Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Fires Pam Bondi, What Comes Next Will Be Worse + Trump Has NO Good Options In Iran

Transcript

Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Fires Pam Bondi, What Comes Next Will Be Worse + Trump Has NO Good Options In Iran · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: rates may vary. Hello there, welcome to a Yes special
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  Speaker 1: Friday edition. I told you I was delaying and upload
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for twenty four hours. We had passed over. Of course
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I was doing. I know today is good Friday. We
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: got Easter on Sunday, so I'm aware this is to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: be a big holiday weekend. But the news doesn't stop.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: In fact, the President made an unusual decision. I think
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a strange decision to give a speech to the nation
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  Speaker 1: on April Fool's Day, on the first night of passover
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: about a war in the Middle East. It seemed like
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  Speaker 1: a strange timing decision. It was a speech arguably that
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  Speaker 1: he should have given a month, if not more ago.
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  Speaker 1: But look, we've got a lot going on here. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: I just want to give you a quick rundown of today.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get a little bit more in Iran.
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  Speaker 1: I know I did do a special sort of reaction
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to the speech that's been sitting on YouTube. Some of
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you may have heard that already. We'll have a little
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: bit of update on the Pambondi situation. Of course, we'll
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: have questions and hey, when you're By the time you're
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: listening to this, we're going to be minutes away from
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: first pitch for the NAT's home opener Nationals Dodgers where
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I'll be. So if you see me, give me a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: little toodcast cheesery if you will. But I digress. But look,
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  Speaker 1: let's start quickly. I want to do the Pambondi situation first,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and then I want to come back on Iran because
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I want to give you a little bit of a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: preview of my guest on my Newsphere show this week,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: which hit drops on Sunday night. It's Daniel Jurgen, who's
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: probably the most knowledgeable person in this country, if not
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the world, on the energy markets. He wrote arguably the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: bible on understanding energy markets. The prize for me, it's
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a very just if you care about the energy markets
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and you care about what all this means, this is
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: probably the bible of that. It won the Pulitzer Prize.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: As he said to me, he goes, he goes this book,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: it just doesn't die, It just keeps living. And it's like, yes,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: yes it does. But let's just say, mister Jurgen didn't
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: have a lot of positive things to say about where
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the economy has headed. But I'm going to get that
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  Speaker 1: in a minute. I want to start with the Pam
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  Speaker 1: Bondi situation. So the President decides to fire pambody. What's
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  Speaker 1: interesting is that there seemed to have been bipartisan calls
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  Speaker 1: for her to be fired, and it's quote unquote handling
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  Speaker 1: of the Epstein files. But I think we all need
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to realize, yes, why did Donald Trump fire her? Did
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: he fire her? Because he thought she didn't handle the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Epstein files. Well, did he fire her because she wasn't
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: more open with the Epstein files? Did he fire her
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  Speaker 1: because she was doing too many partisan prosecutions or not
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  Speaker 1: enough partisan prosecutions? And to understand, you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: Pam Bondi is Jeff Sessions, And that's what I think
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: everybody needs to understand here. Pambondy is Jeff Sessions, somebody
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  Speaker 1: who got the job because the president thought they'd be
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: loyal and got the job because the person promised to loyal.
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  Speaker 1: But I think Pam Bondi had the same respect for
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  Speaker 1: some parts of the institution that Jeff Sessions had, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: there were certain things she wouldn't do or certain things
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  Speaker 1: she was uncomfortable doing, and you could kind of tell,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: right she'd be hand handed about it in one hand
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  Speaker 1: and then sort of you know, picked inters. Let Todd
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: blanche the President's personal attorney who's the Deputy Attorney General,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: sort of deal with the political side of things. And
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  Speaker 1: I think it's clear. You know, it's funny. It's one
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  Speaker 1: of these things where I know it's going to sound
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  Speaker 1: like I'm defending Pambondi. It's not defending Panbondi here. But
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  Speaker 1: it's you know, remember why he chose to fire her, right,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: he didn't do it for the reasons many of you
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: think made her deserving of being fired. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that is extraordinarily important in the moment. And let's remind
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: let's look at who he named acting attorney general. His
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: person is one time personal attorney, which is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the greatest conflict of interest that you could put into
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that position. And now it's all the way up at
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  Speaker 1: attorney general. But the issue is, it is impossible to
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  Speaker 1: be Donald Trump's attorney general. He does not believe in separation,
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  Speaker 1: He does not believe in a fair judiciary system. He
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  Speaker 1: wants to weaponize it. He has said he wants to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: weaponize it right and how to? And he he wants
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to weaponize it because he believes it was weaponized against him. Right,
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  Speaker 1: it's all a revenge to her, and everything is, everything
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is reactionary with him, and it's probably not. It shouldn't
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: be lost on anybody that that you know Donald Trump's
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  Speaker 1: entire adult life, basically his first foray into helping run
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: his father's business was a run in with the Department
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: of Justice when he first had to hire roy Combe
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to beat back the Justice Department on racial discrimination issues
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: involving him and his father's business. So is no doubt
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  Speaker 1: that he is. He'd views it as an antagonist and
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  Speaker 1: he wants to essentially being in charge of it, use
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  Speaker 1: it and deploy the Justice Department to serve his needs
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  Speaker 1: and to serve his political so political end. So I
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  Speaker 1: really this is such an odd thing here, but you
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  Speaker 1: know it's it very much to me mirrors mirrors the
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Session situation. But to understand, you know, Pam Bondy,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's an interesting lesson here. I teach this
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: class how Washington works. Many of you have brought it
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: up before, and one of the I brought one of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the guest speakers that I brought in is somebody who
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: who basically had to got punished because of who he
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: worked for. And I'm living because this stuff's off the record,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and I always want to promise that to my guest speakers.
