 It's Thursday, actually, you may be seeing this at a different day, but November 10th, and we're going to talk about the tea leaves of the midterm elections and whether there's anything we can read in those at this point and what it might be. And we have the good fortune, the special good fortune to have with us today. Professor emerita for nearly Randall from the University of Dayton School of Law, who's in Orlando, Florida and is surviving Hurricane Nicole, and hopefully many people there do get through it as intact as possible. Jeff Portnoy, one of our leading First Amendment lawyers and scholars, a partner at Cade Shuddy, and long-respected spokesperson and personality in sports announcing in Hawaii as well. And Tim Apachele, think tech host and man about town and. Provocateur, I forgot that. Yeah, raconteur entrepreneur and other words that end in your. Okay, Jeff, you want to start us off. I'm glad you mentioned hurricane. I'm glad you mentioned hurricane because that's my analogy of the election. You know, the Democrats and the Republicans were expecting a category five. So I mean, you know, I don't know how happy the Democrats really are because depending upon what happens in Georgia and that's really significant. But if Herschel Walker, the alleged sexual predator. Manages to win the Republicans have everything they could ever hope for they have the house, maybe not with 30 votes. In excess of the Democrats, but enough to control the house. And frankly, it gives Marjorie Green and her crew way more power than they otherwise might have had. And they have the Senate. So yes, if you're a Democrat, it's much better than you thought, but you still got substantial damage to your house. Tim, your take. My take is if I look at the GOP as a patient. This patient has had a fever for six years, Trump fever. And as of Tuesday, the fever broke and the temperature is starting to come down. That is great news. And that's why even though it's a cat to hurricane to hit the town. I'm happy as a clam. How happy your clams by the way. Oh, yeah, I've taken interviews with I'm very, very happy. I've never seen a clam smile, by the way. Oh, well, just look, look closer and you'll see it. Okay. Let's see if there's a pearl inside of it. Yeah, well, yeah, I got it. Well, the temperature for the GOP may be coming down but with JD van search a walk around others. It's still in triple digits. Professor Randall. What are you on where we want to care enough to be to say anything about the Democrats and the Republicans. It's half a dozen one, or a dozen of another half a dozen another for me. What I followed more closely was the ballot amendments that were on the ballots outlawing slavery. And involuntary servitude most people. Most people should know by now that the 13th amendment didn't outlaw all all forms of slavery and in involuntary servitude and in fact, made it legal in exempted I shouldn't say make it exempted as a punishment for crime. There's about 20 states that have constitutions that include language from similar languages as the federal amendment permitting slavery on a state level of an involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment. Colorado was the first to remove the language from their constitution by followed by Nebraska and Utah, and then this yesterday or Tuesday, Alabama Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. had ballot measures that would remove slavery and. And involuntary, then voluntary servitude was a punishment for crime from the from their constitution. All of them passed, except I believe Louisiana, and the only reason Louisiana didn't pass is because the original author of it realized that the language that they had put forth was going to include a loophole that would allow continuation of the punishment for crime us kind of stuff so that's where I'm happy to see that, but I also realized that that really does. I mean that's good to get rid of the language. But the prison industrial complex that allows corporations to hire people in prison for minimum wage. Minimum pennies on a dollar. May may continue even in those states, because it may not be defined as slavery or involuntary servitude and that's kind of going to be left up litigation for the to see if they. Define being punished if you refuse to work for for those low amounts as involuntary slavery too. So I was happy to see that in it's an advancement. Certainly is an advancement to have more states, at least remove the language. So, there we go. So I mean if you watch the maps over the last couple of days. It just confirms what everybody already knew. We have two countries. I mean that's the bottom line we have one country on the East Coast and the West Coast. And then we have the massive red states from the Alleghenies to the Rockies with some rare exceptions. And that hasn't changed. You know, I mean for JD Vance to win in Ohio is just beyond me for Herschel Walker to get what almost 2 million votes. It's just beyond me for what may eventually wind up in Arizona, where I have a brother who early in the evening I called and said thank God. And he said you wait because by Friday, you're not going to say the same thing. The crazies are going to win. And right now the crazies are hanging on I don't know why Arizona can't count the last 20% of their votes. But that's what we have right we got read all over the middle of the