Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: A M.
Speaker 2: Six forty, The Gary and Shannon Show on demand on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. If you're working today, I think it's
Speaker 2: President's Day. I think there's a holiday for some people.
Speaker 2: So if you're working today but you're still listening, thanks,
Speaker 2: thanks for making the effort to.
Speaker 1: Get out here for us.
Speaker 2: A lot going on today, Shannon's out. We are going
Speaker 2: to talk a lot about what's going on with Russia
Speaker 2: and Ukraine and these ongoing or beginning i should say,
Speaker 2: peace negotiations that are going to happen in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: That'll be here in a few minutes. We got great
Speaker 2: weather for the rest of this week. And guess what,
Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, Baseball comes back this week.
Speaker 1: That is a glorious thing.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Cubs and the Dodgers will play the
Speaker 2: first spring training game on Thursday. Of course, those two
Speaker 2: teams get to start the season a little early with
Speaker 2: the series in Japan in the middle of March, so
Speaker 2: they get a head start on some of those things.
Speaker 2: So that's all good. We'll do tape Monday coming up
Speaker 2: late in the show. Some of the world of music news.
Speaker 2: Part of it was the SNL fiftieth anniversary from last night,
Speaker 2: three hours worth.
Speaker 1: Of nice nostalgia.
Speaker 2: There were a couple hiccups along the way, because Saturday
Speaker 2: Night Live can't do one entire show and have it
Speaker 2: be great, So there were a couple of hiccups, but
Speaker 2: it was a good show and if you were a
Speaker 2: fan of Saturday Night Live, even if you were a fan,
Speaker 2: at times they hit all the right spots, and they
Speaker 2: hit all the right notes and some of that. So
Speaker 2: Shannon would ask me what I did I should say?
Speaker 2: If she were here today, she would ask me, how
Speaker 2: it went this weekend?
Speaker 1: How did it go this weekend? It went? It went well.
Speaker 2: For those of you who don't know, I buried my
Speaker 2: parents this weekend and Mom died in October of twenty two.
Speaker 2: Dad died in December of twenty three. Listen, we're not
Speaker 2: on a tight schedule my family. But they were both
Speaker 2: cremated if anybody was curious, because people are weird, and
Speaker 2: we finally found the right time. It worked out for
Speaker 2: everybody in the family, worked out for a couple of
Speaker 2: sisters and aunts and uncles and the close friends that
Speaker 2: could make it all showed up to this tiny little
Speaker 2: cemetery in central California where literally from their gravesite you
Speaker 2: can see their house across the river. I mean, it
Speaker 2: was a great setting, beautiful setting. The weather turned out
Speaker 2: to be spectacular on Saturday, a little cloud cover, but
Speaker 2: it was just sixty two degrees or whatever it was
Speaker 2: and warm. And the thing about burying your parents, both
Speaker 2: of them, is that you enter this weird club. And
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of time to process it. This
Speaker 2: isn't a therapy session, trust me, but there are things
Speaker 2: that change in your life, specifically.
Speaker 1: When you bury your parents like that.
Speaker 2: And there was a very weird feeling yesterday driving home
Speaker 2: that it was sort of the end of this era,
Speaker 2: the end of the closure. And like I said, I mean,
Speaker 2: this all started when Mom got sick in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: and then she passed away, and then Dad, by himself,
Speaker 2: lived a little more than a year after that, and
Speaker 2: we as myself and my two sisters have learned to
Speaker 2: deal with life without parents, which is weird. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot of material possessions for us to go through.
Speaker 2: I mean, they were kind of horder I like to
Speaker 2: say collectors. They were collectors of many, many things, so
Speaker 2: that meant that the cleanup was long and will continue.
Speaker 2: I mean, we have filled dumpsters with stuff that really
Speaker 2: would have no value to anybody outside of the family.
