As Hurricane Harvey batters Texas and rescue workers do their best to mitigate the enormous damage, President Trump deftly sidesteps the tsunami of negative press that the mainstream media have been waiting to unleash again since this time 12 years ago. Plus, finally, roaming millennial, Amanda Prestigiacomo and Nakeh Jarrett join the panel of deplorables to discuss Amazon's Whole Foods price cut, Obama's soon-to-be-deported dreamers, and a new study on the best ways to buy happiness.
00:01:57.720It's been even worse than anyone predicted.
00:01:59.740There are six people confirmed dead already, but rescue workers haven't even gotten to the hardest-hit parts of Houston and other parts of Texas.
00:02:08.040Houston's expected to get a total of 50 inches of rain.
00:02:11.420That's an annual total in two or three days.
00:02:15.480They got 20 inches of rain within 24 hours.
00:02:18.740There are more than 3,000 National Guard troops deployed already, 130-mile-an-hour winds.
00:02:24.480And President Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday.
00:02:46.960President Trump was at Camp David as this was happening.
00:02:50.080The media have both been waiting to pounce on the presidents for things that are beyond their control.
00:02:55.860They're both ready to criticize all of the verbal responses.
00:02:59.660So, last week, before going to Camp David, President Trump was asked if he had last-minute advice for Texas before the hurricane made landfall.
00:03:08.640The audio is a little bit hard to hear, but he's asked, as he's walking to the helicopter, he's asked, do you have any advice for the people of Texas?
00:03:26.680He says, good luck, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to say, except that the president is now expected to give grand statements of spiritual consolation and high-minded advice.
00:03:40.600And that's just not what this president is for.
00:03:43.220This president is a guy who just goes into deregulation.
00:03:47.620He's a guy who's moving around all of his administrators.
00:03:52.380He's a guy who's in the weeds in the politics, but he doesn't really rise up to this great moral speaker in a way that we've come to expect from presidents.
00:04:02.960President Obama was sort of the opposite.
00:04:04.500All he would do is give these grandiose speeches, and he couldn't actually accomplish anything through his own policies or through pushing legislation.
00:04:12.040So, he's been roundly criticized for saying that.
00:04:15.360You could see the mainstream media had their fangs out to just rip this guy to shreds.
00:04:20.820President Trump was asked what to say to Texas.
00:04:24.540Washington Post, Politico ran a piece that was very honest about the political perils of this storm, knowing what happened to President Bush and Hurricane Katrina.
00:04:32.460So, you remember, during Hurricane Katrina, here was President Bush's response just a few days after he had been criticized for his lack of a response to the natural disaster.
00:04:43.660Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency.
00:04:49.460When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as president, am responsible for the problem and for the solution.
00:04:57.800So, President Bush, as always, he's taking responsibility, even when it isn't exactly his responsibility to take.
00:05:05.520The troubles with Katrina were largely failures of local government, of Democrats who destroyed that city, who didn't prepare for these storms, didn't have sufficient levies to keep the water out.
00:05:15.760And the federal government did respond.
00:05:18.560He was criticized for not going to Louisiana, which he said he didn't do because he didn't want to cause more trouble there and make it more difficult to lead the recovery efforts.
00:05:29.080Nevertheless, this still wasn't enough.
00:05:31.020And then we got the most famous criticism of President Bush's response from that famed, that world-renowned psychologist, Kanye West.
00:05:38.620Just to imagine if I was down there and those are my people down there, so anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the setup, the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible.
00:05:56.980I mean, this is, Red Cross is doing everything they can.
00:05:59.360And we already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way, and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us.
00:06:09.980George Bush doesn't care about black people.
00:06:51.020If President Bush was the worst at maneuvering around the mainstream media of any modern president, President Trump is – he's a creature of it.
00:07:10.960He knows he's unlikely to get a fair shake in the press.
00:07:13.260So he's going to write the story himself.
00:07:14.860He sent out 22 tweets in the last few days himself about Hurricane Harvey and then four retweets of local officials and other federal officials, Pruitt and Vice President Pence.
00:07:25.880The vast majority of his Twitter timeline is him talking about Hurricane Harvey.
00:07:30.300We get, as Hurricane Harvey intensifies, remember to plan ahead.
