3-12-25 - 9am - Department of Education and Ukrain-Russia Ceasefire

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mike mosck Mood Khalil should have been expelled from Colombia
long ago. It's that simple. But I know it's really
not that simple, because it's Colombia. Well, and with all
due respect to Columbia, and it's not just Colombia, it's
universities all over the all over the country. We've become
a hotbed of anti Semitism. In fact, I was going

(00:22):
to move on to the Department of Ed, Department of Egg,
the Department of Ed. But before I do, Fox was
just running a package about mock Mood, Khalil Khalil, and
and there's all these protesters and it's described as an
anti Israel protest, and there's hundreds of them, and you

(00:46):
know they're all clamoring, you know, to free mock Mood
because you know, we're violating us free speech rights. This
country is so stupid. We have how do I sound
like the old man get off my lawn, but yelling
at clouds. Oh, we have so utterly failed. Speaking of

(01:12):
Department of Education, we have so utterly failed in this
country to educate an entire numerous generations, not not just
I know, okay, Boomer, I got it, but Dragon, you know,
I've ever asked you this question. When when you were

(01:33):
in junior higher high school? Uh huh, did you have
a government or a civics class? Yes, so you did,
So what kind of generally what years were that?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Those were?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
The middle school grades six, seven, and eight? Okay? And
has that been like twenty years ago? Oh more than
more than twenty years ago? All right? Because I look
around and you know every once why I follow Richard Dreyfus,
because Dreyfus has been trying to get at civics back
into schools. Said, he's got this foundation that works on

(02:04):
it and everything. I just think that we have utterly
failed to instill in these mush brain kids, these rug rats,
the foundational principles upon which this country is founded. And
what are the long term implications of that. You can't
live in freedom. The people that I know that live

(02:30):
in Russia or live in I can't say much for
Argentina anymore, but for people that live in old Eastern
Bloc countries, specifically live in the old Soviet Union countries,
that live in Russia. Some of the people that I

(02:52):
know that live in Europe for that matter, that are
indeed communists, Yeah, I know them.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
They like it.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
They you go talk, not always, but you go talk
to a lot of people in Russia and they find
it comforting. And I've always found that I had. I
had one conversation with one of Putin's guys one time

(03:23):
at a doc isle that we were at and we're
out in the middle of a lake pretending to fish.
We weren't fishing. He was telling me how he knows
that they have one chance. And this has been twenty
years ago and that chance and I think is long gone,

(03:44):
but they had one chance to really kind of westernize
the country. Not so much in terms of commercial commercialization,
because Russia is commercialized. You want to find a Gucci store,
you can find a Gucci store. Or in Moscow you
want to find a Burbery store, you can find a

(04:04):
Birbery store. You want to find, you know, whatever, you
can find it. And they do have some large supermarkets.
But they feel comfortable knowing that the SVR, the successor
to the KGB, is this secret police that just at
any moment could just come and yank them out and

(04:26):
they could be disappeared. And the same as true in
communist China. Uh, you know what we need, We need
a liver, a human liver. Well, we've got this guy
that's been convicted of a crime and he's not currently working.
So get the extraction van, drive up to his house,

(04:49):
haul him out to the van, don't worry about the anesthetic,
cut out his liver, throw it into the cooler, throw
him back out on the street, or put him in
a body bag and will incinerate somewhere and boom, that's
it gone. That's the kind of fear that they live under.
But they find it comforting because they don't have to
worry about anything. There's no I mean, there's there's no

(05:13):
chaos from their point of view. From our point of view,
we look at we look at free speech, and we
look at what's going on with this Yahoo, and we
look at what's going on in the Columbia University campus.
And for those of us who understand that, you know what,
living in freedom, living in liberty is sometimes chaotic, messy, ugly.

