Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant's warming up,
Speaker 1: getting ready to uh carry this jam out to its conclusion.
Speaker 1: I was literally stretching. I know, it's as if you know, well,
Speaker 1: I was telling everyone else, not you. Oh yeah, people
Speaker 1: out there in podcast land. Yeah, who. I was just
Speaker 1: speaking to you. How is everybody great? Need to get
Speaker 1: used to this. It's been a while, it has been,
Speaker 1: but it feels good to be back in the saddle. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My saddle still smells like me gross. Yeah, it's pretty gross,
Speaker 1: like leather and geez. Yeah, but I found it has
Speaker 1: staying power. Um to you? Doing good? Yes, In the
Speaker 1: last like six months, nothing big changed. Two weeks. It's
Speaker 1: been longer than that, Hasn't it a little vacation? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We don't need talking about that though. It was great
Speaker 1: fun California all the way way to go California, California.
Speaker 1: Isn't that Board to Death's bands song? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Jason Schwartzman, Oh yeah, sure, Yeah, was it Coconut Records. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's had a couple of bands. I didn't recognize it
Speaker 1: when you called it Board to Death. Well, it's his
Speaker 1: new name. That's Board Death with the haircut. All right,
Speaker 1: we should get going here, Chuck. Yes, did you know
Speaker 1: that President Barack Obama is planning to take over virtually
Speaker 1: the entire U S economy and infrastructure? Uh? No, I
Speaker 1: did not know that. Yeah, well, or you Jim Powell
Speaker 1: Kato Senior Fellow and author of the book FDRs Folly
Speaker 1: Wilson's War, Bully Boy, The Triumph of Liberty. Well, those
Speaker 1: are other books. Those are books, not just the book. Um,
Speaker 1: you would have known this already because Jim Powell sent
Speaker 1: out the alert via the Cato Institute and Force Magazine.
Speaker 1: I think that Barack Obama had created this plan a
Speaker 1: temp page blueprint of for season control um of the
Speaker 1: economy of things like water, usable water, civil transportation, all
Speaker 1: forms of energy, all commodities and products, health resources like drugs,
Speaker 1: biological products, etcetera. Um under the auspices says there's an
Speaker 1: extra is in there of Executive Order one three six
Speaker 1: zero three? Is that that we can't wait thing? It's
Speaker 1: part of it, um, And and now that you bring
Speaker 1: it up, that we can't wait thing is basically this
Speaker 1: idea that um Obama is saying, I can't deal with
Speaker 1: you Congress any longer, so I'm just gonna start issuing
Speaker 1: proclamations like that. So I get the impression from Jim
Speaker 1: Powell that he he is against executive orders. In Jim rule,
Speaker 1: I can't say that that's necessarily the case, because he
Speaker 1: could be a conservative pundit, and if he is, he
Speaker 1: may just be against Obama's executive orders. One of the
Speaker 1: keys to executive orders is that you're cool with them
Speaker 1: if you're guys in the White House. But the moment
Speaker 1: another guys in the White House and starts issuing them, Oh,
Speaker 1: like this guy is falling and like Nazism is rising again,
Speaker 1: and it's just bad, you know. But it is true.
Speaker 1: Obama did issue this very sweeping proclamation. Now this isn't
Speaker 1: just on a Tuesday. It's supposedly a preparedness plans called
Speaker 1: the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order. UM, so there's
Speaker 1: an emergency that has to trigger this, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: even necessarily it won't be triggered. But the point is
Speaker 1: Obama can issue a proclamation proclamation like that, and as
Speaker 1: it stands right now, it is law because it's an
Speaker 1: executive order, and we're about to talk about those. So
Speaker 1: this whole mystery, this whole mystery intro is going to
Speaker 1: be explained in the next stroke of the pen. Law
Speaker 1: of the land. Kind of cool. Paul Paul Bagala said
Speaker 1: that he was a Clinton advisor. He was, and that
Speaker 1: pretty much sums up what the in a broad stroke,
Speaker 1: what an executive order is. Um, it's a directive. Marriam
Speaker 1: Webster defines it. It's not true. Whoever wrote this article
Speaker 1: defines it as a directive hand fresh too? Man? Oh
Speaker 1: is it? It's pretty nice he's citing stuff from like March.
