November 21, 2025 • 30 mins
Join Jim and Greg for the Friday 3 Martini Lunch as they break down a Democratic congressional candidate trashing the city she wants to represent, the escalating clash over Democrats urging the military to defy President Trump, and shocking revelations about taxpayer money ending up with Somali terrorists.
First, they laugh as Democrat Tennessee congressional hopeful Aftyn Behn blasts Republicans for claiming Behn hates Nashville, which is in the district she wants to represent. But Behn's problem isn't with Republicans, it's the audio that still exists of her saying she hates Nashville, the constant bachelorette parties, and even country music.
Next, they dig into the comments from lawmakers who cut a video urging members of the military to disobey illegal orders from President Trump. Of course, they cannot point to a single illegal order Trump has issues. Meanwhile, Trump is accusing them of sedition and pointing out that crime can be punishable by death. Jim decimates the empty and false argument the Democrats are peddling and tells Trump he doesn't have to go nuclear over everything.
Finally, they dig into the exploding fraud within Minnesota’s welfare programs, where budgets that were just a few million dollars a few years ago have now ballooned into the hundreds of millions. Even worse, large sums are reportedly flowing to Somali terrorists. Jim stresses that this massive breakdown has taken place under Gov. Tim Walz’s watch.
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First, they laugh as Democrat Tennessee congressional hopeful Aftyn Behn blasts Republicans for claiming Behn hates Nashville, which is in the district she wants to represent. But Behn's problem isn't with Republicans, it's the audio that still exists of her saying she hates Nashville, the constant bachelorette parties, and even country music.
Next, they dig into the comments from lawmakers who cut a video urging members of the military to disobey illegal orders from President Trump. Of course, they cannot point to a single illegal order Trump has issues. Meanwhile, Trump is accusing them of sedition and pointing out that crime can be punishable by death. Jim decimates the empty and false argument the Democrats are peddling and tells Trump he doesn't have to go nuclear over everything.
Finally, they dig into the exploding fraud within Minnesota’s welfare programs, where budgets that were just a few million dollars a few years ago have now ballooned into the hundreds of millions. Even worse, large sums are reportedly flowing to Somali terrorists. Jim stresses that this massive breakdown has taken place under Gov. Tim Walz’s watch.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money at https://RocketMoney.com/MARTINI
Stop putting off those doctors’ appointments and go to https://ZocDoc.com/3ML to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.
Give your liver the support it deserves with Dose Daily. Save 35% on your first month when you subscribe at https://DoseDaily.co/3ML or enter code 3ML at checkout.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stole next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Hey, so glad you're with us for the Friday edition
of The Three Martini Lunch. It's been another long, strange week,
but we've made it together. And today we've got no
shortage of strange stories, from a special house race in
Tennessee to the back and forth between senators urging military
members not to obey Trump's legal orders to Trump accusing
(00:33):
them of sedition. And then we're going to be taking
a look at how massive fraud has been happening in
various welfare programs in the state of Minnesota. And you
will certainly not be pleased with where that money seems
to be ending up as it gets stolen. So, Jim,
I know you're excited to dig into all of these,
but which one's got you most, priest?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
This is you know, It's like there are some times
like tgif I don't want to talk about these topics,
I want to talk about all these topics. They are
all eye poppingly outrageous in their own way. Listeners will
know there's always a fine line between bad and crazy, Yes,
but I don't even think the good is kind of
crazy too. This is a all crazy aftertaste edition of
(01:16):
our martinis, no question. So buckle up.
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(03:00):
well know, elections earlier this month did not go great
for the Republicans in New Jersey, Virginia, New York City.
I mean all of those were tilted against us, but
they certainly were more lopsided than we would have.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Liked to see.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But now we've got next up on the docket, the
Tennessee seventh Congressional District special election. That is because Mark
Green just decided to resign in the middle of the
term and now we've got a special election. And so
the matchup here is Republican candidate Matt Van Epps and
(03:34):
Afton Baine is the Democrat. She is a state legislator.
Polling has Matt Van Epps ahead likely Republicans, the Cook
Political Report rating on this, but you never know what
turned out. It's going to be in a special election.
So Democrats are pumping a ton of money in here
trying to get Afton Bane over the finish line and
score and upset win in Tennessee seven. And so things
are not looking great for Afton Baine right now because
(03:58):
she's playing defense. And that's because a clip from a
podcast she did several years ago has come out where she,
who is running to represent part of Nashville mind you,
says she hates Nashville. Well, she also represents Nashville State Legislature.
So here's that clip from a few years ago.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
He's been heavily involved with the Nashville mayoral race because
I hate the city. I hate the bachelorettes, I hate
the penal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all
of the things that make Nashville. Fairly, it makes city
to the rest of the country, but I hate it. Yeah,
I'm not that girl at the airport that all these bachelorettes
are giddy walking out there, and they're two toned colored
(04:37):
pant tone pink shirts and they walk out and I'm like, oh,
we got Nashville so loud.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
The disdain is palpable. And so now she's accusing the
Republicans of launching this scurless attack on her, claiming she
hates Nashville. Where would Republicans ever have gotten this from.
Here's what she's saying.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Now, So I look a little rough. I have bags
under my eyes because the Republican I have saw has
finally shifted towards wah And I'm sure you've seen the commercials.
I'm sure you've seen the onslaught of ads. And then
today the Republicans decided that they're going to start this
narrative that me the state representative who represents downtown Nashville,
(05:19):
doesn't like the city.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I always want Nashville to be better, right, I want
Nashville to be a place where working people can thrive.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
But sure I get mad at the bachelorette Sometimes I
get mad at the pedal taverns. Right, Ben, you're talking
to someone who has cried no less than ten times
in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The girl that
just goes to the rhyman to hang out.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I don't know how much of a difference this is
gonna make, Jim, But I know people who live in
the Nashville area and they also hate the influx of
bachelorettes and the pedal taverns. But saying you hate country
music in Nashville is like running for office in Wisconsin
and saying you hate the packers. So it's not gonna go.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well. I'm in western Pennsylvania and I hate Cole. I
represent New York City and I hate skyscrapers. I'm in
California and I hate natural disasters. You know, like these,
these are what these places are known for. Right, By
the way, it's not true that Republicans are saying that
she doesn't like the city they're saying she hates the
city because they're quoting her. The person who makes who
(06:15):
is the source of this accusation is you look at
the mirror. I learned it from watching you as the
eighties anti drug commercial set, and like, look, there are
two places, kinds of places in America and in this world.
