Matt Connarton Unleashed 5-18-23

0:00 Okay, bring it off. Hello everybody, welcome, here we go.

0:43 It's that time again, Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live from the studios

0:49 of w m n H ninety five point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester,

0:54 New Hampshire. Also on Comcast ninety seven. If you're in Manchester and hello

0:58 to Oliver online listener's across the nation and around the globe. You can go

1:00 to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all your live streaming options, social

1:06 media links, contact info, show archives, etc. Etc. Today is

1:11 Thursday May eighteen, two thousand to twenty three, so nice to have you

1:15 all with me. And boy, there's some road construction going on right across

1:22 the street and it's loud, not that the mics can pick it up,

1:25 and I'm sure as the show goes on, I will notice it less and

1:27 less. But wow, that's good though it needs to be done. It

1:32 needs to be done, my friends, it's infrastructure. I do believe our

1:37 friend easyg Eric Agnet is going to be calling in with is vaunted entertainment report,

1:42 so I know we're all perpetually on pins and needles when it comes to

1:49 when it comes to that and he requested a song also that I play at

1:53 the end of it, which I will play. I will play. I

1:56 will honor that. I will honor that. By the way, of course,

2:00 Uh, this weekend at the Hop Knot, Jasmine Man is going to

2:05 be performing live on Saturday tonight at the Hop Knot. Of course it's Trivia

2:08 Night. Of course, every Thursday night they have Trivia Night now. It's

2:13 hosted by Broderick Lange and it starts at seven pm. If you're going to

2:16 go, one suggestion, a very strong suggestion, call ahead or reach out

2:23 to Kenny on social media or the Hop Knot, I should say on social

2:27 media. Probably best to call ahead because those spots fill up very quickly.

2:30 Trivia is a very popular feature there at the Hop Knot when the Brady Sullivan

2:37 right across the street. And hey, those delicious gourmet pretzels and craft beer.

2:42 That's not that's not bad either, So there you go. Um.

2:46 Other than easy ge, we don't really have a guest today. We're gonna

2:50 be kind of catching up on some news items and taking your calls at six

2:55 zo three two five six Z seven six zo three two five six Z seven.

3:00 You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four

3:04 seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me

3:08 Matt at matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact Endo Pine

3:14 in the Facebook live chat. Actually I won't give the studio line again right

3:17 now because I think EASYG will be calling in to do his report at any

3:22 moment, But as we await him, we will go ahead and say hello

3:25 to everybody in the Facebook live chat. Oh actually I think this is probably

3:30 Oh here we go? Wow as actually right on time, EASYG? Is

3:37 that you? Yes? It is? Whereas what times you playing on Jason

3:42 Man's phrase At Friday night you said Saturday, They're doing live music Saturdays now

3:46 at the hop Noot at seven pm? Oh on cool? Yeah, yes,

3:53 yes, oh easy ye. Oh go ahead. I think you probably

4:00 know what I'm going to talk about at the beginning of my offer for here,

4:04 I have no idea. I can't wait to be surprised now I have

4:08 to before we get I'm sorry. You're not gonna call me the wrong name,

4:14 are you like the other Eric did yesterday? No? Can thank you?

4:18 Can you believe that? Can you believe that he actually our friend?

4:24 Eric? Pilcher from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who does the does the Classic

4:28 film review every Friday, and we love and appreciate him very much. But

4:31 he actually called the show and slipped and called me the wrong name. He

4:34 called me John for a split second there. Yeah, he had me mixed

4:39 up with John Hopwood. It was very hurtful. As long as I don't

4:42 call you a layer, then all right, right, good one. Um.

4:46 You know it's almost as though everybody from New Hampshire is just the same

4:49 to him. It's like, next thing, you know, he'll be calling

4:53 me Jenny. He did talk to John Hogway, so it's an honest thing.

4:57 Yes, I know, I know. Yes, he called in to

5:00 John's television show and then called my show. Can you believe that? Boy?

5:04 He's on a fourth block now you I thought it would just be on

5:08 the three flow. Can you believe that? I don't know. I don't

5:11 know what goes on over a channel twenty three. Now. I do have

5:15 a quick story for you before you get to your report, Eric, I

5:17 had something I didn't even get it. I didn't even get a chance to

5:19 share this with Jenny. This was this was incredible. Listen to this,

5:24 so I go to a I go to a certain subshop. I'm not going

5:27 to say the name of it. It's a national chain, and I go

5:30 there. I go there and I order a sub and uh, I like

5:34 to you know, when I order a sub, if there's an opportunity,

5:39 I like to request extra tomatoes. I always say. I say, I

5:43 say to the person, hey, if you can throw a couple of extra

5:46 tomatoes on there, I would love it. So I go to this sub

5:48 shop today, right easy, g I go to the subshop and I do

5:53 the thing. I say, Hey, by the way, if you could

5:54 throw a couple of extra tomatoes on there, they look fresh, I would

5:57 love it. Normally that's met with a positive response, but in this particular

6:01 instance, the guy working behind the counter he leaned in. He put his

6:06 finger almost right in my face, and he said, now you listen to

6:12 meet you, little punk. Your sandwich will have precisely the requisite number of

6:17 tomatoes and no more. And I couldn't believe it. I was in shock,

6:23 and I was like, whoa man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean

6:27 to upset you. And he said, ah, I've heard about you.

6:30 You go all over town getting subs, and you always ask for extra tomatoes.

6:34 Oh, I've heard all about you, and I couldn't believe he was

6:38 so upset about this. He took it personally and I said to him,

6:43 I said, well, who's going around talking about me and what I eat

6:46 and what I put on my sub? And he said, oh, I'll

6:49 tell you exactly who I heard it from. His name is Bruce. Oh

6:58 yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're sorry to hear it.

7:00 Your your a little friend there, You're a little friend there. Bruce

7:04 ruined my sub. I did not get my extra tomatoes, and I would

7:09 appreciate it. I would appreciate it if you could politely, because I understand

7:14 he's intimidating. If you could please ask him not to interfere with my tomatoes.

7:26 Oh boy, yeah, it's really none of his business. And I

7:30 feel like Jenny was in the room. I haven't even mentioned h I haven't

7:35 even mentioned Bruce recently, and yet I feel like he is still just going

7:40 around trying to sabotage me at every opportunity. And I have to tell you

7:45 easy, I resent it. Yeah. So I'm sure Jenny's listening. I'm

7:51 assuming she's back in town, right, She is back in town. Yes,

7:56 she arrived back yesterday, so I wanted to give her a shout out

7:59 to you trying to U do some good in this world. So I'm sure

8:03 she'll appreciate it. That absolutely. Yes, Like my friend Peter, Peter

8:07 Fleming, he'd been going back and forth to to Washington, even hang out

8:13 with the governor there, and he always tried to do don't do things with

8:15 people with disabilities. Yes, excellent. You didn't have to do that,

8:20 you know, but he wanted to try to help out his friends. Well,

8:24 activism is a wonderful thing. I wish there was a lot more of

8:28 it in the world. But we all have to look out for each other,

8:30 or at least we should. And um, you know what we say,

8:33 we say, you know, Jenny and my friend Peter and along with

8:35 it. They didn't have to do it, you know, exactly, Well,

8:39 somebody else could do it, but hey, she took advantage of going

8:41 down there. And Peter, you should do a lot of good things and

8:45 try to, you know, like I said, help buy his buddies and

8:46 people with disabilities. And I think he did a lot of good. Absolutely.

8:50 By the way, Jenny is in the chat room and she says thank

8:54 you. Easy hey, no problem. And uh. Also Jay fed is

9:00 the chatwoman says I hate Bruce. Yeah, that's not nice. He shouldn't

9:05 hate anybody, but I agree, you shouldn't hate anybody, but there are

9:07 exceptions. Oh yeah, before he started to report the Uh this guy here

9:15 god Rust's soul and story. You heard about it, superstar building Graham,

9:18 Yes, shad on Facebook the uh I found it a website and to give

9:24 him ten bells. Now, if that guy doesn't get ten bells tomorrow night,

9:28 there's something seriously wrong that guys. Obviously it's a superstar. That guy.

9:31 I mean, I was an important guy in the world of wrestling,

9:35 you know, if you don't get ten bells, you know. I mean

9:37 Eddie Guerre Will got ten bells and he wasn't superstar like this guy was.

9:41 Now. Yeah, superstar Billy Graham, well literally it was in his name.

9:45 Uh. He was a very very big, very big star in his

9:50 day. He was, you know, world champion. He was kind of

9:52 um hul Cogan uh to some degree, and also Jesse the Body Ventur both

10:01 kind of modeled themselves took certain things from a superstar. Billy Graham. He

10:05 was a big influence on both of them. Yeah, hope those giving me

10:09 a five seconds. Oh, he was a great star. They move on

10:11 to the extorialine he deserves the ten bells. Yeah, w w. Well,

10:20 who knows. They won't give him a ten bell salute because they tend

10:22 to reserve that for current stars. But they will they there will be.

10:26 I'm sure there will be some sort of a package looking back at his career,

10:31 a retrospective. Yeah, he was a big guy, so you know,

10:35 the superstar from years ago. They forget about you. I don't think

10:39 they usually do a ten bell so well, they don't forget about you.

10:41 I don't think they usually do the ten bell salute though, unless it's somebody

10:45 current who passed away, because you don't see those very often. Obviously when

10:50 Brian Pillman, when Brian Pillman died, they did one, and when Owen

10:54 Hart died, obviously they did one, and so forth Eddie Guerrero. But

10:58 these were all current guys. I a feeling when the Hulks are passes someday

11:01 in the future, he will not begin to ten bells. Well, no,

11:05 because he's not he's not current, right, and he doesn't you know,

11:09 get along with when visit man with a whole lowsuits. Unfortunately, I

11:13 don't want to get into it, but unfortunately the Billy Graham had a made

11:18 some bad decisions and it's like, but who doesn't you know? And he

11:22 paid a price in there with his bad health at the end. You know,

11:24 you can use imagine anation of stuff he did. He would want to

11:26 get into it. You know, he's dead now. So he was very

11:30 open about it as a cautionary tale. He wanted people to know that.

11:35 He wanted people to be aware that his steroid abuse early in his career led

11:39 to a lot of his health issues and he was look at a Hogan,

11:43 he has almost back surgeries and I believe you know, his body was falling

11:48 apart now he's seven years old because of steroids too. Well, in Hogan's

11:52 case, I don't think his back surgeries are the result of the steroids.

11:56 I think and he's into the double digits. I think with the back surgeries

11:58 that he's had. Um There have been many interviews over the years I've seen

12:03 where he says his biggest regret as far as his wrestling career was that the

12:07 leg drop was his finishing move. Because every night he's landing on his spine

12:13 in a way that he thinks is what actually still think steroids doing many favors.

