Bill Kristol: POTUS, the Macho Madman

Well, that's a music for your ears. The video is about shopping. I can help you with shopping. I'll tell you in the comments below. I'm Charisa and my experience in all entrepreneurs is starting with Shopify.

I'm sure that Shopify is already the first day. And the platform makes me no problem. I have many problems, but the platform is not a one-stop.

I have the feeling that Shopify is a platform that can actually optimize everything. Everything is super, simple, integrated and balanced. And the time and the money that I can't be able to invest in there. For all of you in the waiting room. Now, the costs are on Shopify.de. Hello, and welcome to the board podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller. It is Monday.

“And so I am back to our editor at Large Bill Crystal. Beaming in from an undisclosed beach adjacent location. How are you doing, Bill?”

I'm doing fine. Nice to be with some of our family at younger parts of our family, and I think a pleasant Easter extended Easter weekend.

And you're welcome for giving a little break from the younger parts of the family. We're going to start here over the weekend. Our president gave a time. In exact time, we're going to call Warcrime a clock for when he plans to go after Iran's power plants and bridges. That would be tomorrow night Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the east. He was kind enough to offer the time zones. People know when the war crimes will begin. And this is what he posted on true social Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day. I'll wrap up in one and Iran. There will be nothing like it.

Open the fucking straight. You crazy bastards or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah. President Donald Trump. And then he followed up by saying you the clock Eastern will be the time.

Lot there, Bill. Where do you want to start?

It's amazing about it is it's not out of the question. It's not necessarily warcrime to bomb a bridge or to bomb a power plant if they're key to the prosecution of the war by the enemy that you're fighting now. Leave a side effect that this is not authorized war and Congress never voted for us to be to go out to attack Iran and then continue to be fighting five weeks, six weeks on the last track later in the six week right and about possibly deploying ground troops leaving all that aside. You know if he hadn't done that if he just attacked individual plants he could say well this was key to some.

Energy from missiles that might be hitting our planes, you know, so it would not be it would still be arguable. I would say from a standard from a national point of view in the US. Law point of view, but it would be, you know, plausible the way he did it of course, which is I'm just going to destroy the whole network. I mean not just in the tweet in the post, but also in what he said in reporters. I like this new mode of communications and suddenly you were watching the communications business and what's at all about you call up random reporters like if you do your crazy true social post, then you call off three different reporters to sort of just chat with them each for three minutes is kind of interesting strategy I guess.

Yeah, repeat the truth social post make sure people know that it was a real person that sent it wasn't the golf. I guess that was the actual president. And then say, but I'm going to destroy the whole country virtually the whole country. I had to report it. I can't remember something like that. Yes.

“It's really terrible and I think it rattled people. I don't know if I keep thinking things were rattled people. Of course, it does rattle some people. That's why his numbers are going down on the other hand.”

It doesn't rattle a lot of people. That's why some of his numbers are sticky. But I think it's just judging from friends. Some of whom are kind of more open to the merits of this war than I am than war. Well, it's relatively pro-Israel these days and also just because I think they appeal wish to see the Iranian regime for all and take maybe all this could lead to its tottering even if it's not explicit. Maybe a little less clear eye assessment of our current president maybe. Well, that's right. A little wishful thinking. Well, the military is doing it. Tim and the military is wonderful.

It's not really hexaeth at all. Anyway, for all these reasons, they're sort of willing to give them more of a break. I'd say this thing really did.

“I think rattled some of them though. This is like this is not defensible and this is crazy. And he's running it.”

I mean, it's the idea that, you know, General Kane or others are right now that hexaeth's preaching the pentagon as well. Anyway, so I feel like Trump's losing even support. Do you have this sense from sort of the, you know, Trump adjacent kind of wanting to anti anti wanting to go along with his types or maybe I'm just fantasizing. I wish I had that sense. I mean, I'm open to it. I think that he's losing a lot of crowd turning it to in a lot of different categories.

I mean, I think it's worth mentioning it and going to go through the war crime negotiation timetable.

“It was March 22nd, you know, which is what? Two weeks ago over two weeks ago now was only first set. You must open her moves in 48 hours or else we're going to bomb you back to the Stone Age.”

Twenty six to the end of that to five days in the 27th, 10 days serious this time, no Stone Age. If you don't do it in 10 days, we've passed that April 4th. He said 48 hours. So that would have been right now. He said, you know, he's doing another 48 hour warning. And then on Sunday, Easter Sunday was when, you know, he said that he's going to make sure the people of Iran will be are living in hell if they if he does do it before Tuesday. So there has been quite a few red lines that have been crossed that he has not followed through on at this point.

And so, I think that that affects the way people assess all this stuff, you know, it is hard to kind of judge the serious first literal part of this just in general, though.

I mean, it's just a crazy thing for people to wake up to on Easter morning. Again, and it's like, and it also isn't conflict with the original argument for the war. I know that the administration and their apologists are like trying really hard to like redefine what this war is about about lessening the ballistic missile capabilities. You know, there are some critics on social media of our conversation about Kagan on Friday, whether like these guys don't accept the objectives of the war or just, you know, preventing them from, you know, having a umbrella where they exerted power using the missiles and using their proxies and we're going to stop them from that.

