 Jay Fidel, this is Think Tech. More specifically, this is Trump Week. We're back to broadcasting on a given Wednesday, and here we have Tim Apachele joining us by phone. And we're going to talk about what's happened, the amazing things that have happened in this past Trump week. Hi, Tim. Good afternoon, Jay. Yeah, good to talk to you. So let's talk about what happened. I guess primarily it's Iran. Let's get right into that. Here we are a few days after the assassination. There's been a lot of commentary about it, so maybe we need to clear the air and find out where we stand right now, Tim. Can you tell me? Well, I can't tell you where we stand right now because the gang of eight have not been briefed that I'm aware of, of the specifics of the assassination and whether or not it was an imminent threat. So the whole news media is doing a lot of speculation, not really knowing the details of why Soleimani was taken out. And we know why he was taken out, but why was he taken out at this particular time? Well, you know, they haven't really told us, and I don't think they're ever going to tell us. And they're having some kind of classified meeting with some committees in Congress this morning. And somehow I think that's going to creep out. That's going to leak out what they say. But let me make further speculation and say they really had no immediate reason. Judging from the remarks they've made, though, they were concerned that Soleimani was going to do another attack on other American embassies, Hither and Yahn. And they had some razor thin intelligence on that. That's what we know about it. There wasn't much intelligence. And they were trying to prevent another attack on an American. I think that's what they're going to say in this classified briefing, which will slip out by virtue of one congressman or another. But that's really not enough. And I don't think... Well, sorry. Go ahead. Well, I mean, let's look at all the speculation that this creates by not having the specifics of why at this time Soleimani was assassinated. The speculation is this is for the election purposes. You know, wartime president always does much, much better in the election when there's a conflict going on. So, I mean, all this has done is create a whole lot of speculation and conspiracy theories. And it would be nice to have a concrete reason or rationale of why this assassination took place when it did. Well, you know, it strikes me just in this discussion with you that if there was a real reason, an immediate reason to assassinate him, there would have been no significant downside in telling the world about it, or at least telling the American people about it. Because in that case, the whole media result would have been different. And I suspect that the difference would have been that nobody would have, you know, charged him with bad judgment. Nobody, the retaliation would not have been appropriate if he had had a really good reason and enunciated it. But I think that he was being what he always is, a liar. I think he was holding back information still is. I don't think there's any good intelligence reason for this assassination. And he therefore created the situation we're in now with retaliation and with an ongoing war with Iran and the loss of relationships with our allies. So, I mean, there's so many bad judgment points in what has happened here over the past few days that it's clear again that as you say, you know, he's playing for his, he's playing for war. He's playing to use war as a way to improve his campaign prospects. And he's being a sole proprietorship president. He hasn't used his chiefs of staff. He hasn't used his secretary of state or state department. He just tells them what to do and they jump up. He hasn't told Congress except for Lindsey Graham in advance. And he hasn't told the American people. So he's just playing in his own way and defending his, you know, his sole proprietorship government. I think we're going to be very concerned. On the other hand, right now he's playing to his base and he's telling his base he really needs to, you know, vindicate American interests in the Middle East and he's going to continue to do that. And they love a good fight. I think they're with him. I think, you know, if you look at his ratings here next few days, you'll see that actually he's going to be doing better among his base. But among the people who care about the Middle East and care about avoiding wars, endless wars in the Middle East, I don't actually think they're going to like it at all. They don't like it and the world doesn't like it. So the question is, where does that play in the election? Well, again, it's not coming out of my mouth that this is exactly what's going on. This is not necessarily the rerun of the movie, Tail Wags the Dog, but you're going to have a lot of people out there saying, this is exactly what it's all about. And so, you know, this could have been all avoided, the speculation, this kind of criticism, had he not just shared the information with these, you know, the intelligence committee or the security committee, the gang of eight. And that wasn't done. I mean, select members, Lindsey Graham and select members were notified of this pending assassination. Now, Lindsey Graham was told on the golf course at Verdevago. I really don't think that counts. Well, with the sole proprietorship of this presidency, I guess it does. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, the other thing is revealed by this is the lawlessness of the administration. It's completely lawless. The Constitution required in the circumstances and declaration of war. Now they're, you know, hedging by saying, we had an imminent threat. I don't think the threat was imminent. They're never going to be able to establish that. We didn't have an imminent threat. And they... Well, that's the crux of it, Jay. That's the crux of it. That's the crux of the entire argument. Whether it's a valid assassination, was this, you know, I mean, obviously, this general, General Soleimani, he was, he was like number two in the whole country, number three. So when you take out the number two, number third person of a sovereign nation, that basically does constitute an act of war. So was the imminent threat worth the definition of an act of war, a question mark? Yeah. Well, and it's also, that's in the Constitution. I think he violated the Constitution. Well, they've been playing loose and fast with the, the Wars Power Act. They've been, you know, for many conflicts here, they've been playing, you know, Congress has advocated its authority and it's, it's right about enforcing that claim. And, you know, that's been, that's been misused for decades now. That's true. But this is the ultimate of it. Here we have a very serious action, an assassination of a second in command of a major nation in the Middle East. And, you know, there's no good reason for it. He does it all by himself. He does it because of what he had for breakfast. He does it without talking to his staff, without being thoughtful, without being, you know, and taking the extreme measure. And I, and I blame the Pentagon on this, too. They shouldn't have given that measure if they thought it was so extreme that it would result. Well, let me ask you this, Jay. I mean, I've just heard you list off a number of entities that probably did not get any kind of briefing. What about the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Right. I agree. I'm saying that. And I'm saying that, you know... So you don't think they had any clue this was going to happen? No, I think, I think they gave him a list of options. And the most extreme option, which I'm not sure they told him it was the most extreme option, was the assassination. And he took that option. I'm not sure he was advised it was the most extreme, but clearly to a reasonable person, it would have been the most extreme. He should have known that, or he should have asked him about it. After all, you know, after that drone was shot down by Iran a few months ago, he said, oh, the collateral damage would be 150 people. So I don't want to do it. That's what he said. He wanted to avoid the loss of life. Well, in fact, you know, there were dozens of 30, 40 people, some of them between 20 and 40 anyway, who were killed in the Soleimani assassination. There was collateral damage there. But apparently he didn't go through the same kind of examination. He chose the most extreme option. They didn't stop him. They didn't tell him, Mr. President, we don't think you should do that. And he rode right into the valley. So I think what we have here is a president out of control who doesn't care what they say, who doesn't listen to what they say, and who does not have any thoughtful policy in his mind. At any time in this administration, it's certainly going forward, we're going to see more of this. I think he's going to come out okay, at least with his base. That depends on what Iran does. That was very interesting what happened yesterday because, you know, Iran retaliated with a bunch of missiles, a dozen missiles, pointed at air bases in Iraq that had American troops on them. But apparently there was enough time, enough warning, whether it was by intelligence or some other way, they figured out what's going to happen. I mean, I would have been scared. Well, you know, Iran has to show face, safe face, I mean, safe face. Particularly after the number two, number three, you know, most important person in Iran has been taken out by the United States. So they have to do something in safe face. So I'm actually surprised it went that well, to be honest with you. Oh, I'm surprised it, I mean, well, okay, but I, you know, it could have gone badly too. I think, you know, part of the early warning system was the fact that they threatened they would do something. And it was incumbent on the American military to harden their defenses and to avoid being in the line of fire. I think that's what led them to leave those bases. It was an obvious way to ameliorate the risk, obvious. So there's no magic there. And I would suspect that Iran knew they were going to do that. They have intelligence too, you know. The bottom line is this was just a, you know, a show of face or a show that they don't really mean war, a show that, but at the same time, they want to show that they can fight back. Now, query, the really big issue is what happens now. So Trump wisely, I think, in the circumstances, he now is going to impose additional sanctions, whatever that may be, because he's already announced him this morning, economic sanctions, again, economic. So again, this is the saving face on both sides. So now we have to, you know, counter-respond. And how do you, how do you respond, saying there's going to be new additional sanctions? It probably won't be followed through or met. But that will de-escalate this, this big tension between these two countries. Right. Well, he said he's going to do sanctions and a query. What are those sanctions to the left, you know? He's been imposing maximum sanctions for years. So what else is he got? That's my whole point. And then when you take that, you know, and the fact that he's not, you know, using military force, he's, by saying he's doing sanctions, he's saying I'm not going to use military force. Iran, Ayatollah, your move next. And the Ayatollah is not, not going to be inclined to use force again. Rather, it'll be this hit-and-run thing that Soleimani was doing. You know, every few months somebody gets killed. Every few months there's an attack on a base. And it's often through proxies, not the Iranians themselves. And so we're going to be back to the regular routine very soon. And it won't be at a level, you know, where Trump can use it to justify other extreme action. And so what have we achieved here exactly? Because if there were plans, Soleimani wasn't the only guy walking around with those plans in his head. They pointed another second to come in and, you know, became a Soleimani's replacement almost immediately. And they still have a, they still have a plan whenever it might be. embassies are otherwise. So we haven't really achieved anything except notoriety of the world and oil prices shut up. I think they're coming down today, but the last few days they were very threatening. And in fact we're going to have a show later today about exactly how that worked, how the oil prices worked and how they will work in view of this tumult