Episode Transcript
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(00:15):
Welcome to the More Perfect Union,the podcast that offers a blood bath.
Oh, I'm sorry, the podcastthat offers real debate without there. I'm
Rebecca Kuschmeier this evening. I ampleased to share the mic with Kevin Delton.
I'm not looking forward to any bloodbaths, be it on this podcast
(00:37):
or in America or in politics.Frankly, I think we're getting back onto
the topic of mickphiz, which Ithink we touched on a few weeks ago,
somehow mixing up Nika's and American carnageand it's a little it's on kosher.
Yeah. And also I am joinedby E. J. Maguire from
(00:59):
Him Virginia, who's pretty sure Rebeccawas only referring to the nursing industry when
she said that, Yes, specificallythe skilled care nursing industry, which is
a topic I was writing about earliertoday. And unfortunately Greg mctwo's that can't
be with us tonight. He hadto report for a three month sentence in
federal prison. Oh post, I'mbeing told that that was Peter Navarro reporting
(01:23):
to prison. Greg is busy playingthe saxophone, which is a much more
wholesome enterprise. This evening. Speakingof the campaign, we know Trump endorsed
whatever that guy is who's now runningagainst Shared Brown. Mike Pence won't endorse
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his old running mate, Donald Trump, And this seems like a significant development
when you're vice president. Won't endorseyou, Kevin, What do you have
to say about that? Well,he was just on television a few minutes
ago saying he couldn't care less thatMike Pence didn't. Of course, something
tells me he cares. Something tellsme that Donald Trump cares. Yeah,
(02:04):
he can't stand it when people don'tlike him. Yeah. The question is
will the Republican Party care? Imean, it's one of those things that,
like, for people like us whomake jokes about Mike Pence for several
hours a week, we're bored byit already. But for somebody who remembers
Trump Pence twenty twenty to find outthat Pence is out, this would be
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like if Garfunkel rejected Simon, IfOates and Hall were feuding, which they
usually are, if Andrew Richly saidnasty things about George Michael, that's you
know, it may break through tothe Republican Party that the dream team is
broken up. And I think it'sa reminder that the swing voters of the
twenty twenties are not the kind ofpeople that anyone would have thought before the
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twenty twenties were swing voters. They'renot the moderates of old I ran to
last week about how utterly spineless thosepeople are. It's the ones who genuinely
care about reducing the size of governmentas they look at how they've lost controlled
the party. It's the ones whogenerally are concerned about America's place in the
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world as they see isolation isn't takethe party over. I am surprised,
very surprised at Mike Pence, whois a social conservative and therefore got a
lot out of Donald Trump in thetransaction, is willing to do this on
the other ideological issues, because thisis about more than just January sixth.
He talks about differences with Donald Trumpon foreign policy. He talks about differences
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with Donald Trump and economic issues.This is another example of voters who thought
themselves good Reagan Republicans for years,if not decades, suddenly finding they no
longer have a home in the RepublicanParty and they don't know where to go
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now. Mike Pence himself is nevergoing to say I think you should vote
for Joe Biden. If he did, this election would be over. But
the kind of voters who would lookto Pence, the kind of voters who
stayed with the party because of Pence, those voters might be gettable. If
Biden focuses on the national security issuesin particular, that's really the best way
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he can get to them, ifhe can tie that into his Democracy Peril
campaign, which these voters will careabout more than the average voter or the
typical swing voter. He usually doesn'tpay attention to that kind of thing.
These are voters Biden can get,and he doesn't really have to do much
differently than he's doing now to gethim. He just has to recognize that
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they're there and make sure the restof the campaign does so that these voters
can feel like they have a home, if not of the Democratic Party,
at least in the larger Joe Bidencoalition. Well, we've already talked a
little bit about the blood bath,and you know, you were talking about
spineless people, unlike Mike Pence,who has a previously undiscovered spine. So
(05:11):
you know, when I listened tothe review of the blood bath remarks.
