October 30, 2025 • 42 mins
Depends on who you listen to about how the Trump/Xi meeting went. The shutdown day 30. Airline management and the Teamsters all agree they want the democrats to sign the clean continuing resolution so they can open the government and then negotiate the health care subsidies. Arctic Frost investigation looks to uncover shocking abuse by the Biden DOJ,
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And how are you hi. Welcome to the Big Podcast
on this today's Thursday, the thirtieth day of October, year
of our lower twenty twenty five. My name is Tom Sullivan.
So as we wander into getting rid of the month
of October, there's a lot to cover here today. The
big deal. The President's been over in Asia and last
(00:49):
night our time, today their time, the President sat down
with President She of China and that was the big, big,
big meeting that was supposed to take place. And well,
this is one of those stories that de bens upon
who you talked to about how the meeting went. Start
off with the president. This is on Air Force one
(01:11):
as he was flying back from South Korea back to Washington,
d C. And he was asked about the meeting. He says,
on a scale of ten, it was a twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I thought it was an amazing meeting. He's a great leader,
a leader of a very powerful, very strong country, China,
who isn't an outstanding group of decisions. I think that
was made a lot of decisions were made to there
wasn't too much left out there, and we've come to
(01:43):
conclusion on many very important points.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And our Treasure Secretary also weighed in. He was there
as well. You're Scott Besson's reaction.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The Chinese have agreed to buy twelve million metric tons
of soybeans during this season right now. Then for the
next three years they're going to be buying a minimum
a minimum of twenty five million metric tons per annum
for the next three years.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So that's a lot of soybeans for the next wealth
this year plus the next three three plus one four
year deal. So I looked at the key points on this,
and the tariffs in this meeting were reduced. The United
States tariffs on products coming from China was they were
(02:33):
reduced from fifty seven percent down to forty seven percent,
and they just ignored that. Remember the President was going
to add another one hundred percent on their starting Saturday,
So that's not going to happen, so the one hundred
percent went away. The fifty seven percent is a combination
of a certain amount for fentanyl, a certain amount for
(02:56):
the base tariff rate, a certain amount anyway, it was
a mixture that added up to fifty seven percent tariff
that's been reduced to forty seven percent. That still seems
really high to me. That products from China are going
to have a forty seven percent teriff on them, a
rare earth deal. It's a little complicated, but apparently they
(03:22):
have said China has said that they are going to
suspend the controls on rare earth exports from China for
one year, so we can go get the rare earth
from China and bring it in here for the next year.
And then there's a lot of disagreement. That apparently is
(03:44):
like a one year deal. China promised that they would
crack down on fentanyl and that they will buys You
heard Scott Besson saying that they will resume buying American
soybeans twelve million metric tons right away from the current crop,
and the soybean farmers have been hurting a lot. There
(04:08):
was literally no discussion about Taiwan. And there is something
called an entity list, and the entity list is basically
a list of companies that China will not allow them
to export their products to the United States. That list
(04:31):
has been suspended for one year. So again another item
where we've got a one year deal with China and
they we're going to be back again at the table.
Unice Yun is in Beijing and she was asked, what
are you hearing from the Chinese.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Side, Well, Leslie, the messaging is very complimentary on the
part of the Chinese. For President Trump, President Sijinping had
told President Trump that she and Trump were at the helm,
he said, helmsman steering this relationship. Also, President She had
said that China's development goes hand in hand with President
(05:10):
Trump's megavision. Now, China, as Amen had said, confirmed a
lot of the main points of the US. One was
that the US cut the Fentanel tariffs by half, that
China suspended some of the rare earth controls for one year,
the US halting that one rule that Amen had mentioned
(05:31):
expanding the curves on blacklisted Chinese firms, and the Chinese
and the US also had confirmed President Trump's potential visit
to China, as well as the invitation for President She
to the US. But where China did leave itself some
wiggle room and an out is with the agricultural purchases.
(05:51):
For example, the language in the Chinese readout is that
it would scale up the trade in agricultural products, not
necessarily Necessarissara saying who is going to be doing the purchasing. Also,
no hard targets. Secretary Beston had said that this would
be twelve million metric tons of soybeans during this season,
for example, not hearing a whole lot about that from
(06:14):
the Chinese readout on fentanyl, they only said they've reached
common understanding on fental related law enforcement, as opposed to
what President Trump had said on Air Force One, which
is that he believed that President She will take strong
measures internally, so being domestically here or at least in China,
I should say to stop the flow. And the other
(06:36):
thing that I thought was quite interesting was with the
export curbs related to rare earths, because President Trump had
said that the roadblock is gone. Now there's no roadblock
at all on rare earths. The Chinese, though, had made
it very clear that these are only regarding the rare
earths that had been curbs that had been expanded on
(06:57):
October ninth. Well, I think I think that we see
that President season Ping is much more i would say
confident in terms of what he's willing to do. I
think what was also interesting is kind of this is
a little maybe a little bit inside baseball, but you
could even see that in terms of the positioning where
President season Ping was on the right side of President
(07:22):
of the picture, which usually means that he's in the
place where he prefers and is messaging that he's the
one who's in control. So I think that was one
point that was really interesting when comparing these two different meetings.
But I think overall, what the messaging here is that
China does have a lot of wiggle room to be
(07:43):
able to steer things in a way that they might
prefer in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So I'm not surprised. I doubt that you are either
that they're The President Trump was hailing this deal as
a wonderful accomplishment. On a scale of ten, it was
a twelve, and then there's China going, well, I don't know,
we got some wiggle room, kind of vague. You get
two different impressions from the two different sides. Derek Scissors
(08:13):
is with the AEI, the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative
think tank. This is full of Republicans and he's not impressed.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yeah, as someone who's wasted a lot of time on this,
I feel like we've wasted a lot of time on this.
The meeting itself was a waste of time. The last
nine months of the US policy has been a waste
of time. Emon was saying earlier, it's like we went
back in time a few months. Actually, we went back
in time pretty close to the beginning of the Trump administration,
and so that's where US policy is right now. With
(08:47):
regard to the meeting, it sounded like a jumped up
version of a Secretary Besant meeting where he comes out
saying problems are solved or making progress. This is great,
and we find out within a few months that that
wasn't true, and then we have to have another meeting.
So there's been a lot of drama, sound and fury
signifying very little. I think US policy is pretty much
(09:08):
where it was when President Trump took office, and I
don't think this meeting changed anything important. Well, there are
two things going on competing on both sides. One is
the Chinese aren't ready to enforce broad export controls on
rare earth or anything else. So when they say we're
going to delay for a year, what they mean is
we couldn't do this now anyway. It's not much of
a win on the American side. On the US side,
(09:30):
we're trying to prepare, We're trying to get ourselves ready
to resist coercion by the Chinese over supply chain, so
the two sides are maneuvering. I will say the fentanyl
tariff cut, some people will welcome it, but it makes
the Chinese more competitive than our supply chain. So it's
going to give them more levers down the line to say,
if you don't do what behave the way we like,
we're going to cut this off or cut that off.
(09:52):
So you know what's going to resolve this is which
side prepares itself better. And right now, as I said
to you earlier, I think i'd give the edge to
the Chinese. Well, some companies are clearly doing that. They've
disinvested from China, They've looked for alternatives in their supply chain.
I wish more companies would do it. It's not going
to be a clean outcome where we're going to get
to a point where some American companies are in trouble.
(10:14):
And let's take an incredibly specific example that's a little
different from your question. I think some farmers have recognized
I shouldn't be growing soybeans to sell to China. This
isn't going to last. The Chinese aren't going to buy
four years of heavy volumes of soybeans. Of course they're not.
