Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s Government Has Lost All Credibility + Epstein Isn’t Just A Scandal… It’s A Mirror

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Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s Government Has Lost All Credibility + Epstein Isn’t Just A Scandal… It’s A Mirror · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: they're happy Monday. It is a federal holiday, President's Day,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: since we've separated out when I was a hit the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: very first year or two of school, I feel like
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: we had every state decided were they gonna get out
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for Washington's birthday or for Lincoln's birthday? And then we,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of course we ended up with this President's Day. I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell you what sort of what doesn't happen as much
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: with President's Day as I wish it did, and look
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  Speaker 1: I've got I don't want you to think I'm just
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: gonna go down this President's Day rabbit hole for twenty minutes.
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  Speaker 1: I got like a two minute riff here in President's Day,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and then we're gonna get in to what I have
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  Speaker 1: to say. It is a Monday. I've got an interesting
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of how the Trump administration is accelerating distrust in government
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and the irony being the reason Trump got to the
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  Speaker 1: presidency twice was playing on the fears of distrust of government.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna get to that in a bit. It's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: also a Monday, which means I've got my time cast.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: We're gonna go into the Toddcast time cast, my Toddcast
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: time machine, and we're gonna go all the way back
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: to the eighteen forties. That's the only hint I'm going
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to give you. But we're gonna go all the way
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: back to the eighteen forties, an important event that took
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: place that is still reverberating in our politics today around
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  Speaker 1: the globe. So there's two hints that I just gave
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you eighteen forties and politics around the globe. All right,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: no googling, see if you can figure it out. While
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you're listening whatever you may be doing today, but we
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: kick it off it is President's Day, and it is
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: one of those things that I do wish there were.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want the lame list where historians decide who
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: are the greatest, who are the worst, because a lot
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of times, you know, many of these rankings of presidents
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: are more reflective of the time we're living in, and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we apply our current times to trying to figure out
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the success or failure of a given president. So I
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: do think we sometimes just like just like in sports debates,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you know, should you really put Bill Russell and Lebron
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: James in the same category when you're trying to decide
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to do the greatest ever win? And they literally played
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: two different types of games. There was no three point shot.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: There was you know, literally there nobody dribbled, nobody switched
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: hands dribbling. What is allowed what is called dribbling today
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: would have been called palming in the sixties. So it's
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  Speaker 1: I almost view it similarly, right, It's look, the times
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: that you live in matter a lot, and sometimes it
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: is hard for us to understand what the cultural times
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: were in that moment, no matter how much we read
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: that said, I thought I would quickly go and talk
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: about President's Day. In this respect, we now have our
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  Speaker 1: third straight one term president, or you know, we're going
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to have a fourth one term president. We'll see if
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the person elected in twenty eight can get re elected
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: in thirty two. And one of the interesting aspects of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: one term presidencies is we deem them all failures. Right,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: we look at a success or failure of a president
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: based on whether they get reelected. So essentially what we're
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: saying is, and and I think this is a mistake,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and I'll get to it in a minute, but what
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  Speaker 1: we're saying is if you if you you're not a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: good politician, then you probably want a good president. I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: will certainly say, if you're a one term president, it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: means you weren't a good politician, but it doesn't always
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: mean you weren't qualified for the job, and if anything,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: you might have been really good at the job. So
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  Speaker 1: in that spirit, and in fact, if you're Joe Biden
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  Speaker 1: or Donald Trump, the way we judge presidencies, it's pretty
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: clear neither one of them is ever going to be
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: considered a successful president, simply because neither one of them
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: won re election. You know, Trump won non consecutive terms,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: but as we learned with the only other president to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: win non consecutive terms, is at best you become an
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: intriguing footnote in history. Hey check out Gover Cleveland in
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  Speaker 1: one non consecutive terms. But it is not as if
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  Speaker 1: his presidencies have left a legacy. Now it's I'm not
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: saying it isn't possible, but it is more likely than
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: not that being a one term president and an inability
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to win direct reelection will always be seen as an
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  Speaker 1: asterisk keeping you out of your top ten or top fifty.
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  Speaker 1: However you want to do that, because part of a
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  Speaker 1: successful president in our democracy is doing policies that you
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  Speaker 1: can also sell to the public in that moment in time,
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  Speaker 1: not just hope historians one hundred years later say, hey,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that was pretty good. But in that spirit I thought
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  Speaker 1: I would talk about I would point out five one
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  Speaker 1: term presidents who history has been kinder to and will
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  Speaker 1: continue to be kinder too, because essentially their big failing
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  Speaker 1: was an inability to meet the moment politically, but their
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  Speaker 1: policies and some of the things that they proposed actually
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  Speaker 1: live longer beyond them. So let's start with perhaps the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: only one term president that chose to be a one
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: term president. James Polk. He was the ultimate checklist president.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: He promised to serve one term. He set four massive goals,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: securing the Oregon Trail, acquiring California, lowering tariffs, establishing an
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  Speaker 1: independent treasury. He achieved all of them. He expanded the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: US to the Pacific, and then he simply went home.
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  Speaker 1: We have never had anybody like him since who actually
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: said no, I want to be a one term president
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: because you got to get it done in one term,
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  Speaker 1: and this is what I'm going to do. So Polk
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: is still sort of you know, always deserves either's some
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: There's a couple of good Polk biographies that have been
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  Speaker 1: written in the last twenty five years. I highly highly
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  Speaker 1: recommend them. Bob Mary, I believe, was one of them.
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  Speaker 1: I think was the author of one of them that
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I truly enjoyed on that one. But I would encourage
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  Speaker 1: you if you got to, if you're looking for a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: president that you haven't learned enough about, try James Polk
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  Speaker 1: number two on my list of underrated presidents on here.
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  Speaker 1: And these one termers, James Garfield, you've heard me, Lion
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  Speaker 1: eyes him before he's he's sort of he's he's the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: what if presidency, right, because in two hundred days of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a presidency he did begin the dismantling of what was
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: then a corrupt spoils system is what it was called,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Ben But he's the patronage system, right, trying to take
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the patronage out of politics. Now. Donald Trump's trying to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: basically eradicate all of those changes at Garfield and then
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  Speaker 1: later Chester Arthur made it is terrible for trust and
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  Speaker 1: government if we go down this road. But the other
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  Speaker 1: part of Garfield and the reason it's such a what
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: if presidency is he was a fierce advocate for civil
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: rights at the time and was very much pro reconstruction.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I wonder if he lives, does Jim Crow get dismantled
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: before really becomes embedded for another forty years in society.
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  Speaker 1: Number three on the list George H. W. Bush an
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  Speaker 1: extraordinarily busy and accomplished one term presidency. He just wasn't
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a very good politician and timing of the economic recovery
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: was not good for him. It started to recover sort
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: of after voters had already made their decision that he
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't focused enough on the economy, and he was also
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: overshadowed by Reagan. He didn't have the charisma of Ronald Reagan,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: but look hoped he was the president when the Cold
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: War came to an end. He helped oversee renoifacation of Germany,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and he chose stable global diplomacy and long term fiscal health,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: which actually created the first inklings of the Trump movement
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  Speaker 1: within his party. But he essentially held off that sort
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of return to sort of pre World War Two conservatism
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  Speaker 1: that the Republican Party has now returned to. His actions
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: helped hold that off for arguably another generation. John Quincy
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Adams here's a man born arguably one hundred years too early.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: He proposed a national system of Rhodes canals and even
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a national university an astronomy astronomical observatories. Essentially, he was
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: outlining the beginnings of the space program, our incredible land
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: grant university system that later Lincoln would help solidify. At
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the time that he proposed these things, he was mocked,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: but he actually was laying out the blueprint for modern
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: American infrastructure. So in some ways he was just ahead
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of his time. And you know, he could never shake
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: being a scion that obviously it didn't hurt. Then there's
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter, who I think is a presidency that once
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: those of us who lived up during the Carter presidency
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: when we die off because we saw just politically how
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: erratic he was, and he wasn't a good politician, but
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: it didn't mean that some of the things he accomplished
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: weren't going to be seen as as you know, whether
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: it's deregulation of the airlines, he did quite a few
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: things that we are aging fairly well, Camp David Accords.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, how important were those uh to these days?
