Rapid Fire and Closing Thoughts

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Find you using the Shell App. Formulation Unique Shell comp toared minimum detergent gasoline with continuous use of shell vow nitro plus and gasoline direct injection engines. Actual effects and benefits may vary. See shell. Us slash more dash protection for more information. Hello and welcome to the Bullword podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller, delighted to welcome back to the show for the thirty seventh time , the most decorated guest in the history of the Bullword podcast who was discussing his enlarged prostate with me in the green room is a staff writer at the Atlantic and professor and narratives at the US Naval Award College T.om It's Nichols. How do you doing sir? Where's my thirty seven timers jacket? I know. thirty fifty. I feel like I kept fifty. We got to give you a watch or something. All right, then I was I was just curious the other day. I was like, Who's on the most? And I put in some names., you've got it You're the leader of the Booth House. I am honored and I also, as I say, with genuinely , that I always love doing this because it's fun because we always have a good time. Well, we're gonna have some fun . I have for you, I know it'll be good the whole time, but I have the final topic category on my outline is silly stuff. So we've got plenty of there's plenty of that. And I guess the first topic is silly stuff too. So that's just the nature of where we are in our radiocracy. The great American State Fair, you stayed up for this last night because you're gluttoned for punishment. And Jeffrey Gold berg you and as you in some rains and he's got a whip . He's got yeah, Nichols, you're staying up for the great American State Fair speech and so you did. I think it was more like, yeah , I'm gonna need you to be staying up that would be great. Yeah You have a touch cover sheet on your dress . Yeah, if you could just file that, that'd be great. No, I mean, I'm kind of the des ignated night owl for a lot of stuff because I am a night owl. And I said, sure, I'm happy to do it. And also I have this long history. I kind of pride myself on being a Trump watcher. You know this, I used to live tweet all of his press conferences . So I stayed up and watched it and it was I mean it was trashy. The whole business was trashy and I know that sounds oh that,'s snooty and elitist, but no, it was it was it was just trashy and his speech was small . That's what I wrote about last night. He took he took this thing that could have been grandiose, you know, I started with a quote from George Washington. It actually wasn't a quote. It was from George Washington's last will in Testament . And I think it's really important as the fourth approaches for people to know this, that George Washington in his last he said Aye George Washington and he didn't say, you know, father of our country, great guy. He said, A citizen of the United States and l ately president of the same . For him, that was the most important thing to be to be a citizen , you know ? And he understood like that we were all sharers in this great advent ure, this great experiment. And Trump just doesn't understand any of that. He made it all about me, me, me , and I got no tax on tips . And everybody was laughing at us two years ago and now we're hot and I totally trashed the Iranians, even though that yesterday the Iranians told us to go suck an egg about nuclear inspections . I'm going to get the vandals who hurt the reflect ing pool. I mean, it just went on and on Tim . As little as I think of Stephen Miller, I don't want to tag him with this speech if it wasn't him because whoever wrote this, it was a real achievement in crap. But you know, the few times that Trump tried to be elevated or that he tried to be presidential , he said things like from the storied alleys of Boston to the streets of Philadelphia. Okay, first of all , anybody who's lived in Boston, there's no such thing as the storied alleys of Boston. They have some stories and we won't tell them yeah , but to the streets of Philadelphia. I'm sorry, wasn't it Bruce Springsteen song about a movie about a guy with AIDS? You know, I mean, it just went on and on, you know, skyscrapers and railroads and Normandy and Saratoga and but then he would go right back to the really petty small , you know , look at me, look what I did. And I'll finish with one serious comment, which is that it shows that Trump and his people, they don't understand the difference between patriotism and nationalism. That patriotism is love of one's country for itself, for what it is , for its eternal characteristics. Nationalism is tribe is better than all other tribes . And that 's the only way Trump can conceive of this. He kept saying, We're better than everybody else. We're the hottest, we're the biggest, we're the best. He can't just say America is worth our loyalty and our love because of the great thing that it is that makes you so proud to simply say I'm a citizen of the United States the way George Washington did. I'm a sucker for that. I'll be clawing for a second. One of the first things I after I finished being a political hack and started doing journalism and writing, one of the first things I wrote about, I wish I 'm going for memory now, but it was about there's like a disagreement between Washington and Adams. Adams wanted him to be called something like his excellency or something ridiculous. I remember but it was something his it started with his Highness, you know, the protector of the American people and their rights blad blah, blah, blah. Correct. And Washington's like no, mister President, mister President will be fine. And yeah, and there is something moving about that about what the country is supposed to be and what we should be aspiring to and what the office is supposed to be that I mean, it goes without saying our president has literally no respect for interest in or the opposite. It's kind of surprising to me that he hasn't tried to rename it, frankly. That might I hate to give him that let's not speak that one into reality and you know, just to put in a nice word for Adams. And when Adams was beaten by his worst enemy who got people to publish stuff about him like maybe he's a hermaphrodite , you know, just in case you think our elections were always nasty. I mean, MBS, I also think might be a hermaphrodite. I don't know. I just said something that I've heard. Well, okay, I'm gonna I'm going to leave that one right where it fell and say you know, what did he do? He like all good presidents, he packed up his stuff and he moved out of the White House and he went back to his farm and said, Okay, I'm done being president. Thank you very much. I'm going to, you know , Trump does not understand. Trump thinks