So you know, there are American farmers, there are American
companies that have made the shift or are making it.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
There are other companies that are going to get burned
by their China dependence. Well, there are two different kinds
of trade deficit reduction. One is a real trade deficit
reduction and one is where the US China trade deficit drops,
and it's just because the US is importing Chinese goods
from other countries. And you know, the administration has not
been very proud of its achievements on transshipping, which is
(10:56):
China shipping goods for other countries. So I don't see
them doing much about it. I think President Trump a
year from now, when the aggregate trade deficit is still
very high, which is likely, when we don't have this
materialization of large scale foreign investment in the US, which
is also likely, he's going to have some problems talking
about these deals. It looks like I didn't think this
(11:17):
was true, but it looks like he's just been stalling.
The administration has just been stalling.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So that's from the name again, Derek Scissors. He's with
the American Enterprise Institute AEI. It is a big conservative
think tank's pro Republican and so. And this guy, he's
an economist and what he has specialized in is is China.
(11:43):
He has studied China's economy for decades and he man,
he really put that agreement in a bad light. Gordon Chang,
We've had him on this podcast before. That's all he
does as well, is he is an expert on China.
(12:04):
Listen to what he has to say.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
I mean, they're two very different versions of what happened
a few hours ago. There's the Ministry of Commerce and
then there's President Trump, and it'll take a little while
for us to figure out what's going on. You know,
clearly the US has got more leverage in this contest,
but also President Trump hasn't been using it and the
Chinese have been making great gains. So that's one thing.
(12:27):
Second thing about this meeting, it was only an hour
and forty minutes long, so if you take out the
translation time, it was basically fifty minutes. President Trump said
a lot of it was talking about Ukraine, which means
they didn't talk very much about trade, and that certainly
is curious. Well, we're the trade deficit country. Last year,
(12:48):
China ran a two hundred and ninety five point five
billion dollar trade surplus against the US, and in trade wars,
it's the trade surplus countries that have much more to lose.
And also we've got a number of products that China
can't source any place else, and Trump has not used
that as a point of bargaining. So you know, there
are things that President Trump can do. I think that
(13:11):
Trump is giving Cigemping an off ramp, just like he
gave Vladimir Putin an off ramp. Plutin obviously didn't take
advantage of that. I don't think Sijmping will either, because
China right now, Sigmping has got trouble at home politically.
There's a lot of infighting at the top of the
Communist party, especially the military, and whenever a government goes
(13:32):
into that type of situation, people don't want to make
concessions because they're worried about what may happen afterwards, that
they may be blamed for something. And so I think
that right now you have China basically frozen, and you know,
if Trump wants to make concessions, which he did yesterday,
he can do it. But I don't know if the
Chinese are going to be in any mood to give
(13:52):
in to Trump. Well, you know, all we have to
do is look at what the Chinese propaganda has said.
People's Daily, the most author iriitative publication in China, declared
the People's war on the US in May twenty nineteen
in a landmark editorial. That's a phrase that has great
residents in Communist Party thought. And in March of twenty
twenty three, PLA Daily, which is the main propaganda organ
(14:14):
of the Chinese military, define People's war as total war. So,
you know, we got to pay attention to what these
guys are saying. We didn't pay attention to Osama bin
Laden and we know what happened then, and clearly China's
got much more power to harm us than Al Qaeda
ever did.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So, the Chinese delegation and the US delegation were sitting
at a large conference table with one on one side,
one on the other, and then they opened it up
to reporters, apparently because listen to this. Reporter asked the
president about why he decided before the meeting. Just before
the meeting, he made announcement that the US was going
(14:54):
to start nuclear testing once again. Listen to this.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
President, Why did you change your new clear plans? Why
are you going to be doing more nuclear testing?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Everybody appreciate it.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Thank you well.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
You know, Trump should have been very clear about this.
We suspect that China has been testing very had been
exploding nuclear devices which are very small. There are a
lot of earthquakes at China's National Test Center which can't
be explained by natural phenomena, and you know, the President
of the United States needed to say that, you know,
the last thing the US wants to do is to
(15:30):
detonate nuclear devices. That has all sorts of negative blowback
around the world. But the President needed to say, look,
China's doing it, We're going to do it too. And
until he does that, China's going to win the propaganda war,
which is really really important. I think that he probably
was not very happy because he can see that Trump
is reacting, and you know, previous presidents have been very
(15:53):
generous in allowing the Chinese to get away with all
sorts of stuff. Trump has been a little bit less tolerant,
and I think Segymping can see that that change is
probably motivated by changing the way the American people view China.
So there is a lot going on here and Sigemping
is just trying to push us as far as he can.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that reporter asked that question about nuclear testing. Man,
he did not, He just dodged it. He didn't even
react to it. Usually he choose out the reporter. But nothing,
he just said, Okay, thank you for everybody. Day thirty
of the shutdown. Where do you want to start with
(16:32):
the shutdown? Because it is They had a meeting the
President's obviously not at the White House. They had a
meeting JD. Vance at a meeting with a bunch of
people from the airline world and the Teamsters Union, a
bunch of people over there talking about the shutdown. Sean O'Brien,
who is the head of the Teamsters Union, was there
(16:55):
and he made it clear they need to sign a
continuing resolution as CR so they can then get back
to work and then negotiate all these issues about healthcare subsidies.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
Secretary Duffrey, thank you, Vice President of Vance. Look the
bottom line, and we took a position. I represent one
point three million working men and women in this country
for the international brother of the team So we took
a position three weeks ago. Pass a clean CR, get
to the table, negotiate a deal. Do not put working
people in the middle of a problem. They should not
be in there. And we got to think about the
families that are going to be affected. Think about when
(17:30):
you have to tell your son or daughta they can't
play sports because you're not getting paid. Think about when
you can't pay your mortgage. Think about when you can't
pay your tuition. Put the politics aside, get to the table,
negotiate a deal, Pass a clean CR right now, and
then figure out the problems moving forward. And I want
to thank the air traffic controllers. I want to thank
the Aviation Administration for all their hard work and sacrifice
(17:54):
they make. And look, security and safety of the airlines
is paramount. Let's not compromise the safety and security already.
Pass a clean CR.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Thank you man that was the head of the Teamsters
and the Teamsters union. They always support the Democrats and
yet they're basically jab owning the Democrats. Would you pass
the CR clean CR so you can sit down and
get everybody paid and figure out the health insurance subsidies.
(18:24):
But the only way to do that is when you're
all back at work, so what are you doing? And
by the way, today there were a number of ground
stops all over the country, the major airports. For sure.
The Northeast is getting bad weather today, it's low clouds
and rain. So there were, let's see flight Aware total
(18:47):
cancelations today, one thousand and sixty one total cancelations into
or out of, or within the United States six hundred
and thirty eight, so six hundred and thirty eight flights
were canseled and four thousand, seven hundred and forty five
flights were delayed. I'm not so worried about the safety.
(19:07):
I think the controllers that are working are doing. They're
going by the book. That's the way they're made. It's
not about safety, it's about is your flight going to
go or not? And if it does go, are you
going to be three four five hours late? Because that's
the kind of delays they're talking about. So back to
the White House. At this group, along with JD. Vance
(19:30):
and Sean O'Brien from the Teamsters was Scott Kirby, who's
the CEO of United Airlines.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's been thirty days.
Speaker 11 (19:38):
I also think it is time to pass at clean
cr use that as the opportunity to get into a
room behind closed doors and negotiate hard on the real
and substantive issues that the American people want our politicians
on both sides of the aisle to solve. But let's
get a clean cr and get that negotiation done behind
closed doors without the pressure and without putting the American
(19:58):
workers in the American economy at risks.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Here, Yeah, CEO of United Airlines and the head of
the team's reunion. So you've got labor and management both
saying the same thing. Past the clean cr the Democrats
will not do it. Mike Lawler, Congressman from New York State,
this is his react.
Speaker 12 (20:18):
If Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats had any brains, they
would This is about the single stupidest shut down that
we've ever seen, and the pain impacting the American people
is about to reach a fever pitch. Forty two million
Americans are going to go without food simply because Chuck
(20:39):
Schumer is afraid of AOC and Bernie Sanders and Zoron Mandani.
