 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here, Trump Week on Fridays at the 11 o'clock block. I'm Jay Fidel, and I care about following Trump, and that's Tim Apichella. He also cares about following Trump. Hi, Tim. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Good to see you. Did you have a nice week? I had a great week. A little bit too much. I did not have a nice week. Was a little bit too much. We're calling this show a week of too much news, too much chaos. That's what we got. The week of chaos. One thing after another. Like last week, he was being hurt by so many things coming up, and this week, I predicted this week he would do things to create the chaos in order to distract us. And he did. He has distracted us in so many ways. Now we are facing the shutdown. We have resignations in the White House. We have troop movements. Nobody thought it was a good idea, and various other things. It's really getting worse. The new normal is getting worse, and the new normal, in my view, it reflects seed changes where people don't realize how much things are changing, and they get to accept the most outrageous things that they would never have accepted back in mid-2016, so 2017 again. So the problem is, who's covering this? We have got to cover this. It's not just a matter of sucking him here and sucking him there. It's trying to connect the dots. So that's what Trump week is about. Connecting the dots and pertaining to the new normal. That's what really concerns me, is what is the new normal, and why is it becoming normal? Okay, why? Repetition. It's the thing we talked about two weeks ago, the Russian strategy of the Big Lie, and the repetition of the Big Lie, and then having credible figures to spread that message over and over and over again. And double down on it. Double down on it. And never admit the truth. Yeah. Never admit what you're really doing. That's part of the New York Times article. That's part of the new normal, and that's how it's becoming a normal, and that concerns me. Yeah. To follow on that, I mentioned to you that a friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video of a Russian defector who talked about this very same thing that the New York Times was talking about, but it was scarier yet, for the proposition, and he is a Russian speaking now, for the proposition that they felt they were at war with us. They've always been at war with us. First notice was frosting. In fact, they're still at war with us, and more than before. And other places. And they're using out of 100% of their intelligence budget, 15% goes to espionage, 85% goes to active measures and disinformation, and we're getting that every day. Millions of these messages on social media. That has not changed. There was a recent NBC Wall Street Journal poll. Let me just pull it out here for a quick second. And that was 62% of people surveyed. They do believe Trump is lying about Russia. That's a high percentage. Yeah. Well, maybe he's losing ground with his base. Seems to be losing ground with the Republicans in the Senate. But let's talk about specific things that happened. What's your favorite thing that happened this week? Well, the one that concerned me the most just recently happened, and that is the resignation of General Mattis. I think General Mattis represented for many people, not just Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives, but Americans as a whole, that Mattis was that stabilizing calming effect on Trump. And his resignation, I think for a lot of people, will signal that now who's minding the daycare center? Who's now, it's not John Kelly anymore. It's who is it? Yeah. Who's going to say, you know, you really can't do this? Is it going to be his family? Are they going to intercede before he jumps off and does something irrational and potentially destructive? He's doing irrational things all the time. It's amazing that the whole system is dysfunctional because there's nobody to stop him. He's becoming a one man government and he calls the shots on pretty much everything. Those tariffs that was all him and these moves with the troops that happened this week in Iraq, in both Iraq that made the news first, then come to find that he's moving more troops out of Afghanistan, 2,000 out of Iraq, I'm sorry, Syria and 7,000 out of Afghanistan. So what's happening is he's running it by himself and with Mattis' resignation, strong letter, I saw that letter. Yeah, I'd like to read a quote if I may. Yeah, please. Yeah, thank you. Because this letter of resignation certainly was not intended for Donald Trump. No. What it was intended for is the Republican senators and the Republicans in the House of Representatives and a third part of the audience certainly was the American public. And you and me. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And as I said in, you know, part of this quote, one core belief I've always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships while the U.S. remains the indispensable nation in a free world we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. This is NATO. This is the, you know, this is it. This is our cornerstone of protection for Europe, protection in the free world. Yeah. And he's quitting. He's saying that while he's quitting. So he's making a huge statement. And the statement is that Trump has done incalculable damage to NATO and the EU. And you can see it discombobulating every day in the news what's going on in Europe. You know, it's the first time in history a Secretary of Defense resigned in the nation of this country. It's very, very bad and it concerns me. And I feel it as a shadow over my perception of the world and the reality and the country and the future, you know, we're diving down into a dark place and our system can't handle it. They say though the Constitution will weather any storm, I'm not sure. He can create a war overnight for another distraction. Well, and this gets back to my concern as you had General Mattis and you had John Kelly as bookends, if you will, to kind of try to