There are the kinds of you know, I'm thinking here
in Washington, d C. The area where my parents live
near hiltonhet Island. There are places where the locals hate tourists.
(06:36):
And then the other kind of places, places no one visits.
These are your options. There is not an option where
you have just precisely the right number of tourists that
there's never a parking issue, there's never a traffic issue,
the bars or restaurants are never crowded like you have.
These are your options. You can have the kind of
community that nobody wants to visit, and there are a
whole bunch of places in America that are like that,
and people there are generally miserable. The economies are not great, right.
(07:00):
Or you can have a place like Nashville where people
come and visit. Yes, lots of people have their bachelorette parties,
the one time I was there, it was the NA Convention.
I had a great time. Nashville. You're beautiful, You're wonderful.
Don't ever change. That's my perspective. I would also not
vote for a mayor that hates the place. I would
not vote for a mayor that hates the country music.
She could have like, she could have tried to play
this off as a laugh and I said, yeah, you know,
(07:22):
I kind of went a little too far there, But
aren't we kind of annoyed by the bachelorette parties or something?
And she she kind of goes in that direction, but
she still acts like Republicans are making this terrible unfair
attack by quoting her. Like the person you have to
blame is yourself. This is not a journey trick. This
is not you know, country music vets for truth. This
is not some sort of really unfair like. No, this
(07:45):
is quoting you. And you you were aware the microphone
was on, right, You're on the podcast, everyone around you
is laughing with you. You really, you know, she could say, oh,
I love this place. I was just joking about it,
and you know that's my Andy Rooney impression. Or do
you ever notice bachelorette parties in Nashville. Notice the pedaling bars.
You all know you're not burning enough calories for all
the beer. You're like, she could have done that, but
(08:06):
she did so Nashville the choice. He is pretty clear
the Republican Guess what. He does not hate the city.
He does not hate the country music, and he does
not hate the and all those tourists like you had
to caneal annoying or loud, but like they're spending money there, right,
you kind of want that to happen to support all
these jobs and all these businesses. Ah, those terrible tourists.
Most Republicans support a war on tourism, as George W.
(08:29):
Bush would say, Democrats believe a war on tourism.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That's true, especially there and during COVID, Yeah, the war
on terras, as George W. Bush used to say, Why
does he hate girls named Tara? This district stretches from
downtown Nashville all the way to the Alabama border. So
it's one of these districts that the Republicans, you know,
kind of carved out to lean Republican for sure. So
hopefully that's still the case when this vote happens. But
after bay Man, you only got yourself to blame for
(08:56):
getting yourself into this mess. Well, it's uh. You know
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(10:43):
stems over the last two three days now. This all
started a couple of days ago when a couple members
of the Senate and a couple members of the House
put out this vague video encouraging members of the military
to disobey illegal orders from the president.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
I'm Senator Alissa Stockin, Senator Mark Kelly, Representative christ Luzios
Congressman Maggie Goodlanyard Representative Chrissy Hulahan, Congressman Jason Crowe.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I was a captain in the United States.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Navy, former CIA officer, former Navy, former paratrooper and Army ranger,
former intelligence officer.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Former Air Force.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
We want to speak directly to members of the military.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
And the intelligence community to take risks each day to
keep Americans safe.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.
Americans trust their military, but that trust.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniform military.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And intelligence community professionals against American citizens.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Like us.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right now, the threats to our constitution aren't just coming
from abroad, but from right here at home.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Our laws are clear.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
You can refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
No one has to carry out orders that violate the
law or our constitution.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We know this is hard. It's a difficult time to
be a public servant.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But whether you're serving in the CIA, the Army, or
Navy the Air Force.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Your vigilance is critical.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
And know that we have your back because now more
than ever, the American people need you. We need you
to stand up for our laws, our constitution, and who
we are as Americans.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Don't give up.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up the ship.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So what are they talking about the only indication there
was pitting the military against American citizens? Does that mean
calling in the National Guard to break up anti ice
riots or so forth. So Jason Crow, who was there
and as a former Army ranger, went on with Martha
McCallum on the Fox News channel and here's that encounter.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So when you see this video on all over the place,
when you see this video on social media, I think
a lot of people scratch their heads and they say,
what exactly are they talking about? Are they talking about
not allowing gunboats to make it to the United States
carrying drugs? Is I mean, is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Martha, here's a novel idea. How about we act actually
prevent things from happening before they become a problem.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
Sure know what you're saying. What you're saying is we
have to wait until there's a problem to respond to
that problem. No I'm not right. As a military officer,
what I think is important is we train people, we
give them information, We prepare people for challenges coming down
the pike. That is what I did as a commander
in the military. That's what I'm doing now as we
are standing by our troops, we are reminding.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Them of their obligation from the commander.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And she.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Sing you are military to carry out are you objecting to?
This is very, very vague, and it was so vague
in this video nobody only people could figure out what
you guys were all talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Honestly, Yeah, wow, She's not alone. And so Trump, of course,
pouring gasoline on the fire like he usually does true
social he says, it's called seditious behavior at the highest level.
Each one of these traders to our country should be
arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed
to stand. We won't have a country anymore. An example
must be sets in DJT and then in another one
(14:02):
seditious behavior comma punishable by death. And so that now
has several of these figures jumping back on social media
and saying, look, this is exactly what we warned against.
This guy's out of control. We have to, we have
to stop them. And so the Democrats, you know, are
kind of wish casting or nightmare casting, I guess in
this situation, and Trump's kind of given what they want
(14:25):
to let them be the victim status here.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So Greg, I have a feeling this is one of
those episodes gonna run a little long and live down
to one of Mike cliches. There's a lot to unpack here.
This is a double barreled bad Martini. First of all,
for listeners who listened to that first audio by the
Democratic lawmakers, just in case they didn't enunciate they said,
don't give up the ship with a pee, you might
be thinking they're doing something different with the messaging that
(14:49):
they're doing here. Look, if you want to accuse the
president of the United States, first of all, and unlawful
order has a particular definition to it, right it is,
you know, must violate the law, must violate the country.
An order does not become unlawful by being controversial. Order
does not become you know, lots of people object to it.
That does not necessarily make it unlawful. Not everything that
(15:10):
is bad or objectionable is unconstitutional, and vice versa. So
you have this situation where they put out this message there.