that America is great because he is great And he made it great . You know, there's a metaphor that I didn't want to use in the piece, but it's sort of like it's like marriage. You look at your spouse and you say, I love this person because of who he or she is , just because this is the only one for me. Because this is a wonderful person that I know deeply in love. Trump's like the guy who says , you know, my wife's prettier than all those dogs. , you know, well, that lasts right up until you know, you put on a few pounds or you get a few wrinkles . It's this very superficial love of country that says as long as I'm making it great , then it's worth loving. And when it's not, you know, two years ago did you love your country? And you know, they're laughing at us. You know, one thing that patriots really understand is you don't care if they're that one of their countries think of you. That's you know, you don't you don't spend your day chewing your nails and saying, what did, you know, what does Russia think about us? We'll do a plug for you right now on this point. You I guess are making an appearance or you're a contributor to a new Netflix series called the American Experiment Honoring the two hundred and fifty . I'm just going to be candid with people. I'm a little bit better about it. You know, you keep getting into all these show s. Like you're in succession, you're in a Netflix series honoring the country's two hundred and fifty . My phone's not ringing . I don't really know what it is. Is it something about your way you carry yourself? I don't know, I got twenty years on you though, Tim. So, you know, you got time . I guess. Your hair's too dark. You got to get some gray. I don't know. I feel like I could be I could bring some wisdom to a documentary about two hundred fifty or I could play a bit part in a show. I'm available for bit parts. It's a very cool documentary because you're, you know, it has a lot of there's a lot of folks like me, right? Like you know, Lindsey Charvinsky, the head of the George Washington Presidential Library and, you know, Joanne Freeman, a professor and you know, there's professors and authors , but there's also like Ted Cruz Ted Cruz and then Hillary Clinton and Kamal Harris and Mike Pence and Jamie Raskin . And so they really went out of their way to say, listen, we are going to have everybody across the spot, even people you hate , and they're all going to be talking about the same thing, which is the greatness of the American Experiment . And it works. Look, Ted Cruz says some stuff in this documentary that you lean back and you go, Oh yeah , I remember when Ted Cruz wasn't awesome? You're going to know there's Hollywood on me. You know, Mike Pence of all people, you know, I mean, Mike Pence says these very kind of measured and thoughtful things. Hillary Clinton does not drive you up the wall, you know, Kamala Harris has the Al Gore . Again, Jamie Roberts out front of the pod now algorithm. So there are all these politicians , you know, as well as a lot of civil rights leaders, you know, talking about the early founding. It's a remarkable group of people and I was proud to be able to tag along . If anybody's curious, by the way, we shot my scenes, it's because the sets are gorgeous. We shot my scenes in a house in Boston in historical landmark , the Prescott House, and it's, you know, it's only five episodes long, and it's a great thing to start the Fourth of July season with. So thank you for plugging it, but I'm just so proud to be part of it. Seems like the spirit is a bit in contrast to the other things that we were hearing last night at the Great American State Fair. Yes. Our secretary of Transportation took the stage last night . On a plate at two different clips from the same remarks , you might notice a contrast. You might notice some tension between the arguments that he's making. Former reality show star Sean Duffy last night. Let's listen . A big round of applause for our military band and singers way better than those lip tards that cancelled on us . So much better . Thank you guys. Really in the American spirits there . President Trump will make you famous . Our young er people have been lied to . They've been told that they would be fulfilled with hookup culture or get rich quick scheme, or they could find fame in social media and that fulfill them. But I'll tell you , they found that that's a false promise . That's a lie . And they've sought truth . And in seeking truth , they have gone to church . They've found the Holy Gospel , they've prayed and they have found God . I'm finding Jesus right now after that one, man . I actually said at the time of all the people to deliver this message , the guy who , you get knows, his start on the real world , you know, get rich quick schemes and shortcuts and social media. I'm like, do you people have no sense of self awareness, no concept of irony? None . President Trump will make you famous. Didn't you just say isn't fulfilling also famous and fulfilling. Half the country that didn't vote for us, you guys are lib tards , but also a nice thing to do is to find God. And find God to church. Go to church so that you're not like those lib tards . It's just that's a famous passage in the Bible to Republic ans prayer, dear God, please don't let me be like the Libertards. What a deep thank you. It's all show . This is what I meant about trashy that, you know, instead of getting up and just saying it's wonderful to be a citizen of the United States and we are blessed . You know, in my younger days, I spent a lot of time going back forth to the old Soviet Union. And I don't mean Russia. I mean , the evil empire . Amen you crossed over a couple of times I went in through Leningrad and a few times in Moscow, the minute you disembark, man, you held on to that blue passport with love . You just said , you know, I have something everybody in this country wants and it's one of these . And it's because of this that I can walk freely and go home when I want to and do all these other things. And you know, it really meant something . And instead, you get up and say, Oh those stupid lib tards who canceled on us. It's like , yeah, that's that's what being an American's about is being mad at Martina McBride and Bride. You know, yeah, give me a break . If you want to know what's really worth your time when it comes to losing weight, skip the guesswork and get weight loss by him. Sims offers access to an affordable range of FDA approved GLP one medications that now include the Wouvgi Pill and Wagovi pen plus lifestyle tips to support you along the way. 