WEBVTT - Dem Scrooges on Taxes 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:16.000 Mr garbusch Off tears down this wall. Either with us 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.040 or you were with the terrorists. If you've got healthcare already, 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.639 then you can keep your plan. If you are satisfied 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.000 with is not a president of the United States, take 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:31.280 it to the bank. Together, we will make America great again. 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.720 It's what you've been waiting for all day. Buck Sexton, 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.720 with America now joined the conversation called Buck toll free 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.800 at eight four four nine hundred. Buck, that's eight four four, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.280 nine hundred two, eight to five the future of talk radio, 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.960 Buck Sexton. On this vote, these are two twenty four 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.720 and the knees are two oh one. The motion is 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.120 adopted without a checking. The motion to reconsider is laid 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.280 upon the table. Tax re form, Baby, they got it through. 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.600 They did it. I gotta give a GEOP credit. Buck 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.000 sex in here, welcome to the freedom hunt, my friends. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.560 They finally GOP Congress. They haven't answered to what would 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.320 you say you do? Here? We we just cut taxes 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:27.759 one point five trillion dollars for of Americans and perhaps 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.039 have set in motion or will set in motion as 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.920 soon as Trump signs it, which has not yet happened. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:38.959 But that's gonna happen. Uh, even in our very uncertain 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.959 political climate these days. Trump's gonna sign this thing, although 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.240 not clear when exactly yet, we don't know, we can't 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.920 tell you exactly when, but it will be signed. It's 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.360 gonna happen. Now. They got the votes made, it made 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:55.680 its way through Congress. They have put forward a tax 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.240 cut that's the biggest rewrite of the tax code in decades, 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.520 and it's it's not a flat tax, not a fair tax, 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.760 but it's a better tax code, which makes me happy 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.600 to be sure this is there's a lot of reason 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.840 for us to be pleased about this. We'll talk let's 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.120 talk about that in the show today. We'll also get 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.800 into some of the testimony based on the reporting, which, 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.200 let's be honest, is probably based on leaks from the 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:28.040 closed door hearings about McCabe from the FBI. What that 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.320 tells us. And we also have some other stories to 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.799 bring you up to speed with. Will discuss national security 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.519 a bit more in the second hour and talking about 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:43.000 Nicki Haley saying that the US has taken names on 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:48.680 the Jerusalem Embassy resolution. I like this. I think this 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.640 attitude the Nicki Haley is taking is great, which is 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.880 really all these countries that want to help, all these 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.839 different things. They think, let's let's understand what's going on here. 0:02:58.080 --> 0:02:59.799 They think they have a right to tell the United 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.720 Eights where in a sovereign country, which Israel Is, that 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.680 wants us to move our embassy to a certain city. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.640 They think they have the right to tell us where 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.640 we can and cannot have our embassy. It's a very 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.240 telling thing that so much of the world in this 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:23.000 case not It's not just within the Arab Muslim world. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:24.880 That's also a lot of your you know, a lot 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.639 of European states get very uppity about this issue, a 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.080 lot of European countries. But it's telling how petty it 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.000 all is. It's it's really not about a peace process 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.400 that's worthy of the name. It's just Palestinians in a 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.760 constant state of agitation and hatred against their neighbors, and 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.720 the Israelis just saying we're we're sick of it. And 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.560 I understand anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.880 We will get back into that subject in the next hour, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.000 and I might even talk to you about Mosle, where 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:00.200 the casualty count is I think nine thousand to me. 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.880 Killed is what I saw today, which is substantial. That's 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.720 the last major city in Iraq that was held by 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.440 the Islamic state, last important one. But let's get back 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.960 into taxes here, because the tax issue matters a whole lot. 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.920 It matters because of the narrative the Republicans can now 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.520 deploy and will that we voted for them, put them 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.920 in office. They produced. They didn't give us everything we wanted, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.240 but they did something and it's going to be good. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.480 It will help businesses, it will help hiring. As I've 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:35.479 been saying to you, I'm in favor of this tax cut. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.120 I just wanted to be the best tax cut it 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.680 could possibly be. And I also didn't want us to 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:46.039 be in a situation where we thought we were getting 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.400 one thing and we got another. But this looks pretty 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.279 good all things considered. Yeah, they carried interest loophole for 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.960 hedge fund guys and private equity. They kept that in there, 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.200 which is kind of a shame. And Yeah, there's some 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.960 blue states where a high property taxes are going to 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.719 really start to hurt. It's gonna hurt. I don't know 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.320 what it's gonna do. The real estate market in New 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.360 York and Connecticut in California. But it's not gonna be pretty. 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.640 It's not gonna help. It is a reminder, however, and 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.120 this is something that I wish I didn't really know. 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.720 But I'm not a homeowner. I never have been there. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.400 You go, I just I just graduated from a one 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.159 room domicile this year, so I now have two rooms. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.960 That's right, easy Street. I have been living in a 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.279 one room home for many years before that, and I 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:38.159 would tell you that once I speak to people who 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:40.040 live in there. When I've spoken to people who live 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.200 in these high property tax areas, I'm reminded that they 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.159 don't really own their home. That's a misnumber. You rent 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.840 your home from the government. You just don't necessarily owe 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.640 money to the bank if you own it, and yes, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.720 you can sell it, but each year you're renting it 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.520 from the government because you have to pay money for 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.880 the right to have a home in that place to 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.480 the government. A real fast. I actually know of three 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:10.080 different people who paid off their homes, retired, and then 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.279 had to leave the state of New Jersey because property 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.719 taxes pushed them out. Yeah, there you go, said, you 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.320 rent your home from the government, you don't really own 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.400 your home free and clear, even when you've paid off 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.800 your mortgage. Oh, that's that's a real problem. And Entiron 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.080 telling me that he knows people in New Jersey who 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.400 in retirement have been pushed out of their homes, like 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.600 they worked their whole lives, paid off their home, they 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.040 own it, but they don't have enough fixed income to 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:36.800 be able to stay in the home that they worked 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.640 their whole lives to own because the government says they 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.560 gotta pay more money. So I mean in New New Jersey, 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.200 don't even got me started. There are like public school bureaucrats, 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.520 not teachers, public school union bureaucrats. In New Jersey. We're 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.359 making like two d k. It's crazy what goes on 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.720 in New Jersey. A lot of you're like, I know, Buck, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:56.360 I don't live in New Jersey. But the point is 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.000 this is this is that's where people are going to 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.680 feel the sting a little it of this tax cut package. 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.560 But for everybody else it's gonna be good pretty much. 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.560 It's I discussed it. The yes of Americans get a 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.840 tax cut. The average cut is two thousand one four. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.880 Eight percent will get a tax increase. So that's overall 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:22.320 a very very good thing. It's not thrilling to see 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.960 that Republicans haven't done a better job selling this thing. 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:31.360 I guess they figured that among themselves they would get 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.520 it done. And this is yet another situation to borrow 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.360 from Nancy Pelosi. People are gonna pass it to find 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.000 or it's gonna be passed, and then we'll find out 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.440 what's in it. That's that's somewhat true here. And the 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.280 more people learn about what's in it, I think the 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.320 more they're gonna like it because it's tax cuts. But 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.880 the GOP didn't do a great job selling this, and 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.880 the Democrats are just they're off on another planet with 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:58.080 this thing. I don't even know how they I guess 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.640 they don't care that what they're saying it's just monstrably 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.520 and and aggressively false. But that's what's happening. You had 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.160 what is a Congresswoman Spire right, she's not a senator, right, yeah, 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.440 Congresswoman Inspire saying the following. I mean she she had 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.680 got a whole Christmas theme going on here with how 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.920 the GOP or a bunch of grinches. So what we're 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:24.000 doing here today is basically saying wealthy Americans, big fat 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.680 Christmas present for you, tiny Tim. We're taking your crutch 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.800 away from you and all the other kids in this country, 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:37.160 and we're putting a lump of coal into your Christmas sucking. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.120 She was actually holding up a lump of coal, everybody. 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.120 How long do they get took her staff to come 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.720 up with that gem of a little speech? There, tiny Tim, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.400 you've got a lump of coal. We had eight years 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.840 of the Obama administration. Obama started out with the House 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.720 and the Senate. What did they ever do for the 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.199 middle class? They just I can tell you. I can 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.800 tell you what the Obama administration, the Democrat Party did 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.640 for the middle class. They made for a vast majority 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.080 of you who get your health care in the individual market, 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.720 they made your healthcare really expensive and crappy, and for 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.960 all the rest of us, by the way, they've also 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.680 just made healthcare more expensive and more difficult to reform 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.920 in a way that would make things better. That's what 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.520 they did from the middle class. Other than that, nah, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.280 not not a whole lot you can point to. And 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:33.319 allowed a continued influx of illegal immigrants to compete with labor. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.760 I should know people to say this. They go, oh, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.079 it's not true. Illegal imrants don't compete for the job. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.760 They do the jobs Americans won't do. You can see 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.600 there's a professor, I think his name is Professor might 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.280 Professor Rojas at Harvard who has done exhaustive study of 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.040 just this issue. And it turns out that illegal immigrants, Yeah, 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.400 if you live in Montana, illegal immigrants in Arizona don't 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.640 affect the labor market that you're in. However, if you 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.120 live in Arizona, absolutely does and it drives wages down. 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.160 So it's a localized effect of a national problem. And 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.000 that's how Democrats get They go, oh, well, at a 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.040 national level, this is what wages have done in it. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.160 They try to hide the football. They don't want people 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.319 to know the truth. But the truth here with their 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.200 tax cut, with the Republican tax cut package, is that 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:23.320 this is going to be a an infusion of capital 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.400 into the country, certainly into corporations, and you will have 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.320 a T and T was tweeting out today that there 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.280 was a thousand dollar bonus now coming for all two 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.079 hundred thousand or some of their employees, which some are 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.800 saying maybe has something to do with some merger or something. 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.040 But let's not worry about that right now, shall we 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.240 It's a thousand dollars for everybody. Sounds good to me, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.120 and hey, even Mitch McConnell was in a good mood today. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:58.160 Last night, the United States Senate accomplished something really remarkable. Remarkable, 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:03.000 after years of work and some parings, in an open process, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:08.199 we pass an historic overall of the nations txicoat It 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.439 will deliver real relief to families and small businesses all 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:17.120 across our country, real relief. I think it will deliver 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.800 some relief, for sure, but it has to now have 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.800 many of the effects the market impacts that we've been 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.800 told that it would. I think it will, but we 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.320 probably need to get out there and make sure everybody 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:34.440 understands they're giving people back more of their money, they're 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.000 taking less away from the American people. This is a 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.880 good thing. The whole issue of debt and depsit I 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:42.720 talked to about it yesterday. We're gonna just leave that, 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:44.679 leave that hanging for now. We're not going to get 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:46.559 into it because you know what, today's a little bit. 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.079 It's a celebration. We're gonna celebrate a little bit on 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:55.760 the passage of this historic tax cut. Paul Ryan, it's like, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.360 whoa are so excited? I've never seen them so smiley. Um, 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.360 and he's a happy guy for what I understand. Eight 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.000 four four to five. I also want to take a 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.840 look back, because I'll probably forget to do this on 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.199 Friday because I just want to tell you Christmas stories 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.440 and do action movie quotes and not really speak all 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.120 that substantially about policy or what's happened the past year. 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.880 Let's look at how the Trump presidency has been in 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.320 from a from an accomplishment perspective, not like all you know, 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.000 the fake news and the battles of the media and 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.080 all that that's been great, and not oh, the Russia 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.080 collusion stuff. We'll talk about that in the second hour. 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.160 I mean, what has Trump as president gotten done. I'm 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.080 I'm wanting to talk to you about it because I 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.240 know a lot of you already know this, but it's 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:43.760 worth going over again. It's worth revisiting the accomplishments. And 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:49.200 also I'm starting to see a little bit not not 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:53.839 too much, but a little bit of a uh a 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.520 softening of the anti Trump, never Trump line from some 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.480 conservatives because they're looking back now that taxes, tax cuts 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.920 have gone through, looking back at this year. And I 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.880 know he's not Hillary is not enough. That isn't enough. 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.000 But this is a lot more than just being not Hillary. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.560 There's there's some real reason to be pleased with what's 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.360 going on. And look, the country country is doing well 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.280 right now. Think about how well before I even get 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.400 into the accomplishments, think of how well the country would 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:31.920 be doing if instead of a multibillion dollar industry, you know, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:37.320 news industrial media complex, Democrat media complex. If instead of 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.000 talking to us about treason and Russia collusion, are all this, 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.880 you're hearing about highs in the stock market, four one 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:50.360 percent unemployment, three growth this past year, hopefully higher growth 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.000 next year, and all these companies that are looking to 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.880 hire and get revved up and things get going and 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.360 we're not all bogged down, and you know, the President 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.760 lecturing us on thirty seven genders or whatever. I mean, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.840 there's just a sense of sanity that we're getting from 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:09.920 the government now with the cutbacks and regulations, a lot 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:11.280 of stuff going on. I think it's really good. We'll 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:12.800 talk about some of that after the break, and then 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.400 maybe a little more on this tax got packed. I 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.400 even had we got to hear from Trump himself I'll 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.320 give you some of that, some clips of the man 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.520 himself after the break. Stay with me. This is going 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:25.920 to mean companies are going to be coming back. You know, 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.200 I campaigned on the fact that we're not going to 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.680 lose our companies anymore. They're gonna stay in our country 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.000 and they're gonna stay in our country. And you've been 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.240 seeing what's been happening even at this prospect, but they 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.240 have tremendous enthusiasm right now in this country. And we 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.240 have companies pouring back into our country, and that means jobs, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.800 and it means really the formation of new, young, beautiful, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.720 strong companies. So that's gonna be very very important. The 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:53.920 pass through, as you know all about, and the small 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.200 businesses are gonna be big beneficiaries. We are going to 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.600 bring at least four trillion dollars back into this country, 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.280 money that was frozen overseas and in parts and worlds, 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.880 and some of them don't even like us and they 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:08.600 had the money. Well, they're not gonna have the money 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:14.040 long and uh so it's it's really I guess it's 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.600 very simple. When you think you haven't heard this expression, 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:23.560 but we are making America great again, you haven't heard 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:28.000 that he just went maga right there, he just did it, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.160 making America great. Against the top of the show, He's 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.560 it's a it's a happy day for Trump, happy day 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.240 for the GOP. And I'll give you some of the 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:45.520 in review Trump's maga plans. How have they gone? In 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.960 just a bit here? But first Beverly in Florida on 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.120 w f L. A Hey, Beverley, A right back, how 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.720 are you? I'm good? Thank you for calling in. Um. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.800 I just wanted to say that in a way, and 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.160 it's so ironic. The congresswoman, why right about the tax 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:06.520 bill taking the crutch away from tiny tail, because it 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:11.160 does take the crutches away from people and give them 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:15.960 the freedom to walk on their own. Ah, all right, 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.440 I see you're you're taking this, uh, taking this analogy 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:25.120 and running with it absolutely all right, Beverly. Well, so 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.560 you're happy about taxes, Oh, incredibly happy about taxes. Who 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:31.760 doesn't want more money in their paychecks? Well, but you're 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.560 in Florida. Is it a little rough of the property 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.880 tax situation or not that bad? Actually I'm a renter, 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:41.120 so it doesn't affect there. We go like it alright, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.520 Beverly shield tie, thank you so much for calling in. 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.520 Um here we go, Yeah, me too in New York. 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.160 I'm like, you know, I got nothing to write off 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.960 because I don't know anything. Uh you know, Ms Molly. 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.040 I was trying to watch a movie with her over 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.120 the weekend. We're going, we just got a TV that, 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.680 you know, I gone from having like no TV to 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.000 a small TV that was only internet and now like 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.679 a big TV with a cable box. I've I've succumbed. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.520 And we're trying to watch a Christmas Carol. And she 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.919 doesn't know she's never seen the story. She doesn't. I 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.360 know she doesn't. I'm like, how have you not seen 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.480 a Christmas Carol? Or you know the I feel like 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.159 I've seen the Muppet version of cartoon version, a live version. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.919 It's you know, this is yea God bless us everyone, right, 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.159 I mean, you know, come on, this is I don't know, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.960 Ebenezer Scrooge. So I gotta find the best version of it. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:34.119 The one that I was trying to watch with there 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.400 was like Patrick Stewart and it wasn't it wasn't that good. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.560 If there's a better one, someone let me know what 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.400 the best version of Christmas Carol's Maybe it's the muppet version. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.840 Who knows, but I was trying to watch that over 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.520 the weekend. John up in Alaska, k e n I 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.040 what's up, John, Merry Christmas and I hope you have 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.840 a very good Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you too, John. 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.399 This SAX really will help everyone in the and it 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.040 will help everyone even in states where they have high 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:07.639 taxes and high um property taxes. The reason is that 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:13.399 will start making people wake up, wake up how well 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.960 they're seeing that if you go to a liberal state 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:20.000 like Massachusetts or New York City area, the amount of 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:26.440 money squander, the amount of everything is unbelievable. And when 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.520 people start realizing they're having to pay for it entirely, 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.639 they're gonna start wanting a little accountability. But what I 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.320 wanted to talk about is you mentioned about mckeeth. One 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.520 of the things I had dealt with in Alaska. I'm 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.440 trying to deal with Ted Stevens. The FBI was brought 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:47.639 in from Washington, BC. They for bad local FBI to 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.479 do anything, and they brought on their people and they 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.080 said they were all And I called him up and 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.480 talked to them. And I also worked for the FBI. 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.919 UH through the years. But that's a whole another story. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:05.159 And they said they were only going after Republicans. The 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.280 hell can you do that? I laid before them illegal 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:12.960 action of Democrats and make it John, We're covering a 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:14.920 lot of ground here, buddy, but unfortunately we're about to 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:16.960 run into a break. Man. I appreciate you calling in 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:21.439 and shields hie to you, uh, and Merry Christmas to you. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:27.280 Let's talk about was it trump tastic? As America been 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.320 made greater at least, if not great again? Uh, we'll 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.320 talk about it. And eight four or four to five, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.960 light up those lines, be right back if notten think 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.639 about it. This president hasn't even been in office for 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.640 a year, and look at all the things that he's 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.560 been able to get done. I share will in many ways. 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:50.920 I just hope that we all get behind him every 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.119 way we can, and we'll get this country turned around 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.960 in ways so we'll benefit the whole world, but above 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.040 all benefit our people and bring us all to a 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.960 realization of how really great America really is and how 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:10.720 the rest of the world depends on us. Senator orn 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.639 Hatch making some very good points here about the year 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:18.480 in review when it comes to President Trump and his 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:23.960 agenda and what's happened. Let's do a quick just glance 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.160 over what and keep in mind this is all stuff 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:32.800 that only happened because Trump was able to defeat the 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:39.560 most unified Democrat media apparatus in history behind the candidate, 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.560 with the exception of Obama. Right, I think Hillary will 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.439 be number two in terms of how much the media 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:49.359 wanted her to win. Obama was number one. And we 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.080 look back at what happened, and here's what I think 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.000 comes to mind. People have this thing now about but Gorsage. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.280 But Corsage, Well, that's a big deal. It's more than 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.000 just sitch though. We have a Supreme Court justice who 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:11.240 is a constitutional originalist. You have tax reform now, you 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.720 have the cuts that everybody will feel in their pocketbook. 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.080 You're gonna have more money in your bank account now 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.000 thanks to what Trump has done. And by the way, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.439 you probably have more money in your bank account in 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:27.919 the future because of increased wages, assuming that all this 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.480 happens though it's supposed to, and money comes back from 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:35.240 overseas repatriation, increased investment and hiring by companies that have 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.640 more cash on the balance seat sheet because they're not 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:43.360 paying it out in the form of taxes and maybe 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.720 hopefully higher way just bigger paychecks too, not just the 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.000 government taking less of your money, but more money in 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.439 the marketplace to pay you. That's a part of this 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:56.800 as well. Um there is also but on the notion 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.159 of judges alone, twelve federal appeals Appeals court judges have 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.200 gotten through this year. Obama's before Now, there's there was 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.480 that guy recently who didn't do so well and his 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.119 hearing okay, but he Hey, you know the process worked 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.400 in a sense. Have you ever tried a case in court? 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.439 Do you know anything about the law? No? Do you 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.200 know anything about this at all? No? Uh, that guy's 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:20.960 stepped down. He's not he's not going to be a judge. 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.560 But twelve federal appeals court judges have gotten through this year. 