It is pretty clear he was talkingabout the automotive industry. It's just that
anything Trump says that even snacks alittle bit of violence sounds like violence because
of all the violence. I respectfullydisagree. I don't think he was talking
about the auto industry. I don'tbuy it for a second. He was
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talking about the auto industry and whatwill happen if you know, their competition
with China is not dealt with.But then he said that will be the
least of our problems. There willbe a blood bath in this nation if
he loses. That's what he said. If I lose, there will be
a blood bath in this country.And he prefaced that by talking about the
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auto industry situation. He said thatwill be the least of our works.
Yeah, I agree that. That'show it struck me as well. And
remember a clown with a flame throwerstill has a flamethrower. Well, that
is a very good point. Actually, we don't, we don't want to.
But you know, let's talk brieflyabout what he said right before the
(06:15):
bloodbath was about you know this onehundred percent tariff on Chinese made automobiles manufactured
in Mexico that which don't exist.So it's you know, at least not
yet. It's because there hasn't beena market for them that it hasn't happened.
But China's been been wanting to manufacturethese like very I guess cost efficient
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electric vehicles, and Trump is sayingthat he would put a one hundred percent
terraf on them, so they basicallycouldn't be sold in the United States.
DJ, you're our trade guy.How reckless on a scale of one to
burning money in a giant bonfire?Is the idea of a one hundred percent
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tariff on anything if he actually limitsit to a set of improported cars that
don't actually exist and will probably notbe a fine quality anyway, we're talking
to one or two. But thisis Donald Trump we're talking about here,
right When he talks about a onehundred percent tariff on certain cars, he
means a onehundred percent tarifon on cars, which would essentially be setting the economy
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on higher because there are no carsone of them are made with entirely American
made components, right there aren't Theresimply aren't. And these tariffs are I
think one of the hidden causes ofinflation that we've seen because for the most
part, Joe Biden has not gottenrid of them. It's one of the
few things. It's one of oneof my disappointments with him. Although Chris
(07:44):
voting from anyway and more of thesame will mean more of the same.
We will see higher inflation, wewill see less business investment because so many
businesses rely on imported inputs and DonaldTrump is just too stupid to understand it.
And he's surrounding himself with people likePeter prison Navarro who cite very bizarre
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economic theories that don't stand up ontheir own and don't interact very well with
the real world. So, yeah, the policy itself should scare everybody,
and Trump being Trump, he managesto cloud the policy danger with his own
(08:33):
personality danger, which is also bad, but distracts us from the policy danger,
which would be bad even if hewas sane, which he's not.
Oh you know, but RFK Junioris going to save us all by announcing
his running mate. He's not onballots, Yeah, but he's apparently going
to have a running mate, andhe thinks it's gonna be think it would
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be Aaron Rodgers because in moments ofhistoric change. Who doesn't want the cornerback
for the Jets. I don't thinkhe is the number one draft picks.
Somebody told him, probably somebody toldhim that Aaron Rodgers is still popular in
Wisconsin. I don't know whether that'strue. No, they somebody told him
(09:16):
that Aaron Rodgers is virulently anti VAXXand can get a feed on Joe Rogan's
show anytime he wants. Well,they're supposedly good friends. You guys are
talking like that so virulently anti vaxthat's what RFK Junior has been doing since
I don't know, for years,Like he's friends with Andrew Wakefield, the
guy who started the MMR conspiracy theories, that that's why it is. And
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then apparently he's thinking someone named NicoleShanahan. Who is that? I think
that that's an ex wife of oneof his big funders in the tech world.
She's a big Yeah, she's theex wife of this big techie guy.
But she's the one who put sixbillion dollars into his pack and financed
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that ad that was in the SuperBowl. I did, the one that
he stole from his uncle. Yep, yep, yes, that one the
one he stole from his uncle.She financed it. She's made a six
million dollar contribution to his pack,which I think she runs. And yeah,
yeah, she's She's got no governmentexperience whatsoever. She's thirty eight years
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old, very attractive, and apparentlyis one of the leading candidates to be
his vice presidential candidate on a ticketthat will get on maybe three to five
state ballots. Yes, but wasshe invited to Saint Patrick's stay at the
White House with the Kennedy clan?Did you hear what he said about that?