Speaker 1: It is fresh. Yeah. Uh, directive handed down directly from
Speaker 1: a president or governor because it's gonna have on the
Speaker 1: state level without input from the legislative or judicial branches.
Speaker 1: And that's basically it. It's like, I'm the president and
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I want to sign something into law
Speaker 1: and not ask anybody else, right, And usually the reason
Speaker 1: why is because either there's an emergency and Congress is
Speaker 1: stay out of not in session, yeah, um, or Congress
Speaker 1: would not necessarily agree with it yea, or or just
Speaker 1: is taking an action period. But that's where we get
Speaker 1: to the ticklish part about executive orders is there is
Speaker 1: a very clear flow of responsibility and in the federal government,
Speaker 1: Congress is elected to make the laws and the executive
Speaker 1: branch is there to carry out the laws. That's right
Speaker 1: with an executive order, the executive branch is making the law. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the presidents do this um even though the Constitution
Speaker 1: doesn't say you can. Well, yeah, but they sort of
Speaker 1: like hide behind the constitution under the following statements from
Speaker 1: Article to executive power shall be vested in the President
Speaker 1: of the United States. Okay, so they're saying like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: you can't seeing the constitution, I got power. I don't
Speaker 1: have power. He or she he's getting on when you're
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, this could be the future. The
Speaker 1: president shall be commander in chief of the Army and
Speaker 1: Navy the United States. He or she could say, well,
Speaker 1: how am I supposed to do anything? Commander in chief
Speaker 1: Army maybe, but can't even sign a law? Right? Well. Plus,
Speaker 1: also you use that um because they use executive orders
Speaker 1: to direct the movements of the military sometimes. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: times of awards when it's heavily used. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: finally he should take care uh that the laws be
Speaker 1: faithfully executed. Obviously that should be here. She well, it
Speaker 1: is under our ideas of Yeah, but we didn't write
Speaker 1: a constitution. No, we wrote a constitution. Somebody needs to
Speaker 1: get in just doing those little arrows and should do that. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty much the long and short of it,
Speaker 1: and that's why it's allowed to go on since George Washington,
Speaker 1: since Numero uno, every single president. That's the thing with
Speaker 1: executive orders. You don't like executive orders, just wait because
Speaker 1: eventually a president that you like is going to start
Speaker 1: issuing him. Every single president that we've ever had has
Speaker 1: issued executive orders. I think George Washington's um, I think
Speaker 1: he issued eight total. So it started out slow. Now
Speaker 1: we're up, like President's issued the thousands. FDR who had
Speaker 1: the you know, the three term presidency, he issued like
Speaker 1: three thousands, something like thirty. That's a lot. But every
Speaker 1: single president has issued them. Yeah, I guess in Washington's case,
Speaker 1: if we want to go over a little history here, uh,
Speaker 1: in April seventeen ninety three, almost in nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: that would have been a pretty hip George Washington. That
Speaker 1: would have been Nixon, Yeah, which was a very hip. Well,
Speaker 1: everybody referred to Nixon as like the direct heir of
Speaker 1: George Washington. He was probably he's they two were tied
Speaker 1: for first as our greatest president. Nixon says that at
Speaker 1: least um he uh, yeah, he instructed officers sedtal officers
Speaker 1: to prosecute anyone getting in the way of the war
Speaker 1: with France. He's like, you can't do that if you're
Speaker 1: getting in the way. Congress is out of session. Let
Speaker 1: me just go ahead and make this a lot that. Well,
Speaker 1: that was the war between England and Frances. Do not
Speaker 1: get involved with US and France. Well, just the war
Speaker 1: with France. But yeah, it was between England and France,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, hey, the America is not getting involved,
Speaker 1: and if you do, go to jail, it's on your head. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And then Lincoln followed, um, Congress is out of session again.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like it began early on in a
Speaker 1: more like legitimate form. Yeah. It was also a time
Speaker 1: where like Congress got to the job by behind a horse,
Speaker 1: so things took time. Congress isn't here yet, right exactly.
Speaker 1: Congress is on the way. But there's a big problem,
Speaker 1: so you know. And in Lincoln's case, one of his
Speaker 1: problems was on the eve of the Civil War, Um,
Speaker 1: these militias were getting out of control. One of them
Speaker 1: was run by a guy named John Merriman, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what blocked that guy up? Well, he's dangerous.