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:28.159 It also reminds me of one of the enduring and 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.560 very damaging legacies of the Obama administration is that I 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.000 think about a third of the federal judiciary at this point, 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:41.439 our Obama appointees everybody for a long time. Those are 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:46.120 lifetime appointments. Guess what that matters. You see how much 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:47.879 it matters with the travel ban, right, some of these 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:54.480 judges out of the Ninth Circuit and elsewhere. Putting partisans 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:59.240 on the bench has long term implications for a whole 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:01.680 bunch of things. Again, even we can just begin to imagine. 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.760 So twelve federal Appeals Court judges, now that's another check 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:11.200 we've withdrawn from the Paris to Court, which was just nonsense. Right, 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.719 we no longer have a president who in the national 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:18.639 security strategy talks about the imminent threat of climate change. 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.120 How a minute, right on, like a hundred years, there's 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:24.720 gonna be like an extra three inches in two degrees, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.320 and you know that's gonna be really bad. I don't 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:31.760 think that's enough for us all to be deeply concerned 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.639 right now, especially because they've been wrong and wrong and 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:39.440 wrong again with all those predictions. I will never forget 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:40.960 if we don't have the audio now just coming to 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.399 my mind, but when President Obama told the I think 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:46.359 it was the Coastguard Academy at their graduation, the climate 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.840 change poses like the most imminent as existential threat to 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.040 the United States something along those lines. That was not 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:57.400 a direct quote, but and I just wow, crazy talk. 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.800 But a lot on the left we're clapping, Oh, it's brilliant. 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:06.840 So course's tax reform, twelve federal appeals court judges, and 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:14.480 pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. There's also the elimination, 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.440 which we just found out last week of net neutrality. 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:22.520 So there's that which I have enjoyed a lot of 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.119 the commentary online and on TV and else where are 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:27.760 people are saying, you know, if everyone's gonna die from 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:30.840 net neutrality, how could everybody also die from the tax cuts. 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:33.800 It's a good point. If everyone's already dead, I don't 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:35.439 know how the tax cuts can kill them because net 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:39.920 neutrality is already it's like uh mad Max out there. 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:42.000 Because of net neutrality, you know, we're never good. It's 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:45.119 never gonna be the same for us. Until the Internet 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:49.600 was the wild West and then came along and the 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:53.120 regulators like wider made it all better. Um, but that's 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:56.520 not how that's not how it happened. You also have 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:01.680 a huge number of federal regulations that have been either 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:06.800 truncated or eliminated entirely, and very few of any federal 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:10.879 regulations passed, which is a dramatic departure from the past. 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:13.600 It is, in fact true when you're talking about the 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:18.440 federal regulatory machine doing nothing is doing something, because doing 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.399 nothing is much better than continuing to strangle businesses and 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:29.160 American ingenuity and entrepreneurship and freedom. Yeah, that's right. By 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.080 coming up with all these laws by these bureaucrats sitting around, 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:34.760 they're not laws passed by Congress, but they have the 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:38.080 force of law. The fourth branch of government, I'm gonna 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:41.640 talk about the swamp. The bureaucracy is a huge component 0:25:41.640 --> 0:25:45.760 of the swamp. The unaccountable bureaucrats who decide that a 0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:48.800 pond in your backyard is a wetland and if you 0:25:48.880 --> 0:25:52.200 don't get rid of it right away, they're gonna find 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:54.600 you thirty thousand dollars a day. As if anybody could 0:25:54.640 --> 0:26:00.400 actually deal with that, anyone could handle it, it's just insanity. Uh. 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:04.080 And then there's some other important federal actions that are 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:07.960 either ongoing or that get less attention. Work at the 0:26:08.280 --> 0:26:11.880 working to reform the v A that's going very well. 0:26:12.119 --> 0:26:14.080 And there's just a lot of stuff here that we 0:26:14.119 --> 0:26:18.600 should be pleased about. And I think that because the 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:22.680 media narrative has been so hysterically anti Trump, even those 0:26:22.720 --> 0:26:25.200 of us who support the agenda sit around like, well, 0:26:25.200 --> 0:26:29.159 how is it really gone? Not Hillary that's true, and 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:33.240 that's great, but it's actually from you. If you are 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:36.600 a conservative in this country right now and you look 0:26:36.640 --> 0:26:39.080 at what has happened in government. I don't mean tone, 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:41.120 I don't mean tweets, and don't mean any of that 0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:44.720 talking about government action or oh, the defeat of the caliphate. 0:26:44.760 --> 0:26:49.600 By the way, there's also that. I'm sorry that. I'm 0:26:49.600 --> 0:26:51.479 glad I call myself there. Those would have been ashamed, 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:53.359 but I left that out and I should not have. 0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:57.280 But the defeat of the caliphate as well under this 0:26:57.400 --> 0:27:02.119 administration's all this administrations uch. So if you are a 0:27:02.160 --> 0:27:04.960 conservative who has had your misgivings about Trump, even if 0:27:05.000 --> 0:27:07.040 you're a conservative who to this to this day, you 0:27:07.080 --> 0:27:10.320 don't like Trump's tone, you disagree with his style, you 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:13.800 disagree with his personal choices or whatever. But you're just 0:27:13.960 --> 0:27:17.320 looking at what has happened this past year, what the 0:27:17.320 --> 0:27:20.800 federal government, what the White House, the executive branch has done. 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:23.560 I think, if you're being fair minded about it, you 0:27:23.600 --> 0:27:25.639 have to be pleased. And a lot of your like 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:27.600 bom Buck, I'm more than a little pleased. Yeah, I know, 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:32.680 But I'm speaking specifically now to that part of our 0:27:32.760 --> 0:27:37.520 conservative brothers and sisters out there that they have been thinking. 0:27:37.640 --> 0:27:40.040 They've been thinking, Oh, I just I can't accept that. 0:27:40.080 --> 0:27:43.000 I can't abide a Trump administration. I'm still never Trump 0:27:43.000 --> 0:27:45.840 and you know, really be honest about it. And I 0:27:45.840 --> 0:27:48.680 think you have to come to the conclusion that it's 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:53.920 been a good year for the conservative agenda. It actually has. 0:27:55.119 --> 0:27:57.560 It's not perfect. People could talk about things that should 0:27:57.560 --> 0:27:59.760 have been done that weren't done. Obamacare, I know here 0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:10.200 upset it. And the individual mandate is being repealed. When 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:14.639 the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:19.440 being repealed because they get the money from the individual mandate, 0:28:19.960 --> 0:28:23.760 So the individual mandate is being revealed. So in this film, 0:28:23.800 --> 0:28:26.480 not only do we have mess of tax cuts and 0:28:26.720 --> 0:28:35.520 tax reform, we have essentially repealed Obamacare. Ah, I mean 0:28:36.280 --> 0:28:39.960 not really now, to be fair to what he said, 0:28:40.920 --> 0:28:43.320 he said essentially, he did not say repealed because clearly 0:28:43.360 --> 0:28:45.400 I did not repeal in a place Obamacare because there 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:46.800 was that whole effort to do it over the summer 0:28:46.880 --> 0:28:48.720 didn't work. Those you listen to the show. No, we've 0:28:48.720 --> 0:28:53.040 been talking about that, okay, But what the repeal of 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:59.760 the individual mandate is is a it's putting. It's putting 0:28:59.760 --> 0:29:03.360 in ocean a series of events that will lead to 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:09.960 either the repeal of Obamacare or just the enshrinement of 0:29:09.960 --> 0:29:13.960 Obamacare into law forever. Because what's gonna happen is the exchanges. 0:29:13.960 --> 0:29:15.640 People are gonna pull out of the exchanges because they 0:29:15.640 --> 0:29:20.240 don't have to get insurance, and those who don't really 0:29:20.240 --> 0:29:22.840 want to get insurance usually the ones who are only 0:29:22.880 --> 0:29:26.480 doing it because they don't want to pay the penalty. 0:29:26.560 --> 0:29:30.520 They're younger and healthier, so they are going to say, 0:29:30.560 --> 0:29:32.440 you know what, I'm just gonna stay out of this 0:29:32.480 --> 0:29:34.440 thing because we're not gonna be paying I'm not gonna 0:29:34.440 --> 0:29:37.320 pay a penalty anymore. And what that means is that 0:29:37.400 --> 0:29:40.640 the insurance exchanges are going to have a higher proportion 0:29:40.680 --> 0:29:44.400 of people who are older and sicker, and the expenses 0:29:44.440 --> 0:29:47.320 will go up, and these things are going to create 0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:50.360 a really fast This is kind of throwing gasoline on 0:29:50.400 --> 0:29:57.680 the already smoldering reality of Obamacare exchanges, and it means 0:29:57.720 --> 0:29:59.840 that there's going to be a quite a fight ahead 0:30:00.000 --> 0:30:03.959 because understand this, the pain in those exchanges and the 0:30:03.960 --> 0:30:06.560 skyrocketing premiums that will come as a result of this, 0:30:06.640 --> 0:30:10.120 and that will happen. It's not like they're gonna say, yeah, see, 0:30:10.680 --> 0:30:13.800 freedom has been restored in the in the healthcare market 0:30:13.840 --> 0:30:18.240 now for at least for individual plans. Obamacare. Obamacare is terrible, 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:20.640 right guys, And Democrats are gonna say, yeah, sure, No. 0:30:20.800 --> 0:30:25.840 Democrats are gonna say that Republicans just sabotaged Obamacare and 0:30:25.840 --> 0:30:27.680 that now it needs money more than ever, and they're 0:30:27.680 --> 0:30:29.880 gonna tell you all these cases of people that are 0:30:30.400 --> 0:30:33.080 going bankrupt in the exchanges or whatever. Right, they're gonna 0:30:33.080 --> 0:30:35.480 have all these stories for you. It's gonna be a 0:30:35.520 --> 0:30:39.360 big fight. So to say it's essentially been repealed. No, 0:30:39.560 --> 0:30:43.200 it's forcing a showdown, is what it's doing. And it 0:30:43.520 --> 0:30:45.959 is amusing to me to see all the different pundits 0:30:45.960 --> 0:30:49.320 out there saying, fifteen million people, he's taking away their insurance. No, 0:30:49.440 --> 0:30:51.960 he's just saying you don't have to get it. There's 0:30:51.960 --> 0:30:54.560 a difference between stealing something from someone and saying that 0:30:54.680 --> 0:30:57.160 they don't have to buy it. Right if I used 0:30:57.200 --> 0:31:02.520 to have to buy a uh, I don't buy orange 0:31:02.600 --> 0:31:05.080 juice on the way into work every day because I 0:31:05.120 --> 0:31:07.680 was mandated by law. And now they say, buck, you're 0:31:07.680 --> 0:31:09.800 no longer mandated by a lot of buy orange juice. 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:13.280 They're not stealing orange juice from me. This is pretty straightforward, 0:31:14.080 --> 0:31:16.320 but that's the way it's being reported. Oh, they're stealing 0:31:16.360 --> 0:31:19.240 health insurance from fifteen million people or thirteen million people 0:31:19.280 --> 0:31:22.000 or whatever it is. No, they're just not making them 0:31:22.000 --> 0:31:23.720 buy it. If they want to buy it, they still can. 0:31:23.840 --> 0:31:26.680 But I will know. I would note that as people 0:31:26.800 --> 0:31:29.200 choose not to, more people will want to choose not to, 0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:34.000 because you're just gonna have the death spiral within the 0:31:34.040 --> 0:31:36.840 exchanges get faster and faster and more and more extremes. 0:31:36.920 --> 0:31:39.640 So there will be a fight over whose fault that 0:31:39.840 --> 0:31:42.440 is and how it should be fixed. I hope Republicans 0:31:42.480 --> 0:31:46.080 are prepared for it. I am worried that their messaging 0:31:46.160 --> 0:31:49.400 game a little weak right now. Think about it this way. 0:31:49.720 --> 0:31:52.600 If they have had a hard time getting a majority 0:31:52.640 --> 0:31:55.400 of the American people on board with literally keeping more 0:31:55.440 --> 0:31:58.360 of their own money, imagine what the debate will be 0:31:58.440 --> 0:32:02.800 like when it's democ rats doing all the fearmongering, all 0:32:02.840 --> 0:32:06.000 the scary stories and everything they're gonna do from the 0:32:06.000 --> 0:32:10.720 healthcare exchanges. They're gonna say this is because Republicans destroyed Obamacare. 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:15.240 It's gonna be a fight. So it's not really repealed. 0:32:15.560 --> 0:32:18.840 The individual mandate will go away, but that means that 0:32:18.920 --> 0:32:22.160 these exchanges are unsustainable. And if Republicans say, oh, we're 0:32:22.200 --> 0:32:24.200 just gonna shovel money into them because we have to, 0:32:24.200 --> 0:32:26.280 because it's a short term fix, and that's what was 0:32:26.320 --> 0:32:29.240 being talked about over the summer, I would note that's 0:32:29.440 --> 0:32:32.400 that's a big betrayal of what has been promised and 0:32:32.440 --> 0:32:34.200 what would be done by this Congress. So we gotta 0:32:34.280 --> 0:32:35.600 keep an eye on them. All right, I got a 0:32:35.600 --> 0:32:37.440 bunch of lines. Let me will take some calls after 0:32:37.440 --> 0:32:40.320 this break eight four to eight to five if you 0:32:40.320 --> 0:32:42.560 want to join in on the fund next hour, we'll 0:32:42.560 --> 0:32:44.880 talk about what we can. When it comes to the 0:32:44.960 --> 0:32:51.040 testimony of former FBI Acting Director McCabe, it's either no, well, 0:32:51.800 --> 0:32:55.280 what's the uh what's his title now? Anyway, he's a 0:32:55.320 --> 0:32:58.280 senior FBI guy. Whatever. We'll talk about what he had 0:32:58.280 --> 0:33:01.200 to say about the dossier and Fusion GPS after the break, 0:33:01.240 --> 0:33:03.760 stay with me. Oh yeah, we've got some funky Christmas 0:33:03.800 --> 0:33:06.560 tunes going here, like it. Take some of your calls. 0:33:07.160 --> 0:33:10.840 Brent in New Mexico listening on the I Heart app. Hey, Brent. 0:33:12.800 --> 0:33:16.600 Hey buck, she'll tie, She'll hi, buddy. Hey man, I'm 0:33:16.640 --> 0:33:19.560 pretty stoked about the the tax reform. I don't know 0:33:19.560 --> 0:33:21.800 if you call it reform, tax tweak, or whatever you 0:33:21.800 --> 0:33:24.080 want to call it. I mean he gives me a 0:33:24.120 --> 0:33:25.920 couple of extra thousand dollars. I mean I might be 0:33:25.960 --> 0:33:27.840 able to take my kids to Disney World or something. 0:33:27.840 --> 0:33:30.440 You know me, Hey, you probably see Paul Ryan there, 0:33:30.480 --> 0:33:34.680 because after today he sounds like he's going to disney World. Yeah, 0:33:34.880 --> 0:33:37.520 hell yeah, speaking to Disney World. Did you see the 0:33:37.520 --> 0:33:41.760 picture of that trump bot at uh the Hall of Presidents? 0:33:41.800 --> 0:33:45.040 Have you seen that thing? No? I haven't seen it. Oh, 0:33:45.120 --> 0:33:48.480 gotta google. It's pretty wild, man. But anyway, other than that, 0:33:48.520 --> 0:33:50.120 I just want to tell you if you haven't seen it, 0:33:50.200 --> 0:33:54.000 Scrooge with Bill Murray. Tyrone had the same In the break, 0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:55.800 Tyrone had the same idea said, if you're looking for 0:33:55.840 --> 0:33:58.760 a fun version of a Christmas Carl to watch, Scrooged 0:33:58.840 --> 0:34:02.000 is a good one. Yeah. This hands down the best. 0:34:02.720 --> 0:34:06.360 Begs a strong word, strong word, but I highly, highly, 0:34:06.400 --> 0:34:08.919 highly pressed my wife to watch that with me every year. Man. 0:34:08.920 --> 0:34:11.239 It's a good one, alright, cool. I saw it a 0:34:11.280 --> 0:34:12.799 long time ago. I feel like my dad took me 0:34:12.840 --> 0:34:15.520 when I was in the theaters, but I I don't 0:34:15.560 --> 0:34:18.080 really remember. But I'm I'm a big Bill Murray fan. 0:34:18.200 --> 0:34:21.360 Always have been, always a lot of respect for that 0:34:21.400 --> 0:34:24.799 guy's body of work. Oh yeah, he's one of my 0:34:24.880 --> 0:34:29.960 favorites too. Yeah. Absolutely, brother, Thank you for listening, and 0:34:30.000 --> 0:34:37.120 have a great Christmas. I'm merry Christmas. Me Meani Meani 0:34:37.239 --> 0:34:41.200 in California. On the I hearty, Hey Meani Hi bought 0:34:41.680 --> 0:34:47.920 Siels High Fields High. You're actually very nice though nothing goodhead, 0:34:49.480 --> 0:34:51.640 so I wanted to let you know. So. First of all, 0:34:51.680 --> 0:34:54.000 I'm more of a traditionalist on a Christmas Carol, and 0:34:54.080 --> 0:34:56.880 I liked the version that was what George she C 0:34:57.200 --> 0:35:01.759 Scott played Um Scrooge. But the reason I wanted to 0:35:01.840 --> 0:35:04.239 call was to tell you there's a new movie out 0:35:04.800 --> 0:35:07.960 called The Man Who Invented Christmas and it is the 0:35:08.160 --> 0:35:13.040 story of Charles Dickens and how he came upon writing 0:35:13.160 --> 0:35:17.240 the Christmas Carol story, events that happened in his life 0:35:17.400 --> 0:35:20.360 and people that he met in his life, and it 0:35:20.480 --> 0:35:22.720 kind of puts it together in a really neat package. 