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  Speaker 1: But the lesson I want my students to im parts
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: like be careful when you know politics is it's a
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  Speaker 1: team sport at times. But you know, when you work
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: for an individual politician, you may be asked to do
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  Speaker 1: things that you may feel morally is unacceptable, ethically as unacceptable,
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  Speaker 1: or is actually illegal. Donald Trump doesn't care about anything
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  Speaker 1: other than the loyalty. And it's just interesting. And I
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  Speaker 1: think that if you understand Pam Bondi's origin story, I
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  Speaker 1: think it will it. It strikes me is we won't
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  Speaker 1: know the specific reason why what happened that Trump just
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  Speaker 1: said he had enough right, but it was not because
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  Speaker 1: she was not more forthcoming about the Epstein files. Trust me,
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  Speaker 1: he's mad that she hasn't put that away. And I
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  Speaker 1: promise you the next Attorney general is is not going
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  Speaker 1: to be given a mandate to be more forthcoming with
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  Speaker 1: the Epstein files to Congress. And since she got herself
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: subpoena then got herself by the Oversight Committee, he just
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  Speaker 1: wanted to prevent that from ever happening. I'll be curious
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  Speaker 1: to see if that subpoena still stands, if she's no
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  Speaker 1: longer attorney general. But to understand, you know, you know,
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  Speaker 1: Pam Bondi could have easily become an Attorney general in
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  Speaker 1: a democratic administration. And I know some of your thinking,
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  Speaker 1: what are you talking about, Chuck? Have you lost it?
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  Speaker 1: She was actually a Democrat until two thousand. Let me
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  Speaker 1: give you a reminder. She she she's the daughter her father,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Bondi, was a local politician. He was the mayor.
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  Speaker 1: He was the mayor of a small town in the seventies.
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  Speaker 1: So she's sort of grew up in the world of politics. Now,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: she grew up. You know, she was in democratic politics
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: in the South, which could be very conservative. Right, we
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: know this, all of you know this. Many Many, a
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Democrat of the seventies, eighties, and even through the nineties,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: eventually switched to the Republican Party. Come come the twenty
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: first century. But what's interesting about her career. You know,
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  Speaker 1: she graduated law school from Stetson. It's a school the Land, Florida,
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  Speaker 1: sort of kind of halfway between Daytona and Orlando, but
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: it's in that general area. It's not on the water.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of Inland a little bit. Stetson is a
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: great college baseball team, by the way, that's like the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: one it's their one d one sport I think is baseball.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: It's always at a row respected law school. It was
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: one of the only law schools in the state for
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: a while. Now, I mean there was a time Florida
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: State didn't have a law school they do now, et cetera,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So she goes to sets in law school. She spent
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: more than eighteen years a prosecutor in Hillsboro County, which
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: is you know, Tampa, big, big Tampa Bay area. Her specialism,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: she specialized in prosecuting child abuse cases. She was more
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: of a true legal beagle, if you would call it now.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: She switched to the Republican Party around two thousand, but
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: she didn't really enter politics, if you will, until two
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine. She left her prosecutor job and entered
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the race for Florida Attorney General, which by the way,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: at one point was going to feature Marco Rubio, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: then he decided instead to run for the US Senate
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: and challenge a sitting governor who decided not to seek
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: reelection but to see US Senate seat at the time
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: a Republican named Charlie Criss. Well. I think we all
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: know what happened there. The irony is if Chris and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Rubio had worked out their deal where Rubio runs for
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: AG and doesn't primary Christ, which was a deal that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: was in the making, and there was a twenty four
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: hour period where it looked like that was going to happen.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Pan Bondi never enters, perhaps never even enters Republican politics.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: But she wins the attorney general race in twenty ten,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and it's in twenty thirteen, and this is an important story.
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  Speaker 1: The origin of the Bondi Trump relationship is very transactional.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, when she was attorney general, she received
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: at least twenty two fraud complaints about Trump University. Her
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: office was considering joining a lawsuit that was being brought
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: against Trump University by the New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Four days later, though, when that word got out that
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Florida might join, this would be a bipartisan lawsuit against
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Trump University, Trump pack donated twenty five thousand dollars to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: her re election committee, and then Pam Bondi declined to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: join the lawsuit. Well, that brought her into Trump's orbit.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: She becomes part of the Trump transition in twenty sixteen,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: she becomes an impeachment defense attorney in twenty twenty, and then,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of course was the backup plan after the mac Gates
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: implosion to bag the start of the second term. The
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: point is is that she she sort of spent half
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: her adult life and half of her legal career just
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: being a career prosecutor sort of and less a politician.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: And then when she entered the world of politics, yes,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: through the law an elected attorney general, that's when she
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: started to transactional. But I have no doubt, and I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: don't know this for fact yet, but we know these
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: stories are going to come out that there were certain
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: lines she just wasn't going to cross because she kind
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of respected the system. It's exactly what we saw with
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Bill Barr. Right, Bill Barr as Trump's second attorney general
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: were confirmed Attorney General Matthew Whittaker was the acting in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: between Sessions and bar. Bar's second attorney The bar was
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: there was clearly lines he wouldn't cross. Right. Look, he
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: was chicken shit to tell Trump no. It's why he
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: resigned early before January sixth. He knew what was coming,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: he knew it was going to get asked from him,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: asked of him, and apparently he didn't want to be
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: there for it, so he left it to his deputies
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: to have to stand up to Trump, which they did,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and kudos to mister Rosen for doing that. But it
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: was Barr's own way of basically saying there were certain
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: lines he wouldn't cross, and there's no doubt in my
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: mind there were certain lines she wouldn't cross. The irony
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: now is she's basically heard a reputation with the right,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and heard a reputation with the legal community, and heard
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a reputation with the left. Right, so welcome to what
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: happens when you get sucked into Trump's world. You know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: this is a question that I remind people all the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: time whose reputation has been enhanced by working for Donald Trump.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I joked with an appearance on the Boston Public Radio
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: earlier or earlier in the week, that is, I can
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: only think of two people, Michael Cohen oddly and Stormy Daniels. Yes,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: it's a punchline, laugh it up. But again, I know
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: there's all sorts of celebrations about Panbine, but just remember
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: he didn't fire her for the reasons that maybe you
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: think she deserved to be fired for. That's not shouldn't
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: be caused for celebration. It actually should be caused for concern.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: What's coming next to this Justice Department? That should concern everybody,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: And it's a reminder that we have to radically change
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I do not think we should have presidents, and I'll
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I deal with this in a question later in the show.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But it's pretty clear that that having presidential appointed had
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you know, you can if you want a trusted legal system,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you can't let an extraordinarily partisan president run the Justice Department.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And that's what we're saying very quickly on updating a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: little bit. Like I said, I've I've said my piece
