Jack - The Mueller Memos (ft. interview with David Shulkin)
Episode Date: November 4, 2019On today's Mueller She Wrote episode, we discuss the first underlying evidence from the Mueller investigation thanks to a FOIA lawsuit by BuzzFeed and we go over what’s in those 302s. Today's interv...iew is with the former secretary of VA, David Shulkin and his new book “It shouldn’t be this hard to serve your country.”. Support our show at Patreon.com/muellershewrote
Transcript
Discussion (0)
They might be giants that have been on the road for too long.
Too long.
And they might be giants aren't even sorry.
Not even sorry.
And audiences like the shows too much, too much.
And now they might be giants that are playing their breakthrough album,
all of it.
And they still have time for other songs.
They're fooling around.
Who can stop?
They might be giants and their liberal rocket gender.
Who?
No one.
Disadvantaged pay for with somebody else's money.
Thanks to Rothy's for supporting Mueller, she wrote,
Rothy's are the everyday flats for life on the go.
They're stylish and versatile, and they
go with everything from yoga pants to dresses and skirts.
Rothy's always comes with free shipping and free returns
and exchanges.
Go get yourself a pair today with free shipping at
rothy's.com promo code AG.
And thanks to Everlane for supporting Mueller, she wrote,
would you buy a t-shirt for $50 if you knew it only cost $7 to make?
We wouldn't either.
With Everlane, you never overpay for quality clothes.
And right now, you can check out our personalized collection
at Everlane.com slash AG.
Plus, you'll get free shipping on your first order.
Thanks to Best Fiends for supporting Mullahishy Road.
Best Fiends is a unique and exciting puzzle experience
unlike other puzzle games out there.
Best Fiends updates the game monthly with new levels and events
so it never gets old.
Download free on the Apple Store or on Google Play. unique and exciting puzzle experience unlike other puzzle games out there. Best fiends updates the game monthly with new levels and events so it never gets
old. Download free on the Apple Store or on Google Play. And finally thanks to
Honey for supporting Mollishy Road. Giving holiday gifts is great, overspending is
definitely not. Why spend more than you have to? Honey makes finding the lowest
price easy. Honey finds the best deals online, it's free and easy to use, shop with
confidence at join honey dot com slash AG. This is Seth Abramson. I'm the author of proof of collusion and you're listening to Muller. She wrote.
So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs.
That's what he said. That's what I said.
That's obviously what our position is.
I'm not aware of any of those activities.
I have been called a surrogate at a time or two
in that campaign, and I didn't have,
and I have communications with the Russians.
What do I have to get involved with Putin
for having nothing to do with Putin?
I've never spoken to him.
I don't know anything about a mother
than he will respect me.
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.
So, it is political. You're a communist!
No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring.
Like all members of the oldest professional capitalist. P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P- suit by BuzzFeed. So we'll go over what's in those 302s and hot notes. And for the interview
today, we have former secretary of VA veterans affairs, Obama holdover, and the only Trump cabinet
nominee to be confirmed 100 to zero in the Senate. And his new book, it shouldn't be this
hard to serve your country is out. And it's very relevant. So stick around for that interview.
It's really, really great. How are you guys? Good. Yeah, good. Yeah, the weeny was good. Yeah. Yes. What did you do?
Lurked. Lurked. Yes, me and Ryan drove around in the car.
Actually, mostly around your neighborhood, which is creepy.
Because you have a lot of really cool decorated houses around here.
Yeah, we wanted to get in the spirit. So we just drove around and looked at cool houses.
I wanted around my other turn. It was really cute too.
Maryland, St. N. Diego, as a whole. They go nuts. There was a performance. There It was really cute too. Maryland, St.
San Diego as a whole, like they go nuts.
There was like a performance,
there was like a stage in front of someone's house.
Yeah, totally. I love it. People go all out.
Fancy. Yeah. We need to have fun.
Yes. We do.
We definitely do. It's a society.
Especially now. Yeah.
Let's see. So when we got Boston coming up this week,
November 7th. This Thursday. Yeah. And the meet and greet, by the way, for the VIP meet and greet at the venue is that night at 5 p.m.
5 to 6 p.m. It's a little earlier than normal meet and greet. So I wanted to tell you about that. And then we have a second meet and greet the next day.
The next day. Yeah. And we'll put it in the new well actually we'll tweet it out.
We've shared it a few different times, but we'll tweet it out from Mellyshiro,
and we'll pin that tweet so that if you are looking to meet us
on this coming Friday, you can find that tweet pinned
to the Mellyshiro feed.
And that's from five to seven.
Five to seven on Friday.
And tickets are still available.
They're still available.
Oh, cool.
So we'll tweet it out.
Reserve venue VIP meet and greet.
Sold out.
Yes.
Cool.
It has been for a while, but there are regular tickets available.
Sweet.
Yeah, there's also tickets left.
Mm-hmm.
I think that's it.
Any other interesting announcements that I'm missing?
I don't think so.
Just.
This is our last show date on the books for now.
Yeah.
Yeah, live show.
Yeah, live show.
Mm-hmm.
So, if you're close and you're thinking, maybe they'll come to my city after we might, but we also might not for a little bit.
We'll be doing it as daily beans is probably yeah,
how that's going to go. But also with this all this new muller stuff that's coming out right now.
I don't know, Boller could get an injection and come back from the dead.
And keep touring on this information. And I'm going to get into this later in hot notes, but they have enough information to release on and keep touring on this information.
And I'm going to get into this later in Hot Notes,
but they have enough information to release hundreds
and hundreds of pages once a month for at least the next eight
years.
That's how much that 19 billion documents.
Yeah, it's like an information financing loan situation.
Right.
Pryouts for the rest of your life every month.
Every once in a while. They get that pay. And it's all very relevant and very interesting. situation. It's very out for the rest of your life every month. Every month.
They get that pay.
And it's all very relevant and very interesting.
And a lot of it ties in with what's going on in the current impeachment process with
what's going on with Ukraine.
And we'll get into that in a little bit.
But first, my favorite segment, Corrections.
It's time to say I'm a star. It's time for me to say I'm sorry.
Oh, I made a mistake.
All right, from Haley Bellnap in regards to Friday's daily beans, a person may sue a sitting
president only for past actions, which they took in a personal capacity like Clinton
V. Jones.
A person may sue a presidential administration for its acts as part of an agenda but an
individual may not be held accountable for actions as part of an
administration's agenda like personal liability. So there is a combo case of
environmental shittiness and government accountability that's Julianne
versus the United States in Eugene, Oregon and they have a website as well.
So you can check that out. Cool.
Mario Bryant says the prime rate, we're back on interest rates now,
is the interest rate that commercial banks charge their most credit-worthy customers.
The prime lending rate based on federal funds rate is the overnight rate that banks use
to lend to one another.
Adjustable home mortgage rates often quoted as prime plus a percentage, for example, prime plus three, 300 basis points are 3%. And liboard, London Interbank overnight
rate is used by global banks to loan to each other. All right. New information. Very cool.
Kate, let's see, Forstinson and Martin Main, say on the November 1st, Aley Beans, you mentioned Prince Charles.
As a piercing.
I believe you meant the Prince Albert.
Oh, yes.
As a willy piercing.
Everything we got, by the way,
on the difference between Prince Albert
and it's not a Prince Charles, came from the UK.
Oh, amazing.
Listeners in the UK.
So thank you.
No consensus whether Prince Albert had his bits pierced also could
be one of two royal Albert's. If so, theories are A, the piercing enabled hooking the shlong
to the inside of a trouser to smooth the bulge. Oh God! So thou worshiped. Prince Albert had
a wonky winky and it was an attempt to straighten or see. Our Albert was a bit frisky and risqué
and piercing just for fun.
Oh, this was informative.
Oh my god.
Yeah. You guys seen a Prince Albert piercing?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
When I was like 16 and I was flipping through a book of piercings, what I was going to get
one done.
No, I mean like in real life.
Oh god, no.
Well, no.
These are just very realistic pictures taken with like a Polaroid camera.
That's right.
So you've seen a picture of women, not actually in real life?
I've seen many pictures of them, yes.
So many.
It's like a family photo album they have at this piercing place.
Just a photobacterial thing.
Just a lot of all kinds of piercings,
but there's a section.
That is just...
What about you, AJ?
Yes.
Oh, God, God, God, God.
Okay, and Zach Comans wants us to know,
Newbie's throwing off your blackjack strategy.
That's a myth.
Elliot Jacobson wrote the blackjack zone.
A blackjack player plays for the long run.
Other players will help or hurt you on occasion.
Just calmly stick to the strategy.
Stats play out over a large sample size.
Thousands of hands.
Just you and the dealer.
Card counting will help.
That's a really cool.
I was going to say.
Yeah. I could a really good. I was going to say, yeah,
not like I could do it anyway.
Yeah. Yeah.
Let's see.
He also said, Jacobson was my computer teacher who wrote this book,
anonymously known as the mayor back then.
You entered the zone, the black jack zone.
John Trent and Cindy Baxter says there is indeed a case where children are
sitting in the government for shitty environment.
It's called Juliana versus the United States.
As mentioned in an earlier correction, there is a 60-minute story about it.
Hit me up if you need extra press.
Love John.
All right.
Tom Vogel says working through the Daily Beans 4K to clarify an injunction is a judicial
order to do something other than pay the other party money.
A stay is a pause on any ruling going into effect for a period of time for any reason.
Nice.
Thank you.
Yes, Alex Murdoch, just a comment
on the Canadian election coverage.
I don't remember who was talking about Canada
not having a tea party, probably Amanda,
but we kind of did.
And you may be too young to remember Mandy Preston Manning
and the Reform Party of Canada from 1987 to 2000,
which became the Canadian Reform Alliance Party
or Crap. 1987 to 2000 which became the Canadian Reform Alliance party or crap
Way to pick the acronym
From 2000 to 2003 it was like how the
The committee to re-elect the president was creep. Yeah have some confidence think about it
Have a meeting
And then the Canadian Alliance now, the conservative party.
So there it says that. That's funny. Does crap carry the same weight as it does in the
United States as a word? I think so. Yeah. Okay, just checking. I don't know if it's one
of those things like something different. It's like acceptable to. Quot is like a jerk. Yes, yeah.
Yes.
Franzi Stopl says regarding the daily beans episode
thick, trickle down boys.
Jesus can't get over that name.
It's a huge entertainment media representation
that life insurance won't pay out someone
if they die by suicide.
