 Trump week, you're on Think Tech. I'm Jay Fidel. We have Tim Epicella and Cynthia Sinclair. We're all together for our Friday 11 o'clock. Festival. Festival. That's an interesting way to put it. For the year of Woodstock again? What's on your dance card this morning, Tim? Well, what's on my dance card is what's been on my dance card since Joel Scarborough in Morning Joe came out and coined the term Moscow Mitch. Wow. How did that catch on and how did it stick? I know how it stuck, but how did that catch on? That's amazing to me. Well, now it's really out, isn't it? It's in the paper big time. They're selling t-shirts saying, Nyet Moscow Mitch. You've got buttons and copycups. I want to get one. Tell us the story and why it's important. Well, it's important is that because no sooner did Robert Mueller testify under oath in the House, many that the Russians are actively engaged in 2020 election as I think as we sit here. He said it explicitly. Yeah. And that's the part where Robert Mueller came up very passionately, more so than any of his other testimonies. That was the biggest message he gave on both of those appearances in Congress. Absolutely. So that was his real impassioned plea is that we've got to do something. You know, he didn't say we got to do something, but as we sit here, they're actively working the 2020 election. So no sooner did that take place in the next day, Mitch McConnell denied two bills to go on to the Senate floor for vote. And one of those I believe was sponsored by the floor to Senator Marco Rubio. He had his hand on that one. That was a Republican sponsored bill. And the bottom line is now we have a total of eight bills that Senator Moscow Mitch McConnell will not let on the Senate floor for vote. Okay, today my question is why Cynthia, why is McConnell stopping any action to protect us from Russia? Well, because and the reason why he got that term is because there was this big multi trillion dollar aluminum plant that Russia was putting was backing and wanting to put in Kentucky in his home state. That's funny in Kentucky. Then isn't that interesting how that works out that yeah, he was suddenly maybe so we don't know for positive. But that's where all of this conjecture is coming from that you know what's going on with this well remember the $1 trillion deal remember that Mitch McConnell is the guy who was married to a Chinese national and who for his last birthday got a multi million dollar gift from her company. And maybe that company is associated with the Chinese government. So what what emerges? Tell me if you agree. What emerges is that Mitch McConnell is not just an ideologist on, you know, the way right side of things or an obstructionist in Congress or just a nasty satonic man. He's actually out for money. That's what the thoughts seem to suggest. Imagine that. I have something about that too. You know, he was his net worth was two million something, two million five approximately. Okay. And then within 10 years, it went to 25 million. So that if you break it down is about what two plus million a year or more than that over the last 10 years for it to go up by $10,000. He's in the same ballgame that Trump is in. Let's use the power of the office to make money. Well, make money. But I'd like to read back to the past. I want to go back to Helsinki, where Donald Trump is right next to Putin saying, I don't know why he would. That was the election meddling. Remember that Helsinki proclamation? Yeah, ridiculous. So what did he say just yesterday to a reporter that asked about the Russian interference in the 2020 election? And that quote, you don't believe this, do you? The reporter. Okay. So Donald Trump, the inflection is important. You don't believe it, do you? That was the inflection. But I do. And you, you, you, you may say or you don't believe it, but I do. But the bottom line is he's trying to go back to the days where I won this election fair and square without any, any help from anyone. And the Russians had nothing to do with my victory. He's been on that bandwagon since the day he entered office three years ago. So what I'm saying is it may, may not just be a profit for Mitch McConnell, it may be Donald Trump calling Mitch McConnell on the phone saying, I'm tired of this. I don't want any bills that are going to talk about election security because it's a moot point, elections over, and we didn't have interference. I'm sure, I'm sure I'm tired of it. I'm tired of you and everyone else talking about it. I don't want to see any on the, any, any bill on the Senate floor. The government is being run by rascals. You know, last night on one of the Netflix I saw our most remarkable movie was a documentary called The Gilded Age, America's Gilded Age. It was the day of the robber barons. It was the day of the guys who ran the railroads and the steel mills. It was Vanderbilt and Carnegie and Morgan. Rockefeller came later. But you know these guys in the late 19th century rascals, now they have endowments and charitable trusts. Clean things up. Clean things up. But you know in those days they were completely lawless and rascal and there was no tax, okay, so they could accumulate incredible wealth while the people in the tenements were starving. That's a very interesting period in history and the disparity of income was huge and the rascalism was huge. And then there was a Midwest, Kansas mostly, thing called populism where the