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And as you know, as Israel solidifies itself more and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: more as an accepted country and power and finally being
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: accepted by more Muslim and Arab nations, you know, it
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: all began with Egypt, the Panama Canal Treaty, which of
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: course Trump's trying to undo, and his focus on renewable energy,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: yes the country wasn't ready, yes, not there, and using
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: human rights as a pillar of foreign policy, which I
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: think will be something that will be more of a given,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: specially when we move on from the Trump era. I
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: think the reactionary part of the Trump era, the lack
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: of moral and human rights in our foreign policy is
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: actually going to make that, I think, over time, make
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: that more and more of a centerpiece. So one hundred
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: years from now, how will Biden and Trump be viewed?
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  Speaker 1: Some of it is going to depend on whether you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: neither put it this way. Both will never be seen
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: as consequential one hundred years from now. Right either Trump's
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: move towards nationalism and America first protectionism becomes you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: defines the globe for the next hundred years, and he
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: will be seen as And if it is does lead
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to a successful America leader of the world, and we
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: do actually advance and avoid major wars, then sure he
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: might be seen as visionary. I'm skeptical considering the previous
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: time that we were a very nationalistic globe and how
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that led to multiple wars. But we'll see on there.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I think right now many historians currently put Trump closer
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to the bottom. As for Biden, you know, he he.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it'll ever be considered a good
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: presidency or an undergraded presidency, but a few things that
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: were accomplished during his presidency may age well. Whether it's
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the chipsack, the reindustrialization, the focus on renewable energy as
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: a you know, sort of an all of the above policy,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: if that is where we go, right, But a lot
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: of both Biden and Trump. So the point is is
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that I don't think Biden and Trump can be fairly
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: evaluated for one hundred years, right, because we all will
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: personalize it so much, just like what happens with Jimmy
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Carter and maybe to a lesser and George hw Bush.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But anyway, there's my little President's day rant on that
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the most important thing you should take away from this
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: is go read about James Bolk, the only true one
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: term president that we had because he wanted to be
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and you know he certainly he's certainly he did what
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: many people would wish more politicians would do. Set a checklist,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: accomplish it, and walk away. It is truly a sort
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: of representative democracy, all right. I want to move on
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to a larger, a larger conversation today. It's a I'm
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: going to start with a question that's bigger than anyone headline.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: What does a real reckoning look like? You know? I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: And just stay with me here a minute, because I'm
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: going to go into multiple stories from Epstein to DHS,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: to the Me Too movement, to plane crashes to El Paso.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: But again, just stick with me and trust me on
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: this one. But I want to start with that question,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: what does a real reckoning look like? Because it is
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: interesting to me that in the first Trump term we
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: had a reckoning that was the Me Too movement sort
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of in some ways, Harvey Weinstein is sort of the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: face of that, right, and it certainly helped trigger the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Epstein reckoning that we're having here in the moment now
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: in the second Trump term, right. And I don't think
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: it's an accident that it's during the Trump terms that
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: we want to have this outsized reckoning because the Epstein
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: files have become their own kind of moral and institutional
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: stress test, just like the Me Too movement did in
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, and twenty nineteen. But what's fascinating
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and where this where I'm going with this today, is
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: this the institution that seems the least capable of dealing
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: with Epstein and this Epstein moment is the government itself.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: And that's not because the private sector is pure, we
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: know that, please, Okay, It's because in the private sector
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: there's at least one brutal organizing principle consequences, right, there's
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: reputational consequences. We're seeing that with Casey wan Osserman, who's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: head of the LA Olympic Committees, faced a potential vote
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of no confidence on that. He survived that, but he's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: now going to sell one of his firms to sort
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of get out from this. And he did flirtatious emails
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: with Maxwell. It wasn't even an Epstein guy, but he
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was a Maxwell flirter. But it's reputational. There's liability issues, right,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: maybe why certain lawyers have been shown the door, certain
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: law firms have decided to part ways with managing partners.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: There's certainly customer consequences. People say, I'm not dealing have
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: business anymore. Right, Casey Wasserman's selling his firm because clients
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: didn't want to be associated. You have shareholders who don't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: like it, contracts access. So there's actually in the private
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: sector there's a mechanism that forces some action and forces
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: at least some consequence, right, that we're not seeing at
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: all with this government. In government right, in this government,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: especially the organizing principle increasingly feels like this deny, deflect,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: litigate the critics, and dare people to move on. Right,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: That's kind of what we heard with Bambondi. Let's talk
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: about Dow fifty thousand, move on. Nothing to see here.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: But if you think this is just about Epstein, it isn't.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Epstein is just the most morally radioactive example of a
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: broader pattern because trust is the currency of government, and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: without it you cannot have a legitimate government. And this
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: administration spends its trust currency like it's monopoly money. Right.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: And the irony of this is Donald Trump became president
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: by playing on distrust of government. And what has he done.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: He has made government less trustful. He is making us
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: less healthy because of the nonsense of DJHS. I'm gonna
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: get to less morally and ethically accountable because do as
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I say, not as I do, and perhaps it's making
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: it's creating an economic revolution if we're not careful. Then
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get to that in a minute. So
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: let's start with the idea that government can't carry the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: it's moral weight. Last week's hearing right with the Attorney
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: General of pan Bondi didn't reassure anyone. It did just
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the opposite. It reinforced the feeling that the Epstein story
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: inside government has become. It's not a story of justice.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: It's not even a story about the victims. It's simply
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a narrative management story. That is all the Justice Department
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: is trying to do is manage this narrative, land the
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: plane so that Trump is touched as little as possible politically.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: That's all this is about. And if you watched any
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: of Bondie's hearings, you saw the move questions about reactions,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: questions about victims, and questions about process, and the response
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: was simply combat right. They did an invasion of privacy
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: type thing of sort of finding out what parts of
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the Epstein files lawmakers were searching, which I found to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: be just atrocious. You have deflection. It turned into partisan,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: you know, trench warfare. And that matters because Epstein is
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: one of those stories where process is the morality touches
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: what you know. It's how you handle what you know.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Did you want to do the right thing when you
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: knew this guy was morally depraved and ethically questionable, or
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: did you look the other way because you got a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: free plane ride or because he was rich? Right, And
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: it's whether you can prove your pursuing truth and justice
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: rather than protecting reputations or settling scores. But that is
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: not what this justice department doing. Instead, the hearing left
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the public with the same sinking feeling we've had for
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: years that when a story touches powerful people, the system
• 18:31
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  Speaker 1: thirty percent off. Look, I'm not going to do the
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  Speaker 1: name game for now. You have other people that do that,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: because that's exactly how the truth gets buried in a
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: fog of mentions, insinuations, and what's turned into sort of
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: sorting by tribes like what about ism. So when one
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: side says this with Epstein, the other side says that
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: with Epstein. But I want to say this, if your
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: goal is public confidence, you don't get it by acting
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: like the public is the enemy. And this is where
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the private sector can comparison gets uncomfortable for government because
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: in the private sector, when there's a credible scandal with documentation,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: people can lose contracts, get fired, get sued, get blacklisted,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: get forced out of the room. In government, the Epstein
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: response increasingly looks like nothing to see here. You're a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: partisan for asking trust us. And also we're not going
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to answer basic questions about what we did and why right,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and it's your taxpayers in some ways we have these
