Cuba: The Clock Is Ticking

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:00:22]Heat. Heat.

[00:00:51]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:00:57]Heat. Heat.

[00:01:34]Heat. Heat.

[00:01:41]Heat. Heat.

[00:02:04]Heat. Heat.

[00:02:30]Heat. Heat.

[00:03:01]The war fight. The war fight. The war fight. The war fight. The war fighters.

[00:03:06]The war fighters.

[00:03:30]Good evening. Welcome to the 58 where we discuss each of the week's five most [ __ ] up topics for eight minutes. Five topics, eight minutes. Two hosts, one of whom this week was our guest and is now hosting. Uh some singing, a lot of curse words, and as many cocktails as we deem necessary. I am here with Lisa Graves, who was our guest this week. Uh but um we have plague. We have plague. I had plague last week. I was getting sick during the show last week and now LB has caught whatever I had somehow through a fiber optic cable, I think.

[00:04:05]>> And uh so so you have uh generously consented to be on the entire show instead of just the the middle part. So uh how are you, Lisa? It's been a while.

[00:04:15]I haven't seen you in a while. Good to see you.

[00:04:17]>> Oh, I it's so nice to be here. I've missed you. I've missed the gang. Hello to the folks in the comments. Um, and uh to the team, to the five haters, and um not the five haters.

[00:04:30]>> Not the five haters.

[00:04:31]>> I miss I have a little bit of a cold, so my voice may be uh 40s movie star deep tonight, but I'm really happy to be here. And it's nice to see you. I've missed the 5'8. I've missed being on, but it's nice to see you.

[00:04:44]>> I miss the 5'8 and a half. Yes, >> I know. I know. I missed I missed the whole thing. I missed the whole thing.

[00:04:49]Um, I realize I'm watching the credits at the at the beginning of the show and there's Tulsi packing her boxes up and I think that's who >> Yeah, she's gone. She left to spend more time with her cult and um >> uh I I say I say fair the f well.

[00:05:07]>> Yeah, you know, one less trigger.

[00:05:11]>> Yeah. Uh you know, it's a sad reason, but um whatever whatever it takes, we're happy that she's gone.

[00:05:17]>> I'm happy she's gone. sorry for the whatever the family situation is or is not, but uh >> um >> um she um was mucking up a lot of things. We'll see who what other um what is what's the what's the meme? Get in loser. We're going loser. We'll see what other what next loser they they put into that role. But bye-bye. Uh >> I think they should just put make Sergey Lavough the the the you know the DNI and eliminate the middleman. I think that would be probably wise.

[00:05:46]>> I I I think that that could be a possibility. Yeah.

[00:05:51]>> Yeah. Um and I have to say we have to make the the so the show short because I have to catch a flight um at 10 o'clock tonight. Um >> Oh, what does that mean short? Like what when are we when are we wrapping?

[00:06:02]>> Well, no. I have to I'm going I'm going to the Bahamas. Uh because I I decided I'm I am going to go to Don Jr.'s wedding this weekend.

[00:06:11]>> You're not I fell for it. book line and sinker because you've known him for a long time since his birth.

[00:06:19]>> I've known him, you know, I've known him a good long time and you know, they're gonna kill me whether I go or whether I don't go. Uh this is what this is what Trump really said about his son's wedding.

[00:06:28]>> It's inconvenient this weekend because he's got a lot to do. Um, I have, you know, actually I gave a presentation at one of the law schools for the book tour and the conversation was a bit a bit about like can presidents be sued or be held into court or what have you while they're while they're uh in office? The president says yes, by the way, but um you know, of course, Trump administration is um is objecting to it.

[00:06:53]And I was like, I've got one word, one gesture for that. You know, how busy the president the president is uh that he can't uh can't do this. And I was like, "Here's the gesture. That's my golf swing from here up." You know, too busy.

[00:07:06]Too busy for things like lawsuits and son's weddings and things apparent.

[00:07:10]>> He has to get his exercise. I was thinking about it though and I'm I'm sure like on some level I'm sure he doesn't want to go at all. But I can't think of a better excuse to miss a wedding than I am the president and we are at war with Iran. I'm going to use that next time I don't want to go to a wedding. I'm just going to write it on the card and mail it in. Sorry. Can't go. I'm president War of Iran and uh >> I meanwhile the guy's been talking about the ballroom like what every third breath or something who knows like >> yeah well >> he's busy >> we'll get to that >> he's very busy dictator before we get into the topics is there anything else like you've noticed since last time we spoke that's like particularly funny or notable or just random that that uh >> oh my god funny or notable or random like I mean basically every day is something funny, not funny.

[00:08:00]>> Every single day is something uh ridiculous.

[00:08:04]>> Um it's and it's been it's been like a month, so there's like 30 to 100 things at least.

[00:08:11]>> Not that I'm counting the days between seeing you, Greg, but I'm pretty sure it's been like >> at least.

[00:08:16]>> No, it's been a while. It's been It's been a minute.

[00:08:19]>> Yeah, it's been a minute. So, like what what has been happen? I mean, it's just more absurdity. It's just, oh, I know what happened. Jeff friaking Bezos claiming Trump is more mature. Like, like that's technically true um from a literal physical age standpoint, but in no other sense is it true. I mean, how far you know, how much ass does a billionaire have to kiss?

[00:08:47]>> Wait, more mature than what >> for Jeff?

[00:08:50]>> Yeah. Like I mean reason to say like oh no Trump is you know more mature in this in this in this uh second term. I mean it's it's an insane statement.

[00:09:00]>> Um >> I I it was a typo. It was a typo. He said he's more manure in the second term.

[00:09:07]>> Well that that makes that makes sense. I could get on board with that assessment.

[00:09:13]>> I didn't see I didn't even hear that. I just I missed that one entirely.

[00:09:16]>> Yeah. That just hap that just happened this past week. Um, you know, because I think of I think of Bezos as this guy who's super stunted who like, you know, dreamt in high school of, you know, going to space, which is great. You know, I thought about being an astronaut when I was uh like 10, but I uh I decided I was too much of a control freak to put my hands my life in the hands of a rocket. But, um, you know, so he's made good on that dream of his in bizarre ways. Um, and then had the audacity to, you know, sort of talk about why he had to why he had to destroy the Washington Post, you know, to save money to spend on things like, you know, what now looks like possibly hundred million dollars to promote the vanity. I even call him a biopic, like shoe pick. I What is it with Melania?

[00:10:03]It's like shoe and half pick. Uh, inauguration gown documentary. Uh, I'm not sure what that was, but I'm pretty sure that >> it's a film equivalent of a coffee table book, whatever that is.

[00:10:17]>> It It is It is I'm sure he thinks it's hundred million well spent, but I'm pretty sure it's basically like the biggest hundred million dollars squandered ever in human history. Just >> Well, it's a bribe. It just a bribe.

[00:10:32]It's just a flatout bribe >> from that standpoint. Yeah. From that standpoint, it's >> it's just >> it makes sense.

[00:10:38]>> Shoveling money >> just But then, you know, is that not enough? Now he has to claim that Trump is, you know, he's super mature now.

[00:10:46]>> Uh, aren't we grateful?

[00:10:48]>> Very manure, I think. Very very manure.

[00:10:51]>> Does he mean Victor mature? I don't know. It's It's all very strange. Uh, >> so that happened. I'm one ahead of you.

[00:10:58]I can't even believe it because you are always on top of everything.

[00:11:01]>> No, I I miss >> No, I didn't see that. I didn't see that one. Um I I checked the headlines of the Washington Post this morning and one of them I put it in the banner for the show, the episode. Trump says he's going to work quote very hard to make daylight to enact permanent daylight savings because he's working on the important things the American people care about the most. You know, it's so important that we >> I mean it is annoying to set the clocks back and forward like but it's also kind of fun. I don't know. you know, it's just >> I mean, that might be the only nondestructive thing I've ever heard him propose. Um, but um, but I it can't be it just can't be that simple because where's the grift? Where is he going to profit from the time change? Is he on like >> on Pauly, you know, is is there a poly market bet? When will the when will daylight savings time be ended? Has he, you know, come in ahead of that ahead of that gamble? Is there some other is there some other angle that we just don't know about yet?

[00:12:03]>> I don't know. We have to check with Baron. He's the arbiter of all things Poly Market. Maybe allegedly some some people sayedly.

[00:12:12]Yeah.

[00:12:12]>> Oh my god. It's so It's just so crazy. I don't know. I don't even know what to say. All right. Should we get into it?

[00:12:18]You ready to get into it?