in the Middle East. Bottom line is the Middle East is now clearly unstable. That people have declared, countries have declared they're essentially at war. They're putting other countries in their gun sites. Everybody is jockeying around the world for position on this. Trump is not a hero. He's generally recognized as a liar by everyone in the world except his base. So I, you know, I think this is a measure of the further decline of the United States. It was a huge error. Well, you know, you do shine a light on the credibility of the President of the United States. And that's why no one really is buying the fact that there was a quote unquote, eminent threat. He's liked so many times and so often and for the last three and a half years or three years that no one really believes that an eminent threat was the real deal because the credibility stopped. So now we have to see it in person before we believe it. Yeah. Well, let me take a short break. We can take a short break, Tim. And when we come back, I'd like to talk about our relationship with Iraq, which is getting very complex. And we'll have implications beyond Iraq in the in the days and weeks to come. That's Tim Appachella. I'm Jay Fidel. We're doing Trump week today on a given Wednesday. We'll be right back after this break. Hi, guys. I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you. And Aloha. Aloha, y'all. My name is Mitch Ewan. I'm from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. And I'm the host of Hawaii, the state of clean energy. We're on every Wednesday at four o'clock. And we hope that we have interesting guests who talk to us about various energy things that are happening in Hawaii all the way from PV, the windmills, the hydrogen, most of my heart, electric buses, and electric vehicles. So please dial in every Wednesday at four o'clock on Hawaii, the state of clean energy. Aloha. Okay, we're back. We're live after that break on the other side, so to speak, with Tim Hapichella, J. Feidele, that's me. We're talking about Trump Week. We're talking about the amazing week we've had over the past few days. It seems like all the news that you could have in months has been jammed into, you know, like 48, 72 hours. Anyway, so one of the issues I wanted to cover, Tim, was our relationship with Iraq. It's been declining. And in fact, you know, Iran has greater influence. It's been vying for influence with various proxy groups, militia, what have you. Those are the guys that attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the green zone not too long ago, two days ago. And so, you know, we need to take a look at our relationship, U.S. relationship. And they said they wanted us out of there. And in response, you know, our Secretary of State, who really should never have said this, said, well, they don't really mean it, because the people of Iraq didn't, the legislature, government didn't really represent the people. And we were going to stay there, no matter what they said. Oh, well, you know, when you have the Iraqi parliament vote 179 to 0, they want the United States out. That's not just the people. That's the government that represents their people. Yeah. So, I mean, you have the government speaking, such as it is, telling us to leave. And we don't leave. We ignore them. What are we then? We're an interloper. We're an occupying force. The way I look at it, I mean, here we are allies, now suddenly converted to an occupation force. That's not a good status for us to be in. No. And we're going to lose that, because none of this means that Iran is less influential in Iraq. I think it becomes more influential in Iraq. And the U.S. is, you know, less in favor. So here, after spending trillions of dollars, you know, on liberating Iraq, from Saddam Hussein, what have you, and trying to rebuild their government and infrastructure, how much money we spent, how many lives we spent, do that, now they want us out of there. And instead, they're going to take Iran instead. What, what have you? So, Jay, my realness topic, did you have any comments about the Pentagon paper, the draft letter, the Pentagon saying that we were going to have, you know, two movements out of Iraq? How did that happen? It was only a draft. Now I've heard everything. They say they're going to... Well, yeah, the letter, I've never seen a draft with letterhead on it, but yeah, technically it was a draft because it was not signed. I've never seen a technique so obvious in a walk back. So all of a sudden, what appears to be a final statement is a draft, and it's 180 different than what they ultimately say. We are, we are totally incredible. Anybody watching the news on this, anybody reading the paper, even watching any of the TV stations has got to find us to be completely incredible. The government doesn't hold a truth on anything, and it makes things up from a dark place. But let's, in terms of that, let's talk about Trump's speech, his one speech the other day yesterday on what we should be thinking here. Well, I think what really floored me was the time and attention he has to, I mean, by compulsion. He has to bring Obama's administration back to the front, you know, three years later on how it's Obama's fault that he gave that money back, as far as the missile agreement, the give back, the money that he keeps saying it's the United States money, and that money is bought, these missiles, and those missiles are, you know, now attacking the air base and not lacking. Does he not know that that was Iran's money back in 1978-79 when we froze it for decades? Does he not realize that this was their money to begin with? It didn't come out of the IRS treasury or, you know, he just can't, he can't get himself straight on that point. And he made himself quite ridiculous when he keeps bringing Obama's administration in on this payment. And that takes us to the, you know, the peace agreement they made, which is now a sunder. You know, Obama's efforts at trying to bring peace to that area and trying to minimize the risk of nuclear war, those are a sunder now. In fact, you know, the Iranians said yesterday that they were not going to abide by any provision at all in that agreement, that they are proceeding with all due speed to build