0:35:22.719 --> 0:35:24.680 It's not in a lot of theaters, but it's I 0:35:24.760 --> 0:35:27.120 think it's well worth seeing. So it's in theaters now 0:35:27.440 --> 0:35:29.480 or it's I mean, could I could I watch it 0:35:29.560 --> 0:35:32.080 on demand? You know? Is one of those things. No, 0:35:32.280 --> 0:35:33.920 you can't watch it on demand. You have to go 0:35:34.040 --> 0:35:35.840 to a theater. But you'll probably have to look on 0:35:35.960 --> 0:35:38.359 san Dango and find out where it's playing because it's 0:35:38.400 --> 0:35:40.960 in the smaller theaters. Okay, I'll definitely check it out. 0:35:41.680 --> 0:35:43.520 Thank you so much, Thank you so much. Me to 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:47.359 have a merry Christmas. One more thing, uh call me beer. 0:35:47.480 --> 0:35:50.440 We really want to see him back. He's back. You 0:35:50.520 --> 0:35:52.160 have you have my word on that. All right, you 0:35:52.239 --> 0:35:54.399 have my word on that. Be the Bearers back. We've 0:35:54.440 --> 0:35:56.879 got some This is perhaps where I could tell you guys, 0:35:56.920 --> 0:36:00.480 we've got some some changes coming in seeing here on 0:36:00.520 --> 0:36:04.399 the show. Whole bunch of things. I've mentioned the history 0:36:04.440 --> 0:36:06.200 podcast that will be really in addition to the show, 0:36:06.280 --> 0:36:08.320 but it'll be a it'll be an extension of what 0:36:08.400 --> 0:36:11.800 we're already doing here in the Hut. We have a 0:36:13.800 --> 0:36:15.239 I kind of have to wait on some of it 0:36:15.320 --> 0:36:18.279 to announce it until the new year. But there's there's 0:36:18.400 --> 0:36:22.439 things that things are in the works. This is it's 0:36:22.440 --> 0:36:24.440 been a great year here because of all of you, 0:36:24.920 --> 0:36:28.440 and that means that we have latitude to make some 0:36:28.640 --> 0:36:33.799 changes and and have the full support of Premier, our syndicator, 0:36:33.840 --> 0:36:37.000 our bosses, to do some things to bring you an 0:36:37.040 --> 0:36:40.959 even more exciting product. In so I'm very much looking 0:36:40.960 --> 0:36:43.239 forward to that. I know that's that's really vague. So 0:36:43.400 --> 0:36:45.560 it's like I'm trying to sell you on a car 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:47.520 that you can't see, and I won't tell you the price, 0:36:47.640 --> 0:36:49.759 but trust me, it'll be good. It'll be good when 0:36:49.800 --> 0:36:51.759 it happens. And I think I will have to check 0:36:51.760 --> 0:36:57.080 out some of these new new versions of h the 0:36:57.600 --> 0:36:59.920 Christmas Carol. So that's so funny in this money, I 0:37:00.000 --> 0:37:01.839 couldn't believe it. But then again, she found out recently. 0:37:01.880 --> 0:37:04.799 I've never seen check this out. Never seen the movie 0:37:04.840 --> 0:37:08.200 Greece never. I know, you guys are freaking out. How 0:37:08.400 --> 0:37:11.160 is that possible? Especially for a kid that really grew 0:37:11.239 --> 0:37:13.120 up watching a lot of movies. Never saw it, and 0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:15.239 I know the songs and everything, because you know who 0:37:15.280 --> 0:37:18.800 doesn't never seen the movie. People always like, yeah, I 0:37:18.800 --> 0:37:20.839 love John Travolta in Greece, and I'd be like, yeah, 0:37:21.840 --> 0:37:23.920 me too, just because I don't want to be left out, 0:37:24.680 --> 0:37:29.400 all right, FBI testimony. McCabe, the Deputy director of the FBI, 0:37:30.040 --> 0:37:33.600 the Dussier lou dossier. We will talk about that and 0:37:33.960 --> 0:37:36.200 uh a whole bunch of other stuff, some national security 0:37:36.239 --> 0:37:40.640 coming at you in the second hour today and that 0:37:40.719 --> 0:37:42.200 means just kind of way through this break and I'll 0:37:42.200 --> 0:37:45.040 be right back with it, so uh, don't touch that dial. 0:37:45.440 --> 0:37:49.759 So huge tax cuts passed today. Well done Congress, Well 0:37:49.840 --> 0:37:53.680 done g O P. That's the biggest story by far. 0:37:54.640 --> 0:37:57.080 It's gonna help with the economy. It's gonna put more 0:37:57.160 --> 0:38:00.800 money in your pockets. Lots of red and to celebrate this, 0:38:01.040 --> 0:38:04.320 and is a a really great way for the GOP 0:38:04.480 --> 0:38:07.120 to be heading into the new year. The optics of 0:38:07.239 --> 0:38:12.520 this are very powerful, very strong. That's something else happened 0:38:12.520 --> 0:38:15.239 today and I wanted to talk to you about a bit, 0:38:16.200 --> 0:38:19.440 and that is that former acting current Deputy Director of 0:38:19.520 --> 0:38:26.319 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Andy McCabe. He spent eight 0:38:26.440 --> 0:38:31.400 hours today behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence UH Committee, 0:38:32.800 --> 0:38:36.719 and he has asked all kinds of questions about the dossier. 0:38:37.560 --> 0:38:43.400 Now we don't know, but it has been suspected for 0:38:43.560 --> 0:38:49.560 a while that McCabe, whose wife was running as a 0:38:49.640 --> 0:38:53.520 Democrat in a House race around the maybe a year before, 0:38:53.560 --> 0:38:58.080 around the time of the election. Uh and got a 0:38:58.120 --> 0:38:59.799 lot of money from the d n C and had 0:39:00.000 --> 0:39:08.520 those ties to Terry mccauliffe Virginia and McCabe, I'm guessing 0:39:09.040 --> 0:39:12.160 is a Democrat too, right. We all know this, Okay. 0:39:12.920 --> 0:39:18.320 So McCabe has all of these ties to the various 0:39:18.480 --> 0:39:23.520 figures in the Hillary email investigation as well as the 0:39:23.760 --> 0:39:28.839 Russia collusion stuff that's out there, and he was behind 0:39:28.880 --> 0:39:31.560 closed doors for eight hours today and we don't yet 0:39:31.680 --> 0:39:36.160 know all that much because the FBI, and this is 0:39:36.200 --> 0:39:39.000 not surprising to me at all. The FBI and the 0:39:39.080 --> 0:39:41.120 d o J are falling back on one of the 0:39:41.200 --> 0:39:45.200 government's favorite tricks, which is when pushed into a corner 0:39:45.480 --> 0:39:48.440 and asked, even in a closed door setting where they 0:39:48.440 --> 0:39:52.520 can discuss classified for information, they either say that they 0:39:52.640 --> 0:39:56.400 can't talk about it because it's an ongoing investigation elsewhere, 0:39:57.560 --> 0:40:02.160 or they don't know, they don't recall and we have 0:40:02.360 --> 0:40:05.000 some reason to believe that, or we have some reporting 0:40:05.080 --> 0:40:10.520 that that is exactly what happened today. M Molly Hemingway, 0:40:10.560 --> 0:40:14.200 who is a Fox News contributor, shared this earlier today. 0:40:14.480 --> 0:40:18.520 McCabe couldn't recall quote despite reported existence of docks with 0:40:18.640 --> 0:40:22.600 his signature establishing his knowledge of the dossier's financing and 0:40:22.760 --> 0:40:30.359 providence end quote. They asked McCabe behind closed doors, did 0:40:30.440 --> 0:40:33.960 you guys did the FBI pay money for the dossier? 0:40:35.040 --> 0:40:37.360 Which is a question that that that's a yes or no. 0:40:38.440 --> 0:40:41.840 This is this is pretty easy. You know. If I 0:40:41.920 --> 0:40:46.319 asked any of you, did you have a Rebby stake 0:40:46.400 --> 0:40:50.160 tonight for dinner, that's a yes or no. It's not 0:40:50.680 --> 0:40:53.520 I'm not sure. And if you had a Rebby, by 0:40:53.520 --> 0:40:56.120 the way, good choice, probably my favorite cut of meat. 0:40:57.200 --> 0:40:59.640 But he said, McCabe said, didn't know about the dossier. 0:41:00.280 --> 0:41:04.520 McCabe said, sorry, couldn't. Couldn't figure it out. And then 0:41:04.560 --> 0:41:08.560 there's also reporting on Fox News that McCabe couldn't. I 0:41:08.640 --> 0:41:12.680 love these I these are leaks, but these aren't damaging leaks, right, 0:41:12.719 --> 0:41:14.879 there are leaks in their leaks. Should people be talking 0:41:14.920 --> 0:41:17.040 about what was said behind closed doors in the Senate 0:41:17.120 --> 0:41:22.880 INTELLIENTCE Committee meeting? Technically no? But are these leaks that 0:41:22.920 --> 0:41:25.600 will endanger anybody or anything? No? All right, this is 0:41:25.640 --> 0:41:28.279 just what's going on, at least from what I've seen 0:41:28.360 --> 0:41:30.440 so far. I mean, I'm I'm not privy to all 0:41:30.440 --> 0:41:33.360 the leaks, but from what I'm seeing here reported this 0:41:33.560 --> 0:41:36.160 is pretty small time stuff. In fact, it's just leaks 0:41:36.200 --> 0:41:39.920 about non information in a sense, leaks about information that 0:41:40.239 --> 0:41:42.840 was not gathered, and that in and of itself tells 0:41:42.920 --> 0:41:48.919 us a lot. Here When asked if McCabe could give 0:41:49.120 --> 0:41:55.040 one single allegation credibility from the dossy, remember this is 0:41:55.080 --> 0:41:58.960 the dossier compiled by Fusion GPS, paid for by the 0:41:59.120 --> 0:42:03.120 Hillary campaign by the d n C to discredit Donald Trump. 0:42:03.960 --> 0:42:09.239 That could, and I think most likely was, could have 0:42:09.320 --> 0:42:13.480 been the basis for the whole counterintelligence probe, all the 0:42:13.480 --> 0:42:16.600 stuff that you've seen about these Russia ties and all 0:42:16.680 --> 0:42:20.320 the and the collusion and everything else, because they've already 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:23.080 been shaking the trees, as they say, turning everything upside 0:42:23.120 --> 0:42:27.960 down with investigators for months, spending millions of dollars and 0:42:29.120 --> 0:42:31.839 haven't been able to give us one single bit of actual, real, 0:42:32.160 --> 0:42:39.000 bona fide Russia collusion, right, nothing but the dossier and 0:42:39.080 --> 0:42:43.239 all of its allegations, which include some really people keep 0:42:43.400 --> 0:42:45.839 describing it as salacious. It's a word that's been used 0:42:45.880 --> 0:42:47.719 a lot more this year because of the people know 0:42:47.800 --> 0:42:49.880 what a dossier is, and they know what salacious is, 0:42:50.000 --> 0:42:52.000 and they also know what a certain type of shower is. 0:42:52.080 --> 0:42:58.200 Now because of the of this whole situation, and they 0:42:58.239 --> 0:43:02.960 couldn't verify any of it, which is an interesting thing 0:43:03.160 --> 0:43:05.960 for them to have to say, especially given that this 0:43:06.080 --> 0:43:09.920 may very well have been the basis for all of us. 0:43:11.000 --> 0:43:13.080 And I think the FBI at the top level has 0:43:13.120 --> 0:43:15.120 got to be pretty scared now because this would be 0:43:15.640 --> 0:43:18.400 Let's just assume for a moment it comes out that 0:43:18.480 --> 0:43:22.279 the FBI paid fifty dollars for this dossier, which was 0:43:22.360 --> 0:43:26.120 already paid for by the Clinton d n C. Right, 0:43:26.160 --> 0:43:28.760 so they would be paying for oppo research. The FBI 0:43:28.840 --> 0:43:32.880 would have been duped into taking opo research during a 0:43:33.000 --> 0:43:39.000 presidential campaign using that opposition research that they had paid 0:43:39.040 --> 0:43:42.000 money for, if that is in fact what happened as 0:43:42.080 --> 0:43:46.759 the basis for actual investigatory steps, including using the resources 0:43:46.880 --> 0:43:51.200 of the intelligence community to try and verify this stuff, 0:43:52.480 --> 0:43:55.919 and then when they didn't find anything or they didn't 0:43:55.920 --> 0:44:00.360 find what they needed, selectively leaking information they had leaned 0:44:00.560 --> 0:44:04.719 from that process to undermine and hurt the incoming administration, 0:44:05.320 --> 0:44:08.759 most notably the leak about General Flynt's phone called this ambassador, 0:44:08.880 --> 0:44:14.920 Russian ambassador Sir Atkisliak Goola. It's fun to say. So 0:44:16.320 --> 0:44:20.520 there's a lot riding on the provenance of this dossier. 0:44:21.760 --> 0:44:25.439 There's a lot that's at stake, and that you had 0:44:25.560 --> 0:44:28.800 the you had Rosenstein number two at d o J 0:44:29.120 --> 0:44:31.719 saying sorry, I I do know if the FBI paid 0:44:31.760 --> 0:44:33.560 money for it, but I will not say it because 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:35.400 there's an inspector general. See this is what I mean. 0:44:35.440 --> 0:44:38.800 There's always the pivot. Oh sorry, Congress can't tell you 0:44:39.520 --> 0:44:41.400 because the Inspector General is looking at it and I 0:44:41.440 --> 0:44:45.680 don't want to interfere with that investigation. Oh rather convenient, 0:44:45.760 --> 0:44:49.759 isn't it. But for eight hours behind closed doors, they 0:44:49.800 --> 0:44:54.040 were asking the cave questions about this. And when all 0:44:54.120 --> 0:44:57.200 said and done, we will find out if the FBI 0:44:57.320 --> 0:45:00.399 paid money for this, and I they were to find 0:45:00.440 --> 0:45:06.239 out a whole lot more about the political biases of 0:45:06.600 --> 0:45:09.800 various figures involved with both the Hillary email investigation and 0:45:11.120 --> 0:45:17.560 the Russia Trump collusion debacle. You have to think about 0:45:17.560 --> 0:45:20.280 it this way. Once they had already made the decision, 0:45:20.719 --> 0:45:23.120 going back to that series of events that I lay 0:45:23.160 --> 0:45:26.360 it out for you, right, dossier Hillary pays for the dossier, 0:45:27.120 --> 0:45:28.880 or rather the d n C. I'm not gonna say that. 0:45:28.960 --> 0:45:31.520 Hillary is like, I'll pay you, but the dossier gets 0:45:31.520 --> 0:45:34.360 paid for by the d n C. This guy, Christopher 0:45:34.360 --> 0:45:36.560 Steel runs around Russia is talking to all these people. 0:45:37.200 --> 0:45:39.720 They say all kinds of stuff, nasty stuff about Trump, 0:45:40.680 --> 0:45:42.719 not not none of which has been verified to this day. 0:45:42.760 --> 0:45:45.200 But anyway, they come back after getting all that information 0:45:46.040 --> 0:45:48.880 and then they go to the FBI because a Fusion 0:45:48.960 --> 0:45:52.360 GPS employee also happens to be the wife of a 0:45:52.480 --> 0:45:55.360 senior d o J official. So it seems to me 0:45:55.680 --> 0:45:59.840 that Or's wife may who worked for Fusion GPS, may 0:46:00.040 --> 0:46:02.040 have said to him, Yeah, look, there's this dossier that 0:46:02.080 --> 0:46:03.839 we've got. You guys have got to take a look 0:46:03.840 --> 0:46:06.320 at this. This is really this is really some stuff. 0:46:07.120 --> 0:46:10.359 And as a bunch of Trump haters, they're like, oh wow, yeah, 0:46:10.400 --> 0:46:13.279 this is all really believable. And then the FBI takes 0:46:13.280 --> 0:46:15.880 it and they go, okay, well, not only is this 0:46:15.960 --> 0:46:18.319 the basis maybe for counter intelligence investigation, but do they 0:46:18.360 --> 0:46:20.759 take that to afis a court. People have been asking 0:46:20.800 --> 0:46:24.080 that question and then they opened that when we're talking 0:46:24.120 --> 0:46:27.680 to counter intelligence investigation, understand that means they're bypassing all 0:46:27.760 --> 0:46:33.440 the standard protections that US citizens would have for communications abroad. 0:46:33.800 --> 0:46:37.719 Right there, they're getting around those usual Fourth Amendment protections 0:46:37.760 --> 0:46:40.280 because it's not count it's not there's not a criminal predicate. 0:46:40.320 --> 0:46:46.000 It's a counterintelligence investigation. So if you're speaking of people abroad, right, 0:46:46.120 --> 0:46:49.200 that changes the story all of a sudden. And that's 0:46:49.200 --> 0:46:52.560 how you can get conversations picked up, you know, Flynn 0:46:52.640 --> 0:46:59.280 and Kisliak and these other things. So if they used 0:46:59.560 --> 0:47:01.120 the dost see you to do that, and then they 0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:03.080 went all the way with it and picked up all 0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:07.160 this information, and they're assuming the whole time, keep in 0:47:07.239 --> 0:47:10.759 mind that Trump is gonna lose, and so Hillary would 0:47:10.800 --> 0:47:14.399 come into office then and it wouldn't really matter. Right, 0:47:14.960 --> 0:47:17.000 they were on a fishing expedition. Maybe they could help 0:47:17.080 --> 0:47:20.160 Hillary think about their perspective. Maybe they could have helped Hillary. 0:47:20.200 --> 0:47:22.320 The d o J and FBI officials involved in this 0:47:23.560 --> 0:47:30.239 help her push it over the line. Right, Maybe they 0:47:30.560 --> 0:47:32.880 were in a position where they could say, oh, by 0:47:32.920 --> 0:47:36.160 the way, you know, something gets leaked that destroys the 0:47:36.200 --> 0:47:39.160 Trump campaign and make sure Hillary wins. Then all this 0:47:39.200 --> 0:47:43.240 stuff about the dossy it never comes out. Think about 0:47:43.360 --> 0:47:46.279 which way the gamble would have gone. Here, everyone thinks 0:47:46.360 --> 0:47:49.240 Hillary is gonna win, so they're looking all this information. 0:47:49.320 --> 0:47:51.400 They figured they've they're gonna nail Trump on something. All 0:47:51.400 --> 0:47:53.960 it takes is one leak of really damaging stuff which 0:47:53.960 --> 0:47:56.880 they never really got, and that could ensure Hillary win. 0:47:57.000 --> 0:47:59.879 She becomes commander in chief. Guess who gets the gets 0:48:00.040 --> 0:48:03.000 get to the hero treatment. Then anybody involved in d 0:48:03.080 --> 0:48:05.440 O j R FBI in that whole process, and they 0:48:05.480 --> 0:48:08.000 know the dirty side if it's never gonna come out. 0:48:09.840 --> 0:48:14.839 So there you have it, right, What I just laid 0:48:14.880 --> 0:48:17.200 out to you make sense. What other people talk about 0:48:17.200 --> 0:48:19.840 all the Russia and Wiki leaks and everything else doesn't 0:48:19.840 --> 0:48:23.759 make sense. I don't even see the pathway they're trying 0:48:23.800 --> 0:48:26.160 to draw here. And that's why McKay behind closed doors 0:48:26.239 --> 0:48:32.759 today and or yesterday is so interesting. Although I would 0:48:32.800 --> 0:48:35.800 note that a lot of like I don't know a 0:48:35.920 --> 0:48:37.880 lot of can't give you an answer on that for 0:48:37.960 --> 0:48:41.640 things that they certainly have an answer on. So will 0:48:41.719 --> 0:48:45.160 we Will we ever really get to the the bottom 0:48:45.200 --> 0:48:46.800 of what was done at d O j n FPI 0:48:47.320 --> 0:48:50.400 to try and subvert the Trump campaign and hand it 0:48:50.440 --> 0:48:55.239 to Hillary. I'm hopeful but I'm not certain that's where 0:48:55.320 --> 0:48:57.160 that's That's the best that I can give you on 0:48:57.239 --> 0:48:59.759 this right now. But I would ask you to really 0:48:59.800 --> 0:49:02.279 think about the series of events that I described to 0:49:02.400 --> 0:49:06.279 you and whether at least that's plausible, and and then 0:49:06.360 --> 0:49:08.600 look at what we already have information where we can 0:49:08.640 --> 0:49:10.560 fill in the gaps. We have facts that we can 0:49:10.680 --> 0:49:15.080 use to support that narrative versus the other narrative, which 0:49:15.160 --> 0:49:17.920 is that there was like some meeting in Trump Tower 0:49:18.680 --> 0:49:20.960 where they said they had information, there was no information, 0:49:21.080 --> 0:49:27.680 and who cares? Right, I just and so what But 0:49:27.760 --> 0:49:29.719 that's Russia collusion. No, there had to there had to 0:49:29.760 --> 0:49:34.640 be something else. What was that something else? I'm I'm 0:49:34.680 --> 0:49:36.800 certain at some point, my friends, we will get to 0:49:37.160 --> 0:49:39.239 we'll get to that place where Democrats will never meet 0:49:39.239 --> 0:49:42.040 there are wrong. They'll just focus on something else. There'll 0:49:42.080 --> 0:49:44.320 be some other shiny object you know. Oh, you know 0:49:44.400 --> 0:49:47.600 Trump is the emoluments clause. Yeah, that'll get him out 0:49:47.600 --> 0:49:50.799 of office. The moment they have a majority in the House, 0:49:51.520 --> 0:49:54.440 they will impeach it, or they will begin to get 0:49:54.520 --> 0:49:58.920 in the process of impeaching them. It will happen because 0:49:58.960 --> 0:50:02.240 they don't have that and have a compelling enough candidate 0:50:02.600 --> 0:50:05.480 or platform to oppose the Trump agenda, especially given what 0:50:05.520 --> 0:50:09.000 we've seen this past year. And they're still running stories. 0:50:09.040 --> 0:50:11.239 I'm literally sitting here with you and they're running stories 0:50:11.280 --> 0:50:13.520 on seeing about firing Muller would be a gross abuse 0:50:13.600 --> 0:50:16.800 of power. He said he wasn't gonna fire him a 0:50:16.840 --> 0:50:20.520 few days ago. How is this even a story? Senator 0:50:20.600 --> 0:50:23.440 Mark Warner is just warning everybody all at all, it's 0:50:23.480 --> 0:50:26.640 would be a gross abuse of power. It's like, actually, no, 0:50:30.080 --> 0:50:33.600 actually no, I'm not gonna happen. Alright, team, We're gonna 0:50:33.640 --> 0:50:35.399 roll into a quick break. We'll be back and again 0:50:35.400 --> 0:50:37.439 in some national security here in a few minutes. Stay 0:50:37.480 --> 0:50:39.719 with me, just on the subject to taxes, and it's 0:50:39.719 --> 0:50:43.320 a great day. It's a celebration tax reform, tax cuts 0:50:43.360 --> 0:50:46.960 gone through. But there was an exchange earlier today that 0:50:47.000 --> 0:50:49.000 I'm meant to play for you, and I want to 0:50:49.200 --> 0:50:51.120 make up for that miss right now where you have 0:50:52.520 --> 0:50:55.320 This is one of my problems with the format of 0:50:55.400 --> 0:50:59.399 a place like The Today Show formerly known as Matt 0:50:59.520 --> 0:51:03.640 Lauer is I don't know, Love Grotto. I mean, you 0:51:03.719 --> 0:51:06.759 know that the Today Show with Matt Lower Yeah, I know, 0:51:06.880 --> 0:51:09.960 but you know, but he earned that one. I mean, uh, 0:51:11.160 --> 0:51:14.719 it is a place where one moment they're like, hey, like, 0:51:15.000 --> 0:51:19.239 let's all make the best scalloped potatoes for summer, and 0:51:19.280 --> 0:51:22.239 the next minute they're like, excuse me, Mr President, UM 0:51:22.320 --> 0:51:24.080 want to ask you a serious question. It's like, come on, 0:51:24.400 --> 0:51:26.880 come on, guys. I I look looked. It makes like 0:51:27.000 --> 0:51:30.000 I half a billion dollars a year in revenue. So 0:51:30.040 --> 0:51:32.160 they know something I don't. I guess, but it doesn't 0:51:32.200 --> 0:51:34.000 mean they're smart. Just means they know what they're doing 0:51:34.040 --> 0:51:37.200 when it comes to advertising, sales and getting people to watch. 