Speaker 2: And even in the family, we were like, what are
Speaker 2: we going to do with all this stuff? But in
Speaker 2: the conversations that we had on Saturday after we do
Speaker 2: a little graveside service. We have aunts and uncles and
Speaker 2: family and friends and a couple of close neighbors that
Speaker 2: had come over to my parents' house and just did
Speaker 2: this simple buffet style dinner thing. And it was more
Speaker 2: about just telling the stories, and there were a few
Speaker 2: things that resonated with a lot of people. Everybody had
Speaker 2: stories about my parents, which was nice. Everybody could tell
Speaker 2: happy things about it or funny things that we didn't
Speaker 2: know about, and I've shared a lot of the stories
Speaker 2: on the air about probably for well over a decade.
Speaker 2: My parents slept outside their marital bed, as my wife
Speaker 2: likes to say, was out on the back porch. Even
Speaker 2: in the wintertime, they would move it under an awning
Speaker 2: so that it wouldn't get rained on, and when the
Speaker 2: temperature dipped down into the teens in some nights, they
Speaker 2: would turn on an electric blanket to stay warm. But
Speaker 2: that's that's what they did. They slept outside. And there
Speaker 2: were stories about Dad not having a lot of words.
Speaker 2: He never was a big speaker, but when he did
Speaker 2: he was like a sniper sometimes with his sense of humor.
Speaker 2: And my mother had the loudest clap of any of
Speaker 2: the moms at the little.
Speaker 1: League games or.
Speaker 2: When our kids were old enough to grow into sports,
Speaker 2: Grandma still had the loudest clap in the world. Dad
Speaker 2: had a sneeze that would rattle the windows. For some reason,
Speaker 2: she would always have this very weird and very stern
Speaker 2: business tone when she would be in charge of a meeting.
Speaker 2: Part of that was because she was an elementary school
Speaker 2: teacher for a long time and then became a principal,
Speaker 2: so any meeting she was involved with ran like clockwork.
Speaker 2: And then Dad, every time you would come into the door,
Speaker 2: he would yell out, who's in my house? Like I
Speaker 2: don't know the giant from Jack and the beanstalk, And
Speaker 2: it was those things. Those were the stories that we
Speaker 2: told each other on Saturday to remember because all those
Speaker 2: material things that we have or will find or have
Speaker 2: had or keep close to us, those are nice, but
Speaker 2: it's those other things that are going to be the
Speaker 2: the memories I think that people are going to hold.
Speaker 2: So it was tough. It was it was not easy,
Speaker 2: but like I said, it was their wish. They were
Speaker 2: buried together in a plot that my dad's family has
Speaker 2: had for a ridiculously long amount of time and buried
Speaker 2: next to his parents and my mother's side of the family,
Speaker 2: she has a cemetery that's acrossed the river as well
Speaker 2: and just kind of up over a couple of hills.
Speaker 1: So that's what they wanted. That was their that was
Speaker 1: their final wish.
Speaker 2: So the stories about these two people who obviously had,
Speaker 2: you know, somewhat of an impact on my life, you know,
Speaker 2: bringing me into this world. Those stories will continue. And
Speaker 2: if anybody has lost parents, parent, single parent, both parents,
Speaker 2: whatever it is, I get it. It's an awful club
Speaker 2: to have to belong to. But the meetings can be fun.
Speaker 2: For that club, we can get together and we can
Speaker 2: continue to talk about memories and the fun stuff. So
Speaker 2: that was my weekend. That being said. Mayor Karen Bass
Speaker 2: of La realizes the trip to Africa was a bad idea.
Speaker 2: She talked to the Great Conan Nolan about that we'll
Speaker 2: talk with what we'll hear from that interview coming up
Speaker 2: right at ten o'clock at eleven thirty. Speaking of fires,
Speaker 2: one of the options for people to rebuild is allowing
Speaker 2: contractors to permit their own projects. We'll be talking with
Speaker 2: Dean Sharp about this, you know, the only guy who's
Speaker 2: actually probably built a house on this staff, about what
Speaker 2: that process means and what it could mean going forward.