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: on the on the president's speech, I think he just looked.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I think this is a political disaster for him. And
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: after speeding with Daniel Daniel Jurgen, this is not this
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: is he called it. This is the worst. He said,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: this is already worse than seventy three, worse than any
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of the energy crises in the in the seventies, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: it's any sees there's only been two beneficiaries, as he said,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: it's Russia in China, and there's only one country's military
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: that has the ability to keep the straight of hormones open,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and it's the United States. So we're stuck. He can
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: retreat and say other countries have to do this, They're
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: not gonna be able to do this, and the entire
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: it's going to be global contagion. As we learned during
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the pandemic, the global economy is global, pure and simple,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and so this is this is there's no insulating ourselves
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: from this, none at all. And he's and he's put
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: us in a situation where leaving now and allowing the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: remnants of the Iranian regime to act as the toll
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: bridge for oil for around the world is a disaster.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: And it is only I mean, it is an energy
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: crisis that arguably created the stagflation crisis of the seventies.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: And that's the situation we're staring at right now. It's
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: all it's lose lose situation at this point. And there's
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a reason I keep telling you, don't follow what he says,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: follow what we're doing. And we keep sending troops over there.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It's pretty clear we're going to probably have to use
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: ground troops to secure the strait of hormones because we're
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the only entity that can secure the strait of hormones
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: that has the ability to use and if we don't
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: do it, we do risk we risk geopolitical problems that
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: maybe we haven't thought about yet. You know, maybe the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Gulf States decide the deal that they cut with the
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: United States, it didn't work it anymore, and they'll decide
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to partner with China instead of the United States. There's
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: so many derivative disastrous scenarios from this if he just
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: pulls up and leaves, And yet there are so many
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: scenarios and disasters if we send in ground trips. Right,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: This was why so many American presidents listened to their
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: military advisors and realized how hard and difficult this would be,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and you'd better be willing to do it all. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: he and we know he doesn't. So this is the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: worst of all worlds. We have an impatient president who
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: just wants a result and doesn't really understand, apparently how
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: hard this is. And maybe didn't take geography when they
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: were teaching geography a pen. Maybe they didn't, maybe he
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: didn't take a geography class. But geography is not our
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: friend here, and that is a reason why so many
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: American presidents, as much as much as they wanted to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: get get rid of that regime, realized it was a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: lot harder than your thought. So on that upbeat note,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: we're going to sneak in a break here, and when
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: we come back, we're going to talk about more geopolitical
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: problems around the world, but this one China and Taiwan.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: But this is I mean, I really think that unfortunately
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: we are in a moment right NATO is no longer
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: effective as a current organization because if the American President
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't believe in it, it doesn't matter that he can't
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: technically withdrawal. It is not a functioning organization at the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: moment if the American President is not interested in it.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And ask yourself right now what he would do if
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Estonia was invaded by Russia a NATO ally, So he
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: is blown up NATO. He is risking America's essentially leadership,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: at risk of handing China all sorts of economic and
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: stable relationships with other countries that we were in a
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: contest with China, and Donald Trump made a decision on
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Iran that puts us on a path to losing that
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: contest with child. This episode of the Chuck Podcast is
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  Speaker 1: I absolutely embrace, so use that code as check With that,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: let's dig into some Friday questions here for the weekend,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to begin with David B. Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: And he writes, Hey, it's my first time writing in. Welcome.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Glad to have you keep him coming. But your video
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: comparing today's political brinksmanship to the eighteen fifties really got
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: me thinking. One area I don't think it's enough intention
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: is whether the core problem today is unequal representation, the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: growing gap between large and small states, the Senate and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Electoral college disparities, gerrymandering, the capped out size, no statehood
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: for DC or Puerto Rico, all of which make many
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: voters feel under represented. If the eighteen fifties crisis ultimately
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: required constitutional amendments to resolve, do you think today's political
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: problems maybe ultimately require structural constitution reforms like expanding the House,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: adding states, or reforming the electoral college. Love to all
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that you do, man, David Boy, did you did you
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: just ask questions? I had all of my hobby horses.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: As you know, I did a actual ted talk on
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: uncapping the House. There's no silver bullet. However, I would
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: argue uncapping the House this idea that this does not
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: require a constitutional amendment, just an act of Congress. Congress
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: stopped expanding the House as the population increased, which was
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: what the intent of the founding fathers were, and I
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: believe if we could stick and I actually have done
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the math. I've done the math on this and I've
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: shared it before. Point oh three percent of the population.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: No congressional district should be bigger or smaller than that, right,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: point oh three. I do think if you set it
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: in the constitution, it helps deal whether whether we grow
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: or shrink. Right, it's very possible we're seeing a flatlining
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of births in this country. It's very possible our population
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: size could stagnate even shrink as we get older. But
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: point oh three percent at the moment would basically double
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the current size of the House of Representatives, which would
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: put it back to what the ratio was when they
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: locked in the current four hundred and thirty five number
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: for the House of Representatives back in nineteen thirty. Back
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: then it was about one. Back then it was one
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: per three hundred and fifty thousand, and frankly jerrymandering while
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: it existed, obviously the technologies, it was just harder to do,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and in some ways the districts were more drawn as
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: communities of interest as they've gotten bigger. Right, they're eight
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: hundred one right now, we're over eight hundred thousand for
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: each congressional district. Well, to put that in context, a
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: population of eight hundred thousand would make you the one
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of the fifteen largest cities in America. So are you
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: telling me we have four hundred and thirty five major cities? Right?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You know? And the fact of the matter is a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: major city is not a single community of interest, right.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: A major city has all sorts of neighborhoods, all sorts
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: of communities of interest. So it is obviously too big.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: If you go down to point zero three, you get
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: one per three hundred fifty thousand, and I'm lingering on
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: this one answer. For this reason, you don't have to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: pass the constitutional medment to get her to the electoral
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: college if you simply double the size of the House. Why,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: because you've actually increased the numerator on the electoral college,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: right instead of right now it's five hundred and thirty eight. Well,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: if you double the size, you're literally going to be
