 Okay, we're back. We're live. It's 11 o'clock in the morning on a given Wednesday. It's time for you to know what Trump week. I'm Jay Fidel and think tech and Trump week is more important all the time. Joining me is Tim Appichella. We're going to talk about what Trump has done this week and how to connect the dots on this administration and this country. Hi, Jim. Hey, Jay. Good morning. How are you? Well, I'm slightly depressed over what's going on in Washington, if you really want to know. It's not traumatic brain injury, but I am slightly depressed over it. Can we talk about traumatic brain injury for a minute? And this angry American podcast was on NPR this morning and they discussed it. What do you have to say about that? Well, when we first heard the numbers, it was just a few American soldiers and as Donald Trump would explain it as they have some headaches and a few other things. We know it's not a headache and we know it's not a few other things. We know that's over 100 people who have traumatic brain injuries. Now, how severe that's still being determined. But with a TBI, you don't know everything until time goes on. Yeah. And the implication is that this president is not transparent even to the military, even about the military. As the guy from Angry Americans said, you know, these are our fighting people. These are our troops. These are our sons and daughters whose lives are at risk who are in harm's way, he said. And if you can't be honest about that, what can you be honest about? So what we have here is a really awful lie. You know, what he said was a fellow Trump was either incompetent or making malicious lies, I favor the latter, to the American public and for that matter to the military about what had happened in the Iran strike. It suits Trump's political interest to say that, but it isn't true. And so what we have is yet another example of lies to the American public and the world. Now if he'll do this on this case, and he has done so much, so many lies on so many other things, I think we can assume he's a complete and full demagogue liberated by the acquittal who is going to lie to us on everything. What do you think? Well, let me just connect the dots on why he's lying about the 100 TBI cases. Okay, so remember, this whole thing between Iran occurred because he took a very impulsive action against the general, the Iranian general, very top high ranking official in the Iranian government. Okay, so Iran, they struck back on an American base. And if he had to admit that 100 Americans were injured and compromised, that could have led us to a retaliatory strike against Iran, which could have easily put us into a Middle East war. So he's trying to ignore the 100 TBI cases because he knows that can force him to lead into other actions. But who started this to begin with? His impulsive nature and the assassination of that general, now I'm not saying it shouldn't have happened, but it was bad timing. And he certainly didn't check in with any of his generals, I'm sure of it. Right. Goes back to that, doesn't it? He's trying to cover his own tracks. And I think he was hoping at the time the press wouldn't pick up on this or that it wouldn't get to the point of over 100 service members being injured. And so what you have is he's playing the media. And as I had predicted earlier now that he's liberated, he's going to be playing the media all through to the election. He's going to be lying to us all through the election. And this is very troubling because we already know that, you know, it's the old adage, how do you know he's lying? His lips are moving. And so what we have here is a pattern that is establishing itself. And there are those people in this country, even here in Hawaii, who believe him. Extraordinary. After all the, what do you call it, evidence of lying, he still lies and they still believe him. But let's go to the reaction, you know, to the liberation, to the acquittal. I mean, it was one day after when we saw what we had predicted, that he was going to capitalize on it, take advantage of it, be emboldened. It's a light-hearted word, emboldened for what is happening in every which way. And sure enough, right on cue, that's what he did. Can we talk about that, Tim? You bet. I mean, he didn't waste any time and, you know, he kind of, in the state of the Union, kind of flagged what he was thinking of. But let's talk about him. Immediately, he fires Lieutenant Colonel Wittman. And his brother, too. His brother was also compromised in Trump's wrath. Also, Ambassador Sondland lost his position. Again, it's the prerogative of the president to reassign ambassadors. But you can see this is in direct retaliation. And that's what it was. The list goes on. He tweeted very stern comments and made comments about the unfairness of Roger Stone's proposed sentencing. And lo and behold, the Department of Justice somehow interceded in that. And now they're looking at trying to restructure the sentencing of Roger Stone. How inappropriate is that? That's crazy. He pulled the promotion of Jesse Lee, Alu. She's the one that did not take action against Andrew McCabe, former FBI director, acting FBI director. And bottom line is she was going to be nominated for the undersecretary of the Treasury Department. Well, he suddenly pulled that yesterday. The list goes on. He made comments about... Don't forget Eddie Berman Jackson. Don't forget Eddie Berman Jackson, the United States Federal District Judge, who he claimed had put Roger Stone in solitary confinement, which is untrue. It's based on untruth. Yeah, let me read the quote on that because it's really amazing. I mean, if I'm Roger Stone, I'd say, hey, President Trump, please don't try to work on my behalf. This isn't helping me. So here's what he said. He said, is the judge to put the one who put Paul Manafort in solitary confinement something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? And