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We're gonna move on to some news I haven't got to this week from the Department of War . It's interesting. We've changed the name to Department of War , started one war, lost it . You know, I shouldn't laugh at that, but that I mean there is a that's what happened. It's what happened. Yep. There's some purges, more purges. There's been a bunch of purges happening. The one this week, your colleagues at the Atlantic broke the story, Pete Seth fired General Chris CD Donahue, widely seen as one of the army's rising stars. He's expelled from the Pentagon and he's the last man in Afghanistan, literally the last soldier on the ground in Afghanistan. This is the latest in a long list of purges and he kind of started with the DEI purges if you're black or a woman you were, going to be on the ch opping block unless you'd pay an homage to Donald Trump. And now I guess he's trying to get rid of anybody that is , you know, threatening his self yeah . Yeah, so somebody sitting scares them . There was some talk that this actually came from the new chief of staff of the Army. I mean, nobody knows , but you know, yeah, there's no explanation. And you know, some of the people that are twisting themselves into pretzels here , they tried to say, well, hey, nobody complained when Obama fired McCrystal . Well, yeah, because McCrystal gave an interview to Rolling Stone where he crapped all over the commander in chief . You know, I McCrystal kind of knew that he'd stepped on a landmine there. I mean, that happens. You go on you're in a magazine and you dump on the commander in chief, you're probably not gonna have a long career ahead of you. Much love to the late Michael Hastings who wrote that great book. Yeah, right. That's yes. I was at the war college at the time, and you know, what was the lesson that we were all discussing? You know, don't haul off on the commander in chief in front of a reporter if you're a uniformed officer, probably not smart . But no one's explaining this other than well, you know , he was in Afghanistan. Yes, but he wasn't in charge of it. He wasn't the things that he's been accused of by some of the people online turns out not to be true. As you said, it's they're just getting rid of people that make Pete Hagseth and his circle on you're either in Pete's clubhouse or you're not . And I think you know, guys like Donahue probably intimidate him just by existing . There are a lot of good people we've got serving the military and the country has survived worse than this. But I think it's kind of an underrated challenge if we get through this period the degree and the scale of the pur ges across the various security and military elements of the government is pretty severe. I mean, like we've talked about a bunch on the pod about the FBI, obviously DOJ has had a lot of purges happening at the Department of War. It's a little challenging to cover because they are not being transparent about it, you know, people the people who've gotten purged and not every case, but in most cases don't want to talk about it, right? Because they've got legal challenges to the administration. And so it's like a little bit hard to wrap your head around it. But when you talk like when I've Carolini Gon who really is deeply reported inside DOJ . I mean when you talk to people who are who know these institutions , it's pretty bad the scale of the purging. And the military, just to add to that, the military obviously there's a cultural norm which says look if the the president and sec deft don't want me to be a force thorough anymore, I don't talk about that because there's nothing illegal or improper about that right. I mean so I'm not going to do that. I think people getting fired at DOJ and FBI and you know ODNI and places like that, they have court cases because there are, you know, speaking as a former federal employee, they do have rights and protections. They can't most of them can't just be fired with a snap of the fingers. You know, it's funny when you talk about purges , but I think that the problem's going to have to go in the other direction , you know, when these folks finally leave government, if the Democr ats have the discipline and the wherewithal, they're going to have to say now how many of the people that are embedded in the justice system you have to go right, you know, that there's going to have to be this kind of thorough review of cronyism of people who were put there by, you know, you name it Cash Patel or Pete Hegaseth, whoever it was. And it's going to take a long time to recover from this because the one thing we had the Trump people don't want to admit this, but that the system actually worked pretty well as a non partisan, meritocratic system. Yes, of course it made mistakes. Every personnel system does. There are people who have made it to the heads of corporations that are morons who have run companies into the ground. But by and large, you know, the nonpartisan Walman never really did anything. Now he's running the most important company in the world. So it's like he had the failed four square competitors can happen . You know, but I would say this is the worst politicization of the US military. I mean, I don't want to say since the days when we elected our officers in the Civil War, but certainly in the modern era in the since the emergence of a modern American military, this is the worst attack on civil military relations that I think has ever occurred in the damage is going to is significant. How did the election of officers work, war, professor? Well, because remember a lot of these were state militias . It was a kind of a patchwork, right? I mean, you know, the seventy first New Hampshire volunteers showed up. You know, who's your captain? Jed over there . You know, by the way, this is one of the things just to go back to George Washington. Washington didn't like the militias when he gets to Cambridge in July of seventeen seventy five and he looks around at the New Englanders who are like, right, they bunch of yeah, that's our captain, you know, Bob's our captain over there. And Washington looks around, of course, Washington is a lifetime British officer. You know, he's very proper guy and he looks around and he says, These New Englanders are trash. They're ruffians. I can't make an army out of this . And a year later, after he fights with them side by side , he says, give me New England men any day . That's where it comes from. I mean, you know, Lincoln was chosen by the men to lead them, I think in the drawing a blank. I think the Blackfoot Wars, but if my history is wrong here, I apologize . And that changes over time, as the United States after the Civil War , you know, becomes a country of a single army, a single navy . But even that where have you seen the movie Glory? Remember the movie Glory? Yeah, you know, it's like, well, my father spoke to the governor, so I'm going to get command of the fifty fourth, Massachusetts because Governor Andros, blah, blah . You know, that's how it was done. One of the things that's made the American military great is that we overcame that . That we were promoting officers because of talent, not of family ties or nobility or royalty or titles or whatever. And now we're going back to it. Now we're appointed people because they make Pete Hegseth comfortable. The only disappointing thing to me about the manner in which Pete Hagseth has changed how the Department of War is run to say it that way too, right? Department of War you do . Is that he did not get the flu himself because they're scared of vaccines now because of COVID nonsense . They did not require flu shots for the military . Do you want to guess what happened, Tom? Do you know have you heard what happened after they didn't require flu shots this year? Well, Sir Bedevere, I am not wise in your ways of science . I assume that many of them weighed less than a duck , and that they were suddenly had small dwarves living in the pits of their stomach. Of course there was an outbreak . Of course they and you know, look , it's not funny. I mean, flu is a nasty business even for young healthy people. There's a reason you get shots for it, but let's point out the bigger problem that when you get two hundred and twenty people in a military unit in a military community getting sick , you've just taken a hit to readiness You have a problem. You have two hundred and twenty people and their families that are now , you know, this is why they get vaccinated in the first place. I thought it was because Fauci made them do it. And it was woke scientist of it was cibers. It was the Fauci Mind Trick, you know? For readiness. These are the vaccines you're looking for. That makes sense. The real infuriating part of this, Pete Hagseth knows this. Pete Hagseth is a grown man, who went to Princeton University . This was sucking up to the president, to Maga World. This is part of look, I'm as crazy as all of you. Don't fire me. Look at what a brave thing I'm going to do and look at all the cool feedback I'm going to get online and from the podcasters and the influencers that I cancelled this jab, this poisonous vaccine . Well , okay , then a couple hundred people get sick. Next thing you know, very quietly, we're all gonna start getting the vaccine again. And it only took one outbreak. Somebody died. I don't want to say, I'm not a doctor. I don't know if they died from something else or because they got the flu, but we know that well over two hundred people got sick. So we ran a science experiment on a bunch of volunteers, on a bunch of Air Force volunte . This sounds like a lot of hooie fooi from a professor , like kind of this you and your expertise . I don't know. I mean, it could have been random right. Or maybe Bill Gates put the virus in the water at the Air Force Base in order to create this narrative to try to turn them all into gay frogs. Have you thought about that? Why have? Usually at about three AM after a bottle of scotch, yes . Maybe they had an imbalance of bodily humors and we just ran out of leeches . Hm m could it be. I mean, you know, the strategic leach supply has been very low. Well, we get it through the Persian Gulf. So that's a problem. It's been stuck in Oman. Do you know that I would walk into Soviet and Russian pharmacies in the nineties in the eighties and nineties and they would have jars of live leeches . Really? I kid you not . So that's scary. That gives me the Hebi GB. Well, no, actually, I'll say one thing again, because I'm learning it in the ways of science. There are certain things that leaches actually do like for certain kinds of cuts and abrasions where they sort of kill off dead sk in and all that stuff. I'd rather have the dead skin. Yeah, personally, I'll take a pass on the leeches, but I will tell you that I have seen in a pharmacy jars of live leeches. 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It's it's just exhausting . It's exhausting. It's like they have a war powers vote two days ago now and it passes fifty to forty eight in the Senate , limiting Donald Trump's war power, something they should have done at the beginning of the Stupid War in Iran, but they finally got the votes to do it thanks to Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who we'll get to in a second but that for some technical Roberts rule of order reason that I don't care to understand was not the real vote . There was vote that had to happen the next day for the War Powers resolution to actually get to the president's desk . And on that vote , Rand Paul flipped , principled libertarian, Rand Paul , who had voted for the War Powers resolution every time up until the one time that it counted now flipped his vote because he takes down Trump at his word that he doesn't want to do anymore. So I'm gonna do a totally uncharacteristic thing, and I'm going to give Rampaul the benefit of the doubt. What he said was , now that the president's negotiating , I'm going to get out of his way and not saddle him with this vote. Now that combat operations be over and that he is in the middle of negotiation. And you know , there's an argument to be made. Look, you're talking about Grants against the war. Wouldn't he want to saddle? Wouldn't the point was the point because the point you're sat because what you're satding them from doing is bombing Iran again and getting and extending the stupid fucking war that Rand Paul says that he's not for. Okay , but if you're trying to negotiate and get a better deal, you don't want to do things over the president's shoulder that tells the enemy, by the way , we're going to yank his leash at any moment. I think this is one of these things kind of like we are helping the president. Okay. And I'm going to tell you that by putting some sometimes the president needs some bumpers put on his impulses, you know? But Tim, I can't be a hypocrite about this in nineteen ninety. Well, you can't do the President Donald Trump in nineteen ninety who was the president ' ninetsy been, it a minute George HW Bush. He's a guy . See, I can I can do the impressions. That's why I get on Netflix . Except that I always end up selling like Dana Carvey. Brokebread with the man, not a hit . Thousands of points of my boss, John Hines wanted to. He said, wouldn't it help Bush if we just invoke the law of the land, the War Powers Act so that everything's kind of legally you know above, board. And I said the War Powers Act is a really bad piece of legislation and you don't want to go into this war telling Saddam Hussein ahead of time, we're only coming in for at best sixty to ninety days . Now, if it had been somebody other than George Bush, I might have said, Well, if you really want to restrain the president, you think it's a bad idea . But I said, don't do it. It's probably not