[00:12:19]>> Yes. Yes. And hello, True Player. Thank you for all the work in the comments.

[00:12:23]Thanks, everyone. Yes, true player always does an excellent job >> and uh is an integral part of this operation.

[00:12:30]>> Uh we don't acknowledge it enough here up front.

[00:12:33]>> True.

[00:12:34]>> All right, I'm going to Oops. The timer is my timer went back to being set for 28 minutes, which is when I cooked the pizza, the frozen pizza. So, okay, I'm going to start the timer. So, okay. So they they indicted Raul Castro, who's Fidel Castro's brother, who's like I think 170 years old. Like I think he's he's a very old man and they I mean he's obviously clearly a danger to everything. Uh so you know, as soon as that happens, it's like, oh boy, I' I've seen this movie before. Uh played pretty well in Venezuela. Let's see how it plays in Cuba. Uh so, you know, everyone's thinking, are they gonna are we gonna invade C? what are we going to do with this Cuba business? And I thought it might be time for a a kind of a dive into Cuban history because it is interesting. Oh, yeah. And there's a lot of like Trumpy elements in it that I think are things that Trump and his people around him would like. So, just I want to go through this uh just to, you know, just to hit the major points here.

[00:13:34]I I I embrace that because my Cuban knowledge like basically begins around like motorcycle diaries and then fast forwards to a brief period where I theoretically could have traveled to Cuba to sightsee um at some point and never managed to to go to see what it was like over there. And then the intervening period was just one day walking in Barcelona and seeing Cuban cigarettes advertised in a window and going, "Oh yeah, I've never seen any advertising for Cuba or trips to Cuba in my lifetime in the United States because of the, you know, now I mean in the middle there there was history lessons.

[00:14:11]There were history lessons on Bay of Pigs and and obviously, you know, Guantanamo and things, but like I do not know the history. So, I am eager to do >> I'm going to light up your Cuban uh cigar. My I started sm I smoke a cigar like once a year maybe. But I I started doing it and I I wrote about it for a blog I had years ago and and my roommate from college, my my my friend Jeff lives in Costa Rica and he read this thing and he FedExed me Cuban cigars, like three Cuban cigars in the mail. So, I had like the third cigar I smoked was a Cuban cigar, which I smoked on the night that Obama got elected, by the way. I thought it was very appropriate.

[00:14:48]>> Yeah. Um, communism, you know, all the all the stuff. Okay.

[00:14:54]>> See if you think I'm crazy that this stuff is is a little bit Trumpy. Okay.

[00:14:57]1492.

[00:15:00]>> Columbus actually does. He Columbus lands on Cuba. Okay. October 1492. We know how Trump loves Columbus. I think he had some dumb. What was he saying?

[00:15:10]He's a He's a great man. Whatever he said. I've known him a long time. I I'm not going to his wedding. I don't know.

[00:15:16]So, he likes Columbus. 1523, the slave trade begins in Cuba. That's really a long time ago. Trump obviously in favor of that. Uh 1529, a measles epidemic. Uh kills twothirds of the population. Uh obviously RFK Jr. loves that. Rubbing his hands together with delight with that. Um those are the people, by the way, who had who were survived the smallox, you know, thing when the Spanish came. Um, >> what was that?

[00:15:45]>> Yeah, it's uh then then I'm going to skip ahead 300 years because there's a bunch of like pirates because like it was Spanish. So you have the English and the Dutch and the the other pe French there, you know, kind of like doing piracy and more slave trade. There's slave trade the entire time they nationalized the tobacco farms that it's terrible. Okay.

[00:16:04]>> 1854 there's something called the Austin manifesto.

[00:16:09]>> Have you heard of this?

[00:16:10]>> No, I have not. Only Ricky Ricardo. Not the Austin manifesto. Yeah.

[00:16:15]>> Um this is this is during the the reign the administration of James Buchanan which I'm sure is also he's in that he's in that bottom cluster with Trump and George H George W.

[00:16:26]>> He is in the bottom cluster. Yes.

[00:16:28]>> So basically this is when they said somebody they basically made it US policy that you know what Spain should really sell Cuba to the United States >> and parallel. Oh no.

[00:16:39]>> Yeah.

[00:16:40]>> Yeah. And also, by the way, if they don't, we should probably just go to war with Spain. So, this was a thing. And the Cuban, I mean, the place was a mess and the people were being treated horribly and it, you know, whatever it would be, but it was being criticized in the United States. People were against it because they thought they wanted to expand slavery in the south and they didn't want that to happen. So, there was a lot of like slavery stuff. So, again, Trump. Okay. 1868 starts the 10 years 10 years war in Cuba where there's a bunch of liberals that come up and um you know anybody too woke was basically put down and then they install these horrible people. In 1895, there's a general there that's taking all the people that live there that they don't like and putting them inside these barbed wire fence areas with like not much stuff there uh where 400,000 people starve to death uh during the years they were there and they he called them >> uh reconentrados.

[00:17:40]>> So this is these this guy they invented the concentration camps. Good job Cuba.

[00:17:45]>> Okay. In February 1898, uh the main is sunk. No one knows how, but the main, which is the US warship, there's a lot of >> from history >> because of this thing where uh the people are being in these concentration camps, McKinley is like, you know, maybe we should we intervene, should we not intervene? I don't know. Post Monroe doctrine, they decide and then the main blows up and then they have to go. uh famously this is William Randph Hurst again big m big big media you know all this sends a guy to Havana uh famously and the guy said there's nothing here going on and and Hurst said um you know you you just I'll give you the war >> just you know report on the so there was a lot of >> the yellow journalism involved with the with the Hurst newspapers basically started this war because of the main uh by December we already kicked Spain's ass it was just a this This was a This was I don't know. This was the Nick Sixers closeout game. This was the the the you know the 61-1 whatever the hell it was game. Uh so Spain the Spanish Empire ends. This is in December uh 1898. We acquire the Philippines and Puerto Rico and Guam during that time.

[00:18:59]1898 there's a lot of controversy in the United States. Some people are opposed to it because they don't want to be imperial, including surprisingly Andrew Carnegie of all people. Uh that's at that time. Then there's something in 1901 called the Platt Amendment. Okay.

[00:19:14]Uh which basically says we're going to help you Cuba achieve independence. We wanted Cuba to be independent. We didn't want to control it. And and so we were trying to do this, but we basically said we want you to be independent. We're going to make sure that you do it and if anybody [ __ ] with you, we will [ __ ] with them. And uh then they couldn't handle it. So the military, US military occupied Cuba 1906 to 1909.

[00:19:39]>> I don't think the Plat amendment ever got unratified by the way, which means that that they're going to use this, by the way. They're, this is my prediction, they're going to use Ostet Manifesto and Plat amendment. Okay.

[00:19:51]>> Uh 1933, Batista takes over. Uh you know, the the first person who uh ran Cuba who was not Spanish, you know, he's a person of color. Uh so that was good.

[00:20:03]What was bad is that he was corrupt and right-wing and and all that. And in 1946, he goes into business with Meer Lansky, >> the gangster, the inventor of of offshores and all this stuff. So, they strike up a deal whereby uh basically the mob is going to run all these casinos in Havana.

[00:20:20]>> And then suddenly um Havana becomes like really super fun. um in a related story, but corrupt and you know but corrupt in a in a in a way in the same way that like you know when I used to live at Hoboken uh I always felt very safe walking on the sidewalk and I my joke used to be there's no disorganized crime you know it's just >> in the Trump administration but back then >> back then no so that but then in 1959 >> Whoops keep going keep going >> then in 1959 >> uh boom Batista gets overthrown, the mafia, all their [ __ ] gets taken and seized. All these mafia people and all the mafia guys and all the right-wing guys go to Florida and that's the that's who all the the CubanAmerican population that hates Castro. That's who they are.

[00:21:09]Okay.

[00:21:09]>> Wow. Wow. Uh >> in the meantime, somewhere right in there, uh David Ko was um arrested for burning an effigy of um >> Castro really at at MIT. Um the the rest records are no longer available, but there were, you know, stories about this frat party that went arai and it was the sort of the the the Koch one of the Koch brothers early days uh uh burning an effigy uh in defense of the Cuban maf in defense of the Cuban authoritarian and mafia regime apparently.

[00:21:46]>> I don't know. I mean, at the at the initial phases, the US government liked the revolution because they didn't love Batista. The officials didn't. But then they realize he was in league with the Soviets. And then >> yeah, >> 1961 Bay of Pigs. This is you're going to if if we do anything with Cuba, this is my prediction. This is what we're going to hear.

