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October 4, 2024 15 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's seven oh six, Brian Thomas. You're wishing everyone to
happy Friday and welcoming to the fifty five theirse Morning
Show author Mandy Gunnisakara. She's got a great background to
write this book. We're gonna be talking about, y'all, Fire,
a Southern Midle's guide to Restoring Federalism, Draining the Swamp.
She has been a center of US and energy and
environmental policy for the last decade to a decade. A

(00:35):
veteran environmental attorney, energy strategist, and communicator, served under President
Donald Trump as the Chief of Staff at the US
Environmental Protection Agency. Currently a visiting fellow at the Heritage
Foundation Yay, and she is a resident of Oxford, mississipp
where she lives with her husband and children. Welcome to
the Morning Show, Mandy Gunnis Sicara. It's a real pleasure
to have you on today.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, good morning, and it's a pleasure to be with you.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
And getting to the point on the subtitle draining this swamp.
Here's a problem I have. We'll get into more details
on the book, and thank you so much for writing it.
I was looking, you know, and I'm a critics. I'm
a critic of I don't believe that I'm exhaling us
into oblivion. I do not believe it was a problem
with carbon dioxide. Honestly, I know it's tree food. I
haven't bought into the religion, all right, So call me
old fashioned, but I always counter this argument that we're

(01:22):
killing the planet, which seems to serve as the basis
for almost every removal of freedom that exists in our
lives in this world, that the planet's temperature has ebbed
and flowed. The estate of Ohio was at one time
covered completely with a glacier. Thankfully it isn't anymore. The
earth got warmer, and now we grow corn here. So
how is it that the airth temperature has ebbed and flowed?

(01:45):
And only right now it's our fault? So with that
in mind, we have a collection, in my estimation, of
useful idiots who have just taken that and just believed
it as gospel, and then therefore allow things like ice
internal combustion engine mandates in bands like's going on in California,
where they force people to buy, for example, big rigs

(02:06):
electric big rigs that go one hundred and fifteen miles
versus the thousand to fifteen hundred miles of diesel trucks go,
which also happened to cost twice the price of a
diesel truck. But they're not allowed to sell you a
diesel unless they sell an EV. That is all made up.
It's insanity and it's ruining our economy. One illustration. So
to drain the swamp, don't we have to drain the

(02:26):
useful idiots who are bought into this.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah. Absolutely, And there's only so much you can do
to not only get rid of them in terms of
being responsible for consequential decision making, but you know they'll
still be out there talking. President Trump appropriately referred to
this group of folks as the profits of Doom. They've
been around since the beginning of time. There's some famous
ones in the Bible. And all you have to know

(02:52):
is that they're always pushing the same socialist styled solutions
to whatever the doomsday prophecy is. And that's the case
with climate change. Yes, you know there was. I worked
for a senator from Oklahoma for quite some time and
he used to reference a quote that they want to
control carbon because if you control carbon, you can control life,

(03:13):
And that truly is what they are after.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yes, and then that that's the the controlling carbon in
the name of well saving us all on the planet.
That's the why that was created to serve the interest
of the real motivation, the real religion, which is socialism, communism, Marxism,
or just literal top down control from some collective of
powerful elite over our lives.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, that's exactly right, because you know, they know better
than us, that's what they think. And if they're going
to destroy the economy, they have to be doing it
for a good reason, so they still feel like good people.
And that's that's hence all the problytizing about about you know,
how to be how to be a better citizen, and
we're all in this together in some of this language.
But the truth is, none of that's necessary to have

(03:58):
a healthy thriving in environment and general public. We know
this because we took a totally different approach during the
Trump administration. We cut regulations, we gave people freedom back,
we gave people financial investments back. And what happened. The
economy boomed, and the way that you measure pollutants, whether

(04:18):
it's clean air, clean water, or cleaning up legacy pollution
in the soil. We continued to break records on all fronts.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
So we know.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
How to balance the two. We know how to do
it successful. And you know what, it doesn't require you
giving up your individual liberties and rights to some morally
inept elite in Washington, DC that wants to tell you
what to do.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, and you know, we could take all the efforts
we want to get rid of carbon or fill in
the blank on whatever other pollutant they claim that we're producing,
and we could do it all day long and succeed
in meeting zero mission standard, which means we will probably
not have electricity. Meanwhile, China continues to belch out more
than we have taken out of the pl and increases
the amount every single day. I'm sorry, but the globe

(05:03):
is one single set of air and we're all breathing,
and so our efforts are negated by our enemy.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, exactly right. Well, and that therein lies the key
problem with the so called Paris Climate Accord. And one
of the first things I worked on with President Trump
and getting out was that disastrous deal. And it's because
it's it's all the bonus burden financial pain falls in
the United States. Meanwhile, it gives not only countries like
China a free pass, but also India and Russia and

(05:33):
their environmental standards. Maybe they look good on a piece
of paper, but they have no intentions or seriousness about
implementing them in ways that tangibly matter. If you truly
care about global health or a better.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Environment, well, and it's in their best interest to do
whatever the hell they want while we weaken ourselves by
cutting our own throats in the name of well saving
the world.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, that's exactly right. You know, as we suppress development,
lose jobs and investment here in the United States, that
demand does not go away. It just reservices somewhere else,
and it's going to most likely resurface in a place
like China where it's cheap. But it's cheap because they
cut corners. And if you care about pollution, let's talk
about traditional particulate matter pollution, soot, fine soot. China, you

(06:23):
rightfully reference they're building a new coal plant just about
every week. They just propose a coal plant development plan
outlook where they're going to have the largest coal fleet
in the world. But the problem is the coal plants
that they're building, they don't use pollution control devices. Are
coal plants in the United States have been using for
years well.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
And the mandates on the scrubbing technology and the carbon
removal technology are extraordinarily expensive. So the extent you could
meet the EPA's onerous demands and removing carbon from the
coal plant, you probably go out of business trying to
accomplish that goal. So it's not even an option. Ergo,
the coal plant doesn't get built.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's right. They like to take a million dollar problem
and turn it into a billion dollar liability, and that
is how EPA uses itself, and it's become a tool
of the left where they use the role of EPA
to squeeze out the industries and people that have fallen
out of political favor. And cold fired power plants gas

(07:23):
fired power plants are traditional energy resources. They've been front
and center in that receipt of the weaponization of agencies
like EPA and the Department of Interior, not because it
makes sense from a policy perspective, but it makes sense
from a political perspective by virtue of the left.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
My guest today, author of y'all Fired Southern Bill's Guide
to Restoring Federalism, Draining the Swamp, manny Gna Sakara Okay,
let's cut to the chase you talk about in chapter
four of your book about firing career employees. Very challenging problem.
There are rules and REGs in place regarding higher and
firing a federal employee. So let's talk about that. Assuming

(08:03):
you know, we all get our dream and not only
do we cut out useless redundancies in government and just
forever get rid of departments in restocking and re employing
fired employees who are so politically biased that they can't
do their job effectively for the American people. How do
we replace them? Are there people out there that reject
this nonsense, would actually do their job without being politically

(08:26):
biased and harming the American people.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah? Well, I think a lot of the jobs that
we propose to cut, we just don't replace. Because the
truth is, the federal government, especially at the agency level,
it should shrink by at least thirty percent, if not
forty to fifty. And that's going to be really important.
A day one exercise for the next conservative administration will
really need to be filtering all the jobs and offices

(08:53):
at various agencies and determining which ones tangibly could tangibly
promote and implement the agency's state admission and wish ones
do not, and the ones that do not are superfluous.
They need to go. But then, yeah, getting rid of
political hacks that sent under this umbrella of public servant
but actually undermine the direction the political direction of anyone