In most cases, it will pay out as long as the policy has been
in place for two plus years. This prevents people in crisis from scamming insurance companies. I've had
my insurance license for 17 years. This is the first thing I learned that surprised me. Now y'all can
scream at the TV with me. But no, I don't think so because I think I brought up the two years
rule and I think what I wanted them to look into was within the last two years did they take out an insurance policy
on Epstein or or anything like that but
Thank you for bringing that to everyone's attention because I don't think we covered it that rule
Amy Romano you wondered
Allowed where the sperm bonking actually happens
And you said is it in the uterus. Yeah, that was me
happens. Yes.
And you said, is it in the uterus?
Yeah, that was me.
Bomb.
Bomb.
It's actually in the philopean tube.
The philopean tube travels the rest of the way to the uterus and implants on the end of
the metron.
Interesting.
So they're doing it on the go.
Totally can't do it.
I've never had children.
Cruising like broken.
What was that?
I think that crazed people were doing it for a while where they got out of their car
and danced next to it
while it was moving.
Oh, yes, I just saw one of those videos actually now.
That's what this is.
Yeah, yeah, totally.
That is efficient.
The eggs like, come on, I don't got all day, dude.
I'm still doing this shit.
You're gonna have to follow this, egg.
I wasn't gonna say bitch, but, egg.
Julia H said in the Halloween daily beans, A.G. meant some Jack Dorsey Twitter head was right wing, but based on a quick and dirty Wikipedia
search, he listed as a Democrat.
Nice.
I'm not a Twitter user, so I'm not sure if there was more context to this comment, which
I could be unaware.
I don't know.
I didn't remember hearing either way.
I was just believing what you said.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
I think it's a lot of...
I'm not sure if he's a spouse like a lot of right wing
views out me open, but I do know that he's prevented,
or he's allowed a lot of right wing abuse to happen.
And he doesn't de-platform, you know.
Horrible.
Donald Trump, yeah.
So I think that's where a lot of the anger comes from No, we're still not verified
Also, yeah, you can serve it is not verifying that's right to my own bias. They must be must be repudal
Since we don't have a blue check mark. Mm-hmm. Yeah, probably not real. Yep. All right. Well those are corrections
Thank you so much if you have any corrections
Please head to mullershoerope.com and click on contact and then select corrections and build us a complement sandwich. We'll get it
right eventually. And now it's time to hit the news with just the facts.
All right, big news this week is Congress battles the Department of Justice in the courts
to get the underlying Mueller grand jury material. Buzzfeed got a tranche of 302s from the
Mueller investigation. I'll go over those in hot notes. But regarding the House DEMS
lawsuit to get the material filed by the oversight,
nope, the Judicial Committee.
Judge Barrel Howell ruled last week
that the Department of Justice had to hand over
the grand jury materials back to October 30th.
Then the Trump administration filed an appeal
and two motions to stop the materials being handed over
while they wait for the appeal to be heard.
They filed a motion for an emergency stay
with Judge Barrel Howell and a motion to stay with the Appellate Court. Then
the Appellate Court, the next thing to happen in this chronology, the
Appellate Court asked to have until November 5th. That's this Tuesday to
consider the stay. But the next day, Barrel Howell denied her stay, the
one she got, saying that the forepronged test indicated a stay was not
appropriate because first the merits of their case suck second because this is a grand jury material and it will remain secret so it doesn't you know have a reputable harm to the party.
And those are the two critical criteria on how said the weak sauce merits was enough to deny the stay all together but we'll find out if the appellate court will grant the stay, deny it probably this week and how the Trump administration will react.
I imagine if the appellate court denies the stayer,
Trump will petition scotus to stay the decision
until the appeal can be heard.
Though I'm not sure you can skip the appeals court like that,
but he, I don't know.
I don't know, we'll see what happens.
I'm sure he'll try everything.
We'll find out this week.
Stay tuned.
Done, done.
Mm-hmm.
And then from Kyle Cheney's Twitter feed, at KyleDCheney on October 29th, he had some
Flynn updates.
Sydney Powell said in a court filing that Flynn is innocent and the FBI altered interview
documents and the case should be thrown out.
Flynn's Fox News Lawyers are saying he didn't need to rescind his guilty plea, even though
they are contending his innocence because of the deep state
Mueller conspiracy and the fact that it's so egregious, they should just throughout the entire case
dissolve the FBI and lock them all up, including the FBI agents and the federal prosecutors who worked on the case.
They're saying the FBI lied and forced Flynn to admit he lied and that the FBI notes were forgeries to frame him.
So this is the OJ defense all over again. That's what you know, that's what this is. and that the FBI notes were forgeries to frame him.
So this is the OJ defense all over again.
That's what this is.
The FBI responded and the response was part of a court filing
exhibit saying on January 29th, 2018,
the special counsel's office received an email
stating that a member of the media had received information
that redacted name told the office of the inspector general that deputy director Andrew McCabe pressured redacted name told the office of the inspector general that Deputy Director
Andrew McCabe pressured redacted name to change the 302 document of the interview of Michael
Flynn.
After being advised of the identity of the interviewing agent and the nature of the interview, redacted
name provided the following information.
First of all, McCabe did not pressure,
redacted to change the 302 documents of the interview of Flynn.
Number two, no one at the FBI pressured redacted to change the 302.
Redacted did not tell anyone that McCabe or anyone else at the FBI pressured him to change the 302.
Redacted has no information on any pressure to change the 302,
and redacted says all the information in the 302 is accurate.
So, could that be why they reconvene the grand jury?
I don't know.
If they were thinking about inditing the cave on these charges.
But he's not up on these charges.
Oh, or maybe I guess they maybe were investigating that.
Yeah.
But I think they just reconvene the grand jury to indict them for lying.
Right.
And they said no.
Which we still don't know yet.
But yeah, it seems obvious.
Rachel Maddo says this defense is so bonkers
that we should be on Flynn pardon watch.
And I feel like I need a graphic and a noise.
But don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't
Flynn pardon watch.
Just a big light coming from a helicopter and he's going.
Me.
Just not this Hannah helicopter snake.
Me. That was like a UFO.
Yeah, because she says like here's Trump's tweets about Flynn this week.
He said general Michael Flynn's attorney is demanding that charges be immediately dropped
after they found that FBI agents manipulated records against him.
They say James Clapper told a reporter to take a kill shot at Flynn. This has
been a complete setup of Michael Flynn. They exonerated him completely of being an agent
of Russia. Recently, crooked Hillary charged Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein with the same
thing sick. And yet Mr. Comey still runs to the White House on February 14th and conjures
up the obstruction of justice narrative against the president when Flynn had been cleared
of everything long before that
Department of justice is withholding a lot of evidence and information as our clapper and Brennan and all these people who participated in the complete setup of Michael Flynn terrible
Sydney pal, this is a disgrace
Well, then why did you fire him?
Well, if he is such a victim and has never done anything wrong in his whole life, it has to say about Manafort
such a victim and has never done anything wrong in his whole life. It has to say about Manafort.
This is frustrating.
It's so frustrating to me when he actually tweets like that.
And I don't even think that that's him that someone else that has some sort of a
hold on any fact that's stringed together to make a full paragraph.
But what are you going to say?
I was going to say, I know I should probably be following Donald Trump on Twitter,
considering the shows that I help post sometimes, but I don't because I can't.
Yeah, well, you always wind up seeing it anyway,
because there's always first off,
there's one asshole comedian that's in my followers,
that always likes his shit,
so that it always pops up on my newsfeed,
because so it's so like Donald Trump's tweet,
so there's that, but you always wind up seeing it anyway,
it seems like it's like a big stupid one.
Exactly.
I just can't let that ruin my day man.
Yeah, but then when he, sorry, I'm just gonna, I stupid one. Exactly. I just can't let that room in my day, man.
Could have been.
But then when he, sorry, I'm just gonna,
I don't follow him and I have all this information.
Right, yeah, exactly.
Cause you find out when he really goes off the rails.
I don't need the general stuff.
I don't need like the good morning.
I don't need that.
I'm just by the way, I'm sure it's a very good hero.
I love the Photoshop dog.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's, it's,
was this like a nine part rant? Yeah was a thread a three or four part tweet.
Yeah, it doesn't joy thread.
Yeah, and he doesn't thread it right.
No, I don't thread it right either.
I tried and I fuck up every time.
How do you do it?
Do you press to add another tweet button?
Yeah, okay.
Well, all right.
Now you can't once you tweet one tweet out, you can't go back and add on to it. Yeah. Okay. Well, all right. Now, you can't once you tweet one tweet out, you
can't go back and add on to it. Right. You have to do it all from like the beginning. Interesting.
Well, I'm just going to stay away from threads out tweets like this? I have so many details.
His base obviously isn't following the nuances of all the story.
So it's more or less just complete rambling that I don't know.
But they believe him to like the FI and people that actually have any idea of even remotely
what is going on.
Well, remember that, a summit at Politicon who said, hey, you know, my fox news watching relative
thinks that the only thing that's real is what Sean Hannity says.
So.
Yeah, so they'll believe in one night, they say that the FBI tampered with the 302s.
They'll believe in when he said, like, it's just all.
Yep, so lame.
Yep.
All right, we have a lot more to get to today.
So just stick around for one quick minute.
Hey, it's AG in this episode of Molaershi Road is brought to you by Rothy's
Shoes, the everyday flats for life and the go. Rothy's are beautiful style of
shoes for women and girls that are made from recycled plastic water bottles.
Not only are they sustainable and machine washable, they are literally the most
comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I have three pairs, I have the loaf for the
point and the flat, all in black and I absolutely love them. They're slip on and
breathe the bull, they're incredibly versatile, they're great for the boardroom, cocktail parties or casual yoga attire, and I absolutely love them. They're slip on and breathe the bull. They're incredibly versatile.
They're great for the boardroom, cocktail parties, or casual yoga attire, and Rathi
shoes come in a wide range of styles, and they launch new patterns and colors every week,
and they're constantly selling out.
My current favorite is the new limited edition Scarlet Check Pattern Lover.
The coolest thing about these shoes is that they're made of recycled water bottles, and
to date, Rathi's has kept over 35 million plastic bottles out of oceans and landfills.
Rathies have over a thousand nearly perfect reviews online, and Buzzfeed recently called
them there forever shoes.
Plus Rathies always comes with a free shipping and free return guarantee and free exchanges,
no risk, no worries, no reason not to try them out.
So check out all the amazing styles available right now at Rathies.com slash AG.
Go to Rathies.com that's R-O-OT-H-Y-S dot com slash AG to get your
new favorite flats. Comfort style and sustainability. These are the shoes you've been waiting for.
So head to Rothies.com slash AG today. You'll be glad you did.
Alright, so apparently there was a descent that erupted at Facebook over Mark Zuckerberg's
hands-off stance on political ads.
