in order to get this administration to return
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: the stolen money from the American consumers and the small
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: businesses of America, who all rightfully should get their money back.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: And if they don't give the money back, then it's
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: just is the government just taken money taken. I mean,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about the ultimate liberty moment, sons
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: of liberty moment, the United States government. This is the
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: tea Party. Shit, not the tea Party of the last
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: fifteen years. I'm talking about the original Boston tea Party.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: This is taxation, right. They just they grabbed money and
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: we had no say over it whatsoever. It was taxation,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: literally without representation, because they did not go to Congress
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: to get the ability to tax you. They took your money.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: Now they're refusing to give it back again. We've started
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: a revolution over a monarch that did this. So yes,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: of course he's going to keep doing it because what
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: he's learned is that make the court stop you, you'll
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: continue to buy time. There's always another way, another this,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: And this is where you know, Stephen Miller is a
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: incredibly smart and well informed guy about how the different
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: aspects of the government works. It's too bad we can't
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: put that intelligence for the betterment of the American Republic.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: That instead it is used and it's been weaponized to
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: essentially create a partisan agenda or realignment that is frankly
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: not very popular with the country. So, by the way,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: the reason I lost I got a little fired up
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: there on this because that's yet another story that this
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: Iran situation is overshadowed over the last week. But it's
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: also another reminder why I don't suspect Iran's going to
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: have any positive impact on Donald Trump and the Republicans
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: at all, And if anything, it has negative impact because
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: it comes to quagmire or no impact because everything else
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: matters a lot more to the American voter than the
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: regime in Iran. And by the way, there's one other
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: thing that I did not discuss in more detail. The
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: greatest fear I have of what we're doing with Iran
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: is not their conventional military response. It's their ability to
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: potentially have an asymmetrical response. And I don't think the
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: President has done enough to warn Americans that, Hey, I
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: don't care where you are, whether it's Los Angeles, New York, DC, Miami, Chicago,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, Paris, the possibility of
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you think everybody in the regime is going
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: away quietly, You think they'll all want to lay down
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: their arms and cut a deal to survive, or do
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: you think some of them want their power back and
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: might try terrorist attacks as a way to flex their muscle.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: I just think that this has opened up a vulnerability
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: for US Americans that our president has not prepared the
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: country for on that front. All right, next question comes
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: from David P and Scottsdale. My first question David P
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: that I know my friend Tony Corneiser asked, are you
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: from North Scottsdale anyway? But I, by the way, if
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: you know you know, Hey, Jack, I believe you want independent. Yeah,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: you went independent about a year ago. Yeah, okay, Yeah,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: that's probably the way to do it. I'm a big fan.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: Just curious about how the career change has gone. Are
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: you spending more or less time on your substack podcast
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: each week then you spend on an average doing your
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: most recent job at NBC with almost a year of
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: experience under your belt. What would you have advised yourself
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four going into twenty twenty five. Love
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: the show as it is, please don't change much. Well, David,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: thanks appreciate it. Look, I have committed the sin that
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: everybody warned me of, be careful saying yes too often
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: too quickly. That a lot of I've been blessed with
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of interesting opportunities, and I've probably said yes
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: to quite a bit. I joke that I have no
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: full time job, but like seventeen part time jobs. But
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: I love this podcast the most. This is where I
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: feel energize. This is where I feel like, Look, what
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: I've tried to do with this podcast is sort of
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: recreate the two hours a day that was my favorite
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: two hours a day every day at NBC. And all
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: my colleagues that worked with me at NBC or know,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: we want to say, which is our morning meeting? And
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: it was for two shows, right, We had our planning
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: the Sunday Show and planning the Daily Show. And I
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: had two stabs of people at times in there. I
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: mean a collection of what I think are the brightest
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: and smartest people. I would love to start a news
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: organization with that group of people. I miss all of
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: you guys more than you realize. I'm tempted to name
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: check some of you on how much I miss. Whether
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: it's Sarah and Jesse who just who? Just we all
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: three shared a brain, Melissa, John and David we visual
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: We had visions that were very similar and we certainly
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: knew how to And there's so many other folks in there.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: But but I miss that, I missed that collaboration. But
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: I've in some ways try to recreate sort of sort
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: of like you know how I always you know, I
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: always said I wanted to always think about the day
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: two and three story on day one rather than just
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: living in the day one story, because I think we're
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: here to educate, and when I feel like I've able
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: to do better here than I ever was in NBC,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: and it was more about a constraint, you know, I could.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: It's not about executive oversight or anything like that. It
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: was just about the time constraints, the the sort of
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: stuck in old ways, right. It was no one individual
