Speaker 1: And here we are Welcome. Welcome to the Big Podcast
on this Thursday. Today is the fifteenth day of January.
We've got this month half over year of our Lord,
twenty twenty six. My name is Tom Sullivan. And there's
just I don't know. There's the thing that's dominating the
news has been this whole fight with ice in Minneapolis.
And it doesn't it's not slowing down. It's continuing to
get bigger and bigger and bigger as we go down
each and every day. And so I would love to
talk about I've got a few other things to go
over that are kind of fun, because these are not fun.
Minute we got that, we got Iran and I don't know.
The president last night, just before we finished taping the
podcast yesterday said that he got word that they have
stopped killing people and they were not going to be
hanging people. And I don't know. I've talked to a
lot of people today. They're going, do you believe that? No,
So it's still iron is still hot potato, big hot potato,
and nobody knows what is going to happen next. But
let me start with Minnesota because it's just out of control.
It's every day it's the same thing that the people
were out in bigger numbers today. And I told you
the other day that is this thing. This thing goes
for a day or two. Watch the antagonists come in
from all over the country. This is what they live for.
There's there's groups that this is what they do is
they do protests, and they are well organized, and they've
got great social media skills, and they will get they
will get that crowd bigger every single day. So as
you look at the crowd, I would love to know
who's from even Minnesota, let alone Minneapolis. But I'm watching
this and I I'm taking a bit of a leap here.
Some of you may not like what I have to say.
I've been I've been watching this and thinking about it,
and it's been a long time. But I did wear
a badge and a gun many years ago. And I
know what police training and duties and and that police
departments do a great job of scouring and filtering and
selecting who it is it's going to be able to
be a police officer. But there's always every no matter
how well they do, there's always a couple of bad
apples to get in there. But I'm not talking about
the rank and file. The rank and file that are
there are there's Border Patrol, there is ICE, there's other
Federal Secret Service, there's FBI, there's a variety of federal
officers that are there. That's one of the problems is
they don't have a central command structure behind all of it.
But I'll even back up further from that, So you've
got Minneapolis that is there's no leadership, So the police
department is hands off. They can't go in and help,
and they're really in most places something like this, the
police department get involved, but nope, they're they're not there
to support any of the federal officers that are there
originally to go after the fraudsters and figure out what
that's all about. But then that whole thing blew up
with the shooting of that woman, and now it's the
reaction of that was on the federal level. Was also
I just I just shook my head because I'm thinking
there's no leadership on either side. And that's what I'm
basically my message. I'm looking at the at the government
of Minneapolis and Minnesota are a couple of clowns. I mean, this,
this mayor Fry is certifiably not right in the head.
I mean, he's there's something wrong with that guy. And Walls,
I mean, he might be the greatest guy to go
fishing with, isn't that his thing? I think it is.
But he's not very smart. He's not very bright, and
it shows there is no leadership coming from the governor
of the state or the mayor of the city and
the police chief. As I've told you many many times,
police chiefs work for the mayor and so the police chief,
I don't know if he's good, bad, or indifferent, but
he's been told not to do a thing, and so
he's not doing a thing. Move over to the FEDS,
and I have to tell you, I'm looking at this
and I'm going I think they're also without leadership. First
of all, you got all these different federal agencies. But secondly,
there's a lot of them like they don't have any
training in crowd control or urban events. They do most
of their work out in the more rural America and
any place else. In the border patrol, they're trained to
take care of the border. So you've got when I
watch what they're doing, I think they don't have anybody
who really is in charge. They don't have good leadership.
If I was, if I was running the thing, and
this is where you might differ with me, but I
would pull back. I would pull back instead. What did
Christinome say? And she doesn't have a clue about how
to manage police or enforcement.
Speaker 2: She is.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be nice, but I mean she's not.
So she was governor of a small state, but I
just don't think she has any skills other than she
likes to put on dress up outfits and go out
there and talk tough, and so she likes to do
the I'm tougher than you. It's like, this is like
a bar fight where two guys in a bar. You
know what I'm going to do to you? Yeah, well,
let you know what I'm going to and then I'll
see you outside. And that's where we are with this.