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: adding approximately four hundred and thirty electoral votes to the total. Right,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So suddenly, instead of five thirty eight, we're going to say,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: let's put it at eight sixty six. And the point
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: being is that that doesn't mean it's impossible for the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: popular vote and the electoral college to diverge, but it
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: makes it much more rare. Right, only the closest of
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: elections have the possibility of going in that direction. So
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you don't even have to deal with the quote unquote
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: electoral college issue. You know, if I do think you
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: need a constitutional amendment to do this, I am skeptical
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: of the compact, the ideas out there were states bound together.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's technically legal, but I think I'm not
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: sure that I think it does violate the spirit of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the electoral college, and I think I think you probably
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: would have a Supreme Court rule it unconstitutional the compact,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: if you will, And I think that only introduces so
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: what you're saying is one state votes for one but
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: ends up going with another. I think you want to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: talk about feeling underrepresented in our democracy. I think people
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: would feel underrepresented in our democracy on that front. But
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: your larger question is I do think there's some constitutional amendments,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: So that's one. I definitely think we look. The money
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: thing is a big deal, right, whether it's disclosure, you know.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I ultimately think disclose mandatory disclosure is probably the cleanest
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: first constitutional amendment that is necessary. If we're going to
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: equate money with speech. You're going to need a constitutional
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: amendment if you want to regulate money in politics. Right,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: we can disagree with this current with this current direction
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: of the court that equates money with speech, it will
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: take you a generation to essentially repopulate the judicial system
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: in order to see a precedent like that overturned. Rankly,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the faster way to deal with this, and probably the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: more concrete way to deal with this, is with a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: constitutional amendment. So some form of money, I think disclosure
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: is probably the strongest. This I mean, we all should
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: know who is spending money to persuade us, period hard.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Stop this idea of hiding donations dark money you want
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: to talk about. I mean, that's just be you know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: this is the bag of cash world that we were
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: trying to get rid of after the Watergate scandal. So
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I think mandatory disclosure, instant disclosure, and I'd like to
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: see a NASCAR type of situation for all political candidates
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: or all political organizations that when you spend money in
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: an election year, you've got to always disclose who the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: who your ten biggest donors are, who you're twenty something
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: like that. You know, any donor over one hundred thousand
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: dollars has to be disclosed in the ad itself. Right,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: That's what I call it the NASCAR approach. Oh, your
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: sponsor's stp oh STP's on the hood, Right, you know
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: your sponsor is open AI open aies on the hood.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Your sponsor's anthropic and on the hood. Not people for
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the American way of doing business. Right, that's a ridiculous
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: way to do things. So I think you would need that.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: You know, then you get to the other issues I
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: think you know with with statehood. You know, I actually
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: think DC and Puerto Rico together make a lot of sense.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I think Puerto Ricanes, DC probably leans going to be
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: likely democratic. I think Puerto Rico not so much. And
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I think you could argue that maybe do you create
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: a Caribbean state, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, all
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of the American territories down there into one state. I
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: could make an argument for that as well, so that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: they're not essentially second class US citizens in the Virgin Islands.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: So you could do that. The it's interesting on the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: size disparities about that, or the disparities in the House
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and the Senate. Look, there's no doubt that's why I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: think increasing the size of the House, at least on
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the electoral college, by the way, just to give you
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: that ratio if you do that, and right now, Wyoming
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: has six times the voting power for president than the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: state of than an average voter in California. A voter
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: in Wyoming has more impact on who's our next president
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: than a voter in California. Now, the Founders always didn't
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: want the big states to dominate, but I don't know
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: if they wanted the small states to have six times
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the advantage of the big states. Under my system here
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: with an uncap in the House, going to point oh three,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the current electoral college would put Wyoming in about it
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: a point oho about two and a half times the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: power of a voter in California, which actually feels about
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: about what if you read what the founders were going
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: for in this fear of the big state small states
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and creating this balance, that feels like a more proper
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: ratio that would fall into that. But I do think money,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I think I definitely think we need to figure out
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: how to eliminate an individual's pardon power on this front,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: right that that is that is corruptible. We've we've learned
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: what's corruptible. I mean the I've always wanted to say this.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I think the the upside of the Trump era is
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: that it's served as an MRI, an MRI on people.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: We've learned, you know, we've learned who you know, who
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: has principles, who doesn't you know, who cares about power
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: more than you know, ends justified, the means, all that business.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: But it's also been an MRI for frankly, vulnerabilities in
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: our system. And I think we've we've seen that. I'll
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: give you another one that you didn't require here, but
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: it feeds off of the Pambonde news. I think we
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: have to figure out how to how to constitutionally make
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: our Justice Department independent. And that doesn't mean the president
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't have a say in the appointment. That doesn't mean
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Congress doesn't have a say in the appointment. But I
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: think we need something here that at least creates some
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: political distance between the president and the Attorney general, because
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: it's pretty clear that we know just remember, you may
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: not ocupan Bondy, but President Trump didn't likely didn't fire
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: her for the reasons that most of you think she
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: should be fired. Fired her because she wasn't being protector
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and doing his doing his bidding well enough. And that
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: is something I think we all have to keep in mind.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: You cannot you cannot have that kind of that kind
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: of close connection there. So that would be one other
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I would add to your list here. But boy, I
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: really I am. As you will note in my answer,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with uncapping the House. I think before we
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: try any other reform on small D democratic representation, I
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: want to see that, implement it first, and then let's
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: see how the system sorts itself out. I think it
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: opens the door for more political parties. I think it
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: opens the door for more coalition governments. I think it
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: opens the door for more of the country to feel
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: they have some representation in Congress. Right in this same
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: way media became too nationalized if we gutted local, our
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: politics has become due nationalized because we've essentially gutted local
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and uncapping the House, I think would rebalance that all right,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Like I said, you touched one of my You touched
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: one of my nerves. Next question comes from Austin. From Austin,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I think you're I think Austin, you're getting awfully close
