 It's Wednesday. It's 11 o'clock. It's March the 3rd, 2021. I'm Tim Appichell, your host, and welcome to What Now America? The title of this show is Blue Lives Matter or Does It? And I chose this title because I had the opportunity to watch Donald Trump at the CPAC convention this weekend, and he had a speech that he had basically rehashed from old political rally speeches that he did prior to the election. He dusted him off and really hadn't changed a whole lot to him. He went down to litany of bullet points about all the things his administration did and all the horrible things Democrats are. But one of the things that caught my attention, that would not leave my memory. And that is to the extent he bragged about how much Blue Lives Matter, the police matter, how he loves the police, how he values the police, and that struck a chord within me. And why is that? Well, this little event that took place on January the 6th, 2021, otherwise known as Storming of Capital. Blue didn't matter that day. Donald Trump had the opportunity to send in support. He refused it. He wanted to watch the Capitol breached. He wanted to disrupt Congress from its duty to validate the electoral votes. He didn't care about those Blue Lives. He didn't care about them one bit. We lost a life. We lost Brian Sicknick. We lost another officer who was blinded. We had 140 other officers were maimed or hurt that day. Donald Trump didn't care about Blue Lives that mattered. And that's why we're going to just go ahead with this topic. And I'd like to introduce my guest first. Good morning, everyone. I'm welcoming Jay Fidel. Thank you, Lisa Clare. Winston Welch and Stephanie Dalton. Welcome to What Now America. So, Jay, coming to you, Donald Trump keeps proclaiming how much he values the police force, yet he didn't do a thing for them. In fact, of anything, he's the one that instigated the entire mob scene at the Capitol. He put those Blue Lives, those officers at risk to begin with. This is hypocrisy to the nth degree. Your thoughts? There were police inside the Capitol as part of the mob, too. They were law enforcement officials or retired officials inside the Capitol as part of the mob. So, I mean, as part of his constituency, I think, it's racist. It's a Black Lives matter versus white supremacists. And there are some people in the law enforcement business, which side with the white supremacists. So, I think he's trying to develop a following there. And, of course, it doesn't matter what the reality is, because he lives in a lie, and he'll lie at any point, at all points along the way. And what I think the CPAC conference means to me is, one is this fantastic biblical image of the idol in gold. Remember that? That was in the Bible, an idol in gold. He is making himself an idol, or he's trying. The other thing I get out of it, the people who were there and some interviews went on, they really, they're really, they're really cockamamie. I tell you, you got their head screwed on wrong. And of course, they're representative of many people in the country. Bottom line is, though, that they're irrational. And I also feel that somehow CPAC shows us that, as we predicted, Trump is losing his mojo. He's not in power anymore. You can't really see him the same way. McConnell can't see him the same way. He's got a couple of senators who follow him around, like Cruz and Josh Hawley. Those guys are not to be admired. But bottom line is, I don't think he's as powerful as he was. If you watched it, he was, it was very lackluster. He was just going down the bullet points off the teleprompter. And he just looked like he didn't really care to be there. But he has no platform. I mean, the media made that clear. He never articulated a platform point on anything. He's still trying to play the cult figure. And I just don't think that works with a lot of people. I think in terms of his ascendancy to sort of a popular hero after presidency, I think it's not working. And I think he's going to lose points doing this kind of thing. He did use the podium to restate the fact that again, the big lie, the election was stolen from him. He went down a few points that again, more people voted than there were ballots. And the idea that the dead people arose from the grave and they came to the polling places and voted for Joe Biden. He also stayed clear. He's steered clear of putting dominion voting machines as a topic. He stayed away from that one and maybe has something to do, the $1.9 billion lawsuits that dominion is throwing at certain political figures and talking heads. So that's interesting. But he didn't waste an opportunity to basically push forward the big lie. And it's working. Look at Senator Johnson. He basically went on record to say those who protested, excuse me, those that rioted, not protested, that's the wrong word. Those that rioted the Capitol weren't Trump followers. They were in Tifa disguised as Trump followers. Can you believe that? That's very hard to believe. That's an obvious lie. It's extraordinary. And yet, one thing does come out of CPAC. And that is that he is the leader of the Republican Party. He is probably going to get the nomination. He's not going to form another political party. And so the stage is set for 2024. And the Republicans in Congress, he still has a number of them who follow him around. So it leaves you uncomfortable for sure what happened in CPAC. I don't think it's as crazy as it might have been, but it's not a good sign. None of this is a good sign. And the thing that really counts is Biden doing stuff. Winston wrote a long email about all the things. Hope you go into this, Winston. All of the things that Biden has done in the last few weeks, it's really commendable. It's impressive. But you know, the one thing he can't seem to do is get through Congress. Today may be a very important day or this week in the