12-11-25 - 11am - Republicans Taking Steps Back While in Control

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Michael Brown for governor.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
He puts the goober in gubernatorial.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Yeah, that'll be the day. You have to talk to
my wife about that. Chili either have to be she'd
have to be dead for me to run to either
go back to DC or do anything like that. Never
gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Now we need goobers to come up with what would
be your slogan? Ooh, that might be a dangerous question.
Doing Goober's God's work. Gouber's doing God's work exactly. So
here we are December eleven. Late in the afternoon on
December eighth, our favorite Federal District Court Judge jeb Boseburg

(00:53):
issued a two page order in response to.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Four less than.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Enlightening declarations filed by the Trump administration officials that were
involved and I put that in their quotes involved in
the decision making that resulted in those two planeloads of
trend of Ragua gang members being sent in March fifteen
back to El Salvador prisons because they were declared to

(01:23):
be alien enemies of the United States. That December eighth
order entered by Judge Bozburg reads as follows, the Court believes.
The Court thus believes that it is necessary to hear
witness testimony to better understand the basis of the decision

(01:45):
to transfer the deportees out of United States custody. In
the context of the hearing on March fifteen, twenty twenty five,
the events surrounding this decision should shed light on this question.
The Court accordingly orders.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
That one.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Plaintiff shall attempt to secure the presence of Eresruvine for
testimony on December fifteenth, twenty twenty five, at nine point
thirty in the morning. The government shall produce Drew insign
for testimony on December sixteenth, twenty twenty five, at two pm. Now,

(02:27):
Notice one is that the plainness the Department of Justice
shall attempt to secure the presence of this witness, that
guy's or that person's name, because.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I don't really know whether it's a male or female
who could tell anyway? Do we even know? Do we
even care about that anymore?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Eres Ruvini was terminated from the Department of Justice on
April eleven. Back in April because of his disclosure of
attorney client privileged information in an entirely different case. He
was one of the lead lawyers for the Department of Justice.

(03:10):
In the case that involved our fame favorite illegal alien,
kilmar Abrago Garcia, the Maryland Father. Now, the reasons for
this dummies termination I'll explain in more detail than a minute,
But so far as I can, I can tell this
particular lawyer never made any appearance for the Department of

(03:34):
Justice in the Alien Enemies Act case that is now
penning before this judge. So if he never appeared, he's
since been terminated for violating the attorney client privilege. And
I'm maybe I'm sure the FBI, I'm sure the CIA,
or the NESSA, I'm sure Hell's Bell I could probably

(03:54):
find him, but he never testified or had any involvement
in this case at all. Now, the other person, Drew
ensign is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil
Division of the DOJ, and he is responsible for all
of the work in the Office of Immigration Litigation. Now,

(04:18):
if you look at the ORG chart above the Deputy
Attorney General on the ORG chart, what have been the
Civil Division Assistant Attorney General Brett Shoemate, then Principal Associate
Deputy Attorney see bureaucratic it is, and then above them
the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Boom who's now

(04:42):
an appeals court judge, and above his slought is Deputy
Attorney General Todd Blanch, And above Todd Blanch is of
course the Attorney General Pam Bondi. In order to explain
where this is headed, let me retrace the steps and
the timeline that.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Got us to this point.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Back in March fifteen, Judge Boseburg convened of five o'clock
hearing via zoom on a Saturday, following a one o'clock
in the morning fighting of a complaint by the trend
of Rogwa gang members who were looking for a temporary
restraining order to stop them from being removed from the

(05:23):
United States probably that day. Earlier in the day, Boseburg
had granted a temporary restraining order for the five individuals
named as plaintiffs, preventing them.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
From being removed.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
The hearing was to consider a motion to certify the class,
which is something the Supreme Courts that they were going
to have to do, and extend the temporary restraining order
to all members of the class, whether they were named
or unnamed, anywhere in the country now appearing for the
United States, which is unusual in this case was the

(05:58):
Deputy Attorney General ensign he was new to DOJ in
early twenty twenty five after joining Trump two point zero
from the Arizona Attorney General's office. On the ORG chart,
he is about three levels of responsibility above where you
would expect an attorney this making an appearance to be.