Enough open up the government today, ensure our troops, our
border patrol agents, our air traffic controllers, and every other
federal employee gets paid and make sure that Americans who
rely on critical programs like Snap and Wick have the
resource says they need. Democrats could end this two days
(21:03):
by voting yes on a clean cr and opening up
the government.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
My theory is that this is going to go until
after Tuesday. Tuesday is election day in some important states,
and they don't want.
Speaker 9 (21:17):
Well.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Schumer is afraid that the Democrats are going to turn
on him if he does any sort of business with
President Trump, any sort of agreement with the Republicans. So
I suspect after Tuesday. It'll take a couple of days,
so it doesn't look too obvious, but I think late
next week we will have them back to work again.
(21:40):
Speaking of funny business going on in Washington, d C.
We told you yesterday about this thing that Chuck Grassley,
the Senator from Iowa, has uncovered from a bunch of whistleblowers.
Is that Jack Smith, the former federal prosecutor who was
on going after Donald Trump on all of those indictments,
(22:03):
that in the process of the work that he was
doing at the Justice Department, he was a special prosecutor,
and they found out that he had issued one hundred
and ninety seven subpoenas for information records, bank accounts, telephone
logs on one hundred and ninety seven of them, on
(22:25):
thirty four individuals and on one hundred and sixty three businesses,
and that all of those are related to four hundred
and thirty named Republican individuals and entities. And you go,
are they just politicizing the Department of Justice to go
(22:46):
after Republicans just like they did when they went after
Donald Trump on the Russia Russia Russia? Thin Aron Johnson
one of those that's targeted. This is where they're spying
on the phone records, in the bank accounts of not
only centers, but just Republicans in general. Not everybody, but
there's a there's a what was the number again? I
(23:08):
wrote it down here, four hundred and thirty named Republicans.
So Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, not happy.
Speaker 13 (23:18):
What is revealed in those seventeen hundred pages of documents,
in those one hundred and ninety seven subpoenas is nothing
short of a Biden administration enemies list. You know, I'm
old enough to understand how toxic a term that was
under Richard Nixon. This is far worse, far worse orders,
the magnitude worse.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I remember the enemy's list that Nixon had in the
White House, and it was it was baby stuff compared
to what Jack Smith was up to. Jonathan Turley, the
constitutional law guy from George Washington University Law School, he's
pretty upset about it as well.
Speaker 14 (23:58):
It's unprecedented in scope. The more we learn the numbers
are really daunting. You know, when you talked about Nixon's
enemies list, this was a list that seems modest in comparison.
I mean, we're now looking at hundreds of people that
may have had information targeted or obtained by the FBI.
(24:19):
Keep in mind that the whole concept of coequal branches
in our constitutional system is that we afford those branches
the ability to do what they need to do to
fulfill their constitutional obligations. These types of intercepts, or at
least these records, I should say, can reveal who's speaking
(24:40):
to members of Congress, including journalists, whistleblowers, citizens who have
grievances against the government, including grievances about abuses. After January sixth,
there was there were lots of citizens that complained they
had nothing to do with that riot, and they suddenly
found themselves being scooped up and interrogated by the FBI.
(25:01):
So a lot of those communications are go to the
heart of what Congress does and its oversight responsibility and
what's missing here any semblance of restraint by Smith, And
unfortunately that's been a signature of his career. He does
not really respect those the navigational beacons, and he has
(25:22):
been accused in the past of excessive techniques.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Makes you feel a little jaded about the fact that
the DOJ has been and may still be a political department.
It's supposed to be the Department of Justice, but obviously
under this smells like it was weaponized lawfair all the
(25:48):
other things that they came up with. So this is
just getting started. Grassley's not going to let go of it.
We'll find out, Morris. They move along here in New
York City, we've got a race for mayor, and also
Virginia as a race for governor and attorney general, a
(26:09):
bunch of others, and New Jersey. That race in New
Jersey for governors getting very very close. And the race
here in New York between Mam Donnie and Cuomo. Well,
let me get the numbers here. The latest surveys on
this Mam Donnie at forty three percent, Cuomo at thirty
three percent, and Curtis Sliwa at fourteen percent. This is prinipiac.
(26:33):
So Man Donnie is ten points ahead of Cuomo. That's
much tighter than where it was before Sliwa. If he
dropped out, I'm going to guess most of those votes
would go to Cuomo and it would give Cuomo the race.
But let's let Carl Roveway in on his observations on
(26:53):
the New York mayor race. I was shocked. Here's the
moment that he ought to be trying to unite the
city and instead, he says, I made a mistake to
think that I could be a candidate who called upon
the city to unite. He talked about, you know, Muslim
teachers and police who make daily sacrifices. Their leaders spit
on them. He says, Islamophobia is quote one of the
(27:15):
few areas of agreement among my opponents in the city.
I mean, it's like this guy went out of his
way to say that a lot of it was sort
of like Hillary Clinton and you know, the deplorables. The
city is full of bigots, and he is a Muslim
feels this intensely. Well, if that were true, he would
not have won the Democratic nomination. If the five boroughs
(27:37):
are hotbeds of bigotry, Sure, they're bigots in any city.
But the idea that New York is, you know, beset
by Islamophobia, I thought was a very poor note to
end on this. So Carl is a walking computer. He's
got numbers, and he said it's amazing to talk to him.
He weighs in on the latest polls that have been
(27:58):
taken about the New York City race. Think about this,
of the nineteen polls held in New York City since
Labor Day, Mamdani is bigger than fifty percent. He's leading
with fifty percent or more in two Now, think about this.
New York City, sixty two percent of the registered voters
are Democrats, and he's the Democratic nominee. Twenty two percent
(28:19):
are registered independence unaffiliated. That leaves sixteen percent of the
city's voters who are Republicans, Conservatives, or members of some
left wing party that tends to be on the ballot
in the city. He's the nominee of the Democratic Party.
Why is he not even getting the base Democratic vote
of sixty two percent. If you look at it in
(28:42):
the most recent polls, there seems to be a tendency
where while he is he's in the mid forties, maybe
the low high forties. Nonetheless, he's not over fifty. And
there's a growing number of people who are undecided. What
does that mean? That means either they have decided not
to be for him and not comfortable telling a poster that,
(29:02):
or they have decided they don't like anybody. The former
helps him, Actually, the latter helps him because it's people
dropping out of the electorate. The former hurts him because
those are people who are probably moving away from him.
Will know on election night it says something about him
that he cannot get anywhere close to the percentage of
(29:23):
the voters in the City of New York who are Democrats,
and he's the Democratic nominee. Well, early voting started this
past Saturday and on day one there were two hundred
and ninety seven thousand ballots submitted, which is a record,
and where it's coming from our young people. The young
(29:45):
people are very big supporters of Ma'm Donnie, and they're
out in spades. So it's going to be interesting to
see how all of this turns out, but it's off
to a very strong early voting star and appears without
knowing the results that a lot of those two hundred
and ninety seven thousand are going to be for ma'am Donnie.
(30:06):
But there's still, like I said, there's early voting still going,
and then the voting day is next Tuesday. There's a
lot still to keep track of. One more from Carl.
He was asked about the race for governor in New
Jersey between Cindarelli and Mickey Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The last poll that she had a good lead was
the Concord poll on the eighteenth of October and the
twenty six with from g GQR. Both of those are Democrats.
Democrat groups sponsored him. But since then we've had three
one and two. This could conceivably be very very close
and a long night.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
The current governor Murphy four years ago he was going
up against the Arelly and he won by just a sliver,
which was a shock to the Democrats in New Jersey.
Let's get some phone calls in the phone number two
reach the program. The podcast leave a message is eight
(31:05):
five five two nine five sixty six hundred. It's the
same phone number we had for the radio show for
years eight five, five, two, nine, five sixty six hundred.
If you forget that number, you can look on my
website Tom Sullivan dot com and there is the phone number.
Let's start with this caller who wants me to record
(31:27):
the podcast earlier.