then he said, how did he treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking. Unbelievable. So, you know, he's interceding directly with the judge who's going to have the fate over Roger Stone. And I'm not sure that's such a great idea. Well, this reminds me of that deserter case that's the soldier where he was exercising command influence, which is against the law, against the military courts martial, the code of military justice. You know, number of times, many, many times before and after his election. So now he's after a judge, but she's the judge sitting on the case. That's gross command influence. I can't cite a statue, but I think that's against the law. Just as, you know, criticizing retaliating against the witness in any proceeding on the basis of political whim. That's against the law. But you know, who is going to prosecute him? William Barr controls the prosecutions. Just as a way William Barr controlled, you know, the ultimately the sentence recommendations in the Roger Stone case. That's why those four US attorneys who worked on the case who know the facts better than anyone alive were offended and quit the case and one of them quit the Department of Justice. If it was me, I would have quit the Department of Justice along with that fourth guy. Bottom line is that he is exercising command influence all over the judicial system. Military, civilian, federal district court, United States attorneys. And of course through Barr, the Attorney General of the United States. Is there still justice in this country? You really wonder and it's hard to have confidence in a justice system that can be manipulated improperly. In fact, unfairly by the president as a whim any morning that he wakes up with his hamburger, you know, that he can do that and he does do that. Knowing, I mean, by now it's must be clear to him that that sort of thing is against the law. You can't do that, but he nevertheless does it. And query, and I ask you this, Tim, does it have an effect? Does it have an effect on Amy Berman Jackson? And if not, and I hope that it doesn't, zero effect. And I hope she looks to the recommendation of seven to nine that the line prosecute is made, you know, earlier. But even if it doesn't have an effect on her, it may have an effect on other judges, you know. This is retribution come, come current. And, you know, if you have this, then judges are not independent. They worry what he will do to them. They worry about public criticism this way. Our justice system is under attack. Our media is under attack. Congress is under attack. And he is exonerated. What do you think about that? What are we going to do, Tim? Well, it's chilling that he's giving relations to William Barr for taking control of this unfair prosecution of his buddy, Roger Stone. That's chilling. But you know, who's not talking, who I'm not hearing a whole lot from? Where's our senators? Our Republican senators? Where's our Republican members of the House of Representatives? Again, are they now intimidated because Mitt Romney has been, you know, sent out to the shed and as the new poster whipping boy for the Republican Party. And this is what happens to you if you even think about crossing me. And oh, by the way, Mitt Romney did have the right to exercise his ability to vote one way or another because he is a senator and he does have that constitutional divide between the president's chair and his chair and the Senate. How chilling is this? And I find it amazing that there's silence. You can hear crickets coming out of the Senate. Yet we have examples one week later from his vindication, which he wasn't vindicated, but from the vote that didn't impeach him. We have six, seven items that are direct retaliation strikes. And I don't, how, how, how, how, how, how further is this going to continue? And I'm afraid we're going to see a lot more, a lot more, Jay. Yeah. Well, there was an interesting piece about what Collins was it? Susan Collins from New England, a senator who said a week ago that she thought that Trump has learned his lesson, that this impeachment itself was a sharp lesson for him. And now he's going to be a, you know, a better president. Lots of luck. That was totally wrong. And there's no excuse for her to make that speculation and the speculation was wrong. And I don't think she's corrected it. I don't think any of them have corrected it. And, you know, if I were a voter, if I were, you know, millions of voters, I would vote against every Republican involved in the charade. They have not complied with their oath of office. They have not been senators in any way. They have not looked for policy and they have certainly spent all their time and all their effort and all our money protecting Donald Trump and doing his shenanigans and his criminal activities. It's quite remarkable that Congress has made this functional. You can say that it's Mitch McConnell, but it's Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump too. The two of them together have stolen, they've hijacked the Congress. So the important thing, what we got left here is the election. And it's very troublesome that, you know, he's been liberated to call other countries in to help him, including especially Russia, but other countries too. Who knows what he's going to do to Ukraine? I recall actually a few days ago that he started withholding other funds from Ukraine, apparently doing exactly the same thing he did before. But this time it's legal. I guess, I guess he'll get away with it this time. And who knows what other country he's going to use the same trick on. So he's going to try to manipulate the election. He's using social media to beat the band. He's telling lies in the social media. And he's using every trick he can think of. We can spend, you know, show after show about all the tricks he's using. At the same time, the Democrats, we