So they can't build a nuclear weapon underneath that umbrella and it's like, well, that okay, but that wasn't actually what the original case for the war was they wanted regime change. They started the war by just capitalating the eye toola and Trump talking about how the protesters in the streets should keep on protesting because he was going to have their backs. So like that now has been thrown into a wayside. He's explicitly saying that the Iranian people can live in hell for all he's concerned, you know, and now he's going back and forth a bunch of times on whether he even cares about the straight being up.

But now the straight being open is a key objective. Yeah, the nuclear thing, I mean, which is a serious problem for unguided nuclear weapons that has been, sure, considered a serious problem by both parties. Now, Obama administration had a word diplomatic solution to it. Others, including me, thought, the new support shouldn't be ruled out. What he's now threatening has nothing to do with nukes.

I mean, literally nothing. Destroying these bridges, nukes are not crossing these bridges. I mean, the bridges have nothing to do with moving nuclear materials or rebels seem to be, you know, buried in that, in that mountain.

“Or even moving the things you need to start unruly program going, getting going again, around, so far as we know.”

And the same with the electric grid, which is providing electricity for the entire country.

I mean, so, I mean, I think that people have to really suspend their own critical judgment.

I'm going to really say, I don't want to be too harsh. But to defend this at this point, to protect us anything to do with the core objectives either of regime change, which I'm very much in favor of, I still hope it happens. So the Iranian people can do it, and we should help them follow you in some ways, where that we have. And secondly, preventing this regime from getting nuclear weapon.

Or even ballistic missiles to deliver the nuclear weapon, I think that point. But those are core goals. What he's now threatening has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the straight, which is closed because of a war he started. And which incidentally, there's not much evidence that more carpet bombing of Iran is going to persuade them to open the straight, you know.

No, the opposite. I was looking at, you know, like an Andrew Neal. Yeah. He's a conservative commentator of the United Kingdom prominent guy over there. And I said, clip this morning, where he's talking just bluntly, like from a real policy term about how Iran should not be rushing to the peace table now. And they are not. And he said the Trump is floundering.

And Iran has now realized that the straight of war moves is maybe more powerful for the regime than an nuclear bomb,

as far as giving them bargaining power and influence in geopolitics. And so, you know, the longer they can keep it closed and demonstrate that they can keep it closed. Like the more power and influence the whatever remains of the regime will have, you know, when you get to the next phase of this. It's hard for me to, far away from me to get inside the head of the Mueller's early, but I just thought that was pretty interesting, you know, coming from a more conservative European standpoint.

“You know, somebody who's I think a little bit more rational about what what the different kind of perspectives are on the power struggle with for us to the war.”

Yeah, I guess Trump is to degree it's not pure vengeance hatred and frustration, which is mostly what it is probably.

The front American for president is serious moment of war.

Even if you give him the best interpretation, which we like just thinks they're increasing the pressure. We'll bring them to the table on the straight. Again, they're a ways to do that and more, you know, graduate, I don't know what you do, you know, we can take out these things or whatever. And maybe that's happening behind the scenes and maybe we're all going to wake up tomorrow and discover it as kind of possible that Iran has had enough. But to size, you know, they can't get the trick, they don't want to get the trick close for every either. So, you know, why not open it at some point.

But again, it's not clear these kinds of threats are doing any good. I mean, that's not the Iranian leadership is not the audience for that tweet. I would just put it this way simply, right? For all my friends who wanted to offend it, you know, I don't know who the who is the audience. People at home, I guess who loved the performer of, you know, Curtis Lamaze sort of, I'm going to use nukes kind of thing.

“I don't know, you know, I think it's two things.”

The cheese mothing for the base, like we're so tough, we're really powerful.

And I do believe that he thinks, and this has worked a couple of times for him, just to say that he can bully these other countries with these insane threats. And it's madman theory why brought up the international commentary was that, you know, it's he's misjudging the counterparty in this one. Right, because I think that for some countries, right, like it would not be worth the threat of some crazy person to come in and bomb them, but like the Iran's considerations might be different. I mentioned a couple of times, I just want to dial in on the fact that this threat was made on Easter Sunday, because, you know, he does pretend to be an evangelical and you know, his faith leaders praying over him and such.

He did not attend Easter Mass yesterday, I should know. And there's been a little bit of a revolt among the American firsters over this, you're starting to see this. Marjorie Taylor Green yesterday. On Easter of all days, we as Christians should be reminded that the son of God died in rows from the grave so we can be forgiven for all of our sins. Jesus commanded us to love one another and forgive one another, even our enemies, our president is not a Christian.

And his words and actions should not be supported by Christians. Christians in this administration should be pursuing peace, not escalating war that is hurting people. This is not what we promised the American people and they overwhelmingly voted 2024. I know I was there more than most. This is not making America great again.

This is evil. I mean, that's that's pretty blunt stuff. Yeah, give her credit, you know. She's well, if you just say what she thinks and if what else is busy dancing around pulling their punches,

“a little inappropriate on Easter Sunday, I think, you know, of the kind of mainstream commentary, right?”

You know, a little surprising Easter Sunday morning. Yeah, well, a lot of the mainstream media outlets didn't even quote him. Right. You know, it's like they wouldn't even include him saying open the fucking straight or praise be to Allah or all this like nonsense troll shit that he was doing. Candace also was pretty blunt.

I would want to point this out to Candace. This is a satanic administration. Now, I should point out that this next sentence includes some antisemitism. It's not a guy very subtle, but this is Candace. We all realized that Cestanics Zionists occupy by the White House and Congress needs to move to have the Mad King Trump removed.