Speaker 2: Are there dangers to this or is it really something
Speaker 2: that we should brace in terms of trying to get
Speaker 2: Altadna Pacific Palisades back up on its feet and in
Speaker 2: the process of rebuilding those great communities. So that a
Speaker 2: lot of other stuff going on in the show today,
Speaker 2: and you may have heard Handle mention this at the
Speaker 2: end of his show. There's a great article in the
Speaker 2: La Times about bumper stickers. I love bumper stickers, but
Speaker 2: only if they make me laugh. I want to know
Speaker 2: what your favorite bumper sticker is. If you're driving around
Speaker 2: today you happen to see one, hit us up on
Speaker 2: the talkback feature on the iHeart app and tell us
Speaker 2: what it is, or if you have one that you
Speaker 2: think needs to be shouted out. The greatest bumper stickers
Speaker 2: ever and as a caveat, I will allow a license
Speaker 2: plate holder if it's funny. A couple stories that are
Speaker 2: going on today. The storms that rolled through the South
Speaker 2: killed at least eleven people over the weekend. Most of
Speaker 2: the deaths occurred in the state of Kentucky. They said,
Speaker 2: I think it's ten people died in Kentucky, one in
Speaker 2: at outside of Atlanta, severe storms rupted because the ongoing
Speaker 2: flash flood emergencies Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia on Saturday, where
Speaker 2: the places that were hardest hit more than sixty seven
Speaker 2: people still underwiter weather alerts yesterday as this thing moved
Speaker 2: into Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi, and then again this week,
Speaker 2: we're going to see at another polar vortex.
Speaker 1: They said.
Speaker 2: About sixty million people from the Midwest to the northeast
Speaker 2: expected to experience sub zero temperatures. From montanaa Maine, they said,
Speaker 2: as far south as Oklahoma you could see sub zero temperatures. Now,
Speaker 2: we on the other hand, are going to have a
Speaker 2: great it's going to be you know, seventy five degrees
Speaker 2: probably this week. Russia and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are
Speaker 2: going to be holding talks with US officials in Riod,
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia tomorrow. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on
Speaker 2: the ground there, as is Mike Walls, the new National
Speaker 2: Security Advisor, and Middle East Envoy Steve Whitcoff. All of
Speaker 2: these are these guys are supposed to be meeting with
Speaker 2: Russian officials tomorrow. Now they're going to be talking about
Speaker 2: whatever peace process Ukraine and Russia need to go through
Speaker 2: to put an end to this now three year old
Speaker 2: conflict war, whatever term you want to use. Russia invaded
Speaker 2: Ukraine to try to steal its territory. This is not
Speaker 2: as easy as it appears, although it has.
Speaker 1: We are more optimistic now than we ever have been.
Speaker 2: Part of that is because President Trump did what he
Speaker 2: said he was going to do. He didn't end it
Speaker 2: in twenty four hours, which he said he was going
Speaker 2: to do, but he did get on the phone with
Speaker 2: Vladimir Putin and said what do we need to do
Speaker 2: to end this thing? And then he got on the
Speaker 2: phone with Vladimir Zelenski of Ukraine and said what do
Speaker 2: we need to do to end this thing? Ukraine's president,
Speaker 2: by the way, is in the Middle East right now.
Speaker 2: He's in the United Arab Emirates, but he says he's
Speaker 2: not part of these negotiations, at least not yet. Now
Speaker 2: there's a couple things about that specifically. First of all,
Speaker 2: Mark Wayne Mullen is the Center out of Oklahoma and
Speaker 2: he's on the Armed Services Committee. On one of the
Speaker 2: Sunday talk shows, he said, Hey, that's okay right now.
Speaker 2: We need to figure out what each side needs. And
Speaker 2: it's okay that they are separated. That we don't have
Speaker 2: Ukraine and Russia at the talks table together just yet.