Senate. But bottom line is, you know, he can do all these proclamations things, all these executives, discretion things, just as Trump was doing, as Obama was doing query, can he get legislation through Congress? And that's the big test. And if he can't, then the Republicans are that much stronger. Yeah, no, I agree. All right, Jay, thank you for your thoughts. Winston, Jay alluded to the list of accomplishments in only five weeks that Joe Biden has performed. And you're right, the legislative part is a key part of that. But Joe Biden's done quite a bit. And I always feel that the DOP has always had an advantage, and certainly Donald Trump has used this to his advantage, is that you criticize the government, you make them appear to be inept, that government can't do anything right. And it feeds into already an established grievance that Trump followers have a whole, you know, laundry basket full of grievances. And that what you do is you portray the government as adding to their grievances that they're again, they're they're incompetent, and nothing good can come out of government. And that only feels the desire to tear it down, to tear it out, to put democracy under as what happened on January 6. Winston, how do you think Joe Biden's done in the last five weeks? You know, we have a sane good man as our president right now. And I was, I would love to take credit for that list that I sent, but it was actually from Apple News where they amalgamated things that have his first 100 days in an office. And it was a list of promises and what he's done. I was just, if I may, it's like take a minute and run down some of these, purchase 200 million more vaccines for all Americans, expanded access to affordable care act, imposed COVID restrictions from citizens from UK, Ireland, South Africa, and much of Europe issued mandate requiring mass wearing on federal property, and airplanes, buses, you know, trains expanded the eviction moratorium, invoked the Defense Production Act to require businesses to manufacturing vaccines. He's also working with businesses to get time off for these, for people to go get their shots for, you know, all kinds of things to distribute, master their workers. I mean, just basic things that should have been done a year ago. He's expanded food stamp benefits when we're looking at tens of millions of people with food insecurity in this country. Like this is basic things. We won't, we'll probably hit on the minimum wage thing a little bit later. And just the intransigence of the Republicans not wanting to pass the, you know, COVID Relief Act. But, you know, he's also looking at vulnerabilities and supply chains for items such as computer chips, specialized minerals, medical equipment. This should have been done years ago, but COVID brought it all out. He's rejoined the Paris Accord on and on and on. He's finding a way to reunite the children that were forcibly separated from their parents. I mean, one of the most egregious horrendous acts that took place as an official policy, just to be ugly and mean, reversed all types of things that were connected with that and immigration things. So ordered the Justice Department to end private prison contracts. Very interesting. Tasked the Director of National Intelligence to prepare threat assessment of violent domestic extremism. I read today threats to members of Congress have doubled in the last year. I think there's a reason for that. You know, he's expanded tax credits, ending discrimination on fair housing for LGBT Americans on and on and on. So let me interrupt you for a minute, because do you think Joe Biden is doing this because that's what he promises a campaign in his campaign platform? Or does he know that he has limited time as an effective president before, you know, the shift should happen in the Senate for whatever reason? Maybe both, but he's president of our nation and he's doing what's right for for America and Americans. And so while these may have been campaign promises, they're also the right things to do to reverse the most egregious things that have happened in the last four years. And just to to try and stem stop the damage, the bleeding actively, you know, and then we then we go on. This is just basic triage that he's in right now. After that, we can look at some more systemic changes that that will hopefully lead to some lasting things to shore up our democracy. Didn't want to say about the golden, the golden Donald at at CPAC, didn't when that happened in the Bible, didn't weren't the the tribes that worship the the the golden image forced to wander in the cyanide for three generations? Is that is that what happens? And to Hyatt's credit, they've had a nightmare with CPAC being hosted there. They said the stage design resembling the Nazi rune was abhorrent when you have your own hotel and came out and said that they their staff was treated horribly when they asked them to wear masks. And, you know, this is a disaster for for Hyatt, but there was a Nazi symbol symbol on that stage. Exactly. Perfect. And I said, this is abhorrent, that this is taking place in our hotel. So I thought that was quite interesting. And just as an aside, when Alex, when you've lost Alex Jones, who was caught on a hot mic from his 2019 documentary, you can't watch this, he said, I'm so blank, sick of Donald Trump. Man, God, I'm blank sick of him. Jones said in the leaked interview obtained by Southern Poverty Law Center. So when you've lost Alex Jones, I could agree with you more. When you've lost Alex Jones, you really have you have slunk low. Thank you, Winston. I appreciate it. Hey, excuse me, Cynthia. One of the things that Winston mentioned was the abhorrent separation of children from their their parents. As far as the immigration, zero tolerance immigration. I know you felt very strong about that. And I wanted to get your feelings about