country and for the most part blue on the coast. And I'm sorry professor there's no other color that I could find. Green. Yeah. There wasn't any other about yellow. Oh well actually there's somebody on my on my Facebook page because I basically said that I put up after I did. I was going to be a spoiler. And say ahead of time that I wasn't going to vote. I wanted people to make independent decisions for themselves but I did put up afterwards on my. I have a Facebook page called racism, race racism in the law, like my, my home page, and I put up that I didn't vote this year, mainly because I, and it wasn't apathy because it did. People saying that people don't vote because it apathetic no they don't vote, because they're not giving choices that they want to vote for. I think that I think Donald Trump has now in a position where I think he has a very significant uphill battle to try to get the Republican nomination for president I have no doubt that he's got an ego and frankly, Professor Randall, you might get a third choice, because I don't think he's backing off, even if he can't get the Republican nomination. Well, I mean I got a progressive socialist though. Well I know but you wanted a third choice you're going to get one maybe. I guess that's right. So that's a great point, is there a real possibility that we could see, for example, Biden, DeSantis and Trump, all on the ballot. God wouldn't that be wonderful. Wouldn't that make our day. If that ever were to occur. I think it's got a possibility I mean everything you read about Trump says he ain't backing off. And if he doesn't get the nomination. I see him and it's 25 or 30% of the crazies mounting a campaign I mean we could be back in what 1912. The bull moose party is on the rise. Better than the know nothings. That's true. And that didn't work out that well either. No it didn't. Can I just jump in here since we're talking about Donald Trump and you know I've been watching Fox News, believe it or not and the Pancradoc stations and media companies, I think have turned on Donald Trump, particularly when I saw Laura Ingram say the following. A populist movement is about ideas. It's not about one person. If the voters conclude that you're putting your own ego or your own grudges ahead of what's good for the country, they're going to look elsewhere. Period. Laura Ingram has been a full on cheerleader for Donald Trump for six years. This is a monumental quotation from her. Even Trump's friend, Carl Tucker, Tuckerson said, Carlson, excuse me, Tucker Carlson, said, Donald Trump's always been a mixed blessing. That's an understatement, but that's what he said. You know how many times the Santas has been on Fox News? I think I read in this article, I could be off over 500 times. What do you think? They're not stupid. They're not stupid. They see the tea leaves. Well, and Donald Trump sees the tea leaves, and this is what he said on his glorious media company, Truth Social. He said, for me, Fox News has always gone, even in 2015 and 16, when I began my journey, but now they're really gone. Such an opportunity for another media outlet to make an absolute fortune and do good for America. Well, that's my point. That's my point about I wouldn't be shocked if he runs for president on his own ticket, named after him. Sponsored by Truth Social. How about that? And you know, the progressives aren't happy either. The so-called progressives. They've got no chance over the next two years. Zero chance. But where are they going to be in two years, right? I mean, there's no question. Go ahead, sorry. Won't they expect their agenda to still be implemented like the Dreamers movement and things of that nature? Don't they expect those things to be accomplished, even with a split Congress? I doubt that they expect it, but I expect. I know what I expect. And I don't consider myself a progressive because I just the progressive in the Democratic Party is just a capitalist that's to the left. So I think my observation of them is that they don't expect for the split Congress to come forth with bills. But what they've always expected, which I think is not reasonable because they provide support, is that their views and ideas are represented in bills and that bills are being put forward. And that the Democratic leadership wants the progressive wing to help them when they want the help. And then they want them to be quiet the rest of the time so that they can play like that so that they can be in the middle, be a moderate without much pushback. And the more the progressives call and put stuff out there about alternative ways of doing things that's not consistent with the Democrats' view of doing things. I think the reason it took Biden so long to do something about the student loan and why he did so little is only because the Congress, I think Biden would have abandoned that if he could have. But it was through the push of progressives and other that he finally said, OK, here's $10,000. Now shut up. Well, I think they're quiet because they shot their cells in their own toes when Representative Javayapal put out a letter stating that the administration should negotiate on the Ukraine cease of hostilities. I mean, what a mistake that was. And did they think about it? No, they didn't think about it. They just did it. And then she had the hutzpah to blame her staff for it. That doesn't sell well. I