(05:35):
Our system of government is slow, methodical. Someone like Trump
comes along and people are, just like I said, trying
to cover it is truly mentally exhausting. When I come in,
particularly after I finish a program, but when I'm trying
to prepare for the next day's program, and I'm trying

(05:55):
to narrow it down out of five thousand stories because
Trump's done five thousand things that day, or five thousand
things have happened in the country, and the narrow it
down into four hours. I mean, I still think four
hours is too long, and I'd love to be doing
a three hour program like I do on Saturdays. But
I can fill it. I can certainly feel it. A

(06:16):
lot of people can't live in this kind of society,
and a lot of people look at the United Kingdom.
In fact, I've got that story teed up. I may
do that in a minute about how in the United
Kingdom their decimation of free speech is getting even worse.
But since I was talking about education, let's do what
I wanted to talk about this hour, which is the

(06:38):
Department of Education. Because last night federal workers at the
Department of Education got an email indicating that they needed
to vacate their offices no later than six pm last night,
and that the department's offices will remain closed today as well.
And the directive said the closure is for quote security reasons,

(07:05):
beginning today meaning last night, beginning today at six pm,
all ed not erect on dysfunction. All ED offices in
the National Capital Region, which is the DC area, so
any regional office is not true. But all ED offices
in the National Capital Region will be closed for security reasons.

(07:27):
Employees must vacate the building by that time. The email
goes on to say all ED offices in the National
Capital Region and the regions will be closed to employees
and contractor employees on Wednesday, March twelfth, that's today. It
then goes on to say that employees with approved telework

(07:48):
agreements may work from home on Wednesday, March twelve, Please
take your laptop with you in departying the office on Tuesday,
March eleven, and then it says it will reopen tomployees
on Thursday. No additional details have been given on why
the closure was ordered, and I would simply be speculating
like everyone else as to why. But the better part

(08:12):
of the story has been the reaction from the employees.
Both of these sound bites are from today, so well
just take a listen, right Dragging men to michaelphones.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
In the Department of Education, the latest victim of the
Trump administration slash and burn efforts.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Half of it, Wow, MSNBC part of the administration's slash
and burn effort. Now, maybe something's broken since I put
this together last night about the security reasons. But and
maybe it is a ruse to get people out of

(09:03):
the building while you I'll use the term disinfect, Will
you disinfect the building? There's really not much right of
a privacy in the federal office. Your computer computers are monitored,
your desk or subject to being inspected, so maybe they

(09:26):
need to you know, quote disinfect it. But I know.
According to MSNBC, it's because of the administration's splash and burn.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Facts will be slashed about thirteen hundred career employees. This
is in addition to the roughly six hundred people who
accepted voluntary resignations or early retirement. Education Secretary Linda McMahon
says these layoffs represent the department's quote commitment to efficiency
and accountability. The first step on the road to shutting
down the departments.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Joining us now.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Is Britney Coleman, a civil rights attorney at the Education
Department who just got noticed yesterday that she was being
laid off. She's also national shop steward in the AFGE Union.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Brittany Oh, She just happens to be a union leader.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Well, thank you for coming on with us. How did
you learn you were losing your job? And what was
your reaction?

Speaker 1 (10:19):
They have occasionally locally. I don't think that any national
network's done it. But when iHeart went through its layoffs,
however long ago, that was a few months or a
year ago, I conflate time. I don't remember seeing Kyle
Clark or Jeremy Hubbard or any of the other anchors

(10:42):
out front or out back where employees who got laid
off were escorted out of the building. How do you feel?
What's it like? What are you going to do? Why
do we treat government employees with such such a hierarchy
that we I well, I feel again. I feel sorry
for anybody that loses their job, anybody. I don't care

(11:03):
what the circumstances are. You lose your job, that's life changing,
life altering for you. Even if you did something wrong.
You did something wrong, but still it's life altering, life
changing for you. Beyond that, I don't care. People lose
their jobs all the time. It's horrible, but it happens
all the time. Why are we doing this? I thought

(11:27):
this is what we voted for. I thought, this is
what we wanted.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Thank you for having me, and to see how I
learned I was losing my job. Was I got an
email earlier yesterday stating that our offices would be suddenly closed,
which was highly unusual, and it was already adding to
the heightened chaos and confusion that people are experiencing because
of the doge emails that we were getting every week
in the bird resignation emails. So last night, when I

(11:56):
got home, I started getting text messages seeing that other
people got briff notices from the agency, and then I
just happened to check my email and that's where I
saw that I got one too. It's just a simple
email we were all blind copy stating that we were
let go in the name of pushing the Trump executive
order for efficiency.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Are you angry?