00:07:33.440I have spoken with Governor Abbott of Texas, Louisiana Governor Edwards, closely monitoring Hurricane Harvey.
00:09:18.060So we're all turning to the president to see how the federal government is going to react.
00:09:23.460Really, I think this undercuts a lot of the federalism and the principles of limited government that we constantly are talking about on the right.
00:09:32.440CNN, believe it or not, CNN, which John Nolte assures me is Hitler and ISIS.
00:09:37.760CNN was shockingly somewhat honest in their headline today.
00:09:41.080They said, quote, this is truly a magical day.
00:09:45.280Maybe we've all just been wiped into the apocalypse and we're seeing the impossible.
00:09:50.100The quote, Trump meeting and tweeting his Harvey moment.
00:09:54.880So CNN is acknowledging Trump is really rising to the occasion here.
00:11:08.920What role has the tweeting played in this news cycle?
00:11:12.140I think it's actually been really smart of Trump to say, like you said, almost not overdo it, but just really make sure to cover all his bases.
00:11:21.640Make sure that there's no way that anyone can accuse him of not taking this seriously or, you know, trying to sidestep this.
00:11:28.840I mean, I think if the Charlottesville incident kind of taught him anything, it's that he needs to be, you know, almost shove it down these people's throats with what he thinks, what he cares about.
00:11:38.520And so, as always with his Twitter, I think he has this great tool to just reach out to people and kind of even sidestep any of the need to go through the media to communicate with his base and even people who are critical of him.
00:11:50.740And I think, you know, there have been some rough instances of his Twitter use, but this is an instance where he's actually done a good job, in my opinion.
00:12:10.140I was someone who, I was satisfied with his initial condemnation of all violence, hatred, and bigotry, and I was further satisfied by his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis and the KKK.
00:12:21.480Unbelievable that you would allow that kind of racist rhetoric to go on.
00:12:25.660You know, kind of taking him at his word.
00:12:28.720But, you know, he actually did, I think, initially tweet out at least one thing, you know, condemning violence generally on Twitter.
00:12:36.320But if we look at people like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and, you know, even someone like Mitt Romney, who were very, very vocal about this on social media, they're people who the, you know, mainstream media have actually been praising in regards to this.
00:12:49.040And so for, I don't know, the leftist elites, at least, that is more what they were looking for.
00:12:54.700But, again, you know, I think there are people that they're just never going to be happy with anything he does anyway.
00:13:09.780You can barely remember this, but were the attacks on him fair, looking back on it now through the lens of Hurricane Harvey, was it fair, or did he just not fight back against an unfair media narrative?
00:13:21.740I think Trump really has paved the way for the pushback.
00:13:24.960I don't know that it's such a different world we live in now compared to back then.
00:13:28.360You know, there was no Twitter for Bush to take advantage of to get his message out there.
00:13:35.180I think, gosh, how old would I have been?
00:13:37.760I would have been 15, 15 when all this happened.
00:13:40.040So for me to even look back through the lens of today, it's not only just warped and so different, radically different, the way the media is.
00:13:46.480I think the presentation, the pushback that we as conservatives have against the media, it didn't exist.
00:13:51.880I would have liked, in hindsight, to see Bush maybe push back a lot more and not take, you know, the blame for things that maybe weren't his fault.
00:14:03.440It changes the lens of – when you try to force history through that lens, it becomes a really weird and awkward place, kind of like I was in a 15-year-old not looking at the news.
00:14:44.740Like, can you imagine if there would have been Bush Twitter, though?
00:14:47.520I mean, we kind of missed out on something potentially great there.
00:14:51.220I'm actually a little bit upset thinking about how great that could have been.
00:14:53.480I hear a Netflix series in the making.
00:14:54.980I don't think he would have given the media quite the gifts Trump does, though, sometimes.
00:14:59.080So, you know, when Trump does come out – I had a problem.
00:15:02.020Was it yesterday, Sunday, Saturday, Trump came out and tweeted something about his winning bigly in Missouri kind of tweets?
00:15:08.960I do think Trump needs to be careful with not handing the media – they're not going to let him win no matter what.