[00:22:03]>> Kennedy screwed up in ' 61. We're going to make it right.

[00:22:06]>> Yes. I bet that is what is going to happen.

[00:22:09]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:11]>> Missile crisis. And then here we are. So uh >> well and what's what's what are your thoughts on this Greg with the whole um the reality of Trump just being uh you know Kranoff of being this tool for Putin and uh is is it that is there some sort of you know what's the speculation is this Putin saying give me Ukraine you can have Cuba. Uh like what's the deal?

[00:22:36]>> It could be I I don't really know. It doesn't sometimes it doesn't make sense.

[00:22:40]Uh, first of all, Putin ain't getting Ukraine. He's [ __ ] in Ukraine.

[00:22:44]Ukrainians won the war. It's just that that people are dying. The Russians are awful. But that that shit's winding down. That that's not >> There were huge losses on the Russian side. I mean, >> no matter what Trump says or doesn't it we're not even Yeah, that's that that [ __ ] that ship sailed. That was the main and it exploded.

[00:23:01]>> Yeah.

[00:23:02]>> Uh, so but I don't know. I don't know if he's just talking about it. I don't know if he wants to go there. I don't know if he likes My Lansky and thinks that it's cool. Um, I don't think he smokes cigars.

[00:23:12]>> I I don't think but I I mean I I just I just think it's just one more in the distraction, you know, assertion of of like, you know, primate dominance, whatever, you know, the whole inferiority complex, the chasm, the black hole that is Donald Trump, uh, you know, trying to be like, look over here.

[00:23:30]We're going to just [ __ ] this up now.

[00:23:32]We're going to do this. Um, you know, >> there you go. Joan has it. Trump Tower Havana. Yeah.

[00:23:36]>> Oh, yeah. I bet that's part of it. Uh because by the way, while Greenland has been off the, you know, headlines, there's all sorts of nonsense going on with the, you know, quote negotiations of Trump's assertion. And the last thing we heard from him was he had to own it.

[00:23:53]He just had to own it. Couldn't couldn't just have a base there like we've had forever. Had to had to, you know, had to piss on the land basically. So this is seems like another pissing on uh scenario along with as you along with the just bizarro land of you know George Orwell's three you know thrice divided globe and North America right that's true um I don't now in a vacuum I don't trust these people at all obviously or their motives or anything else having a democratic government that's good in Cuba would be would be a very good thing I think And you know, we are obligated by the Plat amendment as discussed to make this happen. So maybe he's, >> you know, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have thought of the Plat amendment, but then just this week there was reporting that the the uh, you know, sickopants over at the Justice Department are claiming that Donald Trump can erect the ridiculously gigantic uh, arc de Trump uh, by Arlington Cemetery because way back in like I don't know 1904 or 1908, the original plan for the Arlington Bridge included some sort of tower. Not a Trump tower, but some sort of tower.

[00:25:05]And so they're using that as their supposed license to engage in this the creation of that monstrosity. So doesn't wouldn't surprise me at all like you said for them to hearken back to the late 1800s or andor uh Bay of Pigs as the >> basis for this this power grab, land grab, money grab.

[00:25:26]>> I just if it were if it were Obama doing this, I would be like great, let's do it. Let's let's liberate because they don't even have oil. They're they're kind of the whole island is in the dark right now. It's really bad.

[00:25:37]>> Wow.

[00:25:38]>> Uh it's like going to be a humanitarian like nightmare soon.

[00:25:41]>> Wow.

[00:25:41]>> So, you know, as as as it was in in 1898 when we went there and had to war with Spain to liberate and all this kind of stuff. So, I think that, you know, >> it's a much better idea to do this than to go to war with Iran. Well, I mean, but the track record like the reporting this past week of who Trump wanted to take over Iran not exactly a good plan. Venezuela, no real plan. Just, you know, seize the president, diss the actual, you know, opposition leader who who was repressed by, you know, ignore ignore the gifting of the Nobel Prize and just I don't know. I guess they're just parting it out for the oil being uh refined in Houston or something. I guess I don't know. I don't know what's happen. I don't know, but we'll see. But I think once that once I heard about Re Castro, I was like, "Oh my god, I can't believe R Castro is still alive." That was my first thought. And then I was like, "The is it. We're going to go get him. We're going to get him and then we're going to put somebody in there." And >> uh I mean, we have a military base there that came out of the of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. We were forever allowed to lease Gitmo because of that treaty.

[00:26:51]So, I don't know if these things are still active.

[00:26:54]>> Yep.

[00:26:54]>> You know, I this this is a good segue into our next topic because as we know, the Supreme Court just picks [ __ ] that they like from the past that supports the arguments and ignores anything, you know, between the past and now that would um not reinforce the argument. So, um All right, I'm gonna hit the I'm gonna hit the timer. You want to try to be okay. So now you wrote a great piece uh on your Substack today about this Robert's court which your friend called the Neo Neo Confederate I hope I wrote it wrote right.

[00:27:26]>> Yeah. Yeah. Neo Confederate.

[00:27:27]>> Neo Confederate court. So I want to just I I want I have a couple of questions and then I will give you the the the floor the conch as it were. Um, so the way that I see this thing with the redistricting and with the voting rights, it feels like to me, uh, it it it's it's like it's it's a, you know, if it were a basketball game, okay, it would be like I'm coming in and oh my god, I get somebody hits me on the arm and they call a foul on me, >> right? But then if it's the other team coming down and the same exact thing happens, they call a foul on the other guys. Like there's no consistency to there's no cons, right? There's no consistency to it. They're just like in Louisiana you can't do it, but in Virginia you can or the other way around, whatever it is. And >> that seems to me so so obviously [ __ ] unfair. Uh that it's like it's almost approaches the level of trolling. Um especially when you consider his comments which you alluded to in your uh piece about you know him saying well we we should be political and I don't care what people people just have to deal with it whatever. So uh am I am I on base here? Am I on target? Like explain to me what's going on with this redistricting stuff.

[00:28:48]>> Well uh it is hypocritical but it's worse than that. It's it's just rank racism dressed up as partisanship. Um, you know, so this Robert's court and it issued a ruling three weeks ago that has uh that has upended the uh congressional midterm elections this year in part by basically allowing these southern states to bleach out the black caucus in their state. I mean, literally Tennessee uh legislators, white legislators, divided up Memphis into three parts, married Memphis, uh black majority city with all these, you know, suburban and rural voters in order to try to secure, you know, a pure white congressional delegation. Um pure white, that just sounds all wrong saying that out loud, but like like that's it. It's white supremacy. And the Roberts court knew that this was going to happen. That's the plan for Louisiana to not just block the second um district that was going to be created because Louisiana is uh more than one-third black. And after the census, the white dominated legislature were like, "Oh, great. So, it's one-third black, but let's create five congressional seats that are white and pack the black vote into one uh one district." And that was challenged under the long-standing rules of the Voting Rights Act, which say you can't basically dilute the black vote. you can't render the the vote meaningless and the the white legislature lost and they drew another map and that was what came up to this court to the Roberts court and you know they issued a ruling just at the end of April saying nah you don't you don't need that second uh you don't need that second uh black majority district and in fact it basically you can't have that second majority district because that takes race into account and um this is on the heels of, you know, a couple things. One is John Roberts has long been hostile to the Voting Rights Act. He cut his teeth fighting the Voting Rights Act. I write about it in my book. um how he had like when I say no experience I mean like absolutely 100% zero zero experience working on voting rights um before he was tapped to lead the fight against uh reauthorization of the voting rights act and and in particular the fight against Congress fixing a terrible decision that the the uh Supreme Court had issued the year before a a a decision that his boss his mentor Bill Ranquist helped craft which tried to undercut the Voting Rights Act. So, the Voting Rights Act has long said that you can't intentionally um limit the black vote and you can't have the effect like both the intent and effect were part of the law. Um and and what the the Republicans early days Republicans 15 years in the Voting Rights Act did was say, "Ah, no, no, intent only." Even though the long-standing case law in America uh from the 20th century was that the Constitution forbids both sophisticated and simple-minded discrimination, like you can't just be like, "Didn't say didn't say the n-word, therefore we get to do it." Um, you know, that's not the standard. You don't you don't have to be overtly racist. you can change rules in supposedly neutral ways that have a racist impact, a racial impact of denying black voters an opportunity for representation. And we know what happened after the Civil War. After the Civil War and these amendments were passed, they were adopted by Congress.

[00:32:16]Um, suddenly there was a surge in black representation because people had a chance to vote. They voted, had representation for the first time in American history. Well, we couldn't have that. the white supremacist Jim Crow legislators in the south and you know with the help of some northerners uh were happy to sort of roll that back.