I think if you're going to put out a video
telling members of the US military that they must refuse
illegal orders, it is more than reasonable to say, Okay,
what do you have in mind? What has he issued
that strikes you as an unlawful order? Or what do
you think he is going to or about to issue
(15:32):
that is going to be unlawful order? What is illegal here?
And they did not do that. I'm glad you played
a significant chunk of the interview with McCallum. If we
played the whole interview like this podcast would be even longer.
But I think that he does come up with three
different examples, none of which strike me as particularly persuasive.
I lay it all out in today's Morning Jolt One.
He said, you know, Trump saying in his first term,
(15:54):
can't you just shoot them in the legs or something? Now,
this was apparently happening during the George Floyd protests. In
this you know form of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
said that Trump said this, this is bad. The president
should not be speculating about shooting protesters in the legs.
But that was not in order, and that did not
come to pass. And it's more than five years ago.
Congressman Crow, what do you have in mind? So you
(16:15):
know regarding this that he says number two, he is
also threatening to send the military into Chicago and other
cities to go to war with those cities. That is
a very disturbing thing now, with this one easily somewhere
more recent. But his example that he's citing is a
truth social post by the president, which is a meme
of himself as Colonel Bill Kilgore from Apocalypse Now saying
Chicago is about to find out why it's called the
(16:37):
Department of War. This is an AI generated image. This
is bad, This is dumb. The president of the United
States should not be doing this. But the very next
day Trump gets asked about it, and he says, We're
not going to war. We're going to clean up our cities.
We're going to clean them up so they don't kill
five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense.
Even Donald Trump realizes that saying I am going to
war with the city of Chicago is a bad thing. Right.
(16:59):
I don't like how Trump frosted the mouth hyperbolically on
social media, but that is not on lawful order. True
social AI generated images are not orders to the military.
Then the third example is probably his weakest one, where
he says Crowe says quote number three. He has also
alluded to sending troops to polling stations, which is a
violation of US law. US criminal law prohibits troops from
(17:21):
going to polling stations. He has alluded to that this
is just one of many examples. Greg I think of
myself as being a pretty good researcher, not just Google
searches and all kinds. I went looking around for where
Trump had said I'm going to send military troops into
polling stations. I have not been able to find that
so far. I think Crow is misremembering an interview with
Hannity back into August twenty twenty where he said, we're
(17:43):
going to have sheriffs and we're going to have law enforcement,
and we're going to have hopefully US attorneys, and we're
going to have everybody in attorney generals at polling places.
Now that's bad or that's actually know not there, but
the end that's not military. So this is again examples
more than five years ago, not military did not come
to pass. He's over three he has not come up
with anything that strikes me as an unlawful order either
(18:05):
has been issued or is expected to be issued in
the near future. So McCallum, good for her for giving
him grief about this. I think it was very snippy,
and I think if you're gonna make this kind of
charge against the president, you should really be prepared for
the question, well, what do you have in mind? What
specifics are you pointing to as unlawful orders? Now, as
you alluded to Trump and you know, spreading gasoline, we
kind of for those wondering, Oh, he means the Venezuela stuff,
(18:28):
she asked him, and he specifically said, we are not
talking about Venezuela at all in this issue. We never
mentioned it once. He says, since you raised it, I'm
deeply concerned. But apparently in his mind, this video is
not about the Venezuela stuff. By the way, I have
problems with our venezuela policy and blowing up these boats,
but I do not think they're necessarily unlawful orders. I
have not seen an argument indicating the president does not
have this authority. I can dispute the wisdom of doing
(18:49):
this or whether it's going to get us where we
want to go. But I don't actually think this is,
you know, a violation of the Constitution. Naturally Trump. They've
set the trap for Trump, and he's stepped directly into
the bear trap as hard as he can because he's
going to show him by calling first sedicious behavior punishable
by death right. I think it's now safe to say
we've Trump has been in our lives for a long time.
(19:10):
We've seen him off first on Twitter and now on
truth social He's a rage ahollick. When something does not
go his way, he just vents his spleen in the
most angry, furious way possible. It's probably not very unhealthy.
But here's the thing, Greg, If he asked me, what's
the biggest thing that happened in twenty twenty five, we
could point to the elections, we could point to bombing
the Iranian nuclear A lot of big things happen, but
(19:32):
I think a really big consequential one was the assassination
of Charlie Kirk and a whole bunch of us afterwards, like, Wow,
this has gotten completely out of control. There's way too
much political violence in America. At minimum, we should stop
calling for the deaths of our political opponents. That that
doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation. I'll let you decide
whether there are plenty of horrible people out there who
(19:52):
just say, celebrated Charlie Kirk's death. Generally not lawmakers, generally
democratic lawmakers had a good sense to not put that
out there. But there are a whole bunch of activists
and ordinary Americans who are like, Yay, somebody I don't
like got killed. But here's the president saying that because
he doesn't like this video that they put out, which
there's good reason to object to, he has decided that
they are winning sedition and should be you know, arrested,
(20:13):
put on trial, and put to death. Leave it to
Trump to do it, I'll like again, Carl Rove has
a column where he said, you know, Trump is getting
better as he's more time to spend in an office.
I don't think I buy into that. I think this
is a once again an entirely self inflicted wound on
the president someone. You know, the old joke is somebody
needs to take away his phone and all that stuff.
It just it does. There's nothing good about this. And
(20:35):
in a world where we have you know, people taking
shots at Charlie Kirk. In a world we have political
violence everywhere, the president saying my opponent should be executed
is really not good on a multitude of levels. I
wish you would stop it. Clearly he's not going to
stop it, and I think it's just something we have
to live with for the remainder of his presidency.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Who knows if this will still be a story going forward.
But the Democrats get there, their grievances aired again as
a result of this, so being the victim is the
thing they love the most, and they get another chance
to do that. So all right, Well, anyway, while that
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money dot com slash Martini. All right, Jim onto our
(22:35):
crazy Martini now. And this is a long story. If
you want to read the whole story, go to City Journal.
It's written by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Ruffo, and it's
basically focusing on how welfare programs in Minnesota the costs
have absolutely spiraled out of control and the lot of
the money is actually ending up in the hands of terrorists. Yeah,
(22:55):
you heard that right, So this is part of it.