Speaker 9 (31:29):
Tom.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
I'm a loyal listener, but you're killing me with dropping
these podcasts so late. You gotta have them out before
six o'clock Eastern time.
Speaker 13 (31:38):
Man, you're losing me.
Speaker 15 (31:40):
I don't want to listen to yesterday's news.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
So when I did the radio show, we went from
three to six pm Eastern time, and so I try
to wrap things up by six the other day. What
days today? Today's Thursday. So it was Tuesday afternoon we
were recording, and the whole system had a big software crash,
so we were very late on that one. My apologies.
(32:06):
I've I'll get this one out before six o'clock tonight,
just for you. I appreciate the feedback. And remember Jim
from from Kansas, which you talk Kansas. Jim's always a
character man. He's a big Democrat and he thinks that
Donald Trump should just demolish the entire White House and
(32:28):
put up a well. Let him say it.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
I think Trump should demolish the whole White House and
building its place an impenetrable, reinforced concree bunker. Ain't good white,
of course, what's he want?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
He wants a white bunker. Okay, I don't know. I
Jim's always always got great ideas. Let's see Laurie. The
comment line, Lady, she thinks that a rant I had
the other day was spot on.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Tom, Your rant about the American people depending far too
much on the government to take care of them was
spot on. We're becoming very much like the Roman Empire.
They had bread and circuses. We have welfare and TikTok,
and I'm afraid we're going to wind up a crumbling ruin,
(33:25):
just like the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Well, history says that's what happens. The Laurie's got a
good point. I hope she's wrong. The homeless guy in
Reno checked in and he's got guns on his mind.
Speaker 15 (33:40):
Hey, Tom, we'rena howmeless guy. One last thing, you know?
You know, I'm a sticker on JEMs. I'm jams, just
too many of them, and they're too many of them
where they don't know where they are. So with all
this technology. You're gonna buy a gun, and you should
be willing to at least have some kind of tip
where every year he got to register it. Maybe you
(34:03):
don't cost you that much, Learney, but you got it,
you got your chip, you got your Yeah, you gotta
have some. I mean, just ridiculous. How many guns are
out there? I don't know. That's where it boils down
to Bart.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, I think the homeless guy is a card carrying Democrat.
If not, he should be, uh, because that's what they want.
They want they want certified, registered, government approved and all that.
But but renal, homeless guy, read this second Amendment of
the Constitution and tell me how your system would work,
(34:45):
because it's you have the right to bear arms in
this country. And then Eric, who grew up I think
in Russia anyway, in the former Soviet Union, and he
calls me comrade at Major like I'm an official of
the Soviet Union or something. Anyway, he's got the World
(35:08):
Series on his mind.
Speaker 8 (35:09):
Good evening, Major Town, this is me, comrade again. I
thought about you know, I mean, finally my mood kind
of improved in the evening, Like I said, around five
six o'clock before that, my mood is really really bad.
Just nothing I can do with myself, you know. I just
I mean I should go like in the park somewherea
(35:31):
I would feel better, but I would like to suffer.
So anyway, about the World Series. How about the World Series?
I was thinking about you. I mean, you're like an
East Coast close to Toronto. I mean, are you are a
foot Dodgers for the US or you for the East Coast?
(35:54):
I mean I kind of, I mean I am a
foot Dodgers. I was rooting for them, but then today
I was kind of like looking at that, and I
was thinking about the Canadians.
Speaker 9 (36:06):
You know.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
First I was kind of like, yeah, who the hell
they are, you know, and then I was like kind of, oh, well,
you're a Canadian, so you're for Toronto. I forgot about that,
so and I was kind of thinking like, yay. I
mean they're kind of like underdogs, you know, little guys,
you know, the little country, you know. So it's like
(36:31):
sor Virginia and Czechoslovakia played in a hockey The Czechs
always were fighting so hard against so Virginia because Sir
Virginian crushed them in sixty eight with the things so
they were very angry, and on a hockey field, the
Czechoslovakia always was beating and winning the sovietinion. They always won.
(36:56):
So anyway I thought about the sport is not about
the pol but somehow it is. So what I'm thinking
about the Dodgers. I mean they got all the money,
all the talent, and now you're looking at the Canadians.
I mean they're like nobody, but they got on the top,
(37:16):
so I think they got a chance. I mean they're underdogs.
So today I'm kind of like a little bit, you know.
I mean I like that, you know, Atani and all
the team and everything personalities, I mean Freeman and Yakamoto
and the others on the Canadians, they are only what
(37:41):
is like the weird name yes Savage. I mean, what
kind of weird name could be? Yes Savage? I mean
really weird name. You must be a foreigner, came from
somewhere and translated the wrong way something. Anyway, a good
night and I'll shoot tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
But there's a lot to unpack on that phone call.
First of all, Trey Yesavage, the pitcher for the for
the Blue Jays, Toronto Blue Jays. He's like six seven
or something, like that, and that's what makes him so successful.
The release point when he's throwing the ball is way
up higher than the players. They see the ball coming
(38:23):
at him at a different angle. So that's why he's
so successful. But he was he's was born in Pennsylvania,
so he's he's twenty two years old. Yeah, young guy,
twenty two years old, born in Pennsylvania. About what we
got a little bit about the Russian hockey story. He's
(38:44):
in there. Here's the thing. I grew up in Seattle.
We did not have Major League Baseball, so I adopted
the New York Yankees. I've been a Yankees fan since forever.
They have the third highest payroll. The second highest payroll
is the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first is the New
(39:06):
York Mets. The Toronto Blue Jays have the fifth highest payroll,
so they're they are very talented team and so they well,
they were going against Seattle to Seattle Mariners. Now the
Mariners didn't exist when I lived in Seattle, but I thought, well,
my Yankees were defeated by the Blue Jays, so I'll
(39:28):
root for the for the Seattle Mariners. Well, the blue
Jays beat them too, so one of the theories I
have in sports is I will root for the team
that beat my team because I don't want I don't
want I want it to be that if we lost
to somebody, I want to say we lost to the
world champions. So I'm rooting for Toronto for lots of reasons.
(39:52):
When I lived in the Bay Area, I did the
tax returns for the San Francisco Giants and so there
was a just a absolute war between San Francisco Giants
and Los Angeles Dodgers forever. So I just opposed to
the Dodgers on many different levels. And as far as Canadian, yeah,
my mother was born in Canada, so I have a
(40:17):
fondness for that. In fact, Freddie Freeman, the big star
of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was interviewed the other day
before the first game, and it was in Toronto, and
he had the same situation I have. His mother and
father were born in Canada and then later moved to
Los Angeles, where he was born. But Freddie Freeman said
(40:41):
that when he plays in Toronto and they play the
national anthem, Oh Canada, he says, I get choked up
every time I heard that. Before the first game. Is
so sure enough, they played the national anthem, Oh Canada,
and it got me too, So I'm rooting for Toronto.
It's a great series. There are two very evenly matched teams.
(41:03):
So there's your baseball, your Russian hockey? What else do
you have here? One more from Laurie about Halloween for.
Speaker 9 (41:16):
Those who wonder how old is too old to trick
or treat gentlemen, If you grew that mustache yourself, you're
too old. Ladies. If you had to take off your
makeup before you put your costume on, you're also too old.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Well, she's right. I think she's absolutely right. So I
don't know if you're going with or without makeup, or
guys with that mustache or not. That was always a
big trauma thing for a lot of kids when they're
about thirteen fourteen and when their parents telling them or
too old to go out. Wall Street today was a
(41:56):
little bit of a pullback. The Dow Jones industrials down
one hundred and nine to forty seven thousand and five,
twenty two, SMP down sixty eight, Nasdaq down three hundred
and seventy seven. Amazon reported after the market closed today
in their stock soaring after their revenue beat what Wall
(42:20):
Street was expecting by a lot price of gold up
thirty one dollars to four thousand and thirty two and
the price of oil down twenty cents sixty dollars and
some change for a barrel of oil. Thank you for
coming by today. Tomorrow we're going to be here. Yay,
it's Friday over sea.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
This
And how are you hi. Welcome to the Big Podcast
on this today's Thursday, the thirtieth day of October, year
of our lower twenty twenty five. My name is Tom Sullivan.