And of course, we know what Jack Dorsey did on Twitter.
Jordan, you're going to go over that.
Yeah.
Right now.
Yeah.
Nice one.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of social media.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Okay, right now.
Oh, perfect.
Okay.
Sorry.
Right now.
Right now.
Okay. So there was a lot of,
only because of the rule of three,
did I not continue that?
And then there was a lot of social media,
election intersection news this week,
that's an own calling it.
Isn't that adorable?
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it.
I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. Love the good action. So mostly, mostly that this has all been related to Zuckerberg's decision to allow any and
all political ads to run.
Virtually unchecked on their platform without any amount of fact checking whatsoever.
That's the position he took and it's what he's maintaining.
The decision's obviously been highly controversial and shitty if you ask us.
And I say that it was a decision made by Zuckerberg and not that it was made by Facebook because there are a lot of Facebook employees who are really pissed about this.
And it just doesn't seem fair to rope them in honestly to everything that's happening.
They're really pissed, so pissed in fact that 250 of them I think it was.
Signed on to a letter denouncing Zuckerberg's decision this week.
This was an internal communication system that they have set up and then someone got a hold of it. In the letter they ask, I think it was in New York Times, in a letter they ask Zuckerberg in the higher
ups to rethink the stance that they wound up taking on political ads and they say that Facebook's
position on political advertising is, quote, a threat to what Facebook stands for. We strongly
object to this policy as it stands, unquote. And one of my favorite lines from the letter reads,
free speech and paid speech are not the same thing. That's so important to remember.
Because that was from Jack or from the letter that they wrote.
That was from the letter that the Facebook employees wrote.
Because Jack, I think also on Twitter, yes, said that when he did his
thread. Yes, he had an amazing thread. And he came out last week, of course, on Wednesday,
saying that Twitter was making a decision to ban political ads altogether. Of course, this decision came into tweet,
very on brand delivery. Facebook does be great of Jack Dorsey put out a Facebook post. Facebook
doesn't have any. You know, he took out an ad on Facebook to say what he's going to do
about ads on Twitter. Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, Facebook, I was thinking, it's interesting
how Facebook has no go to platform
because Twitter's whole thing is just tweeting.
Like what is, like the release of via a meme
or something they have in Facebook?
Facebook is a kind of dead in a lot of ways too.
I don't know, I'm a huge Twitter person now.
But I also love, I love what Jack said.
He said, we've made the decision to stop all political
advertising on Twitter globally.
We believe political messages, uh, political, we believe political messages.
Oh, shit. Sorry. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bots. Why a few
reasons and the thread continues. So if you have not read that thread yet, definitely go
and read that Jack. This is me. At Jack. I was thinking, I wanted to write like a sketch about how people like to get at Jack,
that's, I mean, he created it.
So obviously he got first ticket at Jack, but like at Josh, at Mark.
Right.
It was a techno nerds who were in there early.
Yeah, totally.
Like, a thing is a lot of people who have those user names are just like tech nerds and designers and developers. Yeah. Early adopters, people that were in there early. Like a thing is a lot of people who have those user names are just like tech nerds and designers and developers.
It's like early adopters.
Yeah, they're not like,
they're often not famous people.
Yeah, totally.
It's just funny.
It's a silly marketplace that exists now
with all of this bullshit.
Okay, anyway, so that was awesome.
And definitely a blow to Zuckerberg, Jack's decision.
And if that wasn't enough,
the director of the movie that documented
the success of Facebook itself,
the social network, if you'll remember, wrote an intense pissed off open letter to Zuckerberg regarding
his discontent with their political ad decision, and this was written by Aaron Sorkin.
And the sentiment is pretty well summed up with, I think, this excerpt.
He says, right now, on your website, is an ad claiming that Joe Biden gave the Ukrainian
Attorney General a billion dollars not to investigate his
on every square inch of that is a lie and it's under your logo that's not defending free
speech mark.
That's assaulting truth.
Steve, yes.
So go Aaron Sorkin must be brutal for Zuckerberg to see that.
I wish Aaron Sorkin would write all my strongly worded letters for me.
Yeah, I think it would be excellent.
Man, totally.
But Zuckerberg is coming off really shitty.
And he's not doing well in Congress either because this happens.
I mean, I have sympathy for him as being a complete pioneer, right?
Who is trying to operate in the best way possible in a space that does not have the regulations
and laws laid out yet in a way that has come together in a democratic way, but I think he's fucking up a lot. Yeah.
So yeah, and honestly, the whole like if you've seen the social network, it's pretty damning. Yeah, as far as Zuckerberg goes. Yeah, he was pretty a dick his whole, the whole time. And the whole, I inception of Facebook
was to rate women's faces.
So like the whole thing from beginning to end sucks.
Yeah, it is true.
I guess it depends.
I have bros who like watch that movie and we're in,
they just saw it as a tale of success, you know?
So it depends, I guess it depends on how you already
feel about it.
But I think there's, the really unfortunate thing
is that for a moment in time,
it seemed like it would go the right way.
I think the people around Mark Zuckerberg,
the people he hired,
were making a huge PR effort at least
to become more diverse,
to be kinder to women,
to become known as a somewhat progressive company.
That's to attract talent and Silicon Valley
kind of have to be.
And there's so many like fucking rad young people,
or people of all ages who get into this industry
because they're so idealistic
and they want to work on something meaningful
and something that like impacts society in a positive way.
And there's so many people who work there
who are working on this because they believed,
or still believe that like they're working on something
that's good for society, that's connected,
but they have to reckon with their impact on democracy. Yeah, they have to. And it doesn't feel something that's good for society, that's connected, but they have to reckon
with their impact on democracy.
Yeah, they have to.
And it doesn't feel like that's happening.
I'll also incidentally, if you take Zuckerberg
and Cuperman, you get Zuckerman.
And that's the guy from Charlotte's web.
So that's the end.
That's like, what do you think about that?
Ooh, conspiracy theories.
Is he the guy that's like a, uh, the old blanky white man?
Uh, uh, no, Zacherman is the older, uh, portlier gentleman who's the farmer that owns.
This is from Babe.
Charlotte's wet.
Oh, Charlotte's wet.
I always can buy that too as well.
I'm so high-level.
I mean, they're all talking farm animals.
It's all the same.
It makes me feel like.
Yeah, but one's live action and one's a cartoon. Yeah. Children of the 90s because they're all talking farm animals. It's all the same. It makes you
But one's live action and one's a cartoon. Yeah, I mean who's to say
Who's to say I
Like that defense what is a cartoon? Yeah, exactly. I've seen Waking Life. I'm not to you all. Yes.
Exactly.
I love that movie.
Yeah, me too.
I also love, when I think of Babe,
all I need the first thing that I imagine every single time
is just a closing circle.
Me.
The little black, the impending blackness.
I love that.
I love that.
It's such a, it's a great technique visually.
Yes.
I like it, too.
You. You. You.
You.
Wee then there's always like some adorable little animal doing something.
Hello.
Great movie.
Anyway.
I do like baby.
Yeah.
I love baby.
That'll do pig.
Yes.
That it.
Mac.
Yeah.
Which came for Shrek's that'll do donkey or babes that'll do pig. Definitely babes that'll do.
That'll do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did they steal it knowingly from babes? So it I think a nod yeah gotcha yeah they love doing that
that was Mike Myers right who did trek yeah Mike Myers kills it with the
with the references another Canadian treasure oh oh except the love guru that
was the last Mike Myers movie I went to see a theater. It's fucking worse than the every hit. Okay.
That's true.
Yeah.
This is true.
Speaking of those that can't always have hits, Nunez is also back in the news and that's
what you're going to talk about in hot notes, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
Before we get to that, I have a quick impeachment update.
According to Elliott Engel, he's the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, one
of the three committees in charge of impeachment right now, alongside oversight and intel.
He says the private depositions will wrap up this week, and then the transcripts will
come out of those, of those depositions.
And then Congressman Lim says public hearings will begin in the next two or three weeks.
The upcoming depositions this week on Monday, We have Robert Blair and Brian McCormick,
both are top staffers for Mick Mulvaney.
We also have John Eisenberg.
He's the lawyer who shoved everything into the secret system.
Mike, it's in the computer.
Back in the, the files are in the computer.
And then, let's see, Michael Ellis will also be Monday. That's his deputy, Eisenberg's deputy.
Then Tuesday we have Duffy from...
Motley Crew? No.
Office of Management and Budget.
We're now be surprised at this point.
Wow.
And then Wells Griffith.
Wells Griffith.
Oh, she's a specialist assistant for the Prime Minister.
Go be rich.
Wells Griffith.
Yeah. One of many chats. Wells Griffith. Yeah.
One of many chats.
Wow.
When's that dude was just made for money?
Oh, I would.
That's Griffith of the Connecticut Griffith.
This is small.
Oh my God.
Oh no.
That'd be so hard if he just wanted to be an artist trying to be taken seriously with a name
like Wells Griffith.
Like, yeah.
Like, Jeffrey Duda has sessions the third.
Right.
Let's see Wednesday.
We have Breck Bule.
He's a State Department lawyer and then Director of Office Management Budget Russell Vot.
We also have Rick Perry and David Hale from the State Department and Thursboo.
Thursday, there's John Bolton.
Now I imagine none of these folks are probably going to appear.
The Bolton might, but I think he'll probably wait for the cuperman ruling to see what he
decides to do. And I don't know when that's coming. Yeah, that makes sense. Same attorney.
Right. Yes. Same lawyer. And I, my beans are on, however, cuperman goes, so shall Bolton.
So what exactly are they are they wanting to question Bolton on?
Well, Bolton is the one who called Giuliani a hand grenade, said that the thing with Ukraine
was a drug deal.
He would basically testify that there were two like a shadow policy going on.
And that Giuliani was leading it up and that there was a quid pro quo and that he didn't
like it because he's the one who was in that two came in and broke up that July 10th meeting
when Sunlin was offering the Ukrainians, we're not offering, but saying,
telling the Ukrainians that they had to, in order to get that White House meeting,
they had to do these investigations into Biden and Burisma and the 2016 election.
And that's when, you know, Bolton was like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
And came in and said, scattered stuff. in the 2016 election. And that's when, you know, Bolton was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
And came in and said,
get out of the mall like pigeons.
You know what I'm shooting right now.
And then it looks like a character from like Mary Poppin.
And he's in the park scene with the mustache, I don't know.
Actually, I think what happened was he broke up the meeting
for like being inappropriate
and then sent Fiona Hill to follow them to the next room.
Yeah.
And then she went in there and said,
I saw that they have to again chastise them
and then she told Bolton and then also
Vindman told Bolton about some of these inappropriate things.
