April 15th Slowly Creeps Closer... With Guest John Rothmann

John Rothmann, host of Around The Political World, joins us to talk Eclipse Day, updates on the war in Ukraine, and Chernobyl. 

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Face Palm America. I'm Baybel Franklinfacepalmamericadot com is, of course, where
you can go to find out moreinformation about our program, to listen to
past episodes, to connect with uson social media. It is a wonderful
spring day in my part of theworld. I hope it is in yours.
And nothing, nothing Bailwolf can eclipseh our intrigue with what you're going

(00:34):
to do today. Indeed, itis a day where many parts of the
country, John Rothman will experience atotal solar eclipse. Many parts will experience
a partial eclipse in just a littlebit from now. If you're listening to
this afterward, you may have experiencedthis. John Rothman, Welcome to Face
Palm America. John Rothman, ofcourse, the host of Around the Political

(00:59):
World with John Brow. Thank youso much for being here. Always a
pleasure. Ah the eclipse, andI just I you know, I was,
I was thinking back to the Itwasn't the story because I haven't I
haven't read that, but the themovie version of a Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur's Court in which my brother andI were talking about that this morning.

(01:19):
The Farmer's Almanox serves a very usefulpurpose. That's right, in which in
which the character played by Bing Crosbyconvinces a middle medieval crowd in which he's
gone back in time that he hasamazing supernatural powers because he is able to
predict the eclipse and use it tohis advantage to get out of a tight

(01:41):
situation, which makes Merlin very unhappy. It does make Merlin very unhappy,
and it might well make Marjorie TaylorGreen very unhappy because she has said that
the the eclipse, uh and andthe fact that there was an earthquake,
a sizable earthquake in New York City, is a reason for people to repent,

(02:01):
repent of their sins. And Iwas thinking, you know, medieval
times have not left us entirely,have they done? No, it's called
the greening of the world. Yes, yes, greenwashing, but no.
You know what's stunning is that shehas such power in the House of represent
It is the Republicans takers seriously,and by the way, please don't forget

(02:24):
the laser, the Jewish laser beingyes, from outer space, that caused
those forest fires. Please don't forgetthat it must be the satellite containing the
Jewish space lasers. That is eclipsingthe sun today. I can imagine that
that's another place. Well, Marjorie, let men, I just tell you
my hope is that her political careerwill be eclipsed in your ear. Bravo,

(02:47):
John, Bravo. Now, todayis an interesting day because there have
been important statements made, particularly byDonald Trump, on the topic of abortion
and reproductive rights. Donald Trump hascan't come out and said that basically he
is in favor of the situation theway it is now post the repealing of

(03:13):
Rovers's Way, and he's fine withletting the states decide, and Biden is
saying that is not the case.You can be sure that Donald Trump,
were he to be reelected, wouldcertainly be presented with and sign a build
banning abortion throughout the United States.What are your thoughts on this? Well,
what Donald Trump has done is torepudiate the very principles that Abraham Lincoln

(03:37):
articulated at the founding of the RepublicanParty. It was Stephen A. Douglas
who proposed the idea of popular sovereignty, that each state should decide for itself,
whether it be slave or free.And Lincoln's rejoinder, which is immortalized
on so many levels. A housedivided against itself cannot stand. A nation

(03:59):
cannot exist half slave and half free. Well, what Donald Trump is doing
is basically repudiating the Lincoln concept.And let me take it a step further.
If you remember Brown versus the Boardof Education, and you remember that
the year after, in nineteen fiftyfive, a group of Southerners got together
and proposed something called the Southern Manifesto, which said each state should decide for

(04:24):
itself about segregation, about whether Well, let me tell you something. We
passed a thirteenth, fourteenth, andfifteenth Amendment, We passed a Civil Rights
Act of nineteen sixty four, theVoting Rights Active nineteen sixty five, the
Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty eight, to repudiate the idea that state's rights
were to prevail over federal legislation.So my sense is Donald Trump, if

(04:49):
he were alive today, if hewere alive today, Abraham Lincoln would repudiate
Donald Trump because he would say there'sno room for state's rights in the Republican
Party. Indeed he w And itseems to me that recent events have shown
us that the concept of states' rightsand I think this is clear historically also