Speaker 2: That's putting both people of getting them in separate rooms
Speaker 2: talking about what they will.
Speaker 1: Accept, and then finding out a negotiation path forward before
Speaker 1: you bring them to the table.
Speaker 2: Now, Zelensky has said, to his credit, hey, I'm optimistic
Speaker 2: about this. If Vladimir Putin is in fact ready to talk,
Speaker 2: maybe this thing does work.
Speaker 3: If pushing is ready just for you know, just for
Speaker 3: his father, and if Trump is ready to push him
Speaker 3: to reel piece, I think we can find it some
Speaker 3: two steps of solution.
Speaker 1: So there's more sound. I'll get to this in just
Speaker 1: a second.
Speaker 2: But there are a couple of things to remember about
Speaker 2: how this peace process would go. We the United States
Speaker 2: obviously have a huge interest in what goes on in Ukraine,
Speaker 2: not just because of sort of the footprint that it
Speaker 2: gives us a strong ally in that part of the world.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of stuff in the ground that we
Speaker 2: could use. Now one of the sticking points, it appears,
Speaker 2: is going to be whether or not the United States
Speaker 2: gets a bunch of critical minerals in exchange for the
Speaker 2: continued aid that we would provide to Ukraine. No boots
Speaker 2: on the ground, that doesn't appear to be one of
Speaker 2: the options, and at least not American boots on the
Speaker 2: ground as any sort of peacekeeping force, but we would
Speaker 2: then bankroll a lot of the peacekeeping process that would
Speaker 2: happen after some sort of a ceasefire. So that's one
Speaker 2: of the issues that's up. The other one is the
Speaker 2: territory itself. Where does Ukraine end and Russia begin. Since
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, Russia came in and they took Crimea. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, they came in and took sections of
Speaker 2: the eastern and northern parts of Ukraine and continue to
Speaker 2: occupy them right now. Ukraine meanwhile, has gone into the
Speaker 2: cursed region of Russia and says this is going to
Speaker 2: be ours. We need to figure out or they need
Speaker 2: to figure out, what is the footprint of both of
Speaker 2: those countries. And Russia right now occupies about a fifth,
Speaker 2: about twenty percent of Ukraine and claims that it's always
Speaker 2: been Russian territory and claims that it's run by Nazis
Speaker 2: and claims that the wolf whatever. But they currently occupy
Speaker 2: twenty percent of Ukraine. Is Ukraine willing to give up
Speaker 2: that twenty percent, most of it again in the east
Speaker 2: and the north, in order to have some sort of
Speaker 2: a lasting peace and Russia willing to give up things
Speaker 2: like Crimea in order to get that eastern section and
Speaker 2: have some sort of lasting piece. The lasting piece, then,
Speaker 2: of course, comes with peacekeeping. Once we get to the
Speaker 2: ceasefire place, at least the negotiations. There is a foot
Speaker 2: on the gas pedal for Russia, and there is some
Speaker 2: concern that you're going to see that in the next
Speaker 2: couple of days and weeks. Major Mike Lyons told CNN today,
Speaker 2: while we're doing this process, it's very likely that Russia
Speaker 2: tries to grab even more territory so that their negotiating
Speaker 2: position is even better once they actually sit down across
Speaker 2: the table from Ukraine.
Speaker 4: It's the rates against time as Russia tries to gain
Speaker 4: more space. It's all about leverage from their perspective as
Speaker 4: they look to control the twenty percent of the LAMB
Speaker 4: mess that they've had really since twenty fourteen. And I
Speaker 4: wouldn't be surprised if you saw offensive operations in from
Speaker 4: Russia on their aviation assets that land masks the north
Speaker 4: that Ukraine still hangs onto, especially in the south. The
Speaker 4: more that they can get until they finally have to
Speaker 4: say ceasefire and stop will give them much more leverage
Speaker 4: when that time finally comes.
