Matt Connarton Unleashed 5-9-23
What's This About?
Good afternoon everyone. Here we go. It's that time again, Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, and it is a glorious day outside. Also on Comcast ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, etc. Et cetera.
Today is Tuesday, May nine, two thousand twenty three, so welcome everybody. By the way, if you missed yesterday's show, I suggest you go back and check it out. Jenny was here and in the second hour where we were joined by a guest, Conrad war from the band Be's Deluxe, and I just wanted to say and how much I enjoyed that. Not only it turns out I knew it would be an interesting conversation. Not only is Conrad a very talented musician and the band is great, but he also has a background in the music industry.
He worked at Rykodisc for example, and had a lot of insight into the into the music industry. So it's just a fascinating discussion. So I wanted to publicly thank him again for joining Jenny and I yesterday and if you missed it, you should check it out. So there you go. I wanted to mention that. But yes we have we have a penelope of things to discuss, including some news that was breaking just as I was about to leave the house to come to come to the station. But six zo three two five six seven is a studio line six ZO three two five six seven.
You also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we can here and enjoy your dulcet tones is give us a call at six O three two five zero six zoo seven six zo three two five o six seven. We'll go ahead and say hello everybody in the Facebook live chat, and then we're gonna dive right into some stuff.
Let's see who we have and here today so far, Crystal, our friend from the great state of Illinois, joins us, Hello, Crystal. Jay Fat is in the chat room, of course, in the great state of Vermont, says good afternoon everyone. Jenny is in there and says shalom peeps. Ronda from California says hello from Southern CALLI s CALLI South, Kelly easyg. Eric Gagnan joins us in the chairman says Happy Taco Tuesday. Yes, Happy Taco Tuesday to you. Melanie Liberty, also from the Great state of Vermont, joins us in the chat Hello.
Jay Fed says, I'm about half done with my review of Training Day, Matt. It's a really good review so far. I may say, I think I know which review you will pick, Yes, if you missed yesterday's show, so of course this coming Friday for our weekly film review, our classic film review from our friend Eric Pilcher. For this Friday's review, he has chosen Training Day, but Jay Fed is interested in submitting his own version of the review for Training Day. And maybe we'll see and who knows, maybe we'll have a third version maybe, and maybe we'll have an AI version of the show and we can pick which one we like best.
That would be interesting. Actually, we could have a contest. Ronda says, Oh, tacos sound good tacos tonight for dinner. Chris Rose from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts joints the Hello Chris. Jenny shared in the chat room a link to the Facebook page for Bees Deluxe. As I mentioned yesterday, we had Conrad from the band Bees Deluxe in studio with us, and Ronda says, yeah, that was a great show yesterday. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. DJ Steve who is of course part of the WMNH family. He is a frequent contributor on the Morning Show with Peter White weekdays from seven to night AM, with a replay from two to four pm right before this show, and of course he joins US Friday nights for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paul ec I'm one of Paul's co hosts on that show, along with DJ Steve and Mike from Queen City Cabinetry.
But by the way, Condolence says, I don't know if I'm not sure I mentioned it yesterday, but condolences to Mike from Queen City cab Industry. I know he just he just lost his dad over the weekend and he was he had posted about it on social media. So very sorry about that, my friend. But uh, but we do look forward to seeing you when you when you return to our Retrospectrum Radio. I hope, I hope you're doing okay. I'm very lucky, and I don't you know, I don't take it for granted. I'd knock on wood every day.
I still have both my parents, So very very glad about that. But um, but uh, yeah, so I was. I was very sad to see that news, Mike. But um, anyway, but uh, the point was DJ Steve he messaged me yesterday after the show and was commenting how much he really enjoyed the discussion with Conrad War and UH wanted to um, did I say War the first time? Or did I say I keep wanting to say where but it's actually pronounced war. Um. Conrad War from the band Bees Deluxe, and DJ Steve was commenting how much he really enjoyed the discussion and how he would have enjoyed meeting him.
So there you go. So yeah, yesterday's show, it was a good show. If I do say so myself, or if we do say so ourselves, or if you say so, if you say so, then it must be true. So I appreciate, I appreciate the positive feedback. UH, let me give the studio line one more time and then we're gonna get into the big breaking news in the last hour six three two five six seven six three two five six seven. Um, if you don't know what just happened, and you know, we have other stuff too that I had planned to get to, but UM, we'll do this first because it is breaking news, although we might have breaking news later before the show's even over.
On that debt limit meeting, the debt limit deadline looms. Uh, it looms large. Uh the beginning of June and uh uh Biden and McCarthy are meeting today. UM, I have a Unfortunately, I'm not optimistic. I think it's going to be a short meeting and uh I think uh, I think we see the invocation of the fourteenth Amendment coming our way soon, to be honest with you, but we'll get into that later. We'll save that for later. UM. I also do want to on a lighter note, I do want to take some time today to uh make fun of Russia.
They had their, uh their May Day parade, and apparently it was a pretty pretty sad uh in contrast with previous May Day parades. So I would like to mock and make fun of the Russians for that that has become one of life's great joys ever since Putin decided to invade Ukraine. Is uh mocking the failures of Vladimir Putin? I take I take pleasure in that. Um. Remember that day that news broke that he had fallen, you know, because there's all these rumors about his health, there was the news that he had fallen down some stairs and soiled himself.
Oh what a great day that we had a lot of fun with that that day. Uh the uh, it is forever etched in my mind, is the day that Vladimir Putin pooped himself. But uh no, but there is something more more pressing that Well, we'll get to in a moment. Um. John Hopwood joins us in. The chairman says our man sized cats who danced with adult women necessarily say tatanic. Uh. That is I have to be honest with you, John, That is not something I myself have ever considered. I've never given any thought to that question.
But uh, but probably I'm most likely I would say so, yes, I mean it seems like as I envisioned that, as I conjure that image in my mind, I would say, the man sized cat in the particular mental image that I've created for myself in my own brain. Uh, that is definitely a satanic cat. Yes, I would say so. I would absolutely say so. So that's that's my opinion. That's just my opinion. I'm I'm just one person. So, uh, if you missed it,
and you probably didn't, but if you missed it. So, there has been a verdict in the UH civil lawsuit against Donald Trump Egan Carol suing for battery and for defamation m and he has been found liabel for that. And by the way, we need to um, just established two because I've heard people over the course of this and we haven't really talked about the trial on the show up to now, but we'll go ahead and dive into it a little bit. Um. I've heard some people get this wrong when they discuss this, they refer to you know, you know, leading up to today, I've heard people speculate will he be found guilty or not guilty?
There's no guilty or not guilty in this case. It's a civil trial, not a criminal one. Criminally, he could not be tried for this, uh anyway, because because of the um statute of limitations. But there is a law and and and actually for for a very long time, he couldn't have been tried uh for this civilly either I or I shouldn't say tried. But he couldn't have had a lawsuit brought against him civilly either because um, again, because of the statute of limitations. But there is a law I think it's called, is that the Adult ser Vivs Act something in the state of New York, a law that does allow people who have been sexually assaulted, uh, you know, years and years in this case, you know, decades ago, to still bring a civil suit against against those whom they would accuse.
Um. So she was able to do this. So the jury did find in her favor. Doesn't mean that doesn't mean she'll ever see the money. You know. We live in a culture, of course, and well I should probably say we live in a world more broadly, because I'm sure this is true everywhere. I don't think this is something uniquely American. We live in a world where the wealthy and powerful are more often than not protected and insulated from being held accountable for things. And there are many reasons for that, and there are many mechanisms that allow the wealthy and powerful to escape accountability, and one of them is if you have money.
If you are wealthy, you have the money to evade accountability even when it seems that accountability has landed on your doorstep. So, for example, if you are sued for something and you are found liabel, you know you you have the money you can afford to have your attorneys appeal it, and eventually you'll exhaust the appeals. But I assume you can only appeal something so many times. I'm no expert in this, but uh so, you know, will she ever see the money? I assume that Trump will appeal the judgment.
It's upwards of five million dollars in total, I believe. So, although actually
that happens sometimes, even it doesn't necessarily only happen with the wealthy and powerful, come to think of it, because I've I've known people who've sued successfully in small claims court and never seen the money because they'll win a judgment in small claims scored for a couple hundred bucks against somebody, and then the person who loses the judgment never actually pays it, and it's like, how do you get them to pay it? See them again in small claims core it. So it isn't only the wealthy and powerful to get away with it, but to a large degree it is.
