Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Is In A Political Hole… And Can’t Stop Digging + The Backlash Against Bibi Netanyahu

Transcript

Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Is In A Political Hole… And Can’t Stop Digging + The Backlash Against Bibi Netanyahu · The Chuck ToddCast

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you
0:02
Speaker 1: by Ethos and what Ethos does is it helps you
0:04
Speaker 1: find life insurance. Let me tell you why life insurance
0:07
Speaker 1: bailed me out. My father died when I was sixteen.
0:09
Speaker 1: We didn't have a lot of money when it happened,
0:11
Speaker 1: and we were in a pretty tough financial spot after
0:14
Speaker 1: it happened. I'm an only child. Suddenly my mother's single,
0:18
Speaker 1: single mother. She had a job, suddenly lost a job,
0:21
Speaker 1: looking for another job, and we were struggling. You know,
0:23
Speaker 1: my dad didn't leave us in the best financial situation,
0:27
Speaker 1: but he did make one purchase. He bought a life
0:29
Speaker 1: insurance policy. Wasn't a huge chunk of change, but it
0:32
Speaker 1: was enough when we found it. And when I say
0:35
Speaker 1: we found it, meaning we went through his desk and
0:36
Speaker 1: we found, oh, look at this, let's see if there's
0:38
Speaker 1: anything here. And it helped us out at a time
0:41
Speaker 1: that we really needed it. And that's why I think
0:43
Speaker 1: it's important that if you can, especially if you have
0:47
Speaker 1: young children, if you can get life insurance, you should
0:50
Speaker 1: get it. Life is full of unexpected emergencies, unexpected things happen.
0:55
Speaker 1: It is an extra bit of security, something you can
0:58
Speaker 1: leave and help out at a time when you're not
1:01
Speaker 1: you're not there to help. So what does Ethos do well?
1:03
Speaker 1: Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy, and it's
1:07
Speaker 1: one hundred percent online. You can get a quote in seconds,
1:09
Speaker 1: you can apply in minutes, and you can get same
1:11
Speaker 1: day coverage. They will find you the right fit. There's
1:14
Speaker 1: no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health
1:16
Speaker 1: questions online. You can get up to three million dollars
1:18
Speaker 1: in coverage and some policies are as low as thirty
1:21
Speaker 1: dollars a month, and you'll get your lowest rate from
1:24
Speaker 1: their network of trusted carriers. So take ten minutes to
1:27
Speaker 1: get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your
1:31
Speaker 1: free quote at ethos dot com slash chuck That is
1:34
Speaker 1: e t hos dot com slash chuck. Application times may
1:40
Speaker 1: vary and rates may vary. Hello, They're happy Thursday, and
1:47
Speaker 1: welcome to another episode of the Chuck Podcast. Ah. It's
1:53
Speaker 1: one of those weeks where I've been traveling a bunch
1:59
Speaker 1: and as always, it doesn't matter if the weather's great,
2:03
Speaker 1: there's always travel hiccups, especially if you fly a certain airline.
2:06
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get ranty about that. I'm not
2:08
Speaker 1: gonna channel my inner inner Tony Koennheiser, but I do
2:13
Speaker 1: want to It is when you're at LaGuardia. I was
2:17
Speaker 1: a moderate pan I'm gonna tell you a little bit
2:18
Speaker 1: about it a little bit here in a few minutes.
2:22
Speaker 1: But I was moderating a panel today about a conversation
2:26
Speaker 1: following the screening of this terrific new documentary about a
2:30
Speaker 1: Jewish philosopher who sur Holocaust name Hannah Erran. Some of
2:35
Speaker 1: you may know no of her readings, know of her
2:38
Speaker 1: writings on tyranny, and and anyway, it was it's a
2:44
Speaker 1: it's a terrific doc and I'm going to get into
2:46
Speaker 1: it in a minute. But anyway, as somebody who flies
2:51
Speaker 1: a lot, I uh, let's just say I I have
2:55
Speaker 1: sampled just about every single TSA device there is, and
3:02
Speaker 1: various airports clearly get you know, there's clearly three or
3:06
Speaker 1: four companies out there that try to sell their super
3:10
Speaker 1: snazzy security system and there's this one in particular, and
3:14
Speaker 1: some of you may know it that is just ridiculous.
3:17
Speaker 1: It's clunky. It's this it's this screening system where you've
3:21
Speaker 1: got you know, you have to put all your stuff
3:26
Speaker 1: in a bucket and then it like gets it's in
3:28
Speaker 1: a line and there's like two two rows of buckets.
3:31
Speaker 1: Then it goes into this conveyor belt. Then it goes
3:34
Speaker 1: through and it seems to go through almost like it
3:36
Speaker 1: looks like an MRI machine, and it just it slows
3:40
Speaker 1: everything down. It's just that machine. Wherever I've dealt with it.
3:45
Speaker 1: It could be at a small airport in the Midwest,
3:50
Speaker 1: it can be at LaGuardia, it can be in the
3:53
Speaker 1: West Coast. But whenever I've run into that specific machine,
3:58
Speaker 1: it just everything just gums up. And it's it's got
4:03
Speaker 1: way too many component parts. I mean, that's the issue, right,
4:06
Speaker 1: It's like you have to use the bins, and the
4:08
Speaker 1: bins have to be a certain size and they have
4:10
Speaker 1: to slot in anyway. And it's one of those that
4:14
Speaker 1: I'm sure act when nobody, no human beings, are using it,
4:18
Speaker 1: it works wonderfully. When you actually introduce reality, the machine
4:23
Speaker 1: doesn't work as well. So I've been obsessed who the
4:26
Speaker 1: hell makes this thing? So I'm sitting here waiting and
4:28
Speaker 1: waiting and waiting, because you know, you're waiting in line
4:31
Speaker 1: for it to go through. The goddamn t s a
4:34
Speaker 1: MRI machine and the company's name. I'm going to spell
4:38
Speaker 1: it out for you. A N A L O, G
4:41
Speaker 1: I C. I called it anal logic. It might be analogic,
4:48
Speaker 1: but when you're going through that thing like is this
4:51
Speaker 1: really the name of your machine? Is this the name
4:53
Speaker 1: of your company? And sure enough, this is whatever. This
4:56
Speaker 1: machine's powered by anal logic. And let's just say, that's
5:00
Speaker 1: kind of how I feel about how some of these
5:03
Speaker 1: TSA security systems feel. It feels like about it feels
5:07
Speaker 1: like it is nothing but anal logic. So anyway, all right,
5:12
Speaker 1: this is right. The whole point of having a podcast
5:14
Speaker 1: is every once in a while you get to have
5:15
Speaker 1: a point of privilege where you can just rant about
5:17
Speaker 1: something in your life, right that just annoys you. And
5:19
Speaker 1: let me tell you another thing about people that cut
5:21
Speaker 1: you off when you go onto the on ramp to
5:24
Speaker 1: three ninety if I've nevermind, no, I'm just I'm just
5:26
Speaker 1: kidding there. I'm obviously taping after I just got back
5:32
Speaker 1: from my little travel escapade. So I just thought instead
5:36
Speaker 1: of getting cranky and some unknown politician that I'm about
5:40
Speaker 1: to about to talk about here, I figured I'd go
5:43
Speaker 1: ahead and get cranky about our TSA security machines. By
5:47
Speaker 1: the way, I think the TSA employees don't like it either.
5:50
Speaker 1: They hear all the people complaining they sit here. It's
5:52
Speaker 1: like they just have to sit here and wait and
5:53
Speaker 1: make that ridiculous conveyor belt work. I'm sure we're all
5:58
Speaker 1: safer for it, and some contractor is making a boatload
6:03
Speaker 1: of money selling an inefficient system to airports around the country.
6:09
Speaker 1: But if I have a theme for the last sort
6:11
Speaker 1: of twenty four hours and certainly what feels to be
6:14
Speaker 1: going around going on inside the Trump administration, it's this
6:18
Speaker 1: inability to stop digging. Right, you're in a hole and
6:21
Speaker 1: they they and it's instead of stop digging sort of
6:26
Speaker 1: you know, maybe this is not the time to move
6:29
Speaker 1: this issue or move that issue. It's always full speed ahead.
6:33
Speaker 1: It's always nope, we're not in the wrong. It's the
6:37
Speaker 1: other side that's in the wrong. Consequences be damned, you
6:43
Speaker 1: know it is It is like that. There is no
6:46
Speaker 1: subtlety to this administration, which is why it's not very
6:50
Speaker 1: good at being a leader. Right this the president is
6:53
Speaker 1: not really a leader because leaders can get people to follow.