12:16 Oh, very possible, very possible. We'll we'll probably never know for

12:22 sure, but yeah, very likely. Well there's they're saying that the of

12:26 course they weren't testing about that, but he said dig Wards was a big

12:28 steroid guy in that really probably true because he was winning all those tournaments and

12:33 then his body's falling apart all these surgeries he's had on it. Of course

12:37 car Rex has didn't help. But well that car going around because they weren't

12:39 testing years ago, Melanie in the chat room says. Melanie says in the

12:45 chat room regarding Hogan, the headbands weren't his biggest regret. Weird. I

12:48 always like the headbands. Yeah, it's uh yeah, I'll pay that helps

12:58 some kind of videos on them. You get to begin the show. I'm

13:01 super star Billie Ram Yes, absolutely that yeah, oh yeah. When I

13:05 shared that ten ten bells on the on my Facebook page. So really wants

13:09 to hear that's like a one minute thirty a second in the video. Oh

13:13 you did your own ten bells salute? What did you sit there? Don't

13:16 know? They found the video of him. Oh here, I'm talking like

13:20 twenty seconds and then you bang bang bang. Oh I'll be the ten bells

13:24 right. Oh yeah, I want before we get to report, then only

13:30 have to shout out to George. You came by and played some of my

13:33 songs downstairs and a guitar, no singing, just plays guitar. He had

13:37 a set up thing. I don't know if you know what this is all

13:37 about, because you're you played a band. He had this little thing on

13:41 the table. It's like a camera. Okay, I don't know if you

13:46 Yeah, I think I answer my own question. He's party taking a video

13:50 of its performance, you know, a small cameras on. It was like

13:54 so tiny. I'm not laughing at you. Easy had the other thing on

13:56 his hand. He kept touching this thing on the hand. Was this had.

14:00 I don't know what that is. I'll kind of help you, help

14:03 you play the guitar or I was laughing at something Melanie said in the chat

14:09 room. He was personally something. He had a little instrument on, a

14:11 little you know thing around his wrist, and he was touching down for different

14:16 talent effects. I guess, oh, okay, he is some sort of

14:20 sampler. Yeah, then he had he know, the thing on the bottom

14:24 and he pressed on the foot there and he had the speakers. It was

14:26 quite a setup. And then he all dressed up to when he had a

14:31 nice tie on and nice clothes on. So and his name is George of

14:33 like fifty years he was saying, oh, George is his name? He

14:39 had George Joe. What's his last name? Does he play out? I

14:43 don't know. I'm surprised you didn't get that information so you could include him

14:48 in your entertainment report. I wasn't gonna I was gonna ask him, but

14:52 he just started set up and then I had to h Yeah, I didn't

14:56 want chious, I said him he was running light, so I didn't want

14:58 to bother right. You didn't want to be that guy where the musician is

15:03 setting up and there there you are trying to right right, and he probably

15:09 would have been furious. Let's be honest. You know musicians, and I'm

15:13 a musician myself, I can say this, musicians are very temperamental. And

15:18 you know, you start you go asking somebody's name while they're setting up their

15:20 stuff, they're gonna they're gonna freak out. They're gonna go back to the

15:24 hotel after the show, and uh, throw furniture out the windows. It's

15:28 gonna be a whole thing. Yeah, they're job. Oh that's good.

15:37 Shout out to George, whoever you are, because we don't know his last

15:39 name. George is a very common name. It'd be nice if we could

15:43 give just call him George the guitar Player. Hey, that's kind of snappy.

15:46 I like it. George the guitar player. Hey, man, you're

15:50 going to see George the guitar player. Yeah, yeah, you've never met

15:54 a You've never seen a guitar player named George Teller can buy and player.

16:00 What about George George Harrison of the Beatles? Oh, yeah, you're right.

16:04 I wasn't George Harrison. There's plenty of Georges who played guitar. How

16:08 dare you? I think you should true try to go if you're ready to

16:12 go. Dedication. I think I've dedicated this show. Oh well, okay,

16:18 pretty famous guys. I'm around the way. Easy. You want to

16:22 know about stock market crashes? COVID nineteen, drive buys, celebrity gossip,

16:30 Easy, GE's got you entertainment reports stacks? Wow, think nutting butter Jeeke

16:41 thank baby back. Are you ready for stock? Let's find out ready,

16:45 let's go mon pens of needles. Yes, easyg all right, you're gonna

16:52 dedicated. He's still hanging on, believe or not. Just just uh ella.

16:56 He's pretty a famous guy. Jimmy Carter one of the oldest living presidents,

17:00 and he's still hanging on to hospite. Yes, he's been in for

17:04 a while now almost he's almost a hundred ninety eight. Maybe I think he's

17:10 like ninety eight. Let's he will make it to one hundred. I think

17:11 he's ninety eight years old. Yeah, yeah, the shout out to U.

17:17 One term president. He was a peanut farmer, I believe, Yes,

17:21 he was a peanut far good. After he became president, he's done

17:23 the hospice, not a hospice, but he's done those houses where you build

17:27 the houses there. He did a lot of great work after his presidency.

17:33 A lot of people are very dismissive of the Jimmy Carter presidency, and uh,

17:37 you know, historically people speak about it like it was a failure,

17:41 and in some ways I would say that's true. But but all the work

17:45 that he did post presidency, I think really redeemed him in the eyes of

17:48 a lot of people, to build those houses for the people that need and

17:52 what do you call that? Well, there's is it the organization? Is

17:55 it habitat for humanity? Is that the organization? Yeah? Yeah, he

17:57 did that for a long time. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yep.

18:02 I mean I mean actually and not after he became president, not just running

18:08 it either or just showing up for photo ops, like actually going and helping

18:12 build. Yeah. Absolutely, no, great man, great man. I

18:18 mean, you know, uh, say what you want about his presidency,

18:19 but he's he's a great man, really good guy. Still hanging on and

18:25 still hanging on. He beat uh at I think I think he was ninety

18:29 two when he was diagnosed with cancer and uh, I don't remember the type

18:33 of cancer. But at ninety two he beat cancer and kept going. I

18:36 mean that's you know, a very very strong man. Oh yeah, very

18:40 tough. Yeah, oh definitely. Ruth Bader Ginsberg another example of that.

18:45 Like she was, she was you know, obviously she ultimately succumbed, but

18:48 she she beat cancer multiple times at a very old age. It's like,

18:51 wow, where do you where do you you know? At any at any

18:53 at any age that's that's uh horrible. But to be able to do that

18:57 at such an advanced age is impressive. Alrighty, we want some more,

19:03 more happier things going on. Good one of your favorite events on May twenty

19:07 nine. It's a free event, bring your friends and your family at two

19:11 o'clock. It's a Memorial Day parade, rain and show. And the only

19:15 thing they won't have it if they cancel it, the year's past. But

19:18 you know, oh, torrential rain. They can't do that. Torrential rain.

19:22 Cancel it not pouring, right, and I'll have it. And it's

19:25 on Um Street right here in Manchester. And now after like a half an

19:27 hour parade and after it's thirty minute twenty past thirty minute ceremony, after a

19:32 veteran's park, you know, the mayor will be there, a couple of

19:34 dignitaries and bla blah blah bah blah. It's it's something to remind you of

19:41 the special day. You know, this is not now dogs and hamburgers.

19:44 So you said, on less there's torrential rain. Let me throw a scenario

19:48 scenario at you. Uh, there's let's say there's severe hail with a strong

19:53 wind and then as soon as the hail ends, a volcano erupts in the

19:57 area. What happens then with the raid? Yeah, I canceled, I

20:02 guess okay, yeah, I think that's wise. You got to be prepared

20:07 for anything in this world. Yeah, definitely, definitely, yeah, yeah,

20:14 yeah. I've got to plenty of those stories over the year, so

20:18 it's my time in the year's past. Well, anyways, you might want

20:21 to check this place out. One of your favorite places, cream Land on

20:23 Valley Street open eleven am to soon to be open to nine when it comes

20:27 to the summertimes. So people get their food and ice creamers, all that

20:32 fun stuff and oh yeah, then when you're done there, you can go

20:33 over and get your cupcake and queens any cupcakes down. They rode a little

20:37 bit, but they want another business. Oh they moved so they have two

20:41 business in one now, so makes it easier for them. Oh um.

20:45 Yeah, there's a few places around here that are like that. Now who

20:48 did they move in with? I forget the name of the place. But

20:52 they sell all kind of like knick knacks and uh T table cloths, but

20:57 knick knacks and and what kind of variety of thank you that you wouldn't find

21:03 anywhere else. Like, you know, stuff you use, the oven mints

21:06 and all miscellaneous stuff, you wouldn't find it on normal store. You right,

21:11 that's true. You can't back there. You can't find others anywhere.

21:15 How to get the cupcakes in there too? Yeah? Yeah, it's great

21:18 that, uh, you know that you're able to have a place like that,

21:22 that you can go where you know there's there, there's cupcakes, and

21:26 there's oven, mits and knick knacks. I think that you have a few

21:32 minutes and check that out. It's an interesting little store. I think it

21:37 is. I dare say the future. Yeah, place where you can go

21:41 that you get some cupcakes, you get some mits, you get some knick

21:45 knacks. That's that's what we call a good day. Yeah, it's always

21:52 good to have a creasy cupcakes are out. Yes, nothing like nothing like

21:57 a delicious cupcake on a ninety degree day. Great, great summertime. Now,

22:03 you said you on your show of vile back you said you can't eat

22:04 a lot of sugar anymore. No, No, the last time I hate

22:08 a piece of cake, it went very poorly for me. But I will

22:11 say this in all sincerity, and I know I kid I kid, but

22:15 in all sincerity you brought me at least actually I think more than once you

22:19 did bring me cupcakes from Queen City Cupcake And they are and I can't say,

22:25 I can't say, yes, they are absolutely delicious. So I recommend

22:30 alrighty And then another event coming out real soon there. I've meant a lot

22:33 of people from the station. May twenty feet Sunday is another family event rain

22:37 Er, Shine and noontime at Veterans Park. Walking is Hunger Yes, a

22:41 fundraiser for the shelter and you get a free T shirt and after you're about

22:45 the walk you have some food for the walkers hot dog, sort of pop,

22:51 watermelon, you know, chips and cookies and it's only for the people

22:53 that do the walk right, right. You can't you can't just show up

22:59 and just partake in the food without having to do. You have to do

23:03 the work to enjoy the spoils right. This is another big event coming up

23:08 the found out there by twentieth on a Saturday, way round in the corner

23:12 or Manchester Musical a multi colored oral festival featuring a farmer's market in live music

23:19 at Basical Park at two ninety seven Maple Street eleven am to four another family

23:26 find free event for all. Here's a lot of music. I've never heard

23:29 of these bands, but allow him anyways. Cozy Thorne, Sleepyhead, join

23:34 O, Lafon, Nikki, Defrost Roll, Oh like uh a k Wa

23:41 Ba Ensemble, Oh on great Food too, Hernados bands? Uh no?

