As the lame duck session enters its final stretch, Congress is on the brink of passing a major piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the Coronavirus legislation are the hot button issues of the week. Also, the government is in danger of running out of money and Congress must act to keep it funded.
00:00:20.560And we're on the way to Washington, D.C. right now as the legislative week sets up to be the busiest of the lame duck session and possibly the last.
00:00:30.000Of the lame duck session, we've got to deal with the National Defense Authorization Act, which I suspect may be on the floor of the House of Representatives in the form of a conference committee report reflecting the agreements and compromises between the House and the Senate on that very consequential bill.
00:00:47.700President Trump has threatened to veto the NDAA as a consequence of it not including a legislative provision to repeal Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act.
00:01:00.720The president making the argument that this should be included and that he will withhold his support otherwise.
00:01:06.700The NDAA initially passed both the House and the Senate with sufficient support to potentially override a veto, which is, I know, something the White House is watching closely.
00:01:19.020But also, that was before the president made his proclamation that he would prefer to see the legislation a bit more expansive, dealing with the Section 230 issue.
00:01:28.800So, I expect that there will be more in the Republican Party who will join me in voting against the NDAA.
00:01:35.800I was one of the few who voted against it initially because I was frustrated with the barriers that were put in place by Jason Crow, a congressman from Colorado Democrat,
00:01:47.800and Liz Cheney, the Republican Conference Chair, who also serves on the Armed Services Committee.
00:01:51.800They work to make it harder to bring troops home from Germany, from Afghanistan, and we certainly want to see those wars come to an end.
00:02:01.800So, the NDAA will be a mechanism by which these questions of congressional authority and war and peace will be answered, but also potentially the Communication Decency Act.
00:02:12.800Now, the other major issue percolating about the Capitol is the coronavirus legislation.
00:02:19.800Last week, I talked about some of the major features I thought might be included.
00:02:24.800There is some populist coming together on the right and the left, frustrated that in nearly a trillion-dollar package, there's not anything directly for our people.
00:02:36.800There's support for our people through support for small businesses and large businesses and governments.
00:02:43.800But in the prior legislation that dealt with coronavirus, you saw a direct stimulus to Americans who had often found their jobs rendered illegal by no fault of their own.
00:02:57.800Now, more is open in some places, but we are seeing lockdowns really become more the norm in places like New York, New Jersey, California.
00:03:08.800So, with those lockdowns likely increasing the pressure on the American family's budget, Josh Hawley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, very critical of the fact that it does not appear that there will be a direct stimulus in this coronavirus bill as currently negotiated.
00:03:26.800Now, it might be an interesting test to see whether or not right-wing populism and left-wing populism can sing in some common chorus and can leverage some legislative muscle on such an important issue.
00:03:43.800Now, the other major issue this week is the government funding legislation.
00:03:48.800The government is always sort of set to run out of money toward the end of the year, and we have to pass legislation to either continue on current programs.
00:03:57.800Those are called continuing resolutions.
00:03:59.800I don't think I've ever voted for a continuing resolution because I don't think my people sent me to Washington to vote for things to stay the same.
00:04:07.800I think we've got to make them different.
00:04:08.800But there's also the possibility of an omnibus of some sort of government funding bill that will carry into 2021.
00:04:18.800So the NDAA, Section 230, the omnibus legislation, coronavirus legislation, it should be an interesting week.
00:04:30.800As many of you have seen from Project Veritas, an insider at CNN leaked the information for the daily editorial call that sets the news of the day, that tells producers and reporters what to focus on.
00:04:45.800And over months of these calls, it's just very clear that Jeff Zucker has an agenda.
00:04:54.800And he is trying to use this news network to make that point under the guise of some sort of objectivity when the reality is this is not news reporting.
00:05:05.800This is largely propaganda for a left wing liberal viewpoint.
00:06:49.800In a marketplace of ideas, the marketplace is what, in fact, allows some viewpoints to obtain more of a sense of truth as a consequence of the scrutiny that they're placed under.
00:07:02.800So CNN's got every bit the right to be fake news.
00:07:06.800But Project Veritas is also covered by the First Amendment.
00:07:09.800They are also speaking to issues of public concern.
00:07:13.800And I'm glad that Project Veritas is there to expose the bias that undergirds that which you see and hear from television, particularly CNN.
00:07:24.800So the mainstream media seems worried.
00:07:28.800I'm sure glad that we've got folks like James O'Keefe and entities like Project Veritas to turn the lens on the fake news and ensure that we know the truth about them.
00:07:42.800Did you ever think of the environmental footprint of your holiday returns?
00:07:47.800CBS News' Iriana Ivanova has the story.
00:07:51.800Those holiday returns come with a massive environmental footprint.
00:07:56.800And the upshot of the story is that when you return apparel, you often think it's going to be refurbished and resold to someone else.
00:08:07.800Very often they'll end up in a thrift store, an off-brand store, or will just end up on a pallet in a landfill somewhere.
00:08:15.800Returns from online shopping just last year created 5 billion tons of landfill waste and produced as much carbon dioxide as from 3 million cars driving for one year, according to the story.
00:08:31.800The process of sending back unwanted items and potentially reselling them results in 10 billion unnecessary transportation trips every year as well.
00:08:42.800And as online shopping is surging, so too will the number of returns.
00:08:49.800Overall, about 10% of all purchases are returned as a consequence of industry experts.
00:08:56.800So maybe take a little extra time, make sure you're buying what you want.
00:09:00.800This buy now, choose later mentality does have an environmental consequence.
00:09:05.800You know, better to make your choice and buy your choice rather than to just buy everything and then think,
00:09:11.800well, I can return a bunch of these things and everything will be fine.
00:09:14.800Know that that does end up impacting our planet.
00:09:18.800I've shared with listeners of the podcast, Joe Biden's desire to utilize NATO as a principal piece of his foreign policy work and to put American tax dollars into NATO.
00:09:35.800To have our friends paying less and our citizens paying more would be an America last strategy from my perspective.
00:09:44.800And there is a brilliant piece in the national interest by Ted Galen Carpenter.
00:09:53.800And essentially the argument in the piece is it's time for Europe to grow up and be a big boy, not just economically, but politically and militarily as well.
00:10:03.800I mean, why is the United States subsidizing the defense of Europe when they then turn around and compete with us in a variety of ways?
00:10:12.800And so the piece is great. It says an attempt by a Biden administration and like minded European elites to restore an idealized status quo marked by incessant happy talk about transatlantic solidarity will not make fundamental differences go away.
00:10:29.800It merely will feed an unhealthy delusion.
00:10:33.800The time has come for the Europeans to grow up and for the European Union to take its rightful place in the world as a meaningful political and military power.
00:10:43.800So I think that'll be really something to watch.
00:10:47.800The European drawback from their contributions from NATO will not make NATO stronger, but it will allow America, I think, to inject a lot of graft into Europe.
00:10:58.800And, you know, that is not what is best for our people.
00:11:01.800So check out the piece of the national interest.
00:11:15.800That's the accusation made by Glenn Greenwald on a recent Substack post of his that we'll share out.
00:11:22.800After the deep state sabotaged his presidential bid, Bernie Sanders mocks those who believe it exists.
00:11:30.800And on a number of issues from rigged elections to fake news, Glenn Greenwald covers how Bernie Sanders really used to be a rebel.
00:11:39.800He used to be an outsider who attacked the Democratic Party, tried to make it more in line with his vision by pointing out where the Democratic Party fell short of the Bernie Sanders standard.
00:11:52.800Now Bernie seems to be just another person giving the very same talking points that the establishment Democrats are giving.
00:12:00.800So it's just interesting how Bernie got into the Democratic mix through these presidential campaigns, found some success within the Democratic Party.
00:12:09.800A lot more of the candidates running were adopting the policy views of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party.
00:12:16.800And now he appears to be really carrying the water of those same Democrats.
00:12:26.800Yahoo's Beth Greenfield has the story.
00:12:32.800Nevada's legal brothels remain closed during pandemic.
00:12:37.800So this sex worker is suing blatant discrimination.
00:12:42.800And in this story, it's Alice Little, who's a licensed sex worker at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Mound House, Nevada, suing the governor, Steve Sislyak, over the continued shutdown of the state's legal brothels.
00:12:59.800And I highlight this story because, look, whether you agree that this ought to be allowed or not under the laws of a state, every job is essential to the person that has that job.
00:13:11.800I don't think anyone would take the position that a brothel is essential work.
00:13:15.800But for the person working there, there is at least enough motivation to bring this lawsuit and make the claim.
00:13:21.800So we'll see how courts treat it, whether or not the brothel work is essential work in Nevada.
00:13:37.800The Vancouver Canucks have fired their anthem singer over his plans to perform at an anti-mask rally.
00:13:45.800The team owner of the Canucks now refers to Mark Donnelly, who was a charismatic and well-liked national anthem singer for the franchise, the former Canucks anthem singer.
00:13:57.800It appears that the Canucks have fired Mr. Donnelly over what the CBCCA entity is referring to as a COVID-19 denier rally with anti-mask advocates.
00:14:30.800The point is we have now gotten to the point of like the Woketopia where if someone holds views that are out of line, you know, with what the corporate elites and the social elites and the media elites tell us is the truth, then all of a sudden that person has to be canceled in every aspect of their lives.
00:14:50.800Like, I don't understand why the owner of the Canucks couldn't just come out and say, we don't agree with those views.