(05:10):
is basically a defensive holding position bypeople who understand that the views that they
hold are not held by the majority, and an attempt to gain whatever they
can wherever they can, because whenthings have shifted and Republicans, you know,
and I say this in the trueMaga sense of the word Republicans that

(05:35):
they have shifted their stance in termsof states rights and said, well,
this is no longer a states rightsissue at all. It's this is this
is a federal issue, and we'regoing to deal with them once they have
the power to change things around that. So that to me, this seems
to be a specious argument. Ofcourse it's hypocrisy, But I think the
Republicans have made a major miscalculation.I think that abortion or the right of

(05:59):
women to chew is going to bea major issue in the campaign, and
I think Donald Trump's position will beunacceptable. One thing that I think is
important that he did today he didreaffirm something he said several weeks ago about
being in favor of in vitro fertilizationIVF, and I think that also will
cause a division in his ranks becausemany of the people who support him oppose

(06:21):
IVF. And yet I would suggestto you that many of the women and
men listening to the sound of ourvoice today became parents because of IVF.
Indeed, and I think this isthis Frankly, it's a sad day for
the report. Yeah, I thinkthe Republican Party has had many sad days

(06:43):
recently. I noted also that Biden, in addition to responding to Trump's remarks
on abortion, also announced a newstudent debt relief plan for millions of borrowers.
I think this one is focused onthe increasing amount of a debt accumulated
through interest through many of the plansthat people have. Then you know that

(07:06):
some of these some of these studentsowe more on the interest than they do
on the original loan. Of course, it should be forgiven. In fact,
I'm going to say something that willshock you. I go back to
the days when the University of Californiahere in California. Yes, oh,
it was free. It was tuitionfree because the state government said, we

(07:29):
will invest in our students. Theywill get jobs, they will produce industry,
and they'll stay here in California.It'll be a California boom. That's
the way we ought to look atit. Absolutely, isn't it amazing how
far we've come from that age?Craig, correct me if I'm wrong.
Was it not Ronald Reagan who firstimposed fees or did it predate? No,

(07:49):
Ronald Reagan is the one who imposedtuition, and I will I will
never forget that I was. Idid not go to UC, but many
of my friends did and they wereabsolutely Yet look what's happened. It costs
you as much to go to theUniversity of California any of the campuses,
as it does to go to someprivate schools. I mean, it's crazy,
it is. It really has changed. I mean in my time when

(08:13):
it'll be thirty years ago this yearthat I first went off to the University
of California at Santa Cruz and througha combination of merit based scholarships and PELL
grants on a federal level and myworking I was able, in spite of
the fact that my family did nothave great means, I was able to

(08:37):
go to the University of California geta degree. And now like the price
has doubled or in some cases liketripled across the UC system, and it's
one of the reasons. You know, I know that increasing numbers of people
are leaving the state of California,and that's happening for many complicated reasons,
but one of them must surely bethat it's it's just difficult to it's difficult

(09:03):
to get an education. It's it'sit's being priced out of the market in
a similar way that that houses are. And addressing that, I think we
want to bleeding. Just go backto nursery school for a moment, please
today for a good nursery school inSan Francisco. You're talking a minimum of
forty thousand dollars a year God fornursery school. Wow. So, I

(09:24):
mean, this is something that wehave to think about. I'm meeting later
today with the superintendent Schools, andone of the issues we're going to talk
about is the whole here in SanFrancisco. The whole question we're going to
talk about is tutorial the need tobring people up who are younger kids who
can't read. You know, themost one of the most stunning things to
me is a number of kids whograduate from high school who can't read.

