WEBVTT - The Language of Leverage 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:05.680 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.160 Washington Broadcast Center. 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:09.440 Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty. 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:16.760 I'm strong and Gatty and he I'm strong and Edty. 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.440 She wants reunification. He has said this time and time again. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.520 He's claimed that it is unstoppable. And look, this has 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:35.240 been the position since the inception of the Chinese Communist Party, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:40.120 but it has become an obsession under She he wants 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.879 the US to stop selling arms, to change his posture, 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:45.280 and to reduce. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.280 Its support of Taiwan. Yeah. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.839 So the scary news so far in the big summit 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.960 between Trump and President g She the leader of the 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.920 two biggest economies in the world, the two leaders meeting 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:03.080 is that man there right away on Taiwan. And as 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.440 you just heard in that report there from CBS News, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.679 it has become an obsession of his that Taiwan, the 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:15.120 independent country off the coast of China, become part of China. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.679 President she believes it is part of China and should 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.880 become a full on part of China. Our position is 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:26.640 currently no, you ain't, but President, she said to Trump yesterday. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.520 If handled poorly, it could lead to conflict in an 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.720 extremely dangerous situation. I've seen no reporting on how Trump 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:38.919 replied to that. Basically a threat from President She about 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.200 don't get in our way if we decide to take Taiwan. 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.600 So we got that on a little more of the 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:49.000 optimistic side. This is just out from the White House. 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.440 The two sides agreed that the strait of horror moves 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.200 in Iran must remain open to support the free flow 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:55.720 of energy. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.120 That's good that President She said. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.480 That also made clear that China's opposition to the militarization 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.320 of the strait or any effort to charge a toll 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.680 or anything like that. And both countries agreed Iran can 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.720 never have a nuclear weapon. And I hope President She 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.280 means those things. Sometimes he doesn't. Joining us now to 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.880 discuss all of this. Gordon Chang, we've had on the 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.960 show many times over the years of author and columnist, 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:23.440 written a whole bunch of different great books that we've 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.120 talked to him about. He's a columnist at the Daily Beast. 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:28.680 You can follow him on Twitter at at Gordon g. 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:29.400 Chang. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.720 Mister Chang, welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Appreciate 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:33.239 you being here. 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.359 Oh well, thank you so much. Jack, So, was that. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.320 A threat from President She on the whole Taiwan thing. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:46.919 Sure it was, and President Trump has responded. We've been 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.720 told by a White House official speaking off the record, 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.440 that there will be no change in US policy, which 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:57.079 is good. Now, i'd like President Trump to publicly say, look, 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.480 we're not changing our policy. Actually i'd like him to 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.480 say we're defending Taiwan, because I think at some point 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.120 we're going to need to do that. But saj thing 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.560 has just been huffing and puffing, and I think President 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.799 Trump knows it and he's just not feeling and Trump 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.160 is feeling well, there's no point in actually opposing him publicly. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.400 But the US will not change its position. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:23.959 Yeah, that's damned interesting. 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.280 I mean because the readout after their first talks, the 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.560 Communist Party's readout was basically She's threat to Trump, with 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:37.600 no indication of how Trump responded the White House. Initial 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.280 White House readout didn't mention the Taiwan thing at all. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.960 It just talked about, you know, business relations. So that's 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:44.400 interesting that you have an update on that. 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.600 Yeah, it's and you can you know a lot of people, 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.400 and there's a whole industry of people who will blame 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.840 Trump for things he has not done, and this is 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.560 one of them where people are really worried that Trump 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:03.680 will sell out Taiwan. Now he hasn't done it yet 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:05.720 and I don't think he'll do it, and if he 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.720 does it, we'll criticize him then for it. But until 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.480 he does it, people should just sort of calm down 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.960 a little bit. And I think it's important for us 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:15.560 to give the president some credit here. 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:17.440 Well. I don't. 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.279 Yeah, I don't know what Trump's true thoughts on this, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:22.760 but I don't know that Kamala Harris would have defended 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.440 Taiwan if you're president or Joe Biden or Barack Obama. 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.200 I mean, so it's always been kind of an open 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.599 question would we actually go to war with China to 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.240 defend Taiwan if it came down to it. 