balance him out. It's gone. And they're both gone. So the replacement issue, what is the qualifications for the replacement? Certainly not competence, certainly not, you know, experience in a particular job role. It comes down to loyalty. Loyalty, which means yes, man. So the government is being remade in Trump's image. It's being remade out of yes, man. And it's not just the people in the White House, it's the department heads and all that. So what you have is people leave, and it's not just in the White House, leaving from other parts too. I would leave. Honestly, I couldn't tolerate this if I was in that administration. So they leave, and then they are replaced by yes, man, okay. And at the end of the day, what you have is a yes man government that doesn't do anything. So we've really lost the value of having all these offices. And then at the same time, we've lost the value of having a representative government in the country. Well, there it is. Because if the executive branch starts going off at an extreme left turn, you would hope that the Senate and the House of Representatives would stand up on their own tune-hired legs and say, look, we've got to steer back onto course here, and we're not quite getting that. I saw glimps of it though. I saw glimmers in hope. And the crime bill. Yeah. That's one of them. Not enough. Not enough. I also saw Lindsey Graham speak out, particularly about Syria. You had Lindsey Graham saying, to say that ISIS is defeated is an overstatement and is fake news. He also said if Obama made the decision, Republicans would be all over him. So you have, and Lindsey Graham's not, he's not leaving the scene. He's still going to remain in the Senate. And so again, I see these little inklings of glimmer of hope that- McDonnell, same thing, disagree with him. And Roberts on the Supreme Court disagreed with him. So really it raises here now Trump week discussion this week. The possibility that Trump is like on the other side of the tipping point here, when people are getting out, they're not only quitting, but they're turning against his policies. And they don't believe him anymore. This is really- For now. For now, but- Because we've seen this before. We've seen this before where they come out and speak out against, and then they kind of get back in line, and they come rear their head out again and speak out. And so we don't know to what degree this goes up and down. Yeah. But for right now, it gave me hope to see these comments coming from the Republicans. And under no circumstance was it mild, like Kosoji. You saw the Republicans stand out against that. Yeah, that's true. And it's the same process. And so really we're here on Friday here in Honolulu when it's way after noon in Washington. They were supposed to meet at noon. They were called back. Meet at noon and see what they were going to do about the shutdown. Another major piece today. We may not have that news right now, but it's coming soon. And it remains to be seen what the Republican leadership is going to do, what McConnell's going to do, and how effective Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are going to be, and whether they're going to fold on that $5 billion number, just to be the good guys. If they don't fold, and I frankly don't think they should fold, we're going to have a shutdown. And it's going to be for a long time, and it's going to be on Trump's head. And that could cost him dearly in terms of popularity among people in government, but also his own base. Look how we got here. We had the meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. He made proclamations that I'll be proud to be the one to shut down this government and it'll be my mantle to do so. And then that wasn't happening. So then by Wednesday we heard that we'll kick this can down the road and we'll get something out of it. But then you had the talk shows. You had Ann Coulter saying the following, Trump will just have to bend a joke presidency who's scammed the American people, amused the populace for a while, but he'll have no legacy whatsoever. Then you had Fox and France come out and you had Rush Limbaugh come out. So who's running the country? Is it Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter? Because he then said, okay, you know, if I don't get my five billion again, that's it. Well, yeah, he said his base had convinced him that he should stick on that five billion. And really the question is what happens right now in session right now in Washington. Well, they don't have the 60 votes. Let's see what happens. He's trying. Maybe it's a futile effort, but he's trying. You never know. As Rick, what they almost agreed about, you know, the immigration bill, you know, last year. Who knows? Maybe they bring that out on the table and it has DACA provisions and, you know, kind of a compromise, if you will. Yeah, I don't. I doubt it. I don't think we should have a wall. I never thought so. And most of the country doesn't think so. And it's really remarkable that here we are with people, you know, trying to force us, extorting us into a wall. Would you agree that his base really doesn't care about the Mexico will pay for it aspect of it? What do they care about? Would you agree that that was a provision that, you know, had to be met, that Mexico will pay for the wall? I don't think it's... But that was unrealistic at the outset. And I think his base knew that as well. Yeah. So who's he playing to? A campaign slogan of sorts. It's maybe a little bit conspiratorical, but it just seems to me that this could be part of what we were talking about before and what that defector was talking about before. A lot of, you know, social media goes into the crowds that are polarized on this issue and stirs up the issue. And Trump thinks that they're stirring him up and he goes back for more this afternoon. But really what we have is chaos. And whenever I see chaos, I have the same reaction, I get a headache. And when I get a headache, I like to take a break. Okay. Let's take a break. I don't know for you, though. See you in a minute, Michelle. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. We'll have cooler feelings then. Aloha. I want to invite all of you to talk story with John Wahee every other Monday here at Think Tech Hawaii. And we have special guests like Professor Colin Moore from the University of Hawaii who joins us from time to time to talk about the political happenings in this state. Please join us every other Monday. Aloha. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. It's my life. I love music. Okay. We're back here in Trump's week. This is a week of too much news and too much chaos. But our headaches are a little better now. That's Tim Apachele. I'm Jay Fidel. We're talking about what happened this weekend and what could happen next week with Trump. Yeah. So we have the shutdown about the wall and it's like extortion. It's like holding the country. It's not just the federal employees and all that. It's the whole country hostage, stopping the government. This can't be good only for one issue where really it's obvious that people don't support the wall. They don't support the wall at all. It's not only not supporting the wall that having requiring Mexico to pay for the wall and that ridiculous argument that he made this week. He shifted. Of course. He said, oh, we're going to get them to pay for it because we had this. I negotiated this great trade agreement between Mexico and Canada and the benefits of that would be so great that they are going to pay for the wall. That is rank. Okay. If that was believable, the Mexico-Canadian trade agreement, okay, if that was believable, why do you say in the second breath the military is going to pay for it too? Now what does this do for the people that are loyal and follow President Trump? I mean, how do you think I feel or how do you take me to say, do I not know that the military is paid by my tax dollars? It's all off the wall, literally. Off the wall. I mean, what's happening here is it's devolving into chaos, not only chaos in the sense of having people come and go in and out of the White House and in and out of government, but government itself seems to be in chaos. They can't get anything done. I read recently that a number of bills that were passed and treated and passed in the Obama administration was x number of bills. In this past year, 2018, there was a small fraction of bills. They can't get anything done. Well, Jay, he's got the goal and the trophy for executive orders. Doesn't that count for something? Yes, so. But you know what, executive orders always can be reversed at the next administration. So let's assume that the sea change that we think may be happening, it's a long shot. I'll tell you more this afternoon when I see what happens with the wall and the shutdown. But you know, he's losing the confidence. I think his ratings are down, actually, maybe not that much, but down. I think he's losing confidence even in the Senate. And he's lost the House, really, lost it. He, Roberts, voted against his asylum position. McConnell is taking a wax at him. You see, I mean, losing his people. And because it's covered so much in the press, if you look at any major newspaper, it's all him. It's like 99% of all the articles in the paper about him. Well, if he wants attention, he's getting attention. The question is, if we perceive correctly that he's losing his ability, losing his ability to govern, losing his credibility among all these people and organizations, isn't it time for impeachment? Not yet. OK. I said the last show, don't fire TC the whites of their eyes. Let's wait for the Mueller report because it's going to offer a lot more than what's been presented so far as the Michael Cohen situation. I'm sure there's more. So there's going to be a lot more. So I'm hesitant to talk about impeachment because, again, once you start talking about it, it becomes repetitious. It loses its luster. The American public becomes desensitized to it. And therefore, when the real stuff comes out, the real juicy parts, it'll be old news, old half. Well, let's come back one step and talk about Mueller. So last week, we had a lot of stuff coming out about Mueller. It was really all bad for Trump. I mean, that's why he did so many things to distract us this week. That's exactly his MO. But where is Mueller? I mean, the silence is deafening. What's going on here? Has been from the start. I guess so. He's been very, very disciplined. Yeah, no leaks. But he has been communicating through his indictments and through court papers. Well, yes. And you communicate even louder when everything's redacted. I mean, pages and pages are redacted, and the American public sees all these black markouts and going, now, what could be under that? So he's communicating loud and clear. It's just in very unique format. But where does it point? Where do you think he's going? What do you think he has? I think you're going to see more of the Russia connection. I think you're going to see more of how the Russians have either funded Trump Empire and all that interaction for many years and how that may have influenced him to do certain things, say certain things, try to extinguish certain sanctions against Russia. And you just help me out here. OK. Sanctions. Sanctions is the word I'm looking for. And the bottom line is, you're going to start seeing correlations to that. Yeah. And coming back to my Russian defector, some of that's going to be proven or disproven by the Mueller report. What I find very interesting, by the way, about this week, is that when he announced Suisbandi himself without conferring with anybody a major geopolitical move, a major military move that he was leaving Syria in the lurch, leaving the Kurds that we have supported, suddenly, all of a sudden, and just changing the balance there without realizing, without knowing, without thinking about what would happen. And everybody criticized him for it. I mean, nobody agreed with him except one person, Vladimir Putin. Putin came out immediately after the announcement by Trump and