¶ Introduction and College Tour Recap
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down .
This is the no Doubt About it . Podcast . No doubt about it Now your hosts Christy and Mark Runcany , wildfire you can't catch us now .
Running , running , running dead Christy and Mark Runcany , you're back from the Amazing Race College Tour . Yes , yes .
Ava and I were on the road for a good portion of the last four days . It was like 78 hours or something weird , and it felt like you were gone a week , but you weren't . Yeah , it did . We packed enough in for a week . We actually started on Saturday .
We're shooting a different show that we're working on , right , it's a television show , so we were doing that , which will be out later this year . And then we got all that done and then Ava and I , at 5 am on Sunday morning , got on a flight to Denver .
We then , drove rented a car , drove up to Fort Collins , took a nap at my sister's , at your sister's house , and then Ava had a uh tryout or performance , or audition as you would say .
Yes Um for the CSU theater department .
Yes , yes , and that went really well Okay .
Yeah , I'm very optimistic .
Okay , so that went well , and then we finished that . We run back to your sister's house , I shower . We then take the rental car back to DIA . We hop on a flight to Richmond , virginia . We get into Virginia at like midnight and I leave it to Ava , because we're two hours from where we're going in Lynchburg .
Okay , so I leave it to Ava to give us the best route there . Ava chooses the Ichabod Crane route , which is just through Through Sleepy Hollow . Oh , I mean my gosh Through these tiny roads in the middle of nowhere , Virginia .
You're lucky you didn't have fog because I was talking to you that night and when I've done . I worked in West Virginia for a while and when I'd fly out there I would land at night and drive around and you couldn't see your hand in front of it . I mean , it was like deep fog and I said the same thing to you .
I'm like I am in the land of Sleepy Hollow here and the Headless Horseman is coming out in front of my car at any moment .
No question , no doubt , oh , absolutely . And so we go . Two hours through , we discovered Wawa , by the way , which was tremendous , the gas station chain , oh my gosh , it was literally like in the desert .
when people start to go crazy for the hydration .
Yeah , yeah , the oasis , yeah , the little oasis . It's like the mirage of the oasis in the distance , except it was real .
It was delicious . I had the most delicious club sandwich at two in the morning from Wawa .
It was really fantastic growing up was Wawa , because she couldn't say Ava . So when we say Wawa in the family it's like a joke for Ava .
So it's no longer a joke .
Wawa's very serious don't you defame the name of Wawa .
I wasn't defaming it we take this route , which is crazy every couple of miles we pass like a really old white church it was cool .
there's so much history it was really cool .
It was really cool .
We saw a raccoon the first raccoon I've ever seen in my entire life . Oh , we saw a raccoon in the route . We actually have raccoons here , but okay .
Yeah , well , no more there , I think , but yeah , and so we get there middle of the night , we get in 3 with the debate team at Liberty University first thing in the morning , and it was early , and so it did that and did its campus tour . It was an incredible campus , by the way . Yeah , I mean incredible campus . So we had a good visit there .
Ava and I were there for a couple of days and did that and then ended up coming back late , late on Tuesday night and , by the way , ava decides to send us home a different route . Okay , so we go back from from Lynchburg to to Richmond to Richmond .
Yeah , it turns out there's like wide , open , straight roads that we could have easily taken you didn't have to go through sleepy hollow .
I just wanted to spend more time with my dad .
Oh my gosh . So we , yeah , if you go through , which is effectively you go through , uh , just like major , major thoroughfares , charlottesville , university of Virginia , like it's a beautiful drive to . Both drives are very pretty , but but that second drive was like straight shot , four lane highways . I mean we would . It was unbelievable .
On the way home I'm looking at Ava like really you sent us through sleepy hollow and we had this available to us in the middle of the night and so , but it was really fun , we had a great trip and so it was trying to , you know just you know make your choices . That's right . That's right , it's a big decision .
It's a big decision
¶ Darren White Mayoral Candidate Feedback
we got wet till May 1st , I think is like the decision day for all yeah , we're getting there , it's moving closer , moving closer .
So all right , very good , eve , good job , excellent work . Welcome home everybody All right . Yeah , let's get this knocked out .
Lots going on in the world . We had a pretty popular episode with Darren White . He's the mayoral candidate . He's been on our show several times before just talking about crime , border stuff . We've had him on . You guys went to the border together .
Yeah , he's a good friend .
He's . He came on to talk specifically about running for mayor against Tim Keller here in Albuquerque . You guys sent in a lot of questions ahead of time . We got some feedback from that show I would say mainly positive . We definitely there's some dings in his which is to be expected , which he will , I'm sure , answer at some point .
We hit him with the hardest questions that you guys sent us . But here's a couple of the comments we got back afterwards . This came in from Margaret Garcia through email . She said thank you , please let's encourage all other candidates who are Republicans to stand behind one strong candidate . No fighting or division . We need to show unity to defeat Keller .
Darren is our man and I will be volunteering for his campaign Very nice . Another email came in . It says it was refreshing to hear Darren's take on the city and in particular Mark's Mayor Keller .
What yeah ?
Okay , what .
Yeah , okay .
What was that Keller's Is ?
that my mayor , like mayor Keller's my guy . Um , I'm not sure actually I thought you were going to edit that Mark's opinion on mayor Keller .
Yeah , I think that's what they were . He was trying to refer to yeah . Yeah . And then it said Darren is right about the state of the city since moving here in 2017 . I've been downtown once and that was for jury duty . The only place I felt safe was in the courthouse .
We got a couple of comments on our YouTube channel , which you're always welcome to make comments there as well . It says I will be voting for you . We need big change . It's not safe here anymore . Thank you for taking on the challenge . Joanne said so excited to hear that Darren is going to run for mayor . Yay , makes my day .
And um , andrew says Darren , you will start the trend . Common sense politics makes New Mexico livable again . So lots of I mean a ton of comments , very , all over the place .
Yeah , we had a lot of downloads on the podcast version and then the YouTube version is good , so check them out If you want to know where Darren's coming from it's good stuff . And we pressed him on some of the marijuana stuff and things like that , that , that that we may have some differences with him on , but it was . It was interesting stuff .