We have a call. Hi, Welcome to Matt Connerton. Unleash does this? It's John? Oh, you're calling from a number that I don't recognize. Have you eat that a kick in the head? Huh? Have you been kidnapped? Unfortunately? No? Oh okay, just making sure. Now wait a minute, are you only saying no because you have to say no for your own safety? Blink twice if you're lying and you actually have been kidnapped, Okay, I already have done though done it. I didn't hear you blink, So I'm going to assume you're fun.
I have a nit stocking over my head that occludes my eyes. Well, I'll tell you what. That nit's stocking over your head actually makes your phone sound better than usual. Actually, I was participating in a fat albert A voice cast reunion fans Bill Cosby. Of course, Well I would hope so, yes, since he was someone found guilty but subsequently sprung on a similar piece in kind if not, but not the Greek. Well, actually it was a much higher degree. But Matt I called to tell you that, Yes, civil lawsuits adjudicated by Jerry our trials.
Yes, I know that. I'm sorry if I misspoke. I understand it's your nature to nitpick, and that's fine. I accept that. Now Trump was found guilty of defamation. Yes, I was sued for defamation and libel for a politician who we shall rename nameless. But my lawsuit was thrown out whatever. Yes, oh, yes, I have a question though. Okay, so in terms of uh, the terms that we're using, So do you still say guilty or do you say libel? I thought if it was a civil case, you don't say guilty, you only say libel?
Am I wrong? You know much more about the law than I do, So I defer to you. You would be guilty, you'd be found guilty. You do you do still use that term? Okay, but you'll wonder if that's going to lead to a lawsuit of libel, flammed and defamation against you? Right? Yes, it does, say, have to be taken into consideration. I wrote an article and I did not use the word convict because the person I was writing about. I did not have access to the court records because I was given I went to the wrong court because a person thought the court was there and it wasn't.
It was somewhere else. They you can assume things, but once you know a conviction, I don't, I don't. It's not a conviction in civil court, right right? You know the language that you're using and being careful with, Yeah, you know you have to be, particularly when we have big Brother breathing down our necks about anything we might word we might put out there. Well, well, sure, because I've heard I've heard people speak very loosely about this case, and I think there are some people who, as as they've been observing this, only sort of half paying attention.
You know, they don't realize that it's it's not a criminal trial. They assume it's a criminal he does have other criminal liabilities, But in this case, it's not a criminal suit. It's a civil suit. The actually is a in the state of New Hampshire, a misdemeanor called criminal libel. But that dates back a long time ago to you know, the old days where even if you told the truth about the king or the king's ministers. You know, you wind up in court criminal libel. John Peter Zenger, which is the first case in the United States, was a printer who printed the truth about some Shenanigans one of my favorite words.
By the way, Yes, I don't know whether i'd be held viable for it if I used it against certain politicians. But John Peter Zenger, in the seventeen hundreds in New York was held was tried for criminal libel for publishing something about the colonial governor of New York. And it established a precedent and the common law of the United States that the truth is a defense.
But when you're actually sued for libel, uh, the other their party will argue that it doesn't it doesn't matter that it's true, you know you anyways, but criminal libel very hard to prove. I don't know of any case in a long time. Ah. Yes, but it's interested what you're talking about, because you know, even though my case was thrown out and the judge all but called the other party a liar, which was essentially what what the issue was, although what you know, it wasn't it wasn't. You know, you're not going to go into all that if you accuse somebody of malfies and of like covering something up.
You're essentially saying they're lying. Right, Yes, but the judge all but called the person that was suing me in another individual liar, but use legal ease and threw it out. Then you have to wait to see if they're going to appeal, you know, them throwing the case out. But the person would have been foolish to have gone ahead to do so. Yes, there was a very weak case to begin with, from what I recall, Yes, there really was no case at all. And of course when you come to rival and defamation case, you're dealing with the standard under in federal standard and Sullivan v.
New York is that you know, you have to have published it a falsehood against somebody going fully well that it was false and decide practically anyone who's famous or anyone that's known, like a politician, you can say anything you want about them, right because nobody really knows what's in your mind unless you get nailed like Tucker Carson. And they release all the emails right right, They found up you know, text messages. They knew the truth, yeah, oh yeah, and they just ignored it. All those sex messages.
Yeah, they exactly exactly, They knew the truth about the election, but they had to play along because one of the one of the executives actually I think it might have been the CEO of of Fox who's uh at one point had sent out an email saying, our viewers are getting upset with us. We need to uh, we need to help push this lie that the election was stolen. Our viewers are Carson, who who the emails revealed despised on Trump. This whole thing was BSU said, we're going to lose our audience. We have to be loyal to our audience.
Yea, yea yea. And how you
had a record seven hundred and fifty million dollars. There might have been bigger ones, right, but they're going to collect on this one. That was the biggest defamation in US history. I believe the biggest defamation judgment seven hundred because you know these libel defamations and friend that there are gradations of that. Yeah, but the thing is when we come to Trump. But one of the things that limits you when you're getting sued like myself, you know, you have an insurance policy and many a writer, including myself, as a professional and liability policy.
Yeah, so there's I actually at the time I did not have any insurance. I got sued, but the party that it was world had got sued. But here's a different lawyer than I did. My lawyer was a pro bone all and was the best libel defense lawyer in the state of New Hampshire. You know, is that type of case. Yeah, and uh, but you're toll if you do get sued and you were you know, you're insurance companies handling it. And I said, the documents of my policy. But they are going to set whether you know, like if you get an appeal, whether they're going to pay for it or not.
Oh really, so they don't automatically pay for it necessarily or the appeal right, which means that they'll provide you the lawyer. But if they say it's time to settle, you're going to settle, or the policy is whole. You know, that's it ends right there. Oh so much. Say, we got the appeal and then we went to court and they said, you know, well he don't want to do you know, the case isn't case isn't worth putting in front of a judge. And the jury didn't happened to us just got thrown off. Judge all but called the party a liar, which you know, is the essence of the speech that was actionable and h which the person found actionable, which the person found offensive and needed to cause certain voices during his reelection bid.
But let's not get too into that, right. The thing is with Trump. I don't see how Trump could have any policy like not insurance policy. Now. I mean there's directors and officers of liability insurance like when the head of a corporation. There's E and O areas in a mission. There's all these property and casualaty of policies, both for business executives on individuals professionals. You know. But this guy must have burned through so many Whatever insurance he had to have had is long gone. Does be finance most of his stuff by the boot blaise that keeps sending in the contribution store them?
Yes, that's true. There might be an insurance ronc too, right, or the arency drop them after the Republican National Committee. They did, They did at one point announced that they were going to stop paying his legal bills. But now that he's the pre as I like to call him the presumptive presumptive nominee. They might be paying them again, I'm not sure. Right, I'm gonna let you go. I'm gonna let you go. I'm gonna I'm yes, they're gonna let me go. Now now that I bought them to tears, they've taken off my knitted cap and now I can watch you online.
So I'll take it away, Matt Connerton, all right and stay safe. Thanks for the call. Yes, the butts fair back to well of our hometime. Oh, thank good, all right, bye bye. All right, Well, I'm glad that John will be okay, very good, very good. Yes, uh so, uh so you do you do say? He was found guilty in legal in legal terms. I like to be very precise about that. So that's good. U six three two five six seven is the studio line six three two five six seven, And we have a call. Hi, Welcome to Matt Connors and Unleashed.
Who's this what I'm excited about? The show? All right? I can't do that because it sounds like, uh, if you're a regular listener, you know that voice. And unfortunately, the last time I allowed one of his recordings to play on the show, it turned out there was an F bomb in it, and I had to hit the dump button. So now we can't even entertain his recorded calls anymore. But I'm glad he's excited it about his non existent show. That's as far as we'll go with that, all right, if you are a actual legitimate caller six three two five six seven six two five six seven, let's seem Melanie says in the chat room.
So does that mean he was found too most likely have sexually assaulted her and by saying she was lying, he defamed her character? Yes, effectively as I understand it. John Hopwood he's also in the chat room. He says it was a Trialford defamation. Trump has been found guilty of defamation, Crystal pointed out in the chat room, you know, I was saying, very often the wealthy and powerful, they get away with no accountability because they, uh, they find ways to avoid it. Of course, when you have money, you can do that, And Crystal points out, O J hasn't paid the money that he owes that he was ordered to pay in civil court.