So as we wander into getting rid of the month
of October, there's a lot to cover here today. The
big deal. The President's been over in Asia and last
(00:49):
night our time, today their time, the President sat down
with President She of China and that was the big, big,
big meeting that was supposed to take place. And well,
this is one of those stories that de bens upon
who you talked to about how the meeting went. Start
off with the president. This is on Air Force one
(01:11):
as he was flying back from South Korea back to Washington,
d C. And he was asked about the meeting. He says,
on a scale of ten, it was a twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I thought it was an amazing meeting. He's a great leader,
a leader of a very powerful, very strong country, China,
who isn't an outstanding group of decisions. I think that
was made a lot of decisions were made to there
wasn't too much left out there, and we've come to
(01:43):
conclusion on many very important points.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And our Treasure Secretary also weighed in. He was there
as well. You're Scott Besson's reaction.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The Chinese have agreed to buy twelve million metric tons
of soybeans during this season right now. Then for the
next three years they're going to be buying a minimum
a minimum of twenty five million metric tons per annum
for the next three years.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So that's a lot of soybeans for the next wealth
this year plus the next three three plus one four
year deal. So I looked at the key points on this,
and the tariffs in this meeting were reduced. The United
States tariffs on products coming from China was they were
(02:33):
reduced from fifty seven percent down to forty seven percent,
and they just ignored that. Remember the President was going
to add another one hundred percent on their starting Saturday,
So that's not going to happen, so the one hundred
percent went away. The fifty seven percent is a combination
of a certain amount for fentanyl, a certain amount for
(02:56):
the base tariff rate, a certain amount anyway, it was
a mixture that added up to fifty seven percent tariff
that's been reduced to forty seven percent. That still seems
really high to me. That products from China are going
to have a forty seven percent teriff on them, a
rare earth deal. It's a little complicated, but apparently they
(03:22):
have said China has said that they are going to
suspend the controls on rare earth exports from China for
one year, so we can go get the rare earth
from China and bring it in here for the next year.
And then there's a lot of disagreement. That apparently is
(03:44):
like a one year deal. China promised that they would
crack down on fentanyl and that they will buys You
heard Scott Besson saying that they will resume buying American
soybeans twelve million metric tons right away from the current crop,
and the soybean farmers have been hurting a lot. There
(04:08):
was literally no discussion about Taiwan. And there is something
called an entity list, and the entity list is basically
a list of companies that China will not allow them
to export their products to the United States. That list
(04:31):
has been suspended for one year. So again another item
where we've got a one year deal with China and
they we're going to be back again at the table.
Unice Yun is in Beijing and she was asked, what
are you hearing from the Chinese.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Side, Well, Leslie, the messaging is very complimentary on the
part of the Chinese. For President Trump, President Sijinping had
told President Trump that she and Trump were at the helm,
he said, helmsman steering this relationship. Also, President She had
said that China's development goes hand in hand with President
(05:10):
Trump's megavision. Now, China, as Amen had said, confirmed a
lot of the main points of the US. One was
that the US cut the Fentanel tariffs by half, that
China suspended some of the rare earth controls for one year,
the US halting that one rule that Amen had mentioned
(05:31):
expanding the curves on blacklisted Chinese firms, and the Chinese
and the US also had confirmed President Trump's potential visit
to China, as well as the invitation for President She
to the US. But where China did leave itself some
wiggle room and an out is with the agricultural purchases.
(05:51):
For example, the language in the Chinese readout is that
it would scale up the trade in agricultural products, not
necessarily Necessarissara saying who is going to be doing the purchasing. Also,
no hard targets. Secretary Beston had said that this would
be twelve million metric tons of soybeans during this season,
for example, not hearing a whole lot about that from
(06:14):
the Chinese readout on fentanyl, they only said they've reached
common understanding on fental related law enforcement, as opposed to
what President Trump had said on Air Force One, which
is that he believed that President She will take strong
measures internally, so being domestically here or at least in China,
I should say to stop the flow. And the other
(06:36):
thing that I thought was quite interesting was with the
export curbs related to rare earths, because President Trump had
said that the roadblock is gone. Now there's no roadblock
at all on rare earths. The Chinese, though, had made
it very clear that these are only regarding the rare
earths that had been curbs that had been expanded on
(06:57):
October ninth. Well, I think I think that we see
that President season Ping is much more i would say
confident in terms of what he's willing to do. I
think what was also interesting is kind of this is
a little maybe a little bit inside baseball, but you
could even see that in terms of the positioning where
President season Ping was on the right side of President
(07:22):
of the picture, which usually means that he's in the
place where he prefers and is messaging that he's the
one who's in control. So I think that was one
point that was really interesting when comparing these two different meetings.
But I think overall, what the messaging here is that
China does have a lot of wiggle room to be
(07:43):
able to steer things in a way that they might
prefer in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So I'm not surprised. I doubt that you are either
that they're The President Trump was hailing this deal as
a wonderful accomplishment. On a scale of ten, it was
a twelve, and then there's China going, well, I don't know,
we got some wiggle room, kind of vague. You get
two different impressions from the two different sides. Derek Scissors
(08:13):
is with the AEI, the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative
think tank. This is full of Republicans and he's not impressed.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yeah, as someone who's wasted a lot of time on this,
I feel like we've wasted a lot of time on this.
The meeting itself was a waste of time. The last
nine months of the US policy has been a waste
of time. Emon was saying earlier, it's like we went
back in time a few months. Actually, we went back
in time pretty close to the beginning of the Trump administration,
and so that's where US policy is right now. With
(08:47):
regard to the meeting, it sounded like a jumped up
version of a Secretary Besant meeting where he comes out
saying problems are solved or making progress. This is great,
and we find out within a few months that that
wasn't true, and then we have to have another meeting.
So there's been a lot of drama, sound and fury
signifying very little. I think US policy is pretty much
(09:08):
where it was when President Trump took office, and I
don't think this meeting changed anything important. Well, there are
two things going on competing on both sides. One is
the Chinese aren't ready to enforce broad export controls on
rare earth or anything else. So when they say we're
going to delay for a year, what they mean is
we couldn't do this now anyway. It's not much of
a win on the American side. On the US side,
(09:30):
we're trying to prepare, We're trying to get ourselves ready
to resist coercion by the Chinese over supply chain, so
the two sides are maneuvering. I will say the fentanyl
tariff cut, some people will welcome it, but it makes
the Chinese more competitive than our supply chain. So it's
going to give them more levers down the line to say,
if you don't do what behave the way we like,
we're going to cut this off or cut that off.
(09:52):
So you know what's going to resolve this is which
side prepares itself better. And right now, as I said
to you earlier, I think i'd give the edge to
the Chinese. Well, some companies are clearly doing that. They've
disinvested from China, They've looked for alternatives in their supply chain.
I wish more companies would do it. It's not going
to be a clean outcome where we're going to get
to a point where some American companies are in trouble.
(10:14):
And let's take an incredibly specific example that's a little
different from your question. I think some farmers have recognized
I shouldn't be growing soybeans to sell to China. This
isn't going to last. The Chinese aren't going to buy
four years of heavy volumes of soybeans. Of course they're not.
So you know, there are American farmers, there are American
companies that have made the shift or are making it.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
There are other companies that are going to get burned
by their China dependence. Well, there are two different kinds
of trade deficit reduction. One is a real trade deficit
reduction and one is where the US China trade deficit drops,
and it's just because the US is importing Chinese goods
from other countries. And you know, the administration has not
been very proud of its achievements on transshipping, which is
(10:56):
China shipping goods for other countries. So I don't see
them doing much about it. I think President Trump a
year from now, when the aggregate trade deficit is still
very high, which is likely, when we don't have this
materialization of large scale foreign investment in the US, which
is also likely, he's going to have some problems talking
about these deals. It looks like I didn't think this
(11:17):
was true, but it looks like he's just been stalling.