6:57
Speaker 1: He's got a following, but he can't get people that
7:00
Speaker 1: don't that aren't sort of part of his orbit to
7:05
Speaker 1: follow him. He's not much of a persuader, right, he
7:09
Speaker 1: doesn't really have any sort of soft touch everything. You know,
7:14
Speaker 1: every problem is a nail and every answer is a hammer.
7:17
Speaker 1: Right to beat up that cliche. So here's how the
7:21
Speaker 1: Washington Post describes this. They call it a declaration that
7:27
Speaker 1: the United States is trying to get other countries to
7:29
Speaker 1: sign onto, and they want to circulate it around the UN.
7:34
Speaker 1: And this declaration, right, here's a time where the United
7:38
Speaker 1: States is basically going it alone all over the world
7:41
Speaker 1: when it comes to its foreign policy, telling Europe to
7:44
Speaker 1: pound sand, threatening to walk out on NATO, telling other
7:49
Speaker 1: countries you figure out how to get your goods and
7:53
Speaker 1: oil out of the straight of hor Moonves, good luck
7:55
Speaker 1: to you. Never mind that we started this war and
8:00
Speaker 1: we cause this situation. So in the middle of all this,
8:04
Speaker 1: basically the whole world's economy is on edge, and it's
8:07
Speaker 1: the fault of the United States. Right, they did, and
8:10
Speaker 1: of course we didn't go into this warning our allies,
8:13
Speaker 1: preparing them anything like that. So we're in the middle
8:17
Speaker 1: of this right now at a time where you could
8:20
Speaker 1: argue we could use some friends, and the last thing
8:22
Speaker 1: we need to do is be antagonizing people. So what's
8:26
Speaker 1: good Trump administration pushing On Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
8:30
Speaker 1: According to the Washington Post, they're pushing countries around the
8:34
Speaker 1: world to sign a joint declaration that essentially calls for
8:38
Speaker 1: ending humanitarian aid. It's being called trade for Aid. So
8:46
Speaker 1: I'm going to read you the reporting here from the
8:48
Speaker 1: Washington Post and a cable sent Wednesday night to all
8:50
Speaker 1: US embassies and councilor posts. The Secretary of State Mark
8:53
Speaker 1: Rubio ordered American diplomats to issue an official call to
8:58
Speaker 1: action in their country to foreign nations no later than
9:01
Speaker 1: Monday that asks for those countries to back a US
9:06
Speaker 1: initiative that's going to be introduced at the United Nations
9:08
Speaker 1: at the end of April. And what they want to
9:11
Speaker 1: do is use the UN system to quote promote America
9:15
Speaker 1: First values and create business opportunities for US companies. What
9:21
Speaker 1: it really means is, you know, it's not just the
9:24
Speaker 1: United States getting rid of usaid, it's getting the rest
9:29
Speaker 1: of the world to give up on aid to developing countries.
9:37
Speaker 1: What they want is to privatize them. They want to
9:42
Speaker 1: see money funding pulled back from all sorts of multilateral efforts,
9:47
Speaker 1: and they want other countries to get on board with this,
9:51
Speaker 1: and that has actually happened, by the way, as the
9:55
Speaker 1: United States has cut usaid again, the best soft power
9:59
Speaker 1: that the United States have, Donald Trump is pissing that away.
10:03
Speaker 1: And I'm just telling you this is going to burn US.
10:08
Speaker 1: Other countries have scaled back their humanitarian budgets. They're not
10:11
Speaker 1: filling in the gaps, and as I've talked with David Miliban,
10:15
Speaker 1: who of course runs the International Rescue Organization Committee organization,
10:25
Speaker 1: it's leading to an aid recession. They're you know, I
10:29
Speaker 1: guess you know the United States is thinks any aid
10:34
Speaker 1: to any country's welfare. But I got to read you
10:38
Speaker 1: this anonymous quote because it's the anonymous quote that just feels,
10:44
Speaker 1: let's just say, I'm starting to wonder, are we even America?
10:49
Speaker 1: According to this anonymous quote from a one State Department official,
10:54
Speaker 1: speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not
10:56
Speaker 1: authorized to talk with the news media quote, it's solidifying
11:01
Speaker 1: our stance on dropping AID completely and letting companies enrich
11:07
Speaker 1: themselves on newer markets, so to privatize AID all over. Look,
11:17
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit here and say there aren't
11:19
Speaker 1: some things that the private sector or private charities can
11:22
Speaker 1: sometimes be more efficient at doing. And you know, but
11:27
Speaker 1: when you take out the logistics expertise that governments have,
11:32
Speaker 1: particularly Western governments have, and the far reaches that governments
11:37
Speaker 1: are in in some places that need aid, the private
11:42
Speaker 1: sector isn't going to be able to fill in those gaps.
11:45
Speaker 1: And they'll only do it if they're getting something in return.
11:50
Speaker 1: So essentially, for any areas around the world in need,
11:56
Speaker 1: they're going to now basically have to give up something.
11:58
Speaker 1: It's almost like they're going to be stuck getting paid
12:00
Speaker 1: a loans. Oh you you need money, now, well let
12:07
Speaker 1: me give you a twenty five percent interest rate. But
12:09
Speaker 1: we'll help you. We'll help you with some sandbags over here.
12:12
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll get you some vaccines over there that you're
12:15
Speaker 1: short on. But again, in order to help you humanitarianly,
12:19
Speaker 1: we need a little something in return. It's just one
12:24
Speaker 1: of these. It's the timing of the move here. We
12:29
Speaker 1: are already breaking up alliances all over the world, having
12:34
Speaker 1: all sorts of diplomatic rows over how we've gone about
12:38
Speaker 1: this war in Iran, and then we're just going to
12:41
Speaker 1: go to the United Nations and just stick a finger
12:43
Speaker 1: in the eye of the rest of the world. It's
12:47
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's just head scratching timing. I mean,
12:55
Speaker 1: I guess America is not unpopular enough around the world.
12:58
Speaker 1: Let's see if we can make America more unpopular. Let's
13:01
Speaker 1: see if we can make more Americans feel uncomfortable that
13:07
Speaker 1: what the brand of America was about is just being
13:11
Speaker 1: squandered by this president. I mean, he is absolutely making
13:17
Speaker 1: America just look like the assholes of the world that
13:22
Speaker 1: we don't care. It's it's look. It's bad politics, it's
13:31
Speaker 1: bad form policy, it's bad diplomacy. It might save the
13:39
Speaker 1: couple of dollars you think you're saving, you're only going
13:43
Speaker 1: to spend twice as much when it comes to whatever
13:48
Speaker 1: we can't get from these countries long term, or when
13:51
Speaker 1: we don't get the support we need when there's an
13:54
Speaker 1: important when there's a moment that we're going to need
13:56
Speaker 1: the help of other countries. But to to sort of
14:01
Speaker 1: try to accelerate this idea that no, no, no, no, we
14:04
Speaker 1: got to make sure the world does not come together
14:06
Speaker 1: on anything. We got to make sure we export heartlessness
14:10
Speaker 1: around the world. It's you know, we're we already we
14:19
Speaker 1: don't take any asylum claims anymore. For the United States
14:22
Speaker 1: of America. We're an idea that's open to anybody who
14:27
Speaker 1: believes in it, or so I thought. But this administration
14:33
Speaker 1: is just trying to shut every possible door there is.
14:39
Speaker 1: It's like I said, this is bad for our security,
14:42
Speaker 1: bad for our reputation. It's going to be. It's just
14:46
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that's just bad across the board.
14:50
Speaker 1: And you may think, oh, it's not a big deal
14:53
Speaker 1: right now, and this is small potatoes, but it's just accumulating.
14:57
Speaker 1: We're at it. Like I said, we're at a time
14:58
Speaker 1: where we could use some It's like this fight with
15:01
Speaker 1: the Pope. Shut up, stop trying to debate the Pope,
15:08
Speaker 1: jade Evance. You've been a Catholic for six years. Do
15:11
Speaker 1: you really think you know more about the Catholic Church
15:18
Speaker 1: than the Pope who's been doing this for his whole
15:21
Speaker 1: adult life. Or Mike Johnson, who has also been critical
15:28
Speaker 1: of the Pope. This was this was a good one.
15:30
Speaker 1: So Johnson, who's not Catholic, he's evangelical, you know, said
15:35
Speaker 1: he was so taken aback by what the Pope said
15:37
Speaker 1: last week about this idea that Jesus does not listen
15:40
Speaker 1: to the prayers of quote, those who wage war, and
15:43
Speaker 1: that their hands are full of blood. So Mike Johnson
15:47
Speaker 1: decided to throw to to basically, to throw some Catholic
15:57
Speaker 1: doctrine out, because he's such an expert, being an evangelical, right,
16:01
Speaker 1: and I'm always a little hesitant to dabble in religiou
16:04
Speaker 1: stuff because I'm not a religious scholar. And so the
16:08
Speaker 1: speaker decides to talk about there's something called the just
16:11
Speaker 1: war doctrine, right, and then you have JD Vance, like
16:16
Speaker 1: I said, in a cave, you know, a converted Catholic.