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: people should be more accountable to us, not less. How
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: is it that Casey Wasserman's agency is more accountable about
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Epstein than the fricking federal government. Epstein is a task
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of whether the public still believes the government can tell
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the truth about the powerful people in this country. And
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: so far Pambondy and the Department of Justice is failing badly.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: F And this is a quick, quick decide, how do
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: you want to emphasize it the F F plus or
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: F minus. To me, if I go F plus, it
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: implies they're really close to being a D minus. So
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go F minus minus minus minus center. But
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: that's the thing here. This isn't just about Epstein anymore. Right,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: If you can't tell the truth about any powerful person,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and Epstein should be the easiest person to tell the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: truth about, turning to be the hardest one, Well what
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: else are you not telling the truth about? Right? None
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: of this just stays in an Epstein box. It infects
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: everything else. So let's widen the lens. President's Day. The
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: airports are full, families are traveling, and we're back in
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: this uniquely American only ritual where government workers told are
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: told they're essential our TSA agents. So they're going to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: have to show up the work with no promise that
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: they're going to get paid on time. They'll get paid eventually,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: but not on time. Ask your landlord if you can say, hey,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get paid eventually, so you'll get your rent eventually.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: It doesn't always work that way, but they're not gonna
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: get paid because politicians are once again using their paid
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: as leverage. The fact that this is at all legal,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I've gone through a rant about this. We should not
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: we are we are we are. We are supposed to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: be leader of the free world, the number one place
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to do business in the world, and we behave like
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: this with our government shutdowns. It's absolutely absurd. It's not
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a functioning system. It continues to be government by hostage situation.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I understand this is what either party has is leverage.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: You take whatever leverage you can get. But the fact
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: that we're using people's lives as leverage, livelihoods who are
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in charge of people's lives i e. T SA agents
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: is kind of ridiculous. And what do we do. We're
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: hitting the wrong people first, right, We're punishing TSA agents
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and travelers for the init for essentially a poorly run
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security. Politically scared Republicans who know real
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: reforms are necessary, and a White House that doesn't want
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to give an inch because of the politics of this thing.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: So sadly we built the system where the only way
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Washington can create urgency is by inconveniencing the public. And look,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: this is how this partial shutdown will end. We know,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: we got about two weeks because they're going to get paid,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: and when they miss that first paycheck, perhaps that will
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: start to motivate people to do this. And I think it, honestly,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: it's a you know, there are two things that I
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: wonder here, and I'll get to this a minute, but
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: it is we're you know, we know that this is
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: what will trigger the negotiations. But I have to say
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the fact that if you look at the democratic demands
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: right unmasking agents, there is not a single good argument
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: for masking these agents. And I know it says, well,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: we're trying to protect them from being docksed. Well, you know,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: if you do your job within the constitutional norms, then
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: you won't worry about being docksed. If you're an agent,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: an ice agent that is going to break the law
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: or go or blur the line between what's legal and
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: not legal. I understand why you want to protect your identity,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: But that shouldn't be no excuse. The body camera shouldn't
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: be decided by DHS when they get to turn them
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: on or off, which is apparently what they want to do.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: So this is a case where the demands being asked
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: here are not crazy, and anybody who considers themselves a
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: libertarian and a believer in the Bill of Rights should
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: be able to stand up for these quite easily. It's
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: not very difficult, and it it just it's it's this
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: is again. You're you're trying to restore trust in these agencies,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and the fact that the Trump administration does not want
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to restore trust right is pushing back on some of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: these things is a problem. But here we are, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and I think it's it's you know about the only
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: way that I think the Trump administration could buy more
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: time without having to make huge changes is to fire
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Nome tomorrow. I just don't know, you know, Trump seems
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to be very hesitant and nervous about having an unemployed
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Christinome and an unemployed Corey Lewandowski. And you can read
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: all about them in that Corey easy We'll see Turtle
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: story about just how the two of them are sort
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of treating DHS like it's their personal their personal plaything.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But I understand that's why Trump has decided he fired
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: too many people that became sources for disgruntled sources for
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the press, and he doesn't want to create that in
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the old LBJA, do you want people pissing into your
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: tent or do you want people in your tent pissing
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: outside the tent? And I think that that is clearly
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: where Trump wants to go. But this whole thing we
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: know this is this is a ridiculous standoff. And here's
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the problem. When government behaves like this way, people will
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: then start treating the government like a joke. And when
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: people treat government like a joke, they stop following instructions,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: they stop believing its warnings, they stop cooperating. And that
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: brings me to the pattern that's been screaming at me
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: across multiple stories this week. The government says X, and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: we file and I find out later that why happened.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: We have yet another incident with ice in Minneapolis, where
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: they tell a story now and they fix it later.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And that culture of tell a story now, fix it
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: later culture is all over it, right, And this may
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: be one of the perfect microcosms of the trust problem
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: we have with government in this current moment. The immediate
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: impulse to tell the most self justifying story possible is
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: clearly how Christy Nome operates and how Stephen Miller operates,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: and they try to tell the story as fast as possible.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Only later, when there's video or a judge or a
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: prosecutor involved, does government start walking back whatever it is
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: they were spinning early on. So in Minneapolis, the public
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: got a narrative, an official narrative, right away, then it shifted,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Then prosecutors moved to dismiss it. Then DHS had to
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: acknowledge that accounts didn't match evidence. Then agents were put
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: on leave, and let's not skape past the most corrosive
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: part of this. When law enforcement leads with a narrative
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: that demonizes the person who got shot. I'm not even
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: talk about the dead. This is the gentleman that got
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: shot in the leg, and then the narrative collapses. It
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: justn't just hurts that one case. It teaches the public
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to assume the first version that DHS tells you is propaganda.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And it's pretty clear right now, Christine no, whatever she says, first,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: you cannot believe even if she's telling you the truth,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: you have no idea whether it's the truth, because she
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: consistently gaslights the American public. So when the first draft
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of the government story is always self exoneration, eventually people
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: will stop believing any draft of the story, any part
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: of it. It'll always assume to be there's more than
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: what they're admitting. And there's no doubt when things are
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: chaotic and the moment information changes, and sometimes what they
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: truly thought happened wasn't what it was. But you have
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: no benefit of the doubt anymore. With us. You have
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: lied too many times, Christine Home, you have lied too
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: many times. Steven Miller, You've lied too many times to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the public about these narratives involving migrants, involving immigrants, involving
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: these ice raids, and so there is zero credit. But
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: this is why large majorities now, this is why the president,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: who at one time was right side up on his
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: management of immigration, is now upside now. And even on
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the border itself, he's barely seen as doing a good
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: job there simply because of how poor and how much
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: they have lied about their ice operations. The pattern is
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: what matters here. And the pattern right now is defend first,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: verified later, if you ever have to verify at all.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: And it's the pattern we're seeing again this week, including
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in the skies the al Paso incident. Right, I'm sure
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: you woke up the other morning and you're like, what
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the hell's going on in El Paso? And are we
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: about to are? I tell you my fear were about
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to start a war with Mexico. We've got about the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: bomb car tells like, why else would you shut down
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the airspace for ten days around al Paso? Right? So