Speaker 4 (12:17):
Are you worried?

Speaker 1 (12:20):
No, I'm just happy to go lucky. You know, I
just lost my job paying one hundred and some thousand
dollars a year, and I'm you know, I'm I can't
believe you asked me that question dealing with anchor I
was setting with you.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
I'm definitely angry because I don't understand why I and
my colleagues have been targeted for just doing our jobs.
Our jobs are protecting the American public and their patient students,
So it's very frustrating.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I found that interesting. Our job is to protect the
American publican students from what foreign invasion, from diseases, oh,
perhaps from homeschooling, perhaps protecting public school students from conservative thought,

(13:15):
conservative dogma, conservative philosophy, perhaps protecting them from civics or government,
or understanding the founding fathers and why we live the
way we live. Protecting an odd choice of words to you.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
To not only have to endure the demeaning emails and
ridicule that we're getting in the media, but to also
have to lose your job when all you were doing
was just following the law and enforcing that, or providing
statistics to help teachers do their jobs, providing statistics to

(13:54):
help teachers do their jobs, statistics like hey, you know what.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
You're not succeeding very well in doing that again, MSNBC.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
In the public announcement of these cuts, part of the
statement we got reads the Department of Education will continue
to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the
agency's perview, including formula funding, student loans, pell grants, funding
for special needs students, and competitive grant making. Brittany, what

(14:27):
do you see as the impact here for students, teachers,
and families all around the country.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Now, before she answers the question, did you get the
litany of grants expenditures that the FEDS send to state
government to then pass out to school districts well to
bureaucredit mess up? Why do all of that? If Douglas

(14:57):
County schools, which is the county, the district that I
live in, if they want to do certain things, then
they ought to be willing to come to Douglas County
taxpayers and say we need to do X, Y Z,
and here are the metrics by which we will measure

(15:19):
our success. And in fact, let us show you, even
before you vote on whatever this issue might be, this
tax increase or a bond issue or whatever it might be,
let us show you how good we're doing. You know,
I might be inclined to actually vote for an issue
if I could see metrics that showed me that, Oh, look,
Douglas County Schools, those schools are performing very well. Look

(15:42):
at the test scores, look at the graduation rates, look
at what they go on to do after they graduate,
then I would be very very supportive. But when I
don't either have that information or the information that I
do have shows that, Wow, you're really not doing all
that good of a job, or you just take Colorado large,
I would say maybe we need to figure out a

(16:03):
different way to approach public education. Well, I will tell.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
You that I think the impact is is that they're
going to get the residuals of the chaos that we've
been experiencing as employees there is It's hard to believe
that removing functions and removing the people who do those
functions such as making sure that students receive their services
if they have special needs, or making sure that there
is adequate documentation of the students receiving those needs, how

(16:32):
that were eliminating their function is going to help you.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Know, this is a great general lesson in federalism. Is
it the role of the federal government? Because I would
make the argument that as long as we're going to
go down this route of having a Department of Education,
then I would say that we need to eliminate all
school districts, eliminate all the districts, eliminate all state departments

(16:59):
of education. Let's just centralize education in this country. Let's
just let Washington run it. Why not a mike as simpletons?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
In South Dakota when I graduated in two thousand and five,
it was a requirement.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
I know. It's just South Dakota. The flyover states is
South Dakota state. Is that a part of the Union.
Do they have radio stations in South Dakota? Do they
have what you have? Some? You have some mechanism by