16:20
Speaker 1: He admonished the Pope told him he's got to be
16:22
Speaker 1: quote careful if he was going to opine on matters
16:25
Speaker 1: of theology. Well, the chairman of the US Catholic Bishop's
16:30
Speaker 1: Doctrine Committee shot back with what he called a clarification
16:34
Speaker 1: statement about what Catholic just war theory really means. Bishop
16:39
Speaker 1: James Massa wrote this, for over a thousand years the
16:42
Speaker 1: Catholic Church has taught just war theory, and it is
16:46
Speaker 1: that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his
16:50
Speaker 1: comments on war. The Bishop goes on to be a
16:53
Speaker 1: just war, he said, it must be a defense against
16:59
Speaker 1: another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy
17:03
Speaker 1: Father actually said. He does not listen to the prayers
17:08
Speaker 1: of those who wage war. And then the bishop Bishop
17:12
Speaker 1: Massa at it. When Pope Leo speaks as Supreme Pastor
17:16
Speaker 1: of the Universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions
17:20
Speaker 1: on theology. He is preaching the Gospel. Again, It's sort
17:28
Speaker 1: of like what is Johnson advance thinking? You know, and
17:32
Speaker 1: the president too, Why are you picking a fight with
17:34
Speaker 1: this pope? You know? This is a streisand effect because look,
17:38
Speaker 1: the pope said what a pope should say. Like I said,
17:43
Speaker 1: if the Pope's not coming out against war, we're all
17:45
Speaker 1: in trouble, okay. But if you don't mention, if you
17:52
Speaker 1: don't react, his words stand and you just let people
17:58
Speaker 1: steing it. But by reacting, what do you do, You're
18:01
Speaker 1: actually amplifying it. And what you're doing is you're amplifying
18:07
Speaker 1: something that's making you guys look like fools. So, by
18:11
Speaker 1: the way, what is just war theory? Well, my friends
18:13
Speaker 1: at the New York Times note at this, at its basis,
18:17
Speaker 1: it is a means for people to distinguish permissible killing
18:20
Speaker 1: from illegitimate killing or murder. According to Josephkabezi, dean of
18:23
Speaker 1: the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University
18:26
Speaker 1: of America, the criteria for how to act morally when
18:29
Speaker 1: getting into a war and then once you are in it,
18:32
Speaker 1: it is basically an ethic about the good end of politics.
18:38
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, according to this theologian,
18:45
Speaker 1: Christians should be peacemakers, and that the issue of a
18:49
Speaker 1: just war predates Christianity. As empires like the Romans, had
18:51
Speaker 1: their own theorists like Cicero. He said, but the Catholic
18:55
Speaker 1: Church has a specific theological tradition about just war, and
18:59
Speaker 1: of the ten commandments is you shall not kill. So
19:07
Speaker 1: let me give you a little bit more on this.
19:08
Speaker 1: What is the Catholic tradition on just war? The theology
19:11
Speaker 1: dates largely to Saint Augustine, the political theologian from Northern Africa,
19:15
Speaker 1: who wrote in the early fifth century. As northern tribes
19:17
Speaker 1: sometimes called barbarians, were invading the Roman Empire. There was
19:21
Speaker 1: a kind of presumed pacifism in the first few centuries
19:24
Speaker 1: of the Church's life, but now the Church has responsibilities
19:27
Speaker 1: to society, responsibilities to protect the borders of the nation.
19:32
Speaker 1: But again, when you look at it, it is more
19:34
Speaker 1: in self defense that you get the just war doctrine.
19:39
Speaker 1: So look, I don't know why a newly converted Catholic
19:45
Speaker 1: thinks they out of debate Catholic theology with the Pope.
19:49
Speaker 1: I don't know why somebody who's not Catholic, who's an evangelical,
19:53
Speaker 1: thinks he can lecture the Catholic Church about Catholic doctrine.
20:00
Speaker 1: You know, this is again a case of sort of
20:02
Speaker 1: like is this really the time, Like you've already dug
20:07
Speaker 1: a hole? Why do you keep digging? Please put down
20:11
Speaker 1: the shovel. You're embarrassing all of us. Right, I'm not
20:16
Speaker 1: one of those who thinks, oh, isn't this great? You know. One,
20:19
Speaker 1: they're hurting themselves and this is going to politically hurt them. No,
20:22
Speaker 1: it's bad for America, it's bad for all it's a
20:26
Speaker 1: bad look for all of us. And and by the way,
20:31
Speaker 1: it's bad politics for them. This isn't good for them,
20:36
Speaker 1: and yet they keep going down this road. Well, this
20:42
Speaker 1: episode of The Chuck Podcast is brought to you by Quints.
20:45
Speaker 1: This time of year, always makes me rethink what's in
20:47
Speaker 1: my closet. I'm trying to keep fewer things, but better ones,
20:51
Speaker 1: pieces that are well made, easy to wear all the time.
20:54
Speaker 1: Trust me, I am constantly on this. I have given
20:57
Speaker 1: up ties. I'm looking for upscale casual, nice casual. Right.
21:00
Speaker 1: That's why I keep coming back to Quints. The fits
21:02
Speaker 1: are thoughtful, pricing actually makes sense. Dirty little secret. Some
21:06
Speaker 1: of my birthday gifts came from members of my family
21:10
Speaker 1: using the code and ordering from Quints, and I love
21:13
Speaker 1: what I got. Quins makes some high quality every day essentials.
21:16
Speaker 1: They use premium materials like one hundred percent European linen,
21:19
Speaker 1: and they're insanely soft, flow knit active wear fabric. Their
21:22
Speaker 1: men's linen pants and shirts are lightweight, breathable, comfortable, basically
21:26
Speaker 1: the perfect layer for spring. I've got some of the
21:28
Speaker 1: linen shorts on right now. They're fantastic, trust me. And
21:32
Speaker 1: the best part is that their prices are fifty to
21:34
Speaker 1: sixty percent less than similar brands. How well Quint's works
21:37
Speaker 1: directly with ethical factories, cuts out middlemen, so they're pan
21:41
Speaker 1: for quality, not the markup of the brand. Everything is
21:44
Speaker 1: designed to last and make getting dressed easy. This is
21:48
Speaker 1: one I wholeheartedly endorse. I wear the products, I really
21:52
Speaker 1: like it. I can find my comfort zone here literally
21:56
Speaker 1: when I'm comfortable wearing and comfortable ap peering in on air.
22:00
Speaker 1: So refresh your wardrobe with quints. Go to quins dot
22:03
Speaker 1: com slash chuck c uhck for free shipping and three
22:07
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too,
22:10
Speaker 1: so go to qu i n ce dot com slash
22:14
Speaker 1: chuck for free shipping three hundred and sixty five day
22:17
Speaker 1: returns quints dot com slash chuck use that code. I
22:26
Speaker 1: know it's not news to anybody that you're like, oh,
22:29
Speaker 1: these guys, you know, they always want to double down.
22:31
Speaker 1: It's always pedal to the metal. It's always never apologizing
22:35
Speaker 1: all of this. But you know, this is the stuff
22:38
Speaker 1: like at some point, you know, one of the tiktoks on.
22:44
Speaker 1: You know, there's all this hand ringing right now, right
22:47
Speaker 1: more Republicans than ever are talking. Some of them are
22:51
Speaker 1: owner of anonymous quotes about how bad the politics of
22:54
Speaker 1: the Iren War is. It's just really hurting them. But
22:57
Speaker 1: they're still not ready completely to go public in distancing
23:03
Speaker 1: thingsselves from Trump. But I think we're getting pretty close.
23:07
Speaker 1: But that's the point here. It's like there is just
23:10
Speaker 1: there are no guard rails ors. Is there anybody who's
23:13
Speaker 1: sober in that West wing? And I don't mean sober
23:17
Speaker 1: like I'm saying you guys are all drunk. But it's like,
23:19
Speaker 1: who can sober these guys up and say, guys, you
23:23
Speaker 1: may believe this, You may think the pope is wrong,
23:26
Speaker 1: you may think he's some woke liberal instead instead of
23:31
Speaker 1: a Catholic, a Catholic bishop who was elevated to the papacy.
23:36
Speaker 1: But this is not the time to pick that fight.