(09:48):
They're not at grade level. It'sit's well, it's shocking, it's it's
a shocking problem. And you know, I know that you stay very closely
in touch with politics in the cityof San Francisco and are well connected in
that way. I just it's justincredible because I I go on on Zillo

(10:11):
from time to time and check whatthe housing prices are in that neck of
the woods, because I grew upacross the bay from you in Marin County,
and well live I live in alovely place in southern Oregon. But
I have, I really have,have no realistic hopes, barring a powerball
win, of being able to,you know, purchase a home in the

(10:33):
San Francisco ribers. Right, it'sthe subscribers to your podcast. It is
so overwhelmingly accepted that millions of peoplewill be willing to sup Right. I
have hopes, but you know,I my wife and I owned a condo
in San Leandro. You know whenwe when we lived there, what now

(10:56):
it's like twenty twenty four years ago, and it's it is just like the
price of even like a low end, you know, entry level type of
place is now like double or triplethe price that it was back then just
a generation ago. You know whataffordable housing is an oxymoron in the Bay
Area. Indeed, yes, ah, well, if you can do anything

(11:20):
to change that, and I knowyou are politically connected, I hold out
fervent hope that someday, based onyour great efforts, mister Rothman, I
may once more return to my ancestralhomeland. Well, we once had an
assessor here in San Francisco. Hisname was Russ Wolden, dear man.

(11:43):
He used to accept liquor, turkeys, desserts, anything if you wanted your
property taxes lowered. Now I musttell you Russ ended up in San Quentin.
I'm afraid those days are over.Oh well, okay, So so
I'll have to depend on, youknow, purchase of lottery tickets instead.

(12:05):
I know that someone I don't thinkthey've come forward yet. Yes, yes,
Oregon, somebody in Oregon won thepowerball lottery. Maybe, maybe,
just maybe that person is a regularlistener to face Palm America and is your
next door neighbor that you don't knowabout, who will soon be willing to
come forward and promote you even more, who knows all donations and discussions if

(12:28):
such can be directed to face PalmAmerica dot com. You wait, wait,
if you get that powerball. Iwant my salary doubled. Oh I'm
not paid for this. I wantyou as an old friend. But you
know this is a way of well, it's making it's it's a done deal.
It's a done deal. Will beboth financial partners and neighbors next next

(12:52):
year. In Jerusalem, I knowthat you were talking about the situation in
Ukraine and there have been some verydisturbing headlines. We heard it the in

(13:13):
the first couple of months of thewar in Ukraine that there was disturbances and
perhaps attacks launched on a Ukrainian anuclear power station. That seems to have
occurred again. What is the latestthat you know, John, Well,
we know that there have been somedrone strikes on a nuclear plant in Ukraine.

(13:33):
The danger here is, of course, that one of those drones hits
in a way which causes a massivenuclear disaster. Ukraine is not high on
the agenda right now, and itshould be because what's happening in Ukraine is
a disaster and it affects all ofus, although most people are not paying

(13:56):
attention. Look even the Middle East, which is so explosive at this moment.
We're six months and a few daysout from the October seventh attack on
innocent Israelis and the world doesn't seemto care. It's astounding. I was
also reading a headline about the headof Rwanda claiming that the world has been

(14:20):
inactive, unattented for thirty years afterthe genocide. And you wonder when you
look around the world at all thepain and suffering. So this is a
very serious concern, may I say. Richard Nixon once said to me that
seventy percent of a president's time shouldbe spent on foreign policy, and I
still believe that to be true.We are not focusing on foreign policy,

(14:43):
and we ought to. Yeah,we live in a very interconnected global world,
and to ignore that is to doso at our peril. And to
think of the idea that there wouldbe another Chernobyl type disaster. You know,
I've or three Mile Island or threeMile Island right here to the United
States. Yeah, these are seriousissues. And the nuclear power plant in

(15:07):
Ukraine services much of the power andenergy for Eastern Europe. I mean,
this is this is not a localizedsituation. So this should be a profound
concern and ought to be talked aboutand debated and discussed and certainly dealing with
Vladimir Putin is not getting any easier. Yeah, no, absolutely, And

(15:28):
there may be those of us whoare listening who were not alive when Chernobyl
happened. You know, I was. I don't. I was a little
too young to remember Three Mile Island, but I was old enough to remember
Chernobyl and know what was going onat that time. If you have not
had the opportunity to do so yet, I would urge you to see the
Showtime production of mini series of Chernobyl. It is an incredibly disturbing and moving