23:48 Now will George the guitarist the guitar player be there? Oh? I never

23:52 know. I kind of doubt it's one on the list. Now. Scott

23:57 Robinson has a question easy and the chat room, he's asking, what's what's

24:02 for supper tonight? Eric, I don't. I don't have a I'm hoping

24:08 for like, I think it might be a turkey burghers and some cattle telling.

24:12 That sounds good. Uh. And Scott also says in the chat room,

24:17 Oh, he's calling you Erica. Now. He says, Erica,

24:21 is this a free event? It sounds fun? How do you feel about

24:23 that being called Erica? Uh? That's bother me. You know what he's

24:30 doing. He's trying to get into your head. He's trying to get into

24:33 your head for when you guys face off in the ring. He's trying to

24:37 psych you out by calling you Erica. Yeah, are we going a lot

24:44 of a lot of events coming up the airport courseman, yeah, I believe

24:48 it or not. Now every Wednesday at Killington River Shop is no longer happening,

24:52 son, Oh don't go there on every Wednesday at six o'clock? Why

24:55 is that no longer happening? Finally over? Oh okay, so thinking give

25:00 people heads up, you know what it is a big event coming up.

25:02 And to believes a still available April Coursman dot com. The Country Crawl Lansdowne

25:07 Down Massamez is a country fest. I'm a twentieth starts at ten am.

25:11 Oh, I believe April is gonna be on at one o'clock. It's a

25:15 paid event. Obviously tickets are available vi P one hundred dollars thirty five general

25:19 mission. And they gets some big artists or any Bross, Samantha Ray,

25:23 Morgan, Johnson, Kevin Horne, Matt Madiie, Nick cashy eighties or Lisa

25:32 Smith, back Roads Country Southern City Band. Now what do you want?

25:36 Now? What do you get with the VIP? Do you get a meet

25:38 and greet? H probably on guessing like the first a second row but probably

25:44 uh probably didn't really say, but I'm guessing you might be able to meet

25:48 people, meet and greet backs on undred dollars, you better meet somebody,

25:52 That's what I say. I say that all the time. Oh yeah,

25:56 and she's coming back to the goat here in Chester Padio on Mondays see May

26:03 twenty ninth and twenty six. It's a free event. But don't forget to

26:07 um uh oh yeah, I don't forget the tip the waitress, waitress,

26:11 don't forget to be a tip the staff, and to be a donation jars,

26:14 don't one of a couple of dolls and and throw it into her her

26:18 jar. And she's got a wat of events coming up here, she wrote

26:22 down sort of her Facebook page. He's got more events coming up, but

26:26 the spring is I mean summer and fall to be announced. Uh. By

26:30 the way, Yeah, she's gonna be playing the previous event easy with the

26:36 VIP thing Melanie and in the chat room says I missed all that. Can

26:41 can you repeat the event info? The event info again? Yeah, yeah,

26:48 May twentieth, May twenty If he don't schools around here the front page,

26:53 Oh yeah, at least she crawled landsdown Boston as through his country fest

26:59 starts at ten I'm stooping on at one am. I sorry, one pm.

27:03 Yeah, because take us over going, excuse me, take us our

27:08 available April coursman dot com in the VP's one hundred dollars and thirty five dollars

27:14 is general mission. Um okay, now she's asking, now, can you

27:18 repeat that in a French accent? I don't think so. Now. Oh

27:29 fine, he's playing there at one o'clock and as he's gonna drive back to

27:33 uh the Manchester is he's gonna do a double list today on May twenty,

27:38 as he's playing the back room brewery cisical I. That's a pre event.

27:42 And this she's gonna be playing on June fourth or five pm? Oh yeah,

27:48 I'm sorry. Noontime quote crew always say it's something yeah up in main

27:55 crew that's where um probably Dion plays. I'm quick man. A gun quit?

28:02 Say it a gun quit? Right? He's flying up there, you

28:03 can say a gun quinn and right. And then she's flying on June fifth

28:08 at a free event the country. Oh sorry, Courtyard by Mariot and Conquered.

28:14 I've been there before. A gun quit? Come on, he's playing

28:17 a six thirty? Are these They busily restaurant tavern. Are these all in

28:22 a gun quit? Monton Burrow? Oh, Milton Borrow, that's not a

28:26 gun quit. He's flying all over the places. May twenty fifty's playing at

28:29 Strafford, Massachusetts, five pm, Independence in a free event. But don't

28:33 forget to Tippy Waitress, isn't It will be a donation jar at all these

28:37 events. Yeah. In May twenty six he's playing the Founder right here in

28:40 Manchester at six pm event. He's playing on May twenty seven, real busy

28:44 Letty at four thirty. It's a hoptic in Kentucky Cider Company. And then

28:48 she's flying May twenty eighth at the River Shop in Killington at noontime in Vermont.

28:53 Ya gonna happen And uh yeah yeah, bo yays, we'll forget to

28:56 check out her her new song, a new song, um smoke, smoke

29:02 and all the platforms. We played that on the show recently. You did,

29:07 I mean yeah, you did, Yeah, I saw the lady is

29:11 very busy. Katie dommins. He's thirty dollars maya thirty, first and six

29:15 thirty. The songwriters round up ten or fifteen dollars per ticket and it's up

29:18 in Meredith and oh yeah that coming up this week's he's playing Maya Teas at

29:25 five o'clock this Friday after work. I mean interest Curier our gallium. Let's

29:30 take it as a free event. And as he's playing it said impro Visions

29:34 jazz trio pianist Michael Are not w and it took us at twenty five dollars.

29:41 What's his name not Wit? Okay Yo, Michael R not Wit?

29:45 What a fun name? Aar and old w I t T. If my

29:51 name was not Wit, I'd be I'd be saying things like I'm not with

29:56 names outcome. Yeah, these names are kind of confusing, right yes,

30:03 oh yeah. And then's on new music is coming from Katie Dommin's called Seasons

30:06 of Change. It's just going to be mail on May twenty six, all

30:10 platforms, and she's got four more songs coming, like I said, just

30:12 lady's busy. And and in May nineties he's playing at the innspro calf and

30:18 Ashland for sixty eight and obviously that was a free event. Next one's twenties

30:23 he's playing at six o'clock Sound Riders Round up with Jackie Thurmian and Ali Brodrey.

30:29 Have you ever seen that lady dress worth a ticket right there is ten

30:32 to fifteen dollars a ticket. Melanie says, uh, you mentioned Killington earlier.

30:38 Melanie says Killington, that's right by me, but I'm not going since

30:42 you didn't say it in an Italian accent. One boy, and then we'll

30:48 end up with my pal Amana McCarthy. Oh, she's your pa. I'm

30:52 working on a new album. He's got the new music coming real soon.

30:56 You just released hers on Spotify all the platforms. Wrote another song by Smoking

31:00 Mirrors and Christine needs her. One of her good pals is a Christiano the

31:07 song. And then I only asked, you've been kind of coy about this,

31:10 but do you want anybody to vote for the i SS Awards show?

31:14 And it's gonna be Atlanta, Georgia on sadd the August feth But you won't

31:17 say what She's the nominee for one of her buddies, you know. Posted

31:22 facebookers said, well, Amanda McCarthey will be there too when the Uh yeah,

31:27 we'll be there at the awards show. But she didn't say what she's

31:32 nominated for. Her friends nominate for this, this and that. So does

31:34 she have a new single. When I find out more information, I'll let

31:37 anybody know. Is there is there what she didn't announce it? But who

31:41 knows? Is there a new single from her? Is that what you're saying?

31:45 No, she's a nominee for the i SS Awards show. If you've

31:49 made to the Gold level, you know, you make it to the you

31:52 know the maybe the owner called it the gold the gold level and the other

31:57 one was silver. I guess it's gonna be in Atlanta, Georgia and Staddy

32:00 August. If she would nominate for six different awards, but she don't telling

32:06 everybody what the awards are, I guess I don't know why it was.

32:08 I don't know why. Once I find out when she wins in August,

32:12 oh, let everybody know. I think you need to start working your publicity

32:16 magic again. I think you need to get in touch with her, and

32:20 I think you need to say, you know, I got in touch of

32:22 her, Amanda, her boyfriend, her husband Tom. But you wouldn't say

32:25 it either. So I guess they're keeping no news good news. Do you

32:29 do you think they're keeping it a secret from everyone or are they just keeping

32:32 it a secret from you? And if they're just keeping it a secret from

32:36 you. Are you bothered by that? No, because he hasn't posted on

32:40 a Facebook page, So I'm assuming if she knows, and Tom knows,

32:44 I guess, and probably some friends of hers. But she hasn't promoted on

32:47 Facebook, so it's odd that she wouldn't tell you. I mean, you're

32:51 responsible for a lot of her success. I like to think, I am.

32:55 I guess. M oh, yeah, we all do, we all

32:59 do? We all think that? So when I find out more information,

33:02 I'll I'll let everybody know. But right now I don't. I know.

33:07 She's probably nominated for something that a friend says he was nominated for stuff.

33:09 Our parent was being koy about it too. Everyone's being TOOI like the fish.

33:15 Yeah. So anyways, that's the and am I reported, And like

33:21 I said, I'll be listening for the song that I recorded place. Now,

33:24 why did you uh so before we let you go easy, G?

33:28 Why did you request this song? We're gonna play it now as a capper

33:30 to your report. I always did the uh. I always did the the

33:35 uh, the the post notes, so I thought I played one of our

33:38 all the songs. So the song is jeep song by Katie Dobbins and does

33:43 this song have any special meaning for you? Or uh oh no, I

33:49 like all the songs. Okay, this is one I picked. He has

33:52 many songs out there, She does have many She has many songs. Yes,

33:58 there might be some and so it might be something she's not even telling

34:00 you about. Keeping secrets like a man. I think Seasons of Change coming

34:06 up, Season the Radio two coming up. We'll give it a world We'll

34:12 give it a world radio premiere. Like you say, I don't want to

34:15 get permission to play songs. People want you to play songs on the radio.

34:19 That tends to be the case. Yes, people want you to play

34:21 their songs on the permission. They would love to write those songs. Yes,

34:27 that is that is true. That is a fen from don't need permission.

34:30 Yes, that's right. All right, that's enough my gibber jabber.

34:35 We'll talk to you later on all right, EASYG. Thank you. Well,

34:37 that's yes. That is the end of Easyg's jibber jabber and another outstanding

34:43 entertainment report. I think we learned a lot, but I still can't get

34:46 him to say a gun quick. So yeah, let's give this a listen.

34:49 So this is Jeep song by Katie Dobbins. This is the song that

34:52 EASYG requested that we play at the end of his report, and then we'll

34:57 we'll show them left to our amazing sponsors, and then we'll come back and

35:00 we'll get into into some stuff. There's lots going on today, but here

35:05 it is. This is jeepsong from the great Katie Dobbins. Wm NH rips

35:09 the normals. Hey, welcome back everybody. This is Matt Connerton Unleashed and

35:15 we are live from these studios of w m n H ninety five point three

35:20 FM, Inglorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. Also on Comcast ninety seven if

35:24 you're in Manchester and hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and

35:29 around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for

35:31 all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show

35:35 archives, etc. Et cetera. It is Thursday May eighteen, twenty twenty

35:39 three, so nice to have you all with me. The studio line is

35:44 open six zo three two five zero six zoh seven six zo three two five

35:47 h six zo seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine

35:51 one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.