And Bolton says go tell Eisenberg and they're like,
fuck an Eisenberg's a douche.
And so they went and told Eisenberg.
And then that probably never made it up to Pat Sipolloni.
Yeah.
That's how you say his name.
If that's how you say his name.
And you know, who, and then it just got buried and lost from there.
And then he resigned.
Chambleton resigned.
Yeah, Bolton eventually resigned.
This is the issue with these criminals, is they all have the same negative moral magnetic
poles in them, and they, well this doesn't check out science wise.
My point is they're all attracted to each other.
And it's like they'll congregate. birds of a cramming feather flock together.
Exactly.
And they just fricking convene.
Stop reconvening.
Just go away from each other.
Your lives will be so much better.
Just do your own coffee.
Open a coffee shack or something like.
Yes.
Open out.
He.
Yes.
Exactly.
Re-dedicate yourself.
He had a coffee business and he stole from his clients to fund it.
I want to know where the fuck are Dan Coates and Sue Gordon.
That's what I want to know.
And why they aren't involved in this at all.
Maybe they're wrapped up in the Giuliani counterintelligence investigations.
They have to keep that out of public ears.
Dan Coates was a DNI. Yeah. Yeah. He was the DNI in charge of
Wrangling all the intelligence community and so Gordon and so Gordon is a deputy
Stem meeting. Okay. Yeah. Yeah
I'm sure they'll come up. I mean it seems like the list of people that are coming getting called in a test if I just keep going
More and more back into the like deeper roots of all the administration
Staff yeah, so we'll see.
Yeah, but this this week is the end of the private deposition.
So maybe they maybe they aren't, I don't know.
It just seems weird that because they resigned right
around that time.
In fact, Dan Codes came in and grabbed
so Gordon out of a meeting and said,
you're resigning too.
And they both left.
Where out of the year? Yeah you're resigning to. And they both left. We're out of here.
Fuck you guys.
Yeah.
Fuck you.
I know.
You're cool.
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
It's the best like a play.
A vault thing.
So many people are just pissed.
I'm wondering.
Also from raw story, Department of Justice Court filing
explains the FBI's reasons for withholding information on the Kavanaugh background check.
Jordan, you have this story.
Yeah.
So for context, obviously, we remember during Kavanaugh's confirmation process, the FBI was performing
or did perform a conduct, I should say.
Superficial.
Yeah, they're different.
They're not the fiddleers.
They're the directors of fiddling.
But during Kavanaugh's confirmation process,
they opened up this investigation.
It was just a superficial background check.
And a FOIA lawsuit was filed looking for more insight
into how all of that's investigating went down.
On October 25, the DOJ apparently filed a motion
for a summary judgment on a lawsuit.
The FOIA request was from a BuzzFeed reporter,
GabuzzFeed,, stopping those stupid videos, uh, includes the request includes,
uh, number one, a copy of the final report sent to the White House and
the Senate Judiciary Committee on either October 3rd or October 4th,
2018 on Kavanaugh. And two, it's also requesting all interview notes,
investigative notes pertaining to the FBI's investigation into allegations
leveled against Mr. Kavanaugh.
End quote.
On Friday, the FBI moved to have the case dismissed and argued that they've already released
enough information and that what they haven't yet released is going to be covered by one
of the several statutory exceptions to FOIA.
This was a direct commentary on a long cry article.
Long cry.
That's the name of the block, right?
Exactly.
Yes, I forget the deed's name.
I'm so sorry.
Colin something.
Colin guy.
Colin Farrell.
Yeah.
Um, but that's not exactly my donate to correction.
No, no, no, no, definitely, definitely not.
Those exceptions likely pertain to information that's unquestionably private
and could subject Judge Kavanaugh and others to harassment or embarrassment in their
eyes at Prince Albert. Yeah, Alcon. Disgusting. So basically the FBI is taking the position
that what Kavanaugh did before his career in public service isn't necessary enough information
for people to have and would serve to hurt Orren Bears him, which is a predictable stance
for the historically conservative FBI to take, I think, just what I think I don't mean
like Republican conservative, although that's also true.
I'm more mean just on the airing on the side of releasing as little information as possible,
even if that means throwing a pity party for a predator.
Uh, predator pity party.
Pee, pee, pee, pee.
Triple pee.
Bad things come in pee.
Pfft.
Right in that now.
Bad things come in pee.
And from...
And that's interesting too, that they would take that stance.
Like to say like, well, we investigate this and we find out he raped people, that would be very embarrassing
for the judge.
Right.
I know.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, it's like, yeah, they're making a preliminary judgment on information that wasn't
even fully collected with this being the reason.
So that's frustrating.
But yeah, it is like, it is sadly predictable, I think, because there was no official
criminal charge filed against him back when it happened and everything, I just feel like they
always lean on that. Well, nothing was formally entered into the court system and we can't
really investigate further without embarrassing and dishonorably.
But that's your job to do. Yeah. And I still want to know how his loans and debts got paid off.
to do yeah and I still want to know how his loans and debts got paid off and his mortgage
Yeah, yeah, so we're probably not gonna I mean it just seems like we're probably not gonna see anything about that and
Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court and he's probably not going anywhere I think there's a group of legal students that are filing suit to get more information on that. Yeah, we'll see how that goes
Yeah, and from, Reuters is reporting
that sweeping changes in Ukraine's top law enforcement agency
ordered by Zalensky will derail a series of long-running
investigations, including two related to Paul Manafort.
Three members of the Ukrainian Special Investigation
Unit told Reuters that the reorganization would effectively
sabotage five years of investigation into Yanaković
and Manafort called the Black Ledger case.
The Black Ledger case refers to the off-the-books payments made by Yanukovych to Manafort
and others, which was ultimately the reason Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign.
Giuliani has called the Black Ledger a fraudulent document used to unfairly malign Manafort,
because he's a mostly innocent fella.
What would they say, crime list, would they call him?
Do you remember?
No.
Who?
Who?
Manafort?
When somebody, who called Manafort, what though?
Somebody said he lived mostly, one of his defense lawyers
during the Virginia trial.
Like, yes.
Yeah, like, I forget something that's like a mostly perfect one.
Yeah, something totally forget something that like a mostly perfect. Yeah, so dumb.
Yes.
And one of the except for this one crime, this one,
and on this a series of crimes.
2018.
Yeah.
34.
Exactly.
And one of the prosecutors said they were recently within weeks of announcing suspects in
a second probe involving Manafort, which says Yanana Covech used state funds to pay a New York law firm to write a report
justifying the imprisonment of Yana Covech's political rival, Temeschenko.
We know that law firm to be scaddened in ARPs, and this is what Greg Craig and
Vanderswan were caught up in. Vanderswan served his prison sentence and was
deported. And let's see, quote, we were ready to formally announce indictments
of both Ukrainian
and American citizens. I spent three years trying to put it all together and now they
will crumple it up, stuff it in a box and hand the box away. This makes me really want
to hear about the first phone call between Trump and Zelensky. This reorganization was
mentioned in the July 25 call when Zelensky said he was putting someone new in charge that will be 100% his person and that he will they will investigate the Biden's. Oh God. This is so so they talked about
it before. Right. In order to have that sentence before the July 25th call. Yeah. There is a first
call and we're waiting for the transcripts of that. I think Trump said it would release it but he
never released it. Yeah. We have no idea what kind of, you know, behind the scenes pressure
trims, but ends all on to you right now. Still, you know, yeah, it's also so shitty to
me that regardless, like any absence of influence that Trump has over him, that he would make
moves to not investigate conduct like Manafort, who was responsible for enacting egregious human rights
violations, honestly, I think with what he the Locker up campaign and all of that just criminal
behavior that unfortunately largely defines people's view of corruption in Ukraine. And now he's
saying he's going to pull, he's going appoint him when that will pull away from bat.
That's like, that's such an institutional misstep.
Yeah, and we talked previously also about
the previous Javalan sale to Ukraine
when the previous president was there
and that they had a phone call and then they wanted Javalan's
and then they got the Javalan's. And then I think the next day four suits were dropped against Manafort,
four investigations were dropped. They stopped cooperating with Mueller about the Manafort investigation.
So it's this whole Ukraine could proquot that's been going on for quite a while.
Yeah. Also Thursday, the independent in the UK wrote a piece about UK intelligence officials being shaken by the Trump
Administration's request for help with his counter impeachment efforts. While the publicity around impeachment heats up,
there's an increasing effort by Bill Barr to investigate and overturn the conclusions made by the United States intelligence community and Robert Mueller that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
It's odd that Trump who claims the Mueller investigation totally exonerated him, is now
taking part in an effort to discredit it.
But according to the independent, bars focused on a theory that Ukraine framed Russia over
the United States election in a complex triple-cross operation by impersonating Russian hackers.
Wait, what is triple-cross selling a horse race?
No, it just means one more than a double cross.
Okay, oh, okay.
I see.
I see.
The double agent is a triple cross.
Complex Triple Cross operation
by impersonating Russian hackers to frame Russia.
Trump and Barr have also been asking Australia, UK,
and Italy for help in investigating US intelligence agencies,
and that has left our allies astonished.
One British official says, quote, it's like nothing we've come across before. Italy for help in investigating US intelligence agencies and that has left our allies astonished.
One British official says, quote, it's like nothing we've come across before.
They are basically asking in quite robust terms for help in doing a hatchet job on their
own intelligence services.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Is that not treasonous behavior?
Uh, sometimes some people believe in order for it to be treasonous behavior.
There has to be a war.
Okay.
We have to be in a war.
I contend that we could be because Russia attacked us just because our president hasn't
declared it as such because he's in on it.
What about the brink of war?
I think that should count.
Like in a piece of bread.
The crust is also considered part of the bread, but it's the crust.
Yes.
It is the brink of bread.
Hard hitting news. Jordan at 11.
And the crust is the brink of the bread.
Yes.
We're just one good soccer mom away from those crusts coming off and war and suing.
It's all up to the soccer mom.
Wow.
Yeah.
But it's amazing.
Thank you.
No, but seriously, I do like it.
Kind of the triangles, please.
Yeah, I do think, I agree with you, though, that there are acts of war that I think could
officially be interpreted as such.
I'm glad they're not, because no war is obviously better than war, but in terms of a treasonous indictment on someone.
Yeah, I also read the treason is
aiding and abetting an enemy.
And I think that qualifies here,
but other constitutional scholars have said that
it has the war part that is subsumed under that.
But everyone's got a different opinion on that.
So yeah, it's hard, it would be hard to litigate, I think,
since it's never had precedent before.
I hope also that if hopefully once we get
a Democratic president in there,
and you said this before AG that we can rebuild trust
with our allies, I mean,
I can't even imagine what they're saying.