[00:32:34]And so for like hundred years there was basically no representation almost no representation in Congress of any black legislature because the Jim Crow you know Jim Crow racial partid was the law.

[00:32:46]So John Roberts clerk for Rinquist who was a notorious anti- voting guy. He lit he again literally um used his role in the Republican party in Arizona to instruct other white Republicans to go to black voting precincts and film people um film people c you know use a camera, take pictures of them at a at a time in which people were having crosses burned on their lawns when civil rights workers were being murdered for, you know, uh standing up and and calling for voting rights. That's what Rinquist was doing. So um later book said that um Roberts you know had a great affinity with his boss on civil rights. Yeah. On these issues and so Ranquist called a guy who you all remember you I'm sure you know him Greg Kenstar. He was the >> I've heard tell of him heard of him staff of the new attorney general for Reagan and said hey hire my guy hire hire Roberts. And then Roberts got hired by the attorney general of the United States to be a special assistant where he attacked the voting rights act and attacked Congress's efforts to repair this this provision section two. So, um, I write in in my piece today about how, you know, this is sort of like Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, uh, Roberts gets wounded, doesn't win, you know, doesn't win his rhetorical arguments probably for the first time ever, uh, in any significant way. And then he now like he lost. He knows he lost. He spent hundreds of hours trying to stop effects from being taken into account. He lost that battle. He knows full well that he lost that battle, but he's perfectly happy to have the Supreme Court, his court, the Robert's court, say, "Hey, by the way, now uh 45 years later, oh yes, we we can block effects from being taken into account. You have to show intent." And so what's happened is, you know, nothing less than a racist decision by the Roberts court that is designed to affect the midterms uh to put the thumb of the Supreme Court on the scale in favor of Republicans, these Republican appointees. And um Roberts had the audacity, as you point out, to say, "Oh, people just are wrong when they say we're partisan. Uh that's not true." And yet their decisions have been deeply partisan. This is a deeply partisan decision. And by the way, it doesn't just serve to insulate Trump from Congress or at least be designed to insulate Trump from congressional oversight. And a check is designed to protect this court from having congressional investigations and curbing of its jurisdiction over these sorts of matters by basically keeping the the Congress in the hands of the party and the money brokers basically that installed this captured court. So that's my uh that's my that's my screed. That's my diet tribe. That's >> I like it. I love it. Um I am going to push back on one thing.

[00:35:42]>> Oh, okay. I'm ready. I'm all ears.

[00:35:45]>> The Moby Dick analogy.

[00:35:47]>> Okay.

[00:35:48]>> Okay. Tell me you are you are someone uh someone a a person who I John Roberts >> in literary matters. Yes.

[00:35:57]>> John Roberts would never want anything bad to happen to Moby Dick because Moby Dick was >> a white.

[00:36:03]>> Yeah. I know. You know, >> that's that's just that's just that's what he wants. I mean, um, but seriously, like, okay, what the [ __ ] is going on with Clarence Thomas? Like, really, what?

[00:36:16]>> Well, you know, he's always he's always, you know, he's always just wanted power and he is, you know, he was chosen for the court because he was willing to advance Reagan's agenda as the head of the EEOC. Um, before that at the Department of Education. So he was he saw his path and um he took it and he is uh he's betrayed all of the work that Thood Marshall devoted his life to both as an advocate and as a judge to protect these statutes and um you know is willing to do anything to basically advance a very far-right regressive ret you know retrograde agenda in the law um betraying the civil rights movement.

[00:36:56]That's who Clarence Thomas is. I mean he's also a sexual harasser. is also a liar. He's also corrupt. He's also married to a sort of a fellow Trumpian >> insurrectionist.

[00:37:06]>> Insurrectionist.

[00:37:08]>> He should be impeached. He should have been impeached long ago. Never should have been confirmed. I hope that in my lifetime I get to work on the removal of Clarence Thomas from that court. But not just not just Thomas. Uh there are more.

[00:37:21]You and I you and I had that that question one time. Who do you impeach?

[00:37:26]Who do you get rid of? But um you know I think I think uh I think there's a I think there's a case to be made for a whole lot of them quite frankly.

[00:37:34]>> I don't know. I heard maybe he's he's you know or was it Alto was in poor health? Maybe they're all I don't know the plan maybe >> didn't that seem like a faint he did go to the hospital but it was like this spring as rumors are emerging that he's planning to possibly retire take some sweet gig um and give Trump another seat to extend his legacy on the court then you know suddenly he went to the hospital it may have been legitimate may have been legitimate but then of course as soon as uh progressives started preparing for potential move vacancy they were like no no no nothing to see here he's not retiring But, you know, um I don't know if it was Jerry Nadler or or Barney Frank or one of the members on the House side.

[00:38:14]>> RIP Barney Frank by the way.

[00:38:16]>> Yeah. RIP. He said to me, um I can't it was one of the damn caucus members. It was very active. He said to me at one point that they had to be so careful in questioning the Reagan administration and then the Bush administration because they would say things like, "Are you doing X?" you know, and basically that day like the FBI wasn't doing X and they'd be like, "No, no, not doing X today." Uh, but they were yesterday and they are going to be tomorrow. And so they had to, you know, basically craft their questions to say like, >> you know, are you doing this? And if you change, will you promise to come back and tell us that you've changed because we don't trust that anything you say basically on a single moment is true. I mean, at any minute, Alto could be like, "Oh, yeah. By the way, I am retiring. Uh Tulsi Gabbard told me that you know I could use the family members thing and sort of get out of jail free and or whatever their case may be. Um you know and and decide to leave um or they could wait till after the midterms uh if you know depending on how things go and try to cram them through in a lame duck in 30 days or less replacements for Thomas and Alto. So I don't trust a word that man says. I don't trust a word Alto says quite frankly like the his the the way he crafted the decision in Klay in this voting rights case where John Roberts handed him the dagger to kill section two of the voting rights act um it's a dishonest opinion it's just deeply misleading and dissembling but that's part for the course for you know for Alto look at the decision that he wrote on row you know uh you know basically tying the rights of American women in 2020 in the 2020th and the 21st century to the views of some witch hunter from like hundreds of years ago.

[00:39:55]>> Come on. The chief magistrate of of England and Scotland. Uh very relevant to this time.

[00:40:03]>> Yeah. But anyway, you know, so I don't I don't trust a word, they say. And I think we've got to prepare for potential vacancies and fight them as best we can.

[00:40:09]And then ultimately though, we're going to have to reform the court and strip the court of jurisdiction over things like the Voting Rights Act because it has shown that it is unworthy of that trust. But also, it's a broader question in our democracy of whether we're going to let unelected judges have the final say on our rights, particularly the our rights and our represent democracy. This court, the Roberts court, has already sought to decimate elections through the Citizens United decision. You know, 16 years we've been living under that decision where, you know, they unleash these billionaires to play this extraordinary and appalling role. And by the way, I wrote a piece on this. Uh Clarence Thomas never should have sat in this case because he his wife got like a half a million dollars right right around New Year's Eve uh weeks before the the uh is the decision was issued $500,000 from Harlland Crow to launch a group to take advantage of the coming decision in Citizens United. It is corrupt. He's corrupt to the roots. He is corrupt.

[00:41:09]>> That's only the stuff we know about. But you know his mother's house needed a dishwasher. It needed an addition.

[00:41:15]What's a poor Supreme Court justice to do? You know, some somebody's got to come and pay for this stuff.

[00:41:21]>> Dishwashers are expensive.

[00:41:23]>> Clarence Thomas has has serially taken out refinance loans, second mortgages on his house and paid them back. Uh those uh second mortgages escape the disclosure rules um under the federal disclosure rules for judges. Of course, it's not unlawful to take a bunch of second mortgages out and pay them back.

[00:41:41]Um, but it really makes you wonder why since his uh ward's tuition was paid for, his private jets are taken care of, his vacations are basically at Harland's uh instigation at fabulous places or yachts in in Greece or, you know, near Greece, etc. Um, Charles Ko and and and the gang, you know, have other resort vacations to promote his book that he can go hang out in Arizona. He gets to go to the, you know, big the big all men's club in San Francisco and hang out with the guys there. So I don't I don't know what Thomas needs those mortgages for. There's no apparent uh filings of an addition for that dishwasher you name.

[00:42:25]>> Um so it could be completely legit >> or given his track record, I would say we should get to the bottom of it. I think there's stuff we don't we I think we haven't even barely scratched the surface. And what'll happen is we'll find it out and then he'll drop dead.