constitutional. I still think the World Powers Act probably isn't constitutional. So I'm willing to say that Rand Paul actually thought this one over and said, okay, Rand all Paul thought this one over to me he's been he is not Tom Nichols. He's Rand Paul but he voted for this thing every time up until now . Would not that same argument that you're making now that you don't want to limit Trump's optionality have been true a couple weeks ago ? The last time they voted on this? Hm , you know, that's a good question, Tim. Thank you, Tom. I appreciate that you're trying to be fair minded. This is why we want to have Yon , but I'm sorry. Rand Paul is doing Donald Trump is solid because he doesn't want Donald Trump to bleed about him, I think or whatever. I don't know or he's got a staffer that wants to get invited to the fucking club that John Jr. started. This is why I shouldn't do this show. This is because I just walked right but you know, as Leip Paul Songers used to say, that's an excellent question. Now, let me evade you. I think there is an argument to be made that the War Powers act , you know, that if you thought Trump was out of control and you wanted to stop him from putting American lives in danger, you triggered the War Powers Act. If you've got what you want and basically the war is over and Trump's going to negotiation, I can see where a libertarian , you know, small L ibertarian kind of guy says, you know what? I'm not going to get in the president's soup while he's trying to get out of this . I think that's a shaky argument, especially considering that Donald Trump never operates in good faith with the other members of the American government as Bill Cassidy learned the hard way . So I mean, do I think it was kind of craven ? Yeah , but intellectually I kind of buy it. But like I said, I'm not a huge fan. I think the War Powers Act ought to be repealed and replaced to begin with. So that's part of my problem. Also, the Senate is stupid. We maybe should just eliminate the Senate. Thoughts on eliminating the Senate What's it doing? Maybe we should just eliminate the Senate? Well, the homes in the whole article one branch seems to have, you know, gone to Disney World. You know, Mike Johnson wasn't wasn't it just like yesterday, Mike Johnson said, Well, you know this. He does what he does. I have other things I do. No, I'm sorry, that's that is not how the Constitution was written like, oh, the president can do whatever he wants. And over here in Congress will, you know, will make origami ducks . You know, that's not how it goes. And the whole Congress is just a wall under these guys. And I hope that the Democrats actually fulfilled something like an oversight capacity , you know, if and when although given, you know, what the Democrats have been up to lately, I have my doubts there. But the House Oversight Committee will do great. We love Robert Garcia and Sue Has. They got their head on straight. Everybody else, I don't know. I don't know, about everybody else. Where was I going to where was I going to go with the original Canadian charged? Oh, Bill Cassidy, thank you. You can host the show for a second. So Cassidy thirty seven times, I'm practically there. So Cassidy abucked Trump in the original war powers vote, which didn't count because we had to have a follow up war powers vote because of parliamentary procedure and the parliamentarian and Roberts rules of order. But Donald Trump was still mad. The Bill Cassidy bucked him in the vote that didn't count. And Donald Trump went to the Senate lunch yesterday . He and Bill Cassidy had a confrontation, apparently. It was pretty funny. Let's just listen to how Bill Cassidy describes the confrontation. You have not told the American people what's going on ? It was supposed to last four weeks. It's lasted four months . Our original objectives have not been achieved . And I want to know what's going on. He did not particularly care for my comments raised his voice . I lost my temper . He goes on to talk about how he's Irish and I won't be bullied. He lost his temper. President Brides. I mean, I don't know. I mean, if he has this Irish temper , it's kind of weird that it didn't show up between twenty twenty one and june twenty fourth, twenty twenty six. An Irish temper you would think would have flared one other time against Donald Trump in the intervening five years , but happy to see it . I know about the Irish temper. Af Irish myself been there. Same . But yeah, I don't know. I mean do we have to hand it to Cassidy? It's good, I guess that they're yelling at each other. Apparently Donald Trump told him to sit down. He wouldn't lunatic down called the lunatic kind of projection. The president called the U. S. Senator a lunatic. Now on the one hand , if you look at the life of Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon, presidents have called senators a lot worse than lunatic. And I mean, I'm sure there are senators who have called presidents things a lot worse than brother to do it in the Senate . You know, this is not a couple of guys after hours you know, arguing over some bourbon and branch water. This is this is bad. Do you have to hand it to Cassidy? You know, no , no, I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, I just he's on his way out the door. I regret my vote for Pete Hagseth and Bobby Kennedy. Well, thanks. That well, no shit, by the way. Pete Hagseth was a weekend talk show coast. It's like , you can't tell me that this was unforeseeable that Pete Hegsett would be hiding the ball with you on matters of war and peace. It's just like advise is the word and advise and consent. Advise is there on the front end. It's not it's not consent and regret. It's advise and consent. You got to be honest though. You got to be fair. Nobody could possibly have known that Robert F. Kennedy was going to have some problematic views about raccoon penises . I think that's the first time in public I've ever said the words raccoon penis. Penis. I don't think I've ever said it privately either. I'm not sure what other context you would have said it in. This is what happens when you put somebody like Bobby King Bobby. Can you do a bobby impression? Can you do it ? No, and you know, the man has a that's a health problem, so I'm not I'm not going to make fun of that. So she also doesn't make so much since eye, is that also something you don't make fun of? You're better man than I have lazy eye too. So this is kind of worse than that though. He's got like a full like quasimoto kind of Mark Hurtley had an eye problem and I said we're all we're all looking like Columbo now. We're all doing the column . You know what? Good, Mark Hertling's on the men though. We love General Hertling. All right, so that was what happened. Bill Cassidy voted against Trump in a meaningless