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: to being a member of the toodcast five timers club.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine a major party federal candidate with the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: discipline to run on one structural reform like expanding the
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: House and focus only on that, arguing it unlocks everything
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: else downstream? Or does political gravity always pull candidates into
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: other issues and positions before they can fix the foundation.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Can that kind of candidate even exist or are we
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: just not ready for that as a country. By the way,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I loved your point about Democrats needing more moderates independence
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: than the GOP because of the numbers. I've learned a
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: lot from your show. Thanks. You know, here's the problem
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: with running on reform, especially in a an a bad
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: economic environment, which I think now we're in a bad
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: economic environment that's about to get worse. Is that a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: majority of voters ultimately right, we are we are, we are,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: we are all selfish as voters. And I don't mean
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: that as a criticism. I just mean that as a reality. Right,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: our lives need to be better at the moment, and
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you know, making ends meet and worrying about the future
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: of the democracy. Right, Just if you're more worried about
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: making ends meet, it doesn't mean you're you're you don't
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: care about the democracy, but you sort of you have
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a priority list. I personally think that a one issue
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: candidate is more effective in Senate and House races than
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: a one issue candidate for president. Now you can get
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to the point, you know, and a one is you
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: candidate for governor even is a possibility. You can get
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to a point and our system can get so broken
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: that we may you know, in some ways that that
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: is that was the promise of Ross Perot. If you
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: go back, there was this idea that he was just
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: going to he was really you know, he's like, we
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: got two giant problems, giant sucking sound of jobs going south.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: At the time, it was the outsourcing south. Eventually it
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: was obviously outsourced to Southeast Asia from there and the debt. Right, So,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: you know, he tried, but it was when he had
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: to respond to other issues that he would start to
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: get in trouble, whether it was issues of diversity, issues
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: of foreign policy. Right, we just know a president, unfortunately
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: a president, and we've just all learned this the hard way, right,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: And I mean, look at the two thousand election and
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: go look at all the questions that were asked about
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Osama bin Laden during the debates. Right, we didn't really
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: we didn't really prepare either Al Gore or George W. Bush
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: with questions that were going to be a part of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: their next president of the next presidency. And it's just
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: inevitable that you're just going to have all sorts of
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: other things. So I think it's much more difficult for
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: a president to do that. That doesn't mean they can't
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: run on a movement. That doesn't mean they can't run like, look,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: we've got to fix the infant, you know, you know,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: instead of running on building roads and bridges, We've got
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to run on fixing the infrastructure of the democracy. But
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I think you have to connect it to people's everyday
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: lives that this is going to improve their lives economically
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: right away. If you don't have that paired with the reform,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: you're not going to get there to do the reform.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the current and that's due to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: the current climate we're in now. Look if your economy
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: goes really into the toilet, look at what happened in Argentina,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: where a guy like Malay was able to that. You know,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: what he was advocating would have been extraordinarily unpopular, you know,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: until there's a feeling of desperation. And I don't think
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: we're not there yet on that front. So I'm not
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: quite there on a single issue candidate succeeding on the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: presidential level, but I could, I would see it. I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: could see a US senator, US Senate candidate, or even
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: a House candidate pulling that off. I do. So let's
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: just see, you know, at some point, right I you know,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: this is the the downside, right you know, this presidency's
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: going terribly He's cratering the world economy, and it will
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: inevitably make the economy front and center. And so while
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: we want to have the intellectual arguments and debates that hey,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: we need all these structural reforms, if you don't want
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: this to happen again, I think it the voter's attention
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: is going to be on the on what's in front
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: of them, right, So I think figuring out how to
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: pair reform with economic stability is I think the key
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: if you want to elect a reform agenda. Next question
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: comes from Akash. I hope I got that right, and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: if I didn't, my apologies, and please let us know
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: how to pronounce it correctly. A Cash, writes Hi Chuck.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: With talk of potential blue wave in midterms twenty twenty six,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: is there a risk of the same kind of miscalculation
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: we saw in the midterms twenty twenty two when a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: widely expected red wave didn't materialize, especially since affordability is
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: a central issue in both cycles regards. Oh, it's interesting.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I thought you were going to go in another direction
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: with this question, which is what the Democrats learned the
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: wrong lessons like they did in the twenty twenty two midterms. Right,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: They overperformed, and Joe Biden incorrectly thought this was a
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: reaffirmation of his policies and presidency. It was not. It
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: was just literally a repudiation of the meganominees in key
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: states and key races. Anyway, the point as for look,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I do think blue wave right wave is in the
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: eye of the beholder. Fifteen to twenty CE gained by
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: House Democrats is a wave in this kind of structure
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: that we're in with the gerrymandering. Ultimately, I have you know,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna ask me how to measure the wave.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I always I've been saying, go to the state of Iowa.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: If Democrats sweep gov. Senate and two House seats out
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: of that state, or even govern two House seats and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: come really close in the Senate, but they got to
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: win something statewide in Iowa, probably two. But if they
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: do that, that to me is the definition of that
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: means we there was a wave right because you've taken
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: a light red state like Iowa and flipped at blue.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: How many light red states essentially elect blue like blue
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: is governor, blue is senator, but really a senator. So
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: if both Iowa and Ohio flip and the Senate. Then
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: I think that that's a wave, even if it's even
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: if it feels narrow and it's fifteen, right, you know,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: gone of the days of the sixty house swing or
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: the forty house swing, et cetera. So that's why. But
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the question is is admit the misinterpretation, right? I So
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: it's possible there's a also there, and there's you know,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: it's possible that that Republicans hold on to the Senate
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: just because this is such a tough map for Democrats
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: and yet you know, they could misread what it is.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: So it's look, I think I do think there's probably
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: too much enthusiasm at the moment for Democrats sweeping, meaning
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: winning both the House and the Senate. I know the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: prediction markets are now have Democrats with over a fifty
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: percent chance of doing it. I'm pretty close. In this environment,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: we're a war, you got a global recession and stagflation
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: and inflation all doing right. That's that's a recipe for
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: just a for the incumbent party to get smoked. And
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: so I could you know, but that doesn't mean every
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: race isn't narrow in that situation. So but as far