It's a bar fight, and there aren't any smart people
on either side of the bar fight. I mean, policing.
Speaker 3: Is is.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of art, but there's a lot of
science to it too, and policing can only be successful
if police have the support of the people. Well, I
think it goes pretty clearly that the ICE has no
support from the people in Minneapolis none and the governor
is turning up the fire every day about how bad
ICE is. Ice has lost the support of the public,
not only in Minneapolis, but the media is showing really
rough policing and it may be valid, may not be valid,
but it looked pretty ugly when you see it on
the news, and that's what people are judging. They're going, oh, man,
those ICE people are really bad. No, I mean they're
getting attacked. And the headlines today a number of news
media there was a ICE agent last night that was
literally physically attacked by three guys. One of them is
illegal who took a broom handle and you think a
broom handle, like, yes, you take a broom handle and
swing that thing, you can break somebody's legs easy. And
also a shovel, and they were attacking, they sabotaged this
ICE agent. He was ambushed and they attacked him and
he pulled his gun and he's shot and he's luck
luckily shot the one illegal guy in the leg. So
the officer is in the hospital, the illegals in the
in the hospital. But people are looking at this and
going they're they're they're blaming, they're blaming Ice. Now, I'll
tell you who does have good managerial experience in police,
and it's Tom Holman. He talked rough, he talks tough,
but he's about the only guy on the federal side
that actually has managerial experience and knows what to do
when it comes to policing. And yet he answers to
whom that would be christineom and she is doing the
I'm tough. I'm a tough babe, and you better know it.
And it's just making things where I first saw it
was the woman was shot and killed, and they have
two thousand ice officers federal officers in Minneapolis. The city
has six hundred police officers. They had two thousand there,
which first of all, you go, oh, you're asking for
trouble to do it that way. And then so the
woman gets shot, and why does Christin nomme come out
and say that's it. Fine, you don't like us, Fine,
we'll send another thousand. I'm bigger and tougher than you, do.
You know what I'm going to do to you. So
you got clowns on both sides that are running this
operation in Minneapolis, And if somebody would please use some smarts,
I really don't think they're very smart and somebody with
policing experience you would pull them back and instead of
having two thousand there, you would break it down into
smaller groups and very quietly and strategically go about the
job of arresting the illegals that you want to are targeted.
It's going to take you a little longer, and I
know you've got a lot of pressure to try to
probably hit some quotas, and that's another thing. They're trying
to hit quotas to make I guess the president happy.
But well, they had twenty million people come in illegally
and a bunch of those people are targeted as criminals.
They're trying to find them and President wants them out yesterday.
Well it's not going to happen that way. It's going
to take longer. So quotas, I don't care if you're
the local police department, you're the highway patrol. Quotas. People
don't like quotas. People don't like police with quotas. Police
should not use quotas. Police should enforce the law based
upon violations of the law. So Ice has lost the
public support the president he won in twenty twenty four
on two things, one the economy and two the border.
That's why he won. He was way popular on both
the economy and the border, and now his ratings are
way belows, way below half. I mean, he's down in
the thirties somewhere. So people voted for him over immigration
in the economy, and he has to make sure that
he's making a positive difference with both of them. So
I don't know. They said they were going to arrest
the worst of the worst first, and what people are
seeing is a lot of rough police handling. First of all,
excessive force has always been something that's turned off people.
So this is not only turning people off there in Minneapolis,
but there's a with the polling going on, there's a
lot of people. This is hurting Republicans politically. I know
that's all they care about. I'll give you a couple
of other items that I've been chewing on. I've talked
about this for years. I would like police departments to
look like police officers, not like soldiers. They are running
around in camo with their helmets on and their masks.