All of our lives may depend upon other countries realizing that Trump is deeply unwell and surrounded by religious fanatics who have convinced him that he is a Messiah.

Again, okay, some bad stuff from Candace there, always there's some antisemitism, but just it's just something you notice.

You know, that's not the sort of whether it's the crazy right fringe of the Magical Edition or whether it's our moderate friends.

“Anytime somebody says, "I'm off the ship."”

You know, and just is like officially off the ship and it's not trying to like think about how they might get back on some time. And they start talking bluntly about Trump, they start sounding like this. Right. I start saying things that are like he's surrounded by religious fanatics who have convinced him that he is a Messiah. But that is just, that's a legit criticism that you do not hear in the public sphere because

Plenty's saying that you roll your eyes at them, nobody on the right will do it. Like that, just that part of the critique is not wrong. Like Trump has a god complex and that is part of the reason that we're in this situation. Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, people somehow have really gotten off the ship and have no desire to get back on or no belief they could get back on if they wanted to.

The ship being not just Trump administration, but Mac or Alyssa. Yeah, our more can the general Kelly money left the administration in 2019 and that interview. I think the latter can 20 to 20. So I said, "Look, he's a fascist." Right.

And Kelly went into some light. People forget this. You know, I've studied this a bit about, right up a little bit on fascism and stuff. And I dealt with this guy every day for 18 months as Chief of Staff and he's a fascist. And everyone was like, "Oh, well, you know, then of course, it was still not respectable at that point, except for a few.

Like a few of us to say, "Well, you know what, he is pretty much a fascist." Right. So you're right. I think the people who left are often the clearest side.

Like John Kelly all funds are sounding like the bowlwork as soon as you leave. And that's because we're not a fucking pulling our punches. Like we're just seeing, you know what I mean? Like this is how extreme Trump is. Like just to say what is in front of your eyes.

Like at times makes you sound hysterical. But everybody that leaves ends up making arguments against him that in another context would sound hysterical.

And it's always coming from people who had served his administration or supported him.

“When it comes to dog food, it seems like you have to make a choice.”

You can either have fresh and healthy or you can have easy to store and serve. But never both. You don't have to choose anymore. Thanks to Sundays. Sundays food for dogs was founded by a veterinarian and mom, Dr. Tory Waxman.

We've got tired of seeing so-called premium dog food full of fillers and synthetics. So she designed Sundays, air-dried real food made in a human-grade kitchen. Using the same ingredients and care, you use to cook for yourself and your family. Everybody of Sundays is clean and made from real meat fruits and veggies with no kibble. That means no weird ingredients.

You can't pronounce. And the best part. You just scoop and serve. No freeze or no thawing or prep. No mask, just nutrient-rich, clean food, that fuels their happiest, healthiest days.

So you can get more of them to share together. Everybody who's listening to this knows that I've had a cat for us upon me. And that we're feeding the cat, the premium cat food. Okay, I'm very important. And so I have surveyed my colleagues.

We've set the Sundays to my colleagues or dog people. And we're getting ready for reviews from dog world. I'm not going to let this advertiser bully me into getting another animal and have a menagerie in my house. And so I'm just proud. You know, to support something that's keeping my dog in-laws happy.

I know what I actually has a direct dog in-law. My brother's dog Reggie could probably use Sundays. I'm going to get on that. You should get on it too. Make the switch to Sundays.

Go right now to Sundaysfordogs.com/bore50.

And get 50% off your first order.

Sundaysfordogs.com/bore50. Sundaysfordogs.com/bore50. Or use code Bore50 at checkout. Should we do it now? No, we'll save it.

We're going to save real crystals newsletter this morning. It's about the impeachment question. And I do notice that Bill Crystal, Candice Owens, Manisfier reactionary sneaker of the three people I've seen this weekend, calling for impeachment. It's sneaker.

It's a motley crew. No, it's not somebody. You generally want to be on the same side of it. This is not a great trio. This is a trio.

It's not a trio. You usually want to be on. Candice sneaker at me. But sometimes, you know, it is the crazy people that are, that are an unsiated, that have a clarity of vision.

You know, what do the alcoholics call it? You know, alcoholics, a moment of clarity.

“And I think there may be a lot of that happening out there.”

We'll come back to the, uh, to the impeachment questions. Since Candice floated it. I want to just do one more thing on the war crimes. I'm going to move on to a couple other war updates. This is 2022.

I just think it's important to mention. Not quite four years ago now. The Pentagon, Mark Millie in particular, when he's chairman of the Joint Chiefs, slammed Russia's barrage of missile strikes across Ukrainian cities. And said that Moscow's deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure is a war crimes.

The European Council president Antonio Costa this morning, explicitly compared what Trump is threatening to what Russia did in Ukraine. And so I just think that it's important to be blunt about that. Like our own government, like our own non-political chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that like this type of military campaign,

be called at a war time when Russia was doing it three and a half years ago. And now we're proposing to do it tomorrow. I mean, it's horrible to say or even to, honestly, hard to even get myself to think this way. And if Putin were saying and doing these things,

we would say C or other dictatorships.