Speaker 1: Right here. They were state militia's, well, militias that were
Speaker 1: supposedly like, well, we're from the Carolina, so were the
Speaker 1: Carolina militia. But really they were militias. Um. Generally, the
Speaker 1: Confederate militias were attacking federal troops and Merriman was like
Speaker 1: probably the biggest revel leader at the time, so he
Speaker 1: locked him up. And Merriman's lawyers were like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of habeas corpus? And like he goes,
Speaker 1: you know what, that's sticky. How can I get around that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm suspending John Merriman's right to habeas corpus.
Speaker 1: And I'm Abraham Lincoln. If you haven't noticed, check out
Speaker 1: the Beard. I'm a vampire hunter. I'm Daniel de Lewis.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see that movie. Ah me too. Um,
Speaker 1: it was funny. The preview came on the other night
Speaker 1: and Emily thought it was the Daniel de Lewis Spielberg project,
Speaker 1: and then it started breaking out into vampire stuff. She's like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? A really strange turn? Um, which
Speaker 1: is the idea? I think? So he suspended Habeas corpus.
Speaker 1: Um explained it to Congress and they said, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's probably a pretty good idea in certain cases, so
Speaker 1: let's pass the Habeas Corpus Act to allow you to
Speaker 1: do this. Yeah, which is a big deal. And didn't it.
Speaker 1: It took years and years before anybody ever went back
Speaker 1: and repealed it, right, I don't know. It seemed like
Speaker 1: it was a while. We talked about it before in
Speaker 1: Corpus podcast. Yeah, I can't remember which one it was.
Speaker 1: Maybe pardons presidential pardons that actually, so that was not
Speaker 1: the first executive order, but that is executive order one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen hundreds, the State Department started numbering them
Speaker 1: retroactively and they went back to Lincoln's Habeas corpus and
Speaker 1: I don't know if they knew it was the first one,
Speaker 1: I don't know, But then I think and then the
Speaker 1: sixties nineteen sixty two, these things started being published in
Speaker 1: the Federal Register, the Daily Publication of New Laws, and
Speaker 1: you know office goings on um around Washington, and uh
Speaker 1: now it's like once it's published in the Federal Register,
Speaker 1: its law, and they're numbered. Teddy Roosevelt, he was big
Speaker 1: on him. He was the first one that really kind
Speaker 1: of went haywire. He was the first one to crack
Speaker 1: a thousand. That's right. Those Roosevelt love big government. They
Speaker 1: weren't related, though, were they They were like eight cousins. Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't think I knew that. Wow, look at you
Speaker 1: teaching me presidential history. It's like my my forte Is
Speaker 1: it okay? Because it's certainly not mine? Uh So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt was pretty He wielded a heavy stick. Um,
Speaker 1: and then f DR just went berserker in World War
Speaker 1: one and two. Teddy spoke softly but carried a big stick.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's the term. Or was the FDR that said that.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean we did a big heavy stick? Was
Speaker 1: the term? I was just saying. I was making a
Speaker 1: play on that. No, I know, okay, but I can't
Speaker 1: remember if it was Teddy or FDR that said that.
Speaker 1: I think it was Teddy. Okay, yeah, walk tall and
Speaker 1: carry big sticks. You're thinking of Joe Don Baker. Alright,
Speaker 1: moving on, Yeah, where are we now? We are in
Speaker 1: World War One and World War Two? When Congress said,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's okay f DR because there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on. Well not just that between world from
Speaker 1: World War One the depression in World War two, it
Speaker 1: was like it was Boogie fever on on executive orders. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had no idea. On his first day in office,
Speaker 1: he closed the banks for four days. Yeah, which is
Speaker 1: actually pretty cool considering that he platformed on this New
Speaker 1: Deal and the first thing he did was issue an
Speaker 1: executive orders starting the new Deal. It's like hitting the
Speaker 1: ground running for three terms. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, hats
Speaker 1: off to him. Agree. So that was the first of
Speaker 1: thirty two. You said, And the reason why FDR was
Speaker 1: able to issue so many are well, there's several reasons. Um,
Speaker 1: he was popular, he had a lot of crises to
Speaker 1: deal with, and um, well that's pretty much it. So
Speaker 1: he he was definitely a believer in centralized power. But
Speaker 1: again that kind of flies in the face of the
Speaker 1: division of power in federal government as sketched out by
Speaker 1: the constitution, right. Um, So not all executive orders are happy,
Speaker 1: happily received, or even grudgingly received. Some are just outright rejected.