Yeah. The oldman's the family of Ron Goldman, they never got I don't think they've ever seen a dime of that money man. It's been decades now. I think EASYG is on the line. Hello, Yeah, you're right. I don't think they've seen a dime either. Nope. Yeah, anyways, the quick points it for you. Yeah, was listening to this Rassling Live. There's this podcast every day comes up with like a nine minute thing. They were saying that bruck wasn't failed a drug test. Was that when he was a uh when he was with the cage fighting or was that the uh w W?
Never the the story lineball Doddy fail a drug test? I think it was when he was in UFC for steroid. Yeah. Remember it was saying nothing happened to the coin to this guy here, different rules for brock Lesser and the different rules for everybody else. Probably, I don't really old story though, wasn't it. That's an old story. Yeah, so I don't really remember Eric, to be honest with it. That's what I thought, because the the last last night in the show there. Uh yeah, I want to fight Cody Rose now again.
Yeah. I guess you're right. Now they want they want to give him the consolation price. I guess for the bell, thank you pretty good. I guess Rowan reins what it's like going a half an hour match. Yeah, and WrestleMania, yes, yes. So anyways, that's my two cents. Let you go on to the rest, all right, Eric, thanks for the call. Bye bye. You should have known by now easy do all right? If you got something on topic, the phone line is open six three two five six zero seven six three two five six seven.
John Hopwood says, uh, regarding the Trump case, it means the jury believed her story the Trump raped her and said O J didn't have the money to pay the judgment. He spent the entirety of his eight million dollar fortune on his defense, almost to the penny. Yeah, that's true. I do remember reading about that. Alex Whiteley, our friend from the UK, says, honor is hard to come by. Look at our current monarchy in the UK. This Trump thing doesn't surprise me. He is untouchable obviously. Well, I mean he was, like I said, he was found libel or found guilty in this case.
But uh, but uh, you know, I doubt that. I'm just very skeptical that she'll ever see a dime of that money. That that uh, that tends to be how it works. Um. Oh, our friend Marco Muller or Mueller in the chat room from the band Factory of Art all the Way in Germany joins us. Hello, Hello, Marco. John Hopwood shared an article in the chat room from Forbes magazine. H. According to this, Trump is worth two and a half billion currently. Um oh, policy joins us in. The chairman says a hello, big fan policy of course from retro Spectrum Radio with policy every Friday night from eight to eleven pm right here on WMNH.
Now, I want to talk a little bit about, uh, just a couple of observations, um about about the Now I'm not going to uh look, I wasn't in the courtroom, and neither were any of you, and the proceedings, the court proceedings themselves were not televised. So I just have observations that I'm going to make about what did get out in terms of obviously people were reporting on the case, it was being reported in the media what was going on in the courtroom. But we did get presumably, I guess, because it's a matter of public record.
Uh, the deposition that Trump had participated in. Now, there were two things in this deposition that that really stood out to me though that um. Now, and before I go any further with this, I'm gonna I'm gonna say this upfront, m because I'm gonna make a couple of observations about how I think Trump really harmed himself in that deposition, which is why they did not want him showing up in court and put it, put him on the sand, and everything I've heard, even people who are big fans of Trump acknowledge that in many ways he can be his own worst enemy and he does create his own problems.
But let's put everything else aside. Again, I wasn't in the courtroom, okay, but I just want to look at a couple of moments from the depositions, specifically that really I found a bit chilling, quite frankly. But before I go any further with that, the thing that I really want to say to people is because I already know. I already know some people are going to hear me talking about this and they're gonna say, oh, Matt, you're just saying this because you don't like Trump, you hate Trump this, and that I'm gonna tell you right now, the observations that I have made and will make now about this deposition.
It has nothing to do with how I feel about the former president. I would have these same thoughts if I heard anyone saying these things, anyone at all. It doesn't matter who it is. It could be one of my heroes, someone I idolize, and I would and I would feel this way about this material. Okay, you know, it wouldn't matter if it was you know, one of my radio heroes like Howard Stern or or one of my music heroes like Gene Simmons of Kiss. I would feel this way about these specific soundclips. And I'm going to play from the deposition.
There's two There's two moments that really I was like, whoa, Okay, so, uh, you know, whoever wants to whoever wants to come at me with the whole you know, Oh, Matt, you're just you, You just you're just saying this because you don't like Trump. You can just miss me with that, Okay, I'm not going to engage on that. This is he said things that should bother you, even if you're a supporter. I mean, I understand if you're a supporter. Uh, there's not much he can do that will bother you ever. Uh, and of course he'll be able to raise more money off of this, you know, because he plays the victim card and people send him money.
It's remarkable. But there are two specific things in the deposition that he said that. The first thing that came out was a video of him talking about and everyone has heard it now, she's not my type. You know, I couldn't have done this. She's not my type. Well anybody, I mean, he sounds like that's just a very ignorant thing to say.
Host Scott Robinson said, would it matter from one of your listening heroes? No? No, And by the way, if you're wondering why I didn't say one of my political heroes, it's because I don't have any. I don't think you should have political heroes, by the way, because that you know. I'm not a religious man, but there are reasons why the Bible says you should not engage in idolatry. Having political heroes is very dangerous because you become taken in by them and then you believe anything they shovel you, no matter how absurd.
You should not have political heroes. This is my personal opinion. I know, uh, many of you will disagree with that, but um, you know, whether it's maga people who love Trump or you know Bernie, people who love Bernie. It's it's okay to admire things about a politician, but you should not idolize a politician. That's just my view. I I think I think that leads you into occult perhaps okay to So the first thing is though, that she's not my type thing. Um as I understand it. Uh, and I guess uh. Trump obviously either doesn't realize this or doesn't care.
H. But and I I was able to. This was explained to me at a pretty young age. And I understood it when I understood this when I was a child. Um, rape is not about uh, sexual attraction. It's it's not about uh, someone being your type that doesn't enter into it. Rape is about It's about power and domination and violence. It's a violent crime. It's not about sex. It's not about attraction. You know. Uh some pos who who uh you know, hides in a say, a parking garage and waits for a woman to walk by so he can jump on her and sexually assaulter.
Uh you know that guy. He's not doing that because he's found a woman he's attracted to. That's that's not what what drives that. Okay, so the it's not my type thing? That's that sounds like it? Like, I mean, that's what an absurd thing to say, and it and it it sort of trivializes in a way. Um, not that this is his inten I think he's too necessarily, I think he's too oblivious to even realize what his words sound like. But it it has a way of sort of trivializing. Now, maybe he does know trivializing what he's accused of to say, oh, I wouldn't do that, she's not my type.
Um, I mean
that's that. He really does sound like a knuckle dragging Neanderthal saying something like that. Um, that's not that's not what sexual assault is about. And again, you know, I I've understood this since I was a child, But this nearer eighty year old man, he's in his late seventies. Apparently he doesn't understand that. Maybe there's something generational to that. I don't know. Um, maybe it's just I don't know, Maybe it's hyper masculinity. I don't know what it is. But he clearly doesn't get it or he's just being willfully obtuse.
But that's not what you say about something like this, she's not my type. Oh my god, I found that very chilling when I saw that. I mean to say something like, you know, it almost he almost sounds like someone who would say, you know, on the eve of the Louisiana Primary, I don't know what the KKK is. I don't know what you're talking about. To Jake Tapper on CNA. We won't get into that, but I mean, we've got the we've got the audio here. This is the first thing that I wanted to just just mentioned.
But if you haven't heard it, when you said that miss Carroll was not your type, you meant that she was not your type physically, right.
I saw her in a picture. I didn't know what you looked like, and I said it, and I say it with as much respect as I can, but she is not my type. And again, when you say type, you just refer to looking at photos, So you mean physically she's not your type. Physically, she's not my type. And now that I've gotten indirectly to hear things about her, she wouldn't be my type in any way, shape or form. But when you were talking back on June twenty fourth, you were referring to her not being your type physically.
I saw a photo of her, and the only difference between me and other people is I'm honest, she's not my type. Wow. Wow, dude, thanks for your honesty. I mean, that's and I'm telling you, you know, I get it. They didn't want him going and testifying, or maybe he didn't want to, but you know, you put him on the stand, he's gonna say things like I guarantee you again, I'm not making judgments about the case itself. I wasn't there. I was not in the courtroom, and they were not the proceedings themselves Elves.
The trial itself was not broadcast publicly. But um, I'm just telling you though, just that bit of video right there. If I had been in that courtroom, I'm sure the jury was sitting there going what did he just say? What are we talking about here? I would imagine that they were pretty repulsed by that. And here's the other thing. Well, and again, I'm not gonna be uh, I'm not gonna be descriptive here. You know, it's an afternoon drive show. I don't so we don't want to get into the graphic details, but I will tell you this and it relates to this other clip that I want to play that I think severely damaged him in court.