35:54 You can email me Matt at matt Connerton dot com and of course you can

35:58 interact into opine in the Facebook live chat. But it looks like our friend

36:04 Shannon is on the line. Hello, Hello, Hello, huh said nothing?

36:13 Um, what did you call me? I didn't call you anything.

36:16 I said, how are you in? Friend? Oh? I thought you

36:19 called me a bad name. Yes, what I thought you called me a

36:22 bad name? What's on your mind? Shannon? Okay, thank you?

36:25 I appreciate that. What's on your mind? Um? Last week you had

36:30 some guys in there. The only, the only, the only song I

36:36 remember its Engine nine? Oh, Engine nine? Do you remember? Was

36:43 it this week? Yeah? I remember a song called Engine nine. Uh?

36:47 That was Oh we were in the studio with you. Yeah, I

36:53 can't remember. I can't remember now who the band was last week, last

36:59 week, at the beginning of this week, it was last week? Yeah,

37:01 it was probably last week, Engine nine. Let's see who did we

37:07 have? H you said it ten times? Was it Bees? No?

37:15 It wasn't Bees Deluxe? Was it? Oh? It was Frankie Boy and

37:19 the Blues Deluxe. It was Frankie Blues Deluxe Lucid what whoa hey, that's

37:29 what I heard? What What did you call me? What did you call

37:31 me? How dare you Blues Deluxe? Blues Deluxe? Now now that time,

37:37 you really did you? You just called me something terrible? How dare

37:40 you? Shannon? My god? No, no, I say what I

37:45 hear. I'm very Uh, I'm very I'm really losing my hair here.

37:50 Huh. All right, okay, So on time the title Frankie Boy and

37:55 the Blues Deluxe. Oh no, I'm sorry Blues Oh no, No,

38:00 I'm wrong. I'm sorry, Shannon. I'm getting it wrong. It's Blues

38:04 Express. I'm conflating that band with Bees Deluxe, Frankie Boy and the Blues

38:09 Express. I apologize. So I didn't even say it correctly to begin with.

38:14 So, so I apologize to you. I say to you hashtag Shannon,

38:20 okay, hashtag we say um. The other thing is the day before

38:24 that, I believe it was you played a song. I don't know if

38:29 the band of this song was over something Oberon, Oberon. They are from,

38:37 yes, from Italy? Yes? Do you recall the name of that

38:43 one? I don't song. No, I don't remember every question early,

38:50 Yes, I will do that for you. Yes, I will. Okay,

38:53 last time you said that you didn't show up on that Monday, Oh

38:55 my god, oh my god, do you remember? No? Yeah,

39:05 you you had something to do or whatever, and and Friday because I didn't

39:08 expect you to play. Then I said, you know, maybe Monday,

39:10 and that's when you had one of your best of maybe. Uh maybe.

39:15 I was afraid if I was here, you were going to call me terrible

39:19 names. No, I mean that was funny. That didn't have to be

39:25 blueped out, did it? No? But I said, no, it's

39:29 fine, okay, because I've heard, I've I've heard worse on WMNH than

39:35 that frank Frankie Boy and the Blues Express, the Blues Express. Yes,

39:43 yes, all right, all right, Shannon, how's Jenny. She's good?

39:49 Goody's said, Ohio, shoot up to home safe. Yeah, yeah,

39:53 she's no, she's she's home, she's in the chat room. She's

39:55 home. She made it home safe and she is a recuper It's been an

40:00 intense couple of days, very busy couple of days for her. I go

40:04 into Washington, d C. But she's back, she's all and uh,

40:07 she feels good. She's just you know she's a little tired obviously. Oh

40:12 yeah, yeah. But now if I say barucash him, doesn't that mean

40:15 thank god? I have no idea if varukas all that him? I like

40:22 that song Volcano girls. Okay, is that what you're saying? Lava lamp?

40:27 Lava lamp. We used to have one here. I don't know what

40:30 happened to it? Was it? M M. I don't know where I

40:35 heard this. Never mind, it doesn't matter, all right. I was

40:38 just picture I said lava lamp because I heard something someone I don't even know

40:45 where. If your cat is all with the petrol, if your cat is

40:49 looking at a lava lamp with shades on, it's not because the cat namp

40:54 evidently does not um. I forget what he said. What can actually does?

40:59 Okay? Um in it? Barrel cats in the wild? H huh.

41:04 We'll find it and chew it up because it um. I want to

41:09 say, uh, not to flex, so to speak, but a word

41:15 similar to that. It repels things, bugs or something. H yeah,

41:20 in the wild. Just you know, fun fact, okay, okay,

41:24 all right, Shannon, I appreciate the call, call anytime. And evidently

41:30 Eric didn't get my letter. Oh he did him to get down to the

41:32 mail room. I think Bruce took it. Huh, I think Bruce took

41:38 his letter. Yeah. Well, I'm sick of writing one way letters.

41:44 I'm sick of Bruce. Stop writing. I don't blame h all right,

41:49 okay, ally, Shannon, thank you for the call. Ye take it

41:52 easy, by all right, by bye. All right. That was our

41:54 friend Shannon, And that does open up a line for you. Six z

41:58 three two five h six zero seven six three two five zero six z seven.

42:04 Let's see, we'll say a load everybody in the Facebook live chat.

42:07 And then I do want to talk about the debt limit. I know we

42:12 talk about the debt limit a lot these days, and some people are probably

42:15 a little tired of it. I'm tired of I'm tired of worrying about it.

42:19 But uh, it is uh looming large on the horizon. We're only

42:24 a couple of weeks away from June one, which is when Janet Yellen said

42:30 we would plunge into economic catastrophe. So hopefully we're able to avoid that.

42:37 But we'll get to that in a moment. But I do want to say,

42:39 all load everybody in the Facebook live chat, make sure we didn't miss

42:42 anybody, so Melanie Liberty of course in the chat room. Rondo Favero from

42:47 the West Coast, California, Hello Ronda. Jenny of course is in there

42:51 and says, shalom, peeps, let's see. J Fed of course is

42:59 in the chat room. Hill Crystal, our friend from the Great State of

43:01 Illinois, joins us. Hello, Crystal was asking did Bruce get a job

43:07 at Subway? I don't know, but for some reason, he has some

43:09 sort of sway over my tomatoes. I just wanted tomatoes, and Bruce Scott

43:15 in the way as he always does. That guy Scott Robinson of course in

43:20 the chat room. Hello Scott. Oh, Scott didn't ask anything about the

43:23 hulkster this time, unless I missed the comment during Easyg's entertainment report. Let's

43:30 see, I thought I saw somebody else pop in there too. Oh.

43:37 Yes, Dave Wally is in the chat room. Dave, I know I

43:40 have a Facebook message from you. I will respond to you today, I

43:43 promise. Dave Wally and I went to high school together. Dave is a

43:47 very very talented musician, and the last time I saw Dave. I think

43:52 the last time I saw Dave was at when I was working at Strawberries on

43:57 loudon Road and conquered, and he was in a band called october Sons,

44:00 and I set up an event where they came and played for a We used

44:04 to do these CD release parties. We did a release party for the new

44:07 Pearl Jam album, if I remember correctly, and October Suns came and played.

44:10 And also Dave used to make fun of me in high school for being

44:15 a Kiss fan. And yes, I do remember that, Dave. I

44:22 remember those conversations. No, I'm just kidding. I will respond you though,

44:27 sir, And it's wonderful to hear from you now. Dave's a great

44:29 guy and again a very talented, very talented musician. Um, let's see.

44:37 Oh Mariam Banish too, she's in the chat room. Hello Miriam.

44:43 Um, all right, so we should get to the debt limit because I've

44:46 been mentioning this Lawrence Tribe article. Let me give the studio line one more

44:51 time six three two five six seven six O three two five six seven.

44:55 So the reason I've been mentioning, Dave says, uh, I don't think

45:00 Jean is a rotten human. Gene Simmons. He calls the show occasionally Jean

45:04 Simmons of kiss it's a little inside. But if you know, you know,

45:08 all right. So, a former Trump advisor, Laurence Tribe, who

45:15 is a constitutional scholar, has been advocating for using the fourteenth Amendment. And

45:19 as we careen down the road at which the end of the road is a

45:27 cliff, the fiscal cliff, which we're about to go over a Thelma and

45:30 Louise style, if the debt limit, this artificially self imposed self destruct mechanism,

45:37 if the debt limit does not get raised on time. And by the

45:40 way, the debt limit, we've actually already passed it a while ago.

45:45 But then there's an I guess there's enough money left over where the Treasury can

45:50 resort to what is called extraordinary measures. And around June first, those extraordinary

45:55 measures will be exhausted, and that's when the country goes into default for the

46:00 first time in American history, and that will trigger a global economic collapse,

46:06 and uh, it will be the end of the global economy as we know

46:09 it. Exciting stuff, is it not? Would be fascinating to see it

46:14 all play out, But like I said the other day, it's like a

46:16 disaster movie. Yeah, it'd be interesting, but you still don't want to

46:21 you don't want it to actually happen, So hopefully we can avoid it.

46:24 I'm a little bit more optimistic than I was the other day. I think

46:29 I had said on the show recently, not to be a downer, but

46:30 I think i'd said something to the effective. I think our we've arrived at

46:34 a point where our politics in this country is so polarized and so broken that

46:37 we might actually willful, willfully destroy America economically because the there's a degree of

46:46 you know, the polarization, and there's a degree of incompetence in our government

46:53 that and you know, self interest in all of it. Of course,

46:58 that where we may have reached a where it's almost impossible to avoid and there's

47:02 plenty of blame to go around, you know. Again, I say Biden

47:08 in my view, and the Democrats are correct in principle, in principle when

47:15 they say that the House, the Republican controlled House, although barely that's why

47:21 George Santos is still around, but the Republican controlled House should vote on a

47:25 clean to pass a clean a debt limit bill and not have anything attached to

47:30 it. I think they're correct in principle, but not in practice, because

47:32 in practice you have to negotiate because otherwise we might actually go over that cliff.