Speaker 1: And some presidents weren't as popular, which might have had
Speaker 1: a little something to do with that exactly. So you've
Speaker 1: got Roosevelt seting this president thirty five fifty two executive orders.
Speaker 1: You know they stand. He was doing things like season
Speaker 1: control of minds of industries. Um. He's set up like
Speaker 1: cartels for um, everything from like garment industries to the
Speaker 1: theater industry. He he created the Works Projects Administration, which
Speaker 1: is like we have murals around the country and a
Speaker 1: bunch of orchestras and a lot of parks and everything
Speaker 1: because he'd put people to work in the depression through
Speaker 1: government spending. Right. Interesting like straight up Kanzie and economics. Um.
Speaker 1: But he did all of this through executive orders. I
Speaker 1: wonder if the National Parks stuff was executive orders from
Speaker 1: my Teddy. I don't wonder too. I bet that went
Speaker 1: through Congress maybe, so. I don't think Teddy liked talking
Speaker 1: to Congress. He just liked that big stick. But the
Speaker 1: point is Roosevelt, the second FDR, set this huge precedent
Speaker 1: that made it look like, okay, well, presidents have a
Speaker 1: lot more power. Apparently America is cool with this. So
Speaker 1: Harry Truman comes along and finds out the hard way
Speaker 1: that that's not necessarily the case. Yeah. Um. He sort
Speaker 1: of pulled a similar move to FDR as far as
Speaker 1: wanting to take control of the steel industry. Um. During
Speaker 1: the Korean War, they they regulated the price of steel
Speaker 1: and fixed it at a I guess a cheap rate
Speaker 1: to help out, you know, Uncle Sam, Donald Douglas and
Speaker 1: mcdhal douglas. And then that was great, except for the
Speaker 1: workers all of a sudden weren't getting paid like they
Speaker 1: normally do because we're gonna go and strike exactly. And
Speaker 1: Truman was like, hey, we're in the middle of a war.
Speaker 1: And they said, we don't care. And he goes, oh, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: let me send in some ringers to see what happens.
Speaker 1: That's right. And they said, you know what, Ah, talk
Speaker 1: to these guys the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, maybe
Speaker 1: you can strike up a bargain. And they went, screw
Speaker 1: you guys. And he said, all right, we'll talk to
Speaker 1: these guys, the Federal Wage Stabilization Board, and they went,
Speaker 1: screw you guys, and he went, well, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: go and strike, why don't I just seise control of
Speaker 1: your factories on the night before. Here's the thing, though,
Speaker 1: there's a provision in UM and I guess federal law
Speaker 1: called the Taft Hartley Act UM, that says, if there's
Speaker 1: a big strike that's going to affect like national security,
Speaker 1: there's like the nation has interests in a strike not happening.
Speaker 1: The UM, the President and or Congress can call I
Speaker 1: think maybe just the president can call upon the Taft
Speaker 1: Hartley Act that and invoke the sixty day cooling off
Speaker 1: period where it's like, no, you have to go to work,
Speaker 1: you have to you guys have to go back to
Speaker 1: the table for sixty days, right and figure this out,
Speaker 1: or give us sixty days to figure get our ducks
Speaker 1: in a row. He didn't do that. He just sees control.
Speaker 1: And that being all, combined with the fact that he
Speaker 1: wasn't very popular UM, led to this executive order of
Speaker 1: his being overturned by the Supreme Court. Yeah, led to
Speaker 1: the steel mills basically sued UH in the famous case
Speaker 1: Youngstown Sheet and Tube, the Sawyer the Youngest Town ruling
Speaker 1: and UM Supreme Court said, yeah, you know what you
Speaker 1: should have done this sixty day cooling off period. That's
Speaker 1: why it's they're dummy, right. I don't think him dummy.
Speaker 1: He didn't. But Hugo Black, who is the Chief Justice
Speaker 1: at the time, was apparently worried that he defended Truman,
Speaker 1: so he invited him over for dinner, and Truman said,
Speaker 1: quote Hugo, I don't care for that law of yours,
Speaker 1: but by golly, this bourbon is good. Did he really
Speaker 1: say that that's awesome? By golly? Whenever they were drinking bourbon? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I wonder which bourbon. I wondered that myself. What
Speaker 1: do you what do you guess? I don't know, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know what they drank back then. Yeah, bourbon wise?