what transpires now at the border and some of the President Biden's proposals for a path to citizenship, plus the efforts of the United States trying to reunite children with their mothers. Well, I'm glad that they're trying to do it. I'm glad that he created a task force specifically to try to reunite these children with their parents. And shocking news for me anyway, was when I found out that they've had phone numbers, addresses, they've had contact information for these kids from the beginning, and they just let them sit in cages. What would be the potential possible motivation for withholding information that would re reunite families together? I mean, what would you partly I think it would undermine his I'm tough, nobody comes in, we're taking your kids away if you try. And then if he gives them back, then that undermines that whole horrible power play that he was doing. So let me list a couple more of the specific things for immigration that Biden is doing now, President Biden is doing now. First, he reversed Trump's policies that blocked many immigrants from entering the U.S. and sought to cut funding to cities that are deemed lawless, right? He created the task force. He ordered U.S. immigration agencies to set new strict limits for arresting or deporting. He paused construction of the border wall and reversed the Trump administration's ban on travelers from certain majority Muslim countries. He pushed for congressional passage of immigration overhaul proposal, including an eight-year path to citizenship and green cards. He also instituted a four-year extension of the DACA program, allowing dreamers who immigrated illegally as children, right, to stay in the country. He also extended the temporary pause in federal student loan payments through September, and that's getting some of the other stuff that he did. But sticking with just the immigration stuff, Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley put out an article in NBC News that they have now found 105 children. Of course, there's still 506 left to go, but they believe that 322 of these parents were deported. So it's going to be extra hard for them. Let me throw out a possibility, and this kind of ties into a question we received from Mr. Allen, that he said he likes Donald Trump, and because for the sole reason that Donald Trump pisses off people, and he likes that. Do you think Mr. Allen is representative of many Donald Trump's followers, that Donald Trump is the provocateur that irritates Democrats, and for that reason alone, Donald Trump should be our president of the United States? Now putting words in Mr. Allen's mouth about that point, but he's basically saying he likes Donald Trump because he pisses people off. What do you say to that? Well, I think that there's a lot of people that are angry people, they're frustrated and unsatisfied, and so they're mad, they're angry, and they want someone to yell for them. And so maybe that's partly why I think that Donald Trump appeals to that part of some people, and when it's a real strong part of themselves, when they enjoy somebody else's misery, what does that say about that person? Hmm, not the kind of person I want in the presidency, that's for sure. And if that's the only reason that this Tim Allen guy has for lanking Trump is because he pisses people off, that's a pretty shallow reason for lanking somebody, if you ask me. All right, I would agree. Okay, but we welcome all people to write in and opine, and we enjoy their questions, whether we agree with them or not. So thank you, Mr. Allen. Appreciate it. Stephanie, I'm going to switch gears here dramatically and go to New York. Governor Cuomo has quite a bees nest on his hands, pertaining either to data regarding COVID deaths in New York, or the three allegations of sexual harassment now levied against him. You wrote in a bit before the show and talking about to what degree does harassment constitute harassment? And could you explore that a little bit for us? Thanks. I think that we're talking about what kind of government do we want here, and we know that yes, we've got adversarial, but I thought that our founders and our paperwork is looking to more compromise, more negotiation, more problem solving, and that sort of thing. And also, what of the behaviors that are of interest to the country from their lawmakers and their people in government? I just don't understand the level of this dialogue we're in now and this accusation and this adversarial facing off against one another on the most these levels of conduct that are of those interests, those levels of conduct. Is that what we want to be focusing on? I mean, if we're going to focus on that level of conduct, then why aren't we chasing and now cataloging and what is the Washington Post keeping track not only of the lies, but what about what we're finding out now about Donald Trump's threats? Career damaging threats, also mortal threats, and the kinds of things that he uses to retain his status in this group that wants to operate at this level. I maintain that the nation does not really want to be here. We want to be at what Biden is trying to bring forth, and we want to learn better how to do that, which evidently we were once before. On that matter of Cuomo, I think that the United States, we citizens in the whole world, ought to thank men because they've made enormous progress on how they relate to women. So when are we going to get around to looking at how far we have come? I don't know about you all, but the kinds of things that are coming up as sexual harassment are surprising me from my own experience as a youngster. So are you saying that these allegations diminished the Me Too movement? I don't know if that's how I should interpret. Good question, Tim. As I said in my note, does this mean we're glad to have the handshake gone because that might be too