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: as miscalculation, I think that I could see if Republicans
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: hang on to the Senate them not realizing how much
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: of a problem that they still really have. And I
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: could see Democrats overreading you know that there, but then
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: keeping their same leadership in place and kind of nominating
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: the same type of Democrat and having the same you know,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: just deciding that hey, just running against Trump works and
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: let's just keep running against Trump. Right, So, those are
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: the to me, those are the risks that both parties
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: have facing this this midterm. This episode of the Chuck
• 42:27
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• 43:58
  Speaker 1: am a customer. Next question comes from Adam David, Florida
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: via West Virginia. Question is this should Ukraine attempt to
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: strike Iran through southern Russia into the Caspian Sea and
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: hit the north side of Iran. Iran is no friend
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: of Ukraine and has limited retaliatory options. Trump is complaining
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: that nobody will come help him. But if Ukraine joined in,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: would Trump be a little nicer to them? Actually doubt it,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: as he only begrudgingly helps Ukraine because he hates Zelenski
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: for not helping him with the Biden request that got
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: him impeached the first time and his eyes. Ukraine therefore
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: can do no right. On a sports note, grown up
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: in Miami, why aren't you a Dolphins fan? I've been
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: a diehard for the Finns since twenty twenty three, and
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: we need all the help we can get best Adam
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and David Florida, where I believe the Dolphins and at
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the home of their training camp. I think it's not
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: my apologies for messing that up, Oh Adam. I've gotten
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: letters from my friends that work at the Dolphins, hopeful
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: that I will get fired up invited. When Obama hosted
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the seventy two Dolphins, the living members of the seventy
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: two undefeated team, because I was a Dolphins fan and
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I said, look, I appreciate you thinking of me as
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: a Miami person, but I wasn't my You know, we
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: all are the father and son relationship, right. My father
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: was a huge Packer fan, and he basically indoctrinated me
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: into the Packer fandom. The first, it's possible my first
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: chapter book as a as a kid was Instant Replay
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: by Jerry Kramer, okay, which is a story about a
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: season under Lombardi in the early sixties. And the second
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: book might have been Run to Daylight, which was Lombardi's
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: sort of one of those you know, how do you
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: do it? Books? You know that have become very popular
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: with coaches, or did for a period of time in
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties. We don't have those, right, We
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: don't have those coach books anymore. Though they would useally
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: come out while they were coaches. There's been less of
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: that lately. And my father and Grant, my father believed
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the Dolphins and Joe Robbie, who was the owner, the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: original owner of the Dolphins, were ripping off the Hurricanes
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: of concessions money back when they were shared the Orange Bowl,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: which was a fact they were doing it. The Dolphins
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: made more money off of the Miami Hurricanes success in
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the eighties than the Hurricanes did, and that used to
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: irk my father. But if you really, you know, I've
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: always he's never you never said this. He passed away
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: in the late eighties. But let's just say, as I've
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: grown up, learned more and realized that Joe Robbie was
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: a failed Democratic candidate for Congress in the late fifties
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota, there's a part of me that always thought
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: my father just wasn't a Dolphins fan because of Robbie's politics.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to I'm good to set that aside.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I love being a Packer fan. I I don't have
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I don't have no negative feelings about the Dolphins. I
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: I I just don't have that. You know, when you
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: and the thing is is a kid the good news,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: you know, being a Packer fan was terrible. I was
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the only Packer fan in my maid. Was sort of
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: a badge of honor, so you start to carry it.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: And that was something I passed on to my son.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to let him become a commander's fan
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: in the heart of his childhood. I mean that, who
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: who's going to torture their kid to make them be
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: a Washington command football team fan. Back in the last
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: thirty years, it's been a disaster. My son's eighteen. It's
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: literally it took him until he was seventeen before the
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Commanders even put on a competitive football team. So so
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: I've successfully indoctrinated him into the Packers. Of course, Packers
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: have been good during his childhood. They were fun during
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: my childhood with lind Dickey, but they weren't the best.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: So there it is. But hey, I think I I
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: this owner of the Dolphins is better than the last
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: couple of owners of the So mister Ross, he wants
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: to win, and that's step one of having the right owner.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: I am impressed with what he's done with the stadium.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: He treats the University of Miami very well in their
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: shared stadium experience. It doesn't mean I think it's a
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: great idea for the Hurricanes to be forty five minutes, right,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: you know, four thousand miles away from campus to play
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: their home football games. But I digress. Now as for
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: your question about Zelenski, First of all, kudos to you
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: for realizing why his issue with Zelenski. It's all about
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: what you said, right. He blames Zelenski for his political problems,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and he figures in Zelenski didn't do his bidding right.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: It's the same reason why he fired Pambondi. He didn't
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: fire fire her for all the reasons that nine thousand
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: other people thought she should have been fired. He fired
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: her because she didn't do his bidding very well. And
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: that obviously is look Zelensky has been and Ukraine has
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: already actually been quite helpful in figuring out how to
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: deal with drone attacks and undermine this. And so you know,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the amount that everybody's learned on drone warfare is thanks
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: to the thanks to Zelenski. And I've long wondered why
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: somebody hasn't gotten to didn't get to President Trump and say,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it's Iran that's helping Russia with these drones.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter, right, everything is a transaction to him.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not going down the Putin road. It's just a
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: transaction to him, although it does you know, all roads
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: always seem to lead back to helping Putin. Even this war.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: The two biggest, the two biggest beneficiaries of this war,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of this miscalculation here with Iran or Russia in China. Right,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: nobody is happier right now. As my guest this this
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: last week on Newsphere, said Daniel Jurgen, there's a self
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: satisfied smile that mister Putin has right now because he
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: suddenly has a financial lifeline to fund his war against Ukraine.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: But I could tell you the way you're thinking is
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: the way Zelensky was thinking. He's been very leaning forward
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: and trying to help. He did that tour of the
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Golf States, met with the heads of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: basically saying, you know, whatever you need, whatever expertise you
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: need in dealing with these drone strikes. You know you've
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: got all the intelligence from US. Is that that you
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: want to have, so you know, I do think it's
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: helped Ukraine's relationship with the Golf States, which could be
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: important for nation building going forward. But there's no there's
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: no convincing Donald Trump to help Zelensky. He absolutely sees
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: it in personal terms. All right. Next question comes from
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Judd Jued writes, love your podcast, and I would love
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: your opinion on a crazy idea that I had. I
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: love the crazy ideas. It's sort of what is Bill
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Simmons as one of my favorite little segments they'll do