47:42 So, you know, I mean, I blame. Like I said,

47:45 there's plenty of blame on both sides. As far as I'm concerned,

47:47 I blame the Republicans for being willing to hold us all hostage with a gun

47:55 to our heads metaphorically speaking of course in terms of the economy with because there

48:00 are some in the House, there are summer House Republicans who actually wanted a

48:04 fault, who think it would be a good idea. And by the way,

48:06 Trump in the CNN town hall, he said, yeah, you know,

48:08 it'll be fine, probably should default. You know, we'll have a

48:10 bad day, we'll have a bad week. What's a big deal, right,

48:13 It's like, whoa, okay, dude, that's completely insane. But

48:19 I also blame the Democrats because they had opportunities when they were still in control

48:25 to do something proactive and preemptive on this and actually raise the debt limit then

48:31 when the Democrats were in control, and do something long term so that this

48:36 wouldn't be happening now, you know, through things like the Inflation Reduction Act,

48:43 there's all this new spending, and to have voted on all this new

48:46 spending, and you know, a lot of it I agree with, has

48:50 to be done. It's difficult to argue against infrastructure, but to vote on

48:54 all this new spending and then somehow it never occurs to anybody. Hey,

48:58 when the Republicans are in control, you know, they're not going to necessarily

49:04 be willing to pay for all this new spending that we have voted on in

49:07 past, So you know, and I get it. I mean, there

49:12 probably were discussions about it, and probably somebody said, well, you know,

49:16 we could deal with the debt limit now too, But then we've got

49:20 to we've got to talk Joe Mansion and Kirsten Cinema talk them into cooperating.

49:25 And that's hard. So, you know, so does just doesn't get done.

49:30 And now we're in this position now. Lawrence Tribe, a former Biden

49:36 advisor, and I learned this from Sam Cedar's show on YouTube. The Majority

49:42 report that Lawrence Tribe has been advocating for Biden to use the fourteenth Amendment,

49:47 which we've again, we've talked about it a lot on the show. It's

49:50 never been done, never been tried. There are risks could be challenged in

49:54 court. Is it actually constitutional? It could trigger a constitutional crisis. The

50:00 fourteenth Amendment, it's not clear. You know. Basically it says that the

50:04 country's debts will not be questioned, but that doesn't necessarily mean, you know,

50:09 I wish the language was more clear. You know, our debts shall

50:16 not be questioned. Could be interpreted simply as nothing more than yeah, we

50:22 acknowledge that we racked up this debt, and no one's questioning that. We're

50:27 just questioning whether we're actually going to pay it or not, or whether we're

50:30 going to default. You could interpret it that way, or you could interpret

50:34 it as as some do, as Laurence Tribe apparently is interpreting it and is

50:38 confident in his interpretation that it means the country simply cannot default. Our debt

50:44 cannot be questioned, means that we pay our We're going to pay that debt,

50:49 and if that means raising the debt limit, then the president can himself

50:52 unilaterally declare, invoke the fourteenth Amendment and declare that we're raising the debt limit

50:57 and we will continue to borrow money to pay that debt. Now, what's

51:00 particularly interesting though about Lawrence tribe's take is it's different than it used to be.

51:07 In twenty eleven when we went through this during the Biden administration, and

51:13 that was the first time that I ever really started learning about the debt limit.

51:16 I didn't really know that because prior to that, for the most part,

51:21 it had been a perfunctory thing anyway, regardless of who was president,

51:23 regardless of who was in power, who had control. You just want it's

51:27 time to raise a debt limit. You raise the debt limit because you can't,

51:30 you know, default, that's unacceptable. But twenty eleven was really the

51:35 first time that I think it was John Bayner. It was either John Bayner

51:37 or Mitch McConnell, one of them. I forget to which one of these

51:42 guys to attribute this quote. But then one of them said it, and

51:47 the other one agreed with it and said, let's go with that that the

51:52 debt limit might very well be a hostage worth taking, you know, in

51:55 terms of trying to negotiate a budget. So that's when this became a thing.

52:04 Prior to that, again, it had been relatively perfunctory and it just

52:07 was something you do. So now it's a thing. But twenty eleven was

52:12 really the first time it became a thing. And I remember vividly in twenty

52:15 eleven, not necessarily coincidentally, when I first started this show, because this

52:22 was my show was originally a podcast when I first started it, and then

52:27 of course as of April, I've been here at WMNH for six years.

52:30 But before I did the show on radio, I was doing just streaming a

52:34 podcast, and that was, you know, one of the first big issues

52:37 we were tackling on the podcast was the debt limit at that time in the

52:40 summer of twenty eleven, and I remember being very concerned, and at that

52:45 time Lawrence Tribe said, no, you cannot use the fourteenth Amendment. So

52:51 what I want to do is I want to look at what Lawrence Tribe is

52:53 saying now versus what he was saying then, and I want to try to

52:57 figure out what's changed, and it made that the only thing that's really changed

53:01 is just the sense of desperation because obviously we have to get this done.

53:12 Oh, our friend Ron is on the line. We haven't heard from Ron

53:14 lately. Hey, Ron, how you doing Ron? Did you pocket dial

53:21 us? I met very good, Thank you. I'll only take a second

53:23 adio time Matt, when did we begin to occur this debt? And what

53:31 what was the cause of this debt? Oh, we've always we've been accruing

53:37 debt. I mean, I don't know when we started running. If you're

53:43 asking, when did we start running deficits? At least as long as you

53:49 or I have been alive. I'm sure you know, because the deficit,

53:52 there's always been some sort of debt. It's never it's never been a you

53:55 know, a presidential term when we didn't have a debt. Um, let

54:00 me see, actually, when did United States? I can find out exactly

54:06 when did you United States start running a deficit? Like I said, I

54:14 think at least for as long as you or I have been alive. Um,

54:16 all right, but let let me let me see here. Though I

54:19 can find the answer quickly, I can probably find um because I am sorry

54:24 for interrupting you. No, that's okay, it's act. It's a good

54:28 question. Now, this says since two thousand and one, but that's not

54:31 true. What the hell? What is that? Um? This Investipedia says,

54:43 uh, since nineteen seventy, so starting in nineteen seventy, but I

54:50 actually would have thought it would have been even before that. Um, but

54:58 that's not reason though what um, you know, was it a war?

55:01 Was it? Uh? I don't know, you know what I mean,

55:04 I could guess, but I mean i'd like to know the reason where they

55:07 said, okay, let's just borrow was an interest rates in? I don't

55:13 know. Oh, Dave Wally in the chat room says he's seen nineteen fifty

55:17 seven. Interesting. Okay, yeah, this is a thank you Dave Wally.

55:23 Yes, yes, yeah, um, and it's uh, it's not

55:30 just us, by the way, So the most um, most modern industrialized

55:36 nations run a run a deficit, well run run up debt, you know,

55:40 deficit of course, the shortfall in the budget, and then the debt

55:44 just constantly accumulates. You know, We've had times when when we've actually,

55:49 um not had a deficit. So for example, during the Clinton administration,

55:53 we actually ran a surplus. But but that only means we didn't we weren't

55:58 running a deficit at one point point. But but the debt of course is

56:02 constantly increasing. Okay, So according to Dave Wally, so we started running

56:07 a deficit in fifty seven, but it's increased. Uh, it's been on

56:12 the U been gone up since nineteen eighty one. Oh, Joe Lar is

56:17 in the chat room too. He says, I found this. Over the

56:21 past one hundred years, the US federal debt has increased from four hundred eight

56:27 billion billion with a B in nineteen twenty two to thirty point ninety three trillion

56:34 that's with a T in twenty twenty two. Yeah, so it's out of

56:37 control, and uh, it just keeps going. Well, thank you for

56:42 your other listeners, because you know, it's something I don't understand, but

56:45 I try to. Yeah, I mean, it's it's confusing to meet,

56:49 you know, for someone who's not good at math. I get confused by

56:52 it all too. That's why I don't. I don't personally really get into

56:55 that part of it because as someone who struggles with math, I can get

57:00 in over my head pretty quickly. But but the numbers are astonishing, you

57:04 know, like like when you look at that, like what Joe Lar posted,

57:07 you look at those numbers and it's it's it's impossible to even contemplate that

57:10 much money and all the zeros. I don't even know how many zeros are

57:15 on a trillion off the top of my head, I don't even know.

57:16 But um, yeah, and it is. You know, there are different

57:22 theories run about whether it matters or not. So, for example, more

57:28 conservative economists, suppli side economists, you know, will tell you that,

57:31 look, we we can't you know, we gotta pay this down or eventually

57:36 it's gonna all just collapse. It's a Ponzi scheme. More liberal minded economists

57:40 Kenzie and economists, for example, will tell you it really doesn't matter.

57:44 You just print more money, it's no big deal. Although there are some

57:46 on the left like Jank Huger of the Young Turks who says, no,

57:50 actually, this is all going to collapse eventually. It's all going to fall

57:53 in on itself, not just in the United States but globally. It's just

57:58 a matter of when, hopefully not in our lifetimes. So there's a lot

58:00 of different theories about how much the debt itself actually matters. But it's you

58:07 know, it's all theory. Economics is theory. All right, Wow,

58:14 okay, all right, Ron, thank you for thank you for I called

58:19 my friend all right, by bye? All right, that was nice.

58:21 We haven't we haven't heard from Ron in a while. That was good to

58:23 hear from him. That does open up the line for you. Six Zo

58:25 three two five six seven six three two five six z seven. Now,

58:32 so let's look at this. This is from Politico. So former Biden advisor

58:37 Lawrence Tribe says, just used the fourteenth Amendment. The longtime constitutional scholar said

58:42 Biden's fear that it will be caught in the courts was misplaced. We got

58:47 into this a little bit the other day. Um, but we'll we'll explore

58:53 this further. You know. Well, actually I think it was yesterday on

58:59 the show. Sorry the days all run together, I think it was yesterday.

59:01 I was talking about how you most people who are opposed to the idea

59:08 seem to be very worried that it would get caught up in the courts,

59:12 and the Supreme Court ultimately would rule that you can't use the fourteenth Amendment,

59:15 that the president doesn't have that power, you know, and you'd have a

59:20 scenario where, you know, obviously we have the three branches of government,

59:22 so you'd have a scenario where the executive branch decides to do something that the

59:27 legislative branch objects to and then takes it to the judicial branch, who then

59:30 says no, the executive branch can't do that, thus creating a potential constitutional

59:37 crisis. But the thing is, you know, in order for someone to

59:44 bring that case, I have to have standing, which means and again I'm

59:46 not a legal expert or legal scholar of any kind, but as I understand,

59:51 it's standing meaning you have to be able to show that you are an

59:54 aggrieved or a harmed party in order to bring that suit. But I suppose

1:00:00 if the legislative branch were to say, well, we've been harmed, it

1:00:04 would be well, you've done something. You've the executive branch has done something

1:00:07 unilaterally that they can't do because the legislative branch controls the wallet, the bank,

1:00:15 the purse strings, if you will. It's kind of like, just

1:00:21 as a quick example, some of you might remember, although some of you

1:00:25 might not remember this because it came and went very quickly, this particular thing.