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: what happened, Well, what we have is a case study
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and why the public dis us institutions. So we have
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: this major extraordinary action that it impacts thousands of people,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: followed by contradictory explanations as to why it happened, followed
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: by reporting that suggests the real story is a breakdown
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in inneragency procedure that the government is yet to come
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: go public with. In other words, the process failed and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: then the messaging got weird. So the reporting around this
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: story is one big takeaway. This wasn't just about one incident.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: It was about whether the Pentagon and the Department of
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Homeland security could move forward with technology without having to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: get signed off from the FAA. And whether the FAA
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: felt forced to pull the emergency brake because it was
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: clear to them that the Pentagon and DHS were lying
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to them. Right, So now you have government agencies can't
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: trust other government agencies. And the FAA is one of
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: those semi non political agencies, right that are dealing where
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: they know they're dealing with political appointees who are all
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: about politics first. And here's the bigger deal here and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: why we want our FAA not to be politicized. If
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: you want people to fly and trust flying, you need confidence.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: You can't have spin. And this is not happening in
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a vacuum. Because we also earlier this week got the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: official NTSB report on that twenty twenty five National Airport
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: collision where sixty seven people were killed, and to me,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: it's raised major questions about the military and civilian aviation coordination.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: If this wasn't the US Army causing the crash, there'd
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: be a lot more a lot more accountability here, Right.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: The US Army clearly was in the fault here, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: they and their decision to even do these training flights
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a major airport put lives in danger,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: and there should be real accountability, and there's going to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: be not. But so when the public sees another episode
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: that looks like rules for the carve outs, for me,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: it's going to confirm the following fear that there is
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: a national security exception to a anuntability. Apparently safety is
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: supposed to be born. When safety becomes political, people will
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: get hurt. Just remember that. Now take that exact same
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: theme process, the bypass expertise, sideline standard shifting late, and
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: you move it from planes to public health, and I
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: want to tell you the story about the FDA and Maderna,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: regulatory uncertainty and national self harm. Maderna says the FDA
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: refused even to review it's mRNA based flu vaccine application,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: what was called as a refuse to file. Now, whatever
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: you think about MODERNA, whatever you think about mRNA, here's
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: what does matter. Innovation depends on predictable rules. You can
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: say no, you can demand more data, you can even
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: reject something. But when the complaint is that the standard
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: changed late, the process got bent, and career staff got overridden,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you're not just deciding one vaccine, you're telling one of
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the most serious sign scientific investors in the world that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: there is no longer a stable country to build in.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Here in the United States, you cannot trust the Department
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of Health to do the right thing. Regulatory uncertainty is
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: a hidden tax on national competence, and competence like trust
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: is a resource, once you drain it, you don't refill
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: it with a press release. And what's scary when you
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: read the story about the mRNA vaccine right they were
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: actually working with the FDA making sure that the essentially
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: with every little step of the process, that the FDA
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: was comfortable with what they were doing. And then out
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: of nowhere, because Kennedy has his crackpot theories, he has
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: no scientific evidence to back up his beliefs about mRNA
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: vaccines other than his crackpot theories. Okay, with a brain
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: that probably was drug addled by heroin for a decade.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I think this guy is
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: mentally unfit to serve in any office in the federal government.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: And instead he's in one of the most important offices
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: that have to impact my public, our health, all of
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: our health. And we see what his leadership has done.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: We have people dying from the measles. We have a
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: pregnant woman who killed their child drinking raw milk. And
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to know that Kennedy was swimming in a
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: polluted Potomac River. And now we found out that there's
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: like more sewage leaking into the Potomac River. But man,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: what they are doing to maderna and mrina vaccines. Look,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's bad business, it's bad for our health.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: But I guess Europeans and the rest of the world
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: will will get scientific advances while we get to be
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: in the dark ages here thanks to Kennedy and his leadership.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: But again, you cannot trust the government. We can't trust
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the government to tell us the truth about air air accidents.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: We can't trust the government to tell us the truth
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: about immigration enforcement. We can't trust the government, this government
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: in particular, about the truth when it comes to health.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I got one more to throw in here. What we're
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: seeing now that this is a pay to play administration.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: We had another example the removal, departure, resignation, firing of
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Gail Slater as the Department of Justice's Anti trust chief
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: reads like another example of what actually has leverage in
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: this administration. When powerful interests complain, when big players make
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: money who want a deal. When allies feud, people become
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the collateral damage. Gail Slater was getting in the way
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of some big business deals, and they went right to
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration, and Trump administration agreed that she was
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: getting in the way, so they got rid of her.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: She's somebody that's you know. Jd Vance is the one
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: member of MAGA who seems to actually supposedly support stronger
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: government regulation on big business and big corporation, particularly big
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: tact right. He was one of the few Republicans that
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: praise Lena Khan when she was at the FTC and
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Gail Slater worked for him. You know what, You don't
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: hear jd Vance raising his hand in disagreeing with this decision.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: But it is yet another reminder that you can't trust
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: government to do its job properly, because ultimately, if somebody
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: writes a big enough check to the President, to somebody
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: in the administration, they can manipulate the Justice Department. And
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the Gail Slater firing, slash resignation, whatever you want to
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: call it, is yet another example of that again, can
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: you trust government to regulate an industry properly, without pay
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to play accusations. So here we are. It's it's so
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: let me just bring this back to where we started. Epstein.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Epstein isn't just a scandal. It's a mirror. It reflects
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: how power protects itself. It reflects how institutions behave when
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the stakes are reputational and political. It reflects whether the
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: public believes the system is even capable of justice when
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: justice is inconvenient. And last week, watching the government response,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: watching the posture, watching the defensiveness, it's not hard to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: conclude the following the public's demand for accountability is real,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: but this government's capacity to deliver it is in doubt.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And you could say, hey, this is true of Biden.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: This is true. Yes, Donald Trump ran as somebody who
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: was going to fix this, and instead he has made
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: it worse. He has accelerated it. We now have less
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: trust in health, less trust in law enforcement, less trust
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: in big business. And it's really due to the actions
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: or lack of actions by this administration. This episode of
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  Speaker 1: think about it, especially if you've got a growing family.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: It should be noted. And I would give you take
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit behind the scenes, right. We tape, you know,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: the interviews per tape, usually in isolation, and then I'll
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: do a monologue and I'll do all these other things,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and you know, we put them together. And in conversation
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: with my producers Lauren and Nesa, we were talking about
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: this accountability monologue that I just did, Lauren mused to me,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: and I thought it's worth responding. It's like boy ro
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Conna and Thomas Massey, what if they ran as a
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: ticket in some form or another. And you know, on
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: one hand, you can sit here and laugh about it.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: You're like, wow, that'd be unusual to me. And and
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: they don't really see much other than government transparency and accountability.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: But maybe that is a unifying necessity that the public
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: needs in a moment. And you know, when I've been
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: thinking about you know, there's no doubt that both parties
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: have lost so much trust with their membership for a
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: variety of reasons. Right, this is why there's only you know,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: in self described Democrats and Republicans twenty seven percent on
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: each side, and it's about forty five to fifty percent
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: of people and want to call themselves independent. You know,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that a fewer people are left and right.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: It's just they don't want to feel like they can