Okay , I want to get to a variety of things . I want to start with the economy and talking about what could the administration be up to here and how . It's an interesting play and we're going to dive in pretty deeply on this and it's an interesting way to look at it . And we're going to talk about what's happening with prices .
Are they coming down or are they going up , right ? And then we're going to talk about if there's going to
¶ Economic Strategy and the Three-Pronged Approach
be a government shutdown , which is a possibility on Friday , but hopefully that is not going to happen . We'll get into all that . We're going to get into the story here of Mahmoud Khalil , who is this Columbia University student who organized pro-Hamas protests , building takeovers , things like that . Well , he's getting quite a defense .
He's getting a very robust defense , which is interesting , right , and we'll break that down as he's being shredded as well , and some interesting aggressive approaches here with this administration as well , and some interesting aggressive approaches here with this administration as well , trying to defend themselves in a way that is really , really strong .
And then I have an article you are going to love from the Calgary Herald , which you have to hear to believe , and then some last light stuff that we'll do at the end .
But I want to start with David Friedberg , who's an angel investor , and he was on the All In podcast , and the reason we're going to talk about this is because he's trying to talk about what is the approach with the economy .
What do you do with an economy where you're trying to bring more manufacturing back in , You're trying to deal with massive amounts of debt , and how do you bring interest rates down ? How do you try to figure all this stuff out at the same time ?
And so he talks about the fact that he thinks this is a three-pronged approach , and so I thought it was a really effective explanation of what the administration may be trying to do , where it's not going to be easy to do , it's going to be tricky , but I think it's an interesting approach .
Okay , well , and also I mean I want to hear what he has to say .
I don't know if you'd heard the breaking news , though , that the egg prices have actually gone down lower than they've been since Trump took office , so thank goodness you don't hear any media really talking about that , though you know the Democrats aren't coming out today saying , hey , guess what Egg prices actually have gone down .
Well , the approach is right . The number one approach that they've got is bring energy prices down . You're going to bring everything else down . Energy prices are down , right , so you're starting to see eggs come down . You're going to start to see everything come down , because energy affects everything . Right ?
If gas prices go through the roof , then transport of everything goes through the roof , too , right , and so all that happens , and also the there is .
You know , the avian bird flu is legit and it started in 2022 . So that is like a that is a fallout that has been happening . The egg thing , though , has just been like this thing that they've all hopped on viral videos of finally , the pricing is dropping and I'm not seeing any viral videos .
Oh , don't worry It'll , it'll drop that one Like a hot potato .
I'm like wait a minute . Where's the viral video of your eggs now finally going down in ?
pricing .
Okay , I'm just saying All right .
So let's hear what David has to say .
And I don't have any direct line of communication to folks that are constructing the theory and the policy . If I were to say what's the most masterful plan , in an optimistic way , of what could be going on here , I would kind of craft it as follows Tariffs aren't being done in isolation .
They're being done along with a coordinated policy effort to reduce income taxes and another policy effort to reduce government spending , and another policy effort to reduce government spending . So those are three legs on a stool .
Let's stop right there for one quick second , ok so what he's saying is three different things are going to be happening at once , and they're all interconnected . Number one you've got to reduce income taxes OK , so that you can get money into the system , is what he's about to say , and we'll go through this .
Number two you have to have tariffs because you need some money to offset the reduction in income taxes Okay , and then reduce government spending because you need those employees right , you need those employees that the government hires and employees to go into the private sector . We talked about that on this show , right .
We talked about the fact that if you cut government spending , you cut government jobs . We desperately need people in the private sector .
You got Everybody's growing the economy in different ways in different industries , but it's not just like just slash and like , sorry , you don't have a job anymore . That's definitely not the approach that that Trump is trying to formulate here Right , so OK , so we'll keep going , reduce government spending .
They're related to each other because if we increase tariffs to import products is more expensive when the industrial supply chain goes to the lowest part of production it's going to end up offshoring when there's no tariffs . And if there are tariffs then you start to do production here .
So you're increasing both security for the US supply chain but also increasing demand and creation of a workforce . I think that the income tax piece is critical here , because in order to make the capital available to build that industry here , we need to unleash capital and reducing of income taxes .
The economic theory would be that capital will now flow into these entrepreneurial activity , these opportunities that have emerged where suddenly it makes sense for me to make textiles , to make metals , to make materials , to make cars , to make all this stuff here in the United States that I otherwise wouldn't be making .
So both the corporate and the personal income tax , by reducing it , unleashes capital that instead of going into the government it now goes into the private sector , into building businesses . By reducing government spending we are moving workers from the government into the private workforce .
So as those new industries pop up , as those investments start to get made in building new industry onshore , where are the workers going to come from ? That will unleash the workforce and it will counterbalance the inflation that we're experiencing . So there's a lot of inflation because of tariffs and by reducing government spending , that's the offset to inflation .
So those three actions , I think , are three legs of a stool and they actually are all interrelated to one another . So that would be my grandmaster theory of what might be going on .
Interesting , right , it's super interesting stuff , stuff we've talked about a little bit before , especially the part where you start to move people from the government sector to the private sector .
Here and again , those tax cuts are critical too , because you need the revenue or you need the money for businesses to spend , to invest here , and obviously the tariffs , but those are not easy things to do . Those are big changes and that's a big alteration in what happens here .
And there's also a bigger alteration too , which we're going to get into in a second , on the way we spend money as a country across the world . Right , we have been bankrolling the world for a long time and we're so deeply in debt that we can't keep doing that . So we do have to readjust these things , and I think voters understand that .
Now , leaders who may oppose this don't right . So there's a battle , and the media doesn't always understand it too . So Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick talked a little bit about this as well , and he talked about the approach to the economy
¶ Government Shutdown Possibilities
. And it's interesting because if you listened to the nature of the question you're about to hear here and this is Lutnik , and again this is more clarity for you on where this administration we think is going , and because the stock market's been tanking recently and it's way up on Wednesday , but it's been tanking I think there's real concern .
There's people saying , oh my gosh , what is going on ? Are we going to contract ? Are we going to go into recession ? What's happening here ? This is chaos . What do we do ? So ? This is a reordering of our economy to get us to a point where we can afford to operate again , and this was an interesting pushback from Lutnick .