[00:42:38]That's what's going to happen.

[00:42:39]>> Well, or he'll resign and take some, you know, take some some uh signature a synicure, pardon me, signature synicure, some sicure where he's paid to basically do nothing but be a named partner at some law firm. I don't think he wants to give up the power because he he acts like he's at the zenith of his power in this destructive reign of the Roberts court.

[00:42:58]>> So, why would he give it up? But I think there I think they're billionaires that could sweeten the deal to basically say we're going to appoint one of your acolytes and he has really terrible people from the standpoint of ethics who uh you know work for him like uh you know the famous lawyer who was disbarred in California uh for his role in advising Trump to not follow the election results or uh Jim Hoe on the fifth circuit.

[00:43:23]>> Wait, you mean Eastman, right?

[00:43:25]>> Yeah, Eastman. Yeah, >> he's in our he's in our he's in our opening credits. I know. Eastman's a Thomas clerk.

[00:43:30]>> You have to drink when we say fifth, Lisa. That's the rule.

[00:43:33]>> Oh, sorry. Eastman's a Thomas clerk, >> right?

[00:43:37]>> Jim Ho on the Fifth Circuit who absurdly claimed that uh OBGYn could assert an interest in seeing a pregnancy through that was a greater interest than a than uh the impregnated person deciding that they did not want to have the pregnancy go through. Then there's John Yu, his uh clerk who was the torture guy speaking.

[00:43:58]>> Torture guy.

[00:43:59]>> Uh John >> comes back to Cuba. Everything comes back to Cuba. The torture memo in Cuba.

[00:44:05]Jinny with the We're going to go be on the barges to Gitmo. Maybe they're going to be on the barges to Gitmo and then they're going to go to Trump Tower Havana. I think that's what's going to happen.

[00:44:13]>> But I did go I did blow past the five minute mark. I blew completely past.

[00:44:18]>> No, but this was we haven't talked about this because we don't we wanted you to come on and talk about it. So that it's fine.

[00:44:24]I was gonna do a shout out to Mike Porzer who um coined that phrase neoconfederate court. Uh he's got a great substack. It's called weekend reading. Um and I know uh that true player put my substack grave injustice in there where I write about this. So yeah, thanks.

[00:44:39]>> It's a great substack. It's a great substack. Grave injustice. Grave Oh, I get it now.

[00:44:43]>> Grave grave injustice.

[00:44:47]>> Uh okay. Uh so speaking of grave injustices, uh this anti- anti-weaponization, you know, trader slush fund, uh I have questions for you about it because for people that don't know, uh I don't know, everyone watching this probably knows this already, but Trump and Todd Blanch created this, you know, they settled with the IRS in their ridiculous lawsuit for $10 billion uh for a $1.776 billion ion dollar fund to be created for anti-weaponization which is going to be doled out to basically anybody that's been wronged by excesses of a they don't say fascistic but tyrannical government.

[00:45:31]Uh so basically it's like J6 guys like Michael Caputo was the first person to apply. Uh Enrico Tario was bragging he's going to get five between five and eight million. So, it seems like, and again, I don't know about this. I didn't go to law school. I don't know anything about the law. So, Todd Blanch, the acting attorney general, he's not even the actual attorney, he's the acting attorney general, drafts a memo and says, "We're going to do this, guys, and signs the memo." Um, so it reminds me these Department of Just Why is a memo written in the Department of Justice carry more weight than literally any [ __ ] goddamn document in the entire history of the United States? Why is that?

[00:46:18]>> Well, it doesn't and it shouldn't and it's ridiculous. Um when I was at the Justice Department, I was the deputy assistant attorney general for a while in the office of legal policy, the office of policy development. And we had um buttons that we made up that said uh just bec because we were fighting with the office of legal counsel on a regular basis. And the button said just because it may be constitutional doesn't mean it's a good idea because OLC views its job as expanding executive power.

[00:46:45]There's no reason why Congress or any other branch should give it any difference whatsoever. It's basically an instrument of expansive claims of executive power. And that's that's where John U was when he was writing the ridiculous, absurd, subsequently retracted torture memo that was full of uh [ __ ] I think is the maybe it's manure. Uh >> yeah, sure. Um but uh you know so this is a situation where Trump said aloud in like one of a rare moment of honesty that basically uh yeah he sued the IRS for the release of his tax his uh tax record some of his tax records um during his administration uh when he was president and um uh a contractor leaked his his some of his tax files along with like 100 thousand other tax files and um it revealed that Donald Trump had paid a whopping. I think it might have been $716 one year. Might have been $7,16.

[00:47:43]>> No, no, no. It was less than I think it was like $350. It was like it was like in the hundreds.

[00:47:48]>> Yeah.

[00:47:49]>> And then in the subsequent year that was that was leaked zero zero dollars. And um and so Trump, you know, admitted like a week ago that he sued the, you know, sued the IRS and then of course then he was negotiating with himself for whatever he wanted uh to be the outcome.

[00:48:08]And um then uh the just former had filed, you know, basically the just for and and Trump filed to dismiss the um Iris complaint with without filing any words about the settlement. the supposed settlement um >> settlement in in quotes. Settlement in quotes in quotes because technically a settlement. Yeah. Right. It was not technically a settlement because it was not described as part of that litigation. The IRS um lawyers wrote, you know, a memo basically saying there's numerous reasons why this suit is ridiculous. 10 billion dollars for like a leak of, you know, actually, by the way, I'm not sure how harmed you are if people learn that you didn't pay anything in taxes when you claim you're such a genius by not paying anything in taxes.

[00:48:51]>> Yeah, it helped. So, a little bit hard to prove harm of any kind, but there were other good reasons why the IRS lawyers said no and and there was a resignation as a result of this >> uh so-called settlement. But Todd Blanch, who um was uh literally uh one of Donald Trump's criminal defense attorneys being paid presumably by Donald Trump, is now one of Donald Trump's criminal defense attorneys being paid by us as the acting attorney general. I personally think that Todd Blanch should be disbarred. I think he should be barred from ever practicing law again. Um, this is malpractice. He his job is to protect the interest of the American people, which includes filing, you know, motions to dismiss crap like Donald Trump's ridiculous $10 billion suit against the IRS. But instead, because Todd Blanch is a tool for Trump, um, he like agreed on whatever nefarious basis to a settlement, like you said, of the 1.776 billion dollars. Um, and someone wrote in the comments like Denver Welman who was one of the investigators on the Jan Jan 6 committee said, you know, that's code that's QAnon 1776. That's what Lauren Boowbert was tweeting the morning >> of the insurrection.

[00:50:00]>> It's trolling and it's [ __ ] blasphemy is what it is. It's blasphemy. It's it's and and the members of Congress who've said this is a crime in progress in broad daylight. I think it is. This is criminal conduct to try to um you know to try to not just you know have the outrageous pardoning of these individuals who attacked the capital and tried to prevent the vote, but to pay them possibly hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to make them rich for being Trump's brown shirts is revolting and disgusting. And it sends a signal uh that hey do what I want next time and you could get rich too. Um, and this is also I just have to say I know I just spent all this time about the Roberts court, but this is also John Roberts [ __ ] gift to Donald Trump because in that for two things in that immunity decision, that reckless counterconstitutional decision to say that Donald Trump couldn't be charged with crimes for his so-called official acts. John Roberts went out of his way to call pardoning an official act that is beyond review by the courts or by Congress. He's wrong about that. We're going to change that.

[00:51:08]That is >> we're gonna that that absolutely needs to change.

[00:51:11]>> Absolutely. Like you like you can have limits on the first amendment like you you can be sued for liel for example.

[00:51:17]You can you can be charged with perjury for the words you speak. Certainly, we can have similar reasonable rules for the conduct of pardons that this administration has used corruptly in numerous instances and in defiance of the public interest in terms of these fraudsters that Trump has pardoned over and over again. But the second thing that the second thing that John Roberts another part of John Roberts just sickening project uh for how he's abusing the judicial power of the court is this thing called the unitary executive theory which is a theory. It's a theory that was basically invented in the Reagan administration to try to justify expansive powers for Ronald Reagan. There's a whole book about how it was completely invented. But, you know, a few years ago during the Biden administration, I think it might have been maybe it was 2020, um, Roberts uh, helped gut the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Production Board, >> which provides information for people about how to not get swindled by these banks and loan loan, you know, loan lenders and, you know, con artists and the like. Um, Roberts used, you know, basically tried to erect this notion as a constitutional command that we couldn't have a CFPB that couldn't head who could not be fired by Trump. And right now, as we speak, John Roberts is probably writing the opinion um to allow Donald Trump to fire the head of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, uh Miss Slaughter, and to do so in defiance of a Supreme Court decision from almost 100 years ago where the Supreme Court back then told FDR he couldn't fire the head of the FTC. literally the same agency, same issue. And the long-standing rule has been that Congress can create independent entities, independent bodies that are, you know, quasi judicial, pardon me, quasi legislative, quasi executive. But what John Roberts is trying to do is say Donald, everyone reports to Donald Trump in the executive branch. He can do anything. He can fire anyone for any reason, any time, for in any way whatsoever. And if everyone reports to Trump, then basically all rules restricting what a president can or can't cannot do go out the window. The idea that Trump gets to have his buddy Todd Blanch create a sweetheart deal that he Trump himself and his family, his sons, including his soon-to-be wed son to get money from taxpayers for their role in absolutely destructive, in my view, treasonous, sedicious activity around January 6.