That's fine for how riot police have always worn helmets
and face masks, But there were police uniforms they don't
look like the military has invaded the city. So I
I mean, people go, well, but they're they're going to
identify the well. I don't know. When I wore a
badge and a gun, I had a name tag. When
I was in the army, there was my name on
my chest. So with this this hiding behind whatever it
is in military uniforms, but it is like two guys
in a bar and the tough guy approaches, I'm tougher
than you. And to ask for bringing in three thousand
now federal officers into this. That's not going to calm
anything down, not anytime soon. Everybody's calling for de escalation,
but nobody's doing it. So I would if I was
running the place, I would I would bring it down
to a lot of those ice guys would go on
other cities, other duties, other locations and keep a smaller,
smaller team there, I mean much smaller and go out
and quietly surprise them by you surprise the bad guys
by arresting them without them seeing you coming. So it's
it's there's no leadership and nobody seems to know how
to do policing, and the police department is not allowed
to do anything. Walls is just a clown. He keeps
talking about how everybody needs to de escalate. Listen to
Governor Waltz. This was I think last night. Hold on.
Speaker 4: The federal government is raining down upon our communities. Two
to three thousand armed agents of the federal government have
been deployed to Minnesota. Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are
going door to door. Carry your phone with you at
all times, and if you see these ICE agents in
your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help
us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the atrocities against Minnesotans. He's just trying to he's
fanning the flames. I really do think he's just not
a very bright guy. I think he always probably got
I always talked about the seam of students that run government.
I think he's a D minus. I think they gave
him D minuses just so that they could move him
out of the class onto something else. He really is
not a very bright guy. But he's not alone. And
like I said, the mayor is a clown. And on
the on the ICE, if you will, the former ICE,
I think he was a former assistant director Jonathan Faye.
He doesn't seem like he's all that bride either.
Speaker 5: It seems like what President Trump posted today about invoking
the Insurrection Act seems to be the way this is going,
and that's the way it will end. And just to
invoke the Insurrection Act, he just has to make a
determination that is impractical to enforce federal law because of
the obstructionist activities. And I think that's apparent just by
the reporting you just had, and you have people like
Tim walt the irony of him saying they don't want
chaos when they he is seemingly doing everything he can
to sow chaos, to cause division, to encourage people to
subvert ICE in their mission.
Speaker 1: It's really shameful.
Speaker 5: But I think we're going down the road of the
Insurrection Act because Governor Waltz is not going to step
up his responsibility and get his streets safe so ICE
can do their job. And remember, ICE is enacting the
laws passed by Congress, are not enforcing them. They are
doing something inherently democratic, and Tim Woltz and Jacob Fry
and others are trying to prevent that.
Speaker 1: So so by enacting the Insurrection Act, it may happen.
It's actually for when the local police can't handle the situation,
the president can send in troops. But the idea behind
military in our cities has long been only as the
very very very last resort. And so fayse going, oh, well,
let's just step it up some more. Let's pour, let's
still out. You're being tough, governor, you're an idiot. Well
I'll be an idiot too, and we'll just do the end.
We'll just ramp up the argument between each other. It's
I'm so embarrassed by what's going on with both sides
of the aisle here. So beyond policing, the science the
art of policing, gosh, there's got to be a lot
of police officers out there in this country just shaking
their head watching what's going on. And I imagine the
Minneapolis police chief is probably doing the exact same thing,
but he answers to the mayor. But what about the
politics of this, So we're not that far away from midterms,
people will remember this. How much is this helping not
only de escalate Minneapolis so that people can get back
to their lives and the kids can go back to school.
They still have they're they're doing a COVID thing. They're
having the kids learn from home, yeah, from you know online.
It's again, I don't know if anybody is everybody in
Minneapolist a deem minus student. Anyway, the politics of this
is is not good. And Doug Hay, who is a
Republican spokesman, gives us his view.
Speaker 2: You know, Donald Trump knows where his numbers are. Look,
he would love to be at fifty five percent approval
or one hundred percent approval obviously, if everything's big and
bold and beautiful. But Donald Trump, we use this term
lame duck, and I don't think it really applies to
Donald Trump, even though he is technically in a lame
duck status. Donald Trump doesn't live in a lame duck world.
He lives in a yolo world. And what's important to
him isn't where his numbers are, but what he can
do and the levers of control and power that he
has so where he can use them he does. So
what the polls say after the fact or even during
the fact, is really a secondary matter to him. It's
what can he do and how much power does he have?