And are you worried that at some point Americans are going to feel like there's a bunch of billionaires in Washington who are playing Russian roulette with our retirement .
Two trillion dollar deficits don't bother you at all . How could you ask me , while we're running a two trillion dollar deficit and not care , you're destroying . The people who have run this country before are destroying the future for my children and my children's children . I can't have a 50 , 75 .
We have a $36 trillion deficit and we used to run deficits of $400 billion . Now $2 trillion . Who cares ? I tell you what . Who cares ? Donald Trump cares . And when we balance the budget , you know what that means . That means our deficits stop . Interest rates come smashing down . His goal is to have external revenue . You know the way I think about it .
We all are so used to paying taxes , we're so used to it , we have like Stockholm syndrome . You know . Don't stop the Internal Revenue Service , god forbid . How about this ? The rest of the world leans on our economy , breathes off our economy . Not only is our economy $29 trillion GDP , but we consume $20 trillion a year . We are the buyer of everybody's stuff .
We buy everybody's stuff . So who is more important , the people who sell stuff or the people who buy stuff ? So we are the buyer of everybody's commodities , products , goods and services . Everything comes from us . Right , let them pay a membership fee . We all understand that model . Let them pay . How about we you and I and every single person we know pay less ?
How about no tax on tips ? How about no tax on overtime ? How about no social security ? How about all those things ?
Okay , interesting , that dovetails .
No tax on social security by the way .
Yeah , he meant no tax , not no social security . Yeah , no social security . No , you're absolutely right , it're absolutely it's interesting .
I've heard , you know , trump was talking . Just the other day , too , I heard a quick snippet from him saying listen , china has a hundred year economy plan that they put into place . America is quarterly right .
And he's like how we look at something so temporarily and we panic or we go , you know , and he's like we got to be and he's like we got to be , you know , longer thinking country . We got to be planning longer term .
So , yes , there's going to be a lot of bumps that we're going to hit right now , but he's like in the long run , if we don't do this , we're going to come crumbling down . And I think people I think this guy's right . I think people look at the . They're like what's the difference between 400 billion and 2 trillion in debt ?
Like it's just debt and we just print more money . I think people have started to think of us as monopoly and I think people you know , really , once you start adding too many zeros , people are like I don't really comprehend that anymore and therefore , how big of a crisis can it be ? Our country's still running , right , I mean that's what they think .
And so I think that that's interesting to say no , no , no , no . You don't understand .
In six to nine months , if we can't refinance this , we're going to be closing down huge industries in this country , and I don't think that the pressure has been put on or the information has been allowed to be out there enough to the consumer to actually understand that that's what's happening .
Yeah , I think it's a really good point and I think that in the political sphere it's so easy to be like don't cut , don't cut , don't cut .
You think it's going to be fine , but I will say I don't think there's truly an understanding from the other side right now of realizing wait a minute , we're on the wrong side of this , because most voters are like yeah , we , we know we have to do some of this now , when it gets really painful , that's a problem . So so the big issue is in Lutnick .
There , what he talked about , we're actually reinforced what Friedberg said just before . Listen to what he said . He said basically tariffs right , you have to do some tariffs so you can cut taxes on Americans , so we're not footing the bill for everybody all the time .
And keeping in mind really fast on that tariff point , I also have been hearing that some of the tariffs that we're being paying have been like at 300% for some of the tariffs , Some are yeah For some of the tariffs some of the consumer products that come into our country , and so when , when Trump is trying to balance those tariffs back out , you know basically
like get a fair trade deal , basically at the end of the day . I don't think people understand that either .
Well , there is some of that . And then there's some of what Letnick said there , which was we are the buyer , right , we are the buyer . So therefore we are a massive client , basically Right .
And so a lot of people put their goods into the United States and we just let them come in , okay , well , then then we end up paying tax levels , especially at the higher income levels , of 50% by the time you're all said and done .
Well , that takes revenue out of the U S economy and puts it into a massive government structure , which again is bankrupting us . So you have to adjust it right . You have to flow more money into the economy , pull less money out of Americans' pockets and allow that economy to start churning again . It's a total recalibration .
So that's why I wanted to show those . It's interesting , it's a bit of a deep dive .
We're not economists , but at least we have an idea , you know , in listening to what smart people are saying , to give you an idea of what we think is happening here , and so it is fascinating to watch , and I think that it is going to take some time and it's not going to be an easy process .
So what would be the one thing that would really stop all of this , and that is prices . Right , if you look at prices and we continue to see inflation skyrocket
¶ Columbia Protests and Deportations
, we have a problem , right ? Trump won't at prices and we continue to see inflation skyrocket . We have a problem , right ? Trump won't be able to do any of this because everybody's going to go wait a minute . I'm dying here , okay . So I want to go to clip eight . First day , we're going to jump around a little bit , so let's go to clip eight .
And this is critical because CNN just came out with the new numbers on what's happening with inflation .
Finally , we have some good news on the economy and really the number one issue for many Americans the cost of living . So we just learned that consumer prices in February increased by 2.8% year over year , 0.2% month over month . Both of these figures were a step in the right direction and both were better than expected .
So this is definitely very encouraging to see because it's going to , I think , relieve some fears that inflation was perhaps re-accelerating , because this actually breaks a streak of four straight months where I think you could see it on the chart all the way to the right , where the inflation rate was going in the wrong direction .
Right , it was going higher and higher .
Finally , we're seeing it dip . Okay , and that's interesting because I think some of the bet here is on energy right . So if you can keep energy prices down and allow that inflation to stay in check , that will give Trump the breathing room to try to readjust the way the economy works . It's interesting .
I don't know if it's going to work , I don't know , you know , but we wanted to give you an idea of what we think the logic is behind all of this from a layman's point of view , because that's the only way we can really look at it . It's from a layman's point of view .
But now the question then becomes okay , as this is all happening , are the people , especially the voters , supporting this , especially the cuts ? Right when you start ?
looking at these stories that come out and it's so-and-so lost their job . They've been with the company for however many years . This poor person doesn't have a job anymore . We're mean . Well , you know , understandably . So we've talked about . Our heart does go out to people who are losing their jobs . That's not , obviously , what anybody wants to deal with .