1:00:30 But during the Trump administration, toward the end, it was post election,

1:00:36 you know, Congress was they were going to send out another round of

1:00:40 checks, and uh, I don't even what did they end up being three

1:00:45 hundred dollars or something? Oh no, I think they ended up being more,

1:00:49 but they were I think what they had settled on was three hundred and

1:00:52 Trump you know, he was still president at that time. He said,

1:00:55 that's an insult. You know, we're going to send Americans only three hundred

1:01:00 dollars while this is dragging on. We going to send them more, which

1:01:02 he was right about. But it was like I remember at the time saying,

1:01:08 okay, so Trump's right in one sense, Yes, that is an

1:01:12 insult. Wow, three hundred dollars. Thanks, that's you know, you

1:01:16 only help out a struggling family who's you know, they're trying to pay their

1:01:20 rent or their mortgage. You can only help him so much with, you

1:01:22 know, three hundred bucks. So Trump was right in that sense, But

1:01:28 on the other hand, it was like, hey, dude, probably should

1:01:30 have said something sooner because Trump wasn't than no one from his administration was engaging

1:01:37 in any of it. They were just waiting for Congress to decide what they

1:01:39 were going to do. And then Trump says, oh, no, I

1:01:42 don't like that. But what happened was so Trump then announces one day,

1:01:45 just it kind of came out of nowhere. Trump announces I think he had

1:01:52 a press conference, or maybe it was just that he just did it in

1:01:57 the Oval office, I don't remember, but he announces that he signed.

1:02:01 He's signing an executive order for six hundred dollars checks or nine hundred dollars checks,

1:02:07 whatever it was. And he was doing this by executive order, and

1:02:08 he was ordering the Treasury to do this, and at the time, everybody

1:02:15 was kind of like, well, wait a minute. The president can't just

1:02:22 the executive branch, who does not control the money, can't just order the

1:02:27 treasury to start sending out checks. That doesn't work. And the reason I

1:02:31 said that that particular instance came and went quickly is because Trump made the announcement

1:02:38 and then just nothing happened. But ultimately Congress did end up sending up another

1:02:44 round of payments anyway, But the point is, or the Treasury sent them

1:02:46 out, I should say, but Congress had to authorize it. But the

1:02:50 point is, you know, when it comes to the money, the power

1:02:54 of the executive branch is really limited. And of course, you know,

1:02:57 a president can do many things by executive order, many of them are questionable.

1:03:01 And of course when it comes to executive orders, everyone looks at that

1:03:04 through a partisan lens anyway, right, you know, when you have a

1:03:07 Republican president, only Democrats get mad about the executive orders. Republicans are fine

1:03:13 with it. And of course he in verse is also true when you have

1:03:15 a Democrat in the White House. Only Republicans have a problem with executive orders

1:03:19 and democrats are fine with it. So but if this see, we're an

1:03:25 uncharted territory if Biden chooses this path, and that's what's a little scary about

1:03:30 it. We're an uncharted territory because if he chooses this path, does that

1:03:37 mean the Treasury then says, okay, the executive branches said he's invoking the

1:03:46 fourteenth Amendment. So I guess we just proceed as normal. You know what

1:03:52 happens. Then again, because this has never been tried, and we did

1:03:59 talk about it, I think it was last week on the show. We

1:04:01 talked about how the Obama administration did look at this and they were advised by

1:04:10 they look at the fourteenth Amendment in twenty eleven and again I think in twenty

1:04:14 thirteen, because it came up again in twenty thirteen, but we weren't as

1:04:17 close to calamity as we were in twenty eleven. And then the Department of

1:04:23 Justice actually said you probably shouldn't do that, and we don't know why,

1:04:29 or a Department within the Department of Justice, the OLC. I think it's

1:04:31 called I forget what that stands for. But they said they advised the administration,

1:04:36 no, don't use this option. We advise against it. But to

1:04:42 this day, no one knows. No one outside knows why the OLC told

1:04:49 the administration don't use this option because apparently it's top secret. I mean it

1:04:58 might it might be some where on a document at mar Lago or something,

1:05:01 but for whatever reason, they don't want the public to know why. They

1:05:05 told the administration what the reasoning was. Because if you do a Freedom of

1:05:10 Information Act request to try to get that information, it gets denied. So

1:05:15 nobody knows. I mean they know, but nobody else knows. So this

1:05:20 is interesting. So I'm very fascinated by this fourteenth Amendment possibility. Here that

1:05:28 was a very long wind up. Let's get to what Lawrence Stribe has to

1:05:31 say about it. So it says here again, this is from Politico.

1:05:34 President Joe Biden made waves Tuesday when he acknowledged he was considering using the fourteenth

1:05:40 Amendment to end the debt standoff, before saying he feared it would get caught

1:05:44 up in courts. On Wednesday, the politically active constitutional scholar who warned Biden

1:05:49 I'm sorry, who warmed Biden to the idea, called the president's concerns misplaced.

1:05:55 Harvard professor Lawrence Stribe said, quote, I don't think there is any

1:05:59 litigation to fear, unquote, adding that he hopes Biden realizes a court challenge

1:06:02 is not something to worry about. Now, this is a part I'm particularly

1:06:06 interested in. So he's arguing Biden can do this and there's no issue.

1:06:10 Don't worry about it. It'll be fine, okay. Tribes response to Biden

1:06:15 represents his latest effort to try to persuade the president to utilize novel legal arguments

1:06:19 as a way through the increasingly thorny debt ceiling standoff. Tribes push for the

1:06:26 fourteenth Amendment first got on Biden's radar visa v a May seven New York Times

1:06:30 op ed in which he set the debt ceiling must be ignored in order for

1:06:35 the president to execute other laws enacted by Congress. And by the way,

1:06:43 again, and we've discussed this too, those who advocate using the fourteenth amendments

1:06:48 say that not only they argue that, not only does the executive have the

1:06:54 authority to do that, to invoke the amendment, but that that amendment makes

1:06:59 the debt ceiling itself, the statute that creates the debt ceiling unconstitutional, so

1:07:05 that statute shouldn't exist to begin with. It directly violates the Constitution. Again,

1:07:10 there's a lot of argument around that, but but it is very interesting,

1:07:15 it says here Biden expressed openness to the argument at a press conference on

1:07:19 Tuesday. I think the openness that he's publicly expressed has been pretty tepid.

1:07:25 I wouldn't I don't know how. I don't know if. I don't know

1:07:29 if I would call it expressing openness. He kind of from what I've seen.

1:07:33 If you ask him about it, he kind of shrugs and says,

1:07:35 well, you know, maybe I don't. I don't think so anyway,

1:07:41 So, but it says he largely rejected the idea of pursuing the option in

1:07:45 the context of the current standoff. He noted that because the use of the

1:07:50 Fourteenth Amendment would be challenged in court, it would spark similar questions around default

1:07:56 and potentially market chaos. He added that he was looking at the idea after

1:08:00 the current standoff is resolved. Biden said, quote when we get by this,

1:08:05 I'm thinking about taking a look at it, unquote. So it sounds

1:08:09 like I assume by that he means, and I didn't realize by the way

1:08:12 he had said that that particular statement had gotten by me. But that is

1:08:15 significant when he said, when we get by this, I'm thinking about taking

1:08:19 a look at it. So it sounds like he's saying, there, if

1:08:24 we get this resolved, to get the debt limit raised, everything's fine,

1:08:27 everything's good. He will then look at is he saying he'll try to invoke

1:08:34 or look at the possibility of invoking the fourteenth Amendment after the debt limit has

1:08:38 already been raised, invoking the fourteenth Amendment as a way of doing a way

1:08:44 with the statute. Is that what he means. I'm not sure if that's

1:08:45 what he means. Tribe, in an interview said that House Republicans who have

1:08:51 hinted they would challenge the president's use of the Fourteenth can't sue the president for

1:08:57 not violating the Constitution. He anticipated the Supreme Court would reject such a case.

1:09:01 That seems like a sound argument. Actually, So in other words,

1:09:04 he's saying, well, if the fourteenth Amendment is unconstitutional, so you have

1:09:09 to accept that premise, though, in order to get to what he's saying,

1:09:13 you have to accept the premise that the that the debt's limit itself is

1:09:18 unconstitutional directly violates the fourteenth. So if you accept the premise, then you

1:09:27 can't challenge it in court. It can't be challenged because you can't sue the

1:09:32 executive branch for refusing to violate the Constitution. So that's that's an interesting take,

1:09:40 if I understand it correctly, that seems to be what he's saying here.

1:09:43 Tribe said, quote, even bending their standing doctrine. I don't know

1:09:48 how they or how anyone could find somebody withstanding to sue the President and the

1:09:55 Secretary of the Treasury for spending the money that Congress has said they're supposed to

1:10:00 spend. What would a court tell them not to spend the money on?

1:10:05 Unquote? Biden on Tuesday called Tribe quote a man I have enormous respect for

1:10:13 unquote, and someone who advised him for a long time. Tribe declined to

1:10:17 say whether he is speaking with the White House about the fourteenth Amendment concept.

1:10:24 The basis of Tribe's argument is that Congress can't issue laws requiring the executive to

1:10:28 spend money and create debt and then also demand a separate dollar limit on that

1:10:33 spending. Interesting. Now, that's an interesting argument again, because if yeah,

1:10:46 it makes sense put it. Putting it that way, it makes sense.

1:10:51 Right. You can't say we're going to spend this money, but we're

1:10:59 not going to spend this money that we've already legally committed to spending. I

1:11:04 guess that's the argument that I've been making anyway. But that just puts a

1:11:09 little differently the idea of using the fourteenth Amendment, which says the nation's debts

1:11:16 shall not be questioned. That's the exact wording of the amendment, shall not

1:11:20 be questioned. To continue making payments on spending approved by Congress is garnered increased

1:11:26 interest as a nation tips closer to default. That could intensify if and when

1:11:33 the current standoff ends, as White House officials have made clear that Biden is

1:11:38 serious about exploring it as a means to prevent another's spin around the nation's fiscal

1:11:44 drain in the future. Now, let me stop there for a moment.

1:11:47 See that goes back though, to me, that goes back to what I

1:11:50 was saying before about how there's no excuse for the Democrats not to have seen

1:11:57 this coming and to have already dealt with it when they had control. Role.

1:12:01 In other words, getting rid of the damned debt limit to begin with,

1:12:05 and then you don't need to worry about using the fourteenth to ignore it

1:12:09 in the future. Just get rid of it. Say it's unconstitutional, this

1:12:14 is unconstitutional, and we're going to get rid of it, and that's it.

1:12:18 I mean, I understand it wouldn't be that simple. Again, you've

1:12:21 got to convince Joe Mansion to go along with it. But that's what they

1:12:26 should have done. So Tribe says, quote, the debt limit does not

1:12:30 limit debt. It has no positive function whatsoever. It's simply a formula for

1:12:35 periodic crises. Unquote. I fully agree. Democrats on Capitol Hill are warm

1:12:41 to the idea, but have been skeptical of embracing the escape hatch out of

1:12:45 similar concern about a certain court challenge. Senator Dick Durban, Democrat of Illinois,

1:12:51 the Democratic whip said, quote, I personally feel that we should test

1:12:55 it, but we can't afford to go into a lastment at court battle with

1:12:59 the June one deadline. Unquote, Yeah, exactly. You don't want to.