(15:56):
reenactment of what happened during that disasterand that that could be replicated and we
could face threats on a global levelthat we do not want to see.
And the repercussions of that were horrificfor people of our widespread area of that
region, you know, in termsof cancer rates and just devastation of the

(16:18):
immediate We've felt the effect here becausewe have a lot of people from Ukraine
who move to the United States.Right they are cancer patients right here in
the United States, people who emigratedto this country legally and who now require
that kind of medical care. Yeah, and in terms of actually getting that
additional aid to Ukraine to make surethat this disaster does not continue. Speaker

(16:41):
Johnson continues to be in a verydifficult position. I believe members of Congress
are coming back, and he isunder threat again of losing his job because
of folks like Marjorie Taylor Green.You're absolutely right. The fact that the
House of Representatives is paralyzed not onlyon aid to you Ukraine, but aid
to Israel, aid to Taiwan.This is something that should shake us.

(17:07):
And if I were the Democrats planningthe campaign of twenty twenty four for control
of the House, I would doit. Harry Truman did in nineteen forty
eight. I'd run. I guessthat good for nothing Republican Congress that have
been unable to accomplish anything. Idon't know whether Speaker Johnson will be toppled,
but I can tell you I believevery strongly that Hakim Jeffries will,

(17:27):
after the next election, be theSpeaker of the House of Representatives. I
just don't think the Republicans have thetraction and a record to maintain that leadership.
Yeah, no, I agree,I think that is likely to be
the case, although I think there'sa chance that if they pushed the matter,
the Hakim Jeffries could probably be Speakerof the House before the election,

(17:48):
they should definitely wait on that,and for the purposes of the election,
use the fact that the Republicans arethere and that they are in turmoil as
a way of like driving like participationin the election. And the Democrats don't
have the votes right now to alexaKim Jeffries, and so it would require
a number of Republicans to leave andDemocrats to replace them. So I'm not

(18:12):
counting on that at all. Iwould I wouldn't count on it, and
I wouldn't do it if they hadthe chance to do it, because I
think, as you say, afterthe election, there will be you know,
a clear slight majority for the Democrats. And by the way, you
heard and I thought this is oneof the most significant statements made in recent

(18:32):
times by the Senate Minority Leader.Mitch McConnell has said that he will devote
the rest of his time in theSenate, among other issues, to making
sure the Republican Party doesn't become anisolationist party. He intends to exercise what
skill and effectiveness he has when heretires as leader to ensure that that is

(18:53):
the case. Yeah, well,let's hope that there's somebody in place,
you know, in his wake,because I'm not particularly seeing anybody on the
horizon. The three John's, well, we were all running. I hope
so, and I hope that oneof them is in the eventuality that Donald

(19:14):
Trump's becomes president and able to standup so that we are able to weather
that contingency in a way that willnot destroy our international relationships, because he
has said, not one of thosepotential Republican leaders, not to interrupt you,
but not one of those potential Republicanleaders of the Senate will stand up
to Donald Trump today. Yeah.No, that's disturbing of Donald Trump.

(19:37):
He's got his problems. He's goinginto court. I mean, it's a
done deal. That trial is goingto start shortly, and I think it's
going to be interesting to see howthis all plays out. Yeah, next
week we will be on the verydoorstep of that because April fifteenth, as
you mentioned, may be tax dayfor us, but it will be a
taxing day for Donald Trump because he'sgoing to the puns are my responsible,

(20:04):
John, as ever, it isa pleasure to have you here on face
Palm America. Please give a listento Around the Political World with John Rothman.
He will give you a weekday's worthof insights Monday through Friday. In
addition to that, you know littlespecial packages of wisdom and goodness. Please
be attentive to that. Find Aroundthe Political World with John Rothman on any

(20:27):
podcasting platform. It is there.And as always, thank you so much
for being with us today on facePalm My pleasure, Bilfan. Good luck
on finding that neighbor with all thosebillions, John, won't you be my
neighbor? Thank you so much forlistening to the show today. It is

(20:48):
much appreciated. As always, youcan find out more about the company that
produces this show on two Squaredmedia Productionsdot com. That's two squared Media Production
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(21:10):
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