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:42.880 So Savannah Guthrie, who you know? I want to I 0:51:42.920 --> 0:51:46.040 don't know what does Savannah Guthrie know about anything? It's 0:51:46.080 --> 0:51:48.759 a fair question ask. I'm not clear on it. But 0:51:48.960 --> 0:51:52.640 she decided to go toe to toe with Paul Ryan, 0:51:52.840 --> 0:51:55.120 and not just toe to toe on the issue with taxes, 0:51:55.120 --> 0:51:57.160 because look, she's an American citizen. She wants to ask 0:51:57.239 --> 0:52:01.240 him tough questions. She's a she's a journalist. That's fine, 0:52:02.040 --> 0:52:03.960 but you know, I mean, Paul Ryan is kind of 0:52:03.960 --> 0:52:06.680 a numbers guy. It's sort of what he does. But 0:52:06.880 --> 0:52:09.160 she even asked him, she even got a little she 0:52:09.320 --> 0:52:13.280 got a bit saucy, a little sassy with the Speaker 0:52:13.320 --> 0:52:15.719 of the House today, let's play that clip. Not only 0:52:15.960 --> 0:52:17.440 where are we gonna let you bring your money back 0:52:17.480 --> 0:52:20.200 from overseas, which is trapped overseas. We're gonna tax you 0:52:20.239 --> 0:52:21.759 at a rate that is that is on par with 0:52:21.840 --> 0:52:23.680 the rest of the world. But we're gonna give you 0:52:23.680 --> 0:52:26.640 an incentive to invest in American jobs. In American businesses, 0:52:26.719 --> 0:52:28.200 you can write off your investments. So if you do 0:52:28.280 --> 0:52:31.280 it in America, and the studies are really clear, workers benefit, 0:52:31.400 --> 0:52:34.200 wages go up, more jobs occur. Are you living in 0:52:34.280 --> 0:52:38.239 a fantasy world? Are you living in a fantasy world? 0:52:38.280 --> 0:52:41.239 Now there was more to that question. She she was 0:52:41.360 --> 0:52:44.480 quoting a but better who are you living in a 0:52:44.600 --> 0:52:48.000 fantasy world? That's not really uh? You see, this is 0:52:48.040 --> 0:52:50.440 where this is where the bias and the influence the 0:52:50.480 --> 0:52:52.600 Democrat media comes out right that that's not a question 0:52:52.600 --> 0:52:55.080 they would ever ask. You know what Obama was saying 0:52:55.160 --> 0:52:58.760 about healthcare, about Obamacare, We're gonna give more people healthcare. 0:52:58.760 --> 0:53:01.040 It will be better health care and will be cheaper healthcare. 0:53:02.080 --> 0:53:04.239 Nobody was ever like, you know, that's kind of like 0:53:04.360 --> 0:53:07.240 telling somebody that we're gonna come up with a jelly 0:53:07.280 --> 0:53:10.560 donut that you can eat that costs you less than 0:53:10.640 --> 0:53:12.759 jelly donut's normally cost and you can eat as many 0:53:12.760 --> 0:53:14.320 of them as you want. You won't get in anyway. 0:53:15.080 --> 0:53:18.279 It just doesn't work that way. It's that's just not reality, right. 0:53:19.360 --> 0:53:22.080 But Obama was saying that about healthcare, and it wasn't reality. 0:53:22.160 --> 0:53:23.840 You're not gonna be able to cover more people with 0:53:24.000 --> 0:53:27.160 better health care at less cost without changing anything else, 0:53:27.200 --> 0:53:28.840 so than just saying that that it will be so, 0:53:29.400 --> 0:53:33.000 and with redistributing the already existing healthcare resources, which is 0:53:33.000 --> 0:53:36.920 all Obamacare's. Obamacare is a redistributive mechanism. It's taking for 0:53:37.040 --> 0:53:39.200 some from some to give to others. It's it's social 0:53:39.320 --> 0:53:42.600 justice via healthcare. That's the shorthand. But that's the truth. 0:53:45.360 --> 0:53:49.920 Back to Paul Ryan, though, it's Savannah Guthrie. Oh, she 0:53:50.160 --> 0:53:54.240 said before that are you living fancy land? CEOs aren't 0:53:54.280 --> 0:53:58.000 waiting on a tax cut to jump start the economy, 0:53:58.160 --> 0:54:01.160 a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a 0:54:01.239 --> 0:54:06.760 company or or to hand out raises. It's pure fantasy 0:54:06.880 --> 0:54:08.800 to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly 0:54:08.880 --> 0:54:12.400 higher wages and growth. And that was from Michael Bloomberg. 0:54:12.520 --> 0:54:14.880 She was quoting Bloomberg, and then she said to him, 0:54:14.920 --> 0:54:21.879 are you living in a fantasy world? Um? So, Paul 0:54:21.960 --> 0:54:24.640 Ryan pushed back on this. He said that surveys show 0:54:24.719 --> 0:54:27.040 the vast majority of businesses are gonna do just what 0:54:27.160 --> 0:54:30.240 we say, reinvest in their workers, reinvest in their factories, 0:54:30.640 --> 0:54:33.920 pay more people, higher wages, and more money. I just 0:54:33.960 --> 0:54:37.600 wouldn't I wish that. Paul Ryan's response here wasn't a survey, says, 0:54:38.160 --> 0:54:42.040 I wish it was. Let's take a company, Savannah. Let's 0:54:42.120 --> 0:54:45.520 and you know, let's take the the Great Widget Factory 0:54:45.600 --> 0:54:49.239 of Omaha where they make widgets, right, which is not 0:54:49.400 --> 0:54:52.120 a thing, but you know, that was what came to mind. Um, 0:54:52.560 --> 0:54:54.759 you know they make let's let's let's even give it 0:54:54.840 --> 0:54:58.560 something else. Let's say, uh, the great I don't know, 0:54:58.800 --> 0:55:02.720 the Great hat factory. Right. So they they've got costs, 0:55:02.800 --> 0:55:05.480 and they've got they've got expenses running the business, they've 0:55:05.480 --> 0:55:08.719 got employee, they've got payroll. But they export hats all 0:55:08.800 --> 0:55:11.799 over the world, right, and they've even set up they've 0:55:11.840 --> 0:55:18.720 even set up some hat factories in you know, Guatemala 0:55:19.200 --> 0:55:23.080 and Malaysia because it's cheaper there, and so they're they're 0:55:23.200 --> 0:55:26.920 doing their hat thing, and now they might be bringing 0:55:27.000 --> 0:55:32.320 back some jobs into Omaha because they won't be making hats. 0:55:33.040 --> 0:55:36.680 It's not as profitable for them to make hats overseas, 0:55:36.880 --> 0:55:39.360 although that's mostly you'd make them in Guatemala and Malaysia 0:55:39.400 --> 0:55:42.920 for labor reasons, not for tax reasons. Necessarily. You get 0:55:42.960 --> 0:55:46.080 the idea, right. I just wish Paul Ryan, who looks 0:55:46.080 --> 0:55:48.719 at the numbers all day, would walk us through a 0:55:48.840 --> 0:55:51.560 case study. I think that's a much more powerful way 0:55:51.600 --> 0:55:53.960 to explain to people about how their wages will go 0:55:54.160 --> 0:55:57.920 up than just to say, well, the surveys say, you know, 0:55:58.120 --> 0:56:01.319 come on, Paul Ryan, just she just called you out, 0:56:01.600 --> 0:56:04.480 you know, she said, you're living in a fantasy lands, 0:56:04.560 --> 0:56:07.320 hiding hiding behind Michael Bloomberg's words while she does it. 0:56:07.400 --> 0:56:09.520 But I just wish Ryan was a little This is 0:56:09.560 --> 0:56:12.359 the thing with Republicans. It's one of the things about 0:56:12.400 --> 0:56:17.080 Trump that we really need to keep in mind that 0:56:17.200 --> 0:56:19.520 they're not good at They're not good at the UH, 0:56:20.040 --> 0:56:22.960 at the war of words. They really aren't most of 0:56:22.960 --> 0:56:25.200 the time. You know, Mitch McConnell, these guys, you look 0:56:25.200 --> 0:56:30.160 at Pelosi and Schumer, Yeah, they're liars, wildly dishonest. But 0:56:30.239 --> 0:56:32.680 Pelosi is out there like people are gonna die because 0:56:32.680 --> 0:56:35.239 of taxes, and you know what, some people believe that crap. 0:56:36.520 --> 0:56:39.120 Chuck Schuber's like, this is terrible, and everyone's like, oh 0:56:39.160 --> 0:56:41.520 my gosh, Struck Schubert says, it's terrible. Meanwhile, you got 0:56:41.600 --> 0:56:43.560 Paul Ryan who's sitting there. He was like, well, if 0:56:43.600 --> 0:56:46.040 you look, if you measure ebitdab, then you take that 0:56:46.120 --> 0:56:48.520 off from the off balance sheet expenses of the cume. 0:56:48.600 --> 0:56:51.560 It's like, no, Paul, she came at you gotta come 0:56:51.600 --> 0:56:54.560 back with some noise. You gotta Yeah, it just wasn't 0:56:54.560 --> 0:56:58.120 strong enough for me. Just wasn't on that on that exchange. 0:56:58.160 --> 0:57:00.760 It's a note from me, Paul. Right, but tax reform 0:57:00.800 --> 0:57:04.320 one through. Let's talk about national security. My friends are buddy. 0:57:04.400 --> 0:57:08.000 Stephen Yates is online. He is the CEO of DC 0:57:08.320 --> 0:57:12.120 International Advisory. He formerly served in the White House as 0:57:12.200 --> 0:57:15.719 Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs. 0:57:16.160 --> 0:57:20.160 Stephen Yates, great to have you, Great to be with you. Buck. 0:57:20.600 --> 0:57:23.000 All right, Steve, talk to me about Nicki Haley and 0:57:23.200 --> 0:57:25.760 this uh that the taking of names as she has 0:57:25.800 --> 0:57:28.320 put it on the u N resolution in Jerusalem I 0:57:28.480 --> 0:57:32.320 like this, Oh, I love it. Uh. And I think 0:57:32.440 --> 0:57:37.520 the idea of accountability arriving at the United Nations is 0:57:37.880 --> 0:57:42.440 refreshing and as we both know, depressingly new as a concept. 0:57:43.320 --> 0:57:46.560 But frankly, a lot of our competitors and adversaries over 0:57:46.600 --> 0:57:49.280 the years have been taking names and pushing their agenda. 0:57:49.760 --> 0:57:52.200 And it's about time America stood up and said, you know, 0:57:52.920 --> 0:57:56.200 we've got a policy. We have sovereignty. Were recognizing the 0:57:56.320 --> 0:57:58.760 capital of another sovereign state that happens to be an 0:57:58.800 --> 0:58:03.320 ally and it's you're gonna go against it. We're keeping names. Uh. 0:58:03.560 --> 0:58:06.400 And frankly, you're a bunch of hypocrites. Given that every 0:58:06.920 --> 0:58:09.919 member of the body is a nation state that shows 0:58:09.960 --> 0:58:12.960 its own capital. It's kind of amazing to me that 0:58:13.080 --> 0:58:17.200 that we're at a point Steven in the Israeli Palestinian 0:58:17.560 --> 0:58:23.440 issue conflict that the international community or whatever whatever we 0:58:23.520 --> 0:58:24.920 want to call it, seems to believe that they can 0:58:24.960 --> 0:58:27.160 tell the United States where embassy can be. That that's 0:58:27.480 --> 0:58:31.200 it just seems like such a nonsensical position for them 0:58:31.280 --> 0:58:34.600 to hold. We can put our embassy wherever we want, correct, 0:58:34.840 --> 0:58:37.080 and we usually try to play nice and we'll go 0:58:37.240 --> 0:58:39.320 where the host nation would like it to be. But 0:58:39.400 --> 0:58:42.920 other than that, really it's no one else's business. And 0:58:43.560 --> 0:58:45.240 you know, we have a couple of parts of the 0:58:45.360 --> 0:58:50.800 world where, uh, the alleged educated classes forced the rest 0:58:50.880 --> 0:58:54.120 of us, if they're lucky, to suspend disbelief and pretend 0:58:54.240 --> 0:58:56.080 we can't see with our eyes or here with our 0:58:56.160 --> 0:58:58.880 ears and just facts on the ground. One of them 0:58:58.960 --> 0:59:01.240 is in the Middle East with disconflict, and the others 0:59:01.320 --> 0:59:04.520 in China and Taiwan. And we're supposed to just ignore 0:59:05.160 --> 0:59:07.919 who really has sovereignty and who has control and where 0:59:07.920 --> 0:59:10.960 a democracy is and just listen to what the experts 0:59:11.040 --> 0:59:13.840 tell us. But I think in this case, we've got 0:59:13.920 --> 0:59:17.160 a president and a UN ambassador that's speaking squarely from 0:59:17.280 --> 0:59:21.320 common sense facts, with the American people behind them, and 0:59:21.560 --> 0:59:25.080 probably with a lot of the world saying, yeah, what 0:59:25.200 --> 0:59:26.960 are the rest of you guys talking about? This is 0:59:27.160 --> 0:59:32.200 Israel's capital, Stephen the The situation with China came up 0:59:32.320 --> 0:59:36.240 in multiple parts of Trump's national security strategy, which was 0:59:36.280 --> 0:59:38.480 unveiled earlier this week, in which he gave a speech 0:59:38.920 --> 0:59:42.440 about and and the focus tends to be on how 0:59:42.560 --> 0:59:47.840 we can deal with China economically without rilling them up 0:59:47.880 --> 0:59:49.480 too much politically because we kind of need them on 0:59:49.560 --> 0:59:52.360 North Korea and some other things. What what would you 0:59:52.600 --> 0:59:57.080 advise a Trump administration in eighteen to do Visa v. 0:59:57.280 --> 0:59:59.440 China that we are not already doing, or that we 0:59:59.520 --> 1:00:02.960 need to do a lot more of. Well, first, uh, 1:00:03.160 --> 1:00:05.919 you know, having somewhat been in the arena, I would 1:00:05.960 --> 1:00:08.160 give some deference to the people who have to make 1:00:08.240 --> 1:00:12.160 the tough calls on how to manage risk. But as 1:00:12.240 --> 1:00:14.440 one of my friends once said, the further I get 1:00:14.480 --> 1:00:18.680 away from real responsibility and decisions the White House, the 1:00:18.800 --> 1:00:21.800 clearer the solutions are, and the more the brilliance of 1:00:21.880 --> 1:00:24.840 my idea has become clearer. So I think I I 1:00:24.920 --> 1:00:28.160 can see much more easy solutions to North Korea and 1:00:28.280 --> 1:00:31.000 not having the responsibility. But they've done a lot of 1:00:31.160 --> 1:00:34.240 the things to right the wrongs of the past. First, 1:00:34.560 --> 1:00:37.160 they haven't taken the bait on trying to buy the 1:00:37.280 --> 1:00:40.320 threat again. This is tried in the Clinton administration and 1:00:40.360 --> 1:00:44.400 the Bush administration, both times spectacular failures. So they've at 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:48.440 least first done no harm. They've put more sanctions in place. 1:00:48.840 --> 1:00:50.640 I don't think we're going to sanction away at the 1:00:50.680 --> 1:00:56.120 North Korean nuclear threat, but they are the right policy moves. Ultimately, 1:00:56.240 --> 1:00:58.800 you have to put pressure on China, and that's the 1:00:58.880 --> 1:01:02.360 judgment call they have to make. How much risk are 1:01:02.440 --> 1:01:05.920 we willing to play in our economic relationship with China? 1:01:06.200 --> 1:01:08.920 We're in order for them to feel enough pressure to 1:01:09.080 --> 1:01:12.160 alter their national interests with regard to North Korea. And 1:01:12.360 --> 1:01:15.040 so far no one has been able to find that formula. 1:01:15.760 --> 1:01:19.120 When people talk about pressuring China, and they say often 1:01:19.160 --> 1:01:21.280 to pressure China to pressure North Korea. Right, So it's 1:01:21.280 --> 1:01:25.280 like a transitive property of pressuring here. But if we're 1:01:25.320 --> 1:01:29.640 looking for levers to get changes in Chinese behavior economically, 1:01:30.520 --> 1:01:32.560 what what what is that? I mean, I've heard people say, 1:01:32.560 --> 1:01:34.440 I've had other experts on the on the show in 1:01:34.480 --> 1:01:36.520 the past even who would say that we're in a 1:01:36.640 --> 1:01:39.640 one way trade war. We just refused to admit that 1:01:40.120 --> 1:01:43.000 even that's too much? Is that is that true? Do 1:01:43.080 --> 1:01:46.040 we respond in kind? I mean? What what is our 1:01:46.160 --> 1:01:51.400 leverage with China economically? Access to our market, access to 1:01:51.520 --> 1:01:56.640 the fine international financial system? Uh? And it's basically the 1:01:56.840 --> 1:02:01.680 reputation of their state owned enterprises, including their finance two institutions. UH. 1:02:01.760 --> 1:02:03.480 And those are you know, that's a little bit of 1:02:03.520 --> 1:02:05.920 a word sell it. So my apologies to the listeners, 1:02:06.040 --> 1:02:08.640 But what it really comes down to is the one 1:02:08.680 --> 1:02:12.320 time we really had measurable movement on China's part is 1:02:12.400 --> 1:02:16.840 when we made any financial institution with exposure to North 1:02:16.960 --> 1:02:21.040 Korea a potential money laundering concern. And that was jargon 1:02:21.440 --> 1:02:25.200 that would have denied Chinese financial institutions access to United 1:02:25.240 --> 1:02:29.560 States markets, and that gets their leader's attention. Uh. And 1:02:30.040 --> 1:02:33.760 the problem was we sold that back to them at 1:02:33.800 --> 1:02:38.440 too lower price. The price was resuming multilateral talks instead 1:02:38.480 --> 1:02:43.120 of some kind of actualty nuclearization. UM. So at this point, 1:02:43.440 --> 1:02:45.840 how far we've given, how far their programs have gone. 1:02:45.880 --> 1:02:49.280 I don't know that we can expect the nuclearization. Uh. 1:02:49.440 --> 1:02:53.000 We're really looking at how do we mitigate threat and 1:02:53.120 --> 1:02:56.480 how do we improve some sense of deterrence and missile 1:02:56.560 --> 1:03:00.560 defense which will always be imperfect. Were speaking Vegnates, the 1:03:00.640 --> 1:03:04.560 CEO of d C International Advisory If formerly in the 1:03:04.600 --> 1:03:09.000 White House's deputy assistant to Vice President Cheney. Uh, Stephen, 1:03:09.440 --> 1:03:14.040 what what is the national security issue that would if 1:03:14.120 --> 1:03:16.280 you were close to the corridors of power again, if 1:03:16.320 --> 1:03:18.200 you are next to the decision makers as you used 1:03:18.200 --> 1:03:23.320 to be, what are you worried about. Well, for me, 1:03:24.280 --> 1:03:29.320 we still have this problem of our borders are getting 1:03:29.360 --> 1:03:31.800 more secure, but they're still poorest. We still too many 1:03:31.840 --> 1:03:35.800 people who have overstayed. We don't know with enough surety 1:03:36.280 --> 1:03:39.200 who's in our country and what they're doing. And I 1:03:39.360 --> 1:03:43.200 still am very, very concerned about people who have been radicalized, 1:03:44.200 --> 1:03:47.280 who can do small or large things to disrupt our 1:03:47.320 --> 1:03:52.480 transportation and power networks and conduct small, small scale terror 1:03:52.920 --> 1:03:55.120 inside the United States. And I think that was always 1:03:55.560 --> 1:03:57.720 something at home is always going to burn the brightest 1:03:57.760 --> 1:04:02.240 and hardest overseas. Just think that the multitude of challenges 1:04:02.280 --> 1:04:04.720 that China presents is going to is going to be 1:04:04.960 --> 1:04:09.480 the biggest challenge in and the years going forward. It 1:04:09.600 --> 1:04:11.720 relates to North Korea, but it's not limited to that. 1:04:12.200 --> 1:04:17.600 It's trade, it's commercial espionage, territorial claims, their military modernization, 1:04:17.720 --> 1:04:22.760 proliferation UH and basically their aim to basically do whatever 1:04:22.840 --> 1:04:26.000 it takes to take us down a notch and gain 1:04:26.240 --> 1:04:29.600 influence and primacy. And I think that that remains the 1:04:29.880 --> 1:04:33.960 single largest strategic challenge for the United States. And just 1:04:34.080 --> 1:04:36.960 one more for you, Stephen, the Mid East. I think 1:04:37.000 --> 1:04:41.560 that it's interesting that the Trump administration doesn't spend more 1:04:41.760 --> 1:04:44.000 energy and time. And I've not been critical of this, 1:04:44.120 --> 1:04:46.200 but just as as a as a free suggestion that 1:04:46.240 --> 1:04:49.120 they're not going to listen to the caliphate has been 1:04:49.120 --> 1:04:51.240 defeated on Donald Trump's watch, I think they should make 1:04:51.280 --> 1:04:54.840 more of that. There was some talk about that today 1:04:55.440 --> 1:04:58.760 when Vice President Tense had his term to speak, when 1:04:58.920 --> 1:05:01.640 the congressional leaders of joined the president to celebrate the 1:05:01.720 --> 1:05:06.640 tax reform. Uh, and that is the first very clear 1:05:07.160 --> 1:05:13.880 call saying yes, their caliphate's capital has been decimated, and UH, 1:05:14.080 --> 1:05:18.120 this is a major, major accomplishment. And really, as since 1:05:18.160 --> 1:05:20.080 it's that time of year, if you look back at 1:05:20.160 --> 1:05:26.400 this year, that movement on isis uh this tax reform, deregulation, 1:05:26.920 --> 1:05:31.320 a Supreme Court justice. This is an incredible year of 1:05:31.400 --> 1:05:35.200 political accomplishments if you could just filter the distractions out 1:05:35.520 --> 1:05:39.000 along the way. Totally agree. Stephen Yates, everybody, CEO of 1:05:39.120 --> 1:05:42.560 DC International Advisory. Follow him on Twitter at Yates d 1:05:42.760 --> 1:05:46.240 c A. Stephen, great to talk to you, my friend. 