But again , if you can't afford something and our country can't afford certain projects anymore and funding everything , there has to be cuts made . So there has to be this understanding of like . It's just like taking your small house budget and saying , well , what's feasible here ?
I would love to keep eating out at dinner every night because I think it's great and so fun . The reality check is you can't do that or you're not gonna be able to pay your electric bill . So at some point you're gonna have to go home and make some frozen dinners or something to be able to make up for that .
And again , I know that sounds callous maybe and I'm not trying to make it sound callous at all- but there is a reality check that I think .
When you start trying to see these heart bleeding stories about somebody that lost their job , the reality check is there's going to be a lot of people that are going to lose their jobs because the federal government has to make some severe cuts to make this actually pay off for all the taxpayers .
And do people realize that ? Well , Harry Anton says they may well realize that Cut seven the cuts that Doge is bringing about .
How are they feeling ? Yeah , this , to me , was one of the more shocking figures that I saw . Made me go wait a minute . Hold on one second . Whoa , Americans on Trump and Joe's efforts . Musk and Doge should influence government spending and operations . Look at this Fifty four percent . The majority say that he and they should .
How about a proof of Trump trying to cut staff at government agencies ? Again , you get a majority here . Fifty one percent . So , yeah , Elon Musk might not be that popular , but these cuts and the idea of spending cuts at least within the federal government and cutting at government agencies , that actually has majority support .
I was truly surprised by this , Kate , but the numbers are the numbers .
Well there is . There is a view that cuts across , democrat and Republican , of people thinking that Washington is too big . Bloated federal government , waste , fraud and abuse I mean those are drain . The swamp is what people run on over and over again . How do they feel ? What do they think they're actually cutting ?
Yeah , what do they think they're actually cutting ? Democrats want to argue that the type of spending that Musk is cutting is mainly necessary programs , but that comes in at just 36 percent . The wasteful spending actually wins the plurality here , at 42 percent , according to a recent Washington Post , and I think that is the reason why .
You see that when it comes to Dusk and Mose , musk and Doge , you see , in fact the majority believe he should have some influence because they believe the plurality , believe that he is cutting wasteful spending , not necessary programs that Democrats are arguing .
Okay . So that shows you there's some understanding of saying wait a minute , we need to cut these things . And again , this stuff does make sense . People are sticking with it . Now , again , it's only been seven , eight weeks . Right , it's not been very long , and so that's why prices have to come down to give the breathing room to do what needs to be done .
And again we've talked about this on this show that there's gotta be some understanding and some compassion for people who have to reorient their lives . There's no doubt that's not an easy thing to do , but I think you also have a lot of competent people that will be able to do that .
Okay , so here's a quick question then . So things that I think that need to happen to kind of help propel this even from a PR front right is we've talked about how Elon Musk has to be more mature , basically more responsible in his messaging . We've talked about that in a couple different shows . It kind of seems odd to me .
Now you can support , back this up if you think this doesn't seem odd . Why is Trump selling out , going out and selling like a Tesla on the lawns of the of the White House right now ? Like why is that important when , I'm sorry , elon Musk doesn't need the publicity for his Tesla ? They've got 49% of the market share , so why do we care ?
Like , why is he ? I don't think it serves the people . When you have Elon Musk basically being the bad guy right for these cuts okay , he's the face of the cuts at the end of the day , right , he's not the one that can employ the cuts , but he's still the face of it .
And then you have Trump coming in and saying well , the best electric car you can buy today is is the Tesla , and Elon's saying saving billions of dollars for this country . He's taking too much hit , he's taking too much heat . I want to support Elon , so here's his Tesla . I think I disagree . I don't think that was a good move on Trump .
I don't think Elon needs the plug . Well , I think he does need the plug , quite frankly . But OK , he's a billionaire , he doesn't .
Yes , he does . You won't be a billionaire for long if your business tanks , so so hold on . So so , first of all , I think a couple of things . American presidents stand up for American products all the time , right , you just do . American presidents stand up for American products all the time , right , you just do .
Tesla is the best battery powered car made in the world . Arguably it's an American made automobile . Okay , okay , joe Biden regularly he got in a Jeep and drove around the South lawn . Now , whether that was planned or not , who really knows .
I don't think we should be imitating anything that Biden does , right ? I don't think that's a great move .
I'm just saying , but it is , american presidents oftentimes will stand up for American products , and I'll tell you , musk has to . This is a funny reorientation too , because on the left they loved Musk . Five years ago , everybody bought a Teslala , and now it's like oh my gosh , I hate tesla . How do you hate tesla ?
It's an incredible product , right , and so you're gonna see conservatives all of a sudden start driving teslas , like this is crazy , right . Yeah , so it is just an absolute once again , 180 , where you will start to see more and more conservatives driving teslas around .
Absolutely gonna happen well , you won't see me doing it , not , not . I'd love to get one , but it had to be a third car , I think , but . But I would love we've taught we got close on one , uh-huh we got close on one , so I actually drove it and I was like , yeah , I can't do this .
It's like a self-driving car almost and I can't do that well it's too type a , it's going to happen .
It's going to happen , it's just a matter of when and how it all works out .
But I'll be the last one on the bus We'll see They've got one .
That's a thousand horsepower . I got to give it a shot . I'm just saying but ? But the point is that the presidents often do that . I get it . It seems like you know , when Trump is one of those guys , it's out , he's always selling . He's always selling something . So true , I just think the timing was not great .
I think again , think again . You need trump out there saying listen , I know some of these cuts are hard , I understand and backing him in a different way you don't need to go pitch his car you just need to say listen , the guy is still doing what I've asked him to do . He doesn't have ultimate cutting power .
You know , we've reigned him in a little bit and he's giving us great ideas , but it's still up to the department heads of who's gonna go and who's gonna stay I think you're .
I think that's all I'm saying . I think it's fair , that's all I'm saying . I think it's a fair no , no , no , no . I think it's a very fair point you make . I think it's a very fair point . However , I still was fascinated by the thousand . Oh , I know Cause you like cars . You're like , oh , let's talk about cars , let's talk about that .
Sorry , I didn't mean to go that .