should talk about the Democrats. Because query whether the potential candidates who are left standing in this, are they strong enough? Could they be strong enough to actually get the Democratic community focused on them to win the election in states and in the national election? What do you think? Well, we're going back to the concerns that we talked about six months ago, eight months ago. And that is, you know, who's rising to the top and are they the ones that are going to be able to beat Donald Trump? And I, you know, after two, one caucus and one primary, I'm starting to look at candidates where I'm going, Donald Trump might have a pretty good shot at being reelected. I'm sorry, but I don't see a socialist either in the name of Bernie Sanders going to excite the populace in the Midwest and those independence and those Republicans who are fed up with Trump. I don't see him being the guy that people want to gravitate towards. And so I'm concerned that Bernie Sanders is gaining traction. I like a lot of his ideas, but, you know, I'm sorry, but they're just too, too on the extreme for the general election. And keep it up. This reminds me of McGovern. When McGovern was elected as the Democratic campaign, excuse me, Democratic nominee, and that was a landslide for Richard Nixon. It was a horrible, horrible defeat for McGovern because he took on the party's more liberal side of positions and policies, and that was the end of them. What about the others? I mean, this deal is not yet cast in stone. I don't like to use that word these days, but what about the other ones? What about the other ones? What about Buttigieg? He seems to be making a great show in both in Iowa and New Hampshire. And he's a very smart, reasonable guy. He's very articulate. He knows how to think and how to speak. And he's likable. Does he have a chance? Is he a better position for winning against Trump than Sanders? I think he does have a better chance. And I said this last week when we, when we spoke, who thought that Barack Obama would have a chance? And guess what? He became a two-term president. I think that Buttigieg does have a chance. I think he gets a great position on his policies. I think he's more middle of the, he's more middle, middle ground in his position and things. I think he appeals to a lot of Americans. I worry about the Christianity community and the fact that he's gay and how that would just automatically be a no or a disqualifier for Buttigieg. But I like him a lot. And I think he'd make a great president. I really do. Let's look at Elizabeth Warren. She's kind of losing some of her traction. She ended up about fourth place in this. And of course the, maybe not so much the surprise, but Joe Biden is, is slipping number five, number six. And I don't know if that was predictable or not, but that's where we're at. Let's take a short break, Tim. We'll be right back. I'm a cooking instructor and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. We're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech Trump Week and we're talking to Tim Apachele about the Democrats now and what kind of threat they are to Donald Trump in the November election, which he will try so hard to control. Rightly, wrongly in every which way, dirty tricks that you name it. Anyway, so one of the possibilities you haven't mentioned, Tim, is Amy Klobuchar. Midwestern, moderate, very appealing, articulate, great record in the Senate, and likable, just basically likable. So where does she fit? Can you put her in the priorities here? Well, I didn't mention her because it was just an omission. I think she could be the next female president of the United States. I think all the things you just said, plus she's more attractive from the standpoint that she is a senator and she does have experience. And I think that's, Buddha judges made it to a major downfall is that he is a mayor of a small, relatively small town or a small city in the United States. And so that's what Joe Biden was hitting them on is his experience. And how does that qualify you to be President of the United States? Klobuchar has some good set of chops and she knows how to negotiate through the system. She understands the workings of government, which Donald Trump never understood and still doesn't understand. And I think she's likable. And I think she will very much appeal to Middle America and the red states and those Republicans that want to see someone with a sense of decency and presidential esteem versus what we have in office currently. So without trying to pin you down going forward, just at this moment in time, subject to change, who's your dream ticket right now? I'm going to say probably, ah, Jay, you put me on the spot. You said you had to do it. Sorry, you can change your mind next week, Tim. Well, I can tell you right now it's not Bernie Sanders. It's either a Buddha judge or Klobuchar. Yeah, I'm in the same place. Let's not forget one person though. Let's not forget. There's the person who really is spending a whole lot of money named Bloomberg. Yeah, the dark horse is what it amounts to. Yeah, he could he could come riding in over here and change everything. He's spending a lot of money. He must be going on $300 million. That's a lot of bread. Yeah, okay, but for the moment and short of Bloomberg, I'm in the same place and I and I would favor right now this week today, I would favor Buddha judges, the presidential candidate and Klobuchar as the vice presidential candidate. That would be a pretty good ticket because even if you didn't like, you know, Buddha, Buddha judges, sexual orientation, you got Klobuchar. She's very, you know, cool, modest, organized. You got all the right, all the right characteristics. But let's go back to Trump for a minute because in this process, you know, as it goes forward, he's going to try to bring them down. You know, he snipes at them and don't