It had to have, and some of you might be able to accurately predict what I'm about to what the clip is from the depths position, but but again not being descriptive, you can look it up if you're unclear on what I'm talking about. But when she describes the way that she alleges he assaulted her, the details of precisely what happened during that allegedly again he you know, but when she describes that, it makes his access Hollywood comments, um,
particularly chilling. And I'll leave it at that. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have to look it up yourself, because we can't. This would not be the place to get into that in detail, although they talked about it on cable news, but I don't. On this radio program, we're not gonna get into the details of that. But um, so I'll leave that at that. But I will play this audio from you again. This is from the deposition with the particular the P word has bleeped out in this particular clip, so I can I can play this, But if you didn't hear this.
Uh, this is this relates to the Access Hollywood tape. It's true with stars they're thinking grab women by the Well, that's what that's If you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely too, not always, but largely true. So just to be clear, So she's asking him, she's asking him about that comment about grabbing women by them, and he and and uh and he and he says, well, if you know, over the last million years, that's been largely true. What does that even mean? I mean? Is he is he saying that?
Is he saying that? Is he making an observation that when you're famous and wealthy you can get away with things that would be true? That is what happens, right, when you're famous and wealthy, you do get away with a lot of things that you wouldn't get get away with otherwise. Is he saying that or is he saying, yeah, that's one of the perks of being somebody like me, I can get away with it. Of course it's been that way for the past million years. Is that what he's saying? What is he saying exactly here?
Whatever it is, it's not good. I'm gonna start that over from the beginning. It's true stars, they're thinking grab women by the well, that's what that's If you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely too, not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately unfortunately or fortunately what just digging that hole, dude, I mean, I'm telling you, can you imagine sitting on that jury and hearing this, and you consider yourself to be a star. I think you can say that she's accusing me of rape a woman that I have no idea.
This is, by the way, a different part of the deposition. I'm not sure why this part is included in this clip, but I'm gonna let this play. It's it's it's brief, but we'll see how this this must relate somehow to the previous comment. Who she is? It came out of the blue. She's accusing me of rape, of raping her, the worst thing you can do, the worst charge. And you know it's you know it's not true too. You're a political operative. Also, you're a disgrace. But she's accusing me, and so are you, of rape and it never took place.
And I will tell you I've made that statement, and I said, well, it's politically incorrect. She's not my type. And that's one hundred percent true that it's not my type. There's this ridiculous situation that we're doing right. It's a big fat hook. She's a liar, and she's a sick person, in my opinion, really sick, something wrong with her. Um all. So I would guess, uh that part of why uh he didn't testify in person was, um, you know, I mean, anybody with any common sense knows you don't start insulting the accuser, I mean, can you and and insulting the person taking the deposition.
I assume that, I mean, you know, you don't just start insulting every I know that's Trump's thing. He insults people, and uh, you know, and and some of his supporters like that about him. He's a fighter. Um yeah, you don't start insulting the accuser, you know, maybe, I mean, geez, even um when when some people were I'll just give you an example, because I remember when uh, when Brett Kavanaugh Justice Kavanaugh, while he wasn't Justice Kavanaugh yet, but when he was being confirmed, you know, and uh we all, I'm sure remember he was accused of sexual assault and some of his defenders in Congress would say, you know, on the Republican side would say, well, I'm sure I can't forgive me.
I can't remember the name of the accuser now who testified. But they some of them would say. They would be very careful with their language, and they would say, well, I'm sure something happened to her. I just don't believe that it was Brett Kavanaugh. I think someone did something to her. In other words, so they would they would express it. They didn't didn't believe her, but they wouldn't call her a liar or a sick person. They would say, you know, it was a long time ago, this was in high school.
Something happened to her, but but you can't prove that it was Brett Cavanaugh. That's how they would play it. Whether you agree with that or not, I'm just saying, I'm just using that as an example. You know, So, if Trump were not his own worst enemy, and if he did not insist on self immolating at every opportunity, he might have said something like that. You know, clearly something may have happened to her at some point and she thinks it was me or you know, or however he wanted to play it right, but to sit there and start insulting her.
And again the jury hears this, and what must they be thinking when they hear him talking that way about her? I mean, so again, I wasn't in the courtroom. I'm not making any judgments. I'm just telling you, based on these clips, how I think that that probably went over in court. And based on these clips from the deposition, Just on these bits of audio and video alone, it's hard to imagine that they would come back with any other decision other than that he was liable. That's just my view of it. Based on that.
I mean, he sounds like like, you know, like a character out of the series mad Men or something. I mean, it's it's uh, you know. And and again, I know a lot of his supporters are fine with all of that, but you know, I don't know, suburban women Republicans who already abandoned him in twenty twenty, are they going to go for all that in twenty twenty four, because you know that's going to show up in a campaign ad eventually, right, I don't know. I uh, I mean, I realize it'll help, it'll all help him, It'll help him raise money.
This judgment because every time, you know, he's he's been able to um to make it so that whatever whatever negative things happen to him legally, he's able to raise money off of it. So it actually benefits him. Every every uh, every loss, every l that he takes legally is actually a win uh in terms of raising money and and will ultimately help him get the nomination. Uh. So you know, in a sense, he's probably celebrating this right because he'll when he does the town hall and he and he'll bring it up can you believe how unfairly I've been treated by this court?
And you know you know what I mean. It'll he'll raise plenty of money off of it. So it's good for him in a business sense, from a business standpoint, if you think of think of the campaign as a business, which of course it is.
Let's see John hopwould put in the chat room, if the judgment is upheld, she will take legal action to get the loot. She was awarded five million in damages. The jury decided that Miss Carroll. This is pasted from somewhere obviously, but the jury decided that Miss Carroll again, John hop would put this in proved by a preponderance of the evidence that mister Trump sexually abused her and that she was injured by a result of his conduct. The jury decided that two million dollars would fairly and adequately compensate her for her injuries.
The jury also just ided that mister Trump should pay Miss Carroll twenty thousand dollars in punitive damages because his conduct was quote willfully or wantonly, negligent, reckless, or done with a conscious disregard of the rights of Miss Carroll, or was so reckless as to amount to such disregard unquote. The jury also found that mister Trump defamed Miss Carroll, that she was injured, and that she was injured as a result of his October twenty twenty two truth social post. They decided that she should be paid one million dollars for damages unrelated to a reputation repair program and one point seven million dollars for a reputation repair program only.
The jury also found that mister Trump quote acted maliciously out of hatred, ill will spite, or wanton, reckless or willful disregard of the rights of another unquote, and that Miss Carroll should be paid two hundred eighty thousand dollars. Here's the and John Hopp would also posted in the chatrooman these statement from the Trump campaign. Here comes the sales pitch. Here it comes the Democratic Party's never ending which hunt of President Trump at a new low today in jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party, our nation's justice system is now compromised by extremist left wing politics.
We have allowed false and totally made up claims,
totally made up claims from troubled individuals to interfere with our elections, doing great damage. Make no mistake, this entire bogus case is a political endeavor targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front runner to be once again elected president of the United States. The continued abuse of our great Constitution for political ends is disgusting and cannot be tolerated. Our nation isn't SERI trouble. Sorry, somebody keeps messaging me ow can I oh, there we go? Our nation is in serious trouble when claims lacking any evidence or proof or eyewitnesses can include I'm sorry, I can invade our courts to score political points.
Sadly, for the enemies of American freedom and democracy, President Trump will never stop Wait what, Oh, this is an oddly constructed sentence. This is poorly written, sadly for the enemies of American freedom and democracy. President Trump will never stop fighting for the American people. No matter what the radical Democrats dream up next. This case will be appealed and we will ultimately win. That's a statement from Trump. That sentence was poorly constructed. Sadly should not have opened in the beginning because it makes it sound like sadly Trump will never stop fighting, which is obviously not the intention of the sentence.
But anyway, I'm a stickler for things like that. Um. But uh yeah, that's the sales pitch. So in other words, we lost a judgment. Send money. That's that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about.
Melanie says in the chat room that deposition recording was disgusting. Oh yeah, like I said, he sounds like a character out of Madmen. Um. Oh. JPV joins us in the Facebook live chat. Hello, JPV says, stay away from Saint Anselm's College tomorrow. Trump is speaking. Well, is that where they're doing the CNN thing too? That the town hall um policy says, make America cool again. Arthur Fonzarelli twenty twenty four. If Henry Winkler were running, I'd probably vote for him. Um, he might be older than Biden.