(06:20):
In other words, he's pretty high up the chain, and
people that high up the chain in the Department of
Justice normally don't appear in court. The second point I'd
make is this without being given the opportunity to file
or written opposition. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge

(06:42):
Boseburg certified a class, granted the restraining order for the
entire class, and then told this Deputy Attorney General to
communicate to the necessary officials that they need to turn
the planes around and or to not the plane anyone
on board if they land outside the United States. He

(07:05):
later issues are written order that has no reference at
all to turning the planes around or not to planing
those on board.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
He said he didn't right.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
He said, the government is enjoined from removing members of
such class pursuant to the proclamation for fourteen days now.
While all that's going on the planes are in the air,
the planes land in El Salvador and those that are
on board, the members of the gang members on board

(07:36):
are deplaned and they're turned over to the custody of
the Salvadoran officials to be detained. Now go to March seventeen,
same Judge Boseburg conducts the hearing late in the afternoon
to review the events of March fifteen, after the gang

(07:57):
members get transferred transferred to El Salvage door and what
I would say is seeming violation of his temporary restraining order.
I don't think it was, but he Clai He claims
that it was that followed the published reports that the
planes had continued on their routes because they had already
taken off, and that they landed after Judge Boseburg actually

(08:23):
entered his restraining order. Now peering for that motion and
that hearing was August Flinty. He's the acting director of
the Office of Immigration Litigation. He is a subordinate of
the Associate Attorney General. Boseburg said that his purpose for

(08:45):
having the hearing was I just want to develop a
fact record as to what happened during and after the
evening of this hearing on March fifteen and determine the
facts related to the timing of the flights. Well, the
government to provide those details, and they said that we're
not going to provide those details because of operational security,

(09:08):
which is a legitimate reason.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
Michael, So are you trying to get us all pissed
off about listening to the Democrats talk about how they've
been trying to fix healthcare and its Republicans fault. Wasn't
Obamacare under a Democrat? Wasn't all of these so called
improvement in our healthcare under Democrats? And look at our

(09:32):
system now it's broken.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
I love this talkback.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
I'm also disappointed the talkback because it means that I
failed to make clear the point that I was trying
to make. Yes, you are correct, Obamacare was passed solely
with Democrat votes. Obamacare and that first step toward nationalized
socialized medicine is a Democrat program and a Democrat objective.

(10:07):
So now fast forward to today. These subsidies that shut
down the government and the Republicans are now arguing about
were put in during the COVID era. They are supposed
to go technically, but under the law solely to state exchanges.

(10:31):
But because of the Court's decision, these subsidies. Now I
remember when I say subsidies, what I'm really saying is
your tax dollars, Your tax dollars are now going to
subsidize people on both state and the federal exchange. Republicans

(10:52):
have an opportunity to stop the subsidies entirely, and they're
not doing it. In fact, i'd have to go dig around.
But last night I had a couple of sound bites
which I thought about using today, where Republicans are talking
about maybe what we you know, there are different news

(11:13):
programs they're talking about, well, maybe what we'll do in
order to avoid another shutdown is we'll just go ahead
and extend the subsidies a little bit. Do you mean
like you're a little bit pregnant, or you're a little
bit dead, or you're a little bit whatever. No, So

(11:34):
the point I'm making is the Republicans are falling right
into the trap the Democrats are set up for them,
and they don't have the cajones, they don't have the backbone,
they don't have the testicles to stand up and say
we shouldn't be subsidizing this at all, and we're cutting
them all off, and we have control right now.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
And Democrats if you don't like it, too bad.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
If in Democrats, if you want to shut down the
government again, have at it. That's the point I guess
I should have made. So Yes, I'm worried about Republicans.
Republicans are about to just once again take two steps
back when they're in control. Oh my gosh, do they

(12:19):
irritate me? Damn right, they irritate me, But so is
Judge Bozburg. Anyway, thanks for the talkback. Actually, that's the
kind of talkback that I could take for the entire segment.
That's the kind of talkback that really gets me wound up.