And we see him use this all the time. Yeah,
he definitely exhibit. It's the powers of the president, and
for some think maybe beyond the powers of the president.
So it's not going to settle down anytime soon. The
ICE people are run by Christy Gnoam, I'm just beating
a dead horse here. Now let's move on to Iron,
which is another man. This thing is not I know
the President said last night that they said they weren't
going to kill any more or execute or hang anybody.
I don't know if anybody who believes that. Admiral James
stav Ritas was asked about the military angle of doing something,
because it still may happen when you least expect it.
That's the way Donald Trump operates. He surprises you. So
stav Rita's weighs in on what kind of military operation
would look like.
Speaker 3: The reason is with the Iranians saying, oh, we've stopped
the killing, we are holding off, I think you got
to kind of turn Ronald Reagan upside down. It's not
trust but verify, it's don't trust and verify. So I
think over the next twenty four to forty eight hours,
the US intelligence community has its work cut out for it.
This is becoming an information war. In a certain sense,
meaning we need to be amplifying the voices of the protesters,
getting their stories out, and at the same time we
need to be shining a light on the malfeasance of
this regime. We have the capability to do that. You
don't need boots on the ground, you don't need to
carry her off the coast to do it. I think
that's where this is going to unfold over the next
twenty four to forty eight hours.
Speaker 1: So John Bolton, who was former National security advisor and
Trump one point zero and then he and Trump got
into it and don't like each other. But he's still
very smart national security strategist, and he's also been a hawk.
He's always been a hawk, especially against Iran. They have
a contract out to kill him. That's how much they
don't like Ron doesn't like him. So it's not a
surprise that he thinks we should go in, guns a blazing.
Speaker 6: Clearing away whatever air defenses Iron may have to safeguard
any planes we're going to be sending in. I would
go after headquarters for the Revolutionary Guard and their besieging militia,
who are really the thugs killing most of the people
in the streets. I'd go after their bases and facilities,
and we'd be very discriminate, and how we tried to
do that. I would go I would go again after
the nuclear program, the ballistic missile production program. I'd go
after the Iranian Navy.
Speaker 1: That's John Boldon, he'd go after, He'd bomb that to smithereens.
He'd turn as the old thing goes, turned it into
an asphalt parking lot. So I was a little surprised
because Admirals Gravinas is a much more thoughtful guy, but
he seems to back up what Bolton's talking about.
Speaker 3: It's a pretty extensive one. And in order to do that,
you'd need a very significant force, and it would be
helpful in that scenario get a US carrier or two
off the coast that would also send a significant signal.
I can't argue with that target set. I'll add to
it a couple of other things we mentioned one a
moment ago is information warfare, figuring out how to get
the video, how to get the numbers of what is
happening out. I think also cyber, using offensive cyber to
go after the capabilities of the Revolutionary Guard, the thugs
on the street, all of that. Those are things you
can do without whistling up the big bombers. But at
the end of the day, the Ayatola is not Nicholas Maduro.
He's not going to go quietly into that good night,
gently that good night. We're going to have to I
think follow Ambassador Bolton's prescription of escalating this. I'm sure
all of those options are under discussion in the White
House right now.
Speaker 1: However, on the other side of this conversation, Adam Smith
is the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, number
two guy on the committee. He's a Democrat, he represents
part of Seattle. He doesn't want anything to do with
war and Iran.
Speaker 7: I don't think we should get involved militarily. I think
engaging regime change, dragging ourselves into a war in the
Middle East, another war in the Middle East is incredibly
dangerous and expense that the US shouldn't engage in, and
an enormous risk with as I said, uncertain outcomes.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is dangerous, it is expensive, and there are
uncertain outcomes, but that's classic left thinking. Tim Sheehy, who's
a Senator from Montana, former Navy seal, has a different view.
Speaker 8: Well, whether we like it or not. Iran's been at
war with US for forty seven years. They've been hunting down, murdering, torturing,
and slaughtering Americans all over the world, from the nineteen
eighty three Bay of Barracks bombing, through our wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan to of course, how this regime started.