Yeah, behind closed doors about what's...
I mean, I get it sometimes when people are like,
oh my God, it's chaotic, but to have Bill Barr ask
intelligent agencies of our allies to do a had to job
on American intelligence, it's just so beyond.
I feel like if you're an American,
now's the time to backpack through Europe.
I don't think you'll have to put that Canadian patch
on your backpack to pretend you're not American.
I think you'll get a lot of sympathy.
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I remember when we went to Ireland, um, my, we met some people,
and this was during Obama, and it was right after Sandy Hook, and even then, they were like,
we feel so bad for you guys. Your gun sense laws are fucking stupid. Yeah.
And this is so honestly embarrassing for you. It's like for us to watch. And this
is this is when Ireland was still I've talked about this before. They were like more conservative
than uncertain issues than then we were now it's like since flip flopped. Yeah. Yeah. Now
that they've legalized gay marriage and abortion. Yeah. But there is definitely pity for us.
Yeah. Especially a lot right now.
Uh, and Trump is moving to Florida. He doesn't want to be a resident of New York anymore.
And I'm wondering if this is a way for him to avoid turning over his tax returns, but
that is he, is he that stupid? Yeah, I think that's a simple fix. Because first of all,
even the returns he files now would have to be filed in New York. Uh, and the state can
still provide the tax returns. They happened. That's
like, I don't know, maybe he's trying to avoid future taxes or maybe he's worried about
winning Florida in 2020. He barely eaked it out in 2016. So maybe, you know, if he moves
down there and becomes a Floridian, maybe he'll get more votes. I don't know.
Yeah. I think he's wrung out all the corruption. He could have crafted and gotten away with
the New York. Now he's going to Florida.
The next state that has a lot of that shit going on.
Florida is a very corrupt state politically.
Yeah.
And if he does move down there, all the Florida man articles are going to get really interesting.
I'm here on out.
You know, I heard a really interesting theory on why we hear so much crazy news out of
Florida and not just because a crazy thing's happened in Florida, but I said this to a friend
recently who was from Florida and he was like, people just think Florida's more insane
than it is because this stuff is all in the record.
It's open, you can search and write stories about this stuff
whereas other states, you can't publish stories
because all of their criminal records are not so
as much out in the open as Florida.
Yeah, I mean, I just think of like the bush legacy
in that state and just not transparent election practices.
I can put it some love.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Obviously not all Florida's fucked,
but a lot of it, it's kind of like the Arizona
of the ocean, you know?
Like, the Arizona of the sea.
I but I also know that Florida is really diverse
and there's a lot of like a lot of,
like it's super super multicultural.
It's not possible to stay in California.
Yeah, I love Florida.
There's some parts I don't like, but there's parts of California I don't like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, super multicultural. It's a popular place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place.
It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, multicultural place. It's a super, multicultural place. It's a super, super, multic, and they would read a headline, and you had to guess if it was from Germany or Florida.
So it's, I mean, it's just sort of one of those known things,
like people from the UK, or like there's not a lot of comedies
in France, or you know, whatever, just one of the stereotypes
that happens to stick.
I think there are so many awesome people in Florida,
and so many great places and beautiful, really beautiful preserves,
and amazing stuff.
I used to hang on a cook-up beach all the time and I love the south.
Yeah, I think golf coast is gorgeous.
Mm-hmm.
There are also more Puerto Ricans in Florida than any other state.
And I don't think there's a lot of people too happy with Trump right now.
Yeah, yeah, he extended community.
The third Mexico.
Yeah, that's true.
Mostly what I'm saying is not anything about the people that actually live there
But election officials state legislators. It's just like and the denial of climate change when it's so badly a
Flex Florida
A part of the export the Scott is that the former governor it probably affects Florida the worst of any other state
Yeah, except our fires here in California. Yeah, seeing the way they're elected officials constantly deny climate change every time a disaster is about to hit Florida
Just like makes my skin crawl. Yeah
Constantly deny climate change every time a disaster is about to hit Florida just like makes my skin crawl Yeah, yeah, and the way they jerrymander and steal votes and do all that other stuff is it it it
Doesn't reflect the good people of Florida properly, and that's that's I think the main problem so
We have some really great hot notes. We'll be right back with those
Hey, A.G. here would you buy a t-shirt for 50 bucks?
If you knew it only cost seven dollars to make? I sure wouldn't, and with Everlane, you'll never overpay for quality clothes.
Everlane makes premium clothes with the finest materials but without the insane markups.
They partner with the best ethical factories around the world and share the true cost of
every product, very transparently, that they make with the consumer.
And in what they call radical transparency, which I love, and transparency is great. I personally am all for it.
Their denim factory for instance is the cleanest in the world, recycling 98% of its water,
relying on alternative energy sources, and repurposing byproducts to make premium jeans
minus the waste.
Everlanes close, look and feel better, they cost less, they last longer because they sell
directly to the consumer and cut out the middleman. Their prices are 30 to 50% lower than traditional retailers,
and they have everything from grade A, cashier sweaters, Italian shoes, Peruvian Pima
tees to the new jacket I got made from recycled water bottles which I love. And the clothes
are beautiful, comfortable, ethical, and much less expensive. And right now you can check
out our personalized collection at Everlane.com slash AG. Plus you'll get free shipping on your first order. That's Everlane.com slash AG.
So head now to Everlane.com slash AG, you'll be glad you did.
And as you know, resisting Trump is my passion, but sometimes I even need a break from the
craziness. And one of my favorite mental palette cleansers is a new puzzle game,
and it's an app called Best Fiends. And Best Fiends has an engaging story and challenging puzzles,
but it's a casual game that's super fun to play and anyone can play.
I'm on level 44 now, and to me it's the perfect game to keep my mind stimulated,
but also relaxes me.
It's not time, so there's no pressure or stress.
It's just a great puzzle game that's my go-to refresher when I need a break.
The creators are constantly adding new levels and events,
so it's always fresh and fun.
And Best Fiends is free to download.
It's got a beautiful, vibrant design. And best of all, you don't need the internet to play it,
which I really love because I can play it on the plane. So give it a try.
Engage your brain with fun puzzles and collect tons of cute characters too.
Five-star rated mobile puzzle game on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
And you can download free on the Apple App Store or Google Play
that's Friends Without the R, Best Fiends. You'll be glad you did.
All right, welcome back. Hot notes.
All right, so I'm going to go over this crazy
Mueller document dump we got from BuzzFeed on Saturday, but before we do that,
Jordan, you have an update on Nunez.
Yes, for credibly my saga of covering Nunez continues.
You can't shake it.
Yes, I am damn to the move forever now.
Since I called him attractive one time.
Damn to the move forever.
It's never.
Damn to the move forever.
He is newsflash still a piece of shit, as are the people who associate themselves with
him. So this time, the Daily Beast is reporting that a top aid to Nunez has been leaking details
about the whistleblower to conservative journalists and politicians before and during congressional
testimonies. Derek Harvey is his name and he apparently has been giving House Republicans
notes containing the whistleblower's name before and during these depositions, like I said, and it's speculated that the goal of doing this is to get the whistleblower's name before and during these depositions, like I said, and
it's speculated that the goal of doing this is to get the whistleblower's name into the record.
So when SHIFT ultimately releases that record to the public, which he is pledged to do,
that will then effectively out the identity of the whistleblower. So WAPO is reporting that GOP
staffers and Congress people have said the whistle-ower's name repeatedly during the closed door depositions, which means that that's in
the record right now. Of course, releasing this person's identity wouldn't change
anything about the realities of Ukraine gate. The only thing it would do is put
this person potentially in danger, which is what I think the GOP will never admit
to, but is ultimately what they either want to do or are entirely willing
to turn a blind eye to.
They're saying that it's important to investigate the nature of this person because once again
attacking the people and not the merits is the only defense that they even have right now.
Jim Jordan came out in one of his annoying post elevator interviews.
I like it went in permission of a deposition the other day saying,
you know, the first two things you have to look at at a whittle-blower?
Little player who's whittle? Oh God, so many jokes I will not make. Okay.
But he comes out and says, with a whistlebl, you have to look at their motivations and I forget the other things.
Some other bullshit effectively saying the merits of the person, not what they're saying.
Um, so that's that and moving on to more new, nice news.
Nice, nice segue.
Before you move on.
Uh, I think that's an interesting strategy to say his name,
the was or his or her name, over and over again,
to get it some force the Dems to release it
when they release the transcripts.
It is illegal, however, to out a whistleblower.
And the Dems, I think, will keep it redacted.
Yeah.
And that's going to give the Republicans
the talking point of, what else did you redact?
Right.
And so just expect that. publicans the talking point of what else did you redact right and so I'm just
expect that yes and then I guess the process would be a FOIA request would
would it would that be how people would respond to that conservatives if
there's red actions in that public testimony or testimony that was not
public and it's not that but that's anything that would break the law is
exempt from a FOIA right right there would be able to release it. Right.
Is owed protection under legally.
Yeah.
But I guarantee though, like he said, I think you're right.
They're going to use it as an opportunity to say,
oh, we'll win our side redacts things.
It's the end of the world, but they're allowed to redact things.
It's about to be public.
But like I said, none of this matters
because 800,000 people have corroborated first hand
evidence of what the whistleblower said.
Yep, yeah, exactly. But it is really shitty that they're weaponizing shifts attempts at transparency
against the people. Yeah, and the whistleblower, and the whistleblower mostly. Yeah.
Anyway, moving on to more news news, there's a development in his Twitter lawsuit.
A brainstorming names for that lawsuit, by the way.
So, him and you have with your suggestions.
I was thinking maybe like, slaughter gate because cows, and he's totally gonna lose this
with this lawsuit.
But let me know what you think.
Bulley gate, whatever.
Everything's a gate.
Mood gate.
Especially when cows are involved.
Yeah.
Um. I think it's you think of cows behind gate? Yeah.. Especially when cows are involved. Yeah. Um.
I think it's you think of cows behind gate.
Yeah.
That's all I think about.
And I think, oh, the cows got out because the gate was open.
That's how I heard.
Have you heard of Untitled Goose Game?
No.
Okay.
So this just reminded me of the image that you're talking about.
There's a game that just came out called Untitled Goose Game where you basically, the main
character is a goose. That's how you play. And you run around causing
mayhem, like stealing from people, just charging up and like annoying people. Yeah, it's
great. That sounds very fun. These are dicks. They kind of are. I mean, I don't blame them
because we're dicks. But like, have you seen the, there's this Twitter? They'll come and
flap you. Yeah. If you need a place to put your, all of your like, anarchy feelings where you just like, fuck this shit
then play a title game.