The administration has just been stalling.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So that's from the name again, Derek Scissors. He's with
the American Enterprise Institute AEI. It is a big conservative
think tank's pro Republican and so. And this guy, he's
an economist and what he has specialized in is is China.
(11:43):
He has studied China's economy for decades and he man,
he really put that agreement in a bad light. Gordon Chang,
We've had him on this podcast before. That's all he
does as well, is he is an expert on China.
(12:04):
Listen to what he has to say.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
I mean, they're two very different versions of what happened
a few hours ago. There's the Ministry of Commerce and
then there's President Trump, and it'll take a little while
for us to figure out what's going on. You know,
clearly the US has got more leverage in this contest,
but also President Trump hasn't been using it and the
Chinese have been making great gains. So that's one thing.
(12:27):
Second thing about this meeting, it was only an hour
and forty minutes long, so if you take out the
translation time, it was basically fifty minutes. President Trump said
a lot of it was talking about Ukraine, which means
they didn't talk very much about trade, and that certainly
is curious. Well, we're the trade deficit country. Last year,
(12:48):
China ran a two hundred and ninety five point five
billion dollar trade surplus against the US, and in trade wars,
it's the trade surplus countries that have much more to lose.
And also we've got a number of products that China
can't source any place else, and Trump has not used
that as a point of bargaining. So you know, there
are things that President Trump can do. I think that
(13:11):
Trump is giving Cigemping an off ramp, just like he
gave Vladimir Putin an off ramp. Plutin obviously didn't take
advantage of that. I don't think Sijmping will either, because
China right now, Sigmping has got trouble at home politically.
There's a lot of infighting at the top of the
Communist party, especially the military, and whenever a government goes
(13:32):
into that type of situation, people don't want to make
concessions because they're worried about what may happen afterwards, that
they may be blamed for something. And so I think
that right now you have China basically frozen, and you know,
if Trump wants to make concessions, which he did yesterday,
he can do it. But I don't know if the
Chinese are going to be in any mood to give
(13:52):
in to Trump. Well, you know, all we have to
do is look at what the Chinese propaganda has said.
People's Daily, the most author iriitative publication in China, declared
the People's war on the US in May twenty nineteen
in a landmark editorial. That's a phrase that has great
residents in Communist Party thought. And in March of twenty
twenty three, PLA Daily, which is the main propaganda organ
(14:14):
of the Chinese military, define People's war as total war. So,
you know, we got to pay attention to what these
guys are saying. We didn't pay attention to Osama bin
Laden and we know what happened then, and clearly China's
got much more power to harm us than Al Qaeda
ever did.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So, the Chinese delegation and the US delegation were sitting
at a large conference table with one on one side,
one on the other, and then they opened it up
to reporters, apparently because listen to this. Reporter asked the
president about why he decided before the meeting. Just before
the meeting, he made announcement that the US was going
(14:54):
to start nuclear testing once again. Listen to this.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
President, Why did you change your new clear plans? Why
are you going to be doing more nuclear testing?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Everybody appreciate it.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Thank you well.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
You know, Trump should have been very clear about this.
We suspect that China has been testing very had been
exploding nuclear devices which are very small. There are a
lot of earthquakes at China's National Test Center which can't
be explained by natural phenomena, and you know, the President
of the United States needed to say that, you know,
the last thing the US wants to do is to
(15:30):
detonate nuclear devices. That has all sorts of negative blowback
around the world. But the President needed to say, look,
China's doing it, We're going to do it too. And
until he does that, China's going to win the propaganda war,
which is really really important. I think that he probably
was not very happy because he can see that Trump
is reacting, and you know, previous presidents have been very
(15:53):
generous in allowing the Chinese to get away with all
sorts of stuff. Trump has been a little bit less tolerant,
and I think Segymping can see that that change is
probably motivated by changing the way the American people view China.
So there is a lot going on here and Sigemping
is just trying to push us as far as he can.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that reporter asked that question about nuclear testing. Man,
he did not, He just dodged it. He didn't even
react to it. Usually he choose out the reporter. But nothing,
he just said, Okay, thank you for everybody. Day thirty
of the shutdown. Where do you want to start with
(16:32):
the shutdown? Because it is They had a meeting the
President's obviously not at the White House. They had a
meeting JD. Vance at a meeting with a bunch of
people from the airline world and the Teamsters Union, a
bunch of people over there talking about the shutdown. Sean O'Brien,
who is the head of the Teamsters Union, was there
(16:55):
and he made it clear they need to sign a
continuing resolution as CR so they can then get back
to work and then negotiate all these issues about healthcare subsidies.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
Secretary Duffrey, thank you, Vice President of Vance. Look the
bottom line, and we took a position. I represent one
point three million working men and women in this country
for the international brother of the team So we took
a position three weeks ago. Pass a clean CR, get
to the table, negotiate a deal. Do not put working
people in the middle of a problem. They should not
be in there. And we got to think about the
families that are going to be affected. Think about when
(17:30):
you have to tell your son or daughta they can't
play sports because you're not getting paid. Think about when
you can't pay your mortgage. Think about when you can't
pay your tuition. Put the politics aside, get to the table,
negotiate a deal, Pass a clean CR right now, and
then figure out the problems moving forward. And I want
to thank the air traffic controllers. I want to thank
the Aviation Administration for all their hard work and sacrifice
(17:54):
they make. And look, security and safety of the airlines
is paramount. Let's not compromise the safety and security already.
Pass a clean CR.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Thank you man that was the head of the Teamsters
and the Teamsters union. They always support the Democrats and
yet they're basically jab owning the Democrats. Would you pass
the CR clean CR so you can sit down and
get everybody paid and figure out the health insurance subsidies.
(18:24):
But the only way to do that is when you're
all back at work, so what are you doing? And
by the way, today there were a number of ground
stops all over the country, the major airports. For sure.
The Northeast is getting bad weather today, it's low clouds
and rain. So there were, let's see flight Aware total
(18:47):
cancelations today, one thousand and sixty one total cancelations into
or out of, or within the United States six hundred
and thirty eight, so six hundred and thirty eight flights
were canseled and four thousand, seven hundred and forty five
flights were delayed. I'm not so worried about the safety.
(19:07):
I think the controllers that are working are doing. They're
going by the book. That's the way they're made. It's
not about safety, it's about is your flight going to
go or not? And if it does go, are you
going to be three four five hours late? Because that's
the kind of delays they're talking about. So back to
the White House. At this group, along with JD. Vance
(19:30):
and Sean O'Brien from the Teamsters was Scott Kirby, who's
the CEO of United Airlines.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's been thirty days.
Speaker 11 (19:38):
I also think it is time to pass at clean
cr use that as the opportunity to get into a
room behind closed doors and negotiate hard on the real
and substantive issues that the American people want our politicians
on both sides of the aisle to solve. But let's
get a clean cr and get that negotiation done behind
closed doors without the pressure and without putting the American
(19:58):
workers in the American economy at risks.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Here, Yeah, CEO of United Airlines and the head of
the team's reunion. So you've got labor and management both
saying the same thing. Past the clean cr the Democrats
will not do it. Mike Lawler, Congressman from New York State,
this is his react.
Speaker 12 (20:18):
If Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats had any brains, they
would This is about the single stupidest shut down that
we've ever seen, and the pain impacting the American people
is about to reach a fever pitch. Forty two million
Americans are going to go without food simply because Chuck
(20:39):
Schumer is afraid of AOC and Bernie Sanders and Zoron Mandani.