forget that he snipes through proxies. So if you see some scandal coming up against any one of them, it's going to be him through a proxy. He's going to be working every angle, every dirty trick you can imagine to knock off the ones who, you know, we think who the press thinks, you know, are the likely candidates at the same time, two other things are happening. One is, and I would take issue with you at one point, do you mind if I do that? Oh, please do. You know, you said that he doesn't know government. I think he knows government very well. And he's got people, you know, terrible people who are advising him on how to manipulate government and pull the wings out of government. I mean, they have no loyalty to this country. They have no loyalty to the Constitution. And he is really doing a wrecking ball in our government, our Constitution that will last a long time, you know, everything that happens is part of the future. You can't, you know, reverse it. It's going to affect the future. I've learned that. And so when he does these bizarre things with Congress and the courts and the media, they have a life of their own. They will continue whether or not he's president and the environment, you know, let's let's take a rule or some kind of provision in the EPA or the EPA in general and say, OK, he's pulling the wings out of that too. Well, how did we get to where we are now protecting the environment through 20 years? Maybe more of activism, of conversation, of contention, maybe, you know, between various factions in the country about where our environmental position should be. Now, if you pull all the wings out of it and you say we want to go back to the way it was, you're going to have to fight those fights again. We're going to be way behind the curve fighting those fights again. It might take 10 or 20 years to get back to where we were. So the damage he's doing is really long term damage. The country is suffering every day when he tells us or even more likely when he doesn't tell us what he's doing. Well, you see, he's pulling the wings out of the EPA. He's not really pulling the wings out of it. He's pulling the money out of it. In his 2021 budget, he's pulling 26% out of the EPA over the next 10 years. That's a lot of money. That's an incredible amount of regulatory enforcement that's not going to take place. That's an incredible amount of money that's not going to take place on how to prevent the issues that we're experiencing here in this country regarding some global warming issues. 26% is 26%. It's a lot of money. Yeah, and talk about global warming. Here's another factor that works. Okay, he's ignored and rejected and told all his government offices. They can't even mention the term global warming. And he's done incredible damage to this country. He's put us way behind the curve on dealing with global warming at a time when it's crisis, at a time when it's so important for this country and humanity to do something about global warming. And he stopped that. He stopped that momentum completely. But it gets worse. This is sound like an infomercial. It gets worse. And the worst part is that he affects the world. He's effectively pulled the rug out on COP26, 25, and 20s, and going forward. And a bottom line there is that he's had a huge and destructive effect, not only on NATO, okay, on the West in general, but on what the West would do with global warming, even what China would do with global warming. So he's really stopped, you know, all the momentum on global warming around the world because as people like to say, he's the most powerful man in the world as president of the United States. This is so destructive. It's hard to believe. And yet, despite all the scientific evidence, he ignores it, rejects it. Unbelievable. The damage he's doing is extraordinary. But you know, there's a fair chance, as you said, he'll be elected again. And he'll really put the pennies on the eyes then. Well, I didn't say he's going to be reelected again. I didn't come out of my mouth. I'm telling you right now. Well, let's talk about, you know, these two subjects actually coincide. And that is global warming probably is the number one hot issue for millennials in Gen Z. They're now at a voting age. A lot of them are at voting age. A lot of them haven't voted. This is the population, the demographic, that the Democratic Party wants to engage over this one particular issue, and they should take full advantage of it. And because they own the street on this one, they own it, and they can take great advantage of it. Jay Inslee, if you remember, Governor of Washington State, this was his primary platform piece. Unfortunately, he didn't get any traction from it. He was too premature. But I think it's now time to resurrect that issue and go after those voters who will be very strongly attracted to this. The millennials in Gen Z, maybe they're not so much worried about veteran benefits or Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and budget cuts that Donald Trump's going to pull on this in the 2020 budget proposal. But I guarantee you their ears will perk up when you talk about the environment and the huge 26% cut to the EPA. They're going to perk up and this is where you catch them, hook them and get them to register and vote so Donald Trump does not become a second term president. That you got out of my mouth. Okay, I'm going to stop right there. Let me only say that we have not discussed coronavirus or his action or inaction about it. And I'm sure, sadly, that there'll be plenty of time to talk about that next week. So let's plan to get together next week. Let's cover that and all the other things by which we can. Talk about the budget and the budget and Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. So sad. So we'll address that next week, next Wednesday. Kim Epichella, Trump week, so fine to talk to you. Aloha. Thank you, Jay.