1:05:46.320 --> 1:05:48.200 Have a merry Christmas, a happy new Year, and looking 1:05:48.240 --> 1:05:51.520 forward to have you joined us more. Thank you, buck 1:05:51.600 --> 1:05:55.240 my pleasure of Merry Christmas YouTube. All right, team, when 1:05:55.320 --> 1:05:58.760 we come back. We're gonna go from uh the expertise 1:05:58.840 --> 1:06:02.800 and insights that we just heard too, the food fight 1:06:02.920 --> 1:06:06.960 online right now that involves people going back and forth 1:06:07.520 --> 1:06:10.840 with Rosie O'Donnell, who, it seemed to some of us 1:06:11.560 --> 1:06:14.520 kind of sort of maybe tried to bribe a couple 1:06:14.560 --> 1:06:16.440 of U. S. Senators today when it came to the 1:06:16.640 --> 1:06:19.800 tax reform vote by offering them millions of dollars on Twitter. 1:06:20.600 --> 1:06:23.040 Oh oh yes, we will go there, we will discuss, 1:06:23.200 --> 1:06:25.600 and then third hour, we got a whole lot more 1:06:26.000 --> 1:06:29.520 lined up for all of you, including North Korea stealing bitcoin. 1:06:30.120 --> 1:06:32.560 Talk about it, Stay with me. I don't know what's 1:06:32.640 --> 1:06:38.480 more annoying that Rosie O'Donnell offered on Twitter to bribe 1:06:38.880 --> 1:06:41.680 a couple of U. S. Senators with regard to their 1:06:41.760 --> 1:06:46.520 votes all over the tax bill, or the fact that 1:06:46.640 --> 1:06:50.720 Rosie O'Donnell probably actually does have millions of dollars with 1:06:50.800 --> 1:06:54.440 which she could theoretically bribe U. S. Senators. She's got 1:06:54.640 --> 1:06:57.600 bank I don't know how. I haven't seen her tie nose, 1:06:57.640 --> 1:07:01.240 I haven't seen her anything in for ever, and yet 1:07:01.360 --> 1:07:03.600 she's she's got a lot. It's got a lot of 1:07:03.680 --> 1:07:06.000 cash stashed away from I guess the night. I guess 1:07:06.000 --> 1:07:08.680 she had a big nineties. She was big in the nineties. 1:07:09.360 --> 1:07:12.080 That talk show was number two to Oprah every single 1:07:12.160 --> 1:07:15.520 year she had it. It was huge that Rosy show 1:07:15.680 --> 1:07:19.320 was the number two talk show. I had no idea. 1:07:19.360 --> 1:07:23.160 I don't I do not watch daytime talk stuff like 1:07:23.200 --> 1:07:28.840 that before she got political. Right, Wow, that's amazing number 1:07:28.880 --> 1:07:32.560 two to Oprah. So yeah, she's got cash to burn. Which, 1:07:32.720 --> 1:07:36.680 if we're gonna talk about the whole men's ray component 1:07:36.760 --> 1:07:40.480 of this offer, you know that that the ability to 1:07:40.600 --> 1:07:45.840 actually follow through on a conspiracy or two to engage 1:07:45.880 --> 1:07:48.400 in it in the acts necessary for a conspiracy to 1:07:48.440 --> 1:07:53.680 be taken to fruition are legally important. Here's what happened today. 1:07:54.600 --> 1:07:58.600 Rosie o'donnald Uh sent out some tweets late on Tuesday night, 1:07:59.160 --> 1:08:04.200 and she offered two Republican senators two million dollars in cash. 1:08:04.480 --> 1:08:07.000 This is what the tweet said. It's on Twitter for 1:08:07.040 --> 1:08:10.480 everybody see. I'm sure she's got over a million followers, right, 1:08:10.480 --> 1:08:13.040 I mean, she's got a huge amount of followers, which, 1:08:13.120 --> 1:08:14.640 by the way, what is wrong with this country when 1:08:14.680 --> 1:08:16.040 I see some of these people that have millions of 1:08:16.040 --> 1:08:18.519 followers I'm like, who who wants to know what Rosie 1:08:18.520 --> 1:08:21.080 o'donnald has to say about anything? But Tyrone just told 1:08:21.120 --> 1:08:24.800 me she was crushing it and talked television for or 1:08:24.920 --> 1:08:26.880 Dasi TV for a long time, which I don't even know. 1:08:27.080 --> 1:08:31.360 So okay, uh, I was busy doing other things. Apparently 1:08:31.400 --> 1:08:34.600 all Rosie o'donald was doing her show. She said this 1:08:34.760 --> 1:08:37.599 on Twitter, So how about this? I promised to give 1:08:37.680 --> 1:08:41.360 two million dollars to Senator Susan Collins and two million 1:08:41.439 --> 1:08:45.800 to Senator Jeff Flake if they vote no. No, I 1:08:45.960 --> 1:08:51.800 will not kill Americans for the super rich. No profanity word, 1:08:52.160 --> 1:08:56.120 two million dollar cash each, she wrote, telling the lawmakers 1:08:56.280 --> 1:08:59.680 that she would send them a direct message in on 1:08:59.720 --> 1:09:03.040 two it or if they were interested. As we know, 1:09:03.240 --> 1:09:08.320 that didn't work. Senate Republicans pushed it through fifty one 1:09:08.479 --> 1:09:12.680 to but some people were pointing out that this is 1:09:12.760 --> 1:09:18.599 the problem that offering to bribe. Offering to bribe members 1:09:18.640 --> 1:09:22.960 of the Senate is highly illegal. You could actually get 1:09:23.000 --> 1:09:26.640 fifteen years in federal prison for it, and you can 1:09:26.720 --> 1:09:30.200 get enormous fines, But as we have just discussed, apparently 1:09:31.640 --> 1:09:34.200 fines wouldn't do that much to deter Rosie O'Donnell. Now, 1:09:34.400 --> 1:09:37.479 I know what people are going to say. I know 1:09:37.720 --> 1:09:42.920 that they would respond, Oh, she was kidding, Okay, I 1:09:42.960 --> 1:09:44.960 mean you know we can take that position, we can 1:09:45.000 --> 1:09:46.680 say to each other. Oh no, she must It must 1:09:46.720 --> 1:09:50.479 have been a joke, because nobody would be that dumb. 1:09:50.920 --> 1:09:54.880 But at the same time, who would be so dumb 1:09:54.920 --> 1:09:58.600 as to write such a tweet? I did see the 1:09:58.720 --> 1:10:02.640 exchange with but it was Ben Shapiro pointed out to 1:10:02.760 --> 1:10:06.160 her on Twitter that this was very illegal, and she 1:10:06.840 --> 1:10:11.800 wrote back a a rather profane response to uh to 1:10:11.920 --> 1:10:15.040 our friend Mr Shapiro, and it got a lot of 1:10:15.080 --> 1:10:19.760 attention on Twitter. But this is just another instance. I 1:10:19.840 --> 1:10:24.240 remember I was talking to you yesterday about the social 1:10:24.320 --> 1:10:26.559 signaling is kind of a it's a term that sounds 1:10:26.680 --> 1:10:30.560 like I'm in a sociology class somewhere. But the tribalism 1:10:30.720 --> 1:10:34.360 and the perception of cool the Democratic Party has created, 1:10:34.880 --> 1:10:37.800 and that really has fused itself into the synapses of 1:10:38.120 --> 1:10:41.960 so many of these celebrities, such that a really rich 1:10:42.040 --> 1:10:47.040 celebrity like Rosie o'donald, who the tax code changes will 1:10:47.120 --> 1:10:49.240 not matter to her one way or the other in 1:10:49.400 --> 1:10:52.519 any meaningful sense, and she has no idea really what 1:10:52.640 --> 1:10:54.320 the different points of the tax code are. She just 1:10:54.520 --> 1:10:58.479 knows Donald Trump is gonna sign it, Republicans are doing it, 1:10:58.600 --> 1:11:01.320 therefore it must be bad at and she's going to 1:11:01.439 --> 1:11:04.720 share that with millions of people who will also come 1:11:04.800 --> 1:11:12.160 to that incredibly, uh, uninformed conclusion. And that's how you 1:11:12.280 --> 1:11:15.719 get fifty per cent er. I don't really believe those polls, 1:11:15.800 --> 1:11:20.160 but you've got a pretty large percentage of people overall 1:11:20.920 --> 1:11:25.120 who are of the mindset that this tax cut is bad. 1:11:25.960 --> 1:11:28.280 Democrats have been able to convince, with the help of 1:11:28.360 --> 1:11:33.479 celebrities and other income poops out there, that a little 1:11:33.479 --> 1:11:36.560 bit of your money going back into your pocket is 1:11:36.600 --> 1:11:39.320 a bad thing. Which if you asked anyone on the street, 1:11:39.720 --> 1:11:41.120 as I've been saying, he said, would you like a 1:11:41.160 --> 1:11:44.960 little more money? The answers yes, would you like two 1:11:45.040 --> 1:11:46.960 thousand dollars, which is the average they say for a 1:11:46.960 --> 1:11:48.880 middle class family that they'll get back onto this time. 1:11:49.800 --> 1:11:51.800 Find me somebody that's walking around on the street that 1:11:51.920 --> 1:11:54.000 you say, would you like an extra two grand in cash? 1:11:54.720 --> 1:11:56.639 They would say, no, No, I don't I don't want 1:11:56.680 --> 1:11:59.160 that's a terrible idea. I have no no interest in 1:11:59.200 --> 1:12:01.840 that at all. Yet if you walk around and say, hey, 1:12:02.200 --> 1:12:04.080 what do you think of Donald Trump's tax plan that 1:12:04.120 --> 1:12:06.160 will give you two thousand dollars in cash in your 1:12:06.200 --> 1:12:10.000 pocket when it's enacted. Uh, they'd say, well, you know, 1:12:10.080 --> 1:12:12.600 I saw Rosie o'donald saying it's really bad. You know, 1:12:12.680 --> 1:12:17.920 I trust Rosie. The problem with our our celebrity culture 1:12:18.000 --> 1:12:20.320 is that now we are also saturated in media all 1:12:20.360 --> 1:12:27.519 the time that all of the dumbest Hollywood celebrities who 1:12:27.640 --> 1:12:31.040 have enormous followings, which is a failing of our culture. 1:12:31.040 --> 1:12:33.840 I will say I have never and this is way 1:12:33.880 --> 1:12:35.800 before I was in media too. This isn't like, oh, 1:12:35.960 --> 1:12:38.679 you know why I want, you know, fifteen million followers 1:12:38.720 --> 1:12:40.880 like I want Lady Gaga's number of followers. I mean, 1:12:40.920 --> 1:12:43.080 obviously I do. That'd be cool. But the point I'm 1:12:43.120 --> 1:12:45.920 making is that even before I did this, I never 1:12:46.000 --> 1:12:50.120 would have cared what any of these people said about anything. Yeah, sure, 1:12:50.439 --> 1:12:53.080 will I go see movies that have you know what? 1:12:53.160 --> 1:12:55.160 Would I go see a Matt Damon movie even though 1:12:55.200 --> 1:12:58.960 I think Matt Damon is politically an ignoramus. Sure, because 1:12:58.960 --> 1:13:01.000 I don't care what his politics U s are. That's 1:13:01.000 --> 1:13:03.519 also why I would never follow him on social media 1:13:03.600 --> 1:13:08.760 and care about the latest flights of whimsy from Matt 1:13:08.840 --> 1:13:12.840 Damon's mind. I just have no interest. Why do people care? 1:13:14.400 --> 1:13:19.160 It's it's a frustration for me and Rosie O'Donnell getting 1:13:19.160 --> 1:13:21.439 all this attention. I know, in a sense, i'm I'm 1:13:21.560 --> 1:13:23.479 part of the problem, and that I'm talking about Rosie 1:13:23.520 --> 1:13:25.519 o'donnald and that she shouldn't really matter to any of 1:13:25.640 --> 1:13:27.519 us at all. But it was kind of funny to 1:13:27.600 --> 1:13:30.639 see that. I will tell you this, I don't think 1:13:30.720 --> 1:13:35.439 she meant to bribe those senators, but I don't think 1:13:35.479 --> 1:13:38.559 she realizes that it's a that that it's a fifteen 1:13:38.680 --> 1:13:41.640 year federal prison sentence for doing that. I bet she 1:13:41.760 --> 1:13:44.320 had no idea. So while I'll give her the benefit 1:13:44.320 --> 1:13:45.920 of the doubts, she wasn't actually gonna give them each 1:13:45.960 --> 1:13:48.360 two million dollars, which I'm giving her the better of 1:13:48.400 --> 1:13:51.800 the doubt on that, I promise you if somebody had 1:13:51.840 --> 1:13:53.320 been like, hey, Rosie, what do you think would happen 1:13:53.360 --> 1:13:54.840 if you actually tried to do that, she'd be like, 1:13:54.920 --> 1:13:57.760 you know, I slap on the wrist, you know, no, no, 1:13:57.960 --> 1:14:01.280 no big deal. It's like nope, Actually, it's like, really 1:14:01.439 --> 1:14:04.120 serious prison time, like you're going away for a long, 1:14:05.000 --> 1:14:09.800 a long while. Um, it will make the hiatus of 1:14:09.920 --> 1:14:12.439 her fame since her show in the nineties or whatever 1:14:12.600 --> 1:14:16.080 looked like nothing in comparison. So there you have it. 1:14:16.240 --> 1:14:22.800 Rosey O'Donnell offered to ingest bribe some senators. And now 1:14:22.880 --> 1:14:25.679 I see James Clappers back on CNN. They they cannot 1:14:26.439 --> 1:14:30.320 they cannot get enough of James Clapper on CNN. Just 1:14:30.600 --> 1:14:35.400 the more Trump derangement syndrome former officials they can put 1:14:35.479 --> 1:14:39.080 on air, the happier they will be. It's it's really appalling. 1:14:39.920 --> 1:14:42.479 I've been very upset to see, well, not upset. I 1:14:42.479 --> 1:14:44.400 don't get upset about these things right now. It sounds 1:14:44.400 --> 1:14:47.479 like a snowflake myself. And it's been very annoying to 1:14:47.600 --> 1:14:52.400 see some of the analysis out there about Clapper and 1:14:52.600 --> 1:14:56.679 how Trump is being handled by Putin like a Russian asset. 1:14:57.960 --> 1:15:01.120 It's it's just gross. All right. I'll want to talk 1:15:01.160 --> 1:15:03.800 about this time about North Korea and Bitcoin. It's gonna 1:15:03.840 --> 1:15:05.400 be a wild ride, so stay with me for that. 1:15:07.400 --> 1:15:11.760 You are now entering the Freedom Tactical Operations Center. All 1:15:11.960 --> 1:15:16.320 visitor programs must be keVs strictly need to know Team 1:15:16.400 --> 1:15:21.360 Bucket is cleared and ready for the buck Brieze North Korea. 1:15:22.120 --> 1:15:26.600 I spoke to you yesterday about North Korean hacking operations 1:15:26.720 --> 1:15:31.360 and the concerns that continue and actually just get worse 1:15:31.400 --> 1:15:34.560 all the time, about how North Korea is trying to 1:15:34.760 --> 1:15:38.400 use cyber operations as a way of not just engaging 1:15:38.720 --> 1:15:45.800 in offensive military operations and trying to commit espionage and 1:15:45.960 --> 1:15:49.519 steal UH state secrets, trade secrets, whatever they can in 1:15:49.600 --> 1:15:54.200 the North Koreans are out there trying to pilfer information 1:15:54.439 --> 1:15:58.240 and also trying to get there get their bank account 1:15:58.320 --> 1:16:01.840 to go higher. UH. This is the latest we've got, though, 1:16:01.920 --> 1:16:04.880 and it involves bitcoin, which that kind of a wild 1:16:05.000 --> 1:16:07.160 ride from what I understand this week in terms of 1:16:07.240 --> 1:16:12.760 the price UH. Bitcoin is either symbolic of a whole 1:16:12.840 --> 1:16:16.600 new era of finance, or perhaps it is symbolic of 1:16:17.760 --> 1:16:21.280 the tulipmania that the country is currently and we'll see 1:16:21.320 --> 1:16:24.080 which it is. I don't know quite what the answer is, 1:16:24.160 --> 1:16:25.519 but let me talk to you first about what's going 1:16:25.560 --> 1:16:29.479 on with this North Korean heist. This is from the 1:16:29.520 --> 1:16:32.320 Wall Street Journal. Investigators in South Korea are looking into 1:16:32.400 --> 1:16:36.439 North Korea's possible involvement in a heist from a bitcoin 1:16:36.520 --> 1:16:40.280 exchange that collapsed on Tuesday, according to people familiar with 1:16:40.400 --> 1:16:44.559 the matter, as the sanctions choked regime develops new ways 1:16:44.680 --> 1:16:48.000 to raise money. The investigation into the hack, led by 1:16:48.040 --> 1:16:52.280 South Korean law enforcement and a state cybersecurity agency, is 1:16:52.400 --> 1:16:56.000 still in its infancy, and a review of the malware 1:16:56.160 --> 1:16:59.679 code could take weeks, the people said. But the people 1:17:00.000 --> 1:17:02.800 si that there were telltale signs and historical evidence that 1:17:02.880 --> 1:17:06.280 North Korea, which has turned in recent years to increasingly 1:17:06.320 --> 1:17:10.639 sophisticated financial warfare, was behind the hack of the Soul 1:17:10.760 --> 1:17:15.320 based exchange you bit. The same cryptocurrency exchange operating under 1:17:15.360 --> 1:17:18.320 a different name, was targeted in April by North Korean hackers, 1:17:18.400 --> 1:17:22.120 according to sources sided by the journal UH, the company 1:17:22.160 --> 1:17:25.200 that operates you bit suspended trading and file for bankruptcy 1:17:25.280 --> 1:17:30.519 after Tuesday's hack. So here's the problem, um, As I've 1:17:30.520 --> 1:17:32.400 been saying to you, North Korea can get on the 1:17:32.479 --> 1:17:37.720 Internet just like anybody else, and they are realizing that 1:17:38.120 --> 1:17:42.720 theft of whether it's of any kind of information is 1:17:42.920 --> 1:17:45.479 much better if you can just do it through electronic means. 1:17:45.560 --> 1:17:48.080 You don't have to take any risks to your personnel. 1:17:48.640 --> 1:17:52.479 It's a much more straightforward proposition to just hack. Now, 1:17:52.800 --> 1:17:56.400 what stops people in some countries at least from trying 1:17:56.479 --> 1:18:01.160 to hack into international banking system or or bitcoin exchanges. 1:18:01.240 --> 1:18:05.800 Running of that is that there are extradition agreements, or 1:18:05.960 --> 1:18:08.519 in cases where there wouldn't be extradition or we wouldn't 1:18:08.520 --> 1:18:12.240 be able to necessarily immediately work through law enforcement to 1:18:12.360 --> 1:18:16.280 get somebody who was a hacker uh either handed over 1:18:16.320 --> 1:18:18.639 to us, or they wouldn't take care of it themselves 1:18:18.720 --> 1:18:20.679 because there's or they would take care of it themselves 1:18:20.680 --> 1:18:22.960 because there's rule of law. We usually are able to 1:18:23.040 --> 1:18:27.000 exert some degree of pressure right to get them to 1:18:27.840 --> 1:18:32.920 accept societal and international societal norms and international law when 1:18:32.960 --> 1:18:35.879 it comes to the Internet. But there are some exceptions 1:18:35.960 --> 1:18:39.479 to this. We could ask the Russians, hey, hand us 1:18:39.560 --> 1:18:42.639 over that hacker, and I have a pretty well given 1:18:42.720 --> 1:18:47.200 that they've given that they've provided asylum to Edwards Snowden, 1:18:47.240 --> 1:18:49.280 I think we could all guess it's very unlikely that 1:18:49.360 --> 1:18:53.400 the Russians are going to start handing over high level 1:18:53.439 --> 1:18:56.160 hackers to us anytime soon, unless for some reason they 1:18:56.240 --> 1:18:59.519 upset the Russian government. Same thing would be true of China. 1:18:59.680 --> 1:19:02.559 And because it is. That's just because these are states 1:19:02.640 --> 1:19:06.200 that are large enough and powerful enough that they won't 1:19:06.640 --> 1:19:10.000 uh bend to US pressure on some of these issues. 1:19:10.360 --> 1:19:13.519 And then with North Korea, because it's already a pariah state, 1:19:14.479 --> 1:19:18.280 there are only there are there are really no options 1:19:18.400 --> 1:19:20.800 for us. If somebody is able to operate on North 1:19:20.840 --> 1:19:23.080 Korean soil and hack into a US bank or a 1:19:23.120 --> 1:19:26.320 bitcoin exchange in South Korea or anywhere in the world 1:19:26.360 --> 1:19:29.720 for that matter, we can, you know, do whatever we 1:19:29.800 --> 1:19:31.960 want at the United Nations. We can get all upset, 1:19:32.120 --> 1:19:36.040 we can pound the desk, so to speak, but it's 1:19:36.040 --> 1:19:39.960 not gonna do anything. So this is a vision I 1:19:40.080 --> 1:19:42.320 think of the future. This is what North Korea is 1:19:42.360 --> 1:19:45.320 going to be doing, and it shows you how sanctions 1:19:45.400 --> 1:19:48.960 are always going to have holes in them. I think 1:19:48.960 --> 1:19:51.280 the Trump administration is making the right move by trying 1:19:51.320 --> 1:19:54.799 to cut North Korea off from the international banking system 1:19:54.920 --> 1:19:58.360 and and limit the regime's ability to get the hard 1:19:58.400 --> 1:20:03.200 currency reserves it's so desperately needs for well all purposes, 1:20:03.280 --> 1:20:06.920 but specifically to keep it's very expensive nuclear program and 1:20:07.000 --> 1:20:11.559 its military going. But they are also in a an 1:20:11.640 --> 1:20:17.599 adaptive organism. The North Koreans are able to look at 1:20:17.680 --> 1:20:20.559 what's going on but the sanctions regime, and because they 1:20:20.640 --> 1:20:24.120 don't care about the law, they can find all kinds 1:20:24.160 --> 1:20:28.200 of criminal enterprises to engage into raise money and cash 1:20:28.240 --> 1:20:30.880 around the world. This is also why North Korea is 1:20:31.000 --> 1:20:35.559 a true menace. But one of my major concerns about 1:20:35.600 --> 1:20:38.120 this and now this is transitioning a bit into bitcoin 1:20:39.479 --> 1:20:41.360 producer Amy and I and Tie have been trying to 1:20:41.439 --> 1:20:44.080 get a there's a handful of bitcoin experts that I 1:20:44.120 --> 1:20:46.920 really want to have on uh, and they're just they've 1:20:46.960 --> 1:20:49.240 been tough to track down, but we we hopefully in 1:20:49.240 --> 1:20:50.960 the new year, will get some of them to join. 1:20:51.640 --> 1:20:54.640 Because there's only certain people that I really want to 1:20:54.680 --> 1:20:56.400 have talking to. You would present it as an expert 1:20:56.439 --> 1:20:58.120 on the subject. There's a lot of people out there 1:20:58.160 --> 1:21:01.200 who are like, yeah, I've got pit coins, I know everything. Uh, 1:21:01.920 --> 1:21:06.920 It's incredibly complicated. It's complicated because it creates a there 1:21:06.960 --> 1:21:09.000 are there are two areas where you have to have 1:21:09.120 --> 1:21:15.920 a real conceptual and philosophical understanding, and it's in technology, 1:21:16.120 --> 1:21:20.479 but it's also in currency and money and markets. So 1:21:21.720 --> 1:21:25.400 perhaps this is an opportunity to give a short primer 1:21:25.479 --> 1:21:28.320 from what I've learned from a lot of reading on bitcoin. 