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: identify with the other party. And while you've heard me
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: advocate for independent candidates, we had Paul Raikoff on here,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: it may be that a bipartisan ticket that poks on
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: both their houses is a more powerful statement and maybe
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: the temporary reset the country needs. So whether it's kind
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: of massy, whether it's oh, let me throw another one
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: out there. How about Jared Polis and Kevin Stead of
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma or you know, I don't know, I mean we
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: could go down. How about Lease some Kowski and Raphael Warnock.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I mean point is is that that may be what
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it takes to sober up both parties to have to
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: reform themselves. All right, let's go into the time machine.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Where am I going? Eighteen forties that reverberates today? Well,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: this week takes us to February twenty first, eighteen forty eight.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: It's the day that a short political pamphlet was published
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: in London. Its title The Communist Manifesto. The authors Karl
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Marx and Frederick Ingels. It was barely fifty pages. It
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: was written for a small political league, is what it
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: was known at the time, and yet it became one
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: of the most influential and most abused texts in modern history.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: So let's start. Why was eighteen forty eight and explosive
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: era or a year in world politics? The manifest still
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: lands at a remarkable moment Europe in eighteen forty eight
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: was convulsive. Industrialization was accelerating, steam power, railroads, factories, mass
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: migration from the countryside to the cities in search of work.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Traditional political systems at the time were the monarchies and
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: the aristocracies, and they were colliding with these modern economic
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: forces that were developing. Within days of this pamphlet's publication,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: revolutions erupt across Europe. Timing year matters. Marx and Engles
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: weren't fantasizing about the upheaval. They were observing instability that
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: was already underway. And that's how I want people to
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: read this Manifesto and understand it. Their argument wasn't that
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: capitalism was weak. It was that capitalism was so powerful
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: and transformative that it would destabilize everything around it. Now
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: what the text actually does. Here's something that surprises people
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: who've never actually read the Communist Manifesto. The first half
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: of the Manifesto reads less like a denunciation of capitalism
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: and more like a strange admiration. Marx writes that the bourgeoisie,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the capitalist class, has done the following accomplished wonders greater
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: than the pyramids, revolutionized production, dissolve feudal hierarchies which were
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: terrible to people. By the way, in globalized markets, which
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: we do know lifted a lot of people out of poverty.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: That's not the language of simple hostility, and that's what
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you know. This is what I think people need to
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: at least absorb the observation that Marx and Ingles were making.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: They were making an analytical argument. Capitalism, in Marxist telling,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: is dynamic, innovative, and historically transformative. I agree. He also
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: said it's destabilizing, and that's just something we've all learned.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Capitalism unchecked can be destabilizing. Now, Marx had one idea,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: but I think we've all sort of agreed that there's
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: needs to be guardrails on capitalism. What we've debated is
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: what kind of guardrails and how sturdy should they be.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: But it is destabilizing, and it was at the time,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: because it reduces labor to a commodity, It concentrates capital,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: It produces cycles of boom and bust, creative destruction, creates
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: inequality faster in political institutions struggle to adjust to the speed.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: So here's a deeper question. If this pamphlet weren't titled
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: the communist manifesto. If it was titled something like on
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the Instability of Industrial Capitalism, how would we read it?
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: You might interpret it? Much of it is simply a
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: warning of what happens when capitalism is unchecked. A warning
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: that rapid economic transformation produces social fracture, a warning that
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: unregulated market forces can create backlash, all true by the
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: way we've experienced it in this country. A warning that
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: growth without guardrails destabilizes democracies. But Marx does go further
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: than simply warning, and he doesn't argue for reform. He
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: instead predicts inevitability. He argues that capitalism's internal contradictions will
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: eventually destroy it and that reform cannot save it. And
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: this is where it shifts from structural critique to becoming
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: what it was used for for hundreds of years, revolutionary doctrine. Now,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the book does end with the rallying cry Workers of
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the World Unite. The line is short, it's emotional, and
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: it's portable. It's designed to mobilize, So it was designed
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: to fire people up. And here's the irony. Most of
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: the pamphlet is theory, and history simply remembers that slogan. Now,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: how did it get misused, Because like everything in history,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: you see stuff get misused. Let's get to the heart
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: of part. The Manifesto was written in eighteen forty eight.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: The regimes most people associate with Communism under leaders like
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin and A don and Now emerged nearly a
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: century later. And those regimes were one party states. They
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: were highly centralized, they were militarized, and they were often
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: brutally repressive. Now, in the Manifesto itself, there's no blueprint
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: for Gulag's, there's no manual for secret police, there's no
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: architectural plan for totalitarian bureaucracy. I don't think Carl Marx
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: thought of himself as a totalitarian here and would admire
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: what Stalin or Mao did with his manifesto. So now
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: you'd ask yourself, how did a dense economic critique of
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: the moment become the ideological backbone for dictators. Here's how
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: authoritarian leaders, in order to grab power, need three things.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: A moral narrative gave him one, a villain bankers, capitalists,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: et cetera, and a promise of justice. So Marx provided
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: a compelling villain the elite, the bourgeois. He provides a
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: moral framework class exploitation. Hey Man, class warfare always works
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: on American politics, trust me. And he provided emotionally powerful language.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Workers of the World United. And what later leaders did
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: was simplified even more. They took a complex structural theory
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: and turned it into a binary the people and the
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: enemies of the people. Which side are you on? Once
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: politics becomes moral absolutism, that's when the institution's weaken. And
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: once institution's weaken, ideology becomes cover for control. It's important
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: we got to be honest about this. Marx does advocate
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: abolition of private ownership of the means of production, and
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: he does call for revolutionary transformation. That language lends itself
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: to radical application, but it does not logically require personality
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: cults and mass purges and secret police states. He was
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: simply talking about economics. But those other derivatives were choices
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: made by dictators operating in volatile environments civil war, foreign intervention,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: economic collapse. And they discovered that if you simplified ideology
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: into moral purity and made it it made it easier
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: to consolidate power. Right, you could either use Marx or
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: you can use a religious text. But we've seen the
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: pattern here. Nationalism gets weaponized, religious text gets weaponized, Marxism
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: gets weaponized. Liberal democracy has been weaponized. Right, complex ideas
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: get flattened into slogans, slogan's mobilized masses. Mass mobilization, then
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: does what centralizes power? Power seeks permanence. Marx didn't invent
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: the pattern. He was simply folded into it. So Marx
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: did no predict revolution what happened in advanced industrial democracies. Instead,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: that isn't where these revolutions happened. These communist revolutions took
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: hold in essentially the losers in industrialization, the places that
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: were behind the industrial lead of the world Sarist Russia, MAOIs, China,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: some of these postcolonial states. Right, the mismatch does matter.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: His theory assumed capitalism would mature fully before collapse. Well,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: that isn't what happened here. And if anything, his manifesto
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: was used as a way almost to prevent the good
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: side of capitalism from encroaching into Russia, China and some
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: of these post colonial countries and instead said you have
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: to fear this, so let's fight it before it gets here.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: So today the communist manifesto gets invoked in American politics
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: in two equally inaccurate ways. On the left it sometimes
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: romanticized as a moral call for fairness, and on the
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: right it's treated as the origin story for every authoritarian
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: regime of the twentieth century. And both of those stereotypes
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: flatten then right. The deeper truth is as always, very
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: very much less tidy. The Manifesto identified a recurring tension
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: in modern societies. Economic dynamism creates indisability. Wealth concentration creates
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: backlash political systems like behind technological change. You don't have
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: to endorse Marx's conclusions to recognize that his diagnosis still resonates.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: His diagnosis is spot on. His conclusions were way too radical.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: The question, though he posed in eighteen forty eight, still
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: echoes and echoes quite a bit today. Can capitalism regulate itself?