(10:43):
There was this picture abided with theKennedy clan at the White House and
everybody K and everybody but V Andhe said that only represents a small fraction
of my family. I do thinkthat if he goes with this billionaire,
it will continue his bizarre campaign ofgiving every Democrat who might be worried about
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Joe Biden a reason not to votefor him. And if he is supposed
to be pulling votes away from Biden, he's doing a terrible job of it.
It's not going to be if RFKJunior keeps up this kind of thing.
It's not going to be the Trumppeople who come home to Trump.
It's going to be the Democrats whocome home from RFK Junior to Biden,
(11:30):
because they're going to look at himand go, holy crap, this is
not the guy I want. It'snot the guy I haven't won. I
mean. The other thing is hecan only get on the ballot at this
point if the Libertarians agree to runhim, because he doesn't have access in
a lot of states as an independent. If the Libertarians nominate him, his
entire lane for Democratic votes disappears.He's really going after Trump voters. And
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the hope among Republicans is that becausehis name is Kennedy, he'll just pull
in all of these Democrats now outin March and April when people aren't paying
as much attention. Yeah, theKennedy name might have an impact come August,
September, October, where people realizewho RFK Junior actually is. Democrats
and left wing voters especially to lookat that, go sorry, not me.
(12:16):
I just think they don't really needintellect of the American voter. Far
outweighs mind. That's all I cansay. It's not a matter it's not
a matter of intellect. It's amatter of hatred. My faith in the
hatred of the American voter is prettydamn strong, and I'm pretty sure they're
gonna hate RFK Junior nearly as muchthey hate Donald Trump, and they'll hate
hate Joe Biden, and that willdrift them back to Joe. They won't,
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they won't. I hope you're right. I hate arguing with you when
I'm actually on your side, DJ, because I really do hope that I'm
wrong and you're right. But myinstinct tells me they ain't gonna care that
he's an anti vaxxer. COVID willbe five years old by then. They're
just gonna go He's not Joe Biden. And I can't vote for Joe Biden
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bequense he's old, and he hehates Palestinians and he did this and he
did that. So I can't votefor Trump, but I'll vote for r
FK Junior. A lot of peopleare going to park their votes there,
and that could sway the election.They're not going to park their votes with
RFK Junior. If r f KJunior is doing stuff like this and running
as the freaking Libertarian nominee, ifhe's running is the Green nominee, then
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yeah, he would have cachet withthese voters. As a Libertarian nominee,
he wouldn't. And that was thehidden part about twenty sixteen I think a
lot of people don't get is thatI was the last Gary Johnson's letter to
switch to Hillary Clinton. All therest of them would have gone to Trump
if Johnson had died, Trump hadhe had a hidden backup support there with
voters who were parking their votes withJohnson, mainly because they were they were
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only Republicans who couldn't stand Donald Trump. But by November, the three and
a half percent who voted for GaryJohnson, none of them would have voted
for Hillary Clinton in a two personrace. And if r K Junior is
in a position we're all where histwo to three and a half percent are
all just Republicans who can't are Republicanwackos who can't stand Donald Trump for whatever
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personal reasons, then he's going todo more damage to Trump than Biden.
But Biden has to make sure everyoneknows who RFK Junior actually is, not
just that he could take votes awayfrom Biden, but that he's a really
not so guy who you don't wantanywhere near your power. Oh, I
know how we fix this. Doany of you have six million dollars to
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start a pack. We've just spenttwenty minutes discussing, you know, fairly
sophisticated and nuanced details of policy.But as DJ pointed out to me just
before we came on the air,if I can use that that chestnut of
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a term, there's a bigger issueout there that's really winning over a lot
of undecided or Trump voters. Youwant to tell Rebecca what the key issue
that's going to swing this election is. Joe Biden is going to win the
election because he uses the Oxford comma. I agree, Trump doesn't even use
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commas, he doesn't even use lowercase letters indeed, but that I actually
turned someone into into an enthusiastic Bidenvoter by saying, hey, you know,
Joe Biden used the Oxford comma.So if it worked on one,
it could work on one hundred.And if you could work on one hundred,
it could work on a million.And if it could work on a
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million, of course that would havetwo comments in it. We would need
a third coma. Well, whatTrump needs to work on is four hundred
and sixty four million. Yeah,and counting. He apparently can't get anybody
to guarantee his bond. Well,he appeals to Egene Carroll verdict. I'm
(15:58):
looking at you both to decide wholooks more shocked and stunned by that develop
The part that surprises me is thata bunch of gru guys couldn't take over
a New York bank. There aredefinitely some high ranking gru guys falling out
of windows this week. Someone inRussian intel should have taken over a bank
to put this money up. Asit is, he now looks like the
(16:22):
national security risk that he really is. He's been exposed to that in a
way that he didn't want to andthat Putin didn't want him to. So,
yeah, some gru that's the Russianversion of the CIA. Kevin,
Sorry, oh so gru guys.Yeah, so gru guys are falling out
of windows this week because now thatPutin has safely gotten his cham reelection out
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of the way, he can goback to throwing people out of windows.