So it's like, this game, so it's like,
grand theft auto, but you're a goose.
Yes, totally.
And all you can do is just rapidly charge at humans.
So you're going to go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
goose theft auto.
Oh God, that's such a nice PG version
of like first person shooter games, first person goose.
You have to do
like steal someone's keys still someone's glasses oh that's so funny oh dude just
hula gins hula goose hula geese hula geese yes but anyways open to names for
for boolegate but so what what he has done now in this case that is ongoing against uh... but anyways uh... open to names for for bullet eight uh... but
so what what he has done now in this case that is ongoing against account such as
devinion's count
and uh... devinion's mom
and the other one yeah follow them on twitter
uh... what he is doing is he's demanding emails from
a former dnc employee and a pro-democratic law firm to try to prove
that those entities were conspiring against
newness to defame him in the 2018 election.
He should have a point of special counsel.
Yeah.
They'll probably file a motion to halt the subpoena is what's going to happen because in the state that this is happening in
civil attorneys have the right to subpoena documents.
So, so this is like an actual subpoena on behalf of his attorney.
Right.
This point in California.
No, this is in, I think Virginia.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
So this case is, it's just such bullshit.
It's like entirely a fundraising stunt first off.
That is actually kind of working, which is really sad.
Fresno B, who's been doing amazing reporting on all things
Nunez shit reports that apparently his fundraising numbers have like skyrocketed since filing this case
So to me that just means that it's a successful attempt to get people to feel sorry for him and that he's being attacked
He's already raised $7 million for his reelection fund. So that's kind of shitty
I feel like as long as this case,
he's just going to keep this case open for as long as he possibly can and garnered. Like,
get all of the attention, sympathies that he can. That's annoying. It is annoying. That's annoying.
All right. Yeah, hit us up at Mola Sheeroder, adj's confused with your idea names for bullshit gate. Yeah, some bullshit gate.
Bullying gate, cow gate.
Yeah, let's see.
Cow pie.
I'm just trying to think of cow stuff.
Yeah.
Spot.
Spot gate.
That's your worst one yet.
Don't know.
Not bad.
And sadly the one I thought the hardest about.
Yeah.
Alright. Well.
I don't have a segue.
Moving on to BuzzFeed News.
Yesterday, Saturday BuzzFeed News released its first set of 302s. They're
calling the Mueller memos. And they won this in a FOIA battle with the Department of Justice,
five separate FOIA cases. They got hundreds of pages with about 237, actually, exactly
237 redactions. And the evidence is so voluminous that BuzzFeed said, I said this at the top
of the show, it will receive dumps like this every month
for at least eight years.
Damn.
This release has interviews, notes,
and emails from Gates, Cohen, and Bannon,
and I've gone through them all with a fine toothed comb,
so let's start off with the Gates material.
Nice.
First, and this is the smoking gun
that I've been talking about in relation
to the grand jury materials that, you know,
were the oversight committees trying to get,
Gates testified that Trump had four knowledge of the WikiLeaks that, you know, were the oversight committees trying to get. Gates testified that Trump had four knowledge
of the WikiLeaks dump, and that based on the phone call
between Trump and a redacted name in the car
on the way to LaGuardia, and we know that redacted name
to be stoned.
We've talked about this.
It stands to reason his name would be redacted
because his trial begins Tuesday,
so it's part of an ongoing matter.
Trump told Gates before he boarded the plane
that more dumps were coming.
That means that when Trump told Mueller
and his written answers that he was unaware
of any upcoming email releases, he was lying.
So Trump lied to Mueller.
That's impeachable and criminal.
Mueller knew it, but couldn't indict him,
or wouldn't indict him, but he didn't indict him.
There's another huge piece here
that totally debunks the
wild goose chase goose. There's our segue. Wild goose chase Bill Barr has been on, traveling
the world and trying to steal people's keys. No, traveling the world and trying to push
the theory that Ukraine was responsible for the hack and not Russia. Now I just need like bar as a goose running around trying to do stuff. This
is my request to anyone who's listening who can do a quick and dirty Photoshop of Bill
Bar's head on the goose from the Untitled Goose game. Please. Yes. Untitled Goose game.
There's got to be some like shark NATO like maybe that's been made that you can alter
the poster for, you know, with like a evil goose. Yeah, something more sinister than actually you know what, I take that back. Don't tarnish a wonderful
game with Bill Ball. I take it back. I was sinned that I was thinned that. Yes. Okay. Then
photoshop. Goose head on Bill Barr's body and make him run around and then try to discredit the FBI.
Yes. Okay. Yes. That was a really long make. So his head's always out of frame.
But it really long make so his head's always out of frame
That's the most adorable image of him I've ever thought it really would be an improvement
Gates testified under oath that the Ukraine spin
Was an inside job theory first floated by Manafort in 2016 and tied to Seth Rich We've been saying this from the start. Now we have the interview documents to back it up.
So the whole thing that Ukraine is the one
who did a triple cross frame job of poop frame job
was in fact an inside job theory.
That was his conspiracy theory and it still is.
And sorry, he testified that to Mueller.
Directly?
That was Gates.
Yes, Gates said that to Mueller. Yes, directly. That was Gates. Or, yes, Gates said that to Mueller.
Yes.
Nice.
Cool.
Directly.
Awesome.
Gates also told Mueller that junior Flynn, Kush, Manafort, redacted, Lewandowski, Sessions,
and Clovis were all interested in getting the emails.
And that interest ratcheted up in April and May of 2016.
That explains why everyone was so keen on the Trump Tower meeting in June.
And Gates says the
RNC knew about the dumps and was energized by a Sanjuss public announcement in June that
he had something on Clinton.
The RNC's interest is what eventually pushed Trump to cooperate with the RNC, remember
he didn't want to at first, but the RNC issued press releases that amplified the releases
and the RNC knew about the timing over the releases. We also knew that the campaign decided Flynn had the best Russia contacts,
Kush had the best China contacts,
Manafort had the best propoten Ukraine contacts,
Bannon had the best Saudi and UAE contacts,
via Eric Prince, and that Mossad and Israel were also likely involved.
This is exactly the Grand Bargain that Seth Avermouth smokes about.
Today is a day.
That is exactly the great, you should see my arm movements right there.
If you're not a patron become one, you'll get to see it on the video link when we start it.
But this is the Grand Bargain Seth Avermouth's book about it.
It's books of proof of collusion and proof of conspiracy.
So all of these, and they had assignments, too. They were like,
Flynn, you're good with Russia, you, China, you, this, you that, and pretty much just
go, said go, go for it.
Gates also told Mueller that the Trump campaign was very happy about the email releases. We knew that.
And Gates also testified that Trump would not, was told not to react publicly to the July 22nd WikiLeaks release and just let it play out.
And then when the access Hollywood take came out, the Trump campaign got a heads up about it, was told not to react publicly to the July 22nd WikiLeaks release and just let it play out.
And then when the access Hollywood tape came out, the Trump campaign got a heads up about
it, but didn't have much time to act between the heads up and the publishing of the tape.
Then there are pages of redacted information likely about the campaign reaching out to
stone to coordinate another release, but those are beans.
Why else would it be redacted?
Then we get to Cone and Cone and most of his 302s are redacted, but they seem to indicate
the discussions within the campaign about Trump Tower Moscow and that they needed to stay
on message and deny Trump had any deals in exchange for Trump loving him, which seems to
be code for a pardon.
Trump loves you.
It doesn't say in the interview that Cohen spoke to Trump about his letters to Congress. No, excuse me. It does say in the interview that that Cohen spoke to Trump about his letters to Congress.
No, excuse me, it does say in the interview that Cohen did speak to Trump about his letter to Congress. Okay. Directly implicated there. Cohen also told Mueller he had to keep Trump out of the
messaging to Russia in preparation for his congressional testimony. So there was an active
effort to keep shield Trump. And then on to Bannon, and this is Bannon is just a weird dude.
Pretty much all of his interview is redacted and I'm assuming it's because it has to do with one
of the redacted cases handed off by Mueller that we don't yet know about. Perhaps Brad Parscale
and Cambridge Analytica since he had so much to do with that. Bannon confirmed Kushner and
Ivanka's vacation in August outside Croatia with Wendy
Deng and a Russian oligarch and the Russian oligarch's girlfriend. Bannon was about to be fired
and he emailed back and forth with someone from Breitbart about Kushner being connected
to that Russian and they thought they could use that information as leverage against Kushner.
Oh shit. The same dirty. I know. The same day Bannon exchanged emails about a deal between
Kushner and another Soviet born oligarch but Bannon said don't touch this yet. The same day, a band in exchange emails about a deal between Kushner and another Soviet born
oligarch, but Bannon said, don't touch this yet.
But the person replied, K, this is big though, isn't it?
Isn't this the ball game?
And Bannon replied all and everything.
So it seems like Bannon was trying to take down Kushner.
Fuck yeah.
I love that.
Yeah, just watching assholes beat the shit out of each other.
Yes.
Bannon's emails also show that Manafort was advising the Trump campaign until days before
the election.
Manafort had sent an email to Kush, Prebus, Gates, and Hannity, and Kush forwarded that
email to Bannon and Bannon replied, we need to avoid this guy like the plague.
Pause a nice guy, but we can't let word get out that he's advising us.
They're going to try to say the Russians worked with WikiLeaks to give this victory to us.
Bannon also told Mueller he first met Trump in 2010, and this is just the LOL icing on
the cake.
He first met Trump in 2010, and he told me he was thinking about running for president
in 2012, and Bannon said for which country?
That's amazing.
So he said that to Mueller. Yeah. To just distance himself
from Trump, but to some degree maybe in Mueller's eyes or something. I don't know, but that's
funny. Yeah. It reminds me of, was it McCarthy? He said that there were only two people who
got paid by Putin and it was Roar of Bokker and Trump. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anyway, good old
Roar of Bokker. Good old Roar of Bokker. You guys ready for sabotage? Yeah. Let's do it.
Okay, this is fun. Igor Fruman's lawyer, who was also was Paul Manafort's lawyer,
whose name is Blanche. Senkel. Blanche. Nice.
Takes a lot of showers.
Senkel.
Senkel letter to the court asking for a hearing Friday requesting a bail modification,
saying he should no longer, Truman should no longer be under house arrest and shouldn't
have to wear his ankle jewelry.
And the hearing Friday was dramatic, according to BuzzFeed, quote, a lawyer for Giuliani's
Ukrainian associate tried to argue he wasn't a flight
risk. It did not go well.
Yeah.
Fruiman's lawyer said there's absolutely no evidence that Mr. Fruiman was leaving the
United States and not intending to come back.