Okay , so Now we go to the Senate . I believe they need 60 votes , something like that , to not shut down come midnight Friday . I believe .
Yes , exactly right .
And so the question is can they get to the 60 votes in the Senate ?
Right , and so because you have 53 Republican senators , ok , you're going to need somewhere around seven or eight Democrats to come in and vote with Republicans to keep the government open . So this is actually on Democrats They'll be able to make the decision on whether the government shuts down or not .
Now , this is a delicious flip from where things have been in the past . Okay , so let's start with Senate Majority Leader John Thune , who says , okay , very clearly , we're ready to keep the government open and keep things going . I got all my voters ready
¶ VA Secretary Collins vs Media Rumors
to roll . So here's what Thune said and where he places the responsibility .
And so here we are on the brink of a government shutdown , which will be entirely of the Democrats making , if it happens , because the House today will be voting on a continuing resolution to fund the government throughout the end of the year and we'll send that over of the year and we'll send that over here to the Senate where we'll have an opportunity to act
on it . A similar continuing resolution passed the end of last year in the Senate with 85 votes . This one should be no different , honestly . But as you all know , it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill , so we're going to need some Democrats to vote for it .
The Democrats have used the filibuster three times this year already , despite arguing for its elimination as recently as a few months ago , but three times this year they've already filibustered bills in front of the Senate .
I think the American people are going to be interested to see whether the Democrats are going to filibuster and , by filibustering , shut down the federal government . It is on them .
If this happens , there is a funding vehicle available , coming over from the House of Representatives that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year , september 30th , and we are prepared to take it up here in the Senate and make sure that on Friday the government stays open .
But it will be up to . So there it is right . Whether or not it is , it is a very clear choice .
And so is it clear that the the all the Republicans will vote in the Senate in favor of this .
Yeah , yeah , it's my belief . So , so , and then and then again , you'll need seven , maybe eight , whatever . Before , with 85 votes the last time they did this . Ok , but now who knows if they're going to shut it down .
Well , if you go back and I'm old enough to remember two years ago , when this sort of stuff happened , and just a couple of quick little soundbites from our friends on the Democratic side on how devastating a government shutdown could be .
Believe in governance . We want to keep government open . A shutdown is very serious .
There are real consequences when the government shuts down it harms our national security , it harms our economy and it harms service members , veterans , retirees and vulnerable communities .
We all know a shutdown is unnecessary and completely avoidable .
The tragedy here is all the civilian employees . It is the American people who are going to suffer .
Border Patrol agents will not be paid .
Tsa agents will not be paid . Small businesses will be hurt , not only is it irresponsible ? And purposely misleading , it is dangerous precedent Okay , so there you see , it's just such phoniness , right ? So we'll see what happens in the Senate . Again , I can't , I don't know .
I mean , we'll see what happens , because I'm about to show you something that I'm flabbergasted by . That is like driving your car off a political cliff . So will they do it again ? They might , they might , they might just shut things down . I don't know , um , but we'll see . I would hope they would not , but we'll see what happens .
Okay , and Friday midnight , that's when they're we're supposed to know .
That's when we'll know . I think we'll know before then . Okay , honestly Okay . So talking about an issue that is crazy to me politically , okay . So talking about an issue that is crazy to me politically , okay , and we're going to use as an example of this Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy , he came out and is defending Mahmoud Khalil .
Now Mahmoud Khalil is someone who organized the pro-Hamas protests
¶ Calgary Herald's Bizarre Invasion Article
at Columbia University . Remember when they took over buildings Right ? They destroyed the inside of buildings .
They called it mainly peaceful .
I don't know if you heard that or not Other than you couldn't get to campus .
You couldn't get to class . Yeah , you took over buildings , you cracked , you broke windows and did all kinds of things .
Yeah , so this guy this guy had a visa student visa that turned into a green card . Okay , he is , he is not . He does not have all the rights of an American citizen . Ok , he does not because he is not .
Ok , but Chris Murphy comes out there and so what happened was the Trump administration basically is going to revoke his , his green card and they're going to send him home because of what he's done . And again , don't forget what they're doing , which is basically advocating for the extermination of Jews . I mean it's awful , right , it is awful .
And my understanding is now a judge has put kind of a postponement on his him being able to leave or whatever .
I'm not , yeah , and he's being held right now .
He's being held , I think , in Louisiana , yeah , louisiana , yeah , and that a judge has said hold the phone really quickly on this , which I'm like okay again , like again , I think , the clarity of the green card . People think , oh , it's an American citizen , it's not it's different .
It's just a different . It's different level , right ? So let's listen to a little bit of Chris Murphy . We'll cut them off here a little bit , but I want you to get a feel for where he's going with this .
But again , this is a bonkers position for a party to take to go and support someone who is trying to advocate for the slaughter that we saw on October 7th . It's awful , and the fact that they the only thing they know is how to oppose Trump that's the only thing they know .
So the minute they have to do it , they just take the other side , doesn't matter what it is . Once again , they're taking the 20% of an 80-20 issue . Here's Chris Murphy in all his glory .
A young man by the name of Mahmoud Khalil , an immigrant and a legal permanent resident of the United States , is being held right now in prison , even though no criminal charges have been filed against him . Now I want to tell you why that should matter to every single American . Khalil is a recent graduate of Columbia University .
He opposed Israel's military operation in Gaza . He has deep animus toward Israel's policies and the US support for those policies . He helped organize the protests over Gaza at his university last year . You can disagree with his views or his politics , but there is no evidence he has broken any law .
Weekend , trump officials entered his apartment and took him into custody . They brought him to a detention facility in New Jersey at first , but when his family went to visit him , he wasn't there For a while . His family and his lawyer had no idea where he was .
They eventually found out that he was being held in a detention facility in Louisiana , and that's where he still is today . In dictatorships , they call this practice being disappeared . No charges , no claims of criminal behavior . The White House doesn't claim he did anything criminal . He's in jail because of his political speech , and here's why everybody should care .
In America , your political speech is protected , whether or not the president likes what you say . But today , if you're loyal to Donald Trump , your speech is going to be protected , even if it's hate speech .