There will be lots of defenestrations inMoscow. And what's astonishing is the MAGA
response to this, you know,screaming a wasn't really fraud because he paid
the bank back, But it's thelying that's the fraud, not what happened
after the lying. And the otherthing is they're like super invested in him
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being a millionaire in mar Lago beingworth more than its tax assessment, which
is a weird tax assessment based onthe income of the property, not the
land value. They're really personally offendedat the idea that Donald Trump might not
be rich, and it's a reallyweird ego damage that I'm seeing in some
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of these guys. They can't handleit and it's not their money. Okay,
well, of course those people aremorons. Yeah, but you know,
I'm going to do something that Idon't do very often, but I'm
going to stick up for Donald Trump. And Mark Cuban did the same thing
today as well. Listen, veryfew people have half their net worth in
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cash. I don't have half mynet worth in cash. I'll bet you
guys don't have half your net worthin cash. And the expectation that Donald
Trump should be holding five hundred milliondollars in cash in a zero interest rate
environment for cash is nonsense. Sohe can still be a billion or a
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multi billionaire and not have five hundredmillion. And by the way. Another
argument could be, even if hehad that, he has to have certain
liquid assets to support his lifestyle,so this is a non story. Look,
he has a let's just call it, a five hundred million dollar bond
that he needs to post. Trumpis going to have to mortgage or leverage
(18:36):
his assets. I hope that hedoesn't do it by going to foreign governments
and taking dark money. He probablywill, but he's going to have to
figure out some way to leverage hisassets to raise money, and that's the
way it should be. I don'tknow exactly how much he owns of Trump
Tower and of the golf courses,but he has collateral. The point is
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when people, when he is saying, or his attorneys have said speaking for
him, that he hasn't been ableto do this. We don't know the
details. People might have offered himthe money at seven or ten percent interest,
and he might have said no.So it's not that he can't get
the funds. He's probably doesn't likethe terms. I would humbly submit if
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any of them had made and hadmade a loan offer to him, it
would have been leaked to us.By now. Trump could deport Prince who
wrote this Rundown for deporting Prince Harry. Yeah, he said, only royal
anybody likes. He said today hemight deport Prince Prince Harry and Megan Markle
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and Frankly. You know what,if you're going to be tough on illegal
aliens, you got to do itacross the board. You got Marshall's American.
She's from la oh. I thinkif Donald Trump had a chance,
he would deport the entire city ofAlls Angels. Yeah. So net Yahoo
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was talking to Dan Bash and shedidn't ask about the war. Yes,
she asked me, what did theytalk about? Was she asking about its
grandkids? She gave him the thirddegree on whether or not he will call
for new elections, when he willcall for new elections, Whether the Israeli
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people are four new elections? Whenare they four new elections? All they
talked about is whether or not therewill be a new set of elections.
Now, as I've said on thepast of the show, I'm no fan
of bb net Yahoo's I was upsetevery time he won in the last several
years. But a few things Ithink need to be put in perspective.
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First of all, when people complainabout the lack of new elections. This
guy has stood for election at leastthree times since Biden became president, or
close to it, since twenty twenty. He stood for election three times.
So for Americans to you know,look at him and say he's anti democratic,
he refuses to call off for newelections. That's his country's prerogative.