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: every once in a while, about once a year. Is
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: half baked ideas, so I'm all for them. How successful
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: would a presidential canidate be if they promised to veto
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: almost every piece of legislation reaching their desk, essentially forcing
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: both parties to pass legislation to overcome with supermajorities, which
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: could overcome presidential vetos. I would say, almost to avoid
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Bush's no new taxes promise and allow legislation that just
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: overcomes the Senate's filibuster. Could that be a successful way
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: for a single executive leader to force Article one Congress
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: to do their jobs and pass compromise legislation, especially if
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: one party controls the presidency, the House, and the Senate.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe showing that it can be done will be enough
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: to make it the norm instead of the exception. Cheers
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: jud Jed I love this idea. It feels like, okay, Congress,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: I mean it gets to It's what my solution was
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: to the Senate judiciary gridlock right for the filibuster of judges. Oh,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: sixty votes doesn't work, well, let's make it seventy five right, Like,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: make it harder not easier. Oh no, we're going to
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: make you. You know, if you're a teenager missus curfew,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: do you make the curfew later or do you make
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: the curfew earlier? Right? Do you make it easier to
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: pass something if you can't get it done, or do
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: you make it harder? You actually should make it harder.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: Somebody works harder. It's a terrific idea. I here's the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: real problem with your suggestion. The public hates Congress. They
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: don't care that Congress doesn't work, and so it would
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: take an education of the country to explain why Congress
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: needs to be at the forefront and needs to be
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: forced to learn how to work together. You know, there
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: is one potential presidential candidate who I think might have
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: might have agreed to run on with something like this.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: That it's Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana. He's been
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: the guy that's been going up against Trump to defend
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the Indiana State Senate Republicans who refuse to do the redistricting.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: He is. He has got that that in him, In fact,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: that there's a there's a part of me that almost
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: wants to ring him up, friendly ish with him, ring
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: him up and present this idea, here's your you've been
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: you know, here's your presidential campaign platform to run on.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: But you know it it is it is. Uh. I
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: don't know if it would work. Look, I think I
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: think the better solution to force sort of Congress to
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: work differently is to start electing more independence and force
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: a reckoning where the independents create a folk rum and
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: are essentially their own veto over either party. Whichever party
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: has got the most extremists trying to run the place,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: be the you know, you'd be the sort of check
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: and balance on that. But it takes winning, right. You
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: can't just come close as an independent candidate. You got
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: to win some elections, you know, Dan Osborne and a
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Seth Bodner, Ana Lisa Murkowski, and you know, you start
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: to get multiple independents winning who are comfortable essentially saying
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: no to both major parties for a period of time
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: and essentially making them court the court the middle. Because
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: what you're getting at here is that the plurality of
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: America is not represented in Congress. Right, forty five percent
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: of the of the country essentially call our self described
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: or registered to vote as independence. It's not all of them,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: mean they're not all centrist, but what they are is
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: they're they're they're not partisans, right, They're not They're not
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: they're not group thinkers. And I think that there's a
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: feeling that, you know, only the special interests are getting represented.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: So I think that that's that's where their opportunity is, right,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: you know, you get your you know, Marie Glusen camp
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Perez MGP, you know you're Lisa Murkowski's to work with
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: a group of other sort of like minded individuals, not
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: necessarily like minded ideologically, but like minded structurally, you know,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: and how to make the place work better, but a
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: fun half picked idea. Jed all right, last question, Stafford,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Downtown LA. I luck that you made the distinction. Downtown LA.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Not not Malibu, not Santa Monica, not the Valley, not Pasadena,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Downtown LA, not West Hollywood, not East Hollywood. Right, Downtown LA.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Under rated neighborhood. You know, there used to be I
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: remember when we remember during the two thousand election and
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: I was staying in downtown and everybody, all my Angelina
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: friends said, oh, that's the worst place to stay. You
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: should be staying here. He's been staying there, And you realize,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: like Downtown is not. You know, Downtown's got a little well.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's gotten better over the years. Maybe
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: the arena Staples Centers being there has helped anyway, But
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: I digress. Here's your question. I'm wondering what you think
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: about how the Warren Iran will affect our ability to
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: protect our interests in other parts of the world. Given
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: that money, munitions, and personnel are finite, and the fact
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: that Shijingping has said he wants to be able to
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: invade Taiwan by twenty twenty seven, how much does our
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: continued expenditure of each of these make us incapable of
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: being prepared elsewhere. I have read that our defense industry
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: is nowhere near what it used to be, particularly in
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the manufacturing of munitions and in shipbuilding. All of these
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: seem very troubling. If we were to lose our supply
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: of the most advanced chips that are produced in Taiwan,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: it would be catastrophic to the United States economy. Also,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: thank you for your thoughts on March Madness. Thanks again
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: for all the great work Stafford Downtown Tola. Thank you, sir,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: appreciate that look I of all episodes for you to
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: write in on this issue, right Ike Friman and his
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: book about Taiwan and China being it. Yes, of look,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: this is the great geopolitical risk that Donald Trump has.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, no, this is the first American president in
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: my lifetime that seems to be comfortable handing over America's
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: leader leadership role in the world, and he's put it
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: at risk in ways that I don't think. You know,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: it's interesting. There's certainly plenty of people worried about it,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: given the rhetoric he was using in twenty fifteen and
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen and some of his behavior in twenty seventeen
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: and twenty eighteen. But I think we all never thought
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: that he would he would just do something this risky,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: and he has done something this risky, and he's a
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: you know, he's essentially newtered NATO at the moment. NATO's
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: not dead, but NATO is. You know, when the current
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: American president no is an interest in NATO, then NATO
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: is not an effective organization at the moment. I'm certainly
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: worried that Shijingping is going to look, is going to
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: see this moment if he does, if he wants to
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: take Taiwan. Now's the time, right while Trump's in office,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: while Trump's distracted. It's certainly my concern. It's why I
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: booked like now. It's why I've been focused on this
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: issue a little bit more because I think I I
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: if you were just to play this out strategically, you know,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: pretend you're pretend you are advising the Chinese leader, and
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: you're saying, when when should you do this? Well, you
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: don't want to do it when there's a new president
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: and a new attitude. You might want to do it
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: while you have somebody who might negotiate Taiwan away. So
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's a concern. But what I what