(09:16):
that they disagree. Experience this firsthand with President Trump. Not
only do they disagree, they will go out of their
way to demean, discredit, and demoralize the political appointees trying
to implement that vision. So to the extent there needs
to be some replacement. Another concept that I think is
really important is moving portions of the federal agency out
of DC so that you can pull from a broader

(09:40):
grouping of potential employees people that would like to work
for the EPA or Interior. They've actually been in the field,
have really great expertise that they could bring in, but
they don't want to live in DC. And I understand,
I don't live there anymore. I wouldn't wish that on anyoney.
But if you move these outside of DC, then you

(10:00):
can pull from a broader collection of experience and knowledge
and where folks are from, which I think would really
help improve the outcomes of various agencies.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Imagine using the Internet, email, text communications, zoom conference calls
where you can participate from anywhere in the globe and
still get your job done effectively. I love the idea
of diversifying people out of the greater DC area, which
is obviously infested with this disease. I like to call
liberalism anyway, I doubt in the final analysis. I mean,

(10:35):
this is an uphill challenge because it's not just the
woke left Democrats. I mean, we've got some problems within
the Republican Party as well. You have to really truly
stick your neck out to make these bold assertions in
the face of this brainwashing that's gone on. Mandy, how
do we address that?

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, we're not alone. We're not alone as a conservative movement.
We have the courageous, fearless leader we need at this moment,
which is President Donald Trump. But we also have assistance
from other industries. I'm talking about Elon Musk and a
lot of the tech folks that two have stepped up
and said, hey, there's something wrong with a federal government
that wants to sensor speech and wants to take over

(11:15):
the public square platforms. Because it's harder for them to
otherwise maintain political control. There's a convergence of folks even
from RFK Junior and from the Vek Ramaswami all over
that are coming out of the woodwork. So I'd say
that momentum is coming together. It's swelling at a really
good time. But I like your question because it denotes

(11:37):
a tone of realism, and that's what we have to have.
This isn't going to be solved in one administration. This
is a long term commitment. But I would allude to
something that's happened before we could do it again. Look
at the Supreme Court, So that was a bastion of
liberalism and judicial activism, and a long term, methodical, well resourced,
well planned strategy is how we ultimately got the opportunity

(12:00):
to restore it back to its small, sy conservative routes.
And we did that as as a as a coalition.
So we've just got to stay the course, stay committed.
But we really need some key shifting, uh path shifting
decisions made in this next administration, and a lot of
that's going to come down to whether or not President

(12:22):
Trump wins the election. I think he will, and then
the plan that he starts implementing from day one. But
there's a lot of folks who have thought critically about
this are ready to go and committed to this long
term process.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Well, I know you're familiar with the West Virginia versus
EBA decision, which I thought was brilliant and wonderful. Going
to pair back the out of control authors of all
these rules and regulations behind the scene, you have to
have a specific authority from Congress. So that and other
decisions along those lines are probably are the reason that
they want to pack the Supreme Court the left. I
got a interesting thought process, a thought question before we

(12:56):
part coming today, Mandy. If they if let's say the
type of thing, if they passed a court packing law
in this particular administration, and then Trump won and the
Republicans took over the House and sent it, how comical
would it be that the Republicans would then appoint the
additional justices to the Supreme Court.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
You know what, It wouldn't be the first time they're
playing backfire. And remember when Harry Reid pulled the two
thirds dearnment for Supreme Court justices, you know, shot, really
the first.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Time this shotenfreud of moment that was uh many, you
got us the car. It has been a real pleasure.
Thanks you for writing the book, y'all, a Southern Bell's
guide restoring Federalism and draining the Trump We just scratched
the surface of what's in this book. Folks get a
copy of fifty five care Sea dot com along with
the podcast of this conversation. Mandy, keep up the great
work and hope to see you as part of the
Trump administration.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
God willing, Well, thank you so much. It really was
a pleasure to be with you this morning.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
My pleasure absolutely coming up at seven twenty fifty five
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