donald rumsfeld

UPDATE 158: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: What if they gave a Trump Rally and nobody came? It happened, yesterday, at Trump Tower. My exclusive report from the scene as TWO people showed up, 22 showed up downtown, and today's big California rally is scheduled in the parking lot of a Laguna Hills In-N-Out Burger apparently because THE NEAREST FOUR SEASONS TOTAL LANDSCAPING WAS BOOKED.

While the rest of us celebrate the thrilling holiday season before Mugshotmas, the far right continue to act as if the gravity has been turned off in their universe. DeSantis defends Trump; Trump implies he's a pedophile or he's gay. McCarthy insists Trump wants no protests; Trump tries to get New York police to NOT defend anti-Trump residents.

And in the case against those who allegedly defamed on Trump's behalf, as Dominion Voting and Fox go back into a courtroom in Delaware today, the Fox "News" case comes apart. The former producer of Maria Bartiromo's show, now a Tucker Carlson guest booker, says Fox lawyers tried to make her take the fall. She sues them; they try to stop her from testifying against them. But her testimony leaks: she says her bosses called Bartiromo "a crazy b*tch" and Carlson's producer asked if Bartiromo were having an affair with Kevin McCarthy. She also alleges Carlson's staff made jokes about Jews, and conducted a mock debate about who they'd rather sleep with: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or her challenger Tudor Dixon.

On the other hand: Rupert Murdoch is getting married again, because love means never having to say you're sorry you're 92.

B-BLOCK (15:07) A special summary of 20 years ago as this nation attacked Iraq based on a series of lies by a series of liars named George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. At this milestone anniversary, liberal media is quite rightly assailed for 'letting it happen.' But I want to give some context for it, especially as one of the few who risked their careers to be anti-war (and my first anti-Iraq War broadcast was in October 2002). I was once almost fired for simply telling the truth about the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, and I expected to be when I aired the first Special Comment against Iraq and Rumsfeld's attempt to demonize dissent. I'll re-read that commentary, too.

C-BLOCK (34:35) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Fenix in Tennessee (35:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: On JULY 2, 1979 I was just a fan in the stands cheering Thurman Munson of the New York Yankees. On AUGUST 2, 1979 I was the anchor on a 1000-station radio network having to cover his sudden death, as it flashed across the wire machine two minutes before my first sportscast.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bryce Mitchell is an Air Force Captain and Staff Officer at the Department of Defense, a National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an Undergraduate Ambassador for Service to School. Bryce is a TFAS mentor, speaker and a member of the Alumni Engagement Committee. He is also a Defense Ventures Fellow at the Defense Ventures Program. Bryce received a bachelor's degree in international history from the U.S Air Force Academy, a master's degree in International Affairs with a concentration in Espionage and Surveillance from King’s College in London, and attended TFAS’s International Affairs program in 2014. In this week's Liberty and Leadership Podcast, Roger and Bryce discuss his time at the Air Force Academy, working for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a TFAS intern, his experience as an intelligence officer in South Korea during the height of nuclear tensions, the nexus between the DoD and Silicon Valley, and his passion for mountain climbing. 

*Bryce's comments do not represent the positions of the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any part of the U.S. government.*

The Liberty and Leadership Podcast is hosted by TFAS President Roger Ream and produced by kglobal. If you have a comment or question for the show, please drop us an email at podcast@TFAS.org.