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:35.960 So I don't know where we. 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.280 Are, yeah, well, and we also don't know where we 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.039 are as Americans because we had to go back to 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.720 nineteen fifty where Dean Ashison, who was Secretary of State 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.400 at the time, publicly drew America's western defense perimeter that 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.720 did not include South Korea. So that encouraged Kim olsungga 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.240 North Korea to invade the South and what did Truman do. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.599 President Truman immediately say troops to defend South Korea. So 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.520 we don't even know our own mind, but I believe 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.159 that we would defend Taiwan because if we didn't, it 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:08.599 would be catastrophic. 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:10.960 That's what I want to ask you about. 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.000 Explain to people why that would be a big deal 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.440 if China was able to make Taiwan part of China 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.320 in the same way that they did Hong Kong, Okay. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.720 First of all, Taiwan makes ninety two percent of the 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.080 world's most sophisticated semiconductors, so forget about the future with 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:35.600 involving microchips. But also, after the catastrophic which all from Afghanistan, 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:39.479 Taiwan has become the test of American credibility and resolve 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.800 around the world. China, which has been attacking democracies, we 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.240 cannot allow them to absorb any democracy, especially one as 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.880 important as Taiwan, because the propaganda would be malicious that 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.640 the United States was no longer a world power. And also, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.960 since the eighteen hundreds, Americans have drawn our western defense 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.520 perimeter off the coast of East Asia. Taiwan sits in 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.240 the center of that critical line. It protects our allies 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:13.680 Philippines in Japan. We would not be a world power 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.840 if we allowed China to take Taiwan, and this would 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.719 be just shameful. Forget about these strategic implications. It would 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.680 just be shameful if we allowed that to happen. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:26.400 I agree with all that. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.719 And we're all seeing what the Strait of Hormuz has 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:36.200 done to the world economy, and China controlling all the 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:37.960 shipping lanes of that part of the world would make 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:38.719 that look like nothing. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.080 Yes, and prison Trump deserves a lot of credit because 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.120 just on April thirteenth, the Pentagon announced a defense pack 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.680 with Indonesia. The Indonesian island of Sumatra is the southern 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.279 end of the Strait of Malacca, which is far more 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.159 important than the Strait of Hormuz to world commerce. So 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.720 Trump is thinking about these things in a very determined way. 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.240 So here again give him credit. 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.400 So this is new from the White House. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.120 As I mentioned a little bit ago, wondered what your 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.120 take on this isn't and this is good news that 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.240 President she agreed that the straight of Horror moves, that's 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.880 the Strait. With the war in Iran, we've been following 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.000 must remain open. They don't get to charge tolls, all 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.840 that sort of stuff. And he agreed Iran can never 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:26.360 have a nuke. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:31.520 That's all good news, right, well mostly, And the reason 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.200 is we need to keep the straight of Foremos closed 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.360 until the Iranians actually give up their nuclear program and 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.840 their ballistic missiles. And this puts a lot of pressure 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.840 on China, which we need not only for Iran but 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.239 for other things. And you know, it's up to us. 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.480 This is a fault not just of Trump, but of 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:55.320 all his predecessors, going back to Clinton. Actually even before that, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.880 Iran has a nuclear weapons program because the Chinese planted 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.160 theirs on Iranian soil. They did that by direct transfers 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.640 of equipment, material and technology, but they also did it 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.640 indirectly through the aq Con black market network of Pakistan. So, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.720 you know, a lot of people blame Trump for this war. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.200 Trump knows this. He needs to say it in public 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:26.120 that there's a war because China made this war virtually inevitable. 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:27.920 That's really interesting. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.680 I was struck yesterday watching the Leader's meet and all 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.520 the kids dance around and everything like that under the 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:39.840 watchful eye of a giant portrait of Chairman Mao that 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.920 is there in the square. I can't believe that's not 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:46.720 more remarked upon about the fact that you have this 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.839 enormous poster painting whatever it is, of Chairman Mouth, the 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.439 guy responsible for more deaths than maybe anyone in human history. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.640 So you're right about that. Mao is responsible for more 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.920 death than any other figure in history, more than Hitler, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:09.920 more than Stalin, more than Gengha's Khan. It's just Mao's 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.679 death toll is enormous. We don't know exactly what it was, 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.600 but from a number of events, especially the famine following 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.600 the Great Leap Forward at the end of the nineteen 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.679 fifties in the beginning of the nineteen sixties was horrific. 