titillating to some women who would find that assault? I mean, what about the kissing of the European tradition and the Russians and all of these kinds of things? Well, Governor Cuomo actually came out just prior to this show stating that this is how he learned how to greet people from his father. And it's, I hate to say it, but in many Italian families, that is a common greeting. But the point to make because his father was prominent and his generation and that generation and Cuomo is already old too, he's a passing generation, but obviously his father was a model for him. So the treatment, the interaction between the genders, the sexes was completely different then. And we've come to understand better how we're wanting to relate to each other in this contemporary time. And I think Cuomo should have been given the favor by these staff members of not tattling on him to the bloody Congress and the nation, but going up to him and saying, hey, Well, that's a staff member issue. And they may have been negligent in their duties to do exactly what you're saying. I agree with you. I agree. Because I think this man who staff is for working to death for the nation and his state should have been advised by his staff. I absolutely think that's a very good point to him and that they ought to be considering. And then on the other hand, what is sexual harassment? I mean, is it putting your hand on people's arms? I mean, what, what is it? We may have to dedicate a show of politicians and this topic. I'm sorry, we won't have time today, but I do agree with we have to kind of figure out where that starts and where that ends. Yeah, but thank you, man, for coming as far as you have since I was very young. And that kind of sexual harassment really was. Yeah, harassment was harassment. Okay, I'm going to go international and I'm going to I'm going to take a left turn to Jay Fidel. Jay, President Biden has basically sent a message to Russia, to Vladimir Putin. And he's also in not a direct way with Saudi Arabia. What do you think is lacking from the Saudi Arabia response? And how do you feel President Biden is basically brought on with Russia? I think there's two schools of thought. You know, one school is well, well, Trump never did all that. Trump was, Trump was soft on dictators. He was soft on Putin, soft on MBS. Let him get away with it. I mean, it was gross. And anybody who followed the news with any sense of morality would have seen how gross it was. I mean, no grosser than some of the things he did domestically, of course, which were atrocities. But these things were gross, both in Russia and in Saudi Arabia, for that matter, other countries like, for example, Syria. But now Biden goes out and he takes at least some sanctions against Russia for what happened with Putin and what was his name, the politician, his adversaries in jail now. Okay. And in the case of Khashoggi, he started to lay the release of that report. He said he was going to, Biden said, we're going to give that report out on X Day, but a couple of days later, he gave it out. And, you know, he's, he's soft, arguably soft on taking sanctions against MBS or Saudi Arabia. So there's two schools of thought. One is good that he came out, whether Trump was hiding it, but, you know, should he go further? And this, and this brings to me, you know, my, my, my thread to, to, to identify as the, as the, as the point of this week. The point of this week is that reality is setting in on Joe Biden. The reality of the press, they're criticizing him about things, you know, that are far less worthy of criticism than what Trump is doing every single day. And, you know, and an example of Cuomo is a good example. What did Cuomo do wrong exactly? He did not rape anybody, you know, in the, in the dressing room of a department store in Manhattan. He didn't do that. He didn't do rape. Touching maybe? Or not even touching. Yeah, not even touching. You know, may I kiss you? I mean, these, these are, these are not really crimes. I'm sorry. So I feel that, as in the case, you know, of the, the recall petition on the governor of California, that, that yes, there are some Democrats who Democrats like to shoot each other, you know, in the foot. They can't stick together on anything. I'm sorry. It seems to be coming out that way. But also, I think there's a lot of conservatives behind these moves against these two governors. And Trump is probably very happy about that. And so, so is Putin, because I think there could be a lot of disinformation, misinformation, you know, riling up the crowd, creating divisiveness in this country. I don't think we should focus on Cuomo at all. We have crises going on. The country is in crisis in so many ways. COVID is only one of our, our republic, our, our democracy is still obviously in jeopardy. There's so many issues that have to be cleaned up. Here we are fooling with Cuomo and the governor of California. But I'm just, I'm saying that reality is setting in now. And I think the important message is we're with you, Biden. You may, you may not go far enough. Sometimes you may go not too far, you know, or not too far other times. But with you, you're doing a wonderful job compared to Trump. And I think we've got to get behind him. What I really hate to see is, is the resistance he's getting from Republicans in Congress, which we should talk about. I hope we have time for that. Oh, we don't. Oh, I'm sorry. And the problem is getting from his own, you know, his own party. I think, I think we've got to see him as a leader who is saving us from the damage that Trump did. Okay. Well, I'm going to go around the horn here and I'll come back to you, Jay, for last comments. Winston, your last comment, either on the international front or the domestic front with President Biden. Thank God we have Joe Biden as president of the United States. Send him your