(17:40):
which you can hear me in South Dakota. Wow, I'm
always amazing things I learned on this program. Is South
Dakota Grandpa that leaves uh talkbacks to so? Yeah, but
I think what he really does is I think he
travels over the state line and leaves that and then
he drives to Dakota. Yeah yeah, yeah, to Minnesota or Colorado,

(18:00):
I know, in someplace, but yeah, I didn't know. Do
they have running water and indoor toilets in either North
or South Dakota? Running water? Yes, but they still have
to use out houses. Okay? And is the running water
the stream and they just take the water into the
house with a bucket? Is that the so called running water?
So you get it? Yeah, I'm just trying to you know,

(18:21):
I'm trying to improve the ratings that we have in
the Dakota. This is what I'm trying to do right now. Yeah,
this is helping. I'm always trying to be helpful, Dragon,
always trying to be helpful. Well, the news broke that
Ukrainian officials have indicated they have a willingness to enter
into a preliminary thirty day seasfire with Russia. That was

(18:41):
conveyed in discussions with our representatives in Saudi Arabia on
the on Tuesday. They're Tuesday. According to a joint statement
from the Department of State and the Ukrainian officials, Ukraine
is open to the US proposal for an immediate ceasefire,
which could be extended by both parties of a great
upon and implemented simultaneously by the Ruskies. Now, obviously we

(19:06):
have to now communicate that to Russia. Oh my gosh,
we got to talk to the Russians, and we need
to communicate to Russia the importance of reciprocal actions in
working towards peace. Concurrently, this country has announced that it
will resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following

(19:27):
the diplomatic talks. Hm, you know. In an unrelated but
somewhat parallel story, Australia has announced today that they will
not impose reciprocal tariffs if Trump decides to impose tariffs
on their goods, and the Canadians have since the announced

(19:51):
in a phone call between the Prime Minister of I
forget whether it was Alberta, whatever province, it was that, yeah,
you know what, Uh, never mind, let's have some conversations.
Seems to me that these threats, these actions by Trump

(20:14):
that says, oh, you don't want to do what I'm
asking to do, well, okay, then we're going to cut
off military aid and intelligence sharing and you go back
home and sit down and think about it, and then
we'll we'll see what you come up with. I find
this fascinating every At some point I wonder whether Trump's

(20:39):
ability to continue to negotiate this way will continue or not,
because isn't not obvious to everybody what he's doing here?
Am I the only one that sees that, Oh, you
don't want to enter into the ceasefire. Oh, oh you
don't want to sign the mineral great deal. Oh you
don't want to even you don't even like the fact

(21:00):
that we're talking to Vladimir Putin. Okay, well, no more
cookies for you. Oh yeah, we'll agree to a ceasefire.
And then the reaction from the politicians is pretty amazing.
Let's first go to the Secretary of State, because the

(21:20):
Secretary of State points it out pretty well that, oh yeah,
it's amazing. But guess what, the.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
United States has done a good thing for the world
and bringing this process forward.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
And now we all eagerly await and the.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all
hostilities so people will stop dying, so bullets will stop flying,
and so a process can begin to find a permanent piece.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
So good for him. Now, what else is the media
saying about it? I love going to MSNBC because they've
always got the best people RIGHTSNBC.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
And again, the partisanship that you say brought up was
actually bipartisanship, saying that both you, as a Democrat and
the Conservatives who support the Republicans for the most part
of the Wall Street Journal editorial page are also deeply
concerned with this. Do you believe we were talking to

(22:27):
invest McFall yesterday, Do you believe the possibility of a
European peacekeeping force and American business interests in Ukraine combine
in the future to build a sort of trip wire
against a future coot and invasion, because, as Ambassador McFall said,