00:15:13.600But when you hand them gifts, when they say you're the dumbest president in the history of the presidency and you come out and stare directly into the sun, that's a gift.
00:15:20.840Don't give the media gifts to run with because it's not helping you at all.
00:15:25.480So it takes away from the things he does that are legitimately, you know, smart, wise, strategic moves as a president.
00:19:11.380There are a lot of worries about Amazon having a virtual monopoly, tons of control.
00:19:16.960But if it'll get us cheaper fish, should we really care?
00:19:19.340Should we worry about these tech giants amassing all this power?
00:19:23.420Well, I think, you know, worrying about monopolies in the age where Google controls pretty much everything is definitely a legitimate concern.
00:19:31.080But when it comes to Amazon and Whole Foods specifically, you know, there are so many competitors out there at the moment.
00:19:37.060I don't think we need to be worried just yet.
00:19:39.200But I am really curious about, you know, all these price cuts they're doing.
00:19:42.480Like, it's too early to say now, but I'm really wanting to know what's going on internally, like what kind of changes they're making to the way the company is run, that they're able to do this, right?
00:19:51.480I mean, because like anyone, you know, I want to eat healthy, but I also want to pay, I don't know, rent, right?
00:19:57.720So for the longest time, I've always thought like Whole Foods is just like a place you don't go, like a Lamborghini dealership.
00:20:02.940But now, you know, I'll get some of the price drops and yeah, it's so much more affordable.
00:20:07.040And I'm just wondering how they're doing it.
00:20:48.220They help, you know, people with lower income to buy goods and services.
00:20:53.860That said, I do wish there were more people, you know, supporting local businesses.
00:20:59.040Growing up, my dad had a local, a small bakery, a small businesses.
00:21:03.240And it just, it just, you know, that sense of community that we don't have anymore, you know, helping your neighbors and going to your neighbor's store.
00:21:10.640That would be nice, but at the same token, I mean, Walmart and, you know, now this merger with Amazon, with Whole Foods, they're driving prices down.
00:21:19.860And that does help consumers and that does help, you know, your options for low price, decent quality goods.
00:21:31.060I don't ever borrow cups of sugar from my neighbor.
00:21:33.480I don't think anybody's done that in about 40 years because you can just get a drone from Amazon to deliver it to you, to deliver a whole bag of sugar.
00:21:41.500So much, there goes the old American community, I guess.
00:25:03.380Politically, it's not the most savory thing to send them back.
00:25:07.040But the thing is, as Rami was saying, it sets a really dangerous precedent and a really bad
00:25:10.500incentive for this stuff to keep happening.
00:25:14.400President Trump should end the DACA program.
00:25:17.160I know that there's talks that he's going to try to get the Rays Act pushed through, you know, to kind of then, like, keep DACA in place, kind of save that, and then get the Rays Act through, which would be fantastic, just simply because of the politics of it.
00:25:33.400There are even Trump supporters, a majority of Trump supporters, who are not, like, gung-ho on ending DACA, who are okay with leaving these children here or these people who are now grown here.
00:25:46.980It's not the most politically advantageous thing to do.
00:25:49.560That said, I think you've got to get rid of it.
00:25:52.320I mean, you've got to stop it because it is such a dangerous precedent, and it is unconstitutional.
00:25:58.020And you never see that reported, by the way.
00:26:00.960You never see it reported that a plurality or a majority of Trump supporters don't think we should just boot the kids out right away because that would obviously contradict the narrative.
00:26:12.540But Amanda raises a great point with the Rays Act, and that's something I hadn't even thought about.
00:26:16.540But, you know, if there was an immigration system in place that favored high-skilled immigrants that spoke English and, you know, went to American universities and, you know, higher learning institutions, you know, there would be a possibility for these dreamers to just apply for citizenship naturally or, you know, legal status naturally through that Rays Act.
00:26:34.000Because I'm sure, you know, many of these people, they're skilled.
00:26:46.540Oh, I would say the problem is, too, you go to every leftist website, every HuffPo website is reporting on dreamers, and in the background you can hear the Sarah McLachlan music playing trying to kick these people, right?
00:27:26.360So, I think what Trump is doing is in kind of using it as some chips to play with kind of the Democrats on this thing to say, hey, build the wall because either we need to yank this program or nothing.