You can be Marco Ellis , an employee of Doge , who said he quote was racist before it was cool , and quote normalize Indian hate and the vice president of the United States will tweet in your defense . But if you are disloyal to Trump or you're organizing against Trump's political agenda , your speech could be criminalized .
OK , so there it is . So there's what he's getting at and it's ludicrous . This guy literally is advocating to what effectively amounts to students at Columbia were told to stay in their rooms . Amounts to students at Columbia were told to stay in their rooms . Don't forget , we showed you video on this show .
Students at UCLA were accosted as they went to class because of things like this . So this is not about free speech , chris Murphy . I mean . This is about you supporting someone who advocates for exterminating a people , I mean . And , by the way , you don't have those rights in this country to do that .
So let's go to Marco Rubio , who destroys his argument , and Secretary of State Rubio . Very clear points we're going to hear from Rubio and from Mike Johnson , the Speaker of the House , but first let's start with Marco Rubio , who more clearly explains exactly what's happening here and why Chris Murphy is on the wrong side of yet another issue .
Okay , as a visitor , which is what a visa is , which is how this individual entered this country as a visitor's visa . You are here as a visitor . We can deny you that visa . We can deny you that If you tell us when you apply . Hi , I'm trying to get into the United States on a student visa .
I am a big supporter of Hamas , a murderous , barbaric group that kidnaps children , that rapes teenage girls , that takes hostages , that allows them to die in captivity , that returns more bodies than live hostages .
If you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this , and if you tell us when you apply for your visa and , by the way , I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student , anti-semitic activities I intend to shut down your universities .
If you told us all these things when you applied for a visa , we would deny your visa . I hope we would . If you actually end up doing that once you're in this country on such a visa , we will revoke it .
And if you end up having a green card not citizenship , but a green card as a result of that visa , while you're here in those activities , we're going to kick you out . It's as simple as that . This is not about free speech . This is about people that don't have a right to be in the United States to begin with . No one has a right to a student visa .
No one has a right to a green card , by the way . So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States , we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason .
But I think , being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization , complicit in shutting down learning institutions . There are kids at these schools that can't go to class .
You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem and you can't even go to class . You're afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face , screaming terrifying things . If you told us that's what you intended to do when you came to America , we would have never let you in .
And if you and if you do it once you get in , we're going to revoke it and kick you out .
There it is . I mean , very well said , very well said , and it's not just Rubio , right ? So Mike Johnson went to Columbia . The speaker of the house went to Columbia when all this was happening .
He talked to these people face to face , and when you talk about the chaos that ensued and taking over buildings and destroying things in buildings , this is the sort of thing you're seeing regularly in Europe , and so we can either put our foot in the ground in this country and say , no , you don't get to destroy the fabric of this country with your anti-Semitism .
You don't get to do it . Sorry , that's not what we're about . And so if we don't stand firm on this and stand up for these things , it's ridiculous , and again you're going to see a continued decay in what happens in this society , because we're not an anti-Semitic society . We're not , and this country's worked hard not to be .
This country's worked hard on its racial views for a long , long time . And so I want you to just listen to what Mike Johnson says here , and again he's very clear on blowing Murphy's argument out of the water .
What crime did Mahmoud El-Ghazal commit to ?
warrant his arrest , detention and potential eviction . Let me tell you something . I went face down the angry mob at Columbia at the height of that stuff , when the pro-Palestinian , pro-Hamas protesters were there . I'm telling you this is my own observation , not something I read in a newspaper . It was dangerous .
I met with Jewish students before we went to campus who were holed away off campus because they were instructed by the administration not to come to class which they paid for , for fear of their physical safety . The administrators there refused to take control of that campus .
They refused to allow the PD to come , the police department to come in and take control , and it turned into a chaos . The president has since been removed and now they got the same problem again . Columbia and other universities they have to keep control of campus .
The first responsibility of an administration is ensuring the safety of the students who are paying tuition to be there for crying out loud . This madness has to stop . We have to get control of it .
This guy apparently was a mastermind of those very things when the gnashing of teeth and the ripping of clothes and the people screaming at me , wanting to rip me limb from limb because I was there talking about moral clarity and how there's a right and a wrong . They were doing that . They disrupted the campus .
They were threatening physical violence of their fellow students . If you're on a student visa , I'm going to say this clearly If you are on a student visa and you're in America and you're an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates , you're going home .
We're going to arrest your tail and we're going to send you home , where you belong , and that this is just getting started . So look , I I appreciate free speech . I used to defend it in courts , but this is far beyond the pale of that .
When you are threatening your classmates and spewing anti-Semitism and all this hatred , it's enough , and I think the American people understand that . They're supporting it , and I'm glad we have a president who's strong enough to lay down the law the law , there you go .
Yeah , I mean in trump . You know many people already know he's already cut like , I think , 400 million dollars from columbia specifically because of some of this activity , until they get things in line .
You know he's like listen , no enough , enough of federal money coming your way if you're not going to protect all the students that are paying to go to your schools .
You know yeah , it's , but thinking you would defend him as being the right to . I mean it's , it's crazy . It's like it's like you know , when you go online and they're the first ones to say you know you shouldn't be able to say these things online , but yet this guy can do this . Yeah , I mean , chris , are you crazy , chris Murphy ?
I mean you're walking out and saying that you should not be able to say things on Twitter as an American . Back and forth , that it does not promise violence . By the way , this guy does supports a group that slaughtered Israelis on October 7th 2023 .
I mean it's crazy and has been deemed terrorist to the United States . So I mean the United States has been very clear in the sand that Hamas is a terrorist organization . So when you are pro Hamas and you're coming to our schools and then you're anti , basically you're anti-Semitic , which is also anti-American .
They're also very much anti-American in a lot of ways .
There's no doubt they want to tear down in the group he's with wants to tear down Western culture .
They've said it yeah .
They've said it so , so there you go . I mean but , yeah , Chris Murphy's making sure this guy gets it . It's just , they just keep stepping in it . Every single time it's like , hey , where's the 20% ? I got to get in there , I got to get in on this , and then they did it again with Tom yeah .
Tom Homan's up in Albany , new York , at the state Capitol protesters showing up for Tom Homan . So let's show a little bit of this . Yeah , do you have a little taste of what he's dealing with .