Speaker 1: Um so uh. Youngstown was huge though, because it established
Speaker 1: some standards as far as the powers of authority that
Speaker 1: the president, and they kind of broke it down into
Speaker 1: three right. Yeah. They didn't just say no, they said,
Speaker 1: here's some guidelines for you and future presidents as far
Speaker 1: as the Supreme Court is concerned. You have the most
Speaker 1: authority Mr President or Mrs President when you have the
Speaker 1: express or implied consent of Congress and you know what
Speaker 1: I think. Also, I feel like, if if this thing
Speaker 1: sticks around, if this digital recording can stick around long enough,
Speaker 1: maybe we should include gender gender neutral president as well. Okay, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: number two, Mr Mrs Gender neutral President number one, just
Speaker 1: to make sure that there's an inclusion number one, Mr
Speaker 1: President or Mrs President or gender neutral president. Uh, you
Speaker 1: have the most authority when Congress um has expressed or
Speaker 1: implied consent. They've given that to you. Right, they're saying,
Speaker 1: lead away, We're we're following you. Number two, you have
Speaker 1: a little less authority. We'll call it uncertain authority when
Speaker 1: Congress has not imposed the authority because they're indifferent or
Speaker 1: did they're just not doing anything. Uh. And they call
Speaker 1: it a zone of twilight that the president takes advantage of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like Congress is waffling. The president knows what he
Speaker 1: she or whatever um gender neutral assignment that the president's
Speaker 1: picked wants. And I think isn't this probably when they
Speaker 1: sneak him in at the end. It depends. Um. I
Speaker 1: think it's also more just like you guys had your
Speaker 1: chance to act, right, Um, I acted because you missed
Speaker 1: your opportunity, and so sit down and shut up, and
Speaker 1: Congress basically says, all right, fine, so is that we
Speaker 1: can't wait a thing with that fall under that it depends.
Speaker 1: So I think that it's like the way that this
Speaker 1: justice put this, that this is how this is the authority,
Speaker 1: the division, the levels of authority. The president has supreme
Speaker 1: authority to issue an executive order. Whether or not it
Speaker 1: stands up is based on the test of time because
Speaker 1: you can repeal it, right, it just takes a little time. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: there's some different ways to do it. Um. The first
Speaker 1: we just saw or what not the first, but one
Speaker 1: of them we just saw. It was a clear example
Speaker 1: of judicial review. Right, that's what the Supreme Court does.
Speaker 1: They're like a a supposedly an unbiased, neutral group of
Speaker 1: referees where the federal or the um legislative branch or
Speaker 1: the people say, hey, can we get a judgment call
Speaker 1: on this law? This seems wrong? And then the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court says, yeah, you're in a And then what they
Speaker 1: say basically is like the final ruling on a law. Okay,
Speaker 1: executive order. Since they have the force of law or
Speaker 1: the effective law. Um, they're subject to the same scrutiny
Speaker 1: judicial review. Well, in Youngstown. The Supreme Court said, Truman,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. So that's one way that an
Speaker 1: executive order can be overturned. Another way is Congress can say,
Speaker 1: you know what, we just really disagree with you, and
Speaker 1: we're going to rewrite the legislation that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: but it has to be ratified by Congress, which means
Speaker 1: the president has the chance to veto it. Gotcha. So
Speaker 1: if you have a really angry Congress and a really
Speaker 1: angry president, really polarized, they may go at it and
Speaker 1: the president may be able to override this with the veto. Lately, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very polarized. So like what Obama is doing now,
Speaker 1: it's like, we can't wait. He's trying to frame it
Speaker 1: like it's Congress's fault. And then if Congress is feeling froggy,
Speaker 1: they may they may issue legislation that says it. So
Speaker 1: there's this one where UM George Bush set up an
Speaker 1: executive order about um fetal tissue stem cell banks. I
Speaker 1: don't remember exactly what it was, but the Congress um
Speaker 1: they they basically said, um, quote the provisions of Executive
Speaker 1: Order one to Z six, you'll not have any legal effect,
Speaker 1: and that was it, but all that since there's no
Speaker 1: rules for this, Chuck, there's no this. This is all interpretation, Bushead.