[00:53:53]Even >> it's objectively it's objectively treasonous. Sorry.

[00:53:56]>> Yeah. I mean it, you know, so but the idea that everyone reports to Trump and so basically he can negotiate with himself within the executive branch to resolve this case in favor of him and the white supremacist uh uh violent predominantly men who were involved in that January 6 insurrection.

[00:54:15]people who like Enrique Tero who you mentioned, people who are tied to militia groups, groups that have active hostility to the governance of the United States, people who've been, you know, uh, stockpiling weapons, people who are white supremacists have who've, you know, were also part of this Trump, uh, you know, contingent. And remember, I just two more things I have to say now I got the floor. Keep going. was, you know, I they're suing the White House staffer um who testified at the J6 uh hearings about what Donald Trump did because he wanted to go to the capital and that he supposedly, you know, grabbed one of the one of the Secret Service guards, you know, to say, you know, we got to go to the I got to go.

[00:54:54]>> Wait, who are they suing? Cassidy.

[00:54:55]>> Cassidy. Yeah, they're suing.

[00:54:57]>> Oh, man.

[00:54:58]>> We like Cassidy on this show.

[00:54:59]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:55:00]>> Where Cassidy stands. Okay. But the other part of that story is she said he was shouting, you know, basically get rid of the mags, uh the magnetometers to his people were not able to get into the inner circle of the rally, the you know, the the despicable rally that unleashed this mob um on the capital to try to stop, you know, Pence and stop Pelosi from counting the votes. He was like, "They're not there for me." He that that's what he said. They're not there for me. They're not going to hurt me.

[00:55:32]They they can bring their weapons through the magnetometers. And the other thing is, and I wrote about this um in the book, Donald Trump told the Defense Department, his acting secretary, and then the other dudes that reported to him, he didn't want >> Patel.

[00:55:48]>> Yeah. Did not Yeah. did not want the National Guard armed.

[00:55:52]>> Didn't want them to have to be armed that day. Like literally stood them down. And they were told that they could not even have like the batons and protective gear unless they received a specific order directly from the secretary of defense. And then >> I don't know why I would do that on that day. It was just a total coincidence.

[00:56:13]>> They tried to blame, you know, they tried to blame Pelosi. They tried to blame the mayor the mayor of of DC was [ __ ] because the fact is is that he wanted those National Guard to be disarmed. And I think they were waiting >> for the conditions to declare martial law. They were waiting for the crowd to harm harm or kill a member. Some of them were shouting directly for Pence's head.

[00:56:35]And that's why during in that January 6 report, it says that the defense department did not respond to calls to help the capital for more than two hours. Then they finally did. Then they had to write the paperwork up. The National Guard had to report back to the armory by the RF old RFK stadium in DC.

[00:56:56]Took them an hour to assemble, get the gear, and get back to the Capitol after five the frig o'lock in the afternoon after Trump had finally said, "Okay, go home peaceful people who I love." Um, when he wasn't calling them Antifa. Um, so, you know, this is this is so this is the most corrupt thing that has ever happened in a sea of corruption. this $1.776 billion slush fund. Yeah.

[00:57:24]>> To pay for to to to incentivize people to engage in violence who never should have been allowed to be part in the first place, who many of whom have committed crimes since their release.

[00:57:37]And now they're teeing up to get our money >> to basically reward them for attacking our government. This is it's not just corrupt like it's it's it's immoral.

[00:57:48]It's, in my view, it's illegal. It's genuinely evil. Evil.

[00:57:55]That was long. You're never gonna have me back on again. I've just >> Oh, please. No. This is why you're here.

[00:57:59]We I want to hear what you have to say.

[00:58:01]Uh I'm just going to say, you know, this is why in all of human history until this happened, traders like that are executed. They're put to death. Why? Because once you're dead, you can't do this [ __ ] again, which is where this is all heading. It's all this stuff. It's This is like a goddamn horror movie where we don't cut the head off the thing and then they come get us again. It's really so bad.

[00:58:27]>> And that's why the 14th amendment bars instructionist from office, which this court, Robert, >> [ __ ] [ __ ] Chuck Schumer, all he had to do.

[00:58:36]>> Yeah.

[00:58:38]>> Yeah. And then and the also bars the paying of insurrectionists. Like this is like it's unconstitutional, illegal, immoral. Like yeah. And oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh speaking of speaking of members of Congress, Mitch McConnell crypt Keeper crypt keeper over there is like oh yeah by the way I don't like this like the guy who you know could have actually voted to impeach Donald Trump you know in February of 2020 2021.

[00:59:05]>> Didn't he wait didn't he vote for it?

[00:59:07]Did he vote for it or no? No, no. He said the night of January 6, this was terrible and we all know what Trump did and it won't stand. And then he was like, "Oh, uh, I'm not going to actually vote to impeach Trump. Let the criminal justice system >> Yeah.

[00:59:21]>> deal with him." Which, of course, Roberts was just waiting in the wings for his ability to basically try to um uh, you know, immunize Donald Trump and sort of vindicate Nixon's freaking ghost. Yeah, it's a it is it is in fact a disaster. And it will not stand. This will not stand.

[00:59:42]>> Is this Is this the end of it? This feels like the end of it. Like we're I I feel like And I'm not even I'm not kidding. I'm I because I talked LB and I had a production meeting yesterday and she asked this on the thing. She is Is this the end of the country now, right?

[00:59:57]Is it like if we're just taking money from taxpayers and giving it to [ __ ] traders and the the Supreme Court is these in just obviously egregiously corrupt horrible people who are tilting this, you know, Trump hiring to the nth degree uh to help this con man. I mean, why are we Somebody wrote in the comments, "Why are we even listening to these people at this point? Why do I don't care what John Roberts says. [ __ ] this guy. He's a He looks like He looks like a professor at Hogwarts. [ __ ] him. Why am I going to listen to this guy?"

[01:00:37]>> Well, I mean, I've been carrying the Constitution around my pocket for decades now, and it turns out it only applies to us.

[01:00:42]>> Yeah.

[01:00:44]>> It doesn't apply to the other side, and >> everything's a loophole for them. Yeah.

[01:00:48]We have to like we have to get into the place where we fight back on evil and even ground. It's like we can't summon the you know and I don't want to be doom and gloom because there has been some fighting back which takes us into our next topic. So I'll put the I'll put the timer back on which >> yeah but it is the case that at least right now there's some growing number. I mean, I hesitate to put any faith in it.

[01:01:19]>> Yeah.

[01:01:19]>> But there's some growing number of Republicans under who get that this is a bad look for them, even if they don't concede that it's completely illegal, immoral, unconstitutional.

[01:01:29]>> They're they they get that it might be bad to run for office and tell the American people, "Yeah, gas prices are higher. Everything's higher, but we're gonna we're gonna have a$ 1.776 billion dollar slush fund." And by the way, your next topic, the ballroom. So there's there is a growing >> resistance I'll say within some of the Republican party in the Senate that gives me some hope and then there's the growing resistance in the in the country to this garbage. Yeah.

[01:02:01]>> I mean I I yeah I can't even because Federman is is is basically Republican at this point too. H I mean something happened to him. Uh uh >> by Republican or former Republicans or right-wingers or third weighers, who knows?

[01:02:16]>> But like that what a disappointment >> which by the way this was very obvious even in the moment that this was going to happen but whatever.

[01:02:25]>> Uh you know I whatever. Uh so we have to have you know just because the guy that you know these people that like Tom Tillis oh I'm not going to run for reelection so I'll vote I'll do the right thing now. Is it Tillis? I forget who these >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's been speaking out, right? I mean, I'm glad >> for you. Where were you? Where were you when RFK Jr. was getting Yeah. Like, come on. It's too late. It's too late for you. And you know that that's how it is. But >> they did manage to uh you know nay the ballroom funding at least for now. I think Senator White House did it.