Actually I'm at this point, I'm not sure, but he seems perfectly lucid. M Melanie said in the chat room, and when he said it to the female lawyer, like that is the worst possible insult he could give a woman. Oh yeah again, imagine that, and imagine that the deposition is being played in a courtroom and he's saying that to her in the deposition. And you're not my type either, You could never possibly be my type, just being honest, Like wow, wow, dude, it's like, why why not? I mean, if you're gonna, if you're gonna do it, go all the way with it, show up at the deposition with a can of gasoline and a lighter and just, uh, you know, light yourself up right there.
I mean, why not? Right? No? Because then you couldn't collect the money later from your donors. I mean, I understand why not. I'm kidding, but but that's what I mean. Like he self immolates at every at every possibility, and you know, he an opportunity and he just h. But again he knows it doesn't matter. It's almost it's almost as though I don't think this is really the case, because I don't think he I don't think he h. I don't think this is actually a strategy. But you would almost have to wonder does he do that on purpose to make sure he loses because he knows if he loses, he can appeal it.
He's probably never gonna have to pay the money. And again he gets to raise money off of it for the campaign. Jenny said, Uh, he certainly said it was still that way to him today. Um. Melanie says, can't he be blocked from profiting from this case? I don't know, and and it probably wouldn't Um, it probably wouldn't matter as far as raising money for his campaign. And I don't think there's anything in campaign finance law that blocks you from raising money off of something like this anyway. Our campaign finance laws are pretty weak in less country to begin with us for sure.
Mariam Bannish joins us in the Facebook live chat. Hello, Jenny says, I think that is only in criminal cases. That's probably correct. Yes, as far as not being able to profit from it, Miriam says, oh, referring to Henry Winkler the Fawns, I would certainly or I would totally vote for him. No other candidate can jump a shark. That's right for you young uns who don't know. That's where that expression comes from, jump the shark. That comes from the Fawns Happy Days where he jumped some sharks. I think we should let's take a break and then we'll come back in the second hour and we'll we'll talk about some other things and we'll get an update regarding the debt limit.
But you know, I opened with a I opened with a song from Dust Profit. Maybe we'll play another Dust Profit song because people seem to really like, really like this band, and I like them too. I used to be in a band with one of the guys in Dust Profit. Let's see. Yeah, we'll play Bury Me before noon. I think this is the newest single. Anyway, we'll give this a listen, and we'll show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we'll be back with the balance of our show. We'll look for an update on the debt limit.
Kevin McCarthy was going to the White House today to meet with President Biden, and I think McConnell is there as well, and for all we know, the meeting might already be over. I will check. I'm not optimistic on that subject, and we'll see what else we get into. So there's plenty more Matt Connerton Unleash to come. Don't go away. Here's here's some dust. Profit. This is called bury me before noon. Welcome back everybody. We are well in our number two numarrow dose of Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.
You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, etc. Etc. Today is Tuesday, May nine, two thousand to twenty three, so nice to have you all with me. If you'd like to join us on the program today, six ZO three two five six Z seven is a studio line six ZO three two five oz six zoo seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat.
I haven't seen anybody in there from Greensboro, North Carolina yet today. That's unusual. But the best thing to do, of course, so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is give us a call at six zo three two five O six z seven six zo three two five o six zero seven. By the way, regarding the possibility of the fonds in the White House, Paul C said in the chat room, it would be cool if he brought a jukebox into the Oval office with him and whenever something bad happen and he punches the jukebox and the problem goes away, then everyone goes to Arnold's for burgers and a malt.
Uh. It's a win win. Yes, Yes, that would be very exciting. I would vote for that. Uh, certainly. Um, let's see. By the way, I checked on the debt Apparently the debt limit meeting is under way. Um, we might come back to that. I'm gonna wait and see if there's like I said, I'm unfortunately, I think it might conclude quickly. I'm not expecting that to be a long meeting. So we'll revisit that a little bit later in the show to see if there's some actual news on that, uh, in terms of an outcome. But I wanted to look at this a couple other things just quickly, and then we will we will go back to the debt ceiling or debt limit or whatever term you prefer,
shortly before the end of the show. But um, I wanted to make fun of Vladimir Putin. I enjoy that make fun of Russia U due to their invasion of Ukraine. This is from CNN. Putin leads scaled back victory Day in Moscow. As warren Ukraine comes under mounting pressure. Things continue to go badly for the Russians in Ukraine. Of course, it's now been over a year, so apparently they they had their their annual May Day parade and it was if you've seen any of the video of it, it was not not quite the usual standard of what they do for for the big parade.
Uh, you know where they celebrate to feeding the Nazis of course in World War two and uh, they were allied with US and that, of course, but today things are very different. But the Russian military not in the state that it once was. It says here, Oh, actually we have a call. Let's grab this. Hi, welcome to Matt Connerton. Unleash. Who's this Hello, Matt, It's Polly Hey, what's up? Policy from retro Spectrum Radio. Yes, I do endorse Arthur funds ARELLIU president Yox. Thing worked. I mean, the whole idea would be great, except he's got to keep Chocci out of there.
He's got to keep Scott Bay away from the White House completely. Oh, I agree. Yes, it will be a Choccy free zone. Yes, absolutely, it'll go back to the original days of happy days before Chachi. That way, there'll be no problems and nobody uh causing a ruckus. Yes, that sounds good. I never I never trusted that guy Chocci. Yeah, no, he uh he's kind of weird anyway, Yes, yes, in his ways. Um so, yeah, I just wanted to call and uh, actually you know what it is pronounced. It is pronounced malted, Matt, I'm malted.
Yes, it's a malted. It's it's short from malted milk and that's what they used to call them for short back when the uh the kids went to the soda fountains over at the drug store, they'd be malted. Oh okay, I thought it was malt. Yeah, alright, alright, past ten. Gotcha. Hey, this Friday night, we're doing something really cool with the music. And I never thought we'd ever do anything like this, but I listened to a few tracks and I got totally sucked into this type of music. So we're taking all these classic rock songs, Matt, and we're playing dubstep versions of them and dance versions, a little blend of you know, modern day DJs and producers who took these old songs and produced them into something brand new and futuristic and really awesome.
And we're going to mix those with actual original dance versions of rock songs that we're never really quite popular back in the day outside of nightclubs. Lots of classic rock tunes. A lot of people don't know that these bands were into making dance versions of their rocks, their rock songs, yea, And they would come out on twelve inch singles, you know, and we'd beat mixed with them in the nightclubs and everything. But you never really heard them on the radio. So we're gonna be featuring both those styles of music, uh this Friday night, and we're also going to be doing the name that nine at nine and another bonus round at ten.
Oh, name that ten more. It's all okay and that yeah, And that'll just be this weekend and then we'll go back to just the normal one round in two weeks. So if Steve crushes me at nine, I have a shot at redemption at ten. That's right, exactly good as it should be. You are correct, well, very good, We look forward, all right, Matt, all right, Paul, thank you for the call. I have a good night and I'll keep listening. But alright, man, bye bye. All right. That was policy from retro Spectrum Radio with policy every Friday night from eight to eleven pm.
And by the way, it is Tuesday, which means tonight there is a replay of retro Spectrum Radio if you're listening live on Tuesday. Immediately after this show is through the Stage Stoor with Rob Dion and then at seven pm is a replay of Retrospectrum Radio. So if you missed this past Friday's show, you can hear it tonight from seven to ten. Very good, very good, six three two five six seven. The studio line is open six zo three two five six z seven. So looking at this quickly, it says here this is from CNN.
Russian President Vladimir Putin led a paired down, significantly so Victory Day parade in Moscow today as he repeated his false assertion that the West had launched a true war against Russia despite the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of people lined the streets in Moscow's Red Square as part of Russia's annual parade, an exhibition of patriotism marking the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War Two. Victory Day is the most significant day of Putin's calendar, as he has long used it to rally public support, demonstrate the country's military prowess, and rail against the historical injustices he perceives Western nations have heaped upon his nation.
The Russian leader has historically led the annual military parade on Red Square with displays of military hardware, including tanks, missiles, and other weapons systems, before a wreath lane ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin Wall to honor the memory of those who perished in the battles. More than ten thousand people and one twenty five units of various types of weapons and equipment were expected to be displayed at this year's parade, according to Defense Minister Sergey as Shogu.
