[Recording Start]
Rick Rosner: Ready? Okay. So there’s this Never Trumper, a former Republican strategist named Rick Wilson, who came up with a principle he calls “everything Trump touches dies,” shortened to hashtag ETTD. His theory is that Trump is such a disaster that anyone linked to him will likely end up unemployable. Any enterprise he’s involved with is bound to fail. Trump is essentially the kiss of death. It’s a solid principle because there are so many examples. He’s the guy who managed to go bankrupt multiple times running casinos, which should be the easiest businesses to run because people just hand over their money.
Now, I’ve noticed another principle. It’s not as solid, but it’s still pretty valid: there’s no good news about Trump. Whenever a story about Trump emerges, it never shows him in a better light. Today, parts of Woodward’s book about Trump’s last days in the White House began circulating. It includes stuff like General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling his Chinese counterpart to warn them about Trump. He essentially said, “Look, we have a dangerous lunatic planning a coup. Our president is insane. If he plans a war against you, I’ll keep you informed so we can avoid a nuclear confrontation.” Milley also made his generals swear that they wouldn’t follow any insane directives from Trump. This, along with other revelations about Trump’s inner circle, consistently portrays him negatively. My principle is: there’s just no good news about Trump. Every story that comes out confirms he’s even more of a piece of shit than previously thought. That’s the principle: any news about Trump always confirms that he’s a problem, more so than you might have realized before. That’s it.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How much time was wasted on this, do you think?
Rick Rosner: Well, months were spent gathering signatures, taking them to court, and then the two months for the election itself. Ballots were mailed out about seven weeks ago. The whole thing cost about 275 million dollars, which in a state of nearly 40 million people is only seven dollars per person, but it’s still more than a quarter billion dollars.
Jacobsen: What else could have been done with that quarter billion?
Rosner: A lot of people suggest it could have gone towards solving California’s huge homelessness problem, maybe building some homeless housing. But the money was legally allocated for the election because of the recall law, which most other states don’t have. This law allows 12 percent of the voting public to call for a recall and lets someone with just 10 percent of the vote become governor if the current governor doesn’t get 50 percent.
Jacobsen: How many secular candidates do you think were in California?
Rosner: Secular? I’m not sure. Probably one or two out of the forty-six. Angelyne, who doesn’t seem to have any fixed beliefs, was on the ballot and is actually leading Caitlyn Jenner right now. They each have about one percent of the vote. But among the 46 candidates, there’s all sorts of lunatics. The end.
[Recording End]
Authors
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Founder, In-Sight Publishing
In-Sight Publishing
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Rick Rosner 