23:39
Speaker 1: This is not in the best interest of what you're
23:41
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish right now. Look, this extends to Donald
23:45
Speaker 1: Trump's rant yesterday saying that if the Federal Reserve chair,
23:52
Speaker 1: if Jay if J. Powell decides to stay on the
23:56
Speaker 1: board after he steps after his term ends as chair,
24:00
Speaker 1: that he's going to fire him, which of course, is
24:04
Speaker 1: going to set up all, you know, another challenge, another
24:06
Speaker 1: court challenge that you know all of the independent stuff,
24:10
Speaker 1: and it's like, you're gonna get your guy, But if
24:13
Speaker 1: you want to make sure your guy doesn't get confirmed,
24:16
Speaker 1: go ahead and threaten J. Powell. You've just basically dared
24:21
Speaker 1: Tom tell Us, who is going to stand in front
24:23
Speaker 1: of that confirmation and going to make it extremely hard.
24:30
Speaker 1: And Trump just is making it harder again. And I
24:35
Speaker 1: know the idea that Donald Trump knows subtlety and that
24:37
Speaker 1: Donald Trump will actually, you know, keep his mouth shut
24:40
Speaker 1: because maybe, you know, maybe he can get something done
24:46
Speaker 1: or get something that he wants done his way. But
24:48
Speaker 1: it's like, if he doesn't get to publicly own whoever
24:51
Speaker 1: it is he wants to own, or if he doesn't
24:53
Speaker 1: like that somebody's embarrassed him and gotten the best of him,
24:57
Speaker 1: he's just always got to find a way to come
24:59
Speaker 1: back and try to get the best of them. And
25:01
Speaker 1: it's clear that Jay Powell is one of those, right,
25:04
Speaker 1: And we also know this. He gets angriest at people
25:07
Speaker 1: he that he thinks are not loyal that he appointed, right,
25:11
Speaker 1: and Jay Powell Trump appointing. Right. It drives Trump crazy. Remember,
25:15
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is upset that a guy who's kept our
25:17
Speaker 1: economy incredibly stable and frankly incredibly resilient. You know, he's
25:24
Speaker 1: going out of his way to make, you know, to
25:26
Speaker 1: make people feel less certain about our economy. But he's
25:32
Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to embarrass j Powell. Right. He can't
25:36
Speaker 1: stand the fact that Jay Powell has has sort of
25:40
Speaker 1: won this argument, He's won the court of public opinion
25:44
Speaker 1: simply because he just kept his head down and did
25:47
Speaker 1: his job. You know, as many of you know, I'm
25:52
Speaker 1: I am. I think the I think we could use
25:57
Speaker 1: a strong independent candidate for for president. I think the
26:02
Speaker 1: two parties are so consumed with their own ideological fights
26:06
Speaker 1: right now that in order to get both parties to
26:09
Speaker 1: sort of push back against some of their extremism, we
26:14
Speaker 1: kind of need a reset and a strong sort of
26:17
Speaker 1: independent candidate could do that. And I was musing with
26:22
Speaker 1: somebody who knows Jay Powell a little bit, and I said, hey,
26:25
Speaker 1: if Canada Central banker can suddenly become their political hero,
26:29
Speaker 1: I mean, Mark Carney is now suddenly one of the
26:32
Speaker 1: strongest politically strongest Canadian Prime ministers we've seen and perhaps
26:38
Speaker 1: in a decade, how about Jay Powell for president? You know,
26:47
Speaker 1: I'm only a little bit facetious now. I think he's
26:50
Speaker 1: in his seventies, and I think that ultimately, if you're
26:53
Speaker 1: going to go the third party, right, you need somebody
26:54
Speaker 1: a little bit younger, You need somebody, you know, But
27:00
Speaker 1: you know. I'm also you know, when you look there
27:03
Speaker 1: there is something there is something about having somebody who
27:09
Speaker 1: was once appointed to office by Donald Trump suddenly becoming
27:14
Speaker 1: a a an antagonist in the campaign running against him
27:22
Speaker 1: or running against his movement. Looks familiar with that that
27:27
Speaker 1: just happened in another country. Oh right, hungry anyway, Look,
27:33
Speaker 1: there's nothing to j Powell for president. I don't want
27:35
Speaker 1: anybody going, oh, Chuck Todd's reporting Jay Pole's thinking about
27:38
Speaker 1: ready for No, that's not what I'm saying. He was
27:41
Speaker 1: amusing with somebody. I said, would he ever be open
27:45
Speaker 1: to that? And I was basically told that that short
27:50
Speaker 1: answer is an fw is I think is how it
27:54
Speaker 1: was put to me. So I don't think Jay Powell
27:57
Speaker 1: for president. But the point is, again, here's the president
28:00
Speaker 1: picking another fight. They're just picking, and they continue to
28:04
Speaker 1: pick and pick and pick at a time when they
28:08
Speaker 1: kind of need to. You know, every other president who's
28:10
Speaker 1: been in this terrible position that Trump is in right now,
28:14
Speaker 1: creating approval ratings, unpopular coming up to a midterms, Like
28:19
Speaker 1: you know, George W. Bush, You're like, Hey, if you
28:22
Speaker 1: don't want me to come, just say so. You know,
28:24
Speaker 1: I won't endorse shit. You know, he didn't want to
28:27
Speaker 1: hurt his party, Barack Obama when his numbers weren't going well,
28:32
Speaker 1: when he was not an asset on the campaign trail
28:34
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, he didn't force his way into the conversation.
28:39
Speaker 1: He tried to work with his party. That's not Donald Trump,
28:44
Speaker 1: and it is why it is unlikely Republicans will be
28:47
Speaker 1: able to mitigate to do what they could be doing
28:51
Speaker 1: if they had a normal leader of their party, right
28:55
Speaker 1: who wasn't super narcissistic. But if they had a normal
29:00
Speaker 1: leader of their party, you would see this, these permission
29:04
Speaker 1: slips go out here. If you've got to you want
29:06
Speaker 1: to distance yourself, go ahead and distance yourself. It would
29:10
Speaker 1: almost be or look, that's the way Nancy Pelosi would operate.
29:14
Speaker 1: She would find if somebody needed to show some distance
29:18
Speaker 1: from party line votes. You know, she might even help
29:24
Speaker 1: find a bill to put on the floor so that
29:28
Speaker 1: they could show their independence. But that's what a party
29:34
Speaker 1: leader does, and Donald Trump is perhaps I mean again,
29:40
Speaker 1: he's not a leader of any kind. Because a leader
29:43
Speaker 1: has the ability to get other people to follow, and
29:46
Speaker 1: a leader also knows when to turn down the temperature.
29:52
Speaker 1: And this is not who Donald Trump is. I want
29:55
Speaker 1: to make one other point. I was moderating this panel
29:59
Speaker 1: and the hang on a minute. It was panel after
30:05
Speaker 1: the showcasing of this new documentary called Facing Tyranny. It's
30:09
Speaker 1: about Hannah Aaron and look it is. I really highly
30:16
Speaker 1: recommend it. She was a fascinating woman and this documentary
30:20
Speaker 1: does a good job bringing her to life. You know,
30:22
Speaker 1: there isn't a lot of footage per se, but it
30:25
Speaker 1: does a good job matching footage in each period with
30:33
Speaker 1: the points that they're making. But she's a fascinating you know,
30:36
Speaker 1: she's basically one of the you know, one of the
30:38
Speaker 1: great Jewish philosophers of the twenty one great philosophers of
30:41
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. You happen to be Jewish. But she
30:43
Speaker 1: also became a political prisoner. She was a refugee during
30:46
Speaker 1: World War Two. Obviously, Aaron is best known for her
30:49
Speaker 1: seminal work The Origins of Totalitarianism. And look, this documentary
30:54
Speaker 1: was made after January sixth, And I say this because
30:57
Speaker 1: the documentary filmmaker who somebody I've known from my previous life.
31:04
Speaker 1: He's the former executive producer of Washington Week, Jeff Bieber.
31:07
Speaker 1: He was the director of the film, and he said
31:10
Speaker 1: after January sixth, he started diving into Aaron's work and
31:18
Speaker 1: on the origins of totalitarianism in the different ways that
31:21
Speaker 1: this happens, and thought it would be a time, it
31:24
Speaker 1: would be a good time to take a deep dive
31:27
Speaker 1: into her work given the current situation. We are not
31:30
Speaker 1: living in a totalitarian stay, okay, and Donald Trump is
31:34
Speaker 1: not him. But when you see the way good people
31:38
Speaker 1: will do bad things and get caught up in some
31:40
Speaker 1: of these things, and in some ways that is I
31:43
Speaker 1: think one of the what Hannah Errant was just obsessed
31:45
Speaker 1: with trying to understand and figure out. I think it's
31:48
Speaker 1: important to understand sort of her thinking and her insights,
31:53
Speaker 1: and I think there's a lot to be learned. The panel,
31:56
Speaker 1: as any panel that is dealing with controversial subjects, got
32:02
Speaker 1: a little got lively, but it was the good kind
32:07
Speaker 1: of lively. But it got lively and some interesting back
32:10
Speaker 1: and forth. And one of the questions that created some
32:16
Speaker 1: livelihood was what would Hannah Erron think of the current
32:20
Speaker 1: situation today when it comes to Israel and the rise
32:25
Speaker 1: of anti Semitism. And one of the things that Jeff
32:27
Speaker 1: Bieber pointed out is that. You know, Eron was not
32:31
Speaker 1: necessarily she was certainly Zionist, but she didn't think Israel
32:38
Speaker 1: should just be a Jewish state. She wanted it to
32:41
Speaker 1: be a federation, that it had to be an Arab
32:44
Speaker 1: Jewish state, that you couldn't And her rationale was that,
32:51
Speaker 1: look what happened in Germany that was a nationalist state.