love. Send him best wishes for his health and his ability to lead us out of the, the morass of and chaos and destruction of the last four years and set us on a right course. He may make some mistakes. He may do things that we don't 100% agree with. But that's okay because compared to 99% of what we've been through the last few years, having this man in office right now is, it's everything. And it's, I'm just, I'm just relieved and I'm sleeping at night and I think all the rest of us are too. Well, it's only been five weeks. So the best is yet to come, as they say. Thank you, Winston. Cynthia, your last, last thoughts for the show? Well, I'd like to speak to the Cuomo thing just for a moment because nobody touched on this part. I do not put it past Donald Trump or his minions. He tried to bribe somebody. We know that he threatened Cuomo. You're going down. You're never gonna have a career. I'm gonna take you out of the knees. I don't think that bribing someone to lie is above this man. So it's possible that these three people that are coming out were bribed to come out. Okay, that thing that he accused, sorry. Yeah, but all allegations need to be taken seriously, whether you know, you, you look, you must attach something to that or not. They have to be taken seriously. They have to be investigated. They're doing the right thing. They got the attorney general to do an independent investigation. Regardless of how they came about, that's just the way of the world now, be it in private government or private or government jobs, that's the way it is. Well, I agree with Stephanie in the sense that we need to be more specific. Me too came out. And so, you know, sexual harassment is not an okay thing to do anymore. It's even illegal, but they didn't say what constitutes sexual harassment. So that I think is a gray area that really needs to be cleaned up and be specific. Well, if you go to any kind of training at any job, they've been teaching it for the last 10 years, 15 years. They've been pretty specific about what constitutes making of either sex uncomfortable with behavior at the workplace or be a government or private workplace. So it's pretty well defined, I think. But well, again, we're gonna have to do a show just on this topic, I think. I can see that now. All right, Cynthia, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Stephanie, your last words for the, for the show? Two points. Two points. Really, boo, boo, bad, bad, especially for New York State Senator that is James Souftet, something like that, who has brought these allegations against, who has maybe been subject to the kind of thing that Cynthia's mentioning. But who is this man to be talking about this issue with regard to this hero Cuomo, who saved his state from COVID? So I just wanted to shout out against him and how he has no business discussion. And he looks a little bit young, but he may know a lot more about this than you would even imagine from this behavior. But anyway, let me just say that a shout out for Liz Cheney. I think that she needs a lot of support from the whole nation, all of her constituents, which are all of us, to continue to stay on this course that is dignified, noble, and aligned with the principles of governing in this nation. Thank you, Liz Cheney. All right. Yeah. Good point. Donald Trump threw her name under the bus at CPAC quite severely. So good point. I don't agree with her politics, but I agree with her taking a stand to preserve the rule of law and democracy. So good for her. Thank you very much, Stephanie. Appreciate it. Jay, last word. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I think reality is setting in on Joe Biden, and it's too bad for people to recognize how different he is, as Winston said. But I think it's clear the Republicans are going to attack him at every point along the way. They want to make him look bad. They want to frustrate his efforts for initiatives in Congress, just as they did for Obama. And successfully so, or nearly successfully so. So I think we can expect attacks on Biden from the Republicans and it appears from the Cuomo incident, you know, that there'll be attacks from the Democrats too. And this will just be very bad for keeping Biden wherever he needs to be. That is, as our leader, our president. And they're doing this. Republicans are doing this to, you know, to enhance their chances for sweeping victories in 2022 and 2024. Very important that Biden gets something through Congress. I'm very worried about that happening even now. And in fact, Maisie Hirono was going to be on the show here in a couple of hours. I'd be very interested to hear what she has to say about the atmosphere in the Senate. Bottom line is... Yeah, I'd like to, boy, I'd love to be part of that interview because, you know, the COVID stimulus bill and, you know, how it's mixed with the $15 minimum wage is really something we're seeing. I'm not sure the Republicans would support it if the $15 wasn't part of it. They would do anything they could to make Biden look bad. Yeah, I agree. I think where politics are at that point that we said it before, you can't have a victory because it'll make us look bad. And it's not for the benefit of the country. It's never for the benefit of the country. It's all partisan. It's all self-interest. And it's all attacking the other guy rather than doing anything for the benefit of the country. So will he proceed without trying to negotiate, trying to compromise and coming up empty like Obama did after all that? Yeah, good question. And at some point the answer would be yes. Okay, we've run out of time. I want to thank everyone who's come to What Now America? Jay Fidel, Cynthia Leeson-Clair, Stephanie Dalton, and Winston Welch. Thank you very much. And join us next week at Wednesday, 11 o'clock. I'm Tim Apacheo, your host, What Now America? Thank you. Aloha.