Enough open up the government today, ensure our troops, our
border patrol agents, our air traffic controllers, and every other
federal employee gets paid and make sure that Americans who
rely on critical programs like Snap and Wick have the
resource says they need. Democrats could end this two days
(21:03):
by voting yes on a clean cr and opening up
the government.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
My theory is that this is going to go until
after Tuesday. Tuesday is election day in some important states,
and they don't want.
Speaker 9 (21:17):
Well.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Schumer is afraid that the Democrats are going to turn
on him if he does any sort of business with
President Trump, any sort of agreement with the Republicans. So
I suspect after Tuesday. It'll take a couple of days,
so it doesn't look too obvious, but I think late
next week we will have them back to work again.
(21:40):
Speaking of funny business going on in Washington, d C.
We told you yesterday about this thing that Chuck Grassley,
the Senator from Iowa, has uncovered from a bunch of whistleblowers.
Is that Jack Smith, the former federal prosecutor who was
on going after Donald Trump on all of those indictments,
(22:03):
that in the process of the work that he was
doing at the Justice Department, he was a special prosecutor,
and they found out that he had issued one hundred
and ninety seven subpoenas for information records, bank accounts, telephone
logs on one hundred and ninety seven of them, on
(22:25):
thirty four individuals and on one hundred and sixty three businesses,
and that all of those are related to four hundred
and thirty named Republican individuals and entities. And you go,
are they just politicizing the Department of Justice to go
(22:46):
after Republicans just like they did when they went after
Donald Trump on the Russia Russia Russia? Thin Aron Johnson
one of those that's targeted. This is where they're spying
on the phone records, in the bank accounts of not
only centers, but just Republicans in general. Not everybody, but
there's a there's a what was the number again? I
(23:08):
wrote it down here, four hundred and thirty named Republicans.
So Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, not happy.
Speaker 13 (23:18):
What is revealed in those seventeen hundred pages of documents,
in those one hundred and ninety seven subpoenas is nothing
short of a Biden administration enemies list. You know, I'm
old enough to understand how toxic a term that was
under Richard Nixon. This is far worse, far worse orders,
the magnitude worse.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I remember the enemy's list that Nixon had in the
White House, and it was it was baby stuff compared
to what Jack Smith was up to. Jonathan Turley, the
constitutional law guy from George Washington University Law School, he's
pretty upset about it as well.
Speaker 14 (23:58):
It's unprecedented in scope. The more we learn the numbers
are really daunting. You know, when you talked about Nixon's
enemies list, this was a list that seems modest in comparison.
I mean, we're now looking at hundreds of people that
may have had information targeted or obtained by the FBI.
(24:19):
Keep in mind that the whole concept of coequal branches
in our constitutional system is that we afford those branches
the ability to do what they need to do to
fulfill their constitutional obligations. These types of intercepts, or at
least these records, I should say, can reveal who's speaking
(24:40):
to members of Congress, including journalists, whistleblowers, citizens who have
grievances against the government, including grievances about abuses. After January sixth,
there was there were lots of citizens that complained they
had nothing to do with that riot, and they suddenly
found themselves being scooped up and interrogated by the FBI.
(25:01):
So a lot of those communications are go to the
heart of what Congress does and its oversight responsibility and
what's missing here any semblance of restraint by Smith, And
unfortunately that's been a signature of his career. He does
not really respect those the navigational beacons, and he has
(25:22):
been accused in the past of excessive techniques.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Makes you feel a little jaded about the fact that
the DOJ has been and may still be a political department.
It's supposed to be the Department of Justice, but obviously
under this smells like it was weaponized lawfair all the
(25:48):
other things that they came up with. So this is
just getting started. Grassley's not going to let go of it.
We'll find out, Morris. They move along here in New
York City, we've got a race for mayor, and also
Virginia as a race for governor and attorney general, a
(26:09):
bunch of others, and New Jersey. That race in New
Jersey for governors getting very very close. And the race
here in New York between Mam Donnie and Cuomo. Well,
let me get the numbers here. The latest surveys on
this Mam Donnie at forty three percent, Cuomo at thirty
three percent, and Curtis Sliwa at fourteen percent. This is prinipiac.
(26:33):
So Man Donnie is ten points ahead of Cuomo. That's
much tighter than where it was before Sliwa. If he
dropped out, I'm going to guess most of those votes
would go to Cuomo and it would give Cuomo the race.
But let's let Carl Roveway in on his observations on
(26:53):
the New York mayor race. I was shocked. Here's the
moment that he ought to be trying to unite the
city and instead, he says, I made a mistake to
think that I could be a candidate who called upon
the city to unite. He talked about, you know, Muslim
teachers and police who make daily sacrifices. Their leaders spit
on them. He says, Islamophobia is quote one of the
(27:15):
few areas of agreement among my opponents in the city.
I mean, it's like this guy went out of his
way to say that a lot of it was sort
of like Hillary Clinton and you know, the deplorables. The
city is full of bigots, and he is a Muslim
feels this intensely. Well, if that were true, he would
not have won the Democratic nomination. If the five boroughs
(27:37):
are hotbeds of bigotry, Sure, they're bigots in any city.
But the idea that New York is, you know, beset
by Islamophobia, I thought was a very poor note to
end on this. So Carl is a walking computer. He's
got numbers, and he said it's amazing to talk to him.
He weighs in on the latest polls that have been
(27:58):
taken about the New York City race. Think about this,
of the nineteen polls held in New York City since
Labor Day, Mamdani is bigger than fifty percent. He's leading
with fifty percent or more in two Now, think about this.
New York City, sixty two percent of the registered voters
are Democrats, and he's the Democratic nominee. Twenty two percent
(28:19):
are registered independence unaffiliated. That leaves sixteen percent of the
city's voters who are Republicans, Conservatives, or members of some
left wing party that tends to be on the ballot
in the city. He's the nominee of the Democratic Party.
Why is he not even getting the base Democratic vote
of sixty two percent. If you look at it in
(28:42):
the most recent polls, there seems to be a tendency
where while he is he's in the mid forties, maybe
the low high forties. Nonetheless, he's not over fifty. And
there's a growing number of people who are undecided. What
does that mean? That means either they have decided not
to be for him and not comfortable telling a poster that,
(29:02):
or they have decided they don't like anybody. The former
helps him, Actually, the latter helps him because it's people
dropping out of the electorate. The former hurts him because
those are people who are probably moving away from him.
Will know on election night it says something about him
that he cannot get anywhere close to the percentage of
(29:23):
the voters in the City of New York who are Democrats,
and he's the Democratic nominee. Well, early voting started this
past Saturday and on day one there were two hundred
and ninety seven thousand ballots submitted, which is a record,
and where it's coming from our young people. The young
(29:45):
people are very big supporters of Ma'm Donnie, and they're
out in spades. So it's going to be interesting to
see how all of this turns out, but it's off
to a very strong early voting star and appears without
knowing the results that a lot of those two hundred
and ninety seven thousand are going to be for ma'am Donnie.
(30:06):
But there's still, like I said, there's early voting still going,
and then the voting day is next Tuesday. There's a
lot still to keep track of. One more from Carl.
He was asked about the race for governor in New
Jersey between Cindarelli and Mickey Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The last poll that she had a good lead was
the Concord poll on the eighteenth of October and the
twenty six with from g GQR. Both of those are Democrats.
Democrat groups sponsored him. But since then we've had three
one and two. This could conceivably be very very close
and a long night.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
The current governor Murphy four years ago he was going
up against the Arelly and he won by just a sliver,
which was a shock to the Democrats in New Jersey.
Let's get some phone calls in the phone number two
reach the program. The podcast leave a message is eight
(31:05):
five five two nine five sixty six hundred. It's the
same phone number we had for the radio show for
years eight five, five, two, nine, five sixty six hundred.
If you forget that number, you can look on my
website Tom Sullivan dot com and there is the phone number.
Let's start with this caller who wants me to record
(31:27):
the podcast earlier.
Speaker 9 (31:29):
Tom.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
I'm a loyal listener, but you're killing me with dropping
these podcasts so late. You gotta have them out before
six o'clock Eastern time.