vote and then yelled at him two little too late, but we appreciate it. The thing that gives me hope is does that mean he might lose like the fact the matter is, okay, fine. Does it really matter and you don't have to give it to Bill Cassidy and all that stuff we just said, right? On the other hand, Trump's not going to get the Save America Act. No, no, of course he's not. And that's, you know, every little bit of tiny , you know, manag ed spine that then cascades out to other issues , I think, is important. Totally agree. So let them yell at each other what's on it doesn't matter. Totally, totally agree with that. He's not going to get the Save America Act, but in a weird way I'm going to talk about this tomorrow is also impacting this housing bill where Trump is having a temper tantrum over that as well. I've had some feedback that like and you know, I hate to be wrong about this about how I should have a little more alarm on the Save America Act. My alarm bells are ringing every where. This thing is fucking fastened. It's just not it's not happening. Now, I think, considering that we're in the summer, not in time to really do anything that even if it passed. Potentially in some of these red states, the thing I do come back to is I worry in the Senate, I think the House is a different animal, but in the Senate, a lot of the key elections are in places where Republicans control everything. Aforementioned, Texas, and the Ken Paxon race, Iowa, Ohio , the other Republicans like that are in the state are like relatively pre kind of Trump Republicans, but maybe not Alaska. So anyway, there's some key senate states where the Republicans , I think, are going to do monkey business . But other than that, I agree with you . Living with iocenophilic esophagitis or EOE, it's not easy. Between being misdiagnosed and managing symptoms like difficulty swallowing and food getting stuck in my esophagus, it can be challenging. I learned to deal with it by using coping habits like drinking water after every bite I take or I cut food into small pieces, but I had enough of the status quo of EOE. Is it time for you to stand up to your EOE status quo? There are ways to manage your condition. DuPixin or Dupiliumad is the first and only FDA approved prescription medicine of its kind for adults and children when you're an older who weigh at least thirty three pounds. If you're ready to stand up to EOE like I was, it's time to ask your doctor about DuPixant. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or wheezing or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection or asthm a. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. Learn how you can stand up to your EOE status quo at standup to e dot com or call one eight four to Pixin. Introducing the all new Mazda CX , featuring more connection. Hey Cookele, where's the nearest pilates class? Safety that has your back . More discovery on the scenic routes . More passion in the details and more control in changing weather . The All Near Mazda CX five. More to move every side of you. See it in five films at Mazdausa dot com slash five sides. Google is a trademark of Google LC sequences shortened and simulated . Just on the war in general, I mean, we've just flogged this horse ad nauseum, but you wrote about the whiplash of Trump's Iran capitulation , the other kind of news item coming from the hill related to the war is that Trump's now asking for eighty eight billion to cover the war cost. Do you think we got eighty eight billion worth of value out of the war? I think the value are the friends we made along the way . Well, JD said this. Yeah. It's not good people. JD was like, you don't even believe how cool it is. You don't believe how cool it is. It is so cool. I got to meet the people that were murdering their own protesters in the streets just like five months ago and , I mean, you can have a beer can't have a beer with them, but like because they don't do that, but you can have a tea. You can't have a tea with them and it's like whoa , holy cow . We both had fathers that abandoned us. We could kind of bond overseas. We've both changed our name three times. Just gotta go there, Don't you? I think that was the first thing I mentioned in this piece about Whitlash. It's like, I'm sorry, this was this is existentially the worst regime of the most terrible tyrants. Their presence must be scoured from the earth with bombs and guns and missiles, but now they're pretty good guys . And Trump, Trump's trying to have it both ways, as he always does. He said, I've never cared about regime change, but I actually did accomplish regimeed change. He always reminds me of White Goodman and Dodgeball, right? I'm just kidding, but I totally have it. But I'm not, but I am kidding, but I'm not kidding. And now he's saying , you know, these are rational, these are reasonable people. They care about their country. It's the same people . The IRGC hasn't gone anywhere. The Ayatollah is the son of the Ayatollah. There is no he's basically decided and this was the point of writing you know, I got kind of halfway through that piece and I was like , you know, I could sit here all day talking about all of the ways that Trump has reversed himself. You know, we must destroy these missiles. Iran's missiles are the and you know, Marco , he's the guy who keeps saying this, right? He and Kain and others they've said the very rational thing of the real concern here is that the Iranians build a conventional missile fortress on top of their nuclear program , that they become this conventionally armed porcupine . Okay , so we're going to get rid of all missiles. Can't threaten Israel anymore, can't threaten the Gulf States anymore. And then Trump out of nowhere says, Well, you know, you gotta, they got to have them. Everybody has them. Can't say that Iran can't have them. Saudi Arabia has them. What am I going to say? The Iranians can't have them. Yes, that's what you said two weeks ago. You can say it. We know you can say it because you've said it already. I got through all that and I realized this is the ultimate expression of everything that Trump is in terms of his shallow empty transactionality . This war was a good idea because it would have been good for me . Now it's not good for me . So I want out and I'm going to do a fire sale. I'm going to sell my Iran stock at pennies on the dollar to my creditors and get out . He basically treated the Iran war like a failed casino , you know, sell the sell the furniture, fire all these people , get us out, demolish it. And then we will never speak of it again . And that's what he's doing. That's what I was talking to John Gans theb other dayy. And you know, and he 's like, Trump is impulsive. And he's an actual thinker, writer who has ideological priors and he wants to