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It is not for us to betelling a democracy how to run their own
democracy. And more to the point, every election that he won was based
on an image of himself that hepresented to the voter that was shattered on
October seventh. Yes, that's true. Njamin Netanna who that won all of
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those elections is not the Benjamin whothat it's here today now? Is it
poor form for Chuck Schumerbay Bib shouldgo, should go to the voters and
be the Turkey that votes for Christmas? Maybe maybe not, But what matters
is bb Netanya, who for nowpolitically is a dead man walking. Maybe
he can resurrect himself. I'm notso sure, but it needs to be
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made that Netanyahu governs Israel but doesn'tspeak for Israel. The overwhelming majority of
Israelis want nothing to do with himand want him out on his ear they
need to be heard. I loveyou guys, But the idea that the
head of state does not speak forhis country, He's not he's head of
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government, he's not out of state. Well, okay, head of government.
Okay, maybe a semantic difference withouta real difference. But the idea
that the elected leader of the countrydoes not speak for that country, I'm
gonna have a little problem with that. But I want to go back to
this interview because the reason I putthis on the docket is Dana Bash grilled
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him for eight or ten minutes aboutall of these different topics. The one
topic that she didn't bring up was, Hey, Prime Minister Yahoo, how's
the war going for Israel? Hey, Prime Minister net Yahoo? How are
you coming in defeating AMAS and annihilatinga muss Hey, Prime Minister net Yahoo.
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What do you think of the civiliancasualty numbers that have been released by
the Palestinian Health Ministry and what percentageof those casualties have been fighters? These
are all critical questions to ask atthis point in the conflict, and I
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find it the height of media incompetencethat Dana Bash didn't ask a single question
about the state of the war.I can't speak to that, as I
did not see the interview. Themost important story of regarding this is the
fact that Netanyahu has agreed to sendan Israeli delegation to Washington to talk about
alternatives to the Israeli plan for theliberation of Rafa. I didn't buy an
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administration is Yeah, the bid administrationclearly has made it abundantly clear that they
do not want Rafa to go theway of Gaza City and all and well
and everything but Rafa, that theywant something different, that they have some
ideas, and Netanyah, who hassomewhat buckled under to the extent that he's
rule and intended delegation there to tolisten to this. We now have a
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president who has managed to get Israelto hold off the Raffa military operation.
He'll get no credit for it rightnow, but I do think that is
really what is important because it showsnumber one that Netan Yaho, I mean
Netanyah, who's not not dumb.He knows that he can't wach blue water
between himself and FIBE. But it'salso a sign that Netanya, who really
(24:47):
still really doesn't have a post warplan for Gaza. It doesn't have a
post war plan for anything, andthat is still a problem. If he's
in a situation where he is willingto consult with an ally on the other
side of the ocean about a militaryoperation right next door to him, that
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tells me that there's a lot ofplanning that normally would have gone into this
that hasn't gone into that, andthat troubles me more than a little will
well we will sound to me,PJ like your presumption is that he's going
to Washington to seek their guidance andcouncil because the IDF doesn't know how to
(25:29):
do this. I don't think thatthat's what's happening now that that's it's not
a matter of what it's not amatter of the IDF the IDF. If
the IDF is given clear instructions,they can do it, no problem.
Yes, they haven't been given clearinstructions. Well, I've seen reports in
Israeli media where the IDF people aresaying, we don't know what the hell
these people want. I just thinkthat net Yahoo is hell bent on going
(25:55):
into Rafa. He's getting a lotof pushback across the world about this,
including from the Biden administration. Sohe says, Okay, I will send
a representative to Washington, and youguys tell me how I can accomplish our
goal of defeating Hamas without having thiscity wide conflict. I don't think he's
(26:18):
sending somebody there to get military help. He's doing it as a pro former
kind of Listen. I will listento you. If you've got a better
idea, I'm open to it.But if not, we're doing it my
way. I think that's really what'sgoing on, and that, frankly,
is problematic. I mean, theone thing, the one thing that I
think we all make a mistake onregarding Israel is the assumption that is a
(26:44):
model of the country. It isnever a model ath the country. It
doesn't matter what any Palestinian terrorist orour potentates says about any Israeli military operation.
There is probably somewhere in military generalwho is harsher on the Israeli government.