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Or must politics restrain it to preserve stability? I think
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: there is a collective other than a handful of maniacs
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: and Silicon Valley. I think most of us agree that
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: capitalism needs some guardrails. It does not regulate itself. Sorry,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: iron Marx answered that reform would fail. Modern democracies have
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: tried another route, regulation, labor law, social insurance anti trust.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: You know, we have fits and starts, it works and
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: then it doesn't. Now it doesn't help that none of
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: this is working right now because we have a government
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: that does not have the trust of the public. So
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: you need public trust in order to successfully regulate and
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: to enforce labor law, and to make that social insurance
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: seem nonpartisan instead of partisans. But either way, the pamphlet
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: refuses to die because the diagnosis is very familiar. It
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't just an attack on capitalism. It was a warning
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: about what happens when economic systems transform faster than how
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: politics can respond. Kind of seems familiar today, doesn't it.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: This is why the way we're going about AI is
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: going to push people in more radical places, just like
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: it pushed people into radical Marxism belief in some parts
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: of Marxism when actually we're not listening to the first part,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: the analytical part, where we need some guardrails, we need
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: some regulation. You can't trust the private sector to do
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: this on their own. What we're doing with AI is
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: playing with nuclear fire, essentially nuclear powered fire, if there
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: is such thing. All right, there's your history lessons. Let's
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: go to some questions, ask Chuck A little last Chuck,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Here we go. First question comes from a huge University
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: of Michigan fan, so we'll go there. Hey, Chuck, thanks
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: for reading this, love the podcast, and I've been a
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: fan since your Daily Rundown Day circa twenty ten. Well man,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: you go way back. Thank you. Anyway, My question is
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: on the economic numbers we get from this administration. Does
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: something seem a little wonky to you? The same month
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: ADP tells us life at their highest level since twenty
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: oh nine, we get a Job's report claiming that the
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: job creation is on the upswing. Then we get a
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: CPI report claiming that inflation has follow unto two point
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: four percent. But every time you go to grocery shopping
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: you get sticker shock from something new, but the only
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: one who's not buying it. Is it possible someone is
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: cooking the numbers to make Trump look better? After all,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: he fired the woman who used to compile the jobs
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: report because he didn't like the numbers she was putting out.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, Phil and Roger City Michigan, big
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: fan of the other. You of M Go Blue, Yes
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: it is you. I have learned this. You of M
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: is Michigan. You m of course is Miami. Look. Welcome
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: to what happens when a government doesn't tell you the
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: truth in all of these other places, right, the government
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: misleads you on your health, The government misleads you on
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: airline safety, the government misleads you on immigration enforcement. So
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: of course you're not going to believe the numbers. You know,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: you know, it's sort of do you believe you're lying?
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: And eyes right, people experience at the end of the day.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: It's why now the polling is going to matter here
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit more and hearing you know, you know,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: people the public will tell us whether they feel as
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: if this economy is getting better. Look, it was a
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: shocking jobs report considering everything else that went into it.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: It's It's also one of the things I've learned is
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: be careful of judging one one report. A lot of
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: times you'll have an outlier and then later, I mean,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: it was it seemed you know. Now, the reason the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: report is believable to me is where all the job
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: gains came from. They came from the only part of
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: the economy that's growing, home health care. Why is it
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: growing because we're all living longer and we need more
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: home health care aids and why are these jobs, why
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: there's so many job openings for them, because of what
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: we're done with immigration enforcement. A lot of first gen,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: first generation Americans that come here as adults, that's the
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: that's the the easiest first job they can that is
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: consistent that they can get their hands on. But I
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: understand why you don't believe them, because they've given you
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: no reason to believe them. Right. This is a government
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: that has gone out of its way to miss to
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: mislabel things, to so distrust, to lead with narratives before
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the facts come out, as we've learned time and again
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: at DHS, time and again at the Department of Health
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: and Human Services. You brought up, So the answer is,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: I have nothing to tell you other than like I said,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: there are some things in the job report that do
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: fit the facts and the growth of home health care
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: aids and the fact that that job number goes up
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: as immigration reinforcement because a lot of those jobs perhaps
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: we're off the books, and now they're less off the
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: books than they were, so that it is possible that
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: explains why there is a specific surge in one category
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: but nowhere else. As for inflation coming down. In fairness,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: it has been, you know, the question is whether it
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: will stay that way or whether this is just a
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: quick dip. And then, of course, when if Trump gets
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: his way with a new FED share that does lower
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: interest rates, an he's still enforcing these tariffs plus the
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: tax refunds, Well, we have too much money in the economy,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: which then launches inflation again. So I think it continues
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: to be an unsteady economy. And you have every the
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: government has given you no reason to believe everything they're
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: putting out, So I understand your skepticism, but I also
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: think we'll just, you know, let's take a look at
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: the next report. In some fairness to the BLS, right,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: we had the government shutdown which caused sort of so this,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: you know, this could also be a catchup as well,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: and then we'll see what happens over the next couple
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: of months. Okay, next question comes from Mike from South Florida,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: and he knows why whenever I see the word south
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Florida means you're not from Miami, and he goes, yes,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: I'm from Broward County. Thank you, Mike for your transparency
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: there about your South Florida ties Gate as a label
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: for scandals feels tired, and I wonder if it's time
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: for something punchier to cut through the noise. I half
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: jokingly suggest calling Eric Hunter Trump, I see what you're
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: doing there and dubbing the situation the United States of
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Emirates to mirror the viral style of modern conspiracy framing.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: That said, I appreciate they do avoid clickbait and focus
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: on substance. That's exactly why I tuned in, Mike. I
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. You know. One of my favorite when I
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: was at the Hotline, which was back in the nineties,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: what made us sort of gave us a little cult
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: following in DC is that we always tried to have
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: humor all the time. We knew we were writing for
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: a professional audience, so we could we could bring humor
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: situations that maybe in another place or on social media
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: would come across as bad taste to some. But one
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: of my favorite headlines that we ran once it wasn't mine.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: I think it was my friend Steve Villefort, who was
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: probably the funniest guy we ever had in Hotline and
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: in one of the smartest editors we ever had as well.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: I think it was one of these travel gates or
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: you know something that we were given the gate to it, right,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: and the headline ones I'll take ends in gate for
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: a thousand alecks where we were trying to mock this issue. Look,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: it's there's nothing says intellectual laziness by a headline writer
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: than just giving the gate to something. Look, for a generation,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: it made sense, right, Watergate was huge, So you did
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: you know the gate thing was? You know, this is
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: like Watergate or this or that? Right. I think now
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: that we're now past fifty years of it, you know,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's about time we can do better.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: And I appreciate your your efforts here, Eric Hunter Trump.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: It's I think it works better with Donald junior, Donald
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: Hunter Trump Junior because he is actually a hunter, right,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: so then you can you know he likes to do
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: the big game, Honey, I don't know. And U S
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: E U S E. I could see that, right, And
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: what is U S E U S C. What else
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: does that's? What? What? What? What acronym would that turn
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: into for the United States of Emirates? Oh? Use? And
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: what are other countries and rich people doing with the
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: United States? They're using our government anyway, fun one, Mike, Thanks.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Next question comes from Shane Parts unknown, and he said, Hey,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I just listened to your double top five about the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: formally lawful yet unusual practices of the past and the
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: amendments that should be in our near future. However, I
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: think there should be an honorable mention. With yet another
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: government shut down nearing, should there be an amendment or
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: whatever is applicable in this situation that make the salaries
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: of the House and Senate members first on the chopping block.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Rather than shuttering services utilized by citizens, furloughing folks that
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: live paycheck to paycheck, and forcing others to continue to
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: work without immediate compensation, we could withhold their bi weekly
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: payroll three point five million, if my math is correct,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty five members at undred and fifty
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: dollars each. While this probably barely scratches the surface of
