WEBVTT - Chuck’s Commentary - Massive “No Kings” Protests + Trump’s Illegal War In The Caribbean 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:05.920 Hello, They're happy Monday, and welcome to another episode of 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.119 the Chuck Podcast. I got a few emails from some 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.680 of you who wondered how bad my mood was on 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.680 Saturday morning, because I have let you guys know that 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.639 my mood. The one thing University of Miami wins and 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.640 losses do more than any other of my sports teams, 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.640 more than the Packers, more than the Nats, is it 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.360 affects my mood. Here's what I can't admit. I'll have 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:32.680 a little bit more to say at the end of 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.520 the podcast. I have promised I will keep my sports 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.800 obsessions towards the end so that way the true diehards 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.040 to the Toodcast. We'll get there. We'll get that fix. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.800 I have a lot to say about the game. I 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.360 hate the idea that I may have predicted this exact 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.320 outcome and how it went. I will get into it. 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.360 I will get into a little bit more. In college football, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.920 we got another coach firing already, all fascinating to watch. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.880 At some point, who's going to be left to hire 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.559 all these the amount of money when you have Penn 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:14.360 State in Florida and Arkansas, huge programs that are going 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.720 to throw all sorts of dollars at their coaching search. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.559 Don't forget UCLA that has a lot of money. Who 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.520 else follows right down that road? Virginia Tech thinks it's 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.160 a major program. What about Clemson? It's clear that Dabo 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.080 was actually worried about his job. Anyway, I said, I 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.440 was going to wait until the end and I will look. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.840 I think there was the big event of the weekend 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:43.600 obviously was an O Kings protest. A frankly, a pretty 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.160 I think it was a pretty impressive showing. I think 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.760 what the question with these protests is is what we 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.600 what do we learn from them? Do they translate into something? Look, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:01.800 the timing of this protest is not random, Okay, The 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.280 timing of this protest comes basically in the middle of 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.440 early voting here in Virginia. You've got the New Jersey elections. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.600 You have a bunch of off your elections, right, this 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.320 is these are these are as. My friend John Ellis 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.840 said it's a bunch of local elections that will have 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.960 national significance. And he's not wrong, and they will have 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.720 national significance. What happens in Virginia. How strong is the 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.840 anti Trump vote? Well, we now have an easy measurement 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.000 to find out how strong, how powerful are anti Trump 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:33.600 feelings in Virginia. Are they powerful enough for somebody who's 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.360 not qualified. I think I think has pretty much made it, 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.519 you know, from what has rhetorically said. It's certainly I 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.640 think there are questions whether he's qualified to be attorney 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.760 general and Jay Jones, but if he wins, it's really 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.160 a bigger statement on Trump, arguably really than anybody else. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.560 Not Mer's, not Jones, not anything, you know, because if 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.079 this election is held sort of in isolations, Joan doesn't win, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.880 Mirs wins this thing, and he still probably wins the 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:05.440 you know, I'd still probably rather be him. But we 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.560 know in these statewide elections, gubernatorial the gubernatorial vote has 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.520 a huge impact, and anything north of five points or 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.040 more will bring at least one of the down ballots 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.640 with her, Abigail Spamberger. The question is does it bring two. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.760 I told you that Jason Miaris has already basically thrown 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.000 the Republican nominee for governor under the bus. Since they 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.680 have divergent strategies on Abigail Spamberger's rhetoric on j Jones, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.160 Miaris has decided to embrace her rhetoric, even as Winston 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.960 mertle Series has been trying to knock it down. But 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.920 the point is is that when you're doing a political 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.560 protest like this, the true way to measure its impact 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.640 and whether it's having an impact beyond just being an 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.760 event for the day, is whether it translates into political activity. Well, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.200 the next measurement of political activity is going to be 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.760 the off off year elections that take place in three weeks. 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.640 The timing of this in some ways the smarter campaigns 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.680 in New Jersey, in Virginia, in mayor's races in California 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.960 with the proposition you have Pennsylvania with the Supreme Court races. 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.400 So all of those cases there was likely organizing. We 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.719 know that there was organizing going on in those places 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:21.720 where there was a direct tide of the election. So 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.800 the point is there's a couple of ways to measure this, 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:29.200 and that to me is an important way to measure 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.120 I do. I've done, with the help of a bunch 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.680 of news articles searching, I've tried to compile here some 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:42.039 turnout estimates in various cities. So you can hear here 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.400 in d C sort of the central organizing effort for 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.640 the no Kings protest. The estimate is about over two 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.320 hundred thousand of DC area residents. Look, this is a 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.120 bigger turnout than they had in the first one. And again, 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.680 the real you know will know how success full this 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.839 was based on how strong the democratic performance is in Virginia. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.240 It has been you know, this Jay Jones thing has 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.840 taken a you know, has had a huge impact on 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.440 turnout efforts on a lot of things in Virginia. Does 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.320 this turn the page on that and help Democrats? That's 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.120 a way to measure there. In San Francisco, one organizer 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.600 estimate claimed half a million. Look, it's a city of 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.599 what I would call a protest culture, very comfortable out 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.599 there protesting, So not surprising that this would be the 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.920 city with the largest turnout. This tell to me. And 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:40.560 I've seen the polling, you know, if you want to 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:45.320 see anecdotal versus polling, and you saw this protest had 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:50.320 a real focus on the proposition campaign, on the redistricting 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.159 response to Texas there, So I think this tells you something. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.960 Half a million. Chicago had one hundred thousand grant parks 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.920 Butler Field. It was a march that not surprisingly went 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.840 past Trump Tower as they wanted to do. New York 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.520 City had an estimate of one hundred thousand. The largest 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.040 protests were somewhere in Times Square. That's where you saw 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:17.680 the most. Portland, Oregon, claimed about forty thousand protesters there. 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.120 They were in a downtown area, carnival like atmosphere. The 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:26.040 inflatable costumes that we've seen at the detention centers as 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.400 the protesters that the administration keeps accusing of being part 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.560 of this organized effort that they claim as Antifa, the 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:41.000 inflatable costumes have become a hallmark of Portland. San Diego 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:46.240 sixty thousand. Not insignificant in a military town. Okay, that's 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:51.040 a pretty big number for San Diego. Not a protest 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.040 culture there. Speaking of places where you don't normally see 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.239 protest cultures in the deep South, Atlanta only had about 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.920 ten thousand filled the Atlantic CI Civic Center parking lot, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.599 if you will. But again, the South in general a 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.360 little less of a protest culture. The protest culture California, 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.640 the Northeast, a little bit. In the midwest. Madison, Wisconsin, 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.240 fifteen thousand a march near the state capital. Hartford, Connecticut 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:23.040 estimate of twelve thousand. San Jose Silicon Valley an estimate 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:28.760 of twelve thousand, about four thousand in Eugene, Oregon. In 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:33.320 Pittsburgh downtown Pittsburgh about two to three thousand. It seems 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.600 to be the best estimate I could come up with. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.840 Their in Sacramento, you had about five thousand. State Capitol 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:43.960 of California, Roseberg, Oregon. It's a conservative part of Oregon, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.800 so they were affected. You had a couple thousand show 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.920 up there in a more rural community that's of significance. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.240 Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Another This is a town of nine 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.960 thousand people, so they claimed essentially that almost ten percent 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.040 of the town turned out to protest at nearly a 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.880 thousand folks there. Juddville, Wisconsin, also a thousand. This is 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.720 Door County community event. This is a little bit closer 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.440 to the green Berry area, if you will, in another 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.840 eleven hundred. So they had a lot of small protests 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.920 turn out in Wisconsin, which isn't surprising, right We've we've 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.320 what we've seen Wisconsin. There's there's quite a bit. Both 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:24.120 parties I think have super activists in they will so 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.679 look the big what I was curious about and nervous about. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.680 I was curious about the Republican response and nervous about 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.320 the administration's response. Was there anything that was going to 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.280 happen in these demonstrations that was essentially going to be 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.880 bait if you will, or an attempt or would the 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.880 you know was the was Stephen Miller uh and that 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.920 wing of the of the Trump administration where they're essentially 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.360 looking for a confrontation. Would they find a confrontation Here's 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.880 there was no major confrontations like that. So in the 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:02.520 official level, it feels as if Lawnforce essentially treated this 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:08.440 protest the way we've treated protests for decades in this country, responsibly, 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.280 with respect. It seems like protesters I saw there was 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.360 a among the tweets. I saw the Austin Police Department, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.480 it's official Twitter account put out a thank you to 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.040 protesters in't too law enforcement, saying everybody was well behaved 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:30.439 and respectful, etc. But then we have the social media memes, right, 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.280 the absurdity, and the one that has gotten the most 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.079 is this head scratcher, And it goes to this larger 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.040 issue that I've brought up a few times, which is 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.560 why they were Republican administration, why Donald Trump does not 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.839 believe he's president for all the people. He really only 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.679 believes he's president for his base. It explains his rhetoric 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.520 and explains his decision making. It explains why he seems 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.960 to not care what swing voters think at all. And 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:06.040 he retweeted this that essentially had