Last year, the ministry announced eleven thousand people and one hundred thirty one types of weapons were involved in the military parade, with an air show of seventy seven aircraft and helicopters. But there was just one ancient World War Two era T thirty four leading the mechanized column today, as Moscow seemingly toned down its annual parade. Yeah, so a lot of people notice that just just one one of those tanks this year. I guess the others are in use or being blown up in Ukraine. Uh. Tiger M and vpk Ural armored vehicles were also on display, but the main focus was the country's S four hundred air defense system and its intercontinental ballistic system, the YARS.
So they're also a car? Is there a car called the YARS? I don't know. Uh. The usual flyby above the red square was canceled, state media reported, without providing an explanation. By the way, it must have been good weather. Because in a situation like that, if if a flyby is canceled, um if it if it's bad weather, they'll they'll blame it on the weather, even if the weather wasn't necessarily bad enough. But if they don't offer any explanation, then it must have been good weather. So Putin used the annual Victory Day parade to launch he had another scathing attack on the West, accusing it of holding Ukraine hostage to its anti Russian plans.
Putin said, quote, A true war has been unleashed against our motherland. We have repelled international terrorism and to fit we will defend the residence of Don Boss and secure our own safety. Russia has no unfriendly nations in the West or in the East. What does that even mean?
Oh, Jenny says, yes, Toyota makes it the Toyota Yaris. Well, I wouldn't buy Yaris if I were you. It's it's named after a Russian thing. Alex Whiteley says it should include a legendary war tractors as used by Ukraine soldiers. There you go. Putin also drew comparisons between the conflict in Ukraine and the fight against Nazi forces in World War Two, saying that civilization is once again at a turning point. Throughout his short address, Putin, oh he kept a short huh. Maybe his heart just wasn't in it.
Throughout his short address, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in what the Kremlin calls its special military operation in Ukraine, saying the country is proud of everyone who fights on the front lines. He said, quote, there is no more important thing now than your combat work. However, no mention was made of the high casualties suffered by Russian troops, which are estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Oh, and of course no mention made of the Wagner group, who the militaries, I'm sorry, the mercenaries rather that was hired by Putin to fight this war because you know, they only have so many Russian military because a lot of them are well dead.
Um. By the way, and then the article goes on, it gets into some of the history of the war, but thus far um, just a side note to this, by the way, um, Apparently you know, obviously American intelligence closely monitors the UM the movements of what Russia is doing in terms of its nuclear capabilities, and um, nothing has changed. Uh this was mentioned today. I forget where I saw this online. But nothing has changed in that respect. In other words, you know, because they like to saber rattle and uh Putin likes to saber rattle and make little threats and and they're very big on that on Russian state TV.
They like to make threats about nuclear war. But um, nothing is changed about Russia's actual nuclear posture on the ground in terms of that we know about in terms of the movement and placement and a strategic placement I should say, of nuclear weapons, which is good. That's why we haven't changed our nuclear posture really, So that's good. That's a good thing. Empty threats, that's good. We wouldn't really make sense right to go through all this strubble of invading Ukraine just to blow up the world.
I suppose six three two five six three two five six seven is a studio line if you would like to join us. Let's see if we have an update on this. This is happening right now, the debt limit meeting. I just I'm putting off talking about it because I'd like to have something to say about how it went. If it ends, I'm hoping it doesn't end before the show is over, because the longer the meeting goes, maybe that's a good sign that some sort of progress has been made. Although I'm not holding my breath.
And while I try to be an optimist by nature, if you are a regular listener, you know I have not been particularly optimistic about this. Let's see, all right, this was just updated. Oh, okay, I guess it is. I guess the meeting is over. Yep. From Reuter's Biden McCarthy debt ceiling talks rap as clock ticks to US default. Okay, well, let's dive in. The meeting's over. Some bullet points, oval office talks, and markets await signs of progress. Leaders appeared dug in ahead weeks before possible default.
Both sides downplayed chances of a short term deal. So it says here President Joe Biden and top lawmakers met face to face today as a deadlock over raising the thirty one point four trillion dollars US debt limit threatened to push the country into an unprecedented default in as soon as three weeks if Congress does not Act. The Oval Office meeting between Biden in a Democrat, and House of Representative Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, ended after just over an hour. Yeah, that's a quick meeting with no immediate sign of progress made after both sides suggested earlier they would not agree to concessions to head off a default as early as June.
One quote. We're going to get started and solve all the world's problems, Biden quipped prior to the meeting, declining to take reporters questions or to offer his guests an opportunity to speak. Yeah, that's a great quip. That's real funny. This is serious business. Biden, McCarthy, and other participants were expected to offer their own version of the meeting later on today. Their tone and substance are being closely watched for signs of how talks went. During the meeting, the leaders were grouped long party lines, with McCarthy sitting silently on one couch with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was joined by fellow Democrats Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the opposite couch. Biden sat in a chair between them. Five senior aids accompanied Biden, including Chief of Staff Jeff Zience, Budget Director Shalanda Young, and longtime advisor Steve Ricketti Rischetti. According to the White House, the congressional leaders each brought a single aid of their own. Economists Warren that a lengthy default could send the American economy into a d procession with soaring and unemployment, while destabilizing a global financial system built on US bonds.
Investors are bracing for impact. Biden is calling on lawmakers to raise the federal government's self imposed borrowing limit without conditions. McCarthy has said that his chamber will not approve any deal that doesn't cut spending to address say growing budget deficit, and signaled that he doesn't see a short term fix, so there's still dug in on that. Past debt seiling fights have typically ended with a hastily arranged agreement in the final hours of negotiations, thus avoiding a default. In twenty eleven, the scramble prompted a historic downgrade of the country's top notch credit rating.
Veterans of that battle warned the current situation as riskier because political divides have widened yeah, and by the way, that's part of the reason why I've been pessimistic about this. Not to be a downer, but I do think we're going to default. I think that our politics is so broken and so polarized at this point, and both sides are so dug in. I think either the President invokes the Fourteenth Amendment for the first time in our country's history and then we'll see what happens. Then that could trigger a constitutional crisis.
But the fourteenth Amendment says, you know, the country's debts shall not be questioned. There's again it's you know, the language isn't necessarily clear. So but there are many who argue that the debt limit itself is unconstitutional because it directly violates the Fourteenth Amendment. But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been invoked before, so we're in sort of uncharted territory. But if now, the cuts, as I understand it, the cuts that the Republicans want in the bill that they did pass, you know, according to Moody's analytics, hardly a liberal operation.
They said that those cuts are so deep that they would actually do more harm than good in terms of the economy. On the other hand, you know, so they've kind of got a gun to everyone's heads here, right with with that plan. But if you don't, if you don't give them what they want and they don't vote to raise the limit, then default would be even worse. I mean, default is the worst of all options here. And I've said all along, I believe Biden. Biden is absolutely correct in principle, in principle, that there should be a bill to a clean bill to raise the debt limit with no other nothing else attached to it.
Just raise the debt limit and then, uh, you know, you negotiate on the budget separately. I believe he is one hundred percent correct in that in principle, but in practice, no, in practice, he's going to have to negotiate something. He's going to have to. I understand it's a bitter pill to swallow, but you can't let the country default. So while I think in principle it should be uh, you know, it should just like I mean, Trump had this right, uh you know, when when Trump was president, and again, you know, if you're a long time listener, you know, I'm not a big fan of the guy, you know, but he got a few things right along the way, and he was right on the debt limit during the Trump administration.
His position was, we do not use the debt limit as a bargaining chip. You keep that separate from the budget because it's too dangerous. It's too risky. And even getting close to default has caused problems before, like it did in twenty eleven. That was the first time in our nation's history. You know, Yeah, we didn't default, but but the country's uh, the federal government's credit rating was downgraded over that because we came so close. So um and Trump said, no, we don't negotiate on that. We don't.
We don't touch that. Leave that off the table. You just raise it on schedule. So that's what we should do. Actually, And by the way, the Democrats, when they had control, they should have taken that opportunity to eliminate the debt limit. You could just do away with it. Just do away with it, and then we don't have to do this stance every time. But this is bad. I do. Look, I'm a I'm not a betting man, I'm not a gambler. Say, but if I had to, if I had to put money on it, Honestly, I do think we're going to default and then it's just a matter of um, uh do we do we damage the country?
Uh uh severely or catastrophically? You know, I mean that that's the thing too. I keep hearing, you know, um you know, people are still wringing their hands over you know, what does the FED do about is interest rates? And they're looking at you know, Okay, we had really good jobs numbers recently, but they're almost too good because if the job market doesn't start to start to cool off soon, you know, the Fed's gonna have to raise interest rates again, you know, to try to tamp down inflation or continue to tamp down inflation and all this.