think one potential lesson from this campaign is I think the country is tired of the far left and the far right. I really do with rare exceptions. And there are exceptions. We can go through them on both sides. But I think I look at Colorado. And I think that's the future, hopefully, of American politics, a governor who put together a coalition of moderates. Sorry, professor, Democrats and some Republicans and a lot of independence. And I think that's where the country is. I think the country is tired of gridlock, extreme views in the majority's view. And yeah, there's always going to be some percentage way on the left and some percentage way on the right. But unfortunately, over the last four to six years, those extremes have essentially tried to control the political landscape. And I just think people are tired of it. And I think they want to see something done. It may not be exactly what they want. I mean, but when you hear people talking about doing away with social security on the right or on the left, what you just said, let's work with Russia so they can keep as much as Ukraine as they want. I mean, that ain't gonna work anymore, I don't think, at least in the future. Except for the fact that people, I mean, one of the things that happens is people are always talking about what Americans want without referring to the polls of what they want. And when you look at the polls, what Americans want is progressive measures. They want education, they want housing, they want the ability to have a job that will pay for their basic living. They want that. They settle for less because they don't feel like they can get any more. But you speak about polls, I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, I just read a poll some time ago. It was maybe a couple of months ago that was holding what the views of Americans on these different things. And they, 80, 90% of Americans, what we typically call progressive ideas, they are for. And in fact, what some people call socialist ideas, they are for the ideas when they're debunked from the rhetoric and politics of it all. But I'm not sure, Jeff, when you say America want, maybe they are tired, but they're not tired of having, if given the choice, if told, you can have a government that's middle of the road, that accomplishes very little, or you can have a government that accomplishes x. They're gonna want, I think, could be wrong. They're gonna want x. They're gonna want those progressive ideas. I think it depends on where you live. But you were asking for lessons just to digress a little bit here and you guys jump in. How many more years do we have to now understand the polls are worthless? They're wrong. They're manipulated. They're wrong about who's going in. Well, I'm talking about the political poll. I'm not talking about the issue polls. Even then, I'm not so sure because we're a 50 state country, unfortunately, for the issue polls. I mean, I would agree with you that maybe 15 states, the majority are wanting what you've just indicated they want. And I can tell you, in my whole view, 25 or 30 states say no. And you just look at abortion. Even though it's flipped a little bit now because it's become so extreme on the other side, you take a national poll on abortion and it's 70% want to give a woman the right to choose. But you take a state by state poll, it ain't 70%. It may be 90 in New York and it's 35 in Idaho. You four state rights. That's a very interesting question because that's taken a loaded term. States rights. No, I'm not. I'm talking about the fact. Well, I think we're a federal republic but I think there's a balance there. And I think that's always an interesting political question. Does the federal government control everything or are there issues that are more appropriately within the states? And I think that's very tough because no, I'm not for states rights because of the connotation that it has. Well, I'm separate. The thing that bothers me right now is that there is a desire to have state rights except when the states go against. So what can take it be an abortion or an abortion may be a good example because both the Democrats and the Republicans take basically the same stance on abortion. We're gonna force every state in the country to adopt laws that are consistent with the value of our party. And we're gonna clothe it under whatever language we wanna clothe it. But the thing is, is if either it and this is more of a Republican thing that I think that could be wrong. If you really believed in state rights, then you would say the Republicans would not say we're gonna pass a federal law forcing an abortion ban of any kind because states have the right to do that at a state level. I think, yeah, Jim, Tim, you can weigh in. I think, and this is, I got no proof, I think the majority of people in each state would want their own state to come up with their own law on abortion and not have the federal government get involved and not criminalize, all right? I'm not talking about Alabama criminalizing abortion that takes place in Connecticut, but I think there's merit to having each state and each state's voters decide that issue as long as it doesn't try to impact their next door neighbor's position on it. I really think that's where the majority of the country is. I don't think they want a national abortion law one way or the other, I don't know. I think it's