00:27:36.860It's all or nothing because if you don't have the wall, if you don't have things in place that can really curb immigration, you know, illegal immigration, it doesn't work.
00:27:44.800Because then it does become plan A for people.
00:27:47.040That's what I would do if I was over there.
00:27:48.400I would just hop the border, throw my kid, and say we're good as done.
00:28:35.700If you build institutions and organizations and physical barriers to keep people from coming over, then you can talk about DACA or the Dreamers or whatever euphemism they want to use.
00:28:46.940It's showing, Michael, because if you don't know this, when you build a wall, it's really about the birds.
00:28:52.380If you heard Jeff Corwin talking about it.
00:29:45.300There's a cost for that yacht and you could buy it.
00:29:47.900And what this study is saying is that it's actually saying if you buy the yacht, that won't necessarily make you happier.
00:29:53.520Which makes me question the science in the beginning.
00:29:57.020But it says if you buy a vacuum cleaner or a laundry machine or a dishwasher, it will make you happier because it will save your time from doing mundane tasks.
00:30:06.220And roaming, is this part of a larger trend?
00:30:08.620Because in decadent times like ours, we don't like to do drudgery that characterized all of humanity until about 60 years ago.
00:30:16.420So, you know, Adam pruned the Garden of Eden, right?
00:30:19.080We've always done these kind of mundane tasks.
00:30:21.740Is there something that we lose by not doing that, by farming it out to our computer or our dishwasher or something?
00:30:29.340Well, this is a hard question for me to answer because on the one hand, I think that definitely as a society, as individuals, we're becoming a lot more, I don't want to say lazy, but yeah, lazy.
00:30:39.900There's a lot of stuff that, you know, if it's not automated, we won't even think to do ourselves because that's not the mentality we've been brought up.
00:30:46.740You know, we can either pay someone else to do it or outsource it to Subwood or have a computer do it.
00:30:51.680You know, on the other hand, I'm very lazy and I like that.
00:30:57.860But, you know, I think especially when I look at children who are, I mean, I guess Generation Z, even younger, I mean, they're growing up without having to do things like, I don't know, like even worry about landlines, right?
00:31:13.840You don't even have to worry about the constraints of a wire and just stuff like that.
00:31:17.680I think that we're not necessarily happier, but I would say that we are more comfortable and a lot of people are conflating comfort with happiness.
00:32:00.720I mean, literally, there's like endless blogs about me and I just think they're really funny and I get a little joy out of that and it's not any money.
00:33:22.100This is gonna sound really petty, but I've gotten into this habit on Twitter where if there's someone who's trolling me, I'll, like, follow them back and then, like, not harass them, but just, like, a little bit until they block me.
00:33:35.880Um, so I've had a lot of fun with that recently, and that is extremely petty, and I apologize to anyone who follows me on Twitter, because a lot of the time I'm just fighting with strangers, but, yeah, I would have to say, you know, if I had to choose something, yeah.
00:33:49.840Roaming, you just, this was a big mistake, because now every single person who wants you to follow them is gonna start fighting with you on Twitter.
00:34:04.460Amanda Presta-Giacomo, Nakey Jared, and finally back again, Roaming Millennial.
00:34:08.320Now it's time for my smart glasses and the final thought.
00:34:16.960Endless think pieces have spilt ink over the question of President Trump's tweeting.
00:34:21.200It occasionally undercuts his policy priorities, contradicts his cabinet members and campaign surrogates, even occasionally raises the prospect of legal trouble.
00:34:29.860But Hurricane Harvey exposes all those worries for mere trifles.
00:34:34.080President Trump's attention to the natural disaster, and more importantly, coordination with local and state first responders, has been able and admirable.
00:34:42.820But we should remember that President Bush comported himself relatively well during Hurricane Katrina as well, despite the utterly failed response of local governments and a barrage of unfair and negative press.
00:34:53.980The difference today is that President Trump sidesteps the mainstream media to speak directly to the American people and show them what he and his administration are doing, without the filter of Democrat operatives who masquerade as journalists.
00:35:05.000That direct communication has even made the mainstream media, in this case, bend the knee and admit that the President is doing well.