1:13:03 Uh. Look, I mean the reality is you don't want any kind

1:13:10 of uncertainty. So even if even if you firmly believe that this is an

1:13:17 option that would work and it would actually go very smoothly and all the doubters

1:13:25 are all worried about nothing, you still you have to realize you have to

1:13:30 remember. And it's a bitter pill to swallow. But even if we avoid

1:13:39 economic catastrophe by not raising the debt limit on June first, we're already the

1:13:45 the American economy is already being damaged by the uncertainty of it all. You

1:13:55 Uh, there's there's an analysis. I might pull it up. We're gonna

1:14:01 we're gonna take a break in a moment, and then we'll come back with

1:14:03 our our final segment. But and we're going to continue on this subject because

1:14:06 I want to look at I want to look more at what Lawrence Tribe says

1:14:10 about this, and I want to contrast it with what he said in the

1:14:12 past. But there was an article that I found which um looks at some

1:14:19 of how we've probably already damaged the economy because this is see in twenty eleven,

1:14:26 for example, And again that's the first instance of this really coming up

1:14:29 where I was paying close attention to it. What ended up happening. We

1:14:32 didn't default, of course, but we got close enough where our bond rating

1:14:36 was lowered and it did do damage. You know, even flirting with default

1:14:44 damages the economy. So just like, just like every time there's a government

1:14:49 shutdown, Now, that's not as big of a deal because a government shutdown

1:14:54 is not default. A government shutdown is terrible though, because it damages the

1:14:59 ECONO it significantly does. It costs the economy a lot of money. Every

1:15:03 time there's a government shutdown, people will become desensitized to it because it's been

1:15:08 so many of them. And that's why a lot of people too. Polly

1:15:12 data shows most Americans aren't even worried about this. And the only reason I

1:15:15 know this for a fact, the only reason most Americans aren't worried about the

1:15:18 debt limit is because they become desensitized. And people think that because they don't

1:15:28 know it's not the same as a government shutdown. They think, oh,

1:15:30 this is just another government shutdown. Whatever. My last a day might last

1:15:33 a week, might last a month there, but you know, those state

1:15:36 parks will reopen and everything will go on. It'll be fine. They don't

1:15:42 know. They don't know. It will not be fine. If this happens,

1:15:46 it will be far from fine, Crystal says in the chat room.

1:15:56 Do they ever legislate a goal on how to lessen the debt by paying parts

1:16:00 of it off by a certain percentage per year or anything. I remember when

1:16:04 Clinton was in office, al Gore found a lot of stupid stuff, like

1:16:08 studies on how fast ketchup comes out of the bottle that could be cut.

1:16:13 Yeah, unfortunately, you know the way our politics works in this country.

1:16:16 These you know, these spending bills always have a lot of pork in them.

1:16:19 Everybody's got to get their their projects in. And not that all those

1:16:23 projects are bad. I mean, some of it's stuff that needs to be

1:16:26 done. Some of it's related to infrastructure. It's hard to argue against that.

1:16:29 Some of it is stuff that creates jobs. But no, I don't

1:16:33 think there's much thought to actually lessening the debt anymore. I think, you

1:16:40 know Bill Clinton, Look, I had Greg Moore. I haven't talked to

1:16:45 him in a long time, actually, but Greg Moore from Americans for Prosperity.

1:16:48 He's been on my show and He said that Bill Clinton was the last

1:16:53 fiscally conservative president this country's ever had, and he was a Democrat, but

1:16:58 he was fiscally conservative. Let's take a quick break, very quick break.

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1:21:54 I see my dad is in the Facebook live chat. Hello, sir Martin

1:21:59 Connerton Joy this. Um, we've been and if you're just joining us,

1:22:02 we've been looking at what Lawrence Tribe, constitutional scholar and advisor to former advisor

1:22:11 I guess or intermittent over the years, advisor to President Biden about the about

1:22:16 the debt limit and what he is saying now regarding the possibility of invoking the

1:22:23 fourteenth Amendment to avoid default, and what do you said about it in the

1:22:28 past. And we haven't even gotten to that part yet because it's opinion on

1:22:30 this has changed and evolved. Um, we were talking before the before the

1:22:39 break about this article from political kind of explains some of what he's uh said

1:22:45 about it. We'll we'll pick up with that. Actually, so Representative Jamie

1:22:50 Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and emeritus constitutional law professor at American University said,

1:22:57 if the standoff doesn't end, quote, there is a pretty clear constitutional command

1:23:00 unquote to pay debts. He also acknowledged there is virtually no precedent under the

1:23:05 fourteenth Amendment, but the president could be quote in a position where he's going

1:23:10 to be forced to choose between either violating the Constitution and violating the laws of

1:23:15 the country which require him to pay the bondholders and pay the Social Security recipients

1:23:23 unquote. However, Republicans who are looking at the who are looking to use

1:23:27 the debt limit to extract cost cutting, are opposed to the idea. Stim

1:23:31 Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says, quote unconstitutionally, acting without Congress is also not

1:23:36 an option unquote. That's where the constitutional crisis comes in, by the way

1:23:42 that we talked about earlier. So on one hand, if you interpret the

1:23:45 fourteenth Amendment, which again it's a little vague, it's a little murky,

1:23:48 I wish it was more precise. I wish the fourteenth Amendment literally said don't

1:23:57 default on the debt idiots or something like that. Probably wouldn't say that exactly,

1:24:02 but you know, something to that effect. I wish it was more

1:24:06 specific and concise. But like other amendments in the Constitution, there are multiple

1:24:15 interpretations that people from different ideological bens will utilize. But I wish had said

1:24:23 that more clearly. So, But if you interpret it to mean that default

1:24:29 is not an option, but the Constitution also again establishes that it's up to

1:24:33 Congress to decide the fiscal stuff, not the executive branch. It's up to

1:24:39 the legislative branch. Then again, if the executive branch is invoking the fourteenth

1:24:45 Amendment, does that not violate the Constitution? So there is the crisis potentially,

1:24:53 So it says here a Tribe said, he's unclear how the White House

1:24:56 could formally Oh this is another problem. Yeah, yeah, this is a

1:25:00 big problem. Actually, this is a big problem. How how does this

1:25:06 even work? Because it's never been done, it's never been tested, never

1:25:10 been tried. How does this even work where the White House gets to say

1:25:15 this is what we're doing, where the president gets to say this is what

1:25:17 we're doing. Tribe said, he's unclear how the White House could formally declare

1:25:24 it was invoking the fourteenth Amendment as a means of ensuring the country made its

1:25:28 payment, but said it would not be a heavy lift. He said,

1:25:33 quote, okay, and this is what I figured. He said, the

1:25:36 logistics. Is it an executive order? Is it a directive in the form

1:25:41 of a presidential statement? That I haven't worked out and that I'm confident studellery

1:25:48 as the President's White House counsel, will be working rather hard on it.

1:25:53 If Congress remains were calcitrant and refuses to Budge unquote. So again I guess,

1:26:00 I mean somehow he has to you know, yes, to tell the

1:26:04 Treasury, right, hey, keep paying those bills. I'm invoking the fourteenth.

1:26:09 But again there is no established protocol process for that because it's never been

1:26:14 tried. We are in uncharted territory. Now. The other thing that I

1:26:16 wanted to look at, just really out of curiosity more than anything, is

1:26:23 I have a political article here from two thousand to eleven July eighth of twenty

1:26:28 eleven. Yes, the summer of two thousand and eleven. I remember it

1:26:30 well. Not only was that when I originally started the podcast version of Matt

1:26:33 Connerton Unleashed. Hard to believe it was that long ago, but that was

1:26:39 the summer where I was very anxious, very nervous about where this was all

1:26:45 headed. And now history repeats, except now I'm even more anxious and nervous

1:26:48 because now it seems even like the cliff is closer than it's ever been.

1:26:55 But I want to look at this. So this is from the summer of

1:26:57 twenty eleven. Also for Politico, Lawrence Tribe says no fourteenth Amendment solutions.

1:27:04 So let's look at what he said then, so we can contrast it with

1:27:08 what he says now, so it says here. One of President Barack Obama's

1:27:12 most enthusiastic supporters, Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe, said on Friday, the

1:27:16 White House in Congress can't fall back on the fourteenth Amendment to make an end

1:27:21 run around the current current debt crisis. Writing on the New York Times op

1:27:26 ed page, Tribe, who once called Obama the best student I ever had,

1:27:30 unquote, said the idea that a president can use the fourteenth Amendment to

1:27:34 borrow money without regard to Congress provides quote the false hope of the legal answer

1:27:40 that obviates the need for a real solution. He went on to say several

1:27:45 law professors and senators, and even Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geitner, have

1:27:53 suggested that section four of the Fourteenth Amendment, known as the Public Debt Clause,

1:27:59 might provide a silver bullet. This provision states that the validity of the

1:28:03 public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall not be questioned.

1:28:08 They argue that the Public Debt Clause is sufficient to nullify the ceiling or

1:28:14 can be used to permit the president to borrow money without regard to the ceiling

1:28:17 unquote. By the way, I have a just a random but very specific

1:28:23 memory of um. I remember Tim Geitner vividly. Um he. I remember

1:28:28 him appearing at a Q and A session I think at a college. I

1:28:31 saw this on c SPAN. Yeah, when I when I still had cable

1:28:35 before I caught the chord. Yes, I'm that much of a political nerd.

1:28:39 I would watch c Span occasionally and I saw UM. I saw Tim

1:28:45 Geitner at at some Q and A with college students, and he actually saw

1:28:50 Obviously, the subject came up because at the time we were in the thick

1:28:54 of this, and he, um, excuse me, he actually carried around

1:28:59 he opened up his jacket pocket and or he opened his jacket, he reached

1:29:04 into the pocket and he pulled out a piece of paper and he was he

1:29:06 was carrying around in his pocket a copy of the fourteenth Amendment because he and

1:29:13 he explained that the reason he was carrying it around in his jacket is because

1:29:16 he was constantly having to show it to people because this was the you know,

1:29:20 such a big issue. So his position was, as Fresury secretary at

1:29:25 the time, his position was that no, there's no issue here. It

1:29:31 doesn't matter what the what Congress does, the debt limit itself doesn't matter.

1:29:42 I've got this And he'd pull out that piece of paper and he'd say,

1:29:44 look what does that say? So there's no issue here. That was that

1:29:48 was his stick at the time. Melanie that Jarem says, are you okay?

1:29:53 Got it cold? I'm fine, Melanie, Yeah, sorry about the

1:29:55 cough. My allergies. You know, it's May. Everything's in blue,

1:30:00 and I get a little stuffy. I taken over the counter decongestent. It

1:30:04 usually fixes me up for the day, but every once in a while the

1:30:08 sneezes creep back in. You should see me first thing in the morning.

1:30:12 Though it's a sneeze a thon. Oh it's wonderful, let's see. So.

1:30:20 So, his argument at the time, not Tim Geitner's argument, but

1:30:29 Lawrence S. Tribe's argument, was was no, you cannot do this again.