“So we would say C, that's what it means to be bloodthirsty dictatorship,”

was no respect for human life for human decency. The same things like we're going to destroy the people of this nation or whatever. And that's one of the countries that are saying about us right now. Okay, a few other updates on the Iran stuff. I don't want to gloss over the really heroic extraction efforts of the airmen

that have gotten shut down. Interestingly enough, not too far from Mishwan, where the nuclear material is. But just quick summary for anybody who didn't follow the set closely over the weekend. And it's one of these things that probably will be an action movie at some point. We think that it was Russia that had smuggled in anti-air systems to Iran.

Because Iran was unable to shoot down planes for the first month of the war.

And then all of a sudden they were. And so you have Iran working with Russia who Trump is still not condemning by the way. And who we're actually really helping frankly with this war.

So Russia is smuggling any anti-air systems to Iran to shoot at us.

One plane goes down. We are tree one pilot. Another pilot is missing.

“We build an air strip inside Iran somewhere near that.”

The pilot that is missing evades capture. And travels like five miles, climbs up to a mountain. Activates his homing region. We fire on a bunch of Iranian soldiers that are moving towards him. Kill off them.

Land a plane. Pick him up. Plane can't take off for some reason. A new set of planes fly in. Scoop up the pilot and the X-feltane.

And then once they're all airborne, they drop 20 bombs on our own planes. So they can't be re-engineered.

That's going to cost us probably a couple hundred million dollars.

So just a really crazy story and shows the skill on the military side of this campaign, which is maybe under my butt's strategic side. Our military is very impressive. And I guess the only one I'll make if I can be a little political about how impressive they are is. I'm going to guess that everyone involved in this rescue has been in the military for longer than 15 months.

Which means they were trained, equipped, planned. Talk, you know, practice doing this kind of thing. Showed the kind of precision and courage and daring that they showed. In what Pete Hex has derived is that woke. We military that he took over.

I mean, he fired the chief staff of the army. He fired General Brown, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs and had before that been chief for the Air Force, which is a rather important player in this operation. I would say. So the people he's derided and mocked and really in a disgraceful way, you know, the tact.

They're the people who trained this military. This is not a military that was trained by under the guidance of Pete Hexeth or Donald Trump. This is the military we've developed over the last 20 years. And which these guys have seemed to have content for. That's the people who did this operation.

So if you're impressed by this operation, you know what?

“You should be impressed by the military that Trump had heard.”

And they're doing a lot. I'm worried about, I mean, for now, if they got it's working well, it seems. But I'm worried about these firings and how much they could degrad it over the next further over the next three years. Also, it comes to how Hector's managing the war. This is something I did not realize.

I thought this morning. The Pentagon has only conducted one press briefing in the last 18 days. I guess it was so bad that it felt like there were more of them. The one that happened. So I saw this report this morning.

I was like, man, that is insane. We started a war. And then, you know, they kicked out the journalists out of the Pentagon. And now they're not briefing. Now we aren't really learning anything.

So briefing, I guess, in fairness, General Kane been the one or two times he's built. And I was giving operational updates. Pete Hexeth was just doing blaster. But Trump has a pressure today. They'll probably have happened by the time you hear this.

It's supposed to be in this afternoon. So he's talked somewhat. He's been, he hasn't been in public for almost a week now. It's a small thing on the authoritarian creep. But it's real.

Like, I mean, all of the past administrations of our lifetime. Something like this, you have a Pentagon spokesperson. They're going out there. They're briefing about what is happening. And that just was just stopped that.

That's a typically a lot of spokesperson almost every day. I would say, and then the actual either commanding general or other general's chairman with it without the exact death. You know, some combination of those people, two, three, four times a week. Yeah, in a serious conflict. Yeah.

If I recall correctly, in the little, in a tweet or whatever was this posted. Announce this one PM press conference or something today. It's in the oval office. And Trump said it will be with the military or something. And I would be surprised if he's surrounding us.

Okay. At least one, maybe a couple of uniforms and trying to, you know, get some of this glory of the military reping off on him. People who way preceded Trump, obviously, you know, office thief. They're the senior people. And people, as I say, who actually have shaped the military that is doing these extraordinary

rescues and shaped it way before Donald Trump became president and Pete XF became defense secretary. Yeah, I assume it's like it's going to be some sort of jingoistic behind enemy lines type thing with an as Gene Hackman still alive, even. Yeah. It's going to be rude if he's yet.

No, he died. No, he just died just last year. 95 years old, Gene Hackman. Hmm. That's a life well-lived.

“Anyway, I think he's going to do probably something like that.”

And again, they deserve honor. The soldiers and airmen, everybody that was involved in this XF operation. But I could doesn't change the broader contour of this war, which is obviously been an extremely poor way with very little planning on this strategic side. Thanks to home serve for sponsoring this episode.

Only home is amazing until it's not one minute.

You're sipping coffee, the next your ankle deep and water from a burst pipe, especially if you live in Louisiana.

Write your homeowners insurance. Usually, it doesn't cover a lot of the day-to-day wear and tear. Plumbing failures. HVAC breakdowns. Electrical issues.

You're often on your own for those. That's where home serve comes in. It's like a subscription for your home for a little 499 a month. They've got your back. It's super simple.

Choose a plan for your needs and budget. And when something on your plan goes wrong, just call their 24/7 hotline to start the repair process.

“You know what you're living down here in the volume?”

The land is moving the earth is moving. I don't know if you've seen that. We're losing some land. The sea is gaining. And the land is being defeated.

And that's part of the human struggle across the sands of time. But one of the problems in the short term is that it creates some not the most stable foundation on a home. And so, a little shit emerges. A little shit emerges all the time.