[01:03:01]>> But I don't I look this parliamentarian.

[01:03:04]I don't get this. I don't understand how it works. Honestly, I'm not even sure why we have two houses, you know. I've never really quite understood the whole thing, but uh I understand it conceptually, but the inner workings of it are uh Byzantine to me. So, can you explain what happened?

[01:03:23]>> Well, yeah. So, I I did spend a lot of time working on the Senate, working within the Senate rules. Um, and at one point I had to learn what the rule of the thing lying over and under meant, which was an like talk about obscure.

[01:03:37]But this this is a situation where um under the long-standing rules of the Senate, uh, the Senate can f senators can filibuster legislation or nominations actually until recently. And um, the rule is embodied in what's called rule 22 xx, you know, 111. And that rule requires um a supermajority of the of the members who are sworn in to um to to basically approve going forward with a matter. And so what that means is three-fifths of the Senate, so 60 a vote of 60 members um to end the debate. So in the Senate, it's like, oh, you can't force the end of the debate like the House. You can't just gave in and be like, that's it. We're voting right now.

[01:04:24]There's this long-standing notion that that you can you can filibuster things under rule 22. And that means for anything that can be filibustered, you can't just do it with a bare majority of 50 or 51. Uh you know, or you know, depending how many people are there that day, 48. You you have to have 60 people willing to say, "Yeah, we're going to vote to allow this thing to go forward."

[01:04:47]So there was an exception created for budget reconciliation matters um from this >> historically or this time >> no uh in in in past years it's called the bird rule >> and what it what it it it's designed to allow the government to be funded basically to not allow the the 60 vote threshold to basically thwart the funding of government so government can function. Not that the rep Republicans in general in my personal view care about the functioning of government other than the Pentagon.

[01:05:17]>> Well, they want to get paid.

[01:05:18]>> Yeah. But, you know, but in other but in you know, we've seen that the you know, when there's been threatened shutdowns, a lot of Republicans are willing to be like, "So what? We're trying to break government anyway." But um so until and we haven't had a president until now who was like, "So what if it does it's not paid? I'll just >> pretend that I can move money here and there and ignore Congress." So we're in this new world. But the bird rule has been around for for decades now. And it bas in order to bypass that cloer rule, that filibuster rule. The legislation, this budget legislation cannot have these sort of extraneous matters and has to come through committees in a particular way. You can't just add stuff on to it in a way that um lards it lards it with either content or even spending that is out of bounds. And so that's that's my best simplified answer to your question. And so Senator White House did work on this and has a video about, you know, kind of how they did it, how they stopped it. And so they were able to stop the $1 billion request that Trump or demand that Trump made for the bunker. Like it's not the ballroom, it's the bunker. Um, and it is designed, you know, the claim was these super rich companies are just going to they're going to and CEOs are going to fund the ballroom and so don't worry, but we're not going to tell you who they are. Even though the New York Times and Public Citizen got their hands on some of the donors and oh, imagine that they had business before the government. They had antitrust cases and they had mergers and in investigations that they want to go away and so they just happen to make a pledge to fund this monstrosity of a ballroom that isn't needed. There was a ballroom. Um but it's really not about the ballroom. And the ballroom is in some ways just pretext for what Trump wants, which is this massive infrastructure for him to be shielded from any type of, you know, attack. And the fact is that there already is an infrastructure underneath the White House. That's where the situation room is. That's where they meet when they are not meeting at Mara Lago in a room with like black, you know, uh, acetone acetate curtains with crowd behind them talking about war, but like when they're doing like the real supposedly the way it's worked in the past is you go to the situation room and that's where the generals are and that's where they're, you know, if there is a a war happening like that's where that happens. So there already is a secure facility, a secure compound, but it's not hardened enough for Trump and not big enough for what Trump wants. And so he wanted this billion dollars uh of taxpayer funding to um build up this entity. And you know, beneath the monstrosity of this ballroom that is totally unnecessary. Um and so for now the ballroom funding has been peeled out of this um funding for um HHS and other government functioning.

[01:08:11]Um and so hopefully that will stand. But the members are going on recess. They'll they're going to be away next week back in June. And I'm and the Republicans have said they'll find another way.

[01:08:19]They'll find another way to bypass the closure rules. I think that they're stupid to do this. I think like at some point and and maybe maybe this is all because the broader scheme is to never have an election again and so it doesn't matter but if they stand for election and they have and Americans are still facing this massive expense on gas and groceries and the chaos and everything else >> which they will be spoiler alert they will be.

[01:08:46]>> Yeah. Um, and it's like, "Oh, but by the way, I I approved a billion dollars for the ballroom and a bill, you know, two bill almost two billion dollars for the slush fund and whatever." Like, that is not a winning message. Um, I don't think for almost any part of the political, you know, demography.

[01:09:05]You would you would think that I I realize now I realize that um I forgot we're out of we're at we I forgot to do the media after the second the second >> Oh yeah yeah you have a you have a clip.

[01:09:18]Do you want to play your clip?

[01:09:19]>> Uh yeah it's a re it's a rerun because we have I don't know if you knew that but it's not a rerun because it's an ad because we have a sponsor and you know ads run more than once so so be it. When the evening becomes the night, when the spring box roam the burned felt. This is when the doge come out to play to flaunt the fruits of their triumph. Chainsaws Ashley St. Claire's eggs. Sinks.

[01:09:49]Introducing a new fragrance for doge men.

[01:09:53]Dicks by Elon. Take what you want. Twitter.

[01:10:01]Donald, every last penny of Mima's social security dicks by Elon.

[01:10:09]Not a fragrance, a musk.

[01:10:13]Available exclusively at T-Mo.

[01:10:20]>> I forgot about that. That's hilarious.

[01:10:23]>> Did you see that one before? I I couldn't remember if you >> is hilarious. I really like the crow.

[01:10:28]Yeah, the crow is the crow is shout out who did the the voice and the crow >> or crow died I think.

[01:10:36]>> RIP Crow and Chunk of course for for uh >> yes >> the excellent animation um as always.

[01:10:43]Okay, so we have to do this is when we do announcements. Do you have any announcements?

[01:10:47]>> Um I so I am on book tour uh for the for Without Precedent. Um there is an audio version up now. I do the introduction for the audio version. So, that's happening. And um I am doing a live Monday night show on Legal AF, part of the Midas Touch Network. It's at 5 Eastern on Mondays. And I'm happy to come back on here and the 5'8 anytime to hang out for a little bit.

[01:11:10]>> Oh, we love to have you.

[01:11:12]>> We'd love to have you. Um thank you for coming on. Uh this was a lot of fun. Uh, I want to say thank you to everybody for for uh, you know, the usual thing, coming on and watching, commenting, uh, hitting like and subscribing and all that good stuff. I want to also say uh, Carla in the comments is on fire tonight. She's been like, almost distractingly funny.

[01:11:36]>> Um, >> and speaking of funny, uh, oh, wait, I have I have what? I do have >> You have an announcement. Do you have announcements? What are your announcements?

[01:11:43]>> I do have I have an announcement. I decided that I am going to or I have uh compiled my my my Jeffrey Epstein FAQ piece is that series um into a book form because uh I think it's fun better to read it that way because it's long and uh and also I'm kind of afraid they're going to shut the internet down and I want to make sure that it's not >> I'm buying the book. I I have all your I have purchased I think all of your books. They are fabulous. They're quite awesome. I appreciate >> and your reprints the the uh um Fcott Fitzgerald I have around the corner here. Yeah.

[01:12:19]>> Yeah. That's the only one we've done.

[01:12:20]That's the only one for >> that reprint is a thing of beauty. By the way, there's essays from Greg and two other amazing authors about the importance of that.

[01:12:30]>> My two my two of my writer friends who are awesome. Yeah. Um okay. So, uh I think that's it with announcements, but that's that's the thing. Uh, this was the last Co Bear show last night >> and I wanted to talk about that a little bit and then end with something. Uh, but >> we didn't discuss this, you and I, before this. What is your Are you a Are you a Colair fan? Like did you watch >> total Col Bear fan and um I love the I love the ending of um the Colbear rapport uh when they sang and I loved the ending of this of uh you say goodbye I say hello. Um but I hated that it was ending.

[01:13:16]>> Yeah.