Let's not forget how the Eyetos regimes started by taking
our embassy hostage and holding hundreds of Americans hostage for
a year and a half. So this regime's literal foreign policy.
It is death to America, they chanted every day, and
they back up those chants with actions by actually killing
Americans and fueling global terror networks. They're the largest state
sponsor of terror in the world.
Speaker 3: After think of the threat about towards President from.
Speaker 8: That's nothing new that they've been threatening to kill our
leaders again for years. So the fact that the people
of Iran are now taking to the streets an overwhelming
display that they are ready for this regime to go away.
It's not our job to go and conduct change, but
we should help these people take out the trash. And
I think I fully support the president's action as he
decides to get involved and help tip the scales here.
It's high time we finally get rid of this murder's regime.
We've been placating them for far too long. You're like
a hobo on LSD with a knife in the street
and everyone stands back, not wanting to touch them. The
reality is they're trying to kill us every day. It's
about time we knock this guy out. And I hope
the people have rank at the full support they need.
One more from the military. General Philip Breedlove, four star
retired Air Force general. He served in a lot of
air battles and his view on going to war with Iran, well,
let's check in with them.
Speaker 9: I don't think that we have missed the window, and
I guess I wouldn't use the strike language that you did.
That there was a clear window. We can affect what's
going on in Iran, but there are limitations to what
we can do. I'm really happy today to hear that
the UN is finally taking this up. I've said several
times that this is a world's problem. What's going on
with the people of Iran. It's not just a US problem.
Speaker 1: So last night the Foreign Minister of Iran was on
Fox talking to bred Behar and said, it's Israel's fault.
Israel is the one who's in there shooting at all
these people, these Iranian citizens. It's not Iran doing it,
it's Israel, and nobody believes it.
Speaker 9: The Foreign Minister, of course, is putting up a brave face.
The people that understand the most about the success of
that mission was the military of Iran and of the regime,
because they were dealt a severe blow. And in fact,
we could have the coalition, the Israelis, the United States
and others could have continued to eliminate the military capability
of Iran, but came to a decision that it was
time to stop. And frankly, that's where they sit today.
The Spickett could be turned on again if Iran breaks
the promises that it's made to the world. And apparently
the promise is our president has heard about. They have
stopped this horrific action.
Speaker 1: So we'll see where this goes. But just because the
President all of a sudden did a one to eighty
in the Oval office last night and said no, they
said they're not killing anybody in the hangings have stopped.
I don't know if anybody who believed it. I'm not sure.
In fact, I've doubt that the president believed it. And
he's lack a dog that doesn't bark. You got to
be careful. I don't know what he's going to do,
but it would not surprise me if there is some
sort of military action involving the leadership of Iran. So
these are serious topics. I got one more. I don't
have anybody wait in on this, but I was. It's
kind of sad in a way, but I'm not surprised.
Sachs Fifth Avenue has filed for bankruptcy. Yes, and you go,
how could Sacks Fifth Avenue? They were like the kingpin
of luxury retail. It's it's sad, but they have gone
out there there well, they're still open, but they have
collapsed while the rest of luxury retail is growing. They
also made a huge mistake a year ago. They went
out and bought Neiman Marcus for a couple of billion dollars,
another luxury retailer that was not getting anybody coming through
their door. And they also own Bergdorf Goodman. So even
though the higher income people are the ones that are
keeping the economy moving and it's growing because of them,
thank you, but not Sacks, not Bergdorf, not Nemon Marcus.
So the three of them are all under the umbrella
of Sacks are all in bankruptcy. This one, I don't know,
probably shouldn't chuckle about it. But did you hear about
the Ford Motor Company employee who got in trouble? Yesterday?
The President was in Detroit. He went to one of
their factories where they make I believe, the F one
fifty pickup truck, and so he's being given a tour
around the plant and apparently somebody yelled at him pedophile protector,
that's according to TMZ, and it caught the President's ear.