You look up and you're like, "Where did that crack come from?" And so, it's nice to know that there's something out there. It's actually useful when you're not handy like me. And you can turn to it when you're in a time of need. And that's our friends at home serve.

Help protect your home systems and your wallet with home serve. Against covered repairs. Plan start at just 499 a month. Go to home serve.com to find the plan that's right for you. That's home serve.com.

Not available everywhere.

“Most plans range from between 499 to 1199 a month.”

Your first year terms apply on covered repairs.

One of the stories I kind of want to mention because I haven't yet. And I suspect they'll be more on this to come. Once the Democrats take control of the house next year and down the line. And so, I just kind of want to put a pin in this. There's a drone maker backed by Don Jr and Eric that is selling Gulf countries.

They're drones right now. Why that under attack by Iran. There's multiple companies that are contracting with the military. The Don Jr and Eric are involved in. Even if there is no corruption or no actual influence.

You know, influence happening, which I find very hard to believe. Like this would be an insane scandal in past administrations. It's just crazy. Like the idea that not just that they're doing business still. Not just that they're running their hotel and casinos and other countries that we have.

We have geopolitical relationships with because that's happening. And then I just cutting deals with countries. And while we're deciding what their territory is going to be. That's happening. That's bad enough that they're actually involved in military contract.

And profiteering this president's family in the midst of a war of choice. I think that's pretty not worth it. Certainly the Democrats take over the House and the Senate, which they may also. They need to see the contracts that they were bid and the competition. The fair competition that was between these Trump-related companies and other companies.

For these massive military contracts, I'm going to bet that they wasn't a free and open. You know, bidding competition here. Totally crazy. All right, back to impeachment. Sarah and I kind of hashed this out a little bit on the next level.

I don't know any month or two ago now. I kind of forget what spurred it. I think it was for after the. The killings in Minneapolis. And George Conway was posting about how he thinks Trump should be impeached.

And impeachment is a process by which there are clear. It's clear definition for what constitutes impeachment. And if the president violates that, they should be impeached. And you know, the political considerations of whether it's helps the party or doesn't should be put to the side.

Now his George is argument basically.

And I was of the view that we should not be impeaching Trump again. If the Democrats get back in power. Because it's. It's just like why. Maybe it's caricatureable.

He's been impeached twice. Senate's definitely an academic convict in. They should focus on other things like direct oversight on. Epstein crypto corruption. The sun's business dealings.

All that like that would be a more used better use of time. That was my original thinking. And when we're talking about that.

“And Sarah's like I think they shouldn't page no.”

This was time. No, I'm still in there. And that should be kind of the focus. And at some point over the last couple months, I've started to change my view on it in the thinking that maybe we should just

and maybe that we we the opposition. The Democrats should try to impeach me again. Because. Fuck him. It's like the short of my of my logic on that.

I don't think it's it's not a deep 40 chess political logic. Just like he deserves it.

He's done many things worse than what he did from the first impeachment.

And so they should impeach again. And they can use the impeachment as vehicle for doing oversight and finding. You know more getting subpoenas and finding more information about the scale. The corruption. You seem to come down maybe there.

Still talk that through with us.

You don't even go.

“And if it's further than you are quite as far.”

I've accepted the conventional view among Democratic strategists.

I should even talk about they shouldn't even talk about impeachment now. It's just going to get voters remind them it's all partisanship. And they don't they want Democrats to focus on what they're going to do. If they take over Congress, including some oversight, but they don't want to think about having a two month long impeachment.

And I really thought about it that deeply. I just figured that's reasonable anyway. It's not going to happen. There's not going to be a speech while the public is controlled Congress. That's for sure.

It's a wife and talk about it. And then they can be visit things in January. That's provided to you. I bet if you looked in morning shots for the last two plus years that Andrew and I have been doing it. I don't know that impeachment is mentioned once in the.

Well, at all. You're certainly anything I wrote. Again, not because I have some a version to adjust the is off the table.

And I kind of accepted the notion that it just makes it look like they're

reaching to get back into a peach and that's probably a slightly good talking point for their Republicans. But I just got this weekend.

“I kind of snapped in the sense that I mean, what are we doing here?”

Yeah. He's doing things that require almost. That the Democrats be serious about at least the possibility of impeachment. And going to the impeaching the cabinet officers. I mean, I'm not against that either.

But that's a little ridiculous. They're all doing what exactly what Trump wants. If Steven Miller is giving is deputy for staff. It's Trump. He's giving orders to Christian.

I was okay because she's the one in legal authority. It's okay to impeach Christian. You know, if you were still there, little weird to lead job out of it. But then with the war, it's him. The war brings it home to me.

These other things will little more complicated. They're domestic agencies. I mean, that they have their own, you know, structures and guidelines of his post and so far. He's running the war. It's a disgrace in so many ways.

He's insisting on doing it with no congressional authorization. Now he's insisting on doing it by roasting about war crimes. Or at least promising war crimes. And boasting about the possibility of the US military doing them. And you add that to everything else, Minneapolis.

It probably little influenced by our trip to Minneapolis. Honestly, too, which is sort of seeing that up close and thinking hard about what happened there. Anyway, he deserves to be impeached. It's something crazy about politics where you can't say the word because what it's so obviously deserved. As you say, so much more obviously deserved than.