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: it was. But I feel like I can. I feel
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: like with less that I'm that I'm able to sort
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: of both inform and educate. I think we in the
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: news business don't educate enough. We do a lot of
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: informing of what's happening, new information, you know, all that stuff,
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: but we're terrible about the context, right, We don't explain.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I'm pretty proud of the fact,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: and you know, some of it's by happenstance. But one
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: of my favorite subsets that I've started with the podcast
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: is our podcast time Machine segment, which is basically this
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: week in history and now we try to pick something
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: that's obviously relevant to the moment we're living in in
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: some form or another. In a few weeks back, we
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: did the Iranian Revolution, which was really more of a
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: history of sort of America and its relationship with Iran
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: over the years when we've got involved, and it was
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: glad to have that already, you know, we had already
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: published it. We reposted it over the weekend on YouTube.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: It's a good sort of you know, we're now suddenly
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: this matters again. I still haven't seen anything like that
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: on so called legacy television or on whatever you want
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: to refer to it. And I'm loath to just say, oh,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: the mainstream media is dead. Well, look, we're we're in
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: the middle of building mainstream a new mainstream media. Meaning
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: if mainstream media is the definition of fact based, well
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: informed information, then yeah, accuse me of being part of
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: the main new mainstream media. I think we're building something
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: new here, something that is essentially truly for the mainstream,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: truly fact based, not trying to sort of get caught
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: up too much in the performative and so you know,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: I've I look, I feel energized. I loved my time
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: at NBC. I have said, you know, didn't love the
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: decision making that was taking place over the last eighteen months.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: But I know it wasn't that these were this was
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: above their pay grades. They were executing a strategy that
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: the corporation decided it wanted out of the news business.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: And like I said, we've seen it, whether it's Disney,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: whether it's Comcast, whether it's Paramount, whether it's Warner Brothers.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has made it very difficult on publicly traded
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: companies to get treated fairly in the regulatory process. If
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: they have a news division that tries to practice distributing
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: and reporting on the news honestly, and that's you know,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: that presents all sorts of challenge. They have a fetish
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: irresponsibility of shareholders. I'm disappointed that they've all given up
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: on having robust news divisions. That's a bummer, but you
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: know what, there's enough demand for one that we're gonna
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: and in some ways we're better off building one that's
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: truly independent, having one that is blessed by you know,
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: that still is at the whims of a CEO and
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: shareholders is probably quite dangerous and probably one that we
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: ought to not have. Right There shouldn't be a news
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: organization where you say, well, that's a Murdoch News organization,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: that's an Ellison news organization, that's a Soros news organization,
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: or that new We need something that's truly independent, that
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: doesn't feel like it owes anybody anything. And so in
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: that respect, I feel like, you know, some of you're
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: going to say, boy, did did David just? Is he
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: a planted question from Scottsdale. No, you're not a planted question,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: but you did allow me to advertise what I think
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: is the best part of what we're doing. And in fact,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and use this as the
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: last question and turn it into speaking of independent media.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: It'll be us independent media types that we'll have all
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: the information you want on campaign twenty twenty six, starting
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: in Texas on Tuesday night. Right here. My live streams,
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: whether it's on YouTube or X Crystaliz's live streams either
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: on YouTube or substack decision to ask live stream whether
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: on YouTube or X. We're going to try to get
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: in some other areas as many as we can get
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: to to do our live streams to make it as
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: accessible as possible. And you know what we're not going
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: to do. We're not going to make you pay a
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: cable TV fee in order to hear our commentary. We're
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: not going to make you join something, you know, pay
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: a fee. It is all. It is all there for
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: you as long as you've got access to the Internet.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: So with that, I will put a pin on this
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: episode were it's been an incredibly busied last ten days,
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna have an incredibly busy rest of twenty
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: twenty six, that I promise you. So I'm gonna pause here,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: I will. I thought about a quick sports report, but
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: this felt like a good place to end. I did
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: spend my weekend watching GW lose an oh so close
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: game against Dayton. You know, I haven't spent a lot
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: of time on college basketball yet, but guess what, I
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: am going to give you a little taste of college
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: basketball because we're entering what might be the next four
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: weeks of basketball. College basketball sort of euphoria. All right,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: it is unbelievable. And if I had a complete sports report,
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: I'd also be bragging about how Carson Beck we stood
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: booze at the Combine to show himself to be the
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: most impressive quarterback at the combine. So kudos to mister
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: Carson Beck for doing great even while being the only
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: quarterback bood when you're just trying to do your workouts.
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to see that Carson Beck is going to
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: be a Day two drafteet at minimum, and who knows,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: maybe he sneaks into the bottom of the first round.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: All right now, I'm gonna shut up. I'll see you
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: in twenty four hours.