Yeah , you can bring up the people . Come through , homans . There they're all screaming at tom homan . What's he doing ?
he's taking criminals out of the country and just listen to what he , what they're saying to homans waiting to him , by the way , yeah , that's protected screaming at him .
Do you believe in the first amendment ? Yeah , sure , yeah , everybody believes in the first amendment . You don't get to commit crimes in this country and then stay here . Sorry , yeah , I just not the way it works . I do not understand it .
I just think it's people have lost their minds , like they're blending the dreamers in with violent offenders , right , and somehow they can't seem to dictate what is what and what trump is actually going after and what home is actually going after . I don't understand it . I don't understand sanctuary city policies . I never will .
You'll never get me to agree to any of that .
I do not understand it so no , it's , it's crazy , and I will say this administration has done much more , has been just much more aggressive about how they deal with people , not only in a policy sense , which we'll show you in a second , but in a oh , I don't know mocking sense as well , and I think Michael Moore is a good example of that .
So you can read Michael Moore's comment on what he said on the deportations .
Okay , he says who's really being removed by ICE tonight ? The child who would have discovered the cure for cancer in 2046 ? The ninth grade nerd who would have stopped that asteroid that's going to hit us in 2032 ? Do we care ? Okay ?
So what did the White House's the what did the white house have to say about that ?
Michael Moore is free to visit the quantum computing and particle physics lab that MS 13 and TDA and the cartels are now going to have to set up back home in El Salvador , venezuela and Mexico .
So I mean just that sort of thing , just talking about the ludicrousness of these statements and the dishonesty of the media .
So what we see in this , too , is there are all these different department heads that end up fighting it out because they're trying to talk about you've got to bring down the total cost of government as you do , that each department is going to have to cut . You're going to have to deal with that Now .
Oftentimes , though and we've seen this many times with local media well , they'll they'll get out ahead of their skis and they'll say all these cuts are potentially happening .
They might be coming soon , yeah . I mean honestly , there was the MSNB . We don't have it in here , but we had an MSNBC story . Rachel Maddow got on there and said that Rocky mountain national park was going to be shut down for the summer . Right , estes park local down for the summer .
Estes Park local media had to come in Estes Park's local media like a little tiny paper had to come in and basically said there's actually been no verification of that . That story is actually not true , so there's going to be some cuts to staffing . We're not closing the park for the summer . Please still show up .
So again , it's like you have to be responsible in what you report on .
It's crazy , and so what I want to play for you is VA Secretary Doug Collins . It's crazy , and so what I want to play for you is VA Secretary Doug Collins , which what he does here is beautiful .
So he is going one-on-one with a reporter who he absolutely dismantles , but not in a way that's super confrontational , but it's almost like that college professor who's like , who just destroys you because your argument does not hold , and this was incredibly well done .
But this is the sort of thing that is happening across the board here , and just listen to the words they use when they try to describe the VA cuts and what the reality actually is .
One of the things that I've been finding . We got into it a little bit in the discussion , but one of the issues that we're having is and it's something here I need your help on something . I need your help because all I seem to be doing lately is fighting back against innuendo and rumor stories , and this is what I seem to be fighting about all the time .
In fact , patricia , part of it is with you . I'm sure . And I just need your help because when you start headlines with , there's a rumor going around and that we've heard that that hurts my veterans , that scares my veterans , that scares my employees , because it's not true , will you commit to not doing that in the future ?
Well , there was a Doge representative that day . I have a VA employee who is our Doge liaison . You knew that and you could ask that question . I did ask that question and you got the answer . But my question here is I need you to commit to not starting off .
Rumors began circulating Well , it's either true or false , patricia and then you go to Patty Murphy saying that we've heard and DOJ may have barged into the VA today Unconfirmed hearsay . You know what you would have done if I was a member of Congress and probably done that Unconfirmed report ? But you didn't put an unconfirmed report Right .
So , patricia , I want to work together with you , okay , but I need you to commit to me that you're not going to do this . I'm working on it and I have I have been . Oh , actually , I have another question based on that . Thank you very much . No , I want to hear the answer first .
Are you committing not to do rumors Because you're scaring my VA employees about this ? That's fair and you're scaring my veterans ? That's not something I take lightly , but if a rumor is different than if I have a source , then you source it to our PR people and let them know , because you know something .
I've got people who are reporting stuff right now who aren't even calling us . They don't even get something from us , they don't even call us to check it .
Well , that's not right , okay so he's just eating her up , but it's just super well done . I mean right , and so she's just like yeah , yeah , yeah . To no place to go . Listen to the words she's saying .
There are rumors that Well , and I hope that people are paying enough attention to that , even listening to local media stories where it's like , well , this could potentially be happening . Okay , well , until it's happening , why are you reporting on it ?
Or why are you doing it in such a headline-type fashion , right , when you can't even find the actual things to show up to support it ? So , anyway , okay , speaking of headlines , you've got a good one here to wrap us up with .
Oh my gosh , All right . So the Calgary Herald comes out with an article . Invading Canada would spark fight lasting decades , experts say has anyone suggested invading Canada ? Nobody has . But they say , just wait till you hear the quotes from this person . I mean it's ludicrous Right From .
The Calgary Herald and we'll start with an expert on insurgency of course Says an American military incursion into Canada would be a disaster for the United States .
Okay .
A military move by President Donald Trump could eventually destroy America's worldwide power , says Dr Whatever , an associate professor at the University of Toronto . Dr Ahmed has studied insurgencies and visited many conflict zones for more than 20 years . She sees a pattern of resistance that repeats itself every time .
When a country gets invaded , a growing portion of the people fight back . No way , really . Canada would be angry if we just rolled through and took . Canada Tanks going into Canada , canada just like hey we're calm , all right , and then this is great , all right , it says . Would Canadians do that ? Would they fight back ? You bet we would .
Ahmad said the Canadian niceness words . Now he wants to tear up the 1908 treaty that fixed our border . He told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau he considers the agreement invalid . He's after land , the Great Lakes and across the rivers . This is just ridiculous . It's the Putin playbook Claim you own the territory and take it .