He was obviously a reference to Jeffrey Epstein and the
Epstein story. Like I said, where did that go? It's
still out there. But in any case, the President responded
by mouthing back FU and then flipped the middle finger
to the guy. Yes, he gave him, the president, this
guy the finger. Yes, that is so Trump. So what
happened was he got in trouble. Detroit Free Press is
reporting that the guy that did all of this, what's
his name, I'll give you his name here, TJ. Sabula.
So TJ. The managers called him in and said, TJ.
You are suspended. Now we don't know for how long,
but he has been suspended for doing that. You're not
supposed to do that sort of thing. He's a married
father of two, he's a member of the United Auto Workers.
And so what happened and is once people found out
that he was suspended, somebody started a go Fundme site
for him. An ass of last night, they had raised
eight hundred and ten thousand, seven hundred and sixty five dollars.
That was asked of seven thirty last night. The go
fund me people confirmed that yep, it's legitimate, and the
money has come in is going to be paid to him.
Apparently he said, we greatly appreciate the outpouring of support.
I'll bet he does.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: I don't know how long it's going to be suspended,
but he just picked up a paycheck for over eight
hundred thousand dollars all over yelling at the president. So
then also we've got the AG Secretary, Brooke Rollins. She
was talking about how food they're trying so hard to
make it sound like food is affordable. I don't care
what you say. Food is not. The ass everything's affordable. Well,
so she did this little summary, I'll play it for you,
and she's getting a lot of mockery today.
Speaker 10: I think the question you're asking, and it's a really
important one, is while we're asking Americans to reconsider what
they're eating, are we actually asking Americans, especially those who
are living on the margins, are we asking them to
spend more on their diet? And the answer to that
is no. We've run over one thousand simulations. It can
cost around three dollars a meal for a piece of chicken,
a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing.
And so there is a way to do this that
actually will save the average American consumer money.
Speaker 1: So the people that don't like her came out today
and it really was they ran over a thousand and simulations.
I don't know this. It does sound like the Biden
administration about we've looked at the statistics, what's the matter
with you? Of course, everything's avertable and and so the
mockery is, you can get for the thousand simulations, you
can get for three dollars one piece of chicken, one broccoli,
and one corn tortilla and let them eat cake. It
really was not a very smart thing to do. Doug
Hay was talking about it today, said it's the right,
it's the right, the right topic and Brooke Rawlins is
a pretty good egg Secretary, but it wasn't the way
to No, you can have one piece of chicken, one
piece of broccoli, and one cord tortilla, and of course
they started comparing that to whatever rich people would be eating.
And finally to to wrap this up on a on
another little smirky story, there's there's a doctor ob GYN
doctor that was testifying before the Senate yesterday. Her name
is doctor Nisha Verma and she is a senior advisor
to physicians for Reproductive Health and she was in testifying
on some matter. I don't know what it was, but
Senator Ashley Moody, yes, the female senator from Florida, asked
her about can a man get pregnant? And she totally
dodged it. So the next senator to ask questions was
Josh Holly, the Republican from Missouri. He asked her eleven
times can a man get pregnant? And she said, I
hesitated because I wasn't sure where the conversation was going
or what the goal was here is doctor Verma.
Speaker 4: Here we go based on the science, can then get pregnant?
Speaker 2: That's a yes or no question?
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 4: I think I think you're trying to reduce the complexity
of a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm trying to get it's not complex. No,
it's not complex. But this is where we are, and
this is where we live, and this is this is
a practicing physician, she's an obgyn and she could not
answer the question about can a man get prankenant? So
I thought that would maybe kind of kind of a
smirky little smile on my face at least. Wellspry today.
Well we went down yesterday, so what about today? We
turned things around? The Dow Jones Industrials finished up two
hundred and ninety two, the Dow at forty nine thousand
and four, forty two s and p up seventeen, Nazdak
up fifty eight. Gold fell fifteen dollars down to forty
six point twenty oil after climbing for the last few days,
down almost three dollars down to fifty nine dollars for
one barrel of oil. So thank you for coming by today,
Thank you for stopping by this podcast. We're going to
be back again tomorrow, and I hope you will too.
We'll see you there then