1:30:33 This was in the summer of twenty eleven. He said his position was

1:30:38 that the president has very little authority to borrow money without explicit approval from Congress,

1:30:44 especially if Congress forbids it. Tribe wrote at the time, quote,

1:30:49 the Constitution grants only Congress not the president the power to borrow money on the

1:30:57 credit of the United States. Nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment or in any other

1:31:01 constitutional provision suggests that the president may usurp legislative power to prevent a violation of

1:31:08 the Constitution. Moreover, it is well established that the president's power drops to

1:31:14 what Justice Robert H. Jackson called its lowest EBB when exercised against the express

1:31:21 will of Congress unquote. So that's what he said was saying in twenty eleven.

1:31:28 So again the constitutional crisis. The fourteenth Amendment says the debt will not

1:31:32 be questioned, but Tribe was arguing then that the Constitution also says, again,

1:31:38 it's the legislative branch who spends the money, and the executive branch has

1:31:44 nothing to say about that part. Now, I suppose, and the current

1:31:54 article that we looked at didn't really get into it. I'd like to.

1:31:57 I need to go back and read the full op ed that he wrote for

1:32:00 The New York Times. I need to look at that, and I'm very

1:32:01 curious to read the whole thing. I suppose the argument that he would make

1:32:09 now I assume that he makes now, and again I need to I need

1:32:12 to read, it would be that invoking the fourteenth it has nothing to do

1:32:23 with has nothing to do with spending money. It has to do with borrowing

1:32:29 money. So Congress, only Congress can spend the money. Only the legislative

1:32:35 branch can spend the money. But who says only the legislative branch can borrow

1:32:41 the money if the fourteenth Amendment says the debt has to be paid. If

1:32:46 that is again, if you accept that interpretation, all right, So going

1:32:54 back to this again, this is what Laurence Scribe was saying. In twenty

1:32:56 eleven, in response to tribes op ed, the Treasury Department took the professor

1:33:01 to task and said, Gettner has never suggested the fourteenth Amendment could be used

1:33:06 as a way out of the debt crisis. Well, yes, he did.

1:33:10 I mean it might have been, he absolutely did. I remember vividly

1:33:14 it might have been after this article was written. Though, in fairness so

1:33:18 George Madison, the Department's General counsel, said in a letter to the editor

1:33:25 of The Times, that Gettner quote has never argued that the fourteenth Amendment to

1:33:32 the US Constitution allows the president to disregard the statutory debt limit. Melanie said

1:33:44 in the chat room. Was that a sleepover offer? I'll bring ice cream

1:33:46 and we can watch horror movies. What Jenny likes ice cream? She won't

1:33:57 say no to that. I don't know if she likes horror movies. We've

1:34:00 never really watched a horror movie together. Geidner has insisted that quote, Congress

1:34:06 has an obligation to ensure we are able to honor our the obligations of the

1:34:10 United States unquote. Madison added, he also said, quote, like every

1:34:15 previous Secretary of the Treasury who has confronted the question, Secretary Geytner has always

1:34:21 viewed the debt limit as a binding legal constraint that can only be raised by

1:34:27 Congress. Unquote. This must have been written. I have to assume this

1:34:30 article was written before. It had to be written, before Geitner started going

1:34:35 around saying, Hey, look at this, I've got this in my pocket

1:34:39 right here, or look had to be right in the Times, Tribe said

1:34:45 Obama must compromise with Republicans to reach a deal on the debt ceiling, writing

1:34:49 quote, only political courage and compromise coupled with adherence to traditions that call upon

1:34:56 Congress to fulfill its unique constitutional duty can avert and impending crisis unquote. The

1:35:02 op ed is not the first time Tribe has taken an indirect shot at his

1:35:08 former Pupils administration. In April, he signed a letter in The New York

1:35:12 A Review of Books and gave an interview to the Guardian of London decrying the

1:35:16 treatment of Wiki Leak's suspect, Bradley Manning. He also trashed now Supreme Court

1:35:21 Justice Sony Sotomayor in a twenty two thousand nine letters sent three weeks before her

1:35:27 nomination, dubbing her not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is.

1:35:30 Okay. Tribe later said he had changed his mind since he has since

1:35:36 changed his mind about sodomyer Okay, So anyway, that's the that's the article.

1:35:41 That's what Lawrence Tribe was saying in twenty eleven, So very different from

1:35:44 what he says now. I would be curious to know why the change.

1:35:56 Is it simply the direness of the of the situation. All right, let's

1:36:02 try to get in one more thing. Oh wow, yeah, we're almost

1:36:05 out of time. If you'd like to get in with a quick call,

1:36:09 but it will have to be very quick six three two five six seven six

1:36:13 three two five six seven. We have talked a great deal on the show

1:36:16 about TikTok, the app TikTok, and the potential banning of TikTok in the

1:36:24 United States. That was a big you know, a couple of months ago,

1:36:27 that was a big story. Kind of I thought it had completely fizzled

1:36:30 out and nothing was going to happen, because you know, they had the

1:36:34 hearing with the CEO of TikTok and everything, and then just nothing. It's

1:36:41 like, Okay, Congress saw another shiny object and to play with him,

1:36:45 that's it. Well, then I see this and this happened today. AP

1:36:53 News reports Montana says first in nation TikTok band protects people, TikTok says as

1:37:00 their rights. The state of Montana has taken it upon themselves to ban TikTok

1:37:04 in Montana, and they're the first state to do it. Says here again,

1:37:14 this is from the Ape. Montana became the first state in the US

1:37:16 to enact a complete ban on TikTok today yesterday actually, when Republican Governor Greg

1:37:23 Gianforte signed a measure that's more sweeping than any other state's attempts to curtail the

1:37:30 social media app, which is owned by a Chinese tech company. The measure

1:37:34 is scheduled to take effect on January first, twenty twenty four, is expected

1:37:40 to be challenged legally and will serve as a testing ground for the TikTok Free

1:37:44 America that many national lawmakers have envisioned. Cybersecurity experts say it could be difficult

1:37:50 to enforce the ban. Quote Oh, this is from Geneforte's statement. Quote,

1:38:04 Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect montanans

1:38:11 private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.

1:38:15 Unquote. TikTok spokesperson Brooke ober Wetter, that's a fun name. Ober Wetter

1:38:25 argued that the law infringes on people's First Amendment rights and is unlawful. She

1:38:30 declined to say whether the company will file a lawsuit. Ober Wetter said in

1:38:35 a statement, quote, we want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using

1:38:41 TikTok to express themselves, earn a living and fine community as we continue working

1:38:45 to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana. Unquote.

1:38:50 The American Civil Liberties Union, I'm sorry. The American Civil Liberties of Montana

1:38:57 and net Choice, which is a trade group that counts Google and TikTok as

1:39:01 its members, also called the law unconstitutional. Keegan Medrano, policy director of

1:39:09 the ACLU of Montana, said the legislature quote trampled on the free speech of

1:39:14 hundreds of thousands of Montanas who use the app to express themselves, gather information,

1:39:18 and run their small business in the name of anti Chinese sentiment unquote.

1:39:29 We're almost out of time, this is uh. We might we might have

1:39:32 to revisit this tomorrow if we have time tomorrow. But let me just say

1:39:40 so, the blowback from this so not only obviously are we already seeing a

1:39:46 lot of negative reaction to this ban on the grounds of you know, and

1:39:51 we talked about it on the show. We talked about it, talked about

1:39:58 it months ago or a couple months ago about how you know this, uh,

1:40:06 the government actually banning an app that so many millions of people use to

1:40:15 communicate and express themselves and so forth. How that's a big step. That's

1:40:20 a big step, and it's a hard sell, you know. And I

1:40:28 have said all along, I'm I'm open minded to the arguments. I mean,

1:40:31 you know you you say national security to me, I hear that phrase.

1:40:35 You know that's something I care deeply about. It's like, okay,

1:40:38 you've got my attention. But then you've really got to make your case though.

1:40:41 To take a step like this, like actually banning an app, we've

1:40:45 never done that. That's that would be a first in American history to actually

1:40:49 ban an app that is used to communicate and does that trample on people's rights?

1:40:57 So so we have we have that issue. But the other thing too

1:41:02 is and again and we don't have time to get into it in depth.

1:41:05 We got to go in a second. But the other thing is enforcement.

1:41:12 Is this actually enforceable now? Apparently according to the law, if you already

1:41:16 have the TikTok app on your phone, you're not forced to delete it.

1:41:23 You can continue to use it. But even if they were to say no,

1:41:29 you can't use it, get rid of the app, you know you

1:41:32 can't. You can't enforce that. That's the thing. You You couldn't make

1:41:39 people remove the app from their phones, even if you wanted to. And

1:41:44 even if the government we're going to start tracking trying to track who's actually using

1:41:47 in the State of Montana, who's actually using TikTok on their mobile devices.

1:41:53 You can just use a VPN to camouflage yourself and you know, you do

1:41:58 whatever you want and no one's the wiser. So you know, I don't

1:42:03 know how something like this is even enforceable. So there's that too. There's

1:42:08 not only the the First Amendment question about it, but you know, if

1:42:14 you can't enforce it, then really what's the point. And I'm not making

1:42:19 any arguments for or against. I'm just offering that up as a question that

1:42:26 we should ponder when looking at laws like this. And again, it's a

1:42:30 big step. It's not anything to be taken lightly banning a very popular app

1:42:35 that people use to communicate and to express themselves. All right, we are

1:42:40 out of time. Tomorrow on the show We've Got, of course, as

1:42:44 we do every Friday, Eric Pilcher's classic film review and this week, excuse

1:42:49 me, this week Eric's review is Superman the Movie, the original Superman film

1:42:58 with Christopher Reeves. That will be That will be the film review, and

1:43:03 we have a that'll be in the second hour. In the first hour,

1:43:05 we are going to be joined by Ray Coates, a musician from the UK.

1:43:10 He's been on the show with us. I think this will be a

1:43:13 third or fourth appearance on the show. Raise a very interesting guy and very

1:43:18 positive. I like what he does. So he's gonna be skyping in from

1:43:23 across the pond as we say so. That will be tomorrow on the show.

1:43:27 Excuse me, oh boy, this is probably a good thing we're at

1:43:30 the end because my allergies are really starting to kick up. If you are

1:43:34 listening live on Thursday. Coming up next on WMNH, we have Through the

1:43:39 Stage Store hosted by the great Rob die On and don't forget to be back

1:43:43 bright and early seven am for the Morning show with Peter White. And that's

1:43:47 gonna do it for us. For now. I'm gonna leave you with a

1:43:48 little bit of Sepsis. My favorite song from Sepsis Eyes of Empathy, and

1:43:55 we will leave you with that. If you miss any part of today's show

1:43:58 it we'll be up in just a little bit ATWMH radio dot org and on

1:44:01 my website Maatt Conerton dot com. All right, we gotta go. I'll

1:44:04 talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody,