Best of 2021: How 9/11 Permanently Changed American National Security w/ Russ Feingold & David Feldman

In today's best of 2021: Sam hosts Russ Feingold, President of the American Constitution Society and former United States Senator from Wisconsin, to discuss the legacy 9/11 has had on the American national security state, and what to expect going forward, to discuss the legacy 9/11 has had on the American national security state, and what to expect going forward. Senator Feingold starts off by jumping back to the first reports of the attacks trickling in nearly twenty years ago, and what his experiences on Capitol Hill were like as flight 93 approached DC. Then, he and Sam get into the political response in each branch of the US government, starting with George W. Bush’s response, developing from what Senator Feingold saw as one of the greatest presidential speeches, immediately following 9/11, to, within days, capitalizing on the horror to progress the conservative agenda around both the Iraq War and with the Patriot Act with his “axis of evil” speech. Sam and Russ explore how the Patriot Act was brought to the floor, recalling why Senator Feingold was the only Senator at that time to vote against the bill, including the elements in the bill that clearly had nothing to do with terrorism alongside the conservative exploitation of the moment to bolster their run to take back the house in 2002. Next, the jump into the similar role played by Democrats in approving the Iraq War – outside of those like Feingold and Wellstone – and what it took for them to come around on it, including how resistance to the war bolstered Obama’s 2008 run. They then jump into the years under Obama, and how his deference to the FBI and military allowed the progression of the Military State to continue to infringe on the liberties of citizens and non-citizens alike, before they wrap up the interview with a conversation on the developments of that we have seen in the role of SCOTUS over the last two decades, moving from the failures of Bush v. Gore in 2000 to the obstructionism of McConnell and the build of the current Court. Sam concludes the free half with a review of the Greg Gutfeld comedy hour hitting all of the key conservative comedy pieces, including wives that hate their husbands, ethnicity jokes, and laughing at whatever Donald Trump says. Then, the ever emotionally intelligent David Feldman, of the David Feldman Show, joins to discuss the childish nature of marching for M4A, the importance of anonymous donation – such as his most recent gift to the Michael Brooks Legacy Foundation – and why Jimmy Dore, the true everyman moron that always gets it right, nailed his three-dimensional diarrhea on the American oligarchy, before Feldman connects this back to the march for M4A, and why the true oligarchs (AOC and the Squad) are the real reason M4A hasn’t come to pass. 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