Certainly, the first impeachment of maybe January 6th, you. Equally deserved. And this is a kind of just clarity about, I think, saying that he deserves it doesn't mean it will happen. Doesn't mean that if I were actually, you know, how came Jeffries when I, I don't know, take the first two months of 2027 to do it.

That's another question. But, but it no reason not to say that he deserves it in my opinion. Yeah. And also, I just, the gravity, and I guess this also came home to be because of the tweet. Both the gravity of the situation we've been left for quite a while.

And the urgency of it, he's getting worse.

He's always been irresponsible reckless, corrupt beyond belief,

Demagogic beyond belief, all that stuff. But now it, the, the unhinged part of it. Don't you think is, is just more evident than it was before. So you really shouldn't have a president, you know, who's fighting wars, and who's not just demagogic and irresponsible reckless, but it's on hinge.

It's kind of bad for the country.

“This country would be safe for right now after you have to press the United States.”

I really loads job events. I've got to say, and probably from a political point of view, it's bad to let him become president because he could be doing decent job, and he'll be in combat and blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

It's just unquestionably the case, I think. I agree with that. That is really where things kind of wrap around at my old brain, right? Where you run the fact that it's unquestionably the case that he deserves impeachment and the country would be better if he was impeached against,

like, the political questions of, like, would this help, would this hurt him or strengthen him and, like, those are more complicated? And sometimes it's better to fall back on the easy moral clarity. And just leave it at that. I'm at the chipsfall of an A, and I think there's something to reset for that.

It's kind of where I fall on it too, though. I'm persuadable about the best way for the Democrats to wield there. A congressional power next year. And I think it'll depend on how the midterms go. Lauren, he can had an article yesterday that I thought was really good about how

Hopyum is back among Democratic consultants. And I was here. I've been here in this time with Democratic consultants. You know, this is not a prediction or, you know, don't want to let the chips count the chips for they've fallen,

but like David Jolley and that article talks about what if this is, like, a wave like after the Nixon resignation level, where a bunch of people won that nobody had expected. And what if the Democrats win? I will, Ohio, Alaska, Florida, and Texas, or four of those five.

And they win, you know, North Carolina and Maine. And I'm talking speaking about the Senate and an independent wins in Nebraska. And all of a sudden, you know, their caucus is like 54. Let's not everybody get to, you know, start getting to excited quite yet. But that's not a 0% chance.

It's not a high chance at this point. But I don't know who depends on how bad the economy gets and how much more he botches everything and the calculus does change that in that case. There's an overwhelming review of him, even in a bunch of states where he won by 10+ points.

Get a little murky.

Well, I just have one point on this.

I just want to make clear just a, it's a peach for defense. If I get a little bit getting, I know we're saying the piece and I, not saying here and I wouldn't say that any particular Democratic candidate should talk about impeachment. Should make that key to his or her campaign over the next six months for the House

and the Senate, I don't know if they should. I'm they should do what they want. But I mean, I'm not recommending. I know where recommended. I'm not sure even mentioned Democrats.

Which I'm just saying that I personally think he deserves to be impeached. And I'm putting that on the table within the limits of my modest powers. And if other people want to talk about it, they should. If elected officials want to say, well, this is all fanciful theoretical. I don't do theoretical things.

I'm running on issues A, B and C. That's fine with me. I'm not going to criticize them for not talking about it. I'm not saying it came Jeffery says to make this the centerpiece of his, you know, little press availability.

Yeah, no, no, no. I feel like this is consistent with the boardwork, right? I mean, we say what we think and, you know, politicians can't or cannot choose to pick it up. I agree with that.

We've been talking about our friends with Slack quote for a while now.

And you know, every time I always talk about the uncertainty that's out there.

Well, you don't know what is going to happen next. When you're in the Trump 2.0 era. And who the hell would have known that way to had this level of uncertainty? We might have $6 gas to summer now. And so even the catastrophizers are starting to become

surprised by the uncertainty that's out there.

“And that's why you should turn to things that can provide you some certainty.”

Like life insurance policy with select quote for over 40 years, select quote has been one of the most trusted brokers and insurance. Helping 2 million Americans secure over 700 billion dollars and coverage. Their mission is simple to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. They shop you save on like other one size fits all life insurance companies.

Select quotes, license agents work for you. And as little as 15 minutes, compare policies from top rated carriers to find you. The best fit for your health and your budget and they work for you for free. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50%. That's select quote dot com slash bull work.

Save more than 50% on term life insurance. That's select quote dot com slash bull work today to get started. Like quote dot com slash bull work. The one thing I was a little more skeptical of in your newsletter was the other option, which is resistance from within the executive branch.

And I'm it's like who? Honestly, the potential resistance from within the executive branch looks like Joe Kent. And I was maybe the most. Will it even be the word supportive of Joe Kent's resignation on principle on the Iran war? Not knowing that he is like a total conspiracy theorist nut.

And like there he was this weekend like posting about how we're going to kill our own troops that are lost in Iran. And so he's a total nut case. But like he did have a principal view on the war. And so there's something to be said for that. Maybe not that much, but something to be said for it.

“And so that's what resistance from the executive branch looks like, right?”

Somebody like him. And you know, they're who else would it be? No, I was thinking a little more of the career, you know, senior career, jags who are being pressured to go along with stuff. And we'll pressure. I don't want to minimize that there.