32:56
Speaker 1: So you don't ever want to be a nationalist state
32:58
Speaker 1: because then you can slip into tyranny too easily. But
33:04
Speaker 1: if you want a pluralistic society, you need you need
33:07
Speaker 1: to be a federation. You need to be of some
33:09
Speaker 1: of some sort pluralism, federalism, however you want to, however
33:14
Speaker 1: you want to describe it. Now, look that in itself
33:19
Speaker 1: will spark couldn't spark quite a debate. What me just
33:23
Speaker 1: bringing it up now might trigger some interesting comments that
33:27
Speaker 1: I may receive about this, But I was thinking about
33:30
Speaker 1: that when it come came to the vote that showed
33:33
Speaker 1: more Democrats voted against military aid to Israel than we've
33:37
Speaker 1: ever seen before. I think it was got up to
33:39
Speaker 1: forty Democrats, and I know that the number is going
33:42
Speaker 1: to get interpreted, you know, those that look at it
33:46
Speaker 1: through the lens of uh, you know, the Democrats hate Israel.
33:50
Speaker 1: That's I would just be careful not interpreting it as
33:53
Speaker 1: that this is about BB. This is about one person.
33:57
Speaker 1: This is about BB. And I know I've said this before,
34:01
Speaker 1: but it bears repeating. He polarized Israel in the American
34:07
Speaker 1: political electorate when he decided to get involved in our
34:10
Speaker 1: elections in twenty twelve, right when he was doing everything
34:15
Speaker 1: he could to defeat Barack Obama and didn't hide it, right,
34:20
Speaker 1: and it was he inserted himself. And I do think
34:25
Speaker 1: there's a reason why younger Democrats in particular are more
34:28
Speaker 1: likely to be skeptical of aid to Israel than older Democrats,
34:33
Speaker 1: and it is I think it all began with net. Yeah,
34:37
Speaker 1: Whu's arrogant treatment of Barack Obama. You know, look, he's
34:42
Speaker 1: I've pointed this out, he's been He's sort of treated
34:47
Speaker 1: every US president sin's Bill Clinton pretty badly and tried
34:52
Speaker 1: to bully them and push them around. Now, Clinton, Bush, Obama,
34:58
Speaker 1: Biden all knew how to push back at BB. Not
35:01
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. But you know, there's a growing belief that
35:05
Speaker 1: Bib essentially talked, you know, knew, knew how to work
35:09
Speaker 1: Trump and convinced Trump to launch this war in Iran.
35:15
Speaker 1: There's a belief that bib Is wants to keep Israel
35:19
Speaker 1: at war because as long as Israel's at war and
35:22
Speaker 1: feels it's under threat, there isn't going to be a
35:25
Speaker 1: focus on his on the investigation and his political problems.
35:30
Speaker 1: And it's there's always been this sense that the only
35:35
Speaker 1: way he thinks he knows how to stay in power
35:38
Speaker 1: is to make sure the elector thinks that you know,
35:41
Speaker 1: you may not like BB, but you need BB on
35:44
Speaker 1: that wall right, that he's your Jack Nicholson. And so
35:49
Speaker 1: he's got to constantly keep Israeli's constantly thinking that it's
35:55
Speaker 1: on edge, and he's got to keep the country at war.
35:57
Speaker 1: But I do think one thing that American audiences under
36:02
Speaker 1: estimate about what October seventh did inside Israel is that
36:06
Speaker 1: it really did galvanize the Israeli population. They're not It
36:10
Speaker 1: doesn't mean BB's gotten more popular. He hasn't gotten more popular,
36:13
Speaker 1: but there is there's a lot less empathy for the
36:18
Speaker 1: Palestinians inside Israel than there's been a long time, and
36:24
Speaker 1: so that that certainly did real damage. I think there's
36:28
Speaker 1: still plenty of people inside Israel that don't like how
36:33
Speaker 1: BB's managed this war. And there's still plenty inside Israel
36:36
Speaker 1: who think BB should be held accountable for essentially looking
36:42
Speaker 1: for not for the security failure that allowed October seventh
36:46
Speaker 1: to happen. And there really hasn't been accountability for the
36:50
Speaker 1: failure of IDF to see this coming and for the
36:55
Speaker 1: Israeli government to not see this coming. My goodness, there's
36:59
Speaker 1: even conspiracy that somehow maybe they did see a company
37:01
Speaker 1: and wanted it to happen because they somehow thought it
37:03
Speaker 1: would be it would galvanize the country and all that.
37:09
Speaker 1: But I do think the correct interpretation of what you're
37:12
Speaker 1: seeing here is it's about frustration with BB. It's frustration
37:17
Speaker 1: with the Israeli government. That's what this is. There was
37:20
Speaker 1: a time that when you would see some American political
37:25
Speaker 1: pushback at Israel, that the Israeli public would pay attention
37:29
Speaker 1: and they would put some pressure in their leaders. No, no, no, no,
37:32
Speaker 1: they really only have one ally. Don't alienate that ally.
37:36
Speaker 1: But BB is you know, messed this up, right. He
37:39
Speaker 1: has partisanized the issue. He thought it was good politics
37:43
Speaker 1: for him to partisanize the issue. But look what it's done, right,
37:46
Speaker 1: everything he's you know, he's gotten what he wanted. He
37:49
Speaker 1: got the irandeel torn up, and it made things worse.
37:53
Speaker 1: He got Trump to launch a war with Iran. It's
37:56
Speaker 1: made things worse. So at some point, at some point,
38:02
Speaker 1: maybe even the Trump administration will start to see maybe
38:05
Speaker 1: Bibe doesn't quite know what he's doing here, and that
38:09
Speaker 1: he's a bit too enthusiastic to go down that road.
38:12
Speaker 1: But for those of us that want to see Israel
38:16
Speaker 1: thrive and don't and want to see Israel be able
38:20
Speaker 1: to defend itself, it is disheartening watching what's happening here.
38:25
Speaker 1: But again it's Bbe's fault and he's got to if
38:30
Speaker 1: he wants to, If he wants to fix this, he could.
38:33
Speaker 1: But realistically, the only way this gets fixed is with
38:37
Speaker 1: a new government. And who knows, I've been thinking there
38:41
Speaker 1: was a new Israeli government coming around the corner, you know,
38:44
Speaker 1: any day. Now I'm less convinced of that than ever,
38:48
Speaker 1: but you know, sometimes in these parliamentary systems, you know,
38:52
Speaker 1: something can happen overnight. But I do think that you're
38:56
Speaker 1: going to start to see some peeling away on the
38:59
Speaker 1: right too. So far, it's really just r and Paul
39:01
Speaker 1: in the Republican Senate. But Todd Young. Todd Young did
39:06
Speaker 1: an interview earlier on Wednesday with PAC and he certainly
39:11
Speaker 1: isn't interested in seeing this continue. After sixty days now,
39:16
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear Donald Trump wants out of
39:18
Speaker 1: this thing. The question is what's he going on? How
39:21
Speaker 1: much is he going to capitulate to Iran in order
39:23
Speaker 1: to get out of this? And that's also an uncomfortable
39:27
Speaker 1: and uncomfortable reality that I think we're all dealing with.
39:31
Speaker 1: So as much as I think that sometimes people are
39:34
Speaker 1: hoping that there is a clean way to look at Israel,
39:37
Speaker 1: or there's a clean way politically to see to see
39:40
Speaker 1: where this is headed, this is one of those cases
39:42
Speaker 1: where it ain't very clean. There's a lot of nuance here,
39:45
Speaker 1: there's a lot of but you know, I would just
39:50
Speaker 1: I would just be careful when you see some of
39:52
Speaker 1: the overriding I think about what this vote means and
39:57
Speaker 1: where this is coming from. I think, more than anything else,
40:01
Speaker 1: what you're seeing is it's a it's essentially like a
40:05
Speaker 1: vote of disapproval of BB and that's I think the
40:10
Speaker 1: new dozen Democrats that climbed on board on that, those
40:14
Speaker 1: are those are Democrats that are pro Israel but Antibbe,
40:18
Speaker 1: and I think that's the better way to look at that,
40:21
Speaker 1: all right. So we're going to sneak in a break
40:24
Speaker 1: and coming up my conversation with Gal Beckerman on his
40:28
Speaker 1: new book called How to Be a Dissipator. This episode
40:35
Speaker 1: of the Chuck Toodcast is brought to you by Soul.