people in the 1890s said, you know, we've had enough from Wall Street. Wall Street is controlling us through the railroads. They're taking all our money by charging high freight fees for our wheat and the like, which was selling to Europe. Anyway, the point is that this is not dissimilar. This kind of rascalism and popularism, populism, whatever and you know the whole notion of disparity and wealth that was obscene and getting more obscene every day happened already in American history. The question is whether now it's worse or different in some profound way. It's dead on same. Remember back then who was there? Who did they buy as President of the United States? McKinley. And who are they scared of? A guy named Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt. So what would be the safest thing is to put him as a VP pick because then you corral him. He can't do anything as VP, but they didn't know that McKinley was going to be assassinated. So their arch enemy, Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States. So did Trump get purchased? In many ways he did. Yeah. I mean they just dawned at me watching that movie that we're reliving in some ways what happened in the Gilded Age, which was really a horrendous time in American history. And we're having the same kind of people in Washington are rascals, running the government total rascals and this is a disparity and they want to grow the disparity. They want unlimited wealth. They want it in connection with their public offices. It's corruption on an enormous scale. My only point of contention is rascals over the many decades have become an enduring term. Back then it wasn't. And rascals is a nice euphemism for how they behaved back then and how they're behaving today. Yeah, there are a lot of other words, but many of them are not fit for discussion. Yeah, right, right. Hemigod comes to mind. We were walking in today. So what's your first point today, Cynthia? Oh gosh. Well, I thought it was really amazing that all of the faith leaders that Washington National Cathedral came together with a statement that he cries against we have no decency, have we no decency, which is what was the cry of people fighting against McCarthyism back in the day. And they chose those words carefully and specifically because of that. Have we no decency? And I have a quote that says we can be better as a people, as a nation, as faith leaders, we are meant to lead the way. If we don't, who will? What do you get out of that? Well, I'm hoping that it's going to lead some of the Christians. I use quotes because I don't believe they're being very Christian at all. These evangelicals that are going against everything the Bible says, everything that is against what their doctrine says, and yet they call themselves Christians. Is this a meaningful event, though, in the larger scope? Because the base isn't going to change its mind over this. And the evangelicals, you know, in large, large numbers in the in the red states are not going to change their minds about this. Well, I agree. But their influence moving forward will be diminished because everyone will remind them about their immoral authority and how that no longer should stand as they have supported the horrendous acts and words of the president of the United States. Their moral, their moral ground standing is, is, is quite, quite shaky. I think what I hear you saying, and it was an article I sent you guys this week about trying to fit Trump and his administration into a moral analysis of the country. And it's very, it can't. I mean, he's not moral. And what about the kids, you know, who are going to inherit the country after he's done with it? Shouldn't they be speaking up? Shouldn't they be voting him out of office? Is there a tide turning at some, at some level? You know, we've always talked about how the tide is turning and we talk about it today in Congress. But what about at the fundamental level, evangelical level, the base level? Aren't people getting it already? They've seen it for three years now. And it's a bad thing to see. And if you, if you watch, you see those promises are not being kept. Another article about how he has failed to meet his promise in any way on the economics on the economy. And he'll change the subject and distract us. But the fact is the economy is really not doing anything along the lines that he was promising, manufacturing, for example. I think everyone's looking past that because there's a cult of personality going on here. And that eyes right into their belief system. And to some degree, I think it, it appeals to their inner racism. I'm not saying all evangelicals are racist, but I am saying there's a certain portion of them that may harbor these kind of feelings in it. And they checkmark right along with when Trump comes out with these racist statements. Yeah, that's interesting. He raised that. And that's one of my questions about why today. Why did he raise this? And he doubled down and continues to double down in making racist comments and beating up people, you know, who are clearly coming see on the day about Baltimore. So let's take a short break. Okay. And we're going to come right back. We're going to talk about why Trump does the racism card. This is Think Tech. Trump week, we'll be right back. Hello, everybody. My name is Walter Kauai. I, I'm your host for a monthly live streaming video entitled Ukulele Songs of Hawaii, where I bring on guests who we enjoy talking story about the music industry here in Hawaii, sometimes going back 50 decades if possible, and always having some good fun talking with entertainers. We're here located at Think Tech Hawaii downtown Honolulu at the Pioneer Plaza building and in their studios. And so join me next month for Ukulele Songs of Hawaii. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. My program airs every other Monday at one o'clock on Think Tech Hawaii. Most of my programs deal with my own life and law experience. Recently I interviewed Alex Gempel, who I have known for over 30 years about his voyage across the sea as a lawyer from Tokyo to Hawaii. Those are the type of stories that I like to bring and like to talk about. Human stories about law and life. Aloha. Okay, we're back. We're live with Trump week. Tim Epicheles, Cynthia Sinclair and me and the question hanging there for the break is why? Why does he go after racism? Isn't that just going to get him in trouble? It doesn't seem rational, you know? Why? Didn't get him in trouble the first time. That launched his whole campaign. Remember, it came down the escalator and said, Mexicans sending their criminals, their drug, you know, their drugs, they're sending rapists. Oh, 35% grew right then and there. They loved it. It's getting worse, isn't it? Isn't it getting worse? And it's getting black and white too before it was Hispanics. But now it's black and white. Charlottesville, that is you. Jews will not replace us. I mean, it's all about this white... So what is the analysis? I mean, can you figure how this is going to help him? I mean, what he's really telling the African-Americans is don't vote for me. I mean, and I hope they come out in droves and don't vote for him. So, you know, why does he do this? It seems counterproductive, doesn't it? It seems counterproductive, but what's worse is, again, are Republican House members, or Republican senators are just mute, standing up and speaking out. And they'll go down in history as being mute on this topic. Well, they will. History is being written right now for us. And it's a sad story, but maybe there's hope. Maybe the base will see this. Maybe the base will realize that he hasn't helped them. He's made them poorer. He's increased the disparity. He's a rascal and a demagogue. Maybe they'll see it. I hope the press can keep going. You know, the LA Times in trouble, there was a piece about how they're having these meetings, these crisis meetings about the paper. Oh, not good. And of course, a lot of local papers have closed up in the country over the past few years. It's only the big ones. And he calls the New York Times failing, and he criticizes them. And he's after the Washington Post by going after Bezos. He's trying to shut down the First Amendment, I mean, for freedom of the press. When he goes after the places like Baltimore, and yet he doesn't realize that there's so many places that are the states. It's not even the lowest income city, right? That's not even the poorest city. And it's definitely not the poorest state. And most of his base comes from the states that are the poorest. Oh, it could be that people are ultimately going to get tired of this. And when I say people, I mean everybody people, even the base, you know, who is sort of radioactive on him. But it's possible that, you know, when we get tired of this, I'm tired of this. Oh, well, the luster hasn't been worn off in three years. And I don't know if the next year and a half is going to wear off any further. This might be a five-year trend. It could be a 10-year trend. This kind of bad, poor behavior. And it's almost like watching two kids in the school yard fight and how exciting that is. Well, the country's going awry. I mean, you know, his foreign policy hasn't helped very much. North Korea is sending missiles. You know, he's got a strange relationship going with Japan. China is taking steps against us because he threatened to raise another $300 billion of tariffs. 10 percent. 10 percent, yeah. And that's so he has room to grow with it. Why? What's he doing that? He's in the middle of talks with them. This is so crazy on the surface. He's in the middle of talks with them. And all of a sudden, he wants to do $300 billion of tariffs. What possible benefit does that have on an attempt to ameliorate the difficulty? Well, in Donald Trump's mind, it's the same strategy as any kind of negotiation. Pack up your papers. You put them in your folder. You head out the door towards the elevator, and you're waiting for them to say, stop, stop, stop. Please come back in. They're not coming back in. That's his strategy. They've been through this before. Real estate strategy, you know, it's very simple. It's, you know, and it's a poor strategy, because guess what? The Chinese are going to call his bluff, and they are retaliating. They already said they're going to retaliate this morning. Something as simple as shoes, 70 percent of all of our shoes come from China. Something that simple, and it's going to really affect everyone, every single person that buys shoes, 70 percent of them. Well, anyway, let's talk about that, because Donald Trump would disagree with that statement you just said. I hate it. But Donald Trump said, it's been proven over and over, people don't pay for the tariffs. Now, what cause of reality is he in? Because Lawrence Kudlow, his, you know, economic