(12:40):
But I need to take a break.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Here, Ronnie.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
I went to the Situation with Michael Brown podcast. I
opened it up with that handy dandy new and improved
iHeartRadio app. And for my wife, I played all the
banter that you were talking about.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Me this week.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
She feels like she owes you an apology.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Actually, I would like to meet her, because if she
has her eyesight and her hearing, then she must be
either one of the dumbest people I've ever met in
my entire life, or she's a saint.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
One or the other. I don't know which. It is
no middle ground.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, or she's deaf and blind and mute and she
just doesn't know what she's dealing with when she's dealing
with you.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I don't know which. It is. Possible, Yeah, all possible,
All very possible.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Let me conclude quickly with Judge Boseberg, because I want
you to know what's really going on here.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
The question that.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
The question that really remains is what's the end game.
I think he's already determined that there is probable cause
that there should be a contempt site to in fact,
a criminal contempt citation against somebody at the Department of
Whole Land Security or it's that matter of the Department
of Justice. He believes that they intentionally violated his order,

(14:12):
even though his order was first verbal and then only
entered into the record later, and the flights had already
taken off and they'd already disembarked well.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
The government has.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Since identified Christy Nomes, the Secretary of Home Land Security,
as the person in the administration who made the decision
to have the flights continue after they were already in
the air, after they'd already left American airspace, to continue
onto El Salvador and deplane the TDA members. But Boseberg

(14:44):
is trying to get that put in writing because right
now he has insufficient evidence to assess whether or not
Secretary Nome's decision was a wilful violation of the court order. Now,
the two witnesses that he wants to hear from have
never indicated in any way anywhere that they either spoke
with the Secretary about the Court's order, discussed it, hurt

(15:06):
about it.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Or anything you see.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
To to invoke or impose criminal contempt. Contempt, there has
to be wilfulness, and wilfulness is a state of mind
of the alleged contender. And the two witnesses are not
going to get Judge Boseburg closer to knowing Secretary nome
state of mind. And why does he continued to do it?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Now?

Speaker 3 (15:30):
He's already made a determination that Secretary Nome is beyond
his reach and her state of mind or her you
know that, somehow, somehow he's already made a determination that
she didn't violate any order.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
He can't. How's he going to backtrack that? Now? Why
is he doing it?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
I think he was to write an updated version of
the probable cause finding and then fill that with facts,
as he wants to see the facts based on the
information that has come out since April sixteen, and that
includes the one lawyer's public statements, the guy that got
fired suggesting that there was an intentional discussion about the

(16:14):
option of just ignoring the court order or halting the flights.
He wants to put in their. Judge Bow's comments on
the subject that he offered during his confirmation hearing is
going to be long and scathing. He's going to name names,
He's going to include specific accusations of misconduct and a

(16:35):
lack of candor. In my opinion, he's doing this on
behalf of and it's purely my guess he's doing this
on behalf of all the other district judges because they
believe that they've been unfairly attacked and that they've been
maligned by the administration over the past ten to eleven
months of lawfare being waged against the administration changes in policy.

(17:00):
That's what's really going on here. But in the end,
my guess is that he will determine that he can't establish,
at least by the necessary standard to proof the Secretary
Nome Wilfree violated the March fifteenth restraining Order, and then
if that's the case, further content proceedings can't be justified,
and holding a non attorney cabinet secretary in criminal contempt

(17:24):
for making a policy decision after having been provided legal
advice by the Deputy Attorney General, his principal assistant, and
the General Council of Homeland Security, it's not going to
stand up on appeal, and that would leave a huge
smoking crater between the administration, the Department of Justice, and
the DC District Court, where so much of this litigation

(17:45):
involving whatever Trump's trying to do can only take place.
I am, however, confident that there are voices of colleagues
within that Federal District Courthouse urge him down this path,
and they're going to urge him to make a contempt
finding against the administration when that time comes. But let's