said, gee, he agreed with that. That was a good move. I'm going to fill in the vacuum even further. Yeah. You guys leave, we get to come in more. We're going to get our toehold in the Middle East again. That's where we want to be. Right. And he's going for territory. He's going for power. And what's it say in the Middle East about our being an ally? It's not the first time we turn our backs when we were in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many local tribesmen became interpreters? How many came and tried to be the liaison between a village and the US military and put their life on the line? And then we turned our backs on them because we wouldn't allow them to immigrate and find a safe haven, if you will. Yeah. We've managed to muck up the whole area. So our relations with Turkey are lousy because we supported the Kurds. Our relationship with the Kurds is really lousy because we turned our backs on them. And ISIS is still there. He said, we've won the war. I love when guys do that. Another gross lie. That's a mission accomplished kind of statement. Mission accomplished. We've seen that before. Yeah, we saw that before. But here, there's no question to anybody's mind, including the military, that ISIS is still there alive and well, and this will encourage them and allow them to expand. Well, remember, our commander-in-chief said the following, and he meant it. November the 13th, 2015, I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. Remember that? Yes, I do. Well, I bet General Mattis didn't believe him. Right. And finally, General Mattis has said, I've had enough. Right. That's just as we don't know what's in the Mueller investigation. We don't know all that was going on in the Oval Office. We don't know all that was going on with Kelly and Mattis. It was much more. The drama was not yet known. It'll come out. So when you think this is all going to hit the pavement, the Mueller investigation and all the details that would potentially constitute an impeachment hearing. I don't think Miller is timing it so that it has a maximum effect for an impeachment. I think he's just doing it professionally. And when he's ready, he's ready. And the press is always speculating, it'll be tomorrow. It'll be next week. I think I heard February, but it's speculation. It's speculation because he's not letting anything leak. Why would he let this leak? Right. There's no purpose in it. So case a raw, it'll be when it'll be. And I don't think anybody's guess is better than anybody else's guess. And I don't have a feeling one way or the other. A hope I have. My hope is, I hope it happens soon because we need to clear the air on this. And if there are impeachable offenses in there, and it sounds like there might be. Remember the thing came out this week about there was a letter signed by Trump about Trump Tower in Moscow? He knew very well what was going on. He denied knowing, but the signature was right on the paper. Well, all these points are starting to converge very slowly. They are. Look at the foundation that was shut down by the New York Attorney General. Yeah. That's another point of lack of confidence or more than lack of confidence, a point of finding that he had his finger in the jar. Big time. Well, I don't care if you're a Republican. I don't care if you're a Democrat. I don't care if you're an independent. When you contribute to a charity, the worst thing you can find out is that money was being abused for your own self-interest and for your own selfish purposes. Just real quick, and I don't mean to take too far of a churn off this one, but when you spend $12,000 for a Tim Tebow football helmet, when you spend donation political dollars and it's coming from the charity and you're using giveaways in Iowa, that's all been discovered from this foundation. When you have artwork, which is portraits of themself and you spend $30,000 of charity money for your own portraits of yourself and then you put them in your own properties, I don't care what side of the fence you sit on. You're not going to appreciate that. It's corruption. And I think it was kind of, and this was known before the election took place two years ago. It was known, but I think it's a good reminder for people to say, who have we hired here? Well, the big question, and this is my last question here today is, why is the base, whatever the base is, still sticking with him? Is it because the Russians are still actively brainwashing them? Is it because they're just not going to be affected? What the defectors said in the tape, he said that if you brainwash them, it takes 15 years to brainwash them. This all started, the brainwashing started before Trump. Once you brainwash a generation of school kids, you can't change their minds. Nothing you do can erase the brainwash. And somehow they've been brainwashed, a la the defectors process, active measures to students in school. You can't do anything about it. I mean, what's happening there? Politics, like religion, are the hardest things to change people's minds about. If it was a value or an attitude, much, much easier. But because politics is very close to a belief system, very, very difficult. And that's what they've been working on is on a belief system. Well, I'm not optimistic about the base changing its mind. Because it hasn't changed its mind yet. A good answer part of your question was, how does this continue on? I'm not sure the immigration issue ever from Donald Trump's position ever wants to be resolved, because that's such a visceral, emotional issue for not only his base, but many others that have voted for him. And if I solve it, where is the motivation for them to be loyal to me? So it is the immigration issue that is a key component of their loyalty to him. A pathological leader is always going to be looking for scapegoats. And a lot of what he does is just that. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Jay. I appreciate it very much. Next week soon, we'll talk some more. We'll have plenty of no cards. Trump week. Chaos. You'll see. Aloha.