convenient for every state to blame the federal government for problems within that state. It's just so easy to do it and they've done it for 140 years, blame the feds for it. But not again to a federalist argument here, but consistency amongst 50 states is kind of an important concept. And Jeff, you hit it on the nail as far as don't impact the state next to you. And I'm not thinking about abortion, I'm thinking about gun control and how that really impacts states that are loosey-goosey with their gun laws and those states that are have a very strict interpretation of your right to bear and carry arms. So that's why the feds are a very important entity to ensure consistency and equal application of the law. And without epoch application of the law, we have basically a chaotic, and we don't look like a United States of America. We just look like States of America. Yeah, I was reading an excerpt from the new Lincoln biography. I have not read the whole thing, it's on my kingdom. Yeah, and you know, people don't, I didn't really understand Lincoln's position on federalism and on slavery. He was not anti-slavery, quote unquote. He thought it was a state's issue and that each state could make a decision on slavery. Although, personally, he was not in favor of slavery, but he just wanted to preserve the union and didn't believe that you could have a section of the country that would secede and because of that one issue. And then he was forced, of course, because of the Civil War to fight to keep the country together. But you know, it's a fascinating issue because you know, you say states rights and you think of George Wallace, right? At least I do, and that's why it's a term that you know, it's very hard for me to grasp because- It's kryptonite. Yeah, as you say it, but- Well, the only reason, I mean, I grew up in Texas doing Jim Crow, so I- Yeah, so you know, yeah. I don't. And I used to turn deliberately because what I have found is no matter what, for instance, states have laws to control municipal municipalities within their state. And so you end up with laws that are passed only to control particular municipalities and doing things that they don't want to do. I'm thinking about in years and years ago before the housing crash, well, before anybody was paying any attention to what banks and housing people were doing with predatory lending going on, Dayton, the city I lived in at the time, passed the law attempting to do something to deal with predatory lending. The state refused to do something, but then they passed the law saying, oh, no, you can't do anything either because we've got to have uniformity among all the cities and people coming into our thing. So it becomes the whole thing becomes both a way to control and restrict in the fact is in that kind of area, people who only represent 13% of the population like black people, even in states where they may be 30, 40% of the population end up on the short end of the stick because they don't have control of the environment like that. I haven't seen the polling quote unquote. I'm curious as to how many African-Americans voted for Herschel Walker? 5% female, 8% male. Is that what it was? Yes, Herschel Walker. And this is the same thing because this goes every year, black people for the most part know when someone's gonna be problematic and in terms of representing them. And Herschel Walker, the thing that I read at to this point was put in by white people. Oh, sure. And he did not get... How many white people voted for Warlock? I don't know, I was just looking. No, no, yeah, I'm just very curious. No, I'm an 8% male I can understand because he was a huge football hero and I can see males, black or white, voting for him if they have no other education other than sixth grade. But 5% of the women, that's pretty surprising to me. Well, I mean, the thing is 5% of black people, not 5% of the population. No, no, yeah, I meant that, yeah. But the thing is, is black people have a complicated history. They're conservative, a large party, especially down there. And he touted a conservative message. He had a religious message. Although Warlock- He's running against the referee. That's what I was gonna say, although that shouldn't have played off as well. But, I mean, the thing is, is who knows why people latch on to wanting to vote someone? And I don't think it's about being uneducated. Look at all of the educated white people who voted for him. Oh no, I understand that, yeah. You know, let me just jump in here. There's a lot of people that said they were gonna vote for Herschel Walker, not because he had credibility. They said, they knew that he had problems with the truth, but that didn't matter because it was all about flipping the Senate. And so therefore, that was the primary issue. Didn't matter about his character. Didn't matter about his, you know, the hypocrisy of abortion versus the ones that he paid for, that didn't matter. It was all about the power structure of the Senate. Good point, Matt, yeah. We're out of time for today, but that's a good place to wind up. We don't know where we're headed, except we're certainly headed for a runoff, Reverend Warnock or Herschel Walker. We'll see where that winds up and where that leaves us. Come back and join us in a couple of weeks. Support Think Tech Hawaii and thank you all. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.