40:37
Speaker 1: So if you love that end of the day unwined
40:39
Speaker 1: but hate the hangover, Soul's out of Office is for you.
40:43
Speaker 1: These sparkling THHC drinks and gummies give you the same
40:47
Speaker 1: relaxed social feeling without the alcohol, without the calories, and
40:51
Speaker 1: without the crash. Soul is a wellness brand that believes
40:54
Speaker 1: feeling good should be fun and easy. Soul specializes in
40:57
Speaker 1: delicious HEMP DERIVEDC and CBD products designed to boost your
41:02
Speaker 1: mood and help you unwind. They're best selling. Out of
41:06
Speaker 1: Office gummies were designed to provide a mild, relaxing buzz,
41:09
Speaker 1: boost your mood and enhance creativity and relaxation. With five
41:13
Speaker 1: different strengths, you can tailor the dose to fit your vibe.
41:16
Speaker 1: So also has a variety of products specifically designed to
41:19
Speaker 1: help you get a better night's rest, including their top
41:21
Speaker 1: selling Sleepy Gummies, a fan favorite for deep restorers. Sleep Look,
41:26
Speaker 1: I have made no secret I am a believer in
41:29
Speaker 1: this stuff, in cannabis and hemp derived. I do not
41:32
Speaker 1: partake in alcohol. For the most part, I think this
41:35
Speaker 1: stuff is a lot safer than alcohol, a lot less
41:37
Speaker 1: addictive than alcohol. And yes, I have to say I
41:40
Speaker 1: love these drinks. It is the glass of wine and
41:43
Speaker 1: you know, after work, that's what this is. So no
41:46
Speaker 1: hangover and no excess calories like this. I'm a big fan.
41:51
Speaker 1: So bring on the good vibes and treat yourself to
41:53
Speaker 1: Sold today. Right now, Soul is offering my audience thirty
41:56
Speaker 1: percent off your entire order. Go to getsold dot com
41:59
Speaker 1: and use the word podcast that's getsold dot com promo
42:03
Speaker 1: code toodcast for thirty percent off. And yes, I too,
42:07
Speaker 1: am a customer. All right, I'm gonna give you a
42:12
Speaker 1: little extra ass chuck here. Because I don't have a
42:15
Speaker 1: ton a ton to say about the sports world. I
42:18
Speaker 1: wish I had a lot of thoughts about the playing games.
42:23
Speaker 1: By the way, I don't understand why both I don't
42:26
Speaker 1: understand why they did one nine ten on Tuesday versus
42:31
Speaker 1: ten and then one nine versus ten on Wednesday, and
42:34
Speaker 1: then one seven versus eight on Tuesday? One seven? Shouldn't
42:37
Speaker 1: the nine through tens both be on Wednesday? Shouldn't they
42:40
Speaker 1: get the least amount of rest? Right? Shouldn't the seven
42:43
Speaker 1: seven eights both be on Tuesday? It just seems like
42:47
Speaker 1: that you ought to get some advantage if you're seeded
42:51
Speaker 1: seven and eight over those that are seated nine and ten.
42:55
Speaker 1: But to me, if you're if you're the winner of
42:59
Speaker 1: that two day nine to ten like Charlotte is, they're
43:03
Speaker 1: getting plenty of rest before they have to face They're
43:09
Speaker 1: weirdly going to get more rest. I guess you can say, well,
43:12
Speaker 1: they won their game, but the eight seeds, right, I
43:14
Speaker 1: think you know? Anyway, Look, I'm not sure this playing
43:19
Speaker 1: stuff is helping. Right. It was supposed to be an
43:21
Speaker 1: anti tanking measure and let's just say didn't work now,
43:25
Speaker 1: did it. I don't think adding playoff teams helps. I'm
43:30
Speaker 1: pretty convinced if they shrank the playoff pool, they shrank
43:35
Speaker 1: the number of teams that could make the playoffs, more
43:38
Speaker 1: owners would want to try to get in because the
43:40
Speaker 1: playoff revenue is important cash to those owners. And I
43:46
Speaker 1: think if you if that was the reward. You know,
43:53
Speaker 1: I was I was thinking about watching when I was
43:55
Speaker 1: watching the Masters tournament. How you know John Ram still
44:00
Speaker 1: cared where he finished because every place you finish is
44:04
Speaker 1: a little bit more money, right if you the higher
44:07
Speaker 1: up on the leaderboard that you finish, is there a
44:12
Speaker 1: is there some sort of financial reward structure that you
44:17
Speaker 1: qualify for? Right? It used to be just playoff money.
44:21
Speaker 1: And that's why I wonder if they made it too
44:23
Speaker 1: easy to get into the playoffs. With now twenty of
44:26
Speaker 1: the thirty teams get into the playoffs, they actually put
44:29
Speaker 1: it down to six in each conference, would you have
44:34
Speaker 1: then more owners? Really, you know, you suddenly have more
44:38
Speaker 1: people caring, you know that were sitting in that seventy eight, nine,
44:41
Speaker 1: ten area. They would actually desperately would be trying to
44:44
Speaker 1: play hard to see if they could get into the
44:46
Speaker 1: six slots so they could get into the playoffs, because
44:52
Speaker 1: there's a pretty good bonus for that. So, but good
44:56
Speaker 1: luck trying to shrink playoffs right, too much TV revenue? Right,
45:00
Speaker 1: Let's do some questions, ask Chuck. This one comes from Bradd.
45:06
Speaker 1: He says, greeting from Grand Rapids. Appreciate how you engaged
45:08
Speaker 1: with listener questions. Wait, I've already done that question, didn't
45:15
Speaker 1: I It was a question about news sources for the
45:24
Speaker 1: average person trying to stay informed. That's what I thought. Okay, yep,
45:28
Speaker 1: all right, all right, all right. This first question comes
45:33
Speaker 1: from a TK show listener. It's Pete, and he writes,
45:39
Speaker 1: heard you last week say you take the Georgia and
45:41
Speaker 1: Arizona senators over the field for VP in twenty twenty eight.
45:44
Speaker 1: I know, adding two more kind of takes adding two
45:49
Speaker 1: more kind of takes away the field aspect, But shouldn't
45:52
Speaker 1: Whitmer and Slock can be on the list as well.
45:55
Speaker 1: Seems just as likely that a male nominee wul want
45:57
Speaker 1: a female nominee from one of the most important swing states.
46:01
Speaker 1: So if you add those two in, you pretty much
46:03
Speaker 1: have who would be the pickle Che's a repeat. That's interesting.
46:07
Speaker 1: So essentially what you're saying is if now, I think
46:12
Speaker 1: you're just going to get crappier odds right if you
46:14
Speaker 1: did that. But what you're saying is that the the
46:17
Speaker 1: VP nominee is going to be one of the following
46:20
Speaker 1: six people Diego or Kelly from Arizona asaf for Warnock
46:24
Speaker 1: from Georgia Whitmer or Schlockin from Michigan. It's probably a
46:29
Speaker 1: pretty fair call if you if you put it in
46:32
Speaker 1: those terms, and I see what you did there. There's
46:36
Speaker 1: some people that think it's going to be an all
46:37
Speaker 1: mail ticket, that you're not going to see some gender
46:40
Speaker 1: diversity here. I you know, I do think that if
46:48
Speaker 1: it's a male nominee, that it's likely to have a
46:50
Speaker 1: woman running eight. Not one hundred percent guaranteed, but I
46:54
Speaker 1: think it would be. I think it would. I certainly
47:00
Speaker 1: think there would be plenty of grumbling if there wasn't
47:04
Speaker 1: on that front. But you're right though too that once
47:08
Speaker 1: you add those six, like who's left right, so sure,
47:12
Speaker 1: add him in. But I think now we're looking at
47:14
Speaker 1: like a minus two hundred if if you're doing this
47:17
Speaker 1: under gambling terms there anyway, Now here's of those six,
47:26
Speaker 1: none of them are the likelihood any of them end
47:29
Speaker 1: up at the top of the ticket. I'm kind of
47:32
Speaker 1: bearish on any senator ending up at the top of
47:34
Speaker 1: the ticket. And Whitmer seems to be not wanting to
47:36
Speaker 1: do this. And by the way, I think Ruben Diego
47:40
Speaker 1: has an Eric S. Wallwell problem. And you know who
47:43
Speaker 1: thinks Rubin Diego has an Eric Swawell problem, Rubin Diego,
47:48
Speaker 1: because you don't do that incredibly talkative presser and throw
47:54
Speaker 1: Swawell under the bust as fast and as hard. And
47:57
Speaker 1: he got on the bus and he reversed, and he
47:59
Speaker 1: drove over him and did all these things. If you're
48:02
Speaker 1: not worried about something on that front, So anyway, let's
48:12
Speaker 1: just say that's something I'm keeping an eye on. Next
48:15
Speaker 1: question ted from Cincinnati. Here he says, longtime listener, first
48:18
Speaker 1: time writer. Please don't hold it against me that my
48:20
Speaker 1: wife is and always has been a huge Indiana football fan,
48:24
Speaker 1: long long before it was cool. All right, kudos star.