They could lose their jobs. They could lose a lot of the, you know, they could be demoted. They can lose a lot of things fake prosecutions even as we've seen with Senator Kelly and others. But I just think this is the moment for everyone in the Justice Department, DHS, DOD to intel to sort of put every obstacle they can. They think you're legit and important and right in the way of Trump and his political employees.

And I think if they get fired, they get fired. And I think then those was on the outside who would support them as an obligation to try to help them if we can. And defend their lawyers available to defend them if if they come after them and so forth. But that's kind of what I'm thinking more. You know, totally.

Totally concur on that. One more thing on impeachment just that would have to go through Congress. And it do think it bears mentioning that Congress is still on vacation. This is not the Democrats of all, but it is insane right now that the DHS is still shut down. The war is still ongoing.

Trump is threatening a massive escalation tomorrow. And Congress is on vacation right now. It's truly crazy.

It is kind of amazing isn't it?

Yeah. This is one case where I will say what I hope the Democrats do is I hope they insist on a vote.

“I think they can get these resolutions in a way that their privilege and so forth.”

But next week when they come back on the war, we is other Republicans happy with everything that's going on. And they and the threat at least to ground troops. I do think Trump seems to have gone for the mass bombing, mass bombing. I suppose to ground troops. So, you know, he could think this is fantastic showing why the special forces and ex-filming,

ex-skating this airman, you know, gives him maybe he could do some of that elsewhere. So, yeah, I agree. It's ridiculous if they're not in there out here. The polymarket odds for ground troops are going up. And the only reason that catches my eyes because there's a lot of insider trading happening over there.

The best way to get the best advice.

The legendary checkout from Shopify, just to get the shop on their website, just to social media and over to others. That's the music for your ears. How do you even respond to the wind with Shopify? You can help to get a real help.

I'm Theresa, and my experiences at all entrepreneurs start with Shopify.

“I think Shopify is already the first day.”

And the platform makes me no problem. I have a lot of problems, but the platform is not one of them. I have the feeling that Shopify is their platform continuously optimized. Everything is super integrated and useful. And this is the fact that I can't invest in business.

Now, let's go to Shopify.de.

Just running through quickly a couple of other things, all depressing and the news. Well, I guess this one is not that depressing. The birthright citizenship case, I mentioned this last week, Trump went there to try to intimidate the justices, I guess. Who knows, or maybe just 10, nothing else to do that day, I don't unclear why he attended still. But he posted on his social media account, he deleted this.

It's too bad that the Supreme Court can't watch and study the mark live in show tonight. One thing I want to run is that I love that he's going to his comfort food. It's like his little binky. So there's one show on TV that's like, you're really doing a great job with Iran. So he's like, I'm going to make sure I've DVR that.

I'm going to watch it, you know, at the end of the night and we get on my PJs. I'm going to watch the show that's telling me that I'm doing a good.

Anyway, apparently in addition to cheering him on on Iran, Markovina was also cheering him on on the birthright citizenship scam.

Then he goes on to, you know, talk about how the Supreme Court failed on tariffs. And how the country can only withstand so many bad decisions from a court that just doesn't seem to care. A lot of pearl clutching people, like when I talk about pearl clutching, so I wear pearls. A lot of pearl clutching among the responsible right. Anytime a Democrat talks about, you know, criticizes the court.

You know, there's this, you're trying to delegitimize the court says Charlie Cook of the National Review. Here's the president of the United States. I mean, often now, bleeding, delegitimize in the court, talking about how the country can't stand as long as the court continues to. Not follow his wishes. Pretty interesting.

“Does that feel like he knows an analyst coming on birthright citizenship, though?”

So that's good. I've heard more on who knows. This is just rumors, but 15th hand rumors. That could well be a retirement, I think. The end of term really before the end of term actually to give Trump and through and more time.

But the could be true. Obviously, a lead-off seems to be the leading candidate to retire. Thomas, people, some people think also. Make sure they give Trump the chance to appoint a younger person. Wow, there's a Republican majority in the Senate.

We can have a huge Supreme Court fight this summer, which conventional wisdom has thought in the past. Hubsal Republicans, and probably did in 2018. But I'm not so sure that's the case now with, you know, do you think? I don't think it is either after post row with the Democratic voters. I think really understand the stakes for the court now more than they have.

Your average Democratic voter. I think it's more of a motivating issue than it would have been in the past. I agree, and I think they have to do it. I mean, who knows that? So I guess the 15th hand rumors, the scuttle butt that's out there, because I had same stuff,

is that Thomas wants to be the longest-running, longest-serving justice ever, which is in sight. I don't have in front of me, but that's not too far off. And so the idea is that the lead-o, who's a total hack, gets pressured to leave, because he wants Trump to replace him instead of whoever might come after him. Whoever might come after Trump, instead of the unknown.

But if the Democrats take control of the Senate, I mean, now we're getting into real, you know, fantasy counterfactual stuff. But if like the Democrats, they would have to do it now, because I think that if you're the Democrats, you take control of the Senate. I don't see how you don't use the Mayor Garland standards,

even if Alito retires one day after, you know, whoever Chuck Schumer, whoever Brian Schatz takes becomes the Senate majority leader. I don't see how you have confirmation hearings. And the other piece of rumor floating around is Trump certainly is going to go for one of the more most radical federal society, or federal society,

“plus if you want to think of it this way, justices.”