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.320 Mao should have known or knew what was happening, but 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:31.840 allowed the famine to continue. And this is something that 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:33.720 the United States needs to talk about. You know, the 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.840 Communist Party maliciously hits us every day with propaganda, except 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.239 for the two weeks around a visit of an American 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.920 leader to China or vice versa. But apart from that, 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.600 you get malicious propaganda every day, and the United States 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:49.559 needs to hit back. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.280 Yeah, I would like some sort of statement about that. 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.400 There's a cognitive dissonance thing going on in my brain 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.079 that we can have Elon Musk and all these people 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.040 in Trump everyone were all smile and holding the hands, 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.520 and the kids are the dancing around, and you got 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.040 the most evil person in world history looking down on it. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:07.840 Seems like somebody ought to throw out by the way, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.280 that system is currently in place, and that's evil. 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.560 But I guess nobody wants to upset the apple cart. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.920 Right, and that system has declared the United States to 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.480 be its enemy. And we need to say that we 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:24.560 ignored Osama Bin Laden, we're ignoring the Chinese. Both believe 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.920 that they must destroy the United States. Fortunately we killed 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:33.079 Osama Bin Laden, but China is still in a position 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:33.640 to do that. 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.280 Gordon Chang, thanks for joining us today on short notice. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.480 I know you're super busy. Everybody wants to hear from you. 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.959 Find him on Twitter at least at Gordon G. Chang 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.240 or writing his column for The Daily Beast. Thanks for 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:46.640 your time today. Really appreciate it. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:48.360 Oh well, thank you, Jack. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.760 Yeah, I got another comment about that, but first I 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.520 want to tell you about rough greens for your dog. 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.280 Maybe I'll ask Katie Katie Katie, the news lady who's 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.200 gonna call in a little later in the show with 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.560 a special announcement, and she's got to keep little dog 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:02.720 how her dog is like in the rough Greens, which 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.880 is something you sprinkle on top of your current dog's 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.240 food to give your dog the very best life possible. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:12.199 Dogfood is dead food, has no live nutrition. Roughgreens has 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.839 live stuff in it, live probiotics, enzymesmego oils, and over 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.560 twenty vitamins and minerals. It's America's number one dog supplement, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.840 all natural, made in the United States, and you can 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.400 try it for nothing. Just cover the shipping. Go to 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.040 Roughgreens dot com. You can get a free Jumpstart trial 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.640 bag today. You just cover the shipping. Use the discount 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:36.360 code Armstrong. That's are you ffgreens dot com discount code Armstrong. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.240 Roughgreens dot Com discount code Armstrong. Make any dog food 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:47.880 better with Roughgreens. Uh yeah, we've never had so we 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.440 could call out the Soviet Union for being bad, although 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.560 we didn't always. When when Reagan back in the eighties said, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.480 you know, called the Soviet Union an evil empire, A 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.720 lot of people you can't say that that's revocative or whatever. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.400 So we didn't even very often with the Soviet Union 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.720 point out loud how awful they were, and we weren't 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.240 nearly as economically intertwined or dependent. I looked this up 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.160 before the show today, because I'm that sort of statistic geek. 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:23.480 The Soviet Union had about a third of our economic power. 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.480 We were the number one economy throughout the Cold War. 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.480 They had about a third of our economic power. China 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.520 is about seventy five percent of our economic power, and 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.040 in some ways of measuring they're equal to us. So 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.400 it's a completely different ballgame. So I guess that's why 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.440 business leaders, including our president, aren't gonna call them an 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.840 evil empire. But when you got Chairman Mao staring down 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:51.680 over everybody as the leading killer of humans in human history, 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.640 that is really weird that nobody says anything out loud 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.720 about that. Not I mean, why doesn't the CBS Evening 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.120 News say that. By the way, there's as you can 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.240 see in the background, there's Chairman Mao responsible for the 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.280 deaths of thirty to fifty million people. 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.880 Why why does nobody say that out loud? Isn't that weird? 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.080 I have assumed that if you were in Munich and 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:12.520 he had a giant Hitler poster. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:13.959 Somebody would say. 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.640 Something, I don't know you had any thoughts on that 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.959 text line four one five two nine five kftc. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.040 Oh when people are talking about this, the President just 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.720 started his latest renovation project, painting the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.440 American flag blue during the Rose Garden, remodeled the ballroom 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.160 and a new pool. And pretty sure Trump's trying to 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:40.040 flip the White House. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.880 That's a funny joke. It's a pretty funny joke. I 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.599 don't remember. I was just in DC last summer with 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:49.200 the kids. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:51.040 Was it. 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.080 What color was the reflecting pool? I think it was 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.240 just kind of cement colored on the bottom. Anyway, kind 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.959 of a cool idea. What's your second favorite joke? Mine, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.000 what's the second funniest joke you got? We got a 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.280 bunch of jokes. The democrat mayor of an La suburb 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:10.240 admitted to being a Chinese agent, and already Eric Swalwell 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:11.720 is trying to ROOPI her. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:16.720 I like that joke. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.120 This just came across you know how much time. Maybe 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.800 we'll get into details on it later. You Cela Medical 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.480 School accused of racial discrimination and defiance of the Supreme Court. 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.040 Supreme Court made a ruling a couple of years ago, 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:38.200 you can't choose people based on race. That's racism. That's racism. Well, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.800 you CLA medical school, one of the most prestigious schools 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:43.720 to learn how to be a doctor in the whole country, 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.560 apparently is still doing that, and the Department of Justice 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.320 is going after him. Look at this example, and they've 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.400 got the data to back it up, and the DOJ's findings. 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:59.560 Black and Hispanic students were admitted into medical school some 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.960 years with their MCAT scores. The MCAT is the tests 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:04.720 you take to get into medical You take the l 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.320 SAT to get into lawyer school, you take the m 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.560 CAT to get into medical school. I took the can 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.560 you fog the mirror test to get into the colleges 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:14.160 I went into. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.040 But anyway, they admitted. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.400 Black and Hispanic students sometimes with scores in the sixty 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:28.600 sixth to seventy second percentile, while not letting in Asian 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:33.160 and white students who had scores over eighty percent. So 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.640 you're saying, sorry, Asian kid, that's got a you're in 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.600 the ninetieth percentile. You can't graduate from UCLA medical school. 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:45.320 But yes, you black or Hispanic kid with sixty sixth percentile, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.320 that's getting way down there. 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.240 You can get agno medical school. What kind of freaking 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.240 crazy theory is that. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.320 You're one of the most predigious, prestigious medical schools in 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:58.160 the world. 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.560 Don't you want the best candidates regardless? 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.360 I just I don't. I can't get in the head 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.480 of these people. You think you're righting the wrongs of 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:16.800 history by sending less good doctors out there with your credentials. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.240 Attached to them. It just seems nuts to me. 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.840 It's so incredibly unfair and just it's shooting yourself in 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:26.840 the foot in so many different ways. Anyway, that's still 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.840 going on, and I'm sure we'll get more details about 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.440 that as the Justice Department pursues that. 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.440 It's just so nuts. 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.280 I do want to get into the story of whether 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:44.920 or not in California prisons they are giving prisoners iPads 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.120 paid for by the taxpayer. In fact, they got them 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.400 new iPads because they were these poor prisoners still had 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.640 iPads from twenty eighteen. And you can't have some prisoner 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.800 in there with a seven year old iPad. That'd be unfair. 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.960 I have a seven year old iPad AnyWho. We bought 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.040 them brand new iPads at a cost of like twice 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.960 what you'd pay it best buy. But they have access 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.040 to porn and all kinds of different stuff, was the story. 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.160 Gavin Newsom pushing back on that story hard, and then 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.480 the pushback on the pushback has been pretty hard. So 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.920 if we have time to jam that in a little 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.160 bit later we will. Coming up, We're going to talk 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:25.000 to Mike Lyons, our favorite military analyst, about where things 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.320 are with the war in Iran kind of on the 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.560 back burner a little as Trump is in China. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:32.320 Trump's not in. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.520 China long though he flies back tomorrow, and we'll still 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.920 be stuck in the same spot where we were before, 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.640 where it looks like to Joe and I, the only 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:48.040 way to change the status quo is a serious military 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.119 hit back to bombing. And that's what I want to 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.120 ask Mike Lions about us. Want to ask Mike about 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:54.920 that report from the New York Times that came out. 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.879 Iran's got a heck of a lot of rockets and 0:17:57.920 --> 0:17:59.760 a lot of rocket launchers left a lot more than 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:00.399 we've ought. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:01.639 What's to deal with that? 