Speaker 1: The balls is back in Bush's court. So all it
Speaker 1: is is legislative tennis between the executive branch and the
Speaker 1: legislative branch. So how far do you want to take it?
Speaker 1: Ping pong? And then also one more thing, the legislative branch,
Speaker 1: Congress can just say, well, that's fine, use your executive
Speaker 1: order to create this new position. We have appropriation, so
Speaker 1: we're just not going to give any money to it.
Speaker 1: If you find somebody who will do that position, you
Speaker 1: still got to get the funding if it's something requires funding.
Speaker 1: So those are the ways you get around executive words.
Speaker 1: Or a future president can turn around and provoke it,
Speaker 1: which happens all the time or pretty much every time
Speaker 1: and the president takes office. Um, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Of course. By the way, you forgot the one court
Speaker 1: above the Supreme Court. What the Star Chamber? What is that?
Speaker 1: You never saw that movie? No? What is that? That
Speaker 1: was Michael Douglas. There was a secret group of judges
Speaker 1: that would get together called the Star Chamber, that would
Speaker 1: carry out vigilante justice. What movie is that? The Star chamber.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I not eighties. It sounds like two gusters there,
Speaker 1: all right. So the final way is the least authority,
Speaker 1: and the president acts on least authority when he has
Speaker 1: an executive order that is uh, just incompatible with what
Speaker 1: Congress wants, right, which happens all the time as well.
Speaker 1: But again, ultimately, how what how powerful does Congress feel like? Say,
Speaker 1: Congress really hates that, but the people are really in
Speaker 1: favor of it. Will Congress act? Who knows? I've lost
Speaker 1: a lot of faith in the political system, my friend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I say, kind of politan what they want to do
Speaker 1: and not necessarily what the people want. Yeah, behind the
Speaker 1: banner of this is what the people want. That's a
Speaker 1: pretty twenty one century view of American politics. It feels like, yeah, sad,
Speaker 1: too much money going on. We're gonna do it one
Speaker 1: on campaign finance. I said it, We're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: And that will really tell you how kind of dirty
Speaker 1: it is these days. Um, So let's talk about some
Speaker 1: controversies in modern day executive orders. For instance, Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 1: If you were a fan of President Reagan, you don't
Speaker 1: think it's controversial that he really took hold of the
Speaker 1: economic situation and stripped a lot of the government regulation
Speaker 1: that he thought was was hampering growth. People that didn't
Speaker 1: like President Reagan, but I didn't think that was such
Speaker 1: a good move. No, you know what he did, it's
Speaker 1: pretty smart and broad. He purposefully slowed down UM the
Speaker 1: federal agencies by making them go through all this like
Speaker 1: um cost benefit analysis figuring out like how their decisions
Speaker 1: would would impact people. Just kind of hamstrung them. Yeah. Interesting,
Speaker 1: he was like, oh, you you have it pretty easy, hunt. No,
Speaker 1: you don't know. You have like eighty extra things that
Speaker 1: you have to do before you can tell any rules. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's some forms exactly, and the number two pencils. Interesting.
Speaker 1: It was kind of ingenious really to fight what he
Speaker 1: considered an entrenched bureaucracy by adding more bureaucracy. That's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Adding red tape. UH. President George W. Bush Um with
Speaker 1: a lot of controversy. Um said in say, you can
Speaker 1: wire tap private American citizens telephones in America without them
Speaker 1: knowing about it, And that wasn't even published. That was
Speaker 1: a secret one, you know, super secret. Yeah, only the
Speaker 1: star Chambers saw that. That's right, And uh, a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are fond of civil rights and and
Speaker 1: rights of private citizens said, you know, that's that's not
Speaker 1: very eight nice. That's not a cool thing to do.
Speaker 1: And then his supporters said, dude, the nine eleven hijackers
Speaker 1: and a lot of time in the US on a
Speaker 1: lot of phones, that's a tough one. Man. You want
Speaker 1: to be able to thwart those terrorist plots. Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a quagmire. It is a quagmire. Um.
Speaker 1: And then what else? Obama's basically on day one famously
Speaker 1: said I'm closing Guantanamo, no more water boarding or any
Speaker 1: of this enhanced interrogation stuff. And then what's the third one?