1:21:29.120 --> 1:21:33.080 Here's what's going on. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency 1:21:33.200 --> 1:21:37.879 just means that it is a a digital store of value, 1:21:38.960 --> 1:21:43.920 and you actually mine bitcoin through computing power. In the past, 1:21:44.000 --> 1:21:46.840 it was a lot easier now because of the competition 1:21:47.040 --> 1:21:50.719 for bitcoin. I believe you actually would spend more money 1:21:51.000 --> 1:21:55.160 on electricity and computing efforts to try and make a bitcoin. 1:21:55.880 --> 1:21:58.200 Uh in a vast majority of circumstances, then you would 1:21:58.280 --> 1:22:02.559 get from the mining of the bitcoins. But for those 1:22:02.600 --> 1:22:05.600 who say that it's not money, and this is a 1:22:05.760 --> 1:22:08.160 this is a very complicated philosophical area. But for those 1:22:08.200 --> 1:22:10.800 who say that it's not money, I just say, well, 1:22:10.880 --> 1:22:12.760 what is a dollar bill and why is that money? 1:22:13.280 --> 1:22:18.879 It's a piece of paper. Bitcoin is traceable and bitcoin 1:22:19.000 --> 1:22:25.920 also employs a technology called blockchain, and blockchain is a 1:22:26.200 --> 1:22:32.439 a fascinating and possibly world changing kind of technology. It 1:22:32.600 --> 1:22:35.760 means that a ledger, so I think of it like 1:22:35.920 --> 1:22:40.919 a spreadsheet or you know, a booklet of information alleger 1:22:41.000 --> 1:22:45.520 of all bitcoin transactions is kept via blockchain technology. Blockchain 1:22:46.280 --> 1:22:50.320 means that each and every individual that is involved in 1:22:50.360 --> 1:22:54.160 any of the transactions has a record on his or 1:22:54.200 --> 1:22:58.000 her computer all of all the transactions. So it's like 1:22:58.120 --> 1:23:01.920 everybody has the copies of everything that has gone on. 1:23:02.080 --> 1:23:05.600 When it comes to bitcoin transactions, it is unlike what 1:23:05.760 --> 1:23:09.680 many people say. They say, oh, it's great for black markets, 1:23:09.760 --> 1:23:13.559 and it got this really bad reputation. Bitcoin in fact, 1:23:14.160 --> 1:23:18.280 is highly traceable. It is completely transparent in the sense 1:23:18.400 --> 1:23:22.080 that you will know about all transactions because it's almost impossible, 1:23:22.160 --> 1:23:25.160 when you think about it, to be able to break 1:23:25.280 --> 1:23:29.240 into all these individual computers around the world and change 1:23:29.360 --> 1:23:32.800 all of the change all of them perfectly and without 1:23:32.840 --> 1:23:35.240 anyone knowing, so that you can alter the record of 1:23:35.360 --> 1:23:37.960 bitcoin transaction. So those are two different things, and a 1:23:38.000 --> 1:23:42.960 bitcoin in blockchain. Blockchain is the technology that is used 1:23:43.040 --> 1:23:47.120 to keep track of the transactions of bitcoin, which is 1:23:47.120 --> 1:23:54.280 a cryptocurrency. So this would mean that the big implications 1:23:54.320 --> 1:23:58.559 for the future are that if you could transfer money 1:23:58.840 --> 1:24:01.400 easily and from your martphone to someone anywhere in the 1:24:01.439 --> 1:24:05.960 world and create absolute trust in that transaction, a lot 1:24:06.080 --> 1:24:08.400 of middlemen, a lot of third parties, all of a 1:24:08.439 --> 1:24:12.000 sudden no longer really hold meaning I think major banks, 1:24:13.000 --> 1:24:17.120 I think some of the institutions that currently get billions 1:24:17.160 --> 1:24:20.920 and billions and dollars of fees just to create, on 1:24:21.040 --> 1:24:24.479 the one end, the belief that if you transfer money 1:24:24.560 --> 1:24:27.200 to somebody else there's a record of it, it will 1:24:27.240 --> 1:24:29.280 actually happen, it will go to that person, and it 1:24:29.320 --> 1:24:32.400 will get done. If bitcoin means that all you need 1:24:32.479 --> 1:24:35.479 is an Internet connection, it just completely changes the global 1:24:35.560 --> 1:24:40.519 financial landscape of money transferring and and banking. It would 1:24:40.520 --> 1:24:46.120 transform the banking system. So in that way it is fascinating, 1:24:46.840 --> 1:24:50.439 and then you immediately start to think about that, or 1:24:50.640 --> 1:24:54.360 you're brought into discussion about whether or not bitcoin has 1:24:54.520 --> 1:24:58.000 value right now, it's what what's where does it stand 1:24:58.120 --> 1:24:59.800 right now at the last count? I mean, I could 1:24:59.800 --> 1:25:02.439 I could tell you officially what the the price of 1:25:02.479 --> 1:25:09.000 a bitcoin is um it's been of sixteen thousand right now, 1:25:09.479 --> 1:25:15.639 so one bitcoin is sixteen thousand dollars. That's up from 1:25:16.400 --> 1:25:20.120 less than I think less than a penny many years ago. Uh, 1:25:20.280 --> 1:25:22.479 and people are very worried that there's a mania going 1:25:22.560 --> 1:25:25.800 on and that the price could entirely crash. I've also 1:25:25.840 --> 1:25:29.360 heard people say that if bitcoin and blockchain technology together 1:25:29.880 --> 1:25:32.320 are what they are believed to be, and that we 1:25:32.400 --> 1:25:35.800 are in the early stage of of getting to that, 1:25:35.920 --> 1:25:40.200 bitcoin could be worth many many times what it currently is, 1:25:40.360 --> 1:25:43.160 which seems astonishing, But when you think about the rise 1:25:43.240 --> 1:25:46.200 that it's had in the last year, it's either transforming 1:25:46.400 --> 1:25:50.320 finance and banking and the global financial system this technology 1:25:50.400 --> 1:25:54.240 and the notion of cryptocurrencies, or it's some kind of 1:25:54.320 --> 1:25:58.680 a mania and bitcoins could all just crash because you 1:25:58.760 --> 1:26:01.960 know who knows. You get into a very deep philosophical 1:26:02.080 --> 1:26:05.240 question though about what is money, and people would say, oh, well, 1:26:05.280 --> 1:26:07.120 money is you know the dollar bills that I have. Well, 1:26:07.240 --> 1:26:09.720 first of all, how many of us even really use 1:26:09.800 --> 1:26:13.439 money in our day to day transactions? Now? You mostly 1:26:14.080 --> 1:26:17.120 or in many cases at least use credit cards, You 1:26:17.240 --> 1:26:19.800 pay through your bank account, you have a routing number. 1:26:20.720 --> 1:26:22.559 That's the way it's done, right. I know one shows 1:26:22.640 --> 1:26:24.200 up that I know of a New York City, for example, 1:26:24.240 --> 1:26:26.600 to pay their rent in cash, And if you did it, 1:26:26.720 --> 1:26:28.280 probably want to know if you're running some kind of 1:26:28.320 --> 1:26:35.120 a grow operation or something, so people pay using electrons. Already, 1:26:36.040 --> 1:26:41.800 electronic transmissions are in essence currency, it's and it starts 1:26:41.840 --> 1:26:43.320 to get weird. I know you just thinking about this, 1:26:43.360 --> 1:26:46.120 you're like, well, paper which is not even backed by 1:26:46.160 --> 1:26:48.360 gold anymore, because we got off the gold standard that 1:26:48.439 --> 1:26:51.800 has value because they say that it does. Why doesn't 1:26:51.840 --> 1:26:54.720 bitcoin have value? And you know, you ask someone that 1:26:54.880 --> 1:26:57.519 question and it's very tough to get answers. There's a 1:26:57.520 --> 1:26:59.760 limited number. I think there's twenty two million bitcoins that 1:26:59.800 --> 1:27:02.599 will that are in total circulation as well, and they 1:27:02.680 --> 1:27:06.840 really can't be counterfeited because of that blockchain technology. So 1:27:07.360 --> 1:27:11.679 that's a little bit of a background er on bitcoin. 1:27:11.800 --> 1:27:14.160 I am not a bitcoin expert and the people who 1:27:14.200 --> 1:27:17.960 are there are very few who truly are, and we 1:27:18.080 --> 1:27:21.120 will get one on the show as soon as we can. Um. 1:27:21.760 --> 1:27:26.880 But it's also a tremendous opportunity for rogue actors, whether 1:27:27.000 --> 1:27:30.680 states or individuals, to try and steal now that these 1:27:30.720 --> 1:27:34.040 cryptocurrencies are worth so much money, we are in a 1:27:34.200 --> 1:27:36.800 new era when it comes to the security of this 1:27:37.720 --> 1:27:40.799 of this data. And like I said, sure, North Korea, 1:27:41.200 --> 1:27:44.400 we might know that they hacked a BITCOINX or a 1:27:44.640 --> 1:27:50.240 cryptocurrency exchange rather in South Korea, UM, we might know that, 1:27:50.720 --> 1:27:52.400 but what are we really going to do about it? 1:27:52.800 --> 1:27:56.200 And how do we stop them? It was a bitcoin heigh, 1:27:57.200 --> 1:28:01.160 So North Korea and bitcoin together it's like a shark 1:28:01.280 --> 1:28:04.479 Nato of analytic excellence here on the Buck Sexton Show. Um, 1:28:04.560 --> 1:28:06.680 we're gonna take a quick break here where to come 1:28:06.720 --> 1:28:11.439 back with much more? Eight four four, eight to five, Buck, 1:28:11.880 --> 1:28:15.000 stay with me. And I think President Trump brook now 1:28:15.120 --> 1:28:19.000 has the world record for injecting politics into the aftermath 1:28:19.040 --> 1:28:21.559 of a terror attack. Is he trying to wage something 1:28:21.640 --> 1:28:23.479 of a copra war? You know? I think we saw 1:28:23.600 --> 1:28:26.120 the president's true colors today, and I'm not sure they 1:28:26.160 --> 1:28:28.200 were red, white and blue. How the White House could 1:28:28.200 --> 1:28:31.160 put out talking points uh saying that the President was 1:28:31.200 --> 1:28:34.000 in the right here is just it's baffling. It's strange, 1:28:34.320 --> 1:28:36.680 and but they are right in one respect. He has 1:28:36.800 --> 1:28:40.360 united the country against the views that he espoused today, 1:28:40.439 --> 1:28:42.719 which we're right there on the edge of white nationalism. 1:28:42.800 --> 1:28:45.519 And they're just not going to do this on camera audio. 1:28:45.680 --> 1:28:48.040 Why are we even having these briefings? Are these gaggles 1:28:48.040 --> 1:28:50.640 in the first place? They won't answer these questions on 1:28:50.840 --> 1:28:53.840 camera or let us record the audio. I don't know 1:28:53.920 --> 1:28:56.400 why everybody is going along with this. It just doesn't 1:28:56.400 --> 1:28:58.400 make any sense to me. And it just feels like 1:28:58.520 --> 1:29:02.200 we're we're sort of slowly, even surely, being dragged into 1:29:02.360 --> 1:29:04.400 what is a new normal in this country with the 1:29:04.680 --> 1:29:08.439 camera engine should turn the cameras on? Why don't we 1:29:08.520 --> 1:29:10.640 turn the cameras on? Why don't we turn the cameras on? 1:29:10.840 --> 1:29:14.080 I'm sorry you, why not turn the cameras on? There 1:29:14.120 --> 1:29:16.360 in the room? The later on? So that was kind 1:29:16.400 --> 1:29:21.160 of a throwback to this year with CNN's senior White 1:29:21.240 --> 1:29:23.880 House Correspondent. I always love that too. Is there just 1:29:24.000 --> 1:29:26.320 a White House correspondent because they got they got a 1:29:26.400 --> 1:29:29.080 senior one? So is that like an ego thing, like 1:29:29.320 --> 1:29:32.519 I'm the senior White House correspondent as opposed to the 1:29:33.080 --> 1:29:37.000 just the White House correspondent? Anyway, Uh, we're gonna do 1:29:37.120 --> 1:29:38.760 some in the next couple of days here, some of 1:29:38.800 --> 1:29:40.920 these where we we do a little a little trip 1:29:41.040 --> 1:29:44.080 down memory lane, and sometimes it will involve, say the 1:29:44.120 --> 1:29:47.800 fake news. It will be various media freak outs. This 1:29:47.880 --> 1:29:50.880 will be our our first of these, but we'll do 1:29:51.000 --> 1:29:57.439 more tomorrow and the next day. But the fake news 1:29:57.560 --> 1:30:00.880 CNN has has had a terrible year. As we sit 1:30:01.040 --> 1:30:04.120 here and talk about how great it is the tax 1:30:04.200 --> 1:30:07.120 package has gone through and that Republicans are going into 1:30:08.000 --> 1:30:12.599 no question on a high note. Ah, it's also funny 1:30:12.600 --> 1:30:16.880 to look back and see what we have learned over 1:30:16.920 --> 1:30:20.400 the course of this year, and in particular with CNN, 1:30:20.560 --> 1:30:25.719 we have seen that it doesn't work what they're doing. 1:30:26.360 --> 1:30:30.360 It doesn't work from the perspective of journalism, it doesn't 1:30:30.360 --> 1:30:34.280 work from the perspective of ratings. MSNBC this just came 1:30:34.320 --> 1:30:40.200 in today. MSNBC has for the full year now officially 1:30:40.960 --> 1:30:44.880 beat CNN in the ratings. That's a pretty that's pretty 1:30:44.920 --> 1:30:48.200 remarkable when you think about it, that CNN, which at 1:30:48.280 --> 1:30:50.720 one point really considered itself and was thought of as 1:30:50.760 --> 1:30:54.160 the gold standard in cable news, has now been beaten 1:30:54.280 --> 1:30:58.639 by the third tier player, which was having a terrible 1:30:58.680 --> 1:31:00.280 time in the ratings even a few year yars ago. 1:31:00.280 --> 1:31:02.360 I mean, I remember in the latter stages of the 1:31:02.400 --> 1:31:05.880 Obama presidency. I was like, yeah, I mean, nobody really 1:31:05.920 --> 1:31:09.800 cared anymore, and all their shows were just Obama cheerleading shows. 1:31:09.920 --> 1:31:13.760 So it didn't really it just didn't rate. People didn't 1:31:13.760 --> 1:31:17.679 want to watch it, they didn't care. But the fake 1:31:17.760 --> 1:31:20.240 news has had a bad year. Uh. And as we 1:31:21.080 --> 1:31:26.599 look on with the with with an eye to take 1:31:26.760 --> 1:31:29.519 to taking some conclusions away from all this and thinking 1:31:29.560 --> 1:31:33.120 about what could be different in the future or what 1:31:33.200 --> 1:31:36.719 we should remember for the future. It was that despite 1:31:36.800 --> 1:31:41.720 all of the the whining, the claims of fascism within 1:31:41.760 --> 1:31:45.960 the Trump administration, and the accusations of white nationalism, and 1:31:46.840 --> 1:31:51.360 the American people by and large kind of rejected the 1:31:52.280 --> 1:31:55.960 CNN agenda for the year. Now. I do think that 1:31:56.400 --> 1:31:58.640 CNN's belief I don't think they're going to change at all, 1:31:58.920 --> 1:32:02.960 going to my I think their belief is that the 1:32:03.080 --> 1:32:06.200 Mueller probe will go on for another full year and 1:32:06.479 --> 1:32:11.040 that they will be vindicated. That's how ideologically set in 1:32:11.120 --> 1:32:13.160 all of this they are. You know, there's no Christmas 1:32:13.200 --> 1:32:16.600 spirit from CNN. They're not They're not letting bygones be 1:32:16.680 --> 1:32:22.000 bygones with the Trump administration. They will be getting lumps 1:32:22.000 --> 1:32:24.680 of coal in their stockings this year, but maybe next year. 1:32:24.760 --> 1:32:29.040 They assumed that things will be quite different, but they have. 1:32:29.280 --> 1:32:33.080 They've been exposed. It's one of the great one of 1:32:33.120 --> 1:32:37.280 the great byproducts of the Trump administration and President Trump 1:32:37.320 --> 1:32:40.240 in the White House is that we now know really 1:32:40.320 --> 1:32:45.920 what CNN is all about. We have a greater perspective 1:32:46.040 --> 1:32:50.040 with which to approach all things at CNN, and and 1:32:50.160 --> 1:32:51.720 another noteworks like it too. I'm not just trying to 1:32:51.720 --> 1:32:55.000 beat up on CNN, MSNBC is a different category. They're 1:32:55.040 --> 1:32:57.920 wrong all the time, but at least they're honest about 1:32:58.479 --> 1:33:01.280 who they are. I mean that that was always my 1:33:01.600 --> 1:33:04.519 my thing about Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton. At least 1:33:04.520 --> 1:33:07.519 Bernie Sanders admits he's a Democrat socialist. Hillary pretends to 1:33:07.560 --> 1:33:10.840 be something else because she thinks it why it makes 1:33:10.880 --> 1:33:17.000 her more electable. Bernie had the benefit of honesty, great 1:33:17.080 --> 1:33:20.640 shooter baby, just telling the truth like it is. So 1:33:21.320 --> 1:33:24.840 that was that was the reality of that race. And 1:33:24.960 --> 1:33:28.840 I just look now at how the ratings at CNN 1:33:28.920 --> 1:33:30.720 of crash. I mean, I can see a night in 1:33:30.760 --> 1:33:32.679 a night out. It's like they've got the same panels, 1:33:32.760 --> 1:33:35.679 the same people. It's just boring. You'll notice they don't 1:33:35.680 --> 1:33:39.160 even have debates really on air anymore because they have 1:33:39.320 --> 1:33:45.759 to protect their their snowflake anchors and their intellectually wimpy 1:33:46.200 --> 1:33:49.120 correspondence from having to deal with the posing points of view. 1:33:50.520 --> 1:33:52.559 It's it's not fun over there anymore, man, I can 1:33:52.640 --> 1:33:54.559 I can just see it, you know, And they're all 1:33:54.760 --> 1:33:58.479 everything rides on a Trump impeachment for CNN, and it's 1:33:58.520 --> 1:34:01.320 just not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. They're they're 1:34:01.320 --> 1:34:05.320 in ratings trouble. So anyway, Jim Acosta for your fake newsery, 1:34:05.920 --> 1:34:09.800 we salute you, um And with that we are going 1:34:09.920 --> 1:34:12.000 to roll into a break here. I'm gonna talking about 1:34:12.000 --> 1:34:15.160 holiday stress. Stay with me for that. I hate to 1:34:15.200 --> 1:34:18.640 see people getting stressed out over the holiday, but I 1:34:18.720 --> 1:34:24.000 also totally understand why that can happen. It's a time 1:34:24.040 --> 1:34:28.240 of year when, yeah, we get together with family. For 1:34:28.400 --> 1:34:31.000 some of us that can be a bit on the 1:34:31.080 --> 1:34:35.120 stressful side. It's a time of year when we also, 1:34:35.280 --> 1:34:39.280 I think, tend to reflect. And reflection is a very 1:34:39.360 --> 1:34:42.559 good thing in my humble, thirty five year old opinion, 1:34:43.400 --> 1:34:46.479 But it's not a good thing if reflection just becomes 1:34:46.560 --> 1:34:51.800 an excuse to beat oneself up to think about all 1:34:51.880 --> 1:34:56.760 the missed opportunities and mistakes. I don't know how each 1:34:56.880 --> 1:34:59.000 and every one of you tends to think of your 1:34:59.439 --> 1:35:01.760 day to day in your careers and your lives, but 1:35:02.360 --> 1:35:07.599 I certainly tend toward the overcritical instead of the under 1:35:07.640 --> 1:35:11.680 critical of myself. So I have to force myself when 1:35:11.720 --> 1:35:14.720 I take time to reflect back on the year, not 1:35:14.960 --> 1:35:18.960 to make it an exercise in would a shoulda, could 1:35:19.000 --> 1:35:22.720 have and instead look honestly at what has gone well, 1:35:23.479 --> 1:35:29.360 at where I've made progress or made some good improvements 1:35:29.400 --> 1:35:33.080 into my life, and and to try and take joy 1:35:33.280 --> 1:35:36.720 as much as possible and what has gone right. There 1:35:36.760 --> 1:35:40.000 will never be a shortage of things that go wrong. 