[01:13:16]>> But I love how they did it and I love what they did with the money to help fund the world kitchen and to help you know uh move things forward. It's just a It's despicable what CBS has done. It's despicable what the dudes, you know, at the head of uh uh you know, the merger have done. Um it really is out truly outrageous. He's so talented and so kind and amazing. Um and uh yeah, I'm looking forward to what he says hello to.

[01:13:48]I I watched the clip I was going to try to do because back on the coar rapport uh he used to do a thing called the word like this is today's word I was going to try to make I couldn't think of one to do in homage but but uh he comes in riding on a he's on a like a what do you call it when the Roman emperors are on that thing you know the the the sedan >> oh yeah yeah >> strapping guys with no shirts on with with like Uncle Sam hats and he's the whole thing and he I think it it towards the end of the run or something and he says it's time to say aloha Steven Colbear and also aloha Steen Cobear.

[01:14:25]>> Yes, exactly.

[01:14:26]>> So, I feel like whatever he's going to do next is going to be wonderful. I'm >> I wouldn't be all that surprised if he runs for president, which he did do once before.

[01:14:36]>> Yeah.

[01:14:37]>> And as I was reminded in this one that I watched in the word that I watched, both his campaign and Trump started as a joke. So, who knows, you know? Um, >> Zalinski, I mean, >> yeah, >> you know, Zalinski.

[01:14:49]>> Yeah. No, exactly. I mean, Coar would be amazing. Uh, for any number of reasons, but starting with he's just a very good human.

[01:14:58]>> Yeah.

[01:14:58]>> I mean, you it shines out in in the stuff he does and how he behaves and how he treats everybody.

[01:15:05]>> Yeah. And you know, he's someone that I I haven't watched this show as much only because I I just not up that late anymore, but I used to watch the co bear of poor uh religiously and that was, you know, for people unaware.

[01:15:20]>> He used he started off doing this bit on the Daily Show when John was the Daily Show and he Stephen Cobear was Steven Colbear this right-wing kind of Fox Newsy guy.

[01:15:32]>> Yeah. And then he got his own show and he was the funniest thing on that show.

[01:15:36]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:15:38]>> Uh and then he got his own show which was called the Colbear Raport. Uh so they both had the French pronunciations and he was and we were like how's this going to work? And it was so brilliant.

[01:15:49]I It's one of the best shows of all time.

[01:15:51]>> Yeah.

[01:15:52]>> The best of that kind of and Letterman are the two. And >> uh would interview people in character.

[01:15:59]He was always this right-wing kind of [ __ ] character, smug and snide.

[01:16:05]>> Yeah.

[01:16:06]>> And he did that show for 11 years and he never once broke character.

[01:16:10]>> Yeah.

[01:16:10]>> Never >> broke character. It was It was astonishing. Uh and he's funny. I think he's just funnier than the other guys.

[01:16:18]He's just funnier.

[01:16:20]>> He's he's way funnier than John Stewart.

[01:16:21]I mean, no contest.

[01:16:23]>> Well, I mean, I think I think the thing is is that he has a he has a lightness.

[01:16:27]>> Yeah. a lightness to even the hardest stuff. Like he can bring out that sunshine and I I I really I like John Stewart and I think he's hilarious but but his edge is like harder. And so I feel like I feel like Cobar is able to bring a different dimension to the satire because because like because there's that that sunshine that just I think beams from him. That's my my >> I think that's a great way to put it.

[01:16:56]And if he runs, >> oh my goodness.

[01:16:58]>> I mean, first of all, >> volunteer every free hour.

[01:17:03]>> He's smart as hell.

[01:17:05]>> He's really good. He No one's going to beat him in a debate. That's gonna That's forget it. You're gonna get crushed in that.

[01:17:11]>> Yeah.

[01:17:11]>> Uh he's religious, but not overtly weird about it. Like he's So people will relate to that. And you know, >> I would trust him making the judgments.

[01:17:22]you know, >> he's one of he's one of very few >> thought I've I've had in a long time and I'm I'm grabbing it from you like your thought on this >> is the most joyful thought. Yeah, >> it's good. Right. So, uh, and I I I read this. I'm not >> I think Obama was trying to convince him to do it is what I heard, >> but, uh, it would be We've have a very good track record, as you pointed out earlier, Lisa, of comedians running for president and being [ __ ] awesome at the job.

[01:17:53]>> Yeah.

[01:17:54]>> And, uh, I think it'd be great. So, what but what I want how I want to end tonight, and I'm gonna I'll take the banner down here. We do this we do this thing. How I want to end is this is this this is why I love him. This is I love him for a million reasons, but this specific thing is why I love him. In 2006, you know, he'd been on the on the Daily Show and he had done the Colbear report for one year, year and a half, something like that. So in April of 2006, they had the White House correspondence dinner.

[01:18:23]George W. Bush is president >> and >> they invited him to speak because the I think the person who was in charge did not realize that he wasn't actually >> right.

[01:18:37]>> There's my dog moving suddenly behind me. That didn't >> Oh my god, that was cute. Okay. Uh, so he's standing there in character. In character is this right-wing guy and he starts doing this thing and I'm watching it and I'm thinking and Bush is six feet away from him and I'm watching it and I'm like, "Oh my god, he's going to get killed. They're gonna they're going to actually murder him."

[01:19:04]>> Like I can't believe he's doing this.

[01:19:06]Like it's one thing to be like, "Yeah, truth to power."

[01:19:10]And I maintain I don't think John Stewart would have done it. I don't think like a lot of people would. I couldn't have done it. I couldn't stand there and I I couldn't. I'm too whatever.

[01:19:19]>> And he sat there and it was long this thing >> and he let him have it >> and >> that was it. That really was the the greatest moment that I've seen from him.

[01:19:30]I mean, it really was something.

[01:19:32]>> Yeah. Yeah, >> it was just so what I would like to do >> to end the show and and send us off on the weekend in a happy frame. Um I want to I want to read some of the jokes that he told that night. Okay, excellent.

[01:19:45]>> I just I picked out there's it's it's not that long, I hope. But uh so again, picture the scene. He's standing there.

[01:19:52]>> Bush is right there. Laura Bush is there.

[01:19:54]>> I'm playing Bush in this scenario.

[01:19:55]>> You're playing Bush in this man. Okay.

[01:19:57]Oh no.

[01:19:57]>> So this is now this is a little bit he's introduced himself and and I'll wait.

[01:20:01]Let me have one more water here.

[01:20:04]He's introduced himself, you know, and he's talking about things he believes in and he goes, "I believe in this. I believe in this." And then he says, "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe it's yogurt, but I refuse to believe it's not butter.

[01:20:18]Most of all, I believe in this president." Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating, but guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

[01:20:40]>> Oh, I remember that.

[01:20:41]>> So, Mr. President, please pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half empty because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. Last third is usually backwash.

[01:20:59]And then it skips, right? And then it skips ahead a little. So don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this.

[01:21:11]Does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he's not doing?

[01:21:19]Think about it. I haven't I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. not only four things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

[01:21:46]He's saying this again. He's saying this right right to Bush. And and Bush is Bush is a he's a jokey guy. And Bush is [ __ ] >> He looks like he's so mad that he's going to go hit him.

[01:21:57]>> Okay, four more paragraphs and then we're done. Uh, >> all right. I'm I'm there for it. I'm here for it.

[01:22:03]>> I'm going to get this set up so that we could be done when it's done. Okay.

[01:22:06]>> Do I say now we're going to get through it before then as a preemptive? We'll get through it, but >> No, no, say it at the end. Say it at the end. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be good. Okay.

[01:22:14]>> Okay.

[01:22:15]>> As excited as I am, because remember it's it's the correspondence dinner. As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal liberal media that is destroying America with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story. The president's side and the vice president's side.

[01:22:34]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[01:22:35]>> But the rest of you, what are you thinking? Reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe?

[01:22:42]Those things are secret for a very important reason. They're super depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished.

[01:22:53]Over the last five years, you people were so good over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out.

[01:23:06]>> Those were good times as far as we knew.

[01:23:10]But listen, let's review the rules.

[01:23:12]Here's how it works. The president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions.

[01:23:21]>> And you people of the press, type those decisions down.

[01:23:24]>> Yes.

[01:23:25]>> Make announce type. Just put it through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

[01:23:47]That was brilliant. And we're going to get through it. That gives me hope.

[01:24:10]Heat. Heat.

[01:24:33]Heat.

[01:24:44]Heat.

[01:24:53]Heat. Heat. N.

[01:25:20]Heat. Heat.

[01:25:49]Heat up here.

[01:25:53]Heat. Heat.

[01:26:10]Heat. Heat.

[01:26:44]Heat. Heat.