Then all of them put together,for various reasons, Israel is a
(27:04):
Israel is an open democracy, andthat means that they argue about this stuff
all the time. And the factthat even after October seventh, there are
people in the Israeli military who aretelling the press. We don't know what
the health these people are doing.We're not even true they know what the
healthy's people are doing. That isnot the kind of thing the American military
(27:26):
got out of the Bush administration comingafter nine to eleven. It's not even
what the American military got out ofthe Bush administration. Regarding the liberation of
Iraq, the Bush administration had aplan for the liberation of Iraq. The
Pentagon didn't like the plan, butthere was a plan. We know what
(27:49):
we can all agree on. Butsometimes you just need to travel to Texas
and get your teeth fixed. That'swhy I moved here and do an add
about it and talk about smile Texasand how they fixed your smile so that
you could communicate with the people ofthe state of which you're a governor,
which is not Texas. It's NorthDakota. And by the way, you
(28:12):
should also probably break all the secrules about advertising on social media and not
put hashtag ad on the post.Rebecca, Yes, I'm sorry, it's
South Dakota. Oh you know what, they don't exist, either of them.
(28:33):
My son told me that years ago. Yes, this is Wyoming's a
myth. No, she's a conservativefrom somebody's really cold, and she got
her teeth done in a state thatit wasn't hers. This is a little
bit more of an obscure story.I think we need to go back and
set this up because I don't Ithink a lot of listeners may not know
what we're talking about. So inChristine Noam, in her attempts to I
(28:59):
guess she's a candidate for president intwenty twenty eight, because of course Donald
Trump will never run for third term, try to win over Texas Republicans by
talking about how some Texas dentists fixedher teeth and it was so wonderful and
blah blah blah blah. And itled to every dentist in South Dakota to
basically say, what are we choppedliver up here? Wait? You think
(29:22):
she did this to win points inTexas? Yes, No, this was
not a plug for Texas. Unhinged. This was an unhinged infomercial. Why
she went on for four and ahalf minutes in the most ludicrous infomercial I've
ever seen that could be an SNLsketch. Dental implants. A full mouth
(29:47):
of dental implants costs sixty to ninetythousand dollars, so maybe that was worth
four minutes. Oh well, sixtyto ninety Okay, then then she had
to give them more than sixty seconds. I still think it was embarrassing for
her to me. It speaks ofthe transactional I mean, listen, government
has always been transactional, we knowthat, but it is now transactional to
(30:08):
the financial advantage of the person whois who is leading. We're going to
have a president who's going to sellthe country out, and we're going to
have individual governors now who are goingto sell their state out for some free
debt to work. I mean,if she had done like she she's campaigning
to be a vice president, butif she had done that as vice president,
(30:30):
that would be a violation of theHatch Act, which Kelly and Conway
was punished for. At one point, she mentioned some violation of the Hatch
Act if they do it in theWhite House. No, the Hatch Act
is actually pretty pretty far reaching federalemployees. It is. The point I'm
getting to is, however crazy Christinomay have looked to us before she did
(30:52):
it, she probably thought it wasa good idea. Oh yeah, and
that's what's really scary. About heris that she thinks this is that she
thought this was a good idea.Well, she thought she was going to
make it better by then doing avideo for a shoe store in whichever Dakota
she she governs. Now she canhost an event like that with confidence because
she's got a white smile, yeah, and really comfortable shoes. So anyway,
(31:15):
thank you all for listening listen.If you enjoy what we do,
you can follow us on Instagram atMPU fan Club. You can share our
podcast link on all your social mediafeeds so your friends and your fans and
your followers and your threads can discoverus as well. And as always,
thanks to Alan Keeney for our thememusic, and to Sally Keeny for always
making us smile when we do thisshow and when we hear that song.
(31:44):
Oh and I sat after my friendAmy, who is also one of our
most devoted listeners. And Amy,I would like to say a happy belated
Candle Day for you and your kids. Her kids made up one of her
kids made up a fake holiday andthey celebrated it yesterday. It was pretty
gazy pull a candle Day. Hecalled it Candleday. They handled together and
they had that he planned a venue. It was like Falassole and fit H