Speaker 2: Okay, So one that time finally comes and there is
Speaker 2: a ceasefire, who protects that ceasefire? Who ensures that it
Speaker 2: is in place? Is it a group of European nations
Speaker 2: or is it specifically NATO? Shannon's out today. California's insurance Commissioner,
Speaker 2: Ricardo Lara, has rejected State Farm's request for an emergency
Speaker 2: rate increase, at least so far. He's been urging insurance
Speaker 2: companies to write policies in the state again despite the
Speaker 2: increasing wildfire risk. He said in a letter to State Farm,
Speaker 2: he's going to need more information before he can approve
Speaker 2: the twenty two percent rate increase. So he's asked them
Speaker 2: to show up next week. I believe it is to
Speaker 2: the insurance Department's office to answer questions and what he
Speaker 2: referred to as a as an informal conference of some kind.
Speaker 2: Pope francis battling a complex and clinical medical condition. The
Speaker 2: Vatican says that he was admitted to the hospital after
Speaker 2: suffering from a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection. It will require
Speaker 2: extensive drug therapy and an appropriate hospital stay. We've been
Speaker 2: talking about what's going on with the push now by
Speaker 2: the Trump administration to begin some sort of talks between
Speaker 2: Russia and Ukraine to put an end to this conflict
Speaker 2: that began in February of twenty twenty two when Russia
Speaker 2: invaded Ukraine. Joining us talk more about this is Brett Samuels,
Speaker 2: one of the reporters for The Hill who has written
Speaker 2: about this and about some of the European and angles
Speaker 2: to all of this.
Speaker 1: Brett, thanks for taking time for us today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: One of the issues that has cropped up is whether
Speaker 2: or not Ukraine would be allowed membership into NATO, and
Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to determine what the Trump administration
Speaker 2: feels about that. I mean, all indications are that that
Speaker 2: would not be part of the negotiations. But then JD Vance,
Speaker 2: the Vice President, said, it's clear when my boss goes
Speaker 2: to the negotiating table, everything's on the table. So what
Speaker 2: is the likelihood that Ukraine joins NATO as part of
Speaker 2: this ceasefire?
Speaker 5: Yeah, certainly, to your point, some sort of mixed signals
Speaker 5: out of the gates from the Trump administration last week.
Speaker 5: But I think, you know, the takeaway as far as
Speaker 5: NATO membership goes, I think is that the Trump administration,
Speaker 5: trump officials view it as unlikely at best. I think
Speaker 5: that Ukraine, you know, will end up as a member
Speaker 5: of NATO, you know, certainly as they go to the
Speaker 5: negotiating table here. You know, obviously we heard pet Hegsas,
Speaker 5: who's the Defense secretary kind of you know, came out
Speaker 5: and said that it's unrealistic for you crane to expect
Speaker 5: to join NATO. You know, he says, some criticism from
Speaker 5: folks who suggested that that was essentially giving away bargaining
Speaker 5: ships before they even went to the bargaining table. As
Speaker 5: you mentioned, Jadie Vance, the Vice President, try to kind
Speaker 5: of walk that back. But we've heard Trump himself sort
Speaker 5: of say that he's skeptical of Ukraine joining NATO, has suggested,
Speaker 5: you know, echoing Russia essentially, that maybe Ukraine wanting to
Speaker 5: join NATO was a reason for Russia invading in the
Speaker 5: first place. So, you know, all indications right now from
Speaker 5: the Trump administration are that that Ukraine joining NATO certainly
Speaker 5: seems unlikely. The question is whether they fully take it
Speaker 5: off the table before these negotiations begin in earnest.
Speaker 2: At that Munich Security conference over the weekend, other leaders
Speaker 2: from places like Iceland, like Great Britain expressed at least
Speaker 2: some consternation that they're not involved in these talks despite
Speaker 2: their geographic locations. Does that impact does that does that
Speaker 2: complaint move the Trump administration at all to include them
Speaker 2: in these talks?