GRAHAM THREATENS RIOTS IF TRUMP IS PROSECUTED

A BLOCK: SPECIAL COMMENT (1:47) Senator Lindsay Graham (R-NC) has actually gone on television and threatened the peace and security of this nation with "riots in the streets" if Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified documents (3:03) He must resign, be expelled, or censured (4:10) If you get your "riots in the streets, Senator, who has the law on their side, and the National Guard? These insurrectionists never stop to think their acts of violence would not be crushed (5:35) It's being done to try to blackmail the Department of Justice into letting Trump escape though he has compromised the "Human Intelligence Control System" and risked the lives of countless American agents and sources around the world (6:20) and must be prosecuted under 18 USC Code 794, the Espionage Act. (7:20) CIA notified all its stations last September of high number of agents and sources being "captured or killed" (8:26) This is not the first timeline suggestive of Trump jeopardizing American lives. 2019 Trump/Putin/List of Spies timeline detailed. (9:26) Trump/Putin/Helsinki 2018 timeline, plus the nearly simultaneous FBI tweet about the Rosenbergs, detailed. (10:50) 2017 MBS/Jared Kushner/Saudi round-up timeline detailed. (11:26) History of US traitor/Russian Spy Robert Hanssen and his 15 consecutive life sentences (12:10) History of US traitor/Russian Spy Aldrich Ames and his life sentence without the possibility of parole (12:30) DOD employee who without malice mishandled classified documents got three months (13:07) DNI Haynes warns Congress of damage to National Security and analysis she is referring to saving lives of agents/sources whose identities have been compromised (13:57) Mar-a-Lago affidavit by itself virtually convicts Trump of Obstruction and Attempt to Conceal Classified Documents (14:30) "Anna de Rothschild" cons her way into Mar-a-Lago to play golf with Trump - and Lindsay Graham (14:24) "Special Master" filing may backfire on Trump (17:37) If you get the riots you want, Senator, make sure you're near the front where we can all see you.

B BLOCK: EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY (20:26) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS (21:51) Biden approval, new "Covid Shot," Doug Mastriano in Confederate Uniform, Marsha Blackburn and "The Taiwans," anti-abortion leader charged with soliciting sex from minors, Ron Johnson says people in Wisconsin thinks he's a "tool of Putin." (25:03) IN SPORTS: No I didn't buy it; Adidas doesn't believe Fernando Tatis Jr; new MLB 2023 schedule underscores how baseball killed The World Series by killing the independence of the two Leagues. (33:43) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Junior Trump, Kim Crockett, Marco Rubio vie for honors.

C BLOCK: THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL (38:00) How James Gandolfini influenced the conception and the writing of the first "Special Comment" 16 years ago, and the horrible night I knew of Gandolfini's passing before it was announced. And I apologize: I discovered too late I misidentified Lorraine Bracco as "Elaine." 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The astonishing fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban after nearly 20 years of American occupation has had many wondering what went wrong in our nation’s longest war, not just in recent days but in the two decades that preceded it. 

Award-winning investigative reporter Craig Whitlock offers an authoritative perspective. Whitlock has covered the war in Afghanistan for the Washington Post as a foreign correspondent, Pentagon reporter, and national security specialist. 

His new book, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War, tells the story of an unwinnable campaign that had gone awry almost from the beginning, sparking a military and government conspiracy to keep the failure of the war from the American people. As he explains in this interview, “America was losing a war it thought it had won.”

(NOTAS Y ENLACES DEL CAPÍTULO AQUÍ: https://www.jaimerodriguezdesantiago.com/kaizen/58-modelos-mentales-10-conos-trabalenguas-y-un-poema-de-don-draper/)

“Ahora espero en calma a que
la catástrofe de mi personalidad
parezca hermosa de nuevo,
interesante y moderna.

El campo es gris 
y marrón y blanco en los árboles.
Nieves y cielos de risas
siempre apagándose. Menos alegre,
no sólo oscuro, no sólo gris.

Puede que sea el día más frío del año,
¿qué pensará de eso?
Quiero decir: ¿qué pienso yo? 
Y si lo hago,
quizás vuelvo a ser yo de nuevo.”

Frank O'Hara - Mayakovski

Una de las series de mi vida es sin ninguna duda Mad Men. Su segunda temporada termina con un capítulo maravilloso y con el fragmento del poema que te acabo de leer y al que seguramente no le he hecho mucha justicia. El capítulo se llama Meditaciones en una Emergencia, en honor al título del libro de Frank O’Hara al que pertenece el poema en cuestión. 

Y es que esa segunda temporada transcurre en un momento clave del siglo XX, con la tensión de la Guerra Fría al máximo por la crisis de los misiles. Fueron meses en los que buena parte de los estadounidenses tuvieron que convivir con el miedo a que sus ciudades sufrieran un ataque nuclear que creían inminente. 

En momentos de crisis como ese, o como el que vivimos mientras grabo este capítulo, la incertidumbre se apodera de nuestras vidas. Así que no se me ocurre mejor momento para hablarte de modelos mentales sobre lo desconocido y sus consecuencias. 

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