And at this point, it's like, I don't care. I don't care about any of that. I don't I don't care about any of that. The only thing I care about in terms of economics at this moment is the debt limit, because nothing else matters if we're going to default. Nothing, none of this other stuff matters. Inflation and interest rates, the unemployment. I don't care about any of that because if we're going to default, we're going to wreck the economy anyway. So to even be talking about interest rates at this point, who cares?
It would be like, if you knew that an asteroid, I could use the deck chairs on the Titanic. But that's such an overused cliche. I'll go with something different. Um, say you knew that an asteroid was going to be hitting the the Earth at the end of the week and it was going to kill everybody, an extinction level event, right, and you know the asteroids coming, and you're sitting in your living room staring at the walls, going you know, I've been thinking about painting in here. I wonder if it might be time to brighten up the room.
Who cares as an asteroid coming? That's how I feel about this. You know, you can you can turn on any number of you know, you can turn on CNBC or you know, or any number of there's any number of financial channels on the radio or on television or websites you can go to, and you know where they're talking about interest rates and inflation and who cares at this moment, I don't care. We're about we're about to destroy the American economy anyway, so what does it matter? And we're and the only reason we're going to do it is because we look and by the way, and I'm not even gonna take the You know, the easy way out, of course, is to always just blame the politicians.
That's what everyone does. I blame all of us for tolerating this. We tolerate this. We we allow ourselves to be sucked into partisan ideology and polarization, and and that's how we end up in situations like this. And people don't even know. I mentioned it last week on the show. I saw a pull the other day. Only twenty five percent of Americans think that the that the debt limit is a serious issue and are actually concerned about default. And you know why that is. You know why only twenty five percent of Americans surveyed say that because they don't even realize that it's not the same thing as a government shutdown.
Right, we have fights over the budget, and then a budget doesn't get passed in time, and then there's a government shutdown. And don't get me wrong, government shutdowns are much worse than the average person even realizes too. Government shutdowns costs the economy a hell of a lot of money. Government shutdowns, every time one happens, it actively damages the American economy. Right, but we always get through it. Everyone knows it's only temporary. It might be a couple of days, it might be a couple of weeks, it might be a whole month, whatever, But we always get through it, right, So people become placent.
People don't know. I honestly don't believe that the average American realizes that the government potentially defaulting. I don't think the average American knows that that's not the same as a government shutdown because of a failure to agree on a budget. Default has never happened ever in the history of the United States. We have never happened. We have never defaulted. The country has never defaulted on its debt. But we're at a point now. Everybody, he's so dug in, everybody's so polarized. Um, you know.
I mean, you've got Republicans in the House right now who say they won't vote for raising some of them, uh, you know, the like the House Freedom Caucus types, they used to be the Tea partiers. Some of them has said they won't vote to raise the debt limit under any circumstances. I actually think we should have fault. I mean, that's a small number of them, right, that's not the standard Republican position. But they are there the really crazy ones who just don't even understand any of this, you know.
Uh. And then and then you've got on the other side, you've got the Democrats who should have seen this coming. One thing we've learned about Democrats is they're not really good at seeing around corners. They don't see what's coming. When they were in control, they should have seized that opportunity. With even some Republican support, they could have done it very probably very little. But Mitch McConnell himself in the past has said we should actually get rid of the debt limit. Mitch McConnell has said that he's not saying that now.
He seems to be on board with McCarthy. He seems to be his partner in this, but in terms of their position. But in the past McConnell has said that, so they should have ended the debt limit when they had an opportunity, but they didn't, And now here we are, and there's no excuse for not dealing with this sooner. And McCarthy pointed out it's been ninety seven days I think since the last time that he and Biden had a meeting about this. That's this should have been this should have been dealt with.
This should have been handled Now we're just a few weeks away and Biden apparently is going to be traveling. He's gonna be going to Japan. I think he's gonna be going to Australia. That's great, have a nice trip. Meanwhile, you know you're not here trying to get something hammered out. So what we just let the United States economy fall off a cliff? I guess so, oh well, that's the partisan politics that Again, I don't blame them, I blame us we as Americans. This is what we buy into partisan ideology.
Everybody's got to pick a side. You gotta be on one side or the other. And this is what we end up with. We end up with two sides that are so divided that they're actually going to crash the United States economy. Like it's like the end of Thelma and Louise and we're in the car with them and we're all going over the cliff together. That's what we get. That's what we get. And so this is we're all to blame for this, and uh, you know, so, I don't even you know that that last Job's report was fantastic.
I guess unemployment rates down to three point four percent. But then you know the FED is worried. Well, the unemployment rates actually too low still, which is gonna there's gonna be more inflation, so we might have to raise the interest rate again. Who cares, doesn't matter. The asteroid's coming. It's hitting on June first. I don't want to talk about Peyton the living room when the asteroids coming on June first. So that's that's my position. So what happened today? I guess nothing. I guess they all say at around our elected law givers and over lords as I like to call them.
I guess they all sat around and said, well, I guess so, uh we're all just gonna let the asteroid hit, right, Yeah, I guess so. Okay, see, Yuh that's great. Oh and by the way, for anyone who doesn't realize this, um, June first is when we will actually destroy the American economy as we know it or around there. But uh we're actually already uh damaging it actively. Uh even getting close to default damages the economy. It makes the markets very nervous. Uh you know, uh, June is when we'll actually nuke the whole thing.
Um, but uh, you know, so uh enjoy it while we have it. Um. Oh not just uh in America, by the way, globally this will destroy the global economy. So it's been a nice run. But uh, but we're we actually even just allow allowing it to get this far actively damages the economy. Hope everyone realizes that. I'm sorry being so negative about this, but it's infuriating to me, Like we're going to these people who we elect to represent us. I don't care, you know, if you vote, how you vote, what your ideology is.
Just take a broad view of it for a moment. These are people we elect to represent us, and the people that we represent to elect us, whose salaries we pay with our tax dollars, are about to destroy our economy again. Forget about party, forget about political ideology, forget about partisanship. Just think of it as an American citizen. The people that we all we vote for, regardless of who you vote for individually, collectively as a nation, the people who we put a new office are now going to destroy the American economy, something entirely avoidable, but they are going to do it.
That's that's who we voted for. People who are going to ruin everything.
I mean, just think about that. Isn't isn't partisanship great? Isn't isn't you know? Division and polarization just dandy. This is where we are. This is where we have. People say, well, I've never seen the I've never seen the country so polarized. Yeah, no kidding, it's leading to our economic doom. Congratulations America. Melanie says, Wow, Matt, I bet you're a hit at children's birthday parties. I don't go to children's birthday parties, Melanie, I don't children. They they talk to me. They I don't know kids.
Uh, they freak me out. They're they're small, they do weird stuff like uh uh, they're messy eaters sometimes. Uh no, thank you anyway, um, just to finish up on this Reuter's article, Today's meeting was likely to be closely watched ahead of what's expected to be an increasingly fraught period in Washington ahead of June, when the US Treasury predicts the country could be forced to default on some debts. Melanie says, you're a liar. Kids don't talk to you. No, they do because I'm I'm friendly and I'm nice.
So kids do talk to me. You know what I don't like, in all seriousness, I don't like if I'm in public and someone's child. Like it's one thing like if I run into you and I know you, and you and I start interacting, and then you introduce me to your kid, and then your kid is interacting with me, that's fine. You know what I don't like if I'm out somewhere in public and some complete stranger's child starts interacting with me. It's like, what are you doing? You don't even know me. Get away?
Just uh. It repels me. I can't even tell you. It freaks me out anyway, So it says here McCarthy, whose party holds only a slim majority in the House, wants to tie a vote on the debt ceiling to broad spending cuts the White House considers draconian. Biden's meeting with the Speaker was their first since February one. Earlier today, McCarthy said the White House separately appeared to close the door to a short term solution that's been widely discussed on Capitol Hill, lifting the debt ceiling through September to allow more time for agreement.
By the way, that's a great idea, a short term agreement to stave off economic armageddon? Why not? Why wouldn't you do that? But apparently no. Biden says no to that before the Oval Office meeting. Actually I think they've both said no to that on separate occasions. But before the Oval Office meeting, McConnell said Biden should look for middle ground with McCarthy. Quote, sit down with the speaker, strike a deal on quote. He said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. Oh, it's a good idea. Mike Toils on the line, Hello, hey man, how's it going?