If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing
Stabilization Services program. It was originally put it a price
tag annually of two point six million dollars, but those
costs quickly spiraled out of control. In twenty twenty one,
the program paid out more than twenty one million dollars
(23:17):
in claims and it just started the year before that.
In the following years, annual cost shot up to forty
two million, seventy four million, then one hundred and four million,
and during the first six months of this year, payouts
totaled sixty one million dollars. On August first, Minnesota's Department
of Human Services moved to scrap the program, noting that
payment to seventy seven housing stabilization providers had been terminated
(23:39):
this year due to credible allegations of fraud. Meanwhile, in September,
the same day that the HSS fraud charges were announced,
the US Attorney's Office reported that they had charged the
fifty sixth defendant to plead guilty in a two hundred
and fifty million dollar Feeding our Future fraud scheme that
started out at a three point four million dollar in
(23:59):
take from the federal government, but by twenty twenty one,
just two years after it started, two hundred million dollars
in funding was coming in. And then there's the autism
medicaid program that you just mentioned, Jim. It started out
as a three million dollar program in twenty eighteen, jumped
up to fifty four million the next year, seventy seven million,
one hundred and eighty three million, two hundred and seventy
(24:20):
nine million, three hundred ninety nine million in twenty twenty three.
And so the question is where's all this money going?
And they say, our investigation reveals for the first time
that some of this money has been directed to an
even more troubling destination, the al Qaeda linked Islamic terror
group Al Shabab. According to multiple law enforcement sources, Minnesota
Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of hualas,
(24:43):
which are informal clan based money traders that have wound
up in the coffers of al Shabab. The Somalis are
apparently fleecing this autism medicaid program because right now, one
in sixteen Somali four year olds in the state are
supposedly diagnosed with aptism, a rate more than triple this
eight average, And so jim As the Stark quoted towards
(25:04):
the beginning of the article says, the number one funder
of al Shabab and terrorism in Somalia is the Minnesota taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, look, I I'm thinking back to George W. Bush
and his statement that if you feed a terrorist, we
will treat you like a terrorist. If you fund a terrorist,
we will treat you like a terrorist. Minnesota taxpayers, I'm
sorry you have been funding terrorism for quite some time,
and it's time for us to come after you. I
say that a little bit tongue in cheek, but clone
the Minnesota state government is, you know, the one who
(25:33):
is ultimately responsible here and has been absolutely asleep at
the wheel, not just on one fund scandal, on several
financial scandals. I'm looking back to July twenty ninth two,
only twenty four more than a year ago, where the
first inkling of Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota being
Kamala Harris's running mate, had kind of bubbled up through
the media ecosystem. And I will put myself down as
(25:56):
somebody who's an absolute skeptic of that ever happening headlined Harris
VP shortlifter comes loaded with baggage, and I walked through
all of these giant state funding mismanagement and fraud scandals
that were known at that time. As you're laying out today,
it's gotten much worse that it all happened on Tim
Wallas's watch, And it was one of those questions of
like why you know there's good news that there is.
(26:19):
The legislature has some a position called the State Legislative
Auditor whose job is to go through all the states
spending and figure out where the money is going. Judy
Randall's the person at the time, and she's been busy.
She's met a lot of work to do because load
it's not just one program, and it's not just small
like every state's going to say, Okay, you're gonna have
some waste and mismanagement and fraud and abuse. We're talking
(26:39):
about one of these, like a quarter of a billion dollars.
These the largest scale fraud problems we've seen in the
state government in a long long time, maybe ever, probably ever.
So the question is why does this keep happening? Right,
and for what it's worth, Miss Randall actually did go
through this and basically says that, look, quote, state agencies
don't necessarily approach their work with an oversight and a
regulatory mindset. They talk about working with their beneficiaries, they
(27:03):
basically don't have any incentive to and don't feel any
sense of like, well, why should we you know, perhaps
we shouldn't trust everyone who comes to us looking for money.
All right, I hear this, and I feel one degree
of outrage and one degree of regret that I did
not know about this sooner and apply for grants from
the statement. So because apparently they're not checking anything, we
(27:23):
could have had a state funded podcast for a long time,
Greg and basically they just had it out. What's the
meme from the little rascals of just throwing the money
out the window. That's what they're doing. They are dropping
money from helicopters like it's turkeys on WKRP. That's the
you know, that's what's it worked there, And I just
it is absolutely baffling. So the other thing is that,
you know, one other kind of stray thought next to this,
(27:45):
Peggy Newan and columnists with Wall Street Journal. Somebody who
I admire a great deal wrote a column last week
after reading the Kamala Harris memoir and John Fetterman's memoir,
and she came away with it with the question, like,
what do non leftists, the non AOC, non mom dommie Democrats,
what do they stand for? What is we know what
the hard left of the party wants to do to
(28:06):
the country, destroy it up, turn everything, go, socialists go.
But if you're not one of them, Let's say you're
a Democrat and you don't buy into that, what do
you stand for? And I'm a corner post to that
where I kind of walk through what mainstream democrats and
there are the distinctions are starting to be so small
that they're kind of meaningless. You may recognize the you know, okay,
(28:28):
we have to enforce the immigration laws. Yeah, House Democrats
have no enthusiasm for enforcing immigration laws. Right. They may
begrudgingly concede that we have to do it, but they
greet that task the way the most of us greet
going to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Right. So when
you look at Tim Walls, I don't know whether you
think him as a hard left progressive or as a centrist.
I'm sure he would insist that he's mainstream. But they
(28:51):
don't really believe in paying attention to government. They run
the government, but they don't really believe in paying attention
to make sure is the money going where it's supposed
to be going. Otherwise we would not be having a
lot of Minnesota tax paramney going to terrorist groups. That
seems like a really low bar that are you make
sure that your state funding is not going to islam
As terrorist groups? And in the state of Minnesota, they
(29:12):
can't do it because I think in the end, to
be a mainstream Democrat you just have to have this
kind of unfailing faith in government as being good, and
I suspect on some level they're afraid to look too
closely because that might shatter their faith in the goodness
of government. So they just get laws a about it
and talk about you know, tampons and bathrooms and stuff.
Like that, like these happy social issues rather than looking
(29:35):
at the other actual job, which is running state governments.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
They have good intentions Jim's, and that's all that really matters.
The details, well, we'll figure out later. And that's why
I'm pretty.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Sure Al Shabab, by the way does not have tampons
in his bathroom. Pretymoy. Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
And they were saying on this pace that one point
seven billion dollars got sent back from the US to Somalia,
which is bigger than Somalia's annual budget. So that's not good.
That's really not good.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Should talk to AID Greig. What are they gonna do? Sheetz.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Anyway, we finally reached the weekend. Jim enjoy, I'll see
you on Monday. See you Monday, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review.
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the Three Martini Lunch Podcast if you don't already, tell
your friends about us as well. Thanks also for your
five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
Get us on your home devices. All you have to
say is play Three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow us both
(30:27):
on x He's at Jim Garretty, I'm at Greg Corumbus
and don't forget. You can follow the Three Martini Lunch
on Facebook and Instagram. Have a terrific weekend. Join us
again on Monday for the next Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stole next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Hey, so glad you're with us for the Friday edition
of The Three Martini Lunch. It's been another long, strange week,
but we've made it together. And today we've got no
shortage of strange stories, from a special house race in
Tennessee to the back and forth between senators urging military
members not to obey Trump's legal orders to Trump accusing
(00:33):
them of sedition. And then we're going to be taking
a look at how massive fraud has been happening in
various welfare programs in the state of Minnesota. And you
will certainly not be pleased with where that money seems
to be ending up as it gets stolen. So, Jim,
I know you're excited to dig into all of these,
but which one's got you most, priest?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
This is you know, It's like there are some times
like tgif I don't want to talk about these topics,
I want to talk about all these topics. They are
all eye poppingly outrageous in their own way. Listeners will
know there's always a fine line between bad and crazy, Yes,
but I don't even think the good is kind of
crazy too. This is a all crazy aftertaste edition of
(01:16):
our martinis, no question. So buckle up.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Here we go and we'll get to all of that
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Speaker 1 (01:58):
Greg we call this podcast three Martini Lunch, and people
who are watching us on YouTube or some other video
version of this will notice I occasionally take SIPs from
a coffee cup. Now you're probably thinking, are Jim and
Greg having three martinis? No, otherwise it would not be
as coherent as it is. It's coffee and no, if
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(03:00):
well know, elections earlier this month did not go great
for the Republicans in New Jersey, Virginia, New York City.
I mean all of those were tilted against us, but
they certainly were more lopsided than we would have.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Liked to see.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But now we've got next up on the docket, the
Tennessee seventh Congressional District special election. That is because Mark
Green just decided to resign in the middle of the
term and now we've got a special election. And so
the matchup here is Republican candidate Matt Van Epps and
(03:34):
Afton Baine is the Democrat. She is a state legislator.
Polling has Matt Van Epps ahead likely Republicans, the Cook
Political Report rating on this, but you never know what
turned out. It's going to be in a special election.
So Democrats are pumping a ton of money in here
trying to get Afton Bane over the finish line and
score and upset win in Tennessee seven. And so things
are not looking great for Afton Baine right now because
(03:58):
she's playing defense. And that's because a clip from a
podcast she did several years ago has come out where she,
who is running to represent part of Nashville mind you,
says she hates Nashville. Well, she also represents Nashville State Legislature.
So here's that clip from a few years ago.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
He's been heavily involved with the Nashville mayoral race because
I hate the city. I hate the bachelorettes, I hate
the penal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all
of the things that make Nashville. Fairly, it makes city
to the rest of the country, but I hate it. Yeah,
I'm not that girl at the airport that all these bachelorettes
are giddy walking out there, and they're two toned colored
(04:37):
pant tone pink shirts and they walk out and I'm like, oh,
we got Nashville so loud.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
The disdain is palpable. And so now she's accusing the
Republicans of launching this scurless attack on her, claiming she
hates Nashville. Where would Republicans ever have gotten this from.
Here's what she's saying.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Now, So I look a little rough. I have bags
under my eyes because the Republican I have saw has
finally shifted towards wah And I'm sure you've seen the commercials.
I'm sure you've seen the onslaught of ads. And then
today the Republicans decided that they're going to start this
narrative that me the state representative who represents downtown Nashville,
(05:19):
doesn't like the city.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I always want Nashville to be better, right, I want
Nashville to be a place where working people can thrive.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
But sure I get mad at the bachelorette Sometimes I
get mad at the pedal taverns. Right, Ben, you're talking
to someone who has cried no less than ten times
in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The girl that
just goes to the rhyman to hang out.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I don't know how much of a difference this is
gonna make, Jim, But I know people who live in
the Nashville area and they also hate the influx of
bachelorettes and the pedal taverns. But saying you hate country
music in Nashville is like running for office in Wisconsin
and saying you hate the packers. So it's not gonna go.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well. I'm in western Pennsylvania and I hate Cole. I
represent New York City and I hate skyscrapers. I'm in
California and I hate natural disasters. You know, like these,
these are what these places are known for. Right, By
the way, it's not true that Republicans are saying that
she doesn't like the city they're saying she hates the
city because they're quoting her. The person who makes who
(06:15):
is the source of this accusation is you look at
the mirror. I learned it from watching you as the
eighties anti drug commercial set, and like, look, there are
two places, kinds of places in America and in this world.
There are the kinds of you know, I'm thinking here
in Washington, d C. The area where my parents live
near hiltonhet Island. There are places where the locals hate tourists.
(06:36):
And then the other kind of places, places no one visits.
These are your options. There is not an option where
you have just precisely the right number of tourists that
there's never a parking issue, there's never a traffic issue,
the bars or restaurants are never crowded like you have.
These are your options. You can have the kind of
community that nobody wants to visit, and there are a
whole bunch of places in America that are like that,
and people there are generally miserable. The economies are not great, right.
(07:00):
Or you can have a place like Nashville where people
come and visit. Yes, lots of people have their bachelorette parties,
the one time I was there, it was the NA Convention.
I had a great time. Nashville. You're beautiful, You're wonderful.
Don't ever change. That's my perspective. I would also not
vote for a mayor that hates the place. I would
not vote for a mayor that hates the country music.
She could have like, she could have tried to play
this off as a laugh and I said, yeah, you know,
(07:22):
I kind of went a little too far there, But
aren't we kind of annoyed by the bachelorette parties or something?