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think it's an interesting point you bring up, because,
Speaker 5: you know, one of the sort of core arguments that
Speaker 5: Trump and his team have made is this idea that
Speaker 5: because Europe closer to the conflict, Europe should have a
Speaker 5: greater responsibility or a greater role in supporting Ukraine. But
Speaker 5: at the same time, as you mentioned, you know, there's
Speaker 5: this question of whether Ukraine or Europe as a whole
Speaker 5: will really have a seat at the negotiating table here.
Speaker 5: So you know, certainly, I think, you know, we've again
Speaker 5: gotten sort of mixed signals, whereas some Trump administration officials
Speaker 5: have said, you know that Ukraine will have a say
Speaker 5: in negotiations here, but at least initially, the talks appear
Speaker 5: in Saudi Arabia happening this week, appear to just be
Speaker 5: between the Trump administration and Russian officials. So, you know, Europe,
Speaker 5: I think is sort of preparing for the potential that
Speaker 5: you know, they may have to sort of move forward
Speaker 5: here without US support for Ukraine or without US support
Speaker 5: for sort of Europe's role and back in Ukraine. Certainly,
Speaker 5: I think there the folks in Europe are preparing for that,
Speaker 5: for that reality and then contingency.
Speaker 2: The other thing is that Zelensky is in the Middle East.
Speaker 2: I think he is supposed to arrive in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,
Speaker 2: but he also is not a part of these talks.
Speaker 2: This is just as of right now, Russian officials and
Speaker 2: American officials, and I to the layman, it almost looks
Speaker 2: like they being Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't have a lot of
Speaker 2: say in what's going on or is it just this
Speaker 2: is step one? Step two would be to meet with Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Is there a way to figure that out?
Speaker 5: I think certainly what you're getting at is I think
Speaker 5: one of the big concerns from uh, you know, from Europe,
Speaker 5: from Ukraine, certainly from Democrats this is this is maybe
Speaker 5: the biggest shift I think from what we saw for
Speaker 5: three years from the Biden administration was this idea of
Speaker 5: you know nothing about Ukraine, with how Ukraine, that everything
Speaker 5: was in lockstep with European allies. You know, every aid
Speaker 5: package or announcement about Ukraine was announced sort of in
Speaker 5: unison with with folks in Europe. And now with Trump,
Speaker 5: it's sort of this shift where you know, he spoke
Speaker 5: to Putin's and then he spoke to Zelenski on the phone.
Speaker 5: You know, they're meeting with Russian officials, and then they'll
Speaker 5: sort of loop in Ukrainian officials. I think there is
Speaker 5: a sort of concern, certainly from Zelenskin from Ukraine that
Speaker 5: they're sort of being uh maybe boxed out a bit
Speaker 5: here and that they're sort of going to be you know,
Speaker 5: brought in after the fact, just sign off on whatever
Speaker 5: may be negotiated. Certainly, I think, you know, there'll be
Speaker 5: public pressure from Ukraine and from Europe for for Ukraine
Speaker 5: to have a greater say and a greater seat at
Speaker 5: the table. So we'll see certainly if that happens moving forward,
Speaker 5: but it does seem initially for these these initial talks
Speaker 5: tomorrow that that it's going to be Russian in the US,
Speaker 5: and then we'll see kind of where Ukraine stands and
Speaker 5: how much how much influence they have moving forward after that.