(22:49):
those mining interests that Donald Trump talks about, that's not
like a six month plan. You go in, you invest,
you build infrastructure, and its years in the making provide
a prip wire that provides security for Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Now before the guy before Congressman heines Hem's answers, I
read the premise of Joe Scarborough's question to be, Oh,
I kind of have to admit that Trump's negotiation strategy
here seems to have worked. We might actually have a
cease fire. He then goes on to it appears, or

(23:27):
at least tell me what you think.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
He was kind of interesting to me because I saw
numerous instances where people like Joe Scarborough, including over on
Fox News, some people were asking questions and they probably
had not done a pre production meeting with the person
they were interviewing because the answer didn't fit at all

(23:50):
with what the premise of the question was, which I've
always said, don't never buy into the premise, but it's
unusual to see people that absolutely just throw away the premise.
But the premise from Scarborough here seemed to me to
be that, in fact, their cairn as I looked at it,
says Ukraine says it is ready to accept a temporary

(24:11):
cease fire with Russia, and Scarborough is pointing out that
do you foresee as Europe has indicated they would NATO
troops on the ground, or if not NATO troops, then
individual countries from the UK and the EU putting troops
on the ground, and US entering into a business agreement

(24:32):
and having a long term business deal with Ukraine that
would act as a security guarantee that would keep as
they keep referring to a trip wire, that would keep
Vladimir Putin at bay? Do you agree with that? So
that's to me, that was the premise of the question.
Not even close, Joe.

Speaker 7 (24:52):
I mean this whole bit of extortion where we are
demanding extortion.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Extortion? Was it really extortion or was it just saying, okay, well,
you know what, I'm the President of the United States
and you you dissed me in the White House. You
signed an agreement with the UK when you were supposed
to be signing one with US, and then you started

(25:18):
balking and signing one with US, and so you know what,
no more intel, no more bombs. Now, remember that didn't
immediately stop. It just means that whatever's in the pipeline,
there's nothing else in the pipeline. So you got to
finish emptying the pipeline, like turning the water fass it off.
And so that's that was extortion. I call that negotiations.

Speaker 7 (25:42):
Minerals in exchange for helping the Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Helping Ukraine is just absurd.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
No, I mean, let me let me tell you how
this happens, right, No.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
I'd rather you tell me what your alternative is. I'd
rather you, Congressman, tell me that if if you think
it's extortion, kN Can we all agree that we want
the war to stop? Maybe we don't. Maybe maybe in
this audience, maybe some of you actually want the war
to continue. I don't not because I am, you know,

(26:12):
a cheerleader for Ukraine or a cheerleader for Russia. But
I'm a cheerleader for not having World War three. I'm
a cheerleader for US not being drawn into a wider
spread war. I'm for NATO not putting boots on the ground,
which might invoke Article five I'm for just can we
can we can we bring this to an end, which

(26:32):
means I got to talk to both sides. Heim sounds
like not is any good.

Speaker 7 (26:38):
Two years from now, when there's a bunch of American
mining companies in eastern Ukraine and Putin decides that, you know,
the Trump administration is coming to a close, so he
needs to finish this thing. He makes up some sort
of provocation on the part of the Ukrainians. He says,
oh my gosh, they did this.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
We are going to move in.

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Some troops and we're going to start, you know, set
up being setting up. A note flies on, so you
better get your people out.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
That's how that ends.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
So that's a sham. That's a complete sham.

Speaker 7 (27:05):
Could the Europeans put together a peacekeeping force? You know,
probably not today, but you know Europe.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Has sat I know they couldn't today because they don't
they don't have the resources to do.

