Transcript of OA349: Bolton Will Testify; Iran, Soleimani & So Much More

Listen to the episode and read the show notes

Topics of Discussion:

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is episode 349.  I’m Thomas Smith, that’s Andrew Torrez.  How’re you doing, sir?

Andrew:         I am fantastic, Thomas, how are you?

Thomas:         I’m good but I’m just realizing does this mean new intro quotes soon?

Andrew:         Ooooh!

Thomas:         Is that how the numbers work?  I can’t remember.

Andrew:         Yeah, it is how the numbers work.

Thomas:         Okay.

Andrew:         Yeah, we’ll have to get that up and running awfully quickly over at patreon.com/law where people can submit their own 15 second intro quotes for the show.

Thomas:         It’s definitely a lot shorter than 15 seconds, but that’s okay!

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OA349: Bolton Will Testify; Iran, Soleimani & So Much More

Today’s episode takes on (some of) the two biggest pending news stories right now: (1) the U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Soleimani, and (2) the pending impeachment of President Trump. Oh, and we also cover a bunch of other things along the way, including the latest CNN settlement regarding the kid from Covington Catholic, and, well, you’ll just have to listen to find out everything!

We begin with a pre-show grab bag of mini-stories, including the “drain the swamp” news that outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry has joined the board of a holding company that owns a pipeline company. Is this 100% the same scandal as Burisma hiring Hunter Biden? (Hint: yes.)

Then, we delve into some disturbing background information on the Solemani strike and answer the first of many listener questions about it: was the strike arguably justified by the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against the 9/11 hijackers?

After that, it’s time for some Yodeling! We look at the current state of the House/Senate standoff on articles of impeachment and what the likely way forward will be. You’ll learn that former NSA Director John Bolton is willing to testify; the question is whether two more Republicans care about that at all.

Finally, we cover the latest news that CNN settled the defamation lawsuit brought by Nick Sandmann of Covington Catholic relating to the video shared by CNN nearly a year ago.

After all that, it’s time for a brand-new #T3BE 161 — this one is a constitutional law question regarding anti-discrimination laws. Can Thomas get it right??

Appearances

None! If you’d like to have either of us as a guest on your show, drop us an email at openarguments@gmail.com.

Show Notes & Links

  1. Pre-show links: (a) Rick Perry rejoins the board of a pipeline company; (b) the Hofeller Files; and (c) the 5th Circuit’s decision on Trump’s stupid wall, which we last covered in Episodes 243 and 255.
  2. Iranian strike links: (a) Washington Post story on Pompeo masterminding the strike; (b) the Heather Timmons piece in Quartz warning us that Trump was listening to Rapture loons like Pence and Pompeo 18 months ago; and (c) Mary Lee Bigham-Bartling’s 2018 doctoral dissertation on Rapture theology.
  3. This is the 2001 AUMF, and you can also verify that Solemani is named in neither the 9/11 Commission Report nor the 2019 State Department Fact Sheet. We also quoted from a VOA News report on Sunnis “celebrating” the death of Solemani.
  4. On impeachment: the important thing is to click here to read John Bolton’s public decision to comply with a Senate subpoena.
  5. Finally, although you can’t read the CNN/Covington Catholic settlement, you can still watch both the original Sandmann video, and the updated video released a few days later.

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OA154: Stormy Daniels is a Legal Genius

This emergency episode examines the Complaint filed by Stormy Daniels seeking a legal determination that the Settlement Agreement entered into between her, Donald Trump’s lawyer, and (allegedly) Donald Trump is not legally binding.

We honestly believe that this is a much bigger bombshell than is being portrayed by the press.  Listen and find out why.

We also end with an all-new TTTBE #66 featuring David Michael.  You won’t want to miss it!  Remember that you can play along with #TTTBE by retweeting our episode on Twitter or sharing it on Facebook along with your guess.  We’ll release the answer on next Tuesday’s episode along with our favorite entry!

Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/law

Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/

Don’t forget the OA Facebook Community!

And email us at openarguments@gmail.com

 

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