chief, you know, of the Treasury said, oh, both sides will be, will suffer. Both sides will suffer. The American consumer will suffer. Yes, we will. We're going to pay more for shoes. The people in the South can't afford it. It's a tax on us. And the amount of money that goes into Treasury is peanuts compared to the amount of money he threw away on the Tax Reform Act of 2017. But this goes to your earlier point about why does he do these things? It's obviously going to hurt him. I mean, his own, you know, his own treasurer says it's going to, both sides will suffer. So why does he double down, triple down and say it's been proven over and over that people don't pay for the tariffs? Why does he do that? What does he really want? What does he want in doing this? It's really not defined what he wants. No, it's not. But he wants his base to be riled up. Yes, more than anything. And I think that's his main motivation is trying to keep his base riled up. And from what I heard this morning on the news, even as they were interviewing Amy Klobuchar and the farmers and how all this money that has gone to the Iowa farmers, yet they're not really seeing it. What's happening is the big farms are getting it and the little farmers are just dying. Yet they are going out of business. That could be the strategy. That could be the strategy. That happened in the 1890s, too, by the way. Okay. Well, 1980s. Farming, yeah. Let's switch to the Democrats. Since you mentioned Amy, you know, Klobuchar. Let's switch to Democrats. So I had a couple of, since we last got into it, a couple of debates, most recently a couple of days ago. And my reaction is, why do they keep on beating each other up? There was a piece in the morning Times newsletters suggesting, gee, isn't the real mission here to beat Trump? Why are they beating each other up? Can't they conduct a debate and a campaign without beating each other up? What's the problem? They were going after Biden more than anything and his legacy with Obama. So they're beating up one of the most popular presidents in the Democrats world. And so it seems like they're just biting their nose off to spite their own face. Kind of, you know, the old phrase. And I liked what Yang said. I can't remember his first name. He's the businessman, entrepreneur guy. And he's really smart. No, not Tom Steyer. No, it's Andrew Yang, I think. He was talking about how, you know, there's this big thing about how all the jobs are being taken over by illegal immigrants. And he's like, that is totally false. They're being taken over because they're being automated. They're being run by robots. They're being replaced by robots. And that's going to continue to keep happening until we base that. So we have a crazy conversation going on. And then one woman said to me, they're all lying. And that's because we've been taught the last couple of years that they're all, everybody's lying about everything, very disturbing that people consider the Democrats to be lying too. So why do they do that? Isn't that silly? Is there a purpose in that? I mean, one after the other, it's not just one or two of them. They keep on throwing darts at each other. Is it necessary to have- The obvious target is on the other side of the party. His name is Trump. Not one word of impeachment, not one word. And all those debates was uttered by any of those candidates. Even without the impeachment factor, they didn't talk about the things that he's done that are wrong and how they're going to fix them. And that's what I wanted to hear. Well, that's a strategy. And I didn't hear it at all. That's a strategy. That's a strategy. And the strategy is talk and convince the American people what you're going to do, not what you're against, what you're for, what you're not against. But you've got to bring in Trump into this equation sometime, somewhere. Well, actually, it could be a strategy to say, look, here's the things I'm not going to do. Okay, I'm not going to wreck foreign policy. You know, whatever I do, I'm not going to wreck. I'll find a good policy, but I won't be wrecking foreign policy. And I'm not going to wreck the economy, like with pushing power around the way that happened. This is a mindbender and mindbender. There's so much obfuscation going on there. And I'm not going to use my department as proxies to tear the wings off the environmental program and off the social safety net program. I'm not going to do that. And I'm not going to encourage hatred and bigotry around the country. There's a gun shop was reported in the paper somewhere in the south, which had the pictures of the squad on the wall. Why is a gun shop have pictures of the squad on the wall as a bull billboard to the they're sending a message, why don't you go out and shoot these people? Right? I mean, that's that I get that directly from Trump. That's the sort of there's three tiers. It's him by himself. It's him through his department. And it was obvious government departments. And of course, bar William Barr does his bidding and Mitch and Mitch. It's right. There's another tier there in Congress. And it's him through the gun shop owners who are his base and who are really reacting and following his lead on things. If I were running for president, I was not going to do any of that. And I wish somebody would say that already. I was very disappointed in the lack of things that were not said. I cannot believe it. Not one word