48:26
Speaker 1: Then my question is about Trump the Showman. Like many Americans,
48:29
Speaker 1: I watched transfixed by the amazing launch mission and safe
48:32
Speaker 1: return of the Artemis two mission. To be perfectly honest,
48:34
Speaker 1: I watched a lot of it with tears in my eyes.
48:36
Speaker 1: Throughout I kept expecting Trump to use it as this,
48:39
Speaker 1: Hey look over here. He did this for the recent
48:41
Speaker 1: rescue of the down pilots and weapons specialists, and it
48:44
Speaker 1: probably got him a day or two of okay coverage.
48:46
Speaker 1: But out on this just some truths but no pressure
48:50
Speaker 1: pressers or any of the things he normally does to say, man,
48:53
Speaker 1: I made this great thing greater. Any thoughts on why
48:55
Speaker 1: go reds go Sabers tad K, Yes, because we're at war.
48:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it was the timing, because you're
49:00
Speaker 1: absolutely right. I think under almost any other circumstance, he
49:04
Speaker 1: would have tried to find a way to be there,
49:08
Speaker 1: right to meet the astronauts. It was. It was perfect
49:11
Speaker 1: by the way. I watched every second of it too,
49:13
Speaker 1: you know, it was interesting. Netflix carried the NASSA feed
49:19
Speaker 1: and I was mesmerized by it. We ended up we
49:24
Speaker 1: I you know, it was it was up against the
49:27
Speaker 1: Nats game, and we didn't watch much of the Nats game.
49:30
Speaker 1: We watched the entire thing, I mean, and they had
49:34
Speaker 1: a correspondent on the USS, John P. Mertha, And you know,
49:40
Speaker 1: I was waiting for them to tell me who John
49:42
Speaker 1: Mirtha was. I know who John Martha was, but I
49:44
Speaker 1: wanted them to tell the audience. It's a reminder that
49:48
Speaker 1: members of Congress, once you become Armed Services Chair and
49:51
Speaker 1: you deliver a lot of money the Pentagon, you might
49:54
Speaker 1: get a you might get a ship named after you.
49:56
Speaker 1: And let's just say John Murtha who was a marine
49:59
Speaker 1: did get a ship name. But yeah, there was something
50:06
Speaker 1: pure about it, right, And let me just say, I'm
50:09
Speaker 1: kind of thankful Trump didn't insert himself in it. Like
50:12
Speaker 1: I'm I want to get excited about America two fifty,
50:16
Speaker 1: and he is making it hard to get excited about
50:19
Speaker 1: America two fifty because he's trying to make it all
50:21
Speaker 1: about himself. And it's like, you know, I'm not going
50:26
Speaker 1: to let him stand in the way of my love
50:31
Speaker 1: for our country, but he makes it very difficult. He
50:35
Speaker 1: makes it really hard not to love my country, but
50:38
Speaker 1: he makes it really hard to express it publicly because
50:43
Speaker 1: he turned me again. He's bad for the brand, as
50:47
Speaker 1: I discussed at the beginning of this podcast, He's terrible
50:50
Speaker 1: for the brand. And thankfully for NASA he didn't insert himself.
50:55
Speaker 1: By the way, during this broadcast, they had, like I said,
51:01
Speaker 1: they had a correspondent that was on the on the
51:03
Speaker 1: ship that was going to have the astronauts in and
51:06
Speaker 1: the NASA administrator Jacob I think his name is Jacob
51:10
Speaker 1: isaacman Man. He just exuded competence. Right. This was the
51:16
Speaker 1: person that I guess used to be part of SpaceX
51:19
Speaker 1: sort of an Elon Musky. Trump would canned him at
51:22
Speaker 1: one point, and then I think everybody said, no, no, no,
51:24
Speaker 1: this guy's really competent. What are you doing, Please bring
51:27
Speaker 1: him back? There was something there was he really you know,
51:33
Speaker 1: sometimes you just and again it's it's an interview with
51:37
Speaker 1: somebody who may actually technically work for Isaacman. But he
51:44
Speaker 1: he came across competent without being show boat. He was
51:51
Speaker 1: like he did things like made sure the astronauts were
51:54
Speaker 1: getting the credit, make sure that everybody who were I mean,
51:57
Speaker 1: he was everything that you one and a good leader,
52:01
Speaker 1: you know, he certainly was. He checked all the boxes
52:04
Speaker 1: I was looking that I'd be looking for in a
52:07
Speaker 1: moment like that. So but I think Ted it's simply just,
52:14
Speaker 1: you know, not a good look when you're in the
52:16
Speaker 1: middle of a war and you're in the middle of negotiations. Right,
52:19
Speaker 1: it wasn't just the middle of a war at that point.
52:22
Speaker 1: Vance is on his way to Pakistan at that time.
52:27
Speaker 1: Next question. During the recurring discussions of federal pardons, one
52:30
Speaker 1: aspect keeps nagging at me, regardless of who decides or
52:32
Speaker 1: agrees confirms. Isn't there something wrong with preemptive pardons? I
52:35
Speaker 1: don't understand why the whole pardon process shouldn't begin after
52:38
Speaker 1: conviction and sentencing. Am I missing something? Brian in Ington, Virginia, Yeah,
52:43
Speaker 1: I don't. I you know, we have we tested the
52:47
Speaker 1: premise of a preemptive pardon right as somebody tried to
52:53
Speaker 1: execute it. I think that's what you know, we're sort
53:01
Speaker 1: of getting a little bit. I don't think it's I
53:04
Speaker 1: think it's apples to pairs, not quite apples to oranges.
53:08
Speaker 1: And that is the the January sixth pipe bomber. And
53:13
Speaker 1: there's some questions about whether the blanket pardon covers him
53:18
Speaker 1: and whether he can't get charged. And then there's some question,
53:22
Speaker 1: well was it about for actions in January sixth? And
53:24
Speaker 1: if if he planted the bombs on January fifth, then
53:28
Speaker 1: the pardon isn't there. So but look, you're you're right,
53:35
Speaker 1: and I could. I don't know if we've really constitutionally
53:42
Speaker 1: tested this premise of where a preemptive parton would would
53:46
Speaker 1: hold up in court. Hey, who knows? Maybe Hunter Biden
53:52
Speaker 1: James Biden right right now. The folks at the preemptive
53:55
Speaker 1: pardons I think are fauci. I think Liz Cheney took one,
53:59
Speaker 1: not how percent sure. I think Fauci took one. I
54:03
Speaker 1: think Cheney took one. I don't think so. I think
54:06
Speaker 1: it was just simply to prevent him from doing charges,
54:10
Speaker 1: and then of course he gave a bunch to his family.
54:15
Speaker 1: But again we haven't tested it. I'm not sure. Look,
54:21
Speaker 1: I'm questioning why we had the whole thing there in
54:24
Speaker 1: the first place. Why was an individual given this power.
54:27
Speaker 1: Why isn't it a board the way it is in
54:31
Speaker 1: many states? All right, next question, apologies if you've talked
54:34
Speaker 1: about this on your show today, but I would love
54:36
Speaker 1: to get your take on the latest Massy polling showing
54:39
Speaker 1: him up quite a bit on Trump's mega hopeful. Is
54:42
Speaker 1: this the damn that, if broken, really spells the end
54:45
Speaker 1: for Trump? And how much will this race become a
54:47
Speaker 1: focus for Trump over the next forty days. If Republicans
54:51
Speaker 1: find that they can be successful in opposing Trump, and
54:54
Speaker 1: worse for Trump, possibly even more successful in opposing Trump
54:57
Speaker 1: then agreeing with him, then this must be his biggest threat.
55:00
Speaker 1: Thanks Joe in Texas. PS, love your podcast, loved you
55:02
Speaker 1: on MTP, and thank you for dedicating your life to
55:04
Speaker 1: holding the powerful to account. No man, thank you for
55:07
Speaker 1: all those thank yous. Fourth pillar is the most important.