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: the cost, maybe it would better influence them to work
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: around the clock to resolve the matters at hand. After all,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: they are the governmental employees that are not satisfying the
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: criteria of which they are were elected. I appreciate their
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: salary hasn't been increased in nearly twenty years, but they
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: are still making about double the national average. Thoughts on
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: intended consequences with this modification, You know you've had some
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: do this. Look, I do think we need to compensate
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: elected officials better because you don't want you don't want
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: it to only being wealthy people like I think where
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: we really sort of screw the pooch is on state legislatures,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: where some of them, these part time legislatures are just
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: basically paid, paid a stipend. And what to me that
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: opens them up to is fraud, right, which is somebody
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: who's who really wants a law pass is going to
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: tempt you with all sorts of financial opportunity. And since
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: the government itself isn't giving you hardly any compensation, you
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: might be more you know, dare to do it. Like,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: let me put it in another way. Imagine if we
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: had college basketball referees that weren't paid for. Oh wait,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: we do have this, right, what would their incentive be
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: if some big gambler came to you with a big
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: proposal for anyway? You see my point? Right, When you
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: don't pay people enough, you potentially incentivize corruptibility. Right, Not
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: everybody starts as corrupt but sadly, we're human beings, and
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: everybody has a price eventually, and everybody has a circumstance
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: where suddenly they have a price. So, you know, everybody
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: who thinks that they're morally perfect, I would digress. I
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: think the fact that members of Congress are getting paid
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: and the staff is getting you know, that's what you do.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: I think you're right. I would throw staff in there too.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: And you say it's not fair, Well, they're political staff.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: They know what they're signing up for, and they're advising
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: these members of Congress. So if you did that, and
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: I think you know they're there, I I endorse it
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: makes sense to me. I mean, these TSA agents, what
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: we're doing in them, you know, you know the unintended
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: here's your unintended consequence with what we keep doing to
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: TSA agents. Why is that a safe job anymore? Who's
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: gonna want to like suddenly you've got to it? At best,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: you better hope you have a spouse who has a
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: steady your paycheck. It's so, I I uh, it's certainly
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: logical to me. I go back to it. Should we
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be allowed to it? Shouldn't This isn't the way
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: we should shut government down, right, There's got to be
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: another way to resolve this, but simply stopping a functionality
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: of government that has already been agreed to for this
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: fiscal year, because usually we're arguing about the next fiscal
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: year seems to be seems to be problematic. But look,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: it's until we come up with them better. You know,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: everything is a bad incentives. If you have good incentives,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: you'll get good outcomes. If you have bad incentives, you'll
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: get bad outcomes. And right now we have bad incentives
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the operation of government. Next question
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: comes from Jack Why and he writes, Hey, I absolutely
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: wish I could spend an hour a day listening to
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: Rama Manuel. That guy is so smart and would be
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: a great leader for the country. You're interview with him
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: made me so nostalgic for the Obama years, when the
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: intellect of the administration did not require affirmation, it was
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: simply understood. The true leadership that is demonstrated with their
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: humble and educated approach to governing with a focus on
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: the Amir people is something we should all be pining for.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: I know, I am It is good in my opinion
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: that he is flying under the radar. Thanks for having
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: him on your podcast. Listening to him as time well spent.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: I was nodding in agreement so often that I got
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: a crick in my neck. Love the podcast and substack
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: way more than the corporate media shackles you were once
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: died to. Independent news and political media is far superior.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Le Chezer. If you know, you know best regards Jack, Why,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. And look, you know it's funny. It's
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: like I sit here, I've got a ton of positive
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: feedback about Rom from people that didn't know they were
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: going to have positive feedback about Rom. I think I
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: think it is Look, I've known this version of Ram
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: a long time. But at the same time, I also
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: think this is why experience counts. I think there was
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: a time in Ram's political life that he was a
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: little too quick with a belief or a or a
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: proclamation or an answer. But his instincts have always been
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: sort of ultimately public for and you know, you know
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: it is so I look at Rom. I think he
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: is speaking to the problems that I hope more candidates
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: speak to. And I'm also equally skeptical that, unfortunately, in
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: this anti establishment mood, that both parties are in He
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: probably has too many ties to quote establishment figures to
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: break through. But I hope people are paying attention to
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: what he's saying because he's he is. I feel like
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: he's actually trying to respond to what the voters have
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: been screaming about for the last twenty years. All right,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: next question, we'll make this the last one today. Number
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: five here on the list stuff. I've gone deep with
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: you today it's a holiday. We'll go number five here
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: and he goes Hey. Most listeners are familiar with discussion
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: on Trump presidential impeachments, as we experienced a pair of
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: those in President forty five's term. How about the likes
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: of RFK Junior and Pam Bondi? What is the criteria
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: for impeachment of these cabinet members? Thanks, Chuck? Who is
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: your favorite football baseball players as a kid? By the way,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: Jim from Tobahana, Pennsylvania, Well, let me get it. Look,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: the impeachment is the same thing. I mean, you can
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: impeach Ali Mayorcus was impeached by the Republican House. And
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: one of the reminders is what's an impeachable offense? Whatever
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: A majority of the House of representatives decides it is.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: They are essentially a grand jury here. If they bring
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: them articles of impeachment and a majority approve them, then
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: they then said official has been indicted, all right, and
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: then the Senate has to do a trial. And we
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: you know, there's multiple Senate trials have taken place over
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: the years for judges and for other things. But usually
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: at a cabinet secretary when it reaches impeachment stage, usually
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: that cabinet secretary is more likely to resign. In the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: may Orci's case, it didn't because the Senate I think
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: was controlled by you know, there was enough control by
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: the Democrats where they could just refuse a trial or
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: just sort of do a quick trial, you know type
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: of thing. And I think at the time the Democrats
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: control the floor and they can make that easy. So so
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: ultimately it's the same, but it would take a majority
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: in this case, right you have a Republican House. Yeah,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: I mean maybe you'd have impeachment discharge petitions and you
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: could get a couple on bondy at this point, but
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: if you got there, she probably resigns before they go
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: through the trial itself. So that's usually why with political
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: appointees like that. You know, we've had the occasional federal
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: judge impeachment trial. You know, even a conviction. I believe
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Alsie Hastings later would become a member of Congress. I
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: believe it was you know, lost his judge ship during
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: an impeachment process. So there's no the criteria is no different.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: It's just usually it never happens with a cabinet secretary
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: because by the time you get to the point where
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: the House can can pass articles of impeachment on a
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: cabinet secretary, a normal acting president listens to the public
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: and decides to call for the resignation and move on.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: And by the way, this gets it something here with
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: Nome or Bondi or RFK Junior, but really Noman Bondi.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: Let's say either one of them are fired or resigned,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: he will appoint an acting and how long will he
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: stick to the acting? Just something to keep in mind,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm not sure that's something everybody wants to have.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: You were asking who was my favorite football baseball players
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: as a kid, Well, number one my favorite baseball player
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: Steve Garvey, and my parents encouraged it until they didn't,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: meaning like Steve Garvey was my favorite. You know, starting
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: in linked nineteen seventy eight, seventy nine eighty, I collected
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: every one of his baseball cards. That was the first
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: big collection I did, is I wanted every year every
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: card ever produced of there from and I even like
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: included OPG, which was the Canadian version of TOPS. They
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: basically used whatever the TOPS design was and then smacked
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: it with the OPG label in the back. I think
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: that's how they're really ship with TOPS must have worked.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: So it was some sort of design licensing agreement or something.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: And it was the first time I ever spent one
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars on any card ever. Was for Garvey's rookie.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: So Steve Garvey was my favorite, my favorite baseball player.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: On the football front, you know, it was my dad
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: made me a Packer fan. I always say made me
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: a Packer fan. It's like I just didn't really have
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: a choice right very early, like two of the first
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: football books I ever read, one was Run to Daylight
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: by Vince Labardine. In the other Wood was Instant Replayed