like project ideology under their opponents and critique the ideology. And he's like, well, it's hard to do with Trump. It's frustrating because he's so impulsive. It's like yeah, he's impulsive kind of but he also is just he's just a megalomaniac. It's like the truth. Like all he just cares about himself . His brain doesn't even process how things affect other people besides himself. I'm color blind. It's like it's like when my daughter used to tease me by holding up socks and saying, what colors are these? I'm like, I can try really hard , but I don't do it. I can't see it. And you know, there are people who when it comes to morality or the ability to see other human beings as human beings, he doesn't have that gene. It doesn't, he doesn't have that part of the human brain that processes that the world around him is not a big movie set . He's not that you don't care . And so he's just saying, you know what? This is a good idea. I think that's one of the reasons that he's really soured on Netanyahu. Right. Again, it's not hard to process Netanyahu's like you're going to be this great man. Right. You're going to bring statues to you across the Middle East. You're also, you know, you're not only going to have statues, but you'll probably have golf course and casinos and as well . And it's like, oh wait, that's not happening anymore. What? You know, you're not useful to me. I'm gonna throw you over what, you're Michael Cohen. It's just he's just world leader, Michael Cohen. Well, you made me look bad. Yeah. You can always see Trump with every bad idea. It looks around the room and he says, Which one of you idiots told me to do this? Yeah , you know , suddenly it's a whole room full of Jackie Gleens, maha, mah ama. But I mean for people to understand why is he doing this? Why would he because you get these Republicans especially and some of them I'm sure still genuinely believe that Trump is some sort of patriot who cares a lot about why you know, who knows why they say why would he make such a deal for the same reason that he didn't pay all his debts in New Jersey and closed all his casinos and sold everything for Bit and just said I'm out, I'm done. It didn't work. I'm going on to something up. Yeah, build another skyscraper, put my name on it. That'll work . And now we're just waiting to see what the next skyscraper is. It's frustrating that we're the elements that understand this time N.icholas. Ruby is doing a cleanup tour through the Gulf States and there's so many clips I could play from it because I just I love watching Marco squirm and 's also because he's wearing uncomfortable shoes because the they wr'ongre size. Extremely couple of shoes. He was there in Bahrain, he's meeting with the Omanis. He's like, there's this one clip where it's where he's like, you know, things are going great with Oman, we have good relationship and then the reporter follows up and it's like, didn't Trump threaten to bomb them a couple of weeks ago? And he's like, Well, I can only speak about today. I can't speak about two weeks ago. Let's not argue about who killed who then there was this one. I had to play this audio because it just caught me blindsided. Rubio gets shouted at coming out of a working lunch, working lunch in the Gulf States . And he's asked about one of the other attendees of the lunch. Let's play that. Mike was just Mike Michael Bulos. His brother lives here. He was just starting to see me catch up. Was there one ? No, no. No, it was a working lunch, right? So it was, but he wasn't but the conversations around him had to do with he was just here because his brother lives here and I'm a good friend of Mike. So we had a chance to catch up. Mike, you're talking about Mike , that guy Mike from down the block. He decided to end up there at this bilateral meeting with Balani . Yeah, Michael Boulez, we don't know is Tiffany Trump's husband . Businessman , recenture . And he just happens to be there. It's just like, you know, hey, if you want, if you're a friend of Marco, if your brother lives in Bahrain, you can just get on the plane with the Secretary of State, you fly over there, you sit there, it's a working lunch, maybe you make a couple deals , maybe you get a little bag from the Qataris or the Kuwaitis or the Bahrainis. The scale of the corruption of these fucking guys , we've barely even scratched the surface. And that's why I just like that clip. It's just like this random shit. It's like, wait a minute. Tiffany's husband was at the bi lap. Just happen to meet her. But you know, Tim, the last time I went through Abu Dhabi, you and I missed each other by about five minutes, right? I mean, it was just, you know, Dim Miller, Abu Doc ity was. I mean you remember when Marvin Bush was there at all of George W.'s bilaterals, that's right, wasn't it? Neil Neil Bush was just going on the plane. Don't worry about listen, it's a bit of a world. We bump into each other . I think when this is over as I think it will be sooner rather than later, this is going to be a bonanza for forensic accountants. Oh my god because there's gonna be a lot of stuff that could feel back. And I think I'm less astonished at the corruption than I am at the casual way that we have all of us , you know, I mean, this is a watergate day . This is watergate on steroids once a day. And we've all learned to just say, I mean, you know, in a way, Tim, we're sitting here laughing about it. And we shouldn't be. I mean, it's twenty years ago, we'd been shockeded.. It's outrag We've been outraged and now I'm outraged still. I know, but we've just been so fire hosed about it that , you know, is it worse than hiring some Batman villain to redo the reflecting pool ? You know, is it worse than , you know, the president accepting emoluments from foreign countries practically as a condition of doing business. I mean, you know, it becomes exhausting. And that, I think, is always the danger with this administr ations and Americans, even the ones who care a lot, even people like you and me follow the news every day, that it just wears us out to the point of saying there's almost nothing you can do about it. And I don't want to get that way. I agree with that. If you want me to be outraged, I want to flag one more thing. We don't know what Michael Bulos is getting. He's on the take. I don't think he was just visiting his brother, but we'll see. We'll learn. Here's something we do know. This is a New York Times story. It was a couple of from months ago but it was kind of was recirculated on social media and I got my dander up about it again . And I think in the context of what I mentioned earlier, you put it this way. Trump's asking for eighty eight billion to cover war costs. Okay, that's our money with a stupid fucking war that had no purpose that in the end we're going to be