(18:12):
think about space. I don't mean out of space. I
mean buildings. You know, the space of the studio, for example,
one floor below where Judge Boseburg in the DC Federal
Court House sits are the judges of the DC Court
of Appeals, and those are the judges they're going to
be called upon to review any decision he makes, and

(18:34):
then less than half a mile away are the nine
justice of the United States Supreme Court, where any decision
would almost certainly end up at some point or another.
Now there are about channel means of communications between all
of these people, so.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I don't know. Maybe Judge Boseburg will get.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
His cathartic moment in writing his opinion and then maybe
even summoning both sides to a hearing where he he
announces his decision publicly from the bench. But my guess
is he will bring this chapter a close by not
moving forward with further contempt proceedings. I think these judges

(19:16):
have been slapped down enough enough. Or as I said,
you remember yesterday and I talked about no, I take
the bag somewhere else I was talking about this. A
president doesn't need to say, hey, I want XYZ done
to get somebody to go do something. Well, the Chief

(19:37):
Justice of the US Supreme Court doesn't need to say
anything directly to get judges lined up. Clerks can do it,
secretaries can do it, friends can do it over dinner.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
It can be done.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
And I think Judge Boseburg may and I certainly hope,
is getting the message, you're overstepping your bounds Minnesota. Let's
go to Minnesota. Let's go from DC to Minnesota. The
Somali refugee community in Minnesota shows significantly higher reliance on

(20:12):
welfare compared to Native born Minnesotans. That's according to a
new analysis of a decade of American community survey data.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
The Center for.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Immigration Study CIS reports that eighty one percent of the
Somali refugees headed households in Minnesota use at least one
form of taxpayer funded welfare, and that includes twenty seven
percent getting cash assistance, fifty four percent using food stamps,
and seventy three percent enrolled in Medicaid. Compared to native

(20:48):
born Minnesota households, only twenty one percent use welfare programs,
with six percent on cash, a seven percent on food stamps,
and eighteen percent of Medicaid. And then the gap is
even larger when you get to families that have kids.
The study shows that eighty nine percent eighty one as

(21:08):
well be hundred right eighty nine percent of Somali headed
households with kids rely on public assistance compared to thirty
percent of Native born Minnesota households. Nearly every Somali household
with children gets some form of welfare. Are you tired

(21:28):
of it? That's a grift that just keeps ongoing. But
there's another grift that keeps ongoing that I want to
talk about before it becomes more widespread news.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
The Denver City Council.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Approved thirty three million dollars in contracts with homelessness service
provider Urban Alchemy. Alchemy it's a nonprofit. It's an NGO
based in San Francisco. The founding the founder of this
NGO and the current CEO is someone by the name

(22:06):
of Lena Miller.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
She likes to fly first class.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
She likes to I mean, this is where you and I,
you know, because I don't live in Denver, but I
work in Denver. And NGOs get money from not just
Denver taxpayers. Although this thirty three million dollar in contract,
thirty three million dollaring, thirty three million dollar contract probably
includes a combination of Denver taxes, state taxes paid by

(22:37):
everybody in the state, and probably some federal money too.
But it's a thirty three million dollar contract to an NGO,
and this CEO they got a thirty three million dollar contract. Wow,
makes three hundred and sixty nine nine hundred twenty three
dollars plus almost six thousand dollars in so called air

(23:01):
quote here other earnings. According to its most recent tax filings,
that's ten thousand dollars more than the leader of the
much larger Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
She is Lena Miller, one.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Of the highest paid CEOs for Denver's homelessness providers. And
you wonder why we continue to have a homeless program,
I mean a homeless problem. We continue to have a
homeless program because if you're making almost half a million
dollars somewhere between a quarter and a half a million

(23:39):
dollars and you fly first class to well, I've got
to go back to LA because I need to study
logistics of homelessness. Yes, that's what we're doing in Colorado now.
One of the particular homeless facilities, the Aspen, was run
by the Salvation arm Met. The regional leader in Colorado