Speaker 1: Let's create a task force for detention policies? Right, and
Speaker 1: then he signed another executive or two years later saying like, okay,
Speaker 1: Guantanamo can stay open. And definitely that was probably not
Speaker 1: a good idea. Apparently they're thinking like a significant amount
Speaker 1: of money into the facilities. They're adding a soccer or
Speaker 1: as the yeah football, um, they are adding programs like
Speaker 1: life life education programs like balancing your checkbook or getting
Speaker 1: ahold of your finances or getting your g D. They're
Speaker 1: turning it into into what resembles a very much a
Speaker 1: state prison. It's which basically says you're here for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that part's good. I don't know that I
Speaker 1: care that these people can play soccer though, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a lot of people who are like,
Speaker 1: they don't need to play soccer. I don't know, though,
Speaker 1: play a little soccer. So I would be such a
Speaker 1: bad president. What do the waffler? Dude, I just waffle
Speaker 1: over the place. That's a bad idea. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: good idea. Well, that's funny that you said that, because
Speaker 1: one of the presidents most known for waffling, especially in
Speaker 1: his first year, UM Bill Clinton was also very famous
Speaker 1: for his executive orders. Apparently it was like a president
Speaker 1: with issue executive oars and it was like one of
Speaker 1: these things and everybody would humble. But Clinton made an
Speaker 1: art out of it. He waged a war through executive order.
Speaker 1: Like remember the Balkan War. Yeah, you, the US entered
Speaker 1: it with no um declaration of war from Congress. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Congress had that um before them
Speaker 1: and they voted, no, we're not going to declare war.
Speaker 1: So Clinton just did it himself. He didn't officially declare war,
Speaker 1: but through an executive order, he for he told the
Speaker 1: Air Force to go join NATO air strikes in the Balkans.
Speaker 1: He committed ground troops through executive order to NATO, and
Speaker 1: he froze the assets of a bunch of Yugoslavian leaders
Speaker 1: in the US, which were like three acts of war
Speaker 1: that he carried out through executive order. I noticed that stuff,
Speaker 1: though I know they did. It was huge at the
Speaker 1: time when we're just too young, and I mean people noticed,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't like when times are great economically, a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff is way more apt to slide by.
Speaker 1: I think, well, I think also we're looking at it
Speaker 1: like ten fifteen years on to where it's like total hindsight.
Speaker 1: It's like an older statesman now he's not like the
Speaker 1: sleazy scumbag that he used to be, or that's his
Speaker 1: appearance at least he does. But he still does that
Speaker 1: that two things. I saw an interview with him, like
Speaker 1: that was recorded five days ago. He still do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's thinking and then he gave like this brilliant answer. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, he was big on He was big on
Speaker 1: those things as well. And his advisor was the one
Speaker 1: who said stokeing the pen law of the land. Right,
Speaker 1: what were the last minute ones called the midnight Midnight regulations.
Speaker 1: That was the one that we talked about. I think,
Speaker 1: corpus boy, we've been around the block at this point,
Speaker 1: we've done some political stuff. So that's the executive orders.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, look for one coming to a piece of
Speaker 1: paper near you, especially if Romney ones. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: like the first day executive orders, like traditionally now a
Speaker 1: political way of saying I am totally different from this guy.
Speaker 1: And here, here, and here three examples, you know, and
Speaker 1: they'll they'll trumpet that in the in the campaigns. They well,
Speaker 1: here's what I'll do right away. Yeah, I declare craft
Speaker 1: cheese awesome. So that's it. If you want to learn
Speaker 1: more about um executive orders, type executive in or orders
Speaker 1: for the handy search bar at how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com and that will bring up this pretty cool article.
Speaker 1: And I said, search bar is time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to do this, Chuck, I know, I just
Speaker 1: said it's time for us for mail. It's actually time
Speaker 1: for plug fests real quick, because it's gonna be like
Speaker 1: the fastest plug fest ever. You ready, Um, so we
Speaker 1: have a horror fiction contest and and we're hoping our
Speaker 1: listeners will write, um horror fiction that we can read
Speaker 1: on the Halloween episode. Go to the blogs at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com find the post Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Knows Horror Fiction contest Colin. Get your official rules right here,
Speaker 1: Read that and then act accordingly. Yeah, really follow the
Speaker 1: rules closely because we want you to if you've worked
Speaker 1: hard for this to be you know able to win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and look for other mentions than like social media
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, like Facebook and Twitter. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: go check it out and go write something. It'll be cool. Um.