was uttered about it. So our groovy candidate, Mary Ann Williams, right? I've got a quote from her. This is a part of the dark underbelly of American society, the racism, bigotry. We've never dealt with a figure like this in American history before. This man, our president, is not just a politician. He's a phenomenon. And an insider political game will not be able to defeat him. The only thing that will defeat him is if we have a phenomenon of equal force, and that phenomenon is a moral uprising of the American people. Well, yeah, but they got an uprising around somebody. They got a rally around somebody. I mean, there was a very interesting article in the Civil Beat about TMT. And the point was TMT is a rally point. It's not about telescopes. It's not about science. It's about a rally point. And so the human condition is you need a rally point. The base needs him to be a rally point. We've got to find a better president. But my question to you guys is who might that be? I'm not so keen on Biden anymore like I was to begin with. I like Warren. I still like her. I've liked her all along. She's got plans for all these things. And I don't think she's afraid of Trump at all. I think she would take him on head on. She's got the experience. She's got a good head. I like her. I like her plans, too. I like the way he thinks about things. So for me, it's Warren. A rally point around the existing candidates. I don't see that shining star. Actually, someone suggested, I think it was Michael Moore. He said, don't ever underestimate the power of Michelle Obama. And he was serious. When is the deadline? Yeah, that's, you know, all those things. You know, I was high on Harris until she went after Biden in the first campaign. And I said, that's so tacky. Is that necessary? Why attack him that way? No point to it. She knows his record, all of it. So it was a shallow attack. It was a shallow attack. It did not portray to me high character. And so I'm down on her. So where's the other one? Who is a class act here? About as close as it gets for me right now, and I could change my mind tomorrow, is Buttigieg. I think he's a class act. He's smart. And he's, you know, he has military service. He was in Afghanistan. But, you know, I don't know if he's going to make it either. Well, of course, the polls are showing that Biden is quite ahead in those numbers. Right, still. But as I said in our earlier show, Biden's problem is the same as John McCain, and that is his age. And so his VP pick will be absolutely critical. If he would become the nominee, whoever is going to be on that ticket is critical because that's how it was between McCain and Sarah Palin. And Sarah Palin wasn't the right pick. Oh, she underblinded him totally. He would have been a president. Let's assume that Biden can find the words, you know, and sound articulate. Let's assume that he can look strong and deal with Trump who will increasingly attack him going forward. Who should who should he prefer as a vice presidential candidate? Warren, I'm still with that. She's got the plans. I like the plans that she has. They make sense. Somebody doesn't agree with you. Yeah. Right. You don't agree. Oh, no, I don't. Because here's what you're going to need. You're going to need to convince the Republicans that can't stand Trump. They're looking for someone they can as palatable. Okay. Then you've got to convince the independence of the same exact thing. And then, of course, you've got to convince the Splinter Party of the Democratic Party. You're going to have to convince them of that. But you're going to lose some of the Democrats. I, you know, I have to say it, but Biden's going to have to pick a safe choice, a safe pick that all three sectors can say, I don't like it, but I can live with it. You know, it's true. And I would, I would have to agree. But let me say, looking back at the, the Gilded Age and the movie, I think, I think it's possible, just logically possible in our time that we could have a revolution, if you want to call it that, from the base, from the people who aren't making money, who are on the wrong side of the curve, who ultimately, one of these days, they're going to realize that the swamp he promised, you know, to fix, it's worse now. He's the biggest swamp we've had since 1890. And we, you know, if people could only get their minds around that, then they would go for a revolutionary and they would probably like Elizabeth Warren, because she's capable of not only thinking it out, but doing it. Anyway, closing remarks. Cynthia, you first. I know we had a lot of points to cover here. Okay, closing remark, and we never have time. We sort of covered this, but I think it's important. I wrote it down specifically as a quote, for a reason. And it's from Robert Mueller. There were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every American. And we can't say that often enough. No, we can't say it often enough. That's what I- But it isn't happening. It's not. Okay, closing remark. Election security 2020. Don't anyone forget the, the moniker, Moscow Mitch, and rally that on the, you know, be that a rallying point, because that is going to actually change something, because that's a moniker, the party of Trump, the Republicans don't want on them. Thank you, Tim. Yep. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you, Jay. I cannot wait till next week. As always. As always. Thank you. Aloha. Aloha.