Speaker 7 (27:15):
It up and take taking notice of the United States
no longer stands with them. So I think that over
the course of the next couple of years, they are
going to do what they need to do to develop
a pretty significant military capability. And if they have the fortitude,
which this administration, and candidly the Biden administration, didn't show
put enough of that military capability into and around Ukraine

(27:38):
to deter a Russian you.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Know, advance. But right now that's not really a thing.
This tells me that, you know, you can find anybody
say anything on television at any time about any topic.
I think what fascinates me is why do we have
this absolute negative attitude. Look, do I trust Vladimir Putin? No,
I do not. But I also understand that Vladimir Putin

(28:03):
doesn't really want World War three anymore than anybody else
wants world War three. You know, Barack Obama was really
good at drawing red lines and then letting Putin cross them.
Putin also has drawn red lines and then has let
those kind of disappear. So I think we're at a
stage where everybody recognizes that somehow we get to stop

(28:28):
this madness. The Department of Education is nothing more than
a government arm of the National Educators Association YEP. Teacher
unions control everything, which is sad because it's at the
cost of the rug rats. So let's go back to

(28:53):
Ukraine for a moment. So Rubio goes on to describe
Ukraine's readiness for a ceasefire as a concrete step, and
he expressed that optimism that Russia might respond similarly. But
Russia has not as of this moment, provided any sort
of affirmative response regarding the ceasefire. I wouldn't expect them
to immediately. That's all part of the negotiation strategy, which

(29:16):
is why Trump resumed supplying arms and intel to signal
to Russia that look, we got them to move. Now
we're going to rearm them. Continue the arms, continue the intel,
and we're going to keep doing that until we hear
from you. I think this team of Trump and Rubio

(29:37):
or are handling this brilliantly. Now, some analysts, some foreign
policy analysts, suggests that Russia is going to start seeking
significant concessions before they agreed to any sort of temporary ceasefire.
And that didn't surprise me and doesn't surprise me because
recently Russia has gotten some advances in that Curse region

(29:58):
where they've been unable for months now to kick the
Ukrainians out. Now, the Cursed region is where Ukrainian forces
have actually taken over Russian territory. You don't hear it
described that way very often. But I think it's important
to understand Ukrainians actually took over some Russian territory and

(30:18):
Russia has been unable to expel them. That's also where
we heard from yesterday that there is based on telegram,
there are some discussions going on between some of the
soldiers in that region, the Ukrainian soldiers in that region,
who are trying to negotiate a surrender in exchange for

(30:39):
their lives. So Russia is beginning to make some move.
But remember we were told three years ago this was
a two week ordeal. So Russia has not been able
to perform as expected. And Russia has made some progress
in the Zapariza region and the Dombasi are but again

(31:01):
nothing signific nothing that you would look at and go,
oh wow, they're on the move. Then, as I told
you yesterday, Ukraine, with the use of drones has targeted
and successfully hit an oil refinery near Moscow and then
a facility that's linked to the Druzebet pipeline that's in
the oil or not Oreo oil region, and they've this

(31:25):
drone assault is just continuing. Now. Let's say there's three
hundred drones, ninety of them may be getting through, but
ninety drones, Yeah, that's still going to cause significant damage.
So an assault on Moscow is continued. Granted Moscow is

(31:48):
a huge city, so it's on the outskirts of Moscow,
but still it's resulted in multiple casualties and airport closures.
So it's almost as if as if that things are
moving on both sides a little bit. Trump sees that.
Trump says, Okay, I'm gonna start the armaments again, I'm

(32:09):
gonna start sharing the intel again, and We'll see where
we go from here. Because he should finally somebody on
the Democrat side and joining us, I should point out
Richard Bloomenthal.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
Now is Democratic Senator Richard Bluminfaal of Connecticut who serves
on the Armed Services Committee.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
Senator, good to see you.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
How are you looking at this proposal? Is it a
clear breakthrough in this war?

Speaker 1 (32:35):
And what do you think Russia will do with it?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I think it's a very positive and encouraging development, and
it does put the onus on Russia. I think Putin
is going to try to stall, and only Donald Trump
putting pressure on Putin directly will persuade him to agree
to this ceasefire. Putin thinks he can outlast us. He

(32:59):
thinks that Trump may again suspend military and intelligence. Hey,
one of the most encouraging parts of this.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
At least we're hearing encouraging words from a Democrat.