worse off than we were when we started. Thirteen Americans died. eighty eight billion is coming from us. Simultaneously to that, the lead negotiator managing this war, his son in law, Jared Kushner, is pulling in an extra five billion from Gulf States for his investment fund . So the Trump family is pulling in five billion at least from the same region they're taking eighty eight billion from us . I don't know. I feel like we can pull out our old kind of Republican green eyeshade outrage over this. And it is it's insane the use of our money. It's appalling. And what's appalling is first of all, I think they count on that the average that this is too complicated for the average citizen to follow. That's why I said it like that. That's pretty easy though. eighty eight billion dollars from us, five million five billion Yep, right ? But you know, again, I think the average person is going to say, wait a minute, Jerry Kushner's what now? How where is it? You know , sure. I'll tell you where all this should have stopped was the minute Trump said, I'm sending a real estate guy and my son in law to handle matters of war and peace is where everybody should have stopped. You know, where there should have been the big needle scratch right there saying what ? You know, not only is this improper . Not only does this open the door to all kinds of potential corruption, but I'm sorry , these are not people that are qualified to do this. The security of the United States is at stake here. And you're sending two guys , you know, don't know which way is up to Russia , to Iran to go up against some of looks you don't have to hand it to the Russians or the Iranians , but their negotiators, their experience at this, their professionals. This is like sending in little league coaches , you know , against against the Yankees or the Angels or something. I mean, this is I'm using a sports ball metaphor, which is weird for me. But I mean, you really aren send'ting in complete amateurs against complete professionals. They're saying, yeah, boss wants to get out of this. Boss is mad at you about Ukraine. Do what you can. And in the meantime , what's for lunch and what kind of deals can we make for ourselves? Living with iosinophilic esophagitis or EOE, it's not easy. Between being misdiagnosed and managing symptoms like difficulty swallowing and food getting stuck in my esophagus, it can be challeng ing. I learned to deal with it by using coping habits like drinking water after every bite I take or I cut food into small pieces, but I had enough of the status quo of EOE. Is it time for you to stand up to your EOE status quo , there are ways to manage your condition. DuPixon or Dupiliumab is the first and only FDA approved prescription medicine of its kind for adults and children one year and older who weigh at least thirty three pounds. If you're ready to stand up to EOE like I was, it's time to ask your doctor about DuPixant. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or wheezing or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain, or par asitic infection asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. Learn how you can stand up to your EOE status quo at standupto e. com or call one eight four to Pixin . Introducing the all new Mazda CX Vac featuring more connection. Hey Google, where's the nearest filter's class? Safety that has your back . More discovery on the scenic routes . More passion in the details , and more control in changing weather . The all new Mazda CX five, more to move every side of you. See it in five films at mazdausa dot com slash five sides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC, sequences shortened and simulated . Silly stuff rapid fire. You have one minute on each topic. Number one, Tulsi. Any thoughts on our national intelligence being subject to the mind control of Hawa aii ian cult leader named Guru Chris. You know, I retweeted that story on social media and Tulsi has all these defenders are like, Oh my god, no, she's a patriot. She would , I'm sorry. The only thing the Washington Post did was nail down all the rumors that had been circulating around her for years. I said when Trump first mentioned her, she's a very weird person, I think, at least in her public perception , public presentation, totally unqualified to be DNI. I think the good part of her being in that job was that she didn't know what she was doing because you have to have some knowledge of the organization to do real damage to the organiz ation. Yeah. And that's why I'm not that worried about Bill Pulte. Pulty is going to fire a bunch of people and he's going to, you know, crash around and stumble and break pottery and then he'll he'll have to go away. But I always think of something someone said about Ben C arson when he was at Trump's first term and he was at HUD. Someone said, It's actually good that the Secretary doesn't know a single thing about the department because that limits the damage he can do . So yes, but I think I think, you know, the Tulsa story was inevitable and, you know, the fact that again, we're just kind of shrugging and saying, Oh, that's that's cool. I mean, it also tells me that when it comes to the Trump administration, security clearances are qu aaint thing of the past. No, there are none. Do you have an alibi from the night that there was a three hundred and fifty foot gash cut into the great American flag blue reflecting pool? I am not here to answer your question, Senator . Three hundred and fifty foot gash. No cameras that was the name of my college dead Kennedy's tribute band. Topic three . Does George Conway's loss in New York twelve stamp out any remaining hope that you have that you'd spend your golden years in Congress? No. And I'm glad George did it. I'm glad he got out there and, you know, carried that fl ag. I don't think I'd never thought George had much of a chance in, you know, very blue district where, you know, there were there was going to be this residual kind of, you know, you were a former Republican can't vote for you. I mean, I think it's unfortunate that Democrats still think that the never Trumpers like you and me and George and others are part of some secret cabal to restore Republican greatness when in fact the person that would have been in that the person who would have been the biggest pain in Trump's ass would have been George Conway because he knows where all the, you know, again he knows where all the levers are. He knows where all the bodies are buried . On the other hand, George didn't make it, but neither did Jack Schlosberg . So you know there's lining. Yeah, I feel like he could have done it in Northern Virginia. There are certain districts where it might have worked. It would have been nice. The main reason I wanted George to be there is that I feel like we