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.160 So all that stuff we will get to throughout the show, 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.240 and a special announcement from Katie Green Katie Katie the 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.840 news lady in our four that you're gonna want to 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.960 stick around for. If you miss it, get the podcast 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:13.200 Armstrong and Getty on. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.679 Demand Armstrong and Geddy. 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.679 So there is a bit of a breaking, big news 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:29.600 story around Trump's visit to Beijing. As President She of 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:35.680 China has pushed this Taiwan thing more and harder than 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.679 I think anybody was expecting, like over and over again, 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.399 each time they sit down to meet or like, no 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.840 matter whatever topic we bring up, she goes back to 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.720 Taiwan being a really big deal and very important to him, 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.520 and Taiwan belongs to us, and over and over again. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.719 And I think that's interesting. We're getting more reporting on that. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.480 Give you this version from the New York Post before 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.159 we get to Mike Lyons, because I want to ask 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.480 him about this, and a bunch of other stuff. A 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.520 very different story began to emerge behind closed doors after 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:15.280 President she continually pressed the issue of Taiwan. The mid 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.359 morning sit down ran long, about forty minutes over its 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.280 scheduled time. Trump was notably quieter. At the next stop. 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.400 He ignored shouted questions. The bodied language of both presidents 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.639 was noticeably stiffer than it was earlier, as in there 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.720 had been some you know, confrontation, and they had reached 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.840 a point of things being uncomfortable around this issue, and 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.520 their people are putting out very strong language about it, 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.639 and we're reiterating that Taiwan is a free nation and 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:53.040 we support them anyway. It's kind of a surprise in 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:54.480 the whole thing. We'd like to welcome to the show, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.280 Mike Liones. We love talking to Mike about anything militarily. 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.000 You can follow him at a jay is in Major 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.760 m a J. Mike Lyons on his Twitter feed. He 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.960 just had an op ed Indefense dot Com about ai 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.240 in our relationship with China, which we'll talk about a 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.440 little bit. But hey, Mike, what do you think about 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.960 this hardcore push from President she about how we're taking 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.479 Taiwan someday and don't get no way or there will 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:18.920 be a war. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:20.160 That's basically what he said. 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.080 Yeah, Now, I saw that report that comes from you know, 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.960 kind of an old Greek model about kind of rising 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.840 powers and existing powers, and the bottom line is that 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.359 could ruin everything between the US and China. That seems 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.440 to be their their hard line. I think I think 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:42.520 President She is trying to understand Donald Trump's language of leverage, 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.280 and I think that's what he's trying to use as 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.960 leverage back to everything that the President wanted and wants 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.080 to accomplish in the summit. He brought all the CEOs. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:55.080 He's bringing all this with his perceived leverage into the equation, 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.600 and I think President She is just trying to you know, 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.040 pivot that way. And they see them as this rising 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.399 power and he recognizes the US as a ruling power, 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.600 and to frame it the way he has means that 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.800 potentially war could be inevitable if if we decide to 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:13.840 involve ourselves with it. We've just sold them billions of 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.320 dollars and ten or twelve billion dollars worth of military equipment. 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.280 But she is pretty serious about making this whole thing 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:22.320 as a very hands off operation. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.080 Where's the reality on this? 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.040 Just as a like an outside observer, it seems to 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.800 me that China's way got the upper hand just because 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.639 of the proximity. If they decided to take Taiwan, it 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:37.920 would be really hard for. 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:38.680 Us to stop them. 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:44.320 It would it would require us forces firing missiles into 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.960 mainland China, which would then start this war. That's the 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.280 only way you could you could possibly stop this and 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:53.879 you know, to keep them from taking it. And I 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.520 think right now our mentality has been well, besides strategic 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.639 ambiguity about it, it's this kind of poork Pine effect. 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.400 Just give Taiwan enough equipment that it would make the 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.679 cost of taking it militarily so high, you know, similar 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:09.399 to what we thought would have happened in Ukraine. The 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:10.760 cost of it was too high. It didn't stop the 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.159 Russians there, you know. Again, for China to be a 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.400 global power though in this century, and we're all convincing 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:21.560 ourselves that China is the rising power and the US 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:23.520 is the falling power, I just don't buy that yet 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.479