55:09
Speaker 1: This is my first note to you. My next won't
55:12
Speaker 1: be weighed down by all the platitudes. Joe, fair enough,
55:16
Speaker 1: you can just fire away with a question, you know
55:20
Speaker 1: what did? What did? Rush? Limbo used to call it
55:22
Speaker 1: just dittos. Megadiddo's right. I don't want to emulate Limbaugh
55:28
Speaker 1: on that front, but we come up with something. You
55:31
Speaker 1: can give me the CT salute, right, which is t
55:35
Speaker 1: K salute if you know you know well. I do
55:41
Speaker 1: think that Donald Trump believes that he's got to you know,
55:46
Speaker 1: the reason he involves himself in these primaries is to
55:49
Speaker 1: make it clear that what he says goes, and when
55:52
Speaker 1: somebody steps out of line, he's got to He's got
55:55
Speaker 1: to prove that there's consequences for stepping out the line. Right.
56:00
Speaker 1: But I guess i'd caution on on just all things.
56:04
Speaker 1: The state of Kentucky. I think, you know, look at
56:10
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Republicans are the ones that Trump has had
56:13
Speaker 1: the hardest time taming, Ran Paul Mitch McConnell, Thomas Massey,
56:21
Speaker 1: even in some cases Hal Rogers, who keeps his head down.
56:26
Speaker 1: So you know, I just the Kentucky electorate is is
56:31
Speaker 1: is pretty discerning, right, This is an electorate that will
56:34
Speaker 1: elect Republicans up and down the ballot, and they also
56:37
Speaker 1: elect Andy Bushier. Right, So I just if it were
56:42
Speaker 1: another state, right, I might, I might say let's let's uh,
56:48
Speaker 1: let's overreact here a little bit and say, hey, this
56:50
Speaker 1: is the beginning. But I also think that we're, you know,
56:53
Speaker 1: we're we're going to look back and say this presidency
56:55
Speaker 1: ended a couple, you know, a few months ago, and
56:59
Speaker 1: you know, he's just got to play out the term.
57:01
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think his ability to make the
57:05
Speaker 1: weather politically inside his own party is still there, but
57:11
Speaker 1: is not as is not as good as it once was.
57:15
Speaker 1: And look, a massy win is pretty damaging to Trump.
57:19
Speaker 1: It will be, it will be, and it will make
57:22
Speaker 1: him nuts. And that's the other thing, right, It's it's
57:26
Speaker 1: going to become damaging because Donald Trump will let it
57:29
Speaker 1: bother him. This goes back to the point I made earlier.
57:32
Speaker 1: In this time, he goes out of his way to
57:35
Speaker 1: continue to have fights where the best you know, sometimes
57:39
Speaker 1: you walk away, but he's never known how to walk away.
57:43
Speaker 1: He just is never known how to walk away unless
57:47
Speaker 1: it's to pay a contractor. All right, Michael from Omaha. Right,
57:52
Speaker 1: it's curious to hear your thoughts on the increased calls
57:54
Speaker 1: for expulsion of members from Congress relative to the historical
57:58
Speaker 1: norm for a role where each member faces voters every
58:00
Speaker 1: two years. I'm surprised there isn't more deference to the
58:02
Speaker 1: democratic process. I'm with you, Michael. In addition to Santos,
58:06
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, the embattled members up for expulsion
58:09
Speaker 1: either have announced their resignation or will likely lose reelection.
58:12
Speaker 1: Why do you think this is being used more and
58:14
Speaker 1: more as a threat to force members out? Is it
58:16
Speaker 1: just that many members now are more shameless and brazen
58:19
Speaker 1: when nudge to quietly resign. Thanks, Look, I just think
58:23
Speaker 1: you have I I guess I view this moment as
58:27
Speaker 1: as Epstein fallout, right, you know that it was so
58:31
Speaker 1: many members of the House have been so you know,
58:35
Speaker 1: have have been so right, you know, self righteous about
58:38
Speaker 1: the Epstein files, and deservedly. I'm not you know, I'm
58:41
Speaker 1: not saying it to be critical using the very self righteous,
58:43
Speaker 1: just they have been. So if if you're going to be,
58:47
Speaker 1: then you better hold your own accountable. Right. So, I
58:51
Speaker 1: think if if we didn't have the Epstein file, the
58:54
Speaker 1: backle that we've had, and the whole and the whole
59:00
Speaker 1: right for the two hundred and eighteen votes and sort
59:02
Speaker 1: of forcing Congress to vote on this and making this
59:05
Speaker 1: such a huge issue. Right, Let's say, let's say this
59:08
Speaker 1: is not an you know, let's say you know, somehow
59:12
Speaker 1: we're let's say we're no longer on this dumb timeline
59:14
Speaker 1: that we're all living on, and we're on this other
59:16
Speaker 1: timeline and where there is no Epstein files or something
59:18
Speaker 1: like this, but we still have all these men behaving badly.
59:23
Speaker 1: They're not exploded. You wouldn't have this expulsion moment. So
59:27
Speaker 1: I think this is this is sort of in the
59:32
Speaker 1: aftermath of Epstein. All right, last question for the weekend. Hello, Chuck,
59:40
Speaker 1: just started listening to the podcast and love it. Well,
59:42
Speaker 1: thank you. I was thinking about the Trump's pure hatred
59:45
Speaker 1: of Obama. Could the Iranians just say we will go
59:48
Speaker 1: back to that when Trump says no, wouldn't that just
59:50
Speaker 1: put even more of the world against Trump? David, Well, No,
59:55
Speaker 1: remember what Trump's going to do. I mean, it is
59:58
Speaker 1: going to be the Iran New Clear Deal that Obama
1:00:02
Speaker 1: and John Kerry negotiated and he's just going to slap
1:00:06
Speaker 1: another name on it. Maybe he gets one more year,
1:00:09
Speaker 1: two more years of the moratorium on enriching uranium. But
1:00:15
Speaker 1: if you know, he's he's in a box and he's
1:00:18
Speaker 1: got to get out of it. And I think he
1:00:20
Speaker 1: wants to get out of it before he meets with
1:00:21
Speaker 1: she in China in May. And I'm just checking the
1:00:26
Speaker 1: calendar here. It's April sixteenth, which means May's coming up
1:00:31
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. So you know, I suspect this weekend that
1:00:39
Speaker 1: they don't have a deal, but they start that what
1:00:42
Speaker 1: we get is some sort of agreement to begin a
1:00:44
Speaker 1: new round of of long term negotiations. Right, So they
1:00:47
Speaker 1: won't necessarily say they're extending the ceasefire, but they will
1:00:51
Speaker 1: somehow do something. There'll be some extension of the seasfire.
1:00:54
Speaker 1: Maybe they won't call it extending the seasfire. Maybe it's
1:00:57
Speaker 1: say we're beginning, you know, we're going to start writing
1:01:00
Speaker 1: the long term. You know, we've agreed to a long
1:01:03
Speaker 1: term deal. Right, but they won't even tell us anywhere
1:01:06
Speaker 1: from five to twenty five years. Right, There'll be some
1:01:11
Speaker 1: general sense. But you know, Trump is I mean, this
1:01:15
Speaker 1: is why he's not very good at making deals. He is.
1:01:20
Speaker 1: The Iranians know he's desperate to make a deal, which
1:01:25
Speaker 1: is why he did, you know, which which is why
1:01:27
Speaker 1: he had to go find some leverage in some form,
1:01:29
Speaker 1: which is why he shut down the straight But ultimately
1:01:34
Speaker 1: he wants a deal. The Iranians know he wants a deal.
1:01:37
Speaker 1: And the fact that I go back to what I
1:01:39
Speaker 1: said the other day, the fact that they leaked out
1:01:41
Speaker 1: that both sides offered one offered five year moratorium, another
1:01:45
Speaker 1: offer twenty year moretorium on enrichment. Well, the Iranian nuclear
1:01:51
Speaker 1: deal I think had had ten years in there. We're
1:01:55
Speaker 1: going to get to somewhere between twelve and fifteen, and
1:01:58
Speaker 1: they're going to call it a day. And he's going
1:01:59
Speaker 1: to claim he's this incredible deal maker when all he
1:02:03
Speaker 1: had to do was never tear up the deal in
1:02:05
Speaker 1: the first place. But again, he's got to go out
1:02:09
Speaker 1: of his way to somehow make this harder on all
1:02:13
Speaker 1: of us and somehow make this worse anyway, David, with that,
1:02:21
Speaker 1: I'm going to put a pin in it. I will
1:02:22
Speaker 1: see you in seventy two hours or sooner if news happens.
1:02:28
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe, Appreciate it.
1:02:32
Speaker 1: See you Monday.