And she she kind of goes in that direction, but
she still acts like Republicans are making this terrible unfair
attack by quoting her. Like the person you have to
blame is yourself. This is not a journey trick. This
is not you know, country music vets for truth. This
is not some sort of really unfair like. No, this
(07:45):
is quoting you. And you you were aware the microphone
was on, right, You're on the podcast, everyone around you
is laughing with you. You really, you know, she could say, oh,
I love this place. I was just joking about it,
and you know that's my Andy Rooney impression. Or do
you ever notice bachelorette parties in Nashville. Notice the pedaling bars.
You all know you're not burning enough calories for all
the beer. You're like, she could have done that, but
(08:06):
she did so Nashville the choice. He is pretty clear
the Republican Guess what. He does not hate the city.
He does not hate the country music, and he does
not hate the and all those tourists like you had
to caneal annoying or loud, but like they're spending money there, right,
you kind of want that to happen to support all
these jobs and all these businesses. Ah, those terrible tourists.
Most Republicans support a war on tourism, as George W.
(08:29):
Bush would say, Democrats believe a war on tourism.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That's true, especially there and during COVID, Yeah, the war
on terras, as George W. Bush used to say, Why
does he hate girls named Tara? This district stretches from
downtown Nashville all the way to the Alabama border. So
it's one of these districts that the Republicans, you know,
kind of carved out to lean Republican for sure. So
hopefully that's still the case when this vote happens. But
after bay Man, you only got yourself to blame for
(08:56):
getting yourself into this mess. Well, it's uh. You know
a time of year where you're busy with holidays and travel,
but don't neglect your health. And when it comes to
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You can filter for doctors who take your insurance, see
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slash three m L. All right, Jim our bad Martini
(10:43):
stems over the last two three days now. This all
started a couple of days ago when a couple members
of the Senate and a couple members of the House
put out this vague video encouraging members of the military
to disobey illegal orders from the president.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
I'm Senator Alissa Stockin, Senator Mark Kelly, Representative christ Luzios
Congressman Maggie Goodlanyard Representative Chrissy Hulahan, Congressman Jason Crowe.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I was a captain in the United States.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Navy, former CIA officer, former Navy, former paratrooper and Army ranger,
former intelligence officer.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Former Air Force.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
We want to speak directly to members of the military.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
And the intelligence community to take risks each day to
keep Americans safe.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.
Americans trust their military, but that trust.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniform military.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And intelligence community professionals against American citizens.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Like us.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right now, the threats to our constitution aren't just coming
from abroad, but from right here at home.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Our laws are clear.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
You can refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
No one has to carry out orders that violate the
law or our constitution.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We know this is hard. It's a difficult time to
be a public servant.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But whether you're serving in the CIA, the Army, or
Navy the Air Force.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Your vigilance is critical.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
And know that we have your back because now more
than ever, the American people need you. We need you
to stand up for our laws, our constitution, and who
we are as Americans.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Don't give up.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up the ship.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So what are they talking about the only indication there
was pitting the military against American citizens? Does that mean
calling in the National Guard to break up anti ice
riots or so forth. So Jason Crow, who was there
and as a former Army ranger, went on with Martha
McCallum on the Fox News channel and here's that encounter.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So when you see this video on all over the place,
when you see this video on social media, I think
a lot of people scratch their heads and they say,
what exactly are they talking about? Are they talking about
not allowing gunboats to make it to the United States
carrying drugs? Is I mean, is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Martha, here's a novel idea. How about we act actually
prevent things from happening before they become a problem.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
Sure know what you're saying. What you're saying is we
have to wait until there's a problem to respond to
that problem. No I'm not right. As a military officer,
what I think is important is we train people, we
give them information, We prepare people for challenges coming down
the pike. That is what I did as a commander
in the military. That's what I'm doing now as we
are standing by our troops, we are reminding.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Them of their obligation from the commander.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And she.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Sing you are military to carry out are you objecting to?
This is very, very vague, and it was so vague
in this video nobody only people could figure out what
you guys were all talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Honestly, Yeah, wow, She's not alone. And so Trump, of course,
pouring gasoline on the fire like he usually does true
social he says, it's called seditious behavior at the highest level.
Each one of these traders to our country should be
arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed
to stand. We won't have a country anymore. An example
must be sets in DJT and then in another one
(14:02):
seditious behavior comma punishable by death. And so that now
has several of these figures jumping back on social media
and saying, look, this is exactly what we warned against.
This guy's out of control. We have to, we have
to stop them. And so the Democrats, you know, are
kind of wish casting or nightmare casting, I guess in
this situation, and Trump's kind of given what they want
(14:25):
to let them be the victim status here.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So Greg, I have a feeling this is one of
those episodes gonna run a little long and live down
to one of Mike cliches. There's a lot to unpack here.
This is a double barreled bad Martini. First of all,
for listeners who listened to that first audio by the
Democratic lawmakers, just in case they didn't enunciate they said,
don't give up the ship with a pee, you might
be thinking they're doing something different with the messaging that
(14:49):
they're doing here. Look, if you want to accuse the
president of the United States, first of all, and unlawful
order has a particular definition to it, right it is,
you know, must violate the law, must violate the country.
An order does not become unlawful by being controversial. Order
does not become you know, lots of people object to it.
That does not necessarily make it unlawful. Not everything that
(15:10):
is bad or objectionable is unconstitutional, and vice versa. So
you have this situation where they put out this message there.
I think if you're going to put out a video
telling members of the US military that they must refuse
illegal orders, it is more than reasonable to say, Okay,
what do you have in mind? What has he issued
that strikes you as an unlawful order? Or what do
you think he is going to or about to issue
(15:32):
that is going to be unlawful order? What is illegal here?
And they did not do that. I'm glad you played
a significant chunk of the interview with McCallum. If we
played the whole interview like this podcast would be even longer.
But I think that he does come up with three
different examples, none of which strike me as particularly persuasive.
I lay it all out in today's Morning Jolt One.
He said, you know, Trump saying in his first term,
(15:54):
can't you just shoot them in the legs or something? Now,
this was apparently happening during the George Floyd protests. In
this you know form of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
said that Trump said this, this is bad. The president
should not be speculating about shooting protesters in the legs.
But that was not in order, and that did not
come to pass. And it's more than five years ago.
Congressman Crow, what do you have in mind? So you
(16:15):
know regarding this that he says number two, he is
also threatening to send the military into Chicago and other
cities to go to war with those cities. That is
a very disturbing thing now, with this one easily somewhere
more recent. But his example that he's citing is a
truth social post by the president, which is a meme
of himself as Colonel Bill Kilgore from Apocalypse Now saying
Chicago is about to find out why it's called the
(16:37):
Department of War. This is an AI generated image. This
is bad, This is dumb. The president of the United
States should not be doing this. But the very next
day Trump gets asked about it, and he says, We're
not going to war. We're going to clean up our cities.
We're going to clean them up so they don't kill
five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense.
Even Donald Trump realizes that saying I am going to
war with the city of Chicago is a bad thing. Right.
(16:59):
I don't like how Trump frosted the mouth hyperbolically on
social media, but that is not on lawful order. True
social AI generated images are not orders to the military.
Then the third example is probably his weakest one, where
he says Crowe says quote number three. He has also
alluded to sending troops to polling stations, which is a
violation of US law. US criminal law prohibits troops from
(17:21):
going to polling stations. He has alluded to that this
is just one of many examples. Greg I think of
myself as being a pretty good researcher, not just Google
searches and all kinds. I went looking around for where
Trump had said I'm going to send military troops into
polling stations. I have not been able to find that
so far. I think Crow is misremembering an interview with
Hannity back into August twenty twenty where he said, we're
(17:43):
going to have sheriffs and we're going to have law enforcement,
and we're going to have hopefully US attorneys, and we're
going to have everybody in attorney generals at polling places.
Now that's bad or that's actually know not there, but
the end that's not military. So this is again examples
more than five years ago, not military did not come
to pass. He's over three he has not come up
with anything that strikes me as an unlawful order either
(18:05):
has been issued or is expected to be issued in
the near future. So McCallum, good for her for giving
him grief about this. I think it was very snippy,
and I think if you're gonna make this kind of
charge against the president, you should really be prepared for
the question, well, what do you have in mind? What
specifics are you pointing to as unlawful orders? Now, as
you alluded to Trump and you know, spreading gasoline, we
kind of for those wondering, Oh, he means the Venezuela stuff,
(18:28):
she asked him, and he specifically said, we are not
talking about Venezuela at all in this issue. We never
mentioned it once. He says, since you raised it, I'm
deeply concerned. But apparently in his mind, this video is
not about the Venezuela stuff. By the way, I have
problems with our venezuela policy and blowing up these boats,
but I do not think they're necessarily unlawful orders. I
have not seen an argument indicating the president does not
have this authority. I can dispute the wisdom of doing
(18:49):
this or whether it's going to get us where we
want to go. But I don't actually think this is,
you know, a violation of the Constitution. Naturally Trump. They've
set the trap for Trump, and he's stepped directly into
the bear trap as hard as he can because he's
going to show him by calling first sedicious behavior punishable
by death right. I think it's now safe to say
we've Trump has been in our lives for a long time.
(19:10):
We've seen him off first on Twitter and now on
truth social He's a rage ahollick. When something does not
go his way, he just vents his spleen in the
most angry, furious way possible. It's probably not very unhealthy.
But here's the thing, Greg, If he asked me, what's
the biggest thing that happened in twenty twenty five, we
could point to the elections, we could point to bombing
the Iranian nuclear A lot of big things happen, but
(19:32):
I think a really big consequential one was the assassination
of Charlie Kirk and a whole bunch of us afterwards, like, Wow,
this has gotten completely out of control. There's way too
much political violence in America. At minimum, we should stop
calling for the deaths of our political opponents. That that
doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation. I'll let you decide
whether there are plenty of horrible people out there who
(19:52):
just say, celebrated Charlie Kirk's death. Generally not lawmakers, generally
democratic lawmakers had a good sense to not put that
out there. But there are a whole bunch of activists
and ordinary Americans who are like, Yay, somebody I don't
like got killed. But here's the president saying that because
he doesn't like this video that they put out, which
there's good reason to object to, he has decided that
they are winning sedition and should be you know, arrested,
(20:13):
put on trial, and put to death. Leave it to
Trump to do it, I'll like again, Carl Rove has
a column where he said, you know, Trump is getting
better as he's more time to spend in an office.
I don't think I buy into that. I think this
is a once again an entirely self inflicted wound on
the president someone. You know, the old joke is somebody
needs to take away his phone and all that stuff.
It just it does. There's nothing good about this. And
(20:35):
in a world where we have you know, people taking
shots at Charlie Kirk. In a world we have political
violence everywhere, the president saying my opponent should be executed
is really not good on a multitude of levels. I
wish you would stop it. Clearly he's not going to
stop it, and I think it's just something we have
to live with for the remainder of his presidency.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Who knows if this will still be a story going forward.
But the Democrats get there, their grievances aired again as
a result of this, so being the victim is the
thing they love the most, and they get another chance
to do that. So all right, Well, anyway, while that
fight's going on, there's also a fight to make sure
that you have enough money to make ends meet and
(21:12):
hopefully put a little bit away in savings so you
have something after you retire. And if you want to
get a great handle on your finances all the time,
Rocket Money this app is the way to go. Rocket
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cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors you're spending, and helps lower
your bills so you can grow your savings.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
You know, you have a lot of options with your money.
I myself would not recommend giving it to a Somali
American Autism charity in the state of Minnesota, foreshadowing our
third martini here. Rocket money shows you all of your
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Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, if you want an easy way to keep track
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to rocket money dot com slash Martini today. That's rocket
money dot com slash Martini. All right, Jim onto our
(22:35):
crazy Martini now. And this is a long story. If
you want to read the whole story, go to City Journal.
It's written by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Ruffo, and it's
basically focusing on how welfare programs in Minnesota the costs
have absolutely spiraled out of control and the lot of
the money is actually ending up in the hands of terrorists. Yeah,
(22:55):
you heard that right, So this is part of it.
If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing
Stabilization Services program. It was originally put it a price
tag annually of two point six million dollars, but those
costs quickly spiraled out of control. In twenty twenty one,
the program paid out more than twenty one million dollars
(23:17):
in claims and it just started the year before that.
In the following years, annual cost shot up to forty
two million, seventy four million, then one hundred and four million,
and during the first six months of this year, payouts
totaled sixty one million dollars. On August first, Minnesota's Department
of Human Services moved to scrap the program, noting that
payment to seventy seven housing stabilization providers had been terminated
(23:39):
this year due to credible allegations of fraud. Meanwhile, in September,
the same day that the HSS fraud charges were announced,
the US Attorney's Office reported that they had charged the
fifty sixth defendant to plead guilty in a two hundred
and fifty million dollar Feeding our Future fraud scheme that
started out at a three point four million dollar in
(23:59):
take from the federal government, but by twenty twenty one,
just two years after it started, two hundred million dollars
in funding was coming in. And then there's the autism
medicaid program that you just mentioned, Jim. It started out
as a three million dollar program in twenty eighteen, jumped
up to fifty four million the next year, seventy seven million,
one hundred and eighty three million, two hundred and seventy
(24:20):
nine million, three hundred ninety nine million in twenty twenty three.
And so the question is where's all this money going?
And they say, our investigation reveals for the first time
that some of this money has been directed to an
even more troubling destination, the al Qaeda linked Islamic terror
group Al Shabab. According to multiple law enforcement sources, Minnesota
Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of hualas,
(24:43):
which are informal clan based money traders that have wound
up in the coffers of al Shabab. The Somalis are
apparently fleecing this autism medicaid program because right now, one
in sixteen Somali four year olds in the state are
supposedly diagnosed with aptism, a rate more than triple this
eight average, And so jim As the Stark quoted towards
(25:04):
the beginning of the article says, the number one funder
of al Shabab and terrorism in Somalia is the Minnesota taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, look, I I'm thinking back to George W. Bush
and his statement that if you feed a terrorist, we
will treat you like a terrorist. If you fund a terrorist,
we will treat you like a terrorist. Minnesota taxpayers, I'm
sorry you have been funding terrorism for quite some time,
and it's time for us to come after you. I
say that a little bit tongue in cheek, but clone
the Minnesota state government is, you know, the one who
(25:33):
is ultimately responsible here and has been absolutely asleep at
the wheel, not just on one fund scandal, on several
financial scandals. I'm looking back to July twenty ninth two,
only twenty four more than a year ago, where the
first inkling of Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota being
Kamala Harris's running mate, had kind of bubbled up through
the media ecosystem. And I will put myself down as
(25:56):
somebody who's an absolute skeptic of that ever happening headlined Harris
VP shortlifter comes loaded with baggage, and I walked through
all of these giant state funding mismanagement and fraud scandals
that were known at that time. As you're laying out today,
it's gotten much worse that it all happened on Tim
Wallas's watch, And it was one of those questions of
like why you know there's good news that there is.
(26:19):
The legislature has some a position called the State Legislative
Auditor whose job is to go through all the states
spending and figure out where the money is going. Judy
Randall's the person at the time, and she's been busy.
She's met a lot of work to do because load
it's not just one program, and it's not just small
like every state's going to say, Okay, you're gonna have
some waste and mismanagement and fraud and abuse. We're talking
(26:39):
about one of these, like a quarter of a billion dollars.
These the largest scale fraud problems we've seen in the
state government in a long long time, maybe ever, probably ever.
So the question is why does this keep happening? Right,
and for what it's worth, Miss Randall actually did go
through this and basically says that, look, quote, state agencies
don't necessarily approach their work with an oversight and a
regulatory mindset. They talk about working with their beneficiaries, they
(27:03):
basically don't have any incentive to and don't feel any
sense of like, well, why should we you know, perhaps
we shouldn't trust everyone who comes to us looking for money.
All right, I hear this, and I feel one degree
of outrage and one degree of regret that I did
not know about this sooner and apply for grants from
the statement. So because apparently they're not checking anything, we
(27:23):
could have had a state funded podcast for a long time,
Greg and basically they just had it out. What's the
meme from the little rascals of just throwing the money
out the window. That's what they're doing. They are dropping
money from helicopters like it's turkeys on WKRP. That's the
you know, that's what's it worked there, And I just
it is absolutely baffling. So the other thing is that,
you know, one other kind of stray thought next to this,
(27:45):
Peggy Newan and columnists with Wall Street Journal. Somebody who
I admire a great deal wrote a column last week
after reading the Kamala Harris memoir and John Fetterman's memoir,
and she came away with it with the question, like,
what do non leftists, the non AOC, non mom dommie Democrats,
what do they stand for? What is we know what
the hard left of the party wants to do to
(28:06):
the country, destroy it up, turn everything, go, socialists go.
But if you're not one of them, Let's say you're
a Democrat and you don't buy into that, what do
you stand for? And I'm a corner post to that
where I kind of walk through what mainstream democrats and
there are the distinctions are starting to be so small
that they're kind of meaningless. You may recognize the you know, okay,
(28:28):
we have to enforce the immigration laws. Yeah, House Democrats
have no enthusiasm for enforcing immigration laws. Right. They may
begrudgingly concede that we have to do it, but they
greet that task the way the most of us greet
going to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Right. So when
you look at Tim Walls, I don't know whether you
think him as a hard left progressive or as a centrist.
I'm sure he would insist that he's mainstream. But they
(28:51):
don't really believe in paying attention to government. They run
the government, but they don't really believe in paying attention
to make sure is the money going where it's supposed
to be going. Otherwise we would not be having a
lot of Minnesota tax paramney going to terrorist groups. That
seems like a really low bar that are you make
sure that your state funding is not going to islam
As terrorist groups? And in the state of Minnesota, they
(29:12):
can't do it because I think in the end, to
be a mainstream Democrat you just have to have this
kind of unfailing faith in government as being good, and
I suspect on some level they're afraid to look too
closely because that might shatter their faith in the goodness
of government. So they just get laws a about it
and talk about you know, tampons and bathrooms and stuff.
Like that, like these happy social issues rather than looking
(29:35):
at the other actual job, which is running state governments.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
They have good intentions Jim's, and that's all that really matters.
The details, well, we'll figure out later. And that's why
I'm pretty.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Sure Al Shabab, by the way does not have tampons
in his bathroom. Pretymoy. Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
And they were saying on this pace that one point
seven billion dollars got sent back from the US to Somalia,
which is bigger than Somalia's annual budget. So that's not good.
That's really not good.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Should talk to AID Greig. What are they gonna do? Sheetz.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Anyway, we finally reached the weekend. Jim enjoy, I'll see
you on Monday. See you Monday, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review.
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the Three Martini Lunch Podcast if you don't already, tell
your friends about us as well. Thanks also for your
five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
Get us on your home devices. All you have to
say is play Three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow us both
(30:27):
on x He's at Jim Garretty, I'm at Greg Corumbus
and don't forget. You can follow the Three Martini Lunch
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