Okay.
And the judge goes, is it false that he had a one way ticket to Vienna?
Yeah.
And Blanche goes, pardon me?
And the judge goes, is it false that he had a one-way ticket to Vienna and he goes no
that's absolutely true. Oh my god but absolutely no conceivable proof. I still think there's
going to be super seating indictments on these guys and of course we're waiting for the
Giuliani indictment so that's because they're not cooperating that's why I like the sin and
desabotage. Yeah. Igor Lev would be, and maybe they are potentially
really great characters for the graphic novel version
of the Trump administration story.
Like, can you just see them graphic novel?
I see them in that, or I see them in like a grace
and frank, he's sort of situation.
Like.
With their ankle bracelets and a house in Malibu,
like Egor and Lev.
But yes, the comic bookers is more. But just, you know what I mean?
Just the physical attributes led themselves very well
to the things they have themselves wrapped up in.
Yes.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That is absolutely true.
Oh, my God.
Where's the lawyers ever in 2019.
There's only seven lawyers that will represent
any of these people anyway.
You know, if you can't get to Zing,
you go for DeGeneva.
You can't get to Genova, you get Downing and Blanche.
You can't get Downing or Blanche, you get Burke.
You can't get that guy.
Maybe you can get Dershowitz,
but he seems to be in a little bit of trouble right now.
You know, they just have,
they just the same lawyers over and over again.
Yeah, we haven't talked about dorshowitz in a while.
Yeah.
Keeping his underwear on.
Drop the case.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So he'll never, this is off topic, but for Epstein stuff, then he'll never be fully investigated
it seems if they're just dropping the case.
Well, they're dropping the case into Epstein right
That doesn't mean they won't drop the case into Dershowitz or that they aren't continuing to investigate him really yeah
That's good. I would say not. Yeah
Especially since Jew free is talking about it. Mm-hmm
All right, let's play the fantasy and diamond league
No, it is gonna be okay
I'm gonna be a pilot! No it is gonna be okay.
I'm gonna be a pilot!
I'm gonna be a pilot!
It's gonna be okay. Just calm down.
I can't calm down. I'm gonna be a pilot!
I forget where we were so Jordan wanted you to go first.
Okay. Eric Prince.
You said his name earlier and I was like,
yeah, fuck that guy.
Hey that dude.
Yeah. Okay thank you.
I'm gonna go with the
Fruman nice. I
Will do live
Parnass
I'll go with Life in the Jislein. Mm-hmm max well um
For Hope's egg. I guess Dershowitz
Ders I thought you're going to say Hobics.
Oh God.
Dershowitz.
Um, Giuliani.
She has the same last name as my boyfriend.
That is the first time I've ever thought about that.
Oh, Hobics.
Maybe she's related to a bill.
Oh God, probably not. No doubt it.
Okay, let's do um...
Tambaric. Awesome. No doubt it. Okay, let's do um Tom Berry awesome
I'm gonna go with Malik. Okay, his name come up a lot. I
He's gonna last name again, which one Malik? M-A-L-L-O-C-H.
Did you you didn't say Giuliani yet, right? I did fuck. I think you oh, yeah, you get one more Jordan. Okay. I'll do
Turbanogrel Trump and not? And I'll do Trump org.
Yeah.
I suck at this game.
No, you don't. Thank you. But I don't think I really have any points.
We need more indictments. We do need more indictments.
That's a problem. All right, we have a really, really great interview today.
It's with the former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
His name is Dr. Shulkin.
And you don't want to miss it.
He's got a great new book coming out.
We'll talk about it at the other side of this break.
It's the holiday season and giving gifts to your loved ones is fantastic.
But overpaying for those gifts is definitely not.
Well, now you can be confident that you didn't overspend on the holidays with honey.
Honey is a new free browser extension that automatically finds the best promo codes
wherever they live on the internet,
wherever you shop online.
Honey scans the internet for coupon codes
and other discounts, and then like magic,
it automatically applies them,
specifically the one with the biggest savings to your cart
at the end of your shopping experience.
That means you always get the best deals
in the lowest prices without even trying.
Recently, I needed a hair straightener.
Honey found me a code savings of almost $19.
Honey has found its members over a billion dollars in savings.
It supports over 20,000 stores online and it has over 100,000 five star reviews.
If you're buying gifts this holiday season then you need honey.
If you're not, you probably know someone who is, do them a solid and tell them about
honey.
It's free to use.
It installs and just
two clicks and it can help make sure you're always getting the best price for
whatever you're buying. Get honey for free at joinhoney.com slash AG. That's joinhoney.com
slash AG and happy holidays.
Today for the interview we have a very special guest, former secretary of
Veterans Affairs, the only Trump nominee to be confirmed a hundred to zero by the senate and author of the new book it shouldn't be this hard to
serve your country please welcome dr david shulkin to muller she wrote dr shulkin thank
you for agreeing to speak with me today i'm glad to speak you first i'd like to thank
you for your service and especially for your work on expanding telemental health uh... because
as a veteran i've benefited greatly from that program.
Well, thank you for your service,
and I'm glad to hear that that program has helped.
I think it is a terrific way to get people to help they need
in a more convenient atmosphere,
rather than making people come in and schedule appointments
and park their cars and have to wait to get into
an office.
Yes, and it's especially helpful to female veterans, especially those of us that have
PTSD to the military sexual trauma to just not be in that environment.
So I think that it really expands and enhances access to care.
Yeah, I agree.
Thank you.
And I remember you.
I listen to your book.
It's really, really great.
First of all, and I remember you telling a story about someone who said to you, and I remember you I listen to your book. It's really really great first of all and I remember you telling a story about someone who said to you
Better you than me about getting the job as Secretary of VA couldn't can you tell us why you chose to leave the private sector for
I believe what would probably be a substantial pay cut and a seemingly impossible job that actually opened you up to so much scrutiny
Well, this dates back to two thousand fourteen and as you may recall there was a
very
public issue about the wait time
crisis that started in the phoenix v.a. but really was system wide throughout the
v.a.
where we were seeing
the arachnath canistan veterans coming back with complex issues issue. Some of them, the invisible injuries of war, but others very complex issues like IED devices.
But at the same time, we were seeing the Vietnam veterans turning 69 years old on average,
requiring more services as well.
And frankly, this system was overwhelmed and it just wasn't meeting the needed veterans. And I remember just listening to the TV and reading the newspaper and saying,
if there's one group of Americans that deserved better than this, it would be our veterans.
And just wondering what could I do? And I happened to be in the situation where they were looking
for a new undersecretary that's the person that leads
the health care system in the v.a. and I received a call from at that time the
Obama administration asking whether I would consider that and I hope that I
responded like every American when your country asks for your help and you feel
like you're in a position to be able to contribute and help i felt like it was my time to serve
yeah that's great and i'm glad that you brought up the vietnam veterans because i
believe it was in twenty seventeen i think when you were there when they expanded the
benefits to those who had been exposed to age in orange
well i tried to expand the benefits
um... as secretary uh... i
had looked at the data and believed that the data that was done by the National Academy
on Science, which is a prestigious scientific board, that the data suggested that we should
expand those benefits.
And unfortunately, my time as Secretary was shortened and I was not able to see that through.
And that's one of the regrets that I have because those veterans,
some of them now waiting 50 years or more, are still not getting the benefits that they deserve.
Yeah, definitely. And speaking along those lines about having your exit of the VA,
I'd like to ask you about the three private citizens. We all read this in public reporting,
who kind of ghost ran the VA from Mar-a-Lago, and I'd like to know you about the three private citizens we all read this in public reporting who kind of ghost ran the v a from mara logo and i'd like to know how that
impacted your job ultimately
and how it impacted veterans as well
well i think that there's been much uh... say about this in uh... in in the press
these were uh...
three individuals that
were private citizens that had a prior relationship with the
president where he had asked for their advice and counsel
on how to improve the v.a. I think the president was
uh... sincere in his desire to see
us do better for veterans and ask these individuals to be involved in
these individuals were giving me their advice
and recommendations on how we could improve the VA.
And I believe that they had good intentions in doing that.
The problem is, of course, when you're outside of government,
you don't really understand how government works.
And they didn't have extensive health care experience
the way that I do.
So at times, their vice was not as useful.
Other times, frankly, they were helpful to me in trying to move the agenda along
and be able to help understand how to get things done in a somewhat chaotic environment
which happened when the Trump administration took over.
I see.
And speaking of the Trump administration taking over i see it's and speaking of the trump administration administration taking
over in your book you described the challenges and benefits of working
under the trump administration versus working under the obama administration and
i was wondering what you noticed about the differences in how those two
leaders
operated
well as you can imagine uh... these are very different
presidents and very different leadership styles.
And I was the only one in the Trump cabinet to have the opportunity to work in both administrations.
President Obama, to be fair, I entered his administration six and a half years into his time governing
his president.
So he had a pretty well-willed machine.
Things worked a certain way, you know exactly where to go to get answers to questions and
where to present information and his style of course is is very analytic he is
very detailed thoughtful and asked lots of questions and doesn't jump to make
decisions until he feels that everything's been you know thoroughly thought out
President Trump of course was very different than that um... you know first of
all in starting an administration
uh... and this being his first time the government
there was a lot of
issues that frankly just it was unclear the way that it should work so there was
a lot more freedom
in the trump administration
and i had much greater access to be able to go directly to the president and
since i'd already been in government and i
felt like i had a plan in a formula for fixing the day
i actually was able to use that to the veterans advantage in being able to
bring
ideas and legislation and certain
solutions directly to the president and that
first year we got a lot done eleven major bills
through congress on by the president
making lots of progress because
not only was there more direct access but the president president trump
doesn't
spend a lot of time
uh...
in the same type of analysis and depth in making decisions.
His concern was, was this good for veterans,
and if so, he gave me the authority to make those changes.
And speaking of some of that legislation,
whistleblowers are in the news a lot right now,
and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit
about the accountability in whistleblower office you created
and why that was important to you.
One of those piece of legislation that I just referred to was the Accountability and
whistleblower act and I feel like that was an important part of the work that we were doing.
And there were really two reasons why that piece of legislation passed.
The first was that I felt the secretary had needed greater authority to be able to remove the
employees if they violated the principles of the organization or were involved in incidents
that frankly in the private sector I would have removed a employee from my hospitals. And so the accountability part of that gave us the
ability to still do process, something I believe strongly in, but to be able to
reasonably move through the due process and come to a reasonable conclusion. But
the second part of the bill was to create greater protection for whistleblowers, because the history in the VA is that, unfortunately,
issues do not often arise that should be brought up
before people of decision making where there are problems.
And I think the wait time crisis was a good example
that many people in the organization
knew that there was a problem with
veterans waiting too long but that information never made it up to the
secretary and so therefore the decisions that should have been made earlier
weren't made and so giving the protection and letting people know that they
don't have to be fearful and don't have to be worried about retaliation was the
purpose behind this bill
and uh... creating a special office at least the intent of that was was to give
direct access to the senior decision maker so that
that types of behaviors that happen in the v.a. which retaliation
would no longer be tolerated
and uh... another fascinating thing from your book that I thought was pretty amazing was that
during your entire tenure working on all these administrative functions and factors and
dealing with the administration and maintaining care for the veterans, you also maintained
your clinical practice.
Can you talk a little bit about that well even as a hospital c-e-o
in the private sector i always made sure that i
had time to put on a white coat and go and see patients it's the only way that i
know
how to really be an effective leader and that is is to
understand
what the impact of your decisions are on the people that you're there to serve
and in the case of being under secretary and then a secretary i continue to see
patients
uh... both in person
it happened to be at the new york city v.a. but also by telehealth
uh... where i took care of patients in grants pass our gun which is a rural
v.a. clinic
it helped me understand, first of all, the type of care that we were
delivering to our veterans, but also what our employees were going through and what our
systems were. So if I had to make a decision about an electronic medical record like I
did, I wanted to make sure I actually knew what that electronic medical record did, and
I had used it before just making a decision
based on information that people told me.
And so it always has been an important part of me doing my job.
I primarily see myself first as a doctor in helping my patients and then secondarily
as a administrator or as a healthcare executive.
Yeah, and I think that's a really more of a transformational or servant leadership position
that you took.
And I often wonder how that might have clashed at times with the more transactional style
of leadership from the Trump administration.
I think we did have a different style.
One of the issues that I was disappointed in, I tried to get people that were in decision-making roles, particularly at the White House, to come and to visit the VA with me, to actually go and talk to veterans and their families as they were getting care. believe as i said that's really the best way to understand what it is that your
decisions are having an impact on
and unfortunately i just was never able to get the president or any of the
senior white house people to travel with me to be a says
secretary i was traveling to be a is you know all the time and going and
visiting and touring and talking to veterans
that's where i got
my inspiration from the men and women who
served as employees in these facilities and most importantly from the veterans themselves.
And I was never able to get any of them to be able to come with me on those visits.
Yeah, and then I did want to also ask you, I mean, ultimately you left the VA. And I was
wondering if you could maybe just briefly tell us about the circumstances of your
exit uh... and you're and also your thoughts um... which you touched on in your
book on the future of government service
the reason why i
tell this story in such detail in the book
is because of my concern about the future of public service and the environment that I see today in Washington.
And like I raised my hand as a private sector executive as a citizen to be able to come and move to Washington
and be able to help contribute to our government and to the people that it serves,
I believe it's essential that other people are willing to do the same thing and given what I see today and what I've experienced in the toxicity of the culture and the personal attacks on our public servants on
you know essentially the ability to throw out allegations and all of a sudden they have a life of their own and it destroys people's reputations. If we allow that to continue, I worry deeply about how our government
will function and ultimately that affects all of us or citizens of this country.
And so in the book I describe in detail, so a reader can see the facts and make
decisions on their own. I don't want to lead them to those conclusions, but I want them to understand what this
environment is like.
I shared how a small group of political appointees that were in the Trump administration decided
to essentially sabotage my ability to lead the department with personal attacks against me and others
and ultimately led to me being fired by the president
and much of that issue had to deal with political differences and political ideologies
where I had said that I was unwilling to see the VA be dismantled and privatized and that I
would stand up for my principles even if it cost me my job and ultimately I believe it
did.
Yeah, I do remember you explaining when you stood up after Charlotte'sville after speaking
to your daughter I believe.
Do you mind maybe just telling us quickly about that?
Well, I believe when you serve you have to be willing to stand up for what you believe
in, and it is a duty to speak out when you see something that you think is wrong.
When you work for the president, you serve at the pleasure of the president.
So after the incident that happened in Charlottesville in the comments that came out from the president
uh... i obviously had some concerns about that and felt that it was my duty
uh... as a citizen but also as a leader in the cabinet
to speak out and to denounce those that
were neonautes and white supremacists and that i believe that
we have seen
in history the mistake of when people stay silent what can happen
and so i prepared my family i had a discussion with my daughter who strongly
encouraged me to speak out and i said i just want you to be prepared that
this may be my last day when you speak out
if it's you just being disloyal to the president the
that usually doesn't end up well
but uh... i went to the national press and i spoke my mind and um...
you know fortunately that wasn't my last day was allowed to continue to serve
veterans beyond that
but uh... but it became clear to people
in the administration that i was going to stand up for the principles
that I believe in.
I think that's amazing.
And thank you for doing that.
I felt as veterans as a group, I thought that that was just very helpful and inspiring.
So I appreciate that.
And I'd also like to ask if you can tell us about your proudest accomplishment in your tenure at VA. I don't I don't know whether it is a single
incident that I'm proud of. I am proud mostly of the men and women who work in the
VA every day that they have stuck with this when it looked like the VA was under attack and that they
continue to serve on a daily basis and watch and participate as the VA has now gotten
stronger and done a better job at serving Harvard Veterans.
And so having the opportunity to be the leader of these tremendous professionals that work
in the VA, some 370,000 of them, and watching the work that they do every day and being
that person who represents them to veterans and to the American public, I think is something
that I feel extremely proud to have had the opportunity to do.
Well, speaking of the 370,000 employees, I think you compared it to who's at Walmart or Amazon.
Well, it's bigger.
Most people don't understand the size and scope of the Department of Veteran Affairs.
The second largest department in the federal government, the department of the defense of course is bigger,
but with 370,000 employees and a budget of over $200 billion, this is a very large organization
and it serves 20 million Americans who are veterans and so I think it's important that
the American public understand why this organization exists, the work that it does,
and why it's important to be able to keep this a strong, sustainable organization.
Well, I'm definitely 100% with you on the optimism and the dedication to the oath and
the mission of the VA.
And I thank you so much for your service and your dedication to our veterans.
And thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.
Everyone, please check out Dr. Schulken's book. It's called, it shouldn't be this hard to serve your country.
You can get it anywhere books are available.
It's not only an important book about taking a look inside the VA
and how it works, but what it's like to work for the VA
in over different administrations.
Dr. Schulken, thank you again for being on Mullershey Road today.
Thank you so much.
All right, that is our show.
Thank you so much for listening.
Anybody have any final thoughts they want to share?
I saw Lewis Black this weekend.
Really?
Yeah, I haven't seen him in so long.
How was it?
Yeah, he's great.
He did a very interesting thing where he did not say Trump by name once,
even though he had a lot of material that was very obviously in reference to him.
So he refused to say his name, and he refused to call him the president, like his entire hour.
Interesting. It was very interesting. The bubble of theater and San Diego.
Oh, cool.
Oh, nice.
Yeah. Very interesting.
And you recently worked, I think at the store, I didn't Dallas just do a show there.
Dallas.
At the store, I think he did the store that night that you were going.
Oh, okay.
He's the one who the origins of beans oranges of beans
Two foods that perhaps make the worst combination ever
Beans and oranges beans and oranges. Yeah, that's not like a very good combo. No, it's awful
Orange beans no, let's talk about orange jelly beans. Oh, yeah, I like those okay. Yeah, that's a good
Yeah, I agreed, but anyway. Yeah, that was cool to his black was yeah, it was cool. I'm glad I'm glad to hear that
I really like him. Mm-hmm anything
No, not for me. I don't know as we can spend in time with
The wifey and my dog got a groom and had a very cute bow?
Ah, what color? A red one. Nice. Very cute.
Yeah, she gave us bows on our throats. Oh my god, haircuts. I also
Can you hear that? Throats.
Sticking in with a blow and I want a cute bow.
I've also been scaggroomed. I've also been watching. Actually, you know what? want to keep, though. You know what? I've also been watching. I just got groomed.
I've also been watching.
Actually, you know what, here's a thing.
Oh, it's on our fruits.
My anxiety management toolkit kind of like shifts every week,
like depending on what I'm doing
to keep myself feeling somewhat calm.
This week, it's like anything can burns.
Like, I've been falling asleep to the sounds
of documentaries about the Roosevelt's about Robition. Yeah, it's been learning a lot. It's Like, I've been falling asleep to the sounds of documentaries about the Roosevelt's, about Robition.
Yeah, it's been learning a lot,
but absorbing, I think,
yeah, it might have a week's date.
Osmosis.
Yeah, so that's what I've been doing lately.
I really like to fall asleep to the sounds
of like very slow moving documentaries.
Yes.
I've been watching videos I took of Jellyfish
at the aquarium.
Whoa.
That's very relaxing.
That sounds very nice.
That's probably a nice hashtag on Instagram.
Oh.
Hashtag jellyfish to follow?
Oh, I bet.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, yeah.
I've been following a lot of hashtag satisfying videos.
Yeah, those are so satisfying.
I love all of those videos.
I love those too.
Yeah, except I don't get the slime craze.
I don't understand that either.
Yeah, slime.
But I'm very much into the water balloon.
Did you see the water balloon crashing into the bowling ball? Yes. I love that. That is so great.
Yeah, I love that. It's a little creepy, but it's really, really round. It is. Yeah, it's
very aquatic, very chiggly that balloon. It's interesting. You want to go to an aquarium?
Yeah, it is. It's very like, yes. mean, I'm just gonna use synonyms for water.
Viscous. Yes. All right, well, I've got nothing else other than I can't wait to see everybody in Boston. Yeah. And thanks again to Dr. Shulkin for doing our interview today.
Really appreciate his service. And that is it. So please take care of yourself and take care of
each other. I've been A.G. I've been Jordan Coburn. I've been Mandy Reader. And this is Mollershi Road.
Mollershi Road is executive produced and directed by AG and Jordan Coburn with
engineering and editing by Mackenzie Mazell and Starburn's industries. Our marketing manager,
production and social media direction is by Amanda Reader, fact checking your research by A.G., Jordan Coburn, and Amanda Reader, and our knowledgeable listeners.
Our web design and branding are by Joao Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is
mullersheerove.com.
Hi, I'm Harry Lickman, host of Talking Feds. A round table that brings together prominent
figures from government law and journalism
for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.
Each Monday, I'm joined by a slate of Feds favorites at new voices
to break down the headlines and give the insider's view of what's going on in Washington and beyond.
Plus, sidebar is explaining important legal concepts read by your favorite celebrities.
Find Talking Fedswear every you get your podcasts.
M-S-O-W-Media.