Speaker 13 (31:38):
Man, you're losing me.
Speaker 15 (31:40):
I don't want to listen to yesterday's news.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
So when I did the radio show, we went from
three to six pm Eastern time, and so I try
to wrap things up by six the other day. What
days today? Today's Thursday. So it was Tuesday afternoon we
were recording, and the whole system had a big software crash,
so we were very late on that one. My apologies.
(32:06):
I've I'll get this one out before six o'clock tonight,
just for you. I appreciate the feedback. And remember Jim
from from Kansas, which you talk Kansas. Jim's always a
character man. He's a big Democrat and he thinks that
Donald Trump should just demolish the entire White House and
(32:28):
put up a well. Let him say it.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
I think Trump should demolish the whole White House and
building its place an impenetrable, reinforced concree bunker. Ain't good white,
of course, what's he want?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
He wants a white bunker. Okay, I don't know. I
Jim's always always got great ideas. Let's see Laurie. The
comment line, Lady, she thinks that a rant I had
the other day was spot on.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Tom, Your rant about the American people depending far too
much on the government to take care of them was
spot on. We're becoming very much like the Roman Empire.
They had bread and circuses. We have welfare and TikTok,
and I'm afraid we're going to wind up a crumbling ruin,
(33:25):
just like the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Well, history says that's what happens. The Laurie's got a
good point. I hope she's wrong. The homeless guy in
Reno checked in and he's got guns on his mind.
Speaker 15 (33:40):
Hey, Tom, we'rena howmeless guy. One last thing, you know?
You know, I'm a sticker on JEMs. I'm jams, just
too many of them, and they're too many of them
where they don't know where they are. So with all
this technology. You're gonna buy a gun, and you should
be willing to at least have some kind of tip
where every year he got to register it. Maybe you
(34:03):
don't cost you that much, Learney, but you got it,
you got your chip, you got your Yeah, you gotta
have some. I mean, just ridiculous. How many guns are
out there? I don't know. That's where it boils down
to Bart.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, I think the homeless guy is a card carrying Democrat.
If not, he should be, uh, because that's what they want.
They want they want certified, registered, government approved and all that.
But but renal, homeless guy, read this second Amendment of
the Constitution and tell me how your system would work,
(34:45):
because it's you have the right to bear arms in
this country. And then Eric, who grew up I think
in Russia anyway, in the former Soviet Union, and he
calls me comrade at Major like I'm an official of
the Soviet Union or something. Anyway, he's got the World
(35:08):
Series on his mind.
Speaker 8 (35:09):
Good evening, Major Town, this is me, comrade again. I
thought about you know, I mean, finally my mood kind
of improved in the evening, Like I said, around five
six o'clock before that, my mood is really really bad.
Just nothing I can do with myself, you know. I just
I mean I should go like in the park somewherea
(35:31):
I would feel better, but I would like to suffer.
So anyway, about the World Series. How about the World Series?
I was thinking about you. I mean, you're like an
East Coast close to Toronto. I mean, are you are a
foot Dodgers for the US or you for the East Coast?
(35:54):
I mean I kind of, I mean I am a
foot Dodgers. I was rooting for them, but then today
I was kind of like looking at that, and I
was thinking about the Canadians.
Speaker 9 (36:06):
You know.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
First I was kind of like, yeah, who the hell
they are, you know, and then I was like kind of, oh, well,
you're a Canadian, so you're for Toronto. I forgot about that,
so and I was kind of thinking like, yay. I
mean they're kind of like underdogs, you know, little guys,
you know, the little country, you know. So it's like
(36:31):
sor Virginia and Czechoslovakia played in a hockey The Czechs
always were fighting so hard against so Virginia because Sir
Virginian crushed them in sixty eight with the things so
they were very angry, and on a hockey field, the
Czechoslovakia always was beating and winning the sovietinion. They always won.
(36:56):
So anyway I thought about the sport is not about
the pol but somehow it is. So what I'm thinking
about the Dodgers. I mean they got all the money,
all the talent, and now you're looking at the Canadians.
I mean they're like nobody, but they got on the top,
(37:16):
so I think they got a chance. I mean they're underdogs.
So today I'm kind of like a little bit, you know.
I mean I like that, you know, Atani and all
the team and everything personalities, I mean Freeman and Yakamoto
and the others on the Canadians, they are only what
(37:41):
is like the weird name yes Savage. I mean, what
kind of weird name could be? Yes Savage? I mean
really weird name. You must be a foreigner, came from
somewhere and translated the wrong way something. Anyway, a good
night and I'll shoot tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
But there's a lot to unpack on that phone call.
First of all, Trey Yesavage, the pitcher for the for
the Blue Jays, Toronto Blue Jays. He's like six seven
or something, like that, and that's what makes him so successful.
The release point when he's throwing the ball is way
up higher than the players. They see the ball coming
(38:23):
at him at a different angle. So that's why he's
so successful. But he was he's was born in Pennsylvania,
so he's he's twenty two years old. Yeah, young guy,
twenty two years old, born in Pennsylvania. About what we
got a little bit about the Russian hockey story. He's
(38:44):
in there. Here's the thing. I grew up in Seattle.
We did not have Major League Baseball, so I adopted
the New York Yankees. I've been a Yankees fan since forever.
They have the third highest payroll. The second highest payroll
is the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first is the New
(39:06):
York Mets. The Toronto Blue Jays have the fifth highest payroll,
so they're they are very talented team and so they well,
they were going against Seattle to Seattle Mariners. Now the
Mariners didn't exist when I lived in Seattle, but I thought, well,
my Yankees were defeated by the Blue Jays, so I'll
(39:28):
root for the for the Seattle Mariners. Well, the blue
Jays beat them too, so one of the theories I
have in sports is I will root for the team
that beat my team because I don't want I don't
want I want it to be that if we lost
to somebody, I want to say we lost to the
world champions. So I'm rooting for Toronto for lots of reasons.
(39:52):
When I lived in the Bay Area, I did the
tax returns for the San Francisco Giants and so there
was a just a absolute war between San Francisco Giants
and Los Angeles Dodgers forever. So I just opposed to
the Dodgers on many different levels. And as far as Canadian, yeah,
my mother was born in Canada, so I have a
(40:17):
fondness for that. In fact, Freddie Freeman, the big star
of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was interviewed the other day
before the first game, and it was in Toronto, and
he had the same situation I have. His mother and
father were born in Canada and then later moved to
Los Angeles, where he was born. But Freddie Freeman said
(40:41):
that when he plays in Toronto and they play the
national anthem, Oh Canada, he says, I get choked up
every time I heard that. Before the first game. Is
so sure enough, they played the national anthem, Oh Canada,
and it got me too, So I'm rooting for Toronto.
It's a great series. There are two very evenly matched teams.
(41:03):
So there's your baseball, your Russian hockey? What else do
you have here? One more from Laurie about Halloween for.
Speaker 9 (41:16):
Those who wonder how old is too old to trick
or treat gentlemen, If you grew that mustache yourself, you're
too old. Ladies. If you had to take off your
makeup before you put your costume on, you're also too old.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Well, she's right. I think she's absolutely right. So I
don't know if you're going with or without makeup, or
guys with that mustache or not. That was always a
big trauma thing for a lot of kids when they're
about thirteen fourteen and when their parents telling them or
too old to go out. Wall Street today was a
(41:56):
little bit of a pullback. The Dow Jones industrials down
one hundred and nine to forty seven thousand and five,
twenty two, SMP down sixty eight, Nasdaq down three hundred
and seventy seven. Amazon reported after the market closed today
in their stock soaring after their revenue beat what Wall
(42:20):
Street was expecting by a lot price of gold up
thirty one dollars to four thousand and thirty two and
the price of oil down twenty cents sixty dollars and
some change for a barrel of oil. Thank you for
coming by today. Tomorrow we're going to be here. Yay,
it's Friday over sea.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
This
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