(24:03):
that would head that up pays about thirty thousand dollars,
though other staffers at the charity make more. The person
than charge of that particular place made about thirty thousand dollars.
Nine executives at this new outfit Urban Alchemy. We're making
more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,

(24:25):
So you've got more than a million dollars going to
nine other executives. You've got almost half a million dollars
going to the CEO, all of a non government organization
that is being paid to solve or manage or manage
and solve the homeless problem in Denver. I don't think

(24:46):
there's a snowballs chance in hell that the.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
W homeless problem in Denver is going to get solved.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Because who wants to work themselves out of a three
hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars a year job plus
per to flying first class wherever you go. Urban Alchemy,
according to Denver Right, is one of many national nonprofits
that grew fast when the city started spending big on
addressing homelessness after the pandemic when the encampment spread across

(25:16):
the country. They also pay for luxury travel expenses. Urban
Alchemy explaining tax forms the organization has paid our CEO
to travel first class when necessary for logistics and its
business purposes. I don't know, but for example, I will

(25:38):
my own hard earned money, not taxpayer money. I'm flying
first class in Missoula tonight to go to my grandson's graduation.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
I paid for that. Guess what.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
I can walk to the back of the plane where
the economy seats are and they go to the same
place at the same time that the first class seats do.
So when they tell you that, oh, she needs to
fight first class for logistics, what.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
Not?

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Every first class now seven fifty sevens are being kind
of taken off the out of commission, but not all
first class seats are up front, and they don't always
disembark first before everybody else. I'm trying to figure out
what the logistics are because those seats fill the same

(26:28):
place that the economy seats go. But meanwhile, that's what
Denver taxpayers are going to be paying for the Meanwhile,
the organization also employed drivers for car base travel to
LA and Portland so the executive team could work while
they were on the road. Now I find that interesting too,
because when I board the United flights in Missoula this evening,

(26:50):
I can either through my T mobile account or through
my United you know, membership, I can go online and
I can send you I can respond to text messages,
I can send you emails. I can tell a rod
in an email what a jerky was today. I can
do all sorts of things. So they need to work

(27:11):
while on the road. Huh, I can work while I'm
in the plane too. And that little curtain that separates
first class between economy that wi fi works despite the curtain. Yes,
the curtain doesn't stop the WiFi. None of a sample
of other local nonprofits, according to the Denver Right, disclosed

(27:35):
first class fought flights or hiring drivers. Now, I would
like to know how do we get this contract to
this particular NGO. Jeff Kositski, who now serves as Denver's
Deputy Director of Housing Opportunity for the Department of Housing Stability,

(27:56):
He was making more than one hundred and ninety eight
thousand dollars a year for Urban Alchemy as its chief
growth officer.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Did you get what I just said?

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Oh, the guy that now serves as Denver's Deputy Director
of Housing Opportunity used to work for Urban Alchemy made
almost two hundred thousand dollars a year. Kitty, I wonder
how they got the thirty three million dollar contract.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Mm.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Interestingly, you want to know how fast this NGO has
grown Their twenty nineteen tax filing showed only about thirty
six thousand dollars in revenue. Fast forward to twenty twenty
to twenty twenty three twenty twenty four fiscal year, they
brought in nearly eighty five million dollars in revenue and

(28:47):
spent eighty two million up But according to their filings,
two percent of the organization's budget goes to compensating executives.
Ninety one percent, they say he goes on program expenses,
with the rest going to administration and fundraising. Now that
is within widely accepted standards for nonprofits. They employ more

(29:08):
than twelve hundred people. They provide workforce programs related to
civic engagement, urban street cleaning, re entry services. But the
people that do that, they might get twenty one bucks
an hour if they're lucky. So the homelessness drift is
going on quite well in Colorado. So the next time

(29:29):
you see a homeless person on the street, ask you
what that CEO of Urban Alchemy is doing for three
hundred and seventy thousand dollars a year, and why they're
still a homeless person on the street. Couldn't we just
pay the homeless people to just simply go away?