1:35:40.320 --> 1:35:43.680 I'm always reminded of the fact that growing up here 1:35:43.760 --> 1:35:47.320 in New York City and having been exposed to a 1:35:48.600 --> 1:35:52.600 fair number of people who don't have the concerns that 1:35:52.680 --> 1:35:56.160 a vast majority of Americans do. I knew plenty of 1:35:56.280 --> 1:35:59.280 folks growing up who it was clear their families were 1:35:59.280 --> 1:36:01.560 going to be paying the bills, they weren't gonna have 1:36:01.680 --> 1:36:04.479 to worry about getting that job right out of school 1:36:04.760 --> 1:36:09.840 or even during college. But they have their own miseries 1:36:10.080 --> 1:36:14.080 that can creep up. It's not like it's easy for 1:36:14.520 --> 1:36:18.560 folks just because they don't have the same economic struggles 1:36:18.600 --> 1:36:22.160 that you and I do. So I think that mindset, 1:36:22.280 --> 1:36:24.960 that's just I'm using that to illustrate that mindset is 1:36:25.680 --> 1:36:29.160 so very critical and you don't want to be over 1:36:29.240 --> 1:36:31.559 critical of yourself, and it's something that I think it's 1:36:31.600 --> 1:36:34.360 easy for us to fall into over the holidays, and 1:36:34.439 --> 1:36:36.760 you know, I want to talk about fun stuff and 1:36:36.880 --> 1:36:39.320 we will in the next couple of days, especially in 1:36:39.360 --> 1:36:42.479 the third hour of the show, I'm planning a history 1:36:42.560 --> 1:36:46.160 of the real St. Nicholas, for example, and maybe some 1:36:46.320 --> 1:36:49.479 more Christmas history about you know, the origins of the 1:36:49.560 --> 1:36:53.440 whole reindeer stuff and all that. But in the meantime, 1:36:53.840 --> 1:36:57.840 I just was really struck by this gallant poll that 1:36:58.760 --> 1:37:05.800 eight in ten Americans are really afflicted by stress. You've 1:37:05.840 --> 1:37:09.080 heard me talking about how mental health and physical health 1:37:09.280 --> 1:37:13.599 are inextricably linked. And we don't learn this in school, 1:37:13.760 --> 1:37:16.320 right in health class when they they teach you the 1:37:16.400 --> 1:37:19.800 basics in high school or even before that about you know, 1:37:20.080 --> 1:37:22.120 I don't know medicine and how to take care of 1:37:22.200 --> 1:37:25.760 yourself and the birds and the bees and all that stuff. Uh, 1:37:26.120 --> 1:37:30.200 they don't talk to you about mental health. They don't 1:37:30.240 --> 1:37:34.559 talk to you about feelings of wellness. And the good 1:37:34.600 --> 1:37:38.519 news is for many of you listening, Um, you drive 1:37:38.560 --> 1:37:45.000 a tremendous amount of uh, psychological and emotional and yes, 1:37:45.200 --> 1:37:49.519 spiritual comfort from a relationship with God. But in a 1:37:49.920 --> 1:37:52.560 day to day sense, in terms of your careers and 1:37:52.680 --> 1:37:58.520 your jobs and everything else. I know that faith is fantastic, 1:37:58.760 --> 1:38:02.479 but sometimes even those of us who have incredibly strong 1:38:02.640 --> 1:38:05.800 faith need a little more than that to find a 1:38:05.840 --> 1:38:09.040 way to get through some of the trials and tribulations 1:38:09.080 --> 1:38:12.040 that stand in our way, and it's important to take 1:38:12.120 --> 1:38:16.080 a proactive approach to all that. I hope this doesn't 1:38:16.120 --> 1:38:19.240 sound preachy at all. I'm just trying to share what 1:38:19.360 --> 1:38:23.360 I've picked up from dealing with very different kinds of 1:38:23.479 --> 1:38:26.759 stress in a couple of very different kinds of careers, 1:38:26.880 --> 1:38:31.599 one being a government national security employee and now being 1:38:31.680 --> 1:38:34.040 here with you on the radio, which I love. But 1:38:34.240 --> 1:38:37.639 the media business, as I have told you many times, 1:38:38.040 --> 1:38:43.040 is a disgusting snake pit, uh and not a fun 1:38:43.160 --> 1:38:46.679 place to be trying to make a living. So stress 1:38:46.760 --> 1:38:50.560 management is essential, and there are many different ways to 1:38:50.640 --> 1:38:53.519 do it, and it's not something that can be put off. 1:38:53.640 --> 1:38:56.800 And I see this among many of my peers where 1:38:57.840 --> 1:39:01.280 the the go to is alcohol. And look, I like 1:39:01.400 --> 1:39:03.440 to have my tequila a little bit on the weekends 1:39:03.520 --> 1:39:08.240 and you know, moderation, it's all good. But using too 1:39:08.320 --> 1:39:11.280 much alcohol as a stress relief is particularly not just 1:39:11.840 --> 1:39:15.439 bad for the long term health risks, but all and 1:39:15.600 --> 1:39:18.360 and the relationship damage that it can do and career 1:39:18.479 --> 1:39:20.680 damage it can do in the short term. But it's 1:39:20.720 --> 1:39:22.800 not even a good stress reliever. I think very few 1:39:22.880 --> 1:39:26.560 people really know that that the the effect, the the 1:39:26.720 --> 1:39:29.479 positive effect of alcohol that reduces stress in the short 1:39:29.600 --> 1:39:34.040 term is really outweighed by once the alcohol is gone, Uh, 1:39:34.479 --> 1:39:36.760 your body actually can kind of ramp up some of 1:39:36.840 --> 1:39:39.559 that stress again, and so it becomes a vicious cycle. 1:39:40.160 --> 1:39:43.479 So I would uh say that, you know, I've learned 1:39:44.240 --> 1:39:47.600 to try and take a positive and proactive approach with 1:39:48.640 --> 1:39:52.599 uh some level, some basic level of anti dad bod fitness, 1:39:52.800 --> 1:39:55.559 you know, although I will embrace the dead bods soon enough. 1:39:55.640 --> 1:39:58.880 I'm fighting for another year or two and then hopefully 1:39:58.960 --> 1:40:02.240 Ms Molly is just gonna think I'm I'm great and cuddly. Um. 1:40:02.600 --> 1:40:05.040 But for a lot of people, I know, meditation is 1:40:05.160 --> 1:40:10.840 really profound prayer obviously as well. UM yoga. I have 1:40:10.960 --> 1:40:12.680 to say, yoga makes me feel like I'm having a 1:40:12.760 --> 1:40:14.760 heart attack. I wish I could say that I have 1:40:14.960 --> 1:40:20.000 enjoyed um yoga. But anyway, there there it's really important 1:40:20.000 --> 1:40:23.920 to find out what your particular outlet is. For some people, 1:40:23.960 --> 1:40:27.200 it was painting I've maybe mentioned before on the show, 1:40:27.360 --> 1:40:29.679 though maybe it was a few years ago that Winston 1:40:29.800 --> 1:40:33.080 Churchill to battle his depression. Will one drank way too 1:40:33.200 --> 1:40:38.479 much but also took up painting. Whatever you're constructive outlet is, 1:40:39.200 --> 1:40:42.160 it's really important to establish it and give yourself the 1:40:42.280 --> 1:40:45.640 chance and the time to do it, because stress is 1:40:46.000 --> 1:40:50.439 corrosive on everything on your mindset, on your productivity, on 1:40:50.600 --> 1:40:54.440 your day to day. And I think over the holidays 1:40:54.479 --> 1:40:57.439 in particular, people tend to get really stress. You know, 1:40:57.640 --> 1:41:00.840 end of year bills to pay, you know, how am 1:41:00.880 --> 1:41:04.360 I doing financially? How am I doing professionally? Oh gosh, 1:41:04.360 --> 1:41:06.720 I'm gonna have to see my brother in law who 1:41:06.800 --> 1:41:11.000 I have all those annoying political disputes with at the 1:41:11.080 --> 1:41:14.200 dinner table. And I understand the stress wraps up. But 1:41:14.280 --> 1:41:17.599 that's why it's also I think a really good time two. 1:41:18.439 --> 1:41:21.760 You know, watch some Christmas movies. This is this is 1:41:21.800 --> 1:41:25.360 a health thing. I mean, I'm trying to give unsolicited 1:41:25.600 --> 1:41:29.200 and non expert health and wellness advice here, you know, 1:41:29.640 --> 1:41:31.839 And it's really in a sense I'm speaking to myself 1:41:31.880 --> 1:41:36.200 here too. But you've gotta gotta watch some Christmas movies. 1:41:36.360 --> 1:41:40.080 Got to allow yourself to listen to from Christmas music. Yeah, sure, 1:41:40.400 --> 1:41:43.479 egg nog has the calories of like a bacon cheeseburger basically, 1:41:43.560 --> 1:41:46.639 but you know what, it's delicious. You've got to drink 1:41:46.680 --> 1:41:51.960 some eggnog and allow yourself to recoup and recuperate and 1:41:52.320 --> 1:41:54.000 relax somewhat here at the end of the year. Now, 1:41:54.040 --> 1:41:55.240 I know some of you aren't even gonna be on 1:41:55.360 --> 1:41:59.080 vacation and so, but I just psychologically, when you're home 1:41:59.160 --> 1:42:01.200 at night, when you're them with work, or whenever your 1:42:01.240 --> 1:42:05.479 schedule allows it, force yourself to be good to yourself 1:42:05.680 --> 1:42:08.240 over the holidays. It will allow you to be better 1:42:08.280 --> 1:42:11.160 to the people around you that you care about, and 1:42:11.840 --> 1:42:14.400 all those other things that you're worried about, the stress 1:42:14.479 --> 1:42:18.600 at work, the uh, you know, bills that are piling up, 1:42:19.080 --> 1:42:22.040 it will all be better taken care of. You will 1:42:22.040 --> 1:42:24.960 be more equipped to handle them if you take care 1:42:25.040 --> 1:42:28.880 of yourself first. And and an essential part of that 1:42:29.200 --> 1:42:32.680 is stress management. It really really is. I used to 1:42:32.800 --> 1:42:35.120 think pushed through, push through, push through, and you know what, 1:42:35.240 --> 1:42:37.679 I would do that and I would get so sick 1:42:38.000 --> 1:42:41.760 and I would get so run down. And now I 1:42:41.880 --> 1:42:44.120 realized that there's a part of this. You know. It's 1:42:44.160 --> 1:42:47.040 like for those of you who do some weight training, 1:42:47.479 --> 1:42:50.240 you know, you've got to have your rest days. Holidays 1:42:50.280 --> 1:42:53.160 are rest days, my friends. So give yourself the time, 1:42:53.600 --> 1:42:59.080 um and allow yourself to relax and have some joy, 1:42:59.240 --> 1:43:02.400 you know, enjoy your time here. That's just my that's 1:43:02.479 --> 1:43:05.040 my two cents today and all that. We're gonna get 1:43:05.080 --> 1:43:07.040 your more than two cents coming up here. In just 1:43:07.240 --> 1:43:10.879 a moment, we will get into some Team Bucks speaks. 1:43:11.520 --> 1:43:13.800 Maybe time will play some holiday music and we come back. 1:43:14.520 --> 1:43:19.240 Stay right there, Hey, team, I just realized I don't 1:43:19.240 --> 1:43:21.320 even have a Christmas tree up this year. I really 1:43:21.600 --> 1:43:24.000 need to need to step up my Christmas game a 1:43:24.080 --> 1:43:28.360 little bit. That's just I thought, well, my family has 1:43:28.400 --> 1:43:30.559 a beautiful tree, and they're in New York. So when 1:43:30.600 --> 1:43:33.360 I visit my parents and with my siblings, we'll all 1:43:33.400 --> 1:43:35.679 be able to look at their tree, and that'll be great, 1:43:36.560 --> 1:43:38.920 you know. But I probably should have had a tree up, 1:43:39.040 --> 1:43:41.320 you know, one of those little trees, you know, a 1:43:41.320 --> 1:43:44.559 little mini trees that could have pulled that off, I think. Anyway, 1:43:44.560 --> 1:43:45.640 this is where I want to get into some of 1:43:45.760 --> 1:43:55.400 your thoughts, your analyzes, your Christmas wishes and limericks about St. 1:43:55.520 --> 1:43:58.320 Nick if you have any of those, that would be 1:43:58.400 --> 1:44:00.280 extra points. All right, let's see what we have here 1:44:00.640 --> 1:44:04.800 this coming into our official team Buck at gmail dot 1:44:04.960 --> 1:44:09.800 com inbox, Merry Christmas to the Freedom Hut. Several months 1:44:09.840 --> 1:44:16.720 ago you profile the Bottleworks and Black Rifle Coffee. I 1:44:16.760 --> 1:44:18.800 had never heard of either company, but a shop with 1:44:18.920 --> 1:44:23.439 both with great satisfaction. Can you periodically say quarterly have 1:44:23.520 --> 1:44:26.080 a vet owned company as a guest on your show. 1:44:26.640 --> 1:44:28.920 It's motivating. It makes me so proud to hear how 1:44:29.000 --> 1:44:33.160 our heroes have transition from the battlefield to capitalism. Honestly, 1:44:33.240 --> 1:44:37.080 it reinforces that we live on the greatest country on earth. You, 1:44:37.640 --> 1:44:43.320 Tyrone and producer Amy do outstanding work. You entertain, educated, motivate. 1:44:43.800 --> 1:44:46.360 As a fifty year old rush limbab baby, you all 1:44:46.439 --> 1:44:48.720 give me hope that I'll have something worth listening to 1:44:49.000 --> 1:44:52.759 on whatever app when I'm ninety. Shields eye and prayers 1:44:52.800 --> 1:44:57.080 for a blessed to the Hut. Well, thank you so 1:44:57.200 --> 1:44:58.920 much for that wonderful email. I do not have a 1:44:59.080 --> 1:45:02.920 name for the sen are up here, um, but thank 1:45:03.000 --> 1:45:05.479 you for whoever sent that email. I really appreciate it. 1:45:06.240 --> 1:45:12.080 Andy with the following Andy in accounting, it says here, Hi, Buck, 1:45:12.200 --> 1:45:14.920 I'm just listening to your podcast when you were talking 1:45:14.960 --> 1:45:18.920 about how we're too connected. I must say, I'm thirty 1:45:19.000 --> 1:45:22.840 one and I am a zero on social media. I 1:45:22.960 --> 1:45:25.400 was on Facebook, but I got involved in too many 1:45:25.479 --> 1:45:29.120 political arguments. Some of my friends do nothing but thumb 1:45:29.320 --> 1:45:33.160 through updated I'm very happy not to be on social media. 1:45:33.640 --> 1:45:35.960 I just don't care what other people think, except, of 1:45:36.040 --> 1:45:38.720 course Buck Sexton. Well, Andy, you're very kind, and I 1:45:38.800 --> 1:45:43.280 think you are wise to not get too sucked into 1:45:43.360 --> 1:45:46.360 the social media vortex. You know, it's really just for 1:45:46.479 --> 1:45:49.280 close friends and family and connecting with the rest of 1:45:49.360 --> 1:45:54.080 the team here in the Freedom Hunt team. Buck alright, uh, 1:45:54.360 --> 1:45:57.800 Norb writes in love your impersonations and history lessons you've 1:45:57.840 --> 1:46:02.559 been You've been slacking on history lessons. I want more, Norb. 1:46:02.720 --> 1:46:06.200 I hear you loud and clear. More history coming, and 1:46:06.439 --> 1:46:10.240 it'll be even in a full podcast format in January 1:46:10.280 --> 1:46:13.960 and the new year. Uh. The podcast is called Shields High, 1:46:14.600 --> 1:46:16.960 so those of you who already know the Buck Sexton 1:46:17.160 --> 1:46:19.880 Show will know where that comes from. But also it 1:46:19.920 --> 1:46:22.120 will be for anybody who likes history. It's not gonna 1:46:22.200 --> 1:46:24.960 be oh, let me talk politics and then get into history. 1:46:25.040 --> 1:46:28.800 That's this show. It'll be straight up history stories and 1:46:29.600 --> 1:46:34.000 picking the coolest battles, heroes, weapons, all that stuff. That's 1:46:34.040 --> 1:46:38.000 the plan. Okay, now we have another one coming in. 1:46:38.520 --> 1:46:43.640 Uh Robbie Rights, Come on, Tie, you're not considering a 1:46:43.840 --> 1:46:48.400 great Commonwealth super Bowl. Eiggles beat the Steelers thirty five 1:46:48.520 --> 1:46:50.560 to thirty one. I'm gonna give Tie the floor for 1:46:50.640 --> 1:46:52.760 a minute here to let him weigh in on that, 1:46:52.920 --> 1:46:56.080 and also the question yesterday about football stuff that I 1:46:56.120 --> 1:46:58.960 don't even know what he's talking about. Tyrone, my friend, 1:46:59.600 --> 1:47:02.880 the floor is yours. To answer the question, I am 1:47:03.080 --> 1:47:07.680 considering an all Commonwealth super Bowl Eagles and Steelers, but 1:47:08.520 --> 1:47:11.200 if the Eagles quarterback hurt, I'm now taking everything week 1:47:11.240 --> 1:47:14.559 by week. While the Steelers are probably the second most 1:47:14.640 --> 1:47:17.280 likely team behind the Patriots to make it in who knows. 1:47:17.360 --> 1:47:19.479 If the referees know what they're doing, they would have 1:47:19.560 --> 1:47:22.080 won last week. To answer the question from yesterday about 1:47:22.080 --> 1:47:25.360 the BCS playoffs, I think the issue is with these 1:47:25.640 --> 1:47:28.200 quote unquote student athletes is they don't know what they're 1:47:28.200 --> 1:47:31.560 playing for. When the playoffs started, they said it was 1:47:31.600 --> 1:47:35.840 about the most deserving, the most deserving four teams. Now 1:47:35.920 --> 1:47:39.880 they've changed it to I guess the best four teams. 1:47:40.400 --> 1:47:44.559 So to me, I do believe that Alabama was better 1:47:45.120 --> 1:47:47.519 than Ohio State, but if you look at the resume, 1:47:47.960 --> 1:47:51.120 Ohio State was more deserving. So I think what they 1:47:51.200 --> 1:47:53.760 need to do is decide what they really want to 1:47:53.840 --> 1:47:55.880 do with these kids. Do they want to make it 1:47:56.560 --> 1:47:58.439 best or do they want to make it most deserving 1:47:58.520 --> 1:48:01.080 so that the kids know what they're playing for. Alright, 1:48:01.280 --> 1:48:06.559 Another email in here from Rick, who is original Saturday 1:48:06.760 --> 1:48:10.639 squad buck. I completely agree that reaching out to those 1:48:10.720 --> 1:48:14.320 with whom we've either lost touch can have amazing results. 1:48:14.840 --> 1:48:18.720 Here's my example. I had a client about about five 1:48:18.840 --> 1:48:22.160 years ago that subsequently became a friend. We didn't hang 1:48:22.200 --> 1:48:24.320 out much, but we had a strong connection that was 1:48:24.400 --> 1:48:28.200 important to me. His honesty for passion for his His 1:48:28.320 --> 1:48:32.800 honesty and passion for his faith and life inspired me. Uh. 1:48:33.160 --> 1:48:35.960 He was one of the true friends I made while 1:48:36.000 --> 1:48:38.799 living in Florida. When I decided to move to Texas 1:48:38.920 --> 1:48:40.880 two years ago, I gave him a call to let 1:48:41.000 --> 1:48:43.680 him know how thankful I was for his friendship and 1:48:43.760 --> 1:48:47.360 how how I respected the life he leads, living his 1:48:47.520 --> 1:48:51.120 values each day for all to see. After I finished, 1:48:51.439 --> 1:48:54.200 there were short silence on the line when he first 1:48:54.240 --> 1:48:56.360 tried to respond. It was through tears that I could 1:48:56.400 --> 1:48:59.000 hear in his voice. He thanked me for my words 1:48:59.040 --> 1:49:00.400 and said that they could not have come at a 1:49:00.439 --> 1:49:03.760 better time, as his father had passed away less than 1:49:03.800 --> 1:49:06.040 a fortnight ago, and that he and his wife were 1:49:06.080 --> 1:49:08.320 having a rough time of it. He said that my 1:49:08.479 --> 1:49:12.479 call and my words really helped. My innocuous little call 1:49:12.560 --> 1:49:15.120 to a friend made a difference in ways I never 1:49:15.240 --> 1:49:19.400 could have anticipated. Two years on, my friends family has 1:49:19.439 --> 1:49:22.720 grown from two to three, and his career is flourishing. 1:49:23.200 --> 1:49:26.000 I celebrate that with them now. Remembering back to my 1:49:26.120 --> 1:49:29.720 phone call, I neither know nor care how great or 1:49:29.760 --> 1:49:31.479 little a difference it made for him in the grand 1:49:31.520 --> 1:49:33.920 scheme of things. I just know that it helped him, 1:49:34.280 --> 1:49:36.599 and I'm thankful that it brought us a bit closer, 1:49:36.720 --> 1:49:40.680 even though we now lived geographically further apart. So my 1:49:40.840 --> 1:49:44.200 Chris Christmas wish for Team Buck is that we all 1:49:44.240 --> 1:49:46.240 reach out to friends or family with whom we haven't 1:49:46.280 --> 1:49:49.559 connected for too long. It might just end up being 1:49:49.640 --> 1:49:53.920 the best gift you give this Christmas shield, hie Rick Oss, 1:49:54.360 --> 1:49:56.400 and he says, Merry Christmas, Buck to you, miss Molly 1:49:56.479 --> 1:49:58.120 and your whole family. Well, Rick, thank you for the 1:49:58.240 --> 1:50:02.400 very kind and and inspired ring note greatly appreciated and 1:50:02.840 --> 1:50:06.160 means a lot. Merry Christmas to you two, Allen writes 1:50:06.240 --> 1:50:08.960 in this one on Facebook, and for those wondering, you 1:50:09.040 --> 1:50:11.800 can contact us here in the Freedom Hut. Send us 1:50:11.840 --> 1:50:13.479 in a note with your thoughts whatever you want to 1:50:13.560 --> 1:50:18.040 tell us at Facebook dot com. Slash buck Sexton, Allen writes, 1:50:18.800 --> 1:50:20.840 you are asking about whether it was okay for a 1:50:20.960 --> 1:50:24.439 hug or a high five. I'll take a respectable nod 1:50:24.600 --> 1:50:28.400 between equals. How about that? L O L Well, Alan, 1:50:28.920 --> 1:50:31.519 you are getting your nod between equals right now, my friend. 1:50:31.560 --> 1:50:33.920 Thank you very much for writing in and Merry Christmas. 1:50:35.080 --> 1:50:37.560 Lonnie writes in with the following, Hey, Buck, are you 1:50:37.680 --> 1:50:40.960 doing a poll on the new name for Team buck Speaks? 1:50:41.360 --> 1:50:45.000 What about Team bucks corner? Well, Lonnie, team Bucks corner 1:50:45.080 --> 1:50:47.680 would certainly work as an option, so I will put 1:50:47.840 --> 1:50:50.760 that on the list. Thank you so much for writing in. 1:50:50.840 --> 1:50:54.800 Merry Christmas to you. Chris writes in with the following Buck, 1:50:55.280 --> 1:50:58.760 why are you body shaming me? I sport and advanced 1:50:59.080 --> 1:51:01.479 dad bod with all the bells and whistles. Thank you 1:51:01.640 --> 1:51:05.040 very much. Dad's are people to Chris, I totally hear you, 1:51:05.680 --> 1:51:09.040 and uh, I tremendous respect for actually being a dad. 1:51:09.120 --> 1:51:12.720 I'm still working on that, but don't worry. I'm I'm 1:51:12.760 --> 1:51:16.040 an honorary dad BOD member to my friend, especially after 1:51:16.439 --> 1:51:18.960 this this fall. I really, I really went after the 1:51:19.040 --> 1:51:21.839 French fries, the chocolate and the whole milk with reckless abandon. 1:51:22.880 --> 1:51:25.960 Uh we have Uh well, actually I don't really have 1:51:26.040 --> 1:51:27.439 time to get in another one. We've got so many 1:51:27.520 --> 1:51:30.360 more notes, but I'll save something for tomorrow and obviously Friday, 1:51:30.400 --> 1:51:33.080 which will be our last show here in the Freedom 1:51:33.200 --> 1:51:37.040 Hunt of twenty seventeen. It's crazy to say it out loud. 1:51:38.000 --> 1:51:41.920 Please do share the podcast with friends, tell people about 1:51:41.960 --> 1:51:45.800 the show. Over the holiday, we grow. We have more 1:51:45.880 --> 1:51:47.720 and more folks that are tuning in and becoming a 1:51:47.840 --> 1:51:50.360 part of Team Buck because those of you who listen 1:51:50.560 --> 1:51:53.000 care about what we're doing here every day in the Hut, 1:51:53.120 --> 1:51:56.080 and you know that we rely on you to spread 1:51:56.120 --> 1:51:59.880 the words. So take that holiday opportunity to say, hey, 1:52:00.240 --> 1:52:03.320 this Buck guy, give him a shot, and you're gonna 1:52:03.360 --> 1:52:04.960 hear me repeating that the next few days. I hope 1:52:05.000 --> 1:52:07.479 you don't mind. Alright, Team, have a great rest of 1:52:07.640 --> 1:52:11.000 your day or evening, talk to you tomorrow. Shields High