a AI personification of 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.360 Trump flying a plane and dropping poop on America, basically 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:19.040 flying over major cities and dropping poop. Seriously, really, I 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.560 mean it is you know, we're so used to sort 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:28.199 of the childlike behavior of him at times of this movement, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.640 there is always I mean, one of the things that 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.200 I've said in the past about him is that there's 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.760 an arrested development quality, right that phrase, mean phrase isn't 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.199 just a great title of a great television show, or 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:41.840 at least three and a half seasons of a great 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:47.760 television show, sorry Ron Howard, but it is an actual 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.480 sort of you know, at times, it's as if Donald 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.520 Trump has been thirteen his whole life, right, the mentality 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.679 of a thirteen year old. What he thinks is humorous. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.760 And I always say what he thinks is humorous because 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.800 Donald Trump doesn't laugh. Donald Trump doesn't naturally laugh. Go 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.320 tell me where you've found him naturally laugh. He does 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:10.680 not sort of have the normal social interactions. You know, 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.640 there's always a lot of people attempt to normalize him. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.240 He is much more normal in person, but in the 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:23.760 public setting he doesn't quite He doesn't ever use humor. 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.640 I remember the one time he was asked to use 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.080 humor was at the Al Smith dinner in twenty sixteen, 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.880 and he was just so bad at it. He didn't 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:35.520 know how to do it. He doesn't know how to 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.920 tell a joke, and he doesn't know how to laugh 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.400 very well. It's just if you want to chalk it up. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.880 I'm not going to sit here and try to diagnose 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.040 him because I'm not trained in psychology to try to 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.400 do that diagnosis. But I find it odd that he 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:56.120 never ever laughs. Okay, he will laugh along when an 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.560 audience laughs with him, but tell me when you have 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.040 found him do a belly laugh when he's just hanging 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.480 with friends, you know. And I'd actually thrown an aside. 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.480 You know what phrase you never hear connected to Donald 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.760 Trump lifelong friend. There's nobody that is connected to him 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.400 that is ever described as Donald Trump's lifelong friend, Donald 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:23.240 Trump's former college roommate, Donald Trump's uh friend from grade school. 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.680 Think about that. Every other president we've ever had has 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.679 had a friend circle, particularly once they got to the 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.720 president that really did go back to their college and 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.680 high school years, Right, Because ultimately, who do you trust 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.400 people that knew you before you were somebody? Right, I'm 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.280 one of those one hundred percent true. Right, You're more 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.880 likely to sort of weirdly feel comfortable with people even 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.400 interacted with about if they knew you before you were, 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:57.600 before you were somehow a boldface name to somebody, not 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.440 Donald Trump. It's the it's one of the most Sometimes 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.800 with Donald Trump, I think we forget that there are 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:10.240 non stories, stuff that doesn't happen, which is worth reporting. Right, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.280 One thing that doesn't happen anymore. He doesn't travel the country. 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.880 He just doesn't. He doesn't sell his agenda. He doesn't explain, 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.720 you know, he certainly takes plenty of questions. He seems active, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.559 but he actually doesn't move very often. Yes, he goes 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.520 overseas and he wants his big summits. When's the last 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.760 time he just held a basic rally around the country 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.480 to sell the program. Doesn't do as much, certainly, not 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.520 like he did in the first run. It is a 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.400 reminder that why, I'm pretty confident even if he thought 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.280 he had the legal grounds to run for president, he wouldn't. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.400 But I want to sum up with one other thing 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.200 about these protests. I said, there's two ways to measure them, right. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.400 One measurement is going to be coming up on this 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.600 November election day. And you know, did you see you know, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.400 did it truly? Did they find some new voters that 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.679 hadn't been paying attention? Did they do any voter registration? 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.840 So those are the things to measure. But here's something else. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.280 You know, the rights very dismissive of this. Even some 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.040 in the center are dismissive. I've had some friends on 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.160 the left that are somewhat well, what are these protests game? 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.800 Here's what I would say. I think it's remarkable that 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.680 somebody wants to do this on a Saturday. There's we're 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.480 there's a lot of other things to do, particularly in 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.800 a fall Saturday. Right, I'm obsessed with college football. I'm 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.720 not alone in this. We're in the heart of some 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.200 incredible sports stories right now. Oh my god, show hey o'tani. Right, 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:43.720 there's so plenty to quote unquote to do. So the 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.920 fact that this got you know, millions across the country 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.400 to turn out these aren't you know you can they can. 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.040 Critics of this can say, well, it was paid for. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.560 That to me is even more impressive. There's an entire 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.160 group of people willing to fund, willing to put organization 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.520 around it, and they were able to get people to 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.440 show up, you know, to me saying oh they're paid, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:09.000 this was paid or all of these things are always 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.520 organized by some entity that has money, right, nobody does it. Yes, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:18.840 there are volunteers, but somebody's paying for some. And look, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.240 I remember, I'm old enough to remember when the left 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.240 was very dismissive of the tea Party protests. Oh, it's grasstops. 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.520 I was told, you know, you know, don't overrate it. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:30.640 You know, that would be the pushback, just like I'm 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.280 hearing from the right. Last time I checked, those twenty 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.000 ten mid terms were pretty rough on the Democrats. Those 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.080 tea Party protests seemed to tap into something, and certainly 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.840 the tea parties I think is was a you certainly 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.000 you don't have Donald Trump without those tea Party protests 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:54.200 twenty ten, twenty nine, ten, twenty eleven, So just it 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.040 certainly had I think so I would not at all 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:03.560 be dismissive of this, and I think you know again, 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:11.000 will I think these protests effectiveness will be judged down 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.960 the road right initially election Day twenty twenty five and 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.480 then election Day twenty twenty six. But I want to 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.120 pivot here to what really is the main story I 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:30.400 want to focus on this weekend, and that is the growing, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:34.360 I think controversial controversy that's taking place in the Caribbean 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.840 right now. And what is where even the administration isn't 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.560 quite sure of how legal their bombings are. And I'll 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.640 explain why even though they claim they're legal, their actions 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.320 are actually admitting that they know there are legal questions 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.600 about what they are up to. But before I get there, 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.280 it is weird for me not to talk about the 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.640 government shutdown. Right, here's what's amazing again. The most of 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.360 the Sunday shows were about the protests, or really about 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.560 this debate over is it legal? The what the administration 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.760 is doing targeting narco traffickers and just calling it a 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.600 Marco terrorist. Does that make them enemy combatants? Does that 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.240 mean they're really that? This does fall under a previously 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:22.640 passed congressional authority of a use of force mission whether 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.520 it's the one that I mean, it's it's astonishing that 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:28.920 this is sort of loosely. I understand the administration is 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.880 trying to claim the use of a few different authorizations 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.320 to justify this military action. But here's what hasn't happened. 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.040 Nobody really in Congress, I think, is very comfortable with this, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.119 but there seems to be an odd amount of what 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:50.800 I would call not silence but muted concern about what 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.399 the administration is doing. And I think a tremendous is 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.919 just another reminder Congress is not working. Okay, Congress is 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.200 failing at its job of what that's what it's supposed 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.639 to do. Zero oversight takes place. You're supposed to do 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.679 oversight even when your party's in charge. This is the 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.760 exact thing that oversight was designed for. In fact, my 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.280 history lesson later in this episode is going to be 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.600 about the birth of congressional oversight. There was a scandal 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.720 in the twentieth century that where we didn't have oversight, 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.120 We didn't even have inspectors general until this scandal happened, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.639 and then we got those things. So we are we 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.200 are seeing in a massive failure of the US Congress 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.239 here when it comes to this. But let me just 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:36.160 get to the shutdown here a second. Then I'll get 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:41.800 to this, get to the specifics of this fight, of 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.440 this battle over whether this is legal, what we're doing 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:50.720 in Venezuela. We're now at this full on stalemate. Donald 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.800 Trump is still not engaged in the shutdown negotiations. It 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.960 doesn't appear that Schumer and Jeffries, I mean again, they 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.120 do have the they do have the issue of health 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.000 care on their side. And we are about twelve days 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.920 away from premium notices, massive spikes in Obamacare premiums going 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.280 up on November first, massive spikes going up there. So 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:17.920 there will certainly be a cranky or public about the 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:22.399 issue of health care. But in the meantime, this not 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.960 keeping the government open. I just don't. I go back 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.679 to what I said, every single day this government is 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.920 shut is I think a day that Democrats lose whatever 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.119 they think they've gained out of this, and at some point, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:43.720 a shuddered government simply harms people's everyday lives, whether it 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:49.000 is travel, which is the big one, food inspectors, whether 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.560 it's a national weather service. We're just this is ludicrous. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.800 And then we're getting you know, we have an administration 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.199 that doesn't believe that their job is to govern for 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.120 all the people. It is the weirdest thing. I do 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.480 not understand why more people aren't upset about the fact 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.760 that this administration intentionally governs essentially makes decision based on 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:11.760 who supports them and who does it. And if they 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:17.000 think a piece of policy is a democratic policy, they 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.000 cut it. You know, they're just cutting it off. They 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.080 think a cabinet agency is a democratic cabinet agency. They've 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.600 decided the Education Department said democratic cabinet agency, so they 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.359 want to get rid of it. And as I've told you, 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.000 the Department of Homeland Securities they quote Republican agency. And 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.960 there's been hardly any furloughs at all, other than the 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.880 fact that they're getting they're going to get paid late. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:38.439 They're not going to get paid on time, and we 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.560 don't know when these folks are going to get paid. 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:47.240 So this is I think this has turned into a 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.600 cluster of deep if you want, you know, it just is. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:58.240 And at some point Democrats are going to have to 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.840 suck it up and open the government. They're going to 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:06.240 win this healthcare fight political, but they risk sort of losing. 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:08.600 I go back to this adult in the room issue, 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:15.080 the fact that they are, the fact that they have 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.160 this power in their hands. And yes, technically Republicans could 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:19.879 open the government if they got rid of the filibuster. 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:23.119 I'm not sure anybody. I'm sure all Democrats want to 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.440 see that happen at this point. The fact the only 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.000 reason they have leverage is because the filibuster is still there. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:32.840 And I do think there might be some progressives that 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:34.639 would love to see the filibuster go away, but I 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:36.919 don't think everybody in the Democratic Party wants to see that, 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.480 So I think they're you know, and again I go 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.240 back to the Democratic Party's inability to know how to 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:51.000 declare victory, to know when to essentially to know. Look, 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.719 you know, it's like you're trying to maximize profits all 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:56.800 the way to the end. Sometimes you sell even if 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.040 you think the stock's going to keep going on, but 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.280 you sell because you have actually think this doctor would 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:02.880 nose dive, and you may not be there in time 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:11.960 to sell. There's a reason results matter more than promises, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:14.760 just like there's a reason Morgan and Morgan is America's 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.080 largest injury law firm for the last thirty five years, 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.120 they've recovered twenty five billion dollars for more than half 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.280 a million clients. It includes cases where insurance companies offered 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.160 next to nothing, just hoping to get away with paying 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.080 as little as possible. Morgan and Morgan fought back ended 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:33.879 up winning millions. In fact, in Pennsylvania, one client was 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.760 awarded twenty six million dollars, which was a staggering forty 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.960 times the amount that the insurance company originally offered. That 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:44.440 original offer six hundred and fifty thousand dollars twenty six million, 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:46.560 six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So with more than 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:48.919 one thousand lawyers across the country, they know how to 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.840 deliver for everyday people. If you're injured, you need a lawyer. 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.520 You need somebody to get your back. Check out for 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:58.400 the People dot com Slash podcast, or dial pound Law 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:03.119 Pound five two nine law on your cell phone. And 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.440 remember all law firms are not the same. So check 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.240 out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:17.080 Let me move to I feel like I should do 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:24.200 a pretty large dive now on the issue of Venezuela 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:30.080 in Colombia because the biggest thing we have learned and 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:34.080 the biggest sort of tell now that this administration isn't 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:37.119 sure what it's doing is legal is the decision to 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.360 repatriate two survivors from one of these bombings to their 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:44.720 home countries. That is the single biggest development of the weekend. 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:49.240 For that. The resignation, the decision by the head of 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:54.879 Southern Command to resign is another big development. And look, 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:58.040 he has not said why he resigned, but I will 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:00.800 tell you what Jim Stavridi's who also former head of 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.840 Southern Command, also former NATO Suprema like commander, what he 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:06.760 told me on my news Sphere show last week if 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:09.119 you were in a similar situation and he weren't sure 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.680 whether an order was legal, and he truly had questions 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:15.159 about it and worried because remember, if you end up 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.119 executing an illegal order, you will be held accountable in 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:20.800 our law. So this is not you know, this is 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.240 it didn't work at Nuremberg, right, this is not Ay, 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:26.240 I just followed an illegal order. Well, if you're concerned 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.080 it's an illegal order, your job is to bring that 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:32.879 up and then if you're still being ordered to do it, 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:35.639 basically the honorable thing to do is to resign, and 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.360 that and So this is a case where we're putting two, 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.680 two and two together and we think we're giving four here. 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:47.119 But to me, you had that resignation and then you 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:51.560 had this repatriation announcement. This is the tell this administration 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:59.120