We're not going with whatever one thinks of Kevin on, and Gorsuch, and actually Amy County Barrett, they were sort of traditional picks, at least on paper, right, DC Circuit, or in Gorsuch's case. Sir Gran, Colorado, and obviously anybody Barrett, a law professor,

Very classical. Kind of original SVS. Yeah. It's part of that. They weren't that out there from what a busher, you know, etc.

Things might have been zero chance that we're getting anyone like that, is what I've been told. It's going to be a, you know, Don Ho, if you know, some of these, I don't remember the names of all these totally wacky, district and circuit court judges.

Yeah, my name is Rau, the DC Circuit guys, Rau, and Katsus who've always

found out for Trump in every case. Let's come up and see this before them. Or someone who's not a judge or a justice, Amy, or Bova, who's now, of course, a circuit court judge, who is Trump. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Well, I don't know. One of the people who's now at the Justice Department, maybe a state A.G., who's a total right wing hack. Anyway, Trump wants loyalists to him on the court.

As he does, everywhere in the administration. I'm very struck by this. People have a quite process this. We're not in Trump as part of Mago World and Trump wants Mago oriented appointees or justices.

I think we're beyond that. Trump wants justices, especially on the courts. I mean, justices on the courts, but also appointees and key agencies who are personally loyal to him. Why?

Because he personally is going to be at risk in some of these cases,

either as president over the last two next to years. Certainly, if he's trying to steal the election, some of the corruption stuff could even come up while he's president for his family, or certainly if he leaves office, right? He does not want justices who are going to be OK.

So he wants a degree of personal loyalty from these justices that I think might make his nominee vulnerable. I don't know if tilless McConnell, Mercowski, Collins, again, this is fantasy football, whatever. Could defect, you know, on something like this.

But I'd say the nominee is going to be, could well be a type that makes it at least conceivable that people like that defect as opposed to a gore such heavy-cutty barretime.

“Yeah, I guess the only thing I would just say on that”

is replacing Lito with loyal, starting to really do a much, you know what I mean? I would have helped if it was. Of course, such, but anyway, but no, I agree that that's what's coming.

Really quick in the Trump racism and deportation category.

He posted this morning, one other thing. I just don't think it doesn't deserve to be ignored. Our video, I guess, if somebody walking through the middle of America, they're a bunch of what appeared to be Somali immigrants there, and Trump posted that.

But this is literally the Mall of America, 85% of these people are on welfare. It's like when HUD's bad that we have Somali, so the Mall of America. So I just like totally overt George Wallace racism

from the president on his social media feed this morning. I don't know if there's anything else to say. And then I'm just tying it because it ties back to the war. I want to end with us, just really sad story. New York Times report on this.

Oh, we can. US Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank in his wife Annie Blank, Neiramas arrived at a base in Louisiana last week, expecting to begin their life together as newlyweds. Within hours that planet unraveled Ice Agents entered the base,

and detained his wife. We've been an undocumented Honduran immigrant who has brought to the US as a toddler. By nightfall, she was in a detention facility with other women facing deportation. The detention canches days after Annie and Matt celebrated their marriage

with family and friends, neither have a criminal record. Truly insane. Like somebody who is in the military, to the military, after he started a war, who got married to a woman that was brought here as a kid.

And we're sending Ice Agents into the base, to rip her away from him, to the Tainer, and deport her back to Honduras. Yeah, and this guy's a staff sergeant.

“I think he's been in it three, four, five years, maybe.”

Already, and yeah, it's unbelievable. And I don't know, there is a chain of command in the military, and you know what? This could go quickly up the chain of command, and it could go to the Secretary of Defense,

who could place a call to the Secretary of Homeland Security, and say, what the hell are you doing? Would you leave my people alone? Stop, seizing and threatening to deport, and putting in some terrible detention facility.

Someone who's been here for 15 to 20 years, and who's married to the young guy who's serving our country, honorably. I mean, we should not accept that this is like, oh, well, gee, this is too bad that I did it.

I'm not saying, you know, you're doing this right now. I'm just doing this, but for me, this is also, okay, Mr. Peatex, Seth, you're a Mr. We're tough. We're supportive. We stand behind our fighting men with their warriors.

That guy's a warrior. And he is a warrior. So far, I just want to tell. And he's training, I think, to deploy, he's a staff sergeant.

They're serious people, staff sergeants. You know, I would guess moved up from maybe entering as a private, or whatever, and there he is. An enlisted guy, staff sergeant.

“And is he, is anyone in the military standing behind him?”

I know, I found this story just sick and deplorable. Totally deplorable. All right, Bill, that's another Monday. Anything else? You got anything else?

Anything else? Anything I forgot?

I just think, I mean, but you know, we got the,

It's going to be very interesting week. I'm going to take a little detour.

“I'm depending on what happens the next 24 hours from the war,”

with tomorrow's guests, discuss another pretty pressing matter.

Facing us in the coming months and years, but, you know, who knows? I think after Tuesday. Yeah.

I mean, he said it all hell could break loose and Iran,

“but I think all hell could break loose here in the country”

and for him, and I think it's a real big inflection point for his standing here and from the war. And so, I'll be much to discuss. I appreciate it. So, all right, thanks to Bill Crystal.

“Everybody else, we'll see you back here tomorrow.”

I'll look forward to it. Peace. (music playing) The Board podcast is brought to you. Thanks to the Lord of Lead Producer Katie Cooper, Associate Producer Ansley Skipper,

and with video editing by Katie Lutz, an audio engineering in editing by Jason Brown.