Speaker 1: And then also Comic Con right yet, we are going
Speaker 1: to San Diego's Comic Con this year for the first
Speaker 1: time ever, and we're pretty excited about it. Yeah, yes, right,
Speaker 1: and we're going as stuff you should know with Slash
Speaker 1: Science Channel people exciting we're doing. We're we're crossover hybrid people,
Speaker 1: that's right, like uh, the Toyota Prius exactly. We're the
Speaker 1: pre I of the podcasting world. Yes, So Thursday, July twelve,
Speaker 1: we will be podcasting live. Um. We don't have the
Speaker 1: time just yet, but we will announce that on Facebook
Speaker 1: and Twitter and there will be special guests that will
Speaker 1: be UH dancing, that will be singing. There will be
Speaker 1: gnashing of teeth and wailing and perhaps even vomiting live
Speaker 1: on stage. Yeah, by me, that's right at the very beginning, kids,
Speaker 1: I won't be able to see straight. I'll be so nervous. Yes, cool, Okay,
Speaker 1: that was quick plugfest. Not we're getting good at this
Speaker 1: susy dude every time now, Okay, listener, ma'l Josh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call this UH from a from a pastor to us,
Speaker 1: complimenting us, okay, not from the usual hate mailing. Hey,
Speaker 1: guys and Jerry. I'm a United Methodist pastor and started
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast a few years ago to pass
Speaker 1: the time on the long ride between the church I
Speaker 1: was ministering in Duke Divinity School, where I was finishing
Speaker 1: up seminary. Learning about things like uh cannibalism and delta
Speaker 1: force really helped break up the constant stream of theology
Speaker 1: and philosophy I was studying. I bet I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: the most recent one on whether or not it was
Speaker 1: possible to reign frogs. A lot of people that I
Speaker 1: talked to in religious settings that don't shy away from hearing, uh,
Speaker 1: scientific explanations about biblical material. There are plenty of us
Speaker 1: out there who love science and aren't afraid of it
Speaker 1: debunking scripture. It actually excites me to hear those sorts
Speaker 1: of explanations. You've probably been referred to a time or
Speaker 1: two in these uh in the classes I teach in
Speaker 1: my current ministry. Setting it tonight, so he talks about
Speaker 1: some class a couple of heathens like us. Uh. Mainly,
Speaker 1: I'm writing to thank you for a few things. First,
Speaker 1: thanks for handling matters of faith with tact um. Whether
Speaker 1: you're talking aboutvoodoo or karma, you always handle the subject
Speaker 1: matter in a gracious way. See. I like this guy's use.
Speaker 1: I like him a lot. I would argue that we're
Speaker 1: not always gracious, but I appreciate the compliment. Um. Second,
Speaker 1: I remember, back in the Brainwashing episode, Chuck said something
Speaker 1: along lines up, I'm going to try it really hard
Speaker 1: not to comment about my Baptist upbringing pastures and religious
Speaker 1: people in general can be pushy. Chuck, You're passing comment
Speaker 1: has been a constant reminder to me to not be
Speaker 1: that guy. Um. And Third, you guys are the ones
Speaker 1: who introduced me to Kiva and I now make regular
Speaker 1: loans and have even gotten some members of the congregation
Speaker 1: on board. It's been great to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Keep up good work, Jeff and Jeff dude, Pastor Jeff, Pastor, Jeff,
Speaker 1: I would go to your church. Yeah, thank you for
Speaker 1: the email. That was awesome. Please keep in touch. We
Speaker 1: want to know how your religious career goes. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: and if you think Chuck and I are awesome and
Speaker 1: gracious and we take criticism well and we get things
Speaker 1: generally right, say puppies, Yeah, um, and we do it
Speaker 1: all without messing up our hair. What do you want
Speaker 1: to hear from you? All right, Chuck? Yes, we want
Speaker 1: you to tweet to us immediately. Go compose a tweet
Speaker 1: and send it to s Why SKA podcast. You can
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know, or you can send us an email. Two
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at Discovery dot kids Don't for more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com? Yeah, h brought to you by the
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you