Speaker 2: And do European countries, especially those that you know currently
Speaker 2: border Ukraine, whether it's Romania, Poland, do they have the
Speaker 2: mill terry's strength to provide a peacekeeping force in the
Speaker 2: event that it's as in the event that that is
Speaker 2: part of a ceasefire deal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you know, that's that's a good point
Speaker 5: you bring up, because I think that is something that
Speaker 5: has sort of been discussed among various European leaders, is
Speaker 5: this idea of how do they enforce in eventual peace
Speaker 5: agreement or ceasefire agreement. And we've we've seen you know,
Speaker 5: the Prime Minister of Britain's here Starmer, actually came out
Speaker 5: just recently and said, you know, that the British troops
Speaker 5: could could be used on the ground to sort of
Speaker 5: enforce a peace deal. Dealers can talk obviously that if
Speaker 5: Russia were to you know, go back on a peace
Speaker 5: deal or reinvade Ukraine, that you know, whether that would
Speaker 5: trigger some kind of NATO response, even though they're not
Speaker 5: a member of NATO. That's been sort of floated by
Speaker 5: Lindsay Graham the Center from from South Carolina, for example.
Speaker 5: So certainly, you know, I think that is the question
Speaker 5: because those those neighboring nations, especially those Baltic states obviously smaller,
Speaker 5: smaller militaries. That is a big question I think looming
Speaker 5: over this is how will a piece agreement be enforced
Speaker 5: to ensure that something like this doesn't just happen again,
Speaker 5: you know, in a decade.
Speaker 1: Brett, great stuff, Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks having me on.
Speaker 2: Brett Samuels from the Hill and you can check out
Speaker 2: his stuff at the Hill dot com. European leaders, meanwhile,
Speaker 2: are meeting in Paris for emergency talks on how to
Speaker 2: react to our diplomatic pushes towards Ukraine. Just before the meeting,
Speaker 2: the French President of Manuel Macron spoke with Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: but Macrone's office didn't disclose much about what was said
Speaker 2: in that twenty minute conversation that took place.
Speaker 1: There's also.
Speaker 2: There's a woman who claims that she's given birth to
Speaker 2: Elon Musk's baby. This would be baby number thirteen, twenty
Speaker 2: six year old woman. She's what they refer to as
Speaker 2: a conservative influencer. Firebrand made the announcement on Valentine's Day,
Speaker 2: said that her is now five months old. So award
Speaker 2: season full swing as a preview for the upcoming Academy Awards,
Speaker 2: the British Academy Awards the BAFTA Awards have been handed out.
Speaker 2: Conclave won Best Picture Adrian Brody star The Brutalist, one
Speaker 2: Best Actor Brady Corbett one Best Director for The Brutalist,
Speaker 2: and then Mickey Sorry Mikey Madison, star of Honora, won
Speaker 2: the Best Actress.
Speaker 1: One of the big.
Speaker 2: Issues that's going on, obviously with the Department of Government
Speaker 2: efficiency and Elon Musk and Donald Trump, is there are
Speaker 2: hundreds and thousands of federal employees who if they have
Speaker 2: not taken the retirement they will be fired or they
Speaker 2: have been fired, and in one case, termination letters were
Speaker 2: sent to employees across the federal government, specifically the National
Speaker 2: Nuclear Safety Administration, which maintains and refurbishes and keeps safe
Speaker 2: our nuclear warheads, about three thousand of them. The agency
Speaker 2: is actually within the Department of Energy, it's not the
Speaker 2: Defense Department. In twenty seventeen, after accepting an offer to
Speaker 2: serve as the Energy Secretary, then Rick Perry was bewildered
Speaker 2: that the job actually included maintaining and producing the nuclear weapons.
Speaker 2: So on Thursday, about three hundred of the probationary employees
Speaker 2: that the Nuclear Security Agency were fired. A spokesman for
Speaker 2: Energy Department didn't say that that was how many of
Speaker 2: The spokesman for Energy said it was fewer than fifty
Speaker 2: people that had been fired. Most of them had administrative
Speaker 2: roles or clerical roles. On Friday night, at least some
Speaker 2: of those between fifty and three hundred people were told
Speaker 2: to come back to their jobs. NBC reported that the
Speaker 2: agency was trying to reach out to some of the
Speaker 2: employees that it wanted to reinstate. They were unable to
Speaker 2: find contact information for those workers after they were shut
Speaker 2: off from their federal government email accounts, so looking for
Speaker 2: some clarification on that if in fact it was a
Speaker 2: Department of Government efficiency move. The Conservative majority that is
Speaker 2: on the Supreme Court right now could be receptive to
Speaker 2: the argument that a president has unlimited power to remove
Speaker 2: leaders of what would be independent agencies. This is going
Speaker 2: to be the first real case to go to the
Speaker 2: Supreme Court since Donald Trump took office a month ago.