nuclear weapons. Well, thank you, Mr. Trump. That's certainly a step ahead. So here we are gaining nothing but losing any shred of a non-nuclear Iran. It's remarkable how much damage has been done, but he denies that. He thinks he tells us we should sleep well. It's very hard to sleep well when the Middle East is devolving into violence and when that violence will probably, you know, spread to other places in the world. And in any event, we look like we are declining. I'm having deja vu moments of my history classes of when Bismarck was trying to advise the Kaiser of how to avoid World War I or entering and stumbling into a war. And it just reminds me of those history lessons. Well, it's true. You know, there was a book, a very famous history book by a history professor at Columbia. Barbara Tuckman was her name. And she wrote a book called The Guns of August. And The Guns of August was a discussion of the factors that led to World War I. And what happened in the run-up to World War I was everybody had a war plan. And it was like programmed. It was triggered. So if this happened, then you responded with that. And if that happened, you responded with this. And everybody had a plan. And when the Archduke of Serbia was killed, those plans began executing all over Europe. This tit for tat, tit for tat, tit for tat. And before you know it, out of one single assassination, you got it, one single assassination, we have a world war. Because all those plans went ahead on their own, automated. Is there a difference? I mean, this is so reminiscent of what happened in 1914. Well, that's why I bring the point up. It almost appears very similar in a lot of ways. And the fact that in this case, I don't think there's plans. I think it's the lack of plans that can make us stumble into a complete Middle East crisis and all sorts of things that you didn't anticipate. That's what happens with wars. You don't anticipate that which could happen. Right. And things move so quickly these days with social media, with the news, with the media communication everywhere. So that whatever the plans are or the non plans are, these events can get away from you in no time. And let me add one other factor and see what your reaction is. You know, you have to, I think it's clear that we have to look at this two levels. One is what the media, what the leadership is saying. Because often, if not in Trump's case always, it's not true. And in Secretary of State, it's not true. And as Attorney General, it's not true. So you have this sort of level of lying. And then you have the reality. And so the level of lying does affect history as it moves forward. Because some people accept it, they or they look into it for truth. And that affects their countermoves going forward. Some countries affect their countermoves going forward. On the other hand, there is something under the surface. That is the reality. What really happened here? We can't learn it from the statements of the American government because they're not credible. But there is some remarkable, you know, undercurrent of facts and events, which we may or may not understand. I mean, I think the best, the best of our press tries to find out and tells us about that. But you have two sources of information. What do I say? Alternative facts. And you can pick what facts you like. Republicans are supporting Trump to the hilt in all of this. The Senate, mostly Republicans, are supporting Trump to the hilt in this. And so, you know, you pick the facts you like, you pick the alternative set of facts you like, and you go on that. And it's not limited to the base. It's not limited to the Republicans. It's the whole world. So what you get is very remarkable facts, very provocative facts. And you get two sets of them. Confusion reigns. And confusion is the, you know, is the mother of all wars, lying deception, misunderstanding, and confusion lead to war. Yeah. And I was saying that was the first bundle of war. And, you know, one thing that I'm reacting to is just when you're speaking, we haven't done much of the unintended consequences of the damage that's been brought upon our allies in Europe. You know, it's untold damage. They got no heads up. And, you know, their forces were exposed, their embassies were exposed as well. And, you know, it just boggles my mind that this action could have taken place so quickly without so few of our allies on board with us before we did this. So who's the main beneficiary of this, as usual? All of Trump's history. Mr. Putin is the huge beneficiary. And Mr. Putin is now closer to China than he was before. And indeed, they're having meetings and military exercises right now. So what's happened is we have marginalized ourselves yet again. We have made fools of ourselves yet again. We have created consternation and dissembling in the Middle East with threats to so many of our allies, including especially Israel, because there were threats about missiles and terror in Haifa and in Tel Aviv. So what have we achieved here? And the answer is nothing. And, you know, I gotta say that Trump has done a good job to try to walk back and correct himself, you know, to show that maybe there was some reason that he can't tell us about which we should rely on. But the fact is that he has dissembled the Middle East only to Putin's benefit. And I think we have to watch very carefully what happens. Yeah, I wanted to get your reaction to your thoughts about when he has been targeted, number one, and then your thoughts about what he said in a speech that the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, China all had to get in line with us as we try to forge out basically a new nuclear arms reduction for Iran. Yeah, I mean, I almost thought that was comical. Well, we're out of time. But let me answer it in a short way, is when I heard that, I didn't believe it. There was no information to that effect. And there was no confirmation from any of those countries. I think more likely they are still in wonderment about what in the world he's doing. Anyway, let's follow it this week, Tim. Let's get together next Wednesday. I look forward to our next Trump week, Wednesday, a week from now. Thank you so much, Tim. Thank you, Jay, for having me. Aloha.