Very good? Thank you? Hey, you want to do a mini exercise with me, we'll be on the same team. Maybe we can explain, maybe we can figure out this problem. But it's basically a credit card or math problem. So so we have when Trump comes into office, the debt goes from ten trillion before him to roughly twenty trillion I'm using round numbers. Then Biden comes in and as of February twenty February of twenty two, each add is the thirty trillion dollar budget. So we give another credit card out and now that's on the table.
Phil there's three of them, all at ten trillion. So now Biden wants a fourth credit card, and on that credit card, the people who are given it to him are saying, we gotta stop some we gotta slow down subspending, we gotta we just gotta figure it out. We just can't keep spending at this rate. We're now at thirty trillion. What are we doing? And Biden says, no way. You're giving me that credit card and I can spend it on what I want to spend it on. That's the analogy, man, that's the way I figure it.
I was using the statistics. Well, I understand your analogy. To me, it's irrelevant though, I'm just I'm just looking at it like obviously they have to hammer out some kind of a deal to avoid default. I'm not. I'm not worried about the numbers. I'm worried about why why aren't they figuring something out here? And uh, I agree, you shouldn't be in this We shouldn't be in this problem, like you said, right, right, and and of course, well, and like I said earlier, I agree with Biden in principle, but in practice, he's gonna have to negotiate something.
He's gonna have He's gonna have to default is the worst possible option, and I think I actually think it's I don't know if you're as pessimistic as I am, but I actually think it's going to happen. I really do. I think this time. I think we're so close to the cliff. I think we're just gonna like Thelma and Louise. I think we're just going over. I don't. I mean, he's going to be traveling. There's only a few working days left apparently in the House and Senate calendar anyway, for this until summer break or whatever.
I don't know. I'm genuinely pessimistic. Yeah, at boats the question who's who's making the decision behind the scenes for Biden as well, He's sitting there making all these decisions, although a lot of them runs. He's getting advice from somebody, right, He has counselors, you know, people that he sits around within pow Wow and should be able to come up with what's best for the USA. But that's just not how it works, I don't think. Well, apparently from anyway from what I've been reading, there is there is talk in the administration about they are taking a close look at the fourteenth Amendment, And of course the worry with that is, like I said, that does take us in an uncharted territory, and there could be a constitutional crisis with that, because if they invoke the fourteenth, that might be a that might actually be a good short term fix.
But the problem is it's going to get challenged in court and then you have a constitutional crisis because the fourteenth Amendment doesn't actually you know, it's a little vague, so then you know, it says that, uh, you know, our debts shall not be questioned, but it doesn't literally say we cannot default. I wish that it did. Uh So, uh so that gets us into a scary zone too. I mean, if it comes down to we're either going to do that or default, then he needs to invoke the fourteenth and then we'll go from there.
But but no, I think he should. Uh. I think he needs to cancel his trips. Uh. I don't want him going to Japan, and I don't want him going to Australia until this is resolved and uh and they got to hammer something out. I don't at this point. I don't care how we got here. I don't care about the numbers. I just want a deal, and I want the debt limit raised on schedule. Well, actually, I can't even say on schedule. We already technically crashed through the debt limit a while ago. They're already they've all the Treasury is already resorted to what they call extraordinary measures.
It's just that as of June, our extraordinary measures will have been exhausted. And then that's it. That's it, nothing left in the till it's it's I'm angry. I'm very angry that we're in this position. Here's the question I always ponder when when we hand off one administration to another, if if something is working that the prior administration was doing. Although they're not Republican or Democrat, you know what happens to be an opposite party. If something is working, shouldn't be allowed to on day one strike it from working, you know what I mean.
As a whole, the USA should just say no, no, no, we want to keep that. We don't want just because you're a Democrat and you don't like Trump, you can come in on in day one, stop the oil, stop the oil process. You know that. You know what I mean. It should be for the betterment of the country and at the worst, find some medium ground, but not just say stop, you know what I mean. So, I don't know, that's just a thought. I don't know why we do that. Why don't we shoot ourselves in the foot. You know, if something was working democratically and a republic came in and stopped it, ridiculous, Why would you do that?
If it's working, Clinton had a lot of good financial things, you know what I mean. So, I don't know. I always ponder that question. Somehow these these politicians have forgot this just representing us, I say it all the time. They just they are in their own little cloud. Well because and well, like we always talk about on the show, they don't really represent us. They represent the donors. They represent the donor class. There's websites that you can go to like open secrets dot org where you can look up who who contributes to what candidates and you can actually with that website you can figure out who they really work for.
They don't work for us. If they if they worked for us, they wouldn't be about to drive us all over a cliff. Yeah, I agree with my friend. Yeah, all right, I'll talk to you later. All right, Mike, I appreciate the call. Thank you think think positive. I'm trying, dude, I'm trying,
all right, man, Bye bye, all right. That was our friend Mike Doyle, And uh, if you'd like to get in with a quick call, although it we'll have to be quick six three two five six seven six two five six seven. Alex Whiteley says, can America start and only fans to pay the bills? Oh? There you go. Um. Alex Whitley also said, uh, you said nothing left in the till. I've never heard an American use the word till before. Um. Yeah, I uh, really yeah, I've I've heard it here. Um, we use the word till occasionally.
I guess. I don't know. I don't know. It's a scary time and it's very frustrating. This should not be happening.
Um, I don't know. Do we have time to I'm just gonna look up just very very quickly. I'm curious, like I, like I was saying to Mike, I know that because I was reading the other day about there was apparently conversation within the administration about taking another look at invoking the Fourteenth Amendment. Like I said, it's a little murky. Um, wait, that's not it. Um. Sorry, guys, let me I use guys as the general, non gender specific version. Sorry all of you. Um. So, this is what the fourteenth Amendment actually says.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppression, insurrection, or rebellion, shall not be questioned. M Yeah. See it says basically, so it says the public debt. The validity of the debt shall not be questioned. I'd love it if it said the debt shall not be defaulted on. I wish it was more. But you see what I mean? Why
why It's it's not clear. I'm trying. I'm looking for something. Okay, So three hours ago NBC News posted something. I'm looking for the most recent information on this. NBC News posted something on their website. Fourteenth Amendment option on the debt ceiling would need to overcome Department of Justice concerns. The Office of Legal Counsel advised press in an Obama whether he could raise the government's borrowing limit unilaterally, but its opinion has never been made public. This is interesting.
Gee, I wish we had more time. Just quickly. More than a decade ago, when then President Barack Obama was weighing what to do as the US near the debt ceiling, a small but critical office within the DOJ weighed in with some key legal advice. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, sometimes referred to as the President's Law Firm, quote unquote, advised Obama on whether the Fourteenth Amendment gave the president permission a unilaterally raise the borrowing limit of the US bypassing the problem, but the office's opinions on the matter never became public.
That's interesting. The still secret views of an office that doles out legal advice to the executive branch may take on new relevance as Biden's administration faces another that ceiling showdown. Responding to a FOIA request in twenty eleven and again in twenty thirty, OILS declined to make its written opinions on the fourteenth Amendment question public. That's interesting. We don't have time to get into this any further. We will revisit this tomorrow, though. This is very interesting to me. I'm curious.
I'm curious why, although it does say here too. Ultimately, the Obama administration ruled the Fourteenth Amendment out. You know, they were able to strike a last minute deal, it says. Former White House spokesman Jim Carney in late twenty twelve said the administration quote does not believe that the fourteenth Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the dead ceiling period. Un Obama in early twenty thirteen took it off the table. Interesting. But why have they never made the opinion public.
That's interesting to me. I'm curious about that. And declining those Freedom of Information Act requests, I'm very curious. All Right, we gotta go. We're out of time. Thank you all so much. If you miss any part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit at WMNH radio dot org and at my website, Matt Connerton dot com. I think I'm gonna leave you with a little bit of h I get this song stuck in my head all the time. Oh accept, I can't. Oh wait. Third is this song Angel by Infinity Vein. I know my dad really likes this one too, So I we'll leave you with this, and uh, if you miss any part of today's show, it'll be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org and at my website Matt Connerton dot com and uh oh, and if you're listening live on Tuesday through the Stage Door hosted by Rob Dyon is coming up next at six pm, followed by a replay of Friday's retro Spectrum Radio with paulc coming up at seven pm.
All here on WMH ninety five point three FM. All right, I will leave you with this a little bit of Infinity vein and that's it for me for now. I'll talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody,
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