Speaker 2: The administration's emergency application yesterday was filed to ask the
Speaker 2: court to vacate a federal judge's temporary restraining order that
Speaker 2: reinstated Hampton Dellinger. Hampton Dellinger was Slash is Slash was
Speaker 2: or will soon be not the head of the Office
Speaker 2: of Special Counsel, and he leads this agency, this independent
Speaker 2: agency that's charged with safeguarding government whistleblowers and then enforcing
Speaker 2: some of the ethics laws that are on the book.
Speaker 2: It is not related to special counsel appointed by the
Speaker 2: Department of Justice, like Jack Smith. Not related to that
Speaker 2: sort of thing, although it does have the similar name.
Speaker 2: According to the administration, Trump's lawyer said, this court should
Speaker 2: not allow lower courts to seize executive power by dictating
Speaker 2: to the president how long he must continue employing an
Speaker 2: agency head against his will. Now, the whole reason that
Speaker 2: Dellinger filed a lawsuit. Is it says that the Special Council,
Speaker 2: again part of the Office of Special Counsel, can be
Speaker 2: removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty,
Speaker 2: or malfeasance in office. When he was fired back on
Speaker 2: February seventh, it was a one sentence email that fired him,
Speaker 2: and it didn't give any reason for the termination. It
Speaker 2: just said pack your s and go now. He sued.
Speaker 2: A district court judge in d c. Entered a temporary
Speaker 2: restraining order that allowed him to keep his job for
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks while she was considering whether or
Speaker 2: not to enter a preliminary injunction the temporary restraining order.
Speaker 1: Usually you don't get to appeal that.
Speaker 2: But the judge said that the statute that protects that guy,
Speaker 2: that protects the Special Council's office, expresses the clear intent
Speaker 2: by Congress to ensure the independence of the Special Council
Speaker 2: and to insulate his work from being buffeted by the
Speaker 2: wins of political change. And the government's only response to
Speaker 2: this inarguable reading of the text is that the statute
Speaker 2: would be unconstitutional. Now, the judge on Saturday, a three
Speaker 2: three judge panel on Saturday rejected the government's emergency motion
Speaker 2: for a stay, and that's why the Trump administration and
Speaker 2: his lawyers decided to go straight to the Supreme Court
Speaker 2: and said, it's going to go to you eventually. Why
Speaker 2: don't we put our foot on the gas and see
Speaker 2: if we can get a decision on this quicker. So
Speaker 2: one of thes of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was
Speaker 2: she wasn't even in town on January seventh when our
Speaker 2: massive fires started, the one in the palis As which
Speaker 2: would be her jurisdiction, and the one in Altadena, which
Speaker 2: was the county's jurisdiction. That she knew there was going
Speaker 2: to be a very dangerous windstorm coming, and she still
Speaker 2: left the country. She now admits that was a complete mistake.
Speaker 2: We'll actually hear it from her own words in an
Speaker 2: interview she did with Conan Nolan from ABC four. Coming
Speaker 2: up in just a minute, Gary and Shannon will continue.
Speaker 2: You miss any part of the show, I always go
Speaker 2: back and check out the podcast All You Go To Go,
Speaker 2: All You Gotta Go to All. You'd just go to
Speaker 2: KFIAM six forty dot com, slash Gary and Shannon or
Speaker 2: anywhere you find your favorite podcast type in Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 1: We'll be back right after this. You've been listening to
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