If Canada doesn't agree to Trump's mythical new boundary , the next step is sending troops to secure it . This is ludicrous and stupid and inflammatory and unnecessary .
Did you hear that ? Sorry to jump in on this , but you heard Trudeau's , his replacement , talking like we will not give in to , we will not cave to America , we will not let them take over us , we will not be one of their states . And I'm thinking Trump is like the ultimate troll .
Oh , he is trolling them , he has trolled them to such a degree that how foolish are you that they're actually falling for it ?
I guess I don't know what happens if the fighting begins , they say . Well , looking at the sheer size of the American military , many people might believe that Trump would enjoy an easy victory , said Dr Ahmed , who wrote in a widely circulated article .
That analysis is dead wrong , she says , because the result would not be determined by a fight between conventional armies . Trump is delusional if he believes that the 40 million Canadians will passively accept the conquest without resistance . That decision would set in motion an unstoppable cycle of violence .
Even if we imagine a scenario in which the Canadian government unconditionally surrenders , a fight would ensue in the streets . Well , no kidding , Canada doesn't want us taking them over . We get that .
This sounds like a Hollywood script for like a new TV show . Not , I mean . Why would anybody have even taken the time to write this ?
Oh , but hold on , it gets better .
Oh gosh .
Okay it gets better , we wouldn't be alone today . Ahmed adds , commonwealth and European allies would provide money and supplies . Oh would they ? Okay , I'm sure they would . America's many enemies would be encouraged to attack at vulnerable spots elsewhere .
Other academics point out that , despite our high-minded disdain for US gun culture , canada ranks amongst the most heavily armed nations in the world , with an estimated 12.7 million weapons in civilian possession . First Nations alone could give the Americans a shockingly hard time .
A chronically violent insurrection in North America could be financially and militarily pinned down the U ? S for decades . Again , this is ridiculous .
Okay , do this person have a dream ? And then thought , like I'm going to write an article and then I'm going to pitch my publisher on it , like I just can't understand how this made it into print ?
Well and so , but by the end they give the game away . Okay , Okay , the last quotes go ahead . I'll let you just read these last quotes . Pull quote seven .
Okay , no , one in their right mind would choose this gruesome future over a peaceful and mutually beneficial alliance with a friendly neighbor . We're getting into overhead hypothetical territory here , but Ahmad's views on insurgency are backed by history . The Americans were run out of Vietnam and Afghanistan .
The heroes welcome , they expect , in Iraq turn into an eight-year military quagmire . It's hard to imagine anything like this coming to our soil . But now there's a crazed commander-in-chief down south who says it's not our soil at all .
I mean just ridiculous .
Let's just stoke the fire everybody , let's just create madness that doesn't actually exist .
It's unreal to go through all this , and someone who claims they're an expert thinks they can lay this out .
I mean right Hollywood scripts make a show about Canada and America going to war ?
I guess I don't know , no one's going into .
Canada into the media . I know he's not going into Canada .
I don't know , I know , but he's control and .
I know the fact that they even fall for the troll about hey , I think they should become one of our states and you could become a governor . And then they just fall for it , like I don't , it's a whatever . Like don't , don't go after the master troll which is Trump .
Sadly , like he . There's no doubt .
I'm not sure there's anybody that can troll better than him .
So , okay , a couple of quick videos to end on Brooks Garner , who's someone I knew through meteorology circles , a little bit through Twitter . Uh , he was working in Orlando and they had a tornado come through right as he's on the air and it hit the station . Oh geez , yeah , check this out .
So we roll the video and he's talking about this and then he's watching one of their cameras and what will happen is he'll basically see this thing come in , bring that camera up full .
Ok , this is a live view from our TV station of what may be at the very least , it's torrential rain . He does a really good job keeping his . We could be looking at a tornado on camera . Look at those trees Coming right at him , blowing around . Okay , bring the camera up . Guys , if you can Zoom out , can you zoom out ?
This is a look at the live camera of a tornado which could be passing by our station right now
¶ Weather Events and Final Thoughts
. Okay , there's debris . We've got debris on . Okay , take shelter . Everybody in the fox 35 building , get to your safe space under your desk . If you're not in a designated area . We're catching debris right now on the roof . Debris is on the roof right now . We're hearing .
You can see there's some debris and so it looks like an ef1 , ef0 . It's not a hugely powerful tornado , but still comes right through you , hit you there . Brooks Garner holds it together .
Yes , he does a pretty good job Staying calm yeah .
Very , very well done and nobody was hurt . Okay , but it does show you . Yeah , that's one of those things the meteorologist , that stuff starts coming out . You're like it's like the greatest thing ever .
Okay , last one Growing up in New England , one of the kind of pinnacle places you can go to ski is Tuckerman's ravine in Mount Washington , where it's super steep . You got to climb it . There aren't lifts or anything like that . But there's video that came out from Tuckerman's of a snowboarder out running an avalanche on Tuckerman's , which is crazy .
So we'll show this video to you . There's Tuckerman's Ravine right there and that's a set camera that they have . What you'll see here is you'll see the snow start to come down in the form of the avalanche . See the snowboarder out in front of it . He just stays out in front .
You see that little speck and you can see him just outrun the avalanche that comes running down Tuckerman's crazy . So he just makes it out of there and it's one of those crazy things you get . Could you see it ?
No , I can't .
I am blind as a bat .
So again , we all know this about me , that I am not able to see things , yes , so no , I do . I just saw a mountain and some snow coming out .
Sorry , I just can't see it , but there was a little speck on there . There he is right . There , see right there .
Oh , okay , well , ava zooms in , ava zooms in .
Yeah , so he , but wow .
Yeah , that's crazy .
So there's nothing scarier than knowing you're out running an avalanche .
Talk , we got to wrap it up . We got people to talk to places to go , things to see .
I don't know .
Things like that .
Okay , thanks for joining us .
I got to nap . Thanks for joining us , you guys . We will see you back here later this week .
About it Podcast . We hope you've enjoyed the show . We know we had a blast . Make sure to like , rate and review . We'll be back soon , but in the meantime you can find us on instagram and facebook at no doubt about it podcast . No doubt about it . The no doubt about it podcast is a choose adventure media production . See you next time on .
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