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: I learned from Mike, and I hope you learned, it's
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: like China's got a China might not be ready for
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: this either. And China sees what Russia's been doing with Ukraine,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: sees frankly, what we're doing with a run and realizes
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: an ain't going to happen. It doesn't countries don't roll over.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how many times world powers have
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: to learn this, whether it's Vietnam, whether it's Afghanistan, whether
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: it's Iran, right, whether it's Taiwan. This stuff is not.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: You know, you may think you can roll over somebody,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: but somebody has to say, all right, by the time
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: you by the time this is uploaded, I will be
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: on my way to the Nats home opener. I'm very
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: excited about this. You know what that means. It's Nats
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Dodgers right, by the way. If you're the Learners, you're
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: really ticked off that the Dodgers are the home opener
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: because you know, let's be honest, the Dodgers are going
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: to sell out whenever you bring them show. Hey, Otani
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: sells out wherever you go, so that's not you know,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: so you're actually, if you're the Nats, realizing that you
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: don't have the best product on the field to lure
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: casual fans into the stadium, you kind of want the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Dodgers later in the year. Usually they come around June,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: but they've rejiggered the schedule over the last couple of
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: years because of the mandatory decision that everybody plays everybody
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: now at least one series, which I think is a
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: great change, by the way, but it is scrambled sort of.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: You know, when you're when you're a season ticket holder,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: you you sort of follow the rhythm. You kind of know, Oh,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals come here, and the Dodgers usually come in
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: this month, and the Cubs usually come in this month
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: and d D d well all that's gotten scrambled lately.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: So the Dodgers are the home opener. So, like I said,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: big blow to the learners, basically taking away three sellout
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: dates that they would have gotten before. I mean, because
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: home opener weekend, you're going to get great. Hopefully we're
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: testing the weather here. But I have a few thoughts. Right,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the Nats are three and three. Here's here's my big takeaway. Right,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: and the hiring of all these raised, raised, raised guys,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and you know, the the the the snowy fan in me.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: That's fan in me, who's you know, middle aged, and
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: maybe you guys want to call me a little over
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: the hill, says Hey, this hiring of all the interns
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: from the Tampa Bay Rays organization. We'll see how this works.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: We have a thirty one year old manager, et cetera,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: et cetera. I say all this, and I can already
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: see a huge difference. It does look like what's interesting
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: is like, to me, the secret of the Ray's success. Right,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: they have overperformed the amount of money they spend right there,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: seem to be always contending in the als. They strategically
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: try to win every game and they will change whatever
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: it is, right, Oh, is this the game? We'll try
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: and opener this game because this is you know, we're
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: going to get their best three hitters out right away.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: They have a plan. You know, if you're going to
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: try to win eighty five to ninety games, which gets
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: you in the playoffs, you got to have a plan,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a different plan to win every game. And you know,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: I think about the plan against the Phillies the other
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: night where all the you know, even you know they
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: they all the lefty hitters seem to have a plan
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: to hit it opposite field, and it really suddenly that's
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: how we got ten runs and nobody hit a homer. Right,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: It was just getting men on base and putting pressure
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: on the Phillies to make plays. I feel like the
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: at bats look smarter. I'm a little nervous about James
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Wood right than the Nats are three and three, and
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Wood's been not a huge factor in all this. But
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I it's just been a week. But you know, I've
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: been MOPy and doom and gloom and still don't like
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: the way the learners are not investing in this team.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: But man, I think they've hired some pretty good people
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: because these and this team seems to respond so far.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: They just seem to be, you know again, where it's
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: a lot more analytics driven, you can talent. It's more
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: analytics driven, and for a team that doesn't have the
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: isn't going to use the resources to compete with the Dodgers,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: doesn't have the big you know, marquee talent to compete
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: with the Dodgers on a day to day basis or
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: a week to week basis, or even the Phillies or
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: even the Cubs, etc. You could see that they're trying
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: to find edges where they can, and you know what,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: that's all I want to see. You know. It's unlike
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: the crap product that the Wizards have put out with
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: this tanking situation, which is just embarrassing for the NBA.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: I'm horrified. It is really left a bad taste in
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: my mouth. I desperately want to try to be a
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Wizards fan, all right, I do. My son loves the NBA.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I wanted him to become a Wizards fan. It's been
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: so bad over a fifteen year period. He's a Suns
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: fan because he was a Devin Booker fan and he
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: just adopted the Sons and he's all in with the Sons.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: And I blame the Wizards that they don't even try.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: And when you put out you don't even try. Look,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: it's clear that the Nats are not trying to win
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: a World Series. Their front office isn't, but they at
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: least the evidence is they want to win each individual game.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: I think the way this way the way professional back
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: and professional basketball always looks even worse during during the
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: NCAA tournament, right because it's so fun and exciting to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: watch competitive basketball, and then you're like, oh, now, if
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: you happen to see Thunder play the Lakers, they do compete,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: but you can't watch your own hometown team play because
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: they have no interest in competing. That's no you know,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: nobody watches the Washington Generals, and eventually people stop watching
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the Harlem Globetrotters because you kind of knew what was
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: going to happen. And I just it's embarrassing and I
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: hate it, and I really think it's a stain on
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: the franchise. I get it. I get what they're trying
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: to do, and they're not the only team that has
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: done it. Utah is doing it. It's gross. We saw
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: what the you know again, I see it, shoot they
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: you know you see it in baseball, but at least
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: on at least you know the Houston Astros when they
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: were tanking as an organization, the players in the field
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: were competing, and the coaching staff on the field was
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: trying to win games. What's really gross about the Wizards
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: is that as soon as the player does well, they
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: bench them. God forbid that the Wizards accidentally win a game.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: So it is absolutely the NBA is a huge problem,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: and you want to expand clean up the league. At them,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: clean this crap up, get a better regular season product,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: going figure out how to incentivize better regular season basketball.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: You know, when I was, when I was in my
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: teens and twenties, it was appointment viewing in the eighties
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: and early nineties to see regular season matchups of Bird
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: versus Magic, Magic versus Jordan. You know, you didn't miss it.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Nobody's tuning in for a regular season matchup. You don't
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: feel that sense of you know, you've got to fix
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: this at them, You've got to fix this. Basketball is
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: a great sport. This system has created a mess. All right,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: enjoy your weekend. I'll see you on Monday.