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: by Jerry Kramer and Dick Shapp. So I was definitely
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: brainwashed correctly when it came to the Packers lore and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: all of that, by the way, going to Garvey, and
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: I know I sort of left out the Garvey part,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: you know, when Garvey became a punchline like I'll I
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: think it was a Johnny Carson joke, and I remember
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: being so crestfallen. It was a hank of Steve Garvey's
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: your dad. You know. There was all this talk about
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Garvey and you know, he cheated on Cindy Garvey, beloved
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: Cindy Garvey, who was I think a co host of
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: a TV show called That's Incredible with a guy named
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: John Davidson, if I have that correct, and That's Incredible.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: It was just basically reality shows before we knew what
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: reality shows were. It was like crazy things people now
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: we now they call it America's Got Talent or all
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: sorts of you know stuff. But back then we didn't
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: call him reality shows. We called him you know. They
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: were kind of magazine shows meets goofy viral moments, and
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: so That's Incredible was one of those types of shows.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: I think it was an ABC show, But it was
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: a big deal that Steve Garvey cheated on his equally
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: famous wife. She got that job because she was Steve
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: some people assumed because she was Steve, you know, married
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: to a you know, a popular baseball player in La
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: namely Steve Garvey. So anyway, I was a Garvey guy.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: I still believe Garvey has a Hall of you know is.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: I think the only reason he's not in the Hall
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: is due to the the disappointment a lot of people felt,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: because I think he was seen as I mean, he
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: was a role model that my parents wanted me to follow.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: He had this great mythology about his you know, his
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: father drove the team bus for the Dodgers, and he
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: was this, you know, mister perfect and all that stuff.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: So there was this lore about Garvey, and I think
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: my parents thought he was a terrific role model. And
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: then the whole thing happened, and then I think that
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: back then we realized, we would realize a few years
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: later that Charles Barkley was right. No athlete is, you know,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: should be a p perfect role model for everybody. But
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: going back to the football front, so basically, mate, my players,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: my favorite players were always Garvy. Where somebody were derivative
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: of the Packers or derivative of the Hurricanes, So Jim
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: Kelly because of the Hurricanes, so I always he's one
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: of my all time favorites, the first great quarterback for Miami.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: And you know, I'm sorry he never got a Super
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: Bowl win, but he's you know, he's probably the greatest
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: quarterback never to get a Super Bowl. I know you're
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: supposed to say Dan Marino. I think the fact that
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Kelly got there four times puts him ahead of Marino
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: any any And he was the he helped implement essentially
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: the modernization of the you know, the offenses we see
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: today in some ways, you know, you could you could
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: say that Kelly and the K gun offense or the
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: or the the the the og of that there. And
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: then James Lofton because he was the best Packer at
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: the time. When I was a kid, I loved Eddie
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: Lee Ivory, I loved lind Dicky. I still do. You know,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: it's funny with the Packers quarterbacks because they they've they've
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: you know, both Farv and Rogers. And you know, this
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: is the thing, like a lot of my favorite players,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: their off field behavior makes it harder to sort of
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: root for them off the field as much as you
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: root for him on the field. And you know, I
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: go back and forth, but I compartmentalize Aaron Rodgers. I
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: still wanted to go into the Hall of Fame as
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: a packer. He still did a lot of good for
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: the packers, and so I do kind of try to
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: compartmentalize these things. But some things you don't, you know,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: I don't like, you know whatever, you know, the whole
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: farv story. I vacillate on that one. I think some
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: people took advantage of him. And at the same time,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: you know, ignorance is no excuse either. I think he
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: should have been understood more what people were using his
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: name to do and then what he thought. Anyway, there's
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: a lot I think there's certainly nuanced to the story
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: on that. But yeah, I've had I've had my share
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: of and there's certain hurricanes that have some controversial off
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: field issues that yet I still will we'll compartmentalize about
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: you know, whether it's Michael Irvin or Ray Lewis on
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: that front either. So, uh So there you have I hope,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: uh I'm as you could tell. I think I gave
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: you an honest answer. The easy answer would have been
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: to say somebody like Johnny bench Right or Sandy Kofax
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I love Fernando too. First autograph I ever
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: got from a baseball player was fern end of Allen
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: twelve at Vero Beach in Dodgertown. All right, well we
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: ended with a sports question, so I'll just leave it there.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: Once again, the NBA still has an All Star Game
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: interest issue. Let me just leave you with a thought,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: and for those of you that want to follow up,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: I'd love follow up questions on it. Which is the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: reason the players and the NBA took the All Star
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: Game seriously in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and even to
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: a lesser extent than nineties, was because the bonus you
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: got for being an All Star, in comparison to the
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: salary was sort of it was probably somewhere between five
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: and ten percent of your overall year salary was this bonus.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: And if you can get a five or ten percent
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: extra amount of money, that's motivation. Now you're looking at best,
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: it's somewhere between a half a percent and a percent
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: of what your yearly salary is. And so I think
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: that there's just look, as my friend Tony Cornhis likes
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: to say, the answer to all your problems with money,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: how can they create a different financial incentive for the
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: players to get in the All Star Game, and a
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: different financial incentive for players to play to not deal
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: with load management, a different you know. So it is
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: ultimately right, good incentives you get good outcomes. Bad incentives
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: you get bad outcomes. There are some bad incentives that
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: have been created in the NBA with tanking with our
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: All Star Game participation, So tweak the incentives. That's where
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: you got to go. Is it more money at the
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: line on the line? You know? Do you make it
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: a truly elite status? Does All Star Game participate Haitian
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: get tied to Hall of Fame consideration? Right? You know,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: there's all sorts of things you could potentially create. You
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: just have to You just have to choose to really
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: want to. And you got to ask yourself, what do
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: you want out of your All Star weekend? You know?
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: I think the fact is the three point contest continues
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: to be the one contest that even the best want
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: to participate in it. So come up with other skills.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll tell you what could be fun is
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to see more free throw shooting
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: contests where you did speed free throws or something like that.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: You could perhaps do more skills if you want to,
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: you know, continue to have this. You know, you could
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: turn the All Star weekend into a big tournament. Again.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: That again huge compensation for it the way they did
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: with the NBA Cup, right, players, the incentive is big
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: enough that it has caused teams to really want to
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: play hard during the NBA Cup games in the early
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: part of the season. So ultimately, that's what you do, right,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: You examine and you find out where are your weak spots.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll close with this, why did you know
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: it's February the slowest sports month on the calendar, although
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: I'd argue with Winter Olympics, Daytona five hundred, this week
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: you got increasingly interesting college basketball, et cetera, et cetera,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: that February has certainly been fairly busy. But you know,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated came up with the swimsuit issue when they
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: looked at their new stand sales and realized their slowest
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: news stand sales was in the mid to late part
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: of February. So they said, what's a way to increase
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: our news stand sales in February? Right, And so that's
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: what they did. The NBA. Why did they come up
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: with the NBA Cup. They look, boy, we got a
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: lot of we don't have it. Nobody pays attention to
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: the first part of the regular season while the NFL
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: is in session. What do we do to create more
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: something more interesting? When they came up with the NBA Cup.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: So that's how these problems can be tackled, should be
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: looked at, right, And it's you know, take the take
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: the biggest loophole, the biggest problem, the biggest issue, and
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: then come up with incentive structures that actually make it
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: far more interesting, far more useful, right, and go from there.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: All right, I'll throw that out there. I'd love to
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: hear from you and my sports nuts that listen to
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: this ideas you have fixing NBA All Star weekend? What
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: would you do? What are some ideas out there? You know,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: my buddy Bill Simmons can't just corner the market on
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: crazy ideas, right, the rest of us want to participate
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: in the crazy idea, half baked idea genre that he
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: is frankly executed so well over the years. All Right,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: with that, I will call it a podcast for this
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: Monday President's Day. Episode gave you a lot to chew
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: on today, a lot of little history to tag out,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: and from there and I'll see and we'll have a
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: lot more to say in forty eight hours, you know,